04 How High, Again Sir?

How High, Again Sir?

“Brandt…” … … … … “Brandt…” … … … … “BRANDT!”

Matthias jumped with a start. He was still unused to being addressed by his surname. “Yessir!” he responded quickly.

“Tell me, what are the unique dangers of pursuing- or being pursued by- flying and subterranean pokégirls?”

The training camp was closer to boot camp. It was nowhere near as harsh as an actual military boot camp, but it was strict. There were these “study guides” that were handed out periodically as the weeks progressed. Matthias found them to be closer to printed out chapters of a textbook. The classes were slow and dull, so simply reading ahead and zoning out during class was what Matt and many other “students” resorted to.

The majority of the trainees here were kids. They had just turned sixteen, absolutely ecstatic about their first pokégirls, complaining about the trivial tedium that comes with life, the normal teenaged crap. Some had taken to calling him “old man” despite the rather short gap between their ages. Maybe it was because they were jealous of “the beard.” Eh, it was getting around the time to shave anyways.

One of the more grating things about this place was just how repetitious the entire schedule was. Even more so was the fact that they felt the need to reiterate every lesson at least two to three times a week. He was starting to miss Gabriele during class where she had to be put up in a 'ball, despite her whining about the amount of time wasted during the day when she could be off training. She had some... unique perspectives on certain things that usually turned out to be quite amusing.

It was Friday of the second week of instruction. The weekends were generally break time for most students with the exception of those who wanted a little something “extra” from their experience here. Matthias was rather curious when he read that the camp would teach some basic magic. It was then that the memory of places like Vale struck him. True, he had only read about magic using humans in books by his fellow authors, but he hardly believed that he could forget something so important. The recollection of humans using magic in this world brought about several wizardly fantasies. Since then he had been determined to learn about this mysterious force. This had lead to him sneaking out some books on the subject from the camp depository. The fact that he found them in a section that students weren't supposed to be in didn't slow him down a bit. The instructors at the camp were either unaware of this or have turned a blind eye to it.

The current class had been dismissed for the time and Matthias headed to the mess-hall for dinner. He released Gabriele on the way and found a cranky Amachop grumbling to herself. She perked up when he pointed to the mess ahead. The line was long and the food awaiting him was very akin to standard military grade food (all strange but if you value your safety, avoid the eggs). When the duo finally found an empty table, they sat and made themselves comfortable.

“Well?” Gabriele broke the silence and sent an expecting look at her partner. Matthias looked up questioningly in place of words due to a mouth full of some kind of soy pseudo-meat. “You are going to train today, aren't you?”

“I exercise with you every day and you know that,” the tamer trainee replied after swallowing his food.

The Amachop sighed in exasperation. “Only for an hour.”

“I have other responsibilities besides simply training all the time.” He stabbed a ersatz-sausage as he continued. “I have to complete assignments for this place and study, study, study.” He bit a chunk off of the soy product. “Exercising an hour a day is pretty good by human standards. I don't heal as quickly as you do, so I can't lift weights Every. Single. Day. I need to throw in other things so I don't hurt myself.”

Gabriele grumbled to herself. “We should still be able to train in the morning.”

“The rules of this place interfere with that.” The fighter merely grumbled as she continued her meal.

A couple of other trainees sat near them, but Matthias avoided conversation. He needed to help Gabby get her training craze out of her system before he could retire and read himself to sleep. Next week, they would start teaching some basic magic, and he wanted to try his hand at it. From what he understood, everyone had at least some natural ability for it, so why not he?

XXX

“Now once you've completed the visualization, hold it and release the flow of manna as instructed,” the Sorceress said in a singsong voice.

Today was the first day of magical instruction. Apparently, this was all supposed to be elementary level techniques, even though Matthias was sure the only reason he could wrap his head around the instruction was because he had “borrowed” some books and read himself into mental exhaustion out of his fascination for the subject and its potential. Despite his study, he could not get the spell to work. He could feel the magic. He just couldn't get it to budge.

“You,” the Sorceress who was instructing the class was addressing Matthias, “You're not doing it right.”

Matthias frowned. He was certain that he was doing it correctly. He quickly glanced around the class and noted that he wasn't the only one having problems. Most everyone had some kind of misshapen glob above them. Although he seemed to be the only one who had nothing going for him. The only trainee who had successfully created a light ball was a smug looking bastard in the corner of the room.

“You're too tense,” she continued, “trying to force it out and what not. Let it flow.”

Matt sighed in exasperation. She new more about magic than he probably ever would, so it was probably be best to listen to her. He relaxed his muscles and tried to coax the pool he felt inside of him instead of mentally pushing it around.

