Tamer Gothic - Battle City
Chapter 37
Airship. On Route to Battle City Finals.
After swallowing I slowly put down my fork and waited for a moment before speaking to my boss, and I didn't mean Mr House.
"I never know when you're coming, but I'm starting to sense when you'll be around" I said to Sexebi.
Before I'd noticed that time had frozen there had been a feeling in the air, I didn't have words to describe it, but I'd known before looking around that time was no longer moving at its normal rate.
"What brings you here?" I asked, while turning to face the adorable pixie goddess "Is the world ending?".
I was currently sitting the airship's mess hall. There was no one else around so I hadn't been able to tell that time had stopped moving because people were frozen in place, however there was an unnatural stillness all around me.
"No I'm just bored" Sexebi told me "Oh and I had to get rid of a bomb".
The second part of what she had just said surprised me. Although I wasn't as shocked as someone else might have been. I was used to all the craziness by now.
"There was a bomb?" I asked.
The naked pixie poke was already helping herself to my lunch.
"That Nightshade guy found a way around his chip" she explained "he can't do anything directly so he planted a bomb on the airship in an attempt to kill off Team Gothic. One of his pokes is flying him back to the mainland. Oh and the bomb ended up at the north pole so thanks to me no one got hurt".
Nightshade was after all a clone of myself and therefore just as smart, the only real difference was that he had no moral centre and therefore he'd be willing to kill a lot of people to complete his objective. A bomb also got around his chip rather nicely.
Plus my creepy clone was now out of the contest, so that was one less headache to deal with.
"I should have him killed" I mused.
Normally I did my own killing, however ending the life of my own clone just seemed wrong somehow, even if he was a soulless freak of science.
"I don't approve of killing" Sexebi said.
Despite her words I doubted she would stop me from having Nightshade murdered. I'd hire that Conquistador Rey guy once the whole battle city thing was over and done with. I was sure that if I explained about the bomb he'd take the job. While he was a bounty hunter rather than assassin he'd end up killing the clone as I doubted the clone guy would allow himself to be taken alive.
"How can you be bored?" I asked "You have access to all of time and space?".
Well maybe not all of space, she might confined to Earth, still the planet was billions of years old so there had to be a lot to see.
"Do you know how to play poker?" Sexebi rather randomly asked.
I nodded my head and the next thing I knew I was being whisked through time.
(Line Break)
Location Unknown. Date Also Unknown.
One trip through time later I found myself in rather a posh house. Actually it was more like a castle, only with modern comforts. I hadn't seen much of the place, but it was reminding of when I'd visited Hogtits. Harry Porker was even here to complete the image.
Harry Porker, commonly known as the Boy-Who-Lived, had like myself been dragged off by Sexebi to join in a game of poker with a bunch of other Tamers. The pixie poke had cheerfully wished me luck in the up coming card game, and then had vanished again.
Already I had exchanged some of my treasures, small things like very old coins, jewelry and gemstones that I'd picked up during my travels, for chips. Which had been given to me by a pokegirl maid who was acting as the banker. It was explained to me that if I ran out of chips, I could trade in things such as evolution stones, bits of technology, weapons and even pokegirls. I was no longer concerned about selling pokegirls, unlike I had been in the past, but I wasn't going to barter thinking beings in a card game.
Then I had joined the group of nine Trainers already sitting around the table. There wasn't any chatter at the moment, but I figured as the game progressed that would likely change, and I hoped this would be the case as when the group had introduced themselves they had sounded like a very interesting bunch of lads.
It wasn't long before conversation began as Luke, who had not even been born yet, brought up an upcoming tournament that would happen two towns over from where he would one day live.
"I made it to the top ten during the Lust Wave Tournament in Stag City" Luke boasted.
I had no idea where Stag City was or what a Lust Wave Tournament could be, but I imagined that some of the places I'd been too would be just as unknown to him. Besides it might be best not to ask about that in case it was also part of my future. I could be around for centuries so it was possible I'd find out what a Lust Wave Tournament was.
"Really? What number did you make it to? Tenth?" a Tamer called Matt asked.
Matt was interesting because by this time he'd been put in stasis fifty years ago, for reasons he hadn't shared, and wouldn't be thawed out for another fifty. Stuff like that didn't matter much when you knew Sexebi, everyone at this table worked for her just in different times periods and perhaps in different ways. I would have to ask the pixie poke about that, but not right now as she off gathering other people who would take the place of one of us once that person was out of things to bet.
"I made seventh when I entered" Chad, another Tamer from a different time period "I thought you looked familiar".
Apparently not of all us were different times after all. That was something else I'd discuss with Sexebi later on. Assuming she ever bothered to explain herself.
Chad then flashed a grateful smile in the dealer's direction before giving us all a very smug look. Either the guy had no idea what a poker face was or he was trying to bluff everyone into thinking he had really good cards.
