This work is fiction. The work has no relationship with any person existing at any time anywhere whether real or imaginary or copywritten. Everything in this work is mea culpa.
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You should not read this work if you are under the age of legal consent wherever you reside. This work may or may not contain any and/or all of the following: death, dismemberment, violent acts, implied sex, explicit sex, violent sex, rape, cannibalism, blasphemy (depending on your religion), BDSM, torture, mimes, and just about anything unwholesome that you could consider.
The pokegirl universe was first documented by Metroanime and to him all of us who reside or visit there owe a debt of thanks.
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Chapter 6
Jamie leaned against the tree and stared into the distance as tears glittered in his eyes. “What do I do now?”
You need to contact your family. What happened is not your fault. Aggie and Selene vetted your security reports and there wasn’t anything that they needed to change or remove. There must be some mistake and your family can get that corrected.
“What if they can’t do anything?”
Then you go on. However, you will not know if they can help until they’ve made the attempt.
He stared sightlessly into the night sky for another minute before nodding. “You’re right.” He pulled his pokedex from his belt and opened it. “Do it.”
I am accessing the communications protocols now. Initiating realtime connection. Please verify that the area around you is clear of unauthorized personnel.
Jamie released Ginevra. “Is anyone else around us?”
The daimon cocked her head. “No. I sense no non-animal life except for us.”
“We’re secure. I doubt anyone has a shotgun microphone set up to record our conversations.”
Realtime connection proceeding to second step. Connection is established.
The holographic drivers on the pokedex lit up and Aggie appeared. “You rang, Jamie?”
He took a deep breath. “I need to speak to father or grandfather right away.”
Good choices.
“Your father is entertaining company tonight; I’ll see if Kerrik is available.” She frowned. “It may take a minute or two, since he doesn’t have a twee.”
Jamie knew that ‘entertaining company’ was a euphemism for his father taming some of his harem. “Ok, I’ll wait.”
The hologram changed to the Caomh Sith pattern for a couple of minutes before it cleared. His grandfather was belting on a kimono. “Hi, sponge. What’s the problem?”
Jamie smiled at the private nickname. “Hi, grumps.” He hesitated and suddenly blurted it out. “I’ve been kicked out of the BLSF and I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a way home and I don’t want to tell mother about it. I’m so ashamed.”
Kerrik’s smile vanished. “I’ll be there in less than a minute.” The display blanked.
Jamie closed up the pokedex and slumped against the tree. “Sponge?”
He glanced at Ginevra. “Grandfather gave it to me after I drank a whole gallon of milk at a single sitting when we were out training.”
There was a low chuckle and Ginevra jumped a foot into the air and whirled to face the sound. Kerrik appeared out of the darkness. “What was really impressive about that was that he didn’t promptly vomit it back up.”
“How did you do that?” The daimon leaned forward aggressively. “I did not know you were there.”
Kerrik paused to look her over. “Good.” He ignored her when she hissed her displeasure. “So, they kicked you out of the military. Usually there’s a courts-martial, or something like that first. What happened?”
“When Cherry and I arrived at the school, she checked in without any problems. Then, when I checked in, I was told to see a Captain McGee. I did and he kicked me out of the BLSF. He said I’d had some kind of updated intelligence report that said I was a security risk.”
“This has got to be some kind of put-up job. There should have been some kind of follow up on that report if the rest of your security background check was clean, and I know that it was.” Kerrik’s ears flicked. “Your mother’s connections would probably be of use in this situation. It’s also likely she’ll know what happened soon enough. May I tell her what happened?”
Jamie sighed as tension drained from his body. “Yes. I’m just glad you’re not asking questions I can’t answer. Mother does that.”
“She tends to think out loud during emergencies and doesn’t expect you to answer.” Kerrik frowned. “I’ll talk to her, but you need to be there or she’ll just hunt you down afterwards.”
“You think?” They shared a chuckle.
