"ASH!" The scream reverberated through the house.

A young man sat bolt upright in bed, his golden brown eyes wide open. His ebony 
hair was sticking up in odd places, disheveled from sleep. He quickly leapt from 
the bed and went running into the hallway, where he skidded to a stop in front 
of a rail. The hallway overlooked the living room and he looked down to see the 
source of the scream.

"What? What is it?" he called down, his heart pounding from the sudden 
adrenaline rush of being woken by his wife's scream.

She looked up at him and flashed him a sickeningly sweet smile, but her icy blue 
eyes clearly told him she wasn't happy. She tossed her lengthy red hair over her 
shoulder and said, "There's a another reporter here to see you."

Ash sighed and willed his heart to return to it's normal speed. "Just tell him 
I'm sleeping."

"Too late," Misty said, casting an irritated look at the high backed chair next 
to her.

A young woman stood up from the chair and turned to look up at him. She pushed a 
few loose stands of dark blue hair from her eyes. She was dressed classy, in a 
gray pant suit, with a pencil tucked behind her ear. The corner of her mouth 
turned up when she saw Ash was only wearing a black pair of sweatpants. She 
quickly ran her eyes over his muscular upper body.

Ash's face grew red at the examination and he shook his head, sighing. "I'll be 
right down."

His wife cast one more annoyed glance at the woman before heading up the stairs.

Ash returned to his room and began to change. Misty entered shortly after, her 
face red in anger. "I told her you were sleeping, but she pushed her way into 
the house saying she would wait until you woke up." Here she paused shortly, 
then continued her rant. "Well!" she cried in indignation. "I wasn't going to 
have her sit there until you woke up. The nerve, barging into my house-" She was 
cut off abruptly when Ash kissed her.

"I'll take care of it," he said, pulling away from her, grasping her shoulders.

Misty sighed and sat down on the bed. "Ash, ever since the day you came back, 
reporters have not left us alone. I can understand the frenzy after you 
returned, but it's been two years," she said in exasperation. "When are they 
going to leave us alone?"

"Probably never. Maybe we should have Pikachu answer the door from now on," he 
said with a slight smile. "That way he can shock them all."

That made her smile.

"I'd better go down," he said running a brush through his hair. "Make sure she 
isn't stealing anything."

Misty's expression quickly changed to shock. "Do you think she is?"

Ash shook his head and raised his arms in defense. "I was kidding." With that he 
left the bedroom, and a very disgruntled redhead, and headed down the stairs.

When he entered the living room, the woman rose from the chair, a smile on her 
face. "Ash Ketchum, how delightful to see you again," she said, her voice 
bubbly.

He studied her, puzzled. "Do I know you?"

"We met awhile back, when you were still on your pokemon journey." She looked 
him over once more, silently wishing he had remained in his sweatpants rather 
than jeans and a T-shirt that simply didn't do him justice. "My how you've 
grown," she mumbled.

His face flushed again and he quickly changed the subject. "I'm sorry, I still 
don't know who you are."

"Of course you don't remeber. It was years ago. I'm Duplica," she said, 
extending her hand.

Ash's eyes lit up in recognition. "Duplica!" He grasped her hand. "How are you?"

"Not bad," she answered. She gestured to the pink notebook in her hand. "I'm a 
reporter now."

Ash nodded.

"What about you?" she asked. "I see you married that redheaded girl, Mossy."

"Actually it's Misty," Ash corrected her.

She waved her hand dismissively. "Right, of course."

At that moment Pikachu leapt onto Ash's shoulder.

"Oh, and here is cute little Pikachu!" she said excitedly.

Ash and Pikachu exchanged baffled glances. "Pikachu," Ash said. "You remember 
Duplica."

"Pika," the yellow pokemon said, nodding.

Duplica had a wide grin on her face as she sat back down in the high backed 
chair. The large chair seemed to envelope her small frame. "Now, Ash," she said, 
pulling the pencil from behind her ear. "Mind if I ask you some questions?"

Ash sighed, sitting down on the couch across from her. "Actually, Duplica, I 
stopped doing interviews about a year ago-"

"Good!" she said enthusiastically, ignoring him completely. "I'm doing a piece 
about the night Gary Oak and Team Rocket raided the Master's Mansion."

Ash stared at her, dumbfounded.

"You never went into specifics on how you managed to defeat him," she continued.

