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 8
The asphalt radiated heat upward at them while the summer sun beat down on their heads from the clear sky. Kerrik looked up and down the road. “Set up a security perimeter while I evaluate if this worked like it is supposed to.”
Jamie nodded. “Madison, send up some scouts. Gin, you’ve got close in security.”
The demoness moved to the center of the road and murmured a spell which tripled the range of her vision. “The area is clear of humans and pokegirls.” She then became motionless.
Madison shuffled through her cards and pulled out two of them. She looked up. “Cyber falcon and fairy dragon will do well.” She activated the cards and a small metallic bird appeared next to a two foot long green dragon. “Now to bind them.”
When she’d first explained how she used her life force to power the constructs in the cards, Kerrik had suggested that their creation process resembled that used for homunculi. He’d modified and then taught her a spell that let her bind the senses of the constructs to hers, allowing her to see and hear what they did. She cast it now before sending her creatures winging away on patrol.
Kerrik clipped the microphone on his shirt and pulled his pokedex from his belt. “Status report.”
Virtue responded immediately. “Fifty satellites are in long range geosynchronous orbits and seven are in polar orbits. All are stealthed and functioning normally. Onboard clocks indicate the first satellite was launched approximately six hundred and eighty seven years ago.”
His ears flicked. “What is the status of Bastion?”
“Accessing satellite communications systems hyperspace communication matrix. Handshake with Bastion systems proceeding.” There was a pause. “Bastion is in standby mode and reports full readiness to receive command instructions.”
Kerrik opened up his backpack and rummaged around before producing a chip which he plugged into his pokedex. A figure appeared hanging in the air in front of him. It was a trim brunette wearing a green uniform trimmed with gold. She bowed. “Clan leader.”
“Cassiopeia, I want you to take command of Bastion and bring it to fully operational status. There may be some kind of observation platform in the area, so remain in stealth mode at all times.”
She nodded. “I am pleased to work with you again, sir. Bastion will be ready when you need it.” The hologram vanished.
Virtue spoke again. “The upload of the Cassiopeia intelligence to Bastion will be complete in nine thousand six hundred seconds.”
“About three hours.” Kerrik nodded and changed functions on the pokedex. “Display the earth.”
It appeared, hanging in front of him. “Jamie, come here.” His grandson joined him as he pointed at the globe. “As you can see, even though it has been sixteen years since Typhonna was unleashed, the continents don’t look anything like what you remember, do they?”
“No, but they do look like my history lessons from before the coming of Sukebe. It worked then?”
“It appears so.” He frowned. “Virtue, evaluate the last ten years data and inform me of any large life forms that appear for any length of time.”
“Please define large size. The leviathaness, giantess and giant trollop will register if the limits are set too loosely.”
“Bloody hell. Let’s redefine the search parameters. Load pokedex information on the legendaries and locate all sightings of same for the last ten years.” The earth was suddenly covered with bright red dots. “Now, remove all sightings of secondary and tertiary legendaries. Leave only sightings of the first generation and any unknown legendaries.”
The dots began to fade from the globe until only a handful remained. “Hmm, that’s not bad, but definitely more than I was hoping for. Show me images from the sightings in a six pack pattern.”
Images began to appear. They were all of the same pokegirl. Jamie leaned forward. “I know that one, that’s Anubust.”
“Correct.” It was Virtue. “It is not known if she is a second or third generation pokegirl and thus falls outside the restriction parameters.”
Kerrik chuckled. “Ask and ye shall receive, even if it’s not what you really want. Remove all sightings of Anubust.”
The globe became clear and Virtue spoke. “There are no sightings to report.”
“Excellent, now to try to estimate how many people died from the Red Plague.” He shifted the image to display the night side of the earth. “Infrared view, please.” The earth darkened and tiny spots appeared. “I’ll need a view of the same place in 2003,” a glance at Jamie, “Or 1 AS.” A second globe appeared, this one covered with a swarm of spots. In many places they merged together.
Virtue spoke through the speaker on his shirt. “I have collated the data from 2003 and on. Loss of life in large land based mammals was greater than 90 but less than 95 percent. This is based on infrared data, counts of visual data from both periods and pre-Red Plague and post burnout censuses. In some places, there was a greater loss of life than in others, but that is the average.”
“What is the status of the league consolidations?” Jamie rubbed an ear where a mosquito had gotten a snack. “They should be focusing on the larger population areas and still figuring out where their borders lie.”
