03

Disclaimer:

Pokemon is a copyright of Nintendo. Pokègirls and Pokèwomen come from the Pokewomon Forum.

"Wild Horses and Pokègirls" is the creation of Metroanime.

        "What's all this?" Shyster asked. His thoughts a worry of confusion, then a single thought catalyzed out of them.

        "Go ahead and tell him," I told my partner, "He's already figured it out, mostly." I tried to smile pleasantly, but it was hard, not because he was like most of the sex-obsessed idiots who filled the ether with their thoughts, but because he was effective competition. He could take my partner away from me. Not that he'd try, and not that she'd stay away, I reminded myself sternly, trying to keep this friendly and cordial.

        "If you'd . . . been less helpful," my partner Mildred said, "We would have offered . . . gifts to persuade you."

        A bribe, Shyster was too polite to say aloud, and even the thought was hard to pick out of the background noise he had it in.

        But your expression gave you away for an instant, I thought before interrupting.

        "Since you did give us what we wanted -" I glanced at my partner. "We decided to make it a present." I glanced at Janice. "You . . . made things a lot better for her. Some nights after she - lost someone - she'd cry herself to sleep. Her despair at being 'only a NurseJoy' would fill the psychic realms."

        Janice blushed and apologized.

        "I'm not condemning you, or complaining. Just explaining why we often dropped by at such times, and why we're doing this now." I turned back to Shyster. "Years of wanting to be more - even you, Cervine and Ailaurie being here haven't dimmed her desire to go and be more. More than 'just a NurseJoy'."

        "NurseJoys can't evolve, not anymore than I can," Shyster said.

        "Yes, they can," Mildred said, "It's just not common knowledge and not often done. Good Evolution Stones are pricey. Most Tamers don't get too emotionally tied up with their Pokègirls, except the field adventurers, which you are, effectively."

        "We also held these back," I added as Mildred started to wind down with embarrassment. We both knew what happened when we 'dropped in' on Janice with the local Officer Jenny.

        Shyster guessed too, smart enough to figure the quickest way to a Pokègirl's heart, and also smart enough to keep his mouth shut and his expression blank, so he wouldn't embarrass his defacto Pokèwife with reminders of her `premarital` activities.

        "We held these back because we were always too afraid to sell them. Who'd believe a Psidyke when saying they only found one of these each, when there's clearly two oddities. I wonder how many miners have other oddities like this hidden in their stores." I handed over a rock that looked like one of Mildred's scales, except inset in it was a gold coin with a picture of the scale with a coin inset on it, as if someone had tried for one of those endless reflection images and had to stop.

        "I've never heard of anything like this," Shyster admitted, turning the stone over in his hand, while he turned the image over in his mind. I knew he'd researched Dragon Scales and Dragon E-medals, but hadn't found anything like this. The second stone was equally puzzling.

        "That's nearly the size of your breasts," Ailaurie teased her lover. The emotions and thoughts practically boiling off the Lynx were hard to shut out, concentrated on one subject as they were.

        Not that I disagree with her, I thought, Both of us have wished for a tussle with the big Donna. But that's reserved for Janice Shyster and Ailaurie.

        The blue stone was big, and appeared to have multiple clouds floating within it. Except the largest cloud that filled nearly a quarter of the stone had a blue wizard staff inset in it.

        "The best guess me and Mildred have is, this is an Angel Stone and a Dream Stone intertwined. I've never even heard of something like this."

        "Nor have I," Shyster said as he accepted the stone, seeing that the staff seemed to move as the stone moved, always on the surface of the cloud, yet always just off center no matter how you held the stone. I also felt Shyster's mind thinking that all this was building up to something, and he wanted very much to jump to the end.

        The last two were ordinary E-stones, a gold crystal with three eyes, the top most aglow until I handed it over. The last a purplish crystal like rose quartz with a gold pentagram in the center. The last two had serious flaws running through them. The one in the mana crystal looked like a leaping Panthress, the one in the Psi crystal was hard to identify.

        "That looks like a nerve fiber," Janice said as she stared at it, "Odd that it should be in a Psi Crystal.

