Chapter 42

 

            Author’s note: This chapter presumes that you are familiar with Kelvin’s Choice’s story, Tamers and uses characters and situations from it with his permission. If you have not read it, you are very naughty and need to remedy the situation immediately. It is well worth the time.

 

            It was late spring and the field that spread around the house was covered with yellow, white and pink wildflowers that grew about ankle high. The sun was only a little above the horizon and the air still held most of the night’s chill.

            He had been summoned here with the usual lack of forewarning for some kind of conference and he waited for her to speak with patience acquired through five long years of experience. “Loetheal reluctantly informs me that you have progressed enough that you should be able to hold your own against a lesser foe.”

            Iain’s mouth dropped. “When did you,” he broke his question off abruptly. Nightraven never answered questions she considered off topic, so he had learned not to bother asking. “Loetheal is wrong, lady. He continues to defeat me handily and often tells me that I would still be beaten by the merest elf swordsman.”

            “He teaches you because he is the second best swordsman in the village and I cannot trust the best swordsman to be impartial where you are involved. When you can defeat him, I will listen to your opinion of the development of your martial skills over his. However, your disagreement with your teacher’s assessment meshes perfectly into my desire to test your skills. All I need is a lesser foe.”

            Suddenly an armed orc appeared in front of them. Iain looked at seven feet of muscular humanoid raised from birth to fight before glancing at back at her. “This is a lesser foe?”

            The orc growled angrily and spoke in his native tongue. “What the hell?”

            Nightraven raised a hand. “I am Nightraven.” The orc froze. “Defeat this human and you will get any one item from inside my house that you can carry without aid.”

            The orc looked Iain up and down and sneered before cocking his head at Nightraven. “I want you, woman.”

            “I am not in my house. You were not listening.”

            Iain’s anger surfaced. “Hey, what do I get if I beat him?”

            The orc laughed. Nightraven did not. “You get to live, Iain. Draw your weapons.”

            The orc flexed his arms as Iain pulled his sword from its scabbard. “I’ll kill this one with my bare hands.”

            “As you will.” Nightraven didn’t look impressed. “Begin.”

            The orc feinted as Iain backed up a few steps and went into a crouch. Something in what he saw in Iain’s stance didn’t please the orc and he paused so he could draw a dagger and a sword from his belt. “I’m coming to kill you, human.” When his opponent didn’t respond, the orc growled and lunged, only to backpedal when Iain stabbed him in the right hand and forced him to drop the sword he held in it.

            Iain followed, pressing the orc with a flurry of thrusts that the orc only partially blocked and left the humanoid bleeding from a dozen shallow wounds. The orc stumbled once and instantly Iain put three inches of steel into the orc’s chest and whipped it back out as he stepped away to avoid the swipes of the orc’s dagger. He blinked when the orc collapsed and moved cautiously around the orc to stab him in the bottom of the foot before he moved up and slashed through the humanoid’s throat to make sure that the orc was dead.

            Nightraven had watched the bout impassively. “Your teacher is correct and you are wrong.”

            “I can’t believe I beat him.”

            “He had little skill. Your next opponent will be better than this one.”

            Iain whipped around to stare at her. “There will be another one, lady?”

            “You will need regular testing and will do this every ten days henceforth. I will find more skilled foes for you in the future.”

            Iain didn’t have anything he could think to say that wouldn’t be impertinent and get him in trouble again, so he wiped off and sheathed his sword before heading for the shed to get the cart. He’d need it so he could carry off the orc’s corpse and surreptitiously loot the body before dumping it in what he’d grimly named the Canyon of Bones from all the bodies he’d dumped in it.

 

***

 

            Iain sat up and stared into the darkness inside his tent as, next to him, Eve shifted in her sleep. After a moment he crawled towards the flap and silently undid it. “Ninhursag is waiting for you,” Eve murmured before pulling the blanket closer around her body.

            He shook his head slightly and slipped out of the tent where the Elfqueen was standing motionless. “Morning.”

            She glanced at the stars overhead. “Barely. It’s only a little past midnight. Are you up for good or will you try to get back to sleep eventually?”

            He yawned hugely. “I’m up. Is there anything interesting to report?”

            “It’s been quiet since everyone went to bed. Dominique is flying around overhead and she hasn’t seen anything get close enough to be an issue.”

            “What about Harris?”

            “She’s snoring in that tent over there.” Ninhursag pointed to indicate which of the four tents she meant. “Dominique says she sounds like a chainsaw off in the distance. I’ve never heard one so I don’t know if she’s right or not.” The moon appeared out of the clouds briefly and for a moment the Elfqueen’s silver hair glowed in the moonlight.

            Iain listened for an instant and shrugged. “I don’t catalog snores but it probably means she’s sleeping deeply.”

            “Do you miss it?”

            He looked confused for an instant. “Do I miss what?”

            “Do you miss your time as a student of Nightraven’s? I felt part of your dream and it made me wonder if you wouldn’t rather be there instead of here.”

            “My dream was about the first time she made me commit murder so she could see what skill level I’d attained with a sword. Believe it or not, I drew no pleasure from it and never looked forward to my next test of ability in those contests. No, I don’t miss it. My place is here with you and my other ladies.”

            “How often did you have to do that?”

            “I was tested every ten days for five years in rain, snow, darkness or any other conditions that were prevailing at the time. Later we traveled so I could show off in various environmental conditions. I fought one opponent in the middle of a forest fire.”

            “It sounds like you were her entertainment.”

            “I thought that too, sometimes, but after I almost fell off of a mountain fighting someone, I asked her that question and she told me she was just being thorough in testing the limits of my knowledge.” He looked around. “Nobody else is up?”

            “No, you, Dominique and I are it. Who do you want me to wake?”

            “Let them sleep. Today is going to be busy and they’ll need all their rest. I’ll sit over by the fire pit and study.” Long before Scheherazade and the others had been killed, he’d learned that fire and smoke sometimes drew feral pokegirls. To remove the possibility, they put the fire out and buried the ashes deeply enough that it couldn’t be smelled before going to bed.

            “I’ll let Dominique know you’re up, then.”

            “Thanks.”

            A little while later the red headed Archmage appeared out of the darkness and sat down beside him. “April is on watch now. Can I convince you to come to bed?”

            “I’m not sleepy.”

            She grinned in the semi-dark. “I’d say we don’t have to sleep in bed, but I’m in the same tent as Harris. She’d either bitch about it or try to join in and in either case I’d have to kill her.”

            “I take it you don’t like her.”

            “Remember what I was doing when we met?”

            He nodded. “You were with Oliver and working for Department Six.”

            “That’s right. I’m sharing a tent with my former boss, although Harris doesn’t remember me because we only met once several years ago. She made sure that those of us who were also affiliated with the Order of Pendragon were never trusted with anything truly sensitive and that included regular contact with her.” She snorted. “I was senior to Oliver and he or she was still in charge because of that.”

            “She might have had a point about that, Dominique. You did have divided loyalties, and that was at best.”

            The Archmage grinned again. “Yes we were still loyal to Marcus, but she wasn’t supposed to suspect that we weren’t her obedient lackeys.” She shifted around and lay down on her back with her head in his lap. “What’s the plan for today?” She yawned loudly and snickered when he yawned in response.

            He tried to ignore the weight of her head pressing against his groin and his body’s response to it. “We’re going to return to Blue and see if we can find Chambers. Even with the information Canaan can give us we don’t know how deep the rot runs or who can be trusted. Hell, even the president of the league is suspect until we know otherwise and we can’t chance getting close enough to scan him. Even if he’s not compromised, someone on his security detail might be.”

            “You know, Kerrik, considering how much you despise organized governments, you can be as paranoid as they can.”

            “I don’t despise organized governments. I don’t like organized governments because they use force to take things from people. As for my paranoia, I come by it honestly. Besides, I learned how to be that paranoid because of governments. They can be trusted to act in their own self interests and those interests almost always have nothing to do with the best interests of their constituents. That’s enough to make anyone paranoid if he or she thinks things through.” He sighed. “If we find Monica quickly then she should be able to get us access to the stuff I want. If not, we’ll have to raid a BLSF weapons depot and that is something I am not looking forward to doing. That’s a lot like sticking your hand inside a Feraligarter’s mouth and grabbing her tongue. You know you’re going to get hurt and the only question is how much. That and I don’t like the fact that we’ll be hurting people who are merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. They haven’t done anything to us.”

            “If we give them the chance to hurt us, it isn’t very intelligent. They will kill us all without hesitation.”

            “I know and that’s the only reason I’m willing to consider it at all.” He smiled down at her. “Ok, that and I want to see what kind of toys they have.”

            “Is that all? You don’t want to play with them too?” Her voice was starting to sound like she was drifting off.

            “Fine, I want to play with their toys.” He stroked her hair gently and leaned back against the rock behind him. “Now sleep, Dominique.” She mumbled sleepily and her breathing soon evened out and deepened.

            He came awake when someone touched his shoulder. His eyes opened and he looked up at Eve. Her eyes glittered with amusement. Don’t move, but look down at your lap.

            He lifted his head off the rock and winced when his neck informed him that it didn’t like the position it had been in when he’d fallen asleep. He looked down and stared until what he saw made sense. Dominique was still lying on her back with her head in his lap and from the slow rise and fall of her chest she was still asleep. He couldn’t see her face since when the sun had come up she’d woken up just enough to pull his shirt out from his body and over her head, making a tent out of it to protect her face from the direct sunlight. Then she’d gone back to sleep.

            He looked back up at Eve. I don’t normally do cute, but this is a pretty cute scene.  

            She nodded. It is a very touching image. That’s why I took the time to get some pictures of it before waking you up. It was too cute to resist and I didn’t want to take the chance of you jumping when you woke up and spoiling it.

            Iain pulled the collar of his shirt out enough to stick his face inside the fabric tent so he could see Dominique. “Hey,” he said quietly. “Time to wake up.”

            The Archmage’s eyes opened and she smiled up at him. “Hey yourself.” Her eyes flicked around, noting the shirt and the light faintly glimmering through it. “They’re up, aren’t they?”

            “Yeah. Eve thinks you’re cute like this. I do too.”

            She lifted her head and kissed him soundly. “I only care what you think.” Then she pulled out from under his shirt and sat up, shading her eyes with her hand from the sudden sunlight. “Breakfast had better be ready.”

            Eve chuckled. “It is. You know that Harris won’t even stir until she smells coffee. You and Canaan have cleanup. After that we’ll get changed and then we’ll move on.”

            Iain frowned. “Changed?”

            The Megami-sama glanced at Harris’ tent. We’re going to change clothes and use one of Dominique’s confusion spells to disguise some of our breeds in case they’re looking for Iain or Kerrik. Simple disguises are often the best ones, even in the age of the scanning pokedex. It was Dominique’s idea.

            Iain grabbed the Archmage when she started to get up. “I love you for more than your mind, you know,” he said quietly and kissed her harder than she’d just kissed him, “but that’s a fantastic idea,” he continued up after breaking the kiss.

            She had a distracted look. “What,” she asked dreamily. She blinked and gave him a seductive smile. “You are the first person to tell me that you love me and to mean it. Whenever you say those words, I kind of forget what’s going on.”

            “No telling Dominique I love her during combat. I’ll remember that.”

            “You’d better.” She grinned and took Eve’s hand so her maharani could pull her to her feet.

 

***

 

            Harris stared at the collection of pokegirls in front of her. “Kerrik, what’s going on?”

            “We’re breaking a couple of laws. If you have a problem with that, you’d probably better speak up now.”

            Dominique had returned to her flat in Dublin and had retrieved some of the Department Six equipment that she’s secreted in a safety deposit box elsewhere in the city while April and Pandora had returned to Montevideo to do some very specialized shopping for clothes as well as a few odd items for Iain.

            Eve had artfully used some base to cover the symbols on her cheeks and her hair was now a solid blue that had been cut even with her shoulders. She wore a tight blouse, half boots and jeans that looked like they’d been put on wet and allowed to dry so they could mold to her skin. Due to Dominique’s spell, she would scan as a Tyamazon.

            Dominique was wearing leather. Leather bodice, leather gloves, leather skirt and leather boots covered her body while dark sunglasses covered her eyes. Her hair had been put in a bun and was tucked under a wide hat to ostensibly protect her from the sun. She would scan as a Dark Elf.

            Ninhursag’s hair was nutmeg brown and she’d woven an antique climbing rose into it, giving her bright white blooms that filled the air with their scent. Iain recognized it as a Mermaid rose and gave it a wide berth since he’d fallen afoul of its thorns more than once in his home universe. For the first time since Iain had met her she wore the loose flowing dress that was traditional to the Elfqueen breed, but under it she had on her armor and had at least two pistols from her storage duffle bags hidden somewhere.

            She was going to be his alpha.

            April wore hiking clothes and had colored her hair black. In order to let her continue using her cards, Dominique had only changed her aura so that she scanned as a duel template Ingénue and not the much more valuable Duelist that she actually was.

            Iain had put on a professional wig that was bright chartreuse and hung down to his shoulders while Dominique had colored his eyebrows and eyelashes to match. The glow around his face tended to distract him and so he’d put on sunglasses to protect him from the glare.

            Finally Dominique produced a piece of electronics from her kit and held out her hand. “Pokedex.” He handed it over and she inserted the connector cable from the computer into the electronic item. “Ok, I’ve changed your scan status from tradesman to tamer. It means that if you’re scanned by anyone you’ll register as a tamer. It works by bypassing your tradesman status and using your old tamer information. It’ll work just fine in a pokegirl center, too. Now if you get scanned in a police station what I’ve done will not stand up, so don’t get arrested.”

            Harris was staring at her. “How did you get that? That’s restricted gear.”

            Dominique gave her a lazy smile. “You really don’t remember that I work for Department Six, do you? Since I never really retired, I still get to keep my tools.”

            “How is it that I don’t know you?”

            “Because I was with the Order too and you hated us. That’s why I got ordered to follow Kerrik into the wilderness without backup or a tamer.”

            Harris looked surprised. “You were with the Order? I thought nobody ever left the Order.”

            “There is a way for pokegirls to be released from their obligations to the Order of Pendragon.” Dominique unplugged her gear and handed the pokedex back to Iain before heading for her kit to put it away.

            Harris wasn’t done yet and followed her. “What is that method?”

            “I am no longer in the Order and I am no longer loyal to the Order, Ms. Harris, but I am not going to discuss the inner workings of the Order with anyone. All I will tell you is that Kerrik knew how to do it and he succeeded.” Her face turned to look in Kerrik’s direction where he was talking quietly with Canaan, Pandora, Ninhursag and Eve. Harris couldn’t see her eyes through the sunglasses but the set of Dominique’s face was unhappy. “And I’ll ask you not to ask him about it. If I had known then what the price to him would be, I would have considered killing myself to keep him from having to pay it.”

            “You don’t give me orders.”

            “No, I don’t, but you know what can happen if someone tries to hurt a pokegirl’s tamer and what happened to Kerrik wasn’t pleasant. Leave him alone on this and we’ll be fine.” Dominique pulled her glasses down so Harris could see her crimson eyes. “The Order treated me like I was chattel and so did the Blue League when they had the chance to earn my loyalty. He didn’t. Fuck with him and we will be so far from fine you may never find your way back.”

            Harris looked into those eyes and suppressed a shiver before looking back at Iain and his group so as to not have to endure that stare any further.

            Iain fumbled with his pokedex. “Can you believe I don’t remember how to pull up my entry anymore?” He changed screens. “Ah, here it is.”

 

 

Name:                                      Kerrik Wolf

Age:                                        25

Residence:                               Dundalk

Region:                                    Ireland

League:                                   Blue League

Status:                                     Active

Rank:                                       22

Scorecard Points:                    0

Security Clearance:                 Delta

 

Licenses

Tamer                          Y

Master Tamer              Y

Breeder                       N

Researcher                   N

Watcher                       N

 

Active Harem

Species                        Name

Elfqueen                      Ninhursag

Tyamazon                    Eve

Dark Elf                      Dominique

Ingénue                       April

 

            Eve frowned slightly. “We may want to do something about your Scorecard points.”

            “Tradesmen don’t get them or I’d have a decent score. Right now I don’t think I have time to go catching ferals, but if we run across any while looking for Chambers we’ll start accumulating points.”

            Canaan’s antenna twitched. “I think it looks like what it needs to, which is an older man going back to being an active tamer after a hiatus of more than five years so his Scorecard points went to zero. Rank is partially dependent on Scorecard, so that explains why it’s so low. It’s a pity your Peekabu isn’t stable yet and doesn’t speak English. She’d be a perfect fit in there.”

            “I disagree.” Iain stared at the entry. “Everyone not in my tamer active harem will be watching from a distance in case there’s trouble and incidentally protecting Harris while doing so.”

            Canaan nodded. “I know Pandora will be in charge. She’s already assigned Zareen to watch Harris while she and I watch you. Zareen’s not happy about it, but she’ll do it. You might want to consider using more of your tradesman pokegirl limits and expand what you’ve got. Both Pandora and I would like to have more backup available if this is going to be a regular occurrence.” Beside her the Fallen Angel nodded, unconsciously agreeing with the Splice.

            “You want me to add to the harem?”

            “No, but what I want and what we need are two different things.”

            Ninhursag pursed her lips. “Eve, if the situation arises, what do you think about using his tamer status to actually initiate salvage matches?”

            Eve looked thoughtful. “The first problem is that we might lose.”

            The Elfqueen smiled. “Yes, and the sun might explode too, but neither is all that likely. Besides, if we pick our victims carefully, we can start rotating the more experienced pokegirls out to the backup detail where they belong while he wanders around with a weaker looking harem.”

            “Blood and darkness, I am not going to be wandering around. Our first goal is Chambers’ residence and we know exactly where it is in London. No wandering is needed.” Iain took a firm grip on his temper. “Playing the tamer is just to avoid being casually identified if we’re being looked for. It is not so I can steal pokegirls away from tamers they might actually be attached to.”

            Ninhursag shrugged. “What if you’re challenged to a salvage match?”

            “I’ll tell them to fuck off.”

            “You can only do that for so long, Iain, before some nice Officerjenny decides to have a talk with you about customs in the Blue League you might not understand completely.”

            “Ninhursag, I’ll get similar and yet very different conversation with one if all of my battles consist of you hitting the other pokegirl and her hitting the ground.”

            “I’ll make sure the match lasts longer than that. Sometimes you have to accept that the other guy is stupid and take his pokegirls away before he hurts himself with them.”

            Pandora put her hand on his arm. “Ninhursag, he is to be called Kerrik. You have to forget the other name for now. And Kerrik, she is right. Even Eve will agree that avoiding every challenge will eventually result in attention we cannot afford from the authorities. Once they realize you’re Kerrik Wolf the tradesman, someone might get a message that Harris is around and detain you for questioning. Then we’d be back to them being unhappy when their first psychic scanners drop dead.”

            “Eve?”

            She gave a reluctant nod. “You’re a beginning tamer with only a partially full harem. You’re supposed to be looking to add to it if possible, especially if you don’t want to be the nice person you actually are.”

            He gave her a sour look. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt you to agree with me once in a while when it involves me having more girls to sleep with. If you don’t want to sleep with me, all you have to do is just say so.”

            Eve looked startled. “That’s not it and you know it.”

            “Do I? You want me to keep the Peekabu and now you want me to take on even more girls. You want me to deal with institutionalized slavery.”

            She sighed. “You’re being obstinate.”

            “Damned right I am. I got lucky with the women I’ve found so far in that I like them and they like me. However, that does not change the fact that I am not the most likeable person in the world. I’m not even close. That Peekabu,” he shook his head sadly, “we still don’t even know what her problem is but I can tell it’s a doozey. Sometimes people can’t be rehabilitated with the resources at hand and you just have to let them go. I am not letting someone inside my bubble just because you want me to.”

            Canaan smirked. “Give me ten minutes with her and I’ll tell you everything about her from birth to now without eating her brains.”

            “Will she be functional afterwards?”

            “Eve, she’s not functional now. However, she won’t be any less functional when I’m done, if that’s even possible. All she does now is sit in long term stasis in her pokeball. How functional is that?”

            Iain looked at Eve. “You want me to see if she’s going to get more than a bullet in the head. Do we have ten minutes?”

            His wife glared at him. “I’ll give you fifteen.” She released the Peekabu’s pokeball from her pack. “Give me a minute to give some instructions to April and I’ll be right back to monitor the situation.”

            Canaan watched her go. “You do realize she very carefully took the Peekabu’s pokeball with her so we couldn’t start until she came back.”

            “I saw it. That’s her being subtle.”

            “I’ve never liked Megami.”

            Iain grinned. “Neither did I, but I love that one. It still doesn’t mean I like her all the time, though.”

            “I am a genius compared to everyone here.” Canaan was regarding him with open suspicion. “And that makes no sense to me.”

            He shrugged. “Love never computes.”

            “Are you having a go at me?”

            “Having a go? You’re not from Blue.”

            “No, but I’m a quick study of local customs. It’s just protective camouflage that was good for the Hunter Amachamp part of me that got even better now that I’m part Alaka-Wham.”

            “I see. No, I am not having a go at you, Canaan. You can love someone and not like them all of the time. If you don’t like them once in a while it’s not big deal, but if you start not liking them most of the time, that’s when love dies.”

            Eve rejoined them. “April knows what to do.” She looked from Iain to Canaan. “You two look very serious about something.”

            “We were talking about love,” Iain nodded towards the Splice, “and how you don’t always have to like someone that you love.”

            “Oh. Was this discussion prompted by me somehow?”

            “Yes, it was. Recently you’ve been acting like you’re more concerned about what’s best for others as opposed to what’s best for us.”

            Eve started to speak and stopped. She frowned and stared off into the distance for a while before sighing and holding out the pokeball. “You’re right. If you want to sell her then I won’t try to change your mind. What I said earlier about her being your starter was just an excuse and I’m sorry.” She looked at the ground and grimaced. “I’ve been selfish for the wrong reasons.”

            He took the ball and rolled it around between his palms for a few seconds. “How are we supposed to do this, Canaan?”

            Eve’s head came up. “I thought you didn’t want to keep her.”

            “I don’t, but you’re right when you said I didn’t know anything about her. It’s unlikely we’ll find anything that’ll make me decide to try and keep her, but I am curious as to why she’s so screwed up. Pokegirls don’t usually have it easy, but her behavior is a bit of an extreme response even in an abused pokegirl.”

            Canaan’s antenna extended to their full length. “You release her and I’ll immobilize her before she can act. It probably wouldn’t hurt to put on your armor just in case she was sending out an attack when she was pokeballed.”

            Iain shook his head. “I don’t want Harris to know about that sort of thing and I’m sure she’ll be watching if she’s not already. Eve will protect me.”

            His wife chuckled softly. “Now you decide we’re responsible for your protection? Do I need to keep Harris around all the time?”

            “Don’t worry, it probably won’t last long. I don’t stay rational for more than a handful of minutes a day.”

            Canaan gave him a hard look. “I realize I haven’t been here long, but do you save those minutes up and only use them a couple of times a year?”

            Eve began laughing.

            “I’m releasing the Peekabu now,” Iain grumbled and pressed the button. The red light stabbed out and resolved into the Peekabu even as Canaan hit her with a hypnotic attack that completely overwhelmed the mouse pokegirl and made her drop to all fours. Canaan struck her again and the Peekabu collapsed face forward into the dirt.

            Iain picked her up and turned her over onto her back so she could breathe. She’d been run through a healing cycle, but was still just as scrawny as before; suggesting that she’d been pokeballed in this starved state and therefore the pokeball thought this was her normal look. He made a mental note to talk to Eve about possibly overriding her base form with the Peekabu standard to instantly put some meat on her bones.

            He sat down so that Eve was between him and the Peekabu. Canaan sat next to the Peekabu. “Many psychic pokegirls aren’t powerful enough to bring the unconscious into dreamtime, but fortunately that’s not the case for me.”

            “Why is it difficult?”

            “We have to force portions of the mind awake. It can be very dangerous if the victim resists.”

            Iain looked at Eve. “Get the paraspray and spray her down. Then wake her up. There’s no reason to chance hurting her. Besides it’ll make it easier for our psychic here and hopefully that’ll keep me from getting a headache.”

            Eve moved quickly and soon they were ready again. Canaan looked from one to the other before leaning over and peering into the terrified eyes of the now awake Peekabu. “Here we go.” Then she took them all into dreamtime.

            Canaan didn’t bother with the usual mental architecture and therefore the four of them hung in darkness with the Peekabu in front of the other three. She cringed and then her eyes went blank as the Splice invaded her mind. Images began flashing through Iain’s sight as Canaan linked him and Eve into her explorations. These images were from the Peekabu’s life and quickly they built a picture of who she was and how her life had unfolded.

            Through infant eyes, Iain looked up at a smiling father and mother. Both were human, although the father’s eyes were distinctly feline and part of his beard grew out from his face like cat or mouse whiskers. Vague shadows around them suggested siblings but the infant’s whole attention was on the two most important people in her life.

            The image skipped and Iain felt her surprise and delight when she realized that the tan colored thing that moved on the edge of her vision and sometimes waved overhead was something she could control and in her mind it became her hand. Being an infant, she immediately tried to eat it. Her sense of self expanded and the viewpoint shifted as her mental architecture grew complex enough to understand that there were other living creatures that could be important to her.

            Her name had been Sofia, given to her in a ceremony when she was one year old. Later she learned that children weren’t named before then since so many of them died. She had six sisters and a single brother, all older than she was, although before her life ended she would receive two more sisters.

            Most of the attention and resources of the family was focused towards the sons, since it was known they had no chance of threshold. The girls, including Sofia, were only given cursory educations until after the threat of becoming a pokegirl had passed with puberty. Since this meant they’d missed learning during the time period when they picked up things the easiest, they would be forever stunted developmentally.

            From the age of five, she’d weeded and collected the bad insects for roasting from the family gardens alongside the rest of her family while her father had taken his two pokegirls and kept the family safe from harm.

            Iain felt the changes begin in her body when, at ten, she entered puberty. At eleven, her family held a celebration that she had avoided threshold. None of her sisters had gone through threshold either, something the villagers for miles around them were astounded over and, since because of that she was considered safe, at the same celebration of her making it to eleven she was betrothed to a man in another village and the bride price was delivered to her family. She was started in lessons in simple math, basic reading and English.

            Six months later she became a Peekabu and her life ended. She was stripped of her name and all the trappings of her humanity, including her clothes, and was from then on called Bu when she was called anything at all. Her family was shocked and frightened that she’d gone through threshold, but fury was the predominant emotion from her father and mother since they’d already used up the generous bride price and now had to pay it back. Being human, they blamed her for their sudden change in fortunes and since she wasn’t, they were free to vent that anger on her.

            Her threshold took over a month as her tail grew and her ears moved on her skull and during that time her father, the man who had protected her from birth and carried and loved her became the first to rape her. She was no longer his daughter, after all, and no more human than the kattle his sons herded for him. His sons, her brothers, would later take their turns with her too, learning about sex from the creature that had been their little sister. Even his pokegirls would help by assaulting her or helping to hold her down while others raped her again.

            She was beaten, sometimes savagely, by everyone in her family as well as by her father’s pokegirls, who saw in her a potential rival and urged him to sell her quickly. In more than one instance, because she’d tried to get away from them, she’d been clubbed unconscious by her brothers wielding billets of wood and then raped while barely conscious. Not having access to healing technology or pokeballs, she could only heal naturally. Iain knew from experiencing it with her that one arm didn’t work like it should and she was missing several teeth from the front of her jaw. All of that had been repaired the first time she’d been healed in her pokeball, but that had been just before being delivered to Rafael.

            And for the five years she had remained at home, the other pokegirls in her family and in the village had amused themselves by telling her how good her life was and how bad it was going to become when they got rid of her and she went to her tamer. She’d lived in terror of that day until she had come of age and her father had offered her up to the government man as part of the family’s taxes. The other pokegirls had jumped her without warning and pummeled her until she couldn’t move so she couldn’t resist the pokeball even if she’d wanted to try.

            When she’d been released for the first time after being pokeballed in her village, she’d seen Iain and had teetered between attack and flight until he’d spoken and all her terror had come back full force.

            The images faded and once again they were hanging in blackness. Eve was staring at the Peekabu in horror. Iain touched her hand and she jumped. “I think maybe the Megami need to get some celestials into the outer villages in the Silver River League. I hope that behavior isn’t typical of the region, but there’s no way to know for sure and we’re not going out there unless you don’t mind me killing a lot of people if I’m wrong.”

            Canaan snarled loudly. “She is a razor’s edge from becoming a Penance. I’ll take care of it if you’ll give me the time off. I can find her village and I’ll sterilize it down to the bugs in the fields.”

            The Peekabu jerked and shrieked in terror at the fury in the Splice’s voice even if she didn’t understand the English words.

            Iain turned to Eve. “Now you know how much work she would take. Death might be a mercy for her, but she doesn’t want to die.”

            The Megami-sama was watching the Peekabu. “Dreamtime will cut down on how long in reality it would take to begin treating her.” She looked at him. “But you’d be her tamer and, in the end, it should be your decision.”

            He shook his head. “I never thought I’d find someone who might envy the time I spent in the hands of Sanctuary. We’ll see what we can do with her.”

            Canaan floated around to face him. “What if we can’t?”

            “Then I’ll give her that mercy I mentioned earlier.” He tried to walk and glared at Canaan. “How the fuck do I move?”

            She blinked and her antenna twitched. “I’d locked everyone in place. Now just think about moving and you will.”

            He did and floated forward slowly until he was in front of the Peekabu. He spoke gently in Spanish. “My name is Iain, although right now I am called Kerrik, and I’d like you to stay with us for a while. I will not treat you like your family did after you changed.” Her terror filled eyes tried to avoid his and failed. “I will not hit you and I will not rape you. This is Eve and she will get you food and give you a place to rest. If it is ok, I’d like to call you Sofia. It is your name, after all.”

            All that was in her eyes was the terror. No sign of any comprehension of what he was saying, but he knew that she was hearing him inside her mind. Someday, perhaps, she would understand.

            But there was something that she might understand right now. “Sofia, if you stay with us, you will train until you master your abilities. When you do, if you’d like we will go pay your family a visit and punish them for the way they treated you.”

            Behind him Eve gasped. ‘Iain, no!”

            For an instant the terror in her eyes vanished and an impotent rage filled them. She stared into his eyes for a moment before she nodded once and then closed her eyes.

            “Sofia?” Her eyes opened again. “When we leave here, you will be paralyzed like you were before we came here. I will return you to your pokeball and heal you so you’re no longer paralyzed and then I’ll release you and get you some food. I just want you to know what’s going to happen so I don’t accidentally scare you any more than I have to.” He turned in place. “Canaan; let us out of here.”

            Iain opened his eyes and got up, moving to where the prone Peekabu could see him. He held up her pokeball. “Sofia, I am doing what I said I would.” He recalled her and looked up just as Eve handed him the PPHU. “Thanks.”

            Eve didn’t let the device go. “Did you have to offer her the chance for revenge? What is that going to do?”

            “It will give her a reason to work hard and, hopefully, help her to eventually trust us a bit.” He tugged the healing machine away and popped the pokeball into it.

            “I thought you didn’t want to add to your karma if you could avoid it?”

            “I don’t.”

            Eve sighed. “But if she joins the harem, then you’ll move heaven and earth for her. I should have listened to you and let you get rid of her sight unseen.”

            “What you should have or shouldn’t have done isn’t important anymore. You did and I didn’t fight you about it and now she’s here.” He pulled the pokeball from the PPHU and paused. “Did it occur to you that what really happened to her wasn’t so much institutionalized abuse as it was a family pissed off that their cash cow died at the worst possible moment and so they were punishing her for going through threshold after they spent the money they got for her? From what she remembers, her father’s pokegirls weren’t treated anywhere nearly as harshly as she was. They even helped in torturing her. Maybe the real reason that she’s here is so that everyone involved can be punished for their crimes.” He triggered the release.

            Sofia appeared in front of him and instantly moved backwards several paces, watching him warily as he pocketed her pokeball. Her head moved to track him as he walked to his pokepack and scrolled through the display before releasing a fresh loaf of April’s bread and a large chunk of cheese. As she watched, he tore a piece off of the loaf and popped it into his mouth. A bit of cheese quickly followed it. Remembering she didn’t speak much English, he used Spanish. “You eat what I eat. I eat what you eat. That is the way things are here. If we have meat then all of us eat meat. If all we have is bread and cheese, we all eat bread and cheese. If we have nothing we all go hungry together until we find something to eat.”

            Her voice was so low as to be almost inaudible. “What if there is only a little meat?”

            “Then we make soup or each of us only has a taste.” He held out the bread and cheese. “This is for you, Sofia. If you do not eat it all, keep it. If you do eat it all, I’ll give you more.”

            She slowly eased forward, snatched the food from his hands and quickly retreated to her original place before she tore into the bread.

            Iain turned to Eve. “When she’s done, we’ll move out. She can stay at the backup site while I’m looking for Chambers.”

            April came over. “Kerrik,” she said quietly, “considering how starved she looks and the way she’s cramming food into her mouth, I’m worried she’s probably going to throw it back up in a little while.”

            “If she does, we’ll give her more food. However, I’ll see what I can do.” He waved to get Sofia’s attention and the Peekabu froze, staring at him as he switched back to Spanish. “I am concerned that if you eat all of that so quickly you’ll get sick and I don’t want that to happen. Nobody is going to take that away from you. Please eat a little more slowly.” She blinked at him, looked down at the food and back up at him. Then she went back to eating at a much slower pace.

            April smiled at him. “Thank you. I’ll let everyone know to speak Spanish around her until we know how good her English is. That way she won’t feel we’re keeping secrets from her.”

            “Good idea. When she’s done we’ll do some quick introductions and then get out of here.”

            Harris looked at him. Apparently she either didn’t speak Spanish or didn’t care about April’s suggestion, for she spoke in English. “You are wasting time.”

            Iain suppressed a spurt of irritation. “I was not aware we’re on a schedule.”

            “You’re coddling a pokegirl when we should be looking for Minister Chambers.”

            “We’ll leave after Sofia is done eating and I am not going to hurry her to make you happy. She’ll get sick and vomit.” He was aware that the Peekabu had stopped eating when she heard her name and he repeated himself in Spanish. She went back to her meal. “Lindsey, you had pokegirls. Didn’t you care for them, even a little?”

            The woman’s face became wooden. “When she’s done then, let’s get going.”

            He unclenched his fists. Pandora, you and Canaan go on ahead to the house. Get the stuff we’ll need and let Vanessa know what’s going on before you move on to the observation post. Vanessa had gone home yesterday evening. She had said it was to clear the house of any ferals, but Iain suspected she really wanted to check on her gardens now that she was sure everyone else was all right.

            The Fallen Angel nodded. She turned and headed a little ways away from the camp before vanishing. Canaan waited until she was gone before following her. Iain and the others began rechecking their gear while Harris wandered around impatiently.

            As soon as Sofia showed signs of stopping, Iain waved slightly to get her attention. He pointed at Eve and switched back to Spanish. “This is Eve, my alpha.” He pointed at April. “This is April.” He shifted to point at the others in turn. “That’s Dominique, that is Zareen and finally this is Ninhursag. These are my pokegirls and they will be helping you to train. The other woman is Lindsey Harris and it’s likely she won’t be staying with us for long.” He took a deep breath. “Sofia, we have to go someplace and then I will be leaving you with Zareen and the two who left because I have to go someplace for a little while. They’ll make sure you get a place to rest and food if you want it. I will come back, though, just as soon as I can.” He steeled himself for what he figured would be a long explanation. “We are going to teleport, which you may not be familiar with. It’s a way to make a long journey short. You get to go with us and there are two ways you can do it. The first is by going back into your pokeball.” She flinched. “Or maybe not. The second and much better way is by taking Eve’s hand and letting her do the work.”

            Eve nodded. “That’s right, Sofia. Just take my hand and we’ll go there. It’ll be fun and you’ll,” she broke off and held out her hand as the Peekabu slowly walked forward. “Good girl. Go ahead and take my hand and,” she broke off again as Sofia used her enhanced speed to suddenly whip around Eve and stop next to Iain. She grabbed his hand fiercely.

            Iain looked at her and then back at Eve. “Looks like you’re carrying two.”

            “I wish I knew what she was thinking.”

            “So ask her.”

            Eve blinked and shook her head. “Sofia, why won’t you hold my hand?”

            The Peekabu merely tightened her grip on Iain’s hand. “Eve, dear, she’s grinding my joints together and it’s a tad uncomfortable. Can we delay the questions for later?”

            “Of course. Ninhursag, bring Harris with you.” Eve took his free hand and the terrain changed. It had been nearly sundown outside Montevideo, but here in Ireland it was full dark. Sofia whimpered softly until Eve created some light, revealing some tents and Pandora standing in front of a tree.

            The Fallen Angel smiled slightly. “We’re ready to go, but don’t you think you should wait until morning? Canaan did a quick check and the streets of London are filled with people right now. There are so many current challenges that the battle areas have lines.”

            “Do you think that if I wait until midnight the tamers will clear out a bit?”

            Eve looked thoughtful. “It won’t be as clear as I’d like, but it may be a good time to scout out the Chambers’ home.”

            Iain nodded. “We’ll leave at midnight then.” He turned to Sofia, who was still holding his hand. “This is Pandora and the four armed girl with the antenna is Canaan. I have to leave for a while and since there may be fighting and you’re not ready for that, I’d like you to stay here and wait for us to return. Will you do that?”

            The Peekabu nodded slightly and slowly let his hand go. “I’ll wait here,” she said softly.

            “Thank you. Pandora can help you get stuff out of my pokepack. What I’d like you to do, if you want, is pick out some of my clothes to wear until we can get you some clothes of your own.”

            “I get clothes?”

            He nodded. “Everyone here, except me, gets to decide if they want to wear clothes. If you decide you want to, we’ll get you some clothes. Right now Zareen doesn’t want to wear clothes and so she doesn’t.”

            Harris interrupted and Sofia flinched when she heard the woman speaking English. “What are you jabbering to her about? Get moving, Wolf.”

            Iain looked at her and smiled politely as he continued speaking Spanish. “If you don’t stop trying to give me orders I am going to kick your ass.” Sofia’s eyes went very big and he switched to English. “I think we have already discussed the fact that you don’t give me orders. As a matter of fact, right now the streets are flooded with tamers and I am going to wait until midnight before setting forth. I know crowded streets can be easier to hide in, but that has to be balanced against the fact that it’s easier to be snuck up on or followed, too.”

            “And what if the minister dies while you’re waiting?”

            “Then I’ll send her a nice bouquet. However, I am not going to chance a dagger in the back instead of waiting a couple of hours and being a little safer when I head out. This isn’t your call to make and arguing with me is only going to aggravate me. Find some other way for you to entertain yourself that doesn’t involve pissing us off. Do you speak Spanish?”

            Harris looked surprised at the change of topic. “No, I don’t. Why?”

            “That’s all Sofia speaks, so please just leave her alone.”

            “Why did you get her then? She’ll be a liability in Blue.”

            “I’m a tradesman and I decided she would be a good fit. I need an electrical pokegirl and I’m biased towards the Peekabu line.”

            “I think you’re way off base this time, Kerrik. You should have gotten a Blue pokegirl. She’d be much better for you.”

            He folded his arms. “Lindsey Harris, my decisions have resulted in a harem that so far has neutralized two attempts to assassinate you without any harm to you. You might want to rethink your criticism of them and of me.”

            The woman flushed bright red. “You’re right and I apologize for the insult. To all of you.”

            “I’ll pass it along to the others.” Iain looked at Eve. “It’s a little after 2100 now. We’ll rest and leave at midnight.”

            Pandora waved to get his attention and he headed over. “What’s the matter?”

            She watched Harris examining her tent and handed him a sealed envelope. “Vanessa got a message for you from Daisy.”

            “Shit. Did she have anything else?”

            “No, but I think it’s from the friend you were meeting when we first met.”

            “Great.” He looked around. Eve, I’ve got a message from the Daisy Mae.

            His wife didn’t outwardly respond to his mental message and went on talking with Canaan. Zareen, go with him while he finds someplace he can read it.

            The Nightmare rose to her feet and swished her tail as she announced loudly in Spanish. “I have to piss and we’re not supposed to go off alone. Anyone else need to?”

            The Peekabu goggled at her.

            Iain suppressed a smile. Brilliant. “I do.”

            Zareen trotted over to him and swung her body around so he could slip onto her back. Then she headed into the darkness around them. For several minutes she maneuvered around trees and bushes before stopping in a copse of trees. “I do have to pee.”

            He slid off and moved away. “I’m clear.” Zareen dropped her hindquarters in a squat and the pungent smell of urine wafted across Iain as the sound of her piss hitting the ground filled the air. In her centaur form it sounded like a water hose. He ignored it and summoned a low light as he broke the seal on the envelope.

            He had already read the message inside with his perception, but the others would want to read it too, so he slipped it out the envelope and softly read it aloud for Zareen’s benefit.

            “‘Kerrik, Micah, I've already told Micah that I'm thinking about scrubbing the whole call for help, as it pertains to the rescue. Whoever I've attracted the attention of has upped the ante yet again. Bad enough NeoAtMuff was present. Then I could do a smash and grab, followed by a 'nuke the site from orbit'. Now someone has put Typhonna in the dreamland and her head is running around loose. Yes, I did not stutter, just her head.’” Iain frowned. “I wonder if it matches exactly to the portion that Vanessa destroyed. Maybe Typhonna is too dumb to know she’s dead.”

            Zareen stood up. “Read the letter and don’t comment during it.”

            “Hey, I didn’t hear a please there.”

            “Please.”

            Iain smiled at her as she scratched the ground with her hind hooves to cover where she’d peed. It was a feral habit she showed no signs of breaking. “All right.” He went back to reading. “‘It seems capable of independent action, motion without any apparent source of propulsion, although I've seen no evidence of HyperBeams or Ebony Voids. So my best guess is that the generators for those are either elsewhere (partially or fully), or seriously damaged and low priority for repair.’”
            “‘If this was someone's attempt to kill her by destroying her body, they really need a refresher on Great Old Ones, a course in naval architecture, or a talking to about the Borg. Anything that big has got to have not only a tremendous amount of redundancy, but a huge amount of decentralization. Just to react to stimuli and process life-sustaining chemicals, that would be necessary. It also explains her tremendous durability in the face of atomic weapons. Blow off or irradiate to ash a seemingly critical portion, and the rest of the structure continues and regenerates it. I can also assure you that Typhonna is definitely more GINO than gyno. So unless she had immense tracts of land, I doubt anyone outside her species would know her gender at a glance.’”
            “‘Just to bring you up to date, she took out the rescue force for a Capitol League assassination, or assimilation team. They tried to use a gimmicked Pokèball on who they thought was 'Kelvin's Choice'. Keep an eye out for these. Maybe we're immune, maybe we're not, but our Harems definitely aren't. Go from Battle Angel back to Bunnygirl in one fell swoop, or Megami-Sama to Dark Lady.’”
            “‘I got a letter from Micah. That's an interesting cure for Ferality, and with the political standing of the S-Goth population of Sanctuary, they might be able to simply vote themselves into power, especially with the Third Guards backing them up. A loyal army always helps to make the law legal.’”
            “‘Hild delivered a 'peace offer', along with four Cocooner-made Pokègirls. Before you start screaming, 'Cocooner can only make new breeds if she's eaten a Legendary', guess what, Authors seem to work equally well. So unless one or more of you are walking around with bites out of you, she doesn't need much to create a new breed. The reason I said that Hild delivered the peace offering, is that Cocooner arrived shortly after I opened your presents to vet them, as Hild requested. Cocooner evidently decided negotiating for a small but continuing supply wasn't as good as seizing an Author and going crazy. Kerrik and Micah's Blessed Widows were killed during the assault; mine and PJAuthor's were injured. Each girl was evidently crafted to be intriguing to each of us. Kay's comment that the Dragonesses should have been here to get some possibles, leaves me conflicted. I doubt either of you two would want a Cocooner-made/Hild-inspired present, yet they seemed to be legitimate, untrapped gifts. So I'm not sure if it's better they died in combat to prove themselves, rather than be rejected by someone they came pre-bonded to.’”
            “‘Another thing brought to my attention by none other than Hild herself, while you and Micah are master mages, and manipulate the world through your burgeoning magical powers, I have almost no skill in that regard and instead, I subconsciously change the universe by manipulating the people in it directly. This may be why we attract 'aware' people. They feel the power, and cannot escape its affect on them. Hild accused me of 'reshaping her into what I thought she should be' and indirectly said that was the fate of others drawn into our orbits and they become what we wish them to be, or they become what we think they wish to be. Although some fighting against the 'Evolution' should be expected. That this revelation came in the middle of a complete nervous breakdown is not as troubling as that the nervous breakdown may have been caused by the effect. Caveat Deus. Whether that's them, us, or both, I leave to you. I fervently hope her comment about 'Typhonna's head following you like a homeless puppy' was hyperbole created by her despair.’”
            “‘Otherwise, I have a solution for the NeoAtMuff problem, the Sanctuary problem, the 'who rules the world' problem, if I'm stupid enough to want all that paperwork. It leaves the question of what is the rest of her going to do when someone decides to cut up her corpse, or she decides to separate into her component pieces. Typhonna as jigsaw Legendary. It does explain quite a bit.’”
            “‘I'm rambling. In closing, I'll start the initial feelers for transferring the Stugs as soon as I can send the leadership for a meet and greet. Unless you'd rather come here. Considering the popularity of your plushie figures (both of you) I'm guessing it won't be 'Oh Demon Lord! Die!' except death by hugging, fondling and feeding you an excess of baked goods. We'll be raising the first ship pretty soon. Once we get the parts to remake it, I'll signal you Kerrik. We already got the signal from Blue confirming your appointment as 'Naval Inspector General'. Danny Kaye you're not, Kerrik. Kelvin.’” He looked up. “Well?”

            “I’ll call Eve and return to camp while she screams.” The Nightmare cocked her head and Eve appeared. She snickered. “You’re standing in piss.” Then she cantered off before Eve could respond.

            The Megami-sama looked down at her shoes and stepped sideways. “Damn. What is it?”

            Iain handed her the letter. “Kelvin wants to uninvite us to his party, Typhonna’s head is causing trouble, Cocooner made an appearance and tried to eat Kelvin and the Capitol League tried to turn him into a pokegirl to capture him. Oh, and Hild is hanging around with him. Read, but remember before you start yelling that Harris isn’t that far away.”

            She quickly scanned the message and looked up. “Who sent him plushies?”

            “I don’t know.” He frowned. “That’s your first question?”

            “If Vanessa says that Typhonna is dead, I believe her. Typhonna’s spirit might be trying to find a body to possess, but even if that’s true should her head shows up here Vanessa can kill it again. As for the Capitol League, they don’t know where you are and if they try something here not only will we smash them, but then I’ll have Dominique turn over whatever survives to the Blue League for interrogation. Hild isn’t coming here is she’s spending time with Kelvin and if Cocooner shows up we’ll kill her.” She smiled slightly. “You’ve never liked her.”

            “True.”

            “I am curious about a Blessed Widow. Blessed isn’t a breed and I can’t see anyone blessing a Widow.”

            “Oh, I don’t know, we once had a discussion about blessing menaces from afar and then tossing angel stones at them to turn them into Angel pokegirls.”

            Eve gasped. “That’s horrible! We’d never use it for that!”

            “Yeah, I know.”

            “Whoever thought that doesn’t understand that a blessing is a favor, not a weapon.” Eve looked angry. “Any Angel evolved out of such a situation would probably commit suicide or become a Penance almost instantly.”

            “Dear?” When she looked at him, he smiled. “You’re preaching to the choir. I was on that side in the discussions.”

            She started to snap something and took a deep breath. “You were going to tell me about the Blessed Widow?”

            “Indeed I was. It’s an alternate universe version breed loosely based off of the Widow that’s more like a Dryder than a Widow in behavior and doesn’t have hyper venom. The Blessed part is because it’s a celestial. I’m sorry the one meant for me,” he shuddered, “was killed, but I’m glad she’s not coming along with the message. She fails the first test of the pokegirl.”

            Eve blinked. “We have a test?”

            “Every breed has a series of tests they have to pass when they’re created or revised. The first test is the question of whether or not I’d want to stick my dick in it.”

            Eve’s laughter sounded like wind chimes. “I hadn’t heard that one before, but it makes sense. I take it since there are several breeds you’ve already said you’re not interested in that you weren’t the only person making that decision?”

            “Nope.” Iain shrugged. “There was a committee made up of the moderators, the admins and some of the regulars to the board.”

            “How is it you were an admin?”

            “It was because people mistook my blatant grab for power for some kind of personal responsibility.” He grinned. “I also think it was because I could be polite while telling someone they were being an idiot.”

            “Did you do that often?”

            He shrugged. “It’s not important.”

            “Who is Danny Kaye?”

            “He was an actor who did a lot of work for the USO, the United Service Organizations. It’s a nonprofit group that worked to provide recreational support for the United States military forces around the world. Being an entertainer, Danny Kaye and others would travel around and do shows for the troops to keep their morale up. He spent a lot of his life doing that.” Iain frowned. “This bit about me being a BLSF Inspector General is a bit aggravating. I think once we find Cherry I’m going to have to have a word with her about what she’s been telling people.”

            “Hopefully she’ll be alive and able to hear your admonishments.”

            “Yeah, I hope that’s the case too. I liked her when I was writing New Beginnings. If I could have thought of a reasonable way to make it happen, she’d have gone to One with Jamie and the others.”

            “What do you think about Kelvin thinking that he should uninvite us?”

            Iain picked up a stick and ran it down the back of his shirt to scratch an itch he couldn’t reach. “If Kelvin wants my help, I’ll be more than glad to give it. If Kelvin doesn’t want my help, then he’s free to ask us to stay out of his fight. But if Hild is right and by not wanting us there he’ll also manipulate the skipper of the Daisy Mae to not want us there, there’s not much I can do except be an asshole and horn in where I could get us shot from behind. That doesn’t sound very wise, so if he doesn’t want us there, we won’t go.”

            “What about the people being held in this Caomh Sith?”

            “Eve, if Kelvin and the forces with him fail without freeing them, then we may see what we can do. If they succeed, we won’t have to.”

            “What if our presence was what they need to tip the balance to victory?”

            “If we’re not invited and that’s the case then they’ll lose. We are not going to force ourselves someplace where we’re not wanted. If we do that, our presence might well kill more people than it saves. If they lose and everyone dies, I’ll miss Miguelito and some of the others, but I never really had much to do with Kelvin, remember? I suppose I’ll miss him in the abstract, but that’s really it. It boils down to if he doesn’t want us there, we won’t go.” He frowned. “However, if Kelvin is right and he has some kind of short term prophetic abilities, he should know if he really needs us or not. Pride might still make him decide not to ask for our help, but that’s an entirely different kettle of fish.”

            “What do you think I should tell Lucy?”

            “Why do you have to tell her anything? She’s a grownup and can make decisions on her own.”

            “What if Kelvin coerces her with this supposed ability of his?”

            “He won’t. She spends too much time around us and, if he’s right, that means she’s more under my influence than she’ll ever be under his and since I don’t want her to throw away the Sisterhood, she won’t.”

            Eve’s eyebrows went up. “What do you want her to do?”

            “Don’t even start.”

            “I distinctly remember Dominique talking about some rather dirty thoughts you were having about her.”

            Iain flushed slightly. “Ok, I’m a pervert. That doesn’t change the fact that Dominique was out of line. It is very much my nature to consider having sexual relations with any eligible woman when she’s around. It’s part of the nature of most people. The whole idea of platonic friendships take place between people who have decided that they’re not compatible sexually, but not before someone makes that decision. Lucifer isn’t in my life like that and I have a full dance card right now.” He took the message and folded it up before stuffing it into his pocket. “If we don’t get back, I won’t get my power nap.”

           

***

 

            Eve, April and Dominique appeared and surveyed the area before Eve sent a mental message. Seconds later Ninhursag and Iain joined them. Iain chuckled as he pulled the pokeballs from his belt. “I wonder if the fact that all of you are in maternity balls will slow down any challengers.”

            “It won’t matter to them,” April groused, “unless you tell them we’re all pregnant and pokewomen.”

            “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m sorry to do this.”

            “We know you don’t like it any more than we do. At least these don’t have that silly conditioning cycle in them either. We’ll be watching, so be careful or we’ll get you.” Dominique grinned until she dissolved into the capture beam.

            After also returning Eve and April, Iain put their pokeballs on his belt. “This feels so strange.”

            “I know.” Ninhursag was scanning their surroundings. “But if you had everyone out it would suggest you were paranoid about attack and if you act like prey you’ll get treated like prey.”

            “Yeah, I know.” He was wearing a beat up looking backpack that had definitely seen better days before they’d purchased it at a used wares dealer in Montevideo. He pulled out his pokedex and turned it on. “I’ll pull up the route to Cherry’s place and then we can get going.”

            “Dominique was right when she said she could have flown there and then we could have traveled by teleport.” Ninhursag flashed a smile. “But you were right about it being more important to be able to examine the area in detail before we put ourselves into the middle of Chamber’s place. We know that it’s bound to be under some kind of surveillance.”

            “If they’re trying to kill or capture Cherry the place will be watched by someone. Our job is to get in and out without being discovered, or at least without being intercepted or tracked when we leave. If we get intercepted, there’ll be a fight and her house will probably get trashed. I’d like to avoid that if possible.”

            Ninhursag glanced at him. “If we save her life then she should forgive us eventually, or is it that you care for her and that’s why you’re concerned about her stuff?”

            He stared blankly at the city they were walking towards. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I do not know this woman, but I know what I wrote about her. It was many years earlier in her life and she’s not the same person I wrote about, but she was one of my favored characters. I really don’t know.”

            Even at midnight, London was far busier than Iain expected it to be. Smaller towns turned off their lights after a certain time to avoid luring night ferals. In London the lights had been dimmed somewhat, but they were still lit and tonight London’s streets were filled with people.

            “It’s a pity that tamers have to have their pokedexes out and on,” Iain said quietly as he checked the display and turned down a narrow street, “even if it’s very convenient for mapping.”

             Most of the people the passed were obviously headed from one place to another and were not interested in passersby, but every so often they’d see a sharp eyed young man or woman loitering near the wall of a building and busily scanning everyone within their line of sight with a pokedex. For nearly an hour, Iain managed to avoid them by slipping down alleys to adjoining streets or turning down a side street to go around them. Eventually, he knew his luck would run out but there was no harm in avoiding all of the idiots that he could until then.

            They were cutting through one alley when something moved in the shadows ahead of them. Ninhursag immediately slipped in front of Iain and slowed. I see a human and a pokegirl waiting for us. I don’t recognize the breed.

            Iain’s perception saw them as clearly as if they’d been standing in sunshine. It’s a Bandame.

            The Bandame moved forward slightly. “This is our alley. You have to pay the toll to proceed. It’s a thousand SLC.”

            Ninhursag’s teeth flashed in a grin. “Can we go around?”

            The Bandame shook her head as the bandages on her arms began to untwine in preparation. “No, you’ve already used half the alley. It’s not like the toll is a lot of money, either. Just pay up and nobody will get hurt.”

            It’s a good price. Most people would be willing to pay the toll in order to avoid having to fight about it.  Iain shrugged. “You do realize that I’m recording this, don’t you? Let us pass and there won’t be any trouble.”

            The man standing behind the Bandame jerked in surprise. “Get that pokedex.”

            The Bandame’s bandages shot forward, arcing around Ninhursag to reach for Iain. The Elfqueen reacted instantly by creating an energy blade and chopping the bandages on both sides of her in a single blurring strike. The Bandame hissed and charged as her fists began to glow with a bright silver light that lit up the alleyway.

            Ninhursag dropped under the punches the Bandame threw and drove her energy blade up into the ground pokegirl’s belly, the shimmering beam emerging from the top of the Bandame’s back. As she started to fall on her, Ninhursag kicked out, tossing the limp form into her tamer as he reached for his belt.

            Iain jumped over Ninhursag as she pushed to her feet and pointed his pistol at the tamer as he shoved the Bandame off of him. “Recover her. If another pokegirl starts to appear, you’re dead before she fully materializes.”

            “Don’t kill me, man!” The guy’s voice was shrill as he pulled a pokeball from his belt and returned the Bandame to it. “I was just playing with you!”

            Iain glanced at Ninhursag. “Take his pokeballs and his pokedex. I’d like to haul his dumb ass down to the nearest Met station, but that’s not going to happen.”

            “Kill him?” The guy glared at her as she stripped off his tamer’s belt and began going through his pockets, taking anything of value.

            “I’d like to, but we can’t take a chance on it right now. We’ll put him to sleep and stuff him in a wheelie bin. By the time he wakes up we’ll be long gone.” Iain checked the man’s pokedex and handed it back to him. “Unlock it.”

            “Fuck you.”

            Iain pressed the muzzle of the pistol against the man’s stomach. “The flesh of your gut will reduce the noise to almost nothing and the gasses that come out behind the bullet will cause a lot more tissue damage than that tiny piece of lead ever will.” He smiled slightly as Ninhursag covered the man’s mouth with her hand. “Unlock your pokedex.” The man’s hands trembled as he touched the DNA scanner and entered an access code. Iain took it and pulled up the man’s information, which he then typed into his pokedex’s notebook. “Louis, I have your name and address now and since I didn’t scan your pokedex with mine, you have no idea who I am. If I have encounter problems that come with your name anywhere around them, I will look you up.” He motioned to the Elfqueen and the man went limp as she used her power to render him unconscious.

            Ninhursag lifted the man and dropped him into a trash bin. “Would you have shot him?”

            “I like to think that I’m not that much of a cold blooded killer just yet. What’s important is that he didn’t know if I would pull the trigger or not.”

            “I’m glad to hear that. What are you going to do with his pokegirls?”

            “We’ll stop at a store up ahead and buy a shipping box so I can mail them back to him. He might even be good to his girls.” He smiled grimly. “And having me mail them to him will only reinforce that I know where he lives.”

            “Are you trying to get him to move?”

            “Hey, the weather is nice in Orange or Capitol and he’d probably find himself in good company in the alleys there.” Purchasing the box and mailing it off only hit a small snag when Iain had to put down a return address or the Catgirl clerk wouldn’t accept the package. He quickly filled it out as W. Churchill of St. Martins, Woodstock, Oxfordshire England and gave it to her with a broad smile. His smile faded and he sighed slightly when she read it and put it in the delivery bin without comment.

            “What was that?” Ninhursag had been quiet until they were outside again and headed in the direction of the Chambers home.

            “Barbarians with no sense of history, that’s what that was. Jimmy destroyed a lot more than just the people when he set his vexations loose on the Earth.” He sighed. “Hell, Woodstock is probably just another ruin outside of Oxford.”

            “Vexations? Are you saying that I am a vexation?”

            “No, you’re the daughter of a vexation and someone I am very lucky to have managed to convince to join my little troop of madmen. You, my tall dear, are a blessing.”

            “What if I preferred to be a vexation?”

            “Please be so to others, not me.”

            “Ok.”

            A little while later Ninhursag touched him on the shoulder. “Kerrik, you might want to slow down a little bit.”

            “Why?”

            “You’re walking like we’re in the wilderness and have miles to cover before we camp. In short, you are drawing attention from people.”

            He snorted “I can’t help it if they all walk like every destination is right around the next corner. We still have a ways to go and I don’t want to be there at dawn.”

            “Why is dawn important?”

            “If there happen to be any surveillance teams present, that’s commonly time for shift change and would double the number of warm bodies available to chase us if we screw this up.”

            “Well, it’s too late,” Ninhursag said as, up ahead, a shadowy figure pushed away from where it had been leaning against the wall and sweeping a pokedex down the street. “He’s looking at us.”

            Iain slowed and finally stopped when the man moved to block their passage. The low light showed him to be older than Iain would have guessed, but not old enough to be ready to retire from taming. He looked Iain up and down before turning his attention to Ninhursag. Then he looked back at Iain. “Challenge for salvage.”

            Iain gave him a disgusted look. “Without setting the conditions for any combat or even agreeing to a fight, unless there’s a battlefield available right now without any waiting, I’m going to have to decline your offer.”

            The man smiled. “There’s one around the corner.”

            Fuck. “I want to see it.”

            As they walked down the street, the man eyed him curiously. “Aren’t you even going to check your pokedex and see who I am?”

            “I’ll do that once I know if I’ll have to fight you or not.”

            “You’re not particularly enthusiastic about this.”

            Ninhursag gave Iain a sharp look and he shrugged, bottling up his irritation so he could speak in a normal tone. “Salvage battles have never really been my thing. I like my pokegirls and I’m not going to enjoy losing another one of them if I lose.”

            “Then why fight me at all? There are lots of ways to get out of a battle.”

            “My alpha pointed out that I really need to finish filling out my harem and, besides, I don’t need a reputation for cowardice.”

            “That makes sense. You’re older than most active tamers.”

            Iain shrugged. “My farm failed thanks to ferals. They were like locusts and even with her,” he nodded towards Ninhursag, “we lost it all. So we’re broke and this will get us some more money and keep us busy until I can either take the tradesman’s exam or save enough to buy more seed for spring.”

            “What kind of ferals did it?”

            Iain made a face. “It was a swarm of Ladyba and Ladyien. There were nearly a hundred of them. We caught some, but that just pissed the others off so they battered down my house before eating everything in my fields instead of eating everything in my fields and then destroying my home. I got to hide in my basement underneath the wreckage of my house and watch them until they left.”

            “Sounds like you need a fire type.”

            “Yeah,” Iain drew the word out, “that’s on the list.”

            “I’ve got one. I’ll put her up against your Elfqueen.”

            Iain flashed a smile. “Nice try, but I haven’t even seen this battlefield of yours yet.”

            “There it is.” The man pointed ahead of them.

            In order to try and reduce the occurrence of collateral damage from tamer battles, as well as mitigate the effects of it when it did happen, the Blue League had scattered battle parks throughout all of the league’s major cities. Smaller towns had designated areas outside of the township’s farming region that moved every few years so that the now thoroughly blasted ground could be turned into more farms as the town grew. A standard battle park held a dozen arenas surrounded by a wide belt of grass, but this one was smaller than usual and only had four combat areas, two of which were currently in use. Each arena was a flat grassy rectangle a hundred meters long and twenty meters wide. On either side of the fifty meter line was a marked off area for the combatant tamers to stand in while controlling the match. Experience had shown that putting the tamer boxes on the fifty meter line made shouting commands easier. It also reduced potential tamer injuries as the pokegirls started out on either end of the long axis of the battleground and most of the attacks tended to travel along those lines

            An Officerjenny was seated on a bench in the center of the park. From her perch she watched the area while eating from what looked like a bag of marshmallows.

            Iain looked at Ninhursag and took his pokedex from his belt so he could pull up the last external scan. “You’re Sean Dubroc? It’s possible that one of these tamers scanned me since you did, but the timestamp suggests that’s you.”

            Sean nodded. “I am. So, do you want to put your Elfqueen up against my fire type or not?”

            What Iain really wanted was a way to tell Sean to go fuck himself, but the tamer was being too reasonable and not giving him any openings. It looked like he was going to have to engage in a salvage battle. “What is she?”

            “She’s an experienced Rapitaur.”

            “Is that what you’re going to fight with?”

            Dubroc nodded. “I will if you’ll be using your Elfqueen.”

            I’ve faced fire types before and I shouldn’t have any problems with any Rapitaur a tamer has in his harem. Ninhursag was watching Dubroc, but Iain heard her clearly through the delta bond they shared.

            You’d better be right because if you are wrong I’ll kill him at the first opportunity I get so I can reclaim you.  “Her name is Ninhursag and I’ll be using her. This will be a single pokegirl match with no substitutions.”

            Dubroc pulled a pokeball from his belt. “I’ll use Raquel.” The pokegirl that appeared was two meters tall, and that before she shifted to her equine form and gained another meter in height. She was a blue dun in color and being a pokegirl put the dark stockings on her arms as well as her legs. She was nude, except for a belt around her waist that held several pouches and reminded Iain of a superhero’s utility belt. “I think we’ll use that field there.” He pointed at the field farthest from the ones in use. “You need to start recording so we can formalize things.”

            “I started recording everything on my pokedex the moment I arrived in London.” Iain smiled at the surprise that flitted across Dubroc’s face. “I’ve learned from hard experience that it’s only wise to record damned near everything.”

            Dubroc nodded and touched his pokedex. “You, Kerrik Wolf, agree that this is a salvage match between you and me.”

            Iain spoke clearly for the pokedexes. “This will be a single pokegirl match with no substitutions and no breaks for healing unless both sides agree. Tamers are not to be targeted.” He moved to the farthermost tamer area. “Ninhursag, take your place.” Be careful.

            The Elfqueen jogged to the starting point on one end of the battlefield while the Rapitaur raced to the other. I will. At full speed it would take her a full second to reach me and if she does that she’ll throw herself out of the battlefield before she can stop. In that time period I could easily kill her with arrows from my bow.

            Dubroc watched Iain stop in his position and stepped into the tamer box on his side of the battlefield. “Wolf, are you ready to battle?”

            “Not particularly, but let’s do this anyway.”

            Sean chuckled. “You’re a definite change from everyone and their confident assumptions of victory. Raquel, are you ready?”

            “I am, sir.” Iain blinked at the heavy Noir accent from the Rapitaur. His dislike of the French was actually more rational than his dislike of the Chinese, but that didn’t make it truly rational in the eyes of others. Raquel focused on Ninhursag. “You will like it in our harem. We have a good master, unlike most of these blues. Do not fight hard and this will end quickly.” Her eyes narrowed and her face set when the Elfqueen laughed at her. “Then what is coming is on your head.”

            Damn, she talks a lot before a fight. Start this, Iain.

            Iain grinned. “Raquel isn’t going to try to talk Ninhursag to death is she? Call it.”

            Dubroc glared. “Begin! Raquel, use flame thrower!”

            The Rapitaur blurred forward instantly, her hooves throwing large divots of grassy soil into the air behind her as she accelerated hard. A quarter of the way across the arena she planted her right foreleg on the ground and the grass wrapped around her hoof and ankle. Under Ninhursag’s control, the grass had grown its roots into a single mass that stretched the width of the field even as the individual stalks had woven together with their neighbors to make a tough living rope. When the grass grabbed the Rapitaur’s hoof, it essentially nailed it to the ground. Raquel shrieked in pain that cut off suddenly as her body rotated on the shoulder and ankle joints in that leg and she slammed face first into the field.

            The Rapitaur burst into flames as she used ignite and burned away the grass. She rocked to her feet and used flame thrower to scorch the area around her to the dirt. “I am going to hurt you for that, elf.” She stepped forward, limping as she continued to use flamethrower to kill the grass in front of her.

            Ninhursag moved for the first time since the battle started, raising her hand and pointing her palm at the oncoming Rapitaur. Light flared in front of her hand, becoming a glowing silver ball which erupted in a beam of brilliant golden energy that smashed Raquel across the battlefield and deposited her almost where she’d begun the match.

            Dubroc’s jaw dropped. “Solar beam? But it’s the middle of the night!”

            Iain had seen her do this trick before. “Experienced pokegirls can store energy for later use, Dubroc. She saved it up from the day.”

            I stored that a week ago on that very sunny day when we were lazing around outside after you fucked me senseless under our tree.

            He remembered it well and felt himself became half hard at the memory. The commentary isn’t needed, Ninhursag. Her laughter echoed in his mind.

            Raquel pushed to her feet and shook her head. Dubroc called to her loudly. “She can’t do that twice, so close as quickly as you can and burn her down. Just watch out for the grass!”

            Iain distinctly heard the Rapitaur mutter “merde” as she pulled a healing potion from one of the pouches on her belt and drank it. Ninhursag obviously saw it too, if her angry hiss was any indication.

            “That’s legal! She had it before the battle began!” Iain almost jumped and his pistol was halfway out of its holster when he realized that the Officerjenny had left her bench and was standing just outside his tamer’s station. He’d been so focused on the fight that, even with his perception, he hadn’t noticed her coming up behind him. Anger swept through him at the rookie mistake and what Nightraven would have done to him if he’d let it happen to him there. He forced the gun back where it belonged and tried to ignore the police pokegirl behind him.

            I’m going on the offensive. Thunder rocked the arena as Ninhursag hit the Rapitaur with a bolt of lighting, staggering Raquel. The Rapitaur skittered sideways so the second bolt missed and then charged as she used ignite again to relight her body with flames.

            Ninhursag dropped some tiny seeds and vanished as Raquel crossed the 50 meter line. Her teleport exited behind the Rapitaur and she dropped more almost invisible seeds as she hit Raquel in the ass with another lightning bolt. Raquel recovered quickly and whirled, spewing flames in Ninhursag’s direction, but the Elfqueen vanished before they washed over her location. She reappeared at the end of the battlefield, standing where Raquel had started the duel.

            The Rapitaur saw her, growled in anger and raced forward. As she crossed the place where Ninhursag had exited the first teleport, vines exploded out of the ground all around her and whipped inward. White flowers dotted the vines and Iain blanched when he saw them and realized it was his favorite rose and the one he’d introduced Ninhursag to. More and more vines shot from the ground and hit Raquel faster than her ignite could burn them away while others pulled her off her feet as she screamed in rage and pain. Some of the flowers on the outlying vines twisted and rubbed together, died away and swelled again as the seeds inside the hips matured. They fell, sprouting and giving Ninhursag more rose bushes with which to pound Raquel as she desperately used flamethrower all around her and crawled towards escape.

            She almost didn’t make it.

            It took her more than a minute to fight her way free of the burning bushes and when she did, Sean gasped in horror. The Mermaid rose could normally grow to more than ten meters and had huge, razor sharp thorns. Under Ninhursag’s control, the whipping vines had torn the Rapitaur’s hide to shreds and blood poured from her body where the thorns had torn through arteries and veins close to the skin. She’d lost both eyes to the vines and bloody muscle shone in the dancing light of the flames behind her. As they watched, she sank to the ground, gasping for air and slowly toppled sideways as she sank into unconsciousness from blood loss.

            “Recall her.” Iain’s voice was pitched just loudly enough to be heard over the hiss of the rose vines burning in the fire. “Do it before she can die, Dubroc.” He hadn’t finished speaking when the red beam stabbed out and removed the fallen Rapitaur from the battlefield. “Ninhursag, put the fire out.”

            “Yes, sir.” She did so by the simple expedient of killing the roses to ash, which robbed the fire of all of its fuel. In seconds, the fire was gone and the Elfqueen was trotting across the field to join her tamer. Now do you understand why I wasn’t worried about facing his Rapitaur? I didn’t even have to use my water techniques on her. To be honest, I was more concerned that I couldn’t see her in the flames and was worried that I’d accidentally flay her to death instead of cripple her.

            That was very remarkable. Remind me not to get on your bad side.

            Sean walked across the field to meet them. In the Blue League it was traditional that the vanquished would go to the victor. He looked at the Officerjenny. “I’d like you to witness the transfer.” She moved to watch as he typed and then looked up. “Ok, Wolf, synchronize your pokedex with mine and we’ll be done. Good match, by the way. You’ve got an impressive Elfqueen.” He smiled slightly. “I’d compliment her by name, but I can’t remember it.”

            “Ninhursag.” Iain held up his pokedex and it beeped as it linked up with Dubroc’s.

            “That was well done, Ninhursag. I’m sure you’ll be a good teacher for Raquel.” He looked at the Officerjenny. “Satisfied, May?”

            She nodded. “I am. Everything was done legally.”

            Iain frowned as Dubroc tossed two pokeballs at him. “Here you go, Wolf.”

            He scrambled and managed to catch both of them. “What is this?”

            Dubroc gave him a wide grin. “It’s a bonus. Have a nice night.”

            The Officerjenny looked at Iain. “What he did was perfectly legal and you can’t give them back.”

            “Why does the fact that you apparently felt the need to tell me that give me the willies?”  He looked at his pokedex and saw a name he didn’t recognize. “Who the hell is Undine?”

            “She’s in the other pokeball.” Dubroc smiled at the Officerjenny. “Coming, May?”

            “I’ve got to check in with the sergeant and then I’ll meet you at the rendezvous.” The Officerjenny watched Sean head out of the park before giving Iain a stern look. “Mr. Wolf, the law is very clear about how you’ll have to treat Undine. If I hear anything to the contrary, I will look you up and you will not enjoy it.”

            Ninhursag’s hands clenched and then relaxed as Iain gave the Officerjenny an amused smile. “May, if I own Undine then I can do whatever the fuck I want to with her and you can’t do shit. Now go the hell away. I suspect you will want to be long gone when I figure out what the fuck is going on.”

            May flushed scarlet. “You watch your mouth, Wolf.”

            “Have I done anything wrong?”

            “Not yet.”

            “Then suck me.” Iain turned to Ninhursag. “Let’s get out of here.” He deliberately turned in the opposite direction from the way he wanted to go and headed down the street until he could no longer feel Officerjenny May glaring at his back. “Let’s find an alley, cross over to another street and get back on track.”

            “Do you want to stop in the alley and heal Raquel up?”

            He shook his head. “We just fought an official battle. That means unless you or Raquel get healed, we’ve got twelve hours in which we can legally tell everyone to drop dead without any explanation. We’re going to stop in the alley and find out who Undine is and how badly I got screwed, but no healing.”

            Ninhursag pointed at the mouth of an alley as they approached it. “That should work. Let me clear it first and make sure nobody is waiting in this one too.” She returned quickly. “It’s clear.”

            The center of the alley was dimly lit and Ninhursag summoned a light globe as Iain pulled the unknown pokeball from his pocket. “At least it isn’t a GS ball. I need another quest like I need a hole in my head.”

            Ninhursag brushed her nutmeg hair back from her face and put herself beside him. “Let’s play this carefully in case it’s got a Jokette or something in it.” She glanced at him. “Of course, I’ve heard what you think are funny jokes, so we’re not really in much danger from a Jokette.”

            “That hurt.” They shared a chuckle and he pressed the release on the pokeball.

            She was a little taller than Iain and her eyes and hair were the same bright shade of aquamarine. She was trim and muscular, and dressed neatly in a comfortable looking dress that showed off her calves and ankles.

            She was also nothing but trouble and Iain suppressed a scowl as he recognized the breed. “Are you Undine?”

            She looked him up and down deliberately before looking Ninhursag over. “So Sean found someone to take me? I was beginning to wonder if he ever would. You certainly don’t look that impressive.”

            Iain glanced at Ninhursag. She’s a Neo Iczel.

            “Crap.”

            Undine looked surprised at Ninhursag’s word. “I beg your pardon?”

            “You’re a Neo.” The Elfqueen snorted. “I thought they didn’t beg.”

            Undine glared at Ninhursag. “Have we met?”

            “No, but Kerrik here can identify pokegirl breeds on sight. He spotted you were a Neo instantly and told me.”

            “Really?” Undine looked him up and down again, this time with a hint of interest. “And how did he do that?”

            “We’re delta bonded.” Ninhursag rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know if you want to keep her, but if you do we’ll make it work.”

            Undine folded her arms. “Unless you can find someone who shares his particular fetish, I’m not going anywhere.”

            Iain blinked. “Fetish? What fetish?”

            “Nobody in their right mind would take me unless they were interested in my situation, um, Kerrik, is it?”

            “Yeah. Kerrik Wolf.” He grimaced. “And for the record, I got you as a package deal after a salvage battle between Ninhursag here and Raquel. I don’t know anything about you or some situation you have.”

            Undine looked surprised. “I didn’t think he could just give me away.”

            “He had some Officerjenny certify the trade.” Iain’s stomach rolled uneasily and his eyes suddenly glittered angrily. “Shit, I did get screwed. What’s the deal with you?”

            “An Officerjenny? That was probably his mother, May. She really wanted me anywhere else than around Sean.” Undine’s mouth worked like she would spit and then she sighed. “Sean is my former tamer’s nephew. His father and my tamer were brothers. They’re both dead and Sean is their only living family, so once my situation was understood, he was found and I was given to him to care for. I’m pregnant.”

            Iain frowned and looked at the pokeball in his hand. “But this is,” he broke off and looked with his perception. “Son of a bitch.” He pulled his knife from his belt and scraped the side of the ball. Red paint peeled away to reveal a pink casing. “This is a maternity ball.”

            “Of course it is.” Undine’s tone added an unspoken “you idiot” to her words.

            “So why not just find a nice ranch for you?” Ninhursag didn’t look pleased. “Neos are overpriced and you should have fetched a tidy sum.”

            “Overpriced? Overpriced?” Undine glared daggers at Ninhursag. “Look, you overstuffed Elf,” she began hotly.

            “Enough!” Iain’s voice slashed through hers and she gaped at him for a second. “Obviously there’s something I don’t yet know about the situation. Spit it out.”

            “Oh, that. I’m a pokewoman and nobody yet knows if I’m carrying a human baby or not. Until then I can’t be aborted or sold. I can only be openly traded.” She smiled evilly. “And yes, I’m still counted and I still take a slot in your harem.”

 

***

 

Iain Grey - Tradesman

Eve - Megami-sama (maharani)

Dominique - Blessed Archmage

April - Duelist

Ninhursag - Elfqueen

Zareen - Nightmare

Pandora - Fiendish Fallen Angel

Canaan - G-Splice (Amachamp Hunter - Alaka-Wham)

Sofia - Peekabu

 

Dragonesses

Eirian - Silver

Skye - Blue

Emerald - Green

Aurum - Gold

Beryl - Red