The instructing pokégirl sighed in exasperation. “You're still doing it wrong.” She grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eyes. “You can't push around a lake or get it to do anything by asking it nicely, but if you turn on a faucet, water will flow through. Now let it flow.”

Matthias was suddenly lost in her eyes. It was the strangest feeling. It was as if the topaz orbs were pulling something from him. A warmth bubbled up from his stomach and made its tingly way up through his chest and into his arms. His hands tingled and felt moist as something dripped upward from his hands. A tiny light made its way into Matt's vision. He broke eye contact with the instructor and looked down to see a bright, tiny speck of light floating a few inches above his cupped hands. He was giddy with excitement. Real magic was in front of him, and he was making it.

“See? Not that hard, is it?” The pokégirl instructor was halfway between smug and triumphant.

Matthias finally understood what she was saying earlier. Throughout his body, he could feel these tiny little points. He decided to visualize them as gates. Each of them lead to another area in his body. The source was pooled near his core, and he could feel all the gates around it, linking it to everything else. He focused on a gate. He managed to narrow off many of the channels leading elsewhere. Finally, he had a path. It was the same path that was linked to the light spell. The last gate, the one linking his core to the path leading to the Light Ball, flung open at his desire and let the torrent gush through it.

“Now, in the future you might want to...- HEY! If you do that, you'll-” The Sorceress shouts were cut off as Matthias's Light Ball grew to the size of a basketball and brightened to the intensity of a floodlight, blanketing the room in white. The Ball pulsed for a few moments before buzzing and then fizzling out of existence. Matt slumped forward and collapsed into unconsciousness. “Idiot.”

XXX

Matthias awoke groggily on a bed in the camp's built in nursing station. There was a Night Nurse working at a station just outside his room. Throwing off the blanket covering him, he attempted to stand. Although shaky at first, he had managed to stand on his own two feet. He blinked several times and began to stretch his legs and clear the fog hanging around his head.

“You're awake,” came the sharp voice of the Night Nurse attending the station. She had apparently seen him up and about and just walked in. “The facilities are not equipped to measure healing of a magical nature, so you'll have to wait here until the Magic instructors come and do their own checkup.” Without waiting for an answer she swerved and strode right for the door. She paused. “Oh, and don't do anything stupid.”

Matthias was forced to wait for a couple hours. From what he could tell, he had slept for an entire day. Looking back on what had happened, he deduced that he had used up too much of whatever power he had let loose. He thought back to fiction he had read. No book of entertainment was a how-to on a supposed nonexistent force, but it seemed that nothing could accurately describe the process to someone who was either all ready knowledgeable on the subject or had some kind of first hand experience. A thought struck him. If its so easy to access this magic with such limited training, then why aren't there more mages and other magic users. Surely if everyone had at least some capability for doing so, not doing so would be like not keeping healthy or never learning to read, and he knew that he couldn't have much innate ability when considering his complete lack off inhuman/superhuman heritage which is everywhere in this world along with the fact that he needed help to even generate his own.

His thoughts were interrupted when the Sorceress who was teaching the class and her graying owner walked through the door. “You should be more careful when dabbling in a force as wild as magic, kid,” rumbled the older gentleman. He was barrel chested and looked more like a cage fighter than an expert on magic. “Even if it is somewhat of an accomplishment for a novice to be able to access so much of his manna at once, you should be much more wary of doing so. Most spells aren't as gentle as the basic Light Ball and would've torn the rest of your life force from you to fuel it.” The gruff old fellow shifted his posture into a less aggressive one. “Fortunately for you, it's usually only offensive spells that do that.”

Matthias thought for a moment before wording his question. “Thank you for the advice.” The instructor gave him a nod. “I know that this training course only teaches so much and that magic is only a small part of this small course. Do you have any advice as to how to pursue magic beyond what I can learn here? I've taken a fancy to the subject.”

The man and the magic pokégirl beside him both eyed him for a solid minute before. The Sorceress then looked to her master and gestured towards Matt with her shoulder. The man took a deep breath before answering. “I might.”

XXX

“GRAGAFLAAAAA!!!” Matthias bounced around the room as his hands boiled and blistered.

“Get rid of the energy before your hands melt off!” the Sorceress shouted to the frantic man. There was a small explosion causing the windows to rattle, and Matt flew backwards into an opposing wall. He tried to stand, but it was difficult because his hands were burnt black.

