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Don't Give Me Diamonds

Diamond 75: Give me Parties

"Relax; I'm not going to do anything crazy. You don't need to keep an eye on me twenty-four seven." Delia reassured Giovanni before he even had the chance to protest on her decision. She had just informed him that she was going back to Pallet Town. She missed her home and Mimey must be getting lonely without her. "I already tried on the new dress and it fits, I'm all set to go to the wedding. I just want to be in Pallet Town for a while before going to Cerulean City."

"I wasn't going to stop you," Giovanni half complained, though in truth he was going to remind her about a few things.

Delia had, as promised, been visiting Binks. The visits went more or less the same way as the first. On the bright side, the dark circles under Binks' eyes were less prominent and she had talked him into eating a decent amount of food. She didn't expect him to be anything but thin; he had always been that way. At least he could return to being relatively normally thin, rather than in the bones.

"Be mindful of Binks' health," Delia recited. It was not how Giovanni would have phrased it, but it encompassed the basic idea. "Secrets should remain secret," she continued, "no big family revelations will be made until after the wedding," she paused in thought, "am I forgetting something?"

"That just about covers it," Giovanni voiced, at least she was aware of those points, even if she seemed much more relaxed about it than in the past. He knew she wouldn't keep up trying to avoid him as she did for a short time.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're assuming whatever you want?" Delia mused; she knew that confident look all too well.

"You're imagining things. Besides, aren't I always plotting something?" There was no use in denying it.

"That is very true," Delia admitted. "Anyway, I'm concerned about the illness that's spreading. It still hasn't been declared an epidemic but it's worrisome. I trust you're not withholding any information?"

"No cure has been found, but the researchers claim they're making progress," Giovanni truthfully replied, 'they better be,' he mentally added.

"Binks said that too. Let's hope they have a breakthrough soon," Delia felt she had nothing more to do but to hope. Yet she wished she could do more. She had been reacting to things rather than taking action beforehand for the most part in her life. She wanted to change that.

"Now that I think about it, there is one thing you're forgetting." Giovanni stopped Delia as she was about to exit his gym office.

"Not that I know of," Delia couldn't think of anything that was pending for her to do.

"Transportation," Giovanni reminded. "You need a reliable form of transportation in case I need to call you here for some reason. He gave her a key with a leaf shaped keychain that looked like the Earth badge. "It's for the orange car, in front of the gym."

"I don't really need-" Delia was interrupted.

"Just take it," Giovanni insisted, "if you don't want it, you can give it to Ash or something."

Didn't he just say it was in case she needed to be there quickly? Delia decided not to read too deeply into it. Instead she pocketed the keys and went on her way, "thank you."

xoxox xox xoxox

The trip from Viridian City to Pallet Town went by quickly in the car. It was late when Delia decided to return, but that didn't stop her. She parked the orange car in front of her little house. The evening had already given away to the night. She entered the house quietly.

Mimey had heard the car in the stillness of the atmosphere. He looked out the window and saw Delia get out of the car. "Mime!" Mimey ran to hug her.

"Aw, did you miss me, Mimey?" Delia gently petted his blue hair. "Next time, you can come with me."

"Mime?" Mimey glanced at the living room, "mime?" He gazed towards the kitchen, "mime?" He looked towards the stairs.

"Don't worry about the house chores. The house will be fine by itself for a few days," she let Cloyster and Kingler out of their pokeballs. "How about we all have a snack then go to bed early? A good night's rest is important," she smiled. All the pokemon agreed.

xoxox xox xoxox

Down the street, Gary was ready to turn in for the night. His new employee was helpful but odd. It seemed he sometimes forgot how the most basic items worked and expected everything to be automatic. Then some kind of hidden realization overtook Skye and he knew what should have been obvious from the start. Other than being an oddball there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him so far. Maybe he was just a really big fan of science fiction. Gary yawned and went to bed.

Meanwhile, in one of the guest rooms, the boy who claimed to be called Skye was still awake. "Maybe I should check the house one last time just to make sure Delia is still with Team Rocket."

