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 14
(4/14/06 0800 Marco Island)
“They are weak.” Ginevra’s solid green eyes gave no indication of where she was looking, but Jamie knew she was staring back at the three soldiers as they stared at her. “Real soldiers would have been ready to go hours ago.”
“I am not weak, you whatever you are.” Carver’s lip twisted as she glared at the demoness.
Jamie gave the lieutenant an annoyed look. “Her name is Ginevra and she’s a demoness. She’s also my alpha and will be helping with training you. If you’re going to have problems with her because of the way she looks, you don’t have any business here. Compared to some of the pokegirls out there, she’s warm and fuzzy.”
Madison giggled. “Cute, even.”
Paige snickered as Ginevra spun in place to focus on the duelist and spoke before her alpha could. “She’s not cute, remember?” The demoness gave her a cold look and she snickered again.
“Why is she naked?” Joshua’s voice was slightly strangled and he was trying desperately not to look anywhere but at Jamie. He was trying especially hard not to look at Ginevra’s nude body.
“I do not like clothes.” The demoness’ shoulders shifted slightly, telling Jamie that she was amused more than angry. “There is nothing wrong with my body and clothes are a bother.”
Wilkes was openly ogling Ginevra. “That English accent is sexy. Will mine have that?”
Ginevra turned to face him. “I have a Scottish accent because I am a Scot. I am not English.”
“Gin, that’s enough. They are soldiers and perfectly used to early morning wakeups. I decided that meeting their pokegirls could wait until after breakfast.”
The demoness’ tail twitched. “Yes, master.”
“Most pokegirls will or will not wear clothes according to what her tamer wants, overriding her own wishes. If allowed, they will express a preference, however; as in Ginevra’s case it may not be for wearing clothing.” Jamie shrugged. “I let mine wear what they want. Madison and Paige like clothes and Ginevra doesn’t.”
Carver took a deep breath. “What is an alpha?”
“Pokegirls are social creatures, for the most part, and hierarchical in nature, so every harem has a boss pokegirl. This lead pokegirl in a harem is called the alpha. She functions as her tamer’s adjutant and helps to keep things organized. Often, she’s the first pokegirl a tamer receives, and usually remains the alpha out of nostalgia as opposed to any real organizational ability, but a smart tamer makes his most competent pokegirl his alpha.”
“Alpha’s have perks with their rank and, often they help to set up taming schedules as the harem starts to fill. A bad alpha will use this to punish harem members that she doesn’t like. You need to keep an eye out for this since you really don’t want to open a pokeball and find out the girl who materializes in front of you went feral without your knowledge. This has the potential to be a very bad thing,” he flashed a quick grin, “at least for a very short period of time.”
Madison cocked her head. “Some tamers allow the members of the harem to determine which of them will be the alpha, usually by combat. That means that the alpha in such a harem will be the strongest. Strength is all well and good, but strength does not necessarily translate into competence and an incompetent alpha can substantially lower a harem’s efficiency, which is a detriment to everyone involved. I was the alpha in my first harem until my tamer gave the job to someone else. Since it turned out that she was only concerned about herself, I do know what I’m talking about. It can be pretty ugly.”
Jamie nodded. “Do you have anything to add, Ginevra?”
The demoness shrugged, making the gold threads in her skin dance in the morning sunlight. “There are pokegirls that will try to control a tamer and his harem and they are to be watched if you have one in your harem. None of the starter pokegirls that you will receive today are like that, but further information can be found in the pokedex or computer index that the old one left.” A tiny smile flickered across her lips. “I mean Colonel Kerrik Wolf.”
“We normally have a standard program of education for new tamers and when they are ready to start their new duties, they receive a starter pokegirl. This is a pokegirl that is usually one of the common breeds for that area and is often a first tier evolution if she’s capable of evolving. This allows a novice tamer to grow as his pokegirl, and later his harem, does. More powerful pokegirls often have special needs or temperament issues that a beginning tamer is unprepared to deal with,” Jamie smiled at the sitting soldiers, “like an insistence on clothes or a special diet.”
“How special can a diet get?”
“Some pokegirls feed on blood. Others feed directly on the life energy of the people around them. Keeping such a pokegirl in good shape is not something for a beginning tamer. In point of fact, many veteran tamers have problems with pokegirls like that and often give them away or sell them.”
“Oh. I take it our pokegirls don’t have such special needs.”
Jamie nodded. “That’s correct, they do not. Considering the circumstances, we’ve selected starter pokegirls for two of you. Teresa has requested a specific pokegirl, on the other hand, and hers is not a first tier evolution.”
He motioned to Paige, who was standing alertly nearby, scanning the area for possible threats. She glanced at him before returning to her surveillance. Today she was wearing one of Madison’s spare uniforms that had been modified to allow for her tail. “Paige will be helping with some of the combat training, but she hasn’t received specialized knowledge that Madison or Ginevra have, so most of the time she’ll be my bodyguard.”
