Into the Fire
Seven
Eve settled down next to him and handed him a mug of tea. “It’s been a week now.”
“Thanks.” Kerrik sipped at the tea. “This is very good and I offer you my compliments. Now, you were hinting something about a week going by?”
“Since I became alpha.”
“You want a party for your anniversary? I think a week is a bit premature for that kind of celebration.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “This is hard enough without you kidding around. I’m tired of being kept dangling on the hook about this. When are you going to finish punishing Scheherazade and return her to alpha?”
Kerrik frowned slowly. “I’m not going to. This was not a temporary appointment. Dominique knows it. Scheherazade knows it. However, apparently you need it spelled out. You are my alpha, with all of the rights and responsibilities therein and you will be my alpha until I feel that you can’t do the job.”
The Megami-sama stared at him. “You’re serious.”
“Scheherazade couldn’t cut it as alpha. This last week, she’s been happier, I thought you were happier and things have run fairly smoothly. She and Dominique haven’t fought more than a bit of verbal sniping, so Dominique has been happier too. Considering all of that, why would I want to demote you?”
“Scheherazade was your first pokegirl and she saved your life.”
“Yes, and I won’t forget that. But keeping her as alpha was threatening all of our lives. Besides, being my first pokegirl doesn’t have any intrinsic benefit, except perhaps that we’ve been together a little longer than you or Dominique. Now that she’s no longer the alpha, Scheherazade can be my bodyguard and keep saving my life. As for the alpha, in the week you’ve been in charge, you have proven to that you’re a much better administrator and I’d be an idiot to ignore that.” He put the tea down. “And if I were inclined to punish Scheherazade for being a poor alpha, this would be a stupid way to go about it, since I’d also be punishing you and for no reason. We didn’t meet under the best circumstances, but you’re mine now and I am yours and I won’t mistreat you if I can avoid it. After all, the life you save someday may well be mine.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ll repeat this once. I am not punishing anybody for Scheherazade’s failure to be an adequate alpha. Instead, I’m giving you the chance to do the job, and so far you haven’t disappointed me.”
“How would you have punished Scheherazade if you thought she’d screwed up?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Hopefully that situation won’t come up, but if it does, I have an excellent alpha to advise me.” He suddenly looked surprised. “Are you trying to tell me that you don’t want to be the alpha? Is that it?”
“I never said that. I’m pleased you think I can do the job and I want this.”
“And yet, when you expressed concern about your position and I assured you that it was secure, you kept arguing with me about it.”
A rueful smile spread on her face. “I did, didn’t I? I guess I was worried that this was some game with Scheherazade at my expense.”
He took her hand. “I would never do that to you, Eve. If I did, I’d be that terrible bastard that Dominique wanted me to be.”
“I don’t think Dominique wants that anymore, not since she formally joined the harem. You know, the fact that she’s getting laid on a regular basis now may be why she and Scheherazade aren’t fighting as much.”
“You could be right. I guess that if it’s in the interests of the harem, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
Eve grinned and started to say something when her head whipped around. “Someone is coming.” She scrambled to her feet just as a human and a single pokegirl walked around the building. Without seeming to hurry, she quickly put herself between the newcomers and her man. “Good morning. I’m Eve and this is Kerrik.”
The man was in his mid twenties and his mouth thinned. “I believe you forgot something.”
Kerrik stood and moved to stand with Eve, keeping her in front and to the side of him as he made sure the record function of his pokedex was running. “And what could that be, stranger?”
“She didn’t say sir.”
“She doesn’t know if you deserve that word.” He dropped his voice as the man paled slightly and the pokegirl’s mouth dropped open. “That’s a Moriae, a ground pokegirl. So who are you, stranger?” Behind Kerrik, Scheherazade floated out of the hole to the cellar. She put Dominique down and waited with her ears half flattened.
Dominique watched with wide eyes, interest in the poise of her body.
“I’m Reclaimer Bruce Friedman and I’m here to challenge you for this dig site. You’ve been here for a week and I want whatever you’ve found.”
Kerrik blinked. “What is this, some kind of fucking Trial of Possession?”
Friedman snorted. “I don’t know what that is, but I’m issuing a reclaimer’s challenge for this dig site. Either you face me or pack your crap and get the hell out.”
Kerrik folded his arms. “You’ve issued your batchall, but I haven’t heard a bid yet so I can counter bid.”
“My what?”
He rolled his eyes. “What an idiot. I’m talking about your battle challenge. Then you make your bid as to what forces you’ll be using. That would be conservation of pokegirls, so that we use the least powerful pokegirls needed for a particular battle in order to save resources.”
Bruce’s eyes widened in shock. “Did you just call me an idiot?”
Kerrik sneered. “What, are you deaf too? Or is it that you’re retarded?”
Eve glanced over her shoulder as Friedman turned crimson. “Why are you baiting him?”
“This reclaimer challenge shit is nonsense, but he didn’t come here to break bread with us and if I just refuse there’s no telling when he’ll ambush us. The more he’s rattled or pissed off, the less effectively he’ll command his pokegirls.” Kerrik raised his voice. “What do I get when you lose? If you had a nice dig site, your dumb ass wouldn’t be here bothering me.”
“You get to keep your dig, you moron.”
“Status quo? Nothing doing. If I don’t stand to benefit from this, you can go fuck yourself. Oh, and without an agreement on this battle, if you open your mouth to command anybody, I’ll have all of my pokegirls crush you like a grape. So you either pony up something for me when you lose or shut your mouth and leave right now.”
Bruce turned several different colors and looked like he was choking as his Moriae moved in front of him. “You prick; I’ll give you my gear and five hundred thousand SLC should you win. It doesn’t really matter, though. You don’t have a chance in hell of winning, you son of a bitch.”
Dominique and Scheherazade came up and stood on either side of Kerrik as he growled softly. “I’m not going to be able to run him off without a fight. Eve, you’re up.”
Scheherazade’s head came around. “What? Why not me? I’m the better fighter.”
