Chapter: Wake Up
Lemon about half-way down
XXXXX
It took me a few moments of blinking. The morning sun was reflecting off the white furniture. But after getting a view of the dresser and the plastic rails of the bed, I knew where I was. Bland furniture, sterile smell, and chilly temperatures, at least hospitals were the same. My slow paced musings were cut short by a heated discussion behind the flowery privacy curtain. I could pick out two distinct people hissing and growling at each other.
"How could this happen? How could she threshold?" The female was the hissing.
"I don't know," The male said. His exasperation revealed just how many times they had this discussion before.
"Was it the pokégirls?" she asked.
"Impossible. We're both full-blooded human. There is no way she could have - had - that problem," he said
"Then how did this happen!" she asked.
"I don't know! But we have to find out how." He took a breath, stumbling on his own thoughts. "We have to hide…."
"Yes." The female sounded like the more prepared of the two. If she had any conflict, she wasn't wavering vocally. "The Rubio heir will take her. He's on his way."
"Can he be trusted?" he asked.
"I believe so," she said.
A sigh.
"The Level five should take place tonight as well." Resolve had begun creeping into his voice.
There was a long pause.
"Then this part is over," one of them whispered. I wasn't sure which.
"I'll head off SEELE. This will not get out." The male was resolute.
"Yes. Let's go." She left, her heels counting the distance.
"Requiescein pace mea filia," The male prayed, pain seeping into his voice.
"Now!" the woman returned with the stealth of a cat.
They both stomped off this time.
Once the heels disappeared down the hall, I sat in the bed analyzing what I had heard. 'Level 5' and 'threshold' were new concepts; as was this 'zay-leh.' The man was obviously having some trouble with the separation. From the way she had spat out the word, 'owner' must've been a cruder term. I sat back and closed my eyes. Pokégirls, eh? It was a little shameful to admit but I played pokémon well past when it was cool in middle school or even high school. It helped pass the time when I was stuck in a car for fourteen hours. But pokégirls?
At the time nothing I had witnessed suggested that they were similar to pokémon biologically. 'Mira' was definitely not based off any pokémon I knew. Of course, that could have been the armor. She might have been some kind of porygon? But, she wasn't pink.
The privacy curtain was whipped back. A woman with bright pink hair smiled at me, literally vivid pink that in no way could have come out of a bottle. It was nurse joy. Except of the hello nurse variety: she was much more endowed, her pink hair was curled into a pair of princess Leia buns and she was wearing a more risqué version of her anime uniform. It hugged her figure and stopped abruptly on her thighs. Low cut and showing a lot of cleavage, it ending in a straight line that resembled an apron. She wouldn't have looked out of place on the side of a B-29.
What kind of hospital was this?
My eyes kept trying to steal glances down her dress no matter how much I tried to desperately look away. She leaned over me and then they were at eye level. The window suddenly became very interesting. I fought the urge to glance back, trying to divine what one of the clouds resembled. She stood up straighter and acknowledged that my face was lit up like Christmas tree.
"Aww," she cooed. Her voice was a confusing mix of sultry teasing and I'm-about-to-pinch-your-cheeks. I looked back only to find that she was now literally an inch from my face and still bent over. She had a sizable chest and my face only lit up more. Much to her amusement. "Aren't you cute, blushing like that?"
As an eighteen-year-old high school senior, cute had not been used to describe me in the last seventeen years of my life nor had I been talked down to like that. Not even by my mother.
"Um." I was finding it hard to concentrate and form words. "Where, um, am I?"
"Littleroot Town, obviously." The nurse smiled that same kind hearted grin. A sarcastic response was on its way but it died in my throat. She was both very pretty and very cheerful. She had nice skin and my eyes gravitated towards the tiny pink bow on her bra. I shook my head and tried to stare back up at her face. I couldn't stop staring at her chest. I mustered my willpower and kept chanting 'Look up, look up, look up' in my head. She was doing it on purpose. Smiling, she leaned on the railing of the bed so that she was further bent over and I could feel her breath on my lips. "Do you want to tame me, Sweetie?"
"T-Tame?" I made sure to look genuinely confused, grabbing onto that strange word and using my curiosity to escape my situation.
She stood up abruptly, a finger to her perfect lips. "Hmmm. The Professor said you had amnesia. Shame too, apparently you were getting your tamer's license."
"License?" I asked, a bit of incredulity slipping into my voice. The words kept flying out of my mouth before I could check them; it was even harder to get my thoughts straight and her shameless flirting did not help. Was it the strange-world thing or the being teased and flirted with by a woman much more attractive than I could usually get-thing?
A groan came from behind the dull flowers of the curtain and then, after a few tense seconds, a piercing scream.
My head exploded from the high octave and I tried to cram it back in through my ears. The nurse's teasing, sultry smile faded as she winced at the volume as well. She left me to my flustered devices and went to be a healthcare professional. At first, it sounded like the shrieking voice was trying to bat away a swarm of bugs that were enveloping her. Then came the thrashing and the attempts to get up. A lot of screaming and cursing followed as my, unidentified but definably female, roommate screamed and fought of several nurses who had ran into the room at the first sound of trouble.
