Chapter 22

 

“HOLD THE LINE!”

 

The assault rifle felt heavy in his hands, but he ignored the exhaustion and numbness, firing toward the enemy’s entrenched position, Shard was to his left, and Gravel was three to his right. Gel was pinned up ahead, though the rest of his unit had been burned alive when two charmelons had popped up out of cover on their flank, catching them off guard. He felt the rifle suddenly click, rather than heard it, his hearing nearly gone after at least a half hour into the ‘simulation.’

 

“Where are the flamers?

 

“Incoming Armsmistress!”

 

The panic in Flicker’s voice was understandable, as the only counter they had to the heavy close combat pokégirl wasn’t there yet. The enemy was consolidating, and then the inevitable rush would run them over. Flicker desperately dove to the side, but the Armsmistress wasn’t as inexperienced as the last one had been, and cut his arm off with an almost casual swipe of her sword, the backhand taking Flicker’s head off, cutting off his scream. He dimly realized that the Charmelons were charging Gel’s position, and several other types were moving in with them, indicating that they had already regrouped. They were out of time.

 

“PULL BACK! PULL BACK!”

 

He finished reloading the assault rifle, and leveled it at the Charmelons, squeezing the trigger and ignoring his own cry to retreat. The leading Charmelons took the first seven shots without seeming to notice it, until he got lucky with the eight shot taking out an eye. The wound wasn’t lethal, but it did disrupt the instructor’s control, the wounded Charmelons turning on her former squadmates in her pain. “Shard, get Gel and then get out of here!”

 

Shard tossed another handful of glass at the Armsmistress, as Feathers got cut in half, the fourth of the group to fall to her, despite her only being in attack range for only a few seconds, and then cursed as the heavy looked at him, and he realized he was the next target. “Not good…”

 

He leveled the assault rifle, a useless gesture and he knew it, but fired anyways as she charged. He jumped backwards, barely avoiding the sword trying to spill his guts on the ground, but half of the rifle fell to the ground, leaving him fighting the Armsmistress with his bare hands, his tail blade, and whatever curses he could think of. Really not good…

He felt time suddenly slow as the Armsmistress lunged forward, aware that someone was yelling behind him, but all he was conscious of was the sword slowly coming in at an angle, to cut him from shoulder to hip, too fast to dodge, even for him…

 

 

He woke up suddenly, in a cold sweat, and took a quick look around, his breathing fast and shallow. He noted the dark room, and a warm, soft body on either side of him. He paused and glanced around, he should only have had Tiria with him, and she was against his front, her face buried against his shoulder, his arms around her waist. A quick glance behind him showed it was merely Razia, and he slowly relaxed, his mind returning to the dream he had had, though it was far too ‘real’ to have been merely a dream.

 

He sighed, before he kissed Tiria’s neck, smiling as she cooed in pleasure and snuggled closer to him. He stroked her hair, while he rubbed his tail against Razia’s thigh, who softly purred and pressed herself against him, firmly encasing him in the delicious flesh of his harem. He smiled softly, and dismissed the dream from his mind for the moment, though he would later be sure to talk to Ia about the dream and his amnesia

 

 

Geno took another look at his guide, a very shapely Seraph with four wings, something he found fascinating. Of course, her generous figure had nothing to do with the fascination, even her celestial nature only putting a slight dent in his interest. She gestured to the door, and the turned back to him, a slight blush on her features.”This is your arena sir. Umm… Were you Tamara’s tamer?”

 

He had one hand on the door, and froze at the mention of Tamara. “Yes, I was, why?”

His tone was cold enough to freeze molten lava, but the Seraph either didn’t hear his tone, or ignored it. “I… I was wondering if I could join your harem? My tamer retired, and she was the one that replaced me.”

 

He growled softly, and pushed open the door, not wanting to think about that right now. “Ask me later.”

 

He stepped into the room, and gave the gym leader a dirty look from across the gym, before heading to his raised stand on the near side of the gym. He got to the top, and glanced at the stands, feeling his face freeze when he spotted Gisela, surrounded by Megami and Megami-Sama, as well as the Seraph from before. Shaking his head, he turned back to the arena, and nodded to the referee. The ref glanced at Harem Master Crotur to see if he was ready, and then raised his flag. “This is will be a one on one standard battle between Tamer Geno Rathin and Gym Leader Crotur. Two pokégirls are in reserve, and substitutions are allowed only upon unconsciousness, mortal wounds, or being incapacitated. Gym Leader Crotur will release his pokégirl first. Ready? RELEASE!!!”

 

Geno didn’t bother to let the Gym Leader go first, tossing Aliza’s pokéball into the arena before his opponent had even unclipped his from his belt. He felt like a gambler playing with loaded dice, knowing that Tiamet and Ia could easily sweep the Gym Leader’s team by themselves, let alone if both of them were on the same team. But this was an attempt to get Aliza to evolve, or at least get closer to evolving, and she looked around, eager for her first opponent.

 

Geno glanced to the bleachers, and gave Gisela a wave, ignoring her glare as she immediately picked up on his strategy, and seemed to be annoyed by it. The Gym Leader gave him an odd look, before tossing his first pokéball into the arena, his Warrior Nun appearing and tossing her short cropped silver hair over her shoulder as she snorted at her opponent. Aliza simply put one hand on her hip, and gestured for the Warrior Nun to come on, like she didn’t have a care in the world, as the ref raised his flags. “Battlers ready? Tamers ready? On your marks. Get set! BATTLE!”

