Chapter: Hypocrites and Pettiness
XXXXX
My name is Sean Westland. Biologically, I am 18 years old. Chronologically, I'm over 200.
Perhaps that requires an explanation?
In 1992, biological weapons systems were unleashed upon the world by a single man. Dubbed the Revenge War, the fundamental world order was completely and utterly destroyed. The bio-weapons spread around the globe killing millions but the real damage was inflicted by disease. There were two. The Red Plague killed billions outright. Bloody Flu was more insidious, it attacked the female reproductive system and rendered most human women sterile. Within a decade, 98 percent of humanity was dead or unable to reproduce. The bio-weapons, meanwhile, had multiplied by an order of ten. Humanity had been soundly defeated. The rich, global elite took the remaining fertile women and came to an isolated archipelago to restart civilization. The rest of the planet was abandoned.
This is the part where a zombie hits the camera for an easy jump scare while I monologue about antibodies. My luck is a bit better than that. Far from an apocalyptic desert, I was enjoying a bit of culture in a packed amphitheater. Lysistrata was below me lamenting her fellows insatiable lust while a beautiful woman rested her head on my chest. The weather was fantastic and the company was cultured.
However, my motives were not educationally inspired. When I lulled my head back, I had a clear line of sight on the large red-roofed building across the street. The pair of policewomen standing guard were swamped by a constant stream of people entering and exiting. Hours of work had dulled their senses, and their shift was almost over. They couldn't see past the pedestrian filled street. Lounging on the marble steps of the amphitheater, I was invisible behind the guard rail. I pulled my ball cap lower.
"The thing is even as I say. I cannot stop them any longer from lusting after man. They are all deserting! The first I caught was slipping out by the postern gate near the cave of Pan; another was letting herself down by a rope and pulley; a third was busy preparing her escape; while a fourth was just taking wing for Orsilochus' house when I seized her by the hair. One and all, they are inventing excuses to be off home!" Lysistrata cried.
The actress' eloquent speech was surprising given her appearance. Stripped fur and a muzzled face made one doubt her abilities. However, she played the part well and spoke eloquently despite her fangs. She did have an innate advantage in portraying an increasingly sexually frustrated woman though. She was one of the bio-weapons that had driven humanity to the edge of extinction. Now she was performing for an entire audience of them.
"Lysistrata is always played by a tigress," the woman on my chest said. She didn't move her eyes from the tabloid on her stomach.
The bio-weapons came in different types; tigress was one of them. The pattern of Lysistrata's fur and the powerful but sleek figure she cut in her costume fit her name. The designation of the woman laying on me did not. Hers was 'nurse joy.' She was gifted with healing magic but her name wasn't Joy. I had encountered worse epithets. Tigress and nurse joy paled in comparison to "oddits" and "a-bra." Appellations given by your enemies were rarely flattering.
"Fan?" I asked.
"It's a popular performance," she said in the short tone the city had been inspiring in her. "Littleroot used to perform it every year for the Memorial Festival."
Her attitude was understandable. The version of Lysistrata being performed below had more in common with Aristophanes' version than Germaine Greer's. As did its humor and views towards women. Sort of. The female roles were exclusively played by pokegirls, while the male roles had a mix of human men and women. The bawdy jokes became vicious ridicule at how impossible a revolt was. In that way, the spirit of the original was preserved. After my third viewing of the play I began to notice something else. There was a real fear under it all. Some scenes were simply too insistent that what was happening was impossible.
As had the woman on my chest. I put my hand on her's as a token of support. On cue, she put her magazine down.
"Is it time yet?" she asked. Her tone abruptly shifted to eager deference.
After sitting in the hot sun for eight hours and being subjected to propaganda, she put in the effort to improve her mood for me. Which was a weird feeling. Savanna looked like the kind of woman who spent her free-time flipping tires. My biceps were three times too small to be in a relationship with her. In another life, all I would have gotten from her was a look of disdain. Actually, she was a nice person. I probably would've gotten a polite smile but not much more. But looking down into her sparkling red eyes, those feeling ceased.
The police had switched shifts at eight that morning. They couldn't be on the clock that much longer. My lack of resources had driven me to my current plan. I was having a problem with law enforcement and I needed intelligence. The police were the perfect source for information. There was nothing like a long pointless assignment to make people complain. When they changed shifts, I'd eavesdrop on their conversation. It was risky and stupid but a unique opportunity.
I sat up and put the battery back in my pokedex. The red device only took a moment to reboot from a complete loss of power. I kept it on just long enough to see the time, 1556, then took the battery back out. Another trio of police were coming to replace them, and right on time.
It was time to move. We excused ourselves but stopped in the shadow of the exit tunnel and watched the police interact. I pulled Savanna close to me. With my ball cap on, all I had to do was look down at her to completely hide my face.
Savanna snaked her arms around my neck, "This is dangerous."
"I want to know what Norman's plan is," I said.
"Why can't we just leave Petalburg?" she asked. "This is about Ruri isn't it?"
I didn't have the chance, nor the desire, to respond.
The police had finally parted ways. We fell in behind them and kept a respectable distance for me to hear their entire conversation. Which was not a safe distance. We wouldn't be able to talk. I grabbed Savanna's hand and we went for a stroll. It was just us and the blabbering cops. They took us on a tour of the city.
Petalburg had a completely different aesthetic than Oldale. It was a white metropolis but it never felt urban. There were no towering masses of steel and glass. Petalburg was earthy with the façade of history. Belgian block streets were packed with people, trees were planted everywhere and buildings looked like they were made of clay. The dazzling white mortar was accented with hundreds of green shutters. Even the banners hanging from balconies and windows were the same color.
Following them was simple. Their fatigue, the crowded streets and the flat out balls required to follow the police meant that I was invisible. They talked about pointless stuff with only little pieces about their job. I held onto the hope that they would drop something more pertinent. It was a long walk through the city.
"What a pointless assignment." One of the women finally complained about something I cared about.
"We don't get to choose them," the male officer said.
"But we weren't doing anything," she said.
"If they want to pay us to stare at people for eight hours then better for us," he said.