Dia and Givan had their collars on, which allowed them to speak the human language. "Do you think she'll come back this late?" Dia's black collar traced the sound waves in red lines.

"We never know," Skye decided it was best to be on the safe side. If anything happened, he would at least have the proper information for a second attempt at his mission. However, he might not get that chance. One try was already a lot to ask for. "I'll take a quick look." Skye headed out of the guest room. His two pokemon followed him towards the front door. They exited silently and made their way down the stairs. From behind the locked gates, they looked towards the Pallet House. "There's a car, she must be back!"

It would look suspicious to ask Gary to unlock the gate, so Skye and his pokemon jumped over it. They hurried towards Delia's house stopping in front of the orange car. "It's pretty cool even if it's an antique. It must be new for everyone here," Skye observed. He looked towards the calm and quiet house. "I don't think anything has happened. We'll have to keep an eye on her just in case. At least until the danger passes. I wonder how long it will be? We don't even know what to expect. It was all so long ago."

"All of this could bring consequences," Dia's doubts plagued her again. "At the same time given what came as a result of that event, it can also bring improvements. It all feels so..."

"Confusing?" Skye offered.

"Convenient?" Givan suggested.

"Familiar," Dia finished unexpectedly. "Why don't I guard her for tonight?" She looked at Givan, "I'm trusting you not to be a bad influence on Van while I'm gone."

Givan grinned mischievously, "I always give him the best ideas, don't I, Vandel?"

Vandel, alias Skye, grinned in agreement, "most of the time."

"Stay out of trouble you too," Dia insisted. After Vandel took her collar off, she climbed into the house through the window.

"We should go back before anyone gets suspicious," Givan reminded. Vandel agreed and they hurried back to their assigned guest room at the Oak lab.

Dia quietly made her way to the source of light in the kitchen. The other pokemon, Mr. Mime, Cloyster and Kingler, noticed her, alerting Delia. "Hello there," Delia petted the Vulpix, "how did you get in?" She was too friendly to be wild. Maybe she belonged to someone in town. Most likely, she lived with the Oaks. Delia would take her there tomorrow and ask. For the time being, the Vulpix could stay in the house. "Do you want to join us?"

"Vulpix," Dia nodded. Delia gave her some food. Dia sniffed the cookies then began to eat them. She and Givan preferred human food for the most part. The chocolate chip cookies were welcomed.

xoxox xox xoxox

Morning came in the peaceful town of Pallet. Ash was still away, he had been talked into helping Lando with his bachelor party. As a result, he and Brock journeyed to Vermillion City with Lando and Kenobi, while the Waterflowers stayed at Cerulean City. Jenny did visit the gym, but her questions were quick and to the point. Lily was unaware of Caedus' illegal activities as Solo. Either way, they had enough accusations waiting for him, including kidnapping and car theft.

Delia woke up, got ready for the day and began the breakfast preparations. It had been a few days since the Pallet House was open. A quick group email to the town the previous night brought back her customers. The town woke up to the pleasant news in their inboxes that the Pallet House was open for business. Those who didn't see the message that morning, heard from their neighbors. It was a small town where anything resembling news was a rarity that traveled quickly when it came.

Among the chatter in the tables at the Pallet House, Delia filled her customers' cups with coffee. Gary was at one of the tables reading the news paper. "Good morning Gary. I think one of the pokemon from the research lab snuck into my house last night." She looked at the Vulpix by her feet. "She's a real sweetie."

"Good morning," Gary was able to take his time with breakfast that day. He started preparing the pokemon's food and setting it out for them with his new employee, then left Skye to finish the job. "Dia?" Gary recognized the Vulpix. "She belongs to Skye; I just hired him to work at the lab. I have to admit it feels good having more time to do research with some extra help taking care of the pokemon. It's been pretty busy ever since Tracey returned to the Orange Islands a couple of years ago. I told Skye to come have some breakfast over here when he finished getting the pokemon's breakfast ready." Gary looked towards the road, "there he comes."

