Chapter: Just Leave Already
XXXXX
In a room with an uneven chair and a dangling light, sat a single woman. Her blue hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and green eyes under straight eyebrows left her perpetually nonchalant. They had taken her boots, hat and jacket leaving her to freeze in her black undershirt. Spread out before her were several pictures of bloody alleys filled with bodies. They told the story of the Oldale attack, at least, according to the small army of Department of Public Safety officers that were swarming over the town. This was the fate of the only officer jenny assigned to Sheriff Grant Allan of Oldale Town: Kathleen.
One of the chair legs was shorter than the others and she abused it for all it was worth. Crick, crick, crick, She bounced back and forth like a clock never letting silence settle into the room while she glared at the concrete wall.
"Let me lay things out for you." Her interrogator spread them out so that each photo was fully visible. "You are having a typical night. All of the civilians are behind the wall. It's late. You are making your last rounds. Good so far?"
Every sentence was closed with a swipe of her hands to emphasize the point. She was lounging on her own chair, legs crossed tightly over each other and her body slanted towards Kathleen. Her blue hair was cut tight to her head in a pixie cut and green eyes were searching her suspect's under the brim of her cap. Straight eyebrows left her an expression of nonchalance even as she faked a smile. They were descended from the same batch and looked far too much like each other for either of them to be truly comfortable.
"Then," she sliced the air continuing her trend, "you get the warning. A killer queen is coming. So you round up all the citizenry. You put them in the pokécenter and then, well, you make a strange decision."
Kathleen narrowed her eyes and set her jaw. It was her first movement in over five hours. She hadn't wavered from staring at the wall even as her interrogator searched her face for any movement. However, they both knew that her interrogator had gotten an advantage, however small, over her. Crick, crick, crick.
Her streak broken, Kathleen leaned in. She took a deep breath and recited the code from memory "According to the Assembly Act 17-4-24. Every law enforcement officer is bound to execute the penal warrants given to him to execute. He may summon to his assistance, either in writing or orally, any of the puella owning citizens of the neighborhood or county and all legally registered tamers to assist in the execution of such warrants. The acts of the citizens formed as a posse by such officer shall be subject to the same protection and consequences as official acts."
The interrogator narrowed her eyes. "However, according to section three of the Assembly Act 17-7-12, Assembly Act 17-4-24's provision for the summoning of Sheriff's assistance cannot be invoked in any threat below a B-level. According to Assembly Act 29-5-32, B-level threats include killer queens."
"Assembly Act 29-5-43, the threat level of a killer queen may be raised if she has enslaved a large number of pokégirls to her cause. Further discretion as to the classification of threats will be will be left to the judgment of the law enforcement officer. The largest killer queen horde as yet reported was comprised of twenty individual pokégirls. In that case, Judge Jacob Kludge of the Slateport Department Court ruled that the criteria set forth by act 29-5-43 had been met and that killer queen was assigned an A-level threat rating," Kathleen said.
"After the killer queen threat of 237 AS, which you just mentioned, Judge Jacob Kludge wrote in his judicial opinion, and I quote, 'while the killer queen horde did present a valid threat necessitating its A-level rating, the effectiveness of rifle-armed and deputized tamers appears to have been minimal. Furthermore, the damage to property and loss of life, including the son of a high ranking league official, can be attributed to the lack of training of most citizens regarding firearms. It is the opinion of this court that any further all-calls limit the use of firearms to government licensed individuals,'" Her interrogator said.
"Common law is not practiced within Hoenn. Judicial opinions have no effect on court rulings in future cases," Kathleen said.
"However, according to Assembly Act 29-37-2, section 5. The officer jenny breed should take into consideration judicial precedence when deciding on courses of actions that are not clearly defined in the law!" The interrogator slapped the table and started yelling. "Which you obviously did not do when you gave those weapons to the tamers who responded to this all-call!"
"Mr. Iscariot showed the necessary training in order to operate an element rifle safely and effectively!" Kathleen yelled back.
"How could you possibly do that within the basement of a town hall!" she demanded.
"According to Assembly Act 29-37-2 section 10-" Kathleen yelled.
"Enough!" The interrogator slammed the table again and stood up.
Kathleen rocked back in her chair and a silence descended on the room.
Finally, the interrogator had calmed down. She took her seat again and returned to her calm tone. "I understand. I do. A killer Queen? You have to fight smarter. Protect your Sheriff and your citizens. Those tamers aren't your problem so you take a chance. You let your partner deputize one of them. The one who you can trust the most. Then you can give him a rifle and he can lead the defense outside. You can focus on defending the citizens in the pokécenter. A last line of defense as it were."
Kathleen gave no response on that one. Her interrogator tapped the table as a curtain of silence fell on them again. They had both returned to a more civil tone of complete silence. She glared into her suspects eyes searching for some minute twitch of her iris. Finally, the interrogator leaned back and reset her position, bouncing her foot as the light above buzzed incessantly. She sat in stony silence as the light swung back and forth from vibrations neither of them could feel.
Crick, crick, crick; back and forth, back and forth, Kathleen kept rocking.
"It was very clever. Give them rifles, deputize one of them to satisfy the law. They signed up as tamers and maybe they'll even survive," the interrogator said. Her eyes drifted to the photos and Kathleen's followed. A male with muscled arms laying in a puddle of his own blood. An amachop corpse collapsed with a hand to her bloodied stomach. Crick, crick. A lone finger dragged the pictures across the table, forming a parade of photos all dancing one at a time into a pile. They were filled with gusanita and low level commons' corpses. Kathleen's eyes took in them all.
"Let me explain what happened last night. As far as we can tell, the gates were broken to trap the civilians in the town. Only the main gate was left open so that the attackers would focus exclusively in the wrong place." The interrogator said. She pointed out a picture of the southern gate. The handle had been broken off. Then a picture from on top of the pokémart roof was shown with several bullet casings highlighted. "And at 0215, they did. Sean Iscariot was on the roof. He was very skilled with the rifle, you were right to choose him despite the question of legality. Every shot found its mark. Where were you at 0215?"
"The pokécenter," Kathleen said. She wasn't looking at table; she was looking through her interrogator.
Another photo was slid across the table. It was from the fields on the East side of town. A ponytaur was dead in the mud of a rice field, her white tuaranic form crisscrossed with red wounds from a whip. A human female and a white haired sorceress were also drifted across the table. Crick. Their bodies were lying face down in the mud fields nearby. The grains of rice were sticking up, the water had been drained away by a hole in the ground.
"The killer queen came in through gusanita dug tunnels and killed Larissa Potenger in the fields. Did you know that Larissa was only a year away from getting her tenure as a professor? She was focused on the mental strain put on first generation métis when they threshold. One of the good people in the world," the interrogator explained. "At 0245, gusanita's burrowed into the town and inserted the horde of ferals. These photos are from the fields within the walls. Their time of death is around 0245 as well. Where were you at 0245?"
"The pokécenter," Kathleen said. The Interrogator shook her head faking sympathy.
"We found a dominatrix in a store. As far as we can tell, the dominatrix attacked Sean Iscariot on the pokémart roof and threw him into it. They broke through the roof!" she said faking awe. The next photo was from the trashed store with a hole in its roof. A leather-clad woman had been thrown over the counter. She had a bullet wound in her head. "Time of death for her is 0250. Where were-"
"The pokécenter," Kathleen said.