 

Crotur issued his orders first, but only because Geno had briefed Aliza before the battle, which meant that she was already attacking even as the Warrior Nun began materializing her bayonets. He grumbled to himself as Aliza began using bullet seed at the Warrior Nun, her armor deflecting most of them, but a handful of the seeds punched through the armor at the joints and cut the celestial’s bare head. He watched the gym leader’s pokégirl sneer at Aliza as she began to rush the Ivywhore, and he finally spotted the small microphone in her ear, allowing for secure comms during the battle, though Geno wasn’t savvy enough with his pokédex yet to try hacking into a closed comm. network.

 

He shook his head, and wondered why Aliza had ignored his original suggestion but did not correct her. The Warrior Nun finished her charge as Aliza’s vines whipped out, the glowing bayonet tracing a thin red line across Aliza’s stomach as his Ivywhore dodged, and took the celestial’s feet out from under her with a well aimed vine whip. She turned and dove onto the sprawling Nun, and her bulb seemed to explode with powder as the Warrior Nun used quick hit, this time burying her blade into Aliza’s shoulder, making her scream as they both vanished from view due to the powder cloud. Everyone in the room was quiet as they waited for the dust to settle and reveal what had happened within the cloud, the only clue being the sound of several pieces of metal clanging against the floor.

 

Crotur gave Geno a look, and then tapped something on his arena stand, before talking, his voice coming from a small speaker on Geno’s stand. “What in the world are you doing? I applaud you doing research and coming up with a strategy before coming here, so that I couldn’t counter your commands.”

 

Geno pointed to the slowly clearing cloud, and grinned. “I simply used the most obvious thing against a celestial, her own suppressed sexuality.”

 

The cloud had cleared enough that everyone could see inside, and he noted with amusement most of the celestials were blushing heavily and quickly turning away. Aliza had taken a few cuts, but she was sitting on the Warrior Nun’s back, two of her vines wrapped around the Warrior Nuns wrists, elbows, ankles and thighs, another one rubbing along her ass with the thick bulb at the end of the vine thrusting in and out of the tight, swollen, dripping pussy. Her fourth vine was wrapped around the Nun’s large breasts several times, making them bulge as she squeezed them, before the end of the vine wrapped around the Nun’s neck, choking her. Aliza looked up as the Warrior Nun climaxed, and gave Geno a heated look. “She came when my vine went around her neck and squeezed. I think she liked it.”

 

He laughed, as the Warrior Nun came again, before looking at the ref and gym leader. “Can we call this a mercy knock out and move to the next person before Aliza accidentally snaps her neck or chokes her?”

 

Crotur looked at his pokégirl. “Abigail, you with me?”

 

The pokégirl could only whimper as she came again, making the gym leader sigh, before nodding to the referee. “She is out.”

 

He recalled Abigail as the ref raised the flag toward Geno. “Abigail is has been recalled, point for Tamer Rathin. Gym leader Crotur, release your next harem member.”

 

The gym leader nodded, considering the five pokéballs remaining on his belt, before selecting one and tossing it into the ring. Even as she materialized, he was giving orders. “Mary, air now.”

 

The Seraph jumped up and winged back, looking down at the Ivywhore in confusion as she got up and away from her. She murmured into her mike, and the gym leader quickly responded, which made the Seraph look even more confused as she sheathed her sword, and brought out her bow and moved further from her opponent. Geno smiled, and considered Aliza’s attack before nodding to himself. “Tactic 2, same as we discussed before. Think you can handle her?”

 

Aliza simply grinned, and whirled in a circle, her large, full breasts bouncing enticingly as her vines began snapping in rapid succession. The Seraph cried out as the first bullet seed slammed into her thigh, just below her crotch, but increased her height and began moving from side to side, trying to avoid the barrage of seeds. She returned the barrage of seeds with one of arrows, and Aliza screamed as several hit. Her next barrage contained a few leech seeds, which quickly dug into the Seraph’s thigh, and started pulling life from her.

 

Aliza dropped to a knee as the next arrow caught her calf, which forced her to take the next arrow in her chest. She dropped to her knees, coughing up blood but she launched another flight of seeds, and then pulling the arrow from her chest. She fell over as the arrow ripped free, puking up enough blood that Geno pulled her pokéball from his belt, though he stopped when she waved him off. The Seraph drifted down, putting her bow up and drawing her sword as she landed beside the Ivywhore. “Yield or fa...”

 

Aliza suddenly attacked, dozens of vines exploding out of her bulb to wrap around the flying types limbs, who managed to actually cut two of them before she was restrained, the probing bulbs managing worm under the Seraph’s armor, and into her, making her thrash and squeal as she tried to get loose. Aliza smiled weakly up at the celestial, and then rolled away from the thrashing celestial, more vines sprouting from the bulb to further entangle her opponent. She then reached behind her back to cup her hand under her bulb, and then tossed the handful of powder directly into the Seraph’s face before stepping back with a ragged smile as she pulled another arrow out. The Seraph tried to scream as half the vines snapped out, tearing her armor from her as the clasps gave, and took the powder straight into her mouth. A few moments of coughing and squirming as the thick bulbs of the tentacles wormed their way into and around her body, before she squealed and came, hard. Aliza was slowly healing as she stood in a beam of sunlight from one of the windows, the leech seed sucking health from her opponent as her vines raped the Seraph into submission.