A few minutes later, Skye arrived looking exhausted. He could run, jump and fight all day long, but chores tired him out quickly. He had plenty of physical endurance for some things and almost none for others. Perhaps it was the tediousness of a task that should been automatic that got to him. "All the pokemon have been fed," he collapsed into a chair at Gary's table, glancing at Delia with curiosity.

"Good," Gary commended, "this is Delia," he introduced, unaware of the fact that Skye, whose real name was Vandel, already knew who she was. "She's the best cook in town."

Skye woke up from his tired daze, "nice to meet you, I'm Skye," he gave her a grin that reminded her of both Giovanni and Ash. The boy's face seemed to be a blend of both their faces.

"It's nice to meet you too," Delia smiled sweetly, not letting her surprise at the resemblance show. Additionally Skye dressed in a similar way to Ash. "This Vulpix is yours?"

"Yes," Skye petted Dia, "Dia likes to explore sometimes. She must have gotten curious about the town. She didn't bother you, right?"

"Of course not, she's such a sweetie, it was nice to have her visit," Delia petted Dia as well. "You're welcome to come visit me whenever you like. Who's this handsome gentleman here?" She reached out to pet Givan.

"Be careful with that one," Gary warned, "he's not very... friendly?" He watched in awe as Givan allowed Delia to pet him, even purring in response.

"He seems friendly enough to me." The Persian reminded Delia of Giovanni.

"Is Givan one of those pokemon who are only nice to women?" Gary had come across a few pokemon who only allowed humans of the opposite gender to pet them.

Even Skye was surprised, "I don't understand, he usually doesn't let anyone touch him like that, even if it is a woman. I guess he likes you." Skye observed Givan; he didn't seem to be pretending to be nice for the sake of their mission involving Delia. It looked as if he honestly didn't mind if she petted him.

Gary got an idea, "maybe you can help me study him," he suggested. Givan gave a low threatening growl, "or maybe not." His cell phone rang, making Gary wonder who was calling him so early. He took a look at the little screen and saw Ash's name. "It's Ash," he announced before answering, "good morning Ash, you're actually up early today."

Ash yawned, still sleepy, "morning, I've been really busy," he stated what his yawn had made obvious. "Do you feel like coming to a party in Vermilion City? Say yes!" Ash insisted quickly explaining, "we need to invite one hundred guests, because Lando decided that it wouldn't be a real bachelor party without that many guests. Lando, Kenobi and I don't know that many people put together," or rather not that many that could be invited and expected to make it on time. "Say yes! There will be lots of food, drinks and pokemon battles, say yes!"

Gary laughed, "yes, but you'll have to give me the specific directions and time."

"No problem, I'll write everything in a text message so you can look at it if you forget," Ash cheerfully offered. "Sorry to hang up so quickly, I need to keep searching for guests, see you at the party!"

Gary looked amused, "he didn't even give me time to say goodbye." He closed and pocketed his cell phone. "There will be a bachelor party in Vermilion City with food and pokemon battles."

Skye looked up from the menu he was examining, "are we going?"

"I am going, you are staying here and taking care of the pokemon," Gary replied, much to Skye's annoyance. "Grandpa can't take care of all the pokemon by himself anymore. Besides, you're too young to drink."

Skye scowled, then remembered his mission, "fine." He couldn't leave Delia out of his sight unless she was with Team Rocket. No one ever said that the tragedy had to occur when she was in Pallet Town, but it was only logical. She was safe with Team Rocket, he assumed.

xoxox xox xoxox

The day went by uneventfully, giving way to a night of parties. Charla was at Cerulean City, she had stayed there since she was a girl, thus she would attend Daisy's party. She looked at the glass bubble on her tail. It would protect her flame from the water that would be abundant in the pool party. The large gym pool had just been cleaned and needed to be refilled with water. Misty left the pool automatically filling itself with water, the mechanism would shut down the flow of water automatically when the level was proper.