Eve stiffened, but didn’t turn around. Her voice was angry. “What gives you that idea? We’ve never crossed blades.”
Kerrik smacked his Megami-sama lightly in the middle of the back. “My call. Both of you shut up. Eve, you’re up first because I want you to fight first. Scheherazade, I didn’t get him to limit the number of pokegirls he’ll be using and if his harem is bigger than ours, we’re going to be in for a long day. Dominique, if I swap out pokegirls, you use the PPHU to heal whoever I pull out. You’re still getting used to being an Archmage and because of that I’ll fight you last.”
Dominique nodded. “That makes sense to me. I’ll hand off the PPHU to someone else if you use me so we can keep being healed.”
“You gonna fight, you prick, or are you going to get the hell off my dig?”
Kerrik’s voice was cold and cutting. “I wouldn’t touch your tiny prick even if I had the magnifying glass and tweezers I’d need to find it, Brucey. It’s probably all slimy and nasty.”
“You bastard!” He pulled a pokeball from his belt and activated it. “Natalie, we’re going to cream this guy’s pokegirl and take his site for me!”
The beam coalesced into an Amachamp wearing overalls and carrying four swords. She grinned and swung the weapons menacingly. “Yes, we will, sir.”
Kerrik kept his voice low. “Are you up for this, Eve?”
A body hugging golden glow surrounded the Megami-sama as she summoned her magical armor. While most pokegirls summoned material armor, Kerrik had been surprised to find that she created a magical protective field around her body that functioned as full body armor. It even filtered oxygen like Scheherazade’s did, although it was less effective with poisonous gasses. “I am.”
“Do you want me to try to command you, or should I just observe in case of trouble?”
“Just keep watch unless I get into trouble.” She touched her mind with his. Be careful. This one may not lose well.
Scheherazade glanced at both of them. You are right. His mind is a turmoil of anger and he is not a nice person.
Kerrik glanced at Dominique. It sounds like he’s a bog standard NPC tamer. He thinks pokegirls have about the same status as toilet paper, happens to be dumber than a box of rocks and he’s stupid enough to think one of those rocks is a pokegirl and try to fuck it.
The Archmage blinked and suddenly started giggling, then shot him a baleful glare. Stop making me laugh right now.
Kerrik chuckled. “Eve, kick her ass.”
Bruce scanned Eve and his eyes lit up. “You expect a Megami-sama to beat an Amachamp? You are the idiot.”
Kerrik shrugged. “Just remember that the entry says the word variable a lot when we get to the part about the unpleasant surprises you’re about to receive.”
“Natalie, chop her up!”
Kerrik thought quickly. As far as I know, there is no weapon style for beings with four manipulatory members that is taught on a pokegirl world. Nobody has allowed pokegirls to create martial arts schools of their own and Amachamps cannot access the cosmic awareness where such schools might exist. She may possess some natural skill, but she’s not going to be an Armsmistress or Seraph. On the other hand, she will have brute strength on her side.
The Amachamp charged, all four swords swinging forward in a simultaneous strike that few could stand, much less survive.
Eve stepped into the attack, a shield shimmering into existence on her left arm while a sword appeared in her right hand. She harmlessly deflected the blows on her left with the shield and locked both of the blades on her right with her sword as she spat yellow goo in the Amachamp’s eyes before the recoil from locking the swords of a pokegirl with strength far greater than hers knocked her backwards off her feet. The sword and shield vanished and she rolled in a backwards summersault that ended up with her back on her feet as her summoned items reappeared.
The Amachamp roared in frustration and dropped a sword so she could swipe at the thick fruit juice on her face, clearing her vision as the leech seed in the goop sank into her skull and vanished. She swung her free hand in a savage blow and yards away Eve staggered backwards she blocked the gust punch with her shield.
Eve pointed her sword at Natalie and there was a loud crack as lightning jumped from the tip to dance over the Amachamp’s swords. Natalie grunted in pain and hurled her swords at the Megami-sama, who laughed as she stepped out of the way. “You’ll have to do better than that,” she taunted as another lightning bolt made all the metal in the Amachamp’s clothing glow white before it burned its way out of the fabric. Natalie put her head down and charged.
Scheherazade grabbed Kerrik and swung him behind her as her armor appeared. A sword bounced off her with a loud clang and Dominique swore as she ducked one of the others.
Natalie fired a chi blast from each hand as she closed. The quadruple attack staggered Eve even while the air shimmered around her like heat waves as the Megami-sama dumped her mental restraints and surged to full power. Her sword glowed and she lunged in a thrust.
Natalie grinned and grabbed the sword with one hand even as she punched underneath it with her other, while on the other side her hands pummeled the shield. Her eyes went wide as, with a grating noise, the hyper sharp blade slid forward, slicing off the fingers of that hand as the tip sank into her chest.
The blows knocked Eve flying; incidentally saving Natalie’s life as it pulled the sword free before it had sank more than a finger’s width into her chest. She grasped her fingerless hand to stop the bleeding even as the bloodstain began to spread on her shirt.
Eve scrambled to her feet and pointed her sword at the Amachamp. For an instant, a brilliant beam of golden energy connected the sword and Natalie’s torso, shredding the Amachamp’s clothing and scorching her skin as it knocked her backwards.
“Substitution!” Friedman recovered Natalie and looked at his Moriae. “Kim, get in there.”
“My pleasure,” she said as she rushed forward.
Kerrik shoved around Scheherazade. “Eve?”
The Megami-sama spun her sword and calmly spoke without turning while Kim slowed her rush and took stock of the situation as she pulled an axe from a scabbard on her back. “I’m fine. My leech seed took care of the little bit that got through my armor. Is a substitution legal in this match?”
“I’m not sure anything is legal here.” Dominique scowled and glared at Friedman. “I should knock him on his ass and end this.”
“Attacking humans?” Kerrik glanced at her. “Not while I’m recording this. I’m hopeful that Brucey here is the local heavyweight and pounding him will put the others on notice to leave us the hell alone.”
