(05/20/306 1100 Viridick City, Indigo League)
While the outside of the lab had been a monument to security the inside held a more sophisticated air. Beautiful paintings and delicate tapestries were hung with care and extravagant sculptures of jade and glass were interspersed throughout the room. A perfectly smooth granite floor marked with a swirling blue and black pattern. Branching off of the room were six unmarked halls, 3 on each side. In between the first set of halls sat a stainless steel desk, behind which sat a Ka-D-Bra watching a bank of 6 monitors.
Jessica approached the desk her footsteps echoing loudly across the room as she gazed in silent wonder at the marked difference between the outside of the lab and the inside.
Why would they make the lobby for a lab so extravagant. It wouldn’t be out of place in one of those extremely high end hotels the rich enjoy so much Jessica thought to herself noting that all of the art came from artists she had heard of, only human artists though. Would be more surprising for a place in Viridick to have a painting by an Ar-Tits I suppose.
“Welcome to the Viridick Institute for the Advancement of Science, how may I serve you today?” The Ka-D-Bra behind the desk stood and bowed at the waist as she neared, shoulder length lavender hair falling to conceal her face from view.
“I am Jessica Sabers and I am here to pick up a package for Professor Ellsworth from Professor Mendel.” Out of the corner of her eye she could see the monitors the Ka-D-Bra had been watching when she walked in, they were all showing security footage from the cameras hidden around the lobby, several of them showed a view from inside the sculptures.
“Very well, one moment please.” The Ka-D-Bra began typing on her keyboard. Several minutes went by before she finally turned back to Jessica.
“You’ll have to speak with Professor Mendel directly about it, I’ll call for someone to escort you to the lab under his purview. Please have a seat while you wait.” She gestured to one of the black leather couches placed along the walls near the desk.
Jessica took a seat in the deceptively comfortable couch, the leather letting out a slow groan of protest as she sank in.
Time slowly ticked by as she waited, the clock above her head seemed to tick ever louder as the minutes passed. Five minutes, fifteen then thirty minutes finally came and went before a Hound dressed in a standard security outfit slightly modified for her whip like tail arrived.
“Mistress Sabers, if you will please follow me.” After a cursory glance to make sure Jessica was behind her the Hound began heading down the closest of the halls branching off from the lobby.
About 100 feet into the hallway the patterned granite from the lobby abruptly demarcated with a switch to an alabaster marble. The previously abundant art decorating the walls disappeared as well leaving a solid white expanse with only unmarked steel doors evenly spaced every 50 feet along the hallway to give any indication that they were actually moving.
The Hound suddenly stopped in front of a seemingly random door and Jessica barely caught herself in time to prevent crashing into her. Ignoring the close call the Hound rapped thrice on the door and waited. After thirty seconds the spot on the door where a handle would be began to glow an iridescent green and the door swung open unassisted.
The door opened to reveal a room that finally met Jessica's expectations. All around the room plants were growing, each one separated from the others by a fine mesh screen. A row of expensive looking machines lined the edges of the room with a few currently being used judging by the flashing lights and mechanical whirring sounds.
“Ah you must be Jessica, please come in.” Professor Mendel was a stout man with a thick mane of inky black hair. What caught her eye most however was his heterochromia, one blue eye and one copper.
He warmly shook Jessica’s hand gesturing her deeper into the lab before turning back to the Hound that had escorted her. “I’ll take it from here, you can leave now.” He dismissed her quickly before striding across the room to one of the machines that had begun printing a long roll of paper as the door closed itself with a hiss of air.
“Unfortunately the package you are supposed to pick up isn’t quite ready yet. We actually had a bit of a breakthrough recently you see and we are trying to put together as much we can for Professor Ellsworth.” He absentmindedly spoke while he began perusing though the paper.
“How long do you think it will be before everything is ready?” She clamped down on the irritation she felt hoping that it would only be a minor delay.
“Only another hour or so the lab assistants are putting everything together presently.” Long enough to be a pain but not long enough to make it worth leaving only to come back later in other words. “It will be a bit boring for you I’m afraid, unless you’re interested in the research there really isn’t anything else to do.”