“That is correct.” Virtue continued without a pause. “Five years ago an announcement was made that the United Nations World Council was reorganizing the various countries into leagues. In the cases of smaller countries, they were combined with nearby countries while larger countries were broken up. The organization was an attempt to even the populations out. Isolated countries are being ignored for the moment. The new league governments are still consolidating their holds on their new regions. They are organized as prototype tamers and harems, although without modern healing equipment and potions a single human cannot keep many pokegirls. These tamers tend to operate in pairs or trios and can usually overwhelm humans who do not have pokegirls with which to properly fight back.”
Jamie nodded. “That would make sense. The BLSF deploys in squads of four and they’d be unstoppable here.”
“I would be unstoppable here.” Ginevra smiled slightly. “The pokegirls they have would have no formal fighting training and no spells like I do.”
Kerrik frowned. “That’s debatable. They were part of Sukebe’s forces and have been fighting for several years. They may not have some of your training, but they’ll be conditioned to kill and have combat reflexes.”
Her head turned in his direction. “You could be correct. I will need more training. Madison will need more training, too.”
Madison had that dreamy look she got when looking through her creation’s eyes. “Another pokegirl might be useful too.”
“Let the old one get a pokegirl for a change. I am alpha and I see no need for a second troublemaker.”
“I thought we’d get one like me, someone who’s not a troublemaker.” Madison flashed a grin.
Ginevra slashed the air with her tail but remained at her post. “You will pay for that when we train next.”
The duelist just hummed with satisfaction at her point.
Kerrik’s ears flicked back for a heartbeat. “It appears that this world now matches the required parameters that the family needs for colonization. Now, I need to see if those conditions hold true for the next three hundred years.” He put his pokedex away. “Pull in your security; we’re headed back to Caomh Sith.”
***
The audience consisted of the leadership of Caomh Sith. Shikarou, Kasumi, Poppet, Branwyn, Candace and Bellona represented his family, the school and the clinic. Faelan, Svetlana, Ygerna, and Derdekea represented his family, the Caomh Sith Guard, Ygerna’s handful of knights and the farming community. Gwyneth and Lynn were present to represent the elves and also held responsibility for the free feral population.
Kerrik clasped his hands behind his back as he stood in front of the display wall in the war room and waited while the noise subsided. “All right, I want to thank everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules for this meeting. I’ll be as brief as possible but there are certain things that I have to cover and then there will be a period for asking questions. I realize that questions may arise during the preliminary briefing and feel free to ask them, but I won’t be relinquishing the floor for open discussions at that point.” His voice was crisp and very different from the normally humorous way he tended to view the world. Several eyebrows rose as he spoke.
Bellona raised a hand. “Have you had military training?”
He smiled slightly. “I have served in both formal and informal military units off and on for my whole life. I’ve held the equivalent ranks from private to General of the Army and everything in between. I’ll forego a list of my credentials and hope you’ll just find the synopsis adequate.”
He gave the room a quick survey and nodded once. “After extensive searching, Jamie and I found a world in which Typhonna never stopped destroying things. When we arrived, the land masses had been reduced to a series of tiny islands with a total area of a few scant hundreds of square kilometers. As far as land based life was concerned, the world had been destroyed. No humans and only a few pokegirls and kattle existed and they were clinging hard to survival.”
“It was determined that if the course of history were changed to the probability that Typhonna had not done this damage, this world might prove suitable for colonization. To that end, I formulated a plan of action. First, I traveled to before the rise of Sukebe and his pokegirls to establish a baseline. This involved the placement of stealthed surveillance satellites to monitor the events on the planet’s surface. Once the satellite net was complete, I returned to the initial entry point, which corresponds to 319 AS, the date here.”
Poppet gave him a curious look. “How far back did you travel in time?”
“I traveled roughly a thousand years, putting my exit point somewhere in the 12th century. That ensured that any temporal perturbations from my presence would be dampened out of the timestream by normal temporal resistance.”
He sighed when hands shot up. “May I presume that your next questions will be variations on ‘what does that mean’?” When people put their hands down, he smiled slightly. “A good analogy about how time works is the river concept. When you look at a river, you see a body of water moving in one direction bounded on three sides by the two banks and the riverbed. The fourth side, the water’s surface, is held in place by gravity and surface tension. However, what must be noted is that the river flows from past to present and then on to the future.”
