Chapter 26

CH 26 – Total Failure

 

 

Geno looked up as his eyes began to turn red, and met Jame’s sneer, even as the rage surged up, and began to swallow him. “James, I am going to kill you.”

 

 

James watched as the dragon freak seemed to fight with his rage, before nodding to the six tamers on the floor. They turned back to their harems, trying to finish beating the enraged sphinx unconscious, but her near feral state, food and sleep deprivation, and loss of her tamer had given her an almost unbelievable and unholy strength, fighting even as the six girls continued to pound her. It was easier than if she was in full control, she was trying to fight the ‘girls off in her humanoid body with physical attacks instead of magic, but she simply wouldn’t go down.

 

One of the fighting types finally got a lucky cross chop on her, and the sphinx collapsed, though she still managed to break free of the pokéball that was used on her. Before they could order their girls to continue beating her, the dragon freak finally spoke again, almost as if he had been waiting for them to finish. “I would advise that you stop that. If only so your ‘girls can die before you tamers do.”

Something about that tone made James turn back to Rathin, and he took an instinctive step backwards and behind Crysa even as he got a good look at him. He seemed different, harder, and far, far more contemptuous than he had before. He was also stone still, not a muscle twitching, every movement he made now seemed to have been made for a purpose. He looked up at James, and smiled, a small smile that showed his fangs, but never touched his eyes. James felt himself shivering as he suddenly understood why his father had always said that smiling had originally started as an animal baring one’s fangs to warn an encroaching predator off, even as the dragon freak’s harem started to spread out, and three more girls were released, including that Nurse Joy he had gotten at the Academy.

 

He watched as the girls formed up, and Rathin looked up at him before speaking. “Smile, you living fossil. I am going to kill these six and then I am coming up for you.”

 

James shuddered, and stuffed his trophy, the kitsune’s tail, into his backpack, leaving the dead Kishi on the ground where she had fallen, her head still attached, albeit barely. “Crysa, keep me intact and alive. Tia, you and that reject are rear guard. We are heading to the teleport room. Move.”

 

The Ka-D-Bra shuddered at her designation as reject, and James glared at her. He had stripped her of her name and right to speak in his presence for her repeated failures, and made it clear that further failures would result in her being fed to a feral. She nodded fearfully, and turned, back to the arena, as Tia stood near the door, letting her master and alpha stomp through, heading for safety. They would follow in a minute or two.

 

 

Geno watched the human flee, as most of the trainers ignored his warning about ignoring him further to deal with the sphinx, and glanced at Ia, sending her a thought. Tell everyone to fire their most powerful attacks into that group. I want as many of them down as we can, now. There might be more enemies coming up behind us, and we need to get out of here, now.

 Ia glanced at him, before nodding, and then teleporting into the middle of the group, right beside the alaka-wham. Geno felt his jaw drop, as she used hypnosis on the barely standing and enraged pokégirl. He felt his jaw only drop further as a massive sphere of black suddenly expanded outwards. The sound of bodies hitting the floor quickly followed, though there was one scream of rage and defiance that was quickly cut off with a sickening snap. He waited a moment for Ia, but had the uncanny feeling he was missing something, something obvious. He shook his head, and gestured to the nearby door, wondering why the harem was looking queasy. “Lose lunches later ladies. Let’s leave. Tiamat point, Asheer and Aliza behind her. Athena, tamer guard. Everyone else, keep an eye behind us, and move. This should meet up with James’ path before long, and he has to know of a way out.”

 

 

Baron and Nox were talking again, quietly comparing the blueprints to what they had seen so far, and neither were happy with the conclusion that Shard had already come to. “The blueprints are wrong, aren’t they?”

 

Nox looked up at him, and nodded glumly. “Correct, we are supposed to be near the main room on this floor, the arena, but instead we somehow ended up off to one side. I think. This place is a maze, and with us following these plans, hard to tell exactly where we are. Just close enough to get you lost, and…”

 

Blood Baron suddenly gestured for silence, and after a moment, voices could be barely heard but not what they were saying, coming through the vent near the ceiling, though it was too small to squeeze through. But they could hear an argument. After a moment, those two voices vanished, and Clown suddenly stood bolt upright. He breathed deeply, before screaming and sprinting off into the maze of corridors. “SSSSCCCCAAAAAAAAAAALLLEEEESSSSSS!”