He smiled thinly. “I have a valuable collection of pokegirls and, while we’re here to help, if someone tries to harm me or steal them, she’s going to make them very, very dead. In the meantime, I’ll be trying my best to beat her to them.”
Ginevra smirked. “She will get that knowledge just as soon as we get time.” Paige shot her a slightly worried look and the demoness’ smile widened. The foxymaiden didn’t seem reassured.
“I don’t have time to give you a proper course of instruction like the one you’d receive in Haven, so we’re going to go through the quick and dirty version. Any questions?” When there were none, he nodded briskly. “Then let’s proceed to the pokegirls.”
He led them towards the taming hostel. “This is the taming hostel, which as you can see, is rather long and narrow due to design constraints. Still, it has a clinic and some taming rooms with restraints and other things needed for the initial bonding of your pokegirls. It’s only here for a while, and you’ll be expected to lend your expertise towards building a similar facility for Marcos Island. Traditionally, they’re called pokegirl centers.”
Madison opened the door and bowed formally. “Enter freely and of your own will.”
Wilkes chuckled. “Will we have to take turns or are there enough rooms for us all?”
“There are enough rooms for all three of you.” Jamie slipped behind the clinic counter and turned to face them. “There is something that you need to remember: while none of you have starters with high libidos, almost any pokegirl is ready to have sex anytime and anywhere her tamer wants her to. They will usually be willing to tame in public, if that is to their tamer’s tastes. They take their behavioral cues from their tamers and are usually quick studies of how their new master or mistress expects them to behave. Consider well what you say to them and how you behave around them. They do still have their own personalities, but, except for a few breeds, it will only begin to manifest a while after they’re bonded to a new master.”
“The ones that show a personality from the beginning are some of those advanced breeds, right?” Carver was looking around curiously.
“Correct.” Jamie unlocked an armored cabinet and pulled out a tray of pokeballs. “I could continue explaining things until the milktits come home but the truth is: the only way you can understand is to experience it.” He exchanged an amused look with Wilkes. “It’s like boot camp. You can’t really understand it until you’ve been there, and then it doesn’t need explained.”
He took one of the balls from the tray and tossed it to Carver. Others were then thrown to Joshua and Wilkes. “What you’re holding is a pokeball. It’s a sophisticated piece of electronics that was reverse engineered from samples retrieved from one of Sukebe’s labs. What it will do is capture and contain a pokegirl; if she’s weakened enough not to escape the containment process or is willing to be captured in the first place. The ones you are holding are empty and can be used to capture pokegirls.”
“For the initial capture, you have to touch the pokegirl with the ball. After she’s been successfully captured, she can be released and retrieved without ever having to let go of the pokeball. In the initial capture, typically the ball is thrown at the target pokegirl to avoid getting too close to her and possibly killed. Most pokeballs have a continuously running mental feedback loop that reminds the inhabitant that she has a master and that she belongs to that person. This feedback loop is referred to as a conditioning cycle. There are other levels of conditioning cycle, but that’s not important right now.”
“As a beginning tamer, it’s customary for the facility registering you to give you a number of empty pokeballs along with your starter. In that tradition, each of you will receive six empties from me along with your starter pokegirl. You can purchase more later on.”
Ginevra nudged Paige. “Tell them.”
The foxymaiden flushed slightly but she dutifully stepped forward. “It’s also traditional for a tamer to change the name of a pokegirl when she joins his harem, unless she specifically requests to keep her old name. It gives them a clean break with the past.” She raised her head proudly. “It’s something they’ll expect and may indeed want.”
“Pokegirls haven’t been around that long and already you’ve got an awful lot of traditions,” Carver noted quietly.
“They spring up pretty quickly.” Jamie grinned. “If you like your pokegirl’s name, you don’t have to change it. I didn’t change Madison’s or Paige’s when they joined my harem.”
Paige nodded. “Madison didn’t want hers changed and asked to keep it, while Master Jamie said he liked mine.”
“He liked mine, too,” the duelist shot back.
“That is enough.” Jamie rubbed his chin as the two girls glared at each other briefly before subsiding. “That brings up something else. Most pokegirls are, by their very nature, competitive with each other, and that doesn’t end when they join a harem. However, while they are mildly competitive within the harem, they save most of their aggression for pokegirls who are not part of their family. This makes training them easier as they’re usually more than eager to battle.” He scratched Paige behind the ears, and she leaned into his hand while making a happy noise. “Battling between harems is the preferred method of giving pokegirls experience and increasing their power, especially when a pokegirl is inexperienced, since these battles shouldn’t be to the death. However, tamers need to be involved with battling, not only to keep it non-lethal but so they can learn their job, which is to function as the command and control element for their harem. A harem with a competent tamer giving out orders is vastly more effective than one which operates without a tamer, no matter how intelligent the pokegirls involved happen to be.”