The trio walked along streets clogged with rickshaws. A centaur galloped past hauling a wagon behind her. She stopped, transformed in a regular biped, and started unloading the wagon. We passed plazas with marble nudes and water fountains. People were enjoying the day mingling with one another. It wasn't the strange women walking around that tore me out of the moment. It was the lack of phones.
The street ahead was under construction. It was strange seeing a construction site full of women. A team of men stood directing the action. Massive steel pipes were being hauled around by hulking women. The ground was being levitated out of the way by a single woman with green hair. Like a chorus director, her simple arm movements made the ground flow. The entire road was blocked.
The police were forced to find another way. The crossed the street. Their blue uniforms stopped the chaos cold and they passed. Moses couldn't have parted that sea of people any better.
To tail someone, you needed both skill and instinct. You needed skill because you couldn't get too close, and you couldn't drift too far away. You needed instinct because every turn, every pedestrian passed, every bridge, raised the risk of being seen. Anyone could be trained to tail someone but it took good instincts to know when it's time to stop following. I let them walk away from me.
It was a weak haul and it wasn't nearly enough to convince me that I was safe. It was, however, enough to justify the risk. I was ready to go back to the center.
"We aren't leaving today, are we?" Savanna asked.
"No," I said.
Despite the police presence, there were a couple of things I wanted to do. One of those things had to with Norman Lane, the patriarch of the Lane family.
His face was on streetlamps, fences and storefronts. One particular poster irritated me to no end. It was a typical propaganda piece with a man standing in the center of a green background. He was middle aged with peppered hair and a business suit. The photo could have been for a magazine cover. A catchy slogan ran across the bottom: "Vote for the future. Vote for the UFP." It was everywhere.
Norman had been a pain in my ass and he was one of the reasons I was in Petalburg.
He had given me a tattoo that my body couldn't handle. Humid did not begin to describe how oppressive Hoenn was. Everyone around me had a sheen of sweat on them and wore light breezy clothes. I was wearing a heavy flak jacket and a long sleeve shirt. I could feel it, but it was the feeling of a spring day just after the rain had stopped. That was the only indication that my tattoo was working. It was so subtle that I could have written it off with narcissism; that I was simply more resilient than those around me.
It was a part of his plan. I assumed. The heavy police presence was his doing. It had to be. My working hypothesis was that he intended to scare me into bypassing Petalburg so that I would run out of supplies. Without supplies, the tattoo would eventually kill me. But there was the matter of an illegal item he planted on me. That implied he wanted me detained. Actually, a man by the name of Dan Green had planted it. Dan Green had technically given me the tattoo as well. However, I hadn't pissed off anybody except Norman. Actually, the police weren't actively looking for me either. They were just standing guard at high alert. So then he didn't want me detained. In Oldale, the town before Petalburg, a police officer had given me a warning about the Petalburg police presence. What if the police officer from that town was working for Norman and only pretending to be sympathetic?
The circle of mass-guessing had been torturing me all afternoon.
I should have just bought supplies, left Petalburg and put the headache behind me. It was another Lane that kept me in the city.
Ruri Lane, Norman Lane's daughter, pissed me off more than her father. She carried the grace and poise of a PMSing dog. She threw her abrasive personality around constantly itching for someone to abuse. Her demeanor and candor were condescending and intolerably insulting. Ruri was sadistic and emotionally disgusting, spewing hateful discontent with every action. She lured you in with occasional moments of weakness or hints of an uncomfortable past but even in those moments she refused to show a redeeming personality.
I was in lust.
She had become even more unbearable on the road to Petalburg. At mere mention of the city, she soured even further, becoming more reserved, lashing out when bothered. I only exacerbated the problem with how I reacted. Clearly, her hometown was not her favorite place to be. But this was where she was born. If I wanted to learn more about Ruri than this was where I needed to be. I was going to crack the mystery of her. Heavy police presence and byzantine threats be damned.
XXX
I walked right past the police who stood guard. Their gaze passed over me just like it did everyone else. Eight hours of sitting in the sun had been for nothing.
My risk assessment was not over yet. There was still another; I still had to check in. Despite my best efforts, everything in Petalburg was designed to keep track of multitudes of people. Citizens didn't rent out their rooms because there was a free source of government lodging. Even if I could've avoided government housing, my electronic ID had built in GPS. The authorities had created an ingenious system to turn freedom into a rat maze and the nexus was the pokecenter system.
Petalburg's pokecenter was egregious. The grey and red bunker exterior was bare concrete, an affront to the motif of the city. Inside, the center was palatial and air conditioned. It was divided into four sections by chest-high walls that were further divided into booths. Warm lights and woods made it shine like an expensive private clubhouse.
In the sunken center of the room were televisions. The screens displayed a large call-out board with a wild-west aesthetic. They were on all sides of the central pillar so that everyone could see them. The assignments on the board included larger tasks than the ones displayed on the pokedex. They asked for multiple tamers and ten or more pokegirls. Tamers watched their pokedex screens and discussed joint missions with the air of stock brokers.
Against the far wall, two nurse joys were working the counter and handing out rooms. I took my place at the back of the line.
"Are we really going to stay in the pokecenter?" Savanna asked.
I glanced at her then crossed my arms. "It's fine. We're just kicking the hornet's nest to see what comes out."
"Are you sure we shouldn't just leave?" She asked. Fear clouded her voice, but she scowled when she asked the next part. "Do we really need to do this just for Ruri?"
She spit the name out. I rolled my eyes. The feuding did have its uses though. It offered insight into Savanna's psyche. I knew exactly how to convince Savanna. I leaned in close so that the rest of the center couldn't hear us.
"You've spent your entire life living in their shadow. Constantly under their boot heel," I said. It was easy to prey on her emotions. The only time her good-girl routine was broken was when she mentioned the UFP. Her resentment was simple to use against her. "And now that I give you the chance to bloody their nose, you're backing down?"
"Wait, what do you mean bloody their nose?" She panicked. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes were beginning to dilate and she kept looking side to side. "What are we doing?"
She had followed me without complaint earlier but I had pushed her resolve too far. Like many people who chafed under authority, she stopped short of ever actually fighting back. She could complain in private but never act in public. At best, she would attack isolated fringes of the system.
The line moved up.
I put my hand on the back of her neck. That was to force her closer to me and allow me to press my forehead to hers. It looked intimate to anyone watching. "Savanna, babe, where's that fire you had when you called Ruri on her shit?"
