Harris Saga Chapter 14
Lamya set her lunch tray down next to Karen’s. “Mind if I join you?”
Karen smiled. “Not at all.” She gestured over at Devon, who had his head together with Kathryn at a nearby table. “I seem to have been snubbed.”
“That isn’t it at all. Devon just has some decisions to make before we leave, and he thinks you’d find it all pretty boring.”
“He may have a point. My traveling days aren’t so far in the past that I have suddenly found provisioning to be all that exciting.” Karen looked curiously at Lamya. “So why aren’t you helping?”
“I’ll help when we go shopping.” She gave a depreciating smile. “Kathryn is younger than I am and she’s still pretty possessive of the perks of being the alpha. I sometimes think she’s concerned that I want to supplant her. It is fairly typical in younger pokegirls.”
“You sound as if you know what you are talking about.
Lamya smiled. “I’ve got a Master’s Degree in pokegirl medicine. My specialty was reproduction and a pokegirl’s mental outlook can play a significant role in how a pregnancy will proceed, so I did more than a little psych work”
Karen looked interested. “So how did you come to be working with Devon?”
“I had a grant to work at a research institute here on the Blue Continent, and when I was handling some T2s I underwent a late Threshold.” She shrugged. “That wasn’t but a couple of months ago. The institute palmed me off on Devon to get rid of the embarrassment.”
“That’s pretty cold hearted.”
“Yeah it was.” She poked at her food. “It’s been hard, but I’m coming to terms with it. It is a lot easier for girls who go through it at puberty. They are understandably upset, but they know that it could happen to them at that point in their life. I’d already accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be like my sisters and my parents had high hopes for me. That was why they let met attend medical school. There was even an arranged marriage being negotiated. Then I became a Witch and my world went to hell. I called my parents to tell them what had happened and my father first yelled at me and then hung up. When I tried to call back, each time my call was refused.”
“I’ve always been a good daughter and his response crushed me. If it wasn’t for Devon, I don’t really know what I would have done.”
“So he’s been good to you?”
“He certainly has. He treats me like I’m still like before, a person. We don’t just battle and Tame. He knows my likes and dislikes and he’s trying to get me to teach him some of my native tongue.” She grinned. “Like most young men his age he first wants to learn the curse words, but since then he’s progressed to grammar and usage. He even wants to get me a deck of Dasavatara Ganjifa cards so I can teach him some of the games I know.”
“He treats me better than I would expect a husband from home to treat me if I was still human. He trusts me to do things without supervision and actually values my opinion. At home I’d be pregnant most of the time, trying to increase the numbers of humans.”
Karen nodded absently, watching Devon. “That’s a common problem here too. At one time they even believed that if a human woman spent too much time in the company of pokegirls she could turn into one. It kept the women pretty well segregated. Even today many human women are still bred to death.” She shook her head.
“What is he like?’
“He is very intense. Sometimes his moods are mercurial, and he has some buried anger that could be a problem someday. I’ve only seen him angry a couple of times and it’s like he swallows it and it’s gone. I’ve know a couple of people like that and most of them eventually snap.” Lamya sipped at her juice. “Can I ask you a question?’
“Sure.” Karen looked at her expectantly.
“When you gave Devon his badge this morning, why did you have a presentation with all of your students and staff? I got the impression that the whole event was unusual, but certainly you give out plenty of badges.”
Karen reached over to the table next to her and picked up a brochure. “This is a brochure for the gyms in Ireland. See here is the Shamrock badge that we give out here.” She pointed at the badge, a red shamrock on a green field. “Notice that next to it are two other badges that are almost identical. Here in the Blue League there are twenty gyms, five in each of the four regions. Each gym has their own unique badge that they award.”
“But the truth is that there are actually sixty different badges. Each gym has three variant badges that they can award. The first is the battle variant. The battle variant of the Belfast gym is the Shamrock badge with a sword on the bottom of the green field. Battle badges are the most common type of awards. The second variant is the sex badge. It is awarded for winning a sex battle. On the sex badge the sword is replaced with a small pink heart.”
“The final variant is the laurel. It is more commonly called the Ironman badge. This badge has both the sword and the heart. In addition the field is wreathed by a laurel wreath. This badge is only awarded if the Tamer wins both a pokegirl battle and a sex battle during the same visit and the Tamer must compete in the competition in some fashion. The laurel is only given out infrequently and most gyms will have a small ceremony to remind their students that this is the level to which they should strive.”
“So Devon won a laurel.” Lamya looked surprised.
“That is right. He won the battle yesterday afternoon and defeated me in a one on one sex battle last night. I don’t really mind the loss.” Both girls exchanged a grin.
“How can you identify the badges across the regions?”
“Look at the color of the field. Irish badges have a green field, Welsh badges have a red field, English badges are blue and Scottish badges are black.”
“Scotland doesn’t use any black in its flag. Why black?”