“What kind of research is it, all I could find out was that it was for improved crops?” Given the choice between standing around for at least an hour or talking about research she chose the slightly lesser of two evils and went with research.
“We managed to cross breed berry plants with several species of crops.” The Professor began speaking more excitedly as he continued and Jessica realized to her misfortune that he was a talker. “Even with the efforts of Elves and other plant pokegirls crops don’t grow as well in colder climates. Berry plants however can thrive anywhere there is soil to be found and our goal was to make crops that could replicate this. We finally managed to cross a berry tree with corn after some notes that had been in one of Sukebe’s labs were found.”
“That’s pretty impressive, are they fully functional strains?” Crossbreeding the two seemed somewhat farfetched but the fact that genetic manipulation was more than heavily frowned upon meant that if they did it that way they would never admit to it.
“They aren’t quite ready for real world applications yet as many of the plants produced showed defects like reduced yield or an even greater sensitivity to temperature…” He trailed off lost in thought at several of the more difficult defects that had arisen before perking up. “The hard part was proven it could be done though, a bit more research and soon all crops will be grown from these new strains.”
“I’m sure you’ll work out-“ A desperate pounding noise at the door interrupted her before she could finish. She turned to face the door just as a light above it turned green and it slammed open. A young graduate student ran into the room wearing a ripped lab coat and covered in several different shades of what appeared to be pollen. Angry yelling could be heard behind him as well as a whipping noise accompanied by growling.
“Professor come quick there are some problems with getting the new samples.”
\oOo/
(05/20/306 1700 Viridick City, Indigo League)
A storm had rolled in while Jessica was in the lab and puddles of water littered the ground as a result. The sun was completely blocked from view, obscured by ominous black clouds that heralded the future return of more rain after a brief respite.
The portent of future rain invigorated Jessica as she had always enjoyed rain storms. From the deep, earthy scent released as the water rejuvenated the soil to the feel of the droplets as they crashed on her unclothed skin. Normal people would get sick after staying out in the rain as the cool water depressed the core body temperature leaving them susceptible to infection. With her Thermal Tolerance she didn’t have to worry about the cold rain making her sick and could enjoy the experience.
She walked quickly past the dour looking Amachamp still guarding the gate, not wanting to be anywhere near her powerful arms. She cast a glance behind her to make sure she was well out of range before releasing Sara in a flash that made the scene feel surreal. Bright red light scattered by the water laden scene beneath a skyline of roiling black.
Sara seemed unaffected by the scene however taking her time to languidly stretch after making sure there was no danger nearby. Feeling the heat of Jessica’s gaze on her at her movements she made sure to arch her back more than necessary as she stretched to accentuate her uncovered breasts. She let a grin bloom across her face at the sound of Jessica letting out a small whistle at the enticing view.
“So did anything bad happen while I was in my ball.” Sara quickly took her place beside Jessica after the short show and the two began slowly making their way towards the pokecenter.
“A better question would be what happened that wasn't bad. It took six hours for me to finally get the package and I couldn't even leave and come back as they went into a security lock down.”
“What happened that would cause a lock down?” Sara asked with concern looking Jessica over once more in search of any wounds she hadn't seen at first blush.
“One of the plants they have there is apparently this bush that can release a spore that causes confusion in pokegirls. Now you would think that something like that would be grown in a segregated area where pokegirls were not allowed but that is another issue altogether I suppose. Anyway a graduate student decided that shoving an Ivywhore directly into said bush because she was in his way was a great idea and she started throwing powders around in her confusion. Several pokegirls had gotten near her in an attempt to stop her but got a face full of Lust Dust for their efforts and that’s when things started to get really interesting.” Thinking about the cavalcade of errors that resulted in losing most of her day made her head ache and she gently massaged her forehead in the vain attempt to relieve it.
They were almost past Viridick Park when a muffled shriek caught Jessica's attention and she stopped thinking about her own headache.
“Did you hear that?” Jessica asked looking around to see if she had just imagined the sound.
Another cry heard slightly louder than the first was heard by both of them.
