Gabrielle glanced around the field they were using for their make shift practices. It had been a very long week filled with a staggering number of injuries, everything from feral attacks to seared flesh from thunder attacks that weren't dodged in time to a couple broken fingernails. Sad part was that even though the girls were bioengineered bio-machines of death they were still girly enough to complain about broken nails. She just couldn't figure it out. Her only explanation was that when her soul was being created the line was so long on some of the girly parts that she skipped out and got in the line for combat skills instead.

Leo glanced over at his sister, "So, knut for your thoughts?"

"Well Tabby seems to be doing better. Only a slight headache yesterday and none today. She didn't fall over in pain or anything when she used the poison technique either so that's a hopeful sign. If Abby is typical of what happens, I really don't want to use any opposed type techs again though."

"Yeah not so much. At least there is some good news. The supplies will probably hold up for another week at least. I've started to bottle some of Helen's healing milk."

"You know I'm starting to think Sukebe was even more twisted than Lexie. The idea of breast milk being a healing potion is just creepy."

"Yeah but it's cheap. Plus there is only so many times a day that Sarah can use her cards to heal people."

Gabrielle stretched her arms as she yawned. "I'm just happy that the girls are enjoying training their techniques as much as they are. Who would have guessed that the way to a girl's heart would be to make sure she could defend herself. I figured the week long training binge would have caused them all to snap already."

Leo chuckled, "There were a couple of close calls, the couple of hours of hunting at the end of the day can only help with the stress so much. On the plus side apparently getting blasted by two thunder attacks at once is enough to drop a Neo-Iczel to the dirt for a nap. Which was good because it kept Helen from shooting her in the back of the head with an elemental pistol. So you were probably pretty close to correct about them not being able to stand her for more than two weeks."

"As long as she teaches them what she is supposed to, I don't really care what their opinions of her are when she leaves. So what do you think about a bit of a break this afternoon for a fund raising training exercise."

"More feral hunting?"

"Well it does seem like the way to make cash around these parts. Besides I want to impress upon people the need to be sneaky. Nothing good comes of standing in front of a dangerous monster and saying here I am."

"So what do you have in mind?"

"I want to see just how good we can get at capturing ferals. They are worth a nice amount of credits and I want to buy some more T2s the next time I'm in town but they are sort of expensive so I figure we might as well make enough credits that we can afford to snatch up anything we can find. Plus, I want to get them used to the idea of taking out dark wizards for when we start hunting death eaters."

He chuckled. "Sounds good to me, besides they could use a break from Gloria."

"I'm just glad I didn't give Helen any of the elemental shells. They're too expensive wasting on shooting Gloria."

He glanced up in exasperation, "Honestly, I think Helen is a little gun happy."

"She's just clinging to something helpful from her old life."

"I guess I can understand that."

Tabby scrunched her face up in concentration. She knew that typically speaking a party their size wouldn't normally have much luck catching ferals as they would either drive the solitary ones off or attract a pack large enough to eat them all. It was her job to disguise the group with her illusion magic. She just wished that Laura wasn't making it so hard by bouncing on the balls of her feet in impatience. She was seriously going to have to talk to Leo about getting an alpha for his pack so she could just talk to them and they could straighten it out. Maybe she would just talk to Tiffany about it. They were using a spot not too far from a stream where there was a nice clearing. They had placed the remains of a slaughtered kattle in the middle of the clearing to draw out a number of ferals, while hiding under an illusion of blackberry bushes. She was just hoping that the disguise would work well enough.

Laura thought she was being fairly patient considering they had been here for ten minutes and hadn't seen any ferals yet. At least this got her away from the Neo bitch. She was counting down the hours until she was gone. She hadn't been the least bit thrilled when Gabrielle had said that the Neo was staying until everyone learned what they could from her attack wise. If she hadn't thought fear was a good motivator before she was sure it was now. Everyone had worked that much harder at learning, just so the arrogant whore could leave early.