 

 

Geno paused, half turning, before shaking his head and moving down the stair case. He could have sworn he had heard screaming. “Keep moving, we can’t be far.”

 

 

“Why the hell didn’t you clean out the computers yet?”

 

James was furious, nearly shaking in fury as the freak suddenly whirled around in his chair, and stared at James, daring him to continue. “Because these files are only accessible to myself. Unless you want every bottom rung grunt knowing that you father, grandfather, and several other powerful and influential people are funding us. And because I was TOLD Rathin was the only one entering, I thought we would have more time, especially after we uploaded those faulty blueprints into the city computers. And while that worked perfectly on the Hunters, who have captured almost two thirds of the grunts sent upstairs, Rathin apparently didn’t use them, and got lucky navigating. Now shut the fuck up, get your ass through the teleport circle, and get your sorry tamer carcass to the rally point, or I might not have time to get every file removed. A pity for your family if that does happen. Because of the ordering, your family, longest supporters and original founders, would have a good deal of difficult questions to answer.”

 

They stared at each other for nearly a minute, the Sup-Bra Genius’ fingers tapping away as she copied the important files and then deleted them, before Diplomat’s gaze suddenly hardened. “Or would you prefer I push this here button, and send all that information to the Hunters directly?”

 

James vibrated in place for a moment, terribly tempted to try for the plasma rifle on the ground beside Diplomat, but even from here he could tell it didn’t have a power cell in it. He simply nodded, and recalled everyone but Crysa and stepped into the circle, making a note to have a word with his family. Diplomat had long since overstayed his welcome, and was fast becoming a liability. Losing the sphinx was unacceptable, but threatening them was unforgivable and impossible. The freak had to die, just like the other one. They ALL had to die.

 

He stared at Diplomat as the field activated, and transported him and his alpha to a building outside the town. He stepped off the raised platform, and headed out into the surrounding forests, heading for the rally point. With any luck, Rathin would catch up with Diplomat, and then the Hunters would catch both of them. If not, he had plans to make.

 

Back in the base, Diplomat gave the fading form of James a look of pure contempt and disgust, before looking at his Purrsian. “Remind me to have him dealt with. His is becoming a fanatic, and those are bad for business.”

 

 

Geno continued along the hallways, cursing for the fifth time after finding yet ANOTHER dead end. They had already checked several rooms and were fast running out of areas to check, and he had the uncanny suspicion he was being hunted. Most of the team was in their pokéballs, resting, only Asheer, Tiamat, and Ia out, the latter having met up with them at the bottom of the stairs. He sighed, and looked at Ia. “And this was about where you felt the only other human on the floor? Ia, hello?”

 

Ia had been staring at the intersection behind them, one hand idly flexing, and he figured that was a bad thing, though she glanced over when he mentioned her name. About in this area, though I think it might be more to our left. Oddly, no doors on that side of the hallway, so I say that we…

Whatever she thought they ought to do he never heard, as Ia whirled back around, as he heard several pinging noises. Asheer and Tiamat turned as well, before Ia suddenly stepped back, and formed a barrier even as Geno’ legs were swept out from under him. “DOWN!”

 

He slammed into the ground on his back hard, having not expected either the fall or Ia to suddenly scream, and instinctively curled up, hands and arms protecting his neck and ears. Asheer stared at Ia, confused, but Tiamat responded immediately, diving back and landing on top of Geno, smothering him but protecting him with her body. He yelped, and then screamed as he heard three loud, powerful thuds, more felt than heard, before something exploded above him, showering them with glass. Asheer let out a death scream, and Ia screamed in pain as well, her forward barrier unable to block all the shrapnel, and Tiamat yelped in pain, but didn’t move for a few seconds. She rolled off of him, and allowed him to look around. Asheer was cut and bleeding from dozens of tiny holes, covering her front, her face, breasts, and thighs shredded, the thinner scales there unable to block the shrapnel.