“Blue went to the senior member of the Blue League so Scotland chose black because of a historical military unit called the Black Watch Regiment. No one wanted a plaid field as it could be too hard to identify from a distance.”
Lamya watched as Devon got up and walked towards them as Kathryn gestured to her. “Looks like you weren’t snubbed after all.” She picked up her tray and went to drop it off.
Devon sat down next to Karen. “Have a nice chat with Lamya?”
“She’s interesting. So are you leaving me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid so. I hope you don’t mind too much.”
She placed the back of her hand dramatically to her brow. “I understand that you have other upstanding women to despoil.” Pause. “You beast.”
Devon snorted. “Are they still upstanding if they are horizontal when I’m done?”
She smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “Get away with you, you fiend.” As Devon got up she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down for a quick kiss.
“You be careful out there. You’ve got a lot of potential as a Tamer, and some people are going to dislike the fact that you are sneakier than they are.” Karen looked seriously into his eyes. “There aren’t many people I’d invite back to my gym, but you are one of them. You’ve got a good heart and don’t let anyone take that away from you.”
Devon rested his forehead against hers. “Thanks. A lot. If you need anything.”
She smiled. “Don’t be a stranger?”
“I won’t. You either.”
***
“Devon Harris?” The question came from behind Devon and his harem as they headed north out of Belfast. He turned around.
“Yes?” The girl was about Devon’s height. Her hair was spiked and striped pink and yellow. A red teardrop tattoo gleamed below her left eye. She was wearing tight black jeans and a black t-shirt which read “If you can read this then STOP STARING AT MY TITS!” Black knee boots completed the ensemble. Another Tamer. “May I help you?”
“I certainly hope so.” She smiled and Devon realized with a shock that she was a NurseJoy. “I’m Flo. My sister said you might be able to help me if I could find you.” She gave a sexy smile. “She said you really helped her. Perhaps you could do the same for me.”
Lamya slid smoothly between them. “Keep your panties on,” she snapped.
“Too late.” Flo blew Devon a kiss.
Lamya surged forward. Devon lunged and caught her arm. She looked back at him. “Why don’t you just relax? Let me handle this.” Lamya glared but let herself be pulled back to him.
“If you’re going to be like that then you are on your own. Good day.” Devon turned to leave.
“Wait! I’m sorry. It’s just been so long since I’ve been with a Tamer and sis gave you such a glowing review.” Flo smiled. “Please forgive me.”
Devon was puzzled. “Who is your sister?”
“Letitia.” Devon gave her a startled look.
“Ok, but I doubt she told you to try to jump me. What kind of assistance to you need?”
“I’ve got a problem with a missing pokegirl. Let’s go down to the hospice and I can explain.”
Devon shrugged and followed. Lamya trailed after, grumbling.
They followed Flo to an old dilapidated warehouse. She led them into a small office in the front. A rickety table dominated most of the room. It was covered with paper. An ancient looking computer sat a silent vigil in one corner.
Flo walked around the table and grabbed a piece of paper. “This is the one I’ve lost. Her name is Zelda.” She came back around and handed the paper to Devon. “She disappeared almost a week ago and I haven’t been able to get anyone to look for her.” Her voice was despondent. “Then Letitia mentioned that you were in the area and said you might help.”
“Let’s back up just a bit.” Devon glanced at the paper. It was a missing persons report and the picture was of a Pia. “Just what do you do here?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I kinda forgot you’re not from around here. Everybody here knows about Florence the crazy NurseJoy and her orphanage. Zelda came here after her family was killed by some Wasps somewhere to the north. She’ll still be underage for some time to come, so none of the pokegirl centers can legally take her, and she’s too old for anyone to want to adopt. So she came here.”
“And then she ran away.” She grimaced. “It happens, but I don’t like it and I try to get them to come back if I can. This world is no place for a young pokegirl to try to make it by herself. Hell, it’s no place for any pokegirl to try to make it by herself.
“Do you have any of her personal effects?”
“After she disappeared I bagged up her stuff. I was hoping that I could get a Growlie or someone to track her and I know my girls steal stuff from each other all the time, so if I waited it would be gone or contaminated with another scent.”
“Excellent. Seraphina may be able to use that. Do you have any idea which way she went?”
“I’m afraid not. Can you find her?”
“We’ll try. How long was she here?”
“She was here for only a few days. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m concerned that she may have gone home. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes, but you don’t want to go there. The Wasp hive is still active in the area.”
Devon looked at Lamya. “Just once, couldn’t we get something easy?”
***
“Well master, it’s a good news, bad news sort of report.” Seraphina shook her head. “I have picked up Zelda’s scent. The bad news is she’s headed north and seems to know where she is going. That means you are probably right and she’s going home.”
“Follow her trail. Keep your eyes open, ladies. While Wasps have a nice bounty, if they were easy to kill everyone would be doing it. Hatsumi, you and Tess have the overwatch. Kathryn you are with me. Lamya stay with Seraphina. Ladies, let’s move out.”