“When a time traveler moves from the present into the past, he moves upriver, traveling over the surface of the water. When he exits into the timestream, it’s like stepping into the surface of that river. It’s displaced around your foot and makes ripples that extend downstream or into the future.”
“When you remove that extremity, the water fills up the displaced area and downstream the ripples subside. Time acts that way too, to try and force events back into what was before.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “If I went back to the 1300s and shot a passenger pigeon, it would die and all of its progeny would never be born. However, time will fill that pigeon’s space by making other pigeons have eggs survive that otherwise would have perished.”
“That pigeon’s loss would be evident for a couple of generations until those eggs made up for its progeny and that would be the ripple that you see when you put something into a river. It goes for a ways and then smoothes back out.”
“If, on the other hand, I went back and killed all of the passenger pigeons, they would be gone and the timeline irreparably altered.”
“Sukebe’s sterilization of most of humanity and the release of the legendaries were events that time couldn’t smooth out, while the changes seen in this world after Shikarou returned from his ill advised trip to the past were those ripples still being felt. In the vast scheme of things, what Shikarou did really means nothing.”
“Therefore, I went far enough back in time to allow the ripples to die down to place the satellites. When I returned to 319AS, the satellites downloaded their data to Virtue and Vice for analysis, which allowed me to determine the best places to try my attempt to minimize the damage done by the legendaries.”
“Once those points were determined, I took Jamie back to my 1300s exit point and left him there while I made my attempt. I did not leave him in the 319AS point because my actions would cause it to split from the timestream and become isolated, trapping whatever was there.”
“Most of my activities took place in 1992, after Typhonna made her first appearance in northern Africa. Because of what I did, the construction of the Langoud still took place, but without the urgency that it originally had. It was actually a much better warship.” He shrugged.
Derdekea waved a hand. “What did you do to the legendaries?”
“I really don’t think a discussion of the methods I used is pertinent at this time. Suffice to say that they shouldn’t be bothering us three hundred years later.”
He resumed his briefing. “After my work with the legendaries, I returned to where I had left Jamie and brought him to 6AS or 2008AD. My reasons for this were twofold. First, I wanted to verify that the original legendaries hadn’t resurfaced or Sukebe hadn’t created more of them. Second, the Red Plague was supposed to have burned out in early 2007 and I wanted to see what the death toll from the virus looked like and to make sure the numbers were sufficient to preserve the human race without giving them an advantage over what they have here and now. Planetary maps show that no real damage has been done to the continents and my data indicate that the surviving human percentage is in line with what happened here.” An image of the earth he’d just left appeared on the wall behind him and began rotating.
“Once that was verified, Jamie and I returned here so that I could let you know about our progress.” His ears flicked slowly. “All I have to do at this point is return to that world and live out the next three hundred years. I want to keep an eye on the world during that time and make sure that nothing odd happens while we’re waiting to move there. That and traveling forward in time to a future you know nothing about is sheer suicide. Less than one percent of those who attempt it ever return and we self proclaimed experts have no idea why.”
Svetlana suddenly looked thoughtful and raised her hand. “I have a question.” A quick smile. “I’ll sound like I’m backsliding, but this is a legitimate query.”
Kerrik nodded when he realized she was waiting for him to ask. “What is this question?”
“The world you left was in the year 6AS. It had been devastated by the secondary legendaries and pokegirls before the Red Plague swept through and killed most of the humans and the sphinx.” She leaned forward. “This world is just getting started. It hasn’t had three hundred years of conditioning to believe that pokegirls are animals or tools to be used and then discarded. Pokegirls are still a largely unknown element to most humans and, if we move to that world at that time, we can help to make a new future where pokegirls and humans can work together to rebuild and eventually move past where we are here and today.”
Shikarou chuckled. “That does sound a lot like talk about parity.”
“It’s not. I’m talking about forging a new race of pokegirl and human together, where each knows and values the other for their strengths and weaknesses.” She looked around the room. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing here, as much as we can? Isn’t that why the Blue League is going to kill us? There, we have the chance to have something already in place before the leagues can brand us animals or monsters. I know we won’t be able to reach everyone, but we’ll start the right events in motion then instead of now.”
Branwyn frowned. “What is the downside of going to 6AS instead of 319?”
Kerrik shrugged. “It’s not my decision to make, but I can advise you if you’d like.”
