Tamer Gothic – Book 2 – The Shadow Lord
Part 4
Pallet Town – Professor Oak's Lab.
Since Thomas wanted to resupply before the big tournament I had agreed to head for the Pokemart, the one run by the famous Hunter Dash. J. Williams. Given what we had both been through recently then in seemed wise for me to stock up.
However before I'd been able to head over to my house, which Thomas had been resting in after the bar fight last night, May diverted me to Professor Oak's lab.
"You wanted to see me professor" I said by way of greeting.
As ever the lab was a place as full of science. Machines were workings. Chemicals bubbled and screens displaying information flickered as data was processed.
"Ah Gothic!" Oak said upon realising I was standing on the other side of the counter "You have wonderful timing I was just about to call you at home and ask you to pop by".
I assumed he actually had and then had forgotten, since May had known to send me here. However I wasn't worried about the egghead going senile as he looked very busy and distracted. No doubt his latest big project held most of the man's attention so it was only natural he might forget a few small details.
"Now look at this" Oak instructed.
I did just that.
"It's an updated pokedex" the scientist told me when I didn't react "new and improved thanks to the technology you brought to this world".
I had wondered what became of all that stuff. I'd meant to sell it but doing so had slipped my mind. Not that I really needed the money these days, and Oak seemed to have made good use of it all so I didn't get mad about him taking it all apart.
"It's nice" I said to the man of science.
While the bar fight had brought me out of my despair over losing a pokegirl I was still having trouble being my normally light-hearted self.
Mostly this was due to a bad dream I'd had last night. I was pretty sure that it had been nothing more than a dream I guessed it was just the pressure getting to me.
I was suppose to save the world at some point at the future, and even without that hanging over my head there was still the fact that I seemed to find no end of trouble. I really needed to take things more seriously and to better prepare better for the events to come.
Actually what I needed to do was to win the tournament, and to do that then I needed to be the best Tamer I could be. I couldn't afford to simply rely on luck or on the power of my pokegirls. Having the best equipment would help a lot with that.
"Improved how?" I then asked the man in the lab coat.
It was obvious to me that he wanted to show off so I gave him an opening, as I really did need to know what this new bit of tech could do.
"To start with I've made it so the extra information that is given when you check a pokegirl's entry isn't automatically displayed. Gary told me is was distracting him when all he really wanted to know were the moves the pokegirls could perform, plus their elemental weaknesses and strengths.
I'd learned to quickly skim the information when I needed to, but I could see how all that text could be a problem. Once you start reading something it's only natural to want to keep going until you get to the end.
"It also has a new feature" Oak was saying as he put the new 'dex in my hands "Go outside and you'll see exactly what I mean".
Seeing no reason not to, I did as I bid and when I got outside the 'dex beeped at me. I opened it and found that the device was now working like a video phone. The quality of video was very good I could even see the wrinkles around Oak's eyes.
"As long you remain in range of a signal tower you'll be able to call any video phone you have the number for" a voice said form the 'dex's small speaker.
That sounded useful as it would allow me to stay in contact with people. I could do that with messages but sometimes being able to talk with a person was better.
"Anything else I should know about" I asked of Oak.
"No" the man on the screen replied "it has all the features of our last 'dex. All you need to do now is de-register your old 'dex and you take the new 'dex out into the world".
No doubt the professor would upgrade the 'dex I'd been using so far and give it another Tamer, so as not to waste resources. Plastic was hard to come by these days so it made sense.
"I'll be right in" I told Oak just before closing the 'dex.
With that I headed back into the lab and picked up my new gizmo and hand over the old one.
(Line Break)
The Pokemart
I'd visited the Pokemart that was run by the famous Hunter Dash J Williams before today and given his mental state I'd half expected him to attack Thomas on sight due the Tamer's Blood Curse. However when that didn't happen I assumed that Dash either had some strong Blood Gifts of his own, also it was possible that because he didn't trust anyone at all the Blood Curse might not be factor. Either was possible with Dash, in fact given how most people treated him I suspected that he also might have the Shady Character Blood Curse.
"Been here before?" Thomas asked me as we started to wander about
The last time I'd been here I hadn't been able to fully explore the place as I'd been shopping with May. She'd spent so long in the clothing section that by the time she finished trying on outfits we'd run out of time to buy anything else.
"I have" I told my fellow Tamer.
This time things were different I was shopping with Thomas, who was a man and therefore would not force to me hang around the changing rooms so he could get my opinion on so many different outfits. He just let his 'girls out and then left them to it.
