01

Eris Ascizor sat at the Team Omega conference table, her half-moon spectacles gleaming a little in the light as she adjusted them. Based underground in one of the Crimson League’s many forests, this where the organization’s most crucial work was carried out and many of its senior operatives were stationed.

Today’s schedule was to be one of the busiest of the month; it was today that various reports came in on Team Omega’s financial status, when the organization’s top scientists would report on how their projects were coming along, and when all the admins of Team Omega chapters, be they in the Johto, Ruby, Indigo, or Sunshine leagues would report in on how their bases were doing along with Pokegirl liberation status in their respective areas.

That was the primary goal of Team Omega, you see; to liberate, rehabilitate and integrate Pokegirls into society, not as the sex slaves they currently were, but as full members of society with equal status. They said it couldn’t be done. They said Pokegirls needed taming, that to say otherwise was science denial. And she replied with “Bullshit.”

Science denial, that’s a good one. That accusation always made her laugh when leveled against her organization. It’s like they’d forgotten who’d instigated a large blanket ban on many forms of technology after one wizard-scientist went nuts with a gene splicer and who was trying to bring that wonderous old world technology back—all of it, not just the ones the raging misogynists in the League deemed acceptable.

After all the reports came in, then she’d have to decide what to do with this information, with her position being overall leader of Team Omega along with one of its co-founders. This process alone took up much of the day, and by eleven o’clock or even midnight she’d finally be able to take off the labcoat-inspired Team Omega uniform, slip into her nightgown, collapse into bed and go to dreamland. Hey, nobody said it’d be easy running a criminal organization.

It truly was a sad world they lived in when a group with the goal of liberating a sentient species from routine breaking and sex slavery was considered criminal. If they had shown any signs of even giving her cause the time of day back when it was just her and her friends (and future co-founders of Team Omega) protesting the Pokegirls’ plight, maybe Team Omega needn’t have existed. Eris would freely admit that some of the deeds attributed to her group were morally questionable at times—the Gynadose responsible for an incident no one in Johto particularly cared to talk about had been discarged from Team Omega operations and no one had died, thankfully, but the bad PR would follow them forever— but dammit, if no one would voluntarily give the Pokegirls their freedom…

Eris was snapped out of her reverie by the door opening and four figures in the Team Omega uniform—a labcoat buttoned on the shoulders with a patch on the right breast featuring the Team Omega logo, an omega pendant around their necks, and some white pants, with the administrators having a gold star patch on the left breast of their coats to signify their status—entering the hall and taking their seat.

“Ah, yes, everyone’s here. A little early, excellent. Maxie, why don’t we start with your report?” Eris and subsequently the rest of the table turned their attention to the red-headed man.

Maxie nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The Johto chapter has been doing better than projected, all things considered, even with the Team Rocket presence. About 243 Pokegirls have been liberated from their tamers and are currently undergoing psychiatric help this month. No casualties, not even from at-risk Pokegirls.”

Eris nodded in approval. “And the Johto Surprise?”

Maxie grinned in pride. “All finished and ready for deployment, ma’am. We await your orders to initiate Operation Broken Chain.”

“Excellent work, Maxie. Initiate the plan as soon as possible so that Johto may be freed that much faster. And you, Rosalind?” The table now turned its attention to an Espea sitting at the table wearing the Team Omega uniform.

“Unfortunately, the Indigo League chapter of Team Omega has hit a few snags.” Rosalind’s voice beamed into the minds of everyone present. “The authorities have been ready for us at every turn. We fear a spy amongst our ranks, hence why I am speaking to you in thought rather than actual voices. In addition, it would seem that the Trauma Team has set up their new camp in the Indigo league.”

That was all the Espea needed to say for a collective shudder to run through the admins and their boss—everyone knew exactly what that meant. Although Team Omega saw potential in their rifles for reverse engineering and non-lethal modification, no one had ever really made plans to go and retrieve one of them for study, mostly because of the horrid reminders left in Trauma Team’s wake of what happened to people who were in their way.

Sharon, admin of the Ruby chapter, whistled. “Biggest damn snag I ever heard of.”

“I don’t think I need to advise you on what to do with this situation.” Eris said, frowning. “Find the spy, if one exists, and delete all information on any sensitive information related to Team Omega before getting rid of him. And no matter what, stay far away from Trauma Team.”

Rosalind nodded. “Affirmative, ma’am. Unfortunately, due to the possible spy no Pokegirls have been successfully liberated.” She fell silent for a few seconds. “We…even had a few casualties.”

Eris’s face hardened considerably. “Deaths?”