Ted, who had been born shortly after the Revenge Wars and was of the first Tamers to have a Blood Gift, was the first to fold and soon Matt and Arthur followed suit.
I didn't know much about Arthur, but he looked familiar for some reason. He was from the Blue League so I figured that I must have run into during my own adventures in that part of the world. Unlike the others he hadn't told us about himself. I did however know that he shared my love of magical swords as he had a enchanted blade.
Once those two had folded that left Chad, Harry, Luke, Steve, and myself to show what we'd got.
Despite my Luck Blood Gift ,Steve, who was from the Johto League, part of what was left of the USA, won the hand and it became Luke's turn to deal out the cards.
"So, Harry, how'd you end up with a lightening bolt shaped scar" Luke asked "I bet there's a story behind that".
With a sigh, the young Tamer began to tell his tale.
"My parents died during a spell back lash caused by a Dark Queen who was trying to kill me because of some stupid prophecy. I survived only because my mother protected me using her body, though I did get this scar" Harry said while pointing to his lightning bolt scar "That night. I was sent to live with my aunt, who'd married this old style walrus of a man, likely due to one too many Boobgongs and Selkie in the man's family tree if you get my drift…"
More then a few snorts followed that statement, which seemed to allow Porker a moment to collect his thoughts. I knew then that he planned to tell us all at least part of his life story. During that moment I wondered if Porker had met me yet as I remembered meeting him, but that had been so long ago for me that I couldn't quite recall how old he looked, and he hadn't asked about Daphne like I would have so it was possible that to him that this was our first meeting. If so it would explain why he had handed over the Nightmare without much concern, he may have already know it was going to happen.
"Anyway, my uncle and aunt never got a pokegirl to do the chores around the house once I arrived in their 'care', the few that they did have stay for a while weren't enough to entertain my cousin and he threw a hissy fit when he'd get 'bored' with them. By the time I was a ten nobody would sell Pokegirls to my aunt and uncle. Though I'm fairly sure my uncle never cared much for 'Taming' since my aunt never looked like she was getting any".
If this was all true then Harry Porkers life hadn't been that different than Harry Potters.
"Since I was pretty much their personal slave, they never saw it fit to teach me much about anything that didn't have to do with being a homemaker." he then continued "Anyway, because of my lack of education about pokegirls I never knew that my mother was one so I didn't know that I had a Blood Gift that lets me teleport, though it's exhausting to use".
In the Crimson League, which was pretty much a big melting pot of cultures and people, Blood Gifts were varied as men like myself bred with pokegirls of all types and the boys born of these unions could inherit pokegirl DNA from many different sources in their family trees.
However in the Blue League magic type pokegirls, mostly elves and witches, who made up a big part of the population, often bred with humans so in that part of the world magical Blood Gifts were the most common. Still even with that it was remarkable for a human boy to have the Blood Gift of teleportion, even more so considering he hadn't hit puberty when first telelporting. Porker was something special, that was for sure.
"The first time I used it was when my cousin was stalking towards me with an odd glint in his eye. I guess I'll never know what the fat lump of a cousin planned to do to me that day" he then went on to say.
Something cruel I didn't doubt.
"That day, I panicked and something just clicked in me. I found myself far from civilisation. I was exhausted after teleporting, ready to pass out at any moment. Thanks to Sexebi I made my way to a ranch and got myself some medical attention that my aunt and uncle weren't willing to pay for. Once I got registered in the system some people tracked me down and I was invited to attend Hogtits the rest is history."
The rest was very well know, he'd slain a Feral Naga, Tamed a Dark Lady, defeated the very Dark Queen who'd tried to kill him as a baby, and pretty much ended a small war in the process.
"So you never heard from them again?" Arthur asked.
Harry snorted.
"I didn't even know my own surname until I had been at the ranch for a week and I only learnt about my Mum and Dad through official records the league kept. I mean, my aunt and uncle clearly hoped to keep me under their thumb for as long as they could, they especially wouldn't want me to be a Tamer. After all, if they couldn't get a Pokegirl for their son, why would they want me to have one?" he told us.
I'd been in the Blue League ten years ago so I might have been able to end the abuses of Harry's aunt and uncle if I'd been willing to change the past that much. Which I hadn't been.
"Rough, man, rough, glad I never had to live that kind of life." Steve commented.
There were many nods in agreement.
"So what's your life story, Gothic?" asked one of the lads.
That was a tale which would take a while to tell.
"My story begins more than ten years" I said while dealing out the cards "I used to be a rather average guy living in the early 21st century, only on an alternate Earth".
The lack of reaction was an indication of just how weird the lives of the people around this table were. Time travel was normal to us, skipping a dimension was barely worth mentioning.
"Then suddenly I'm younger than I used to be and living in Pallet Town, and we didn't have pokegirls where I'm from so you can imagine how much of an adjustment that was".