Gabrielle couldn't help smile as she watched the feral step into the clearing. It looked like a strange cross between a crocodile and a girl. It was cautiously approaching the meat laying on the ground. She could tell that the girl was on the lean side though not starved. She pulled her pokedex off her belt and scanned the creature. She was still a little annoyed that it had taken her a few minutes to find a volume option on the scanner and turn the sound off. As far as she was concerned whomever had made this version of the dex should be shot. Having the dex actually beep when it finished scanning was a brain dead idea if you wanted to be sneaky. She smiled as she read the creature's elemental weaknesses. She reached out with her mind toward Sarah, "Toss a thunder bolt at the titodile they're weak against electric attacks, we'll see how effective it is."

Sarah nodded, it didn't feel very sporting to blast the girl from concealment but she had to admit as the bolt of thunder stuck the girl and knocked her unconscious that it was effective.

Gabrielle quickly tossed a pokeball at the poor steaming girl hoping that she was still alive. Her breath caught for a second as she watched the ball sit there for a second before sucking the girl inside with a red flash. It only spent a second twitching before it stopped with a beep. She used a trickle of magic to pull the ball through the air. She grinned as she snatched it out of the air. "So what did we learn today?"

Sarah frowned at the pokeball, "That apparently high powered techniques you learn from T2's are useful but that they take practice to get the full effect out of them."

Gabrielle glanced at Helen then Tabby, "Anybody else?"

Tabby curled her tail around Gabrielle's leg, "Yeah, she was too tall to be feral born."

"This means that we can't just sell her to a ranch without at least talking with her. I wish I had a sanity spell.

Leo chuckled, "Nah, then there would be no excuse for you."

"Laugh it up, do you want to finger fuck her or should I?"

He sobered quickly, "I'd rather not."

"Coin toss?"

"Only if you close your eyes and turn away because otherwise I can't be sure you'll not cheat."

"Fine just flip the coin and let it hit the dirt."

Leo chuckled as Gabrielle turned and looked the other direction. He pulled an old silver dollar that his 'Uncle' Xander had given him a few years back out of his pocket. "Heads I help her, tails you do." He flipped the coin in the air and watched as it flipped through the air.

Gabrielle wasn't sure if she should be relieved or disappointed that the coin was showing heads, "I'll cast the silence spell, Tabby can you make an illusion please. I really don't need to see that." She tossed the pokeball to Leo.

Tabby nodded, "Will do boss."

Leo flopped himself on the shore, even warming charms only did so much to cut the chill from the cold river water. It had taken a while for the crocodile girl to calm down once she started getting her mind back. She had said her name was Tina. She had been rather mortified that she had gone feral in the first place. The only good thing was that she had gone feral once already years ago so she wasn't complaining about her appearance changing. She had lead him and his harem to her stash of loot which consisted of the bones of her victims as well as several worn pokeballs and pokedexes, two of which even still worked. She had been quiet ever since finding the bones of her master and about half the bones of his chicken little, the rest looked to have been eaten by something with sharp teeth a while ago. Other than the pokeballs and three pokedexes there hadn't been much worth taking, just the collar around Betsy the chickenlittle's neck that she took as a keepsake. He shivered as he worked up the energy to cast a few drying charms on his clothes.

Gabrielle frowned as Leo and his girls came back into view followed meekly by the crocodile girl. "Took you a while, what happened?"

"It was a bit further upstream than she remembered. Wasn't much to find sadly but we did recover a couple of pokedexes and a few pokeballs. Sadly we also found the remains of Tina's trainer. I figure we can drop her off with your buddy in London that deals with placing girls with trainers."

Gabrielle nodded, "It would be a good opportunity to pick up our dark elf as well."

Leo grinned, "That's what I figured."

Tina glanced around nervously, "Can I have the rest of the meat? I'm a little hungry."

Gabrielle smiled, "Sure have at it."

He frowned as the titodile messed devoured the meat, "Any luck while we were gone?"

She shrugged, "A few more weasel types but nothing really worthwhile. I think we are going to have to go deeper into the forest to get anything more impressive."

"Do you want to press on or wait until the morning?"

Gabrielle used her hand to shade her eyes before looking up at the tree cover. "It will be dark soon enough at least in the forest. I don't really care to meet a bunch of bugs at night so why don't we just take the pokegirls we've caught this week and sell them."

He nodded, "We can always do more gathering later."

