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.
This work is the property of Kerrik Wolf (saethwyr@ (SPAM) hotmail.com). Please remove (SPAM) to contact me.
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.
Feedback is encouraged. I enjoy hearing from people. Positive feedback will be appreciated, cherished and flaunted in front of people. Negative feedback will be appreciated, cherished and listened to, that I might continue to grow. Flames will give me a good laugh. Feedback may be delivered to: saethwyr@(SPAM) hotmail.com. Please remove (SPAM) to contact me.
Chapter 9
“Do you want me to set up a security perimeter?”
Kerrik smiled slightly. “Yes, I do, but it will only scare them off, so don’t. They won’t know Ginevra’s abilities so having her out shouldn’t worry them though. Go ahead and set her up as security.”
Jamie released his demoness. “Gin, you’re our security for the moment, so stay close.”
She muttered her enhancement spell. “Yes, Jamie. Should I become a daimon or youma?”
“Not now.” He watched as Kerrik settled down under the shade of a rock. The sun was a lot hotter here and Jamie soon joined his grandfather, while Ginevra moved to be more out of sight.
The minutes began to reel past and it was more than an hour later when a form dropped out of the sun and circled the area warily before landing. Her wing cases folded as she regarded the two men. Her head dropped in a quick nod. “Master Kerrik, Jamie.” Her head jerked in Ginevra’s direction. “Who is she?
Jamie grinned and sketched a wave. “Livie, it’s good to see you again. That’s Ginevra, and she’s my alpha.”
“I see.” The ladyien nodded and raised her upper right arm to speak into a radio strapped to her wrist. “Everything is clear.” She listened to a reply and nodded. “They’re coming in.” Without a pause, she continued. “Ellen is dead.”
Jamie suddenly looked sad. “I’m sorry to hear that. She was a good gravelgal. Do you have her ashes?”
She nodded solemnly. “We do, but weren’t sure that her remains would be welcome in the family plot now.”
Kerrik stirred. “She is and all of you are.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We think we are still family, no matter what has happened.”
Jamie stood and hugged her. “You are, more than ever.”
She rested against him for a second before pulling away. “Thank you.”
Shadows moved against the rock and two figures appeared. Jamie nodded carefully to the man. “Graeme.”
His brother had let his hair grow and it was pulled back in a loose ponytail. He looked around warily. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to meet with you and Celestine.” Kerrik rose smoothly. “Yes, I know her name, and yes, I know you two are madly in love.”
Celestine was a dusky brown with short black hair. The tattoos that denoted her status as a Sanctuary Goth were red. She looked around nervously. “You must be Kerrik.” Her voice was defiant. “I call no man master.”
He shrugged. “That’s not something that really bothers me, but as you wish. Hopefully, Graeme has told you that we aren’t like most other people.”
She nodded. “He has. He also said you would honor his wish to be left alone with me and yet you are here.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t bother you, but something has come up and I needed to speak to you both. In a couple of years the Blue League will try to kill the family on this world and we’ve decided to leave for another world, one where we can carve out a good home. We’ll be back from time to time, but there has been some indication that the league may try to lure both of you back home with a fake emergency call from Poppet.” Kerrik’s ears flicked. “If something does happen, I will contact you and I’ll use the passwords I gave you before you started on your tamer’s journey. Do not listen to any other contacts, not even Devon, if they try to call you home or want to know where you are.”
She gave him a suspicious look. “What if you are killed?”
“In that case, Aggie has been authorized to release the command codes and passwords to Shikarou or Faelan. You’ll hear from one of them instead of me, but they’ll have the proper passwords.”
Graeme nodded slowly. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Kerrik’s ears came up on point for a second and he smiled slightly. “Poppet will want to be here when your child is born. If you refuse, she’ll still want to meet her grandchild and she’s likely to be loud and angry until you say yes. Please, don’t do that to us.”
Celestine’s jaw dropped. “How do you know that I’m pregnant?”
Jamie chuckled. “He just does. It’s one of his tricks, that and one of my mothers.” He stuck out his hand. “Congratulations, brother.”
Graeme sighed and pulled Jamie into a hug. “Thanks. You won’t tell mother, will you?”
Jamie grinned. “I’ll try not to, but she can go through my mind without me ever knowing she’s there.” He raised a finger dramatically. “However, I should point out that I have no bloody clue as to where we are right now. Grandfather made sure of that.”
Ginevra hissed. “I do not know where we are either and I am not happy about it.”
“Gin, that’s enough.”
Kerrik straightened and assumed a formal stance. “I have to ask, Graeme, Celestine, do you wish to go with us when we leave?”
The two lovers looked at each other and, finally, Celestine shook her head. “We’ve got a nice farm started and we’re happy here. It’s a good place for a family.”
