"Hey there, I missed you." Jake smiled.
"I missed you too." Erin smiled back.
"Ready to go?" Erin asked.
"Sure am," Jake smiled. "I got a skateboard."
"All right, just follow me then," Erin smiled as she put her helmet back on while he put on his and she drove her scooter away from school and he followed her on his skateboard. "So, how was school today?" she then asked him.
"Eh, it was okay," Jake said. "Would've been a lot better if you were there actually. I'm just surprised they let some animals in the school."
"You mean you don't have animals in your school?" Erin asked.
"I don't think so, I don't pay attention." Jake shrugged.
"Gotta get your head out of the clouds, buddy." Erin chuckled.
Jake blushed and smiled to her chuckle. "Well, it'll be nice not needing to help out in my grandpa's store after school for a while."
"That sounds cool." Erin said.
"Oh! Uh, it can be..." Jake then said since that interested her.
They soon came up to The Miguzi Docks.
"So, this is where you live?" Jake asked.
"Wait for it." Erin said before she pushed a secret button on the back of one of the poles.
There seemed to be a secret base that was like a home which appeared and Jake looked jaw-dropped while Erin smiled and took Jake's hand, taking him inside of the base and the door shut behind them and they soon came underwater once they were put in the air tight seal and were now underwater like in a book or a movie of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
"Wow, dude, this is your place?!" Jake asked. "It's so cool!"
"Thanks, glad you like it." Erin smiled to him.
The ocean was shown out the window with the fish and other creatures swimming in the background and there were creatures shown to be hanging out in the living room before they looked over and saw Erin coming back from town.
"Gah!" Jake yelped. "Who are they?!"
"Relax, they're my friends." Erin smiled.
"Oh.. Uh... Hi..." Jake waved to the strange creatures.
"Jake, this is Big Stalks, Flip, Curly, Tre, Remo, Woofer, Monitor, Tweet and Yoke." Erin introduced.
All of the creatures waved to Jake as they looked curious to him.
"We're going to my room and we would love to not be disturbed!" Erin told her friends, a bit firmly. "Come on, Jake."
"Oh, sure, I'm coming." Jake said.
The Miguzi gang waved to them and Jake waved back while going off with Erin into her room which looked like a typical tomboy's room with a bed and plenty of sports posters and some books on a shelf and her own bathroom and she even had a laptop on her desk by the window.
"Nice room," Jake commented before seeing a poster. "The Sulky Boys?"
"I tried so hard not to like them, but one time when I came into town for groceries, it was always on the radio, so it kinda stuck with me." Erin told him modestly.
"I guess that's alright," Jake said. "Donald's nephews at The House of Mouse usually pretend to be The Quackstreet Boys."
"So, I guess you wanna know more about my parents, huh?" Erin asked.
"Yeah, because I want to help you in any way that I can." Jake said.
"Sit down." Erin told him.
"I'm sorry if I offended you, but... I think we should get to know each other better..." Jake said as she sat on the end of her bed.
"That's okay; I kinda live a private life away from the city," Erin said as she soon took out a very old and dusty photo album from her closet before blowing the dust off and soon came to sit down next to him and opened it up a little and first showed a photo of a black-haired man who looked brave and adventurous and was standing in front of a boat with a pipe in his hand and he seemed to have brown eyes. "Can you guess who this is?" she then asked him, a bit rhetorically.
"Your dad?" Jake guessed.
"Yep..." Erin smiled. "Captain Ernest M. DiCicco. He was the greatest ship captain of his time, he was always sailing the seas and he looked up to the man known as Popeye the Sailor."
"I've heard some things about Popeye." Jake said.
"I'm sure you have," Erin replied as she told the story of her father. "One time though, it was dark and stormy. He didn't know where he was going and he had gotten lost. His crew said that they should turn back, but he felt determined to keep going, but he ended up crashing on an island, and he found a woman there. They both seemed so lost, and they were both trapped there with no way off the island, but they didn't seem to mind because they were in love..." she then said, turning the page over to a golden brown-haired woman with green eyes that matched Erin's who had torn clothes and wore a grass skirt and a flower crown in her hair.
"Is that your mom?" Jake asked.
"Yes..." Erin nodded. "Her name was Coral Hemingway. She had been missing from her hometown for ten years."
"Yikes!" Jake's eyes widened as that sounded scary.