        "I wouldn't want to put that mana crystal on display," Shyster said, "I've seen those movies." Shyster's mind filled with images of a bumbling World Champ League detective chasing after a suave Blue League jewel thief.

        I didn't have a clue, so I continued, "We also talked to some other people about an appropriate ceremony. I know you looked into the church and the Justice of the Peace, and found out that the only `marriage` available to Pokèwives is Common Law. And you, a hopeless romantic, wanted something a lot more. This might be a good solution."

        Shyster's mind was going so fast as he looked at Janice, then each of the others, that I couldn't get anything. Janice's mind as she stared at the ground and rubbed her hands was equally awhirl, but it was all her emotions: fear, worry, joy, love, only the extremes that would result from Shyster saying 'yes', or him saying 'no'. If he says 'no', Janice will be destroyed, I thought, And he'll follow a second later, I couldn't help adding to myself.

        The way he took Janice's hand and ignored her tears, waiting for her to smile, told me all I needed to know.

        "So when and to whom do we send out the invitations? Before or after the ceremony?" Janice asked, all smiles now and all her thoughts centered on Shyster.

        I can feel my teeth rotting, I thought as her thoughts cascaded out of her mind.

        "After, it needs to work, and I figure you won't want anyone interrupting for a day or two after," Mildred said.

        "Look," I complained as I looked at the shockingly pink cloth, "I'd be more comfortable in overalls than a dress." I glared at the Bimbo who thought trying to put a bow in the Psidyke's hair would make me `cute`. "Especially a pink one, with all this . . . "

        "Frippery?" Shyster asked, his mind a complete blank, as if he were concentrating on a white wall as if his life depended on it.

        Which it probably does, I thought as I growled at the Bimbo, and turned back to the Damsel displaying the fabric. "Don't you have anything less -"

        "Feminine?" the shop clerk asked with disgust, "Janice asked you to be part of her ceremony, and you're complaining?"

        I briefly considered brain-frying the Pokèclerk, then looked over at Shyster. "There has to be another way!" I frowned. Terrific, I'm asking a man for help! I thought hopelessly, I really am in trouble.

        "All the bridesmaids are wearing pink," the clerk explained, "The same shade as Janice's hair."

        "Ma'am," Shyster began, I saw the thought, and might have kissed the man for the save, "She isn't going to be a bridesmaid, or the Matron of Honor."

        "Thanks be to all the gods!" I said as I got Shyster's thought, "I'm giving Janice away."

        The clerk considered, "Like the bride's father!"

        I bristled at anyone comparing me to a man, for any reason.

        "You," the clerk told Shyster, "Out. Go read the magazines or something."

        Shyster frowned, but obediently walked off.

        A little too obediently, I felt a little worm of suspicion gnawing at my misery.

        "I think I have just the thing," the Damsel whispered as she led me into the back, "It will need some alterations, but it should fulfill the function," she said, her mind filled with flummery and fairy dust.

        All suspicions fled when I saw it!. "A Tuxedo," I breathed. It's flamboyant enough that you could perform a piano concerto at the Grierson Library, and understated enough to wear to a funeral. I noted the top hat, opera cape, and silver cane, and realized I hadn't felt such lust since I first met Mildred. I always wanted to wear something that elegant, I thought, fighting to keep from drooling, But I knew it was silly, when would a hard rock miner and a Psidyke like me ever get the `excuse` the only one who ever knew . . . Then the pieces all fell into place.

        I turned on the Damsel, staring at her as the Pokègirl filled the air with her 'attack me first' pheromones. "Mildred put you up to this, didn't she?" I asked quietly.

        The Damsel squirmed like a mouse on a hot floor.

        Don't drool, I thought to myself. "Didn't she?"

        "Well. I - ah - she might have ah - "

        "Do you know how to make your brain turn into gray goo so it runs out your ears?" I asked in a friendly tone, wearing a Jokette's smile.

        The panic-stricken Damsel shook her head.

        "I - Do."