More gusanita's hole were in the alleys of the town. More pokégirls had died around them. The gusanita's that had dug them were dead of gunshot wounds. However, two of the photos contained male corpses. The interrogator focused on those. "0250 is a very important time. The tamer with the ponytail? Dorian Sharrow had just got his license. His family in Pacifidlog had just sent him off three days ago. Did you know that he was a devout Christian? Not many of those left. Conrad Gardener, the guy who worked out with his amachop? He's from Mossdeep. Do you think he wanted to be an astronaut? A lot of people in Mossdeep are very proud of the Space Center. Both of them died when the gusanita's first attacked. Apparently, the gusanita had all received a signal when the killer queen entered the town. Pokécenter?"
"Yes," Kathleen answered.
"It's not all bad though. Some things did go right. See this photo?" The Interrogator put the next photo on the top of the pile. It was a street full of pokégirl corpses. All of them had bullet wounds in them. They looked to be rifle caliber. There was one blood stain that was unoccupied. "Sean Iscariot apparently found his way out of the store at around 0300. He entered the main street, you can see his foot prints in the dirt. Again, perfect accuracy. He really is impressive. He probably was your only good call. Too bad Conrad and Dorian were too inexperienced to get more than one shot off. They couldn't eject their first shot to reload, Conrad couldn't even open his chamber. But we're past that. At 0300, Sean Iscariot kills these ferals and captures a domina. Do you remember 0300?"
"Pokécenter."
"Right. So at 0315 this man died as well." The interrogator slid a picture of another dark alley. A man with glasses had most of his head missing. The bullet had went through the top of his mouth and exited from the top of his head. He had the murder weapon in his hand. "Zackary Emerson. Oldale native and avid drawer. Every day, he would sit at the gate and draw. He even went into route 103 to draw pokégirls, that's how he lost his only registered pet, an a-bra. It's why he wasn't eligible for the all-call. Do you think that is why he risked his life and fought outside with the tamers? Revenge? He has a grandfather in town, the last Emerson alive now. Do you know him?"
"Thomas Emerson, the grandfather, is a friend of Grant," Kathleen said. "I was at the pokécenter at the time."
"We know. Well it's not all bad. We think that Zackary killed a gusanita and a-bra. That was before the killer queen made him kill himself," The interrogator said and slid the photo across the table. "Do you think he was conscious enough to know that he was about to be forced to die by his own hand?"
"I do not," Kathleen answered.
"At 0330, the killer queen is killed by the intervention of, get this, a night nurse from Littleroot. Littleroot! She apparently flew up to reinforce the town and help you. Where were you at 0330 when a night nurse did your job for you?" the interrogator asked. She didn't receive an answer. Once the photos were back in one pile, the interrogator put her hand over Kathleen's. "You did the best you could. Grant Allan did the best he could."
She kept her voice low. Kathleen didn't pull her hand away. Their eyes met, the interrogator smiled sisterly. Kathleen stopped rocking her chair and hung her head. The Interrogator continued.
"All you have to do is tell the world what we need you to. You and Mr. Allan can retire. He'll just lose his job. It was his idea to stay in the center after all. I like to think that you had to plan around that. And you did. You came up with a plan in a very short amount of time. I respect that you can bend the law to help the downtrodden. I really do, that is why we will let you retire with him. But five people are dead. The public needs something to change. Those deaths just can't go unanswered. We can't simply shrug and say 'oh well that's life.' Dorian Sharrow, Zackary Emerson, Conrad Gardener and Larissa Potenger are dead! Grant Allan and your own actions were not enough and almost criminally negligent. You made the wrong decision and you need to admit that. Do it for the continued peace of Hoenn. We will remember what you did here, even if the wider world does not."
Kathleen took a deep breath and leaned over the table. Her interrogator leaned in as well, relief visible on her face at having finally made some progress. Their eyes met again. There was an iron will behind Kathleen's. "You can shove that up your ass. I will not betray him when he did nothing wrong. You have no position to judge from the safety of an armchair. I will not throw him under the bus."
Her interrogator slid back as if blown across the table. Shocked, she stood and collected her photos. Stopping at the door, she gave Kathleen a sad shake of her head and left the room. As the door closed, Kathleen allowed herself a small smile. Crick, crick, crick.
In the hallway, the interrogator rubbed at her forehead and walked back up the stairs. The sleepy office only had one desk and a wall worth of filing cabinets. Blue-clad figures were hanging about. Growlies, jennies, a couple males and a smattering of other breeds were chatting in the waning sunlight. It was packed to capacity. Yet, most of the 'reinforcements' were out and walking around the town.
A tattoo-covered pokégirl, sauntering her hips and trying to get the gun in her hands to spin, entered the building. Her thumb caught the barrel and it ruined her streak. With a huff, she chucked the pistol to the closest male officer. The officer gaped and fumbled to try and catch the deadly weapon in clear violation of common sense. But it slipped through his fingers and clattered to the ground. The entire room stopped to look at the weapon.
She fluffed her rainbow hair over her shoulders. "Found that missing gun for you."
All eyes went from the gun, laying innocently on the floor, to the newest arrival. She was covered in tattoos with rainbows in her hair and eyes.
The man she had thrown the weapon at, scrunched up his face. "What the hell you cunt! Do you have any fucking respect for how dangerous that was?"
Tiffany faked an aghast expression, palming her hand over her chest in demure shock. The officer did not take kindly to being insulted and took a step forward. The entire officer corps straightened their backs preparing for a confrontation.
BAM! Across the room, a fist slammed the table.
"Don't!" the oldest male in the room demanded. Unlike the other males, his uniform nametag was in gold. A new shiny sheriff's star was pinned to his front pocket. The underling turned to him, discovered that he was in way over his head, and then backed down to simply glaring at Tiffany. She nodded appreciatively at his boss; the new sheriff did not reciprocate.
The interrogator sighed and drew Tiffany's attention.
"Sybil!" Tiffany's eyes glowed with recognition when she saw that the officer jenny who had just come up from the basement and closed the distance between them. Sybil locked eyes with the man-in-charge who simply looked away. The two of them walked to the back of the room, far from the others. Tiffany cocked her head to the side and leaned against the wall. "Good news?"
"No," Sybil said unable to meet her eyes.
"We don't have a lot of time. If we take more than a couple of days than they'll say we gave her a level five and a script," Tiffany sang.
"I'm trying but it's harder when the target is a jenny too."
"Sounds like an excuse," Tiffany said in the same tone.
"Maybe I'd try harder if this didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth?" Sybil said.
Tiffany's smile died. Her eyes drifted away from the officer processing the gun to Sybil. The mischievous sparkle was gone, Sybil took a deep breath.
"You don't like us?" Tiffany asked, her voice flat in tone and inflection.
"I don't-" Sybil tried to back up. But then she looked Tiffany in the eyes. "No. I don't like this. I don't like you. I've put up with a lot but an officer jenny? Your mas—"
Tiffany wrapped her hand around Sybil's' face cutting her short. "Don't talk about my Master."
Sybil glared from over the 'L' on Tiffany's knuckle.
"Don't be so mean Sybil. Master Green and I are on your side," Tiffany giggled and lifted her fingers.
"Then where were you?" she asked.
"Oh, Sybil. I was just showing my appreciation for the Hero," Tiffany said.
"Do you jackasses actually have a plan? Or do you just do what the fuck you want?" Sybil asked, her confidence growing.
"A little of column A, a little of column B." Tiffany giggled but when she looked back her eyes were hard. "Come along, Sybil. I'll solve your little discipline problem for you."