She sighed. “I keep forgetting that I’m no longer part of the league. I should remember such a happy event, but it’ll take a bit to get used to the idea.”
Kerrik pitched his voice to carry. “Brucey, you’re a moron. Most of Kim’s attacks are area techniques and could well destroy whatever I’ve got in that hole over there.”
Dominique’s dusky skin paled. “After all the work I’ve done? The fuck she will.” Her crimson eyes narrowed as she muttered a spell. Kim’s mouth dropped when she realized that she was now bobbing an inch above the ground. The Moriae began struggling futilely and started rocking wildly in place. The Archmage’s smile was evil. “She has to be in contact with the ground for most of her abilities to work.”
Bruce let out a triumphant bellow. “Cheat! You cheated! I win!”
Kerrik stepped around Scheherazade, marched past the bobbing Moriae and up to the grinning Friedman. “You made a mistake.” The shotgun slid off his shoulder and Kerrik reversed it to bury the butt in Bruce’s stomach. “You don’t have a bodyguard anymore.”
Friedman collapsed as he retched. Kerrik kicked him over onto his back and pointed the shotgun at his right eye. “There is no such thing as a reclaimer’s challenge and you and I both know you’re full of shit. I was, however, willing to humor you until you decided to change the rules again when Eve was kicking your ass. I’m out of humor now. So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to take your pokegirls and get the hell away from me and my harem. Don’t come and fuck with us again. If you have any friends, don’t send them to screw with me either or I’ll lay the blame at your doorstep. Since I don’t know if someone is your friend or not, I’m going to blame you for anyone who does more than drop by for a cup of sugar or a healing potion.”
Friedman gasped for air and wheezed. “But that’s unfair.”
The shotgun didn’t waver. “Yes, it is. And yet that’s the way it’s going to be. It gives you two choices. First, you camp somewhere nearby where I can’t see you and keep me from being bothered, or you leave Edinburgh and run like hell. Personally, I hope you leave and don’t stop until you hit someplace remote, like the Johto League. You’d like them since the place is full of people who treat pokegirls like objects. Of course, you can find that all over this world. Hell, you can even find this down south in England. Why don’t you go and see?”
Friedman was staring at the shotgun muzzle. “I think I will,” he said in a high voice. “Just let me leave.”
Kerrik shouldered his shotgun. “Now I want you to remember something. If you attack us, I won’t show you mercy again. You will die here and I’ll bury you in that basement where you’ll never be found. Now recall your pokegirl and get out of my sight.”
Bruce scrambled to his feet and hastily recalled his Moriae before dashing off into the ruins. Kerrik watched him go until he was out of sight. “Scheherazade, patrol the area and make sure we’re not bothered while Dominique, Eve and I pack up everything. Bruce will be afraid for a little while and then he’ll get the bright idea of going to the police and claiming he’s been attacked. By then, we’ll be long gone.”
Eve’s weapons and armor vanished. “Where are we going?”
“We’re relocating to Buncrana in Ireland. The gym leader there likes celestial pokegirls, it’s a small town and if we need to do any more foraging we can go to the ruins of Derry.”
Dominique had a rebellious look on her face, but at his words it vanished. “That’s an excellent move, but where will we stay?”
“I thought we could purchase a home in Buncrana. That’ll stop all these stupid challenges and will give us a base for you to finish up your work.”
The Archmage smiled. “I don’t think I’m alone when I say that hot water would be a nice thing. However, what do you think are the chances of us being discovered there?”
“We can’t hide forever and we need to remember that the Sanctuary Goths aren’t all ten feet tall and shoot fire out their arse. As long as we’re careful, we should be fine.” He glanced around. “Now ladies get to work.”
***
Buncrana was a community of less than five hundred people. Its focus was on agriculture and the town was known for exotic fruits and vegetables that it managed to produce consistently no matter what the season was.
It was also known for the Buncrana Gymnasium, which was headed by Jeff Palmer. It was an imposing building that covered six acres, which meant it was 261,360 square feet or 511 feet on a side. It was large enough that it could hold almost five regulation soccer fields, but then that made sense if one considered that inside were nine arenas, the equivalent of a pokegirl center, rooms for the gym leader, his assistants and all the ancillary items needed for a gym.
The grounds around the gym were heavily developed, with topiaries and sculptures everywhere. Kerrik looked it over and pulled a long face. “What a waste of money. They should have built outside arenas and a building just big enough for the other stuff. Tamers should get used to battling in inclement weather as practice for catching ferals. The upkeep on that monstrosity must be outrageous.”
Dominique nodded. “All the gyms are expensive, and that’s even before you consider the cost of repairs from battle damage. Some of those costs can rival the price of a new gym.” When he raised an eyebrow, she shrugged. “I’ve had to investigate and justify budget overruns on more than one gym.”
“Have you had to do that here?”
“I was here about three years ago to investigate when some brilliant tamer used a Bombshell in a gym match. It wouldn’t have been a problem except that she had a bloodstone booster, which of course doubles the power of steel techniques. When she blew up, it destroyed the arena they were in and blew the roof off. The gym assistant was nearly killed and the tamer and all the pokegirls in the room were badly hurt.”
Kerrik gave a low whistle. “What did they do to the tamer?”
“Nothing. The gym leader had a long talk with his assistant about checking for boosters on pokegirls and they changed their rules to forbid their use in gym battles.” She smirked. “At least it’s forbidden for the challenging tamers to use them.”
Scheherazade looked around slowly, her tail twitching. “Are we going to the gym? Tradesmen don’t challenge for badges.”
“No, but it’s easily the largest thing in town, making it an obvious first conversation topic. We’re looking for either the town mayor or someone else who can tell us what properties are for sale.”
“What are we looking for?” Dominique studied her fingernails in an exaggerated attempt to look disinterested that fooled nobody. “It’ll have to have a room big enough for me to have my workshop.”
“Let’s see what’s available. We can always tear out walls if we have to, or even claim an abandoned building outside town for our work.”
“Derry’s full of ghost pokegirls. Other than that, it would be the best choice to claim buildings.” Dominique looked at him intently. “They could cause a lot of trouble.”
