Reviews
Joe Lawyer
I let the girls run roughshod in those two chapters because Tamer G needs to learn how to put his foot down. Which he starts do to now and will do more so in Battle City.
Plus he got to see lots of hot girls in bikinis that is always of the good.
How could he not cave with three women hugging him! He's only human damn it.
Tamer Gothic – Book Two – The Shadow Lord
Part 49
Streets - Sanford Village
The Crimson League was for the most part a good place to live, it had huge cities full of entertaining places and people, ranches that always needed an extra pair of hands, farms that provided more food than the League needed, white sandy beaches with hot babes on them, they even had something called a Spell Dump, which sounded exciting.
It also had a number of small villages that seemed to have been cut out of postcards and pasted into real life. Even Sleepy Hollow, which had been under siege by an undead pokegirl, had been attractive to look at, or at least it had been until I'd wrecked their bridge.
Sanford was interesting because it could have been part of the Blue League. It was a village that screamed Britishness, only it didn't because that wouldn't be very dignified so it stated the fact that it was English without make loud noise. It even smelled of tea and scones, but that might have something do with the nearby cafe.
"I bet you grew up in a place like this" Misty remarked as we looked for the police station.
As to why we were here. That was because Team Gothic had been contracted to deliver an Officer Jenny to the village of Sanford. Not all villages had a Jenny but since the police force here was charged with protecting a lot of farms and ranches they really needed a pokegirl law office. Not they needed help keeping the piece within the village judging by the looks of things.
Sanford had been without one for years now as the last Officer Jenny the League had sent here had never even made it to the town. No one knew what became of her, but since she'd been travelling alone it was possible she'd been killed by a Feral as while the Kanto Region was much safer than other places it still had it's dangers.
To ensure the safe arrival of this pokegirl the League had decided that the Officer Jenny would be escorted by as many Tamers as they could get to walk from Coast City to this village. It was some distance to travel, but it was more or less the same direction we'd been intending to go in when had decided to finally go to Thrill Town.
"Actually I grew up in a city" I told Misty while I looked for someone to ask directions from "But there are places like this in the world I'm from and I've visited them".
Despite having my name tattooed in fancy writing on her back Misty really didn't know me that well. Which I figured was partly why she was here, she wanted to get to know the father of her child as well as have a few more adventures before settling down. Not that I thought she'd find anything thrilling in a place like this.
Still there was something about this placed that bothered me. It was a little too peaceful, but it was Sunday so everyone might be at Church. Also the name was familiar somehow yet I was sure I'd never heard anyone talking about this place and if it something from my world then it might not mean anything in this reality.
"Oh a pub!" Thomas said while pointing at the establishment "I fancy a drink or three".
Given that he might end up being chased out of town by people with pitchforks then it was a good idea to get him off the streets as soon as I could.
"Sounds good" agreed Gary.
"I'm hungry" Jayden informed us all like he was a big kid.
Then I checked my watch and saw that it was lunchtime so a pint along with something to eat did sound tempting. Of course it was also tempting to slap Jayden across the back of the head, but I was able to restrain myself, somehow.
"We could all do with a rest" reasoned Misty "My feet are killing me".
My legs were cramping a bit, but I didn't know why the red head was complaining as she hadn't been walking that much.
"You girls all took turns riding Daphne" I pointed out.
No true gentlemen would sit upon his steed if it meant ladies had to walk, it was a matter of decency. Still it had done nothing for my feet.
"I still had to walk some of the time" she complained "and I'm carrying your child so that means you should make sure I'm comfortable".
She even used that excuse when she hogged the covers. Which for some reason always amused Amy and Nikita. I suspected that they saw my situation as some sort of punishment from on high.
"Well let's get you inside then" I said as I led my team into a bar.
The inside was exactly what I'd expected it to me. It was a proper English pub and it nearly empty which supported my theory that everyone was off worshipping something. And these days there where a lot of options.
After the end of the war against Sukebe, the reduced populations of the world mingled as lots of folks had become refugees feeling countries that had ceased to exist, either in the literal sense or the political one, and this lead to them slowly abandoning their old cultures.
Natural this lead to new faiths popping up as the old ways were gradually left behind. Many old religious myths and tales intermingled as people travelled about, and slowly, they began to form one large conglomerate of faith that was the Church of the Thousand Gods.
Although it was not named as the Church of the Thousand Gods until after 100 AS, it was essentially that decades before being official. The Church was still popular even today, since it is large and diverse enough to appeal to many different kinds of people.