"They fell in love at first sight and got along the island okay since they had each other, eventually, they were saved and decided to get married and they traveled the seas together, and they couldn't had been happier." Erin smiled.
"It sounds like a fairy tale." Jake said.
"Yep..." Erin smiled before sighing softly. "And then... It happened..."
Jake frowned as he could tell this was going to be sad.
"We were altogether like a family, and my parents decided it would be nice for me to see the sea up close, I was about two-years-old at the time... However, a huge storm hit and thunder struck the ship and it caught on fire," Erin began to explain. "A lot of the crew had abandoned ship and they couldn't find my father. All they had left was his hat, and my mother was hurt by the damage of the ship. She didn't think she would be able to survive, so she put me in a box with a note when I had fallen asleep. The boat then drifted along the sea and a spaceship had crash landed in the docks with a bunch of creatures no one had seen before... They found me and they took me in, and I've been here ever since."
"Man... Erin... I'm so sorry... Do you think they're both dead?" Jake frowned.
"I'm sure it's possible they could still be alive, but I'm not sure..." Erin said to him softly.
"I'm so sorry." Jake frowned.
"I've always hoped that I could see them again." Erin said.
"I won't talk about it anymore..." Jake said.
"I'm glad I shared that with you though." Erin said, putting the photo album away for right now.
"Um... Say..." Jake then said. "The others told me that there's a Welcome to Spring Dance coming up on Friday at 7:00. Maybe you'd like to come to it before I have to go back home to Disneyville?"
"Really? Nobody's asked me to go to a dance with them before," Erin smiled brightly. "Sure, I'd be happy to go with you."
"Yes!" Jake beamed in victory.
Erin and Jake smiled to each other as this was going to be a lot of fun.
Meanwhile, as promised, Mike came to the store that Jake's grandfather owned and came inside to see the old man with his dog.
"So, you must be Mike Mazinsky." Lao Shi greeted as he looked up at the tomboy.
"Yes, sir, and you must be Lao Shi." Mike replied.
"That is right," Lao Shi replied. "This is also Fu Dog. So I understand that you are a werewolf."
"You're not gonna fight me, are you?" Mike asked.
"Well... At least not right now..." Lao Shi hid a small smirk before looking serious again. "I know you probably have plans with some new friends, but I want to test how you fight as a werewolf against a dragon such as myself."
"Okay, let's do this; I'm ready." Mike replied.
"Follow me." Lao Shi said.
Mike then followed him out.
"Good luck, kid, Lao Shi may be an old man, but he's stronger than he looks, ya know." Fu Dog warned Mike.
"Relax, what could possibly go wrong?" Mike replied.
"Are you ready, young one?" Lao Shi asked.
"I'm ready." Mike replied.
Lao Shi nodded and changed into his dragon form.
"Hmm.. Not bad... All right, give me a sec." Mike said before she turned around to transform into her wolf form without needing to rely on the full moon for her transformation.
Fu Dog soon rushed out of the way and came back with some popcorn to watch this like it was a show.
"Let us begin!" Lao Shi told Mike before he began to fly around in circles around Mike, making her dizzy at first and he soon whipped her away with his tail, making her crash into the wall. "I thought you were faster than that." he then smirked.
"You got lucky that time, old man, now you're in for it!" Mike glared as she soon grabbed a hold of his tail.
"Uh-oh, Gramps might get into trouble." Fu Dog said to himself.
Mike soon spun Lao Shi around and spun him around before letting him go to show him how it felt.
Lao Shi soon went flying until he let his wings carry him before he could crash and had a small smirk. "Hm... Very good, Mike..." he said to the young tomboy.
"You ain't seen nuthin' yet." Mike grinned, showing her fangs. She took a deep breath and then howled a very loud and chilling wolf howl that became like a sound wave.
"Do you have to do that so loudly?" Fu Dog warned her. "Some people are trying to sleep!"
"Impressive," Lao Shi replied. "Is there anything else you can do?"
"Oh, you know, mostly this, but also this..." Mike said before making Lao Shi's shadow come to life right beside him.
"Impressive... I haven't seen shadow-bending in years..." Lao Shi commented. "You must have a wonderful Wolf-Shadow teacher."
"You mean, just because I'm a werewolf and you're a dragon, you don't hate me?" Mike asked. "I was told about a certain prophecy from a good friend of mine back home."
"You don't seem like the type that could hurt my family." Lao Shi shook his head.
