A Random Carol part 1

Twas the night before Christmas and all across the ranch everyone was busy, preparing for a holiday bash. Vincent and Veruka were trimming the tree, while Danny and Merry were mischievous as could be. Ross and Saria wrapped gifts with cheer as Cotton and Napoleon loved each other dear. Scratch and Sibelius sat quietly and listened as uncle Matthew told tales of Christmas from the past. And so begins our story this night, of the true meaning of Christmas and (Huagh, were terribly sorry for the inconvenience but it seems the author has been knocked unconscious to prevent him from rambling on, he has been replaced with someone who will keep the story moving)

Scratch yawned loudly and looked at the clock, it was only 5:00 P.M., he didn't know how much more of this he could take. Matthew had been telling them stories for the past two hours, all of which he had heard plenty of times before last Christmas from Ross, not to mention Matthew had told them all of these last year as well. He turned to Sibelius for a second as Matthew was distracted by Danny trying to steal the star off the top of the tree. "Man how much longer is this going to be, I've heard all of these a bazillion times before, isn't there anything new he has?" Sibelius just shrugged as a shadow fell over both of them.

Scratch looked up and his fur stood straight up as Matthew glared down at him and Sibelius. "It isn't polite to talk when others are trying to tell you a story Scratch." Scratch started to stutter but was saved by Sibelius. "He was just wondering if there are any other stories that you haven't told us before, ones that don't involve that fat guy in the red suit who breaks into peoples homes on Christmas. Although I have to say he looks a lot like you uncle Matthew, except he's got a beard." Matthew just groaned at the memory, how Jenna had convinced him to dress up as Santa last Christmas was beyond him, and the memory was almost physically painful.

Matthew looked at Scratch who was on the verge of fainting and then back to Sibelius who looked completely innocent and sighed. "Well have either of you ever heard the story of the Sableye who hated Christmas?" Scratch and Sibelius both gasped. "What!? How could anyone hate Christmas?!" Matthew put up a wing for them to stop talking and continued. "Well he was greedy, miserly, and didn't care about anyone but himself, so seeing Pokemon being so generous and thankful during Christmas, he saw it as a waste of time." Scratch and Sibelius stared at Matthew with eyes wide open in interest. "Please tell us the story uncle Matthew, PLEEEEASE!?"

Matthew smiled and brought them closer. "Well it all happened a long time ago, before video games or TV or cars, at the offices of a money counter named Danny Scrooge…

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"One hundred twenty seven million and one, one hundred twenty seven million and two." The Sableye sitting behind the desk was surrounded by stacks of coins. Sitting in the corner trying to keep himself warm with a small candle and hot coal was a small Raichu wearing a scarf and trying to keep his hands warm enough to write. The door suddenly opened letting in a cold blast of winter air and knocking over all the gold coins the Sableye sitting behind the desk was counting. His eyes immediately fogged over and he had to rub them off to see who had dare bothered him. Standing in the open door was a golden Sableye grinning ear to ear and holding a wreath. "MERRY CHRISTMAS UNCLE DANNY!!!" The golden Sableye ran up and flung the wreath around his uncles neck and sat on his desk.

The Raichu shivering at a small desk in the corner smiled. "And merry Christmas to you as well Midas." Danny glared at the Raichu. "Don't put any more ideas in his head Ross, back to work!" Ross just hung his head low and went back to writing. Danny then turned to Midas. "And what do you want, because if it's not business your just wasting my time." Midas smiled at his uncle before giving him an answer. "I just came by to invite you over to my home for Christmas dinner tomorrow, plus cocktails afterward, if your interested?"

Danny just looked at him for a second before crossing his arms and growled. "I don't have time for your Christmas humbug, I don't understand why you and your family waste so much time with this humbug." Midas frowned and looked down at his uncle. "I believe this to be one day of the year where Pokemon everywhere look outside their hardened hearts and decide to do something for someone else without any thought of reward." Behind him Ross clapped loudly which caused Danny to glare at him in anger, before turning back to his nephew.

"A lot of good it has done you, this holiday has never put an extra penny in your pocket or increased your wealth at all." Midas looked at his uncle and jumped off the desk. "This holiday may have never put another piece of silver in my pocket but I believe that this is the greatest time of year,  and I don't give a damn what you think uncle so once again I'll wish you a Merry Christmas and let you know the offer still stands, good day." Midas slid out the door singing Christmas carols. Danny watched his nephew go and as soon as his nephew had left he let the room know how he felt. "BAH HUMBUG, all these crazy fools and their Christmas cheer, it's enough to drive someone mad!" Danny went back to counting as his assistant Ross nervously watched his boss.

