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, cannibalism, dismemberment, violent acts, implied sex, explicit sex, violent sex, rape, blasphemy (depending on your religion), BDSM, torture, mimes, necrophilia and just about anything unwholesome that you could consider.
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.
A Little Blue
Seven
08/11/09 1400 Glasgow, Scotland
The fussy little lieutenant’s nametag said Frasier on it, but he’d never introduced himself. He looked at the man sitting across the table from him with patient eyes. “Let us begin again. What happened at the Green?”
Ciaran tried to keep a grip on his fraying temper. Since Frasier had neither given his name nor his rank, he was going to use neither. “I have been here with you for six hours and I want you to note that doesn't include the time I spent waiting before you finally showed up. I have told you everything that I intend to. This has become a waste of time.”
Frasier gave him a sneering smile. “I will decide if the time has been wasted, not you, Sullivan. This discussion will continue until I’m satisfied with your answers.”
“Then this interrogation will never end.”
“This is not an interrogation, Sullivan.”
“Then I am free to go?”
Frasier shook his head. “Not until I’m satisfied with your answers.”
“If I am not free to go, I am a prisoner. That makes this an interrogation. I don’t suppose I am allowed to ask for legal counsel, am I?”
“You are not a prisoner, Sullivan. As for a solicitor, that’s hardly necessary at this point, so no, you’re not.”
“So you get to decide everything? When I leave, how long I stay, who I can talk to and who I cannot?” Ciaran placed his hands flat on the table and slid them forward, deliberately scattering the small stacks of paper in front of Frasier. He’d noticed that the lieutenant seemed to have an obsession with keeping them neatly arranged. Every time he’d looked through them he’d carefully lined everything back up once he was done. “Then bring on the chains and the torturers.”
Frasier hastily gathered up the papers and laid them down to the side, carefully lining up their edges as he spoke. “This is not a time for levity, Sullivan. This situation is as serious as any you’re likely to have ever found yourself in.”
“I was shot and nearly died not far outside the Glasgow city limits by a thief who worked for your government,” Ciaran said with feigned politeness. “I’m going to have to disagree with your assessment of the dangerousness of our little talk, unless of course it leads to the gallows.”
Frasier’s eyes narrowed. “I had heard nothing about that.”
“Surprise, surprise, there’s a lot you haven’t heard. There’s a lot you’re not going to hear, too. I don’t normally spill my life story to strangers.” He didn’t look up as someone tapped on the tiny window in the door behind the lieutenant.
Frasier jerked and rose to his feet. “You stay here,” he snapped. The door locked behind him as Ciaran pulled the forgotten pile of papers over to him and began perusing them. Outside, Frasier straightened at sight of the figure waiting for him. “Major.”
Major Macaulay speared the lieutenant with a baleful glare. “Lieutenant Frasier, I must ask, why is that man being detained? I’m also curious as to why you ignored Lieutenant Baker’s request that you contact me and so you’ve been holding Sullivan for hours without my knowledge? While I am not his official liaison with Her Majesty’s government my department handles his presence in the United Kingdom and his official liaison reports to me.”
“Major,” Frasier drew himself up stiffly, “this is a security matter and has nothing to do with your department. I am following the orders I received from Colonel Davidson to question this man until he tells me the whole story behind his disappearance from the Green as well as his subsequent reappearance halfway around the world.”
“I am sure that explanation will probably make General Emerson’s concerns disappear completely,” Macaulay said acidly, “except for the fact that Ciaran Sullivan’s attitude towards us may be critical to the war effort and you screwing with him is probably not giving him the impression we want him to have of Her Majesty’s armed forces. You are to release Mr. Sullivan immediately. He has done nothing wrong and, from what Lieutenant Baker has told us, holding him needlessly is almost certainly guaranteed to enrage him.”
“Major, with all due respect, you are not in my chain of command and cannot order me to release a prisoner. What you’re saying sounds political, sir, and the Ministry of Intelligence is not concerned with politics. The situation with Sullivan is a security matter and outside your jurisdiction.”
“Lieutenant, everyone is concerned with politics whether they know it or not. Rest assured that I am sure Colonel Davidson, who is in your direct chain of command, will explain this to you in some detail when I speak with him about this situation. I didn’t want to bother him about it, but I see you leave me little choice.” Major Macaulay turned on his heel. “Expect to hear from him shortly, lieutenant.”
Inside the room Ciaran had no sooner turned the sheet of paper with the greatest number of red “Top Secret” stamps on it into an origami elephant when a hand touched his shoulder gently. He jumped and whirled in his chair. “Eliana?”
“I came to find you,” she said simply. “Ceres, Victoria and I are all together in a cell elsewhere in the building. We are prisoners as you are. Do you want me to take you from this place?”
He nodded. “I do, but not just yet. I really don’t want to have to dodge the government while traveling through the UK. Stay close, though. I've been here for way too long and I am about ready to change my mind. Are you three all right?”
“We are fine. After locking us up we have been ignored.” She chuckled softly. “Victoria is ready to blast her way free and rescue you. I told her I’d find you so she’d calm down.” She peered into his eyes. “How are you?”
“Currently I’m unhurt. I’m getting fed up with them by this point, but I’m not quite ready to go on their most wanted list just because an underling is being an idiot.” A key rasped in the door lock and he paled. “Go! Check in with Ceres.” Eliana stepped through the wall as he picked up another sheet of paper at random and started on a shark.
Frasier stared at Ciaran’s hands for a second before his eyes bugged. “What are you doing,” he fairly shrieked. He lunged for the papers.
Ciaran deliberately leaned back, dropping the sheet he’d been working on. “I got bored,” he said laconically as Frasier collected the sheets with the care a mother cat gives her newly born kittens.
“I told you not to touch anything!”
“No, you told me to stay here.”
“Destroying documents is a crime!”
“I didn’t destroy anything. I just did some folding and maybe a little tearing. And thanks for the pencil. I needed something to use as a ruler.”
“Don’t play word games with me, Sullivan.”
Ciaran put on a shocked expression. “I knew there was something wrong with you. You’re an anti-semantic.”
“I’m a what? I don’t care if you’re Jewish.”
Ciaran snickered and gestured at the origami figure. “Meet Jumbo. He’s your only friend.”