The double meaning was not lost on Sybil. A chasm opened up in her stomach.
XXX
Every pokécenter came equipped with a TV for the tamers to watch as they waited for their pokégirls to be healed. It was large enough to be seen from anywhere in the center. But it was hung on a wall so that no one could reach the controls. Various speakers built into the seating arrangements ensured that you could hear it clearly. Depending on what town you were in, the station showed one of three news networks that slowly brainwashed you into the local party line. The young tamers, who prayed for anything better to come on, were held hostage and forced to watch, or at least overhear, their civics homework.
The local political megaphone was called the Community Broadcast Channel. They originally used green for the motif because the founder was one of the many Islamic oil tycoons who SEELE had brought to the island. Not incidentally, the United Futures Party used green as well. The CBC embraced a more middle path between its rival stations and as such no one particularly liked it. Between the Hoenn League Network belting out the Sea coalition's drivel and the National Communication Service screaming the Earth's agenda, most people in the league thought that the CBC was pointlessly corrupt or helplessly wish-washy.
Ruri née Lane knew that it was corrupt. They reported exactly what the UFP wanted them too. However, Magma team and Aqua team were doing an excellent job embarrassing themselves and giving the CBC plenty to report. Thus the 'future' in the UFP name.
The anchor was a stern looking man with a receding hairline and unblinking eyes. He kept an impossibly level voice that was just deep enough to be hypnotic. It made listening to the news about Hoenn's rapid collapse gentler on the ears. A little box to his right was filled with a picture of a stylized M clashing against a stylized A. The M was black and outlined by red but the animation made it resemble lava. The A was bone white and had a pirate aesthetic. A low-level stooge in the CBC newsroom apparently thought himself clever.
The anchor tapped his papers while the subtitles reinforced what he was saying. "Yesterday more chaos consumed Lilycove City as a Progressive Democratic Party demonstration turned violent. The PDP marched in protest to legislation passed by the Lilycove Department Council that tightened restrictions on government aid. However, the peaceful protests took a turn for the worst. Exclusive sources report that a criminal from the group assaulted a police officer."
"The demonstration descended into a riot and police were forced to retreat. The Mayor of Lilycove responded to the growing crisis by asking Sea Coalition militia forces, commonly known as Team Aqua, to intersect on behalf of the police. Armed clashes continued for several hours before the fighting finally settled down. Early reports put the death toll between 10 to 15 civilians, three militia members, two police officers and roughly five-hundred thousand SLC in property damage."
The 'M' and 'A' disappeared and the anchor smiled sadly at the camera. "Well, on that note, that's all for this hour. Please join us again tonight at 6 o'clock for the evening news. Up next is the widely anticipated wreckball match between the Fortree Flyers and the Mauville Maulers."
Ruri was slouched in the couch as the television switched to the beginning of the sports match. While The Academy had drilled into her the proper way of sitting, she usually slouched to spite them. In a bitter twist she now had to; it hurt her tail when she trapped it against the back of the seat. The offending appendage slapped against the couch in annoyance. She glanced down at it and pursed her lips.
They had been sitting in the lobby for an hour and forty-five minutes as Sean finished up with the domina. The television cycle dragged through more pointless propaganda while Savanna had her nose buried in a magazine completely ignoring the rest of the world.
"I figured you would like wreckball," Ruri said, breaking the silence they held. She examined the pink-haired pokégirls arms as they flexed then numbly compared them to her own exceptionally skinny ones. She had never been one for physical activity but the nurse joy could probably kill a man by just squeezing her thighs. "You certainly have the look."
"It's too violent. I don't see the point of watching sports." she glanced up at the television and shook her head as one of the players took a bad hit. "I'd think watching pokégirls get hurt would be more up your alley."
A cocky smile curled Ruri's lips betraying her innocent tone. "So you're a reader? Spend a lot of time at the library?"
Savanna closed the magazine on her lap and smiled back just as sincerely. "The UFP doesn't let pokégirls into libraries unless they are accompanied by their tamer. I had to dig through the dumpster for old books. I'll show you sometime, sister. It'll be useful knowledge for you now."
Her tail went rigid and Ruri leaned forward to get closer to Savanna's face. They stared at each other. Finally, she looked over her shoulder at the two blue shadows that were on the other side of the glass door. "I'd watch what I'd say if I were you. The UFP is a lot closer now and we are going to be walking into the center of it soon enough. You'll need to learn when to shut your mouth."
Brown eyes followed her gaze to the sentries that had been waiting for anyone to enter. She leaned back in the chair and propped open her magazine to the last page she had been reading. She spoke just as her alpha was falling back into her slouch. "Not for long. We'll go straight through Petalburg and into the Forest."
Ruri looked at her from the corner of her eyes. Savanna fluffed a newspaper and put it between them.
"He thinks of pokegirls as human," Ruri said. She was probably the only person in the town who would have been able to figure out what he had been thinking. At The Academy, there had been extra-curricular lectures on how to respond to a drunken advance by her fellow pureblooded humans. No one wanted to violate a marriage contract. Not with SEELE watching over them all. So all the human children had to get mandatory lecture on consent; so the boys – drunk on power over their pokegirls – knew when to back off. Sean probably thought she knew him well or something. She tried not to laugh at the idea. He was just lucky he was so competent or she would fought him on the domina idea more.
It didn't occur to her that she was lucky as well or that perhaps her mind was being clouded by a developing alpha bond. However, she hadn't been trained to have that thought. The foreign instincts of her new body were subtle enough that her own intelligence was able to easily rationalize it.
"It's best for him to get it out of his system. He needs to learn about ferals first hand. Who better to beat it into him than a domina? Besides, I didn't see you telling him about elf courts, farms, thresholds or salvage battles," she said.
When she had first found out about the domina, she had been furious. But then she feel into an old pattern. She would scream and badger about the same points over and over again. All while she was thinking of how to actually capitalize on the situation. She realized that it was a good thing that Sean now had a domina. Her head throbbed as a light headache coming on. Her thoughts got a little harder to organize. Ruri recovered her line of thought. She and Sean may have agreed that the domina was a good thing but Ruri took small comfort in the fact that she could still lie to Sean. Maybe her situation wasn't as hopeless as she had feared back in Littleroot?
Still, Savanna's support was good thing. In Ruri's mind, it was another show of weakness on Savanna's part. The nefarious slave mentality that made pokegirls a natural slave class. Their own minds would play with them so that they bent a knee to their master's will. Her superior human mind had survived threshold and she was above such petty weaknesses. Her background and training would make her immune to it. Yes, she was better than the pink-haired pokegirl across from her, she was better than that domina and she could wrap her 'master' around her finger.
Savanna got out of her chair after Ruri finished listing off the myriad of ways you could acquire a tame pokégirl.
"What are you doing?" she asked, refusing to roll out of her seat. She figured the bleeding heart was going to apologize to her owner for not figuring it all out sooner.
"He should be done now," Savanna said as she disappeared down the escalator.
Ruri née lane was going to be just fine.
XXX
I was in the bathroom shaving off my five-day shadow when Ruri and Savanna returned. The domina was in the pokéball and I was taking the opportunity to contemplate my life choices.