 

He quickly recovered Asheer, before glancing at Ia, who was mostly fine, though her eyes and ears were bleeding, and she was using telekinesis to pull the fragments of metal from her sides, her entire body cut up, something he found very disturbing. Tiamat was mostly intact, except that both of her legs had been hit by multiple pieces of shrapnel, leaving her weakly crawling as she bled out. He recovered her, before he slowly and quietly edged forward, pulling an empty pokéball from his waist, and sending her a thought. Are you combat capable, Ia?

She seemed to consider it for a second, using telekinesis to remove the pieces of shrapnel in her flesh, and then nodded. In a few minutes, though whoever through those is being quite considerate, letting you recover. Ah, here he comes. Want me to snap his neck?

 

Geno looked up, and then shook his head recognizing the figure walking toward him, balancing a stop sign on his shoulders, behind his neck. “No, I want a rematch. Get yourself healed, find the exit, and then get me. I wanna play with Clown here.”

The figure smiled, the lopsided bone growth on his face cracked in a few spots, but he didn’t seem to mind. “Scales, so good to see you again. Shall we continue that previous conversation we had before everyone was split up?”

 

Geno shook his head, and checked himself over for any wounds. “Not here, not enough room. And remind me where that conversation left off; I am having problems remembering things.”

 

Clown laughed, and turned to lead the way. “Not surprising, you were the only one to go with that ridiculous idea about integrating into this rotten and weak society. But that isn’t too surprising, it was yours after all. How has it been going, anyway? Tired of getting spat at by strangers? That ward against evil annoying yet?”

 

Geno shrugged, slowly following behind him. “Not really, I find it amusing. But then again, I find lots of things amusing. You avoided my question, what conversation?”

 

Clown grinned, turning corners with no apparent concern. “The one where you offered to feed me my testicles, and I offered to give you a rectal suppository with my sign. Come on, it was the last things we said before we met up in that park a while ago. How can you forget that?”

 

Clown gave him a hurt look over his shoulder, and Geno belated remembered it, dimly, but not the circumstances. After a moment, Clown laughed, turning another corner, and grinned as he pushed open a door. “Ah, here it is, the exit that one guy you were chasing took. Tell you what, you kill me, you get to go through it. You try to flee without doing that, I will hunt down those two tamers you abandoned up in Mahogany Town. What do you say about that? Hell, I will even be generous, just disable me and you can go, though I will keep coming back. They finally activated final protocol, and all of us survivors of those killing houses and rooms get to find out who is the best. Except for Nox and Steel, unfortunate bastards. The Twins decided they were too useful in other roles to risk in an open brawl.”

 

Geno was only half listening at this point, and was staring at the room around them. It had a small cubby in one wall, with several nearby computers. He had no idea if it was a teleporting device, but everything else in the room was easily identified, due to there being pretty much nothing else in the room but some half and full walls for defending the room. It also made it much more interesting to have a fight in, as the walls would block line of sight, interfere with attacks, and allow for much shorter distances to slam someone against a wall. “You know, if I didn’t know better, I would say you picked this room for a reason. This place is gonna be interesting to fight in. Lots of terrain and cover, reminds me of home. We gonna familiarize ourselves first, or would you like to pretend this is a hot drop? I recall you loved those, just getting dropped, often in the middle of a formation, and just going nuts from there.”

 

Clown snorted in amusement, before dropping into a combat stance, holding his stop sign like a staff, the sign toward Geno. “Done talking.”

 

Geno nodded, and flicked his claws out, still standing normal. “Yeah, you always were impatient for the fun to begin. Why, I bet you still…”

 

He darted forward, interrupting himself to suddenly attack. Clown had just enough time to blink in confusion, before Geno slid to a stop right in front of him, though the stop sign blurred around, a powerful swipe that would have removed Geno’s head from his shoulders if he hadn’t stopped and rolled into the swing, dodging under it. Geno grimaced as the stop sign slammed into the ground, but didn’t deform from the force of the blow, apparently it was more than just common iron. This fight was going to be interesting.