Kerrik frowned. “How full is full? Are they crowded shoulder to shoulder?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always traveled through Derry in the daylight.”
He nodded. “Well, I’d prefer not to have a place that needs a lot of repairs, but if we have to, we’ll try heading north to Dunree and see if something there is livable. The museum would have more than enough room for your workshop.” Kerrik rubbed his eyes tiredly. “We probably should be planning to keep enough money so we’ll have a place afterwards, but the truth is that I don’t know if we can reasonably expect to beard the Goth lion in her den and get away with it.” He looked at each pokegirl in turn. “I’ve got a responsibility towards you three and I’m starting to wonder if we shouldn’t just vanish forever.”
“How would you do that?”
“We’d move to another league, register me as a tamer under a new name and go from there.”
Scheherazade shook her head. “My precognition says that leaving the Blue League is a really bad idea unless we’re going after Sanctuary.”
Eve frowned and her eyes glowed softly. Abruptly her face twisted unhappily. “She’s right. You’re only safe from detection in the Blue League. Somehow this land resonates with your existence and because of it you and any pokegirl attuned to you cannot be traced.”
“Shit. Then we don’t leave the Blue League. I guess we’ll try our luck here. The only other easy choice would be Killarney and I don’t want to try my luck with Nicodemus Azrael.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s too much like me, only he’s not a renegade.”
Scheherazade’s ears flicked. “I don’t understand.”
Kerrik sighed. “Ok, there are two types of people in the world, those who divide people into groups and those who don’t. I happen to be part of that first group. To me, there are five groups that people fall into. There are sheep, wolves, sheepdogs, fallen sheepdogs and renegade wolves. I’m a renegade wolf and Nicodemus is a wolf.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Sheep are easy to explain. They’re like kattle, only not so bright. They’re easily led or herded and easy prey for the wolves. Sheepdogs are the ones who protect the sheep. A fallen sheepdog stopped protecting sheep and now preys on them. A wolf, of course, sees sheep as his natural prey, while a renegade wolf has made a conscious decision that the sheep usually need protected.”
“Usually?”
“If anyone threatens you ladies, I’ll kill them without a second thought.”
“What’s the most dangerous?”
“It depends on to whom. A fallen sheepdog is the most vicious predator of sheep since the sheep tend to trust one until it’s too late. A renegade wolf is the worst hunter of the other predators since, unlike a sheepdog; he’s a killer first and has all the skills to trick sheepdogs, sheep and now other wolves. The Goths screwed up royally by letting me escape and, if I were alone, I’d shove it up their ass and break it off short.”
“So why would you be worried about this Nicodemus Azrael?”
“He has a wife named Isabella and she has a past. Eventually I’d accidentally say the wrong thing and they’d decide I was from Isabella’s family and was an advance guard for them. At that point I’d know too much and someone would decide that I needed to die. I’d either vanish or get fed to their Shrine Priestess.”
“Could they be trusted if you simply told them what was going on?” Eve shrugged when Kerrik gave her an incredulous look. “Lying isn’t usually my first choice about how I live my life.”
“Nicodemus and Isabella are on the run from Team Zenith in the Silver River League. They don’t take strangeness well.”
“If they’re running from a team, they should understand the reasons for subterfuge,” the Megami-sama countered.
Kerrik smiled suddenly. “I don’t think I was clear. They are running from Zenith because right before they quit the team, Nicodemus barbecued one of their leaders. Isabella’s family is still looking for her and if they find her, they’ll kill Nicodemus and drag her back to the league so she can participate in an arranged marriage to a man who happens to be the descendent of Spanish nobility. He’s also her third cousin and his family has hidden the fact that his great grandfather got his grandfather off of an Ingénue that they presented as a human woman.”
Eve looked shocked. “They were part of a team?”
‘Nicodemus was one of the best they had in Montevideo. He’s also quite capable of killing at the drop of a hat.”
Scheherazade gave him a proud look. “He’s not the only one.”
Kerrik rolled his eyes and then let out a deep breath as he got a grip on his irritation. “Nicodemus is what I could have been if I hadn’t made a specific decision not to live that life. I know what he’s capable of and if we’re living in the same community and he suspects I know about his family’s past, the only way I won’t die is if I get him first. So if we end up in Killarney, I’ll probably do him before he ever finds out about me, making Isabella a widow and any children without a father. Is that what you want?”
All three pokegirls stared at him for a moment before Dominique nodded slowly. “I think the mayor’s office is on the other side of town. If I remember correctly, he works out of his house.”
***
Eve pulled the curtains back and sighed when she realized that the bed was already emptier than it should have been. She smacked the lump under the sheets and it grumbled. “When did he get up?”
“He said he couldn’t sleep.” Dominique poked her head out of the bedding and grimaced sleepily at the morning light. “It was around three, I think.”
“He’s not supposed to go anywhere alone, remember?”
“He said he was going downstairs, not outside. I’m not going to hold his dick while he pees, you know.”
“You will if he’s going outside or you’ll spend a lot more time remembering what it’s like to not have a dick in you.” Eve leaned down until she was nose to nose with the Archmage. “He wants us to work together, and I want him to stay alive. I’ll chance his anger over beating your ass long before I’ll let you put his life in danger.”
Dominique moved backwards on the bed. “I get the message. I thought Scheherazade was the dangerous one about him.”
Eve sat on the bed and reached out to touch Dominique on the nose. “I know you’re trying desperately to assert as much independence as you can, but if he gets killed, then we all go our separate ways. I will end up with another tamer, one not nearly as good as he is. Scheherazade will try to find a new crusade and a new general, but she’s the only one of her kind so she’ll be taken and harvested for eggs. Then she will be forced into breeding via parthenogenesis for the rest of her life.” Her eyes filled with sadness. “And you will be caught by Marcus and broken to his will.”
Dominique’s face went ashen. “That’s what you see,” she asked in a whisper.
