========================
The island…
Where everyone is in trouble…
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“Damn it,” Daimonji muttered as he watched Yachiru fend off Blade Bunny after Blade Bunny, “What was that just now?”
“I… I don’t know!” Yachiru said, her normally jovial face fearful, “It sounded like one of the Probies!”
Daimonji cursed. “We need to get to them NOW. TEAR THROUGH THEM!!”
Yachiru nodded, and prepared to use her most powerful Swordwave… when the Blade Bunnies attacking them suddenly broke up. Daimonji and Yachiru both stood frozen for a moment, wondering what was going on.
And then they heard the sounds of eating.
“No…” Daimonji hissed, his blood freezing, “No no NO!!!”
Both Yachiru and Daimonji jumped down, seeing the Blade Bunnies swarmed around a pair of bloody corpses. A cold fury overtook him as he watched, seeing the Alpha Blade Bunny suddenly look up, her fanged mouth bloody, and smirk at him.
“KILL THEM!!! KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM!!” Daimonji snarled.
Yachiru dashed towards them, sword drawn. This isn’t fun anymore, Yachiru thought desperately, feeling equal parts rage and despair as she tore into them, the feeling of failure intense on both Pokégirl and trainer.
The Blade Bunnies, wrapped up in their meal, didn’t notice Yachiru until she had cut three of them in half with a single stroke of her blade. They turned to attack her, the Alpha Blade Bunny hissing angrily, when the Alpha was suddenly tackled by a furious beyond belief Anya, the Psi-Dyke leaping down from the ledge to knock the ferocious creature away from her pack.
Soon after that, Molly, normally a gentle, sweet Pokégirl, leaped down, growling angrily, landing on a Blade Bunny jaws first and tearing out her throat. Yachiru was startled for a moment, but kept attacking, supporting Molly by slashing apart any Blade Bunny that came near the crying, furious Boobgle.
Tina slid down the ridge, using the hooked blade tail she took off of a Blade Bunny to slow her fall, the organic metal blade grinding the rock. Tears were streaming down her face as she gave a furious look towards the Blade Bunnies, clutching tightly to the blade tail.
So focused on the killer rabbits was she that she didn’t notice as Daimonji hugged her in relief.
“Thank the Thousand Gods you’re okay!” he said. “Geez, Probie, I was so worried about you! Is Donny okay?”
“Tina,” she said softly.
Daimonji blinked. “What?”
“Tina,” she said softly, “My name’s Tina, not Probie.”
Daimonji blinked, and looked over at the two bodies, which were still being eaten by some of the steadily decreasing number of Blade Bunnies who didn’t want to give up their kill. A coldness overtook him as he realized what happened.
“Right,” he said softly, “Tina. Let’s hang back, call for backup.”
Tina nodded numbly, barely able to think as she looked over the shredded remains of her friends. A scowl crossed her face as she began to grow angrier and angrier…
Anya and the Alpha Wabbit faced off, the latter’s axe tail lashing about above her head as she hissed, bearing bloody teeth.
“Bring it you miserable bitch,” Anya snarled, “I’ve eaten tougher rats than you!”
The Alpha hissed and lashed forward with a fast, powerful blow. Anya dodged to the side, lashing out with one of the most dangerous techniques she knew: Confusion.
The effect was essentially that of a telepathic scream. It caused a detonation of all the target’s senses at once, and had a dangerous chance of causing the opponent to become dazed and confused. It wasn’t as powerful as the Psybeams she had been using earlier, but it could be just as effective.
And destructive. Especially if applied with enough force.
The Alpha was powerful, to be sure, but in the end she was still a simple-minded Feral. She had no training on how to focus through the forced disorientation, and so she fell victim to it.
Staggering about, she lashed about wildly with her axe tail, unintentionally killing several of her swarm mates remaining, making things easier for Molly and Yachiru.
Anya just watched with grim satisfaction as the Alpha staggered about again. She blasted her with another Confusion, leaving her staggering and writhing about on the ground, her senses going in every direction except the ones they were supposed to.
Growling, furious, she tried to focus, tried to find where the nasty psychic thing was so she could hack out her liver and eat it.
She didn’t get the chance.