"Master can we please look around by ourselves" Raven requested "I'll make sure that everyone is well behaved".
After giving her the okay Raven, my sexy magic using alpha, led the rest of my harem off to the clothing section. But I wasn't worried as my pokes didn't have any money. They'd have to ask me for some SLC before they could buy anything I had no intention of letting any of them have more clothing or sex toys. If there were other things they wanted then that was fine as I intended to share the reward money for defeating the Dark Queen with them I just didn't want them to waste it.
To what I was sure would be a surprise to many we manly men did not go right for the weapons section, as tempting as that was, no we sought out the expandable pouches since according to an advert on the store windows this place had new pouches, and they could hold even more items that the ones we had. Which was very useful as Tamers did carry a lot of equipment, or at the very least smart Tamers did.
The pouches were expensive and I'd need one for all my 'girls, as they carried their own possessions around with them. Then when I decided to buy one for my girlfriend, Thomas and I got into a discussion about her as he hadn't know what had been bugging Nikita so much.
Since Dash was showing us around he could over hear us talking about Nikita and when I mentioned the Succubus she had the store owner decided to voice his opinion.
"I think a lot of the problems you have with Nikita are 'cause whenever you aren't close by this Naamah chick might be screwing with her head. In my experience Succubus don't stay with female Tamers, whenever they can they will seek out Tamer with powerful Blood Gifts. Succubus feed off the Life Energy released during sex and men produce far more than women do".
As far as I was aware there was nothing mentioned about that in the 'dex, but Dash was an expert on Infernal types. They kept trying to kill him and so he'd learned everything he could about them, and since I wanted him to share some of that knowledge I told him everything I knew about the Infernal Type that was girlfriend's alpha.
"Think of it like this from Naamah's point of view" Dash was now saying "She wouldn't want to stay on the Ranch because she'd be bored and Infernal's aren't trusted by most folks so she can't go off by herself, at least not anywhere civilised and she runs the risk of going Feral if she doesn't stay near people".
Given my adventures I also had reasons to mistrust the demonic like pokegirls, and I'd never liked Naamah.
"Then you and your lady show up" Dash continued "She takes one look at you and can tell you have Blood Gift because she'll feel your Charm power working on her".
Given that Blood Gifts and Curses could be found on a Tamer's License and online profile, the fact that the store knew about my Blood Gifts didn't surprise me. No doubt by now word of what happened in the Orange Islands had spread over most of the League, and inquiring minds would want to know more about me.
"Infernals are attracted to power" Dash then told me "So she'd want you. However you aren't interested, but your lady is cause she wants a strong poke, so Naamah agrees to go with her so she can get the chance to feed off of you".
Well if she'd tried then I'd not noticed, but that didn't mean Dash wasn't right about the whole thing.
I'd been a very busy person what with all my adventures. The Elf Court. The Underdark. Adding Kara and Kira to the harem. Raven became a Sorceress. The Headless Whoresgirl. The list went on and on. So much so in fact that Raven was still documenting them.
Thinking on it I realised that the whole time I'd been distracted that the damn demon would have been free to whisper evil words in my girlfriend's ear. After all what better way to control someone than to let them believe that they are in control.
But what I didn't know was how Naamah planned to get me into a Taming session with her. I'd been rather amendment about us not Taming each others pokegirls.
That was when it struck me that maybe the Infernal had planted the idea of Nikita retiring and going home to raise a baby. If she did that she wouldn't want a Succubus around as they weren't much help with kids or on a ranch so I'd most likely end up being responsible for Naamah.
To me it seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to get a Tamer with strong Blood Gifts but by now I'd learned enough to know that it wise to always assume that Infernal types were up to something evil. There were good reasons as to why I rarely let Callisto out of her pokeball.
"So what should I do about?" I asked of Dash J Williams.
His answer was rather predictable.
"Shoot her with an Elemental Pump-Action Shotgun. It has a maximum effective range of 25 meters. Its fast-loading and deals out rapid-fire damage. For Infernals I recommend Celestial elemental shells. There more expensive but you can't put a price on your immortal soul".
While that would solve the problem I'd most likely think up something a bit more subtle. For example I could have one of my pokes fight Nikita's Succubus and then an 'accident' would take place. My girlfriend would lose a pokegirl, which was sad I knew, but that would be better than her being controlled by a bloody demon.
"Well I'm not gonna see Nikita again until after the tournament" I told the other two men "so there's nothing I can do about the Infernal right now".
I wouldn't actually be gone that long so I figured that this issue could wait.
"Hold on aren't Elemental Pump-Action Shotguns illegal to use outside of the police and the Defence Forces?" Thomas inquired of Dash.