 

Crotur looked unhappy as the Seraph ended up in the same trap that his Warrior Nun had, and he had let her waltz right into it.  He pulled the Seraph’s pokéball from his belt, and nodded to the ref before recalling his whimpering, moaning, and writhing pokégirl, who was almost dancing on the vines that impaled and restrained her. Geno noticed that most of the celestials were bright red and some even refused to watch, but the Seraph that had accosted him earlier was watching as if she was hypnotized. Crotur withdrew the Seraph from the battle, and sighed in vexation. “Your tactics, while unorthodox and contemptible, are commendable for both your ingenuity and willingness to do what it…”

 

Crotur stopped as Aliza stared to glow, and everyone watched her shine brighter, and then dropped to her knees as she finished glowing. She was a vision of female perfection, huge breasts that would be a pleasure to play with, and her hips and thighs were just as delicious. Her bulb had fully opened up, and now had the white leaves of the bulb complemented by the pale pink of the inner flowers. Her wounds from the battle had healed into thin white scars, which strangely only enhanced her over-ripe beauty in Geno’s eyes. Her exhaustion was a concern, and he pulled out her pokéball before waving to the ref. “I am pulling Aliza out.”

 

The ref gave him a look that quietly asked if he was crazy, but Crotur simply nodded as if he had expected his concern. The ref shrugged as Aliza gave Geno a thankful look as she was recalled. He wavered between the two pokéballs on his belt, before deciding to see what Ia could do, having never seen her in combat before. Both of them released their chosen pokégirls into the arena, and then Geno released Aliza. He quickly grabbed the newly evolved Venuswhore, who leaned gratefully against her tamer. He kept one arm around his harem member, ignoring the glare from the gym leader and ref.

 

{If you are done, sir, perhaps you could tell me what to do?}

 

He grinned as Ia touched his mind, her irritation clear at being used in what she thought was a trivial matter. {Show me what you can do, but don’t kill your opponent.}

 

The Megami glared at the nude Alaka-Wham, and concentrated, getting her attack ready as the ref began the match again. The moment his flag finished dipping, however, the Megami was suddenly hurled backwards to slam against the gym leader’s stand, and Geno could clearly hear bones snapping both from the impact and from Ia carefully applying her telekinesis to prevent her opponent from dying. She appeared to be applying too much caution though, as the Megami was awake and screaming the entire time, until Ia finally hit her with a psybeam attack, easily knocking out the powerful celestial and making it look ridiculously easy at the same time.

 

There was a long, pregnant silence as the Megami slumped to the floor, and Geno coughed softly, giving both the bone white gym leader and ref a gentle prod. Crotur jumped over the bar that kept him from falling into the ring, and checked his alpha for a pulse, as the ref gave both Ia and Rathin a look filled with terror, though it lessened slightly as Crotur recalled his badly injured alpha. “The Megami-sama is unable to battle, game point to tamer Rathin. Match to Tamer Rathin.”

 

The ref then all but fled as Ia teleported up behind her tamer, making Aliza squeak in surprise before giving her harem sister a slightly scared look and trying to burrow into her tamer. Rathin gave her a long look, before laughing softly. “You can be quite scary at times, you know that right?”

 

Ia didn’t move for a moment, before suddenly smiling softly and enigmatically, though the gesture seemed a tab forced. {The gym leader approaches with your badge.}

 

A glance behind him showed that Crotur was approaching, though the seraph from before was with him. The gym leader was giving both him and Ia a glare that should have incinerated them both where they stood, but when he finally stopped stomping forward and spoke, his voice was calm and even. “Here is your gym badge for defeating me, though I would ask that you NOT be so malicious in a standard battle again. A negative report from a gym leader into your official record would be… a problem for someone with such a powerful patron.”

 

Geno’s head tilted to the side, and he raised an eyebrow as he tried to accept the badge. “I wasn’t aware that I had a patron. And I certainly don’t NEED a celestial pokégirl in my harem.”

 

It was Crotur’s turn to look confused, and he glanced back at Gisela and pulled the badge back out of Rathin’s reach. “Megami-sama Gisela said that you were under her supervision and that we should allow you to accept a celestial from the gym into your harem. Her word carries a great deal of weight here.”

 

Geno felt his expression freeze as Gisela looked up and smiled at him, and he resisted the urge to go and tear her face off. Ia glanced at him as he turned back to the gym leader. “She is supervising me only because I can’t get her to stop. What is this about getting a celestial? My harem is full, and I am not looking for new members at this time.”

 

Gisela was approaching, and Ia glanced at her, causing the Megami-sama to glare back. Crotur didn’t notice the exchange, and continued. “We allow celestial types that desire a tamer to stay at the gym, and watch tamers to see if one meets their standards. Gisela has been campaigning for you, and a few of the unattached celestials were interested until your Alaka-Wham tried to kill my alpha.”

 

{I wasn’t trying to kill her, and in fact was expressly ordered to not do so. The Megami-sama I am familiar with were very fragile, and would have fainted after I broke the vertebrae in her spine, instead of staying conscious as I broke every bone in her body.}

 

The gym leader glared at the Alaka-Wham, who simply stared impassively back until the gym leader finally broke off glaring at her. “Well, part of the gym’s policy is that if a celestial wants to join a tamer’s harem, and that person got the badge, they either get both or neither. And if you are trying for the Ultima Melee, you need eight badges. Johto badges, at that. And there are only eight public recognized gyms. I will let you do the math.”

 

Geno glared at the gym leader, before shrugging, and accepting the badge. “You know, I bet you get a lot of missing celestials this way. You are lucky she asked me before the match if she could join, otherwise I would be more unhappy about this. Just be glad I was entertaining her offer already.”