"Well... Thanks." Mike said.
"Of course... Now, I have a favor to ask of you." Lao Shi said.
"Sure, what is it?" Mike asked as she changed back to normal.
"Do you mind watching the store for a little while? I need to check in with The Dragon Council about something urgent." Lao Shi told him.
"Oh, uh, sure, okay." Mike said.
"Thank you..." Lao Shi said as he formed back into his human mode and bowed his head. "You seem very strong and independent... I wish my grandson had your patience."
"Thank you, sir, I appreciate it." Mike said as she bowed back.
"This shouldn't take too long." Lao Shi said before he suddenly went away to visit the Dragon Council.
"Well, kid, it's just you and me," Fu Dog said to Mike. "I just hope you're more responsible than Jake is, he would usually try to bail out of here to hang out with those friends of his."
"Well, I'm usually pretty responsible..." Mike said. "Um... Are you a magic dog or something?"
"You could say that," Fu Dog smirked. "I may be 600 years old, but I always keep up with what kids are into these days, especially with your Tweets and MP3s and hashtags."
"I never got that hashtag stuff," Mike rolled her eyes. "I say #getalife."
Fu Dog chuckled to that before the front door opened and he barked and panted, acting like a normal dog.
Mike soon came to the front and smiled to someone who came over. "Hi! Can I help you?"
"I'm just looking around actually." A blonde girl smiled back to her.
"Oh, okay," Mike told her. "Well, holler if you need anything."
"I will, thank you." The blonde girl replied.
Mike smiled while Fu Dog looked shocked to the girl for some reason.
The blonde girl soon began to explore and have a look around.
"Are you from this town?" Mike asked.
"I'm visiting for a little bit actually... Aren't you?" The blonde girl asked.
"Well, I'm actually a transfer student for the week, I'm actually from Cartoon Network City." Mike told her.
"I've heard about that place," The blonde girl smiled. "It's kinda cool."
"Yeah, it can be," Mike replied. "I'm taking Jake Long's place for a while."
"Is he nice?" The blonde girl asked, though a glimmer seemed to appear in her eye at the mention of Jake.
Mike merely shrugged. "Maybe you'll see him if you stick around town long enough."
"I'll have to see," The blonde girl said. "My parents said we'll be here for the weekend though."
"That sounds nice." Mike smiled politely.
"So, what's your name?" The blonde girl asked.
"I'm Mike Mazinsky, and who are you?" Mike replied.
"My name's Rose," The blonde girl smiled. "Rose Stark."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Rose." Mike smiled back.
"Well, I guess I will see you around." Rose said to her.
"You bet." Mike smiled.
"See ya, Mike." Rose smiled as she left.
"Bye, Rose, it was nice meeting you," Mike smiled back and waved to the blonde girl. "Man, what a nice girl she is."
Fu Dog still looked surprised, but he wasn't sure whether to tell Mike or not, so he pretended like nothing happened as he took out a book now. "Yeah, she seemed sweet, maybe she'll move into town." he then said.
Mike continued to clean up while Lao Shi was gone and looked over as Tino, Carver, Tish, and Lor were seen outside which made her smile. "I'd like to hang out with them, but I promised Lao Shi that I would keep an eye on the shop while he was gone," she then said to herself. "I'm not one to ditch responsibility."
"That's a good kid," Fu Dog commented. "I wish Jake was more like that."
"I'm sure Jake's responsible at times," Mike shrugged. "He has a little sister."
"Eh, he's a nice kid, but he'd just rather goof off than do any real work." Fu Dog said.
Lao Shi soon came back and saw that the place was a lot cleaner and more organized while he was gone. "Mike, you're still here?" He then asked in surprise.
"Yeah, but do you mind if I go now?" Mike asked. "I have some friends out there."
"I suppose you do deserve a reward for your hard work," Lao Shi smiled. "You go on out, I'll finish up here."
"Thank you, Lao Shi." Mike smiled back.
Lao Shi nodded as Mike walked out of the door to hang out with her new friends.
"Great kid... I mean, for a werewolf." Fu Dog said.
"Yes, Fu Dog, I remember the centennial tradition, but we shouldn't discriminate." Lao Shi told him.
"You don't think she's like the other werewolves, do ya?" Fu Dog asked. "The kind that eat people?"
"No, I don't think she's that type of werewolf." Lao Shi replied.
"If you say so..." Fu Dog shrugged.
