As a reminder, you can find MORE of this on my SubStar (dot adult slash KajaWilder), it's posted up past chapter 100 there... And if you guys haven't seen an update in at least a week, please let me know! I have a busy life, and I get distracted and forget things. This story (and PTaL) are supposed to be updated WEEKLY from now until they're both caught up with each other (like I was doing with FwB until this weekend).

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My Pa tree on is back up, under a new name (same management)! Dot Com, Slash WildErotica, for all those who would like to support but can't, or won't, use Sub Star for whatever reason. Follow the links there for access. I won't be posting there frequently or directly any more, but the links will take you to the same posts everyone else who has early access sees. :)

Apologies that this chapter is a bit short (it's 5 pages as I write them, about 10 in novel format), but the next would've made it quite long as it's smutty and a good scene. Next week. Hopefully not late. :)

Chap. 71: Talespinning

Elle stormed into the Pokémon Center room in a huff, with Megumi and Kinta following after just as hurriedly. Behind them, too, crowded three other kids somewhere between his own and Elle's age that looked a bit familiar to Alex, though he couldn't remember where he'd seen them. If he ever had, of course. "What's going on, Alex? I got your message, but you didn't really say much. Just to get back quick."

"Yeah, I just learned something- wait, who're they?"

Elle glanced behind him, then turned back with a look of surprise, "So- I didn't even realize they'd followed me. We met before. You just for a second, in The Steelworks. This is Lana, Lilah, and their brother, Kenny."

"Oh, right, from the entrance, the rule board," Alex nodded, "Uh… no offense, but you should probably… you know, not be here. I've got something I need to tell Elle, and it's kind of important."

"Hey, we're-"

Elle interrupted Lana's protest with a swipe of her hand, "No, Alex, let them stay. You already agreed as many people need to know as possible. If this is something important…"

He considered for a few seconds, then nodded. "Alright, fine. You three had better sit down. But before you do, pull on your big girl panties, or whatever."

"I don't wear panties," Kenny grumbled. Kinta chuckled, which made the darker-skinned boy glare at the other one.

"Could'a fooled me," Kinta snarked, grinning, "but hey, its fine to be femme, right?"

"S- Shut up! I'm a guy, and I want to look like a guy!"

"Be nice, Kinta," Megumi scolded, probably a bit too harshly, then offered her hand, "I'm Megumi, this little shit's older sister, and his guardian."

"Not my fault he looks like a girl, with his hair like that, and that face," the younger Sugimoto snickered.

Kenny, at least, only glared and huffed, "Not mine either, idiot."

"Alright, what did I just say about big girl panties," Alex grumbled, pointing toward the door as he glared at both boys, "If you can't pretend to act like adults, you don't belong in this conversation. So sit down and shut up, or get out of here."

Both boys were sullen as they glanced at Alex, then returned to glaring at each other in a mirror of crossed arms and furious, clenched jaws. But neither said anything else, so after several seconds, Alex ran a hand through his short hair, then sighed as he looked back at Elle. "You sure we can trust them?"

To her credit, Elle thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, "No, I'm not. Not about the plan, anyway. But they deserve to know what GF are doing, about Rocket, that stuff. We should tell everyone. The only way to ensure they can't stop us is to tell everyone we can what they're doing. Hopefully the information will spread."

"She's right," Robin nodded, "That's one of the reasons I wanted these two to know. They're really good at silencing one or three people, but sixty? Someone's gonna talk."

"Alright, alright. Fine… sit down."

"Where?" Lilah asked, clearly amused as she looked around.

"The bed, duh," Robin chuckled, "it's big. I'll stand, I've been laying down for a while."

"Same," Alex muttered, glaring at her, now, for no reason he could tell. It wasn't as if he was upset that they'd spent the last few hours having fun. He was more angry at Game Freak, but she had more reason to hate them than anyone.

He waited more or less patiently while the two young men sat on opposite sides of the bed, as far from each other as possible. Robin, perhaps predictably, came up to stand next to Alex, while Elle claimed the one seat at the desk. That left Megumi, Lana, and Lilah to try and fit together around two and a half sides of the Queen mattress. It worked… but Alex knew it wouldn't be comfortable for long.

So, as quickly as possible, he relayed to the three newcomers what they had learned about Game Freak's motivations, up to and including that the 'game' was anything but. Reactions from the younger three were mixed, and Megumi and Kinta had already been told that part. Or, no, hadn't they decided not to tell Kinta about… No, they didn't have a choice. Not if they were telling these three everything Game Freak was doing, too. "They're also turning us into part-Pokémon. These bodies are driven by our real bodies back home, and already are grown in a lab. But our- our real bodies, too. Right now, I'm thinking every shot of nanobots and sedatives we've gotten, the ones they give us before we log back in every month, is laced with Ditto DNA, too."