There was no going back. I would press forward and leave that domina broken on the altar of my goals. My feelings were hard to describe. What I did was wrong but I did it for a reason. A good reason. It was to insure the protection and wellbeing of those in my care. Finis coronat opus. There was a darker side of myself though; a little part of me was giddy with anticipation. No matter how many times I told myself that it was for the greater good, I couldn't suppress the anticipation I was feeling. I would have complete control over that domina and no one would stop me. There would be no boundaries; nothing I couldn't do. Just remembering her sitting there naked against the dresser and completely vulnerable brought a predatory smile to my face. She would be like that constantly. Massaging my jaws, I fought down the disturbing smile that threatening to worm onto my face.
Ruri was the first to poke her head into the bathroom. It wasn't surprising really. She was the leader of the pair and in another life probably would have been barking orders to me. However, this world was unfair and the normal rules did not apply. She stopped at the edge of the door and watched me for a few moments. We stood in silence as Savanna walked past both of us and scanned the bedroom. Once she was sure that the domina wasn't hiding and waiting to mind control them, she nodded back to Ruri and the charamanda finally spoke.
"So you raped the domina," she said trying not to grin.
I ran the razor blade under my chin a few more times to get any hairs that had survived the first pass. My silence finally killed her grin. Ruri readjusted her footing and her tail brushed angrily against the door.
"Oh come on, the silent treatment really?" she asked.
I finally finished running the blades over my face and tapped it against the sink. I went from a scruffy twenty-something all the way back to looking my age. Wanc had pulled me into the world when I hadn't shaved for a couple of days. The stubble had barely been appearing then and had actually made me look more attractive. Over the course of five days though, it had grown from a sexy five o'clock shadow to a patchy unattractive beard. I was also, technically, on the run from the law. It benefit me to change my appearance.
Ruri fully stepped into the bathroom and she brushed her palm against my skin. Not unlike what I had done to the domina. She had soft hands and I didn't even mind the claws playing along the edges of my ears. She ran her thumb against my cheek affectionately and asked, "Did you take a shower? Why didn't you come get me? We could have had some fun."
Some of the steam was still hanging around on the ceiling and the edge of the mirror in front of me. I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of my attention. That was when I saw it, my eyes looked different. I leaned into the mirror and got a better look at my right eye. Ruri's hand followed as far as it could but I pulled out of her grasp. In contrast to the grey of my left, the eye that I recognized, it was slightly different. A yellow ring surrounded the pupil and gave the iris a more greenish tint. I wasn't heterochromatic but it was close.
Pulling back from the mirror, I said, "Because your showers are heated by the fires of hades."
Not that it would have mattered. Tiffany had also taken that simple joy from me. The tattoo under my chest had worked like a charm and the shower had been just cold enough that I was left miserable. No matter how much I turned the knobs, the water didn't warm enough for my liking. While I was standing under the scalding water, fatigue gnawed at me as if I had just finished running a couple of miles. Even then, hunger gnawed at the back of my mind. I had eaten two bowls of cereal not even two hours before.
Ruri leaned into the glass as well, trying to find what I was looking at. Finally, her eyes locked onto my right and she pulled back surprised. Her tone was one of curiosity, not concern. "What happened?"
"Savanna?" I asked. "Explain why I have a minor case of heterochromia."
The pink haired woman poked her head in. Her tone was academic. "He got hit in the eye with a whip. Mom had to completely regenerate it, and it healed back with a green ring in it. Though it's not surprising. True grey eyes just don't have as much brown or yellow but they do have some. So when the eye was reformed, those colors were brought to the fore."
Instead of sating her curiosity, Ruri became enraged. "So it was revenge!"
"What?" I was surprised at her tone.
"You wanted to tame that domina in revenge! She tore out your eye and now you want to ruin her!" she accused.
Savanna looked between us but I still received the more damning stare from even her. I started cleaning the razor and putting away all of the hygiene products back into the travelling case. "Actually, the dominatrix in the store did that to me. Remember the asshole shop keeper who kept answering me when you asked him a question? A dominatrix threw me through the roof and I trashed his store trying to get back out."
"So she's a proxy then!" Ruri said.
I stopped putting things away and glared at her. "I already explained why we are taking a domina. We need a grass type and I need to make su-"
"And I explained why it is stupid," she said. She pointed to Savanna in a deliberate action to get her support. The two of us both knew that she was more concerned about herself. Nonetheless, she sold it very well. "You are putting us in danger for some bullshit revenge fantasy. I was actually starting to believe you too. But if this is just for revenge then that is just too stupid."
That was the first time she had put herself in the same group as Savanna.
But I wasn't in the mood to continue the argument. The cold shower and the hunger pains forming in my stomach were not helping. There was also disgust with myself lingering in the back of my mind. It all combined with her insultingly vindicated tone to great effect.
She was wrong. I did not care so much for revenge that I would have raped a woman. That wasn't the kind of person I was. Nor was it my underlying reason for recruiting the domina. If it had been a simple matter of revenge I would have been no better than the psychic who had made me torture the domina in the middle of the street. The two of them were sincere in their outrage. They could act so indignant when they had their own secrets.
I kept a surprisingly calm tone, even to me, as I answered her.
"Why would I want to believe that a sadistic bitch could be useful to the world? That she could make use of her disposition and be a productive member of society? Why would I have a kinship with someone who has very loose morals and doesn't mind doing whatever it takes?" However, my voice inevitably began to rise. "It's just fucking revenge because clearly I am the type to solve my problems with brute force! I am not going to just kill her, I'm going to get my revenge by torturing her too! For no reason! Everyone is a selfish bitch just like you Ruri. We are all perfectly fine with saying 'fuck you world' and not giving a fuck about anything or anyone else."
Silence reigned as Ruri scowled at me. She found it very hard to articulate past such an obvious truth. Moving from her angry gaze, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and took a deep breath. Savanna looked very confused. The pink haired woman hadn't been as exposed to my darker qualities. The three of us all stood in the bathroom and the steam of the shower kept evaporating. Ruri's tail quivered against the cabinetry.
"So I have to be constantly looking over my shoulder so you can feel better about yourself? You're going to treat the domina real nice aren't you! Make some concessions so that she feels comfortable? She's already wormed into your head!" she accused. "Let me guess. You want us to give up a little of our authority so that she can get acclimated. Maybe Pinkie wouldn't mind getting tied up and whipped a little? Is that your plan?"
"No," I said in a low voice. I looked over at Ruri and glared at the spot between her eyebrows. It was my very best death glare. She swallowed a lump in her throat and leaned away from me.
Before I went off on a tirade, my mind finally fought through the fog of fatigue. Savanna was still standing in the room with us. I took a deep breath and didn't tell Ruri off. Savanna wouldn't like my plan. But then I sighed. It was wrong to hide it from her and it would be difficult to do so. If I could get her help it would make breaking the domina that much easier. Calming myself, I spoke, "We are dealing with a dangerous pokegirl. If she is anything like the pokedex says then I will have to treat her like I would myself. I am going to take everything from her. Her sight, her clothes, her right to eat, she won't even take shit without my permission. I will control everything that makes her a sentient being. We are going to go full Alex DeLarge on her until she is broken."
"Sean!" Savanna screamed. "That's, that's-"
Where Savanna was at a loss for words, Ruri had plenty.
"No! That is stupid!" she screamed. "Why the hell would you do that? What is the fucking point! Just fucking catch an Oddtits! That is way too much work for one fucking pokégirl! Why-!"
She continued to list how stupid it was but her main complaint seemed to be that it was going to take too much work. Savanna maintained her indignation at the mere thought of it. I took a deep breath and opened my lungs. It was going to take a lot of volume to get over them. Luckily, I had four years of JROTC drill team to call upon.