“It’s coming from inside the park. Should we check it out?” Sara's tail twitched back and forth in agitation and Jessica mentally noted the nervous twitch; she did the same thing when Jessica hit a particularly good spot during sex.
“Let’s go see if they need help, if they just want to be left alone we can leave.” Decision made they entered the wooded park and Sara took point and began tracking the cries as best she could.
While technically a park the place was meant to serve as an outdoor location the population could go to without risking attack by a feral. A well maintained path ran a winding route through the park but once off the path wilderness was apparent with thick walls of trees, thickets of thorny bushes, and even several large ponds teeming with fish.
They followed the path for a short while until it diverged suddenly at a thick wall of bushes.
“Look over there.” Jessica reached out and grabbed the piece of torn red cloth sticking out of the foliage. “They must be through here.”
They carefully made their way through the bushes trying their best to avoid the prickly branches. They finally found the source of the cries beneath a small copse of trees. Between the dense storm clouds obscuring the remaining sunlight and the thick canopy above them all that could be seen was that they were both female. The sobbing had begun to slow as they approached and now with them in sight appeared to have stopped.
“This looks under control we should get out of here before we are seen.” Sara looked at Jessica expecting her agreement only to to find her staring at the figures. A cloud obscuring the last of the setting sun’s light passed and dimly illuminated the area enough to reveal the two figures.
“Heartsmuff?” The shock of seeing the normally haughty and arrogant girl being held by her Draco as she cried caused her to forget that they were trying to not be noticed.
Alerted to their presence the Draco leapt to her feet and started to make her way to them ruby red tail whipping back and forth in anger.
“Stop.” Casey called out to the Draco as she stood up and faced the still concealed Jessica. “Come to laugh at the failure have you? Why not, at least I can be good at that. Might even be able to make a few credits selling tickets I bet.” She broke down into sobs again, almost falling to her knees before her Draco managed to catch her.
She made for a truly miserable sight. Her normally immaculate golden hair had become matted and her eyes were a bright red from crying. The recent rain hadn’t helped much; her clothes were completely soaked through and covered in a dark brown mud.
At Ridgeville the girls had been rivals of a sort. Jessica’s coolly distant demeanor rubbed the brash Casey the wrong way and she had always sought to outdo her. Jessica eventually won though and received the higher class rank. At the sight before her though Jessica’s heart broke and she regretted every ill word she had ever spoken to Casey.
She broke the cover provided by the bush and headed over to Casey followed by Sara nipping at her heels. A few feet away she stopped when the Draco barred her teeth as she held the hysterically sobbing girl.
“You’re not a failure Casey, you managed to get one of the top spots at Ridgeville didn’t you?” She spoke as soothingly as possible in an attempt to calm her down.
“Fifth place, I would have been better off in last at least then I could just say I didn’t try at all. Daddy says that fifth place is just a disgrace to the Heartsmuff name. That I’m a stain on the family.” She had run out of tears it would seem and dry sobs racked her body as she mentioned her father.
Jessica knelt down and drew the girl into her lap from the grasp of the unresisting Draco.
“He’s wrong. You’re not a failure. You’re not a disgrace. You are worth something.” Casey clutched at her like she was a life preserver and Jessica whispered sweet nothings into her ear as she patted her back. Eventually the words seemed to take effect and the sobs wracking the larger girls body began to subside.
The group remained motionless for several minutes, only the occasional sob or sniffle from Casey to be heard. A sudden flash of lightning lit the surreal scene and time seemed to slow to a crawl for Jessica. She seemed to see everything at once, the helpless look on the Draco’s face of someone that has found a situation that dearly want to resolve but are unable. Sara’s own look of uncertainty as she was confronted with a situation she had no idea where to start at in dealing with. Even Casey’s face as she pressed deeply into her shoulder and sobbed.
Sounds faded into the background and all she could hear was the sound of her own blood as it coursed through her veins. After what seemed an eternity a vicious peal of thunder rang out and time resumed its normal march. The thunder was a herald of things to come however and a torrential downpour soon came down from the heavens and within moments everyone was soaked to the bone from the icy rain.