“She’s with your father tonight,” Kerrik murmured thoughtfully, “and I’m staying at the inn for the time being. There’s really no room for you there. Not to mention that, just as soon as someone sees you, the news will be all over the island.” An abrupt nod. “We’ll stay at a hotel here in London and head to the island after you’ve had a good night’s sleep and some breakfast.”
Jamie put his hand on Kerrik’s shoulder. “Thank you for coming.”
“It’ll never be a trouble if you need help, Jamie.”
***
Jamie halted just inside the door and his grandfather had to push him to the side to enter. Jamie looked at the faces looking back at him and shook his head. “They already know.”
Shikarou, Kasumi, Poppet, Branwyn and Bellona were seated at the table. Kerrik nodded. “I see only husband and wives. I think you’re right.”
Poppet pointed to a pair of chairs. “Sit.”
Kerrik raised an eyebrow and Bellona chuckled. “Please?”
He nodded and settled into a chair. “I need to have another talk with your AIs about my privacy.”
Kasumi shook her head. “They’re family, too, and are worried about Jamie as much as we are. What happened?”
Jamie shrugged. “I don’t know. When I arrived, I was sent to see a Captain McGee. He had me thumbprint some papers, announced I was a security risk and told me I’d been discharged.”
“You didn’t read what he was doing?” Poppet sighed when he gave her a blank look. “Never sign something you haven’t read.”
Jamie hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
Shikarou frowned. “Jamie, did he have things set up so you could have read what he was doing?”
Jamie blinked. “No, he had the terminal facing him and there wasn’t a second display.”
“Then he wouldn’t have let you read it,” Branwyn’s voice was grim. “Ok, so they tricked you, but why?”
“I was told that a supplementary intelligence report had arrived the day before I did claiming that I was a security risk. That’s all I know.”
“We’ll know what the report says before tomorrow.” Poppet gave her husband a hard look. “I’ll try for sooner, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
Kasumi put her cup down and turned to Shikarou. “I am sorry, but I suspect that this is my fault.” She took a deep breath. “I told Charlene that he was in the BLSF and was going to OCS. She’s probably the one who filed the report. It would be easy since she is the alpha of a league official. The timing is almost perfect for her to write up and deliver a report to the league.”
“Who is Charlene?” Branwyn gave Kasumi a curious look. “I don’t know that name.”
“She’s Dr. William’s megami-sama and the one who tried to join your harem nineteen years ago. I think she’s out for revenge.”
There was a moment of shocked silence before Branwyn and Poppet spoke at the same time. “I want her dead.” They looked at each other and then chuckled awkwardly.
Bellona shook her head. “Killing a megami-sama is always a bad idea. Removing her and her tamer without cause is just as bad.” She turned back to Poppet. “Do we have any options?”
The unicorn sighed. “We’d have more if he hadn’t already been discharged. This is highly irregular.”
“Someone knows you, Poppet.” Kerrik’s voice was even. “They did this so quickly because they were worried that you could undo it if given any time in which to work. Now that Jamie is no longer in the BLSF, you have a much harder job.” His ears went flat for an instant. “And at this point, it doesn’t matter. Even if you have him reinstated, they’ll just find a reason to have him court-martialed and cashiered in disgrace.”
Shikarou looked thoughtful. “I wonder if this is part of that pattern we were discussing earlier. If it is, then this may be just the beginning. We need to get in touch with our other children and check up on their records.”
Kerrik stood. “I’d like to know more about this pattern you seem to think exists. You also need to be searching for who is doing this and, possibly more importantly, why are they doing it.” He turned to Jamie. “In the meantime, I could use some help with my cottage. Think you could give me a hand?”
“I’ve suddenly got a lot of free time,” Jamie said bitterly. “Sure.”
***
Kerrik put his cutting bar down and wiped his face as he watched Jamie and Ginevra wrestling with a chunk of stone. He waited until they were done positioning it for trimming before he spoke. “I know this hurts,” he said quietly, “but it’s not the end of the world.”
“Oh, have you been kicked out of the military?”
Fangs gleamed as he grinned. “Three times. I was also court-martialed once for desertion and twice I was summarily hung.”