"QUIET!" My voice reverberated around the tiny room in a deafening bark. The thick walls only made it even louder. Both of them immediately stopped talking and rubbed at their ears theatrically. "I have no illusions about what I am planning to do. However, I believe that we need the domina in spite of how dangerous she is. It is for that reason that I am going to make sure that she cannot hurt either of you. And it will be on my conscious. Do you still object Savanna?"
"It's stup-!" Ruri yelled.
"RURI!" I barked again.
She glared at me.
I fought myself down to a more conversational tone. "I am letting Savanna go first. This is because, as my second in command, I want you to able to present the most educated argument that you can. This will allow you to appear to be the most intelligent once the team grows larger, and it will make enforcing your authority that much easier."
She narrowed her eyes and huffed but eventually relented. "Just stop doing that barking thing, you'll wake the entire center up."
I smiled sarcastically and handed the floor back to Savanna.
She rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. "Sean. What you are saying is that instead of letting a pokécenter do a level five, you are going to personally brainwash and torture this domina. Remember? You said that a level five was horrible and you weren't even going to give one to Ruri. What you are doing is worse because you'll be doing it yourself! If you just level five her than it'll be over in an instant. She won't have to suffer at all. Can't you see how monstrous it is that you will be stretching out her suffering?"
"Yes, I do," I said. However, the level five had slipped my mind. From what I remembered from the hospital books, a level five would leave the domina catatonic for a long period of time. "In fact I wasn't going to tell you about it. But we aren't going to have any more secrets are we?"
The thought of the level five didn't sit well with me. Something prevented me from considering it as an option. Perhaps, it was a gut instinct and my subconscious was working faster and with more information than my conscious mind could remember? Perhaps, it was stubbornness and me not wanting to change my plans? Perhaps, I wanted to break a person and not a doll because I'm a repressed psychopath. Eventually, I found the right line to tell myself and her. "I'm not going to level five her because when I pass judgment, I swing the sword."
Savanna nor I was entirely convinced. I pushed past Savanna and put the pouch back into the backpack.
"Sean, there are other ways of doing this. When Olivia was a domina, Dad didn't torture her into submission!" Savanna pleaded. "This is worse than taming a feral. This is torture."
"Where I'm from rape is worse than torture," I said and stared at her.
I could see Ruri's shadow was not moving. Given, that she hadn't immediately reacted to the rape comment, she was plotting.
Savanna stood still as well, trying to work through her own thoughts.
I sighed and pulled off my shirt so that she could see the tower on my chest. "We're being hunted. Last night, I found a loveball in my pack. I also got this tattoo that makes me resistant to heat. However, it's put my metabolism into overdrive and it might kill me. An ar-tits, who called herself Tiffany the Tats, gave it to me and stole my gun. She works for a man called Dan Green. Dan Green works for Norman in some capacity. If someone is trying to kill me then mind-control isn't off the table. I need to able to defend against that and I need to do so quickly."
Ruri finally rolled around the door frame and avoided my eyes. Real concern was in her voice when she spoke, despite her caustic wording, "How long until you bite it?"
As much as she tried to hide it, Ruri did care. When she was threatened, she responded with anger. If my safety was affected she had reacted with anger because our fates were tied together. This was the first time I had heard such naked concern.
However, the real reason I brought it up was twofold. One, to make myself perfectly clear and give Savanna a choice in the matter as I said I would the night before. Two, I wanted to change the subject. Clearly the unveiling of my plan was not going as I had liked.
"I'm a cockroach. I'm not going to die," I said with a smile and put my shirt back on before the glare off my white skin blinded anybody. "Savanna, we are walking into a lion's den. Are you in or are you out?"
"I can't go back now. If this is what it takes then I'll do it. You need help and the UFP needs to be stood up to." Her response sounded canned and she looked back down at her hands and kept wringing them unable to back up her own words.
There was still no comment about the mysterious Jasmine but I knew where that response had come from. Dealing with lies and manipulations when they were spoken by a proxy wasn't fun.
XXX
Walking out of the Oldale pokécenter for the last time was bitter sweet because I had to leave 50,000 SLC inside.
The domina's head had cracked the porcelain toilet and Ruri had destroyed a pillow in her fury. It turned out that I couldn't simply do such a thing without repercussions. 500 hundred dollars was the 'hero price' for a new toilet - that didn't even give me fucking reach around - and its installation. Almost all of the Killer Queen money disappeared in an instant. It stung but I still had a good sum of it left: 79,835 standard league credits.
As soon as we passed the two tense officers who were still guarding the pokécenter, Ruri immediately began screaming.
"You broke a toilet!" She yelled.
"I had to subdue the domina somehow," I said. "Water did the trick."
"Do you know what they do if you can't pay for things you break?" she asked.
I was tempted to yell 'COPS' as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. I settled for simply glaring at her from over my shoulder and saying, "shut up, pillow thrasher."
Not that anyone would mind, the town was still comparatively dead. Only a couple of people were walking around on a Monday afternoon except for the police officers who were mulling about. Even as the officers behind me stared at my back and glared at Ruri, I started up the street. Savanna was oddly quiet as she walked beside of me. No doubt she was trying to process what Jasmine would do in her situation. That really annoyed me. As much as I understood the reflex to be a private person, I didn't like being in the dark. My stomach rumbled just to add to the mix. The sun was already beating down as it reached its zenith and my tattoo was reacting accordingly. It was going to be a long day.
There was one stop I wanted to make though and that was to get supplies. The pokemart in Oldale would be the last stop I could make for supplies for a while. The map showed a forest past Petalburg. If pokemon games held true than it would be a slog. I needed supplies and Petalburg didn't look friendly. I would have to roll the dice that the police would simply search me again. I had too even though another set of officers stood guard at the door and were failing to not stare at me.
"Excuse me sir." The male officer held up his hand as I walked towards the pokémart. "We have reports of a tamer using a loveball. We need to search your pack."
To his credit, the officer didn't smile nor was he sardonic. He was a soldier doing his duty and the orange dog-girl beside him had the same expression. Her ears were flat against her head and she was uncomfortable as she held out her hand.
I sighed and handed over my bag. Once again, it was thrown out onto the dirt and every item was searched. The tent bag rattled as the individual logs hit the hard ground, a flake of dried dirt landed in the cooking pan and the leather pouch full of razors and other things was thoroughly searched and emptied. The dog girl did it all mechanically. The rest of us simply stood there and tried not to be too uncomfortable. Even the forgotten tiara from the night before hit the ground and gleamed up at me. The emerald shined in the daylight as if to mock and remind me who was responsible. Eventually, I looked into the officer's eyes.
"Is this going to happen every time?" I asked.
He nodded. "Strict orders. Anyone who meets the description of the suspect will be searched thoroughly. A loveball is a major threat and carries a heavy sentence. Lift your shirt please."
I did a little twirl so that he could see the edges of my boxers peeking over the pokébelt. Just in time, the dog-girl held up the empty gun-belt. The bullets were nowhere to be seen but the empty holster on the side was conspicuous enough that the officer held it up for me to see.
"What is this?" he asked. He sounded afraid that he had actually found something. What a good and noble guy. I could work with that.
The lie flowed smoothly out of my mouth as I quoted the pokédex. "My domina found it. You know how they like leather. She's a bit of a kleptomaniac."