“Please.” The unicorn clasped her hands together in front of her. “Svetlana has an idea that might be good for us and for our children, even if it may also benefit the rest of the world.”
Kerrik rubbed an ear thoughtfully. “Well, first of all, in either case you would want to establish a home base somewhere isolated. That would actually be easier in 6AS since there’s suddenly a lot of uninhabited real estate.”
Faelan grimaced. “We’d have to set up something like a ranch system. There aren’t the numbers of ferals that we’re used to, and the best way to do something like what Svetlana is suggesting would be to train pokegirls and then give them to responsible tamers who will be trained by their pokegirls.” He grinned. “Remember, they won’t have access to pokeballs for at least another decade and conditioning cycles won’t be generally available until the pokegirl centers are updated with healing and conditioning machines.”
Shikarou tapped the tabletop. “What if we were the initial suppliers of pokeballs and healing machines? We already have the tech available. Could we manufacture them with weavers?”
Kerrik shook his head. “We’d provide the plans and license the manufacturing out to consortiums within the leagues. It’s best if we only make enough for our own use. That way we’re not being raided by industrial spies.” He looked at Gwyneth. “Are the elves coming or will we have to find another way to establish a security perimeter?”
She nodded. “Lynn and I are both bringing everyone we command. We’re leaving Bevin in charge of the preserve. She’s very competent and will be loyal to us, as much as any elfqueen left alone can be. More importantly, she’s grateful and beholden to us for saving her life.” She twined graceful fingers around her teacup. “It will dramatically reduce the number of elves in Scotland, but outside the Conservatory personnel and here, the humans treat us as if we have no kingdom. Only in the preserve are we truly safe and who knows if that will survive our leaving. Bevin is ready to press the claim for the land and we’re not going to strip her of her troops.”
Lynn smirked. “We’ve sent out capture teams to locate and capture any feral or nearly feral elf and elf evolution. We won’t trouble the sane ones, but anything else is fair game. Many of them will go to Bevin, but we’ll take some of them along with us. We’ve also started capturing and massing kattle, and any other livestock we can find, for the trip. Since it’s only been a couple of days, we still have a long way to go. Will we still be leaving as scheduled?”
Shikarou was staring at her. “You started collecting kattle? When did we discuss that?”
“We didn’t, my king. When the time comes to leave, we were planning to prove our worth, so you wouldn’t find a reason to leave us here. We’re also collecting berries and setting up trays of berry bush seedlings for the trip. We are doing the same with other plants that may turn out to be useful, as with some plants that are merely ornamental. I do not want to leave my roses behind.” Lynn collected roses and had the largest variety anywhere in the Blue League, although only the people of Caomh Sith knew about it. “We only have three months, so we got started as soon as you told me. So, will we still be leaving as scheduled?”
Kasumi smiled. “Unless something unforeseen happens, yes, we will still be leaving in three months.” Her smile broadened when Shikarou raised an eyebrow. “I, too, want to keep the roses and it will take that long to prepare the library for shipment.”
Kerrik frowned. “Then I need to find a good place for us to settle so I can plant base seeds. My plan is to move Selene to the new base and destroy the one that’s here. I don’t want the tech available for some enterprising human.”
“Will we be moving to Caomh Sith in this new world?” Ygerna gave them a curious look. “While Scotland is my home, this island leaves much to be desired.”
“I’ll have to look at the maps, but I would prefer someplace more temperate. You can get much better crops in a temperate climate. I’ll get with Jamie and see what he suggests after we look over the satellite data. His reclaimer training will give him the right kind of insight for that kind of work. Then we’ll visit the places we picked out and see if they’re viable or not.”
“Do we get a choice in the decision?” Candace smiled to take the sting out of her words.
“Yes, but I’d prefer to give you a list of places that have already been scouted and shown to be what we need, rather than play the game of ‘what about there’.”
“Fair enough. When will you have this list?”
Kerrik smiled. “For you, it will probably be sometime this afternoon, but I think we’ll put off the meeting until tomorrow morning.”
Ygerna raised a hand. “I need help gathering my things for the move.”
Derdekea gave her an odd look. “Just how much stuff do you intend to bring?”
The sidhe flashed a smile. “Once, I told the people here that, while I was searching for the Grimoire of Danu, I had amassed the libraries of the sidhe. That knowledge is all that remains of my past and I want it for my children. It comes to several thousand tomes and I shall be needing help preparing them for shipment.”