Next to the pool there was a large supply of paint. It was temporary body paint that they would play with later. Daisy thought it would be original. She had definitely ordered far too much paint. Misty shut the doors to the gym arena so that the guests wouldn't wander in before the area was ready. She went to the aquarium area to talk to the guests.

A little later, music was playing and Daisy's party was going well. Other than playing Rattata maze with the pizza delivery boy, nothing too out of the ordinary had happened. The game consisted of blindfolding a person and having them make their way out of a maze of people without bumping into them. Their voices would be the guide. It was a childish playground game that was much more amusing than usual when the person declared to be the Rattata was a terrified handsome young man who was never actually asked if he wanted to play. Aside from being blindfolded, his hands were tied behind his back. It was hilarious watching him stumble around. It got better when his also handsome co-worker came asking about why his friend never returned to the pizza parlor. He became another victim of their game.

"Misty, did you fill up the pool?" Daisy inquired, she wanted to move the party there since all the guests had already arrived.

"Yes, I filled it up a while ago," Misty replied.

The festivities were interrupted by the arrival of officer Jenny. It was Violet who opened the door. "Hi!" She cheerfully greeted. "Have you come to join the party?" The local nurse Joy had attended. They had conveniently forgotten to invite Jenny, but decided to act natural if she showed up.

Jenny looked very displeased, "I'm here because of the complaints from the neighbors," she seriously informed.

"I didn't think the music was that loud," Violet mused, "alright, we'll turn it down."

"It's not the music; it's the massive amount of water coming out of your window. It's flooding the street and painting it!" Jenny dramatized.

"What?" Violet blinked in confusion.

"Come have a look," Jenny urged.

Outside, Violet noticed that there was indeed a very unusual amount of water out in the street and it was indeed unusually colored. A small rainbow stream made its way down the sidewalk, filtering in under people's doors. The water fell to the lower ground of the road, making it difficult for cars to drive by when their tires caught the sticky paint. They went around the gym and found that there was a large amount of water coming out of the windows that led to the arena area. "Oh no," Violet hurried back inside."

Misty and Daisy stood in front of the door leading to the arena area where the big pool was. "Why is there water coming out from under the door?" Daisy asked with worry.

"I don't know, the pool should have stop filling itself with water when it reached the right amount," Misty observed Daisy's worried expression.

"Since you have like been away traveling you didn't know," Daisy realized. "The mechanism is like broken," both sisters shared wide eyed expressions.

Lily walked by, "why are you two like standing there? Everyone is ready to like have fun in the pool."

Violet rushed inside, her voice mixing with Daisy's and Misty's as they yelled, "don't open it!" It was too late, Lily opened the door and a flood of water came rushing out.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, in Vermilion City, Lando was quite happy with the amount of guests in his party. Even if many were pokemon, there had to be more than a hundred guests in his mansion. "How wonderful," he cheered, "I am quite pleased to have entrusted the guest list to you, Ash. Now, how do we properly have a bachelor party? Such celebrations are not familiar to me," he admitted. "Shall we play classical music? Oh, but who would we dance with? Maybe we should do something else."

Kenobi paused for a moment in thought, "well, we could threaten some small company somewhere and take over their business. That would be a celebration," he suggested with a carefree smile.

Brock took Kenobi's suggestion as a joke, "Can we even call it a party if there are no girls?"

Ash rolled his eyes, the rich, the mafia and the obsessed didn't know how to have fun. "You have it all wrong. This is a party not a ball or a business meeting. We're supposed to listen to super loud rock music while we eat, drink and have pokemon battles until we pass out from exhaustion!" Lando and Kenobi looked at each other, then back at Ash. They nodded in agreement, admittedly, his suggestion did sound fun. "Since I'm starving, why don't we eat first and then battle?"

"Splendid!" Lando exclaimed, signaling for the butler to come over. The female staff had the day off. "I would like rock music to play, the loudest you can find!"

"Right away sir," the butler hurried to accomplish his unusual mission.