"No." She was almost hyperventilating. "There's no reason to do this. We just need to run and get out from under them."
"No." I was stern and gave her head a shake. Immediately, I smoothed my voice and eased her skittish demeanor along with it. No one in the center cared. The muscles of her neck stiffened up and she closed her eyes. Comparing the way she lashed out at Ruri to her cowed demeanor was only angering me.
The line moved up again before I could continue. I let go of Savanna's neck and pulled her under my arm. It was like trying to pull down a brick wall.
But just at the moment of resistance, she collapsed and followed my lead. It still shocked me into a revelation. I was taller than Savanna but she was stronger than me. There was no contest who would win in a fight. Again, she looked like a gym rat. A beautiful, well-groomed gym rat. In a way, it made me feel better that she was so beaten down. With how beautiful and strong she was, it made her feel more approachable.
I was a horrible person.
I took a deep breath, made her face me, and whispered in her ear. "We'll be fine. They are a lumbering bureaucracy and we are a nimble pair of freedom fighters. All we are doing is gathering intelligence."
"Okay," she said but didn't meet my gaze. She put on the kicked puppy act. The situation hadn't gone how I wanted it to go, but her pouting became too frustrating to deal with.
I dug out my pokedex to put the battery back in. "Don't be like that. It'll be fine Savanna."
But it was too late. We were second in line and I had to put on my polite, friendly face. All of my negative energy flowed out of me when I rolled my shoulders. I was loose, relaxed and amiable. The nurse joy smiled at me.
"Sean Iscariot," I said with a smile as I presented my pokedex. It even felt like whiplash to me.
No, the alias was not to avoid the cops. There was no way to lie about who I was. The rat maze even accounted for that. The alias "Sean Iscariot" was given to me by the vindictive patron who was financing my travels. Where there were pokedexs, there were pokeprofessors and my pokeprofessor was far from the grandfatherly Professor Oak.
I went through the motions of registering for a room and sat down in the pokécenter lounge to wait for the hornets to come flying out.
Savanna followed meekly as I doubled back to the front of the center. I threw myself into the booth to the left of the door. Savanna tried to sit beside me but I pulled her onto my lap. There was to be no sulking. But even when I rested my hand on her bare thigh, she didn't lean into me. Instead she sat there, with her spine replaced by a board and eyes cast anywhere but me. I wanted to grab her by the jaw and make her look at me. I didn't. She continued scanning the room expecting commandos to blow out the wall any second. I wasn't unsympathetic. We were sitting as close to the door as possible just in case they did.
"Savanna," I said stretching out her name so it sounded like I was whining. She had tanned a little from sitting in the sun all day. When I ran my hand a little higher, I could see the tan lines under her short shorts. Even that didn't get her attention. "Come on, you're the only one talking to me."
She moved to respond but then the door opened and she tried to escape her skin. A pair of guys walked in chatting, caught up discussing something. They didn't even check their surroundings. I actually didn't want to coax a conversation out of her. However, I couldn't just leave her like that. She needed to relax. I moved my hand further up her thigh and gradually between her legs. I waited, enjoying the feeling of her skin.
And waited.
Savanna's attention had been captured by a man across the entrance way. He was throwing her around and yelling at her, scalding her like a brutal pimp.
She had yellow fur with brown stripes across her back. I couldn't shake the fact the fact that she looked like a rodent. Given the fact that a pokegirl could be anything from a tiger to a plant, she probably was. I'm sure it wasn't her actual name but she looked enough like the pokemon to justify it. Pikachu took the punishment like a frightened child.
The images of the Killer Queen stalking towards me flashed through my head. Which made me acutely aware of the muscled thigh in my hands. I looked up at Savanna's nervous gaze. She was too busy staring at the man. I moved my hand back into a less risqué position.
"You stupid bitch! How could you lose to a Jigglyslut!" he yelled.
The shorter girl looked extremely pathetic. It was baffling. If she was a pikachu than she should have been able to fry him. The man brought the pimp hand down and dropped her to the floor. I looked around for other customers and found a remarkable lack of caring. The humans were annoyed at the noise not the physical abuse. The pokegirls were a little more attentive, even though none of them moved. Savanna was one of them. She was watching them even though she had to bend her neck at a hard angle.
"You pathetic little slut I should have left you in the forest to die!" The man grabbed the tank top the girl was wearing and held her up by it. He started yelling in her face so hard that he was spraying her with spit. "All you had to fucking do was last for two more minutes!"
Pikachu clung to his hands, so as not to fall, "I'm not."
"What!" he demanded and dragged the much smaller girl up by the throat.
The next couple of moments were pathetic. He knocked the girl around as the pokecenter ignored them. A couple of pokegirls kept an eye on the proceedings; including Savanna who stubbornly refused to look away. Which meant the guy had my attention as well. He wasn't able to hurt the girl. There were a few hard shakes and a few slaps to the face, he only punched her twice. The girl just took it with minimal resistance. She kept her gaze on the ground and only tried to block the stronger blows. She was holding back and he had no idea what the fuck he was doing. It was a pathetic sight all around.
"Why doesn't she fight back?" I asked Savanna despite already knowing her answer.
"Because she loves him," she said quietly and without looking at me.
I rolled my eyes. The real reason the pokegirl didn't fight back was learned helplessness. The same reason a teenage boy would let himself get manhandled by his father. The social structures and mores kept you complacent and the social order intact. Even the theater performances reinforced her position in the social hierarchy. Eventually, the mental barriers around fighting back were too high. She let herself get slapped around. Which was exactly what living as a slave for her entire life had done to Savanna. She cowered in front of the UFP.
And me.
Didn't want that thought.
"Stop hitting me!" a woman screeched.
The entire center had turned to stare at Pikachu and her abuser. We all got to see Pikachu finally overcome her social programming and punch her abuser. It all happened in an instant. The guy was hit so hard he lost his footing and fell face first into the booth. There was the moment of stunned silence. There was regret as Pikachu registered what she did.
Savanna was on her feet; I stumbled. She had dragged me out of my chair without realizing it! The only hold I had on her was a tenuous grasp on her shirt! I scrambled to wrap my arms around Savanna's waist and ensure she didn't go any further. A lot of good it would do. But it was reassuring to put my chin to the back of her head and yank her back into my embrace.