Kerrik nodded. “Should you change your minds, just drop me an email and I’ll come collect your family. Feel free to contact me for any other reason, too.”
Graeme draped an arm around Celestine, who snuggled against him. “Thanks, granddad, if something changes, we will.”
“I’ll be waiting. You take care of each other and of Livie. Give Ellen’s ashes to Jamie and we’ll add them to the family garden.”
Graeme handed his twin a small stone jar. “Thank you.”
Kerrik pursed his lips. “I noticed Livie was using a radio. Do you need any twees?”
“Grandfather, I’d like one for Celestine and one for the child.”
After rummaging through his backpack, Kerrik produced a small vial. “Celestine, if you do want a twee, then what you need to do is fill this with water and place it into your mouth. It’ll dissolve in less than fifteen seconds and you can swallow it. Your twee will take about a month to grow and Graeme can walk you through what you’ll need to do.” He flashed a smile. “As for one for your child, call me when she’s born and expect me to bring your mother along.”
Graeme nodded. “I know mother is mad at Sanctuary for what happened earlier. Can she overlook that for Celestine’s sake?”
“Graeme, your mother is stubborn and willful, but she loves you and she is smart enough to know that Celestine wasn’t involved in what happened. I wouldn’t surround her with other Sanctuary Goths and expect her to be comfortable; but if it’s only Celestine and her family I’m sure she’ll be her normal gracious self.”
Graeme looked skeptical but said nothing.
Jamie recalled Ginevra and took his grandfather’s hand. “Take care, you two; and Graeme, please send mother some kind of message. She’s worrying herself sick over you.”
“I will.”
Suddenly they were standing on a hill overlooking Peacetown. Jamie gave his grandfather a curious look. “You sounded like you expect them to contact you, eventually.”
Kerrik nodded. “I think that if nothing else, Graeme will. Celestine doesn’t have longevity. They haven’t thought about it yet, but when she starts to age and he doesn’t, they’ll want to do something about it.”
“Madison doesn’t have longevity either.”
“No, she doesn’t. We’ll deal with that, too, when the time comes.”
***
Shikarou leaned back and gave his father an annoyed look. “How are we going to coordinate this?”
“It all depends on how you intend to do this. Are you intending to move over several days or all at once? I can open more than one portal at a time to the area, so if you want to do it all at once, you can. However, something will invariably go wrong. It always does. Someone will forget something or else something that you’ll need will have never been put on a list or assigned to someone to collect.”
“Father, you’ve done this before; what do you recommend?”
Kerrik looked around Shikarou’s office. “I liked the old one better. This one is too organized. Your women decorated this, didn’t they?”
“We still have the old building if you want to set up an office of your own. Now answer the question.”
He frowned. “You and I need to go and set up the base seed, so I think we’ll do it a year or so before the move. As for coordinating the move here, I think the best way would be to move in stages. A lot of the stuff you need to transport is already, or can easily be, hidden from outside observers, like the kattle, other livestock and plants the elves have prepared.” His ears flicked. “There’s also a lot of stuff I’d suggest getting and some of it I’d want duplicates of - like the medicines and equipment in the clinic. It’s entirely possible that circumstances won’t allow you to rob it blind, so I’d make arrangements to get everything I need beforehand and everything you can swipe from the clinic becomes icing.”
Shikarou nodded slowly. “That sounds good except for the fact that people will take a lot of notice if we suddenly order a full clinic worth of supplies or an armory worth of weapons and ammunition.”
Kerrik snorted. “Yes, assembling the supplies quietly will involve a bit of work, but we can do it entirely under the radar of the Blue League. If you want, give me a list, some money and loan me a pokegirl with teleport who is widely traveled and I’ll show you how subterfuge is supposed to be done.”
“You’re on. I’ll give you Circe.”
“I specifically said loan, son. I’m not looking for a gift, even though you just offered me a very nice one.” He chuckled at Shikarou’s suddenly shocked expression. “Remember, there may be sidhe and kami on this new world and you’ll need to watch your words here for practice.” He folded his hands and assumed a beatific expression. “Now, if you’d offered me Elizabeth or Candace, I’d have been sorely tempted.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s not meant to be. Any member of your harem would make a wonderful present for a sidhe or kami and, unless you are careful around them, they may be able to make a claim to one or more of them. If they do that, we’ll have to kill them to get your ladies back.”
“I’ll try to be more careful. How about you deal with them?”
“I won’t be around all the time, Shikarou. I’ve got some personal things I want to do, and things I need to do, and both involve being off of Haven from time to time.” His amusement faded. “Have you talked to Alice about the guard?”
“We’re having breakfast in bed tomorrow and I know my room is secure, so I’m waiting until then.”
Kerrik nodded. “Would it help if the observers suffered fatal accidents?”
His son blinked in surprise. “I forgot how ruthless you can be.”
