Mia woke up with a stinky stench sucking all the air out of her room.
"What is that?" Ryo's stinky socks again? Nope, something much worse. White Blaze was curled up on the floor. You could literally see the fumes coming off his body. He needed a bath, NOW!
"Ryo?" She banged on the wall behind her bed, Ryo's room. "White Blaze needs a bath."
She heard hurried footsteps and a crash. Ryo had jumped out the window!! She bolted out of bed and ran into the next room. There was shattered glass all over the floor, and the bug screen was completely ripped out. She had never felt so much anger!!
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Instant wake-up call for the whole house. Ryo had survived his fall by aiming for nearby bushes. He bolted away, hoping to escape Mia's wrath and giving his precious pet a bath. Anubis was meditating outside and tripped Ryo with his staff, then pinned him to the ground with it.
"Why all the fuss about giving White Blaze a bath?" He asked.
"You have no idea how much he hates it. I always end up clawed and scratched all over whenever I have to give him a bath. Not even the armor will help, he knows where to aim." Ryo clawed at the ground trying to escape his hold.
"Watch it, Mia's on the rampage. What did you do now?"
"I smashed a window and messed up a bug screen real bad. Mia's gonna kill me! Let me go, please!!"
"What kind of Ancient would I be if I let you escape punishment? I'm only allowed to stay on Earth if I continue my duties as the Ancient One. Do you really want to see Mia if I was sent back because of you?"
"Don't even want to think about it. She'd be worse then Tulpa."
"And I'd make sure you burn in hell after she killed you. Not even your armor could save you from those flames."
"Right." But he still struggled to escape.
"Mia? Ryo's right here!" Anubis called to her. Mia dragged him out.
"Give that cat a bath before I strip his hide and sell it!! You owe me plenty of yen for the window and the screen. The bugs'll enjoy eating you alive all summer."
"Yes'm." He dragged White Blaze to his kiddie pool and roped him inside it. Ryo filled the pool with water from the hose and poured in two boxes of soap. White Blaze fought Ryo all throughout his bath, and as Ryo said he came out with plenty of scratches, some of which drew blood.
"Was that so hard? If you just did it you wouldn't owe me so much money, nor would you spend so much on repellent. Believe me, the bugs will love you. They did a few summers ago when my screen was ripped. Bit all over, I nearly scratched my skin off." As the caregiver Mia always was to the boys, she took care of his cuts and bandaged them up.
"Aw, is Mama taking care of little Ryo-baby?" Sage teased. "I thought she was raised in France, not Italy, ne, Mama Mia?"
"SAGE, BEFORE I BEAT THE (beep)ING (beep) OUTTA YOU!!" Ryo warned.
"Mama's boys don't say nasty words around their mamas."
It took all of Mia's strength to keep Ryo from killing Sage.
"Sage, please leave Ryo alone." Mia tried to keep her own anger in check. She resented what Sage had said. She was not their mother, just a caring older sister in anything.
"Yeah Sage, you go around hurting Mia and somebody's gonna get own tail
hurt!" Kento flexed his muscles in warning. Sage backed off.
Ryo sulked like a baby the rest of the day. The next morning, Rowen found Ryo curled in a ball on the floor, trying not to scratch the numerous bug-bites covering his legs. He gave in to temptation and scratched himself like a dog with fleas. Mia applied some anti-itch cream she had gotten from her doctor on his bites, earning some more 'Mama Mia' jokes from Sage. Everything went well until Ryo's imagination, insanity, and Rowen's Pokémon collection, drove Ryo up the wall. Ryo had gotten so bad with his itching that Mia taped up his hands to stop him from scratching so much. Everyone was out hanging in the city, only Ryo and Rowen were home. Ryo was too embarrassed going out with his body covered in bandages, thanks to his own stupidity. Rowen volunteered to watch him and his scratching. Ryo was gonna be muscle and bone by the time he could control his scratching. So much pain and temptation was driving Ryo crazy, which might be blamed for his actions in this next part.