"Get off me, you dirty bitches! Don't touch me!" the shrieking banshee cried.
"Calm down," several nurses pleaded.
The panicked girl threw around even more terms I didn't understand. My confusion was exacerbated by the crying that distorted her voice. The commotion lasted for a very long time and eventually her dialogue faded into lamentations. I leaned back and tried to block it out the best I could. The window didn't afford much a view beside the sparkling blue and white of the port outside: stunning but remarkably static. It was, however, an excellent visual to letting my mind run clear of the room. The whimpering was unabated and several more people ran into the room at various points. I continued to stare out the window, it wasn't any of my business. And I could block out a lot, a side effect of having three very young siblings all at the same time.
Eventually, I faded into a calm sleep after the hysterics died down. My nap was interrupted by a different – it took me a moment to process that her pink hair was in a different style - nurse joy shaking me awake to present me food. It looked to be a simple salad with some white meat (chicken?) cut into it. She smiled and walked out of the room immediately after. I took a tentative bite into it and was relieved that it was delicious and did in fact taste like chicken.
I managed a few bites of the leaves and only one strip of meat before an angry screech erupted from the other side of the divide. "What the fuck!"
The curtains were thrown back and a very strange, but strangely attractive, female was glaring at me. Her skin was red and shiny, almost reptilian. Her tail, also red, danced angrily behind her threatening to ignite the curtains with the flame on the end. There wasn't much of her, she had wiry limbs like a fashion model except much shorter. But that was harder to notice because of her skin color. All of it combined to make her incredibly and exotically attractive in a way I didn't know I could be attracted to. Perhaps it was her petit but feminine shape that was being teased at by the skimpy patient's gown? It took my notice off her more animal qualities. Her black hair was cut into a bob that shortened from neck level at the front to barely an inch in the back. It accentuated her insanely blue eyes that shone like the brightest sapphires and complimented her slim face.
If only she hadn't been snarling at me. It was unsettling, something only enhanced when she ducked back behind the curtain. The second time seeing such a creature dulled the sense of wonder. After being assaulted by a werewolf, a lizard woman wasn't as impressive. Especially since she probably only weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet.
She whipped a plate of tofu bricks in my face. They didn't look appetizing, sloshing around in the thin layer of milky liquid like bleached cat food.
"What hell is this shit!" she said. "You get a fucking salad and I get pokéchow!"
She stalked up to me and ripped my salad bowl off my tray. I wasn't going to get mad so easily. Not since she had been crying hysterically for a few hours - if the sun was anything to go by. Her eyes still looked a little red, truth be told. I simply finished chewing my last bite and stared at her. To show her disdain for me, she glared before tearing into what was left of it. In lieu of silverware, she used her hands and shoveled the leaves into her mouth. After cramming in as much as she could fit in her mouth, she stopped eating like a wild boar.
"What the hell do you want?" She demanded, her cheeks full of food. She actually got a slimy bit of leaf on the covers.
My diagnosis? Lashing out to deal with a frightening and unprecedented situation.
Using my excellent command of the English language, I said nothing.
It didn't work. Her face twisted even more and she threw the remains of the salad on the ground before stomping back behind the curtain. The plate bounced off the tile, landing somewhere under the bed and spraying vinaigrette over the floor. I waited for the nurse to return and contemplated what the rest of it would've tasted like. Soon enough, Princess Leia Nurse came back. Her concerned eyes lingered on the other bed. She stopped just short of a salad leaf and looked up at me.
"We had a disagreement on food equality." I said simply.
Another disappointed but still sympathetic look was given to the other side of the curtain. Then a sigh escaped and she pressed a button near my head, hovering just over me and giving me a wonderful view of what I was trying desperately not to stare at. It was an uphill battle. It was pitch black outside. She clicked off the intercom and stood up. When I looked back, she quickly bent over again with a catty grin. My face heated up and I stared at my feet.
"You look so serious," she giggled. "Until you blush."
I rubbed my inflamed cheeks.
More giggling followed.
"Well, we have a shower ready for you," she said. I nodded and pulled myself up to swing my feet over the side of the bed. Then came the pain: pins and needles all over my legs. I suffered through it, managing to get my feet over the side. She jumped into action and brought me to my feet. Then my legs really screamed at me. She insisted I move forward despite the cringe seared onto my face. As I stumbled, she gave me a pep talk. "Come on Sweetie, It'll pass faster if you walk."
I swallowed another sarcastic comment.
As we limped out of the room, I stole a glance at my roommate. She was laying in the bed with the covers over her, arms crossed. I could make out the shape of her tail next to her leg. She was glaring at the wall in front of her and I had the displeasure of catching her gaze. It changed from anger to – what I eventually recognized as – resentment. We didn't lock eyes long enough for me to decipher it at the time. As I was lead out, I kept picturing the red-skinned girl in my head.
Two corners and a few stumbling steps later, we came to a simple shower room. She presented to me a basket of essentials -shampoo, a tiny bar of soap and a washrag - on top a cheap grey sweat-suit.