“Shikarou, you have no idea of what I’m capable of; and I hope we are never in a situation where you have to find out. Will their deaths help?”
“Probably not. We know their patterns and new people would have to be actively watched, which they might detect.”
“Very well, I thought I’d ask.” He rose. “I’ll borrow Circe in the morning and get started.”
***
Circe gave him an amused look as she adjusted her clothing. “What is this grand plan you have in mind?”
Kerrik was reviewing the list of medical supplies that Shikarou had given him and glanced absently up at her. “What? Oh, that. We’re going shopping. It’ll be a bit time consuming, but it beats leaving a paper trail for anyone to follow back to us.”
She cocked her head. “I think that Shikarou gets his tendency to not explain things from you, doesn’t he?”
He flashed a suddenly mischievous smile. “That’s an interesting suggestion. I’m not sure I’ve done anything to warrant it, but it is interesting.”
“Of course you haven’t.”
He chuckled. “Where’s someplace that you’ve been that you haven’t been back to in some time?”
She thought briefly. “Coastal. It’s in the Ruby League. There’s also Polass.”
“Sounds good. Give me about ten minutes and we’ll head for Coastal.” He settled down and pulled out some paper and a pen. Circe moved around behind him so she could watch as he quickly wrote down part of the list, making the same copy on each sheet in a different handwriting, one distinctly feminine and the other blocky. When he was done, he offered them to her. “Does that look like the amount of stuff a wealthy tamer would be picking up before they ever start on their tamer’s journey?”
Circe took the sheets and scanned them expertly. “Whoever this tamer is, he’s more than a little paranoid or as new as they come. Still, it’s mostly reasonable.”
“Good.” Kerrik checked his pokedex. “Shikarou gave me plenty of money, so let’s begin by transferring some of this to credit chips.”
“Why?”
“Credit chips are drawn from existing accounts and, since they’re not keyed to a particular person, they are almost untraceable. That’s why the old teams used them.” He quickly filled a dozen chips with money from his account before accessing his dex and reading quickly. He offered the dex to Circe. “Read these addresses.”
Circe gave him a curious look after she read the list of shops in Coastal that specialized in tamer gear. “Done.” She handed the pokedex back.
Kerrik promptly stuffed the pokedex into his backpack. He held the bag out. “I don’t need you right now.” The backpack faded into smoke and dissipated on the breeze.
Circe blinked. “How did you do that?”
“Practice. You can’t steal what you can’t touch.” He offered her his hand. “Ok, you’re going to be playing the part of trusted family retainer. Remember that and let’s go to Coastal.”
Once they arrived outside the pokegirl center where she and Pythia had picked up a nursejoy named Sierra over a decade ago, Kerrik headed down the street and ducked into a restaurant. “I’ll be right back.”
Circe folded her arms and frowned when he headed into the women’s bathroom. She relaxed slightly when no one screamed. A minute later a statuesque redhead left the bathroom and went over to her tamer.
A couple of more minutes passed before a young girl of maybe fifteen, wearing a jumpsuit and coat came out and headed her way. She stopped in front of the alaka-wham. “Ready to go?” Her voice was a sweet contralto.
Circe blinked. “Kerrik?”
The teenager shook her head. “Kerri.” She fluffed her honey blonde hair and smiled brightly. “Good illusion, isn’t it?”
“Even your mind is that of a girl. How do you do that?”
“A properly trained mage can make an illusion extremely real.” She grabbed Circe’s hand. “Let’s go shopping,” she announced in an excited tone as she dragged the pokegirl out the door.
They were approaching the first shop when a tamer stepped in front of them. “I challenge you for the alaka-wham.”
Kerri giggled. “Silly man, what makes you think you can challenge me? Do I look like a tamer?” She opened her coat. “Do you see a pokedex?”
The tamer glared at her and turned to Circe. “Where is your tamer?”
“My master is a tradesman and he’s in the Blue League. I’m escorting Kerri while she shops.”
“Where are you from?” Kerri gave him a bright smile as she zipped her jacket closed.
The tamer’s eyes narrowed and he scowled. “I live here, girl.”
“I think it’s too cold. Why don’t you go somewhere else and be warm? Is that why you’re angry, because you’re always cold? I’d be angry too if I had to freeze all of the time. Lots of other places are much warmer than this. You should go to one of them.”
“Get away from me.” The tamer quickly headed off, muttering under his breath.
Kerri giggled again. “Moron.” She tugged Circe into the tamer’s supply shop.
The clerk looked up and smiled. “Hello. How may I help you?”
Kerri plopped the list onto the counter. “I’ve got a list of all the things a girl needs to become a tamer here and a full credit chip that says you can fill it.” She dimpled. “Can you?”
