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  |  After 151   |
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Thanks to my pre-readers:
Ben
aevan			  http://aevan.virtualave.net
Kevin D. Hammel     http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~khammel/
Blood Blade         http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/5920
Mike Rever
Robert MacNab

Visit my website at
dzillman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~dzillman/fire


Mrs Ketcham, mother of the world famous Ash Kectham, more often known 
as "Mom", walked up the stairs to her son's room. The last of the 
photographers and interviewers had left a while ago, and she was just 
finished cleaning up from all of their mess. She had seen so little of 
her soon over the last few years, she felt the public must know her 
little boy better than she did by now.

A soft knock on the door gained her admittance, and she made her way 
into a room as famous and well known as any on the planet. This was 
"The Room", the room that every Pokemon Breeder and Master in the world 
idolised. It was the room that sat in the dreams of every child in the 
world, and probably half the adults too. It was also the room of her 
little boy.

Looking over at the wall facing the door, Mrs Ketcham could not help 
but smile. So much time, so much effort, so much money. Having a son 
that wanted to be a Pokemon Master was not cheap. Pokeballs cost money, 
and all those trips to see that Pokemon researcher had not been cheap 
either, but it was worth it to see her little baby happy.

Like all parents, Mrs Ketcham wanted nothing more than for her son to 
be happy, and if it meant that she needed to work an extra shift some 
weeks so that she could pay the bills the Pokemon Centres sent her, 
that was all right. It was better that she spent her weekends at the 
factory, and her little boy had a decent roof over his head on his 
journey. For some reason, a lot of people assumed that the food, 
medical attention and shelter at Pokemon Centres were free. Mrs Ketcham 
had never been able to understand that, given the cost of fully 
qualified nurses and knowing just how much food a boy Ash's age could 
put away. It did not matter really; the Centres could send their bills 
to the children's parents, and everything was OK.

All that work had paid off now. Not only was her son home, but he was 
home safe and sound, and completely satisfied with his training journey. 
Ash Ketcham, the world's greatest Pokemon Master. It was enough to make 
any mother beam with pride.

Sitting precisely opposite the door was a massive shelf, filled to 
capacity with closed Pokeballs. In the middle of the shelf, there was a 
single photo of Ash and his little friends, Brock and Misty. A cute, 
smiling Pikachu was sitting on Ash's shoulder, posing for the camera. 
She knew that if you looked in the top right corner closely, you could 
see the outline of two people and three Pokemon, "Blasting off again", 
as Ash had put it. Around the photo were the fruits of Ash's labours. 
Three years of effort, and summed up in that one shelf.

One hundred and fifty-one Pokeballs. One hundred and fifty-one Pokemon. 
A powerful, champion representative of each and every known form of 
Pokemon in the world. After his return from Pokemon Island a year ago, 
Ash had been even more determined. With the assistance of his mother 
and his friends, Ash systematically hunted down and captured every 
single type of Pokemon in the world.

Those last two had been the most difficult. Pokemon Island had been 
hard on Ash and his friends, but actually finding, defeating and 
capturing MewTwo had been almost impossible. Mrs Ketcham could not 
remember the number of times that she had switched shifts at work with 
a friend, just so that she could jump in the car and drive Ash off to 
the latest spotting of the elusive Pokemon. Finally, through, finally 
Ash had done it. MewTwo was his.

That had been MewTwo, but Mew had been even harder to catch. "Gotta 
catch 'em all! Gotta catch 'em all!" Ash would chant, day in, day out. 
Mew became his obsession. Mew, the last Pokemon missing from his 
perfect collection, was all he would talk about. At breakfast, at 
dinner, it was always "Mew this..." and "Mew that...". It wore a little 
after a while, but being a parent was its own reward when you could see 
your child excel like this.

Yesterday, it had all shown its worth. A long hunt, a difficult pursuit, 
a cunning plan, an effective trap and a long, exhausting battle. Now, 
Mew sat in its Pokeball, just one among one hundred and fifty-one 
others. Testament to her little boy's greatness.

"Ash-honey? What are you reading dear? Is that a new book on Pokemon?"

"Huh?" Ash looked around with bewilderment on his face. "Pokemon? No-
one cares about Pokemon any more, Mom. See? This is Nergal's Mobile 
Battleship Nadesico!
"Martian Successor Nadesico is the greatest! See? You can get 
miniatures, and poster books, and pilot's logs and all sort of great 
stuff! I want to be a pilot, Mom! A Gekiganger pilot! See? You can get 
Gekiganger stickers and Gekiganger toys and you can even buy a real 
Gekiganger if you're good enough!
"I'm going to be the greatest pilot in the world! I'll get all the 
Nadesico stuff!"

Mrs Ketcham felt faint. He had just gotten back! He had only completed 
his Pokemon collection yesterday! How could he be thinking of something 
else already? It was too soon, too soon for her to cope! While she 
leaned against the door frame, Ash's darling little voice came to her 
as though from a great distance, saying words she had learned to 
dread...

"Gotta catch 'em all! Gotta catch 'em all!"

---
End Of Story