“I guess that’s about it for now. Ginevra, please go get the girls.” The demoness vanished. “All three of the pokegirls you are about to receive today are from a group rescued from a community that had a disaster befall it. All of them had previous tamers but, as far as we know, those tamers are all dead. The pokegirls have all been informed as to the situation and understand that they will be starter pokegirls for you. The initial taming will bond them to you and create what’s known as an alpha bond. It’s not really a bond, but what it does is establish you as the pokegirl’s master and makes her receptive to your commands. If you do not alpha bond a pokegirl, she is not part of your harem and cannot be trusted to obey you.” He grinned. “It’s not hard to alpha bond a pokegirl, but I’m going to give you all day to make sure you get it right. That and the pokegirls should enjoy the attention.”
Paige’s ears flicked. “Sir, you might want to point out that, even if alpha bonded, a pokegirl may disobey a tamer from time to time, depending on her breed and temperament; usually as soon as a battle starts, she’ll buckle down and become obedient.”
Jamie smiled warmly. “I think you just did and thanks.”
The foxymaiden’s eyes went wide and she blushed. “Yes, sir.”
Ginevra appeared and handed her tamer three pokeballs. “Master, I am supposed to inform you that tomorrow Elizabeth will be bringing Cesare Jones to join us. His nursejoy will be helpful in healing injuries sustained during training.”
“Thanks for the update.” He turned to the soon-to-be tamers. “It’s kind of crowded in here to be releasing these girls, so let’s go outside.” He picked up a long package and handed it to Madison, who draped it over her shoulder as they headed outside.
Once outside, Madison opened the package and removed three tamer belts. “These are tamer belts and are designed with a front piece that will securely hold up to seven pokeballs.” She handed them out. “The belt is made from synthetic leather and has a tensile strength of ten tons per square centimeter. That’s metric tons, by the way, not your measly imperial ones. The part that holds your pokeballs,” she pointed to the one she’d just handed to Wilkes, “is designed to easily allow you access to your pokeballs while still securing them in case you receive a sudden acceleration, say for example, like being hit by a pokegirl attack. It, too, is over engineered and will survive damage that you will not.”
Jamie waited until the duelist was done before scanning the pokeballs with his dex to verify their contents. “Carver, you get a foxymaiden. While they can be either fire or ice, as per your request, she’s a fire type like Paige.” Carver took the proffered ball. “Now, let me show you how to release her.”
A moment later, the foxymaiden appeared and looked around the area, her ears flicking nervously. She was nude and her skin was covered with freckles. Her hair was bright orange and fell around her face in a cloud. “Masters and mistresses, may I ask which of you is to be my new master?”
Carver smiled. “I am. I will call you Annette.”
The foxymaiden bobbed her head. “Yes, mistress.”
“Madison, would you show Tamer Carver and Annette to taming room one?”
“Yes, sir.” The duelist smiled at them. “Lieutenant Carver, please come this way.” Carver took her pokegirl’s hand and followed Madison into the hostel.
“Joshua.” The young man gulped audibly and stepped forward. “Here you go. You get a tigress, a powerful fighting pokegirl. I trust you to take good care of her.”
Weinstein gave Jamie a smile that was an admixture if eagerness and nervousness. “I will, major.” He took the pokeball. “I was watching what you showed the lieutenant, so let’s see if I can do this on my own.” He released his pokegirl on the first try. “Neat.”
This tigress was one of the more human looking ones and looked like a human girl with cat ears and a long slender tail. Her eyes were slitted like a cat’s and her hair was patterned in black and orange horizontal stripes. Her nude body rippled with muscles and it was obvious that she stood several centimeters taller than her new owner. Her tail twitched as she looked from male to male and her ears went back when she noticed Ginevra.
Joshua stared. “She’s like something from anime.”
The tigress’ head swiveled when he spoke and she smiled slightly. “Are you my new master?”
“Yes, I am.”
She looked him up and down, her nostrils flaring as she sampled his scent. “I will do my best to make you proud of me, master.” She took a deep breath, making her breasts lift. “Will you tame me now?”
Joshua flushed and grinned. “Yeah.”
“Ginevra, take them to room two.”
The tigress smirked at Jamie. “What, don’t you want to watch?”
Paige hissed and an energy blade appeared in her hand. “You will respect my master or I will beat you to a pulp and your master can tame you after you’re healed.”
The tigress blinked and looked away. “I am sorry, master,” she said quietly as she stared fixedly at the ground. “Please forgive me.”
“Paige, that’s enough. Gin, no!” The tigress blinked and whirled around.
The demoness had stepped up behind the tigress and was reaching for her. She stopped and gave the tigress an unfriendly look. “Tamer Weinstein is your new master. Try to join my harem again and I will kill you.”
The tigress took a step backwards and glared. “You do not frighten me, infernal.”
