Into the Fire
Thirteen
The BLSF Blackguard corporal shook his head as he watched the Sanctuary Goth lying on the floor. Except for her breathing, the enemy pokegirl’s body was completely still and she moaned softly each time she exhaled. The pupils on her eyes were completely blown and she’d been rolled on her side to drain the saliva from her open mouth in order to prevent her accidentally choking to death. “What the hell was in that thing?”
Dominique was standing guard near the door while the search team systematically tossed the flat. “That’s what Kerrik and the guys at New Avalon Industries are calling Paraspray Plus. Considering how well the field test went, it looks like it’ll be a permanent part of your arsenal from now on. I don’t know if they’ll release it for police to use and as for civilians, they’re out of luck.” She nudged the Dameosaur with her foot. “Sylvia must be someone important to have such an easily identifiable bodyguard here in the league.”
Iain was standing with the lieutenant who commanded the Blackguard platoon that had made the initial entry. “What I did was suggest New Avalon Industries add some LSD suspended in DMSO to paraspray. The DMSO allows the LSD to be skin absorbed along with the paralytic agent. Nobody is sure if the Goths can or can’t use their mental powers while paralyzed, so the powerful psychedelic keeps it from being an issue. They get 2000 micrograms or 2 milligrams when sprayed, which is about 20 times a recreational or medical dose. That’s more than enough to keep her from teleporting or using any of her special powers for at least six hours. There is some concern that the dose size could inadvertently kill a small pokegirl, but LSD has never been conclusively linked with an overdose death and, in any case, if you pokeball her immediately it’s not an issue since a healing cycle cleans the LSD completely out of her. I also suggested that they put it into a multiple dose projector for this project as well as for military use. That will help with pokegirls that have too much body weight to be affected by one dose.”
The capture had gone smoothly, at least initially. According to information retrieved during the interrogation of Oliver Duncan, Sylvia owned an antique bookstore through her pet, Mark Andrews. It was suspected that she ran an intelligence operation through the clientele and contractors that did regular work there. What it meant for the capture team, composed of the Blackguard platoon and Iain’s harem, was that Sylvia kept to a schedule.
In this game, if the enemy knew who you were, routine was a killer.
About ten minutes before Sylvia left her flat to go to her job, Eve had knocked on the door while Iain stood beside and slightly behind her, holding a clipboard. When Sylvia had opened the door, Iain had looked up and smiled brightly. “Hi.” The warning that he’d identified anyone as a Sanctuary Goth had been him speaking; otherwise the plan was he’d remain silent while Eve explained the local survey they’d been carrying as a ruse.
Eve had reacted instantly, raising the projector hidden in the folds of her dress and triggering a dose into Sylvia’s face while she was still focused on Iain. The Sanctuary Goth collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut as Eve stepped over the body and ran inside. Iain had been shouldered aside by the Blackguards stationed out of sight on either side of the door. He suppressed a snarl of fury as he watched them follow the Megami-sama. It was his place to be right behind her, but he’d given Eve his word to stay out of the fighting.
This time.
Mark was in the kitchen eating some toast when he’d heard the strange noise and reacted instantly, going for the concealed panel and the pokeball inside. The Dameosaur was still materializing when Eve charged into the kitchen. The Megami-sama waited until the dinosaur pokegirl was done reconstituting before hitting the Dameosaur with multiple doses. She wheeled as Mark picked up a knife and sprayed him too. Paraspray didn’t work on humans but the LSD did. Mark suddenly lost interest in fighting as he dropped the knife and stared at his fingers. He began to giggle quietly.
Eve had busied herself making sure that Andrews wouldn’t die from an accidental overdose while the Blackguard squad had cleared the rest of the flat. The remainder of the platoon had secured the area around the complex under the pretext of searching for terrorists.
Once the flat had been cleared, Iain and the rest of his harem had joined Eve.
The lieutenant blinked. “LSD? That’s not exactly legal, is it, Mr. Wolf?”
Iain shrugged. “The BLSF authorized the use, Lieutenant Vander.” His voice turned dry. “And they’re only pokegirls, right? Well except for Andrews, and he’s a traitorous spy.” The BLSF had taken charge of the search, making it very plain that his presence was only being tolerated because they had orders to do so. They were the professionals, so he wasn’t inclined to argue. Besides, they had guns.
An Espea and a man came through the door, both dressed as BLSF corporals down to the weaponry. He flashed a badge. “Prescott, Department 6. We’re here to take charge of the prisoners.” Behind him a team of soldiers pushed a pair of medical trolleys. “Where is the dino’s ball?”
Eve pointed at the table. “There.”
The Espea knelt and put her hand on the Sanctuary Goth’s forehead. The Goth moaned louder and the pink furred Eva evolution grinned savagely. “Her psychic shields have been shredded by the drugs, but there’s still some magical shielding that’ll have to be worked around once we get back. I don’t foresee any problems with the interrogation.”
Prescott nodded and waved the medics forward. “We’re hoping that by taking both her and her ostensible husband out together in trolleys we’ll have any observers conclude that we don’t know she’s a pokegirl. It may confuse them while we pick her mind clean and give you other locations to hit.” He returned the Dameosaur to her pokeball and held it up. “Mr. Wolf, I’ve been told you’re an expert. Can these things be tamed by humans?”
Iain shrugged. “It’s possible, but I’m not sure how probable it is. I know Sanctuary tries to keep them away from males because they’ve shown sexual interest in them in the past. You could also try bonding her to a female tamer. I’d recommend a lot of testing beforehand and she may need to be L5’d first, which will destroy a lot of her value.”
Prescott slipped the ball into a cargo pocket. “No, it won’t. She will be interrogated, but afterwards she’ll be shipped to a special ranch for forced parthenogenesis as often as her body can handle it. We don’t need her higher brain functions for that. We don’t care about her; it’s the kits we’re after.”
Iain turned slightly green.
Prescott nodded towards where Sylvia was being strapped into a trolley. “What abut them?”
“They don’t go feral, but if they believe they’re subservient to a human they can be bonded like any other pokegirl.”
The Espea grinned again. “I don’t think there’ll be any problem with that happening. We are subservient to humans, after all. That’s what’s best for us and that’s what the kits will grow up with.”
Prescott smiled broadly and stuck out his hand. “Thank you, Mr. Wolf. We’ll get the interrogation results to you as soon as we can so we can proceed with securing the league. Come along, Melissa.” He and the Espea followed the medical personnel out.
An hour later Iain looked out the window of the ambulance carrying them back to the BLSF compound and scowled. Eve patted him on the leg. “Did you really expect to find an ebony stone sitting on the table waiting for us?”
He glanced at her as a smile flickered around his lips. “It would have been nice. Eventually our association with the Blue League will come to an end and I’d like to have a stone before that happens.”
“Do you think that’ll happen sooner or later?”
He shrugged and settled down on the bench next to the Megami-sama. “I don’t know. It depends on how long they’ll be willing to let us play even as I refuse to take their shilling.”
“I was going to ask about that.”
“It’s simple. If they pay me, they’ll feel they own me. If they feel they own me, they’ll feel they can justify giving me all sorts of orders or even vanishing me if things don’t go the way they like or if they feel I am misbehaving.”