 

He gave Gisela a glare, before turning to the Seraph. “Shall we? I am tentatively accepting your offer, but my alpha and beta have a say about whether you stay or not. But only relative to harem dynamics.”

 

He felt Ia’s attention turn to him, but the Seraph and gym leader’s looks of disbelief at his announcement made him smile at her before he continued. “If they have a legitimate complaint then you will be coming back. Understood?”

 

Crotur started to protest Rathin’s conditions, but was cut off by the Seraph. “That is acceptable. And I am surprised that you are such a practitioner of Parity. Gisela didn’t…”

 

Geno laughed, and gave Aliza a hug. “Parity is a wistful dream until pokégirls no longer need to be tamed to stay sane. Once that happens, you get Parity automatically. Until then, it can’t happen.”

 

He shrugged, and offered the Seraph his free left hand, as the right was around Aliza and she had no intention of releasing his hand. “Geno Rathin, the one refusing to release my other hand is Aliza, and the scary one is Ia.”

 

The Seraph took his hand and curtsied. “Athena, my lord.”

 

 

Geno was resting on a bench in the town park, with Bellezza sitting beside him, and Lendysa on his other side. “So, thoughts on the two new harem members?”

 

Lendysa answered first, as Bellezza was busy grazing on his neck. “The Dracona is a bit headstrong, but that can work to our advantage, as she seems to have accepted you as a worthy tamer, since Asheer had Tiamat beat her senseless, and then repeated the fight herself. I think once she settles down, she will be a welcome addition to the harem. The Seraph, however, seems to be a bit reserved with most of the harem, except for Tiria and Mayuan. Might be because the rest of us don’t wear clothing. She seems to be a bit prudish.”

 

Geno snorted in amusement, and rubbed Bellezza’s back, who hummed, and rested her head on his shoulder. He poked her stomach, and then nipped at her neck. “Hey, I wanted your opinion too, Honey Bee.”

 

She was still pressed against him, but she seemed unusually still. He poked her harder, and she jerked away from his finger, but still didn’t look at him. “Tamer to Bellezza, come back.”

 

Bellezza still didn’t respond at first, before she suddenly struggled against him, trying to get out of his grip. He released her, turning to see what she was flying off toward, but the only thing he could see was a young teenage male sitting under a tree, coughing quietly before turning back to his book. As Bellezza approached the male, she slowed her flight and landed, just as the male looked up. Both of them froze for a moment, before Bellezza approached the young male, who was staring at her as if spellbound. Rathin watched the entire exchange with shock, before standing up. “The hell? I thought she was a feral born, but she is acting like he is a long lost sibling.”

 

Lendysa was watching as well, before she suddenly grabbed his arm, her expression carefully blank. “Master… I think… Well, I think she just Recognized him.”

 

“Well, obviously she recognized him, that is why I said…”

 

Lendysa’s shaking head brought him up short, and she gave him a slightly sad look. “No master. I think she just formed a Recognition bond with that man.”

 

Rathin froze, having heard about the Recognition bonds at the Academy, but had not really paid attention to the discussion about them, since the bond had seemed more in line with the fairy tale about the pokégirl princess and the tamer white knight than something to do with reality. But watching his Buzzqueen embracing someone else who clung to her like she was a rock, he couldn’t help but revise his opinion of the Recognition bonds. He rubbed his eyes, before glancing at Lendysa and walking toward Bellezza and the newly minted tamer. “Anyway to reverse it, or am I going to have to resign myself to the fact I just lost my Buzzqueen without even realizing there was a battle for her?”

 

The sorrow filled look he got in return was answer enough, and he kept the anger and flash of hate he felt surge through him from showing to Lendysa. He suddenly remembered something from one of his blocked memories, though he couldn’t remember the circumstances that had prompted the quote or who had said it. ‘Grace in defeat.’

 

He forced himself to relax, though he couldn’t stop the almost instinctive twitch of his wrists as he approached the male that would have released the claws had he had them on. He simply touched Bellezza’s shoulder, whose head snapped up with hostility that she had never shown at him before, though she relaxed slightly when she saw it was him. “Rathin…”

 

He didn’t bother to let her finish the sentence, simply pressing his thumb against her collar, unlocking it and then handing her pokéball to her. He looked at the male, before sighing, and popping his knuckles. “Take care of her, or you will answer to me.”

The young man started to say something, an apology if he had to guess, and Geno waved it off as he turned and left. Once they were out of sight, he leaned against a tree, his emotions roiling without control, before he turned and tried punched the trunk of the tree. Lendysa caught his fist before he could connect, her delta bond allowing her to anticipate his actions, and simply hugged him close. He leaned into her embrace for a moment, before pushing away. “Let’s get out of here. This town is stripping me of my harem, and I am not staying here a moment longer than I have to.”

 

 

 

Rathin rolled his new dracona’s breasts in his hands, as they stood in a pond they had found while hiking. He grinned as she pressed back into his hips, moaning in pleasure as he moved one hand down her to her stomach, stroking the taunt belly of his newest dragon. She purred in pleasure, firmly grinding her ass against his crotch, enjoying the feel of his cock against her tail. He smiled and gently bit her neck, making her moan in pleasure again, louder than before, grinding her ass even more firmly against her tamer, tilting her head to bare more of her throat. “Master… Master… MASTER!”