Ginevra teleported, coming out behind the tigress. She grabbed a handful of hair and kicked the pokegirl behind the knees as she jerked, driving the tigress to the ground and pulling her off balance. “Then you are as stupid as you are ugly.” She shoved and let go, sending the tigress sprawling. “You wouldn’t last in my harem.” She leaned forward slightly. “We can find a different pokegirl for Master Weinstein if you want to be a bitch or we can just level five condition you and fix your attitude.”
The tigress paled and scrambled to face the demoness, bowing deeply. Her voice trembled with suppressed fear. “That is not necessary. I am very sorry and I will not do that again.”
“See that you do not.” Ginevra showed her teeth in what was definitely not a smile. “Corporal Weinstein, please collect your pokegirl and follow me. Once she is bonded to you, her antics should lessen, if not stop entirely.”
Joshua frowned. “Stop threatening my pokegirl.”
Ginevra cocked her head and appeared to eye him for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. “Yes, sir. This way please.”
Jamie smiled slightly with approval as he watched them leave.
Madison passed them on their way into the hostel before rejoining her tamer. “Lieutenant Carver and her alpha are taken care of, sir. I explained about the various potions and went over the possible use of restraints even though foxymaidens don’t have enhanced strength. The lieutenant seemed an interested student.” She flashed a lascivious smile. “Very interested.”
“That’s what we want in a tamer.”
Wilkes was watching Jamie. “What’s level five conditioning?”
“It’s one of those other levels of the conditioning cycle I mentioned earlier and is a process that can be used to destroy a pokegirl’s personality, effectively killing her while leaving the body behind.” Jamie’s lips thinned. “While some tamers might use it to make their pokegirls more tractable to what they want, the Kingdom of Haven believes it should only be used if a pokegirl has been convicted of a serious crime. I would not allow Ginevra to do that to anyone.”
“That’s good to know.” Wilkes rubbed his hands together briskly. “So, what’s my pokegirl?”
“You get a flying type called a rack. She’s a good combat choice and has a variety of evolutions to choose from, including fire, ice and electric. The pokegirl that savaged Carver sounded like a thundrix or thundercunt, both of which are electrical evolutions from a rack. Unlike most bird pokegirls, racks are hexapods and have arms, legs and wings. They have real hands, too, and are arguably more versatile than almost any other bird pokegirl.” Jamie tossed him the last pokeball. “Here she is.”
Wilkes fumbled with the ball for a few seconds before figuring it out and releasing his new pokegirl. She stood around 140 centimeters high and was covered with a lustrous chocolate brown coat of feathers. She slowly looked from Jamie to Wilkes and a slow smile appeared on her face.
Wilkes grinned. “She’s absolutely adorable.”
The rack’s head whipped around when he spoke. “Are you my new tamer, sir?”
“I am.”
The rack came to attention and snapped a salute. “I will endeavor to be your best pokegirl, sir.”
Madison blinked and glanced at her tamer. “Major, I think we have a military pokegirl.”
“Major?” The rack whipped around and saluted Jamie smartly. “Reporting for orders, sir!”
Jamie smiled benevolently. “Stand at ease. What was your rank?”
She looked confused for a second. “Sir, all pokegirls in the BLSF are privates.”
That’s different from what our world does. Jamie nodded absently at his twee’s comment. “Well, private, here things are a little different, but you are in luck. Your new tamer is a sergeant in the infantry. Sergeant Doug Wilkes.”
The rack’s eyes lit up. “I haven’t been given to another civilian? Thank the gods. Permission to greet my new tamer, sir.”
“Granted.”
The rack turned around and almost threw herself at Wilkes. “Thank you for selecting me, sir.” She wrapped her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. There was a muffled, “I will make you proud of me, sir.”
Wilkes looked at Jamie over the rack’s head and nodded. “I’m sure you will,” he said quietly. “I have to make you mine, so we need to go with Madison so I can tame you.”
“Yessir!” The rack let go and moved to stand next to him, a happy smile on her face.
Jamie grinned. “Madison, room three.”
“Yes, sir. This way.”
Paige watched them go with a curious expression. “Will I have to go through what the others did? The military training, I mean.”
“I think it would be best. Otherwise you’ll never really fit in.”
She nodded. “I agree, sir. I’ll speak with my alpha and see if I can’t get started first thing tomorrow, time permitting.”
“That’s the joy of healing cycles. You can train until you drop and then get healed and be ready to help train our novices.”
She gave him a half smile. “It’s a pity that something like that doesn’t exist for humans.”
“For us it does. Madison can replenish my strength like a healing cycle can do yours. Well, almost. Then, she can be healed to bring her back up to strength.”
“Does that mean we’ll be running them ragged?”
“Ragged? Who says we’re going to stop there?”
The foxymaiden giggled. “Nobody, sir, so I suspect we won’t.”
***
(4/14/06 2130 Capital League)
Kerrik sat on the bow of the lighter and sipped his tea. He was about fifty kilometers from the Archer Winery and had briefly considered pushing on to arrive before the death of the day, but he figured that at this time of night and considering how he looked, it was likely they’d attack before he could say hello.
