Epilogue:
Abby was less than amused, normally she was a fairly happy go lucky cat but damn it, getting stabbed was less than funny. “Ouchie.”
Zelda blinked as she stepped back from where she had stabbed Abby when her sword skittered off the cat girl‘s sword, “I’m sorry.”
“Medic.” Abby sighed, she knew it had been a bad idea practicing with the new weapons but damn that hurt more than she thought it would. She pulled her pokeball out of her pocket and flipped the switch that should send her back to her ball. She flipped it a few more times as nothing happened, “The damn ball isn’t working, just get Jenny please, before I pass out.”
Zelda took off at a run.
Abby blinked a few times before falling to her knees, “At least we know the sword works.” She really wished she could just pull the blade out but the damn thing was enchanted to cause wounds that were resistant to a certain amount of healing. Nothing a determined NurseJoy couldn’t fix but still not something she wanted to try to fix with her less than stellar healing magics. She was in too much pain to protest as Wendy helped her to the ground.
Wendy glanced at the red stuff leaking out of her friend’s shoulder, it didn’t look immediately life threatening but with her pokeball not working she figured it was better to wait for Jenny, “You know the red stuff is supposed to be on the inside not the outside.”
Abby winced, “Yeah, I know. Tell Zelda that hurt a lot.”
Wendy chuckled, “Well that will teach you for not using your aura barrier. You should know better especially with magical swords.”
Sarah came running up with a worried looking Gabrielle and Jenny close behind. “What were you thinking?”
Tabby sighed her tail curled tightly around herself, “I wasn’t okay, we were working on the getting used to using our new blades. We were doing so good trading blows and pulling attacks that I let the barrier slip. I know it was stupid, I’m sorry.”
Gabrielle rubbed her face with her hand, “Well perhaps next time you’re playing around with sharp pointy things you’ll remember. You’re not supposed to scare me like this. Plus we don’t know why your ball isn’t working. Think you can fix it Jenny?”
Jenny rolled her eyes before walking over and examining the wound, “How much force did she hit you with?“
“Not a lot why?” Zelda fidgeted.
“It went clean through, damn nasty blade. This might hurt a bit.” She reached down and pulled the blade from Abby’s shoulder. She blinked as she noticed a piece of metal imbedded in the wound. She glanced at the blade quickly to make sure that nothing was wrong with it. “There’s something else in the wound.”
Gabrielle frowned, “Just a second.” She gestured at the strange bit of metal.
Jenny watched as several more pieces of something came out of the wound, she reached up and called on her magic to heal the wound.
Abby’s tail twitched as the wound closed, say what you will but having your wounds healed magically wasn’t exactly a fun experience, still it was better than having them stay open and bleeding to death. “So what the hell is wrong with my pokeball?” She had had the same premier Pokeball for a couple of years now, it was special to her in a weird way. She wasn’t exactly happy with the idea of it suddenly deciding to stop working.
Gabrielle sighed as she took her dex out, “I’m not sure but if you hand it over I’ll scan it and see what I can find.” She frowned as she turned the machine on and it bleeped as it scanned Abby, “What the fuck.” She hit the reset button on the scan function. “Okay who’s been playing with my scanner?” She frowned as she started a check on the pokedex. “Wendy, I don’t suppose you would be a dear and go fetch Leo would you? My scanner is being weird.”
Wendy nodded, “Sure thing.” She took off through the park at a run.
Leo frowned as he walked up to a pissed Gabrielle screaming at her dex. “Gaby! What the hell is going on.”
Gabrielle gestured wildly at the pokedex, “This thing is broken, it keeps saying that Abby is a g-splice and that nothing is wrong with her pokeball, well other than it’s configured for her as a Mistoffeles.”
Leo pulled his dex off his belt, flipped it open and ran a scan on Abby, “Well if it’s your dex then I should probably get a new one as well.”
Abby frowned, “So if I’m not a Mistoffeles what am I?”
Leo shrugged, “We would have to get you back home to find out for sure.”
“How the hell?”
Jenny was busy prodding the spare bits of metal, “I think I know. It’s some type of chip, not only that but it almost looks like tiny arcane symbols on it as well.”
Gabrielle frowned, “That is strange, we should probably get the remains of the chip back to Lexie and see what’s going on.”
“So we get to finish up here and go home then?” Leo couldn’t help but smile. This place had been interesting for a while but the constant battles for ownership of his friends was making him cranky enough that he was fairly sure that one of these days he was just going to pull his wand on the idiot challenging him and kill him.
“Yeah, I was going to tell you but I got distracted, Mom is giving us a week to finish up collecting girls and then we should get going.”
Leo frowned, “What’s the hurry?”
“She wasn’t too clear, apparently the family decided that we need a backup site off the grid so to speak. Long complicated story short, we need to grab a few different types of girls then bug out.”
Leo nodded, “Alight, so I guess our lazy training time is over.”
Abby pulled herself to her feet, she wobbled slightly due to blood loss, “Can I borrow your dex? I’d like to see if I can track down any more information about g-splices. This probably has something to do with mom and dad’s lab research.”
Gabrielle nodded as she passed her dex over to Tabby, “You going to be alright?”