        "It was Francis' idea," Shyster told us as he walked in, "Once the word 'dress' was mentioned, through the fog of absolute terror and revulsion in your mind, she picked out that, and set about to seeing if there was one available. Janice would prefer you wore a dress, but she wants you as part of the wedding party more."

        I frowned at the two of them, then I realized I was more angry at myself for not `hearing` all the clues, which were now patently obvious. "Okay, men get out of here, a lady is dressing."

        Shyster retreated quickly, more for self-preservation than politeness.

        "Let's see if you can turn a razorback like me into a - gentleman." I shuddered at the thought and word.

        What should I wear? What should I wear? Janice thought desperately as she leafed through her closet.

        "Your uniform," Miranda told her as she stood at the entrance to the NurseJoy's quarters, "He's seen you naked, in a swimsuit, and in all kinds of fancy lingerie, but when someone talks about you, the picture in his mind is you in your uniform."

        "I want this to be special," Janice said petulantly, then sighed as she realized her choices of clothes were primarily her uniform, or a some variants, or the clothes she wore to do gardening, or worse, paint the place.

        "You don't have to prove anything to him, and he doesn't have to prove anything to you. The stones and the ceremony will do that, as if we can't all just see it by looking at you two."

        Janice sighed and put on a clean uniform, she left the top mostly unbuttoned to show off her dcolletage. "I don't care if it makes me look like a slut."

        "Girl, if he hasn't figured out that you want him to want you, he never will. And believe me, he has," Miranda said as she led the nervous NurseJoy to the main Taming room, the largest in the building. "The main thing that worries him, is someone taking him away from you."

        "I guess you think I'm being silly about this."

        "A little, but it's your right. Nobody here doesn't want you to succeed and be happy," Miranda assured her. Casey entered the corridor.

        "Francis has the kids all bedded down and is staying with them," the Officer Jenny told them as she joined them, she shook her head in frustration, "She admits to being a little jealous, and thinks that keeping them out of your hair is the best service she can offer." The police Pokègirl shrugged.

        Janice still felt nervous as they entered the room. Mildred was just putting the finishing touches on a circle on the floor. Shyster was sitting near the middle, two wooden boxes sat, as if waiting for the ceremony.

        "What happened to the two mages you hired?" Casey asked.

        "Don't ask," Shyster said quietly, "They didn't die, but if I had heard their suggestion, that might not have been the case."

        Casey looked at all the girls, who seemed to have developed an extreme interest in the floor, the ceiling, or their own fingernails.

        Janice stepped into the unfinished circle and Mildred closed it behind her. She looked at Shyster, leaned over and and took his hand. "You sure a quick Taming is out of the question?" she asked with a grin, her bent over stance specifically to let him see down her top. He stared at her face.

        "As keyed up as our friends are, we'd wind up with an orgy, and it would be a week before we could do the ceremony," he whispered back.

        Janice frowned and sat down. "Spoil sport."

        "Are you going to tell poor Casey what happened?" Shyster teased.

        "Patient client privilege is sacrosanct.

        "They weren't technically your patients," Shyster reminded her, "However many medical - procedures - you were planning to use on them."

        "Ahem!" Mildred cleared her throat, "Pillow talk later, unless you both want to share?"

        "What's say Miranda, want to bury the hatchet?"

        "In your skull? Sure!"

        Shyster opened the box at his side, inside were the Dragon Scale and Dragon Medal, hung from a collar of pure gold. Janice pulled her hair out of the way as Shyster closed the necklace around her throat. "Do you vow to take care of me, and those who stand with us?" He nodded to their circle of friends and supporters. "In sickness and in health, as long as we all shall live?"

        "I will," Janice said as she opened the box beside her, and removed the necklace therein. The identical gold collar bearing the Angel and Dream Stones. "I promise, you saved me, you and the others. You are my Angel, our life, my dream."

        Shyster picked the PsiCrystal our of the box the necklace had been in, while Janice pulled the Mana Crystal from the box beside her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him and squeezing her tightly. "You are mine," he announced, then slackened his grip slightly and whispered, "And I am yours."