Kerrik nodded. “I’ll be at loose ends when I’m done with the survey. I can spare a few days to help. With magic, it shouldn’t take any longer than that.”
“Thank you, father-in-law to be.”
There were chuckles from around the room.
Shikarou gave his father a curious look and, when he nodded, stood. “Ok, I think that’s it for now. Remember, this isn’t to be discussed anyplace where we are not absolutely sure we cannot be overheard; even then, only with family or those we know to be loyal.”
Candace nodded. “We need to sound out the guard itself, and carefully. I wish Samantha was still alive.”
Svetlana shook her head. “Don’t feel sad for her, she died protecting others. We can talk to Alice; she’s Shikarou’s, body and soul.”
***
Jamie frowned as he looked at the globe. “I think we need to stick with areas where Europeans are the majority of the population. Most of us look European and only the people from Edo speak Japanese with any proficiency.” He tapped the map. “Scotland isn’t temperate, but we know what to expect from it.”
Kerrik nodded. “We also know that Poppet is there right now with Jamie, establishing the Conservatory. I’m not sure she’ll be an ally.”
Jamie blinked. “I forgot about that. So we’ll consider it last, if at all. Do you know if the Orange League will become the Orange Islands League?”
“I can’t tell yet. If it’s going to happen, it won’t happen for another fourteen years.” Kerrik made a notation in his pokedex. “Australia is off the list.”
Jamie looked at the map. “What about South Africa?”
“Sanctuary sets up somewhere around there, and I’m not sure we want to be in the neighborhood when that happens.” His ears flicked. “If they cause problems, I’ll have to pay them an unfriendly visit.”
“Uruguay?”
Kerrik nodded. “That’s one to visit. Places where English is the primary language will get a higher priority, since it’s the language of Caomh Sith.”
“What about Florida?”
Kerrik frowned. “That’s part of Indigo now, isn’t it?”
“I think so. Still, it might be worth a visit.”
Silver ears flicked. “You might be right.” He made more notes in his pokedex. “Ok, we’ve got several places to visit now.”
“Where do you want to start?”
“We’ll start in Florida. If we find something that’s acceptable, we’ll stop looking. I am not going to keep searching for something that might be a tiny bit better, if I’ve already found something that meets all of my criteria.”
Jamie nodded. “That’s fair enough.”
Kerrik pulled something out of his backpack and handed it to Jamie. He stared at it as Kerrik pulled out two more R-4 assault rifles. “Here is a gift for you and your ladies, since you know how to use them. I’ve got plenty of ammo for them, too.”
Jamie flipped it over and checked the serial number. He looked up when he realized that there wasn’t one. “What the?”
Kerrik smiled slightly. “These were manufactured by Selene. They’re identical to the ones you’re used to.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not familiar with them. I’ve got some firearms of my own, but for now I want to survey where we’re going and you’ll be my security.”
Jamie chambered a round in the rifle and another in the grenade launcher. “These will definitely help.”
“Then, let the adventure begin.”
***
Joshua Weinstein lifted his binoculars and looked over his zone. Marco Island used to be a resort town in the southern tip of Florida, but now it was a redoubt for humanity against the monsters. There were two land ways onto the island, at least until they’d dropped the bridge on Collier Avenue. Now the only way to get to Marco Island was on San Marco road and he was standing guard over the entrance to protect the inhabitants of his home from the beasts. They’d scattered parts of buildings over most of the road that were big enough to make the creatures slow down, but not large enough to give them cover.
His job was to be a firebreak and, if necessary, to die warning the rest of the community as to what was coming for them. Others were scattered around the periphery of the island, watching for the ones that flew or swam, but most of them would come by land and his job was the most important.
Joshua knew that sometimes you could catch one and make her obedient. That’s what the league people had told them, but they’d been vague about how it was supposed to be done. They’d had some of those pokegirls with them and his blood chilled as he remembered how easily they’d forced their way into the town to inform them that this was now part of the Indigo league.
A couple of the townspeople had resisted and he shivered as, in his mind’s eye, he once more saw them being set on fire and heard them screaming as they burned. Once they knew the price of resistance, the rest had quickly capitulated.
According to some of the refugees who’d been driven into town, the leaguers had swept the area and made everyone around come here. What with all of the deaths from the Red Plague, they’d had plenty of room. Before it came, the town had a permanent population of more than twelve thousand. Now, even with the refugees, there were less than two thousand souls here.