“They can still try to do that,” she said quietly.
“I know, but if I don’t work for them, I can at least try to walk away if things get too problematic.” He made a surprised noise and fell against Eve as the ambulance suddenly surged forward. A second later the siren started winding up into a howl. “What the fuck is going on now?”
An intercom clicked. “Mr. Wolf, something has happened in Scotland and we won’t be going to the hospital for the interrogation. Instead we’ll be going to the motor pool where you’ll be switching to a Spectre. You’ll be briefed during the flight.”
Iain started to say something and stopped. And this is what it’s like when you take the league’s shilling. Well, it’s easier to escape from a gunship than it is from a military base. Put the other girls on standby.
The blades on the Spectre’s engines were already at speed and an Eva waved for them to hurry from the main hatch. As soon as they were onboard, the vehicle lurched upwards as the pilot adjusted the pitch on the blades from flat to bite the air. The Eva shoved Iain into the nearest seat and strapped him in. “You stay here,” she half yelled into his ear before slamming a helmet into his hands. “Put this on!” Then she moved to get Eve settled in the seat next to him.
Iain pulled the helmet on and adjusted the straps, cutting most of the noise. He tapped the microphone on the side of the helmet. “Test.”
A female voice came back. “Glad you could join us, Mr. Wolf. I’m Sergeant Carol Johnson and I’m the copilot. We are currently en route to northern Scotland. An airship from the Capital League was discovered there and our celestials suggested that you should visit the place as an expert. Did you know anything about this?”
Iain glanced at Eve who shrugged. “Nope. Why would they want me involved?”
Johnson leaned around so she could see him and shrugged. It turned out she was a Blazicunt. “I don’t know, Mr. Wolf, but I do know that the Capital League is very eager to get this airship back and they don’t want us poking around it. When it was reported, they started issuing orders about how we were supposed to treat sovereign Capital property and they’ve sent some pretty high ranking officials to oversee the recovery.”
Iain blinked. “What did Minister Harris say when she gave you your orders?”
Johnson turned to look at him again. “How did you know?”
“Sergeants are the eyes and ears of the Blue League, but you know political things that they don’t care for since it doesn’t affect their job. Are you undercover?”
Her eyes met his. “I am as far as the Capital League is concerned.”
“I’m not going to tell anyone. Hell, I don’t know anyone in Capital.”
“Are you sure about that, Mr. Wolf?”
“Do you have a name for me, sergeant, or are you just fishing?”
“I happen to hate fish, Mr. Wolf. Does the name Micah Hakubi mean anything to you?”
Iain looked surprised. “I knew that name back home, but I don’t know anyone of that name here. Why?”
“That name has come up in connection with certain events in the Capital League. There are indications that he might be someone like you.”
It just kind of slipped out. “That poor bastard.”
“Why is that, Mr. Wolf?”
“If he’s like me, then he’s got some of the same problems I have.” Iain glanced at Eve. Capital was Micah’s bailiwick. He didn’t have custody of it, but he wrote there. If he is an author like me the fact that he’s running free means he’s either an agent of Sanctuary or he’s managed to escape them just like I did. If he’s escaped, and I really hope he has, and he’s left Capital, then Sanctuary can find him. I really hope he’s aware of that fact.
Her eyes went wide. Can you find him?
I wouldn’t know where or how to begin looking. Besides, I’m not sure that having him with us would make either of us safer. He’s a good guy, at least on the internet, but I know nothing about the real person and in any case I don’t want him luring Sanctuary to us. If we can stop Sanctuary, then he’ll reap the benefits of that alongside us, and then maybe we’ll go looking for him or other authors, if there are any. Or maybe we’ll just leave and they can survive or not as they will. He suddenly realized that Johnson was talking to him. “What was that, sergeant?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “I said, Mr. Wolf, the flight will take a couple of hours before we arrive at the Capital airship. Is something the matter?”
“Sorry, I was thinking about Micah and hoping his situation is better than mine.”
A smile creased the fighting type’s face. “Mr. Wolf, you’re in the hands of the Blue League. Your situation could be a lot worse.”
Iain wisely kept his mouth shut.
***
Iain jerked upright when the voice crackled in his earphones. “Mr. Wolf, we’ll be landing in ten minutes and I wanted to let you know the Capital League representatives have already arrived on the scene. There are three of them in addition to the crew that will be taking the Kite.”
He blinked. “Kite?”
“The Kite is the Capital military airship that was found on Blue soil. Didn’t I mention that?”
“No, you didn’t. So she’s a military vessel now? What, you’re done gleaning all their secrets from it and now Capital can have it back?”
The Blazicunt eyes hardened and it looked like her chuckle was forced. “Please don’t go giving the representatives the idea that you speak for the Blue League. Doing something like that with other people’s property would be rather rude.”
“I won’t.” Iain frowned. “Do you have names for the reps?”
She nodded. “I do. They are Paul Levesque, Mark Calloway and Linda McMahon. The men usually use their combat tamer names of Triple H and The Undertaker. Mrs. McMahon is the wife of Vincent McMahon.”
“The Undertaker and Triple H are here? That’s a lot of firepower for the simple recovery of one lost airship.”
Johnson gave him a shrewd appraisal before nodding grudgingly. “We think so, too. The question then becomes, if they’re not here for the airship, what did Vincent McMahon think could require their overpowered talents in my league? His wife doesn’t usually travel with a bodyguard.”
Eve shrugged. “They’re looking for the crew that brought the airship here, obviously. But it’s doubtful that you’ll get them to tell you what’s special about the crew. If they wanted to tell you, they already would have done so.”
Johnson’s mouth set sourly. “Shit. Bloody closemouthed Yanks.” She blinked. “Present company exempted from that, of course, Mr. Wolf.”
Iain smiled broadly. “I’m not from Capital and anyone on that continent is a bleeding Yankee to me, too.” He glanced at Eve. Linda McMahon is a Sanctuary Goth.
She came upright in her seat, her eyes wide. What do we do?
Stay alert. Keep the others on standby and in the loop. Other than that, if she tries anything, Vince is going to end up a widower.
The Megami-sama’s eyes narrowed. What are you planning?
I guess I’m approaching the definition of insanity, but I want to talk to her.
Insanity?
Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing again and again, each time expecting a different outcome. Still, I really wish I could talk Sanctuary into leaving us alone. Then I wouldn’t have to do what is necessary to convince them that I’m serious about that.
She smiled slightly. And people accuse Megami of unbridled optimism.
It’s not optimism. It’s squeamishness. I don’t want what’s coming added to my karma. However, if they leave me no choice, I will wade to my neck in gore to protect us and our future children.
Eve’s eyes hardened. And if it comes to that I’ll be right beside you.
***
The Eva unbuckled Iain as the Spectre’s engines spooled down. “I hope you enjoyed your flight,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
“Any flight I don’t puke on is a good flight.”
The Eva grinned. “Since I get to clean up after you, I’ll have to agree, sir.”