While it was still looking around in confusion, Tina came up to the Alpha jammed the blade tail she had been carrying in the thing’s chest.
Gurgling, spitting up blood, and wondering how the hell the food had gotten close enough to kill her like that, she collapsed in a boneless heap.
Tina growled incoherently, yanking the blade tail out of the Alpha Blade Bunny’s chest. The assembled Tamers and Pokégirls turned when they heard hissing from the remaining ten Blade Bunnies. They had gathered together, staring intently at the corpse of their leader.
“Damn it,” Daimonji said, “They’re massing… They want to eat the Alpha’s corpse…”
Tina scowled. “And whomever eats the most of it will become the new Alpha…”
Molly growled angrily.
Anya regarded them coldly. “We’ll just kill them all first.”
“No need for that,” said a voice. In a blur of motion, four of the remaining Blade Bunnies were decapitated, Kurgan and his Pidgeota landing nearby. The remaining six Blade Bunnies turned to retaliate, but Freya, coming out of nowhere, attacked them in a blur, the dark-skinned Herowu’s metal staff literally busting the heads open of the two Blade Bunnies before they could react. The last four died screaming as Trine pumped electricity into them.
Kurgan and Christine came up to the two of them, worried expressions on their faces.
“You all right?” Christine asked, the older, shaved-headed woman frowning and checking Daimonji and Tina for injuries.
“Where’s Donovan?” Kurgan asked, looking around.
Tina numbly pointed to the partially eaten remains of Donovan and his Squirtitty.
Freya and Trine traded horrified looks, as Tora just lowered her head sadly.
“No…” Christine said softly.
Kurgan closed his eyes. Again and again and again… “All right,” he said, “I’ll prep their bodies for transport and proper burial.” He removed two Pokéballs from his pocket, each bearing the symbol of a noted Maple League Tamer.
“…Isn’t that…” Daimonji asked.
Kurgan nodded, moving stiffly over to the two bodies. “Yeah, it’s his symbol. He designed these balls himself. Casket Balls, can contain any dead matter. Makes it easier to transport bodies until they can get a proper burial…”
Leaning down, he gently tapped each corpse with a Casket Ball. Casket-like fields of energy covered the ruined bodies and were pulled into the balls, which closed with a soft pop. Kurgan sighed, and stood up again, recalling Tora.
“Eric sounded the all-clear. He wants us all back at the beach. Let’s get moving,” Kurgan said, his already gruff voice sounding even more gruff.
Tina nodded numbly. Her mind was in a haze, however. All she could feel was anger, anger over what these creatures had done…
…angry at the knowledge that it was Anya’s former allies that did this.
All the survivors gathered on the beach. Of a crew of thirty Tamer, only half had survived. And to top it all off, the Warmech wreckage was gone as well.
Eric stood there for a long moment, his hands clenched tightly, a furious look on his face. His Chimera, Dionysica, his first and most loyal Pokégirl, stood by his side, rumbling worriedly, a concerned expression on all her faces.
Finally, Eric let out the breath he had been holding in. “…All right. It’s over. We’ll rest for a bit, clean up, and then head back to the mainland.”
Tina blinked. “What, so that’s it?!” she demanded, “We aren’t gonna go after them, make them pay for what they did? At the very least, we should get the Warmech back!”
Eric shook his head. “We lost half our people today to an unorganized attack by a bunch of feral Menaces. I’m not losing the rest to a futile attack on the Limbec Knights.”
“But-“
“NO, Tina,” Eric said firmly. “We need to go home and bury our dead, report the loss to the authorities.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I got cocky, I never should have accepted this mission…”
Kurgan patted his old teammate’s shoulder. “Regrets later. Let’s just make sure everyone who’s left gets home alive.”
Eric nodded. “Everyone, add Pokégirls who lost their Tamers in the attacks to your harems and return to the ships. We’ll get cleaned up and head back. The Whorepools have moved on, so I guess they withdrew with the Knights.”
Tina fumed angrily. Daimonji tried to comfort her, but she just shrugged him aside.
She wanted to do something.
She was GOING to do something.
“I just have to figure out how…” she muttered.