Things might be different once they knew him, presuming they actually got along. For now, he was a complete unknown and his arrival could be seen as nothing but a serious threat.
It was an attitude he could appreciate.
Therefore, he’d decided to wait until morning and arrive sometime after he figured they’d had the opportunity to break their fast. Humans tended to be more accommodating if they’d been given a chance to fill their bellies. He supposed pokegirls were the same way, but from his perspective, pokegirls were just a subspecies of human. It was true that they were one with some rather unique abilities and issues, but nonetheless human they happened to be. The fact that they could interbreed with other human subspecies and produce viable offspring just made him more certain he was right.
His ears rotated slowly, endlessly sampling the night sounds. He knew that the lighter’s sensors should detect anything long before his ears could, but old habits died hard. Besides, a teleporting pokegirl could be on them without any warning at all.
The fact that he knew that things always eventually went south just helped to keep him alert. He no longer thought in terms of if something bad would happen and hadn’t for a very long time. There was no “if” in his mind. Things always went bad and the survivors were the ones preparing for it long beforehand. While it was true that it was impossible for anyone to prepare for everything, those who had taught themselves to act quickly and decisively lived far longer than those who stood and dithered while death swallowed them up.
Several of his more optimistic friends had pointed out that he was obsessively fatalistic. He’d thought briefly that they might have a point. However, the fact was that they were all dead and he wasn’t; something which suggested that he was doing things the right way after all. While he knew that there was an existence beyond death and that in many ways it wasn’t that different from being alive, he was comfortable with life and had absolutely no urge for that significant a change in his status.
Besides, he still had things to do in this phase of his existence, and death would make some of it needlessly complex to bring about. It was complicated enough dealing with other living creatures and the dead, there was no reason to make it more so.
His pokedex pulsed a dim light in the deep infrared to let him know he’d received a message. He’d have missed it in the day, but then his dex wasn’t dumb enough to use a night signal during the daylight hours. His studies indicated it was deep enough in the infrared to be invisible to pokegirls, even those with night vision.
He ignored the indicator to savor the sounds of the night. Bats squeaked overhead and crickets sang their song of sex in the bushes around the landed transport. In the distance, a lone owl hooted and Kerrik hoped that its species hadn’t been so decimated by the Red Plague that it wouldn’t find a mate when the time came.
Sadly, he knew that the larger birds and land animals would eventually fall prey to the feral pokegirls or to thoughtless humans who either didn’t know or care that they were helping to finish a species already on its last legs. If the Chinese hadn’t screwed up, the animals would have had more of a fighting chance; but humans had a tendency to make a bad situation worse.
It was a shame that there was nothing that could be done about it.
His ears froze for a heartbeat as a thoughtful look crossed his features. For several minutes he sat motionless while he weighed variables and considered alternatives.
When he moved it was to drain his teacup and toss it over the side where it evaporated before impacting the turf.
He dropped to the ground and raised his hand. A dozen tiny points of light appeared and began to circle around him, gaining speed until they were a blur. “Seek.” They shot away and faded out as they moved through time and space.
Minutes later, one by one, they reappeared and took up their orbits around him. Kerrik reached out and took one in his hand, studying it as it lay quiescent in his palm. His ears flicked slowly and a smile spread across his face. “Excellent. Execute.”
The points vanished instantly and, across the North American continent, a dozen portals hundreds of meters across opened and remained that way while millions of Ectopistes migratorius passed through them and winged away into the night.
Kerrik smiled to himself as the portals spun closed. The passenger pigeons would lose some of their numbers to pokegirls as well as other humans, but, since the organized hunts and loss of nesting grounds wouldn’t take place, they would become established and spread. As they did so, they would provide food for other animals as well as ferals, taking some of the pressure off of the other animal species and giving them a better chance to recover. It might not save them, but it was definitely a step in the right direction.
He made a mental note that, in the near future, he might want to start carrying a parasol to protect against droppings.
Hopping back into the lighter, he slipped into the control cabin and pulled his pokedex from his belt. Lights slowly brightened in the cabin as he activated it and scanned his mail. He sighed softly when he realized that the message was from Candace. “What now? That woman will not leave me be. Why can’t she pester her husband instead?”
He activated the message and the holographic drivers powered up, displaying a half meter tall Candace. She smiled. “I’ve tabulated the results of your tamer’s test and I’m pleased to announce that you passed quite easily.”
The image froze and Vice’s voice sounded from the speaker on his collar. “You had a perfect score.”
“I know. I had a perfect score on all three tests. Continue message.”
Candace began speaking again. “While you didn’t need to, I also thank you for taking your master tamer test as well as the breeder exam. You passed both of those handily as well.” She frowned slightly. “Since we don’t really have any rules in place about time limits, I suppose I can go ahead and issue you all three licenses now. I really don’t want this to become the rule, though, and I’ll be setting up some provisional rules for Shikarou to review and approve later today.”