A swarm of pokegirls had leapt into action to restrain Pikachu. They piled onto her and dragged her away from the man. The din of the center grew louder as the pokegirls kept screaming. Some urged her to calm down, some glared and some tended to the tamer. Through the mass of bodies, I could see Pikachu was desperately trying to reverse time.
The abusive tamer batted away the girls trying to attend to him. He was more embarrassed than actually hurt. He touched his cheek to confirm what had happened.
"Are you okay?" One of the intervening pokegirls asked the man.
The entire center was now paying attention because people's pokegirls had rushed in to subdue the abused. The police officers standing outside walked in and quickly took in the scene. Upon seeing the man with the bruised face, they flushed with anger. I pulled Savanna back down into our seat and kept my hand across her lap like a locking bar. The feeling of my arms yanking at the elbows was still burning. I clasped my hands tighter around her.
The next quarter-hour perfectly illustrated how backwards the world was. The mostly female police force detained the female abuse victim while they attended to the male abuser. I was captivated. They immediately took the side of the man. They consoled him like he was the abuse victim! The pokegirl was berated for letting her anger get the best of her. Those who had jumped in to subdue the woman nodded their heads in agreement!
"A pokegirl has no excuse for hitting a human!" they sternly lectured. "What if you seriously hurt him?"
Hearing her say that made me deflate in my seat.
"I would never do that to you," Savanna said out of the blue.
I stared at her with a blank expression.
XXX
"It certainly is interesting," the television host said.
"It's a step in the right direction. The violence has gotten out of hand and it's good to see that at least one side of the political spectrum is trying to calm things down. Frankly, I would like to see the Earth coalition reign in their Magma forces," another commentator said. She was a composed blond who had aged beautifully. She was still pretty but time stole all things.
"Oh come on!" The commentator opposite of her exclaimed. His face was too big for his features and his chins were jiggling as he spoke. "The Magma organizations are in no way affiliated with any political faction! The simple fact is that groups of people were practicing their right to public protest and they were attacked! Like they have been so many times before!"
The television network was rerunning its talk show line up of the night. The host was smiling easily as the two people screamed at each other. Like everything else in Petalburg, the news banner was green. The subject of the debate was "'Aqua groups disbanded."
"By attacking the police?" The woman asked in a deadpan tone.
"Defending themselves from thugs!" The man yelled back in a distinct whine.
It was much later that night that I finally gave up on the black helicopters arriving. With a free donut in one hand and a bottle of juice in the other, I was the only one in the pokecenter lounge at the late hour. Savanna had retreated to her pokeball to sleep. I preferred it that way because I couldn't put up with her after her declaration. I really shouldn't have been sitting there so late. I had something I had to do. It only made me want to listen to the TV even more. I wiped my hands with the complementary moist towelette and grabbed the third pokeball on my belt.
Inside was the last member of my team. And yet another problem I had to solve. I looked over at the empty chairs that Pikachu and her tamer used to occupy. Inside the ball was a biological weapon with the designation "domina." A domina was capable of fighting back and hostile. To get a happy and loyal domina you had to take control and then give some back. I did not negotiate. Which meant that I had to go much further and completely crush her. The image of the blind and bound domina filtered past my memory. It was a tasty image. But.
I turned the pokeball in my hands.
The image of her sitting against the dresser was still in my head. Her tanned skin and dark hair, she was malnourished and a little skinny but still beautiful. Like all pokegirls really. The pretty blond on the TV was attractive but most pokegirls were simply on another level. There were no ugly pokegirls. Average pokegirls were ugly only when judged against Hollywood stars. The most beautiful of pokegirls were living photo shopped magazine covers.
The best part was that I had complete control over one of those alluring creatures. I could do anything I wanted to make her obey. No one cared enough to stop me. An entire system was on my side. The shadow of Pikachu cradled on the ground was in my mind too. Unlike the human like personalities of Ruri and Savanna, the domina was a feral. Less than human and without civilization. But it would be very cruel and it wasn't like she didn't have a personality.
Every time I pumped myself up, my conscious splashed me with cold water.
It was late and I still had to leave the city. I had to set up a tent outside the city limits and it was already dark outside. I could wait to bring the domina into line.
"Next," the TV announcer said, "we'll bring you an update from the Mauville convention center where UFP chairmen Norman Lane will be speaking tomorrow."
Norman and Caroline Lane were standing on a stage waving to the crowd. As the commercial started, I looked up at the screen and smiled. Providence was on my side.
XXX
The city stopped in front of a red Shinto gate. The cacophony of the city was undercut by national anthems and the same songs playing on a loop. They were celebrating a holiday of some sort. I felt like Christopher Hitchens during Christmas. The gate in front of me was the only way into a compound. The stone walls were at least ten feet tall and separated the street from the untamed wilderness within. The trees on the other side of the wall were large and thick enough to keep any outsiders from looking in. Even the second story building across the street wasn't tall enough to look into the compound. A stone obelisk had Japanese and English.
Petalburg Gym.
Leader: Norman Lane.
Level 5 Tamer Test
I threw my MRE breakfast in the trashcan and stepped through the gate. The wind blew some leaves across the path and created the illusion of an actual Shinto shrine. They were in an s-bend to create a barrier between the outside world and the inner sanctuary. I couldn't see the road outside or the end of the path ahead of me. The city had been muted. For a moment, I simply stood still and let the peaceful moment stretch. It was a portal through time.
When I got to the end of the path, I had stepped into the meiji era. There was only one anomaly. The bridge across the moat was an arch bridge with Victorian-era lampposts. Everything else was Japanese. The retaining walls were made of Japanese stonework. The building was a massive Japanese dojo sitting on a stone terrace. The moat ended in a pond with all the ornamentation of Japan.
I suddenly knew how Norman and Caroline produced a daughter named Ruri.
"Norman isn't accepting challengers today," A voice said.
I almost jumped out of my skin.
They were standing above me on a terrace. He was a small kid with glasses and a green collared shirt. Nerdy was the word I would use. Behind him stood an angry looking woman with a bow in her hand. She was tall and slim with long ears. The elf aesthetic even colored her outfit: a green cloak over a white tank top and denim shorts cut so short that the pockets stuck out like wings. Anachronism was common in Petalburg.