Tiffany smiled as she warmed her hands by the fire. She was just happy to be back at camp rather than out hunting ferals. If it wasn't so damn cold then it wouldn't be so bad but even with her cold weather clothes buttoned all the way up she still felt like she was still freezing. The weather had turned nasty over the last week, the large piles of snow showing that yes the winter was finally here with a vengeance. She was only out here because someone had to be and she was avoiding dealing with the idea that in a few minutes she wouldn't be a bunnygirl anymore. Oh she would be a bunny girl of some type just not the normal everyday type she was now. She had talked the plan over with Leo as well as Gabrielle. It would be an upgrade in just about every way except after the transformation she was fairly sure she would have to duck when going through doors. That was less important to her than actually being useful to Leo, so she was willing to get used to it. No what was really bothering her was way they had gotten rid of the titodile. They had sold her once they hit London, she was having a hard time coming to terms with that. Of course they hoped she ended up with a nice tamer but they still got rid of her. On the one hand it was expected behavior on the part of a tamer, on the other hand she wasn't used to Leo being so mercantile. She really needed to talk to him about his views she just hoped it wouldn't get her sold. She sighed as she noticed him walk outside as if some dark god was forcing her hand. His black wizard robes were a stark contrast to the blindingly white snow on the ground. "Heya Leo."

Leo smiled, "How's it going? Any second thoughts?"

Tiffany shook her head, "Not really just dealing with some troubling thoughts."

"Oh?"

"You sold her?"

"You didn't have a problem with us selling the ferals nor the weasels so I'm going to assume you mean Tina. Am I right?"

"I understand the ferals, they are too much work, the others you got from criminals and it's not like we could ever trust them. Even if they were starting to be okay by the end. But she wasn't like that. She was a nice girl. Hell you're even keeping the dark elf and she isn't all there in the head. Why did you sell her like a slave? Is that what you plan to do to the rest of us?" Tiffany's ears flopped wildly in aggravation.

He sighed, "Would it help if I said she asked me to? And no I'd never sell you or Laura. As for the dark elf she needs to be loved, something that not many" He almost spit the word "tamers" understand. Tina doesn't need love, she just needs sex."

"Huh, what?"

"Tina was rather thankful to be saved from being feral, but she didn't want to stay with us. She just wanted to go home. Gabrielle was listening to her mind when we talked about training. The idea of actual hard training disgusts her. She wouldn't have worked hard at it and I can't trust a girl that gets taken out with one bolt of lightening. She thought it was pointless and just a lucky break on our part that we used lightening on her. Which is stupid as it lists that as their weakness right on the dex. I'm not going to have a stupid pokegirl in what is looking more and more like a combat group. As for the dark elf she needs someone to hug her, love her and give her emotional support. But more than that she has a blazing desire to live, a need to grow strong enough to crush any and all challengers. She never wants to be weak again and Gabrielle promised to show her how to be strong. She will do anything to learn. I can respect that, I can't respect someone that doesn't care enough to try. I'm not going to, it's just not worth it. So yeah I decided that selling her would help pay for all of the girls getting tougher. One hundred thousand is what she was worth to our contact, likely he will turn around and sell her to someone else for a profit, but I don't care. I can't care, there are too many people in the world to care about idiots. Besides that much buys durability increasing meds for five of you girls."

Tiffany shook her head, "You could have just lied you know."

"I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not breaking a promise either and I swore I would never sell you unless you wanted me to. So you're stuck with me for a very long time. So get used to it."

"So you'll still love me even if I'm not cuddly size after the ritual right?"

Leo smiled, "You'll just have to cuddle me after."

She nodded, "I'm sorry I was freaking out earlier, I guess I'm ready."

"So how many people do you want to see your ritual."

"Basically anyone that's staying."