They both continued to work in total silence for a few more minutes before someone else opened the door. Danny looked up, rage burning in his eyes. "Bah what is it now?" Standing in the door was a female Lopunny with a male Toxicroak standing next to her with his arm wrapped around her waist and a cup of coffee in his other hand. They both walked in and the Lopunny smiled at Danny. "Why merry Christmas sir, I'm Vanilla and this is my loving mate Rupert, are these the offices of a Mr. Scrooge and a Mr. Marley." Danny just grumbled. "Mr. Marley died seven years ago, what do you want, were rather busy at the moment." Vanilla just smiled and hugged Rupert tightly.

"No, were not here on business, not exactly, you see were collecting donations to help orphans and the poor who can't afford to have a nice Christmas, so how much would you be willing to donate sir?" Danny just stared at the coins on the table and looked back up. "None." Vanilla looked back at Danny and thought for a second. "Oh you don't have to have your name listed. "Danny shook his head. "I mean no donation, no money." Vanilla looked hard at Danny and then folded closed the notebook she was carrying. "But the poor will have nowhere to stay this Christmas."

Danny cracked his neck and looked into the Lopunny's kind eyes. "Are there no prisons?" Vanilla looked at Danny and slowly nodded. "Yes, plenty of prisons sir." Danny continued. "No workhouses or orphanages that the poor might be put in?" Vanilla nodded again. "Yes, although I wish there were not." Danny nodded. "Good, I was afraid that something had happened to those fine establishments." Vanilla looked back at Danny. "But many will die in those establishments without help sir." Danny stood up in anger and glared back at the Lopunny and her mate. "Then they'd better hurry up and die so they can decrease the surplus population, now if your not here for anything else I would recommend that you get out now." Vanilla looked back at Rupert and sighed as the two of them walked out.

Danny sighed and went back to counting money. A few hours later the clock struck eight and Ross started to pack up and leave. As he started to leave Danny called over to him. "I take it that you'll want the day off tomorrow?" Ross swallowed loudly and nodded his head. "Yes sir, it is only one day out of the year after all." Danny growled and looked up. "One day of pay without work, that doesn't seem to be at all fair to me, one day of the year when you pick a man's pocket, bah, doesn't seem right at all to me." Danny stood up and started to put on his coat. "But I'll expect you to work twice as hard next week to make up for it."

Ross smiled widely. "Thank you sir." Danny just mumbled something and walked out while locking the door behind him. Outside a street vendor was selling wreaths and a group of carolers were walking the street. "Damn festivities, what a waste of money and time." Danny trudged down the snow covered streets several blocks until he reached a rustic and poorly maintained old manor house. Danny looked felt inside his coat for the keys and looked back up. As he was looking up his eye fell on the door knocker. As soon as he saw it he jumped back in fear, the face, it was the face of a Lucario.

Danny tentatively took a step forward and continued to get closer to it. His face was only a few inches away when the eyes opened and the Lucario screamed out. Danny screamed as well and fell backwards down the stairs. "AH, No go away!" Danny lay on the porch for a second before looking up, the door knocker was back to normal. "Humbug, this damn holiday is getting to me." Danny walked inside and hung up his coat before going off to make himself some dinner.

He ate quietly at his table and cleaned up after himself. Danny walked upstairs and slipped on a cap before falling into bed, exhausted after the long day. The sound of carolers outside annoyed him and he ran over to the window and opened it. "Keep it down, some people are trying to sleep!" Danny slammed the window shut in anger and went back to bed with a pillow over his ears. "Damn this miserable holiday, damn those carolers, all a miserable pile of humbug." Danny banged his head against the pillow a few times and finally fell into a restless sleep.

Danny slept soundly until the clock struck midnight and the chiming woke him up. "Ah damn clock." Danny slammed his head back into the pillow and continued to mutter when he heard something else. His ears perked up and he listened closely. It was there, although faint it seemed to be getting louder, it almost sounded as if someone was dragging chains along the downstairs hallway. Danny continued to listen and was about to get out of bed to investigate when a loud thunk stopped him. This was followed by another thunk and the sound of chains being dragged up the stairs. He jumped back into bed and hid under the covers as the sound continued. Suddenly a voice rang out.