They made camp long after nightfall. After camp was set up Devon checked the meteorological report to confirm that no rain was expected in the near future.
Then he pulled out a pokeball. It was time to Tame his Eva.
She stood there for a moment and looked around. “Timmie?” She looked at Devon and her pokeball and her ears went flat. “Did he lose me or trade me?”
“He traded you. My name is Devon.”
“Just great. He swore to me that he’d never part with me.” She shook her head. “I should never have trusted him.” She glared at Devon. “So what now? Should I assume the position?”
Devon sat on a cushion and patted the one next to him. “Why don’t you sit down and try to have a civil conversation with me.”
“Are you going to grab me when I get near you?”
“Was Timmie the one who treated you like shit? Or was it someone else?”
She blinked and answered in less belligerent tone. “He was one in a long line. Why do you care?”
“We’re on a mission to bring back a young girl. However, if this little errand wraps up quickly I may still be able to get my hands on Timmie.”
“And why would you want to do that?” She had that look of pain again. “You don’t want me either. You’d make him take me back.”
“Actually I was thinking of holding him down and letting you carve pieces off of him until you feel better.”
“Yeah, right.”
Devon got to his feet. “Return.” She started to protest but it was too late.
He headed out of his tent as he strapped on his belt. “Ladies, I have to take a quick trip, but I’ll be back as soon as possible. Hatsumi.”
“Hai.” She got up.
“I need you to teleport me back to that port city in Indigo.”
“Hai.” Hatsumi took him into her arms and kissed him.
Devon looked around as she stepped back. Daylight stung his eyes. “I need to find the man I traded the Buzzbreast to. Can you help me?”
“It has been two days, but Hatsumi does not think that this man would have gone far.”
“Neither do I. We’ll start at the pokegirl center.”
“Hai. What do you want with this man?”
“Apparently I’m tired of people not believing that I’m going to hurt someone.”
Hatsumi gave him an intent look and then smiled. “Hai, my master. We will hunt.”
They spotted Timmie before they had to talk to anyone. He was heading out of the pokecenter. They watched as he turned and headed up the street.
“As soon as he gets alone, use hypnotic gaze on him.”
“Hatsumi has a better way. You stay here and Hatsumi will follow. When he is alone, Hatsumi will use Night on him and bring him back to you.”
“Fine. Meet me at the north edge of town.”
“Hai.”
A couple of minutes later Hatsumi came swooping in with an unconscious Timmie wrapped up a blanket.
Devon looked at her. “Where did the blanket come from?”
“Hatsumi stole it.”
He considered briefly. “Whatever. Could you teleport both of us back?”
“Hatsumi could try.”
“If you are not sure about carrying two then I want you to take him first and then come back for me.”
“Hatsumi thinks this is a bad idea. Better if Hatsumi takes you first.”
“Just go. I promise not to go anywhere willingly.”
“Hai.” She teleported out and returned less than a minute later.
“See, I don’t always have bad luck when I’m alone.” Hatsumi took him into her arms and kissed him.
“Hatsumi believes you were just lucky this time. Hatsumi still does not trust you alone.” She let go of him and stepped back. They were in a clearing that was lit by moonlight. There was no sign of the camp.
“Where are we?”
“Hatsumi thought that the Edo continent would be a better place for this. No one would miss him here. Hatsumi left his pokeballs where Hatsumi took him.”
“Ok.” Devon let the Eva out. She looked around.
“What is it this time?
“I’m doing what told you I wanted to do.” Hatsumi was unwrapping Timmie. Devon gestured at them. “Here, want to help?”
She stared for a minute. Suddenly she laughed and grabbed Timmie’s legs. Once they had him stretched out, Devon gagged him as Hatsumi sat on his arms. “I want you to understand that you don’t have to do this. You don’t even have to watch.”
The Eva looked angrily at Devon. “I want to do this.” Her eyes glinted in the moonlight.
“Ok. Oh, I want you to know that I can’t stand Fuzzbutt. Your new name is Vivien.”
“Vivien.” She rolled the name around in her mouth. “Vvviiiiivvviiiieeennn. I like it.” The she returned her attention to Timmie, who was starting to stir.
Devon drew his khukuri. Vivien’s eyes locked on the blade as it glittered in the moonlight. She watched as Devon carefully sliced Timmie’s clothes off of his body.
When he was done, Timmie stared fearfully up at Devon, who turned his head to look at Vivien. “I will never ask you to do anything that I am not willing to do.” He looked at Hatsumi. “Hand.”
Hatsumi grinned and moved Timmie’s right hand into view. Devon struck. Timmie screamed through the gag. There was a brief splash of blood.
He turned and handed the knife to Vivien. “Remember, if you strike at the joints, often the blood vessels and arteries will contract, slowing the blood loss. That way he will remain conscious longer.”
Vivien moved in and started cutting. Timmie screamed through the gag for a long time.