The Church had a large and quite complex belief system, listing hundreds of gods along with even larger numbers of other mystical creatures in the various divine realms. However, only a small number of hardcore theologists actually keep record of them all. Most people just view the divinities worshipped by the Church as a large, collective, faceless whole.
Local churches, like the one they had here, tended to revere one, or maybe even several gods above all the others, with only a couple services a year that were dedicated to all the gods as a whole. The bulk of temples attention would be on their chosen few deities .
It was worth noting that both celestial and infernal pokegirls supported the cosmology put forth by the Church, which only helps to give it credence, although critics say that those pokegirls support the Church simply because their human masters convinced them to. However I figured that the mere existence of angel and demon pokegirls was enough to prove that Good and Evil were real forces that an impact on our lives.
The Church was a slightly liberal organization, placing emphasis on this life, rather than the next. It also puts great importance on love and happiness, and had recently began to sanction marriages between humans and pokewomen in the more liberal leagues, and even some conservative ones to my suprise.
In the past branches of the Church had been funded by the league government, and this had allowed them to influence the Church and to make them emphasize aspects of the religion that each league found to be more pleasing than others.
Such as the whole holy union thing involving pokewomen or not.
That had been going on for decades, and for a while it seemed to be leading the Church towards splintering, until one man made it his mission to prevent such a schism from occurring.
Ricardo Esprina, a long-retired Tamer, set up his own branch of the Church here in the Crimson League, and declared himself the Hierophant, the highest ranking mortal in the faith, over ten years ago. He had remarkable success, and has since managed to get all but a few churches in all the leagues to refuse funds from the league, instead relying on public support.
Though many local churches were crippled by this policy, Esprina was still declared to be a major religious victory. Encouraged by how well the more liberal leagues adapted to human-pokewomon marriages, he recently came out and declared that the Church was against pokegirl cloning research, urging people and pokegirls to protest such things.
"Afternoon" greeted a man who I assumed ran this place.
He'd been down in the cellar by the looks of things, and it had taken him a while to notice we were here. I'd even had time to let the Officer Jenny out of her pokeball.
"Where's the police station?" the law enforcement poke asked before anyone else could say anything "I'm already late".
The barman smiled before he said anything so I figured that he hadn't been offended by the officer's lack of manners. I was however annoyed because we'd gotten her here quickly enough and she hadn't even said thank you for doing such a good job.
"Head towards the fountain" the barman instructed "and when you get there you'll see two roads. Take the left one and keep going and you'll see the police station on the right. You can't miss it".
For a second it look as if the pokegirl would rush off, and she made it to the door before she remembered something.
"Come by the station later and I'll let Headquarters know I arrived" she told me "Then they'll transfer your payment".
I didn't need the money, but the rest of Team Gothic did and that was why we'd taken this job, and we would no doubt take others.
"So what will it be?" the gentlemen with all the booze asked us when we ready to order.
The first thing we all wanted was food, which was going to be take of by the barman's wife, and then we ordered drinks. Which was a bit a problem as Misty wanted white wine.
"You can't drink" I told her firmly "You're pregnant".
That made her all huffy.
"You can't tell me what to do!" she argued.
This time I was going to put my foot down.
"I shouldn't have to" I pointed out "You don't drink or smoke when your pregnant everyone knows that".
Misty apparently didn't, that or she didn't care.
"Oh it won't do any harm" she insisted.
That I did not agree with. I'd already lost one unborn child because the Dark Elves had executed a member of the Elf Court, who I had knocked up. I hadn't realised that until well after the event, because I was losing track of which females I'd impregnated. But I was attached to Misty, and I didn't want her to lose her baby because she got drunk.
"If you drink then I won't give you anymore foot rubs" I threatened.
That made the red head scowl, but she gave in and went with water before going off to sulk at a table.
"She's a lot more work than the other two" Tom remarked.
This was so true, but the sex was incredible. She did things even my pokes didn't now how to do.
"We don't get many Tamers in these parts" commented the bar owner once the girls had all gone to sit down.
I didn't doubt that for a moment there was nothing worth a Tamer's time as far as I could see.
"Not any pokes to Tame around here" the gent then added.
Now that I did want to question as the village was surrounded by ranches and farms all other the area. There had been hundreds of pokes within a few miles of this place.
"Where are they all?" asked Tom.
The barman seemed to avoid looking at Thomas and while he didn't answer the query he directed his response towards me. Which was rude, but also understandable given the Hunter's Blood Curse.
"Oh they stay in the fields where they belong".
That also surprised me as even people who didn't pokes as anything more than slaves did at least admit they were more than just farmhands. Pokegirls were good for jobs around town too and lots of families had a poke around too even if was just as companions.
Also there was the issue of protection, without strong pokes around these people had no defence against Ferals, which as a Tamer was my concern.
"So how do you protect yourselves?" I inquired.
The village didn't have any walls and a few cops weren't going to help if a powerful poke decided to attack the village. Yet the settlement was intact so they had to be doing something right.
"We have our ways" was his reply.
As I sipped my beer I wondered what way that was. I'd seen nothing that could serve as a defence be it technological or magical.
"So how come there's a Blue League village all the way out here" Gary asked of the barman.
The pub owner went on to tell us a tale. According to him the original Sanford had been one of theplaces in the British Isle to be spared any harm during the Revenge War, even the Red Plague hadn't bothered them, at least according to the story. Then decades after the war for some unknown reason a group of Arch-Mage pokegirls had attempted to destroy the town, perhaps transporting into the sea, but instead they'd ended up here.
"Since then folks around 'ere haven't taken to kindly to pokes" the pub owner finished.
Had I not been to the Lost City of Atlanta I would have thought that story madness, but I knew that someone or perhaps something had moved an entire city and buried it underground. Compared to that transporting a village wasn't that big of a deal.
What I had trouble processing was why a group of Arch-Mages would got to such lengths to make a town vanish when it would be much easier to destroy it. However I didn't have much time to think on that as someone tapped on the shoulder by when I turned around there was no one there so then I moved to face the bar again.
That was when I discovered someone had put a note under my glass.
SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN TONIGHT. LUV SEXIBI
So we were in danger then. There was nothing odd about that, by this point it was downright mundane.
"Guess we're staying the night" Tom said after I had passed him the note.
The barman chose to hear Thomas say that, and he informed us that were in fact a couple of rooms available. It wasn't actually that late but since Misty didn't want to teleport due to being knocked up it was taking us a while to get anywhere that we couldn't access via train.
"I guess we could have boys in one room and put the girls in the other" I suggested "Maybe throw some chocolate in there".
It wasn't ideal, but it would only be for one night as Sexibi's message had been clear. Something was going to happen after the sun goes down and we might have to get violent about it
(Line Break)
Streets - Sanford Village
"Are we going to war" Jayden asked as he watched Tom and myself loaded not only our shotguns but also our elemental pistols "Cause if we are I don't have any weapons".
Well that was worrying to hear.
"How have you survived?" was what I wanted to know.
Sure he had pokes to help keep him safe, but if his adventures had been even a tenth as dangerous as mine then he must have needed to defend himself at some point.
"By being absolutely flawless" he answered.
If I hadn't seen Jayden as the Dark King during my trip to the future I wouldn't believe that he could ever be a threat, but once upon a time Adolph Hitler had been an art student. But I doubted he'd ever been as annoying as Nikita's brother.
"Maybe you should hang back when the fighting starts" Tom advised.
That sounded like a good idea to me.
"How do you even know we're in danger?" Gary asked.
I couldn't think of a lie so I showed my friend the piece of paper.
"Sexibi!" he shouted before calming down "Like I...".
The next thing I knew Gary was smiling.
"Okay so something bad is happening here" he said.
And now I knew what it was like to be the one frozen in time by the Legendary pokegirl. I did not enjoy it nor did I enjoy it when the time travelling plant type didn't tell me what was going on.
"So why don't you just set Callisto lose?" Gary then questioned "She's a Dark Lady she could take out the whole village!".
On the surface of things that did sound like a good idea, but unleashing Callisto wasn't wise at this time as we had no idea who the enemy was.
"Because of collateral damage I don't know who the bad guys are yet" I explained.
I had the horrible feeling that it was everyone, but until I had proof of that I wasn't going to fight anyone.
"Oh well it's pretty much everyone" Gary informed us as he stood up and put his belt on.
Jayden just looked confused so I figure that Sexibi hadn't spoken to him, and she good reason not to since she was trying to create a time line when he didn't become the reason for World War IV.
"Okay what is..." the future Dark King started to say.
He was interrupted when the Officer Jenny we'd brought here came bursting through the door.
"We have to get out of here" she said once she taken a few deep breathes "My colleges just tried to kill me".
That was when I heard a woman scream and a gun go off.