        Janice felt the bond with her Master, with her friends and the stones touching her body. "I never doubted, I only feared," she whispered back, then said loudly enough for the others to hear, "Those fears were unjustified."

        With those words, she felt the stones heat, and a blinding light filled the room. She felt a brief flash of fear from her Master, but fear for her, not of her, or for himself. She relaxed in his arms and ignored the feeling of her flesh crawling or stretching, of her physical form being changed to match her mind's eye view of who she should be. He will still love me, she reminded herself, They will all still love me, perhaps I can better accept that love and show that I have.

        There was no pain, although there was intense discomfort as her body shifted and changed in response to the power of the stones, her bond with her Master, and with her friends.

        Miranda watched Shyster walk in from outside. What was left of his clothes, and Janice's clothes, were tastefully arranged so as not to mortally offend the Psidyke. The sight of an out of shape male walking rather unsteadily only made her chuckle, instead of puke. "Have a good time?" Miranda asked innocently.

        Instantly, his mind filled with malevolence. "Honey! Miranda here is awake."

        Miranda cringed back as Janice swept into the Pokècenter, and out with her.

        The last thought she caught from Shyster, before Janice's lust obliterated everything else was, Just relax and enjoy it.

        "I'm glad somebody can still walk," Casey said as the Pokekits scurried off. She helped Francis lie down on the table. The OfficerJenny then gingerly laid down on the floor, wincing as her highly bruised bottom touched the floor, and hissed as she placing an icepack back against her crotch. "Is this spike in libido normal, or are we going to have a get her a few Hentai Cutes?"

        "Those charlatans never mentioned anything about it," Miranda noted, as she lay in the whirlpool bath, trying to boil some feeling back into her body, "There's athletic, there's acrobatic, and then there's 'oh gods aren't you tired yet!' I'm too old for the later."

        "Poor Francis looked herself up in the security locker," Mildred said, and groaned, "How can such a wonderful experience make you feel so awful? I've been in fights I've lost that didn't make me this stiff and sore."

        Janice walked in, wearing her standard uniform and rain cape, not appearing any different than a standard Nurse Joy. She frowned at the fearful looks from that others. "You can't tell me none of you enjoyed it!" she said with a slight huff.

        "The first thirty times, yes," Cervine said, "After that it was just too scary."

        "I just felt . . . so alive!' Janice said dreamily, "And I wanted to share it with you all."

        'We know, we know," all her victims chorused, causing the NurseJoy to frown at all of them.

        "How is it you're so chipper?" Ailaurie asked, "When we're all something a Titmouse wouldn't drag home?" _ _ _

        "I used the Healing cycle," Janice said as she pulled out of belt of Pokèballs, and one by one, captured her friends, "Something one of you should have thought of."

        "Sorry," Shyster told her as she left to load them in the machines.

        She returned and carefully picked him up. "We're going to bed."

        "Not that I don't deeply love you, and appreciate that offer but -"

        "But nothing," she said with a giggle, "I still have my healing powers, and I am tired. I want my favorite snuggle toy there when I go to sleep." She hugged him to her breast. "Thank you. Thanks to you, I don't have such a lonesome future, the years stretching on in desperation and loneliness. I can hope again."

        "You're welcome."

        "Invitations go out tomorrow," she said with a smile, "I'll let you loll around in bed and address them all."

        He only groaned as she set him in their bed and crawled in beside him. "I do love you, I do want you, and no one is going to take you away from me, from us, without a fight," she told him as she let her hair drape over them and she let her healing powers loose on his battered body. Her heart soared as he wrapped his arms around her.

        Sleep soon took both of them.

        The sky was a brilliant blue marked with a series of cirrus streamers, as if the gods had laid feathers across it as a canopy. Shyster, in a tuxedo matching Miranda's stood fidgeting. Francis was keeping Ailaurie and Cervine's kids from getting into a rose-petal throwing contest. Miranda kept crushing the brim of her top hat and glancing around. She'd spotted the Millers and gotten a shy wave from both of them. She was so worried she thought she'd be sick any moment.

        Poor Shyster's not feeling anything, she thought, I envy him, right now. And later, I just hope all this turns out well.