The league forces had delivered a couple more dire warnings and then they’d left, saying that they’d be back in a month with a permanent garrison.
Joshua blinked when he realized that he’d been idly watching three people make their way down the road, carefully picking their way around the blocks of concrete and iron. He focused the binoculars, resolving two men and a cute redheaded woman. Hunger rose in his heart as he watched her walk. Women were in short supply here and his girlfriend hadn’t survived the plague.
One of the men and the girl were carrying slung rifles of some sort and the other man had some kind of odd hat and cape, but didn’t appear to be armed. Joshua really paid more attention to the woman than to the men, zooming in on her breasts as they bobbed under her t-shirt.
Finally, he remembered his orders and charged the M-60 machine gun before reaching for his radio. “This is the alpha post. I have three targets entering zone alpha. All three appear to be humans and two of them are armed.”
The radio crackled. “Received, Joshua. You are to establish communications with them and hold them in place while we send out a patrol to intercept. They’re probably more refugees. Stay sharp.”
“I will. Alpha out.”
Kerrik frowned and pointed with his chin. “See that pile of rocks about thirty meters ahead? There’s someone in them. The wind isn’t right for me to smell him, but I just heard him talking and I’m pretty sure I heard some kind of weapon being readied.” His ears flicked. “He’s too far away for me to make out what he’s saying.”
“What’s the plan?” Madison fingered the pouch where her combat cards rested, ready for instant use.
“We’re here to see if this area would be good for the family, so we need to talk to them.” Kerrik shrugged. “Whoever is in there is probably a good place to start. The rifle makes you look official, so you do the talking.”
Jamie nodded. “Then let’s make contact. Madison, stay ready but look as harmless as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
Joshua frowned slightly when the three changed direction slightly and began making their way in his general direction. His frown grew deeper when they stopped ten meters away and the man with the rifle started talking. “Hello, the guard post. I’m Jamie Wolf and I come in peace.”
Since his orders were to establish communications with the interlopers, Joshua slid the improvised blast shield up a little more. “I’m Joshua. What’s your business in Marco Island? Are you refugees?”
Jamie smiled disarmingly. “No, we’re not refugees. We just want to talk to whoever is in charge here and maybe establish some trade in fresh vegetables or meat.”
Joshua’s mouth watered at the thought of fresh tomatoes. The island wasn’t really large enough to have a lot of salt free land available for cultivation and, while they ate a lot of fresh fish, most of their vegetables came from a can. It was too close to the Everglades to try to farm outside of town. Things lived in there that ate human flesh and the two attempts to set up farming had been disastrous.
Sometimes you couldn’t tell when a can went bad and it had killed people. “Do you have any tomatoes?”
Kerrik chuckled and glanced at Jamie. “You were right. Fresh food will definitely be a seller for a while.” His ears flicked.
Joshua’s heart suddenly thudded in his chest when he saw the hat move and realized that those were ears. It was a monster. He grabbed the M-60 and began shooting at the beast, screaming his fury and fear.
Jamie grunted when Madison knocked him flat and, suddenly, the surroundings were purple as the luster dragon appeared in front of them, its scales harmlessly blocking the few stray bullets that headed in their direction.
Joshua was trapped in tunnel vision as he watched the monster turn to the right and race into the swamp in a spray of bullets, as he hosed the machine gun around to try to kill it where it vanished in a splash of water. Gone was his very short introduction to the M-60 and, in his panic he completely forgot fire discipline and the orders for short bursts. The machine gun began to rapidly heat as he sprayed the area with bullets. Mud and water fountained and ricochets whined into the distance.
Suddenly, the camouflaged rear door to the sentry post was yanked open and the beast lunged into the room, grabbing Joshua by the neck and jerking him away from the machine gun before slamming him against the wall. It hissed, amber eyes glittering in the dim light. “Boy, you ever shoot at Jamie again and I’ll tear both of your arms off at the elbow so you’ll never make that mistake thrice.” It turned its head slightly and raised its voice. “Jamie, it’s under control. Why don’t you come around back and you can make Joshua’s acquaintance.” It then dragged Joshua out into the sun.
“Madison, get rid of the dragon before someone sees it.” Jamie levered himself to his feet as the duelist did as ordered.