Her frown deepened. “I’ve reviewed your applications for watcher and pokegirl researcher and everything seems to be in order but I can’t in good conscience register you as either. There isn’t a framework in place to approve either classification, at least not yet. I’ll look at how the Blue League did things and see if I can’t put something together. I’ll send it to you to look at and see if you can offer some suggestions.”
He paused the message and chuckled. “Since we’re the first, I don’t see why I can’t just declare myself to be both, but I guess that’s too easy for her. She is a product of her environment, which happens to be a place with rules. Continue message.”
Her frown cleared. “Anyway, I’ve set up your tamer record and given you a credit for a starter pokegirl. I would like to get an idea of when you’ll be dropping by to select one.” She gave him a cute smile. “Since you’re a tamer now, you need to get taming. I want to thank you for getting back to me promptly and you take care. Candace, out.” The image vanished.
Kerrik growled low in the back of his throat. “Bloody hell. Considering how well she appears to be listening when we last talked, it’ll probably be nothing but elves.”
“If you picked a pokegirl, would that satisfy them?”
He sighed and started to fold up the pokedex. “Vice, I really doubt that it would. Faelan has a harem of eight if you count Midori, and Shikarou sometimes seems to have one of every breed in his life. I’m almost positive that they’ll only be happy when I have the number of pokegirls that they think I should have.”
He paused and opened up his dex again. “I might as well see what my tamer entry looks like. I suspect it really doesn’t matter what it looks like since we’re the only ones with pokedexes and if anyone in Haven is stupid enough to challenge me to a salvage battle, I’ll slap them silly before ignoring them.”
He pulled up his entry.
Name: Wolf, Kerrik
Age: 26
Residence: Kingdom of Haven
Status: Active
Rank: 5
HRA rank: Colonel
Security Clearance: Omicron
Licenses
Tamer Y
Master Tamer Y
Researcher N
Watcher N
Breeder Y
Active Harem
None
His ears flicked and he chuckled. “So, I’m twenty six years old, am I? I suppose that works as well as anything else. Virtue, go ahead and encrypt my military rank so I register as a civilian tamer unless I want others to know who I am. Otherwise, it’s none of their damned business.”
“Very well, sir; should I make you a researcher and watcher, too?”
“Don’t bother. I am what I am and a little Y or N is not going to change that.”
He closed up the pokedex and headed back outside. Morning would come soon enough and he’d need to decide when it would be a good time to head to the Winery.
***
(4/15/06 0630 Marco Island)
Carver looked around sourly and then turned to Wilkes. “Sergeant, where is Major Wolf? We were supposed to meet him here and now.” She touched the pokeball on her belt. “I could still be in bed getting to know my pokegirl.”
Wilkes started to answer when Madison appeared with Jamie. He grinned as he stepped away from her and wiped sweat from his face. “Sorry I’m almost late, but our morning run became a bit strenuous when a titacruel attacked us. Capturing her took longer than I thought it would.” He released his foxymaiden and demoness from their pokeballs. Both looked like they’d recently participated in a battle. “Paige, be a dear and get my pack. Gin, when she gets back, show her how to set up the PPHU and rotate everyone through.”
“Yes, major.” Ginevra tossed the foxymaiden a pokeball. “She needs to go in the pack for the trip home.”
“Yes, my alpha.” Paige headed for the hostel at a dead run.
“You said that we should keep the ones we catch to add to our forces. Why can’t we keep her?” Joshua gave Jamie a curious look.
“That’s an excellent question and it has two answers. First of all, you don’t want to add to your harem before you’ve settled down your latest addition. It shakes things up and can actually hurt your harem and its efficiency as all the new girls try to establish a relationship with you, and the older ones make sure they don’t lose their places.”
Jamie ran his fingers through his hair. “The second reason is that titacruel is one of those special needs pokegirls I mentioned yesterday, one of the ones that beginning tamers should avoid like the plague. First of all, they are almost exclusively lesbian. Second, they have to stay around or in water or they can sicken and die. In addition to that, they’re voracious predators and prefer live, two legged food.” He ran his fingers through his hair again, teasing out a knot. “In fact, the only reason I didn’t kill her was because I’m sending her to my mother for breeding stock. Most places hunt them to keep their numbers down or else they’ll start picking off beachgoers.”
“Oh. We’ve had some people disappear along the beach in the last few weeks.”
“Hopefully, Joshua, those will stop now. If we run across any ferals that you could use here, trust me, I’ll let you keep them.”
Paige came pounding back with a backpack on her shoulders and went into a huddle with her alpha as Jamie grinned. “Ok, get out your pokegirls and let’s meet them. Please introduce them by name and place in your harem so we can start learning who is who. I realize that you only have one pokegirl each and that she is by default your alpha, but this will help to reassure them of their place in your harem. Why don’t you start, lieutenant.”
Carver released her foxymaiden, who appeared wearing a military t-shirt and jogging shorts. “This is Annette and she is my alpha. Annette, this is Corporal Weinstein, Sergeant Wilkes and Major Wolf.”
The foxymaiden blinked. “I’m your alpha?” She drew herself up proudly, ears up and tail quivering slightly. “Sirs, I am pleased to meet you.” She ignored Jamie’s pokegirls.
Ginevra wants to know what your harem’s ranks are.
Jamie thought fast. We’ll stick with them being noncoms. Gin is a sergeant, while Madison and Paige are corporals. Inform them and ask Gin to let Paige know.
Done. Perhaps you should ask your grandfather if he knows a way to speed up the maturation of Paige’s twee.
That’s an excellent idea and I will. Jamie turned to Wilkes. “You’re up, sergeant.”
The rack shimmered into existence. She looked both tired and happy. “This is Chosovi and she’s my alpha.”
The rack grinned suddenly. “By default, if nothing else, sir.”
Madison raised an eyebrow. “Chosovi?”
“I’m Hopi on my mother’s side and it was my great grandmother’s name.” Wilkes smiled. “It means bluebird, but my great grandmother was supposed to be a stone bitch and I think she’s going to be the same way.”
Chosovi flushed and looked pleased. “Thank you, my tamer. Bearing such a name is a great honor for me.”
Jamie nodded. “And I’m sure you’ll bring glory to it.” He turned to Weinstein. “Joshua?”
It turned out that the tigress was wearing a Jacksonville Jaguars jersey and a denim skirt. “This is Yonit and she is my alpha.” Joshua gave a half shrug as the tigress drew herself to her full height. “My mother always wanted me to meet a good Jewish girl, and in a way I have.”
Jamie managed to keep his face still. “I suppose you’re right.” He looked over the little group. “We’re going to start every morning with some nice warm-ups. Your pokegirls should be in good shape, but you tamers are going to hate this.” Ginevra grinned as he continued. “Starting tomorrow, we’ll do this at first light. Today, we’re running a bit behind and I suspect you’ve gotten a chance to eat already. I’ll know for sure when I see what you puke during the run.”
“I want you in the habit of getting up early for a simple reason. Your opponents, especially the leaguers, don’t have access to the potions and such that we can provide. They may be former military and they may not, it doesn’t really matter. If you’ve got a harem, you’ve got to tame them and most people develop a habit of posting a sentry and getting up late. We won’t, and that will allow us to steal a march on our foes.” He gave them an amused look. “As the lieutenant said earlier, she’d rather have been in bed right now and that’s the attitude most of the leaguers will take.”
“In addition, they’re soft. They walk everywhere, or if they’ve got a flying, riding or teleporting pokegirl, they get carried. When push comes to shove, you need to be in as good a shape as you can be. To be anything else may kill you and the members of your harem. I won’t be here forever, but I’ll help you to get a proper program started and I hope you keep it up. You’ve gotten lucky with Chosovi; she’s prior military and can help to plan out activities to keep you sharp. Remember, if you can’t beat a feral, running away is a really good idea.”
He turned to Ginevra. “Sergeant, are you up for a nice refreshing run?”
She flashed an eager grin. “I am, major. Five kilometers sounds like a good start.”
Jamie nodded. “I agree. Move them out.”
Carver gave him a look of disbelief. “How much running do you do, Wolf?”
“My father is a samurai and I was expected to be one, too. I’ve run everyday since I was able to run. You’ll learn to run everywhere so that, when you really need to, you’ll be able to run farther than you ever thought possible. And, rest assured, someday you will need to be able to do that.” He glanced at Wilkes and his pokegirl. “You run, Chosovi?”
The rack nodded. “Yessir. I ran to keep in shape and the day I lost a wing in a fight, I was still able to fight because of it.”
“You heard it.” Jamie glanced at Ginevra. “Sergeant, I believe you have a job to do.”
***
(4/15/06 0800 Capital League)
The lighter lifted off and nosed upward as it accelerated toward the clouds. Kerrik watched from the ground as its camouflage system came online and it became the color of the sky. When it finally vanished from his sight, he turned and raced north. He had about thirty kilometers to cover and wanted to stretch his legs.
He slowed when he hit the road that led to the winery and finally came to a halt a few kilometers outside the lands claimed by the Archer Winery. He glanced at the sky and slipped off his pack. A quick search through it turned up what he was looking for, and he clapped a beret on his head to hide his ears. He checked his pistol and slipped his pack back on before picking up the quarterstaff he’d pulled from his backpack. Giving it a spin, he started walking towards his destination.
He’d hiked two kilometers when he suddenly came to a halt and leaned on his staff, looking out into the forest. He stood that way for several minutes before a woman with emerald green hair and wearing a form fitting amber dress stepped silently from the woods several meters behind him. She glared at Kerrik’s back. “How did you know?”