"I shall make sure all the guests are happily eating and drinking to their hearts' content, starting with you two!" Lando blissfully declared.

"Then I'll go eat and drink to my heart's content," Ash agreed with a wide grin.

"I'll gladly join in too," Kenobi added.

"Me three!" Brock cheered.

The music began to play and the party progressed as everyone ate and drank. Many tables with food and drinks were all over the grand room. It looked like a room where a royal ball would take place. It had a high ceiling with detailed paintings of various flying pokemon. The crystals in the glass chandeliers shimmered brightly, vibrating with the strong sound waves of the hidden speakers. The marble floors were perfectly polished like mirrors. The walls were made of glass, save for the columns that supported the structure every few feet.

Charizard was offered a cup with strong liquor, which he curiously drank. The substance had a strong burning taste, it was sour, but he liked the warm feeling it gave him. There seemed to be similar liquids of different colors. He tried each one, finding the warmth within him increasing with each drink. The flame on his tail grew, with sparks of fire jumping from it. The sparks reached the various tables as Charizard went from one to another, trying the contents of all the bottles he saw.

It didn't take long for someone to realize that there was a fire and it was spreading. Many flaming desserts were ordered and Lando had decided to deactivate the fire security system. He had a rather embarrassing mishap with it in the past that ended up with drenched angry guests and smoking desserts that should have been flaming. Before anyone could think to turn the security system back on, Charizard reached his limit.

Charizard felt that something was about to explode in his stomach. He looked up to the ceiling; he couldn't hold it in anymore. He let out a loud roar with a massive breath of fire. The powerful column of fire reached the ceiling burning a hole through it. The fire continued spreading in the ceiling as sparks fell and most of the guests fled. The security system was turned back on and the sprinklers were finally activated. The indoor rain was very unpleasant for Charizard. He was lightheaded, not in his full senses, but still strong, he could not be called back into his pokeball. Displeased, Charizard trashed about wildly, spreading the flames.

Ash and Gary called for their Blastoise to calm Charizard. The two large water pokemon only gave their trainers sheepish smiles as they leaned on each other like drunken buddies. In the middle of the chaos, Bulbasaur swung happily from the chandelier on his vine whip. He didn't seem to notice the danger around him as he laughed merrily. Brock was holding on to Bulbasaur, enjoying the ride.

"You let the pokemon get drunk!" Ash and Gary pointed accusing fingers at each other.

"Turn the water off, it's making him mad!" Kenobi yelled. A few more seconds passed until the sprinklers were turned off. "Calm the Charizard and get him out, then turn the water back on to put out the rest of the fire." Somehow in the battle of Charizard versus the sprinklers, Charizard had been winning.

Kenobi's advice was followed. Dodging flames, Ash approached Charizard and tried to calm him down. Charizard couldn't help it; he had an overload of fire. "It's okay, just let that fire out in a safe place." Ash climbed on his back as Charizard flew out the hole in the ceiling. He breathed fire into the sky, like fireworks, until he calmed down.

When Ash and Charizard landed back inside the mansion, the fire had already been put out and the water from the sprinklers ceased. Only Lando, Kenobi, Ash, Gary, Brock, the mansion staff and their pokemon remained. The other guests were gone.

"Leave it to Ash and his pokemon to heat up the party," Gary teased. His own pokemon weren't exactly sober, but they were nowhere near as destructive.

"You said it!" Lando cheered as he put his arms around Ash and Gary. "You Pallet Town people really know how to party!" He sounded as if he had enjoyed every second of it.

"Is he drunk?" Ash inquired, referring to Lando.

"I'm not certain," Kenobi admitted.

"Let's hope so," Gary added, at least that way the insanity would be gone by morning.

Brock fell from the chandelier, with Bulbasaur landing on top of him. "They're drunk," Ash stated the obvious as Pikachu attempted to climb on his shoulder and kept falling back clumsily, giving him little electric shocks.

To be Continued

Disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon.