Slag’s snarling was lowering Jocose’s guard and the boy knew that if he walked to his cousin then he’d be mincemeat for the adolescent demon. Jocose soon gulped down his pride and growled also, but not as good as Slag.

The two males glared at each other growling at one another. Jocose then became hoarse on his growling and coughed, Slag just looked at him with a grin; soon the demon walked over to Jocose and sniffed him out a bit.

"You’re not a dog-demon, aren’t ya?"

"No I’m not, but I am Misty’s cousin."

Slag looked back at the sleeping form in the bed, he then limped back to his corner, Jocose knew right away that this boy was sweating and breathed heavily like he was tired or exhausted. Misty just rolled over.

Jocose went into the bathroom and wet a towel, then brought back some tap water in a cup. He kneeled by Slag who was closing his eyes drenched in now sweat, he felt like he was in pain when he tried to get up but the suffering was too much and he sat back down.

"Here drink this. You OK? You don’t look so well."

Jocose eyed the slowly blinking pendant around his neck, then looked back to the demon when he saw him coughing, covering his mouth. The demon uncovered his mouth and Jocose was the one to gasp. On the demon’s hand was blood.

"It’s getting worse," Slag stated quietly.

"What is it? What’s happening to you?" Jocose yelled.

"Hemoglobin." Slag began to cringe.

"Hemoglobin? Is that some kind of disease?"

Slag told him everything about Hemoglobin, how it can surrender a demon, like himself, to its human partner. This was just the first stage of it and it gets stronger when he gets stronger; it’s like part of him. Misty was the one that blood-bond him to her, and once on it, it can never come off; only a maiden’s love can take it off of him. But what made him even more angry that it was suppose to a virgin, human girl’s love, and he despise all the humans, too. How could he love a human, especially Misty?

The demon looked away and Jocose wiped the sweat falling from him. "Maybe you should get some rest." When Jocose looked up he found the demon napping off into a deep sleep. He’ll need it, for dawn won’t be coming in for the next 6 hours.

Jocose got up and walked out the door.

***

Misty woke up at 12:30AM and found her whole room in light, she yawned and got out bed. She gasped when she found Slag sitting in a corner of her room sleeping. Togetoe was poking him to get awake; it never knew how someone could sleep off like this. Misty walked over to Slag and saw blood on his hand, which was resting on his leg. She found the wet towel lying by him and felt it to see if it was wet. Then she wiped the blood off his hand.

The girl noticed that his hand was cold even on a hot day. She rubbed his hand to get it warm and that opened his eyes. He leaned forward to see what Misty was doing and she just looked at him, slowing down her speed then stop rubbing his hand. She let go of it and got up off the ground.

"Your hand was cold so I warmed it for you. Sorry, did I wake you?"

"I was just resting my eyes a bit. Couldn’t go sleep anyway." He glared at her with that mysterious gleam in his eyes.

"Why was there blood on your hand?"

He just looked at her with not a single caring feature on his face. Then he got up off the ground and walked away from her. "Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me."

"You don’t look good yourself. You look like you been having a nightmare or something." She put her hands on her hips.

He was about to open the door when it slammed on him. Squall came in fixing his glasses then sauntering to her, his pale-rose hair swishing side to side as he walked to her. "Misty, I heard from Jocose that you had a boy in here. Now where is this young chap, huh?"

"It’s not what you think, Squall, he’s just a guy who followed me here. Anyway, he’s a dog, OK."

"A dog?"

"Yeah, I call him Bow-Wow."

"Well, make sure you feed him, wash him, clean up after him, and take him out for walks. And plus Misty, make sure you groom him, you don’t want a raggedy-muffin running around here. And one more thing, spade him; one more thing, make sure he gets a bed and give him proper food. Do not feed him table scraps, I repeat: Do NOT feed him table scraps. Only dog food, biscuits—for snacks—and canned dog food. DOG FOOD!"

"Squall, he’s not a wild animal."

"But you may never know what he’ll do if you give him a lot of human food. And make sure you take him to the vet for check ups. DO NOT FEED THE MUTT CHOCOLATE! Got that!"

"Okay! Okay! Don’t have to lose a vein."

"Check him up if he has worms, give him plenty of exercise. And remember this, Misty… Dogs are a man’s best friend." After that he walked away but bumped into Slag who was not very happy and had his arms crossed on his chest. "Oh! Excuse, Bow-Wow." And then he slammed the door shut.

Misty walked towards him. "That’s my cousin, Squall."

"What about Jocose?"

"He’s another cousin."

The demon then glared at her once he noticed something was missing from the discussion. "Did I ever said that I was a dog?"

"I don’t know, but you do resemble one. The ears, the fangs… do you need a manicure?" She picked up his finger to see.

"Leave my claws alone!"

"You have good sense of smell and hear, maybe you even have the blood of one."

"Anyone can have a good sense of smell and sense of hear!"

"Come. Since you’re here, I guess you can meet the family."

"The family?"

Misty grabbed his wrist and dragged him out her room and into the den where Uncle Kobe was in there dusting the place (he was like a maid in that house, he cleaned and fixed the meals.) Slag lowered his ears so they wouldn’t be fully seen by the human adult. Uncle Kobe saw the two and smiled.

"So, Misty, I guess you’re back, and with a friend. Who is he? "

"This is Slag, he’s a… um… a…"

"Demon?" he asked.

"How did you—um… uh—no he’s not."

"Oh! By the look in his eyes, I thought he was."

Misty looked back to find Slag gone and shrieked inside her head wondering where he went inside this two-story house. She heard a scream coming from the kitchen along with a KABOOM! And smoke coming out of it. Uncle Kobe blinked his eyes.

"What was that?"

"I’ll check!"

Misty ran into the kitchen only to find Squall and Jocose covered in ashes, Slag was also in there but charred and very angry, he licked his index finger to put out the little flame on his hair. She put her hand to her mouth to hide the little snicker; Slag was holding a toaster in his hand and threw it to the ground, growling at the now broken object.

Misty walked over to them and swiped the ash off her cousin’s clothes asking what happened in here, what made the bang, and the smoke? Slag replied with, "I was only trying to make some freaking toast when that bafoon put the wire in the water and the toaster shocked me along with the blowing up!"

"OK, Slag, now take it easy, you don’t want to bust a vein."

He glower Misty before walking away; the girl asked if her cousins were OK and they nodded their heads still in shock—not because of the explosion, but for Slag. They never saw someone with ears that look like a Pikachu’s before save for they were black. Squall fixed his glasses and gave Misty a disappointed look. How dare Misty lie to him about having a dog when really she had a boyfriend. But most importantly was, what were they doing last night? Was this guy really in this house in the middle of the night in Misty’s room? He wanted an explanation from Misty right now!

"Misty? Was that Bow-Wow?"

She gave him a weak smile and rubbed the back of her head. ‘Man! I guess he found out.’ "Yes, that was Bow-Wow… but you don’t understand, Squall, he really is a nice little puppy-dog, he would never harm anybody, ever!"

"I don’t care if he was the President of the Babysitters Club, you know better, Miss Waterflower, to bring a guy—around Jocose’s age—in the middle of the night. And then you bring him into your room, where gods-know-what you two did in there!"

"I would never do that! I’m not like other women, you know?! And besides! I didn’t bring him in my room, he brought me here!"

"I don’t want to hear anymore! Misty Waterflower, you’re grounded!"

"You can’t tell me what to do!"

Jocose yawned as the two just went on with their argument. Then he spotted a lovely, yellow mouse leap on the table staring at them. Its rich brown eyes glistening so sadly. The boy walked over to the Pikachu when it started licking itself clean. He petted the rodent and it jerked back after being startled by the feeling, then purred when the hand’s index finger scratched its chin.

"You’re a cute little thing, aren’t ya?"

"Chow."

Jocose went in the refrigerator to bring out a big, juicy apple that was wealthy in its color. Pikachu sniffed it out first to see if it was safe then grabbed it out of his hand and bit into it, savoring the delectable elements.

***

Slag was on the balcony listening to the chitchat of a Ferret and a Sentret that were on the railing by him. He understood what they were saying, the mother Ferret wanted to know where her son went and the pup told her that he went out to the woods to play. The family didn’t mind that Slag was there since he smelled like a Pokemon to them even if he wasn’t. He was neither a Pokemon nor a demon; he wasn’t even human. He should’ve known that this day would come, somehow.

He was a 700,000 creature inside a 19-year-old boy’s body. How could his demon father fall in love with such a woman, a goddess to be exact? Since his father’s demon blood was much stronger than his mother’s blood, he was known to be a half-demon. Which will make him a demon-Pious, very rare for him, he shouldn’t even say that there were not that many demon-Pious around here since there were none in his time. Nobody knew that a demon would mate with a god; it was absurd they would say.

Slag’s thoughts vanished when he heard the plastic door slide open and Jocose walked out having Pikachu on his shoulder. He stood by the demon. "You OK?"

There was a long silence before Slag sighed deeply and looked up. "Yeah."

"You look pretty hurt when I first saw you, but now you look all right."

"Thanks for helping me out there."

"What are you anyway? You don’t look—oh excuse me—act like a demon to me."

Slag glanced at him. "That’s because I’m blood-bonded to your cousin, you see? If I weren’t, then all of you would be dead. I despise humans, you know?"

Jocose handed Pikachu to him; the demon just looked at the rodent not budging to take it from his grip. "Do you want your Pikachu back?"

Pikachu whimpered in his head and looked at the demon with fear. Slag could smell the fear rise within him; it enticed his senses and made his mind cloud with pity. He looked away from the mouse’s gaze and knew that in Ash’s body he would have to take the Pokemon as his own. He would have to be a better demon and not lose his control.

While Pikachu was busy finding and going through his own thoughts, Slag picked him up (the right way) and gazed at him, smiling at the rodent as best as he could. Pikachu blinked his eyes confused to see a bloodthirsty demon smile so happily.

"Pikachu, since Ash is not here right now, maybe I could at least like… well… you know; take care of you while Ash is gone. It would be better than abusing you and stuff like that. We can be friends, right?"

Pikachu stared at him for awhile until he searched through his mind for the right feeling, then he smiled with a gleeful ‘Chu’ and leaped out of Slag’s hold and onto his head then scampering on his shoulder. Rubbing his body against his neck and then rubbing his cheek against his cheek.

***

Misty went into the den to find Jocose and Squall showing Slag the TV and the other mechanical things they bought for the family. She watched them turn on the TV and saw an agitated Slag cover his ears at the radically loud sound of a station they didn’t have. He growled at the television and almost lunged at it but Jocose pulled him back and yelled at Squall to turn it down to a normal level for dogs.

It was close to 2:00 PM when she walked towards the bathroom holding towels and her cousins walked out of the bathroom closing the door behind them. She advanced to the bathroom but didn’t open the door; she put her ear on the door to hear someone curse inside and something metal drop on the counter. She walked inside wanting to know if everything was okay in there and she didn’t know what hit her when she entered. Slag had a toothbrush in his mouth with toothpaste foam all over his mouth. The room was damp and smelled of that Irish soap.

Misty saw that the mirror was fogged up and some parts of the floor were wet, she even saw that his hair was a little limp. The girl could see that he just came out the shower because he also wore nothing but a towel, which was around his waist. She smiled and gave him another towel from the pack of towels she held. After a ‘thanks’ she nodded her head and walked out the door thinking to herself, ‘Please remind me again never to barge in the bathroom once a guy is in there… But to tell you the truth, he looked pretty cute with that pendant around his neck just now.’

Pikachu was on Uncle Kobe’s lap on the couch, he looked happy after doing so much cleaning in the house and decided to rest now. The cousins head for the door along with Misty and Slag. They said goodbye to the young man and Pikachu then off they went to the mall.

At the mall…

"Hey! Do you think this would look good on him?" Misty showed Squall the black uniform.

"Nah! It doesn’t even go along with his face. We need something stylish… and cool."

"Lets see if this looks good on him." Jocose held some shirts and pants.

After what seem like an hour of having fun playing with dress-up-the-Slag, the young demon finally came out and the three cousins both smiled with amazement at their fine work of picking out the clothes.

Slag had on a maroon kimono that was open and had the Poke Ball Symbol on the back. A white, no-sleeve shirt was underneath and dark blue baggy pants sagged a little on him and its pants legs fell over his black boots. A red bandana was on his head with his poking out of the top and another bandanna was around his neck; Slag tightened the black gloves on his hands, while Misty examined his looks and poked him a bit in some areas on his shoulder and chest. She walked around him looking up and down trying to see if anything was missing, then she walked back in front of him and told him to raise his arms up.

He did and she took his shirt out a bit, it was tucked in too tight and it didn’t look so good. She went over to a belt section and picked out a black belt that had a golden buckle. She wrapped it around Slag’s waist and buckled it. Then she put the infamous playboy bunny, which was made as a necklace around his neck; it lay dormant above his own pendant. He fiddled with it for a sec before looking at them once again.

"Now he’s in style," Jocose declared.

Squall fixed his glasses and nodded his head.

"What’s style?" a confused Slag asked.

***

Misty, Slag, Jocose, and Squall all went out for ice cream before going home. Slag had plain French Vanilla flavor while the others added chocolate chip on theirs. Squall checked his clock to find that it was only 5:26 PM and so he decided that they should finish their snack by walking around. But beforehand, the cousins all wanted to know more about their adolescent companion.

"Slag, where are you from, are you an orphan or something?"

The boy licked his ice cream. "I don’t really talk so much about my past. It’s nonsense anyway."

"Nonsense?" Jocose asked.

"You wouldn’t believe that I lived for 700,000 years."

Squall and Jocose’s ice cream fell off their cone and onto the ground, even Misty was startled.

"My mom and dad died when I was only 3 years old. I survived on my own throughout the years of my life, never trusting no one and stealing from others of my kind in order to survive. I was in a wolf-demon pack when I turned into an adolescent; the alpha female was concerned about my behavior and decided to become my foster mother. The alpha male hated me but the female protected me as if I was really her child."

"Many years gone by until humans came into my life and killed the pack with magic, unearthly Pokemon, and weapons. I was the only survivor along with some pups; until that day I despise all humans. As my powers grew I became a dangerous creature, destroying anything manmade that came into sight. Soon I was indestructible; nobody could face my power until a Pious came to face me off. All I knew was that I was the most powerful demon of my species, I defeated and mostly killed the ones that contested me. I never even knew the word love, since I forgot all about it when my mother died. In the wild it was eat or be eaten; kill or be killed."

"Well, the Pious and I battled and she was one to win. I was sealed inside this pendant I’m wearing for over the rest of the milleniums of my life, at which moment, a boy, named Ash, awaken me and soon all I know is that I’m in his form. And Mist, I hear around here that Ash is your boyfriend."

Misty blushed and angry at the same time, soon she looked away filled with embarrassment. "Yes, I am his girlfriend, but not like that. I’m sort of his ‘girl’ friend."

"Yeah, whatever, Misty, I saw your diary and all you talked about was that kid you traveled with 5 years ago." Jocose butted in the conversation.

"You eavesdropper! You shouldn’t look into a girl’s personal secrets!" Misty got up more in rage than before.

Slag smiled (for real this time) for the first time of his life as Misty kept on yelling at her cousin. He saw that Squall, over there, was having a few chuckles of himself; when the argument seemed to be forever, the young man walked over to him for a little more advice. As always, he fixed his glasses a bit before sitting down next to him.

"You’re really a demon?"

"Half, to be exact, my father was a demon and my mom was a goddess."

"Whoa, talk about ‘crossbreeding’."

"Yeah, I don’t know what I’d become if he married a human. Even so, I couldn’t find her touch or smell anymore… after she died."

"What do that make you, a semi-demon?"