"Boxers or briefs?" She asked bubbly.
"Excuse me?" I stammered back. What a weird question. Why did she need to know that I wondered?
"Do you wear boxers or briefs?" Again, she smiled like I was child and held up a two pairs of grey underwear. One was noticeably smaller than the other because they were the items in question.
"B-Boxers, uh," I said.
A pair of nurses – as pink haired and conspicuously clothed - chose that moment to walk by and giggle while the original smiled politely. I giggled along nervously and escaped into the bathroom.
As I washed, it hit me that she didn't care how I dressed but my underwear was important. I actually stopped scrubbing myself and stared at the shower head when I divined that. So if pokégirls were bodyguards and underwear was somehow more important than outer clothes; I shook my head and kept showering. I was probably letting the wrong head do the thinking. By the time I returned to the, now clean, room I had accomplished nothing except slept and showered but I still felt drained. It was more mental than anything, I slipped into the new sheets and quickly fell into unconsciousness.
XXX
A hard weight on my stomach pulled me out of the void.
I had to blink to catch what was happening. My roommate was said weight, her form teased out by the faint moonlight. Her hospital gown was sprayed out over my stomach and she looked hungry. Far gone was her angry glare replaced by a blank and lusty look, more predatory then conscious. I opened my mouth to say something but I didn't get that far. She bashed our teeth together.
Unfortunately, kissing required the cooperation of two people.
We both flinched and clutched at our mouths as the pain in my teeth reverberated up my face. My arm moved to push her off; once again I was countered. She threw her body weight into pinning my wrist above me. I stared up at her and searched for what was going through her head. Her eyes were a void, staring down at me with a strange want in them. I froze as a hundred thoughts tried to process that. She was lot more gentle once she was on top and I awkwardly reciprocated. She wanted to deepen the kiss. I broke her hold and forced us to roll over.
Or tried.
The blanket below me twisted up my feet and we ended up on our sides; my arm trapped under her and hers digging into my ribs. I kicked at the tangle of sheets below me, she didn't notice and bit my lip. I opened my mouth in shock and she struck, batting around desperate for contact. All I could do was stare at her closed eyes, inhaling lavender and sweat and trying to think of something to get her off me. Her free hand intertwined in mine and we battled for a moment as her second eluded me. She was all for the kiss, eyes closed and her tongue on a search and destroy mission. I finally found her other wrist and twisted it behind her back, pressing her body against mine. She stopped and looked at me confused, trying in vain to escape the hold. I kicked the last of the covers off my legs and rolled over on top of her.
We laid still for a moment each trying to catch our breath. She struggled, aching to press her body against mine. By this point I would've delivered a swift head butt, but she was a girl and that wasn't something that I was supposed to do. Fucking chivalry. As I sat contemplating, she lightly traced my collarbone with her tongue and obliterated my thoughts. Then her hand was down at the lip of my pants. Shocked, I locked it in between us as the kissing stopped. Her eyes told of nothing but confusion and a want to continue. However, I did not want to. No matter how good it felt to have her against me, it was wrong. She wasn't in her right mind!
Her tail brushed against my leg sending panic up my spine. I scrambled to try and find out where her extra limb was. She shifted freely. Finally, I leapt up to my knees and searched for it. The limb pushed against my thighs and coiled around my legs. I pinned it against my ribs just as she stopped moving. She had flipped up on her stomach and was grinding her bony ass into me. My dick enjoyed the sensation but it was betraying me at that point. Pushing her away, I fell back to the end of the abused bed despite its groans of protest.
She rolled over, coiling on my pillow and giving me a seductive glance. It was all the more effective with the hospital gown hiked up her tiny thigh and how her tail slapped the bed. I took a deep breath and held my arms out, "Alright, let's just use words, you know? Wake up!"
She was across the bed and trapping my hands under her knees before I could react. Damn, she was too fast for me to stop. Her claws dug into my neck while she shoved her tongue down my throat. All I could do was stare at her closed eyes inhaling lavender and sweat while trying to think of something to get her off me. My arms shook in a mocking attempt to free my hands and all I got was more pressure on my wrists, crushing them until the thin bed wasn't enough padding to mask the frame. I stopped myself from snapping my jaw with her tongue in my mouth.
Then my mind caught up.
I bit down with everything I had. Blue eyes exploded right in front of me as all the little muscles of her face activated at once. It was a nice look. Seeing the pain written on her face brought me some satisfaction. She jerked back but I increased the pressure until the taste of iron swam in my mouth. The cracking weight on my wrists vanished when she darted away from me. Her face was hidden behind her hands leaving only deep blue orbs to shout 'betrayer' at me. A drop of blood escaped through her fingers.
While the single trail of blood painted her knuckles, a silence fell between us as she lowered her hands. She studied the bed, intently puzzling out something until a shy little look caught me. In that moment, I actually felt a twinge of excitement. I shook my head, those were bad thoughts. However, I wouldn't get anywhere if I just let her keep attacking. I lunged forward and pinned her arms to the bed, "What the hell are you doing!"