The bullets were safely scattered among the poképack: a few in my dirty shirts, a few in the tent bag, a few hidden in the book Wanc had given me a few days before. They were hidden in all the nooks that an underpaid police officer wouldn't be bothered enough to actually search in. He dumped the belt atop the pile without looking away from my smile.
"Pockets," he said numbly. I emptied them the best I could and he half-heartedly confirmed that they were empty. His eyes never left mine as he said the next part. "We need to search your girls as well. The reports specifically mention a nurse joy."
I felt Savanna tense without even needing to look back at her. The temptation to stand up to him whispered to me. However, I suppressed those thoughts. That was what Norman wanted. Instead, I smiled at him and asked, "Did you sign up to be a thug?"
He straightened his back and glanced down quickly in shame. He didn't say anything nor did he press the issue. A tense silence dragged.
"Finished," his partner interrupted.
"I'm not Varangian Guard," he said then sighed. "It's not going to stop until you get clear of Petalburg. So you better get used to it."
Unlike the night before all of us bent down and started stuffing everything back into the bag. The officer crouched down next to me and handed the leather pouch of hygiene products back to me. In a whisper he added. "Don't try this in Petalburg. Mr. Lane has more loyal agents there than anywhere else."
Norman and Dan were in agreement then. The tattoo was throwing my metabolism into overdrive so that eventually my body would shut down. But Dan had also planted a loveball on me for the police to find. But the police officer knew I was innocent and he was telling me run right through Petalburg. But why wasn't I being detained? They had the authority to arrest me and hold me until the tattoo killed me. If I died in police custody though that would be suspicious. We finished packing everything up and I held out my hand to the officer. "I hope you catch the guy with the loveball."
He choked down a bitter laugh and let us pass.
The inside of the pokémart looked like a large convenience store. Blue banners, blue pricing strips even the lighting made the white shelves glow blue. Behind the counter sat a man with a look of such intense devotion to his task that he obviously worked for minimum wage. His feet were propped up on a glass counter that showed off pokéballs and he was resting his head on a cabinet full of prescription pills. HE certainly looked like a convenience store cashier. A food section filled with junk food was to our immediate right.
"Why are we in the pokémart?" Ruri asked.
"To buy some supplies," I said and took the right to avoid the bored gaze of the man behind the counter. To facilitate the flow of the room, the first joyous part of the tour was past all of the junk food. The aisle was full of cookies and potato chips that led to the refrigerators full of bottled milk and other dairy products. In the game, pokémart had looked like gas stations but it was much more comprehensive. "You heard the officer, we are going to go straight through Petalburg without stopping. So this is our last chance for a while. Do you know that Wanc didn't give us any food?"
"What exactly are we looking for?" Savanna asked.
"Cheap food," I answered.
In the mirror at the end of the aisle, I saw Ruri's reflection groan. Savanna took the lead and showed me to the back right corner. Camouflage green packaging with obnoxious lettering on the front dominated the entire section.
I grabbed the closest bag. 'Sloppy Joe' was written in bold blue letters on the side while the front had 'TAMER CHOW!' in large white letters. They had only changed the design but they were definitely MREs. I leaned down and looked at the prices. They were sorted by flavor, about thirty, but all were a price of 500 SLC or five dollars. I grabbed one of the large boxes on the bottom row that had twelve for forty thousand SLC.
Savanna stood over my right shoulder and said in a resigned voice, "This is Tamer Chow. It can be eaten anywhere because all you need to cook it is water. It has enough calories to last one day. As long as you never open the packages they'll never go bad."
"It's the last stop before you start eating pokéchow with your pokégirls," Ruri commented leaning on the wall.
On that note, Savanna led us around the corner into the next aisle. It looked like pet store. One side had an endless amount of plastic rolls of what looked like cookie dough. It was an odd replacement for cans of dog food. Each roll cost three hundred SLC. I picked one up and it was even pliable enough that it deformed in my hand with a simple press. The waxy texture made it seem even more disgusting. The list of nutrient requirements stood out against the dark blue packaging.
"This is pokéchow." She added the next part in an infomercial tone. "Everything a pokégirl needs in one package."
I looked down the aisle at the laundry hampers in the next row down, "Everything you need in one place."
Ruri stood perfectly in the center of the aisle with her arms crossed. "The UFP makes the pokémarts do it. If everyone shops in one place it will foster community bonds. Or at least, that's what they tell people. If everyone shops in a government run store then they can track people's purchases easily. Just so we're clear, I'm not eating that watered down gunk."
"Well then, I guess the domina and I will be eating raspberry, peach and grape flavors," Savanna said. She took a mystery package of nine rolls from the bottom shelf and brought our total up to sixty-seven thousand SLC.
"If you want to eat the MREs you can," I offered.
Savanna shook her head. "It's okay. I've almost gotten used to the taste."
We then turned our attention to the other side of the aisle. It was the other half of the pet store comparison made twenty times more perverted by Hoenn logic. Sex toys dominated the wall so that it resembled a BDSM dungeon. Everything I needed could be easily picked out. Compared to America, it was shocking that they could have dildos the size of my arm in plain sight. Even Spencer's Gifts had the decency to hide them in the back of the store. Here they were down the aisle from the laundry detergent. The scariest part was that such a demented task required only one stop at a public store. A shock collar to punish her, a bullet vibrator to reward her, and a leather blindfold to rob her of her sight.
A man walked past with a clothes hamper. He didn't bat an eyelash at the wall of sex toys.
Ruri was already grinning before I grabbed the plastic sealed vibrator. She tried not to break into a smile. "Going to give her that tingly feeling?"
"Carrot and stick," I said, perusing for handcuffs. I found something called 'light restraints' hanging on a peg.
"No. You don't want those," Ruri said and grabbed a larger bag that cost more than twice as much and a couple of other items.
I took it numbly and added up the total in my head. I was still in the clear. "And here I thought you weren't going to support me in this."
"No." Ruri shook her head. "This is still a stupid plan but clearly you aren't listening to me. So if you are going to do something stupid than the very least you can do is not die on me. So while we are here, you're going to buy something."
She turned and walked out of the aisle. I glanced at Savanna curiously and she generously beckoned me to follow her. It was horrifying that they were working together. The back wall was full of camping supplies including everything Wanc had given me in the poképack. Ruri took a vest off the top of the wall and held it up against my body. It offered full body protection, even a rigid collar that protected my neck. The only problem was that it was sleeveless and whatever protection it offered, my arms would still be completely exposed.
"Sean you almost died," Savanna said over my shoulder. I briefly remembered looking up at the killer queen and the intense pain in my chest. "So you're going to start wearing armored clothing."
She handed me the vest to put on. It had an extra heft to it and I felt out the metal plates that would cover vital organs. I had my doubts but the real kicker was when I found the price tag.
"Thirty thousand SLC!" I said. That was 300 hundred dollars or most of the money. It easily doubled the amount of money I was going to be spending. They ignored me up until I grabbed Ruri's hand and stopped her from taking down a pair of matching pants. "That's too much money."
"Sean, this is to save your life. Wear the damn clothes!" she said.
"I'm not the one fighting. If anyone should wear it, it's you two," I said.
"If Savanna dies, we won't get traded away!" Ruri screamed back. Interesting that she didn't consider her own death a possibility. "Sean, if you die what happens to me? Isn't that why you're so hung up on this domina? If you die from a pokégirl attack then it isn't going to matter if a domina is fucking with your head!"
That shut me up. "Fine."