"That's a shame. At least, I got to see this wonderful view," I said and pointed at the surrounding scenery.
The little kid adjusted his glasses with a single push on the bridge. He puffed out his chest in the endearing way only a child could. He was going to be easy to manipulate. As he spoke, he walked down the stairs. "Yes, this entire complex is owned by my family, the Lanes. I'm Max. One day I'm going to run this place."
This was Ruri's little brother.
I smiled and sounded suitably impressed. "Wow. You live here?"
"This is just our dojo," He said. He presented the building behind him with a flourish. "Our house is behind it."
I loved children. They could be so helpful.
"Seems the legacy is in good hands. You already capture your first pokégirl?" I pointed to the bow girl.
Her silver eyebrows furrowed at the suggestion.
Max shook his head. "No, this is just one of my Dad's pokégirls, she's my bodyguard."
I had made him sad. It was best to get his confidence back up. If I kept him bragging, then eventually he would brag about something important.
"So that's the life of the rich and famous," I said in awe. "Your own bodyguard huh? Do your siblings get bodyguards too or does he trust you more?"
His pride rose again. "Both of my sisters had bodyguards too. Well, they did before they went on their Taming journeys."
Both? That was curious but not panic inducing. As long as she wasn't at the compound than she could be ignored for now. Max slid back into unease. So he knew she was 'dead?' But did he know Ruri had undergone threshold? Norman and Madam Lane didn't broadcast that to the public. But to not tell their own son? Maybe they were making sure he wouldn't accidently tell someone like me.
I nodded solemnly, "You miss them?"
"Yeah," he said.
"So do you get their bodyguards now?" I asked. If he could take me to them then I could learn even more.
Max shook his head no. "Dad doesn't like me talking with them."
There was a lull. We watched the lake for a moment. I had to steer the conversation to their house. The elf behind Max was staring at me with contempt. It wasn't out in the open but she was hostile to me. There was nothing she could do though because of the social rank between us. I was about to ask to use their bathroom but something else happened. The Elf turned her head to look at someone coming up behind me on the bridge.
"You!" I was rudely interrupted by a familiar voice.
He was a boy with shaggy blond hair tied back with a red bandana. I couldn't help but smile. Piggy would find me, wouldn't he? He was still dressed in that black tank top and camouflage shorts. A few days in the sun had tanned his shoulders. I began to wonder if his face was permanently twisted into a scowl or if was just my effect on him.
"So nice of you to introduce yourself. I thought you would have just ambushed me again," I said for two reasons. If Piggy knew the Lane family than I had to start poisoning the well against him. And it pissed him off further. It was harder to think clearly when you were angry.
"You have no idea how embarrassing it was to be choked out of that hospital by that pokéslut!" He screamed and slipped a pokéball off of his belt.
I mirrored his motion and kept hammering my point. "So how do you want to do this? Are you going to do it the fair way this time?"
"Stop!" Max ran between us and held up his hands, "Brendan, are you challenging this tamer to a battle?"
Piggy's scowl eased and he stood up straighter, "Yes I am."
"I want a fair fight," I said. My groundwork had paid off in short order. "I get to set the terms so that you don't cheat!"
The last part was an escape option. I didn't think I'd lose, not to Piggy. At the very least, he had a grass type. I had a counter to that. Other than that his roster was up in the air. If I couldn't beat him based on type configuration, I would call off the match.
"I'll make sure that he plays fair," Max said and looked me in the eyes as a promise.
Max had come to my side easily. I held back a grin as Piggy fumed. He was clearly looking for a fight.
"So where will our match be? You need all the help you can get. How about the lake?" I asked. What I really meant was 'do you have a water type?' I knew he had a grass type. Only normal and insect types were plentiful between Petalburg and Littleroot. The tamers I had met so far hadn't posed any threat to my roster. As long as he didn't have a water type than I would win easily.
Piggy shook his head, "No. We should fight in the dojo."
"It's supposed to be for family or official use only," Max said. He turned to Piggy. "But it would be cool to fight there."
The younger kid had a mischievous grin on his face. He wanted to look cool in front of the older kids. I gave him another push by apologizing.
"I wouldn't want to impose," I said. Now he would definitely do it.
"No," Max said. "I'm a Lane too."
Max was mature for his age but maturity for a ten-year-old is still immature. He couldn't resist flattery or control his mouth. Boarding school was only just beginning to implant the customs of high society into him.
I nodded appreciatively. "Thank you for letting me use it then."
XXX
It was cavernous inside. Ten-foot-wide beams crisscrossed the ceiling and created the illusion of history. Metal bleachers had been screwed into the stone work on both sides of the entrance. The gleaming metal contrasted the Japanese stonework under our feet. The terrace the dojo stood on was actually a bowl. In front of us was a fifteen-foot drop onto a dirt playing field. It was the size of a soccer pitch with two end zones cut into the stone. It was like walking onto the court for an NBA game.
A group of red tracksuits were sitting on the bleachers. They were talking amongst themselves like a high school clique and had surrounded themselves with pokegirls creating the illusion of popularity. Max waltzed into the dojo and commandeered the place without sparing them a glance. There were two staircases that led down into the pit. Max stopped in front of them and looked at us expectantly. Piggy pulled out his pokedex and I mirrored him. He tapped his pokedex and mine beeped. Ruri had explained it as being 'pinged.' If you were, you had to at least acknowledge that you knew the guy was challenging you.
Brendan has challenged you to a battle!
It had all the options necessary for determining a battle: did I accept, number of combatants, type of battle, and the wager. I knew what Piggy wanted but I didn't know what cards he had up his sleeves. With three pokegirls, I didn't have a lot of options. A 1v1 was out of the question. Which left 3v3 as my best bet. I had barely pulled my thumb off the screen before Piggy was mashing his. He had been dreaming of the moment. He wanted a salvage battle for Ruri. I hadn't read all of the options before the screen asked me If I wanted one of his pokegirls. A level 13 catfish, a level 8 oddtits, or a level 10 fallen angel. There was a fourth option but it was blacked out. A level 35 officer jenny.
