Chapter Two
A New Feeling
Ash hung onto Professor Birch's every word as he described Ash's newest partner. "Your new pokémon is called Kirkia, and she is typically the evolved form of Ralts; however, I can tell by looking at her that she has never evolved. She was born in that form," stated Professor Birch.
A pokémon in a stage one form who has never evolved? How sweet is that! thought Ash with a smirk. He was already fast becoming smitten with his new partner's form and the grace with which she battled, but to know that she had been born with power that could not be contained within the basic form of her species proved without a doubt that she was special. And she chose to become my partner. His heart swelled with a texture of pride that he had never felt before.
"Be warned, however," began the Professor, snapping Ash out of his thoughts. "Pokémon of her species take loyalty to their trainers to a whole different level. Most eventually fall in love with their trainers." That was something Ash found interesting: a whole species whose existence encouraged poképhilia.
"Thank for the warning, but that's no big deal," said Ash. "I'm a huge believer in equality between all, humans and pokémon alike. This won't be the first time I'll have a pokémon of mine develop a crush on me." Professor Birch shook his head.
"This pokémon's love for their trainer goes beyond the level of a simple crush. It will inevitably get to the point where the trainer will have no choice but to shun their affections or give in."
"I would never hurt one of my pokémon like that!" exclaimed Ash, disgusted at the idea of a trainer shunning one of their pokémon. Pokémon had feelings just like everyone else, and the idea of shunning one for expressing an emotion that no one would shun a human for pissed Ash off to no end. To prove his point, Ash caressed his Kirlia's green hair before leaning in to kiss her.
'Master,' gasped Kirlia via telepathy, 'what is this new feeling? It is indescribable!' Ash poked her mouth with his tongue, prompting her to open it. He tasted the inside of her mouth thoroughly.
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Birch watched the exchange between Ash and his Kirlia with a smirk. There was a reason why he had told Ash about the affection the gardevior line generally felt for their trainers in the way that he did. He had played to the young trainer's emotions to see how the young teen would react. Birch had been proud when Ash got defensive of his new partner's hypothetical feelings. The make-out session that Birch was now witnessing between pokémon and trainer was proof that Ash's heart was as good as his old friend Samuel had said it was, and that his actions were as extraordinary and unpredictable. Birch had honestly had no intentions in becoming voyeur to an intense and passionate make-out session that day, but he had to roll with the punches. Besides, studying such an encounter between trainer and pokémon called to his nature as a Pokémon Researcher.
An intense make-out session evolved into heavy petting, which was something that was predictable. The intense passions of the pokémon species in question was never one to be underestimated. When clothes proceeded to come off, Professor Birch decided, quite wisely in his mind, to make a tactful retreat. When he heard loud moans moments later all the way from his office in the back of his lab building, Birch confirmed to himself that the retreat had been wise.
It also had the added benefit of allowing him to catch up on paperwork.
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Kirlia was marvelously sore after her master made love to her on the floor of Birch's lab. Not the most romantic of places to do it, but Kirlia could not bring herself to care as she redressed. 'Master,' she called telepathically.
"Yes, Kirlia dear?" asked Ash as he finished dressing, placing his hat back on his head.
'Why did you kiss me back there in front of Professor Birch?' she asked with a blush. 'Not that I minded or anything,' her blush deepened, 'but it is usually the kirlia or gardevior who initiates the first kiss with his/her trainer.
"Did you hear what he said about you?" asked Ash softly. Kirlia nodded. "I couldn't let you feel like I'd ever reject you. I couldn't let the thought of such an occurrence happening cloud your mind or bring tears to your beautiful eyes. I love and cherish all of my pokémon. Loving you like this is simply a new way to love and cherish you."
'You could have waited until tonight instead of starting it in front of Professor Birch,' she pointed out.
"I could have," admitted Ash, "but I didn't. I wasn't going to let you think for another second that I might hurt you sometime down the road. I wanted to make it clear that you are my partner now, and that you are dear to me." He leaned forward and kissed her softly. "You are stunningly beautiful in appearance and graceful in battle. I was smitten with you from the moment I first saw you battle." Kirlia was moved by her master's confession. She hugged him with her thin, wirey arms. He embraced her in return. He then stepped back and brought out that machine thing that Kirlia had seen Professor Birch upgrade for him. A pokédex, humans called it.
"Kirlia, typically the evolved form of Ralts. This kirlia was born as such. No information is available on how this occurred. The affection level for her trainer is maxed out. Further upgrade is required to determine love level. Her moves are Quick Artack, Confusion, Attract, Growl, and Double Team," read out the pokédex. "Further scans reveal that this pokémon and her trainer have consensually mated. This data has been recorded and submitted to the database. Further upgrades are required by league law to monitor such relations between pokémon and humans. You have forty-eight hours to comply with the law." Kirlia blushed as she realized that this would mean revealing to Birch the full depth of what happened between herself and her master.
