From: Saint (Saint84_98@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] Home Sweet Home Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000/08/01 It was about noon by the time Taron and his friends walked into Fuschia City. Procyon glanced around the city and sighed. "It's good to be home." Taron had to agree. It was good to be home. They walked to the pokemon center and got their pokemon healed. "We hope to see you again." The local Nurse Joy said. Taron nodded and turned away. "Come on," Taron said to the two of them, "There's somebody I'd like you to meet." He hailed a Taxi and told the cabdriver the address. The driver looked at him skeptically. "You sure that's the right address pally? It's way out in the country." Taron grinned. "I'm sure." The driver shrugged and started the engine. Half an hour later they were there. Taron paid the driver. Procyon and Suik looked around where the had ended up. It looked to be an old farmhouse. "Pokemon Ranch?" Procyon guessed. Taron nodded, "Yup. Welcome to the Epsilon Pokemon Ranch. My home away from home." Grinning, he led them around the side of the house, down to the pokemon pens. There they saw a girl, about Taron's age with blond hair wearing overalls and a white T-Shirt. She had her back to them, talking to a Rhyhorn as she poured food into a bin. Taron grinned. "Watch this." He muttered. He put his finger to his lips, then quietly began to sneak up on the girl. When he reached her, he grabbed her shoulders, whirled her around, bent her over backwards and kissed her. All in one smooth motion. When he let her up for air, about fifteen seconds later, she slapped him on the cheek. She gasped. "Taron! I didn't realize it was you." She glared at him. "Don't DO that! Geez. Scared the bejeezus out of me!" Taron rubbed his cheek and grinned at her. "Nice to see you too." She turned towards the barn. "Hey Jason! C'mere a second!" Out of the barn, a boy emerged. He actually looked a lot like Taron except for the large white stripe through his hair. He walked over to the group. "What's up? Oh hey Taron. When did you show up?" "About noon or so. Come on there's some people I want you to meet." He led them over to Procyon and Suik. "Procyon, Suik this is Sophie Laurent and Skunk." The guy punched him lightly on the shoulder. Taron grinned. "Okay okay, his name's Jason DuMasse." "Why do they call you skunk?" Procyon asked him with a straight face. "Because he smells like one." Taron interjected. Before he knew it, Jason had tackled him and had him pinned on the ground. "Okay okay, uncle!" Jason let him up. Sophie rolled her eyes at them. "You two act like children. Not only that, you act like brothers." "Do not." They said at the exact same time. Taron grinned sheepishly while Jason turned to Taron's companions. "So what're you doing hanging out with a bum like Taron?" Procyon shrugged. "We met in Pewter, and we've been travelling together since. Then the two of us met Suik in Cerulean" Sophie gasped. She turned to Taron. "Does that mean....?" She asked. Taron nodded and showed them both the five badges he'd earned so far. Sophie grinned. "Let's see the pokemon Taron." Taron shrugged and took the four pokeballs off his belt, then released the pokemon within. Sophie spent a few minutes examining his four pokemon. "Hmm, Let's see..." She muttered. "Good, strong Tauros. Might make a good stud one of these days. The Sandshrew ain't bad either. Strong, smart, playful." She turned to his Seel. "Hmm, strange. It's rather quiet for a Seel. Shy even. Taron? Are you using your Seel alot?" "Borealis? Um, define alot..." Sophie nodded. "Uh huh, thought so. Taron, you need to start using it more. Get to know it better." She stepped away and looked at Talon, his Fearow. "hmm, looks a little sick. Has it eaten anything, strange lately?" Taron sweatdropped. "uh sort of." "What?" "Uh, would you believe that he ate a telekinetically charged Kadabra spoon?" He asked. "No." "Well then let's just say you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Taron returned all but his Sandshrew to their pokeballs. "Come on, I'll give you guys the grand tour." Sophie said leading them towards fields. "Here's where we have different habitats for the different kinds of pokemon," She said, indicating seven domed bio-spheres. "Why are there only seven?" Procyon asked. "We group them by type similarities to save space, for instance, the flying, fighting, and normal types are all in Habitat Six." "Although, not all species of pokemon are housed here." Taron added, "Some are kept out on the range, the pokemon that live in herds, Like Tauros, and those that don't play well with others like the Gyarados." Sophie glared at him as she pulled open one of the doors. "Hey! Who's giving this tour? Me or you?" She led them inside. The sharp scent of electricity instantly assailed Taron's nose, not only that but his hair shot straight up. Jason laughed at him until he realized his hair was doing the same thing. "Aww jeez!" He muttered trying to straighten it out. Sophie ignored them. "This is where we keep the electric type pokemon." She gave a loud whistle and a few moments later a Jolteon ran up to greet them. It sat obidiently in front of them looking at them expectantly. "Meet Lightning. he