Ch 01

As if though he was under the effect of some curse Martin Blue woke up once again at what could only be the crack of dawn. Back when he was living with his parents he could sleep in quite well, it could even have been said that he was something of a champion at it. This knack seemed to be lost once he was out on his own and his unconscious mind was constantly nagging at him to worry about where his next meal would be coming from. He'd moved out of home at 18, not having taken up the traveling lifestyle of a tamer at 16 on religious grounds (he did not in particular want to meet any gods after getting his face chewed off by a pokegirl). Instead of getting killed on the road he decided to help his parents out at their clothing boutique. His parents would have probably let him stay at home longer then 18, not just out of the kindness of their hearts but because they could have used the extra help at the shop, but Martin let himself succumb to the itch he had ignored while the rest of his friends had first been setting off on their tamer's journey and decided to move out of his childhood home and set off straight into adventure.

It would have come as quite a surprise to 18 year old Martin that 21 year old Martin would be enjoying the scintillating adventure of waking up in the cramped bedroom of a rather tiny apartment in a small settlement only a few days travel from his home town of Douchsiabag City.

Now, Horse Rear was a tiny community of only around 200 individuals, so it had a nice frontier feeling to it that appealed a bit to Martin's sense of adventure. Still, it was hardly his first plan to settle down in a place that felt like only a stones throw away from the loving embrace of his parents. It didn't seem so much like striking out on your own when your mom could fairly easily catch a ride to your location to ask why you weren't calling her as often as she'd like. Still, he'd stopped there first on his way out into the world and he'd sort of gotten stuck in the place and it had grown on him before he'd realized what was happening. He'd fallen in love with the place, and he'd often wondered if that feeling wasn't a bit like what happened to pokegirls with their tamers. 'Life is pretty good in Horse Rear.' Martin thought to himself contentedly as he looked up at his cracked ceiling and listened to the early morning silence.

"Sucks that the only problem with living in Horse Rear is making a living in Horse Rear." Martin mumbled to himself before he let loose a sigh and hauled himself out of bed.

Making a living in Horse Rear was sort of a part of what passed as his life's grand adventure. It wasn't that work wasn't plentiful; it was that it was random enough to be damn near maddening. The small specialist ponytaur ranch that was the town’s namesake and prized jewel sometimes needed help but that wasn't a consistent source of cash. It was only around once a week that the hired hands that did the majority of the work at the ranch would hire Martin on for a job and that mostly as just an excuse to help him out. They never needed help with taming the pokegirls at the ranch, either, which was unfortunate for the occasionally pretty lonely Martin. The small cafe he lived over would sometimes need his help when there was a rush, such as when a large traveling group came through town, but that was only a semi-reliable source of income during the parts of the year when travel was heavy. The single, overworked, NurseJoy that ran the towns small Pokecenter was given some money to help pay for hired help she might need for odd jobs, but she'd already paid him for some minor repair work he'd down for her a week ago. Old man Spark, the owner of a local scrap yard, could be pretty reliably depended on giving some pay for going through the scrap he'd collected recently for anything intact and usable but the pay was pretty light for such hard work. There was a single family run market in town that pretty much supplied everything people in town needed, but they weren't looking to hire anyone.

Martin took out a package of his dwindling noodle supply, popped some toast in a toaster and settled down to prepare then eat his breakfast before washing up and then going out in town to find some work that hopefully didn't include himself scrounging around in scrap metal looking for useful crap.

---

Martin hopped down the stairs and gave a cheerful wave to his landlord's Mousewife, who was cleaning the tables of the cafe in preparation for the customers who would be coming in later for their breakfast.

"Need any help today, Bell?" Martin asked, while looking around the cafe to see if there was anything that might hint at some work that he could do. "I don't expect there is, though I didn't think it'd hurt to ask."

Bell gave a small start at the sound of Martin's voice, indicating that despite her enhanced hearing Martin had somehow managed to sneak up on her. She turned around with a surprised expression on her face which quickly gave way to a smile as the bell that hung from her collar, and was her namesake, jingled with her movement.