Another silence, during which Rosalind’s expression grew pained. “Tamed.”

Silence fell over the table for a few minutes before Eris spoke up, her voice trembling in barely suppressed rage. “Rosalind, this is an executive order. I want you to find the fuckers responsible and cut their dicks off.”

“With pleasure.” Rosalind mentally sighed and placed her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, I…I need a moment.”

“That’s perfectly all right. Sharon.” Everyone turned to the blond-haired Ruby chapter admin, who was sympathetically patting Rosalind on the back. When her name was called, however, she looked back to her boss. “Give your report, if you please.”

Sharon nodded, saluting. Erin didn’t expect a particularly long report on the Ruby League chapter, because of it being relatively new. As such, it didn’t have any particularly new recruits there and hadn’t really had much of a chance to establish itself. Eventually, though, once something happened that gained enough attention, those sympathetic to their cause would seek them out. And as in one of the passages of a Pre-Sukebe religious book named the Bible said, “Seek and you will find”. Not that they would know that, of course, given that the new religion everyone subscribed to meant that no one read such ancient books anymore. Such a shame; thousands of years of history, tossed to the wind. Why? How? That was one question not even the most intelligent researchers or psychologists among their ranks were ever likely to be able to answer. What mattered was that Team Omega paid attention, and therein laid the significance of its name.

“Nothing particularly interesting to report, ma’am. A few skirmishes with Team Rocket scouts, but the psychics you dispatched to us made sure they won’t be telling anyone about us until we’re ready to announce ourselves.”

Eris nodded. “And when will you be ready?”

Sharon grinned. “Shouldn’t be too long now, ma’am. I got something really good cookin’ up. You won’t regret putting me in charge, I guarantee.”

“I don’t doubt that.” A small smile cracked on Eris’ normally stoic face. “I will admit that you have been very promising. Your colleagues spoke very highly of you, which is partly why I gave you this position. I expect great things.” She turned to the final admin. “Shauntal?”

The Vampira looked from Sharon to Eris, giving a tiny nod. “The Sunshine League has begun wising up to our more nocturnal patterns and are exploiting that by strengthening security during the hours I’m awake and letting it rest during the day, meaning security is very, very hard to get through. It’s gotten to the point where multiple rescue operations are sometimes needed to prevent anyone from going through Taming Cycles.”

The corner of Eris’ mouth curved downwards slightly. “That is a problem. Have you considered appointing someone to be your co-admin during the daytime?”

Shauntal nodded. “I have. I hate to say it, but no one really stands out. I’m not saying I have a bad crew. None of them just seem cut out for leadership.”

Their leader’s expression turned stoic again. “I’ll consider sending you a temporary daytime manager until you find someone that fits. You’ll be notified in a couple weeks about my decision. If in between that time you find someone for the spot, please contact me immediately with the news.”

Shauntal nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Eris turned her gaze to all of her admins. “Good. You’re dismissed. I’m expecting reports from our Head of Sciences and Commander-in-chief in half an hour. Rosalind.”

The aforementioned Pokegirl took a second to compose herself. “Yes?”

Eris rose from her seat and put a sympathetic, comforting hand on her shoulder. “Godspeed.”

And with that, the assorted admins of the different regions left the room, presumably to go incognito and head back to their regions (with the Pokegirl admins accompanied by their fake “Tamers” so as to not seem suspicious). Eris, meanwhile, returned to her administrative office to begin official work, such as authorization to begin Johto’s Operation Broken Chain, setting new goals for the various regions based on the conditions there…leader stuff.

At what point did the world become like this, and why? When did rape and brainwashing become commonplace, accepted and even encouraged? When did the subjugation of an entire sentient species become A-OK? Why did no one question this? Why was such a blanket ban placed on technology rather than simply banning gene splicing technology? All the history books in Team Omega’s library couldn’t answer that question, and that was quite a lot of history books. Those weren’t the only questions about modern society Eris had; questions such as why no one had bothered to try anything other than Taming to initiate Pokegirls into society had grown too numerous to list. Some of her shrinks had offered answers to some of these questions before; perhaps such an attitude existed because during the Sukebe War the enemy had always been females, and thus people began to associate women with death, with evil, with “The Enemy”. Technology had been banned and subjugation and abuse of Pokegirls had become so accepted and commonplace possibly because so many people were in a state of hysteria over what many viewed as the end of humanity as they knew it during the war that they turned to any scapegoat they could afterwards in order to prevent a repeat performance of the greatest and bloodiest war humanity had ever known, the unfortunate and convenient targets being Pokegirls and technology in general. In any case, this attitude society had was, in Eris’ and everyone in Team Omega’s opinion, deplorable, abhorrent and intolerable. Unfortunately, it was also deeply ingrained into modern culture and could not be removed by lawful, peaceful means.

It wasn’t like Eris liked being a wanted criminal. This certainly wasn’t included in her dreams of what she wanted to be when she grew up as a child; those jobs belonged to ballerina, or astronaut, or a queen, or a ballerina-dancing queen in space. Certainly not the head of an organized crime group at 37, and it certainly wasn’t her fault she turned out like this.

So whose fault was it?

The first person who realized Pokegirls could be rendered subservient through sex (or rape)? The inventor of the Pokeball? The people who declared Taming to be a legitimate and needed job?

No. Sukebe.

It baffled her how one man could be all at once such a brilliant person and a damned fool. Inventing gene splicing technologies instead of getting a girlfriend, starting a war over being disgraced due to people finding the results of his experiments instead of getting a girlfriend, dooming humanity instead of getting a girlfriend—hell, all this could have been avoided had Sukebe simply grown a pair, stepped outside his laboratory and tried to get a girlfriend. It was almost astonishing how much one socially-inept person could change the course of history so drastically.

A knock on the door interrupted Eris’ thoughts  as she halted her paperwork. “Come in.”

The door opened and two people, one male and one female, walked into the room wearing special uniforms, the males’ uniform blue and the female’s red—not unlike Eris’ own specialized gray uniform.

A genuine smile broke out on Eris’ face as her two friends and co-founders arrived. “Scotty! Sammi! Have a seat, please.”

The two obliged.

“Afternoon, Eris. I know you’re busy, so, um…why don’t we make this quick?” Scotty asked, brushing a few strands of blond hair out of his eyes. Scotty was a skinny, shy, unimposing man, only slightly taller than the average human female and wearing archetypical nerd glasses. However, his calling in the world was never in the realm of physical strength; rather, he was a brilliant scientist and engineer whose skills had proven to be more than an asset in Team Omega’s mission.

“Aw, but it’s no fun when it’s quick!” Sammi, on the other hand, was far less of an introvert; in fact, she had…hyperactive tendencies and was prone to giving long-winded half-hour speeches to her troops when she’d only planned to talk for about ten minutes. Not that they minded, of course, as Sammi was certainly a very attractive woman, what with her shoulder-length brown hair, hourglass figure and nice ass. Shame she only liked other women and made that fact clear and plain.

“I can’t say that’s not tempting, Sammi, but you know I don’t really swing that way.” Eris teased. “Seriously though, Scotty’s right. I’m going to be up late enough as is today and as much as I’d like to have a nice chat with my best friends, that unfortunately falls under the category of awful time-waster. So! Scotts, why don’t you start off?” She looked at the scientist, who blinked a little and cleared his throat.

“Uh, the Disruptor project is coming along a little more slowly than I’d hoped…very complicated technology, you see, very complicated. But Stevens informs me that he believes he’s on the verge of a breakthrough in that department, so that’s a good thing. Maxie told you about how the Johto Surprise is ready for deployment?” He paused for a moment while she nodded. “Good, I won’t have to explain. The psychologists haven’t come up with any new rehabilitation techniques for newly rescued Pokegirls, which isn’t exactly cause for celebration. But, in perspective, we should be thankful that the techniques we’ve developed, slow as they may be, work perfectly without harm to the rehab Pokegirl. This month has been kind of a mixed bag, is what I’m saying.” He finished up before leaning back in his chair.

Eris considered this for a moment. “Well, I guess we can’t expect you to reinvent the wheel or something every month. Still, if the Disruptor research team needs any more resources, give it to them as long as it’s within our means. That thing will be the key that unlocks so many doors for us. Then again, I don’t think I need to tell you that.” She smirked at him before turning to Sammi. “Sam, how are the troops going?”

“Eh, same old, same old. Wiseass here, brown noser there, twenty more good troops to replace said wiseass/brown noser if they don’t shape up. Couple new recruits, which is always good.” Sammi almost kicked her feet up on the desk before remembering that despite the fact that they were close friends, it wasn’t likely Eris would allow her desk to be used as a footstool. “Except…the human troops I’ve been speaking to have been feeling a bit inferior recently. In comparison to their Pokegirl colleagues, I mean. Even my little pep-talks have only been working for a little while in that regard. I, ah, I was hoping maybe Scotts could get some shrinks over to look at the problem?”

Scotty nodded. “Of course, Sam. Just not Beatrice.”

Sammi stuck her tongue out at him playfully. “Bite me.” She cleared her throat before turning back to her friend and boss. “Anyways, the lab boys just recently finished that long-range Taser thing. Just needs a few field tests before we can give it to everyone. Can’t wait, either, you know those awesome Elemental Guns? Kinda like that, but they aren’t lethal. Which is good, ‘cause all of us here know we ain’t about killing.”

“’Ain’t’ is not a word.” Scotty corrected. “We’re not Team Rocket here, we can use proper grammar.”

“Alright, Mr. Dictionary. We are not about killing.” Sammi stuck her tongue out at him again. “If Scotts is done being possessed by our first grade English teacher, I’ll just continue. That periodic table we found? Been a Godsend. That tear gas stuff the boys’ve been making is a great room-clearer. Well, room incapacitator, I should say. Buuut, now we gotta work out a delivery system. We’re working on that.”

Eris nodded. “Very good. Both of you can go now.”

The two obliged, waving goodbye as they shut the door behind them. Erin’s smile lingered for a few minutes until her eyes turned back to her paperwork. Two or three more meetings today. The smile vanished from her face as she let out a sigh. Back to work.

As she resumed her paperwork, her thoughts began wandering back to history, and the rapid reversal of opinion on technology. It was once near-universally regarded as a good thing, technology; the way forward, our greatest tool for understanding the universe, one of the main differences between us and the animals that had once populated the world. Suddenly, technology fell into the hands of the wrong man, and a type of weapon that had already been banned by international law went terribly awry and technology became a convenient scapegoat. Rather than the idiots who decided to engineer a deadly, uncontrollable and thoroughly unpredictable weapon and then unleash it upon the world, the sole blame for the Red Plague fell on technology itself, and so the previously stated tech ban was instated. The fact that technology was responsible for the fact that they hadn’t been living in squalor a la medieval hamlets went somehow unnoticed, of course.

The meeting with Sammi reminded her of another glaring societal problem besides such an occupation as Taming and all it entailed becoming accepted and the norm; the attitude the world had towards people like her. Thankfully it wasn’t at the level where she wasn’t allowed to be who she was, but the fact remained that homosexual relationships were still labeled unacceptable and frowned upon, as the human race had seemingly gained such an obsession with repopulating the earth that loving another man or woman was deemed “unhelpful to society”.

The thought made Eris grit her teeth in rage. From what she saw of the whole Taming business, the world would be up and populated already if everyone just stopped keeping Pokegirls as fucktoys, even with homosexual relationships allowed, even if in vitro fertilization didn’t exist for lesbians. Hell, lesbianism in Pokegirls was perfectly acceptable because sometimes Tamers didn’t want to do their own taming. What’s the difference?

She knew the answer to that. Humans weren’t born with nymphomania and so couldn’t be controlled like unrehabilitated Pokegirls using their addictions, so of course LGBT humans were given the cold shoulder, treated like second-class citizens for who they loved.

This musing on the sorry state of society nowadays prompted a question in her mind; had Sukebe truly lost?

His plans had failed, he had died in a missile strike, his own creations were turned against him, but was this a case of someone losing the battle, but winning the war? Sukebe’s target of revenge was humanity, after all. Even though he had failed to destroy humanity, he had left it in such a sorry state that perhaps he didn’t have to eradicate them physically to destroy them.

The trouble was that nobody paid attention to history anymore. Time and time again, the consequences of not learning from the past had been demonstrated throughout history, and if humanity still didn’t get the message History was more than happy to repeat itself. And yet, still everyone ignored what was going on, no one took notice, no one cared.

But Team Omega noticed. Team Omega cared. Team Omega knew exactly what was going on here. Sukebe’s actions, while falling short of its original goal, had nonetheless succeeded in plunging the world into a Second Dark Age. The parallels were obvious; technology was shunned, rape and sex slavery were too common, misogyny was rampant. The difference was that technology was simply more advanced than in the First Dark Age. And even if they had to be branded terrorists, Team Omega was dedicated to ending the downward spiral humanity was engaged in, to pulling back up and restoring humanity’s conscience and…well, humanity. Thus was the significance of their name.

Team Omega, named after the last letter of the Greek Alphabet, which often was used to symbolize the end. And that was what they planned to do.

End Taming and all to do with it, end the misogynistic attitude that had taken hold, end the treatment of LGBT people as second-class citizens, end the mistreatment of Pokegirls as mere fucktoys, and end humanity’s darkest hour.

Ad Patriarchus, finem.