Jamie stared at him. “Were you guilty?”
“Of the desertion? Yes, although I had a very good reason for it. However, stopping a plague of demons isn’t a good defense in most militaries since it’s outside their sphere of understanding.”
Jamie sighed and sat down on the rock. “I just feel like such a failure.”
“While understandable, you aren’t one. You graduated at the top of your class in boot and you would have done the same thing in OCS. The fact that politics was used to keep you from starting isn’t your fault.”
Ginevra moved to stand next to her tamer and became motionless as Jamie picked at the rock. “What do I do now?”
Kerrik rubbed his chin. “I seem to remember that a career in the military was a secondary consideration for your being a reclaimer. Isn’t that what you really want to do?”
“Yes, but reclaimers sometimes have to deal with forbidden tech. They have to have a security clearance to do so.”
“Not all tamers have security clearances. What happens when one of them stumbles across something like that?”
Jamie looked up at his grandfather curiously. “They turn it in. Why?”
“So, you do that, too. Look, how about you get set up as a tradesman of some kind, like a hunter, and then just be a reclaimer without the title?” His ears flicked and he gave his grandson a direct look. “Or is it you are after the accolades more than anything else?”
Jaime frowned. “No, I want to help society to get back to where it was. I’m not interested in being famous.” His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Hunter, I can do that. I’m just upset that suddenly the last six months of my life was wasted.”
“I don’t see where you can say that. You learned a lot and you picked up two very excellent pokegirls, both of whom will be a big help in your new career.”
Ginevra poked her tamer in the side with a talon. “He is right. Listen to the old one.”
He rubbed his side and chuckled for the first time since coming home. “Ok, I’ll listen to you both.”
“What are you going to do first?” Kerrik opened up the handle of the cutting bar and pried out the battery.
“I think the first step is to get Madison up to speed. You’re right; the military taught me some good things that I think we’ll continue. The first thing is some endurance training for all three of us.” Jamie smiled slightly as Ginevra gave him a disgusted look. “It’ll be better here since we can push to our limits instead of having to work to the lesser ones for normal humans.”
Kerrik slipped the fresh battery into place and put the old one into the charger. “There are pokegirls here who can give you all of the specialized instruction you need. Not all of them are your mothers, if you don’t want their help.” He glanced at the pile of rocks. “I don’t really need your assistance here, so why not get started?”
“You said you needed my help. I thought you can’t lie?”
“Jamie, there is a big difference between ‘I could use your help’ and ‘I need your help’. I can build my cottage on my own, but if I can get some help that’s not doing anything better, I’ll cheerfully take it.” He flashed a quick smile. “I’ve built a lot of these cottages over the years and it’s not that exciting anymore.”
Ginevra stood. “Why not use magic?”
“Working with stone is good, fulfilling work and it gives me a lot of time to think.” He smiled again. “Sometimes I can even come up with solutions for my family that doesn’t impugn their honor or involve killing people.”
***
Kerrik paused in his katas when his mind registered the tiny disturbance in the space-time continuum and his ears detected the quiet pop of displaced air when something appeared over the stone he’d positioned for shaping after the sun came up. When he recognized the energy signature, he sighed slowly before resuming his practices.
When he was finished, he headed for the rock and settled down on it as he scooped up the parchment bundle that now lay atop it. He leaned back; using his right hand as a fulcrum as he snapped the scroll open with his left and started reading. A minute later, his ears went completely flat.
Five minutes later he jumped when there was a loud cracking noise and the rock he was sitting on shifted suddenly. He frowned and summoned a tiny light. Where his hand had rested, cracks now radiated through the stone from where he’d suddenly clenched his fingers. He sighed and stood, absently wiping his right hand on his pants as he went back to reading.
When he was done, he rolled the scroll back up and tucked it into his belt as he dismissed the light. A glance at the sky showed that dawn was still several hours off. He looked around the area slowly. The cottage was over halfway complete and he’d already marked off where a garden would go.
