"This room is so amazing with its architecture." Patch said.
"Yeah, I'll give it that." Cherry agreed.
"Have you ever seen a fireplace this amazing?" Sara smiled.
"It looks big enough to warm a whole family." Mo smiled.
"Ah, we could have one heck of a weenie roast in that thing, huh?" Jim stood next to his wife.
"My father could cook a fresh griffin for Sunday dinner with that thing." Drell commented.
"Yeah." Atticus nodded.
"Seriously," Sara seemed entranced. "Look at this detail. I've never seen anything like this."
"Haven't you?" a new voice asked as lightning flashed with rumbling thunder.
"He seemed to have come out of nowhere." Patch whispered.
"Must be a family thing." Mo replied, mostly in joking.
"My grandfather spared no expense when he built this mansion." the man continued.
"Well, your grandfather had really good taste in tchotchkes," Jim walked over, deciding to introduce himself. "I'm Jim Evers of Evers and Evers Real Estate. Charmed to make your acquaintance, sir." he then held out his hand for this man to shake it.
"Edward," the man gave his name. "Edward Gracely."
"It's so nice to meet you, sir." Mo smiled with a curtsy.
Atticus, Patch, and Cherry glanced at Mo for her girlish gesture.
"Uh, this is my wife, Sara," Jim continued to introduce. "And this is our niece, Cherry with her friends, Atticus, Mo, Patch, and Drell."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Atticus said.
"Charmed." Edward replied.
Patch went up to the man, trusting him more than he did with the butler.
"Hello there." Edward smiled down to Patch.
"Hi." Patch smiled.
Edward glanced at Patch. "I must be hearing things, I could've sworn I heard this puppy speak."
"You're not hearing things, sir, I really am speaking." Patch smiled.
"Fascinating..." Edward commented.
"My name's Patch Pongo." the puppy smiled proudly as he gave his name out.
"Pongo, huh?" Edward replied. "I feel like I've heard that name before, weren't you and a bunch of other Dalmatians in the newspaper after being missing and kidnapped?"
"Yep, and I've had a whole lot of surprises since being adopted by my owner, Atticus Fudo." Patch smiled, introducing the man to his owner/master.
"So, he's yours, is he?" Edward replied.
"Yes, sir, he's my best friend." Atticus smiled proudly.
Cherry whacked the back of Atticus's head, though it couldn't hurt him much.
"Best dog friend." Atticus then said before glaring to Cherry for that.
Cherry stuck her tongue out in response.
"I can tell that you two are best friends," Edward chuckled before humming as he looked at Atticus, seeming as though he knew him. "You look familiar though."
"Really?" Atticus asked.
Mo looked a little nervous.
"I'm sure it's nothing." Edward said before looking at Mo.
Atticus shrugged to that.
"And who is this exactly?" Edward asked.
"This is my girlfriend, her name is Monique, but I call her 'Mo'." Atticus introduced.
"Pleasure to meet you, my dear." Edward bowed.
"Nice to meet you too, sir." Mo nodded before she curtsied, remembering what her adoptive parents had taught her.
"It's nice to meet you, sir." Drell said.
"Drell, is it?" Edward replied.
"Yes, sir." Drell nodded as he looked way down at the man who seemed much shorter than him due to how much taller and bigger he was.
"You look like someone I once knew." Edward said.
"Major coincidence, I'm sure." Drell replied.
"Possibly." Edward shrugged before meeting Sara.
Drell shook a chill down his spine as the master was meeting all of them.
"Very nice to meet you, Mr. Gracely." Sara greeted, then introduced her and Jim's children. "And this is our daughter, Megan, and our son, Michael."
"You have wonderful children." Edward smiled.
"I kicked in some chromosomes, too." Jim spoke up with a shy smile as Edward seemed to only compliment Sara in his statement.
"Oh, brother." Patch whispered.
Cherry rolled her eyes at her uncle's attempt at a joke.
"Children... Madame..." Ramsley entered again as lightning flashed again.
"It must be dinner time." Mo highly assumed.
"You are quite right, my dear." Edward smiled.
"Oh, nice." Jim said.
Ramsley and Edward led the others into the dining room and they took their seats.
"The master was very pleased when he heard you could come on such short notice," Ramsley informed as he helped the others into their chairs like a gentleman as he was ordered to do so. "Normally we would not have called you here so abruptly. But we had no other choice."
"What do you got?" Jim asked as he sat down. "Termites or something? Big house like this must have a lot of termites."
"No, but lately, there have been more disturbances..." Ramsley replied.
"What kind of disturbances?" Atticus asked.
"I'm afraid those are confidential." Ramsley replied.