"What If I want the Jenny?" I asked. I already knew the answer but I had a plan in place to make Piggy angry and impulsive. The system was set up so a low level tamer couldn't simply use a high level pokegirl to obliterate his competition. The lock on using, trading or wagering also kept high level bio-weapons out of the hands of inexperienced tamers.
"You and her have done enough." He spat out the words.
I was playing Piggy like a fiddle.
"And Her?" I asked, stressing the first word. If he was assigning blame to Ruri for random occurrences than his hatred ran deep. That would make him stupid and irrational. He was weak. I laughed and used my menacing voice. "What if I really wanted to do more?"
"You're lucky my tamer ranking isn't high enough to use her," he said gnashing his teeth.
Oh, I was going to kick this guy's ass. He was too cocky and too blinded by hate. His insistence on a salvage battle had shown me his pokegirls. He had no type counters to me. Brendan would lose just like all of the people I had fought on route 102. I knew I could win.
"Tell you what Brendan. I'll put up my girl." I paused for effect. "For all your money."
It was a beam of sunshine through the clouds of anger around him. His lips pursed, forehead crinkled, head bowed, the debate raged within him. The cardinal rule of negotiation was knowing when to walk away. If you couldn't do that than the other guy would take you for a ride. I was about to take Brendan on the roller-coaster from hell.
Max looked at Brendan aghast. The amount was simply too much. The bet was too stupid. Even the young kid could see it.
I could have mocked him about looking to kid for guidance. But I didn't. Doubt always came to me too late to do anything about it. There was a hair in the back of my throat as well. I would win easily but should I have risked it? I almost wanted Brendan to turn me down and come to his senses. What if I lost and he actually got his hands on Ruri? Never mind that I was about to wager a life for money. I might have messed up.
Brendan's eyes continued to dart to Max. Trepidation and concern for his family friend were firmly written on his young face. It was too much for Brendan. A flash of anger consumed him. Faint, unnoticeable to most but I was in the zone and reading him. His eyes contracted when he looked down at Max. Was it anger at the reaction or anger at the boy? For whatever reason, Piggy dived head first into the battle. "It won't matter! I'll win this easily."
He crossed his arms and used his hands to pat his biceps. There was a slimmer of doubt in him.
He didn't even look at my own list of pokegirls. I typed in "999,999,999" and accepted. A new screen pulled up.
Level 16 Charmela
Wagered against
914,516 SLC
CONFIRM/RENEGOTIATE
SLC was the equivalent to a penny so I should move the decimal two numbers to the left. Nine thousand dollars would let me eat for a long time.The fool didn't even read the screen. He just hit accept and ran for the end zone.
The field was only the size of a hockey rink. Tamers would stand in what should have been the endzones. The only protection was the air between them and the action. The center line and the circle at the center of the field were the only markings. It was the standard field for official pokegirl matches. There was plenty of room for carnage but not enough room to save your pokegirl from death. Once released, she would run forward into the circle to start the match.
I took my spot and turned my ball-cap backwards. It was worth it just for the nostalgia of it all. I looked up at Max. He was standing above the center line with two orange flags in his hands. He pointed one of them at the ceiling. I followed his line of sight up to a display hanging from the ceiling. It had the exact specifications of our battle displayed for the incredulous crowd.
In the stands, the crowd of tamers heckled Piggy. "What an Idiot!" "Hey man! With that much you could buy one!" "Check that dumbass for mind control!"
It wasn't mind control; just pride, wrath and stupidity. I looked over at Piggy's increasingly angry expression. He could hear them all too well.
"Both Tamers have agreed to a three on three battle with at least two witnesses. Do you agree?" Max yelled over the crowd. We nodded to him. He turned and screamed at the crowd "Are. You. Witnesses!"
The small crowd humored him. "YES!"
He whipped his arms around and pointed to the ceiling, "BATTLE START!"
"Go Maria!" Piggy yelled. His pokegirl didn't look too exotic. She was a girl with cat ears on top of her head. My travels had inoculated me against that. What set her apart was her skin color. But even that was mundane. Light blue could be surprisingly natural skin color. She just looked hypothermic. All combined, she looked like a walking color inverted photo. I took her picture with my pokédex.
SCANNING
Nickname: Maria
Registered: Brendan Rubio
Breed: CATFISH, the Wet Pussy Pokégirl
Level: 13
Type: Animorph, Very Near Human
Element: Water
Strong Vs: Ground, Fire, Rock, Water
Weak Vs: Electric, Ice, Plant
Possible Attacks: Bite, Fury Swipes, Kick, Scratch, Slap, Tail Slap, Water Gun, Water Spear, Slick Stroke, Air Recovery
Enhancements: Enhanced Speed(x3 on land, x5 in water), Enhanced Agility (x3 on land, x5 in water), Enhanced Senses (x3), can move on land as well as water, Night Vision, Cold Tolerance, Breathe Underwater
The crowd booed at me. They screamed, "Don't be such a zero!"
So far, everyone I had fought had done that. Of course, all I had fought were other low level tamers. Apparently, more experience tamers just knew all of the pokegirls by heart.
I glanced up at them and slowly, ever so slowly, putting my pokedex down.
A catfish was indeed a water pokegirl. Piggy hadn't taken the lake offer and still used one. Why? What the hell was important enough to give up a tactical advantage? I crossed my arms and glared at the blue girl in front of me. My procrastination with the domina left me with no other choice.
I chucked Savanna's pokeball.
In a red light, Savanna appeared in the field. The ball ricocheted off air and came back to my hands. As I waited for the ball to come back to my hands, Savanna became aware of her surroundings. By the time I had caught the ball, Savanna was in a defensive posture and waiting for her opponent. Maria the Catfish had charged as soon as she saw Savanna.
Savanna didn't move; she kept her stance perfect. I blinked. They were trading blows. It was the three times faster enhancement on Maria. It changed the pace of the action. Savanna redirected the first punch. Hit Maria in the ribs. The cat girl was sloppy. She put it all in that first blow like a wild animal. The fight flowed naturally from that. Maria was faster and wouldn't stop attacking. Savanna was better but couldn't attack.
Piggy stayed silent. I stayed silent. We were in the first stage of the battle. Where the pokegirls conducted the action. It was how well you trained your pokegirls that mattered. Barking commands would be redundant. The first tamer to start ordering his pokegirl would lose because he would be telegraphing.