"Actually that makes me a demon-Pious."

"Demon-Pious? What’s that?"

"Pious are beast that were guardians in my time, now they’re mostly extinct. Gigantic beasts that fell from the sky or just appear out of nowhere once summoned by their fellow humans. I heard that in some areas of this world… Pious are being use just like Pokemon, they get stronger along with their human companion. Some of them could’ve gotten Hemoglobin."

"Hemoglobin?"

"A very strong blood-bond that could surrender a Pious—or a demon—down to its human partner… Misty and I… are sort of… Hemoglobin."

"You mean you’re blood-bonded to my cousin."

"And if she dies, then I die as well, it goes like that! And no matter what I do, I ‘have’ to follow her orders, like some sorry dog! Man, hell with that! I don’t need to be controlled by some girl; I have better things to do like… GET OUT OF THIS STUPID BODY! Why do I have to be such a dork, sometime." He pulled on the pendant around his neck and when he did that, it sparked; soon volts and volts of electricity surged through and out his body. Let’s just say he was covered with electricity.

After the dilemma, Slag was charred and his clothes were raggedy. He had whirls for eyes and then he fell to the ground. Squall wanted to know what was that and all Slag told him was that it was a warning from the pendant: do not try to pry it off or else. The demon-Pious got up off the ground and sat on his haunches; he coughed out smoke and closed his eyes.

"Let’s go home."

***

As everyone reached home, Misty’s oldest uncle, Irrigate, greeted them from the balcony and told them that dinner was almost ready. They smacked their lips and entered the house; the aroma of lasagna filled the air of the rooms along with rice balls, and chili cheeseburger deluxe. This was heaven to Misty and thanked her uncle for such a dinner. After their stomachs were filled, they watched TV for the rest of the day and played games also, watching some DVD movies. 11:00 struck on the clock and the grandfather clock ringed its tune away. Squall and Jocose stretched their arms and Misty turned off the TV. The two cousins waved goodnight to her as they walked off to their room. She waved goodnight too and looked at Slag who was asleep on the couch with Pikachu, too asleep as well. She smiled at them and got up to get a blanket then covered them with it; she bent down.

"Goodnight, Slag and you too Pikachu." She stroke the mouse’s fur and it purred in his sleep, Misty stood up straight and walked away upstairs. She couldn’t resist on helping herself with a glance back at the sleeping form and again she walked up the stairs.

Misty got out her diary and started writing into it. She went to the page she bookmark and saw something fall out of it, a torn piece of paper having circuses and a fair with amusement parks on it. It said: Town Square, coming soon on August 12. She noticed that the 12^th was tomorrow and looked back at the paper, it was going to start at 8AM and then end at 5PM. Maybe her and the others would want to go too, she’s been dying to see a fair and maybe this was her day for that moment. She closed her diary and set on the shelf by her and then clapped her hands to order the lights off.

***

It was 8:00 when Misty woke up with her alarm clock turned off and Pikachu in her vision of sight, she pet the mouse and was startled when a pillow landed on her face. She took it off as she leaned forward to start a fit at the person who did that, she thought that it was Jocose but it wasn’t, it was Slag; he was sitting cross-legged on her dresser across from her bed.

"Wake up, sleeping beauty, you’re missing out on a wonderful day."

She yawned, "What kind of day?"

"A day to the fair, wanna come?"

Misty gasped and got out of her bed then raced into her bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Before Slag could even give out a huff, Misty came out of the bathroom in a white button shirt and a red turtleneck along with some knee-high shorts and some blue and yellow tennis shoes. Misty also wore a scarf on her head. The girl grabbed his wrist and they rushed off out of the door followed by Pikachu. Misty said goodbye to her uncles and cousins and off she went with an annoyed Slag being dragged out the door with the girl.

"They’re in a hurry today," stated Squall.

"Maybe they’re on a date," replied Uncle Mike.