Frasier stared at the elephant and made a choked noise. He grabbed it along with the rest of the papers and rushed from the room. Ciaran knew laughing out loud would just make matters worse, but it was so hard not to that he ended up with tears running down his cheeks from the effort.
About a half hour later the door opening woke Ciaran up from a doze. His eyes narrowed when he saw Baker follow Frasier into the room. She nodded to him. “I’ll be taking custody of Mr. Sullivan now.”
Ciaran looked closely at Frasier when the man merely grunted. He had a wild look in his eyes and they were slightly unfocused, like a hog that Ciaran had once had to hit between the eyes with a four by four timber. His eyes focused enough glare when Ciaran rose. “He mangled my papers.”
Baker shrugged. “You brought that on yourself when you left him alone with them. You should have known better than that.” She motioned towards the door. “Sullivan.”
He didn’t move. “My ladies.”
“Are waiting for you in reception,” she replied. “They’ve got your gear, too.” She followed him out into the hall and shut the door firmly behind her. “How did you know he had OCD about his papers? You hurt him more than if you’d hit him.”
“I’m observant.”
She eyed him curiously. “How’d you know he hated elephants? He was attacked by one as a kid.”
“I didn’t know that, but it shows they’re perceptive.”
Baker coughed to suppress a laugh. “Come this way, Sullivan.” She was quiet as they headed down the hall. “I’m supposed to offer the government’s official apology for what you went through. You were just supposed to be questioned about what happened so we could add it to your file and then let go. For some reason Frasier decided you were being evasive.”
“He probably thought I was,” Ciaran admitted. “I see no reason to tell your people every minute of every day of my life.”
She gave him a look. “Is this some kind of Irish against the British thing?”
“No, it’s the fact that I don’t like governments when they treat people like they’re property.”
“He only had some questions about what happened,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, and we could have chatted about it over dinner or drinks. This place was built for interrogation. He made it plain from the beginning that he had all the power and I was nothing. I don’t respond well to that.”
She sighed. “The Blues are worse than we are.”
“I have no direct experience of that, but I have an idea of how they’re treating their citizens. We are getting information out of there and I know that in part, you’re probably right.”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt. “You have spies inside Blue?”
He looked at her hand and back up at her. “I do not. Iain might or he might be getting information from some people he knows who have interests in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Or maybe your government is feeding him intel from your spies in Blue.” He glanced down and up again. “Are we going to have sex or fight?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “No.”
“Then let me go.”
She released him. “I can’t touch you?”
“While you’re representing your military and I’m ticked off at it, no, you can’t.”
She gave him a smile. “What if I said I did want to have sex with you?”
He gave a grudging smile back. “I’d point out that the carpeting in this hall looks threadbare at best. Besides, there are too many onlookers who’d either make snide comments or try to join in.”
Baker chuckled. “Good points.” She led him into the reception area and stepped back as his pokegirls surrounded him. She felt a stab of jealousy as they put him in the center of a group hug. It was interesting to watch as they seemed to stand taller as they did so, drawing strength from the touch of their tamer.
“Are you three all right,” he murmured to them.
“We are,” Ceres replied. “Eliana says you are unharmed as well.”
“I’m fine.” He held out his hand. “Give me my pack and let’s get going.”
Ceres was wearing her pokepack and carrying his. She clutched it to her chest. “I am not overburdened. You will probably have to fill out paperwork to leave. Humans excel at generating wasteful paper related concepts.”
“You’re human too,” he pointed out gently.
“Nats, then.”
“What are nats?”
She flashed a grin. “Homo Sapiens Naturalis, naturally. We’re supes.”
“Lord, forgive me, what have I created,” he mused. Then he turned to Baker. “Do I have to fill out paperwork to leave?”
She shook her head. “It’s all been done. I think after what you did to Lieutenant Frasier someone was afraid of what you’d do if given more papers to play with.”
“What did you do,” Victoria asked curiously.
“He made paper into an animal,” Eliana announced with a hint of pride in her voice. “Our man has many skills.”
“It’s called origami. I made an elephant.”
“You will show us later,” Victoria was still watching him curiously. “This sounds interesting.”
“Sure.” He turned to Ceres and grabbed his pack. “Leggo.” They wrestled for a few seconds before she released it. “Thank you.”
She snorted. “Let’s go.”
Ciaran held out his hand to Baker. “Thanks for everything. I hope you’ll stay in touch with me. The computer you got from Iain can send messages to us, both video and text.”
She ignore the outstretched hand to put her hands on her hips. “Where do you think you will go without me? I am still your liaison.”
“We’re leaving Glasgow straightaway and heading for Edinburgh. I suppose you can follow us to the city limits if you want, but I figured you had better things to do.”
“You can’t leave yet.” His eyes went flat and she continued hastily. “I mean I’m your liaison for all of the UK. I’m supposed to go with you and I need to pack.”
“I knew I should have killed her,” Eliana muttered. She raised her voice. “We are not sharing him with you.”
“I am not asking you to,” Baker rubbed her eyes. “Even if I were interested, taking Sullivan as a lover would give me the appearance of having too many conflicts of interest to do my job as a loyal British citizen.”
“How long do you need in order to get ready to go? I’m tired of Glasgow.” He flexed his hands. “And I’d like to beat someone up, preferably Frasier.”
Baker didn’t hesitate. “I can be ready to go in the morning.”
“We are not spending the rest of the day in our hotel room,” Victoria announced, “just so you can be free to do whatever you and your superiors want. That’s just as bad as being prisoners here.”
Baker sighed and turned to him. “Ciaran?”
“Don’t look at me to be helpful this time. I happen to agree with her.”
Baker gave him an annoyed look. “I’ll have to do some shopping and go to requisition today if I’m to leave tomorrow.”
“We can tag along with you.” He grinned as she gave him a sudden look of horror. “From your reaction it might even be fun.”
“I think she wants to be alone so she can get secret instructions from her masters,” Ceres said. “In a perfect situation she could do this and we would never know she had secret instructions, much less secret masters or what these instructions were. I saw something like that take place a couple of times when Sukebe came to visit the station. He always met with his spies if he could. He had trust issues.”
“That was probably from the Alaka-Whams that he thinks tried to betray him.”
Ceres blinked several times. “Can I read the stories on your computer? They sound more and more fascinating.”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Can I read them,” Baker asked.