Anya could easily sense Tina’s thoughts. Anger and revenge were foremost in her thoughts. “Tina… Mistress….” she said softly.
Tina scowled. “Don’t… Just… Stick with Tina, please. I don’t need a servant, I need a friend right now…”
Anya nodded. “I know what just happened hurts… But you can’t let it get to you… If you let revenge take hold of your heart… It’ll ruin who you were…”
Tina scowled, clenching her fists tightly. “I don’t care… I want to hurt them… Donovan… He was a good kid. He didn’t deserve to die like that…” she almost hissed.
Molly whimpered. Anya closed her eyes. “So was my original Tamer…”
Tina blinked, turning to look at the Psi-Dyke. “…Anya?”
Anya sighed, sitting down on a nearby rock. “…I had a human Tamer before I joined the Knights. A beautiful young woman named Caroline…” She smiled wistfully. “She was beautiful… Kind, and caring… She was so full of life, so full of love… She helped me through my Threshold… Unfortunately, we both lived in one of the most conservative towns in the Eagle League…”
Anya hugged herself, her fists clenching. “…Some local thugs objected to the fact that Caroline was a female Tamer. They had… ‘outdated’ ways of thinking, to be polite about it…” An angry scowl came to her face. “They raped her, thinking that she was a Pokégirl when she was actually a near-pureblooded human… They beat her, raped and beat me, trying to turn me into something that wasn’t repulsed by men… She died from her injuries… I spent almost a year in the harem of one of those bastards before they were killed in one of the Pirate Queen Mephaesta’s raids. I was brought before Madame Yggdrasil, who taught me not to be repulsed by sexual contact again, and inducted me into the Knights.”
Anya sighed. Molly, whimpering softly, came up to her and gently nuzzled her, the Psi-Dyke almost unconsciously reaching down to pet her.
After a moment, Anya continued. “I… I obeyed without question, following Madame Yggdrasil on her many ‘crusades.’ I killed, I looted, I… did several other things I’m not proud of…”
Anya sighed. “It was after I found out what happened to the people I had been kidnapping for Madame Yggdrasil, the day I met Washu Kurotsuchi, that I knew that I had made a mistake… I had become worse than the people that brutalized Caroline…”
Tina was dumbstruck. Anya had never been this open with her life before. “I… Anya, I…”
Anya, all of a sudden, leaped up and hugged Tina tightly. “Please, Tina… I don’t want to lose you as well!”
Molly whimpered in agreement, joining in the hug. “Mistress good to Molly… Give Molly name, give Molly home, warm place to sleep… Molly not want any other Mistress than Tina…”
Tina blinked, tears in her eyes. “I… Anya, Molly, I…” She understood how they felt. But she had known Donovan her whole life. She had grown up with him, seen how he grew as a person with each encounter. To see him just butchered like that, torn apart and eaten…
Anya’s words had shaken some of the darkness in her heart. But she still wanted to do SOMETHING… wanted SOME kind of payback…
“Touching story,” purred a voice.
The Tamer and her two Pokégirls looked up, seeing a Catgirl standing near them. She had several bandaged wounds, and her eyes were red from crying. Anya recognized her as Tatiana, one of the Pokégirls belonging to one of the crew members that had been killed.
Molly, reflexively, growled in irritation, mainly because Tatiana was a cat and she had an instinctive dislike of them. But she kept silent otherwise, knowing that she had lost her Tamer and all her harem sisters today…
Tatiana came up and sat with the others, her arms folded, her Pokéball clenched tightly in one hand. One eye had been blinded, a slash scar over it. “…Believe me, Tina, I can understand the need for vengeance. Marty and I had been together for years. But I also understand Anya’s position. Going after this Washu person, if she’s as fearsome as Anya’s reaction to just saying her name would think, would be suicide.”
Tina nodded, a little irritated. “And your point is?”