        The other guests were chatting or looking around at each other. Most of them were as nervous as she was, when she was able to calm down and tell herself that it would all work. Those mages went over the plans, and reminded us that the stones were just an amplifier. I just remember how terrified I was when they told me that a Delta Bond was necessary. Fortunately those two had one, as if I hadn't noticed all the signs. I guess I am getting distracted.

        She smiled at the memory of the group's reaction to the mages saying they wanted to `study` those odd stones. I think those two were happy to escape with their lives, she thought with a chuckle, And Janice was the worst of them, screaming and biting and scratching. No wonder Shyster was limping that way, I bet she was a real tiger in bed. I bet he wishes he'd used one of the Taming rooms with the heavy restraints.

        'Everything is on schedule,' Mildred thought in the clear, 'All the butterflies are being taken care of. She's sure she's not ready to go through with it. Casey and I have her calmed down and Casey has her handcuffs and stun rod all ready.'

        Miranda fought not to picture that scene. I do feel a little sorry for Casey, Miranda let her mind brush lightly on the OfficerJenny's, She's more than a little worried that she's loosing her best sex partners, and her confidant. Silly. I wish I could tell her that, without disrupting everything. Janice is just going to officially be his Alpha, in everything but name, you'll still be welcome in their bed. Just not tonight. Miranda took a deep breath. Although, you might not be wanting for company either, tonight.

        An apple inscribed 'For the Fairest' and 'Kallisti' bounced near Miranda, who picked up the golden object, wound up, and concussed the troublemaker with her fastball. Damn Macavity-wannabe! Go away you bother me.

        The band struck up the wedding march as Casey and Mildred half-carried, half-dragged a rather haunted looking Janice to place her on Miranda's arm.

        What am I doing? I'm just a Pokègirl, not a Pureline, I'm going to make a laughingstock of myself, he's going to reject me, something terrible is going to happen, everyone will hate me, he'll be so humiliated he'll run away, ran through Janice's head as they walked. Miranda smiling and nodding at everyone while Janice looked like she was either running for election, or walking to her own vivisection.

        Fortunately for her own sanity, Miranda saw that Shyster apparently had no such qualms. I agree, 'who cares what they think? When there's trouble, they'll come running to us.' Well thought, Miranda glanced at the sky, idly wondering if an alien armada was going to teleport one of the two away before the 'I dos'. If you're up there, you'd better not try anything, or else!

        She looked over at Janice, and realized she did now think of the Pokègirl as something of a daughter. "He'll do right by you," she told the girl quietly as a Justice of the Peace from the next town over `unofficially` began the proceedings.

        "Friends, neighbors, we gather here today, to celebrate a bond which has been obvious to most of us for over a year. Marriage is a confusing thing these days. It used to be that couples would announce the fact to their friends and neighbors and it would be accepted. Then came the church and government putting their sanction on it and -"

        So that's what the damn boring speeches at weddings are for, Miranda realized, It's to tranquilize the bride and groom. Sheer genius!

        "Now before these witnesses proclaim your bond," the Justice of Peace announced.

        I wish he'd relaxed enough to actually say 'I now pronounce you man and wife', just leaving out his appeal to League authority, Shyster thought, as he broke his kiss with Janice and the two of them turned to their cheering friends. He turned slightly so he could see Janice's shining expression. She really is beautiful. I wish she'd realize how beautiful and respected she is. Or that she'd believe it.

        he waited for the cheering to die down slightly, and they considered doing what they had planned. They marched down the aisle, arm in arm, letting everyone watch and cheer. Neither wanted to stand in the long welcoming line. Unfortunately Miranda had already formed part of the line and was glaring at them.

        "I guess we have to go through with it," Janice whispered.

        "Yep," Shyster said, "be glad of your enhancement. Your hands are tougher than mine."

        She squeezed his hand slightly, then grinned.

The Girls:
Cervine - Donna
Ailaurie-Lynx
Janice - TerMegan
Francis - Boobtrio

Casey - OfficerJenny
Mildred - Dracass
Miranda - Psidyke