The Sorceress's owner shook his head in disapproval. “Youth,” he spat the word as if it was the bane of his existence, “always so eager to get itself killed.” He strode over to Matthias, who was biting his lip and trying to remain calm despite the state of his hands. “When I said practice and find yourself a good teacher, I did not mean to practice with something you had no knowledge of.” Matt nodded weakly as he wobbled on his feet. “Come on kid, let's get you patched up.”

The tamer trainee seemed to have a talent for hurting himself with magic. In the past three days, this was the eighth occurrence of something like this. The only lesson he seemed to have learned was to conduct his experiments near the medical wing. The teachers at the camp, especially those who taught basic magic, were frustrated beyond belief, frustrated to the point that they had assigned (forced) the two who had gotten him started to keep an eye on him so he doesn't start some sort of magical fire and destroy everything.

When the group finally made it to the miniature hospital/pokécenter stationed in the facilities, the two teachers pushed the wayward student up in front of the front desk, nodded to the Night Nurse, and simultaneously grunted out, “He's all yours,” before leaving before any arguments could arrive. Matthias looked faintly annoyed, but decided not to comment on their behavior.

“Hello Matt, back again?” the Night Nurse asked with a smirk playing across her hawk-like features.

“Hello to you too, Theresa,” he replied, “Gotta keep your skills sharp ya' know.”

Theresa's fingers sharpened into scalpels. “Yes, very sharp.” She reached for him. Matthias eased away from the pointy objects, causing the pokégirl's smirk to widen.

“That would make anyone uneasy and you know it,” Matt said, eying her fingers warily.

“Come now. We have to scrape off that dead skin some how.”

After Theresa had painfully flayed off all of the burnt and dead tissue, much to Matt's severe discomfort (closer to agony), she waved her hand and sent a pulse of something to the idiot he got himself burned. Another pulse came, and another, until they were in rapid succession and it felt more like a hum than anything else. He watched her carefully and realized that it was magic of some kind. His hands tingled as the damaged tissue began to grow back.

“You know,” the Night Nurse began, “Instead of stressing your body like this, you could use an object to channel the manna you're trying to put into it.” Matthias looked at her curiously and nodded for her to continue. “Your not the first idiot hotshot to try and use manna borrowed from outside sources without proper guidance. Most mages, especially the beginners prefer to use foreign objects such as staffs to channel manna that could easily do... this,” she finished gesturing to his damaged hands. The growth stopped before completion and pain was sent throbbing back as it used to be. Fortunately, it was better than before, so it was tolerable.

“Your hands are as healed as they need to be,” Theresa rattled off, “Your bones are untouched, but your dexterity and strength will need some time to recover. Give them about two weeks. The residual manna left from the Regeneration spell should kick your healing factor into high gear for a while, BUT if you get yourself hurt, the manna will probably heal the new injury instead of your hands. So, be careful.”

Matthias smiled sheepishly at her harsh words. No wonder the breed was called the Tough Love Pokégirl. “Awww, but I like coming to see you so often.”

Theresa raised a dark eyebrow. “Well, I need a dummy for a proctological demonstration...” she trailed off.

“Sadist,” he grumbled.

“Masochist,” she shot back,

“See, we're perfect for each other.”

Theresa bit back a sharp laugh. “Get out of here before I agree with you.” Matthias understood the underlying threat.

XXX

“Sir!” Matt called out to the magic instructor after the work hours were over and all the students were done cleaning up whatever mess the day had produced.

“What is it boy?” the instructor responded, putting emphasis on the word 'boy' like many of the teachers did to remind him that despite his age, he was no more world wise than many of the other little prats that ran around looking to call themselves a real tamer.

“I was wondering-”

“Spit it out.” The older man looked bothered.

“Would you teach me, or at least supervise my attempts at, using more advanced magic?” he asked as quickly as he could.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. “About damn time.”

“Huh?” Matt's jaw slackened

“I was wondering when you'd come to your senses and ask for some guidance in your suicidal experiments.” The old man rolled his eyes at the trainee's expression. “What kept you from asking.”

“Honestly? It was because you were the most discouraging of most everyone here, so I figured that you didn't want to be bothered. I asked others, but they all kept pointing to you and saying that you were more knowledgeable.”

The instructor face-palmed and muttered something unsavory under his breath. “Well, better late than never. I suppose I'd rather wait three days for you to come to your senses than watch you kill yourself, BUT!” He shook a threatening finger at Matthias. “no more crazy experiments without my supervision.”

“Does this count?” the student asked, producing a glass jar with a good sized stick standing erect inside of it. Their seemed to be some sort of oil pooling at the bottom. The jar suddenly lit up and glowed with a Light Ball inside of it.