He turned to look at her. “I know many things, Tattypoo. For example, I know that Glinda is out there watching us. That probably means that Winston and Alice are here, too. I was hoping to catch you when you were home.”
Her head tilted sideways as she considered him. “They’re out there waiting to see what kind of trouble you represent. People don’t normally wander around out here on foot. It’s not safe. They get killed. How come you haven’t been killed?” She frowned. “What are the lines on your face? Her eyes widened. “What are you?”
He smiled slightly. “Can I answer some of those questions or should I wait until you’re done asking them?”
The enchantress’ eyes narrowed. “Start with the questions you’ve already been given.”
He nodded politely, still leaning on his staff. “I knew you were in the woods because I could smell your soap. I haven’t been killed because I haven’t run across any pokegirls since I started walking. The lines on my face are called yokosuji and they help to identify me as an adult kami, which answers your fourth question.”
“Kami? Are you trying to tell me that they are real? Japanese spirits?”
“I said I was kami. I’m not trying to tell you anything.”
She frowned. “How did you know my name? Have we met before?”
He sighed. “I was wondering how that question would get asked. No, we haven’t met before and before I explain how I know your name I think I need to talk to Alice.”
“Why should I let you do that?”
“I would like to talk to Alice because if I don’t then you’re probably not going to believe what I have to tell you.”
“I don’t believe it now.”
He nodded. “I thought that might happen. It just so happens that I may have a solution. How about you and your sister take me into custody and deliver me to Alice and Winston. Alice can determine if I’m telling the truth and whether or not I’m sane.”
“Is your sanity in question?”
“No, but if I tell you my story you will believe it is.”
“Are you aware that you’re very exasperating?”
“It’s been mentioned before.”
She shook her head. “Glinda!”
A pokegirl with hair the color of spun rubies and wearing a golden dress with silver slippers appeared next to Tattypoo. “You yelled, sister?”
Tattypoo pointed at Kerrik. “He is annoying. Can we kill him?”
Glinda shrugged. “I don’t care, but Alice might. What if he’s a paying customer?”
“We have plenty of those. Nobody would miss one.”
“I might.” Kerrik shook his head. “And you’d never get to hear my story.”
“Don’t try to be smart with me.”
“I believe it was the scarecrow that had the brains,” Kerrik pointed out calmly. “He might try to get smart with you, but I’m just trying to convince you to take me to Alice and Winston instead of trying to turn me into sushi.”
Glinda smiled suddenly. “He’s got you there.”
“I don’t care. There’s something not right about him. I’m not sure he’s human.”
“That would be because I’m not.” Both witches stared at him. “I’m not. I’m also not a project of the Maker.”
“How do you know that name?”
“I spoke with Ming Die about him.” He chuckled. “Well, not exactly spoke, since she won’t vocalize words, but we did communicate.”
Tattypoo hissed angrily. “You know where she is? Tell me!”
“I can’t. I do not know where she is right now and, since she’s important to some other things that need to happen, I won’t tell you where she will be. Sukebe’s orders disappeared with him and you have another job now, one that doesn’t allow you to go haring off after things you were never tasked to kill.”
Glinda’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger as he spoke. “Tatty, he knows.”
Kerrik shrugged. “Actually, I was told about you by another one of your kind. A Demon-Goddess of your race by the name of Hatsumi explained what was going on. If it helps, at the time she knew the location of Ming Die and decided to let her be.”
“We need to take him to Alice. She can tell us how he knows.”
“I could kill him and find out for myself.” Tattypoo gave Kerrik a happy smile. “Then it won’t matter.”
He sighed. “I was hoping we wouldn’t get to this point. I’m afraid there’s a tiny snag to that plan.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t plan to die today. It would be terribly inconvenient. My grandson is counting on me to return and help him make some Indigo League goons rather unhappy when they come calling and I’ve got several unborn grandchildren I’d like to teach. The problem is that you two are rather important, too, and I don’t want to have to try to kill you.”
Glinda touched her sister on the shoulder. “If he knows who we are and he’s still confident, doesn’t that suggest he might have some cards we haven’t seen yet? Perhaps we should take him to Alice. If he’s of no use to her, she will let us kill him and Winston will never know he was there.”
Tattypoo looked into Kerrik’s eyes for a long minute before slowly nodding. “Take his gear and search him. We’ll take him to Alice and see what she says.” She stepped forward and pressed the tip of her nose to his. “I hope she lets me eat you.”
He smiled easily. “If you weren’t bonded to Winston, I might let you.”
***
Name: Wolf, Jamie Harris
Age: 17
Residence: Kingdom of Haven
Status: Active
Rank: NA
Security Clearance: Theta
Licenses
Tamer Y
Master Tamer Y
Researcher N
Watcher N
Breeder Y
Active Harem
Species Name
Demoness Ginevra
Duelist Madison
Foxymaiden Paige
Alpha: Ginevra
Beta: None