“We steal the Warmech back. We keep stealthy, we take it, we haul keel before we get keel hauled,” Tatiana suggested, “I managed to catch the scent of one of the Knights that unleashed the Wabbit Swarm. She scraped herself on a tree. I saved the bark.” She took out a piece of slightly bloodied bark. Molly leaned forward, and sniffed the bark vigorously, committing the scent of the blood to memory. She would know that scent when she found it again…
Tatiana shivered softly. “Take me with you. Make me your Pokégirl. I’ll do whatever you want afterwards, just take me with you. I can see it in your eyes, Tina, and I know the telepath over there can sense it. You’re gonna go after them. Take me with you,” she said, her voice equal parts intense and pleading, “Please…”
Anya gave Tina a pleading look.
Tina frowned, thinking for a long moment, and making her decision. “…I’m going to get the Warmech back. I know it’s crazy, but I can’t let Donovan have died for nothing. I’m going… but Tatiana and I will have a better chance of surviving if you’re guiding us…”
Molly whimpered. “Molly going too, Mistress!”
Tina sighed, petting her. “I won’t ask you to do this. It’s dangerous, and you might get hurt badly.”
Molly nosed Tina, and said firmly, “Molly going too. Molly protect her Mistress. Molly was Mistress’s first Pokégirl, is Molly’s duty to make sure Mistress safe.”
She cast an amused look to Tatiana. “Besides. Someone have to keep Mistress safe from stinky kitty.”
Tatiana smirked at her. “I’m not the one covered in Wabbit blood, Rover.”
Tina looked down at Anya, Molly, and herself. “Yeah… Before we do this, let’s get cleaned up first, change our clothes.”
The three of them showered in the ship’s bathroom, cleaning off the blood, disposing of their old garments and getting fresh ones from the lockers below decks.
“So…” Tina said as she got dressed again, “How are we going to do this?”
Anya frowned. “Kurgan’s too canny, and despite the type advantage I don’t think I can defeat Lucrecia in a fight. I need to mindshock him out before he can bring out Lucrecia. I’d have a bit more luck against Freya, but she’s still a powerful fighter. Plus, Trine’s manic mind is difficult for even telepaths more skilled than I to latch on to. Christine will have to be knocked out as well before she can bring out her girls.”
Molly wurfed. “What about Daimonji and Yachiru? Plus he caught that Blade Bunny…”
Tina scowled. “Why is that thing still alive?”
“Actually, you weren’t the only one who thought that…” Anya said.
===========
Earlier…
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“Why in the FUCK is that thing still alive?!” said one of the surviving Tamers when Daimonji let out the Blade Bunny, who was cowering in a circle of angry Tamers and Pokégirls.
“I figured she might be useful. If she knows anything, we can learn from it,” Daimonji said, “If not, then either we just kill her if she’s one of the Knights, or I get a new bedpartner and combat partner.”
Eric frowned. “Osira,” he said, releasing his Sphinx, “Scan her mind. See what you can get from it.”
The Sphinx nodded and leaned down, whispering a spell to analyze the Blade Bunny’s mind. The Blade Bunny hissed fearfully, trying to lash her tail, but an Amachamp held on tightly to it. Osira’s spell reached deeply into her mind, probing deeply for information.
After a few moments, Osira scowled, withdrawing. “She knows nothing. She’s not even sure where she is. All she knows is that her swarm was kept in a containment zone for her entire life, and they were all starved before being unleashed here,” the Sphinx said, the dissatisfaction clear on her face.
Eric frowned. “…Did she kill or eat anyone?”
Osira shook her head. “No. She hunted, but she never got a chance to even inflict a wound before Daimonji caught her.”
Eric nodded. “Then she gets to live,” he said. Reluctantly, the other survivors agreed. The Blade Bunny immediately glomped onto Daimonji, whimpering.
=========================
Back with Tina and her harem…
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“Hnh… I suppose that’s okay…” Tina said, “Still not happy about her being alive…”
Anya shook her head. “Any reinforcement would be good… And as for dealing with Daimonji and Yachiru…” she smirked, “Yachiru can be distracted with candy, and Daimonji’s so dumb I’m pretty sure you could knock him out.”
Molly giggled. Tina managed to grin.
Tatiana snorted. “Whatever…”
Tina shook her head. “Let’s just get this done. I’m not gonna let everyone who’s died here die in vain. I want that Warmech back. And I mean to get it.”