“Come on Casey let’s get you out of this storm before you catch a cold, you can get cleaned up at the pokecenter.” Though she said them as reassuringly as possible the words didn’t have the intended effect. Casey suddenly tensed in her arms and starting weakly trying to escape Jessica’s grip.
“No, I can’t go out there like this. If I do then they’ll know. No one can know.” The words seemed to be directed more at herself than anyone and Jessica felt unsure as to whether Casey even realized that someone other than her Draco was there. She exchanged a look with the Draco who still maintained an expression of being unable to deal with the situation and was of no help.
“No one will know, I’m soaking wet and covered in mud too. Everyone will just assume we were fighting and if they ask I’ll tell them you won.” Casey stopped resisting and Jessica rose to her feet gently bringing Casey with her.
She carefully guided her to a slightly different way out than they had entered, hoping to avoid the bushes that had caused the bright cut on Casey’s arm where her shirt had torn.
The sudden downpour had almost completely cleared the streets of any people by the time the group made it out of the park and fortunately they didn’t meet anyone during the short walk to the pokecenter.
Unfortunately it seemed that everyone that would have been on the street had crowded into the pokecenter in order to avoid the rain. Jessica had to force her way through the crowded lobby with Casey insensately following behind her after having had to put up both of their pokegirls.
“See you aren’t the only one to look like that.” Jessica whispered to Casey. Almost a third of the people in the center were covered in varying amounts of mud and almost all of them were soaking wet. One poor fellow was particularly bad off and had mud covering his hair that would every so often succumb to gravity and a small piece would drip down onto his face.
She got a watery smile in return for her comment and continued to lead Casey to the room she had reserved that morning before the sudden glut of Tamers in need of place to stay.
Once fully in the room Jessica quickly guided the still unresisting Casey to the bathroom and turned the shower on to one step below scalding.
“I’ll leave you in her to get cleaned up.” Jessica started to walk out of the bathroom in order to give Casey some privacy when she was suddenly grabbed from behind.
“Please, don’t leave yet. I… I… I don’t want to be alone.” The lost look in her dull caramel eyes spoke far louder than her words ever could.
“I promise I won’t go far. Just into the bedroom and I’ll leave the door open. You’ll be able to see me the entire time. Is that okay?” Casey looked down at the floor before slowly nodding. Jessica gently pulled her head down and lightly pressed a kiss to her rain slicked brow before slowly walking back to the bedroom and leaving her alone.
Jessica kept an eye on Casey as she robotically removed her clothes and stepped underneath the curtain of water. She grabbed the pokeballs containing both Sara and the Draco she still didn’t know the name of and released them into the room. The Draco immediately started looking for Casey and only relaxed after seeing her blurry figure through the fogged glass of the shower. Sara kept her eye on the Draco the entire time watching for any actions that might be a threat.
“First, what’s your name?” Jessica began to disrobe as well tossing her own soiled clothes into the bathroom as she questioned the Draco.
“Maria. Casey gave it to me; she said it meant rebellion in Hebrew.” A ghost of a smile came over her face as she ran her fingers over a dragon scale inset in a well worn necklace and recalled memories of a more pleasant time.
“Care to explain what is going on with Casey right now? She never acted like this back at the academy.” Jessica lowered her voice and hoped the sounds of the shower would cover their conversation.
She grabbed a towel and began to wipe the accumulated water and dirt off of her nude form and watched as Maria stood there trying to figure out where to begin.
“We’ve been together a lot longer than you might realize.” Maria slowly began, talking faster as she continued. “We were best friends for years, did everything together until I underwent threshold last year and became a Mynx. You might even remember me a little, I was the girl at the academy that was always with Casey when you were having your rows.”
Jessica ignored the silent accusation knowing it would never lead anywhere good. “Wait wasn't your name Stacey?”
“Yes, my name was Stacey.” No one missed the emphasis on the past tense. “Overnight my life came crashing down around me. The academy kicked me out immediately of course there is a very strict policy on what happens in threshold cases. My mother as my de facto owner made the call to have me level 5'd and sold to a ranch. She spent an hour ranting to me about how I was ruining her life and what would people think of pure humans such as they producing a daughter that underwent threshold.