The instructor stared at it briefly. It looked like the stick was being used to channel manna from the oil. If someone used a spell with this as fuel and the spell went wrong... “Especially that.”

“Guess books on magic aren't meant for beginners?”

“So it was you who was taking the books from the library's restricted section!”

“That section was restricted?” Matt asked as innocently.

“Hence the giant sign that says RESTRICTED in front of it.” He sighed. “I should've known. That must be how you were doing all of your shenanigans.” Shaking himself from his reverie, he continued. “Anyone can do the things you are doing with the proper motivation and guidance. The reason why you need guidance is so you don't kill your self.”

The tamer trainee took in a deep breath. “I'm eager to learn,” he said decidedly.

“I know, or I wouldn't be doing this. Most don't know this, but one of the largest factors in the entrance exams at schools like Vale is personality. You won't be good at something unless you are determined to learn it. That's why the majority of the applicants to schools of magic get turned down. They don't have the drive. That's the only thing that separates common mages from everyone else despite what potential they have deep down.”

“Common mages?” Matthias was confused by the terminology.

“Some have magic potential beyond the common folk. These are the types that are either invited by Vale itself or selected for the College of Arcane Sciences here in Azure. They're rare. Generally only a handful every generation.”

“What're my chances of being one of those?”

The graying man barked a laugh. “You're not. You have drive, but special, you are not.”

“I'll just have to do it the old fashion way then.”

The magic teacher grumbled to himself and decided that he'd need to properly thrash his Sorceress. She unleashed a monster the moment she had untapped the core of his manna. He didn't want to tell him, but another big reason why many people with the ability to do magic never do is that many don't ever get to feel their own manna. Once someone feels their manna, their magical perception skyrockets and channeling magic becomes easy if rather dangerous. Most are forced to find their manna the hard way as to prevent younglings from killing themselves before they can learn to deal with their strength. Anyone can feel their manna with guidance, but such knowledge was guarded to prevent yahoos like this kid in front of him from surfacing. Okay, he wasn't that young, but he was still a loose cannon until he can be brought under control. This was going to be a pain in the ass.

SORCERESS, the Magical Generalist Pokégirl

Type: Very Near Human

Element: Magic

Frequency: Rare to Very Rare

Diet: human style diet, just lots of it.

Role: magical powerhouses. Depending on their available spells they can be found in many different roles.

Libido: Average

Strong Vs: Ghost, Fighting

Weak Vs: Psychic, Magic, Water, Fire

Special Weaknesses: Ticklish, requires large amounts of food.

Attacks: Mystic Bolt, Shield, others vary

Enhancements: Magical Affinity

Evolves: Archmage (E-Stone Ceremony)

Evolves From: Witch (normal)

Physically a Sorceress changes little when she evolves, perhaps gaining a few inches in height and a slightly bigger bust, if she changes at all. Temperamentally a Sorceress changes greatly from a Witch. While they still have a temper they can be calm and unflappable when the situation requires a cool head. The big change though is in their magical power, a Sorceress’s spells are more powerful than a Witches and she is capable of channeling more magical power before she becomes exhausted. The last change that they undergo is the most obvious one, the runes which appear on her skin when she is casting a spell, the more runes that appear the more magical power she is channeling.

Sorceresses retain the biggest weakness of their previous form, they are very ticklish and so just as easy to tame and just as useless in a sex battle. They also require large amounts of food, far more than would appear necessary for a Pokégirl their size. In fact most people seeing a Sorceress eat for the first time will ask where she puts it all.

Sorceresses are capable of learning and casting spells from any element or magical school. Sorceresses seem to focus on flashy spells which can be used to directly damage their opponents rather than subtler magic that can be used to assist her harem sisters in combat. Although any Sorceress worth her salt will have some defensive spells available as well as some healing magic and a flight spell.

Sorceresses have an insatiable thirst for new spells and most will seek to pump any magic user they meet for any new spells that they might know. They are also capable of creating new magic spells, either by witnessing a spell in action and creating their own version of it or by creating a spell which is entirely new to them (although this obviously takes longer than recreating a spell that they have seen). The amount of time it takes to create a new spell varies depending on the level of the Sorceress and the level of the spell but usually even a high level Sorceress will take at least a week to come up with even a low level spell.

The price that Sorceresses pay for their magic is that by being a jack of all trades rather than a master of one they lose the ability to create magical items beyond basic one-shot items such as potions and salves.

Thresholding into a Sorceress is not unheard of but most girls will become Witches.