The clerk’s eyes lit up. “I’ll need to check the balance on the chip.” He took it from the girl and quickly ran it. His smile grew. “Yes, I think this will do.” He quickly scanned the list and looked up with a faint frown. “Is this all you want?”
Kerri suddenly looked anxious. “Is it enough?”
“This is just the basic allotment, and I don’t see any clothes on this list.”
Kerri giggled. “Silly, I’ve got plenty of clothes. Let’s worry about the other tamer gear and later I’ll think about clothes.”
The clerk nodded. “You’re the customer, mistress.” A conspiratorial look crossed his face. “You know, if you get a pokepack you can carry a lot more. It comes in designer colors if you’re interested.”
“Really? Oh, I want to see them.” She turned to Circe, pointing imperiously at a corner. “Stand there and look official or something.”
Circe nodded. “Yes, mistress, just remember that my orders are that you cannot leave my sight.”
Kerri frowned prettily. “Your instructions didn’t mean for you to be my shadow. You do as you’re told.”
“Yes, mistress.”
The clerk led Kerri to the pokepack section and laid out several of them for her to examine closely. Finally, she sighed and gave the clerk a winsome smile. “I can’t decide between those two. What do you think?”
Guileless eyes turned on him and he smiled slightly. “Mistress, your chip has enough on it for you to get both of them and still purchase everything you need.”
Kerri’s eyes lit up. “Then I will get both of them.” She whipped around to face Circe. “And I don’t want to hear a word out of you.”
Circe shook her head mutely. For the next several minutes she watched the clerk sell Kerri almost twice the amount of gear on the list. Finally, he brought out the final item, a PPHU.
Kerri looked at it doubtfully. “I’ve heard that they break down at the worst possible times.”
The clerk nodded solemnly. “I’ve heard that too, but every competent tamer uses them.” He snapped his fingers. “You know, in the pokepack, they don’t weigh anything and I’ve got a second one in the back of the store.”
Kerri twisted her face uncertainly. “I don’t know if I have that much money.”
“You do, mistress.” The clerk winked. “I’ll cut you a deal on the potions.”
“Thanks! I’ll take it then.”
Once the purchases had been packed into one of the pokepacks, Kerri grabbed the list before leading Circe outside and around a corner into an alley. She held up a hand. “Pack.” The backpack appeared and the girl stuffed the pokepack into it. “Go.” It evaporated again as she tucked the chip into a pocket. “He’s good; he managed to get almost every credit on that chip.”
She closed her eyes and shimmered like heat lightning. When it faded, he’d turned into a stern looking black haired woman wearing slightly worn farming clothes. “If I can trick all of the salespeople into being so helpful, this won’t take long at all.” She held up her arms and looked down at herself. “This looks like fresh bumpkin ready to spend her life savings on her son. They’ll be lining up to cheat me or sell me extra stuff that my poor child won’t really need.”
He touched her and she felt odd for a moment. “What did you do?”
Kerri summoned a small mirror and Circe saw that she now looked like an Eva. “We don’t want a common thread in all of the visits, so both of us change between them.”
Circe smirked. “What’s your name now?”
“Kerri still works.”
***
Circe sighed gratefully as she dropped into the chair and reached for the teapot. Branwyn pushed the milk pitcher in her direction. “I hope Shikarou never gets as used to being kami as Kerrik is.”
The unicorn frowned. “What do you mean? How did the shopping go?”
“He doesn’t have an off button. We’ve been gone for three days and we were buying supplies the whole time. We’d hit every shop that sold supplies in a town and purchase his “tamer’s list”. Once we’d visited every shop, we’d move on to the next town in a region where it was still daytime. He didn’t stop to sleep and he ate once a day.” She poured milk into her tea. “I got to eat lots of snacks while we were shopping.”
“You don’t look dead. Maybe he rested while you were sleeping.”
“Whenever he noticed me getting sleepy, he’d hit the nearest pokegirl center and have me healed. That never took more than fifteen minutes and he used the time to put money back onto the credit chips.”
“He’s going to be hell on a harem, then.”
Circe nodded. “You’ve got that right. Maybe he shouldn’t have one.”
Branwyn shrugged. “That’s not my problem. How much did you get?”
“All of it. The list is done.”
The unicorn’s mouth dropped. “That’s impossible. There were tons of supplies on that list.”
“I know. We got them, roughly sorted into lots resembling what a tamer would need for a starter journey, and all packed into individual pokepacks for safekeeping. We’ve also worked on the food list and got some other equipment, including camping gear.” The alaka-wham shrugged. “Everything that a starting tamer would need, including one hundred and forty five pokepacks as well as nearly one hundred and seventy PPHUs, and, as far as I can tell, none of it can be traced back to us.” A smile flickered on her lips. “And I don’t know how many pokeballs we got, but there are a lot of them. If I had to guess, I’d have to say that we now have probably close to two thousand of them.”