Patch helped himself into a chair.
Ramsley glared to him. "Down!"
"Oh, come on, Ramsley, let him have a little fun." Edward insisted with an amused smile.
Patch smiled up at the man, liking him a lot before sticking his tongue out at the butler.
Ramsely seemed to roll his eyes at the puppy. "Very good, sir..."
"What do you think of the house, Ms. Evers?" Edward asked Cherry's aunt.
"Oh," Sara smiled as she looked all around with wide wonder as another butler and a maid walked into the dining room to serve their guests and master "I think it's absolutely incredible. The Italian influence. The Renaissance style of the molding. The attention to detail is stunning. You never see houses like this. Or at least I don't."
"I trust you like it too?" Edward then asked Cherry.
"Yeah, it looks like a new adventure every day." Cherry agreed.
"It definitely looks like it has a lot of history behind it." Mo smiled.
"Great care and love went into the building of this mansion," Edward smiled as he told them all about it. "This house is my inheritance. My birthright. But lately it's become too much to bear."
"Sounds like you might need some company." Mo said.
"Oh, you could say that." Edward agreed.
The storm seemed to be getting worse and worse as they were served dinner.
'It sure sounds like it's really coming down outside.' Mo thought to herself.
Patch quietly whimpered, feeling a little nervous at the storm. Atticus did his best to comfort Patch, but he looked nervous as well.
"Are you both all right?" Edward asked.
"Y-Yes, sir, it's just that storms kind of freak me and Patch out." Atticus told him.
"Don't worry, try to enjoy your meal." Edward suggested.
"Y-Yes, sir." Atticus nodded.
'He'll soon be over that fear as well as soon as he meets Mei and Gabu, two animals that no one would have ever thought would become friends,' Drell thought to himself. 'And where that'll be before his training with Goku just so his fear doesn't get in the way of their training.'
"Tell me, Mr. Evers," Edward looked to Jim. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
'Oh, this should be good.' Drell then thought to himself.
"Ghosts?" Jim asked him in return. "Yeah, sure, I believe in ghosts. Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea to put on the listing though."
Cherry groaned and face-palmed.
"You should talk about how many bathrooms in the house," Jim then continued with a small smile. "People love bathrooms. We should play up the toilet angle and leave out ghosts. I think that'd be best."
"Oh, brother." Mo whispered.
"The storm has swollen the road." Ramsley informed as he stood by one of the large windows looking outside.
Jim leaned forward. "How's that?"
"The storm has flooded the road," Ramsley explained. "I'm afraid there will be no leaving the mansion tonight."
"What?!" Megan squealed in dismay.
"Oh, that's just great." Mo groaned.
"Of course, you are all more than welcome to spend the night here." Edward invited.
"Oh, no, I really don't think we should..." Sara replied with an apologetic smile. "We've got plans."
"Can't you do something about the weather?" Atticus whispered to the warlock.
"Mother Nature and I have a feud with each other," Drell whispered back. "I played ball when I was a boy in the fifteenth century and broke a window and she never forgave me!"
"Yikes." Atticus whispered.
"Sorry." Drell pouted as they were kind of stuck here for the night.
"Just as I thought..." Mo whispered once it was told they were forced to stay for the night.
"I'm afraid there's no other way," Edward said as he stood up from his chair. "Ramsley will show you to your rooms."
"Oh, that's great." Patch said.
"I would normally ask for the dog to be put outside, but since it's such a stormy evening and he's a charming little fellow, he may sleep inside as well." Edward then sharply added, mostly sharp towards Ramsley to warn him about excluding the puppy from spending the night.
"Thank you, sir." Patch smiled.
Edward gave a small smile to him. Ramsley collected a candelabra and started to lead the visitors down the hallways to take them into temporary bedrooms for tonight.
"I hope the bedrooms aren't as creepy as the entrance was." Patch whispered.
"We can only hope." Atticus said as he held Patch in his arms for comfort with each other from the storm outside.
"Who should be with who?" Mo asked.
"Patch, Mo, you'll go with me," Atticus decided. "Michael and Megan get their own room, Mr. and Mrs. Evers of course get a room, Drell, can you promise me you won't torture Cherry if I leave you alone with her?"
"I, Drell Fraser Batsworth, solemnly swear not to punish Cherry in solitude with her." Drell put his right hand up.
"Good." Atticus nodded.
Cherry snickered. "Fraser..."
Drell gave her a warning look, but didn't hurt her, then nodded back to Atticus, keeping his promise.
"Alright, Ramsley, lead the way." Atticus said.
"Very good, young sir." Ramsley nodded as he led them to their rooms for the night.