“Casey refused to let that happen though, she ended up blackmailing mother with the fact that she wasn't actually PSH in order to get her to give me to her without being level 5'd.”
“How did she manage to keep you I know she didn't have her license and I never saw you on campus again.”
“Her grandfather managed to get an expedited pet license for her and I stayed at his house with Casey coming to visit when she was able.” She sat lost in thought and Jessica prodded her back onto the point.
“I'm sorry but what happened to her that caused what happened today.”
“Her grandfather is a great man, her father on the other hand isn’t. He lives off of his father’s accomplishments, turning to drink in order to forget his own failures as a tamer. Anytime he saw her he would bad mouth her, call her a failure or a whore.” She barred her teeth and a growl came from low in her throat as she spoke. She paused trying to decide whether or not to tell the next part or not. “She met with him last night and hasn’t said anything yet but I think he may have raped her.”
“He did.” Casey’s voice was hollow as she suddenly broke through the silence created by Maria’s last words. Jessica realized that the sounds of the shower had stopped and wondered how much Casey had heard. “Grandfather was out at some meeting and I walked in to him drinking.” Her eyes glazed over and she spoke with a detached voice as she remembered the event.
Jessica shared a look with Maria before getting up and walking over to Casey and slowly embraced her. “It’s alright Casey you don’t have to remember it.”
“What was I supposed to do? I can’t fight him he’s my dad.” Jessica held the girl to her as tracks of tears ran down her cheeks to crash on to the floor.
Maria followed and enveloped Casey from behind. Sara hesitated before joining in. “It’s okay Casey we’re here for you.” She said soothingly softly stroking her wet golden hair.
“Will you and Sara stay the night, we… I need it.” Her voice cracked with the admission and a single tear formed from the bottom of her eye and rolled down her cheek.
“We’ll be here for as long as you need.” She murmured into her ear.
\oOo/
(05/21/306 0800 Viridick City, Indigo League)
Jessica awoke at the sound of a door gently snapping shut. The heavy stench of sex permeated the room bringing to bare last night’s activities. She remembered falling asleep with Casey in her arms and Sara spooning Maria behind her, but at some point she had shifted and now had her arms comfortably wrapped around Sara.
She couldn’t feel anyone in the bed behind her and a quick glance around found there was no one to be seen in the bathroom which meant that the door closing was Casey and Maria leaving. That their gear was nowhere to be seen indicated that they had left without the intention of returning.
That Casey had left without saying goodbye didn’t truly surprise her. From her actions the night before Casey couldn’t stand others thinking she was weak. She was probably ashamed of her breakdown and left to try and save face. That Jessica could help her wouldn’t matter, emotions overruled logic every time. She would want to deal with her issues on her own.
A soft moan broke Jessica’s musings, somehow during the course of the night Sara had ended up with her pussy rubbing against Jessica’s knee and was currently whimpering slightly. Still asleep she softly ground her body against Jessica unconsciously trying to increase the pleasure she felt. With a smirk Jessica moved her hand down and substituted a finger for what her knee was doing. She acted slowly trying her best not to wake Sara when she suddenly came with a shudder and snapped awake.
“Morning beautiful.” Jessica kissed the still dazed Sara deeply, continuing her ministrations on her.
“Where’s Casey and Maria?” Sara finally asked the pleasure induced cloud obscuring her thoughts lifting at last.
“Don’t you just mean where’s Maria?” While Jessica had focused solely on comforting Casey the two dragon types had come together for mutual pleasure.
Sara blushed heavily at the memory of her first experience with tail play before turning serious. “Will they be okay?”
Jessica lay there in silence for a few minutes just watching Sara before answering. “I’m really not sure. She is strong though and if she can heal and move on then she'll thrive in this world. If she can't move past it or rationalizes it as somehow her fault then I'm not sure what will happen honestly.”
“Do you think you could move past what happened, if it happened to you?” Sara voiced the question that she had been avoiding asking herself ever since she had found out what had happened.
“I don't know. I just hope I never have to find out.”
The two lay there drawing comfort from the others presence amidst a bad situation.