It was getting weirder and weirder. But I had to do something. She wasn't in her right mind and I needed the advantage. She looked up at me biting her lip seductively. Suddenly, her legs became a vice around mine and she rubbed herself against me.
"Stop," I said it was all I could manage.
She didn't. I actually didn't know what to do next. I couldn't simply move my legs and my hands were pinning hers. The lack of action bought her another few grinding rotations that awoke a more primal part of me. The angle was all wrong for penetration, we were just too close, and her hips were too high on mine. Finally, I had to let go of her wrists. I tried to pry her legs open but she was too fast. Her hands were around my neck and she was kissing me again. I flailed my head, blood staining my lips as we fought for every motion.
Despite how light she was, my core strength wasn't up to the test. I collapsed on top of her. Blissfully ignorant, her tongue continued to dance over my teeth begging for entrance. This, combined with the massage, was breaking down my resolve. She was ravenous and continually found my lips until I could taste her blood in my mouth. I spun to the right, pinning us together. Half my mind was on the kissing and the other half was trying to use my only free hand to break her hold; all of me was enjoying the sensations further down. Her legs came free and I lifted her off me. Perhaps she thought this was the next step to penetration because she let go easily.
I used my freedom to scamper back to the pillows. We had a showdown with me breathing heavily and wiping the marks off my face as she licked her lips.
"Okay! You just need to snap out of it. Now," I said.
She shimmied out of her panties and used her tail to fling them at me. Talk about sensory overload. The tiny piece of fabric hit me in the chest and dropped somewhere. Now the only thing preserving her modesty was the paper-like hospital gown. She curled up presenting the vee of flesh formed by the crease of her hips. At the bottom of that vee was a cleft, and the skin around it was lightly furred with black curls. All thought on my part stopped. Suddenly, she was in mid-lunge. I could only bring my arms up try and catch her before she was on me again kissing in a crazed manic ferocity. My hands floundered up her body, groping for a proper hold. Finally, I found her throat and clenched down.
That stopped the kissing short and the girl finally pulled away. I didn't let go until she was digging into the back of my hands with her claws. They pierced my skin and a flow of blood started trailing down my arms. I let go of her throat and tried to pull back only to have her wrap both hands around my mine and drag it down her form. I was only given a teasing feel of her soft skin before she went even lower. Soft tuffs of hair brushed past my fingers; I sucked in a labored breath.
I looked back up and was caught in a barely conscious gaze of deep blue: lust filled and directed at me. Even as I struggled in vain to free my hands, I searched her eyes trying to capture the vaguest hints of what was mere twitches away. We sat there and stole each other's breath. Hesitantly, I moved my fingers outward, brushing against her. She sucked the air right of my mouth. I dared myself to go even further and inserted a finger into her.
The effect was immediate; she started moving her entire body, desperate to grind against me. My finger became a singular focal point for her madness and all I could do was watch in rapt fascination as she guided my hand and rocked the bed underneath us. It was wrong, very wrong. I debated against myself even as I probed her warm folds. Her grip loosened just enough so my other fingers could continue to explore the wonderful new sensation of being inside her. It was warm and tight and I only dared insert a couple at a time. Her own hands played on the back of mine, guiding and directing them.
I yanked my hand back and batted hers away when she tried to reclaim it. What the fuck was I doing? She wasn't even conscious! I glanced up at her broken expression, she was dazed and her hands had started doing what mine were seconds before. It seemed I was not needed after all. She was moaning loudly, and lewdly. Her hips were rocking with the motion and knocking the bed back and forth into the wall behind us.
The feeling of awkwardness suddenly hit me. However, that quickly turned to anger. Do it, take her, the angry part of me was howling. The voice in the back of my head continued to urge me on. No one would care, she wanted it. She looked at me, her face even redder. Blue eyes following me as she rocked the bed back and forth. They looked disappointed in me. Wasn't I a man, I wondered. How did such a tiny, perverse, little thing beat me? Take it back, I urged myself. Take back your dignity you pitiful little man, I felt like the nurses who were only a few feet away were laughing at me. What the fuck was wrong with me? Getting raped by a fucking girl? What kind of man was I?
I burst forward and caught her hand, wrenching it out of her sopping pussy. She barely fought me, lust consuming her. Pinning her hand to the bed, I pushed her down and lorded over her. Our breath mixed again as I got right in her face. "You want my dick you little bitch!"
She looked confused for a moment, her eyes barely lucid. I reached down and gave her chest a hard squeeze. Not like there was much to grab. The gown was ruining it for me as well. I twisted the fabric in my hands and yanked. Her back arched until the paper gown gave and she fell back. A moan escaped when my hand mashed her breasts, crushing it until I felt her ribs. She flinched and her moan was interrupted by a squeak of pain. I planted a trail of kisses down her neck until I found a good portion of muscle.