"Oh, Martin! You just about scared the life out of me!" She worked her way to the other side of the table she was cleaning so that she could keep her face pointed at Martin, allowing her to continue talking with him while doing her work without splitting her concentration. "As a matter of fact Tommy did want you for something. Um, I don't remember what it was about, though. Why don't you have a seat, get comfortable and wait for him while I tidy this place up a bit more?"

"Sure thing Bell. Helping you and Tom out is actually one of my preferred jobs." Martin said as he sat down in a chair. He only had to wait a few minutes, listening to Bell hum a tune to the sound of her own constant jingling, before Tom showed up from the cafes storage room.

"Tommy!" Bell said joyfully, before jogging over to him to give him a happy squeeze followed by a quick kiss on the lips which required her to stand on the tip of her toes. Tom Horn was a tall man, slightly pudgy around the middle, who was a bit of a contrast when compared to his fairly short pet. The fact that they were both pretty much friendliness personified was basically the only thing that kept them from being a total mismatch. It was also probably the only thing that allowed them to rent out a tiny, though surprisingly nice, apartment to a young man that didn't always have a steady income.

Bell seemed to be lingering with her arms around Tom as she informed him about Martin's presence. "Tommy, Martin's here. Maybe you should tell him about that thing you wanted him to do?"

Tom had been rather occupied with his pet, so Bell's verbal indication of Martin's presence was actually necessary. He untangled himself from her arms and leaned down to give her a peck on the cheek, then gave her a pat on the butt as indication that she should get back to work. "Martin, good to see you. I'm glad that Bell remembered to keep you here so that I could ask you for a favor."

"Ah, man, a favor?" Martin said with a slightly exaggerated pained expression on his face, scratching the back of his head. "Usually I'd love to help you out, but I was kinda hoping on working on my food budget today. I've got my rent money all set aside, but if I don't make some more cash soon I'll have to cut back on the luxury of having food."

Tom grinned at Martin and gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "Ah, I didn't say you wouldn't get paid for your trouble, you professional job hunter. I was just worried that you might want to pass on this particular job."

Martin grinned right back at Tom, though he did rub his shoulder a bit at the hit. Tom had surprising power in his arms. "Actually I prefer being called a job finding specialist. But never mind that, why wouldn't I want to get some easy money by doing a favor for a friend?"

Tom shrugged. "Well, I know how much of a fan you are of seeing new and exciting pokegirls, and it turns out that there is some kind of pokegirl exposition or something coming into town today. I wanted you to carry refreshments over to the tent they had set up, but you wouldn't be able to pokegirl watch while working as well as you might if you took the day off."

This immediately grabbed Martin's interest. "A pokegirl exposition? Why would they do something like that here? And who would do it?"

Tom scratched his chin as he tried to think. "Hmm, I think it was that ranch over in Douchsiabag City. Schoner Pussy Ranch? I think it was a last minute thing, a favor for the folks who run the Horse Rear Ranch. Horse Rear is near enough to Douchsiabag City so that I don't think it was that much of an inconvenience to change the venue of any exposition to it, anyways. I just found out about the whole thing last night, me an Bell are supposed to keep everyone fed."

"This is awesome!" Martin said excitedly, suddenly getting up and starting to pace the room. "I mean, I still am going to help you out, because it sounds like you'll need it having to provide refreshments to such a large group of people. Also I need the money. But still, Douchsiabag City's ranch is high class so even if I have to be working during the expo can you imagine all the awesome pokegirls I'll get a chance to see?"

Tom laughed at his youthful companion's over excitement, and even Bell had momentarily stopped her work for a moment to give a soft giggle that she tried to hide, not wanting to hurt Martins feelings.

"Well, I'm glad you’re excited, and that you're planning to help me and Bell out." Tom said, as he handed Martin a list of things he need carted over to the exposition tent.

"Think nothing of it, old friend." Martin said in his best faux gallant tone of voice, prompting another giggle from Bell from across the room. "I've got some good honest work to do and some honestly good looking pokegirls to see. Today is going to be fun!"