When they made their way around to the back of the sentry post, Joshua had recovered part of his pose and was standing at attention. Only the hint of red showed where a tremendous bruise would be blooming on the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t realize that this was your pokegirl.” He nodded towards Kerrik. “I realized it was one of them and panicked.”
Jamie blinked when he realized Joshua was referring to his grandfather. “My pokegirl?” He started to laugh and stopped when Kerrik cocked his head and nodded slightly while winking. “Oh. Madison, see if Kerrik is hurt.”
“I’m fine. Soldier boy here was more enthusiastic than accurate. I just hope he didn’t shoot out the barrel on the M-60.”
Joshua gave Jamie an apologetic look. “Sir, she doesn’t really sound like a girl or look like one for that matter.”
Jamie chuckled. “There are some that don’t.” He looked at Kerrik. “Stop keeping your voice low.”
Kerrik raised an eyebrow and replied in a perfect feminine soprano. “Yes, sir.” His head came up. “I hear a vehicle.”
Jamie glanced at Joshua who went pale. The young man spoke quickly. “We thought you were a refugee, sir. The league garrison isn’t expected for another three weeks at best. My orders were to detain you until a patrol arrived to take you into custody.”
Jamie nodded. “Ok, we’re detained. Nobody was hurt, so I don’t see any reason to cause trouble.”
Joshua visibly relaxed. “Thank you, sir. May I return to my post?” When Jamie nodded, he turned and dashed for the sentry post door and slammed it shut behind him.
Jamie dropped his voice. “You’re my pokegirl?”
“No, I’m not. Still, there’s no reason to reveal what I am, except possibly to the town leadership. Whatever the league people did scared that man half to death. It appears they’re being firm with their new citizens. That makes sense.”
“Oh?” Madison gave him a curious look.
“You do something nasty to the vocal minority and usually the rest will fall in line. It’s the children you raise to think like you do; this generation is pretty much useless for molding so a few more or less won’t make much of a difference.”
“That’s pretty heartless.”
“Yes, it is; but you’re making a new country and these people remember the old one. If you give the old timers pokegirls, they’ll be able to resist you.” A calculating look appeared in Kerrik’s eyes. “Chaos favors us, so maybe that’s what we’ll do. Give them pokegirls and they’ll be able to resist the leagues for longer.”
Jamie blinked. “You’d help people to fight?”
“If it’ll help the family, I’ll push them into the meat grinder and start the thing myself.” He held up a hand as Madison swelled angrily. “However, giving the city folk pokegirls will not only help them to resist the leagues, it’ll help them against ferals and start getting them used to pokegirls.”
There was a snorting sound and a pickup truck bounced into view. Steel plates had been welded over the sides and the driver had to see through a slit. On the roof was mounted another M-60 and a man stood behind it, holding on for dear life.
The truck skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust, which drifted over Jamie and the others. Kerrik sneezed as the woman next to the driver slid out and eyed Jamie sourly. “I’m Lieutenant Carver. We weren’t warned that another league rep would be arriving so soon.”
Jamie shook his head. “We’re not from the league. I don’t know what they did to you, but we’re here because we’re interested in establishing trade with your town and we don’t mean you any trouble.”
She eyed Kerrik greedily. “You know how to make pokegirls obedient?”
Jamie grinned. “Yes, we do; unlike the leagues, it’s something we’re willing to share. I’d like to meet with someone who can deal with us on a professional level.”
Carver nodded, still watching Kerrik. “You’ll need to talk to the mayor. Is this your girlfriend?”
“Madison?” Jamie grinned. “Something like that. The one you’re staring at is named Kerrik.”
“There’s something not quite right about her.”
Kerrik smiled slightly.
***
Mayor Edmund Jackman leaned back in his chair. “You’re telling me that you want to trade fresh food with us and you want to help us get our own pokegirls. Why?”
“You’ll need them to help protect you against ferals. Besides, we have other products for trade that you and your people will need more of if you have pokegirls.” Jamie frowned. “We’ve also heard some disturbing stories about how the league is treating people who can’t fight back.”
Jackman grimaced. “They roasted some of my townsfolk just for questioning their orders. Americans don’t do that.”
“That’s why we want to help. They’re behavior is wrong if they’re committing random acts of murder.”
“Will you help us against the league forces they send for their garrison?”
Jamie nodded. “We will.”
“When will you be back?”