“I don’t see why you should. And before you ask, my computer has several lockouts on it and would destroy itself if anyone tried to hack it.” He managed not to smile in satisfaction at her look of disappointment. “Now, are we tagging along with you, are we headed off to meet with you later or are you getting us a temporary baby sitter?”
“I’ll have to check with my supervisor,” she replied stonily. “Can you wait here for a few minutes?”
“We’ll wait outside,” Victoria said. “We are not staying where Ciaran can be easily taken prisoner again.”
When Baker visibly hesitated, Ciaran decided to sweeten the pot. “We won’t wander off, I assure you.”
She nodded. “There’s a park across the street from here. Is that a satisfactory place to wait for me?”
“It is.”
“Then let me take you there and I’ll come back and talk to my supervisor.”
The park was well kept and, since it was apparently mostly frequented by government employees, almost completely empty at this time of day. An hour later when Baker came outside, the Ciaran and his ladies were spread out and tossing a lime green Frisbee around the group. She watched them for a moment before heading for Ciaran. “Did you bring that from Texas?”
He nodded, keeping a wary eye on the flying disc as it moved from person to person. “I’ve got a friend in Austin who had one. He made a mold and is manufacturing them as fast as he can. He’s smart and has even put some money aside in case Wham-O still exists and wants royalties. Why?”
“They were popular here and, like most prewar items, are hard to find in decent condition. I suspect they’d sell well if we had a steady supply.”
“I can talk to him the next time I see him, but right now he’s not close to anything resembling market saturation in Texas. He might be willing to license the rights to it, though, to someone here.” He glanced at her as a toss from Eliana went way over Victoria’s head, sending the Angel scampering after it. He was out of practice and nobody else had used a Frisbee before so there were a lot of wild throws. “I also know Iain put rugby and soccer balls on the list of things he was interested in selling to your kingdom.” He whistled shrilly, making the heads of his ladies turn towards him. “We’re done!”
“I thought all he wanted to sell was military hardware.”
“Nope. There’s a wide variety of items he’s offering. Most of it is on the more useful side for rebuilding your country and its military and economy, but there’s a surprisingly large amount of entertainment and other goods available too.” He watched Victoria heading back with the Frisbee. “He knows that the British have time for more than just war, even during wartime.”
“I have never seen this list,” Baker admitted quietly.
“I’ll let you see it,” he said. “I’ve got it on my computer and I can send it to yours.”
“I’d appreciate that.” She clasped her hands in front of her. “While we’re pretending I didn’t have to meet my boss to get new orders, my instructions are to let you accompany me while I get the supplies I’ll need for traveling with you. If we have to go somewhere too sensitive, I’m to leave you with some security while I take care of whatever needs done. It will never take more than a short while. Can you work with me and these rules?”
“I can and we will.” Victoria offered him the Frisbee and he shook his head. “You keep it for now. Well, Tamsin, lead on.”
08/12/09 0630 Glasgow, Scotland
Ciaran consulted his handheld. “Edinburgh is roughly fifty miles away, so we should take three days or so to get there.”
“We pause for the obligatory complaint from Eliana,” Victoria muttered so softly that Baker almost didn’t hear it.
“I can get us there in an hour if you’ll let me,” Eliana said as she dropped her pack on the ground in preparation for changing to her combat form, “two at the most unless we run into trouble.”
Ciaran was already shaking his head. “We will miss the beauty of the unspoiled Scottish ruins, Eliana. I can’t have that.”
The Samhain crossed her arms and gave him a halfhearted pout. “I may not understand jokes but I do know you’re making fun of me.”
“No, I’m not. I’m politely saying thanks but no without actually saying it.”
She blinked. “You are?” Her unhappy expression eased. “That’s all right, then.” She shifted to her combat form and pulled some webbing harness from her pack. Ceres took it and began stretching it over the Samhain’s equine back. It had a quick release that Eliana could reach back and hit, making the harness fall away. Once the harness had been put on, Eliana’s pack would be fastened to it so she could move her human torso without hindrance.
“Good.” Ciaran looked to his Angel. “Victoria, scout ahead a few miles and tell me what the conditions are.”
“I’m on it.” She grinned and tossed her pokepack to Eliana, who caught it in midair and put it next to her own. Victoria’s wings appeared and she vaulted into the air, turned and climbed as she headed down the road.
“I’m on it,” Ceres asked quietly from where she was working on Eliana’s harness. It was actually a quick job, but one she wasn’t yet used to doing. “That’s an odd turn of phrase.”
“She spent the time we were at Iain’s training with some of his harem. I think she might have learned that one from Pandora. By the way, aren’t you supposed to be on point?”
She smiled as she untangled and attached the last clamp to the quick release. “If we are deploying, then yes. Don’t you want to wait and see what our scout discovers first? There might be a herd of angry Amachamps down there just waiting to kill us all.”
“Do Amachamps travel in herds,” Eliana asked.
“I think it would be a mob for Amachamps,” Ciaran replied.
“Or a gang,” Ceres added. “Maybe they’re called an army. An army of Amachamps.”
“Army means something quite specific here,” Baker interjected, “what with the war currently going on. Please call ferals something else.”
“Very well,” Ciaran shrugged. “We’ll work on the group nomenclature later since Victoria’s coming back.”
The Angel landed and her wings vanished. “I swept ahead several miles and the road looks clear. There are some people camped outside the city gate waiting for it to open but I didn’t see any traffic at all on the M8.”
“The gate is closed?”
"Yes, it is."
“No gate will stop me,” Eliana grinned.
“The gate officially opens at seven,” Baker said. “I can get us through now if you want. It’ll be easier than if Eliana just passes through the gate and scares everyone. Do you want this?”
“I want.” He patted Eliana on the arm. “Thank you and keep that idea in case we need it later, but let’s keep everyone as ignorant about your abilities as we can for as long as we can.”
“Our keeper has already told them,” Eliana pointed out.
Baker shrugged. “What you did in the asteroid base is in my report about the event, but I don’t think the information has been disseminated further than that.”
Eliana rotated her head to look at her and her voice held a hint of skepticism in it. “Why don’t you think it has?”
“Nobody asked and I haven’t been asked to give my impressions about what’s important about your powers, Eliana.”