---

"Today is not fun." Martin grumpily said to the uncaring gods as he carried another in a seemingly unending bag of supplies to the expo grounds. He'd thought that there would just be a few things he had to carry over to the expo grounds from Tom's Cafe, but in order to fully supply the whole operation it seemed that he'd actually had to carry what seemed like a mountain of supplies all the way from the town market, whom Tom had forgotten to mention he had entered a partnership with in order to provide the expo patrons better service. Martin was in pretty decent shape, because a lot of the jobs he did where of the mundane physical task type, but the work was beginning to tire him out and the monotony was even worse then the physical exertion. The only luck he had seemed to be that the actual exposition would be occurring in the late afternoon, so he still had the chance to get his work done before then and enjoy some of the festivities. Unfortunately if he didn't get his work done in time he might not get a chance to see any of the rare pokegirls that would be on display.

His task was not made less difficult by all the people who were beginning to get in his way on the narrow dirt path he was using. They were a bunch of out of town folk who were looking around the place before the exposition began, and they were making a nuisance of themselves. It would have been nice to meet new people in most circumstances, but these people treated him not like a person but rather like a piece of moving background scenery that they had to maneuver to avoid. Martin guessed that a guy carrying things was mentally categorized as unimportant, and that bugged him. It was especially annoying because he got the feeling that a lot of these visitors weren't even tamers, their dress didn't seem like the things you'd wear for dedicated travel. Probably just a bunch of young men from Douchsiabag City who wanted to take a little adventure that wasn't that dangerous, so why should they look down on him? Tamers at least had the excuse that they actually served the public in a fashion to explain them being preoccupied enough not have a friendly chat, but most of these guys were basically on vacation.

Martin frowned, but decided to try and not let the out of towners rudeness set him in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

---

Strangely enough a bit of simmering resentment was actually helpful in getting his work done faster, and Martin had some time to go freshen up at home and change his shirt before he went to the opening of the pokegirl exposition. Tom had even said that he'd get some free drinks and snacks once he arrived. Martin had already worked out a plan to see if he could con his way to eating enough food so that he could skip dipping into his own food supplies after the festivities were over for the day when he finally arrived at the large tent that was serving as the location of the event.

It looked like nearly everyone in town was here for the event. Even some of the pontytaur from the Horse Rear Ranch were on the outskirts of the crowds. They usually liked to stay in their non-humanoid form, so they probably stayed on the outskirts of the crowds as to not step on anyone’s toes. In addition to the locals there were a good hundred or so visitors, which included the few pokegirls that were in evidence. The pokegirls that Martin could see around were fairly weak common types, so he felt the most of the people visiting were probably pet owners or perhaps some kind of tradesmen. Despite the fact that Martin had felt a bit of resentment at the perceived slight of a lot of the visitors ignoring him despite his feeling of them not being any better then him he still generally approved of the non-tamer pokegirl owners more then their tamer counterparts. It wasn't like Martin was under the impression that all tamers were jerks, it's just that he knew that along with their responsibilities tamers had a lot of power, and that unnerved him. There was also the fact that he was under the impression that pokegirls who traveled with tamers were more likely to get hurt then domestic pets, which he acknowledged to himself, might not be entirely fair considering that a domestic pet could still potentially get badly injured if she got an owner that was abusive.

Martin was busy looking around for Tom and Bell, so he was only half way paying attention to an announcer who was explaining the particulars of the exposition. He heard the man talking about how the people attending the exposition would actually be able to purchase the pokegirls who they'd be able to view for their very own, which confused Martin a bit. He figured that was the whole point of coming out here in the first place. 'What, is the guy trying to drum up sales by acting as if though we have the opportunity to purchase forbidden fruit?' Martin thought, bemused. Regardless of whatever sales tactic the announcer was using it didn't really mean much to Martin. Though he'd wanted a pet ever since he was 16 his parents were strict about not giving him any loans and about him purchasing his own pokegirl, and at the present moment he was just as broke as he always was when he was a teenager. Even though he had gotten his pet owner license as soon as he turned 16 it didn't look like he was going to be able to use it now or in the near future. This whole event was an unfortunate case of "look but don't buy".

Martin finally caught sight of Tom and Bell and with a relieved sigh jogged over to them. It was always nice to hang out with friends at special events, after all. He was surprised to see them both sporting rather uncharacteristic impish grins when he drew close to them, which made him briefly reconsider the wisdom of seeking them out even though they promised him some free food to go with his pay for the work he did that morning.