NIGHT NURSE, the Tough Love Pokégirl

Type: Very Near Human

Element: Normal (Infernal)

Frequency: Very Rare

Diet: Human-style

Role: Battlefield medics, Town defense, Bodyguards

Libido: Low

Strong Vs: Ghost, Infernal

Weak Vs: Fighting, Celestial

Attacks: Wing Attack, Fury Swipes, Hazy Vision, Dark Goggles, Dark Shield, Dark Bomb, Cocoon of Darkness, Blessed Soul, Dark Redemption, Dark Mist, Phoenix Down, Insulate, Curaga, Esuna

At Higher Levels: Full Revive, Absorb, Exorcism, Regen, Protect, Shell, NulAll, Dark Holy

Enhancements: Can use Dark-type and Magic-type attacks without being either type, Dark affinity, Magic affinity, increased healing ability, wings for flight, natural armor, Enhanced Durability when armored (x6), Enhanced Speed (x4), Enhanced Strength (x2)

Evolves: None

Evolves From: Nurse Joy (battle stress)

NurseJoys are known to be kind, gentle Pokégirls in nature. But even they have limits. Even they can be pushed to a breaking point.

The first known appearance of a Night Nurse was in a Limbec Pirate attack on a coastal town in 270 AS. The NurseJoy, part of the Harem of a visiting Tamer, was kidnapped and raped by the pirates in an attempt to turn her. In desperation she started to fight back against her attackers, changing in a flash of light into a more powerful, more battle-ready form. She destroyed her attackers with Dark Holy, and proceeded to rescue her master and participate in the wrecking of the Pirates attacking their town. Since then, there have only been a few more instances of Night Nurse evolutions. But where they do occur, they are more than welcome.

When a NurseJoy becomes a Night Nurse, they undergo several changes. The first and most obvious of these changes being a change in physical appearance. Their breasts grow a cup-size, and they become taller and more muscular. Their faces become aquiline, almost hawk-like in appearance, and their hair grows out, becoming black with pink streaks in it. Their eyes also turn completely black, save for their pupils, which turn white. They gain the ability to cover themselves in a sort of organic armor, which is black with pink in it like their hair, and is shining and smooth to the touch. When they manifest it, it covers their arms, legs, most of their chest and belly, hips and butt, and part of their face. The armor also has a pair of large, metallic wings, which Night Nurses can use to fly or be used in a cutting attack. They can also sharpen their finger armor into scalpel points for emergency surgery. Studies have shown that the armor is completely sterile and remains that way no matter what touches it. Fortunately, the sterility of the armor does not affect the fertility of the Pokégirl, as all currently known Night Nurse Pokéwomen have proven capable of breeding.

Also to change is their personalities. Before, they would be caring and gentle, combining excellent bedside manner with superb medical care. Night Nurses are strictly business. They are excellent healers, even better than NurseJoys in many cases. However they lack anything even remotely resembling bedside manner. They will fix your wounds no question, and bring you back to health. But they won’t be as nice about it.

After a few studies of the breed, Night Nurses were found to be best suited as battlefield medics, barreling into the battlefield and retrieving injured comrades, healing them up as quick as possible and sending them back into battle. Night Nurses themselves are reasonably capable fighters, capable of healing themselves mid-battle and continuing on the fight. Night Nurses are also excellent in team battles as they can heal their teammate on the fly and protect them as well.

For a long time, it was unknown why Night Nurses would still be classified as a Normal element Pokégirl when they have many Dark element attacks. The reason was a shock to everyone: They are actually Infernal Pokégirls! This was first discovered a year after the first Night Nurse was identified. A Megami was the first to sense it, and the Dark Lady fighting the Megami confirmed it, laughing mockingly and putting her arm around the Night Nurse, as if lording the fact that the Celestial Pokégirl was outnumbered. Soon after, the Night Nurse put the Dark Lady’s head through a wall. She healed her up afterwards, but only because her Tamer told her to.

Night Nurses cannot stand other Infernal Pokégirls. Unless given a good reason not to, they will pound the living daylights out of any Infernal Pokégirl they see (with the obvious exception of other Night Nurses). Mazouku are actually as a whole terrified of Night Nurses, and become as gentle and harmless as Titmice in the mere presence of one. Night Nurses also don’t care that much for Celestial Pokégirls, but find them more tolerable than Infernals. They just ignore them for the most part, as they consider Celestials to be snooty.

Thresholding into a Night Nurse is so far unrecorded at this point. However, due to increasing interest in this Pokégirl ways of evolving them without forcing them into battle are being researched.