Finally the clearing was wet and black in the moonlight. Vivien was kneeling on the ground, slumped forward, her chest heaving. Devon reached down and took the khukuri from her hands. She jumped and looked at him.
“I will give you one of these.” He twitched the khukuri. She nodded and suddenly stood, crushing her bloody fur against his chest as she kissed him. Devon returned her kiss hungrily. Suddenly she started to glow.
Hatsumi watched as she licked her arms clean of gore. She looked at Devon and cocked her head. Devon he glanced at her and shrugged, watching Vivien as she evolved. “Be my guest.” She grinned and crammed some liver into her mouth.
A still glowing Vivien wrapped her arms around Devon, kissed him and began ripping his clothes off of his body.
***
Devon stirred. Vivien was falling asleep, her golden rings glowing softly in the light of the moon. He slowly sat up, wincing as the patches of drying blood on his skin pulled wetly. Grabbing her pokeball, he put her up.
Slowly he stood. Hatsumi looked up from where she’d been stripping the flesh from the body. “Want some?” She offered up a handful of something that shined in the moonlight.
Devon closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed hard. “No thank you. I don’t quite think I’m ready for cannibalism. We need to be getting back.”
“Hatsumi briefly returned to camp while you were busy with Vivien. Kathryn understands you are safe and will return when you can.”
“Good.”
“Will we do this often? Hatsumi is very pleased.”
“I sincerely hope not.” Devon shuddered. “I really don’t know if it bothers me that much. And that bothers me a lot.”
“Hatsumi is pleased that you will give your wives what they need. This one will be extremely loyal to you.”
Devon shivered. “After what I did, I really hope so.” He started gathering up his bloody clothes. Hatsumi helped.
Then the two of them teleported back to the camp, leaving the grisly remains behind to gleam whitely in the moonlight. Later Hatsumi returned and gathered up the remains. She teleported out to sea and consigned them to the deep without a thought.
***
The next morning Kathryn waited until Devon was alone to have a word with him. “Husband, you bathed right after you returned to camp last night, but yer clothes weren’t washed and I wanted to know what to do with them. They’re stiff with dried blood.”
He turned to her and gave her a weary look. “If you ask again in whatever fashion Kathryn, I will tell you what happened. You will probably not want to know. All you need to know was that I did what needed to be done to welcome Vivien into our little family. Burn the clothes.”
Kathryn blinked and nodded.
Devon frowned. “Oh, before I let Vivien out this morning, you need to know that she evolved last night into an Umbrea.”
“I’ll let the others know.” She gave him a quizzical look. “Is that a good thing?”
“She’s much more powerful. So, yes, I guess it is a good thing.”
Everyone took a minute to welcome Vivien to the harem. She was hesitant about the whole thing, but polite.
While they were doing that, Hatsumi gently drew Devon to the side. “Will you be putting Hatsumi into long term storage this morning? Right now you have seven pokegirls in use. The law states that you can only have six.
Devon gave her an odd look. “Do you think I’m worried about a little thing like that after last night? If the Blue League has a problem with what I’m doing out here, then they can damned well send a policeman out here to let me know.”
“Besides, I suspect that Vivien will be going into her pokeball in a fairly short while. Can you see her previous Tamer rushing about enough to get her any kind of long term endurance?”
“On top of that it will take a couple of weeks of intensive training before I can trust her to mesh properly with the rest of the harem in combat.”
He gave Hatsumi a grim smile. “Right now she is still the spare.”
“Finally, you are still a member of my harem and I like having you around. You provide a prospective that the others lack. Cheerful ruthlessness has its place in the world too.”
Devon raised his voice. “Let’s get moving. In a perfect world I’d like to catch this girl before nightfall today. I did a little research this morning and the police report on the attack says her family was killed by a large nest of Wasps. I learned my lesson with the Buzzbreasts and really don’t need it reinforced by getting stung any more. So let’s all move quickly and think good thoughts and hope that for the first time, the gods deign to smile on us.” Chuckles swept the clearing. Devon grinned.
Seraphina put her hands on her hips. “You realize that now you’ve asked the gods for mercy we are about to discover that these are some kind of super Wasp that travels in battalions and prefers to eat young men with blue hair.”
“I’ll wear a wig.” The chuckles turned to laugher. “Same places as yesterday, ladies. Vivien you stick close to me. Let’s move out.” He frowned and slung off his pokepack. After rooting through it for a moment, he dug something out and looked up. “Vivien, come here please. This is for you.” He held up a belt from which dangled a sheathed khukuri.
She looked at for a moment and then took it from him. She ran her fingers over the hilt of the knife and suddenly leaned forward to kiss him gently. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “You are welcome. Later, if you want, we’ll get you some clothing.” Out of the corner of his eye he caught Kathryn watching them intently. “Now let’s get going.”