Kyara rolled her new name around a few times in her head trying to get used to it. She thought her new name which Leo had just given her was way better than the old name Foxy, which was only marginally more original than being called hey Kitsune. She glanced over the strange group she found herself a part of. She could mostly understand the pokekit mistoffeles as well as the clowmystic, they were if not typical for their breeds at least within the normal range, same with Laura as an amazonlee. Even Helen the milktit wasn't too far from the normal if you ignored her gun fetish. While normally an intelligent bunnygirl would be considered a medical miracle even she was rather easily explained compared to the dark elf sitting with Gabrielle. Even after a week of trying to get to know her she still wasn't sure what to make of the dark elf. Typically they were darker skinned for one, heck this one had light blue skin and short purple hair. She didn't even look as intimidating as most dark elves normally did though considering what she was wearing that was hardly surprising. She was wearing loose fitting black silk pajamas along with fluffy red bunny slippers. How could you be scared of someone wearing red bunny slippers? She hadn't been told that much about her other than that she had recently suffered some trauma and that she was off the prank list. She thought it was a bit silly but as she was still new she was willing to let it slide, after all if the fact that they had a magical tent that was as large as most people's apartments was anything to go on they seemed like an interesting group.

Morrigan wasn't sure why the white furred fox girl was looking at her strangely again but as she had been looking at her strangely for the past week without doing anything she wasn't going to press the issue. It still felt like a bit of a dream, first getting rescued then finding out that someone you had never even met cared enough about you to put you in therapy. Not that she had expected it to help, but she guessed that when your therapist could reach in with mental powers and dull the memories and pain it was more useful than the human quacks she had heard about. She tried to push that thought to the side as she didn't want to slip down that downward spiral. She tried to concentrate on happier thoughts.

Tiffany shivered as the paint brush trailed along her skin. She couldn't help but feel loved as she glanced around at her new family watching the start of the ritual with looks of encouragement on their face. She concentrated on remaining still even though the brush tickled as it flowed along her skin. Even though she hadn't known most of them that long they were still a part of her family, they might not be the same as the few friendly lab techs from when she was a child or some of the witches on the ranch but they were family. She was just happy they had chosen to support her.

Gabrielle smiled as she finished painting the last of the runes on Tiffany. The runes covered most of her body from head to the tips of her toes. It had taken a while to get everything just right. The reason she had chosen the ink designs was they formed half the spell by themselves. The rest of the spell was all a matter of focusing the energy to do what she wanted in the split second the mana stone was used. She hoped everything worked like it was supposed to. "Leo the stone please."

He gently placed the stone on Tiffany's stomach.

Time seemed to slow down for Gabrielle as the mana stone flashed with light. She could feel the magic flow from the stone into the runic symbols inked all along Tiffany's body. The symbols burned with arcane fire to her eyes as they caused a her body to morph in slow motion before her gaze. The change in height was probably the most dramatic difference though her hair turning silver was striking. She staggered slightly as the world lurched back to full speed. She shook her head for a second to clear it. She glanced down at Tiffany's large human looking feet. "Hey at least a couple parts of the ritual worked. You have human feet and no fur or muzzle. So how do you feel?"

Tiffany wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel after getting nuked with large amounts of magical energy. She could barely make out Gabrielle's echoing voice for the sheer volume was killing her ears. Her senses were in complete overdrive as she frantically tried to find something normal to focus on. She could suddenly smell the mint from the kitchen. Such a strange thing to focus on but it was one of a hundred things she could now smell. Her nose wrinkled as the smell of the mint was washed away by a series of scents that she weren't like anything she had ever experienced. She could suddenly now that she thought about it actually smell the magic in the room. Everything smelled different, all of the different scents were twisting themselves in her nose along with an almost overwhelming scent of strawberries. With a frown she noticed that the room now had a deep layer of mist clinging to the walls. She glanced around frantically, hell practically every item in the room had a layer of mist covering it. She turned to get a better look at Leo, only to find that he was barely there. He had so much a mist covering him that his face was visible only briefly now and then when the mist would shift. Most of the girls had mist covering them though not anywhere close to the amount Leo had. She could feel a large amount of magic swirling behind her. She quickly turned to look for Gabrielle and Tabby. She gasped as she faced where she thought Gabrielle and Tabby were only to find a mist covered Tabby surrounded by a wall of raging mist. Tendrils of it as large as her arm flowed from the churning mass. She couldn't make sense of anything she was hearing and couldn't seem to drag her gaze from the storm of mist, so she did the only thing she could do at that point, she fainted.

~~Author's notes.

Kattle isn't spelled wrong it's a self reproducing sheep common the pokegirl world. Any other questions please just post them in a review.