“It is. If he dies, all of our lives go back to what they would have been if we’d never met him. We go back to just being pokegirls.”
The Archmage slipped out of bed and reached for the robe they’d bought for Kerrik as a housewarming gift. “I’ll find him.”
“Dominique? Don’t let him know you’re guarding him. We all want to be with him, so just let that be why you went looking for him.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” She headed downstairs.
Eve made the bed and stepped into the hallway only to pause when she saw the Dread Wolf leaning against the wall with folded arms. She waited for a moment before speaking first. “Yes?”
“Was that really necessary?”
“Where is she?”
“She just headed out the front door. She’ll figure out that he’s in the back yard in a minute or two. I was watching him from our window when I heard your pack of lies.”
Eve ran fingers through her hair. “She’s the weak link. We need her to help keep him safe and complacency on her part will get all of us killed. So I gave her a little scare with some cobbled together prophecy. It’s not an unlikely set of events if he dies. We will have to continue on without him.”
Scheherazade pushed away from the wall with a grunt. “Only if we survive his death. I don’t intend to.”
Eve grabbed her by the arm. “Are you that stupid?”
“Has he given you one of his ‘I’m yours and you’re mine’ speeches? Well he’s right. We live or die together. I will not survive him just so another tamer can stick his dick in me.”
“And do you want the opposite? Do you expect him to die if you do?”
“I expect him to survive because he’ll still have the two of you to take care of and he takes that responsibility so seriously it’s frightening. If I’m the last of us to fall, I doubt he’ll live long. You know what Dominique is making for him and I believe he’ll use it.”
Eve shivered. “I try not to think about it. I was worried when he explained what a dead man’s switch is, but when he told us what he wanted, my heart stopped.”
Scheherazade shrugged. “Dominique is making it first. She’s almost finished.”
“I thought she didn’t let anyone except him in her workshop.”
“She doesn’t. I didn’t care about her rules. As long as I don’t touch anything, she has no clue what I do. Her sense of smell is not as good as mine and my spells neutralize my presence.”
“You still don’t trust her?”
“I don’t trust you when it comes to his absolute safety. She’s honest and loyal, at least so far. He trusts all of us and I’m still trying to decide if he’s foolish or if he knows something we don’t, something that lets him be that confident.”
Eve cocked her head. “It’s the second one and perhaps a bit of the first. Somehow he knows that each of us can be trusted to do what needs done.”
“We’re not enough. He needs more power.” Scheherazade’s ears were half flattened at something only she could see. “You know it too.”
“My vision is clearer than yours and I can see that we’ll find it. Both in him and somewhere on our journey, we will find what he needs.”
“You’re sure?”
The tone in her question begged for Eve to reassure her and the Megami-sama didn’t hesitate. “I am.”
After all, this time it was the truth.
***
Kerrik sat and watched while Scheherazade practiced with her energy blade. All of them practiced regularly, during which they worked on overcoming the paradigm that limited their behavior.
Pokegirls in human society trained to battle each other, with tamers overseeing the bouts. In many ways that training was a mistake for everyone involved. It focused them on combat that was inherently nonlethal, which meant that the pokegirls were mentally at a severe disadvantage for combat in which they might have to kill. This meant they were limited in their automatic responses when they went out to fight their real foe. Feral pokegirls operated under no such limits and it was this that was the major contributor in tamer fatalities. Ferals would target a tamer just as easily as the man’s harem and those with reduced feral states might be aware enough to make targeting the tamer their highest priority.
That’s why the leagues developed the tradesman program. Professional pokegirl hunters didn’t necessarily go hunting to capture pokegirls. They went out to make a living removing troublesome ferals, and the safest way was to kill them, preferably at a distance. This allowed real problem animals to be destroyed while the tamers hunted the random ferals and civilized them for use. Because of these differences, both the tamer and the tradesman had their place in the scheme of things, even though most tamers didn’t realize this and usually decried the tradesman as a mere shadow of what the tamer was.
However, it was interesting to note that the reason that tradesmen weren’t legally bound to accept challenges from tamers was not for the protection of the tradesmen and their harems. Conditioned to kill before considering capture and having plied their trade for decades, a tradesman’s harem would burn its way through most tamer harems before the tamer could realize what was going on.
He flipped open a small notebook that he’d brought with him and began writing. It was a way he’d dealt with fears and other issues when he wasn’t sure he should discuss them with others.
I don’t know what’s happening to me. It’s like my consciousness is expanding and contracting and it’s scary. I’m starting to know things that I wasn’t around to experience and things that I didn’t write in my stories. I wish this power would either go away or become controllable. I’d give a couple of fingers to know what the Goths were up to right now, or if they were even looking for us.
One of the things I’ve found out with this erratic gift is that I now know that Eve has manipulated Dominique into guarding me as fervently as she and Scheherazade are doing. I wish I could keep this from happening, but she’s right. If I die, then their lives go back to being the hell that they were before, and my curse to them would be that they’d now realize where they were and how much their life sucked.
If all you have ever known is hell, it’s not that bad.
Not that life with me is heaven. I’m too stubborn and set in my ways. I’m also really too old for them, although Dominique’s spell makes that less of an issue. Now there’s hubris for you, the idea that I’m older than a couple of pokegirls who are older than the country I used to live in. However, there is a very good reason most tamers are kids. Still, I wish I could find a way for them to be happy that didn’t involve mortal danger. Even though I understand that this is the lot of a pokegirl, it’s not right for them to have to put their lives up for mine.
But there’s nothing I can do about it right now. They’re just as much a target for our foes as I am. I don’t want them to die, but I don’t want to die either and so I’ll take all the help I can get.
But what do I do if I start loving them? Or should the question be when?
He read his words and glanced around him before tearing the sheet of paper out of the notebook. He wadded it up, stuck it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. After a second’s reflection, he ate the blank sheet underneath it too.
“What are you writing?” He jumped as Scheherazade paused and eyed him critically.
“Nothing yet,” he said as he showed her the empty sheet. “I’m hoping for ideas on how to ensure we don’t all end up as dino chow.”