***
Tess slowly glided in and feathered to a landing as Hatsumi circled overhead. Her wings vanished. “There’s a house up ahead.” Two more days of travel had burned any humor out of the situation. There had been signs that they were in the Wasp hive’s territory for over a day. “The front door’s been torn off, but otherwise it looks ok. There are a couple of outbuildings as well. We didn’t see anyone outside.”
Devon sighed and looked at the sky. “They hate me.” He squared his shoulders. “Seraphina, what have you got for me?”
“The scent is headed straight towards where Tess says the house is. It is quite possible she’s there. There is a lot of bug scent around, but that really hasn’t changed for the last day.”
“The worst case scenario is that she’s in the house and so is all or part of the hive. We’ll proceed on that assumption until we can prove otherwise.” Devon waved to Hatsumi and pointed to the ground in front of him. She turned and came zipping in to a landing.
“When we get close enough, I want Hatsumi to teleport Seraphina to the other side of the buildings. If the scent continues on past them we’ll go around the whole thing. If not, we start with the house. It will take the most time to search, but if the hive isn’t inside it, it’ll also be the most defensible.
“Normally I’d pick a smaller building to defend, but in this case the size of the house will give us the room to stay partially mobile. In addition, the Wasp Queen’s dark sky attack can eventually level any farm building, so the house’s size will work to our advantage that way as well.”
“If we have to go into the house, Seraphina and I will look for Zelda. Hatsumi, Dima and Lamya will stay on the first floor while Kathryn and Tess will go to the second. I want the teams to stay together as much as possible.” He paused.
“Oh and Hatsumi, in this particular case I’m willing to forgive you if you set some trees on fire, as long as we get out alive.” She grinned maliciously.
“Will you forgive me too?” Lamya looked at him innocently. “Hatsumi and I have been working together. I gave her the rune chain T2 and she’s taught me the fire spell. I still don’t have the hang of fira and I’m a long way from firaga, but I do have one fire attack now.”
“Fine. Stay armored up though. Your repulsor beams would probably work well against them.”
“Remember one thing ladies. Wasps don’t give up short of death, so a wounded one doesn’t count.”
Vivien touched his arm. “What about me?”
“We’ve never worked with you before, and I’m going to put you back in your pokeball for now. I promise to get you out if I need you, but things will be pretty desperate by then and you might not want to join us at precisely that time.”
She nodded. “I’ve seen how your harem works so well together.” A small grin appeared. “I trust you to keep me safe.” She cocked her head.
“Who am I likely to replace?”
“Hatsumi. She’s a lot more powerful than anyone else and I want to train up the rest of the harem while she rests. She also thinks it’s a good idea and I value her advice.”
“Ok. I just wanted to know. I’ll spend some time with her and see what I can do to help fill her position.” She winked as her ears flicked. “Just remember I can’t fly.”
“I’ll try to do that,” he responded in a wry voice as he reached for her pokeball.
***
Hatsumi and Seraphina appeared in front of Devon and stepped apart. He noted idly that Hatsumi had held Seraphina from behind while she always kissed him.
“Any good news?”
Seraphina shrugged. “Depends on what you consider good. Her scent is not on the other side of the buildings. She is either in one of the buildings, changed direction in the clearing and left by another direction, or something carried her off by air. The scent of Wasps is everywhere though.”
“Just lovely. I don’t think we’ll classify any of that as ‘good’ news.” He looked around. “Hatsumi, can you teleport me inside the entrance?”
“Hai. Hatsumi can see inside there so Hatsumi can teleport there.”
“Then everyone except Hatsumi goes into their pokeballs. This way we don’t have to cross that open clearing in the daylight. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours but I don’t want to wait even though Wasps are primarily diurnal. My instincts tell me to hurry as much as safely possible.”
When he’d put everyone else up he turned to Hatsumi. “Ready to go?”
She stepped into his arms. “Why did you hold Seraphina from the back?”
Hatsumi smiled. “Only special people get kissed. Later Hatsumi will teach you something new.”
“What’s that?”
She lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. “You can carry Hatsumi comfortably like this.” Her groin ground against his. “Soon Hatsumi will take you around the world.”
“I think I’m afraid to ask what that is.”
“Master should never be afraid of Hatsumi. Around the world is where you Tame Hatsumi like this while we travel to every continent Hatsumi has been to. It is a very special feeling, and if you do a good job of Taming, Hatsumi will reward you with something very special.” She placed a hand over his mouth as it opened. “Do not ask, for the special thing is a surprise.” She put her hand back around his neck and pressed her lips against his hungrily.
When she dismounted and stepped back, Devon had almost forgotten what he was here to do.
The living room was strewn with broken furniture and dried blood decorated everything including the ceiling. There was a door on a side wall and stairs going up.
Devon let everyone except Vivien out of their pokeballs and drew his sword. Seraphina cast about briefly as Hatsumi checked out the door. She disappeared inside, waving for Lamya to follow. Lamya summoned her armor and slipped after the Demon-Goddess. Dima picked up a large piece of the couch and moved to where she could see outside. She crouched behind the chunk of couch and became motionless.