\oOo/
(05/21/306 1000 Viridick City, Indigo League)
“Wow that’s pretty impressive.” The two had made their way to the east side of Viridick where the airship dock was and were currently watching as the crew scurried around resupplying the ship before it left for it's next destination.
“It’s called the Drakthor. It goes around the world from west to east in 50 days hitting every league in the northern hemisphere.” Jessica read from a pamphlet that she had found by the entrance. “It's mainly a passenger ship so not much time is spent exchanging freight at their destinations.
“But if you wanted to go from east to west you would have to wait for it to circle the whole way around again?” Sara frowned as she asked face pressed against the glass to get as close a view as possible the sight of an actual airship completely new to her.
“Either that or ride on its sister ship the Melancair, it hits every league in the northern hemisphere going from east to west but it stops in different cities within each league.” Jessica watched as ice began to creep along the glass radiating out from where Sara's icy breath hit it.
“All passengers are now free to board, once again we thank you for your patience.” A cute Eva clothed in a risque stewardess uniform announced from beside the jet bridge entry way.
Sara almost sprinted to the tunnel and Jessica covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the giggle that threatened to erupt at the scene.
The duo walked up the bridge and entered the opulent lounge room of the Drakthor.
“Jessica why did we get to go through security so quickly when other people have to wait?” Sara pointed out the window towards the building they had just come from where a long line of people where being funneled through a single security checkpoint.
“Technically we are on secure league business right now which means we are not allowed to be searched unless there is a compelling reason to believe there is a need for it and even then the person searching needs a security clearance above the person being searched.”
“Doesn't that pretty much defeat the entire purpose of having security though?”
“Pretty much but the people high up that get paid to make those kinds of decisions decided it was a worthwhile trade off.” Jessica shrugged at the futility and looked around searching for an indicator of where their room would be. “There it is, the second hall on the right leads to our part of second class.”
“What are the differences between the classes?” Sara asked as they walked down the hall passing by those that had already been on the ship prior to it's arriving in Viridick.
“1st class lodgings are large state rooms with a full bath. They also have a separate lounge and a different section to enter and leave the ship so it’s much faster for them. 2nd class has their own room but it is fairly small and bathing is communal. 3rd class is dormitory style sleeping. Thankfully any secure league business involving transport requires an individual room or else we would have been stuck with dormitory style sleeping.”
“Why would they require you to have an individual room?”
“The theft rate is enormous in 3rd class. People have difficulty watching their things when they are taming so some crafty people keep an eye out and strike when least suspected.”
She swiped her pokedex in front of the door handle and a ding was heard before the door swung open unassisted.
“When you said small I hadn’t thought it would be quite this bad.” Sara swept her gaze across the room.
Space and weight are always at a premium on an airship and their room reflected that. A single queen size bed occupied almost 2/3 of the rooms area. There was no other furniture in the room and a door led presumably to the half bath they had access to.
“Most of the people that go 2nd class are Tamers and really what more do they need then a bed in order to entertain themselves.” Sara jumped onto the bed sinking slightly into the feather mattress. “ETA at Stamford is about 48 hours so we'll be here for a bit.”
“What are we going to do for all that time?” Sara asked posing a bit at the head of the bed.
“For an ice-type with an average libido you sure don't act like it.” Jessica observed as she began rifling through her pokepack in search of something.
“Libido is just the requirement for that breed to not go feral. I however rather enjoy taming and in the absence of anything else to do I am perfectly happy with it.”
“I know how happy your are with it. If I had a dick it would have fallen off by now.” Jessica remarked drily continuing her search. “Ah here it is.”
She opened the brim of the bag a little wider and pulled out her most prized possession. A white crystal chessboard with pieces of sapphire and tanzanite.
“It's beautiful.” Sara ran a finger along the edge of the board and was surprised to note that the board itself seemed to be radiating cold.
“Thank you, it was my mother's and after her death it passed on to me. I've always wanted to play against someone on it but I never found anyone it seemed right to play with. So it has just served as a reminder of her anytime I thought I needed one.” Jessica caressed the sapphire king, crafted in the shape of a regal Ice Empress, as she spoke.
“I would be honored to play on that board.” Sara embraced Jessica from behind and with a shared smile set up the board.
Notes:
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