 

 

Ia recalled both the injured pokegirls, but didn’t put them in the PPHD yet, instead standing up, her wounds immediately vanishing with her illusion. She took a deep breath, before striding down the hall, and stopping at the crossways, her mind searching, before she found what she was looking for. A second of concentration, and then she was gone, the device and pokeballs in her fannypack. She was in the arena, and several Jhoto Hunters and traitors were stepping into the room. The first two males with him were the same as Geno and the one referred to as Clown, but it was the masked man she wanted to interrogate. However, his shields were the most impressive, clearly talented and well taught, and breaking through would be too dangerous without also revealing one of her type where around. So she would have to do this the vocal way, and try to coax the information out of him.

 

She smiled, her fangs flashing in the dim light, most of the lights having been turned off, only the emergency ones left on, before nodding to the enemy commander. “Clones? Really? Are you soft humans so weak you need to clone some of your heroes to make soldiers?”

 

The masked man, the Phawhore, the Samurai, and another pokegirl she didn’t recognize, likely another abominable breed that the humans had made after the Creator had withdrawn, all snapped their heads toward her, and she knew she was right on the mark. Did I get your attention with that? And what is this final protocol I keep hearing about? Tell the Phawhore that if she doesn’t want to die, she should stand down. NOW.

 

The last word drove the girl in question to her knees, aborting her spell, as the man flinched, his words just barely audible even to himself. “A Hunter?”

 

He turned back to the others, and waved them out of the room. “Everyone out of the room but Captain Sheridan and Lieutenant Nox and their harems. And shut the door.”

 

The four Jhoto Hunters sliding into the room paused, and then stepped back out, firmly shutting the door behind them. The masked human turned back to her, unease clear in his mind, though she couldn’t do more than get a basic understanding of his emotions from here. Far different from Geno, whose emotions and thoughts were clear. A bit loud, but organized and discernable, and completely without duplicity toward his traitors, no, harem. That war had been lost, and the man was speaking. “You seem well informed, though I suspect me refusing to talk will get my head ripped open?”

 

Ia’s grin widen, her fangs even more visible, not bothering to respond. After a moment, the masked human nodded, and started talking. And what he said had her complete attention and interest.

 

 

Geno flipped over the side slash of Clown’s stop sign, one hand helping him get the necessary momentum, while the other lashed out, his claws trying to slash Clown’s throat. Clown was more skilled than Geno’s memory fragments suggested, and he seemed to lean back, only to catch Geno in the gut with a standing split kick. The kick flipped him up and over a half wall, where he landed heavily, gasping for breath, having not expected the kick and not tightened his muscles to receive it. He floundered for a moment, before lashing out with his tail, but Clown had stepped back out of reach. “Really Scales, is that honestly all you have? I mean, it has been, what? Nearly eight years since we last fought, and you have gotten soft and soggy since then. That kick wouldn’t have done more then set up a meteor move before.”

 

Geno gasped as he staggered up right, finally getting his lungs to start working. “Yeah, got heavier, muscle you know?”

 

Clown actually started laughing at that part. “Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are. Now get up and get set. Coming back at you. Entertain me, that is all I want now. Just for a few minutes. I might even be satisfied with just that.”

 

Geno grimaced, and set himself, realizing that he was out matched, and wasn’t sure how to counter that. Both of them had been almost equal, but Clown clearly had an overwhelming advantage at the present. He had lost something somewhere, and wasn’t sure what. All he knew that he was screwed if something didn’t change, and fast, as Clown charged him, and he leapt backwards, landing on the half wall, and then countercharging him.

 

 

Ia waited a moment, before nodding, as the male had clearly finished. She didn’t send anything or otherwise acknowledge the humans or the pokegirls with them, she simply turned away, and headed for the exit. After two steps, she seemed to waver slightly, like a heat mirage, before almost instantly vanishing, reappearing in the exit by the teleporter with Lendysa’s body. She glanced to the side as Rathin yelped in pain, his tail blade being blocked with the edge of the stop sign, chipping the bone. She sighed, before using telekinesis to pick up and fling Clown to the side as Rathin managed to hamstring him with his right blade, driving Clown to his knees and making him scream. Clown hit the wall hard, and limply slid down it, right as several Hunters responded nearby to Clown’s outcry, and she grabbed Geno and pulled him to the pad with telekinesis. I would have thought him dead by now, clearly not only are you out of shape, you are combat ineffective. Though I can do something about that first one. And I brought this one so you could say goodbye too. Exit and sabotage complete, they will not be able to follow.