"What's with the Daimon grins, you guys?" Martin asked warily. He knew how good natured they both were, but they had their mischievous side too.

"We pulled some strings, just a minor abuse of power from being partially in charge of this whole affair. It's a little joke on you, but you might still like it" Tom said, trying to keep a straight face.

Bell was having a harder time controlling her expression; her face was bright red with an expression filled with both mirth and a mixture of embarrassment and worry. "Oh, Martin, I thought it was funny at first, but if I was you I'd just die! I hope you won't be mad at us."

Martin rolled his eyes and grinned, he was sure Bell was overstating things. She didn't have a malicious bone in her body, so whatever nefarious plan she took part in couldn't be that bad. She'd be racked with guilt for a week if she forgot to give one of her friends a slice of pie for dessert.

"Relax Bell, whatever it is I'm sure it's not that bad. And if it is that bad I'll just blame Tom instead of you." Martin jabbed a finger in Tom's direction. "This joker's probably the one behind the plan, anyways."

Tom held up his hands. "Guilty as charged. I just arranged for you to have a reserved spot for a contest that the announcer is going to get to pretty soon. You'll have to play some games in front of the whole crowd that have been assembled here, but if you win you get a prize. Top three win their choice of the pokegirls that have been brought here." Tom waggled his eyebrows at Martin.

"Hoo boy." Martin let out in a breath. "That's fantastic. I mean, I don't particularly like to perform in front of people, but that is a prize that's worth a little embarrassment. Relax, Bell, you're forgiven for your part in this scheme." Martin paused a bit, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. "Seems a bit odd, though. They're going to have to give up three pokegirls no matter who wins, and it's going to be the winner’s choice, right? Most winners would choose to take the rarest pokegirl they have, so it seems like they could lose a bit of money with this promotion."

Tom nodded in agreement, with a thoughtful frown. "Yep, you're right. So, what do you figure that means?"

Martin shrugged. "Well, maybe they don't have anything spectacularly rare. Maybe this whole thing is more of a means to get some of their more undesirable pokegirls off to homes of their own. Might be why they're doesn't seem to be many tamers here, these pokegirls might be specifically targeted at prospective pet owners with modest budgets. Not necessarily a bad thing."

Bell nodded her head, giving Tom a fond glance. "Uh huh. Tommy bought me years ago back when I was still a simple titmouse. I didn't cost very much at all."

Tom rubbed her shoulder affectionately. "Ah, to me you were priceless."

Martin considered acting like he was throwing up, but decided that he wasn't 12 and he should act like it. Besides, he didn't want to inadvertently offend his friends. They were quite a bit more affectionate then were expected of a pet owner and his pet and he didn't want them to think he actually disapproved of their relationship despite the fact that he grew tired of the lovey dovey atmosphere. Considering his acceptance of his own parents if he actually held prejudice against Tom and Bell he'd be a pretty big hypocrite, anyways.

"Yes, yes, yes. Even a common pokegirl can be a treasure to the right pet owner." Martin said with a grin. Bell must have sensed some of Martin's disapproval of their sappiness, but luckily she didn't take it badly and just stuck her tongue out at him in a playfully insulting way.

The announcer finally got around to talking about the contest, which turned out to be a little different then Martin expected it would be.

---

'I can't believe I'm playing carnival games in order to win a sentient life form. Reality is weird.' Martin thought as he glanced around at his fellow competitors who were with him up on the stage in front of the crowd. He was so nervous the only expression he could manage was a frozen grin of panic.

It turns out there were only 10 people involved in the competition, with everyone getting some kind of prize for simply participating in the competition and the 3 winners getting first dibs on the expositions pokegirls before everyone else got a chance to purchase them. It was a sweet deal any way you looked at it and Martin really was grateful to Tom and Bell for this chance despite it being as much a prank as a favor. He still felt like an idiot being in front of so many people.

The first competition had been a singing battle. It... didn't go well. The warning comment that could best be attached to a recording of Martin's singing attempt would be "Dangerous to those individuals with enhanced hearing. Or any kind of hearing in general. Do not leave recording in the presence of children or the suicidal." Remarkably Martin got 7th place in that round.