Ruri took the pants off the wall and handed them to me. They cost thirty thousand too. That would have completely ate up our budget and we wouldn't be able to afford anything else. However, they did have a point. "I'll buy the vest but you can get rid of the pants. They cost too much, we have other expenses."
"Sean there's no point in the vest if your femoral artery gets cut," Savanna said from behind me.
"It's too much money," I said again and put more force into my voice. "Put the pants back. We'll find more money later."
The same annoyed look crossed her eyes but she put it back as instructed. I walked past a few more aisle until I found what I wanted in the left corner of the store: a weapons section. There were plenty of flashy katanas and a few European swords on display but no firearms. I ignored those and found the simpler selection. It had a steel blade and a plastic sheath that I could fit around the pokébelt. It was about six inches long and ended in a sharp angle while the back of the blade was serrated.
As soon as I grabbed it, Ruri had something to day about it.
"Yes, fuck safety," she said. "Let's buy a knife instead."
"It's for utility or do you want to saw through wood with your nails?" I asked leaving no room in my tone for a response.
She glanced down without a word then rubbed them against her dress.
After that, we finally got to check out. The man rocked out of his chair and started ringing us up. Before I could react, Ruri had grabbed my pokédex out of my front pocket and started flipping through it. I looked at her questioningly.
"Oh, you know how to pay for this?" she asked.
I placed my bag on the end of the counter and stuffed the clothes and food into it. The pokedex registered the items as soon as I zipped up the bag. It held up the cashier but he didn't think it was amazing. The only thing that didn't go into the bag was the knife. It went on my belt so that it hung horizontal at the small of my back. A simple clasp was the only thing that kept me from drawing it. I fluffed my shirt and it vanished.
It was then that I spotted a rack of baseball caps. There was a black one with a red stylized pokéball symbol right on the front. It went on top of my purchases. Ruri and Savanna looked at me with sarcastic comments on their lips.
"What?" I asked.
Ruri looked at me like I was an annoying child but went back to staring at the bored guy behind the counter.
Savanna looked mildly amused though, "Those are very popular with ten year olds."
I chuckled but didn't say anything either. The total rang up to almost six hundred thousand SLC or most of the money. Based on my simple arithmetic in my head it came up to the exact same price as the stickers had said. Curious, I asked Ruri, "No tax?"
"It's factored in with the price," Ruri said absently and bumped the pokédex against the payment machine. She approved the transaction and handed it back to me. I had about twenty-two thousand left. "What kind of fucked up backwards place wouldn't do that?"
I didn't say anything for a second time and helped Savanna stuff all of the extra stuff into the bag. We had enough to move through Petalburg without stopping for supplies.
All that was left to do was change a few things about my appearance. I walked past the officers still babying the hat in my hands. He may have warned me about Petalburg but he may have been lying.
XXX
I stood on the edge of Oldale and took a deep breath. The dirt barely hid the carnage of the night before. The best they had managed to do was spread some gravel and clean up most of the blood. It still allowed a few red spots to be visible. Unlike the night before, the gate was wide open. It looked much like Littleroot only the walls were not as impressive and the road wasn't as imposing. There was one anomaly that I didn't expect. A bouquet of flowers was laid out on the right side of the gate. It looked like some kind of candlelight vigil had been set up during the night.
The centerpiece was a picture of man about my age wearing glasses. He looked familiar but I couldn't place it.
Savanna tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey. He's talking to you."
I looked over at her. She was staring at an old man sitting on the porch to the right of the gate. Ruri kept glaring at the road.
"He died in the attack." He repeated. He hadn't moved from his rocking chair. He was content to let a pokégirl pour him something to drink. "He used to sit here and draw the people walking by."
Immediately, I fished out the strange notepad that Savanna had found. I showed it to her and made a motion of flipping through the pages.
She held up a notepad, "Look what I found."
She handed it to me. Ruri gave her a withering look that Savanna ignored. She was annoyed that Savanna had simply handed me the notepad and not looked at it herself. That was understandable. I gave it a quick flip through. The hand writing was undecipherable but it was more of a sketch pad filled with obsessively detailed drawings of feet and shoes.
Ruri stared over my shoulder, "Looks like someone has a foot fetish."
"And not the usual stuff either." I said, flipping through some more drawings. "Most of these look like hiking boots or tennis shoes, there aren't a lot of flip flops or sandals. But check the dates, it starts out with bare feet then he draws one specific foot obsessively for days and then hiking boots: hiking boot, hiking boot, tennis shoe, hiking boot."
"Just chuck it," Ruri said over my shoulder. "We have a long road to Petalburg."
I handed it to her and she threw it under the portrait like it was toxic. Savanna still stole a sympathetic glance at the Old Man. I looked up at the sun, it had to be a little after noon and we would never make it to the next town even if it was a similar distance away.
Completely honest, I said, "I'm tired of this fucking town."
XXX
Kathleen lifted her head up. At the door, Sybil was standing out in the hallway and keeping it open. Though she kept an empty expression, Kathleen could see the regret in her eyes. She moved to get out of her chair but Sybil stopped her by holding up her hand. The echo of footsteps came charging down the hall.
Sybil cast a dark look at them. However, the person who came around the corner was smiling brightly. A chaos of colors flowed behind her as she stepped into the room and the light made her glow in a brilliant multitude of lights. Kathleen took a deep breath when she recognized her. The woman twisted the chair around and sat in it backwards. Her nonchalance was backed up with a happy grin. The multitude of colors in her eyes matched her hair.
They sat in silence with Sybil guarding the door and casting dark glares down the hallway. In contrast, Tiffany was resting her head on her arms, completely at ease. She tapped her fingers against her arms and kept smiling kindly. The word 'love' was spelled over both of her hands. It was very ironic given how cruel she had been for the last day.
The words kept dancing into Kathleen's view as they sat in silence. They had only met a few hours before but the woman had left an impression. Her first interrogator, the one who kept standing watch at the door, had failed. Then the ar-tits had come in and tried to convince her to turn on her partner. After that, they had worked her over for the entire night denying her sleep, blasting obnoxious music into the cell and keeping the temperature at an ungodly high.
Based on the cycle of unbearable heat, she had been down there for a day perhaps more. She refused to wipe a bit of sweat off her brow and kept her hands pinned to her sides.
Finally, Tiffany sighed. "Well my dear Sybil-look-alike, we have reached the end of our time together."
Kathleen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what would happen next. They were going to level five her and she would lose everything. They would take everything from her, her very memories would be taken. She wouldn't even remember Grant. If she was a weaker person she may have cried. But she wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Instead, she congratulated herself. A part of her, maybe not a real part of her, would survive. That was the consolation she gave herself. Though it was a lie; it was enough.
Tiffany slapped her arms and shrugged, "It's too bad you can't say goodbye to Mister Allan but we are on a schedule."
Kathleen didn't react. As much as she despised where she was, she was bound to her creed as an officer of the law. It would be worse if she fought back. They wouldn't take her creed from her, she valued that more than even Grant. She did have one question though.
She looked past the chaotic mishmash of designs to the other officer jenny. "How can you do this? How is this justice?"
The ar-tit's smile faded but not by much.
The officer jenny behind her, however, fidgeted against the door and tightened her grip on her arms. "We follow the law and the order that it gives to the world. The people invested their trust into the United Futures Party and we must respect that decision. Their laws were decided through a process invested with power by the people and we must enforce them."
Kathleen smiled. "There are many laws and they change-"
"And these are ours," Sybil interrupted her.
