"YES!!!" Jacen cried, bursting into the hotel room, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" he sounded like a train, flinging his stuff onto the soft bed and practically swandiving and smothering himself in the rose-patterned comforter. Then he stood up, "DIBS ON THE SHOWER!!" he yelled, louder than needed. He zipped in there and slammed the door, but then he poked his head out, "Don't expect me out for a LONG TIME!"

"Sure, take all the time you want!" Krystal called as Buddy curled up on the other bed for a short nap. She swung her pack onto the desk and sat on the chair. She pulled out the hoverphone from it's hook on the wall and let it float, "These things are AWESOME!" she cried as she dialed in her home number in the numberpad. The screen turned on and said: "Ringing, please hold..."

"Daddy, where are you?" she sighed leaning back in the chair.

The screen lit up and the picture focused on Ash in his house. Behind him sat his long-time friend, Richie, the Mayor of Pallet Town, drinking some warm coffee in a lounge chair. Her father was very pleased to see her.

"Hi honey, how's your journey going?" Ash asked, very eager to hear the results.

"Great, guess what?"

"What?"

"I caught my first pokémon!!!"

"Wow! That's wonderful! Hey, I remember when I caught my first pokemon, Caterpie!" he smiled and then broke into laughter, "Oh, Krystal you should have seen your mother's face when I let it out!!! AHAHAHAHA!" he chuckled wildly, "Scared of a little thing like-"

"Daddy! You're getting carried away!"

"Oh! Sorry dear, haha! It's a habit of mine, that your mother has been trying to help me break!" Suddenly He thought of something, "Did you hear that Richie is going to run for President of Kanto?"

"Cool!" she smiled as Richie tipped his hat to her, "Congratulations! Good Luck!"

"Thanks! And good luck on your journey! Don't forget to have some fun along the way, and make all the friends you can!"

"I will! You can count on me and Buddy! We're going to the top!"

Ash took off his glasses and dabbed his eyes, "My little girl is growing up so fast! Just like her daddy! I'll see you later, Honey! Keep in touch!"

"I love you, Daddy, BYE-BYE!"

"Me too, Bye!" he sniffed a bit.

The phone disconnected and she hung it back on it's hook. She turned and looked at Buddy who was still silently stationed on the bed, "I sure hope we do good..."

Three hours later, Jacen wobbled out of the bathroom, dressed in his baggy night clothes, complete with vulpix fuzzy slippers. He once again flopped face-down on the bed, and mumbled, "Your turn," and sighed with a deep pleasure.

"Thanks. Nice shower?"

"No. Bath. Bubble-bath! Nice and Warm!! Toasty!"

"Okay. Why don't you call your parents? I called my dad and he appreciated it!"

He sighed again, "That was great...Oh...might as well, just hope Jannie isn't home yet!"

"See you in a bit!" she said as she sprinted into the bathroom.

Jacen, after a minute of shuffling around, he heaved himself off the bed and hobbled over to the hoverphone. He almost yanked it off, till he figured out how to take it off properly. He then stumbling, dialed what he thought was his number, hoping he didn't get some stranger staring at his pjs. He hated picture-phones.

The screen flashed on quickly with no delay, and there was a giant mouth taking up most of the screen. Jacen jumped back and fell out of his chair. He peered up at it, "Uh, hello is this McScanty residence?"

A voice boomed over the sound speaker, "DARLING, Back up from the screen, the person can probably only see your fillings!"

"Ohhh! Sorry pumpkin! Backing up..." the figure scooted back till the phone could focus on the face, it was his father!

"Ohh! Jesse, Dear, Jacen is on the phone!" he squealed with excitement.

"That's nice, James," the first voice called from off-screen.

"So son, how many do you have? How is Arfie? How is Jannie? Huh?"

"Uh... how many what? He's fine, I guess, and Jannie is lost."

"Pokémon of course, you must have a dozen!"

"Well, not yet-"

"Oh, did you know your mother has picked up a new hobby," he interrupted for no particular reason. There was a engine sputtering and then the blaring roar of a chainsaw. Jacen fell out of his chair again and peered up at the screen, afraid to look. His father swung the phone around so Jacen could see what his mother was doing.

The chainsaw was cutting almost perfectly into a 10ft chunk of ice. She had googles on and stopped to wave into the camera. She turned it off for a second and said, "Look dear, we finally got Pikachu!" She had created an exact likeness of a happy little... really big pikachu.

Jacen was stunned, "Gee mom, that's really nice!"

"Thanks son, I knew you'd like it, you have mummy's taste, kiss-kiss!!"

"See you later son," his father added, "and remember to get lots of badges and pokemon for us!!! We're counting on you! -No pressure!- Make us proud! Bye!"

"Bye Dad," Jacen smiled uneasily, feeling bummed out. He knew he wasn't going to get badges, OR pokemon, he just didn't know how to tell THEM that without hurting their feelings. It was like all their dreams were in him. He didn't want let them down.

Just as Jacen hung up the phone on the wall, Krystal popped out, completely done.

"Already?" he asked.

"Yep! When's dinner!"

"I'm going to bed now, thank you. Normally people go to bed. You should try it!"

"Not when all those teenagers are out having fun! You are a teenager, aren't you?"

"Techinically I am a 'preteen'," he replied falling into the bed and crawling under the covers, "Well, if you're going out, turn out the lights..." he closed his eyes, ready for sleep.

"Don't you give me that, Jacen!" she cried, "We're going to have fun tonite! Now get up!" she pulled his foot and tried to yank him out of bed.

"Alright. Now that I'm up... I guess we could go somewhere... or something..."

"Not in those slippers Bucko!" she laughed, "But we can fix that!"

End of Chapter Three
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