The second competition was a shooting game. Martin did respectably well, and worked his way up to 5th place in overall scores.

The third competition was a ring toss and Martin managed to steal 4th place, with the 4th and final competition deciding if he went home alone. He was at that moment waiting to see what he had to do.

"Folks, what exciting game is next? What skill will our champions have to display now? Can you feel the excitement?!" The announcers purposefully over exaggerated announcing style garnered quite a few laughs, which in Martin's mind just showed how in need of entertainment the town was. With a theatrical flourish the announcer lifted off the cover of the final game, revealing a table with milk bottles arranged in a wedge formation. "Can our champions knock down the bottles or is it their dreams that will take the hit?"

Martin once again pondered the absurdity of his situation, but decided just to be thankful that the contests he was asked to take part in actually featured a skill that he actually was good at, music disaster not included. He spent quite a few hours in the scrap yard throwing stones at old cans, his arm was surprisingly good.

Martin was set to go last this round, and he spent nerve wracking moments watching as his fellow competitors murdered the milk bottles. Apparently they all had been practicing throwing rocks at things too. When his turn finally arrived it turned out that he needed to knock down 8 bottles in order to get third place, the lowest place he could get and still receive a pokegirl.

Martin breathed deeply, and focused his mind. There was no audience. There was no announcer. There was only the ball in his hand and the milk bottles in the distance. If there are only two things in the universe it's got to be easy for them to hit each other, right? Martin tossed the ball in his hand up and caught it, testing its weight. With a final quick mental calculation he let the ball fly and it hit the bottles dead center with quite a bit of power. Martin bit his lip as one of the bottles wobbled after it had been struck and finally settle down, standing straight and tall.

He'd only managed to knock down 9 of them.

---

Martin Blue, second place winner of the Horse Rear Pokegirl Exposition Contest of Champions, entered the tent the pokegirls were kept in while the cheering of the crowds could still be heard behind him. He could barely contain his excitement. His fellow champions looked just as excited, one of them being the first place winner, who was a resident of Horse Rear though one that Martin only knew by his face, and the third place winner being visitor from out of town.

The announcer took a drink of water and rubbed his face on a towel to clean some of the sweat off it. "Gentlemen, feel free to look around." He said in a much more normal voice then the one he had used on stage. "The Pokegirls you will find here are all very well tempered, and I'm sure any one of them will be happy to go home with you. Don't feel pressured to rush; the crowds out there will be fed while you pick out your choices so you have plenty of time. Once you make your choices the rest of the girls will be brought out to the crowds for them to bid on, while you get things set up with your new pokegirl back here."

Martin and the other nodded and separated as the went out to look for the pokegirl they'd each choose.

On his first glance out at the crowd Martin couldn't help but smile a bit smugly. He'd been correct in his assessment of what kind of pokegirls the exposition was offering. There wasn't an unpretty face in the bunch, but they really did seem at first glance to be a fairly common group of pokegirls. Martin couldn't bring himself to mind much, though, considering the fact that they were, indeed, all very attractive.

Martin had become used to the pokegirls he encountered wearing clothes, and was pleased that most of the ones he could see were, except for the plant types that would be damaged by not letting their bodies absorb light. The rest of the pokegirls were wearing rather uniform, if in some cases rather tight, shirts and shorts. They were spaced in small groups, most likely composed of girls who knew each other and were friendly. The girls in the front were heavily populated by bunnygirls, all wearing hopeful expressions and many of them arching their backs in an attempt to make their chests more apparant. Others paid more attention to showing their legs to their best advantage. One cheerfully waved at Martin when their eyes met, only to get a small hit from a human looking pokegirl who gave her a small frown. Perhaps that was against their personal code of conduct for attracting prospective owners?