I smirked and bared my teeth, dragging them over the skin then put some pressure in it. She clenched her eyes shut and her jaw muscles appeared vividly in her cheeks. It didn't feel too different from normal skin even as I ran my tongue over it. Blood swam in my mouth, I pulled back and licked my lips. A perfect impression of my teeth were still there with two dots of blood where my canines had pinched her skin. Fuck, I was so hard it almost hurt. A smile was on her face, asking for the member prodding her thigh. I pulled the rim of my pants down and then shoved myself inside her with little fanfare. The whore moaned louder than ever and I began driving into her again and again. I was not gentle while I was plowing her; every motion felt like a pile driver. "You like that whore!"
She didn't respond, her face was a mess of pleasure. It wasn't enough. I had to break her; I had to get rid of some of that anger! I put in more force until it started to sting every time our bodies slapped together. As her own hands grasped at my back and her claws raked at my skin, I wrapped my hands around her throat and started squeezing. The bitch was too lost in it though, she didn't respond. I dug my fingers in deeper, savoring every layer of skin that passed under my fingers. The vein on her forehead started to show, her eyes bulged. I could feel it building. It was coming soon. The light left her eyes and her arms fell to the bed. I slammed myself inside her one last time and shot my load.
I rested there, lording over her and breathing heavily. She wasn't even conscious any more, passed out with a vaguely happy look on her face. I hated that! I still didn't feel any better! I had fucked that bitch into unconsciousness and yet.
Her claws dug into my neck while she shoved her tongue down my throat. All I could do was stare at her closed eyes inhaling lavender and sweat and trying to think of something to get her off me. My arms shook in a mocking attempt to free my hands and all I got was more pressure on my wrists, crushing them until the thin bed wasn't enough padding to mask the frame.
"Fuck!" I punched the bed inches from her sleeping face. She didn't respond immediately as my hand pressed deeper into the sheets then she rolled over and her forehead touched my still clenched fist. The moonlight peeked in through the window illuminating her neck. The lines of my fingers were still vibrant against her skin. I hung my head and buried the intense shame building in me. Fuck! She didn't even know. I got off the bed and started pacing as the red cloud continued to fog my thoughts.
I wasn't thinking about anything, just rage. I wanted to keep hurting her! She needed to pay for making feel like that! Urgh! But for every thought of revenge, my conscious brought me back to her contented smile. I hated that too. Possibly even more.
The wall was right there. In reflex, I hit it as hard as I could. It didn't make me feel better. It felt like everything: no matter what I did nothing meaningful happened to it. The pain in my knuckles, the girl on the bed, my pathetic performance. What the fuck was wrong with me? I let that bitch walk all over me. I took a step closer and punched the sterile white brick again and again. I had choked her until she passed out. What a fucking manly thing to do. Every blow hurt a little more. How could I do that? Take pleasure in hurting a woman? I wasn't a man; I was just a little bitch! I threw one last punch, the weakest of the lot and pulled back. Nothing better than a rabid dog! I glanced down at my knuckles, or what was left of them.
They were mostly red but the fog in my head was gone.
The bricks stood there unmoving except for the smeared blood now blotting out the white paint. The pain began hitting back. I tried to get my shaking hands to straighten out but the pain won and they curled back pathetically. Fuck, they really hurt. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on breathing instead of pain. My eyelids suddenly felt very heavy. I glanced at the bed, specifically the still knocked out girl, then back at the wall. I sighed; no use in keeping her there.
It was a chore not to simply sleep in her bed. Inhal 4, hol 4, exhal 4. Over and over, over the pain and over the anger I kept my thoughts on counting out my breath. I had to move her then I could stop, relax, and sleep. It was not making my hands feel any better. I scooped the girl up, she was deceptively fragile and light. A petit build; like an emaciated supermodel. My knuckles scrapped against the fabric of the bed as I pulled her into my arms and the cotton burnt like acid. I simply dumped her in her own bed letting her bounce a few times. She didn't even stir. Her chart was hanging at the end of the bed. Grabbing it with some difficulty, I scanned it for any information.
It was mostly gibberish and not worth much. Name: Ruri. No last name. 'Level Five' appeared but was crossed out. Something about a 'Charamanda,' I glanced up at her, perhaps that's what type of pokégirl she was. She looked a lot like a Charmander, perhaps pokégirl names were altered.
I put the chart back and gave the red stains on the wall one last glance. My hands burnt. Collapsing on the bed, I stared up at the plaster of the ceiling and tried to shimmy into a better position. The sheets were damp with sweat and something else. My hands wouldn't stop throbbing. I tried breathing exercises to fall into sleep faster. Inhal 4. The void came surprisingly quickly despite the constant agonizing pain: I only stared up at the ceiling for a short eternity.
XXX
My first thought waking up was that I felt a lot better. The second was that I had a pillow under my head. Third, someone was lying on me. Finally, I opened my eyes. Two people were standing at the foot of my bed looking at me. I tried to rub the crust out of my eyes only to find my left arm dead, I gave it a pitiful tug. To my intense confusion, it was my roommate who was asleep on my arm. I distinctly remembered putting her in her own bed. Checking my knuckles, they were perfectly healthy without even a scar.