“Such a pity, I would have enjoyed living here.” He rubbed his chin slowly. “I’ll need to move into Peacetown now, but it can’t be avoided.”
He grabbed his pack and pulled a small item from a pocket. After clipping it to his collar he tapped it once. “Wake up. I’ve got some computers you’ll need to be visiting. I’d prefer subtlety, but at this point brute force is fine as long as it doesn’t lead them back to here.”
A soft female voice sounded around him. “Does it matter where the trail leads?”
He flashed a smile. “If you have to leave a trail, have it lead to the PLC Department of Special Affairs. That’ll keep them busy for a while. Oh, contact Aggie and let her know that I need to meet with Shikarou and his family; Faelan and his as well. I’d prefer husbands and wives only. It needs to be soon, preferably after breakfast.” He paused and nodded suddenly. “It’s important and I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on it.”
“Very well, sir. Aggie confirms a meeting with everyone at 0900 in the war room. She’ll take care of the confirmations for the individuals.”
“Thank you.” After checking the area one last time for personal possessions, Kerrik turned in the direction of Peacetown and broke into a run.
***
“I’m sorry to have to call this meeting on such short notice, but trust me when I say it’s vital we start making decisions just as soon as possible.” Kerrik was careful to meet the eyes of everyone in the room as he looked around. “This morning I received a message and you all need to see it.”
Derdekea nodded slowly. “We trust that if you say something is urgent, it is. I hope you don’t mind Ygerna’s presence, Svetlana insisted.”
Svetlana turned her now silver eyes on Kerrik. “She’s not married to Faelan like I and Derdekea are, but it’s only a matter of time before it happens.”
Kerrik shrugged. “I bow to your expertise.” He promptly did so. “I know I insisted on just the wives and husbands, but after we’ve made some decisions you can brief everyone else in the harems and family. They’ll need to know.” He pulled the scroll from his belt and spread it flat on the table. “I received this message this morning. It’s from me, and it’s from the future.” He smiled at the expressions that confronted him. “Trust me, I do not do this often or lightly and in this case I think the danger was warranted.”
“What danger?” Kasumi cocked her head curiously. “Is it more dangerous than the time travel we did to save my family?”
“You went back in time to alter events by injecting your presence into the timestream. That is always somewhat hazardous.” His ears flicked. “You need to understand that what you actually do is change something in the timeline that creates a split from what has already happened to create a new series of events and thus a new future. You cannot erase a timeline; all you can do is split off a new one that is more to your liking. However, once you create a new timeline, you usually cannot return to the old one and, for you, it ceases to exist.”
“So, on the old timeline, my family is still dead and Happosai has the money?”
“Yes, your family is still dead, but you killed Happosai; in that timeline he no longer exists.” He smoothed the scroll. “When I send a message back to myself, I am also causing a new branching to come into existence. However, I’m banking that I will behave in the manner that I have predicted I will, thus creating the timeline that I want to bring about. It is extremely risky because once the split occurs, my actual behavior cannot be accurately predicted since events immediately start changing.” A flash of a smile. “Usually I give some suggestions that I think will bring about the most optimum solution as guidance, but once the split occurs they may well cause more problems than they solve.”
“My head hurts.” Bellona sighed and reached for her tea. “And you were right. Trying to explain this to everyone would take hours if not days.”
“I just want everyone to understand that the suggestions I make in this message are my best guess based upon events that have already happened there and now will not take place here as to what will make things better. After consideration, I think one of my suggestions is the most likely solution to our short term problem, but may open up a whole host of new ones.”
Poppet frowned. “You said these events ‘now will not take place here’. Why not and if not, then hasn’t the situation already been averted?”
“That’s an excellent question and the easy answer is no, the situation has changed, but essentially it hasn’t. Those events will not take place here as they did there for the simple reason that the timeline has already branched. It did so when I sent myself this message. However, the momentum behind the events came with us and something quite similar is still going to happen.”
Branwyn grimaced. “Now my head hurts.”
“I’ll just let you see the message and we’ll proceed from there. Just remember that events as I describe them may not unfold in quite the same order since we’re on a different timeline now.”