 

Her breathing became faster and more erratic as she lifted her hips, presenting her swollen slit to him as she whimpered around his fangs in her throat. One of her hands reached back and gently stroked his testes, her moans turning to whimpers of pleasure as he slipped into her slit. He smiled as he rolled his hips, his hand on her belly dropping down to rub her clit. He thrust, enjoying how eager she was now, glad that she had decided he was worthy of being her tamer.

 

He thrust slowly, enjoying the feeling of her moving with him, though after a few minutes, she apparently decided that she wanted a hard and fast taming rather than the long and slow one she was getting. She growled softly, before pulling herself free, and then tapped his jaw and turning toward him when he let go of her throat. She grinned at him, one leg wrapping around his waist as she rubbed her entire body against his, gently nipping at his neck until he buried his fangs in her neck again. She whined in pleasure, rocking her body against his as she tried to get him to speed up, something he was more than happy to oblige her with.

 

The sounds of their coupling echoed throughout the small clearing, as his Dracona’s moans and gasps of pleasure got louder and louder. He stopped biting her throat to kiss her, and she moaned into the kiss before suddenly squealing, her loins tightening around his, her nectar coating both of their hips as she came. She moaned as he came as well, his essence pouring into her, and she cooed in pleasure as she rubbed her clit, shuddering as she had a second climax. She weakly leaned against him, and kissed his shoulder, before looking up hopefully at him. “Again?”

 

 

He waved to Kiagan as the fox headed off to wherever he was going, he hadn’t said, and Geno was starting to get a bit worried about his companion and friend. He shook his head as Kaigan walked off, and was nearly knocked over as Liandra glomped him as she came out of the pokécenter. “So, is the dragon ready to spoil his girlfriend?”

 

He grumbled to himself as he pushed himself up, and stuck one hand in his pocket, making sure the case in it hadn’t been damaged. He glared at Liandra, before deciding to be a bit mean and nodded. “Yes, I am. Asheer, what would you like to do for dinner? Just you and me, a nice little date like you asked for.”

 

The shocked stares from Asheer, Liandra and Tintra were just too funny, and he couldn’t help himself as he started laughing and backing away from Liandra and Tintra, who were rapidly going from shocked to angry. He turned to Asheer and offered her his arm with a slight bow, and she finally managed to stop blushing and meet his eyes as she took the offered arm as he glanced at Liandra. “You aren’t my girlfriend, though you are a girl who is a friend. And I wasn’t planning this outing with your company in mind. I need to talk to my alpha for a while, alone. I will make it up to you later.”

 

He ignored the hurt look on Liandra’s face, though he felt like an ass as he and Asheer headed off. His alpha looked at him, and finally poked him in the side as they headed to the restaurant that the pokecenter’s Nurse Joy had suggested. “Why are you upset? She invited herself, and it is your right to tell her off for trying to intrude.”

 

“Doesn’t make me feel like less of an ass though.”

 

She glared at him, before shaking her head. “Master, if you want to beat yourself up about it, at least do it in such a way that it doesn’t make the half of the harem feel like an ass as well. Remember, you do have five delta bonds.”

 

He sighed, and then started to nod, only to pause halfway through. “Wait, what? I have three. You, Len, and Razia.”

 

Asheer gave him a superior look, before rubbing up against him. “Actually, Ia told me that Tiamet has one as well, or will very shortly, and that Sara is well on her way into one. But that wasn’t what you wanted to talk about, was it?”

 

He snorted in amusement as she pressed herself firmly against him, managing to somehow both be completely serious while at the same time looking like she didn’t have a thought in her head except for how to get him to tame her.  He laughed, before kissing her and looking her over again. “Nice dress. So, your personal poképack is going to be your wardrobe?”

 

They had had an unusually good catch of various ferals during the trip to Ecruteak Town, especially during the trip through Mt. Mortar. It had been enough to pay off the rest of his education loan, well below what they had predicted his final cost would be thanks to the early pay off, and he had still had enough to buy six poképacks, four of which had been for personal use and the other two had been for harem use. The dress in question though was a black minidress, one that sparkled as the light bounced off of it, and he thought it made her absolutely gorgeous. She smiled as he watched her, before turning in a slow circle, showing off how well the dress hugged her form.

 

He smiled and offered her his arm, and she took it as they headed toward the restaurant, leaning against him and smiling in pleasure. The walk was uneventful, the locals waving or at least nodding politely to the pair, something Geno found unusual until he noticed that several people had at least a type one pokegene, one person with cat ears, another person with bright green hair, a third with no shadow, though he wondered if the last one was just a flat-chested fire pokégirl with the charred subtype. He mused on the differences between what he was used to and what was happening, before shrugging and going with the flow.

 

Arriving at the restaurant, he grinned as they were placed in a spacious booth near a window, and sat down beside Asheer, his hand running along her thigh before taking her hand. “So, what are your thoughts on making Lendysa a co-beta and appointing someone else to help her?”

 

She was looking through the menu, and gave him a flat look, before turning back to the menu. “We can talk shop after the meal is ordered master. Or even better, after we are done eating and are back at the pokécenter. This is supposed to be a date, right?”

 

He laughed, and poked her side with his tail, before pulling her back against him. “You were the one that suggested a date, and I don’t know jack about them. So I am just following your lead on this. Which IS what you wanted, right?”

 

She growled at him, before nodding. “Fine, so what were your thoughts on the co-beta?”

“Right now, I want Len to have a bit more free time. She spends all her time working to help you and keep the harem from falling apart. I was thinking that Sarianna would be an acceptable beta, once she had more experience in not being, you know, feral. However, my first choice, at the moment, is Ia.”