The Kite was moored to several trees and had been carefully lashed as close to treetops as possible. She was a true military airship, with overpowered engines and what looked like antigravity pods to increase her speed and maneuverability. A group of people stood carefully to one side. They were obviously under the command of two men, one of whose trademark duster and flat brimmed cowboy hat immediately identified him as The Undertaker. A woman wearing slacks and a blouse along with hiking shoes stood to one side, watching the BLSF personnel around the Kite with a sour expression.
Iain glanced to the side as Johnson joined him and Eve. “Mr. Wolf, please wave to summon the lieutenant standing over there. I don’t want the Cappies to know who I am, so you’re the expert come to look the site over and I’m one of your girls. Will you play?”
He nodded and cupped his hands around his mouth. “LIEUTENANT!”
The Blazicunt winced as the lieutenant jogged in their direction. “I distinctly remembered telling you to wave.”
“Yeah, you did, but McMahon already knows we’re here. Eve, summon Dominique. She’s a Blue League officer and can help out.”
The Archmage appeared as the lieutenant joined them. Johnson showed him a badge. “Johnson, Department 6. What’s the situation?”
The lieutenant’s nametag read WELCH. “Ma’am, the Cappies are trying to throw their weight around and are getting pretty loud about it. The Kite was found yesterday morning pretty much as you see her, although we added some more mooring lines when the wind rose last night. The tamer who found her was debriefed and sent on her way to avoid suspicion, as instructed. She’ll be intercepted and interviewed again tonight. The Cappies arrived almost before we did and I get the distinct impression they’d have been happier if they’d won that race.” He glanced at Iain. “Who is he?”
“He’s a specialist.” That covered a multitude of sins, most of them unsavory. “Forget you ever saw him.”
“Yes ma’am. I’ll inform the men. We swept the airship and found that some of the supplies had been stripped. Other than that, it was abandoned, although someone had painted the words ‘Kilroy was here’ across the bridge control panel. I think it’s a code of some kind.”
Iain smiled. “It’s a reference that mostly died out long before the Revenge War. You said she was found already moored?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Johnson, that tells me she was meant to be found. If she wasn’t I’d have scuttled her over the ocean or just set her loose to float away. You might be interested to know that the Kilroy reference could mean the individual we discussed on the flight could be involved. It would definitely not be a common reference among the locals since the events that precipitated Kilroy took place forty years before the Revenge War started.”
The Blazicunt’s eyes widened slightly as Welch headed for his men. “That would explain why the Cappies are wound so tight to get her back. Imagine you’re him. Why would you leave the Kite here?”
Iain glanced at the airship. “Misdirection. I doubt you’ll find him in Scotland, and maybe not in the entire Blue League.”
“Where would he go?”
Iain shrugged. “I don’t know him well enough to guess.”
“Where would you go?”
He snorted. “If I were going anywhere, I’d already have gone there and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. McMahon is coming over here.”
Johnson looked to see the woman marching in their direction. “Shit. Can you stall her while I do some things on the Kite?”
He chuckled as he watched Linda approaching. “She does look a tad unhappy. I’ll be glad to stick a fork in her and see if she’s done. Eve, keep the sergeant company and, if she’s intercepted by the Cappies, make it sound like both of you belong to an officious ass making you do useless checks on a ship that’s already been cleared before he goes aboard. When you get back, if I’m still dealing with Linda, let me know there’s nothing for me to see.”
Johnson blinked. “You’re good at this.”
“Thanks. You’d better get going if you don’t want to deal with Linda.” As the two pokegirls left, Iain glanced at Dominique. Linda is a Sanctuary Goth.
Eve warned me. If she tries to take you things could get ugly. I don’t know if we’re ready to cross blades with Triple H and the Undertaker at the same time.
Fuck no. I can think of a whole slew of better ways to die than that. We’ll run before we fight. Besides, trying to snatch me would let the Blue League know that Sanctuary has tentacles in the highest levels of Capital.
Linda stopped in front of him. “This vessel is Capital League property. When am I going to get it returned to me?”
“All in due time, Mrs. McMahon. While we acknowledge that it’s your property, it’s on our land and certain steps have to be taken before it can be released to its proper owner.” He smiled broadly. “We wouldn’t want something nasty to happen to you because we missed a trap Micah left behind.”
Linda snorted. “I’m not worried about what he might have done. My magic is more than sufficient to sniff out any booby traps.” Her eyes went wide. “How do you know that name?”
Iain smiled again as Dominique shifted slightly beside him. “The Blue League has had one of the best intelligence services in the world since long before pokegirls and Sukebe ever appeared on the horizon, Mrs. McMahon, and we’ve kept that tradition up since. However, I do wish to thank you for confirming that he was on board. I thought he was, but I haven’t had the opportunity to ask him about it yet.”
Linda’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
“Kerrik Wolf.”
The Sanctuary Goth took an involuntary step backwards and stared. “I don’t believe you.”
He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. “I guess Sanctuary hasn’t gotten my picture out to all of their agents yet, but then I am known to be operating in the Blue League so why tell you about me? I must admit I’d have thought they would have at least sent you my image after my package arrived. Thanks for passing it along, by the way.”
She looked around before dropping her voice. “Why did you kill Jenova?”
“Are you asking why I picked her, or why I sent her to Sanctuary?”
“Both.”
“Jenova is revered in Sanctuary, and although she’s not a legendary and really not all that powerful, the fact that she’s been Macavity’s slut puppet for centuries has given her a notoriety that she doesn’t really deserve. Because of both of these things, I had hoped she was an adequate vehicle to convey my message to the High Council.”
“What message was that?”
“Leave me alone, of course.” He smiled when she blinked. “I know that Sanctuary has designs on the rest of the world. I made fun of them on my homeworld for their delusions of grandeur. I also know that when that time comes, you won’t be around to see it. But I really don’t care about their ambitions because they’re not ready yet.”
“What do you mean I won’t be around to see it?”
“Linda, you are a Sanctuary Goth but you weren’t born and raised there. Neither was your daughter. That makes both of you agents for Sanctuary. It also makes you traitors to the Capital League and what it stands for. Nobody trusts traitors because they’ve already betrayed something they’re supposed to be loyal to, and that lack of trust is especially true for the people they’ve joined. The Russians never trusted their American spies and the Americans were the same way towards their Soviet agents. After the first betrayal, it’s too easy to betray again. When Sanctuary takes over, those agents will be first in line to get the chop and then a trusted member of Sanctuary will be put in charge of the assimilation of the Capital League. Considering Vince’s stature, I’m sure you and he will get something suitably dramatic that Sanctuary can use to spin public opinion against leagues still resisting them. I’d have you murdered in some huge explosion that leads to whoever is most successfully resisting the takeover at that point, preferably with forbidden tech so the Goths can use that as an excuse to tighten the screws on everyone. Paul and Mark,” he nodded in their direction, “will undoubtedly also end up as martyrs to the cause.” His eyes hardened. “I’m on that list, too, but they’d be perfectly happy to liquidate me as soon as they can catch me instead of waiting. After all, I’m not famous.”
Linda shook her head. “I really don’t think Sanctuary is as bad as you’re painting it.”