Seraphina looked at Devon. “Her scent is strong here.” She sniffed the steps as she started upstairs, closely followed by Devon, Kathryn and Tess.
There was a sudden buzzing noise as a Wasp dropped from the upstairs, her stinger aimed at Seraphina’s back. Devon thrust, aiming low. The Wasp screeched as his sword took her in the lower torso. Devon thrust again, aiming for the red circle of the Wasp’s open mouth. The sword licked out and back, stabbing through the soft palate and out the back of the skull. Seraphina shouldered the body aside as it fell.
Devon glanced back at Tess. She smiled. “Your armor will be ready within a week. You wouldn’t need it so badly if you’d let me lead.” She shook her head and muttered something. Devon distinctly heard the word idiot.
He shook his head and scratched Seraphina on the base of the tail. She briefly pressed her rump against his hand. “Let’s keep going.”
Hatsumi appeared at the base of the stairs. “Hatsumi hears noises from outside.” Her expression was unhappy. “Next time perhaps master would not let his food be so loud when he plays with it.”
“Sorry,” Devon muttered quietly.
The upstairs looked relatively untouched. Seraphina led him to the door farthest from the stairs while Tess and Kathryn peeled off to check the others.
Devon carefully opened the door. It was a little girl’s room, decked out in pink and looking sweet enough to give the inhabitant diabetes. A line of stuffed animals guarded a small toy box that was overflowing with dolls. A closet was stuffed full of clothing.
Seraphina’s ears rotated as she sniffed the air. She tapped Devon on the arm and pointed under the bed. Devon shrugged off his pokepack and pulled out an empty backpack. He whispered to Seraphina. “I was going to give this to Vivien. Fill it with clothes from the closet and grab some toys and a couple of the stuffed animals.”
Tess appeared in the doorway and Devon waved her over. “The other rooms are empty.”
“Good. You and Kathryn check over the parent’s room. If you find the mother’s jewelry box, grab it. Maybe we can give Zelda something to remember her family with. Now hurry.” She turned and left.
“Zelda, my name is Devon. Flo was really worried about you and she asked me to see how you were doing.” His voice was soft and gentle. “Things aren’t so well here so I’d like to take you with me.” There was a rustle under the bed. “Precious, we need to hurry, the bad bugs know we are here and they will be coming soon.”
Slowly the Pia slid out from under the bed. She was young, just starting to fill out. Devon put her at about the same age as Makoto. Her eyes were a bright blue and her hair was a mass of curls that spilled down her back. Both her hair and fur was the color of straw. She clutched a toy Polar Lass to the breast of her pink dress. “My daddy, mommy and brother are dead. Will you be my new daddy?”
“No, I can’t. But I will be your best friend if you let me.”
“Ok.” She gestured with the doll. “You’ll take me with you?”
“Promise.” He held out his arms and she came over and climbed into them.
There was a sudden loud spiteful buzzing outside. She shivered and clung to his chest. “They’re angry.” Tess appeared and stuffed a wooden jewelry box into his pokepack. Seraphina had already put the full backpack into it.
Zelda did not want to be put down, so Tess helped to slide the pokepack onto Devon’s shoulders.
Kathryn ran into the room. “Devon, the Wasps are outside.” There was a crash at the window as a Wasp banged into it.
Tess grabbed the bed with one hand and slammed it flat over the window. There was a ripping sound as a stinger came seeking through the mattress. Kathryn grabbed Devon’s katana from the floor and flew at the mattress. The blade grated on springs as it slid through. There was a long shriek that died away towards the ground.
“Let’s go,” Devon growled.
Kathryn was tugging at the sword. “It’s stuck.” Tess grabbed it with one hand. Her incredible strength pulled the katana free without any apparent effort.
Devon grabbed an empty pokeball from his belt and touched it to Zelda. Nothing happened. “Bloody hell.” Tess looked at him as she wedged the bed in place. “She’s too young for the DNA analyzer to get a read on. We’re going to have to carry her out.”
From downstairs came the sound of repulsor rays and shooting water. They didn’t quite drown out the sound of needle sprays sleeting off of the walls and ricocheting through the living room.
Devon kicked the railing off the landing and jumped down to the ground floor. Zelda squeaked and electricity surged across his skin. He staggered. “Relax, precious. The bad bugs want to get in but we are not going to let them. There were explosions upstairs as the others came rushing down.
Seraphina set herself to watch the stairs. “Something is blowing holes in the roof.”
Devon nodded. “Her majesty has made her appearance. Well if they collapse the second floor it will just protect us from above.”
Kathryn looked at him. “Do we teleport out?”
“Not yet. We’re actually in a pretty good defensive position and I think we can take them.” He raised his voice. “Hatsumi, what are you doing?”