 

Asheer paused as her mind tried to catch up and understand what he had said, before turning and looking at her tamer. “Is that a joke? She is away from the harem too much to justify giving her any kind of authority.”

 

Their conversation paused as they gave their orders to the waitress, but before he could continue it, someone slid into the booth across from them. A somewhat familiar face grinned at him from above a Johto Hunter’s uniform, and then Geno’s voice came from the stranger’s mouth. “Well, Scales, it has been a good while since we last saw each other.”

 

Even as Asheer gasped, he finally placed why the face was so hauntingly familiar. It was his own face, lacking the slightly extended jaw to accommodate his fangs. He was so shocked he didn’t even think about what he said. “Shard?”

 

The person with his face grinned, and nodded. “Glad to see you got your memory back. The bitches said that the amnesia might be permanent, and here we all were worrying about you, while you bounce about like you don’t have a care in the world? What have you been up to lead?”

 

He stared at the stranger’s familiar face, trying to understand why he had known the person’s name, even though he was nearly a copy of himself. The exact same sitting height, nearly same body build and weight, though Shard’s slightly bulkier forearms were definitely not because of more muscle. Geno’s shock must have finally registered, as Shard leaned back, his face suddenly inscrutable. “Or have you not gotten your memories back?”

 

Geno shook his head, wondering why he half trusted this person, and why the other half wanted to flick his wrist for the claw weapon he had hidden on his left wrist. “I have bits and pieces, and usually what I get is in flashes. How do you know about my memory problems?”

 

Shard grinned, and opened his mouth, when suddenly his pokédex beeped at him, and a Glass walked into the diner. Shard waved to the Glass, a look of distaste on his face as he listened to whoever was calling him, snapping the ‘dex shut as the Glass, also wearing a Johto Hunter uniform, got to the table. He stood up, and nodded to Geno. "Well, brother, we will have to catch up later. Stay indoors tonight, the local ghosts have gotten bold, and several people have either gone missing or have needed medical attention after those things got done with them.”

 

The Glass looked somewhat startled when Shard called him brother, and her shock turned into disbelief as she got a better look at Geno, finally looking past his wings. Geno nodded, and watched Shard leave, before murmuring to himself. “But I wasn’t aware I had any brothers.”

 

Shaking his head, he turned back to Asheer, and shook his head. “So, what were your thoughts on Ia being beta? And no, I don’t want to talk about what just happened.”

 

The rest of the dinner was spent slowly eating and talking about the harem, figuring out who was where and the possibility of including the newest harem member into the team training already, since she had shown great skill at working together when Len and Asheer had checked her. They lost track of time, enjoying the quiet and it just being the two of them, and it wasn’t until their waitress hesitantly came up that they realized that it was already late, and that the sun was nearly gone. The waitress was an adorable Growlie, who kept looking outside with fear in her eyes, though not a fear of him. “Excuse me sir, but can we request that you finish and leave? We need to close down so everyone can get home before the spirits come out.”

 

That got his attention as he nodded, before heading to the cashier to pay for the meal, and he left a generous tip by way of apology for taking so long. He left with Asheer close, noting with concern that the while the sun had nearly a quarter of itself remaining above the horizon, there was a thick mist slowly oozing out of the shadows and alleys, almost as if it was alive. Asheer instinctively sped up, but slowed and screamed when Geno suddenly grabbed her arm, and pointed into one of the alleys. They were almost halfway back, and the sun had fully set nearly ten minutes ago.

 

She glared at him for nearly giving him a heart attack, until a muffled scream issued from the alley. Rathin flipped his wrist, the blades sliding out with a steely hiss, before he started into the thickest portion of the fog. Asheer grabbed him as the being in the fog whimpered, sounding as if they were gagged, and pulled him back. “Are you crazy? Did you not hear what that Hunter said?”

 

He gave her a look of disgust, before pulling his arm free. “Someone is in there, and those don’t sound like noises of enjoyment to me.”

 

He was right, the person in the mist was squealing in pain, and it sounded like they were trying to scream around whatever was gagging them. He stepped lightly into the mist, his eyes half closed as he drifted toward the noise, and after a few seconds Asheer followed him, though she had to place a hand on the back of her neck to get the small scales there to stop twitching. Geno glanced back at her, and laughed. “Come on, at worst it is ghosts. What are they going to do, slime us?”

 

 

 

“PULL BACK! PULL BACK!”

 

He finished reloading the assault rifle, and leveled it at the Charmelons, and then squeezing the trigger and ignoring his own cry to retreat. The leading Charmelons took the first seven shots without seeming to notice it, until he got lucky with the eight shot taking out an eye. The wound wasn’t lethal, but it did disrupt the instructor’s control, the wounded Charmelons turning on her former squadmates in her pain. “Shard, get Gel and then get out of here!”

 

Shard tossed another handful of glass at the Armsmistress, as Feathers got cut in half, the fourth of the group to fall to her, despite her only being in attack range for only a few seconds, and then cursed as the heavy looked at him, and he realized he was the next target. “Not good…”

 

He leveled the assault rifle, a useless gesture and he knew, but fired anyways as she charged. He jumped backwards, barely avoiding the sword trying to spill his guts on the ground, but half of the rifle fell to the ground, leaving him fighting the Armsmistress with his bare hands, his tail blade, and whatever curses he could think of. Really not good…

He felt time suddenly slow as the Armsmistress lunged forward, aware that someone was yelling behind him, but all he was conscious of was the sword slowly coming in at an angle, to cut him from shoulder to hip, too fast to dodge, even for him. Then time seemed to slow down even more, and he was rolling under the sword, hissing in pain the sword took a chunk of his shoulder with it, but he was alive. The Armsmistress seemed to be moving far slower than she should, but so was everything else in his field of vision.

 

Something blurred forward from the side, screaming at the top of its lung, before jumping up and spinning what looked like a staff above its head, hollow from the whistling noise coming from the object. He saw its face, his own except for a white, bone-like mask across its eyes, an irregular growth that went from its right ear to the bridge of his nose, and the bottom of the crown of its head to about half way between his left eye and ear. Blood covered the apparition’s armor and face, and it swung the staff down, as though it was an axe and trying to chop the Armsmistress in half.

 

The staff stopped when it connected with her helm, the strike too sudden and fast for her to react to, even with her enhanced speed, and she dropped to a knee, but was otherwise unfazed by the now bent stop sign. The creature screamed in fury, its cry even louder at being denied blood, and Geno dove to the side, snatching up Feather’s hunting rifle, chambering a shot and turning back to the half barrier the group had been behind. He ignored the Armsmistress, knowing he couldn’t do anything but get killed by her, and Shard was in danger of being overrun by the group that had been charging Gel, whose shieks had stopped, indicating he was either dead or unconscious from blood loss after a Gravelgal had exploded, tearing up his gut and chest along with the rest of his squad.

 

“Clown, get back. Torch her!”

 

Someone behind him was screaming at the apparition, who back flipped away from the Armsmistress. She had recovered from the unnaturally fast onslaught of Clown and his signature stop sign, and then three rows of fire whooshed forward, turning the Armsmistress into a screaming column of flames. She flailed about, but couldn’t do anything as the three people with the flamethrowers continued to empty their tanks onto her, searing her flesh down to the bones. A water spear slammed into one of the flamer’s gut, and Pyro doubled over, puking up blood as the attack pulverized his intestines, and then convulsed before disappearing as a lightning bolt turned him and his flamethrower into a rapidly expanding sheet of flame. Geno bit back a hiss of pain as a piece of the flamethrower’s tank punched into his back through his armor, and lost the shot, the bullet hitting the building behind the Ria.

 

He ignored the flaming pieces of Pyro falling around him as well as the stench from the now thoroughly burnt Armsmistress, and tossed the spent hunting rifle over the wall to grab Comms Magnum, covered in his blood after the Armsmistress had stabbed him through the throat. “Come on guys! We just won this fight, now mop up the survivors!”

 

The remaining twenty or so of his batch brothers roared once, and then as a group rolled, jumped, flipped, or otherwise crossed the wall, charging the remaining seven pokégirls of the simulation, as the guns began clicking, indicating that they were running out of ammo all around. It was going to be FAR closer than he liked, even with Clown and his damn stop sign…

 

 

 

He awoke with a start, and rolled away from Hamiri, the Kitsune he had heard being raped in the alley. He stood up, and staggered into the bathroom, grabbing the counter of the sink, wondering why he couldn’t stop shaking, and then took several deep breathes, forcing himself to relax. The dream was repeating itself now, and getting more vivid. He could have sworn that he had felt the shrapnel pierce his back and the pieces of Pyro hitting him, as well as the hair on his arms rising when the Ria had put a bolt past him during the charge. He finally managed to get himself under control, and forced himself to calm down as he mentally reached out. Ia, can we talk face to face? I need to ask you something.

 

Ia was almost instantly sitting on the counter beside him, her eyes still closed, but she was clearly awake. What do you need to talk about?

 

“I am tired of these damn dreams that don’t make sense, the reactions to my harem that ends up with me nearly hurting them. I can’t stand some random stranger knowing more about me than myself, and I want to know why these dreams have dozens of me running around, with such strange names.”

 

 

He nodded, and then smirked as she opened one eye to look at him, making sure that he was sure, before she closed her eyes again. He inhaled twice, and then a frown flickered over her face, but was gone so fast he wondered if he had merely imagined it, when he was nearly thrown against the wall at a surge of anger from her. She set him back on the ground, having dragged him nearly six feet in the blink of an eye in her anger, but she did not remark on it, instead returning to what she had been doing. Nearly thirty seconds after she had started, she opened an eye and looked at him, and he shivered, wondering why he felt like he was in the presence of Tiamet when she had been feral. I took the blocks as far down as I deemed safe, and your mind will finish the job. I will be leaving the harem for a while, but will return no later than one week from now. Yes, it is important, and no, I can’t delay it. If I had known they were alive, I would have dealt with them before I stopped disappearing for weeks on end.

 

He sighed, and went over what he had planned. Take the bus to Goldenrod, and then challenge the gym, before heading down to Azelea Town to beat the snot out of Falco for his badge. He had picked up the local badge yesterday, having gotten some snot nosed child that had barely been worth releasing Mayuan for. Her first spell had destroyed her opponent, an astral witch, supposedly one of the more dangerous of the gym assistants, but he had felt mildly insulted after so many hard battles against Gym Leaders.

 

He turned his attention back to Ia, and nodded, before relating his current plans, and she fixed him with a stare from both eyes when his plans stopped in Azelea Town. After a moment of staring at him, she nodded, and then disappeared, leaving him with the sending, Stay out of trouble, Geno, you are perhaps the best tamer I have met so far for me.