“You and I both know that Sanctuary wants to replace tamers with Goths and move the humans down on the social ladder to be with the pokegirls, but other than that, they’ll change nothing else of the system. You don’t necessarily agree with their philosophy, but then you’re not a native Goth. And believe me when I say that there are trusted Sanctuary agents in Capital, you’re not one of them, and you’ll never know who they are unless they fuck up.” He smirked when she paled slightly. “Were you told what the circumstances were when I was brought to this charming little planet?”
She blinked at the sudden change of topic. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Has it occurred to you to wonder why the two authors that you know about are apparently not inclined to help Sanctuary bring about the revelation and subsequent paradise? After all, most of us do believe some form of equality should be the norm, as least as much as can be possible. Let me fill you in on how I came to your bucolic oasis in the universe. I was going home from work, in my car, when it was yanked into this dimension. I came out over water and moving at a high rate of speed. I’ve been in a car that rolled sideways before, but never one that flipped end over end. I was lucky I didn’t die right then. Then I was captured and knocked out.” He spoke quietly, and Dominique’s eyes flicked in his direction as she listened. Iain hadn’t told this story before. “When I woke up, I’d been captured by those paragons of pokegirl rights, the Sanctuary Goths. They handed me over to their buddies, the Limbec Pirates.” His voice changed; the emotion in it dying away until it sounded completely disassociated, like he was talking about something that happened to someone else. “The Limbecs were gracious enough to put me up in their nicest brig. There, the Sanctuary Goth who oversaw my portion of their operation asked me to join with them and remake the world. When I declined, she tortured me.”
Linda flinched.
“All I had to do for the pain to end was accept her unreservedly as my master.” He shrugged stiffly. “I’m still not sure how long the torture went on, and I’m confident that I don’t consciously remember everything that happened to me. There are large holes in my memories of my stay with the Limbecs. I do know that my time sense was messed up the whole time I was there, and because of it I still sometimes have problems with duration. But to me, it lasted for about ten lifetimes too long. I’m pretty sure the nightmares and the waking fugues don’t have anything to do with my fucked up sense of time, just with the torture itself.”
He rubbed his face. “After I left their kind care, I came to the Blue League. All I wanted to do was rest and heal. Sanctuary sent their agents after me. I sent them Jenova’s head in an unmistakable request to be left alone. Do you want to know what Sanctuary did?” He pulled his pokedex from his belt, pulled up a message and tossed it to her. “I got this from someone whose information I trust. Go ahead.” His voice hardened. “Read it.”
Linda read the message and gasped. Dominique stepped forward and jerked the pokedex from her hands so she could read the note. Her eyes met his and fury sparkled in them. “Does Eve know about this?”
“The fact that I’m not hidden in a basement somewhere would suggest she doesn’t.”
“You didn’t tell her that Sanctuary tried to get Macavity to kill you?” Dominique handed the pokedex to him. “You are in a lot of trouble right now, and not from your enemies.”
“You’ll note that the message says Macavity was completely neutralized.” He put the pokedex away and winced. “Ow.”
Dominique smiled. “Is she yelling at you?”
“Oh, no, she’s way past yelling. Maybe I’ll stay right here because I know she won’t scream at me in front of the league’s people.” He sighed and tucked the pokedex away, speaking in a weary voice. “Do you want to know what the funny thing is, Linda? If Sanctuary would leave me alone, I’d be willing to let bygones be bygones. Yes, I’m pissed about what they did to me. Yes, I’d love to slowly roast that particular Sanctuary Goth and every bitch on that ship to a nice even golden brown that lets out the juices when you cut into it. But the truth is that I have never blamed groups for the actions of individuals and if they’d leave me alone I wouldn’t bother them. Right now I have more important things than revenge. However,” and his voice hardened again. “I have a family now and I am not going to take the chance that one night I’ll awaken to screams because a fucking Tyrannodame has ripped the roof off of my house and is gulping down my children while a capture team is killing my women before subduing me. Sanctuary has proven it won’t leave me alone and so I have no choice but to hurt them until they decide the price of having me is too steep to pay. It’s going to involve killing them until they wise up. I’d try something else, but the truth is that violence is all they understand.” He gave her a crooked smile. “So I’m going to help the BLSF purge the Blue League of every Sanctuary Goth and non-Goth agent of Sanctuary that I can find.”
“What about us?”
“What about you? You haven’t done anything to me or mine.” He cocked his head curiously. “Did you do something to Micah?”
Linda’s eyes flicked away from his. “No.”
Dominique snickered. “I don’t need a spell to know that’s a lie. I do have one up, though, so I’m sure it is.”
The Sanctuary Goth glared at her. “If he’s telling the truth about Sanctuary’s treatment of him, we acted just like Sanctuary did to Micah and tried to insist he work for us. We didn’t torture him, however.” She turned her attention back to Iain. “Do you think you could ask Micah to forgive us for what we did?”
“It doesn’t really matter whether I would or not. I have no idea where he is.”
She blinked. “But you said you hadn’t had the chance to talk to him.” Her eyes narrowed. “And that’s because you don’t know where he is.”
“That deduction is the reason why you’re the brains of the Capital League while Vinny is the showman. I don’t think I could have this discussion with him considering his anger issues that crop up when people disagree with him.”
Linda smiled slightly. “That’s mostly for show, but you’re right. Will you come to Capital and help us with these Sanctuary Goth spies you insist are there? We can pay you well for your assistance.”
“I’m afraid that for the foreseeable future I have prior commitments that won’t allow me the time to help you. However, I suggest you formally talk to the Blue League administration. Considering the fact that Sanctuary is a threat facing everyone, you should be able to convince them to give you any intelligence that applies to Capital. At that time, if I can help you to talk to them, feel free to contact me.”
“Is there a problem, Linda?” It was Paul Levesque and he eyed Iain unhappily as his hand hovered near the pokeballs on his belt. “Is this Blue bothering you?” He sounded eager.
Linda closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before turning to Triple H. “No, Paul, he’s not. I was hoping he could expedite getting our ship back to us, but he’s just a consultant.”
Triple H was a combat tamer and he was frustrated at all the waiting. His voice was heavy with challenge as he looked Iain over disdainfully. “And what do you consult?”
Iain fought not to smile, as it would only irritate the veteran tamer even more. “Mr. Levesque, like you, I make problems go away without any fanfare. I was sent out here to make sure that the Kite’s presence didn’t signify the kind of trouble that I’d have to get involved in. The evidence so far suggests it’s not.”
Triple H smiled grimly. “And who are you?”
Iain shrugged. “You won’t have heard of me. My name changes to suit the operation, Mr. Levesque, so any that I gave you now would be worthless in a few days.”
“Oh.” Realizing that Iain was not going to be successfully baited, Triple H drifted back towards The Undertaker and the airship’s crew.
Linda watched him go. “He would have recognized your name, Mr. Wolf. Don’t we all crave to be recognized?”
“Mrs. McMahon, all it would have done is pissed him off when the man who killed Jenova refused to fight him.”
Curiosity appeared in her eyes. “Not many get the chance to spar with Triple H. I’m surprised you turned the opportunity down.”
“I don’t have anything to prove, least of all to myself, and I have no intention of letting my ladies get beat up just so I can say I fought with Triple H. It would be a lie anyways, unless it was a grand melee fight. And I would be crazy to do that.” He looked to the side. “Now I see that Carol and Eve are coming back, so I’m afraid I probably won’t get to talk to you anymore. If that is the case, Mrs. McMahon, I hope you have a nice day.” He watched her head for her group and sighed softly. “Micah, wherever you are I hope your life is going more smoothly than mine. May you find the peace we all deserve this side of the grave.”
***
“WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME?” Eve’s furious glare tried to pin him in place. “DIDN’T YOU THINK I NEEDED TO KNOW THAT MACAVITY WANTS TO KILL YOU?” They were back at the cave where he and Scheherazade had lived when they first came to the Blue League. “HOW CAN I PROTECT YOU IF YOU KEEP THESE SORTS OF THINGS FROM ME?”
When it became obvious that this pause was a wait for Iain to respond and not just one so she could take another breath, he shrugged. “Eve, Magdalene said that the situation had been resolved. I believe her, and we have more than enough to worry about than a threat that isn’t.”
A snarl from the cave entrance stopped Eve’s response. The Megami-sama whirled and hurled a lightning bolt at the Doggirl who crouched in the opening. “I! AM! BUSY!” Each word was hurled along with another lightning bolt. The hapless Doggirl vanished as she was blasted into the cave in a spray of blood. Eve turned back to him to see Iain picking his way up the facing of the hill. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
He held up a pokeball. “The cave. She’s probably dying in there.”
Eve’s face twisted and she snatched the ball from his hand. “You stay right here. The way your luck works they excavated out the back of the cave to make room for them and there are a hundred or more Doggirls in there waiting for you.” She lifted off and flew into the cave.
When she came back, he was sitting on the ground and watching the river below. Eve landed in a sitting position next to him and wordlessly handed him the pokeball. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “Iain, you’re going to drive me to Fallen Angel if you keep this up. Stop working against me.”
He pressed his shoulder against hers. “Eve, I’m not working against you and Megami-sama don’t turn into Fallen Angels.”
She gave a harsh laugh. “Around you they might.”
“I made a decision not to burden you with information that would have just worried you for no reason. It’s done. If yelling makes you feel better, you go right ahead. However, the decision stays and next time I’ll probably decide the same way.”
Tears glittered in her eyes as Eve gave him a look of hopelessness mingled with fear. “Why would you do that to me?”
Iain took her hand and squeezed it. “We have to face Sanctuary. We have to face other opponents on the way, and you’re working yourself to the bone to make sure we’re prepared for it. You are doing as much as humanly possible and I won’t have you fretting about something that we can’t control. I know you’re not sleeping much from the stress. If it weren’t for healing cycles, you’d have already dropped by now.”
She sighed and squeezed back. “You only know I’m not sleeping because you’re up too, and you can’t be put into a pokeball for healing. Is it the nightmares?”
“Yes, but now they’re all about watching you and the others die because of me.”
“We will do what we have to,” she said simply. “What else can we do?”
“I love you, Eve. I don’t want you to die, and because of it, I’ll always put myself in harm’s way to try and save you.”
“What, what did you say?”
“I love you.”
She shook her head slowly. “Of all the times to admit it, it would have to be now. Iain, you know why I’ll never let you die for me. I’m not going to let the man I love sacrifice himself to save me.”
“Then I guess we’ll all have to be careful to survive, won’t we?”
“Iain, you can’t love Irena and April. They haven’t been with us long enough.”
“Unless things are utterly desperate, I won’t feed them into the grinder to save us. I like Irena and I am rather fond of April, but you’re right. I don’t love them yet.”
“You’re willing to sacrifice Irena by letting her become a Sanctuary Goth.”
“It’s her decision but, for the record, I’m not done trying to talk her out of it.”
“Will you be able to stand her if she becomes one?”
“I will still care for Irena and welcome her in my life no matter what she looks like or evolves into. Eve, I don’t hate all of Sanctuary for what happened. It was their leadership who forced me here. Considering that because of their actions I am with you, I’d be willing to thank the High Council if I didn’t know they’d kill all of you to get me.”
She sighed. “It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? Do you think we can hurt them enough to leave us alone?”
“As soon as we’ve hit them hard enough to satisfy us, I think we’ll vanish. The question is will it also be hard enough to give everyone else some breathing room.”
“If your plan works, it should.” Eve crawled into his lap and curled up against him. “But can we live with what we’re going to do?”
His eyes glittered suddenly. “Yes, we can. I think that afterwards, knowing what we’ve done will actually help us to sleep better at night.”
***
“Irena’s not happy at having to stay home.” Dominique’s scanned their surroundings as they walked through one of the market districts in Glasgow.
Iain sighed. “I know she isn’t, but the league doesn’t know about her being with me and I want to keep it that way. My records show I kept her for a couple of days and then she got traded off. I don’t see any reason to give the league any more information than I have to.” He glanced at her. “You said it was a good idea at the time.”
“It was and still is.” The Archmage changed direction and headed for a fruit stand. “It just means you’ll have to make it up to her.”
“Trust me, I intend to.”
Dominique looked over the fruit and raised her voice slightly. “You know, some bananas sound good, sir. Could we get a bunch or two?”
“Pick out what you want.” Iain didn’t like bananas and waited patiently as she haggled briefly with the seller. When she rejoined him he nodded to her. “I’m glad you’re done, because I was just about to tell you to leave it.”
Dominique unclipped the wand from her pokepack and put the bananas into storage. “Why?”
He pointed with his chin. “See the blonde down there, the one in the cream blouse, burgundy slacks and flats?”
The Archmage looked in the direction he was and quickly identified the woman he was talking about as she headed down the street, completely unaware of the two people talking about her. “Are you aware that you know way too much about color and fashion?”
“I dated a seamstress for a while and learned a lot about it in self defense. That blonde is one of our friends that we’ve been looking for.”
Dominique’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that interesting? Are we going to tell our playmates about her?”
“Nope. We both know they’ve already gotten at least two of the tools I asked for and haven’t bothered to share with us, so I think a little freelancing is more than justified since they agreed we’d get the first one we came across.” Dominique’s detect items spell had tracked the ebony stones the league had found during one of the raids while they were being removed from the premises where they’d been discovered. “We’ll follow her and see if she leads us to anything useful.”
“Eve wants you to come home. Now that you’ve identified her, your harem can take turns tracking her.”
Iain snorted. “And what if she meets up with others of her breed? How will you know?”
Dominique grinned suddenly. “Eve wants you to stop being logical.”
“Why isn’t she talking to me about this instead of using you as a go-between?”
“I think she’s hoping I’ll garble something you say and she can use that to jerk you home. Face it; she’s a worrier.”
“I think I figured that out all by myself. The blonde is going around the corner.” The Goth turned unhurriedly and vanished down another street.
Dominique started forward. “Sir, please stay behind me as much as you can and be ready with your armor more than your shotgun. While unlikely, this could be a trap of some sort.”
Iain laughed softly. “Considering the hard looks I keep getting from the cops we pass, if I unlimbered my shotgun I figure it would take roughly half a second after I clicked off the safety before every policeman in Glasgow showed up to give me a good old fashioned beat-down. Armor is definitely my first choice.”
“Just keep that in mind.” They headed around the corner and paused briefly. The street was housing and each side of the street was lined with the cramped connected housing typical of urban dwellings in the Blue League.
Iain scowled. “She must have gone into one of those houses.”
“She could have teleported somewhere else.”
His scowl deepened. “Can you be any more positive about our situation?”
“Sure, she went to get reinforcements because she realized who you are.”
“Fuck.” He shook his head. “Well, it’s not her I’m the most interested in. Let’s take a walk down the street while you scan for our real goal.”
“So we’re down to randomly looking for the stones. That’s so sad. If that’s what we’re going to do, let’s go back to that alley so nobody here sees me cast any spells. Then we’ll walk the street.”
“It’s not completely random. We do know she was here and probably lives on this street.”
“Or is visiting or is some kind of worker doing some work here or a whole host of other reasons that have nothing to do with her living in this area.”
Iain sighed and rubbed his face. “Bloody hell. Do you think I’m clutching at too many straws?” He sounded weary and for an instant he looked far older than his true age.
Dominique met his gaze. “No, I think you’re trying to take advantage of any possible opportunity, but we need to be honest about our chances to find what we’re looking for.”
“I have a good feeling about this.”
The black skinned Archmage looked up and down the alley carefully before smacking him gently in the chest. “Stop it. That’s Eve’s job.” He laughed as she cast the detection spell. When she finished, she glared at him. “It’s not funny.”
“It is from where I’m standing. I’ve gotten feelings about things happening all my life and I’ve learned to listen to them.”
Dominique rubbed her hands together. “Really?”
“I don’t lie to you. Just outsiders.”
“Sometimes I have to check. You’re usually pretty good at lying and it’s hard to spot.” She led him back onto the residential street and headed down it at a brisk walk. “Come along, master, or we’ll be late to our appointment.” She marched him for a good ten minutes before halting and looking around. She flashed him a wide grin. “Keep listening to those feelings.”
“How many?”
“I’m not sure. If more than one stone is clustered together and it’s more than a few feet from me, it would probably feel like a single stone. I don’t sense power levels.” Her eyes grew thoughtful. “But it should be easy enough to modify the spell to do so, especially after I get to examine a single stone and see what its power level is.”
“Save it for later. Right now we’ve got a robbery to plan.”
“What about your rules about force or threat of force?”
Iain shrugged. “She’d try to kill or capture me if she knew who I was, so that satisfies that requirement as far as I’m concerned. Let’s go get the others.”
***
The early morning fog was thick enough to cut and Iain wrapped his cloak tighter around him against the chill. April gave him a sympathetic look and patted him on the shoulder. The fog also muffled sound and he stifled a yelp when, without any noise, Scheherazade suddenly loomed out of the white. She wrapped him up in her arms and the scene jumped as she teleported, coming out in a small living room.
The blonde he’d seen the day before was tucked neatly in one corner. Her head was twisted around to face behind her and a trickle of blood ran from her nose to drip onto her clothes.
The Dread Wolf let him go. “I know we didn’t plan to kill anyone, but she surprised me and I reacted without thinking.” She vanished before he could respond.
He snorted at the already gone pokegirl. “Shit happens and life goes on.”
Eve came out of a door and waved for him to join her. “Let’s go into the cellar so you don’t accidentally block her return teleport.” She led him back through the door and into the kitchen. “The cellar door is there. Dominique is localizing the stone while Irena is peeking through the curtains upstairs and keeping an eye on the street.”
“Pull her back. The fog’s gotten worse and anyone coming will be at the door before she’ll see them. If they see a kid at the window, they’ll know something is wrong.”
“I’ll get her.” The Megami-sama returned to the living room as he headed down the stairs into the cellar.
Dominique glanced in his direction. “The stones are behind this wall. Right now I’m looking for a concealed door.”
“Have you triangulated yet?”
A scarlet eyebrow went up. “What are you thinking?”
“She might not have an urgent need for any evolution stones and so they could be buried in the wall itself to make accidentally finding them almost impossible. If so, there won’t be any room to discover.”
The Archmage blinked. “I hate it when you do that.”
“What?”
“Come up with something I should have considered.”
“I’m a writer and I love mystery stories.” He grinned. “You’d have really hated to watch television with me. I’ve been known to figure out plots and who the bad guy was five or ten minutes into a show, sometimes without any corroborating evidence.”
“I’d have to strangle you in your sleep if you do that to me.” Dominique put her hand against the white painted wall and slowly walked along it. She stopped and shot him a glare. “Damn, I think it’s about six inches inside the wall.”
“Tell Eve you thought of it. I won’t contradict you.”
Dominique grinned. “Ok. Now to look for traps.” She glared at him again. “And, yes, I do know to check for both magical and nonmagical traps.”
“You didn’t hear me say a word, did you?”
“Keep it that way.”
He chuckled softly until Eve’s voice floated down the stairs. “Kerrik, what do you want us to do with the Goth?”
“I didn’t want her dead, but what’s done is done. Take her somewhere else, search her for valuables and dump the body out to sea.”
“I’ll send Shay. We’re going to stay up here so we don’t crowd you down there.”
Iain glanced at Dominique as she created an energy blade. “Help?”
She didn’t look at him as she made a large circular cut around the spot where the stone was hidden. “One.”
He nodded and raised his voice slightly. “Send April down to assist. If anyone shows up, I’ll be right up to see if they’re who they seem to be.” He glanced at Dominique. “Send her down with a couple of sheets and a pillowcase for the debris.”
The Archmage shot him a look as she dismissed the blade. “You’re doing it again.”
“We are supposed to back each other up, Dee. I won’t apologize but you can claim credit for that one, too.”
“If you’re going to be that way, then I forgive you.”
April came down the stairs with the requested bedding slung over her shoulder. “What am I doing with this?”
Dominique pointed at the floor in front of the circle she’d just cut. “Lay the sheets down here. I’ll drop the chunk of wall in the middle of it and we’ll carefully break it up. The dross goes in the pillowcase for later disposal. After all, we want to leave as few clues for the police as possible.”
April spread the sheets out, layering one on top of the other. “Ready.”
Dominique put her hands on the cutout and muttered a spell. Then she slowly stepped backward. The spell made the stone stick to her hands and it slowly slid out of the wall as she backed up. A musty odor filled the room as the damp earth behind it was exposed. “April, look behind the block and see if you can see the ebony stones.” The strength belt made it possible for her to lift the block of stone, but the balance was bad and her voice was taut with strain.
“I really doubt we’ll get that lucky.” The Duelist summoned a light and looked behind the stone. “Surprise, surprise. I see a discolored spot where it looks like the material is different.”
“Excellent. That should be where the stone is.” Dominique put the stone down on its edge and cancelled the spell so she could lean it forward and lay it down with the back facing upwards in the middle of the sheets. In the center was an obvious place where a different type of concrete had been used to patch a hole in the wall. “Now we need to be very careful not to break the ebony stone. We also don’t want to touch it either, unless you fancy being a Sanctuary Goth like Irena does.”
April blinked and pulled her hand back. “I’ll get some gloves.”
“Bring some for me too, please.” Dominique looked at Iain. “What about you?”
“I’m PSH, so it shouldn’t affect me.” He shrugged when both pokegirls gave him unhappy looks. “I’ll end up holding it with Irena when the time comes, if she doesn’t change her mind.”
“Then you can hold it at that point, but I don’t see any reason to tempt the fates with my new male any more than necessary. You get gloves too.” April headed upstairs.
Iain shook his head. “I know it’s all you ladies trying to protect me, but can we pretend I get a say too?”
“You do and you know it. All you have to do is put your foot down and make us all unhappy.” Iain muttered something and she grinned. “I don’t speak much German, but I do know what those words mean. Naughty, naughty.”
“Fuck.”
“I know what that word means too.” He just gave her an even look as his eyes filled with threat. “You know, you do that well. If I didn’t know how much you care about us, I’d be worried right now.”
He smirked. “I know. I used to be able to run people off with just a glare.”
April returned and handed out some rubber gloves. “I found these under the sink. It seems like most people keep their cleaning supplies there. Do the people of your world keep them under the sink too?”
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I had gloves staged in a couple of places depending on where I needed to use them. And, yes, that did include under my sinks.”
Dominique looked at April. “I don’t suppose there was a hammer under the sink? I don’t want to take a chance on cutting the stone with my energy blade.”
“I didn’t see any there. Want me to search for one?”
Iain headed for a low shelf. “I see a claw hammer. Some nails, too, which you can use as a wedge.” He handed the items to Dominique and went back to leaning against the wall.
“Thanks.”
“Glad to help.”
April frowned. “Iain, how can the nails help? I’ve driven nails into concrete before and they work perfectly well.”
“You were spacing them out evenly, which keeps them from unduly stressing the concrete. However, if you drive them in a close line they’ll either break the stone or put a stress fault in that will help guide the break when you tap it with the hammer. They drove wedges into cut large pieces of stone to separate them throughout history, and it’s still used in quarries in modern times for the same purpose.”
The Duelist looked surprised. “You know the strangest things.”
“Writers do a lot of research for stories and I wrote a science fiction novel about two groups of aliens fighting in the city of Nineveh during the time of the Akkadian Empire.”
Dominique began tapping nails into the rock. After the third one, the cement sheared along the nails. She grinned and moved to another spot, slowly trimming away the stone until a glimmer of green appeared in the patched spot. “What’s this?”
Iain joined them and poked at it with a gloved finger. “Fabric. They wrapped the stone in a scrap of cloth to keep it clean. Work it free so we can clean up and get out of here.”
Once the green cloth was free, Iain took it and carefully unrolled it. A round black stone with a brightly glowing infinity symbol floating in the middle of it was revealed. He grinned. “Paydirt. Clean up and let’s get out of here.”
He took charge of the stone while the rubble strewn sheet was rolled up and crammed into the pillowcase. Then they headed upstairs. Irena looked at the satisfaction on their faces and grinned at them. “You got it!”
Iain nodded. “We did. It’s time to evacuate. Ladies, we’re off to the rendezvous. As planned, Eve and I are the last out”
April was still mastering teleport, so Scheherazade took her while Dominique took Irena as her passenger. Eve waited until they were gone before going to the middle of the flat and lifting off to hover in the air. She murmured the spell she and Dominique had designed and began to glow. The glow flowed off her body like liquid and spread to cover the floor, climbing up the walls and over the ceiling and furniture until everything in the room, including Iain, glowed with the spell. Then it faded away, having obliterated any DNA that Iain or his harem had inadvertently left behind.
Eve landed and took his arm as he grinned. “I think I’ve just been exfoliated.” He adjusted the crotch of his pants. “Completely exfoliated, and it’s a bit uncomfortable. I need a shower.”
“You’re hopeless.”
“I’ll let you wash my back if you change your mind.”
She fought to suppress a smile and lost. “Ok, maybe not completely hopeless.”
They vanished.
***
Eve peered around the corner and glanced at him. “It’s clear.” They turned into a long hallway and headed down it at a rapid trot. They were about halfway down it when the entire ceiling exploded into brilliance, creating a light so absolute that they cast no shadows in the glare.
Abruptly the light dimmed until it was a soft glow. They could see movement up ahead at the end of the hall where it opened out into the Sanctuary High Council chambers. A figure peered at them and stepped out of sight. The opening was suddenly blocked as a huge head dropped into view, its mouth open to show huge knifelike teeth.
Light flared deep in the throat.
Eve stepped in front of Iain, blocking his view. “I love you. Try to get away.” The hyperbeam took her in the chest and she exploded, showering the area and Iain with gore and knocking him sprawling.
He wiped his eyes clean and lurched to his feet, weaving as his world shattered along with the delta bond. “Damnit, Eve, you could have pulled me out of the way instead of leaving me alone.”
Footsteps thundered at inhuman speed and he clawed for his shotgun, only to come up empty handed. The Dameosaur leapt and raked with the huge killing claws on her feet. The talons ripped through his sternum and down. Pain exploded through him as he fell backwards.
Iain sat up with a gasp and bit down hard on his hand to keep from screaming as his heart pounded in his chest. Next to him, Dominique stirred softly and then went back to sleep without opening her eyes.
He sat still for a few minutes until his heart slowed and then reached for his pokedex. It lit up as he activated the clock function. He read the numbers, sighed and put it down. It was way too early and sleep was now impossible, like too many nights that had already passed. His voice was so low as to be almost inaudible. “At this rate the Goths won’t have to kill me, I’ll do myself for them instead.”
After slipping on his shorts, he headed silently down the stairs. Irena was sitting at the kitchen table, wearing only a pair of panties and staring into a cup of tea. She jumped when he put his hands on her shoulders, but relaxed with a guttural moan when Iain’s fingers dug in and he started massaging her. She looked up at him with a smile. “I can see why Scheherazade turns to putty when you do this. You’ve got wonderful hands.” A frown appeared. “You’re not sleeping again? Is it the nightmares?”
“Yes it is. So why are you up and looking so serious?”
“Lying to you is a waste of time, isn’t it?”
Iain nodded. “That and it doesn’t help me to trust you.”
“I’m scared.”
His hands tightened on her skin. “You don’t have to do this.”
She sighed. “You heard what Eve said. I have to.”
“No, you volunteered and she checked to see if it would make things easier. You do not have to do it. If you don’t become a Sanctuary Goth, we can still do this.”
“It’ll be harder to accomplish.”
“Life is a series of tradeoffs. I am more than willing to trade a bit more difficulty with you not feeling you were forced into this.” He kissed the top of her head. “Would it help you to know I’m worried about this too?”
She twisted around in the chair to look at him. “You are?”
He nodded solemnly. “I am.”
“What would you be worried about?”
“I like you a lot, Irena, and I’ve made a place in my life for you. If you become a Sanctuary Goth, you won’t need me anymore. What if you don’t want me either?” He smiled sadly. “Yeah, I know it’s selfish, but it still worries me.”
The Night Nurse’s mouth dropped open. “I will always want you, Iain. This is my home and I belong with you.”
“I don’t mean to insult your dedication, but how much of that is you and how much is pokegirl that won’t exist if you become a Sanctuary Goth?”
Irena’s eyes narrowed and she slid out of the chair and, with a heave, threw him over her shoulder. He cried out when his head smacked into the floor. “Sorry,” she muttered and shifted to her adult form before carrying him into the living room and dumping him on the couch. She slid into his lap and placed her hands on his head to heal it. Then she changed back to her chibi form and glared at him with those inhuman black eyes. “Iain Grey, you are my tamer. Unless you get rid of me, I will always be yours. If you ever say I won’t want you just because I’ve evolved, you’d better be faster than me or I’ll hurt you.” She glanced up at his head where it had and a tiny smile appeared. “Again.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied dryly. “You do know that you’ll lose your armor and scalpels if you evolve along with your wings, right?”
“I’ve talked with Eve about what you said and we think that it’s a distinct possibility, but not a completely certain one. If I do, I’ll get more knives.”
“What is it with you and hurting me?”
The Night Nurse leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “I am yours and you are mine. I want to share your joys and your fears, your pleasure and your pain and I want you to share mine. I don’t want to inflict pain on you, but I want to be there when you are hurt. I want to share all of your experiences. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Iain suppressed his first response, which was to say she sounded like a stalker in training, and considered her words. “I’m your first tamer and you want to bind us together so closely that I’ll be your only tamer. I’m not sure I understand why it’s so important to you, though. Pokegirls change tamers routinely. You know that, even if I’m your first tamer.” Briefly he wondered how she’d been tamed since she came of age and shook off the thought. It didn’t matter.
Irena snuggled against his chest and shook her head. “Not all of them. Things are usually very different for the police and medical pokegirls. I am a Night Nurse and I fully expected to grow up and be given to a doctor or other medical human as a graduation gift. Thanks to my mum, I’ve got the equivalent of a full medical education and I’d be an asset to anyone in the healing fields.” Iain wrapped his arms around her and she pressed herself closer. “Then I turned out to be a chibi and everything changed. In a way, it was like I was human and then went through threshold. The whispers that follow the owner of a chibi are poison, but nowhere can it be more poisonous than in medicine since doctors and nurses routinely treat children. Suddenly nobody wanted me except the kiddy perverts.” She looked up at him. “But you were willing to look past my curse and appreciate me for who I am, even as you thought I wanted to hurt you.”
“Actually, at the time it would have been even as I watched you scarf down my food.”
She flashed a smile. “That too. But I was only ever intended to have a single tamer and that’s what I want. And I picked you.”
He looked thoughtful. “If you want to experience everything, then you’ll need a psychic link with me.”
“That’s why I want to evolve with you. They’ve all got delta bonds with you and I want mine.” She put a finger on his lips when he started to speak. “But there are other evolutions I could do besides Sanctuary Goth. I could have Eve bless me and then evolve to Angel. However, if I am delta bonded to you, we’ll be together till death and if that’s what we have, then I know I’ll still want you when I’m a Sanctuary Goth. I already knew you’d still want me, but feel free to tell me as much as I’d like.”
Iain chuckled softly. “Does that mean you’ve decided?”
“I thought you were against this.”
He sighed. “What I want is immaterial in this instance. It’s your life to do with as you will.”
“That’s more of that libertarian stuff isn’t it? Maybe later you can tell me all about it.” She slid out of his lap and headed for the stairs. “I’ll be right back. You stay put.”
He shook his head. “Yassa massa. I waits right here for the missus.”
The Night Nurse paused. “What was that?”
“You wouldn’t understand it.”
“That’s what I thought, too.” She bounced upstairs. When she returned, she had the bag they’d put the ebony stone in. She slipped into his lap and handed it to him. “I want to do this.”
“You’re sure?”
“I am. I’ll be a magic pokegirl and then I can compete more successfully against the others.”
He just shook his head and opened the bag. “Bloody hell. If I ever meet Sukebe I’ll shake his hand before I slit his throat.” He glanced up. “But first I’ll make sure my ladies are all safely tucked in a time branch so his death doesn’t steal them from me.”
“You’d better.” She winked and straddled his waist. “Now stop distracting me and let’s do this.”
He glanced down at her panty covered groin parked over his shorts and growing erection. “Who is doing the distracting?” He opened the bag and paused for a second before gritting his teeth and thrusting his hand inside. He pulled the softly glowing stone from the bag and held it up. “Now that I’m touching it, I know it’s fully charged.”
She stared at the infinity symbol floating inside the rock. “What do you mean?”
“Ebony stones have charges. It was written in a canon story and I missed it until it was too late. When I was sucked here, I was thinking about rewriting the equipment guide to give all stones charges, just to make things even. But the fact that they have charges means that they can be used more than once on different pokegirls.”
A determined look appeared in her eyes. “I’m going to be your only Sanctuary Goth. You get rid of that stone when we’re done.”
“If that’s what you want.” He held out his empty hand. “Take it. This way, when you hold the stone in your other hand, I’ll keep a grip on it and we’ll complete a circuit.”
She nodded and took his hand in hers. “Ready?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever really be able to say yes to that question.” He took a deep breath. “Now.”
Irena closed her hand over the ebony stone he held. For a heartbeat nothing happened and then light spread up both of them. It increased in brilliance until it was blinding and then turned black. When the glow died away, Irena looked at him. “I’m afraid to look. What changed?”
He carefully inspected her without moving. “You’re still a chibi. Your eyes are still black and so is your hair. Your skin color is still a pasty white.” She glared slightly and he grinned. “And you’re still touchy about that.” He let go her fingers and reached out to trace her arm. “You’ve got tattoos of wolves and dragons on your arms. If you go out in public, we’ll have to hide them. Other than that, you still look like my Night Nurse. How do you feel?”
“Dizzy.” She frowned. “I thought you said the stone had more than one use. It’s gone.”
“You said you wanted it gone, so I short-circuited the charges and you got all of them. It completely used up the stone and should make you a very powerful Sanctuary Goth.”
She smiled tiredly. “Really? Will I be more powerful than Eve?”
“You wish.” He pulled her against him and held her tightly. “We’ll have to start training you later today.”
She blinked and pushed away from him. “You’re thinking naughty thoughts about taking me to bed and having me turn into an adult for you.” Her eyes went wide. “I know what you’re thinking.” Suddenly she plastered herself against him and hugged him hard. “I know what you’re thinking! Eve told me that you can lock us out of your mind and that you do it at night to protect us from the nightmares. Please don’t do that to me.”
“I don’t want you to experience that. It’s too much.”
“Remember what I said? Joy and fear, Iain. If it’s too much for me, I’ll ask you to stop. Until then, that’s my decision to make.”
“Fair enough.” He stood, cradling her in his arms. “Let’s go see about those naughty thoughts.”
She giggled.
***
Iain Grey - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (alpha)
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf
Irena- Chibi Sanctuary Goth
April - Duelist
Dragonesses
Eirian - Silver
Skye - Blue
Emerald - Green
Sable - Black
Aurum - Gold
Beryl - Red