“They ignore the rooms where they don’t see anyone so Hatsumi has pulled everyone into the entrance. They are very stupid. We are trying to get them to mass in front of the front door opening where Hatsumi can deep fry them. They are starting to show signs of congregating.”
“Ok, just watch out for the Wasp Queen. She’s currently trying to blast down the second story, but eventually she’s going to get bored since no one is playing with her.”
Tess looked upstairs thoughtfully. “We don’t have enough room down here for everyone to play, so with your permission I’d like to keep the Wasp Queen entertained for a while.” She smiled at Devon. “It would keep her from crashing our party down here.”
Devon glanced around find an escort for her. Dima’s couch piece was pretty well trashed but she still crouched behind it.
“Dima, go with Tess and cover her.” She nodded and went upstairs with the Armsmistress.
A Wasp rushed the opening only to stagger as Lamya hit it with rune chain. She kept the lengths in her hands. Hatsumi reached over and grabbed them and the two of them jerked the Wasp inside where Lamya smashed it repeatedly with metal claw until it stopped moving.
From upstairs there was the crash of a thunderbolt. It was followed immediately by another. “Look out below! I think that I may have paralyzed the whore.” came drifting down the stairs.
Devon could only stare as the Wasp Queen hit the ground several meters in front of the doorway. She twitched but apparently Tess was right. Hatsumi grinned and her hands burst into flames.
“Wait,” from Kathryn. “Lamya, if you hit her a couple of times with mystic bolt then Devon can catch her. If we don’t kill her then the others will rush down to rescue her and then we do some fire work.”
Devon thought fast. “Do it. Seraphina move to cover the door with your flamethrower. Lamya get your fire spell ready when I throw the pokeball. If you blast the pokeball, so be it.”
Lamya pounded the immobile Wasp Queen with mystic bolts and almost immediately Wasps appeared, swerving in front of the opening as they tried to nail the interlopers with needle spray. Devon waited, shifting Zelda around to his left arm.
“Here goes the pokeball.” He threw. The Wasp Queen was sucked into the ball. It rocked for several seconds before the containment light flashed. “Gotcha.”
“And here come the Wasps!” yelled Seraphina. A solid cloud of Wasps rushed down and crowded into the doorway in an attempt to get to Devon’s group. More electricity surged through Devon as Zelda panicked.
Seraphina blasted the group with flamethrower while Hatsumi cast firaga and Lamya cast fire. The combined blast blew away the walls in front of it and engulfed the enraged Wasps. Tess and Dima came bounding down the stairs as the attack hit.
To be completely safe the three pokegirls kept the fire attack going for almost forty seconds. When they stopped Devon looked at Dima. “Please be a dear and put the walls out.”
She grinned. “Dima happy to do.” Watergun played over the flames and soon steam wreathed the room.
“Is it over?” Tess looked curious.
“Hatsumi does not hear any Wasps. If there were any left they would still be attacking.”
Devon sighed. “Lamya, would you zip out and have a look?” She fired her jets and flew out the doorway. She hovered and looked around before swooping down to the ground for an instant and then back inside. Her armor melted away as she landed in front of him.
“I didn’t see anything. Here.” She offered him a pokeball. “It looks singed, but otherwise undamaged.”
“Thank you.” Devon pocketed the ball. “I think that’s a wrap people.”
Tess gave him a slightly disgusted look. “You need to stop watching those old vids.”
“And who keeps watching them with me?”
“That is beside the point. They don’t make me spout out silly quotes.”
Seraphina nuzzled his cheek. “Did I do good? I think I deserve a special Taming.”
Kathryn glared. “It’s not yer turn.”
Devon sighed. “How about a group Taming session. That way everyone gets Tamed tonight and I get to be with a whole lot of lovely ladies.”
Lamya looked thoughtful. “I would be a really bad girl to try something like that. I am sure it is a sin.” She beamed at Devon. “Sounds like fun.”
“What about Vivien?” This was from Tess.
“I think she can stay in her pokeball tonight.” Grins flashed around the room.
Zelda stirred in Devon’s arms and looked up at him. “What about me. I’m still too young to Tame.”
“I know. We’ll be in the Harem tent and you will stay in mine.”
She thought about it for a moment. “Ok.”
Dima frowned. “Dima too strong. No hurt wife.”
Devon reached up and stroked her cheek gently. “No problem. We’ll put you in your restraints as part of the foreplay.” Dima thought about it for a minute and then beamed and nodded vigorously.
***
The next day was spent looting the empty house and buildings of anything of value. Zelda was a great deal of help, often pointing out things that had been missed by others.
As the afternoon sun rode low in the sky, Kathryn sought out Tess. “We may be having a wee bit of a problem.”
“Are you talking about our little spy from last night?”
“Ye saw her? I heard about her from Lamya. Why didn’t ye say something at the time?”
“I was just a little busy at that point. Besides, there was no harm done. Pokegirls have to learn about sex some way or another. Zelda just learned quite a lot last night.”