So Savanna, who didn't have elemental attacks, fought Maria, who didn't have any water. It was a technical affair. Maria would flail and Savanna would parry. Piggy had fucked her by choosing the stadium.
Apparently, it made the fight less interesting. The crowd was on the verge of yawning.
"Low-level battles are so boring," one said.
"They don't get good until around 25," another replied.
Savanna had a few enhancements of her own: innate medical knowledge, magic affinity, skill at healing magic, Enhanced Strength (x2), Enhanced Agility (x2), Enhanced Memory, Reduced Feral, Aura of Calm, and Deathsight. She was also physically stronger. Maria was faster. Savanna should grab Maria. It was simple. But Savanna wasn't doing that. She was redirecting Maria's swings and exploiting the openings. Focused on defense and unharmed, Savanna was winning. The pattern continued for swing after swing, punch after punch. It dragged.
I felt the fight shift. Maria got sloppy. She had put too much in a swing and stumbled forward. Savanna hit her twice in quick secession. First, a kick to the ribs. Maria protected her side reflexively. Savanna pushed her away. With the necessary distance, Savanna could use her entire body to punch. She broke Maria's nose. The cat girl stumbled away.
"Use fury swipes!" Piggy yelled.
Like breathing life into a puppet, Maria responded. Her arms were no longer heavy when she spun around. The speed returned to her charge. Her claws ripped away off chunks of Savanna's forearms. She blocked her face. Bloody scraps of her white shirt were reduced to confetti. She kept her face protected. The onslaught ended and Savanna was still on her feet.
"Yell!" I ordered. "Grab her!"
Savanna screamed. The words escaped from her mouth more than she spoke them. Maria froze. Savanna flowed around her. She wrapped her head up and kicked out her legs. All of her weight fell on her neck. When she tried to regain her footing, Savanna dragged her off her feet.
"Get up!" Piggy yelled.
The cat girl got another shot of energy. Her reflexes were faster than Savanna's. She found her footing. Savanna martialed her strength and yanked her up. The choke continued.
"Aim for her legs" he yelled again.
Maria flailed, kicking Savanna's shins. The nurse joy switched her tactic and pushed her prey down. Caught off guard, Maria was on her knees and still at Savanna's mercy.
"Stand up!" Piggy yelled.
"Break her leg!" I yelled.
Savanna looked up at me. She was shocked at the suggestion.
I softened my expression to one of desperation. "You have to do something!"
It was mechanical. Savanna pulled her left, dragging her leg; Maria went limp. Before Savanna could break her joint, Maria had succumbed to the choke hold. It was a quiet end to a boring fight.
The nurse joy set her opponent down gently. I watched her eyes. Down and Right, she was remembering a sensation. She mimicked the headlock motion. Then her eyes went up and right, remembering information. She was lost in her own head.
Max held up his flag and pointed at me. "Winner. Sean Iscariot."
Actually, as I looked at her face, I noticed some differences. She looked slightly different. Not in any extreme way but enough to make my tilt my head. I hadn't known Savanna long, less than a week, but it was hard to remember exactly how she looked different. We stared at each other for a moment. I was searching her face for answers but she actually looked disappointed in me. It derailed my thoughts. I had pushed her too hard in the pokecenter and in the battle.
She turned around to face Piggy and fan her shirt. Like an athlete waiting on a free throw, she used the moment to cool down. She summoned that green glow to her hands and attended to her wounds. She had another oversized shirt on. It had been stained with blood but the wounds themselves vanished. The new cuts in her shirt made her look smaller than she was.
I kept my arms crossed and took a deep breath.
Brendan was furious. He was shaking. Which might have been scary if his fat rolls weren't vibrating through his tank top. It was impossible not to laugh at him. Which made him seethe. Piggy didn't like to lose. Especially not so easily nor to me. Or perhaps it was the specter of Ruri hanging over me? He threw out his next pokegirl.
She had wings coming from the back of her shoulders and a medieval European sword in her hand. It was an angel. Except her wings and hair were a deep black. She kept her head down so her bangs fluttered in front of her eyes. The first thing she did was steal a peek at Savanna and then run her hands along her dress. Nervousness.
Brendan tried to control his demeanor and put a hand on her shoulder. "You can do this Mara."
"I'll do my best," she said in a tone that lacked the faintest conviction.
That was the opening I desperately wanted. I had been standing in the background being completely useless. Watching two women beat on each other left a bad taste in my mouth. Not in any chivalrous way, I did not want to get in between two martial artists. But I wanted to do something. If I couldn't shoot her than I could at least get in her head.
"We beat the strong one! Clean this up," I yelled.
My words were a beating to Mara's soul. Brendan's sword-wielding angel sunk her shoulders.
"Seriously Brendan." I was careful not to insult him, lest she rally to defend his honor. Maybe that was a thing when gender roles were reversed? "Let's just call it here so she won't get hurt."
Piggy tightened his jaw so hard, he should've shattered his teeth. "Shut up!"
The greek chorus in the stands laughed at me. "Look at this infernal motherfucker."
Savanna looked over her shoulder with a grimace. She wasn't appreciative.
"What?" I asked in mock concern. It still made it hard to meet her eyes. "I'm just trying to help."
"Use gust!" Piggy yelled.
The angel girl ran forward and with a flap of her wings she took flight. Piggy used his ability as her tamer in a textbook way. Literally, I had read that in a book at the hospital. Tamers had the ability to cut through the fog of battle or the bullshit of taunting. In the air, the angel dived toward Savanna. She arced up and pushed her wings forward. The breeze became a gale. Savanna withstood the buffeting wind and dirt. I fared worse, it felt sand paper was rubbing against my arms. Which was the plan. When the air cleared and I lowered my hand, the angel was smiling. A smart way to boast her confidence. But I was better.
"Fine." I sighed and shook my head. "This is on you Piggy."
Her expressions soured and Piggy's confidence scheme failed. There was still a problem however. She was flying and Savanna didn't have a ranged attack. I raised my pokedex.