The groups further in the back were more diverse in their makeup. They weren't quite hidden, but they didn't seem quite as eager as the girls in the front to be picked up by Martin and his fellow champions. Martin pondered this and came to the conclusion that it was rather sensible of them. They must be aware that he and his fellow champions had won a contest rather then actually bought any of them. In order to enter the contest they had to be eligible to own a pokegirl, having a license and home, but the fact that they did not have to pay the possibly excessive price that was sometimes asked for a pokegirl meant that there was no guarantee that they had very high standards of living. Of course while the possibility of being put into storage might make anyone seem like a suitable owner, these pokegirls might be young enough to feel a bit picky. The pokegirls that didn't put much thought into who owned them other then whether or not he looked decent to cuddle with were the ones who were probably up front.

Martin found himself lingering in the middle, between the hiders and the overtly interested. There were a few older pokegirls in that area, and that actually interested him. Many of the bunnygirls and other pokegirls up front who were very overt were also very young seeming. They probably weren't as young as they seemed, because if they were they'd likely have been picked up by beginning tamers looking for girls around their own ages, so they were probably in their late teens. That didn't stop them from seeming very girlish in their manner. Martin thought a pokegirl around his own age would be nice. 21 wasn't all that distant from a teenager, but the distance mattered to him.

Just when Martin was beginning to feel like there was actually a hidden final hide and seek challenge to the contest he finally saw something interesting: A head of stark white hair. He walked over to see who such hair belonged to and found himself staring at a beautiful young woman just a bit shorter then his own height with shoulder length snow white hair, light green eyes and mouse ears. She wore something a bit different then the other pokegirls, tight pants instead of shorts and a similarly tight shirt, both of which were a dull gray color that blended into her surroundings. She stood with a natural stillness that caused her to almost fade into the background, which was only ruined by her hair. She had a calm face that didn't seem to be overly familiar with expressions, but she managed to not come off as some kind of robot. She was watching him watch her, but he couldn't tell much more then that other then a slight hint of interest which encouraged his inspection. His eyes lingered around her torso and he noticed she had a nice sized chest, maybe around a C-cup, and a shapely behind that sported a tail that just underlined its cuteness. She wore a military surplus knife on her belt and her hand touched it briefly when she saw him notice it. Martin didn't sense any malice in the action, simply a sign that the knife was indeed hers and she knew how to use it. She touched it almost like it was an old friend. Martin again looked her in the face, now more closely scanning her features. She looked native to the Indigo League, perhaps even a relation to Bell for that matter.

'Curiouser and curiouser...', Martin thought to himself as he continued to look at her. He felt positive he knew what type of pokegirl she was, and she was indeed a treasure to find in such a place, but he found it interesting that she didn't seem to have any features that might indicate Edo ancestry. Her body type seemed like a slight variation, too, but he suspected he knew what might account for that.

"What is your name?" Martin asked, simply.

"Sally was the name given to me by my father." She didn't quite sound the way that Martin thought she might. Her responses were said in a pleasant voice that seemed to carry well and that wasn't louder then it needed to be, and she spoke in a normal conversational fashion. She just seemed to respond mostly to questions rather then take the initiative.

"You have not gone under any treatment that altered your memory of the past, you remember you parents? Additionally, if that is the case, give a brief description of them."

Sally's stance seemed to subtly shift; she seemed to be standing more at attention as she responded. "My memory hasn't been altered in any fashion. I was born to a tamer who settled down with his Alpha, a Ninjanezumi. They were both residents of the Indigo League and my mother was a gift to my father from his own parents that he evolved from a titmouse to a ninjanezumi when he went on his tamer's journey."

'That explains her appearance." Martin thought. "I don't think there are any threshold cases of ninjanezumi, so you were born a domestic pokegirl, right?"

"That is correct." She didn't elaborate.

'Being born a domestic ninjanezumi would probably account for her body type; I think most ninjanezumi are either shorter and less busty, or taller and bustier. She's a nice compromise between the two possible extremes.' Martin thought, pleased. "What is you're current age?"

"22 years of age." She seemed to be settling nicely into the back and forth of question and answer. She even seemed to be enjoying it.

"Hmm. Only a year older then me. Quite nice." Martin said to himself, softly. Giving a quick nod of decision to himself he held out his hand to Sally. "If you would take my hand? I plan on choosing you."

Sally took Martin's hand and matched his pace when he began walking away to find whoever they needed to see to make their match official. "Of course."