Circe reached for a banana and started peeling it. “He used illusion magic on both of us for every visit and none of the illusions looked like him.” She dropped the banana on the tray and started nibbling at the peel. “He does such a good little girl, it’s creepy.”
“Oh?”
“Let’s just say that he got a couple of com numbers and some rather explicit offers.”
Branwyn’s mouth worked for a moment, but nothing came out. Finally, she burst out laughing. “That is creepy.” She chuckled for a bit. “And he’s welcome to be creepy, if it helps us. Where is he now?”
“We dropped the packs off in Alexandria and Faelan grabbed him for an experiment.”
The alpha shook her head. “Oh, that. I’m glad he’s involved. There’s a much lower chance of them all dying if he’s involved.”
“Oh?”
“Jamie told me that on their trip, the only time Kerrik seemed to get angry was when someone was trying to kill Jamie. Apparently, Kerrik thinks that people trying to kill him is normal.”
“He doesn’t think like we do, does he?”
“I don’t think he thinks like anyone else does and, right now, I’m happy to hear that.”
***
Faelan looked at his brother and then at the softly shimmering field in front of them. “What now?” He glanced at Svetlana, who shrugged, her eyes alertly scanning the area around them.
“Watch and learn.” Shikarou muttered a spell and an opening slowly appeared in the field. “Pythia, Circe.”
The two pokegirls drifted silently through the opening and lifted a handful of meters off the ground. Pythia’s voice drifted back to them. “It looks clear.”
“Jamie?”
Jamie released Ginevra and Madison. “Gin, security. Madison, we’ll need transport.”
Ginevra muttered her spell while Madison summoned the luster dragon inside the field. It stretched and crouched, waiting patiently.
The duelist bowed and made a sweeping motion with her hand. “Transport waits.”
Ginevra cocked her head and stepped through the hole. “I see nothing. No rats, no mice and no bugs. This place is completely dead except for us.” Her tail flicked from side to side. “I have dreamt of places without life, but if they are like this then I do not want one for myself.”
Shikarou nodded and stepped through. “It seems to be a symptom of what happened here. Nothing lives.”
Faelan followed him through and promptly gagged. “What is that stench?”
Pythia snickered. “Death.” She rotated in midair, orienting herself as the opening closed behind them. “I tried to teleport and cannot. However, our target lies that way.”
Jamie helped Shikarou get settled on the dragon as Circe lifted Ginevra free of the ground with her telekinesis. Svetlana’s wings shimmered into existence and she wrapped her arms around Faelan before taking to the air.
Madison stepped in front of the dragon and it dropped its head for her to climb onto. Then the dragon launched itself into the air, keeping just below the tallest buildings as it winged deeper into the city, following Pythia as she darted ahead. Circe slid into a guard position above and to the right of the dragon, Ginevra still in tow.
The city was completely dark and nothing was visible overhead. Faelan shivered. “This place is dead and I don’t like it.”
Shikarou clapped a hand over his mouth and whispered into his ear. “Sound carries forever here.” Jamie glanced back at them and tightened his grip on his R-4.
Finally Pythia went into a hover over an oddly flat roof and pointed downwards at it. The dragon stalled into a landing and vanished before it could hit as Madison dismissed it. Jamie, Shikarou, and Madison hung in the air as Pythia and Circe grabbed them telekinetically as Ginevra dropped silently to the roof and became still as the others drifted down behind her.
Svetlana feathered silently in to a soft landing. She frowned as her wings vanished. What is wrong here?
Shikarou flashed a grin. When we were here before we pitched everything off the roof, including the air conditioning units and ventilation piping. That’s why it looks oddly bare.
The dire wolf frowned. Stay here. Something is not right. She flew over the edge of the roof and dove out of sight.
When we were here earlier, the BLSF forces were communicating by radio. I do not detect any transmissions and it could be that they are still retreating to their bunker outside the barrier when the sun sets. While it has been nineteen years for us, it has only been six days for them and the zombabe threat is still quite real.
I hate depending on surmise. Shikarou frowned. Let’s continue as planned.
Wait. Pythia zoomed into view and hovered in front of her tamer. Her ears were back and her muzzle was wrinkled in a silent snarl. They unblocked the doors to Inverness and those doors are open.
Jamie clicked off the safety on his rifle. Gin?
The demoness moved to stand near the entrance to the roof. Her eyes widened briefly. I see three individuals but I have never seen zombabes before and do not know if these are some. They are lurking near the hatch where they cannot be seen from above and appear ready for us to drop down into the hallway. They do not feel alive, but they do not feel dead either. I can also see more of them coming up the stairs.
It is interesting that she registers undead as neither alive nor dead.
Ginevra’s head jerked in an emphatic nod. I have never encountered them before but I will remember this.
Shikarou waved a hand and opened his link. Pythia, zap them. Circe, provide cover for her.