She was snuggled into my chest with one arm draped over me. It was like a scene out of a romance movie. I brushed an errant piece of hair out of her face that she had been chewing on. I could almost see myself ripping out her eyeball. It'd be so easy. Just put my thumb into the soft flesh of her eyelid and press until it gave way. She'd be blind and I could slowly grind away at her nose with a power tool until she was broken and she just looked so peaceful it pissed me off.
"Look at her. Already a slut." a high pitched voice interrupted my thoughts.
I refocused on my guests; they were middle aged adults probably about 40 or so. They had on strict tailored business attire. She greatly resembled a classic noble woman with her lithe figure, pale skin and red lips that were a stark contrast to her black hair. There wasn't a single, styled, hair out of place and she stood with the posture and poise of a woman with more money than I could ever dream of. As for the man, he was at the stage that his cropped hair was flatteringly peppered with grey. His posture was just as straight as the woman's but with a more entitled presence. Like a politician or someone rich enough for there not to be a difference. They were both hiding behind large glasses and head covers: a scarf for the woman and a hat for the man.
The woman looked as though she had smelled something foul while examining my roommate. The man was instead piercing me with a scorned father's gaze. I studied them with the same disdain and tugged at the covers, another thing I didn't remember having used last night. From the glares of the two, they hadn't done it either. I glanced at the wall and found a complete lack of blood smeared over it. It was Impressive considering the sun was barely above the horizon.
"Can I help you?" I asked, making sure to remain courteous but hostile.
They continued to glower at me. Finally, the woman smirked. "The little slut couldn't even wait for her real tamer to get here. Pokégirls are really just disgusting creatures."
I never liked my step-mother or any of my ex-girlfriends' or my friends'. There was a scientific explanation in that as someone else's child took resources from their child, they subconsciously tried to excommunicate the competition. They were still bitchy and it was really no excuse. My own experiences with step-mothers aside, it was making some of my homicidal fantasies go away. It was something else to focus on.
"The same could be said for voyeurs who hang around hospitals." I made sure to smile sweetly, a lesson my grandmother had taught me. God bless her wretched, back-stabbing soul. It was from her I gleaned the fine art of politely ripping people apart while smiling. Granted, I was not as skilled as she was, the lady wouldn't have known she was being insulted if my Grandmother were there. God, if my Grandmother were there she would have already ran. And my Grandmother would see me with a naked girl.
Didn't want that thought.
The woman's smile vanished and revealed her previous nonplussed expression again.
I cleared my throat and bellowed, "Nurse!"
Leia-Nurse appeared within moments. "Is there a problem, Sweetie?"
She was completely unfazed by the tension in the room. Her eyes didn't waver from mine, acting completely oblivious to the couple and my roommate under my arm. There was no surprise in her eyes when she looked at me. She had a hand in that situation apparently.
"Yes, these fine people are causing my bedmate and me stress. I think it's affecting our health for the worst." I gently touched my bedmate's head and showed plain concern. "She seems to be a bit warm as well."
She smiled and finally acknowledged the couple's existence. "Excuse me, I'll have to ask you to leave."
The woman was livid. "I will do no such thing!"
The nurse continued to smile but reached out a stewarding arm. "I must insist, ma'am."
She slapped it away with a snarl. "I will have you turned into poképower if you so much as touch me you whore."
Another interesting term: poképower.
Leia-Nurse smiled knowingly and left the room. The woman sneered in her victory. "Let go of her right now!"
"But she's asleep," I said simply and tilted my head. I decided to play it stupid since my first plan failed. I switched gears from watching the rampaging female and locked eyes with the silently glaring male. "Is she your daughter?"
He nodded his head yes but the woman screeched out a negative, her glare turned to the male. "She is not our daughter! Focus!"
Heavy thuds suddenly entered the room. He was a tall man who barely avoided having to duck under the window sill. He didn't subscribe to the professional look of most doctors and kept it simple with a muscle shirt, cargo pants and boots. He was flanked by a smiling woman barely covered by strategically placed chains, a glaring armored woman with jet black hair, Leia-Nurse and a new nurse joy. He examined the four of us with hard eyes, the kind of eyes I've only seen on guys-who-are-totally-not-delta-force.
"I heard there was a problem with one of my patients?" He had a voice that you didn't fuck with, a deep baritone that simultaneously dared you to challenge him and told you that you would never recover from trying.
I pointed to the two not-parents. "They are having a negative effect on our ability to recover."
His sunken eyes glared at the intruders. "Is there a basis for this?"
"I'm feeling stressed out by her especially and my bedmate has a fever," I said, looking very concerned.
He glanced back at Leia-Nurse. She nodded her head.
He glared at the woman. "I'm going to have to ask you both to leave."
She was indignant. "I will not be talked to like-!"
"Ma'am," he interrupted and his booming voice carried over hers. "I am authorized by the League Assembly to have you put in jail for violating my authority in my hospital."
"Do you know who I am?" She asked. With the surplus of indignation in her voice, she might actually have been kind of important.
"Olivia, take her into custody," the doctor said, according to his tone that didn't mean shit.
She completely flipped. Especially when 'Olivia' fondled herself to unwrap her chain bikini into a whip. I made it a point not to stare too obviously.