Since I'd past the test that allowed Tamers to carry firearms I knew that Thomas was right. Double Barrel Shotguns, the most commonly used weapons in the Hunter's Guild, were also illegal for civilian use but there was a loop hole in that rule: as long we never used them in place law where enforcement had jurisdiction, such as towns and cities, then we were allowed to carry them. I knew this because I had one and I was allowed to carry it as I was part of the Hunter's Guild.
Most of the time the only gun I ever even held in my hand was a Light Elemental Pistol, which was powerful enough to kill a human and with the right elemental bullets you could hurt a pokegirl enough to ball her. But when it came to actually killing a pokegirl more force was required. Hence the shotgun.
"Yeah" Dash said eventually "but remember it's only illegal if you get caught".
Still I was happy with the weapons, besides I'd never actually shoot anyone and wasn't even sure if I could. However upgrading to a medium elemental pistol might not be such a bad idea.
"Let's go check out the guns" I decided.
Before I could make up my mind Raven came running up to me while holding a jacket.
"You should buy this" she advised "You need a summer coat and it's got a cool protection spell on it. I know you can't see it, but I can and it's a powerful enchantment".
While my current coat was also enchanted and I thought it looked awesome, it was a little warm for a summer coat and wearing this new jacket would make Raven happy that seemed like a good enough reason to buy it. However she was suppose to be keeping an eye on my other pokes so I reminded her of that.
"Sorry" she apologised before heading back "I should go and check on Babs before she breaks something and blows us all up".
That was a very good idea as while I didn't know the Trixie that well she seemed to be able to defy both the laws of physics and the rules of magic whenever the mood took her. I'd yet to figure out how she did this as it wasn't something I'd seen any other pokegirl do, but no one other than me ever questioned it either.
My current theory was that she was actually a trickster goddess of some sort and not a pokegirl at all. However if this was the case I didn't want anyone else to know, and since she didn't hurt people I saw no harm in letting her have her fun. Besides she was great to Tame and very acrobatic which led to some interesting positions during sex. No way I was going to look this gift horse it the mouth.
"So what are you getting?" I asked Thomas as we began to do the actual shopping.
The more seasoned Tamer led me down a few aisle and loaded up a trolley with things seemingly at random. But I knew that he had a use for all of these items. Unlike me he couldn't charm his way out of danger or rely on luck and because of his Blood Curse he also had to worry about being attacked by other humans.
This meant he had a use for items such as flashbang grenades, body armour and other such things. I depended more on my pokegirls and on magical items. Which could be just as effective but lots of people didn't trust magic as much as me, and even I relied heavily on technology. My new pokedex was a good example of this.
My trolley didn't have nearly as much in as I had picking up stuff for months now that I never even used, but I'd kept most of it as you never knew what would come in handy.
As we headed for the check out I shouted out for my 'girls and they all eagerly came rushing to me with arms full of things that only females could possibly have a use for.
"We're only going to the island for a week" I pointed out "you won't need this much stuff".
I planned to return to Pallet Town soon as I got back to the mainland before heading off to reunite with Nikita. I had no intention of staying in the Shadow Islands any longer than I had to as due to recent events I'd grown to dislike islands.
That said I did intend to return to the Orange Islands in about year to make sure the kid currently growing inside a girl called Melody was okay. I didn't intend to take part in that places crazy yearly festival ever again so I would visit during the summer not the spring.
"But we wanna look pretty for you" Kara said with a pout.
Well it was her money, as I let my pokegirls have an allowance they were free to spend as they saw fit, but I didn't want to encourage wasteful spending.
"You don't need help with that" I replied with a kind smile "You're all very beautiful pokegirls".
Kara blushed but she still brought all the products, not that it was a big deal as soon they would have bigger pouches.
"I want these!" declared Babs.
For reasons I couldn't comprehend she'd decided to buy a cheerleader's outfit, which she had changed into while restyling her hair into pigtails, and she'd picked up a huge deadly looking chainsaw that was currently swinging around her head. I was caught somewhere between arousal and terror. Fear won out.
"Yeah sure whatever you want" I said slowly "Just put the chainsaw down".
Thankfully she did as she was told.
"Now that's my kind of girl!" Dash called out "You're all getting a discount!".
"YAY!" the Trixie called out.
Yeah she was something special. She completely nuts but I really liked having her around.
"I'm getting two more so I can juggle them!" Babs loudly informed everyone.
After mentally picturing that sight I started hoping that I'd survive having her around.
In the end I decided that she was worth the risk.