 

He glanced up at his Alaka-Wham, before noticing something had been pressed against the side of the teleporter control console, and as they faded out her vaguely heard an explosion before they dropped out on the other side. She pulled out the PPHD, and slotted one of the two girls into it, before looking at him. There is much to discuss, later, but first me and this one need to have a talk. And I am challenging her for the alpha position.

 

Geno was kneeling on the pad beside Lendysa’s body, her mostly severed head in his lap, finally allowing himself to mourn the loss of his beta. Her thought, however, made him look up, confusion on his face, before it quickly turned to anger. “How… DARE you? Lendysa’s…”

 

He cracked and paused, anger defusing into shock. “Len is still warm, and you speak of challenging Asheer? What could possibly make you think that now is the time for that?”

 

She gave him a neutral look, considering her words until the PPHD binged, and she removed Asheer’s pokeball, replacing it with Tiamat’s. Because while she is passionate and cares about her charges, she can’t make the hard choices, and she can’t force you to be protected. I am not, don’t, can, and will, respectively. Her skills would be better served as a beta, and your affection for her delayed that necessary decision for too long. What is before you is the result of that. You asked, back when you accepted me into your harem, where you had first seen me.

 

He wanted to know more, but nodded in understanding that now was not the time for confrontations or trips down memory lane. He needed to get Lendysa home, so the others could say goodbye to her. He pulled his pokepack around and fiddled with it for a moment, before pulling out a metal splint that could be bent into the required position, and wrapped it around Lendya’s destroyed neck, at least keeping her head from hanging and flopping about. He sighed, and picked her up, before nodding to his Alak-wham. “Let’s get her home then. We can talk about the other things after we have all said goodbye to her.”

 

She nodded, and touched his shoulder, taking them all back home.

 

 

 

He sighed, again, as they finally arrived back at the base camp, still carrying his sad load, feeling like the trip had been a total disaster, they had received nothing, lost a harem member, two had been brutally mauled and raped, and now they had a Sphinx. An insane, starving, grief stricken Sphinx that had lost her tamer and likely been abused for who knew how long. He sighed, feeling extremely tired, and set his sad burden down in his lap as he rested in the entrance to the cave, wanting a moment to rest and get his emotions to stop churning. He sighed, before someone screamed his name, and he looked up, his exhaustion magnifying as Mayuan and Sarianna both came running out of the cave.

 

He braced for their cries of horror at Lendysa, but Mayuan simply hugged him, as Sarianna picked up Lendysa, sorrow on her face, but no tears or denials. Ia started slightly as Sarianna picked up the body, before heading into the cave, leaving Geno staring at them, unwilling to believe that Len hadn’t been liked enough to warrant tears. After a minute he pushed her away, disgust on his face. “Did Len mean that little you? That you can’t even spare tears for her?”

 

Both harem members paused to look at him, shock on their faces, before exchanging a significant look. “Master, we already knew she was dead and that the infiltration had gone south.”

 

He stared at them in disbelief, before Ia, stepped out of the cave. Geno, you should head into the main room. Now.

 

He sighed, and stood up, shaking his head as he headed into the room as requested, and looked around. Hlal and Celphia, the draco kits, were sitting by the pool with a handful of rocks, playing a game of some sort. He waved to them as they looked up, and headed over to them, wondering how they had known, as there should be no other pokegirls or women in the cave system. He knelt beside them, as they finally realized he was back, and both of them glomped him, crying into his shoulders. He sighed, feeling better, until someone reached around and stroked his cheek affectionately. He turned to look over his shoulder, thinking it was Sarianna, and froze at the face before him.

 

She grinned, the wall behind her vaguely visible through her, and placed a finger over his lips, before resting her slightly cold forehead against hers. Lendysa smiled again, before kissing him. “Master.”

 

He stared at her, no longer conscious of the two terrified dracos in his arms, staring at a familiar and beloved face. “Len?”