Everyone nodded, and I didn't doubt they'd all had to adjust to strange circumstances.
"Anyway a few months later I'm a Tamer, cause what else was I going to do" I was now saying "I started off with Peekaboo and met a nice girl on the road. Had what I guess are some normal experiences, before things got weird. I met Sexebi, and she already knew me, which was hard to get my head around".
A few of the guys chuckled so I gathered I wasn't the only one this had happened to.
"If this story covers ten years then we'll need some drinks" Arthur stated.
Suddenly there was booze for everyone. Sexebi must have served them while time was frozen. I picked up a glass of something and kept going with my story.
(Line Break)
Airship. On Route to Battle City Finals.
I watched Nikita's eyes grew wider and wider as I emptied the pockets of my trench coat. A trench coat that I hadn't been wearing before Sexebi had whisked me off for a poker game with a group of what I was sure were some of the most famous Tamers in history, and the history that was yet to be written. I doubted that most of them had used their real names when introducing themselves, or at least not the names they'd chosen for themselves when becoming Tamers.
Also I had at some point picked up a new set of leather pants, a silk shirt, boots, and a set of fingerless leather gloves. Whenever I moved, there was a slight chink of metal clicking against metal, indicating that I had a great many weapons hidden on person, and I did.
"So, who'd you kill to get all this stuff?" Nikita wondered.
I chuckled upon hearing that.
"Don't be silly" I said "the people I took this stuff off were mostly alive when I left".
Although I imagined the hangovers they'd soon have would make them all wish I'd killed them instead of just destroying them at poker.
"Oh. That's good then" she commented.
I knew she wanted an explanation so I gave her one.
"Sexebi took me to a group of people playing poker, and I won everything you see off of them. Including these clothes, and lots of weapons. By the end of it they were starting to put pokegirls up too, but I didn't approve of that so I offered you instead".
Gambling pokegirls, while wrong in my view, hadn't been as bad as when players had started to bet human women. At that point things had really gotten out of hand.
"You... were going to use me... as collateral in a bet!?" Nikita questioned/screamed
I smiled at her.
"Oh relax after the first few hands I was cheating, there wasn't even a chance that I would have lost" I told her "Besides no one would have actually accepted the bet".
Perhaps only because Sexebi had started yelling at us about having no respect for the female people. To be fair it hadn't been sexist so much as it had been silly.
"Although that pocket watch might have been worth the risk" I mused "it was like four hundred years old".
Nikita scowled, before glancing back at the large quantity of old coins, as in old enough to be made of gold and silver, jewels, jewelry, empty pokeballs, evolution stones and T2s.
"I'm not your property" my girlfriend stated.
Of course she wasn't, even if she had told me that she was in the past. But to be fair she had been near orgasm at the time.
"Then why is my name on you?" I asked.
She had my name tattooed on her.
"Well.. that's errm..." she struggled to say.
She thought about for a moment before speaking further.
"I'll forgive you if you give me something shiny" she said.
She'd spotted the diamond earrings I was currently inspecting, and I dangled them in front of her face.
"Who do you belong to?" I asked.
She didn't even have to think about it.
"To you, totally" she said while grabbing the shiny things "but if you sell me or break me, I'll kick you in the nuts".
That sounded fair.
"So who did you play against" Nikita asked, while putting in her new earrings.
I wasn't sure what I should tell her, but I figured that she wasn't suppose to know then Sexebi would stop me from saying anything. Given that Nikita knew about the pixie poke, it was safe to assume that some point in the past they'd met and had exchanged words. I just couldn't remember when that could have happened.
"A bunch of guys who work for Sexebi like I do" I told the now very happy young woman "They were all from different parts of the world and from different times. I think some of them have time travelled more than I have".
I suspected this because one of the coins I now had looked to have been minted by the Romans, judging by all Latin words on it. Still gold was gold.
"Can I have a ring too?" was all Nikita had to say in reply.
I sighed.
"You didn't earn any of this" I pointed out.
Niki smiled at me.
"Neither did you" she replied "You cheated".
That was true.
"And besides you owe me" she was now saying "Misty's been getting all my snuggles".
Snuggles were of great value to her.
"Okay fine" I said, giving in "but just the one".
It was still my treasure even if I had cheated, but I'd had to as my Luck Blood Gift hadn't been working. I guessed that something had been in effect to neutralise Blood Gifts in order to make the game fair. Sadly for the others I'd spent ten years wandering around so I'd picked up a few tricks that didn't require me to actually do any magic, it was all slight of hand.
"Do you want to have sex on top of all this loot?" Nikita asked me.
I in fact did. I'd been gone all night, well all of some night, and it had been a good break, something that made me feel renewed as such my sex drive had recovered.
"You know me so well" I said to my girlfriend as we both started to undress.