Ash had thought it better not to tell the world about his powers. He didn't want 
people to continuously bother him about them, although he still seemed to 
receive much unwanted attention. The only people who knew about his powers were 
Misty, Brock, Richie and the gym leaders. Unfortunately, it was well known that 
Gary had had powers, which caused a major controversy about his defeat.

Ash glanced at Pikachu. *What do I say?* he asked telepathically.

Pikachu shrugged. *Want me to shock her?*

*No!* Ash looked back at Duplica, who was patiently awaiting an answer. 
"Pikachu, killed him," he said.

Duplica stared at him skeptically, her pencil poised in midair. "I find it hard 
to believe that a little pokemon like that defeated a full grown man with 
supernatural powers."

Pikachu angrily glared at her, his cheeks begin to spark. *Can I please shock 
her?* he asked.

"Pikachu!" Ash said out loud.

Duplica raised her eyebrows. "You two are connected?" she asked.  Then she 
grinned. "So are Ditto and I." She closed her notebook and held it up. Looking 
closely Ash could see a small thin mouth and two beady eyes on the pink cover.

"Ditto is your notebook?" he asked.

Duplica shrugged. "I had to trade in the straw hat for something a bit more 
practical." She smiled, then reopened her notebook. "But we've gone off topic."

Ash was contemplating an answer to her question when the phone rang. "Excuse 
me," he said, relieved for the excuse to escape. Duplica nodded and crossed her 
legs, leaning back into the chair.

With Pikachu still on his shoulder, Ash rose and crossed the room to the wooden 
desk on which a video phone sat. "Hello?" he answered, sitting in the chair that 
went with the desk.

"Ash?" came a distorted voice. Ash furrowed his eyebrows. The picture was fuzzy 
and was fading in and out, as if something was wrong with the video feed.

"Who is this?" Ash asked. "I can't see you."

"It's Richie," the voice answered, but it was difficult to hear.

"What's the matter with your phone" Ash inquired.

"We're... trouble," Richie said, his voice cutting out at times. The video feed 
was virtually nonexistent. "...Can't leave... Indigo... under... control."

Ash played with the phone dials, trying to fix the connection. "Under whose 
control, Richie? Who can't leave?"

Richie didn't answer Ash's questions. Whether it was because he didn't hear them 
or didn't have time, Ash didn't know.

"Ash... help..."

The phone cut out completely, and nothing else was heard. Ash stared at the 
phone for a few moments before he cried, "Misty!" as loudly as she had called 
him previously that morning.

She flew from their room as Ash had done earlier. "What's wrong?" she asked, a 
worried expression on her face.

"Pack your things, we're going to Indigo," Ash told her, not offering an 
explanation.

"Why?" Misty asked, quickly making her way down the stairs. She stood in front 
of him, trying to decipher his expression. What she saw scared her. He looked as 
he had when he had first returned. Emotionless and cold.

"I just got a call from Richie," he said, staring at the wall behind her. 
"Something has taken over Indigo."

Misty's eyes widened. "I'll go pack."

"This will be a great story!"

Both Ash and Misty turned to see Duplica scribbling furiously in her notebook. 
They had forgotten she was there. "So," she said, concluding her sentence. "When 
do we leave?"

Ash looked at her in disbelief. "We? You're not going."

"Oh yes I am," she said.

"Not you're not," Ash told her.

Duplica narrowed her eyes at him. She always got what she wanted. "Try and stop 
me."

Ash's eyes flashed dangerously. "Do you really want me to?" Misty and Pikachu 
watched the exchange with interest. Ash was becoming his old self. Although he 
couldn't stand reporters he was normally polite to them, but now it looked as if 
he wanted to shock Duplica as much as Pikachu did.

Duplica took a step back, a slight shiver of fear running through her. She shook 
it off though and remained firm. "I'm going to Indigo one way or another. I'll 
follow you if I have to. Besides, if I'm going and something strange is 
happening there, don't you think I would be safer with you?"

Ash narrowed his eyes at her. She knew she had him. He sighed. "If you get hurt, 
remember, you were the one who begged to come along."

A small grin formed on her face.

*Ash,* Pikachu thought. *It's not too late to shock her.*



A/N: Quick little note, I have never seen the episode with Duplica in it, the 
information I know about her was gathered from other stories. I gave her my own 
idea of her personality though. I hope you are enjoying this, hopefully the 
chapters will be longer as the story continues. Please review.