“Now I understand why time magic is forbidden to the Sidhe.” Ygerna was staring at him. “You are meddling with the fundamental forces of the universe.”
He gave them a warm smile. “There is only one true kind of successful time traveler, and that’s the cautious one.” The smile vanished. “Now for the message. Aggie, please dim the lights.”
The lights softened to early twilight as an image appeared hovering over the scroll. It was Kerrik, wearing comfortable looking combat fatigues that were slowly changing color to match the forest glade he stood in. The magic of the scroll made it appear that he was looking directly at each individual in the room as he spoke. “Greetings. This is the second and final time that the magic in this message may be activated, so pay close attention. I’ll give the short version and then backtrack to explain everything that I understand, along with some of my suspicions.”
He clasped his hands behind his back. “The end of the story is this: except for those who fled back to Tirsul, any members of the clan on this earth are now dead.” He paused as if he could hear the gasps which spread around the room. “That’s right, I said dead, so you’d better wake up and hear what I’m saying if you don’t want to have this happen to you.” A flash of teeth in a humorous smile. “Again.”
He clasped his hands behind his back. “The end of the story is this: except for those who fled back to Tirsul, any members of the clan on this earth are now dead.” He paused as if he could hear the gasps which spread around the room. “That’s right, I said dead, so you’d better wake up and hear what I’m saying if you don’t want to have this happen to you.” A flash of teeth in a humorous smile. “Again.”
His eyes swept the clearing quickly. “It all started when Shikarou bought the land from the Blue League and established Caomh Sith and the independent elf kingdom. The league wasn’t sure they liked what was going on there, but they had no agents on the ground there and quickly moved to establish a couple of them, which you stupidly let stay.”
“They reported what they saw, which was the establishment of an independent school of magic that ignored league oversight in order to pursue its own private agenda. They also reported a population of magically endowed creatures that not only claimed to be almost indestructible, but immortal.” His ears flicked. “You really shouldn’t go around announcing that sort of thing.”
“Then they were able to report that the population had increased when you used magic to make Svetlana and Derdekea into Sidhe. Of course, you started reproducing and really scared the people in charge. A new race of powerful nonhumans who could reproduce with pokegirls and had no intrinsic loyalty to the league was a really bad idea, at least in their minds. There was no way for them to know that you were harmless unless provoked. They’re human and not highly evolved ones at that, so they don’t think like civilized beings.” He shrugged. “It was at that point that the league officials were contacted by another group of powerful mages, this group composed of only humans. They offered their loyalty and their assistance in dealing with these nonhumans.”
Fangs gleamed in a predatory grin. “No, this had nothing to do with Vale. It was your old friends, the Order of Pendragon. With the flight of Ygerna and the death of Eoghan, humans were left in charge of the order and they stayed true to their belief that they were dedicated to the preservation of the people of the British Isles against all outsiders. You happen to be old foes of theirs and you happen to be outsiders, so the choice for them was quite easy. I can respect their reasoning, even if I despise them for what they’ve done to my family.”
“The celestial pokegirls in the Blue League also had an axe to grind. The fact that Svetlana and Derdekea chose to turn their backs on the alliance and become immortals not only pissed them off, it made them envious and determined to take the secret of immortality for themselves. After all, the angels of mythology were immortal and they reasoned that they should be, too. Dorothea’s attack on the one who later became Charlene was just a tiny part of their reasons for wanting you out of the way.”
“The Blue League politicians would love to have immortality for themselves, but the celestials and the Order have told them that such a gift cannot be bestowed on mortals. So, even by the time you receive this message, they’ve started lying to each other. The politicians have assured the Order that they have no intention of trying to curtail their activities, but they already have agents in place as applicants, students, squires and one full knight. I know all of this because I’ve done some serious investigating to get as complete a picture as I could before sending this message back to you.”
