Chapter 17:  What Is This?  A Soap Opera?!

            Renamon was steamed:  Rika had accidentally spilled bleach on her, and her fur now had an unsightly white spot that smelled awful and refused to come out.  Renamon could tell that Rika felt embarrassed, and yet Rika still wasn't socially confident enough to apologize.  Renamon knew she needed to be flexible with Rika, but there was only so far she could go before even she would snap.

            But she hadn't quite reached that point:  she had yet to confront her "suitor", Hare, with the ugly spot on her fur.

            "Hey, Renamon!" Hare shouted from a distance, face flush like a tomato.

            "Hare?!"  She covered her white spot with the rag she'd been using to scrub the floor.

            "Hey, uh…when's your shift done?"

            "In two hours.  Why do you ask?"

            "Ah…I was just wondering…I've heard that the food will be great tonight.  Would you---"

            "You have no idea how much I'd love to be able to do dinner, Hare, but…"

            Hare sighed.  "I understand."

            "Actually, you don't," Renamon murmured under her breath.  She looked down at her white spot, and she noticed that the rag she had covered it with had also been soaked with bleach, widening the white spot and making it even worse because the bleach water was dribbling down her pelt.

            Rika snickered.  Renamon shot her a dirty look, and Rika retreated back into her shell of social isolation.  Renamon threw down her rag and left.  Rika didn't know what would come of this, but she kept scrubbing.  Rika eventually found Renamon sulking in their room.  Rika was still a little timid, but she managed to get this out of her mouth:  "You've got two choices:  bleach the rest of your fur, or…"

            "Or what?"

            "Maybe…Mimi could do something with it."

            "Mimi?  Why would she know anything about fixing my fur?"

            "Well…on the TV show, she seemed constantly concerned with looks…she might know something about dyeing fur colors."

            "It's worth a shot, but how do I get there without being seen?"

            "I have one idea."

******

            Hare saw Renamon walking past again, this time with her opaque poncho on.  "Hey, Renamon!"

            "Sorry, I can't stop to talk," Renamon quickly said as she hurried by.

            Hare was more downhearted than ever.  But then it occurred to him:  "Hey, I thought you were demoted from seek patrol?  Why are you going outside?"

            "Ah…I can't stop to explain."

            Hare could tell when someone was lying to him, and he could tell that Renamon was hiding something.  So he said, "Then I'll walk with you while you explain it."

            "Don't you have anything better to do?"

            "Not really, no.  I'm off duty."

            Renamon could also tell what Hare was doing:  he was pressing her.  "It's…top secret."

            "Somehow, I don't think they'd entrust a top-secret assignment to you if you're without your human."

            "Please.  I have to ask you to stop asking questions.  Don't worry.  By tomorrow, everything will be back to normal…I hope."

            Hare wondered how he should respond.  Renamon saying that everything would be normal tomorrow was the kind of thing he wanted to hear, except for the "I hope" part.  He sighed.  "I hope they do, too."

            As he walked away, Renamon sighed.  She felt guilty for not telling him the truth.  Maybe---she'd tell him the next day, when her fur was back to normal.  She kept walking for Mimi's room, hoping that she'd be off-duty and willing to help.

******

            Pixie was taking boxes of what she hoped was food off the shelves of the supermarket.  She couldn't read the English alphabet, so she didn't know what she was getting or how to prepare it once she'd gotten it.  There was one good thing, though:  there were transparent bags of bread and cheese in the store.  That was just about all she recognized.  She heard a loud clacking noise behind a couple of doors.  She readied her special attacks, hoping that she wouldn't have to use them.  She burst in the doors, and found herself face-to-face with a blue dragon.

            "Gyarados, Hydro Pump!"  A spray of water flew out of the dragon's mouth at the command of the young man who flanked it.

            "Firewall!"  Pixie created a wall of flame that blocked the spray of water from herself.

            "Must be a fire-type!"  He pulled a small red device out of his pocket that said, "Pokémon unknown.  No available data."  "Great," he spat, putting the device away.

            "What was that thing?" Pixie asked.  "I've seen one of those before.  Someone named Ash had one."

            "Ash?!" he asked.  "You know Ash?"

            "Not well.  I met him a few weeks ago, and I haven't seen him since he and I separated."

            He flushed.  "Ash was my next-door neighbor.  Sorry for attacking you; I've had some unfriendly visitors."

            "Join the club.  It makes me wonder where all these things are coming from."

            "Yeah.  Gyarados, return," he said, calling Gyarados back into his pokéball.

            As Pixie saw Gyarados disappear in a flash of red light, her jaw dropped open in surprise.  "What did you do to him?"

            "…It doesn't hurt!  I just called him back."

            " 'Called him back?'  What're you talking about?"

            "…What planet are you from?"  His face turned from annoyed to afraid as he noted the significance of that question.  A long explanation ensued of what a pokémon is and what a monsters is.  It was quite overwhelming, but Pixie suddenly realized that she was keeping Big Blue and Matt waiting.  She asked to be excused, and he told her to go ahead.

            "By the way, what was your name?"

            "Gary."

            Pixie kept the name in mind as she raced back to the pharmacy to feed Matt.  She found him crying.  "Are you in pain?"

            "You killed Gabumon!" Matt got in between sobs.  As if getting tortured half to death wasn't enough, now he'd lost his best friend.

            "Huh?"

            "You put the egg in the microwave oven and switched it on!"

            "Microwave oven?  That thing I put the egg in was an oven?"

            "Yes!"

            Pixie opened the microwave and felt the egg.  "It's not hot at all!"

            She heard a cracking noise.  Out of the egg popped a small, red creature.  Pixie slowly scooped it up in her hands and looked it over.  "Gabumon?" she asked.

            "What happened?" Matt asked.

            "It hatched," Pixie answered.  She showed Matt the tiny creature.  It instantly hopped onto the table and began rubbing its head against Matt's cheek.

            "Punimon," Matt sighed.

            "It felt good to feel so warm for a while!" Punimon peeped.  (The microwave hadn't been set to cook for long enough to hurt him.)

            Pixie couldn't help but giggle.  She unwrapped the bread and fed them both.  "Now, get some rest.  You need to recover."

            Matt sighed his agreement and instantly fell asleep.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

            Okay, I'll admit that was an obvious way out of resolving the microwave cliffhanger---or maybe I made it too cute to fit in with the blood-and-guts in the rest of Salvage Earth.  But what would you expect for a cliffhanger like this?  Someone's comatose in the microwave, what's going to happen?  The microwave won't kill him, that's what!