***

Misty panted as she got to Town Square. Slag awed at the many things that the people entertained themselves. The girl couldn’t believe that so many people would be here at this time of the day, she checked at her clock and found it saying 9:37AM. Maybe this place ‘was’ popular, Misty could feel her adrenaline begin to flare and she burst out with a "yippee" and grasped Slag’s arm yelling and shouting as she ran towards the roller coaster. Pikachu was busy trying to catch himself an apple in one of the soda filled barrel.

The teenagers cried when the roller coaster sped down the slope at about 229 miles per hour. Slag laughed while Misty shed tears in her eyes from screaming. Pikachu watched them from below eating a candy apple. He smiled when the roller coaster came to an end, soon his ear perked up and he looked back to see people dancing in an arena at some remix music that was good for dancing. He understood that they were dancing to Techno. Pikachu looked forward when the two companions walked over to him. Slag was praising Misty for how good she was for picking out a ride like that yet she didn’t feel any good, she looked green and felt like throwing up her breakfast. She got over it at the sound of dance music and looked up to find people dancing. She screamed with glee and once again took Slag’s arm and rushed at it. The demon-Pious refused, saying that he was bad at dancing, period.

As they entered the dance arena, Slag just watched the people move to the beat and dancing with it and not to it. He soon found himself tapping along with the rhythm and then he watched again at the people around him. Now he knew how to dance.

Pikachu watched the teenagers come out laughing, he saw Slag dance, not doing any dance but doing hip-hop. Then he did a few, other dancing moves. Misty cheered Slag. "Wow, I never knew you could dance like that, especially since your demon and all."

"I didn’t know neither."

"Pikachu!" the yellow mouse applauded.

"Thanks, Pikachu."

Misty gasped and stared at the crowd surrounding something, she walked over to the crowd and the others followed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages, feast your eyes on something so amazing that even Einstein himself would be standing on his toes. The one… the only… Place Portal."

The man took off the red, satin sheet off of the machine and the audience awed with amazement. Misty and Slag were now in front of the crowd and Pikachu sat on the demon-Pious’ head. "Wow, guys! Check it out!" Misty smiled with fascination, but Slag just slurped on his drink uninterested.

Yet even though the demon-Pious was not amazed on the inside, but in the inside the machine captivated him with many questions about if this was a portal that would open up a stargate that would take you to other dimensions. His senses flared up like a security alarm if anything happened.

 "See here that there’s another one of its kind right here, but would you know it if one person was to go on this Place Portal, then they would be turned into many atoms and form back on this one. Would someone want to give the audience a demonstration?"

"Wow! Go on Slag! Don’t be scared."

"But, Misty. I’m not into this."

"Fine! Then I’ll go." Misty walked from the audience and stopped before the portal, the man gestured her to walk on. She sighed and walked on the steps and on the platform. Misty did a victory sign at Slag and Pikachu, and the mouse seemed to be so excited that she waved her hand at her.

Misty could feel a surge of energy running through her and before she noticed it, she disappeared silently, everyone eyed the platform and then awed when she appeared with crystal balls surrounding her form. She stepped off and the man asked her if she was alright, she nodded with a "never felt better." The audience clapped their hands in applaud and some even whistled. The girl went to Slag and grabbed his arm pulling him to the platform.

"This boy here wants to go on."

"Oh really, then get up here, son."

Misty pushed him on the platform with Pikachu on his head. The girl waved bye to her loyal companions and backed away from the platform.

MISTY: Something went wrong wit h the Time Portal and sent both Slag and Pikachu into another…

SLAG: Pipe down, Mist! You don’t want to spoil the beginning.

MISTY: Where did you come from?

PIKACHU: Pika chupi, pikachu.

SLAG: Yeah, work with us Mist.

MISTY: OK, on the next episode danger is everywhere and the events are hard to explain.

SLAG: Yeah, Misty and I…

PIKACHU: Pikachu!

SLAG: Misty, Pikachu, and I meet a new friend and together we go through numerous fights with unknown Pokemon on… … you give them the start Pikachu.

PIKACHU: Pika! Pikachu kapi Pichu Pi!

SLAG: You hear that, our next episode is a WHOLE NEW WORLD! Coming your way!