“Finally, all of you were spending a lot of gold and giving more of it as gifts. In a couple of instances, the bribes were of complete bars, allowing them to trace where you were getting them from.” Kerrik’s ears flicked. “Gold has an interesting power over mortals and over many immortals as well. It makes them do things that they never would otherwise. In this case, it merely made them that much more determined to bring you down.”
“However, they were reluctant to move until two years before this message arrives to you, so that would be 317 AS. In that year, a widow struck in north Ireland and there was a general tamer callout.”
Faces tightened around the room and Kasumi patted Branwyn on the hand as the unicorn took a deep breath.
“You all know what happened. Molly and Shikarou’s son, Tony, answered that call with his harem and all of them were killed by the widow. Tony was family and his death proved that you could be killed. That gave the league the confidence that they could successfully act and so they started things rolling.”
Kerrik frowned at a noise in the distance and his ears rotated for a moment. “Ah, it’s nothing. Where was I? Oh, yes. In a couple of months, the league will further its ongoing investigation into your financial activities and assign a monitor to the Caomh Sith Guard. In a year, they will arrange for him to be killed so they can launch a full investigation into the guard’s competency which will be a cover for a full investigation into the activities of everyone on the island. Since they won’t find what they are looking for, they will, being humans, become more determined than ever to get their hands on it.”
“Then they start on the children in an attempt to disrupt the family. Jamie had already been booted from the BLSF and reinstated as an officer. They arranged for him to be court-martialed and sent to prison. They had Stephen thrown out of university and completely discredited.”
Branwyn stared at her husband. “Candace would have had a fit when that happened. Her son is more important to her than you are.”
The image continued without pause. “A team was sent to apprehend Kozakura and severely injured her before she could escape. She was in Tomakomai and pokegirls from the temple killed the team before they could pursue her to Caomh Sith.” He smirked. “They couldn’t find Graeme and looking in the Dark Continent never occurred to them. They didn’t get him until he came home after they falsified an emergency call from Poppet.” The smirk vanished. “But get him they did, although he and Celestine took most of the hit team with them.”
Poppet went white.
“By this time, the family had a pretty good idea of what was happening, but there wasn’t a whole lot they could do to take on a league and its military. They knew they were going to lose unless they fled, which they decided to do. They contacted me, but it was too late. When I showed up, the Blue League had dusted off some of their forbidden tech and used a fusion weapon on Peacetown. It was a tiny one, but more than enough to do the job they wanted, since the family was assembled for transport. Two of Faelan’s harem had been in Alexandria when it went off and they were all I could save.”
He sighed and rubbed his wrists. “I’ve spent the last couple of years entertaining myself with the Blue League while trying to figure out a good place to intervene. The easiest would be to never send Faelan here, but I’ve grown fond of Shikarou’s and Faelan’s families. I don’t think I would have married the women they did, but all in all they made good choices.”
“That means that really there is only one good place to try to intervene and I’ll send this message to me there. I’m around and can provide the assistance that’ll be needed to successfully pull this off.”
Kerrik squared his shoulders. “That brings us to the point of these messages every one of me loves; it’s wild guess time. Really, there are three viable options. Option one, bring over the necessary military forces to conquer the Blue League and do so. I think that the fact that this is not really a good idea is immediately apparent. Most of the people in the league don’t deserve what would happen in such a situation and it would absolutely destroy the feral population in the league along with any value it represents.”
“Option two is to take everyone back to Tirsul and wait a century before contacting them again. I’m not ready to advocate such a move yet. Shikarou, Faelan and their families have earned the right to develop on their own and not to become more Tirsuli. I think this should be the final fallback option if my third idea doesn’t work.”
“Option three is to uproot the family to another pokegirl world, preferably one that’s next door on the d-axis so their history isn’t so different that they stand out even more than before, and take over someplace quiet for development. I’d suggest that for this universe, but the Blues would hound them wherever they went. The world that Shikarou went to and fought the zombabes on is out for similar reasons since the league there is also aware of their existence and I calculate a probability approaching unity that something quite similar to what happened here will take place within a century.”