The dire wolf zipped down the hatch as she started to glow and light flared briefly. Done.
Jamie, you and your girls guard the roof. Shikarou waved his brother forward as Jamie started giving his pokegirls hand signals.
Faelan released Tetsuyo. Security mode. The gunvalkyrie nodded and her tribarrels cycled into a ready position as she went into alert. Her eyes began to glow slightly as she switched to her light amplification night vision mode. A sensor node rested on the top of her helmet and through it her twee and Aggie would provide her targeting information if needed.
Shikarou dropped into the hatch, closely followed by Pythia and Faelan, who was closely followed by Svetlana. She gagged for a moment and then got herself under control. An energy blade sprouted from her right hand and she moved to stand next to her husband.
Pythia touched the megami-sama’s wrist and shook her head when Svetlana gave her a curious look. Killing them with weapons except for fire and celestial power releases the transformative mist.
Svetlana nodded bleakly and dismissed her weapon. She made a fist and it a softly glowing globe of energy appeared around it. Then celestial power it is.
How do you do that? The dire wolf peered at her. I can only charge and release, not charge and hold.
Svetlana gave her a grim smile. I have neglected to teach you and the other celestials what I have learned about our power. I will correct that oversight when we return.
The door to the staircase banged open and three zombabes appeared. One suddenly blurred forward in a charge while the other two lumbered towards the living in a much more normal fashion.
Suddenly a blinding beam of gold light erupted from Svetlana’s hand and struck the charging zombabe in the chest. Its upper body flashed to vapor and the beam continued on to destroy the other two in a similar fashion.
What the hell was that? Shikarou was busy blinking tears from his eyes. You have a bloody celestial laser?
You do not yet know all of my secrets. She gave him a smug look and waggled her glowing fist. This is one of those.
He smiled slightly. Fine. You take point with Circe. Just please let us know beforehand so we can close our eyes.
Svetlana nodded and moved forward to stand with the alaka-wham.
Circe cocked her head. It’s likely they moved our target back to where it was initially, which is in the basement.
Pythia nodded. That would make sense for them, since they’re trying to return the city to normalcy and it would make it more convenient for ground forces to reach. Still, we will have to fight our way down there.
Faelan’s ears flicked. Are we concerned about them knowing we’re here? He continued when his brother shook his head. Then use the elevator shaft to drop down to the basement. If the elevator is in the way, we’ll clear it and tunnel through the bottom.
Good idea. You seal the stairway door.
Faelan nodded and loped down the hall to shut the stairway door. He looked around before summoning a thick bladed dagger and driving it through the door and into the frame with a shriek of metal. He quickly drove other daggers through the top and bottom of the door, pinning it into place against anything without enhanced strength.
Shikarou put his ears back up and glanced at Circe. If there’s someone here, they certainly heard that. Do you sense anyone in the building?
She shook her head. I sense no thoughts except for us for several kilometers. If there is a dark type pokegirl, however, I would not sense her.
He nodded. Change of operating procedure. We’re going from quiet to fast. Circe, get started.
Circe nodded and turned to face the elevator and focused her telekinesis on it. The doors trembled and there was a groaning noise as metal gave before the inner and outer doors slowly rumbled open to reveal a tiny room that drank the feeble light from Svetlana’s hand. The elevator is here. That makes things easier, unless it falls on us.
Svetlana gave her a glare and she chuckled quietly. “We can talk if we want to. It’s not like it will draw more zombabes.”
Shikarou spoke before Svetlana could. “We’ll nail it into place like your husband just did that door and then we’ll tear the bottom out. Nothing will fall on us.”
“Thank you.” She suddenly gave a malicious grin. “Hopefully some zombabes will be in the bottom of the elevator shaft for the debris to crush.”
Faelan shook his head and slipped into the elevator, summoning more daggers. Circe lifted them from his hands and drove them into the eight corners of the elevator simultaneously. He grinned. “Faster, I’ll grant, but a warning would be nice. Midori does stuff like that from time to time and you startled me.”
She grinned. “I’ll try to remember that next time. Please leave the elevator.”
Faelan threw himself out of the elevator as the metal under his feet started to buckle. It folded up like a foil as the alaka-wham ripped it free. She held it in place for moment and glanced at Shikarou, who nodded. She released it and they listened as it banged its way down to crash in the distance, making a tremendous noise that echoed up and out of the shaft.
Shikarou eyed the shaft. “Pythia.” She drifted into the shaft and hovered, releasing a light spell that dropped into the shaft. Then she turned and grabbed her tamer and headed after it.
Circe lifted Faelan and Svetlana with her telekinesis and followed.
The basement door was several feet above the end of the shaft and Pythia set Shikarou on the side of it before hitting the release on the inner door and forcing it open. Her muzzle wrinkled and she hissed. “Something is not right. I think it is zombabes.”