“Would you have mentioned my ability?”
Baker nodded. “Without a doubt, the ability for someone to go wherever they want whenever they want is a definite security problem and possibly explains some of the things that happened to us during the Revenge War that were mysteries at the time.”
The jack o lantern head couldn’t show emotion, but Ciaran received a strong feeling of satisfaction from Eliana. “Good.”
“That’s enough,” Ciaran waved towards the gate. “Let’s get going, ladies.”
Baker walked up to the soldier standing guard at the gate and showed him something from her pocket. “I want you to open this gate for us, sergeant. You can close it behind us until the normal opening time.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll get it opened immediately.”
A few minutes later they were heading past the line of people waiting to get in as the gate closed behind them. Ciaran ignored the angry glares. Once they were out of sight, he activated his pokepack and retrieved his new weapon.
Baker frowned as he put on the sling. “What is that?”
“It’s a combat shotgun. Iain said it’s based off a model he knows called the USAS-12. I bought it while we were visiting.” He touched the reflex sight to turn on the power and checked to make sure the weapon was loaded. “It’s got about twice the range of a regular USAS-12 if I’m using Grey ammo.”
“Shotguns are of limited use against a lot of pokegirls,” Baker pointed out.
Victoria nodded. “They are and I was against Ciaran getting another device that just gets the attention of pokegirls when he shoots them with it. Then he showed me the ammunition he bought to go with it.”
“I’m still not happy about it,” Ceres muttered. “It makes him a target.”
“I’m always a target, Ceres,” Ciaran said softly. “It doesn’t matter whether I shoot, run or hide.”
Ceres just grimaced. "That's true, but there's a difference between hiding and possibly being missed and standing in the middle of the fight and waving a flag around for everyone else to see."
Baker eyed the weapon as Ciaran shifted it to a carry position. “What kind of ammunition is it?”
“I’m using an explosive round Iain is selling in Texas called the FRAG-12. It’s a spin armed nineteen millimeter grenade that comes in high explosive and high explosive armor piercing types. I’m using the HEAP rounds. They’ll punch a hole in an inch of steel or a much larger hole in someone I shoot. It’s accurate out to two hundred yards and since I’m not interested in sniping someone from farther out than that, I’m willing to trade off the longer range for more knockdown power. It also fires regular shotgun shells so I can use it for hunting or anything else I want to.”
Baker was staring at him. “You let civilians have explosive rounds in Texas?”
“If you can afford it and it’s for sale, you can buy it.” He grinned. “I had one guy try to sell me some LAW rockets he looted from the Mexican Army. I didn’t have any use for them and passed. But I do have a use for something that throws tiny anti-armor rounds. Just understand that our reputation is wrong. Even Texans try to avoid indiscriminate shooting, if only because everyone else can shoot back.”
“What do you mean?”
“We tend not to start fights. However, I must admit HEAP ammunition means I can stop one pretty quickly once it does start. I’m just glad that the ammo doesn’t arm until it’s nearly nine feet from me, so it’s a lot safer than it would be if it stayed armed all the time. Of course, at three feet a round from this thing will still have enough kinetic energy to punch through several inches of wood.” He blinked and shook his head. “You know, I just realized something. I would not want to be the doctor to try to remove a tiny unexploded grenade from someone’s torso, especially since he's not going to know it's an explosive.” He glanced at the weapon she was carrying. “What’s that?”
She hefted the bullpup weapon so he could see it better. “This is the British Army’s standard rifle, the L85A1.”
“Isn’t that chambered in 5.56?”
She nodded. “I know it won’t kill the tougher pokegirls, but it’s all we have right now. The rebels captured our only weapon factory when they took London and put it to work for them.” She smiled, one that was all teeth. “Then we infiltrated some commandos and blew it up. Right now we’re hoping that your Iain can get us more weapons in 7.62mm. They do a lot better than these do, but we do what we can with what we have.”
“I think Iain is standardizing on the 10mm and 15mm for rifle and pistol cartridges. He’s also producing a caseless version that allows for a lot more rounds carried for the same weight. I almost brought one of the GAR-10s with me, but I’d be the only person on the continent with ammunition for it. If I have to I can scrounge shotgun shells for this.” He patted the shotgun on the receiver. “Still, he’s told me he’s willing to provide whatever calibers your government wants. Ladies, it’s time to get moving.”
As they walked down the road, Ceres shook her head and leaned towards Victoria. “I don’t like saying this but it would make things a lot easier if we had another girl or two in our family. Then I could put you overhead and someone on point while still keeping Ciaran secure.”
The Angel eyed the man ahead of them. Eliana was in front of him, but the reason for having someone on point was so they’d be far enough ahead to detect attackers that everyone could take action. Failing that, the point also functioned as a tripwire to set off attacks and spoil someone else’s surprise. Eliana wasn’t nearly far enough ahead of the rest of the group to be an actual lookout. As close as she was, anything that happened to the Samhain would also happen to Ciaran in very short order. She glanced at the black woman walking with Ciaran. “I know. Also, while I don’t want to give Baker a pokegirl, I want her to have one so we can focus on him.”
Ceres smiled. “Which do you want more?”
“I want to be able to focus on Ciaran, of course. He’s far more important to me than Baker is. She needs her own guards so we don’t have to protect her too.”
“We’re likely to catch at least one feral on the way to Edinburgh. The question then changes. How do we get Tamsin to tame her?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Ceres frowned. “This may be a moot discussion. Has anyone asked Tamsin if she wants a pokegirl?"
Victoria shrugged. "I haven't."
"So someone should. If she does want a pokegirl, we just have to catch one for her.”
Victoria stared at her. “It can’t be that easy. She should have said something by now.”
“Sometimes it is just that easy. If she wants one, she’s unlikely to say so after your declaration that you don’t want to give any pokegirls to the Royals or the Blues.” Victoria started in surprise and Ceres smiled. “Eliana told me about the discussion when you found I was still alive.”
“I’d say she talks too much, but she doesn’t.”
“I asked about how your group found me. She has an excellent memory for detail. I could make an outstanding security officer out of her or even a forensic expert.” Ceres shrugged. “I’ll speak to Tamsin tonight and see if I can lead the discussion around to the subject of whether or not she might want a pokegirl or ten.”
“She can’t have more girls than Ciaran.”
Ceres frowned. “Why not?”
“I still don’t trust her. I’m working my way through the stories Iain gave Ciaran and I do not like the way the Pendragons behave. Tamsin seems like a decent person and her soul is essentially good, but if she’s anything like the Pendragons in the stories she will do what Ygerna orders her to, without question or hesitation.”
Ceres’s frown deepened. “I see I need to read those stories. I guess it will give me something to do when I’m not with Ciaran, other than listening to Eliana make noises in her sleep. That’s another reason to add to the harem, to split up the watches a little more.” She shook her head. “I want you to scout more but I also want you here.” She gave a whimsical smile. “Which brings us to the beginning of this discussion.”
Victoria chuckled and summoned her wings. “I’ll scout ahead again.”
“Stay close.”
“I will.” She launched herself into the air and headed down the road.
08/12/09 2015 M8, Scotland
Ceres checked on Ciaran and made sure Victoria was on watch before heading to the tent Eliana and Baker had set up for the human woman to use. Baker was playing with the handheld computer that Iain had given her. “Do you have a moment, Tamsin?”
She looked up. “It’s still odd to hear a pokegirl use my first name. They’re not allowed to that here.”
Ceres shrugged. “I follow Ciaran’s lead. He’s made a point of using your first name, so we do too. Do you have that moment?”
She nodded. “The tutorial on this thing is pretty straightforward.” She put the computer down. “Sit down.”
Ceres settled down on the ground near the blanket Baker was sitting on. “Do you want a pokegirl?”
Bake stiffened slightly. “Blunt, aren’t you?”
“I am, yes. Ciaran thinks it’s because I have never spent a lot of time around humans, but to be honest, pokegirls can talk around a subject as much as any human. I’m just not that way. Do you want a pokegirl?”
“I was under the impression that the UK would slide into the ocean before I’d get a pokegirl from Ciaran.”
“That’s Victoria’s opinion and hers alone. I don’t think Ciaran shares it.”
“Is that what he said?”
“I haven’t discussed it with him yet. There’s no reason to until I know what you want in regards to the issue. But he is representing Iain Grey who is willing to sell to your government. If Ciaran disagreed with Iain, I don’t think he’d be here. He’s got too much principle to behave in any other way.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
“It does. Tamsin, do you want a pokegirl?”
Baker shrugged. “I see the way you and the others respond around him and it makes me envious of your relationship. I think I’d like that for me.”
Ceres remembered the discussion Ciaran had had with Beibhinn. “You understand, I presume, that you would have to have sex with her.”
“I know. I experimented with girls when I was at university. It’s been a long time since then but I’m willing to take on the responsibility of taming a pokegirl.”
“If you’re willing then I’ll talk to Ciaran about offering you a pick from any ferals we catch on the way to Edinburgh.” She got up. “I’ll let you know what he says.”
“Thank you, Ceres.”
“You’re welcome, Tamsin.” Ceres turned towards Ciaran’s tent. She dropped down next to him and leaned against his side. “Hi.”
“Hi yourself,” he said with a smile. “Eliana was sitting there until a moment ago. She had to go to the bathroom.”
Ceres shrugged. “She moved and I’m here. It’s her loss. I won’t be here long, in any case. I just had a question I needed answered. What do you think about letting Tamsin pick a feral to tame?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t really. She hasn’t shown any sign of wanting one. Of course, after Victoria mouthed off about how she’d let the sun engulf the Earth before any Britain got a pokegirl from us Tamsin probably figures I think that too.”
“Do you?”
He shook his head. “No. If Tamsin wants to tame a feral I don’t really care as long as she takes care of the girl.”
“You know she can’t catch one on her own.” Ceres lifted her head as Eliana appeared in the firelight, but before the Samhain could speak Ceres pointed across Ciaran. “I didn’t know you were here and I’m not moving. Take his other side.” Eliana regarded her for a long moment before sitting down on Ciaran’s left and snuggling up against him. She leaned forward and stuck out her tongue at Ceres before wrapping Ciaran’s arm around her.
Ciaran chuckled. “That looked like a ‘so there’.”
Ceres smiled briefly. “It did.” Her smile faded. “You know that Tamsin can’t catch a feral by herself. We’ll have to catch some and offer her one.”
“Who cares if she has a pokegirl?” Eliana said.
“If she has her own girl,” Ceres explained patiently, “then we can focus on protecting Ciaran while her pokegirl protects her. Otherwise you know he’s going to order us to protect Tamsin, too.”
Eliana growled softly. “And he would, too.”
“I know we’ll have to provide her with her first girl,” Ciaran interjected smoothly. “I don’t have a problem with doing that. Does Tamsin want a pokegirl or are you going to next figure out how to trick or convince her into taming one?”
“Trick?” Ceres gave him a puzzled look. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“Victoria knows magic. If she knows the right spells, Tamsin could tame a pokegirl and think she’s with some guy until it’s too late. Not that I’d ever allow it to happen.”
“Thank you for pointing out that I don’t know as much about the abilities of my sisters as I should. I’ll remember to ask Victoria about whether or not she can do something like that. However, it doesn’t matter since I’ve already spoken to Tamsin and she would like a girl to take care of.”
“She would?”
The Tantrasaur nodded. “She’s seen the dynamic in our family and she wants something like it for herself. Being alone is never enjoyable.”
“True.” Ciaran cocked his head before nodding. “We’ll start looking for ferals as we go. The hunting will slow us down, but we’re not on any particular schedule.”
“That’s schedule,” Eliana corrected.
“There is no shed in schedule,” he countered with a grin.
“You still talk funny. Ceres does too, but she doesn’t sound British.”
“I talk Texan. You sound funny to me.”
“And I have an American Montana accent,” Ceres said. “It’s the one all pokegirls have who speak English without having an assigned region.”
Ciaran blinked. “Why is that?”
“That’s the accent Sukebe had. He liked it, so we got it. The reason pokegirls in English speaking regions have local accents is so they can blend in if they have to infiltrate. That and so they can understand the local humans.” She shuddered. “I couldn’t understand more than a few words from that guy in Glasgow who had what you said was Cockney. I still think he was trying to sell me a moose. Or maybe it was a mouse.”
“He was trying to sell you a meal,” Eliana said in a superior tone.
“Was it made of moose?”
“No.”
Ceres shrugged. “I’m glad I am with Ciaran, who at least speaks proper English.”
Eliana laughed. “He speaks American. I speak proper English.”
“I speak Texan and it’s time for bed, you two.” He looked from one to the other. “Tonight we just sleep. I don’t want someone getting hurt tomorrow because she’s too tired to react quickly.” He paused. “Or he’s too tired.”
“Agreed,” Ceres replied. “We need to be rested if we’re going to be fighting feral pokegirls tomorrow.”
Eliana nodded. “I like being with Ciaran, but I want to fight.”
“Someone has to watch him,” Ceres pointed out.
“Victoria isn’t here to defend herself. Make her do it.”
Ciaran shook his head. “I think maybe we’ll cut cards for it tomorrow. Good night, ladies.”
08/13/09 1130 Blackburn, Scotland
Ciaran looked up at the leaden sky. It promised rain later. The fact that the wind was starting to change direction once in a while suggested that the rain would come sooner than later. This time, however, everyone had rain gear, although neither Ceres nor Eliana had anything large enough to cover her battle form. Ciaran could have purchased them, but they would have been incredibly bulky and the weight would have filled up too much of their pokepacks.
His mind jerked back to the present when Eliana held her left hand vertically, fingers outspread. Everyone stopped as she looked around carefully before heading to where he stood. She kept her voice low. “I smell smoke.” She gestured at the land in front of them. “But any fire is too small to make a plume. It’s probably a campfire.”
Now that she’d pointed it out, he could smell wood smoke. “Let’s get close enough to see what’s going on. That way, if it’s something we can’t handle we can skirt around it and avoid contact.” He pointed at the wall that ran alongside the road. “We’ll approach behind that.” He turned to Baker. “You with us?”
She nodded. “I am.”
“Stay close to Ciaran,” Ceres told Baker. “If you wander too far away we will not choose to protect you over him.”
She checked her rifle. “I understand.” She gave Ciaran a taut smile. “Are you leading? It is customary for the man to do so in any dance.”
He chuckled. “Indeed, I’m leading.”
“I wanted it spelled out so you’re not expecting me to take the initiative. Where you go, I go.”
He shook his head slightly. “Eliana, you’re still on point.”
She looked at the stone fence and shifted to her human form. “It’s too short to hide my battle form.”
Taking cover behind the rock wall they continued slowly up the road. As they proceeded, the smoke smell grew stronger. It wasn’t long before Eliana raised her hand again. She cautiously peered over the wall before ducking behind it and waving them forward. “There are some humans and pokegirls parked around a fire. I saw one sentry, some kind of cat. The smell of meat tells me it must be lunch time for them.”
Ciaran noted Ceres putting her hat into her pokepack as he eased up to look over the wall. A group of humans and obvious pokegirls were clustered around a fire. It had been reasonably well placed, he noticed idly, with the fire set beneath a tree so the smoke would be thinned by the leaves. Only the fact that his group was downwind of the fire had let them smell the smoke.
Most of the group was wearing army uniforms but they were too far away to make out the details he needed to tell which side they were on. He began to reach for his binoculars in the pocket of his pack but stopped when his vision seemed to jump and suddenly the people were much closer. Now he could see a lot more and hissed softly when he saw the dark green berets. “Tamsin, you have any commando units out here?” Then he realized the beret flashes were a blue shield with a stylized BSLF inside them. “Never mind the question. They’re Blues.”
Baker joined him on the wall. “How can you tell from here?”
He dug out his binoculars. “Take a look.” As she took them he focused his attention inward. Is my twee awake?
He got back a laconic answer. Yes.
I thought when a twee wakes up it talks to the person it’s joining and gives advice and such.
You don’t like chatting for no reason, so I don’t. I don’t talk about helping you, I just do it. If I need to say something to you, I will.
Thanks. Keep up the good work. While Baker adjusted the binoculars, he did a head count of the camp as he motioned his girls closer. “They’re Blues. I see eight or nine humans and three or four pokegirls.”
“Why the uncertainty?”
“One of the potential humans has green hair.”
“She’s a pokegirl,” Ceres said flatly. “It’s less dangerous than to presume she’s not and find out she is after you’ve ignored her.”
Baker turned to look at her. “But if she’s human and you attack her, she’ll be killed almost instantly.”
Ceres looked at her tamer. “What’s that saying of Iain’s, Ciaran?”
He knew which one she was talking about. “There is no such thing as overkill. There’s only open fire and time to reload. It doesn’t matter, though. We’re going around them. Tamsin can report their presence but I really don’t like the odds in fighting them.”
Ceres glanced at the top of the wall. “How far away are they?”
He peeked over the wall and tried to estimate the distance. In the corner of his vision the numbers 118.024 appeared. He ducked back down. “They’re roughly a hundred and twenty feet away.”
“We can’t. We got way too close to them to retreat,” Ceres said thoughtfully. “If any of them have enhanced speed they can cover that distance in seconds. They’d swarm us.” She squared her shoulders. “We’re halfway down their throats now. We need to shove the rest of the way down and cut our way out.”
“I could phase,” Eliana said softly. “Ciaran would be safe then.”
“Phase doesn’t make you invulnerable, Eliana,” Victoria pointed out. “There are pokegirls that can still hit you phased. And if any of them can phase too, you’ll be at a disadvantage with him on your back. Ceres is right. We need to strike while we still have surprise.” She looked up as the wind died for a second before picking back up. “Which we won’t have for long if the wind changes direction. Almost all cat girls have enhanced smell and will detect us as close as we are. If we strike hard and fast with surprise we can remove the humans and cripple the pokegirls.” She grinned suddenly. “And we have PHUs for healing. They shouldn’t, so we have force multiplication if we can individually break contact for a few minutes.”
Eliana made a hungry noise. “I want to fight! I can carry Ceres and Victoria underground and come out in the middle of camp. We’ll be amongst them before they know what’s happening.”
“Someone should stay with Ciaran,” Victoria said halfheartedly.
Ciaran thought of a way to escape and couldn’t. He released his PHU. “With the force disparity we have no choice. All three of you will have to fight. If you get badly hurt fall back and I’ll heal you so you can return to the battle.”