"What…
"… the…"

"Fuck?"

The first two were Lana and Lilah. The last, Kinta. "Our real bodies? I mean, the- the ones back home? In our world?"

Alex nodded, "Yeah. And that's not all. Elle and Megu don't know this yet, I just found out. We aren't some random winners of a lottery from those who applied to test the Beta, or even the 'special closed Beta'. We were hand-picked."

Robin raised her hand, "To be fair, and perfectly clear, Alex, let me say that I don't know if everyone in the more open Beta Test, or the 'special' one were selected. But the top candidates were. I remember Megu and Kinta being on the roster, and at least one of you looks familiar. Alex and Elle were. They've had bio-checks, medical, background, all sorts of stuff done on everyone they looked into before they were picked."

"Okay, so maybe not everyone, but certainly a lot of us," Alex continued after it was clear Robin was done, "Which means they knew who we were before we started this. Safer probably to assume they know everything about you. From how long you take to shit, to your first lover, even your psych profiles and full DNA analysis. And you should already know they're watching, or they can watch, everything we do in the 'game', including right now. How you have sex with… everything."

The two darker-skinned girls shared a worried look, but said nothing.

Robin picked up after that, "They don't, though. Watch everything, I mean. The division that runs the company is like, fifty people tops. There's a little under three hundred 'special beta' testers, where the more adult stuff is unlocked. I don't know how it works, but the more 'open beta' avatars- these Combinant bodies- are… I don't know, unable to perform. Unwilling, maybe, so even if you tried it wouldn't work. There's a thousand of them, and the same division watches both groups. Yggdrassil does most of the actual watching, and it flags things it feels are appropriate for the humans to look at. At least, if you believe what Game Freak told me."

"Which we do need to take with a grain of salt," Elle said quietly, "because they may've just said that to… I don't know, make you feel safer. Or less safe, or… well, to manipulate your reactions in some way."

Robin nodded, "Definitely, that's why I added that last part. I don't trust most of them very far at all… but they don't have all that much reason to lie. At least, about most things. Really, what'm I gonna do? They literally made me what I am. They dose my real body, put me to sleep, and with my consciousness stuck over here, all they'd have to do is disconnect me, and I'm dead. Same with all of you."

"So… what can we do?" Lana asked, looking scared, "I don't wanna die… but I don't want to be a Pokémon, either!"

"Nothing," Alex told her seriously, "Don't do anything that makes GF think you're a threat. Maybe when you're around other people doing normal, everyday, boring things, let some news slip. The stuff we told you.

"Nothing?" Kenny muttered, "How can we do nothing?"

"In our world," Elle asked quietly, "are you someone who can stand up to a Mega-Corp as powerful as Game Freak? No? I didn't think so. None of us are. This is all we can do: Quietly spread the word. And they're gonna know we're doing it, there's nothing we can do about that. Even if we get caught once, or they're smart, they'll just tell their AI monitor to start watching for people talking about Combinants, or DNA from things other than Pokémon. Or just watch everyone in a growing web. They probably could, if they wanted to."

"Alright. There's… there's a few people I know we can tell already," Lana said after several long, tense seconds. Probably just people in- in the Special Beta, right? Less than three hundred… you know how many exactly?"

"No," Robin shook her head, "and maybe not even all of them. I know one was killed in-game, and his body in our world died, too. Brain basically shut down. So don't die here. There's supposed to be safeguards, but it isn't perfect."

The rosette didn't miss the look he shared with Elle, but he suspected she had been watching for it. Probably, she already knew he was basically a killer already. Still, she pressed on, "Megumi and Kinta's father was one, too. When the 'server crashed' a while ago, that was the day. What actually happened was that the portal that leads her closed suddenly, with no warning. The lowest Sync Rates weren't able to be pulled back in time, and their connection was severed, just like if their bodies here had died. Only those bodies just dropped dead, with no warning or sign."

"That's exactly what happened, too," Megumi added quietly, "We thought he'd had a stroke or aneurysm or something. It was just… fast. One moment he was fine, and the next… nothing. Heart beating for a bit, but no brain activity from what the doctors here could tell us."

"That… that sucks, I'm sorry," Lilah whispered.

"We're all sorry," Lana added.

"Y… Yeah. Sorry," Kenny muttered, looking more at Kinta than anyone else.

Megumi's brother didn't say anything, but his perpetual scowl softened slightly.