Anya sighed. “I’m going to ask this once more: Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
Tina shivered. “Today I saw someone I’ve known for years, a friend, a comrade, die in one of the most savage manners I’ve ever seen. I can’t let that go. I can’t let him die for nothing…”
Anya frowned. “Are you sure that’s your only reason?”
Tina scowled. “No,” she admitted, “I want payback. And what better way to do it than steal back what they stole?”
“…Eric’s going to kill us,” Anya said, “If the Knights don’t do it first.”
Tatiana mewled. “I don’t care anymore. Just tell me one thing: Who among the Knights would have been in charge of these fucking Wabbits?”
“Washu Kurotsuchi,” Anya said without hesitation. “She’s a psychopath who views anyone that’s not her or one of the Madames as a potential experiment.”
“…And she’s one of Yggdrasil’s allies?!” Tina asked incredulously.
Anya sighed. “Yggdrasil is old guard. She believes that Sukebe never should have given up his war after the Titans were defeated. And it’s rumored that she was alive during that time…”
Tina blinked. “Can Pokégirls live that long?”
Anya shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I just know that Yggdrasil is both powerful and dangerous. Eric’s about the only one here with ‘girls capable of fighting her.”
Tina frowned.
“…Having second thoughts?” Anya asked, almost hopefully.
“…I want to do this,” Tina said after a long moment, “I know it’s a stupid idea. But I just can’t let this go… If I can just take SOMETHING from the Knights, then I won’t feel like Donovan’s sacrifice was wasted…”
Anya frowned. “…All right,” she said, “Then I shall go with you. I swore to keep you alive, and I will.”
Molly barked. “I go too, Mistress! Molly help too!”
Tatiana nodded. “Whatever it takes,” she said, “You knew I was in from the get go.”
Tina nodded. “Okay then, let’s go. And quickly.”
Anya sighed. “And so we all rush into the jaws of death together,”
Tatiana smirked. “Were you always this cheerful?”
Anya sneered. “Oh no, only when you’re around…”
Tina rolled her eyes, and put Molly and Tatiana in their Pokéballs. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
Anya gave her a curious look. “Nervous?”
Tina nodded. “Yeah… We’re going AWOL to do a solo raid on a mad scientist’s ship with a bunch of war monger Pokégirls who don’t like humans that much, to say the absolute least. It’s stupid, it’s crazy, and right now it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”
Anya sighed. “Then let’s go. The longer we stand here talking about it the more likely it is we’ll be caught.”
Tina nodded. The two of them moved towards the front of the ship, where Christine and Kurgan were talking, Daimonji laying on a bunk and staring up at the ceiling.
He looked up when he noticed Tina and Anya standing in the doorway. “Hey hey, Pro… Tina,” he said, managing a weak version of his normally jovial smile, “You holdin’ up?”
Tina smiled, a weary, tired smile. “Barely…” she said, sighing, “…And for the record, if I don’t make it back, I’m sorry for this.”
Daimonji stared at her, confused. “Make it back from what?”
Christine and Kurgan blinked, suddenly realizing what she wanted to do, and turned towards her to try and stop her.
But before they could even open their mouths, Anya lashed out with a powerful psychic wave, one that kept sent them to the floor.
Tina looked down at them, worried. “What’d you do?”
“Psychic paralysis,” she said, shaking her head in frustration, “A trick I learned back in the Knights, one of the techniques of Madame Onslaught. Temporarily disables the brain’s ability to send movement commands to their extremities and their mouths. It was meant to make ‘viking raids,’ as some called them, easier by reducing resistance from the people we were raiding. Didn’t stop some of the more vicious Knights from exploiting those it was used on.”
“Geez, Anya,” Tina said, heading for one of the jet ski escape pod mounted on the side of the ship.
Anya shook her head again, “I’m not proud of what I did back then, or what I let happen. I never wanted to use that attack again. But I guess sometimes it’s just needed. They’ll be out stunned like that for ten minutes, long enough for us to get too far away to for Tora to find easily.”