“When we’re finished here, Dominique wants us to start teaching you magic.”
He looked at the blank piece of paper for several seconds before meeting her gaze. “It has to happen eventually.”
“You don’t sound excited.”
“If circumstances were less dire, I’d be more than thrilled about learning magic. All I can manage right now is numb. I’m not hero material and this constant danger hanging over us all is draining. Do you know what my definition of adventure is? It’s something screamingly horrible happening to someone else very far away. If it’s happening to you, all you see is the screamingly horrible part.”
Scheherazade squatted in front of him and looked worriedly at him. “You’re going to be ok.”
“We both know your confidence is just an approximation of facts not in evidence, but thanks.” He pushed to his feet and tucked the notebook under his arm. “Let’s get this started.”
***
Dominique dropped her voice as she leaned towards Eve. “How’s he doing?”
“Once he masters something, it’s his forever. However, sometimes he has problems wrapping his mind around an idea for a while.”
On the other side of the room, Kerrik chuckled softly as the blue ball of light curved around him and began to orbit his body. “Blue bouncing balls. Someone has a sick sense of humor.”
“See what I mean? He mastered a light globe as soon as it was explained to him, but he’s having problems with offensive spells. I think he’s just on the edge of grasping what’s required, but he’s been that way for the last two days.”
“Have you tested him to see where his strengths lie?”
“We don’t have the equipment.”
Dominique smirked. “Vale does.”
“So?”
“So you’re a graduate. Take him there for testing.” Dominique managed to keep the words “you idiot” from leaving her mouth, but Eve heard them anyway.
Eve considered the idea. “He would be safe there, but he can’t stay unless he becomes a student. Still, I can have him tested and then bring him back here.”
“I can get a lot done while you’re gone. I’m almost finished with the first item. The others will go a lot faster, but this one was so unusual it took longer than I’d expected. I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault, Dominique. I just hope it never gets used.”
“I hope so, too, but if he needs it, he’ll have it. When will you take him to be tested?”
“I’ll go there first and make sure they can find my records as a student. That’ll keep the trouble to a minimum when I show up with him.”
***
Kerrik settled back in the bathtub and let the heat of the bath leech the exhaustion from his body. His eyes flickered in the direction of the door but he didn’t otherwise move when it slipped open and Eve entered the room. She knelt and rested her arms on the edge of the tub before propping her chin in her hands. “You really need to take a break.”
“Miles to go before I sleep, Eve. I’ve got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Dominique is almost done with everything and after that we go hunting.”
The Megami-sama reached out and ran a hand down his chest. “You’ve put on a lot of muscle since we met, but it’ll never be enough and you know it. You can never match us, and you should pace yourself before you tear something vital.” She ran a finger over his lips. “Like you’ve already done twice.”
“I might need that last burst of energy to get out of the way.” His smile was bitter. “So you mighty creatures can continue your fight without smearing me against the floor.”
“Does it hurt so much that we must bear the brunt of the fighting?”
“You’re inside my head. You know the answer to that.”
“I do, and your fear for our safety galvanizes us to work that much harder. We were created by Sukebe to fight. You are supposed to be our leader.”
“Am I failing in that?” He sounded hurt.
“No,” she said quietly. “You need to rest, Kerrik. You’re not sleeping much.”
“Did you know that when you sleep, your dreams are part of the way your mind tries to work out issues that trouble you?” He smiled slightly. “I’ve got some dillies to think about.” The smile vanished. “Of course, I never sleep much. I haven’t since I was a child.”
“Would it help to talk about it? That’s a form of therapy too.”
“What did those tests I took at Vale tell you?”
“I’d rather discuss what’s bothering you.”
“And I’d like an hour of privacy, but I’m not going to get that, am I?”
Eve shook her head. “It’s not safe for you to be alone right now.”
He smacked the water, making it spray wildly. “Damn it, if Sanctuary knew where we were, they’d have moved already. They are about as subtle as army ants.” His head thumped back against the tub. “And it doesn’t matter. We’ll be gone in less than a week.”
“You made me wet.” Eve was looking down at her dress, which was covered with dark spots. She glanced up at him. “You do that a lot.” She stood and stripped off the dress before stepping into the tub with him. “Goddess, that’s hot.”
“Yes, it is. Remember what I said about wanting some time alone?”
“I’m going to wash you. If you’re alone and you fall asleep, you’ll drown.” She straddled his waist and settled down on top of him. When his body didn’t react to her presence, she met his gaze and was shocked at the weariness in them. “What is it?”
“I’m taking us all to die and you don’t know what’s bothering me? We’re going traipsing off to fight Sanctuary. What the hell can four of us do against a fucking country? We’re not going to incite open rebellion among the slaves since most of them haven’t figured out that they’re patsies. I have a fucking Y chromosome and therefore will be persona non grata, and that’s before they realize who I am. After that, they’ll unleash every fucking thing they’ve got and all I can do is hope that what I discover will be enough to convince Evangelion that they’re a fucking threat. Even then, by the time she decides to drag her ass into the fray we’ll all be dead. What, by all that’s holy, has this world done to have the right to demand that sacrifice from us? From you? From the others?” Pain filled his voice as it trailed off. “Why us?”
Eve stretched so the line of her body rested on his and kissed him gently. “We are soldiers in a war that we didn’t start. You are our commanding officer and we will follow you into the fires of hell. You have to take us into that fire because hell brought you here and it will pursue us forever, unless we can make the price they have to pay so high that they are unwilling to feed the maelstrom.” She sighed with relief when she felt his arms slowly go around her. “The question is whether or not we can do that.”