“Don’t do anything too destructive. We don’t know where the unit might have been placed, but the basement was one large room.”
The dire wolf kept her attention focused on the door. “I’m open to suggestions.”
“Throw it open and use your celestial aura on them.”
Svetlana drifted down ahead of others and halted as her levitation spell kicked in. “I’ll be your backup, Pythia. I’m pretty sure that you are still tougher than I am.”
The dire wolf nodded and drifted forward. “Ready?” When Svetlana’s hands began to glow again Pythia shoved the doors open. They slammed against their stops as she lunged through and into the mass of zombabes that filled the room as they began to turn to face her. Light exploded as she used her aura and zombabes crumpled where they stood.
Svetlana darted into the room after her and beams from her hands stabbed out several times until Pythia flared once more.
Shikarou summoned his sword and threw himself after them, but pulled up short with nothing to do as Pythia summoned more light balls and sent them around the room. Circe and Faelan entered and he summoned his own sword as she dropped him lightly to the floor. His claymore burst into flames, making the shadows in the room dance menacingly.
“Here it is,” Pythia announced.
Shikarou dismissed his sword and trotted over. “Faelan, you and Svetlana guard the stairs and keep an eye on the elevator shaft. Pythia, injury status report.”
She chuckled at the command she hadn’t heard in several years. “I am unbitten and unscratched.” She glowed briefly. “I have healed myself as per your orders after close combat with zombabes. Those orders do still stand, do they not?”
“They do.” Shikarou examined the containment system quickly. It was roughly two meters long by one meter thick and two meters high. From experience he knew that most of its massive bulk was high density storage for the hyper dimensional spaces that stored a pokegirl’s energy form.
Pokeballs stored a pokegirl as a stable energy matrix inside a hyper dimensional space. Containment devices took that one step further and also converted the pokeball into energy for storage along with the pokegirl. It could manipulate those energy matrixes to return a pokegirl to her base format, essentially erasing all damage or status effects. This was the healing process that most laymen incompletely understood. Most of them didn’t realize that the base format could be changed, allowing a pokegirl to retain scars or missing limbs if her owner desired.
This was one of the reasons that pokegirl containment units were so bulky. The high density storage was manufactured as a single unit and its geometry was set by the original plans that had been captured from Sukebe. Deviating from them rendered the units inoperable and no one had been able to determine why.
Transfer devices were also very bulky, but that was because of the equipment needed to perform their function. They created microscopic a hyper dimensional wormhole between the source and destination and essentially squirted the hyper dimensional pocket that stored the pokeball and pokegirl to the destination unit. It took a lot of power and was why transfers could only be done one at a time in normal circumstances, although most transfer units had two transmitters and three receivers for emergency use.
Pythia whipped around when Shikarou cursed violently in Japanese. “They powered the damn thing up and there isn’t an auxiliary power unit set up.”
“So turn it off.” Faelan shrugged.
Pythia sighed. “That takes four hours and once the process is started, the unit can’t be moved or else it might lose all of the stored pokegirls.” She began shrugging out of her pokepack. “Still, we came prepared for such an eventuality.” She released a single large item that took up all the internal volume of her pack. It clanked heavily to the floor.
She picked it up and moved over to the containment unit, laying it over the control panel and holding it in place as Shikarou extended railings from each side of the device and clipped them over the ends of the containment unit. Each railing had a screw jack and he used those to tighten the rails up, clamping the device firmly to the containment unit’s casing.
Faelan nodded as Pythia connected the cable on the device to the APU input port. “I’d wondered why dad suggested that design, but it makes sense now. The APU won’t be separate from the containment unit, so we don’t have to move two things.”
Circe grinned. “It gives me one less thing to have to juggle. That thing weighs almost nine hundred kilograms and I don’t want to have to worry about anything else if I have to catch it.”
Shikarou nodded. “Faelan, take Pythia and Svetlana and clear the first floor. Let Jamie know we’ll be coming out the front door and have him clear the area in front of the building. However, tell him to not land there since it’ll just draw more zombabes.” He busied himself checking connections as Circe moved to join him and the others filed out.
The alaka-wham cocked her head. “You’re not going to fight?”
He flashed an annoyed look at her as his fingers played on the control panel. “I’d love to, but this is the reason we’re here. If something goes wrong, it won’t be because I delegated this.”
“We can get by without them if we need to.”
He nodded absently as he pulled up a menu. “I know that, but if this gets screwed up we will have killed over,” he paused, “correction, exactly six thousand, one hundred and four pokegirls who don’t deserve to die, and it will be by my hand. I’ve never killed that many people by accident and I’m not going to now.”
Circe wrapped her arms around him from behind and squeezed him tightly. “Oz, we are not going to kill them.”