"W-Wait, she-!" the woman's voice stopped short, looking back and forth between us. The gears in her head started to turn again.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes as the woman's darted between us. His patience wore out before she was able to respond. "Last warning ma'am, leave the premises or you will be escorted out."
'Olivia' agreed by licking her lips and winking at the frayed bitch.
The Father finally stopped glaring at me and turned to the host of people in the doorway. He wrapped his arm around his wife and nudged gently. With one last look of disdain at me, he directed her out of the room. The security team let them pass with only a few hard stares. Even as I watched them retreat, they tried to kill me with one last glare of their own but walked out harmlessly. Once again the click of heels signaled their retreat from the hospital.
Then it was my turn to be glared at by the Doctor.
He locked onto my eyes, keeping his glare even as he approached with his hands tucked into his pocket nonchalantly. He had a jaw like a shovel and a nose that was just a little too small for the hard angles of his face. A surprisingly gentle hand was laid on my roommate's forehead. Satisfied, his face hardened again. "If you ever involve me or my team in that dispute again, I'll have you kicked out. Do we have an understanding Mr. Iscariot?"
I nodded, used to the cold gaze that these kinds of men emitted. Years of knowing retirees and living near the premier special force's base in America had a way to desensitize you. I stared straight into his black eyes. Okay, maybe not completely desensitize you. He gave one last approving nod before leaving the room flanked by his 'team.' It's worth noting that they all looked impressed with me. I leaned back and bathed in my victory as the topless woman winked approvingly.
XXX
I stayed in that position, content with sharing the bed with another warm body. It was calming and I ignored the giant elephant in the room. Alas, it eventually came to an end. The first stirrings of the hurricane came after my roommate finally creased her eyes. My arm had been comfortably dead for hours so I didn't get the first warning until after she spoke.
"Where am Ruri? Why am Ruri talking like this?" She looked up at me with pure panic, close to tears as she grasped at her throat. At the drop of an imaginary hat, her gaze hardened and she shoved her hands around my throat. "Boy!"
My left arm was useless. I could only manage to shove my remaining arm between hers and wrench her hold apart. All it got me was an uncomfortable twist in my neck. We struggled awkwardly until I started to waver in my convictions. I was getting light headed and my vision was shrinking. As I danced closer to unconsciousness, she finally released me and started sobbing into her hands.
My chest spasmed with every painful gasp for air while I flailed my left arm pathetically. My breath returned much faster than she regained control. Unable to stop sobbing, she kept muttering something under a heavy load of tears. That was the kind of bipolarity that led to stereotypes. Finally, and after much pain, I was able to move my arm.
That solved, I had to consul the homicidal crying girl. I reached out slowly and uncertainly to rub her shoulder. I got a single finger on her before she batted my hand away and glared accusingly. "Don't touch Ruri! Boy did this to Ruri!"
For some strange reason, she wasn't using pronouns. She growled and punched me in the chest. I had taken a hit before but this girl expertly hit me center mass right under my ribcage. It deflated me like a balloon and I bent over in a coughing fit wrecked by pain again. I was still coughing when I looked back up to defend myself. Just in time for her to grab me by the collar and yank me forward. Her fist was pulled back as she glared into my soul.
"Hold on! Stop!" I said and held up my hands defensively. She pulled back her fist a little more. "You climbed on top of me! You wanted it!"
Her fist lowered but she continued to glower. With that look on her face, I was doubly sure that it wasn't just her step-mother earlier. I grabbed her hand and pried it from my collar. Luckily she was in a shocked mental trance. With my neck saved, I nudged her hand away and watched it sag onto her lap. I sighed, it was hard to be angry at a sobbing girl. She glanced at me, still crying but not nearly as badly. She looked crestfallen.
Body heavy with grief, she shuffled back to her own bed without a word.
Leia-Nurse came back as the sun began to dip below the horizon and interrupted the silence that had broken the room. She was more dejected about it than either of us. I glanced from the window over at the girl. She was sitting on her bed staring blankly at her feet. Leia-Nurse crossed her arms with a morose expression then a look of hope flashed across her face. "Ah, good news you two, you're going to be released tomorrow."
I was going to be released so soon? Awesome! Straight into an unforgiving, strange world! I glanced at my roomie, again. She obviously wasn't going to speak so I did. "Wait, I think something is wrong. She keeps speaking in the third person."
They both looked at me like I was stupid, only Leia-Nurse was much nicer about it. It was a small consolation that my roommate was no longer catatonic.
"Don't you know what taming shock is, Sweetie?" she asked.
"Taming shock?" I repeated.
Now my roomie was accusing me of being retarded. The nurse cocked her head into a thinking pose. "You must have had a really traumatic experience to block out this much."
My roommate jerked her head between the two of us. I remembered Wank's cover story and caught myself from parroting her. That may have suggested I didn't. I decided to play it safe. "I, uh, I guess I must have."
What if I did have amnesia? Could my life before this be a mass of false memories? The nurse continued to lecture on Wank's cover story but I ignored her. What if I did have amnesia? What if I was going to be a tamer? What if everything was a weird coma dream? After all, what was happening should have been impossible by the laws I had been governed by. I shook my head, there was no need to start doubting myself, and I had to concentrate.