“Lamya said that Zelda spent the whole time watching Devon. Aren’t you afraid that she’ll try something inappropriate with him? She is sharing his bed.” Kathryn sounded appalled.
“First of all, I talked to Hatsumi about it earlier this morning. She says the Pia isn’t nearly as young as Devon and Flo think she is. According to Hatsumi, in a month or so a pokeball should work on her just fine. Since the DNA analyzer calculates chronological age to determine fitness for capture, she should be just about ready for her first Taming.”
“Secondly, while I haven’t known Devon for a lot longer than you, I can’t really ever see him being talked into something that he didn’t want to do in the first place.”
“I hope yer right and I hope ye are wrong.”
Tess gave her a quizzical look. “Say again?”
“I hope ye are right in that Devon cannot be talked into anything against his will but I’m afraid of what that might mean about those bloody clothes.” She sighed. “I wanna ask him about them, but the way he was looking at me when he said he’d tell me scared me just a bit.”
“I think they killed Vivien’s previous Tamer.” Kathryn gave her a shocked look of disbelief. “Let’s look at the facts. I don’t know if you know all of them but we’ve been talking about it just a bit.” Kathryn snorted. It had been THE topic of conversation in the harem for two days. “Seraphina said the blood was human but not Devon’s. Devon was not injured. Not all of the clothes were Devon’s. There were those bits of someone else’s shirt mixed in with his. Everything was soaked in blood. Devon spent a lot longer than usual sharpening his khukuri that evening when we camped.”
“Whatever they did helped Vivien to evolve into an Umbrea, so they did it outside. Evolution into Umbrea is not orgasm based. It’s a leveling type of evolution, so she must have been doing something that was at least distantly related to combat.”
“Hatsumi has been humming nonstop ever since whatever took place and she hasn’t made any curry or eating remarks.”
“Vivien hasn’t had anything nice to say about her previous Tamer. In fact she has avoided commenting on him at all except to say that he won’t ever trouble her again. It could be that she’s referring to the fact that he’s on the Indigo Plateau and we are here, but she is supremely confident.”
“Now let’s add one last thing that we also know is true but isn’t directly connected to any of the previous facts. Devon would bend over backwards to give us what he thought would make us happy.”
“I think that if you ever told Devon about Jonathon and expressed an interest, you’d get your own chance at revenge.”
Kathryn got a thoughtful look for a long minute. Then she smiled slowly. “I dinna want to get Devon in trouble, but that is a happy thought.”
Tess snickered. “I don’t think you have to worry about Devon ever getting into trouble like that. He took Hatsumi with him. If she didn’t eat the entire body then I can almost promise you that the gods themselves will never find that dead bastard’s remains and tie them to Devon.”
“You don’t think she’d actually eat people?”
“I believe that if Devon would let her, she just might eat a couple of policemen in Glasgow in front of the rest of the force.”
“But that’s cannibalism!”
“I don’t think Hatsumi was ever human. So it can’t be.”
Kathryn had to drop that line of conversation. So she returned to the previous one. “What do ye think is going to happen with Zelda?”
“I think Devon screwed himself on that one. She’s been talking about how Devon is going to take her with him. She hasn’t said anything about the orphanage except to agree when Devon says she’s going to have to go back. I’ve been listening to her talk about it with him and she’s never said that she would stay there.”
“She’s a young woman or at least is so close to being one that there is no practical difference. Devon came and rescued her, destroyed the Wasp hive, and even gave her a backpack of things from her home. Just like each of us have a backpack full of our personal items.”
“I think she’ll go back to the orphanage to make Devon happy and then she’ll turn up in our camp a couple of days later, just as soon as she thinks it would be too much trouble to take her back.”
“He’ll be a gentleman and be willing to wait until she’s old enough to Tame her. There are only two questions. Will she be willing to wait? And since Devon can’t just pop her into a pokeball to make his problems with her go away what is he going to do about it if she isn’t?”
Kathryn looked thoughtful for a minute. “I will grant ye that us country girls grow up quickly, and she’s like me in that she’s an adopted feral.” She suddenly giggled. “Devon’s going to be so shocked.” She sobered. “I should warn him.”
“Hatsumi said you might think that way and she wanted me to tell you that Zelda joining the harem wouldn’t hurt him in the slightest. Does that mean anything to you?”
“Aye that it does. I’ll need to be adding some dried fruit to the shopping list.”
“Whatever for?”
“The wee bairn may be a bright girl when it comes to choosing a husband, but I’m concerned that she might not think to bring enough food while she’s trailing us. So we’ll be leaving some out for her as we travel. I’ve usually got the rear guard, so it’ll be easy.”
“The only possible problem is Vivien,” Tess cautioned. “What are we going to do about her?”
“She’s not the alpha. She’ll either keep her mouth shut or I’ll make her life a misery,” Kathryn said firmly. “I’ve been watching her and she isn’t stupid. You dinna have to worry about her.”