Victoria frowned. “What happens if we catch one of the pokegirls? She’d be aware. Can we still give her to Tamsin?”
“Tamsin can appeal to her to become her tamer, but we’re not forcing any of them to be raped,” Ciaran said flatly. “If she’s not willing we pokeball her and she goes to Texas. I’d release her here but she might report our presence and I’ll pay restitution for kidnapping if it means we don’t have to fight the Blues all the way to Edinburgh.”
“Victoria, give Tamsin your PHU,” Ceres ordered as she dropped her pack. “In case we have to heal two at the same time.”
“We’ll be in a lot of trouble if that happens,” Eliana warned. She and Eliana quickly shed their packs. Baker was a second or two behind them.
“We are not defeated until we are defeated,” Ceres replied. “If we go out there to win, we will win.”
“More importantly is another of Iain’s sayings,” Ciaran said. “Don’t expect the enemy to cooperate in the creation of your dream engagement.”
Baker shook her head. “What was he thinking?”
“He’s got a list of quotes from a book. They’re kind of silly but make an odd sort of sense. We’ll talk about it later.” He gritted his teeth and checked his shotgun. “The decision has been made to attack, ladies. Get to it.”
“You keep your head down,” Ceres said to him. “We don’t need you hurt.”
“I hear you.” He watched as Eliana knelt and changed to her battle form. The other two got onto her back and she crawled into the ground. Then he popped up and leveled his shotgun over the wall.
“Not going to listen to Ceres are you,” Baker asked as she joined him in taking aim at the camp.
“They fight and I fight with them. She should know that and if she doesn’t she’s about to learn. I’ll get one shot off before the melee starts and I don’t trust my aim after that so I’ll do what she wants. Are you in?”
“This is my country and they’re rebels. I am. I’ll take the man on the right. He’s wearing an officer’s flash on his collar.”
“I’ve got the woman standing next to the tan cat girl. We fire on a three count.”
On two, Eliana erupted from the ground in the center of camp and he fired instantly. Baker’s shot echoed almost with his. His target literally exploded as the round cut her in half just below the armpit. Beside him Baker made a satisfied noise and shifted targets.
Victoria and Ceres launched themselves from Eliana’s back as the Samhain breathed fire over the largest group of humans and pokegirls. Her poleaxe rose and fell, smashing a gold colored cat eared girl to the ground in a gout of blood.
Victoria drove her spear into the chest of the green haired pokegirl. Before she could rip the blade sideways, the girl smashed the shaft with both hands, shattering it. The spear vanished, only to reappear whole once more as Victoria summoned it again and took a step back.
Ceres smashed a human to the side with a single blow that crushed the man’s torso and found herself facing a brown haired cat pokegirl with tightly furled leathery wings and holding in both hands the largest sword she’d ever seen. The cat raised it high and charged with impossible speed as she brought it down.
A red and black striped cat pokegirl threw herself on Eliana’s equine back and raked her with razor sharp claws. The Samhain shifted to her human form as she spun, tossing the surprised cat away. She hit and rolled to her feet as Eliana returned to her battle form. She was badly burned and favored one side as she charged the Samhain. Blood streamed down Eliana’s flanks and bone gleamed whitely against the brown of her equine torso’s fur and the red of her wounds but she ignored her injures as she held out a hand and a glowing jack-o-lantern appeared in it. She hurled it into the face of the charging pokegirl at point blank range and it exploded, hurling them apart. Eliana was already phasing when the blast went off and avoided most of the explosion. She realized her vision was starting to waver around the edges and raced for Ciaran and healing, leaving a wide trail of blood behind her.
The green haired girl slammed her fists forward and energy shot from them to hit Victoria. Her shield drained off part of the damage, but it still knocked her back several steps and broke a couple of ribs that her aura of healing immediately started working on. The green haired girl took the opening and charged. Victoria planted her spear and when the girl grabbed the point to swing it aside or break it, used the weapon as a conduit for a lightning bolt.
The green haired girl didn’t shriek, but that was only because the current slammed her jaws shut and shattered several teeth. Her body jerked wildly until Victoria stopped the flow of electricity. She slid limply to the ground, blood slowly pulsing out of the hole in her chest.
Just before charging the winged cat girl brought the sword down, Ceres shifted to her battle form and countercharged. The sword slammed down on her armored snout, the tip notching her crest and making her head ring as she slammed her horn into the girl’s stomach. It severed the girl’s spine as it came out her back. Dazed, Ceres reacted automatically and twisted her head as she snapped it sideways, hurling the impaled girl away from her. The sword flew in a different direction to slam into the dirt.
Ceres shook her head violently to clear it, blood from the slash going in all directions. She concentrated and partially healed the wound as she spun, looking for her opponent.
Elaina phased through the rock fence and skidded to a halt in front of Ciaran. He’d been watching the fight and seen her coming so he recovered her before she’d stopped moving. He slapped the pokeball into the PHU and activated it just as the red and black cat girl landed on top of the wall. She looked around, yowled and threw herself at Ciaran.
She landed in front of him as he frantically tried to get out of the way and almost negligently slapped him with her fist before turning to face Baker. He flew away from her and slammed into the ground to lie unmoving.
As soon as she saw the enemy on the fence, Baker had ignored the rifle hanging from her harness and lunged for the shotgun Ciaran had leaned against the fence to get Eliana’s pokeball ready. She snatched it up as the striped pokegirl finished her turn and pulled the trigger back. The striped girl was just outside the arming radius and the grenade detonated as it impacted her stomach. The explosion blew her legs off and shredded her inner torso. Baker had been given a couple of empty pokeballs by Ciaran and she slammed one of them onto the girl’s head. She obligingly disappeared inside it.
The winged cat girl tried to pull herself upright only to stop when Victoria tapped her on the end of her muzzle with the point of her spear. “Yield or die.”
“Those cattle aren’t worth dying for,” she rasped in a voice heavy with pain. “I yield.”
A man pointed an assault rifle at Victoria’s back and Ceres slammed her tail down on the weapon’s receiver, breaking both his arms. She shifted back to her human form. “You’ve lost. Accept it. Anyone who does anything threatening will be killed.” She didn’t look at Victoria. “Capture and heal?”