Kerrik grinned. “Now you know as much as I do. Good luck and keep the family safe. I know I can never return home since the timeline has been split, but that is the price we pay for loving our own. Each of us knows that this may happen every time we leave home.” His eyes narrowed and he bared fangs in a silent snarl. “But the price they will pay will be fun to collect before the end comes. Good hunting and my love to the family.” The scroll twisted and evaporated into nothingness.
Kerrik sighed. “So those are the options that,” he broke off suddenly as Poppet came around the table and hugged him fiercely.
“Thank you.”
He awkwardly twisted and patted her on the back. “You’re welcome?”
Kasumi was watching them. “What happens to the other Kerrik?”
He sighed. “He’ll continue on until he feels that he’s gotten the revenge he needs; then he’ll either die or set up on that world. Tirsul is part of this timeline now, and he cannot return to it. He may also be killed by his foes there, but that is very unlikely.”
“You are willing to make that kind of choice for your children?”
“Yes. I have before and I don’t doubt I will again.” He gently pried Poppet loose from him. “We really need to discuss our options.”
Shikarou nodded. “Which do you think is the best one for us?”
“I think that the nearby world option would be best, but I may have a suggestion or two for how to implement it. I’ll need to do some scouting first and see what is available.”
Faelan sat up from where he’d been watching the message. “Do you want help?” Svetlana nodded her agreement.
“For now, I think I should go alone. I’m better prepared to deal with possible hazards than you are. Once I get a few places that look interesting, I’ll take Jamie along to help me look around.”
Poppet’s eyes narrowed. “Why him?”
“First, the rest of you have jobs to do. Without alerting the league, we need to prepare to leave. That means Kasumi needs to get the school ready to shut down, the clinic needs prepped, as does the guard. You need to decide who is going and who is staying. Will Gwyneth and Lynn and the elves go? Will Ygerna? Supplies need assembled and so on. Jamie is the only person here, besides me, who can disappear without comment.”
“Second, his training as a reclaimer will help him to see things that you’d miss; things we’ll need for a settlement.” He smiled slightly. “Without trying to sound mean, this was a crappy place to build a town. You need a more reliable water supply.”
“What kind of supplies?” Kasumi had out some paper and a pen.
“The kind you don’t write down,” Shikarou said as he plucked the pen from her fingers. “No evidence.”
She blinked and flushed slightly. “Sorry.”
“It’s ok.” He grasped her hand and squeezed. “Supplies for six months minimum,” he asked nobody in particular.
“I want a year if we can swing it,” Faelan responded. “And we can’t count on the tent spells either.”
Branwyn rubbed her cheek thoughtfully. “Don’t forget Melanie.”
Shikarou grinned. “I’d never forget her. She’s too loud to miss.” Everyone chuckled. Melanie was his daughter by Elizabeth and had just turned terrible two with a vengeance. “But we need to remember there may be other small children.”
Bellona raised a hand. “We’ll need pokeballs, PPHU’s and healing stuff as well. We can’t count on being able to buy it for some time.”
Kerrik rose. “I think you should aim to leave in three months. That’s when the Institute lets out for summer. Kasumi, will you have a problem leaving the school?”
“I can duplicate the books and, if you’ll bring Caspa and the library, I won’t be.” She looked into her father-in-law’s eyes. “We’ll need it and, since we’ll want more books on survival, we can hide the purchases as part of the new acquisitions for the library.”
Shikarou laughed quietly. “That’s a great idea. We can hide some of the other stuff we’ll need as improvements, seed and so on.” He turned to his father. “Will we be able to come back?”
“From time to time, certainly, but I can’t promise anything more than that.” He raised a finger. “If anyone wants to stay, that’s their choice. That includes Graeme, whom I will contact.”
Poppet sighed and nodded. “I don’t want to drive him off. Will you tell me what he says?”
“Of course I will.”
***
Jamie sat on a rock and looked out over the ocean while, nearby, Ginevra led Madison through some calisthenics. He knew he should be participating, but his heart wasn’t in it, so he’d ordered Ginevra to carry on while he sat and was depressed.