"Danny Scrooge, Danny Scroog-AHHHHHHHHHHH, OH AH OW!" Danny cocked his head to the side for a second listening and then the noise continued again along with the voice. "Dan-WHOA 'THUD'" Danny slapped himself on the head as the process continued with whoever was coming up the stairs continually falling down over and over. Finally he'd had enough. "Oh for heaven's sake there's an elevator off to the right, just take it already so we can get on with this robbery or whatever it is!" The sound stopped for a second to be followed by cheesy elevator music and then the audible ding as the doors opened on the second floor.

The sound of chains dragging across the floor was getting louder and louder by the second and Danny could feel his heart in his throat as they stopped right outside his bedroom door. He grabbed a candlestick for protection and waited for whoever it was to come in. He continued to wait and lowered the candlestick a little but as soon as he did a black three fingered paw materialized through the door to be followed by an arm and then the rest of the Lucario as it came through the door. It's appearance was terrifying to behold, Danny could see right through it and there were chains and money boxes wrapped around it's body, it's eyes shone a dark red as it looked around the room.

As soon as the Lucario saw Danny it put on a goofy smile and tried to walk closer but one of the money boxes got caught on the other side of the door and the Lucario was dragged down. "UGH, I don't see how that is even physically possible what with me being a ghost and all." The Lucario stood back up and Danny slowly brought his candle up to get a better look at it and gasped. "VINCENT MARLEY?!"

The Lucario smiled and bowed. "I'm glad you haven't forgotten me Danny, after so many years I thought that perhaps I had become nothing but another pile of inherited money in your vast fortune." Danny shook a little as he looked at Vincent. "But, your dead, that incident with the frying pan and that girl you were wooing after, they couldn't even find the other half of your body." Vincent continued to look at Danny. "Yeah well, it's not something that I would like to remember, it still hurts to think about." A second later Vincent's torso slid off of his legs onto the floor. Danny looked down and fainted right on the spot as Vincent lifted himself back up and reattached his torso backwards.

"Huh, oh well, Danny wake up, this is the most important day of your life and I would recommend that you listen to what I have to tell you." Danny sat back up and rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing here Vincent, wait, this can't be real, this must be a dream, or some kind of hallucination caused by an overcooked meal or perhaps a little too much brandy." Vincent growled and flew right up to Danny and glared down at him. "A hallucination!? You don't believe me to be real Danny, I'm more real than anything you could possibly imagine!" Danny took several steps back with his hands held up.

Vincent stopped and noticed Danny was staring at the chains wrapped around his body and the money boxes attached. Finally he spoke up. "Vincent, what are those chains?" Vincent stood over Danny and his presence filled the room. "These chains were forged in life. Every widow I ever cheated, every child I ever sent to the workhouses, every dollar I ever made, links formed over a lifetime wasted on the pursuit of money and wealth!" Vincent looked back at Danny who was shaking in fear.

"But, but you were a good business man Vincent." Vincent roared in rage and floated to the ceiling and his eyes burned red. "BUSINESS?! YOU THINK I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT BUSINESS?!" Danny scrambled backward in bed and looked up at Vincent who floated back down to his level. "Because of my business I've been forced to carry these chains for all eternity, never resting, always traveling, payment for the sins I committed in life." Danny swallowed hard as Vincent continued. "Listen closely to me Danny, there is one way that you can save yourself from my fate." Danny stared back at Vincent. "What is it Vincent, tell me."

Vincent grabbed Danny by the shoulders. "You will be haunted by three spirits, learn from them, heed their words, or your chains will be heavier than mine." Vincent let Danny go and started to walk back towards the door. "Farewell Danny." Danny just watched as Vincent floated through the door before remembering something. "Vincent you might want to watch that first-(CRASH)…step."

Danny winced and looked around for a second before hitting himself on the head. "Bah humbug, there's no such thing as ghosts or spirits, this bloody Christmas is getting to me, I need to rest." Danny spun around and laid back down in bed and promptly fell asleep.

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"Wait, uncle Matthew, I don't understand, why wouldn't he believe in spirits after what he just saw, I would!?" Matthew sighed. "He was a hard headed old coot and it took a lot to convince him of anything, now please don't interrupt me again." Matthew was about to continue when Vincent walked in the room holding a plate of Christmas cookies. "Hey guys, what's happening?" Sibelius indicated Matthew. "Uncle Matthew is telling us a story, what are you doing Vincent I thought that you were helping Veruka with the tree?" Vincent just shrugged. "I was but she said she felt uncomfortable with me looking up at her, I don't know, you guys mind if I listen to the story as well?" Matthew nodded his head. "Fine, but don't let them have any of those cookies, they need to sleep tonight." Vincent just shrugged and listened intently as Matthew continued.