"I never thought I'd see an adult Pokémon fan." Ryo said upon seeing Rowen's
room since he fixed it up a few weeks ago. Sure it had the books and such
you'd expect a smart-guy to have in his room, but a lot of it was evidence of his kid-side. Plenty of posters covered his walls, binders stacked up a corner, full of those crazy cards everybody killed for, millions of stuffed pokémon toys covering everything, and even the whole set of the junior-novels of the TV and movies.
"You'd be surprised. My uncle got me hooked, he lives in America, and sends me a lot of the American stuff."
Ryo shuddered as he looked at a huge poster of that kid he saw on everything that was Pokémon, the one with his hair.
"Don't tell me you don't like Ash?" Rowen asked.
"Who? I heard it was something different."
"Ash is the American dub name, it's Satoshi here. I tend to think in the dub more then I do of the Japanese version. He reminds me of you a lot."
"How?"
"You both have a secret crush on a girl yet totally deny it. Though for you, I'm glad it's kept low-key. I don't need to see the warlord of Cruelty beat your tail in again."
"I DO NOT have a crush on Mia!!"
Rowen just smiled. "As Ash says the same about Misty."
Everything went well until paranoia kicked in. Rowen had a lot of pictures of the bug-type pokémon in his room, driving Ryo crazy, as if they'd jump out of the posters and eat him alive. He started shaking like crazy and his eyes darted all over the place, freaking at everything he saw.
"Bugs... trying to get me... I won't have it!!" Ryo shouted.
"Say what?" Rowen had no idea what was going on.
"They're aiming to get me, drink my blood, just try you bugs!!" He morphed into his sub-armor. He laughed insanely as he dove for a stuffed Bulbasaur, a green pig with a bulb on his back.
"HEY!! Get off Halo!!" Rowen grabbed the toy before Ryo could get at it.
"Halo? Sage?" Ryo's eyes flickered insanely. "Here's what I think of your 'Mama Mia' jokes, boy!!"
"Knock it off, Hoek!!" Rowen slapped his face until he regained his senses.
"Oh man! What did I do now?"
"Nearly ended up in a mental hospital. I was tempted to call."
"Rowen, I'm sorry. It's these bites, they're driving me nutz!!"
"Yeah I know. When I was little and had chicken pox, I really scratched my skin to pieces. Then years later I fell into a bush of poison ivy head-first.
I was laid up for weeks, scratching like a dog."
"Why did you call that thing Halo?"
"I nickname certain pokémon after us."
"Yeah? Who am I?"
"Charizard, a flying fire-breathing dragon, is Wildfire. Growlithe, a dog with tiger-stripes, is Inferno. Ponyta, a fire pony, is Rekka no Ryo. And Ninetails, large dog with nine tails, is Furvor."
"Sorry I asked."
Rowen just laughed. "Yuli shares my interest and so does Mia, to a point."
"Mia? Not Mama Mia?"
"Yeah, she loves the bad guys, dimwitted Team Rocket."
"Oh boy. I think we're a bad influence on her."
"Ha! I bet $5 she gets Anubis to like it."
"You're on. Now how about s'more of that medicated cream for my bites?
They're really acting up again!"
"Better idea." Rowen looked out the window to see Mia and the gang back. "Why don't you let Mama Mia do it?"
Ryo thought about slugging him, but his hands were all tied up and he didn't want to risk hurting them. Instead he went downstairs and let Mia apply the medicine. Sage, as usual, made some more jokes, but Ryo had the perfect blackmail.
"Make one more freaking crack about that, and your next girlfriend knows a green pokémon pig with a bulb on his back has your name."
"Rowen!! I swear I'm going to kill you for this!!" Sage shouted. "You and your stupid kid stuff!!"
"That 'stupid kid stuff' happens to be great anime. Unlike your precious Sailor Moon. Only two out of nine girls are actually decent characters."
Sage started to say something, but stopped. His top reason for watching the show was because the main characters were cute girls. He stormed upstairs to his room.
"Good job Rowen! I was getting sick of that 'Mama Mia' stuff." Mia said.
"Yeah whatever." Rowen knew she felt differently about the subject.
Ryo's bug bites healed up and stopped itching so much in the next few weeks. Only a few small patches of skin had to grow back. Ryo coughed up enough money to pay for the window and screen, and was re-installed. Ryo still had a passion for stomping out all kinds of bugs, except for fireflies, he could never kill one of his buddies. As a friendly joke, Ryo still called Mia Mama Mia, and she was comfortable with it. Soon everyone was calling her that, even White Blaze seemed to say it in 'tiger-talk'.
* * * * *
On the last night of summer, Mia caught Ryo hanging out on the balcony. Her work was keeping her up, but there was no decent reason for Ryo to be up so early.
"What are you doing out here? It's past midnight." Mia joined him.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Getting eaten alive by bugs all summer, and being ripped to shreds from a kitty who hates bath like a dog."
"Which started the Mama Mia bit." She laughed. "I like it. It means I get to embarrass any girls you bring here."
"Please tell Sage's dates the pokémon story."
"After I tell yours about your poké-insanity fit."
"Rowen was right, you are into that stuff."
"Rowen wasn't supposed to tell anybody!!"
Ryo fell of the balcony into the bushes below thanks to a high-powered water gun behind his back. Mia turned around to see Anubis holding a powerful Super Soaker gun. "Borrowed it from Cye. Didn't want him trying anything."
"Why should he? He's too smart to face your punishments again."
"Like Satoshi, he can be a bit stupid and forget."
"Hey Ryo! You owe me $5!!" Rowen shouted from inside the house. They laughed.
"Don't tell me you like Pokémon too?" Mia asked.
"You'd be surprised at what these boys can do."
"They got me into it, they got you, next thing you're telling me it's Rowen who got Yuli hooked."
"Yep!!" Rowen answered.
"Rowen!!" Mia shouted at him.
"What? It's either Pokémon from me, Sailor Moon from Sage, DragonballZ from Kento, Tenchi Muyo from Cye, or Ryo and his father from Voltron."
"KEITH IS NOT MY FATHER!!" Ryo shouted from the bush where he was stuck in.
"Like Ash isn't your son? I can see the resemblance from here!" Rowen shouted back.
"Dead man, Rowen! D-E-A-D!!"
Mia and Anubis smiled at each other. "Don't you just LOVE anime?"
"What is that?" Ryo's stinky socks again? Nope, something much worse. White Blaze was curled up on the floor. You could literally see the fumes coming off his body. He needed a bath, NOW!
"Ryo?" She banged on the wall behind her bed, Ryo's room. "White Blaze needs a bath."
She heard hurried footsteps and a crash. Ryo had jumped out the window!! She bolted out of bed and ran into the next room. There was shattered glass all over the floor, and the bug screen was completely ripped out. She had never felt so much anger!!
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Instant wake-up call for the whole house. Ryo had survived his fall by aiming for nearby bushes. He bolted away, hoping to escape Mia's wrath and giving his precious pet a bath. Anubis was meditating outside and tripped Ryo with his staff, then pinned him to the ground with it.
"Why all the fuss about giving White Blaze a bath?" He asked.
"You have no idea how much he hates it. I always end up clawed and scratched all over whenever I have to give him a bath. Not even the armor will help, he knows where to aim." Ryo clawed at the ground trying to escape his hold.
"Watch it, Mia's on the rampage. What did you do now?"
"I smashed a window and messed up a bug screen real bad. Mia's gonna kill me! Let me go, please!!"
"What kind of Ancient would I be if I let you escape punishment? I'm only allowed to stay on Earth if I continue my duties as the Ancient One. Do you really want to see Mia if I was sent back because of you?"
"Don't even want to think about it. She'd be worse then Tulpa."
"And I'd make sure you burn in hell after she killed you. Not even your armor could save you from those flames."
"Right." But he still struggled to escape.
"Mia? Ryo's right here!" Anubis called to her. Mia dragged him out.
"Give that cat a bath before I strip his hide and sell it!! You owe me plenty of yen for the window and the screen. The bugs'll enjoy eating you alive all summer."
"Yes'm." He dragged White Blaze to his kiddie pool and roped him inside it. Ryo filled the pool with water from the hose and poured in two boxes of soap. White Blaze fought Ryo all throughout his bath, and as Ryo said he came out with plenty of scratches, some of which drew blood.
"Was that so hard? If you just did it you wouldn't owe me so much money, nor would you spend so much on repellent. Believe me, the bugs will love you. They did a few summers ago when my screen was ripped. Bit all over, I nearly scratched my skin off." As the caregiver Mia always was to the boys, she took care of his cuts and bandaged them up.
"Aw, is Mama taking care of little Ryo-baby?" Sage teased. "I thought she was raised in France, not Italy, ne, Mama Mia?"
"SAGE, BEFORE I BEAT THE (beep)ING (beep) OUTTA YOU!!" Ryo warned.
"Mama's boys don't say nasty words around their mamas."
It took all of Mia's strength to keep Ryo from killing Sage.
"Sage, please leave Ryo alone." Mia tried to keep her own anger in check. She resented what Sage had said. She was not their mother, just a caring older sister in anything.
"Yeah Sage, you go around hurting Mia and somebody's gonna get own tail
hurt!" Kento flexed his muscles in warning. Sage backed off.
Ryo sulked like a baby the rest of the day. The next morning, Rowen found Ryo curled in a ball on the floor, trying not to scratch the numerous bug-bites covering his legs. He gave in to temptation and scratched himself like a dog with fleas. Mia applied some anti-itch cream she had gotten from her doctor on his bites, earning some more 'Mama Mia' jokes from Sage. Everything went well until Ryo's imagination, insanity, and Rowen's Pokémon collection, drove Ryo up the wall. Ryo had gotten so bad with his itching that Mia taped up his hands to stop him from scratching so much. Everyone was out hanging in the city, only Ryo and Rowen were home. Ryo was too embarrassed going out with his body covered in bandages, thanks to his own stupidity. Rowen volunteered to watch him and his scratching. Ryo was gonna be muscle and bone by the time he could control his scratching. So much pain and temptation was driving Ryo crazy, which might be blamed for his actions in this next part.
"I never thought I'd see an adult Pokémon fan." Ryo said upon seeing Rowen's
room since he fixed it up a few weeks ago. Sure it had the books and such
you'd expect a smart-guy to have in his room, but a lot of it was evidence of his kid-side. Plenty of posters covered his walls, binders stacked up a corner, full of those crazy cards everybody killed for, millions of stuffed pokémon toys covering everything, and even the whole set of the junior-novels of the TV and movies.
"You'd be surprised. My uncle got me hooked, he lives in America, and sends me a lot of the American stuff."
Ryo shuddered as he looked at a huge poster of that kid he saw on everything that was Pokémon, the one with his hair.
"Don't tell me you don't like Ash?" Rowen asked.
"Who? I heard it was something different."
"Ash is the American dub name, it's Satoshi here. I tend to think in the dub more then I do of the Japanese version. He reminds me of you a lot."
"How?"
"You both have a secret crush on a girl yet totally deny it. Though for you, I'm glad it's kept low-key. I don't need to see the warlord of Cruelty beat your tail in again."
"I DO NOT have a crush on Mia!!"
Rowen just smiled. "As Ash says the same about Misty."
Everything went well until paranoia kicked in. Rowen had a lot of pictures of the bug-type pokémon in his room, driving Ryo crazy, as if they'd jump out of the posters and eat him alive. He started shaking like crazy and his eyes darted all over the place, freaking at everything he saw.
"Bugs... trying to get me... I won't have it!!" Ryo shouted.
"Say what?" Rowen had no idea what was going on.
"They're aiming to get me, drink my blood, just try you bugs!!" He morphed into his sub-armor. He laughed insanely as he dove for a stuffed Bulbasaur, a green pig with a bulb on his back.
"HEY!! Get off Halo!!" Rowen grabbed the toy before Ryo could get at it.
"Halo? Sage?" Ryo's eyes flickered insanely. "Here's what I think of your 'Mama Mia' jokes, boy!!"
"Knock it off, Hoek!!" Rowen slapped his face until he regained his senses.
"Oh man! What did I do now?"
"Nearly ended up in a mental hospital. I was tempted to call."
"Rowen, I'm sorry. It's these bites, they're driving me nutz!!"
"Yeah I know. When I was little and had chicken pox, I really scratched my skin to pieces. Then years later I fell into a bush of poison ivy head-first.
I was laid up for weeks, scratching like a dog."
"Why did you call that thing Halo?"
"I nickname certain pokémon after us."
"Yeah? Who am I?"
"Charizard, a flying fire-breathing dragon, is Wildfire. Growlithe, a dog with tiger-stripes, is Inferno. Ponyta, a fire pony, is Rekka no Ryo. And Ninetails, large dog with nine tails, is Furvor."
"Sorry I asked."
Rowen just laughed. "Yuli shares my interest and so does Mia, to a point."
"Mia? Not Mama Mia?"
"Yeah, she loves the bad guys, dimwitted Team Rocket."
"Oh boy. I think we're a bad influence on her."
"Ha! I bet $5 she gets Anubis to like it."
"You're on. Now how about s'more of that medicated cream for my bites?
They're really acting up again!"
"Better idea." Rowen looked out the window to see Mia and the gang back. "Why don't you let Mama Mia do it?"
Ryo thought about slugging him, but his hands were all tied up and he didn't want to risk hurting them. Instead he went downstairs and let Mia apply the medicine. Sage, as usual, made some more jokes, but Ryo had the perfect blackmail.
"Make one more freaking crack about that, and your next girlfriend knows a green pokémon pig with a bulb on his back has your name."
"Rowen!! I swear I'm going to kill you for this!!" Sage shouted. "You and your stupid kid stuff!!"
"That 'stupid kid stuff' happens to be great anime. Unlike your precious Sailor Moon. Only two out of nine girls are actually decent characters."
Sage started to say something, but stopped. His top reason for watching the show was because the main characters were cute girls. He stormed upstairs to his room.
"Good job Rowen! I was getting sick of that 'Mama Mia' stuff." Mia said.
"Yeah whatever." Rowen knew she felt differently about the subject.
Ryo's bug bites healed up and stopped itching so much in the next few weeks. Only a few small patches of skin had to grow back. Ryo coughed up enough money to pay for the window and screen, and was re-installed. Ryo still had a passion for stomping out all kinds of bugs, except for fireflies, he could never kill one of his buddies. As a friendly joke, Ryo still called Mia Mama Mia, and she was comfortable with it. Soon everyone was calling her that, even White Blaze seemed to say it in 'tiger-talk'.
* * * * *
On the last night of summer, Mia caught Ryo hanging out on the balcony. Her work was keeping her up, but there was no decent reason for Ryo to be up so early.
"What are you doing out here? It's past midnight." Mia joined him.
"Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Getting eaten alive by bugs all summer, and being ripped to shreds from a kitty who hates bath like a dog."
"Which started the Mama Mia bit." She laughed. "I like it. It means I get to embarrass any girls you bring here."
"Please tell Sage's dates the pokémon story."
"After I tell yours about your poké-insanity fit."
"Rowen was right, you are into that stuff."
"Rowen wasn't supposed to tell anybody!!"
Ryo fell of the balcony into the bushes below thanks to a high-powered water gun behind his back. Mia turned around to see Anubis holding a powerful Super Soaker gun. "Borrowed it from Cye. Didn't want him trying anything."
"Why should he? He's too smart to face your punishments again."
"Like Satoshi, he can be a bit stupid and forget."
"Hey Ryo! You owe me $5!!" Rowen shouted from inside the house. They laughed.
"Don't tell me you like Pokémon too?" Mia asked.
"You'd be surprised at what these boys can do."
"They got me into it, they got you, next thing you're telling me it's Rowen who got Yuli hooked."
"Yep!!" Rowen answered.
"Rowen!!" Mia shouted at him.
"What? It's either Pokémon from me, Sailor Moon from Sage, DragonballZ from Kento, Tenchi Muyo from Cye, or Ryo and his father from Voltron."
"KEITH IS NOT MY FATHER!!" Ryo shouted from the bush where he was stuck in.
"Like Ash isn't your son? I can see the resemblance from here!" Rowen shouted back.
"Dead man, Rowen! D-E-A-D!!"
Mia and Anubis smiled at each other. "Don't you just LOVE anime?"