"So what's going to happen to her?" I asked.
From the annoyed look on her face, I may have interrupted her.
"She's going with you." She made it sound like the most obvious thing in the world.
I looked at my roommate who was sitting on her bed staring at me accusingly. Yeah, that would work out well. We locked eyes but she broke contact first by turning away in an angry, resigned pout. Maybe this was some primitive world where if I had sex with a girl I would have to get married or there would be shotguns and honor killings involved? She just looked so deflated. I couldn't stop my face from sagging and my next sentence came out much quieter then I intended. "So what do I need to do? I assume I have to pay medical bills as well?"
She was overjoyed to have something good to say. "Oh, don't worry about that Sweetie. Professor Wanc is paying for all of that."
"Oh, wonderful." I trailed off and stopped staring at the red skinned girl beside me. Realization hit. "Also you never answered my questions and why is she coming with me?"
"You're her Tamer now. I thought your amnesia was mostly psychological? But blocking out such a large part of life? Perhaps you do have some physical trauma?"
"Tamer?" I asked. Her concerned expression did not make me feel any better.
"The entire floor heard you both last night, Sweetie." She was positively coy. "Quite the mouth on you."
We both blushed and I buried my face in my hands to ignore both of them. She laughed some more. I spoke from under my shield. "Um, you, uh, haven't answered all my questions yet."
I couldn't make myself lock eyes with her but she apparently understood me. She beamed between my fingers and started to explain it with a smile. Then she stopped, held up a single finger and left.
I watched her walk out of the room and looked at my roommate, who was staring at me with curiosity and a lot of disdain. Finally, she asked, "Is Boy so stupid, Boy doesn't know what Taming Shock is?"
"I." I closed my mouth. "I don't remember."
"Idiot." She rolled over.
I sneered at her.
Leia-Nurse returned quickly holding a small paperback. The spine was broken and the pages were as yellowed as the cover. She threw it at me. "This is a study guide to the tamer's exam, it should cover everything you want to know and it might accelerate your memory recovery. Just leave it on your bed when you're checked out."
The cover had the same waxy film that every cheap textbook had. However, it was curling at the edges and the paper underneath was splitting as well. The book had seen a lot. 'The Basics: Tamers exam.'
XXX
I spent the rest of the hour reading through the book only interrupted with another shower. I asked another nurse for a more comprehensive one when I finished. My roommate kept quiet and refused to speak any more. Between our own issues, she started reading the books I had finished. The few times I glanced at her, she seemed bored and held the same expression of disdain I had when I was reading something I already knew. However, a few times, I caught her giving me a look: half wanting, half doubt and a little bit blank. It was interesting.
Any way, it seemed that I was living a few years forward of when I was born. Apparently, the year roughly came out to about 2200. It was hard to tell because they had switched calendars and the books stacked around me didn't specify the exact year it changed. My best guess was that I was around 200-something years old. Pardon the joke, but I think I had aged well. As to why I was lying in a bed across from a bored and very female charmander-clone, apparently a mad scientist inexplicably gained the power to screw with DNA like they were LEGO bricks and declared war on humans. All of this happened about negative thirty. I may have been wrong. The books were painfully unclear; as if they were talking about the Old Kingdom of Egypt as opposed to the Late Twentieth Century.
I had, however, learned a lot of new terms. My eyes danced over to my roommate.
Pokégirl: A bio-weapon of great power that required a human handler because, in a sick joke, they required sexual intercourse with a human to stay sane or go feral. To compliment this addiction, once they had sex with a human they began to see that human as their master. To whom they had a natural will to submit. Which, reading up on this mage-scientist, didn't make a lot of sense to make them dependent on sex with a human if he was declaring war on humans. So it was a little hard for me to say that he didn't somehow plan for all of it to happen. I couldn't chase that thought any further because none of the books went past describing him as either evil, insane, or both. Hitler-syndrome, as I called it.
Tamer: What they call the people who these pokégirls bond to. Apparently, it was common usage because the books didn't describe the history behind the phrase. I could gleam why. Sex was now called 'taming;' a subtle stigma against identifying pokégirls as equal to humans. I doubted they referred to human-human sex as "taming" but I wouldn't ask and the books were curiously light on the subject.
Feral: The books varied but apparently without sex, pokégirls became mentally little more than animals with an overpowered sex drive. It sounded like their higher brain functions, such as personality or any kind of advanced intelligence, simply stopped functioning and their brainstems took over. Apparently most 'Ferals' - note the further dehumanization - knew they needed sex and sought it out. I was assuming that's what the night before was and the blank looks I was getting even then amounted too.
And what was the night before? Besides that, I was now her master and owner. It meant nothing. Although I wasn't sure how the master thing worked because she was being a complete bitch and obviously not in the least attracted to me.
I glanced over at her and caught the edge of a dazed look. Her tongue touched the edge of her lips and her face was slightly flushed. Scratch that, she was not consciously attracted to me.
XXXXX