 

He smiled, and headed back to the bed, feeling relieved for some reason, and paused after turning out the bathroom light, admiring the soft black fur of his Kitsune. Her tail twitched in her sleep, and she whimpered slightly, either remembering the ghosts raping her and her former harem sister, or the tamer that had abandoned them to the ghosts, he couldn’t tell. The other girl had a delta bound with the cretin, and had left to find him, barely waiting to get healed from the beating first. Hamiri had decided to stay, disgusted with her former tamer, and had claimed he seemed more interesting than the previous one. That thought made him laugh softly, before sliding into the bed behind her, she promised to keep him guessing and on his toes, just the way he liked it.

 

 

 

 Geno sat down in the diner, noting the various people in the room. A trio of Johto Hunters with a single pokégirl in one corner of the room, several tamers and a rough looking, hard eyed local near the door, and a pair of Jennies with a Growlie and Lupina in the corner across from the Hunters. All in all, it seemed like the kind of place that catered to everyone. A flat screen TV was showing the news, the current story about the supposed connections between Team Apocalypse and one Johto Council member, though the story didn’t mention any names. He was glad to have some quiet time with the rest of his harem back at the pokécenter, relaxing and resting up for tomorrow’s gym challenge, except for his guard and doctor.

 

Tiria and Razia were with him, he had his fully enchanted claws on his wrists, and he was the first to admit that Mayuan had outdone herself in enchanting them. Unbreakable, sundering, extra sharp, and penetrating enchantments had been worked into them, and he liked that she had also finished the enchantment to lighten them so as to weigh next to nothing on his arm. They were so light, in fact,  that he barely even realized that he was wearing them. Tiria ordered a salad, Razia a trout with extra tartar sauce, and he was having a medium rare steak, and had sprung for the actual cow meat instead of the soy pretend meat, and the taste was enough to make him sigh in relief, though Razia kept giggling at the look on his face with each bite.

 

Tiria looked up from her large house salad, and leaned forward to get his attention away from his plate. “If master is done climaxing from his meal, we need to talk.”

 

He gave his beloved Nursejoy">Nursejoy a glare as Razia returned to munching on her trout, purring to herself as she licked her whiskers clean of the saucer. “About what?”

 

“You harem. It is getting a bit large, don’t you think? You have twelve pokégirls vying for time with you. A full dozen. Most tamers don’t get half that many.”

 

He snorted as he sipped his diet pokécola, before bothering to reply. “Yah, and since when was I EVER part of the majority?”

 

Razia giggled again, seeming very happy with herself for some reason, and earned a glare from the Nursejoy">Nursejoy by cutting off her reply. “Never. Which is why we all love him so much.”

 

Tiria glared at her harem sister, and tried to regain control of the conversation. “That isn’t the point. I am just worried you are spreading yourself too thin, and most of your harem is powerful enough to cause serious problems if they begin going feral. Also, Asheer has enough problems juggling the taming schedule without you having at least three members of it in long term storage.”

 

“Well, as you well know, I have an open door policy, an open daytime bed policy, and a very FIRM quickie policy, as you should know, since you used all three of them before we came here.”

 

Tiria flushed as Razia laughed at her, earning her a glare from one of the Hunters, before they returned to their meal. Geno glanced up as the news changed, and then gestured for the barman to turn up the TV, seeing his picture on it, curious as to why. The piece of meat dropped from his open mouth in shock as the picture of him shrank to a corner of the screen, and the Ingenue blithely continued her report amid the quickly quieting diner. “…the leader of the dreaded Team Apocalypse. The source, who has requested that they remain anonymous also continued that he is behind the most recent Team Apocalypse actions, taken in response to the supposed thwarting of their plans in Cherry Grove Town. Their latest, and most horrific and daring, raid left twenty seven hunters either dead or severely wounded, and issued a proclamation that unless their most recent demands be met, the raids would continue to increase in both frequency and violence.

 

Once again, Geno Rathin has been identified as the feared leader of Team Apocalypse, and to be considered armed and extremely dangerous, both with forbidden tech and a frighteningly powerful harem. If spotted in your area, General Scott Smith of the Johto Hunters urges civilians to not attempt to detain or even alert him to the fact that he has been identified, and to notify the nearest Hunter. Hunters are under orders to call for heavy backup, and to engage only if spotted and unable to slip away to continue surveillance and local law enforcement are to avoid…”

 

He had been vaguely aware of the Hunters calling quietly into their radios for that heavy backup, the sounds of the local law enforcement slowly standing up, and the equally ominous sound of someone behind him chambering a weapon and clicking the hammer back. He was too busy staring at the TV, dumb with shock and disbelief, and the only thought he had was that when he caught up with Gisela he was going to put a few new lessons into the Bible of Pain. The reporter was oblivious to the drama in the dinner, talking about a four million dollar reward for bringing him in dead, and a one hundred thousand dollar reward for information that led to the Hunters bringing him in dead, but it wasn’t until Razia whimpered that he became aware of the person coming up behind him with a weapon pointed at the back of his head. The unseen person snorted before he started pulling the trigger. “Easiest four million I ever earned.”

 

 

Outside, three Hunter cars and the local law enforcement SWAP team pulled up, the Special Weapons and Pokégirls unit unloading behind the heavy weapons team in the back Hunter vehicle. A full twenty four pokégirls were released by the Hunter team, and just as the leader of the Hunter’s raised the megaphone to his mouth, a single gunshot rang out from the dinner, swiftly followed by two more. A woman screamed, someone gurgled, and then the sound of someone landing heavily on the floor seemed to echo down the street.