"Let's go find Professor Birch and get this over with," suggested Ash. Kirlia only nodded. He was her master after all; if he thought getting it over with was a good plan, then who was she to argue. She hardly knew anything about human interactions, after all. She had been wild until just a couple of days before.
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Birch was nonplussed when Ash came in to his office with Kirlia in tail. He knew exactly what the boy had come to him for. "Your pokédex please?" he asked, holding out his hand. Ash handed the pokédex to him with a dark blush on his face. "You aren't the first trainer I've given the mandatory poképhilia upgrades to, and you won't be the last. I assume you want the love level reader upgrade as well?" Ash nodded mutely, seemingly too bashful to speak. Professor Birch hooked the device up to his computer and opened the back panel. He began installing the upgrades – physically, as well as through data. The amount of hardware doubled the size of the device, when all was said and done. While he was doing the upgrades, Ash's pikachu scurried into the room and climbed up onto the boy's shoulder. "And done," he declared as he handed the device back to its owner.
The trainer powered up the device and scanned Kirlia. "This kirlia's love level is intermediate: not enough to provoke her to initiate relations with her trainer, but enough that she would not resist any advances made by her trainer. This Kirlia's lust level is high, due to recently mating with her trainer: enough that her love level is prone to increase with further matings. Due to high lust level, trainer is forbidden from using this kirlia in league regulated battles until her lust falls to low medium. By scans, this pokémon is healthy. Her trainer is therefore permitted by the league laws to engage in all possible acts of mating with her."
Birch smirked at Ash. "You can knock up your new girlfriend if you want; it is considered by the league to be an act of mating. You can also try the freaky stuff. Just some friendly advice."
"Thanks, Professor Birch," said Ash with a grin, seeming to forget his initial bashfulness.
"You are very welcome, young trainer," he said before leaning in to whisper in ash's ear, "and fellow poképhile." Ash simply smirked at the admission before saying his goodbyes and leading Kirlia from the room. Once he left, Birch smirked to himself. "You may be a fantastic trainer and a lucky man Ash, but your new girlfriend is not yet nearly as fantastic as My gardevior." He reaches into his lab coat and pulled out a custom-made pokéball – it was the luxury ball before luxury balls were even invented. "Come out, my dear sweet Gabby." The most beautiful female in existence, in the opinion of Professor Birch, appeared.
'How may serve you, my master?' asked Gabby using telepathy.
"I've just called you out to inform you that you will soon have a new rival to your beauty," said Professor Birch. "A young trainer by the name of Ash has caught your daughter." Birch had, of course, immediately recognized the kirlia that Ash had caught as his gardevior's own daughter, who had hatched as a kirlia thirteen years ago. It had only been a couple years back that Gabby had released her daughter into the wild. They had devised the test he had given Ash together for any trainer who came to Birch's lab having caught her daughter.
'I assume that since he still has his trainers license and you haven't confiscated it that he has passed the test?' asked Gabby with an eyebrow delicately raised.
"He did more than pass our little test, I can assure you of that," replied Professor Birch. "Although I wouldn't have abused my power like that, in any case." He could tell that Gabby hadn't believed his last statement, nor should she have. It was a bald faced lie that was more to himself than it was to her. He cherished his reputation as an honest man, but had his precious gardevior's daughter been under threat by the trainer who caught her he would have done what was necessary to protect her.
'Oh? How did my daughter's trainer manage to surpass your expectations so thoroughly?' asked Gabby with a bemused look on her face.
"When I told him that some trainers shun your kind when they express their feelings, he got immediately defensive on your species' behalf and declared his belief in equality for all. Pokémon and humans alike. Then, as if to prove his sincerity, he cradled the little kirlia's head like it was the most precious thing he had ever held before kissing her squarely on the lips," he replied, causing Gabby to look shocked. "The kiss got more passionate and gradually dissolved into lovemaking, at which time I fled to this office. I could still hear it all the way from in here."
'Arceus," Gabby swore, 'that is the hottest thing I've heard in years. If my kind wore panties, they would be soaking.' She took a deep breath. 'Take me now, Master, on this desk!' Birch grinned as he pinned his lovely partner to the desk and proceeded to take her against the polished wood surface.
He had sometimes wondered over the years if the kirlia that his gardevior birthed all those years ago was his or had been sired by one of his male pokémon. His gardevior had always been a certifiable slut; it was one of her less wholesome traits. Not that Birch was one to talk; he regularly mated with every one of his female pokémon. It didn't really matter who she was sired by, though, because she belonged to Ash Ketchum now.