"Officer Jenny BR-109, you are to report for re-education at the nearest pokécenter," Tiffany said and stood up. "These pokégirl's are going to escort you."
Two massive shadows pushed past Sybil. They were both hulking pokégirls with an extra pair of arms each and muscles on their muscles. They were dressed in black fatigues with balaclavas on their faces but that wasn't the most damning part. Their unit patch was an axe and a byzantine cross on a purple background. She froze at the sight of it. Kathleen didn't even fight them when they held her down and pressed her into cuffs.
She found her voice again and glared fiery death at Sybil.
"Varangian Guard!" She screamed at her fellow officer jenny. After all of the abuse, all of the mud-slinging, all of the accusations! That the righteous officer jenny had been allied to those child-killers was a massive slap in the face! For all of her outrage at how Kathleen had acted, Sybil was an even greater traitor. Her rage was unquenchable. "You're working with them! They're murderers! Bastards who operate outside the law! You called me a traitor! What the hell is wrong with you?"
She kept screaming even as the pair carried her out easily. Between the two of them, they easily held Kathleen's smaller form, and even as she fought to free herself, their grip never wavered.
Sybil folded into the door and tried to make herself smaller as the verbal berating continued. She closed her eyes but didn't respond. With such a dark fact finally revealed, she just collapsed under the weight of the façade.
Both officer jennies knew of the animosity The Varangian Guard and the regular police forces had. Varangian Guard Units were officially created by the UFP to serve as guards for government buildings. In reality, they were a horrible blend of police officers and the militias that the two major coalitions had created. Only they lacked any scruples and were commanded by tamers that didn't officially exist. As the UFP's private force they couldn't operate outside of the Petalburg Department because of their horrible reputation with the other parts of Hoenn League. Several people had come forward accusing them of cruel and immoral behavior but any attempt to prosecute them in UFP courts had been dismissed immediately.
All officer jennies hated them with a passion. Though most of her breed hadn't been broken like Sybil had. She, herself, didn't consider herself a true officer jenny anymore. But to fight her mistress' will was futile. It had been more difficult then she remembered to fake the righteousness that she once had. Especially against an officer jenny who had done nothing wrong.
"Stop!" Tiffany suddenly screamed. She had sat quietly as the screaming jenny passed by her but then crooked her head as if remembering something important. The pair of muscled Amachamp complied as soon as they heard her voice. She walked into the hall and smiled at Kathleen who was still being held like unwieldy luggage. "I forgot to mention. Grant Allan was involved in an incident with a loveball. We haven't been able to find him. We think he's dead. I thought you should know that."
She grinned at her victim with an innocent expression that only made her look more sadistic.
"What do you mean?" Kathleen demanded. Her anger vanished in her concern for her former partner.
"Unfortunately, Grant Allan was captured by a loveball. Grant, or whatever the female form of Grant is, was given to the local hero as a reward. However, Mister Iscariot is very paranoid. We think he smashed it. The modifications would keep the ball from exploding but it would kill any occupant of it quietly and efficiently. It seems Mister Iscariot killed Grant Allan," Tiffany said simply. Before Kathleen could fully process that, Tiffany waved her hand. "Take her to the pokécenter."
As Kathleen screamed and demanded answers, Tiffany turned back to Sybil.
The officer jenny rubbed her shoulders in a self-pacifying action and peeled herself off of the wall.
Tiffany wasted no time, "Sybil. I have to go make sure Kathleen gets her level five. You are to report back to your owner. We'll be back in touch when we need you."
She turned to walk off.
The officer jenny took a deep breath and recovered what was left of her confidence. "Why did you torture her like that? She didn't need to know what you did to Mister Allan."
"Because my Master told me to, she needs to arrive at the pokecenter in irate condition. The more people who know that she has gone mad with grief, the easier it will be for us to justify her level five. So I did as ordered," Tiffany said with a shrug and didn't stop walking away.
As the commotion from upstairs faded, Sybil asked one last question before Tiffany could vanish. "Section Two doesn't have authority over Varangian Guard Units! Why were they here?"
"Hoenn League Department of Security Intelligence, commonly known as Section Two, does not have authority over Varangian Guard Units. In fact, if Section Two where to be found collaborating with Varangian Guard that would be a major scandal," Tiffany said, still not looking back. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and smiled back at Sybil. They were both at the mercy of their cooperating owners so she felt okay with revealing a little secret to her accomplice. "Blue Stars, though, they have command over everyone. They don't officially exist, but if they did they would be the revanchist of humanity and all of humanity's resources would be available to them."
Tiffany smiled. "I'll see you again, Sybil. Say hi to the Madam for me."
Cowed at the mention of her torturer and owner, Sybil stared at the ground.
On the street, Tiffany took a deep breath and watched the orange colors of the sun disappear over the horizon. It was getting dark quicker than it should have though. A blanket of dark blue clouds hung over the town and the moon wasn't visible above them.
Looking down the street, she saw that her two minions were standing in the center of the road being berated by a random tamer. Curious, she started walking toward the pair and preparing her, self-described, 'manic pixie' act.
The human holding them up was a pudgy man. That made her slow down. Overweight implied that he was somewhat important because not many métis grew to that size. It was odd that the two amachamps, so obedient, broken and dim, had even stopped. They were trained to simply barrel through all obstacles. The man was most definitely a pure-blood human then. He had a trio of girls standing around him. She recognized an oddtits and the winged pokégirl standing over him like a vulture was obviously a fallen angel. She didn't recognize the third girl but she looked cat-like.
Getting closer, she recognized the voice.
"My name is Brendan Rubio. I am the heir of the Rubio family and I demand that you hand over that officer jenny," Brendan demanded.
"Shit," Tiffany said in defeat. She did an about face and ducked into an alley close enough to still hear. The Rubio heir actually did have authority to demand the jenny be put in his care. The amachamp were trained enough that they would follow the letter of the law too. She banged her head on the fossilized wood of the building. She couldn't reveal herself because the Rubio heir was just powerful enough that he would get answers to any questions he asked about her. If she was identified then she would be putting her master's identity in danger.
That was not an option.
"You are Varangian Guard?" Brendan asked.
They grunted in the affirmative. Their breed of pokégirl weren't naturally mentally impaired but those two had been conditioned to be nothing more than muscles to carry out orders and follow rules. It was supposed to make them more malleable to her commands since she was a pokégirl as well. Now it was backfiring spectacularly and she could do nothing about it.
"Then you know that as the heir to the Rubio bloodline I have a birthright to command Varangian Guard Units. You also know that according to UFP's policies, as a pure human, I am allowed to commandeer any pokégirl in government use for my harem," Brendan said.
Another affirmative grunt.
"Then hand over that crying pokégirl!" the human demanded. "I'm invoking my right. You will not harm her anymore!"
Tiffany walked away as the boy started whispering consolations to the broken officer jenny. The amachamp were driven off as she slinked into the night. She had failed to level five the officer jenny. Hopefully, she could salvage the situation but Tiffany the Tats could not fight against a pure-blooded human. Especially the scion of the Rubio family.
Brendan consoled Kathleen and in short order would decipher her story. Meanwhile, the architects of her suffering, both intentionally and unintentionally, were moving towards Petalburg City. The world had been set on a new course. The Oldale Killer Queen Attack and its aftermath had sent the world in a new direction. Even if the world didn't know it yet. Those with even a tangential relationship to the chaos and the resulting cover-up would play a larger role in Hoenn League's future. Just as Jasmine the Megami-sama had predicted.
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