He was silent for several minutes and she scooted down so she could press her ear against him and listen to his heart beating inside his chest while he thought. Finally he spoke. “We can.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We ignore what Evangelion wants.” His voice filled with a grim anger that was more terrifying than the earlier fear. “We strike for the head. She’ll piss around for years, like she has done, even after we report what she may or may not want to hear. During all that time, we’ll have to be on the run. I’m not old, but I don’t have so many years left that I want to spend them looking over my shoulder the whole time. Sanctuary is filled with an arrogance because they’ve never been really hurt. So, we hurt them. We break the rules of war that everyone has recognized with Sanctuary and we go for their fucking leaders. Anyone who lives through it or their new council will decide that we’re not worth the threat. Hell, we’ll probably die doing this, but we will have plenty of slaves for the afterlife.” His eyes glittered. “And before we go for the head, we break their heart.”
Eve wasn’t sure if she was happy or not when his body came alive beneath hers and felt herself responding.
***
Dominique looked at him and then at the rings on the table as he smiled. “They’re beautiful. You do excellent work.”
She smiled warmly. “Thank you.” She picked up the gold ring. “This is the dead man’s switch.”
“How does it activate?”
“Once you put it on, you’ll wear it for the rest of your life. If it ever comes off or you die, it activates. You can also will it to activate if you’re feeling suicidal.” She closed her fist over the ring when he reached for it. “I’m serious. I have no idea how to deactivate it once it’s on.”
“That’s the only way they can’t make me take it off.” He held his hand out, palm up. “I won’t kill myself unless everyone else is dead.”
“Eve told me something about you, and I feel through our link that she’s right.” She met his gaze directly. “I want your oath on that.”
Something shuttered in his eyes. “Sometimes you three know way too much about me. I swear that I will not take my own life unless all of you are dead.”
The Archmage shook her head. “Swear not to take your life unless your entire harem is dead. We might add to it before this is over.”
“What if you’re all captured?”
Her voice was firm. “Then there is still hope. If you take your life at that point, you damn us.”
He gritted his teeth. “Fucking hell. Fine. I swear not to take my life unless my entire harem at that time is dead.”
Dominique dropped the ring into his hand. “Then my life is yours.”
He stared at it for several seconds and then, with a convulsive movement, put it on his ring finger. “Nothing happened.”
“I’m not into flashy magic, Kerrik. You want flash, get a Witch, or better yet, get a Vixxen. She’ll flash you.” He chuckled and watched as she picked up the other ring. “This one duplicates Eve’s armoring ability and gives you an inertial field, like you requested. It’s ingenious, really making your entire body move together if you’re hit so as to avoid you getting splattered inside your armor. You have to concentrate to activate it, but it’s easier than summoning a light globe.”
“I’ll practice hard over the next couple of days. Then we go hunting.”
***
The sun was setting when Kerrik stumbled into the entrance of the cave. His clothing was filthy and torn and fresh cuts ran over his face and arms from a fall he’d taken in getting here. He stopped and began breathing through is mouth as he listened intently for several minutes before easing deeper into the cave. He moved on silent feet until it grew too dark for him to see. There he paused for almost ten minutes before heading back towards the cave entrance, finally slinging his shotgun.
Behind him a shadow flitted from deeper inside the cavern and followed.
An hour later he’d carefully built a tiny smokeless fire and was huddled against the wall of the cave, watching outside as night swallowed the world. He’d collected a handful of berries during his search for firewood and he took his time eating one of them. While the great grape would provide everything he needed for a day, all his stomach knew was that the morsel he’d eaten wasn’t anything close to a full meal and it complained bitterly and loudly about the others that he’d pushed into a pocket. It didn’t help that his traitor nose was telling his stomach about how wonderful and delicious the berries smelled. He tried to quell his stomach’s rebellion by drinking deeply from his canteen, and the trick quieted it for a time.
The stars came out and silence descended on the world until the crickets began warming up in their eternal and yet ruefully short search for a mate. Kerrik sighed and curled up to fitfully doze the night away.
The shadow had watched him until he seemed sound asleep and then slipped forward. Without hesitating, it grabbed him and jerked him around to slam into the floor of the cave hard enough to rattle his teeth. She grinned down at him. In the flickering firelight, her white hair and eyes were reddish gold. “Well, well, what have we here?” She smirked as he slowly reached for the shotgun and flicked it farther away with her fingers. “Nice try, but I’m not feral. Did you lose your harem?” She grinned when he nodded. “It appears you’ve had a spot of bad luck, Mr. Tamer. It’s lucky for me, because I’m going to get laid tonight.”
“Don’t hurt me,” Kerrik whimpered.
“What do I get if I don’t? Will you actually participate instead of lying there?” Buttons flew as she tore his shirt open. “Cause if you do and you satisfy me, I’ll let you go unharmed in the morning.”
Hope filled his eyes. “Promise?”
She leaned down and licked his lips. “Cross my heart and hope to die if I’m lying. But I do like being on top.”
He grinned up at her, his fear vanishing. “I can live with that.”
“I’ll bet you can,” she said seductively as she stood and slipped out of her diaphanous gown. Kerrik quickly stripped and she came into his arms.
She wasn’t in the mood for foreplay and quickly slipped him inside her, leaning down to kiss him as she began to rock up and down on his cock. She chuckled. “We’ll get that first orgasm for both of us out of the way and then take our time with the others.” Sitting up, she lifted his head to her breast and moaned as he suckled. A gasp escaped her when he slipped a hand down to stroke her clit while she rode him. “Yes,” she murmured, throwing her head back. “Harder.” She made a happy noise when he complied and shuddered as a thin scream came from her throat. Her movements slowed as she came down from her orgasm and she gave him a lazy smile as she rolled her hips in a circle.
Her eyes went wide as eight silver razors erupted from her chest and ripped sideways, showering Kerrik with gore as she toppled forward onto him. Scheherazade buried the armored claws of one hand in the back of the dying pokegirl’s skull and dragged her off of Kerrik as he rolled onto his side and threw up. He wiped his mouth and glared at her. “Why the hell did you wait so long for?”
The Dread Wolf’s armor vanished. “I wanted her distracted before I struck. She’s too powerful to treat lightly. That and it didn’t seem right to kill her before she came.”
“You’re fucking kidding me!” He grabbed the gown and scrubbed futilely at the mess covering his body. “She could have killed me.”