“Shouldn’t you be out there, too?”
Jamie looked up and sighed. “I know, but I don’t feel like it.”
Kerrik settled down next to him and watched Madison sweat for a couple of minutes. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Jamie twisted to look at him. “Oh?”
“It’s part of a coordinated plan to discredit and then destroy this family and, right now, I need your help to save them. What I don’t need is you sitting on your ass and bemoaning life.” Kerrik glanced at him as Jamie’s lips thinned. “Angry I can work with. So, want to help?”
“Why me?”
“I need your skills as a reclaimer and I need your military conditioning to follow orders without giving me a lot of lip first.” Kerrik’s ears flicked. “This is going to be incredibly dangerous and I’ll need an instant response to any commands, if I’m going to bring you back home alive. You might even put me in danger if you act up at the wrong moment.”
“What’s the job?”
Kerrik smiled slowly. “You’ve learned not to volunteer blindly. Good. I can’t stop this plan without depopulating a good portion of the Blue League, but killing people in job lots would prove counterproductive to future harmony. So we’re going to run. There’s nowhere on earth where we’d be safe, so I want to give a quick and dirty survey to a dozen or so worlds nearby on the d-axis to find someplace that we can move to without fear. That’s where I need your help. As a reclaimer, you’ve got the eye to look for available water, food, shelter and everything else that a community will need to get off to a prosperous start. We may be out of touch with everyone else for years, and self sufficiency is going to be a must.”
“What’s a d-axis?”
“You’re familiar with x, y and z coordinates to denote position, right? In magic, there are other coordinates used for denoting a position with a lot more accuracy. T is used for temporal placement and d is used to delineate different dimensions.” He rubbed an ear. “What we’ll be looking for is a world similar to this one. The important point will be the spread of the Red Plague. If too many humans die, then after three hundred years a world will either be mostly or completely populated by feral pokegirls. If too few humans die, the pokegirls will never have gotten much of a foothold and they won’t be a major portion of the population. It’s likely, in that situation, they’d have been exterminated or be in zoos and labs.”
“Why is a world without humans bad?” Ginevra and Madison had drifted over and the Daimon cocked her head curiously.
“There will be children and they’ll need spouses and breeding partners. Oh, there’s the whole socialization thing, too; but the real point is that a population of nothing but feral pokegirls won’t make for interesting partners for my grandkids. That and eventually they’ll overwhelm the community and eat everyone.”
“You think strangely.”
“I have to take the long view. After a couple of hundred years, you will too.”
“Sir,” Madison began, “will you be getting pokegirls of your own?”
Kerrik frowned. “Eventually, but this isn’t the time. I don’t have any experience dealing with them yet and on this mission it wouldn’t be wise to try to get some. After the family is settled in their new home, conditions will be much more favorable for something like that.”
Madison put her hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Sir, I think that more cards would be essential.”
“We’ll go shopping later today.”
“I will need to become a demoness.”
“I’ll try, Ginevra, but psi-crystals are pretty expensive and hard to find.”
Kerrik glanced at the three of them and pulled a container from his pack. “Jamie, normally I’d make you work for this, but you and your harem will earn this a couple of times over before we’re done.” He handed the package to his grandson. “It’s a psi-crystal. Now you need to decide if you want to evolve her. I’d recommend it, but she’s not my pokegirl.”
“I’ll think about it.” Jamie tucked the container into his pocket, ignoring Ginevra’s grab at it. “When do we leave?”
“Do your shopping and plan to bring rations for a week for each of you, fresh clothes, spare pokeballs, a PPHU, some potions and whatever else you can think of. We leave in three days after breakfast.”
***
Name: Wolf, Jamie Harris
Age: 17
Residence: Caomh Sith, Blue Continent
Region: Scotland
Status: Active
Rank: 15
Security Clearance: Epsilon
Licenses
Tamer Y
Master Tamer Y
Researcher N
Watcher N
Breeder N
Active Harem
Species Name
Daimon Ginevra
Duelist Madison
Badges: None