The two of them got onto the jet ski, and headed out towards the island again, hoping to track the trail of the ship. “If Washu’s involved, she’ll have taken one of the larger ships. They’re slower than molasses and leave a very distinctive wake. Because we’re so small we should be able to go unnoticed by the armaments and sneak on, but we’ll have to be careful. Washu tends to favor ninja-types for her bodyguards and overall security. If I’m remember Donovan’s thoughts correctly, we won’t have to take all of the Warmech to make it completely useless to them. Just a few control boards in a pack. Let me carry it and put me in a Pokéball, and if we escape alive, you can ride back easy.”
Tina frowned, a sweatdrop appearing on her head. “Um…”
Anya gave her a curious look.
Tina grinned weakly, and said, “Why is it that you never fully appreciate how completely fucking stupid what you’re doing is until you’re too far into the adventure to back away?”
Anya just smiled, and turned back to watching the water. They reached the island again, Anya circling it until she found what she was looking for.
“There,” she said, pointing to an odd distortion in the water.
Tina blinked. “What… What is that?”
The water a few miles out from the part of the island they were at, clearly the landing site for the Blade Bunny swarm’s transport, was churning in a long pathway, as if a giant serpent was under the water spinning around and around.
“The Jourmungand. Figures she’d go for that one,” Anya muttered, “It’s almost as showy as she is…”
“Jourmungand?” Tina asked, confused.
“Named for an old legend, a serpent so big it circled the world completely and could chew on its own tail. It was supposed to be one of the children of the Nordic Trickster god. It’s brother was a wolf that could swallow the sun, and the Nordic goddess of death. Supposedly the Nordic god of thunder fought it to the death, but died from the thing’s poison.”
Tina blinked. “Damn… I need to study my old legends…”
Anya began to follow the trail of churning water, which was slowly fading as they rode along it. “The Jourmungand is one of the last surviving battleships used during the Titan War, specifically designed to fight Infernus. It’s got several water-based armaments, including several jet cannons powerful enough to cut metal, and has a specialized engine that’s making this wake. It was designed by Norwegian scientists, who named it after the Worldsnake after noticing that the wake the ship made reminded them of the old legends.”
“What engine could make this kind of wake?” Tina asked, still baffled.
“High pressure air turbines. Meant for jets rather than boats, which is why it’s so slow. When Sukebe switched sides, he started sharing tech he had picked up on other worlds in his earlier dimensional travels,” Anya said, “Now hush. The engine’s quiet, so I need to listen for the water churning…”
Tina nodded, holding on tightly to Anya’s waist as they rode along. The wake they followed got bigger and bigger, a low humming finally reaching Tina’s ears, one that steadily got louder and louder. When they finally saw the source, Tina’s jaw dropped.
A massive aircraft carrier loomed before them, rumbling along as if it owned the ocean.
“Oh my God…” Tina gasped.
Anya nodded. “Just as imposing as I remembered,” she muttered. “Now, if my guess is right…”
“Then you should be captured by now, right?” said a soft voice from behind Tina. Before the Tamer could turn around, a kunai was pressed to her throat.
“Hello Mitsuki,” Anya said, “Washu still not know your name?”
“Afraid not,” the Kunoichi said, “But I’m used to it by now. Why are you here?”
“You took something from my Tamer’s crew. We want it back,” Anya said.
Mitsuki, from her perch on the back of the shook her head. “No. The Warmech is the property of the Limbec Knights now. And you, traitor, as well as your human pet, are our prisoners.”
Tina felt her heart racing. “Not now… Not NOW!!”
Anya just grinned to herself. Just as planned…
Back at the with the rest of Tina’s crew, Kurgan was the first to recover. He staggered, his head spinning, towards the comm-link, and called Eric to let him know what Tina had done.
“WHAT?!” Eric bellowed, “That STUPID PROBIE!!”
Kurgan shook his head, trying to clear it. “What do you want us to do?”
Eric scowled. “Go back with the others. I’ll try and follow them, see if I can retrieve her.”
Kurgan’s eyes widened. “Sir, that’s suicide.”
Eric snarled. “Everything about this smacks of Kurotsuchi and Yggdrasil. I know how to fight them. I can get her back.”
Kurgan frowned. “And if she’s already dead?”
Eric’s face set into a grim expression. “Then I’ll burn that forest witch and her pet mad scientist to the ground.”
TO BE CONTINUED…