"Anyway," Alex shook his head as he looked over to Robin, then down at Elle, "We- our party- need to have a bit of a chat. Megumi, Kinta… you two need to decide for yourselves if you're still with us. Take the day, no reason we have to rush to the Water Gym. Let's- let's loosely plan on scouting that out tomorrow morning, like we did with the Ice. That should give us plenty of time to get ready for our night on the town, if we're still doing that together."

"A night on the town?" Lilah asked, perking up quickly, "That sounds awesome!"

"Sorry," Elle answered before Alex could, "You three can't do this one. It's… it's got to do with Rocket, and you don't want to get involved with them. In fact, avoid going… well, anywhere even remotely shady. Even the Ice Gym, unless you're actually challenging, and in that case, good luck. No brothels, no clubs, nothing like that. Rocket runs all the prostitution and gambling halls and clubs all over Kanto, but especially here. Don't go anywhere near them."

"Who's Rocket again?" Kenny asked, sounding lost.

That explanation, at least, left them all on the same page. Scared to death. It took over an hour to tell the younger three what the others already knew, everything from Robin's run-in with the shell-game scammer, to the giant Golurk, and the most recent meeting with the thugs. Only the upcoming one with the Rocket Executive was brushed over.

He finished, "Basically, just stay away from them. They're the bad guys. Actual criminals masquerading as the good guys. That's one of the reasons why I recommend not trying for the Ice Gym. It's… brutal. And the Gym Leader is a Rocket. Best just to stay off their radar completely."

"Wow," Lana whispered, "They… they sound scary."

"They are," Megumi admitted quietly, "I've never been so scared as when they grabbed me and Kinta the other day. Not ever. Not even after Dad died."

"You don't have to do this," Alex reminded Megumi, "We, Elle, Robin, and I, can go after them without you."

"N- No," she replied a moment after he gave her the out, "we're- at least I'll- do it. If they're as bad as we think, then I have to do something. Dad wouldn't just let it go, either. He'd… do something. Probably something dumb, but something."

"Well, this is pretty dumb," Elle tried to joke.

None of them thought it was funny.

A few minutes later, the group broke up for a late lunch, almost all of them, even Elle, breaking off to do their own thing. The only two that actually stuck together were Megumi and Alex, who were both in the mood for burgers.

They found a decent selection at the PMC cafe, of course, and Kenny was eating there, but Alex was, if not quite sick of Pokémon Center food, growing a bit bored of it. So after a quick discussion, the two headed out into the bustling south business district of Cerulean City, home to the more pedestrian, normal businesses. With most of the night-life and pleasure centers in the north, some six dozen they'd seen earlier on their jaunt to the Ice Gym even on the outskirts and in apartment-building-rich residential districts, they figured it would be a bit safer to stay in the area.

While they walked, Alex debated for several minutes about reaching out to take Megumi's hand. Even though he'd spent the morning getting three blowjobs, and a few hours eating out Robin, his mind was now thoroughly transfixed with the pretty, 'real' half-Nipponese girl next to him. She was tall, for a Nipponese girl, almost as tall as he was and a good few inches taller than Robin, who stood about at his chin.

They had met under pleasant enough circumstances, but both the spectre of her father's death, still probably fresh in her mind, along with the memories and dreams it had brought up of his mother's made him hesitate. Too, the business with Rocket, what they now knew about the indentured servitude and even slavery of the girls and women that 'worked for' them, he thought might have turned her off the idea of sex for a while.

He couldn't blame her, but at the same time, what Robin had told him about Combinants, what Maline Greengrass had told him, rang true. He had been injected more than most, and was feeling the effects in an increased libido. Or maybe you're just imagining it. Either way, you're acting like a love-sick twit, so work up your damned nerve, take her hand, and get it over with!

Of course, telling him that wasn't… well, it didn't work. Not well, anyway.

Still, several more streets after he'd scolded himself, Alex worked up the courage to do it. His hands were sweating, and he felt that would be a thing she noticed instantly in the cool, moist air near the twin lakes, but he was coming to simply not care. He liked Megumi. He wanted her. Robin and Elle had both made themselves clear, and judging from her first note to him after they'd met, she was hot for him, too. I Squirtle 4 U wasn't… well, he thought it could have been misinterpreted, but he didn't think it was. Not this time.

So his hand moved, gliding as stealthily as he could make it go through the inches between them, a shark on the hunt. He brushed her, and twisted…

Her hand yanked away. "There it is! Look, Waterflower's Best Burger Den."

"That's a dumb name," he chuckled, blushing. But when Megumi's hand fell, he couldn't reach out and take it again.

At least conversation was relative light, pleasant even, as they ate. Megumi was, if nothing else, not just easy on the eyes but easy to talk to.

He consoled himself with that… for now.