Eve appeared with Dominique. “Scheherazade is right. She needed to be distracted before we struck.” The Archmage muttered and pointed a hand at Kerrik. Icy water sprayed over him.
He gasped and began trembling from the cold. “F, f, fuck, y, you could have warned me,” he finally managed to get out as the water washed the worst of the gore off of him.
“We don’t know if she could detect that kind of communication or might have had some way to see what you knew,” Eve said simply. “I’m just glad she fell for your lost and abandoned tamer ruse.”
“Enough with the water,” he said around chattering teeth. “I’m just glad my idea for finding her worked.”
Scheherazade grinned as Dominique ended the spell. “Using the celestial awareness to locate her lairs was a great idea, and then sending in wizard eyes to actually find which one she was in was the perfect ending.”
“It might not have worked if she’d had adequate magical warding up. Fortunately she relied too much her other innate defenses. He turned the gown inside out and wiped down the worst of the water. “Eve, give me your sword.”
She shook her head. “I can do it.”
He held out his hand. “I know you can. Now give me the fucking sword.” Without another word from her, it materialized and she held it out. “Thank you.” He hefted the weapon and moved towards the corpse.
***
The pretty short haired brunette looked up when the mail person came in with a box. “Package for you, ma’am. It was sent by teleport express from the Blue League. Security checked it and didn’t find anything odd in it, but it’s magically sealed so only you can open it.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Really? Thank you.” She nodded at a side table. “Put it over there and I’ll take a look at it in a minute.” She returned to her paperwork. While her tamer didn’t have an official position in the Capital League, he was one of their premier troubleshooting combat tamers and, due to her presence in his harem, closely affiliated with the Grand Harem Master himself. Both of those things brought a certain amount of red tape into their lives and since Mark didn’t have the personality to deal with it, the job fell to her. She didn’t mind. None of it was too irksome, and when it became too much of a chore she tended to throw it into a fire and convince Mark to take them out on patrol while her family tried to figure out what happened. They’d learned and only sent her what was actually essential to hers and Mark’s jobs.
After an hour or so she leaned back and stretched. Her eyes drifted to the side table and she blinked when she saw the box. “Whoops, forgot about that.” She frowned slightly as she contemplated it without getting up from her desk. Most packages came for Mark and were usually things from adoring fans, both human and pokegirl. She tended to let him have the innocuous ones and quietly dispose of the panties and pornographic pictures and offers without bothering him with them. She considered it part of her job.
She got up and moved around so she could pick up the box. It wasn’t all that heavy and she estimated the weight at twenty pounds or so. She shook is gently and felt no movement inside. Placing it on her desk, she went to get her letter opener from the drawer where she kept it.
The mystery increased when she opened the box only to find another box inside it. An envelope had been taped on top of the box and neatly printed on it was her name. Carefully she opened the envelope and shook out the single sheet of paper. Her eyes went wide at what she read and she reached for her phone.
A few minutes later a tall, heavyset man entered the room in answer to her almost frantic summons. She knew him as Mark Calloway, but his call sign around the world was The Undertaker, and it was much more well known than his real name. “What is it, Steph?”
She motioned towards the box. “I received this package and this letter was in it.” She handed him the paper.
He read it:
To Ms. Stephanie McMahon, daughter of Vincent McMahon and Sanctuary Goth masquerading as a Witch. Please deliver this package to the High Council of Sanctuary soonest. It is of the utmost urgency that they receive this immediately.
It was unsigned.
Mark crumpled the letter as his face twisted in fury. That note could cause untold trouble if it fell into almost anyone else’s hands. He made a mental note to destroy it as soon as possible and crammed it into a pocket of his leather duster. “Who the hell would send you this?” His eyes fell on the box. “What’s in there, Steph?”
“Believe it or not, inside it is another box.”
He looked inside the package and shook his head. “You know we have to open it and see what’s inside.”
The second box was made of wood. Carefully, Mark pulled the box out and set it on her desk next to the cardboard one. He looked it over. “It’s nailed shut. I’ll get a hammer.”
“I could just tear it open.”
“Steph, we don’t want to damage it too much in case it does have to go to the Council.” He was back in a minute with a crowbar. “Couldn’t find a hammer, but this is even better.” He drove the crowbar underneath the lid. Nails shrieked as he pried the top of the box up, finally levering it off and laying it to the side.
Stephanie McMahon turned white and stumbled backwards, gagging as Mark spat an oath that seared the wall. Inside the box, the vacant eyed head of the pokegirl Scheherazade had killed stared up at them. It had been packed in salt and a transparent plastic sheet covered it. On top of the sheet was another envelope. Printed neatly on it were two words: The Beginning.
Mark reached out and took the envelope. It wasn’t sealed and he flipped up the flap and pulled out the sheet of paper. He opened it, and in an angry voice began to read. “I, Kerrik Wolf, bid greetings to the High Council of Sanctuary. I hope this missive finds you all in good spirits and excellent health. Since you brought me to this world, I’ve labored to find a way to express my feelings for that event and my subsequent treatment at your hands and the hands of your allies, the Limbec Pirates. It’s been a difficult search because, as you know, you pretty much have everything you think you need. That meant I had to find something really remarkable for you. Gold wouldn’t work and I’m sure you have all the diamonds you could ever want, scraped from the earth by the hands of your devoted slaves. And we both know you don’t want some male slaves as gifts. Perish the thought, indeed. So, if you’ll pardon a rather bad pun considering the vehicle this gift has arrived in, I had to think outside the box. As you can deduce from the amount of time which has elapsed since I left your gracious company and struck out on my own, it took a while to find the perfect gift for such illustrious personages. Finally I realized what you didn’t have and took it upon myself to get it for you. You and she have been separated for so long, I’m sure you’re pleased to have her back amongst you. Since I’m not sure if you can recognize her from her recent adventures, I thought it only polite that I should perform an introduction of sorts, albeit from a safe distance and via this letter. To that end, I present to you your titular mother, Jenova.”
Kerrik Wolf - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (alpha)
Dominique - Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf