Chapter 18

We walked slowly northwards, towards route 24, the preceding conversation slamming through my mind. What was wrong with this world? The culture was drastically different than I had ever expected.

Apparently, the world of the games, anime and manga had just experienced a massive world war shortly before the main characters started their journey. In a world with barely a billion humans on it, any war incurred great losses, and this war had cost the lives of almost 400 million men, almost halving the population. Suddenly it made sense why the player characters fathers never appeared.

In response to the impending population crash, a new cultural paradigm had developed, the right of conception. Using the only real measure of personal power, the sport of Pokémon battling, the few men who remained could prove themselves worthy by beating other trainers in combat. If a man beat a woman, he had the option to claim her for himself, and she had the right to demand a child from him. Most men would battle once or twice in their lives, finding a bride and settling down to raise a family.

It wasn't a mandatory thing. A man didn't have to claim every woman he defeated as his own, but the other side of the equation absolutely was. With so few men left in the world, our reproductive agency had been left entirely in the hands of the women. Any of the female trainers I had beaten on my journey could, at any time, request a breeding session from me.

Which leads us to my current situation. Me trudging along, my mind whirling at a million miles an hour, while misty followed me to 'protect her investment'.

I couldn't say I was necessarily displeased, misty after all was an exceptionally lovely young woman, but I hadn't exactly expected to be reincarnated into a porniverse. I just wanted to live out my favorite games dammit!

Ralts gently patted my cheek as she sat on my shoulder. She could sense that I was upset, but she wasn't exactly sure why. Humans….. weird. She sent. Her telepathy was growing stronger and stronger every day now. I could almost pick up most of what she sent to me now.

My musings were interrupted by a cheery young woman. "Hey there handsome, welcome to nugget bridge! If you can beat the gauntlet of trainers, you get a fabulous prize!"

"Let me guess, it's an orgy." I said bitterly.

"Oh come on Scott, it's not that bad. You know, most men don't complain this much." Chided misty.

I glared at her and then sighed heavily. It wasn't her fault. This was just the world we live in. "Fine. I'll take the challenge."

The girl smiled. "Atta boy! Let's do this!" The girl sent out a caterpie and the gauntlet began. I chose geodude, mostly because I could tell he was close to evolution already and just needed that extra push, and proceeded to steamroll the five trainers on the bridge. It wasn't even that hard.

I got past the last one and was immediately accosted by a shady older guy. "Hey kid, that was pretty impressive. Here's your prize." He then handed me a lump of gold, a Nugget.

"Thanks mister."

"No problem kid. You have some skill, have you ever thought about using it? I'm a recruiter for an organization that's looking for guys like you. We're looking to reform the system. Give men back their agency." I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"What organization?"

"Why, team rocket of course." He leered back at me. "Why should we be left at the whims of women, why shouldn't we decide for ourselves who we breed with? Why should we leave women in power at all? They need us, we can have anyone else we want." He leered at misty in a way I didn't like.

"So what, we steal Pokémon from their trainers and make women into sex slaves?" I snarled.

"Basically, yeah. So whaddaya say?"

"I say fuck off." The man's smile fell.

His face took on a hard look. "Look kid. I don't think you get what I'm saying here. It wasn't an offer. Someone as obviously talented as you will work for team rocket."

"No I won't. You steal Pokémon from the trainers that love them. You're criminals. This world isn't perfect, but it won't be fixed with more violence."

He chuckled ruefully. "So naive, kid. I guess I'll have to teach you a lesson." He reached for his belt, drawing a pokeball and releasing a rather large Mankey onto the field. I summoned geodude, and the two clashed, simian fists against stone mits. Geodude struggled, as Mankey pummeled him with his feet and tail.

Spinning up momentum, geodude flung the monkey away, before erupting into white light. My stone warrior ballooned in size, double or more the mass he previously had. His weight increased massively, the ground cracking under his new feet. As the light faded, his second pair of arms grabbed the mankey's feet, and Graveler spun around quickly, flinging the pig monkey high into the air.

As the Mankey crashed into the ground, knocked out, the rocket grunt stared on in shock. Recalling his Pokémon, he pulled out a walkie-talkie and nearly screamed into it.

"This is recruiting station alpha, calling hq, come in hq! Request backup to subdue a powerful potential recruit!"

I didn't hear the response, but I did hear the grunts reaction. "What do you mean 'fall back to the cape'?! I need help out here! Fine! Ugh…" he looked at me, fear poorly masked behind bravado. "Look here, you got off easy! Take the win and leave!" And then he bolted before I could even get a word off.

I turned to misty with a quizzical look. "Well that was weird."

She looked stricken. "Y-yeah. It was." Conflicted, she refused to meet my eyes as she asked me her question. "Is, is it really that bad? Men I mean."

I sighed. "I don't really know how to answer that. I never really wanted to get involved with political crap, I just want to train Pokémon. I'll admit, I'm probably a bit too young to be a father. I'm nowhere near ready for it, let alone… the things that make one a father… and I always thought the mother of my children would've a friend first. Not just some random woman I beat in a Pokémon battle."

"I can understand that. I guess it's a little easier for us, especially gym leaders. No one can claim us, but we can still pick a man if he beats us."

"Look, Misty, you're hot. Like incredibly hot. And I'll admit I've thought about it. A lot." Unbidden, the thoughts I was so casually mentioning caused a tightness in my pants and an incandescent blush on Ralts' face. "But can we just get to know each other as friends first?"

"I can agree to that," she said, smiling. "But what about the others we meet?"

"Others? Other what?"

She looked at me like I as about the dumbest person she'd ever met. "Other girls, Scott. I know Erika is looking still, Koga's daughter Janine is still looking, Sabrina needs to get laid if anyone does, not to mention johto…"

"WHAT?!"

The one with no name perked up, something new was happening. The men in black had dragged in another human, leaving him slumped on the floor. She turned away disinterestedly. New things didn't matter. New things couldn't help her. The only release anymore was death.

A/N: sorry for the long wait. This chapter was difficult. I'm not very good at writing dialogue, and this one took a while. As always, I am appreciative of the reviews. Keep 'em coming, my ego appreciates it lol. In another note, any beta readers would be appreciated. Bonus if you have any hand for dialogue. I've got a pretty good idea of the sequence of events for this fic (and it's a long one) but the big holdup will always be the talking. But anyway, here is chapter 18. Hope you guys enjoy.

Scott's Pokédex:

Caught: Squirtle, Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Ekans, Pikachu, Sandshrew, Nidoran(F), Nidorina, Nidoran(M), Nidorino, clefairy, Vulpix, jigglypuff, zubat, paras, Parasect, Mankey, geodude, graveler, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Ralts