He relaxed against her for a moment. “Thanks. I’m just,” he trailed off.
“Terrified? You are not alone. The move, this, leaving everything we know.” She sighed and rubbed her lips against the back of his neck. “The Pleiades Group will be there too and they won’t know who Stardust and I are which means they’re not likely to be friendly.”
Shikarou chuckled. “Have you considered that Ygerna, Eoghan and Germanicus may be in the Blue Continent somewhere?”
She sighed against him. “We’ve discussed it briefly. The final conclusion was that we can’t worry about what we don’t know. If they are, we’ll know how to fight them this time and,” she grinned, “we’ll have Kerrik on our side.”
He pulled away from her, turned and gave her a peck on the lips. “You’re right. No matter what happens, we’ll meet it as a family and we will prevail.” He turned back to the containment unit. “Let’s get this thing disconnected safely and we’ll be on our way.”
Circe grinned and the power coupling twisted free. “Done.”
He chuckled. “Showoff.” He checked the control panel. “Switchover to APU proceeded smoothly and we’ve got six hours to get out of here.”
Faelan reports the first floor and area in front of the building are clear.
The containment unit lifted free of the floor and moved to hover near Circe. “I’ve got it. You’ve got lead.”
Shikarou nodded and headed up the stairs as he summoned his sword and some armor. Zombabes lay dead in piles around the room, most apparently done in by celestial power. The fire door to the stairs was blocked by a couple of desks that had been piled against it. “All clear.”
Circe floated up the stairs, followed by the containment unit as Shikarou headed outside. Faelan, Svetlana and Pythia were nearby, watching a large flaming humanoid as it shot bolts of fire at the few remaining zombabes. “What is that?”
“One of Madison’s cards. We really need to find out more about what she can do with them.”
“I think you’re right. Circe’s on her way up.” Jamie, grab your girls and evac the roof. We’re leaving and you don’t want to be last.
You got that right, dad. This place is nasty. How did you last so long here?
Carefully. He turned to Pythia. “We’re out of here.”
The dire wolf wrapped her arms around him and lifted off to hover, rotating so he could watch Circe and the containment unit head smoothly into the air. The luster dragon circled down and joined them as the darkfire soldier fired off one last bolt of flame and vanished. Jamie, Madison and Ginevra waved from the dragon’s back before the creature turned and headed after Circe.
Faelan stepped into his wife’s arms as her wings shimmered into existence. She flashed Shikarou a smile as she climbed into the air and was gone.
“We keep the rearguard as usual, I see.” Pythia nosed his ear gently and he flicked it against her.
“You and I make a great team and I have no doubts about our ability to make it out of here, even if we have to travel on foot.”
They headed after the others and took up station above and behind them as the rest of their group drifted into a loose formation. Pythia snorted. “We’ll need to start seriously training again and we’ll need to train against and with everyone else’s harems.”
He was thoughtful for a moment and nodded. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. I really thought our tamer level training days were behind us. You’re the youngest in the harem and you’re almost twenty four.”
She sighed into his ear. “Certain hard decisions will have to be made about who will be part of your active harem. Those who become kami will be tougher and will stay young forever. However, only two of your harem have chosen to take that step.”
He nodded. “And there’s no guarantee that all of them will.” His ears drooped. “Father warned me about loving mortals and how it would eventually break my heart.”
The dire wolf shook him gently. “None of them are dead yet.”
“Yes, but I can still see the passage of the years. Still, you are right and I will not mourn them while they live.”
The shield began to appear up ahead and Pythia accelerated hard to beat the others to it. She dropped him in a relatively empty space and glowed before releasing her celestial aura to destroy the zombabes who had congregated in the area where they had entered Glasgow.
The shield rippled and glowed softly where her attack struck it. Shikarou cursed. That lit up the area for kilometers. Get moving before the BLSF gets here! Quickly he cast the spell to open a door in the shield and Pythia tore through it. She climbed to a hundred feet and hovered, watching alertly as she cast warning spells.
Madison sent the dragon away before it finished landing and Ginevra grabbed Jamie before they hit the ground. She jerked the duelist to her feet and through the portal, teleporting to the rendezvous point with them as soon as she crossed the shield wall.
Svetlana dove for the opening and dismissed her wings before they crossed through. The instant she was on the other side, she teleported her and Faelan away before they could crash in a show of timing that drew a satisfactory smile from Shikarou. “Sometimes I forget she’s combat trained.”
Circe floated the containment unit through and followed, with her tamer on her heels. He released the opening spell as Pythia teleported to them. She and Circe grabbed the containment unit as he wrapped the hair of each pokegirl in his fists. The three minds meshed completely and allowed them to teleport away with the containment unit almost a minute before the BLSF mages could arrive.
By the time they tracked the teleport to a small island off the coast of the Dark Continent, it was empty.
***
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