“It is the right thing to do. Tie up the humans and I’ll see who can be caught.” She quickly retrieved all of the pokegirls and began healing the surviving humans as Ceres tied them with plasticuffs.
Baker looked up from checking Ciaran over when the PHU beeped once. She opened the unit and released Eliana. “Ciaran’s hurt. He’s not breathing and there’s no pulse.”
Eliana stared at him for a second before dropping to her knees and pressing her head against his chest. She jerked upright, grabbed him and with a wail changed to her battle form and dashed through the wall.
Victoria’s head came up as Eliana tore across the field towards them. The Samhain skidded to a halt. “Ciaran’s hurt!” His body dangled limply from her arms.
“Put him down, gently!” Ceres snapped. “What happened?”
Eliana carefully laid him down and wiped off the blood that had run from his nose. “I don’t know. I was in the PHU and when I came out he was like this.” Victoria knelt and applied her healing magic.
“What did Tamsin say?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“He was attacked by a pokegirl after he put Eliana into the healer.” Baker dropped to the ground, gasping for air after her climb over the wall and sprint to join them. “She hit him in the head.”
“Victoria?”
“He had several broken bones in his skull, including his jaw. Eliana, get his pack. The medical sensor kit is in there.” She touched his neck as the Samhain raced off. “I healed them but it didn’t change anything. He’s got no pulse.” Her face was ashen and the words stuck in her throat like shards of glass but she forced them out. “He’s gone.”
“What about CPR?”
Victoria shook her head slowly. “CPR is to keep someone alive while medical help is coming. There is no help. We are all he has.” She blinked and her eyes filled with tears. “Had.” Her voice broke on the word.
“Why aren’t you doing something?” Eliana dumped Ciaran’s pack next to him. “Victoria?”
“There’s nothing I can do now. We all know what death looks like and he’s dead.”
Eliana shifted to her human form and her poleaxe appeared in her hands. Her voice was a hiss. “They killed him. If he’s dead then so are they.”
Victoria moved between her and the bound prisoners. The pokegirls had been balled and were in a pile off to the side. “No, Eliana. Ciaran wouldn’t have wanted this.”
“No, he wouldn’t have wanted this,” the Samhain’s said in agreement. Her voice rose. “But he’s not here to want, is he? That makes this my choice. Stand aside.”
“Ceres, help me stop her.”
The Tantrasaur shrugged. “I’m kind of on her side. I didn’t know him long, but he made an impression on me. I want them dead too.”
The loud gasping noise made all four women jump. Victoria’s eyes went wide as her skin turned white. “He’s breathing!” She threw herself down at his side.
Ceres slid smoothly into the place Victoria has been standing. “Now you can’t kill them. He will be upset with you if you do.”
Eliana gave the bound humans an evil glare as her weapon vanished. “There’s always later.” Her expression returned to normal. “What happened to your face?”
“I caught a sword with it.” Ceres rubbed her nose. “Get out my pokeball and heal me. Then I can take over watching Ciaran while you heal Victoria.”
“What then?”
“We didn’t kick over the fire, so we make sure the food isn’t burning and get rid of the bodies. Then we set up Ciaran’s tent and we wait while we eat their food and go through their stuff.”
The man whose arms had been broken and then healed by Victoria glared at them. “Under the Geneva Convention I demand you turn us over to proper authorities. We are prisoners of war and I demand fair treatment from my own kind.”
Ceres squatted down to look into his eyes. “Man, Victoria and I can heal your wounds but we can’t grow back anything you lose, so if I tear your tongue out you won’t get it back. That’s exactly what I am going to do if you mouth off again. Now be quiet.” She looked at Tamsin. “You have a problem with this, lieutenant?”
Baker shook her head. “They don’t recognize our troops as combatants and still they expect us to adhere to the Geneva Convention. They’re scum and deserve to be shot.”
“Waste of bullets,” Eliana muttered as she retrieved Ceres and plopped her ball into the healer. “Just let me roast them.” She looked at Baker. “Are you injured?”
“No.” She began collecting all the weapons scattered around the battlefield. “It might be easier to move the camp than to try to clean up the pieces of bodies. The blood which soaked into the soil will draw ferals no matter how well we clean up the bodies.” She looked around and her face turned a little green. “Not to mention the parts of bodies.”
“If ferals attack then we catch them,” Victoria said without looking up. “But until Ciaran wakes up we are not moving him again other than to put him in his tent.”
Eliana opened the PHU and pulled Ceres’s ball from it. “Are we going to heal the prisoners?”
Victoria glanced at her before returning her attention to Ciaran. “We already did.”
“I mean the pokegirl prisoners.”
“Yes, we are. It’s the civilized thing to do.”
The Samhain nodded and triggered Ceres’s pokeball. “Then find out which pokegirls lost their tamers, take their parole and put them to work cleaning up while someone stands guard over them.”
Baker gave her an incredulous look. “Parole?”
“Texans don’t normally take prisoners,” Ceres explained. “Or at least they don’t keep them for long if they can avoid it. They accept someone’s parole and turn them loose.”
“That’s stupid,” Baker replied. “Not everyone is that honorable.”
“Ah, but therein lies the rub. Parole is very specific about not attacking someone. If you violate your parole the Texans don’t bother to take you prisoner again. They just kill you if you attack them. Ciaran explained it to us.”
“I give my parole,” the man who’d had the broken arms announced. “Release me.”
“I wasn’t asking for your parole,” Ceres said in an ominous tone. “When I ask for it, then you can decide if you’re going to play nice.” She looked around. “Victoria, it’s time for healing. Eliana, when you’re done healing Victoria, go collect the stuff we left behind that wall.” She looked at the prisoners. “I see we have some lucky humans here. Four of them survived. Usually the death count when humans face pokegirls is closer to eighty percent.” She settled down on Ciaran’s other side. “Your turn for healing, Victoria.”
“I’m ok.”
“And if we get attacked again? We have the capability to return you to a hundred percent. Take it.” Ceres smiled. “If he wakes up while you’re in the healer I’ll put him back to sleep and never tell you so you can see his eyes open.”
Victoria gave a startled laugh. “You’d better not do that to me or to him.” She got up and headed to where Eliana was waiting.
Ciaran Sullivan
Victoria – Angel
Eliana – Samhain
Ceres - Tantrasaur