“We’ll be back in a week or so.” He pulled a com unit from his backpack. “If something happens, you can call us with that.”
Kerrik cocked his head slightly. “Please understand, we’re not working for you and we don’t take your orders. We just want to help, but we aren’t your people.”
The mayor stared at him. “The other pokegirls didn’t talk like you.”
“I don’t think you were in many conversations with them. From what I understand, the leaguers seem to treat them like furniture.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. How do you treat them?”
Jamie smiled. “We treat them as they deserve. When they’re feral, they don’t use higher level thought in the same manner that we do. They have to be captured and tamed in order for their minds to wake up. The ones that are tamed do act more like people should, but they still need to be tamed in order to remain sane.”
“Tamed? That’s the new slang for sex. You have to have sex with them?”
Jamie nodded. “That’s exactly right. Sex not only wakes them up, but induces a psychic low level bond between the pokegirl and the first person she has sex with. However, many of them are much more powerful than a normal human is and restraints are advised. The proper restraints to use and which pokegirls need them are part of the information we’ll give you.”
***
Jamie looked around cautiously as his grandfather accessed his pokedex. The area around them had been part of a town of some sort, and most of it had been leveled by fighting. The burned out remains of a couple of massive vehicles Kerrik had said were tanks were visible, one almost covered with brilliant green vines and yellow flowers. A third looked like it had been peeled open from the outside.
In Jamie’s opinion, the treaded hulks looked too slow and ungainly to attack far faster and more nimble pokegirls.
Ginevra stood motionless on top of the peeled open tank while the cyber falcon and fairy dragon winged overhead. Madison sat near him, her eyes vacant as she communed with her creations. She jumped when he spoke. “How well did these tanks do against pokegirls?”
Kerrik glanced in his direction. “Poorly. They weren’t designed to fight fast, tiny targets but they were all the humans had. Infantry was usually deployed to escort the tanks, but the pokegirls ripped through them with ease, since all they had were guns.” He shrugged. “Still, you keep enough bullets whizzing around and eventually someone would get lucky.”
The earth appeared and rotated as Kerrik manipulated the hologram controls. “Take a look at this. There are almost no human sized infrared sources anywhere on this island and the ones I’ve found are all feral pokegirls.” He adjusted the controls again. “Here’s the world population as the Red Plague starts to sweep across the world. It hits here and it looks like it was especially virulent. As far as I can tell, everyone died here.” The display showed the progress of the Red Plague across the planet. “When it hits this island, it proceeds normally, but watch when it’s just about done. That looks like a second flare-up and it finishes off the survivors. It’s a shame for them, but it makes this place perfect for us.”
“How big is this island?”
Kerrik made some measurements. “It’s bigger than Caomh Sith. A rough measurement of the area would be over a hundred thousand square kilometers. It doesn’t have a lot of fresh water, but that’s to be expected, and it’s something we can work with. There is more than enough for us. This place supported a population of over ten million humans before Sukebe came along, so we’ll be fine.”
“That’s a lot of land to patrol. Think the elves are up to it?”
Kerrik nodded absently. “We have a complete satellite surveillance net in place and we’ll give them satellite phones, so they can be vectored towards anything that crops up.” He started folding up his dex. “There’s a lake a couple of kilometers north of here and the sea isn’t that far away. I’d suggest setting up somewhere in this area.” He glanced at his grandson. “And, since you’ve obligated us to help defend Marcos Island, it’s a good thing we’re not that far away from them.”
“We’ll need to do that in other places, to help them get established; otherwise, we’re no better than the leaguers.”
“I didn’t say you were wrong, but your father may wish to have had his opinion considered before you made that decision.”
“I was the man on the ground. If father doesn’t like it, I’ll defend the place by myself.”
Kerrik looked at him for a long moment before giving an abrupt nod. “And I’ll help, if that’s what it comes down to.”
“It feels like a nice place.” Jamie looked around slowly. “What will we call it?”
“I’d be content with the name it has now, but since the leagues are busy renaming everything, we might as well go along with that.” Kerrik shrugged. “It was called Cuba, but I think Haven will be an appropriate name for us.” He stood, brushing off his pants. “Call in the security. It’s time to go back to Caomh Sith and give them the good news.”
“What about the base seed?”
“I want Shikarou to command it, so I’ll have to bring him here to feed it his blood.”
***
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
Demoness Ginevra
Duelist Madison
Badges: None