Nickname: Mara
Registered: Brendan Rubio
Breed: FALLEN ANGEL, the Troubled Angel Pokegirl
Level: 10
Type: Very Near Human - Near Human (Angelic Metamorph)
Element: Magic/Dark
Strong Vs: Magic, Psychic, Ghost, Rock
Weak Vs: Fighting, Bug, Ground (when not flying)
Possible Attacks: Dark Blade, Shadow Shot, Gust, Shield, Dazzle, Feather Shuriken, Energy Drain, Lure, Area Illusion
Enhancements: Metamorph (Alternate Form), Nightvision, Enhanced Agility (x4), Enhanced Strength (x3), Enhanced Speed (x4)
The crowd booed again. "Dude! Stop being a fucking zero! How do you not know what a fallen angel is?"
There was a small problem. Mara had wings. Savanna didn't. Mara had a ranged attack. Savanna didn't. There was a moment where the fallen angel simply flapped her wings and stayed in the air. Savanna looked back at me. Unfortunately, the dye had been cast. I shook my head. She turned back to the fight and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. She knew that this was going to be a test of endurance.
"Feather shuriken!" Brendan yelled.
Mara flapped her wings and Savanna ran to the edge of the field. Like missiles from a fighter jet, the feathers were shaken lose of Mara's wings floating for a moment. Then they flew. As if made of steel, the quills stuck in the ground. Every one of them missed Savanna. She ran along the edge of the battle field staying ahead of the attack. The air clear, Savanna stopped. Mara looked uneasy.
"Feather shuriken!"
Again, she flapped her wings and again she molted. I watched her wings carefully. If there was a noticeable lack of feathers than we might be able to end Savanna's misery earlier. I couldn't make out any difference. Savanna dodged them all again.
"Feather shuriken!"
She dodged again. There was a problem. She was breathing harder then she had before. Mara wasn't doing much better. Staying afloat in one place was taxing for her. But, her wings were still full of deadly projectiles and Savanna was still stuck on the ground.
I just needed some more time. There was nothing I could do but play the waiting game. If the fallen angel would just land, Savanna could catch here. But she was still flying and Savanna wouldn't be able to run much longer. She was dashing around the stadium like a track athlete. The bun in her hair was beginning to unravel from the force of her bobbing and weaving. Her face was flushed red as she sucked in oxygen. A metal feather struck next to her feet.
"Feather shuriken!"
Savanna juked. Her feet came out from under her. She threw her hands in front of her. The feathers found her and cut the air. She curled up in a ball and protected her face. It was sickening chorus of blows. The crescendo was Savanna's scream.
"Get her! Feather shuriken!" Brendan yelled. He didn't hide the excitement in his voice.
I fumbled for her pokeball. In the moment I most needed it, my coordination was failing me. I could see the arc of the feathers, a couple of them were going to hit Savanna in the upper torso. She noticed too. Her senses fled her and she reached out.
There was a flash of light. It burnt my eyes. The smell of ion was in the air. Mara fell from the sky. I heard her land with a thump. Eyes still seared from the light, I could see her body in the middle of the field. Anything past that was impossible.
"She's a fucking blessed!" one of the crowd yelled. They were incredulous.
"Winner. Sean Iscariot," Max said.
I shut my eyes and watched the inside of my eyelids. Psychedelic patterns of bright lines were swirling on the insides of my eyelids. Piggy balled Mara. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Savanna asked.
"Can't see," I said. "Was that lightning?"
The feeling of cool mint washed over my eyes. I opened my eyes to see Savanna's bleeding face in front of me. One of the feathers had cut open her forehead. Blood was starting to get in her eyes. She needed to be balled; her part was over. I pressed the pokeball to her stomach and she vanished in a red light.
There was a pause. We were both rubbing at our eyes. Piggy's hand was shaking on his pokeball as he looked at Mara. He huffed and put her pokeball back on his belt. Out came his pokegirl from the hospital.
She now stood up straight and I could see her eyes under her petals. There was more confidence in them. She looked more capable. Perhaps it was the fact that she had clothes?
I kept staring at Piggy. He had a hard look on his face but there was a smile yanking on his lips. His hands were stuffed in his pockets but he kept his thumbs out. The shame of the last two rounds had all but vanished as he looked at me from over his nose.
But what was the plan? He didn't want to use the lake but had a water type. In fact, he had insisted on this dojo. I glanced at the crowd behind Max. It wasn't an insignificant number of people. They could be employees or teachers. That meant they knew the family or they were employed by the Lanes. Brendan shouldn't be so pleased at losing in front of these people. And he would lose. Ruri was a fire type and he had thrown out a plant type. Did he know that I wouldn't use the domina? Was it her level or that he had thrown out a water type and I hadn't used her then? Why was he not crushed and waiting for the end?
I thought back to the hospital. His exact words were, "Now you'll finally be mine, Ruri. And you've become a fire type too, excellent!"
He was lower class than the Lane family. Ruri had said so. "My… The Lanes always said that his family was beneath… theirs. That must have been their last hurrah to ruin my life. I never liked Brendan, he was such a suck up to my Dad. I hated him."
I laughed out loud. The world was full of so many petty people. First Savanna and now Piggy.
He had been living in the shadow of greatness. Of course he was angry. Piggy wanted to own Ruri! To claim victory over her family and prove himself over the Lanes. What was Piggy's last name? Rubio? He wanted to prove the Rubio family was better than the Lanes. The crowd, the building, he even denied himself the advantage all to embarrass them. He would stand in front of a crowd of Lane family employees and destroy the family by revealing that their daughter was a pokegirl. Ruri would be humiliated, the Lanes ruined and he could torture her to his heart's content. The world would even support him.
There was a small problem with his plan. I threw the pokeball.
Instead of the black haired daughter of Norman Lane, her hair was a chaotic mash of oranges, reds and yellow. Instead of a normal human skin tone, she was red and had a tail swishing behind her. She didn't even look around her. She wasn't shocked at the familiar surroundings. Her mind was compromised. I had been avoiding her for the last couple of days. So much so that her senses had waned. She had become intolerable as we got closer to her home. She had taken her frustration out on the pokegirls we fought between Oldale and Petalburg. In the end, I hadn't been able to put up with her outside of letting her take her frustrations out on others. Her headaches and lack of focus had become something worse. The only thing in her eyes was a blood lust.
Brendan's face said it best.
XXXXX