keeps an eye on things around here to make sure fights don't get too serious." "You actually let them fight each other?" Suik said, amazed. "Sure, usually they just spark at each other, although sometimes it gets serious, and that's when Lightning steps in. We have a 'referee pokemon' for each habitat. For instance, we have Oracle the Alakazam in Habitat One, Fireball the Charizard in Habitat Three, and Tsunami the Blastoise in Habitat Seven." Taron scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Say, that wouldn't be the same Tsunami I had in my Tech days would it." Sophie nooded. "The very same." Procyon looked around the habitat, he already had entries in his Pro- Dex for most of the pokemon here, except for that Jolteon. So he turned his attention to it, and in seconds he had another entry in his Pro- Dex. Sophie led them out of the habitat. In her hand she carried a pokeball that her father had left on the desk at the entrance. She sighed. "Poor Sparky. another case of Electro-magnetic Pikachu Cold Virus. Guess I'd better take him in for isolation at the barn." She stepped inside followed by Procyon, then Suik and Jason, Taron brought up the rear. Jason diliberatly slammed the door behind him. There was a small thud as Taron ran into the barn door. Taron opened the door and did a flying tackle, knocking Jason over. In a flash they were rolling all over the barn floor, laughing and trading insults. They were also agitating the animals in the barn. Procyon ignored them, he was more interested in a Kangaskhan standing protectively over her kid. Sophie came and stood next to him. "The adult's name is Bouncer and the young'un is named Joey. They're in isolation because she's just getting over the birth." She told him. Procyon reached into his pocket and pulled out his Pro-Dex, making a quick note about the Kangaskhan. Meanwhile Taron and Jason were still wrestling on the dirty barn floor. WHAM WHAM Sophie and Procyon looked towards the sound, one of the Ponytas had become so agitated that it tried to kick it's way through the barn wall. Sophie leaped over the fence, grabbed the reins and tried to calm it down. There was a loud bang as the barn door opened. A big burly man in work boots, faded jeans and a flannel shirt walked in. "What in hades is going on in here?" he bellowed. He reached down to the floor, grabbed Taron and Jason by their necks, and simply introduced them to each other. The hard way. "Knock it off you two." Taron rubbed a big lump on his head. "Jeez Mitch, you almost cracked my shades on his hard head." Jason shoved Taron. Mitch smacked them both on the back of the head. He turned and walked back out of the barn, muttering drakly. "That was my dad." Sophie said to Procyon, grinning. Taron turned to Jason, who was also rubbing his head. "Hey punk, I bet my Tauros could beat your Rapidash in a race." Jason snorted, "As if. Nothing is faster than my Rapidash. Least of all your stupid Tauros." Taron grinned. "Fine, I'll race you tommorrow, at three o'clock. Just the two of us." Jason nodded his agreement. "Oh no, I want in on this too." Sophie said. "And me, Taron." Procyon said nodding. "Bulletwing could use the excercise." "Fine. It's settled. The four of us. Tommorrow, three o'clock." The four of them nodded. Suik remained silent. "Well, now that that's settled," Sophie said smirking at Taron, "Taron can I talk to you privately?" Jason whistled rudely and leered suggestively at the two of them. "Sure." The two of them walked out of the barn with Jason chanting in a low voice, "Go Taron, go Taron." Sophie's response was a light smack on the back of his head. Followed by Taron agreeing with her. Once they were outside Sophie turned to Taron. "Hey Taron would you be willing to leave Rampage here?" Taron cocked an eyebrow at her. "That's it? That's all you wanted to talk to me about? I thought it was something serious. Why do you want Rampage?" She shrugged. "Well... Breeding stock, I was hoping you could leave Rampage here so we could mate him." Taron nodded, "Uh huh. So what do I get?" "Huh?" "Come on Sophie, I'm not some idiot who goes around just leaving his pokemon with people." Sophie glared at him, "Taron its not like that, Rampage will still be your pokemon, he'll just be here until we're done with him, then you can have him back." Taron had to admit that this was a reasonable argument, but he felt like being stubborn. He'd already lost one pokemon, he wasn't going to lose another. But the more Sophie pleaded with him, the more cracks appeared in his wall of resistence. The final straw came, not from her, but from Taron's own mind. A nagging little voice in the back of his head. You owe them. It said. What? I don't owe them anything. He argued Bull. You owe them alot. You owe them countless unbroken bones, innumerable bruises that never appeared, infinite tears that were never shed. You owe them, Taron. You owe them alot. "Please Taron, we could use the money." Taron grinned at sophie. "Soph, would you be able to make enough money off of Rampage's calfs to keep this place going?" "Yes." " Well, okay, you can keep him here." He reached into his pocket and extracted the pokeball. "Take care of him though, he wasn't easy to capture. I really don't want to do it again." TBC.