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"I just got a text from Natalie. My mother is coming to Hoenn to bring me home, with a new plan for me to marry Natalie herself and not that rich bitch father set me up with," said James to himself worriedly as he walked the streets of Odale Town, having gone on a walk to get away from Jessie's constant bickering in order to think. "I knew that using my family's credit was a risk, but father usually keeps the information to himself. How would Mother have found out? Eavesdropping?" He paced for a little while on a short side-street. "It doesn't matter. Mother wants me to marry Natalie, a girl who I've always secretly admired. But how can I ditch Team Rocket?" James then slapped himself on the forehead for being so stupid. "Giovanni cares about money more than anything. I'll bribe him with the family coffers to get a promotion to a position that doesn't involve field work. I'll do the same for Jessie, and Meowth can decide which one of us he likes to work with better." James dialed his mother's pokénav number.
"Hello?" asked a voice he hadn't heard in years.
"Mother?" He asked in shock at having got ahold of his mother so easily after all these years.
"James! How are you?" asked Mrs. Morgan over the nav.
"Better, now that I've heard from Natalie," replied James. "Heard you think she's the ideal candidate to be my bride and that you're on your way to Hoenn to find me."
"Oh, that blabbermouth," his mother said. "I don't get to surprise my dear boy after all. But the fact that she's concerned about your reaction to me finding you in Hoenn proves that she cares about you."
"I'm calling now to tell you that there's a little hitch in your plans," said James.
"And that is?" asked his mother.
"Team Rocket," said James dryly. "I am a member. I will need access to the family coffers in order to give Giovanni the proper incentive to promote me to a position in which I am free to have a life outside of Team Rocket."
"We have to bribe the leader of a criminal organization?" asked his mother dryly. "It sounds like another Wednesday. I'll give you the family banking information, so prepare to write it down."
James wrote down his family banking information gleefully as his mother recited it. Next up, bribing the boss.
He returned to the Pokémon Center and immediately filled Jessie and Meowth in on what was happening. He expected Jessie to complain, but he was met with a slap on the shoulder. "Go for it, James. It's your family, you've only got one of those, just like there is only one pikachu in the world as strong as the twerp's."
"That's right," said Meowth, "and make sure to make me best cat at your wedding."
"You've got it," said James with a thumbs up.
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"So you want a promotion?" asked Giovanni. "What have you got for me to make me want to give you one?"
"My family will donate five hundred million yen yearly to Team Rocket," replied James.
"Could they make it a billion?" asked Giovanni.
"That's a bit steep for a donation to a criminal organization that is not even based in Sinnoh," replied James without batting an eye, having grown up watching and practicing shrewd business dealings. "How about seven hundred fifty million?"
"Eight hundred seventy-five million?"
"We'll do it," said James. "A pleasure doing business with you."
"No, the pleasure was all mine," said Giovanni with a smile that seemed genuine but that everyone in Team Rocket knew was patently fake. "Give my regards to your most generous family."
"Sure," said James. Giovanni signed promotion papers for James, as well as for Jessie. Their positions were ones that Giovanni reserved for his top donors. Ones that would allow them maximum flexibility in their work schedule (meaning they practically could do whatever they wanted as long as they did not disturb Team Rocket's goals.
Jessie and James were led to lockers that had new uniforms for them to wear. Uniform policy was the only thing that got stricter in higher positions. They could no longer get away with wearing their personalized outfits. James had to wear a black button down shirt with a fancy red R embroidered on the pocket and stylish black slacks along with black leather loafers. Jessie had to wear a stunning black dress with a fancy R embroidered in the center of the fabric over her midriff.
They said their motto one more time before leaving.
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all people's within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jessie."
"James."
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."
"Surrender now or prepare to fight."
Another voice jumped in. "Meowth, that's right."
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When Natalie first saw James in his new uniform, her mouth watered. Team Rocket sure made sure that their top agents dressed well.
Mrs. Morgan had already used her methods of persuasion on Mr. Morgan upon returning to the estate with James in tow, and so their wedding was already being prepared. Natalie's family was currently staying at the estate in preparation for the big day.
That evening, after supper, James led Natalie back to her room. Instead of saying farewell at the door, as had been their custom since James' return, she guided him in to her room by the hand and closed the door, locking it. She then looked at him with a sultry gaze.
He took her lips with his, hungrily, and lifted her, backing her to the bed with a few steps. He was now on the hunt and after Natalie, and he was hungry like the wolf.
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Having left Birch's lab with Kirlia at his side and Pikachu on his shoulder, Ash Ketchum began the journey to Odale Town. After his luck with his first Hoenn pokémon, Ash was ready to catch more pokémon. Not just any pokémon, though. They had to be special, just like his Kirlia.