Abby sighed, “I spent my whole life thinking I knew what I was, then I find out that maybe there is a reason I’m way too fast to be a Mistoffeles. It’s one thing to suspect, it’s another to know. I’m dealing, I’m going to need a couple of tubs of chocolate ice-cream but I’m dealing.”
Gabrielle watched Abby walk away, she tossed a thought to Morrigan, ‘Abby just had her world rocked can you make sure she‘s okay for a bit. I‘ll check on you both in a bit.”
Morrigan nodded, before she remembered that physical actions didn’t transfer well. ‘Yeah, on it.’
‘Thanks, I love you.’
Gabrielle sighed, “This was supposed to be a nice relaxing trip. Okay change of plans, I’m going to go cuddle my cat girl you get the rest of the girls. Lexie wants a fist full of Suprabra, surprise her. Willow mom wants a couple of girls for law enforcement as well. I vote we skip OfficerJennys and go with CalamityJanes. They tend to be a bit more loyal to their tamer.”
Leo grinned, “Yeah, you just don’t want to get bitched at for all the laws you’re going to break.”
Gabrielle smiled, “It’s not breaking any laws if they don’t know they need to prohibit it. So can I trust you to take care of this?”
“Yeah, go take care of Abby. I’ll see to the rest of the girls, you know it’s going to take the last of our funds to acquire the girls right?”
She shrugged, “I don’t really care, we can always pawn some gold or something if we have to come back. Though really the best way to make money is to sell prewar books from the used bookstore back home.”
He chuckled as Gabrielle walked away, leave it to his sister to walk the grey areas.
~
Leo flopped down on a bed of flowers, “Can I just sleep for a day or two?”
Kyara chuckled as she curled up next to him and used her tail to brush his face, “Well you could, but then you would miss out on Gabrielle’s fight, not to mention I’ve no idea where we are. Are you sure the last of the luck potion wasn‘t spoiled?”
He shrugged, “Fairly sure, I had this feeling that I was supposed to make a portkey, so I did.”
They had spent most of the day teleporting and flying around the various leagues to the various ranches acquiring as many of the girls on their list as possible. After a couple fruitless ranches, he had decided to use the last of the vial of luck potion he had. They had found some truly remarkable girls after that, all by chance. They had found a couple of cute CalamityJanes as well as some quirky geniuses that weren’t too insane. The crowning achievement however was probably how they just happened to run into a pair of shifty eyed people talking about an underground fight circuit.
Kyara blinked and tilted her head, “There is something wrong, I hear sounds of battle.”
Leo pulled himself up with a groan. He reached for his belt and pulled Laura and Ember’s pokeballs out. He would have felt a hell of a lot better if he had Tiffany with him but she had stayed to comfort Tabby.
Ember looked around after materializing, “What’s up boss?”
He looked at Laura and Ember, “I’m not sure but Kyara hears battle. So we are going to carefully work our way that way.”
~
Jana was not having a good day, okay so she had often wished her tamer would fall down a deep dark pit and break a leg but she really hadn’t wanted him to get eaten by a large dino-bitch. They had been scouting the jungle when all of a sudden something had landed on her tamer and crushed his spine. She would have been next if she hadn’t dove for her tamer’s belt and released Olga before rolling away. Now Olga wasn’t pretty, friendly or even very bright but she made up for those qualities by being damn near indestructible, inhumanly strong and very loyal. The first thing the Iron Maiden did upon appearing and seeing her tamer dead was reach out and wrap her hands around the Dameosaur’s neck before snapping it like a toothpick. Jana couldn’t help smirk as Olga ripped the other girl’s head clean off. Before looking around for more threats. Olga barely even started as a mana bolt slammed into her. She screamed in challenge as she charged the caster type she spotted at the edge of the clearing. The s-goth was less than amused to find that a rage driven crazy Iron Maiden really didn’t care about her aura’s.
Jana was almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief when she looked up and noticed a form fast approaching her.
Laura screamed in glee as she teleported from the edge of the clearing to deliver a golden kick to the new dino-girl’s throat. She watched in glee as the creature flew into a tree with a loud snapping sound. She was less than amused as the thing charged her almost as fast as she could have. Damn the girl’s armored skin was impressive. She grinned as she slipped to the side at the last second and brought her considerable might and speed to bear by kicking the girl in the knee. She smiled at the girl’s scream as bone snapped.
Jana watched in amazement as the fighting type proceeded to beat the shit out of the dino-bitch, even going so far as to physically toss her into a tree.
Leo was not really amused as he snuck up behind the second caster, normally he had strict rules against harming girls but his time in this world had pretty much cured him of those not to mention she was starting to glow with necromantic energy as she focused on the girl beating her friend to death. He smiled as he knocked her unconscious with a kick to the back of the head.
Laura grinned as she tossed the broken Dino-bitch toward where she knew Ember was.
Ember grinned as she stepped from behind a tree, “Ember Burn!” She grinned happily as she poured enough flames out of her hands to consume the dino-bitch.
Jana quickly returned Olga to her pokeball before raising her hands in surrender. Anyone that could do what they had just did really wasn’t someone she wanted to mess with. Besides there was always a chance she could talk these people into getting her out of this gods forsaken jungle.
Ember smiled, “Ember good yes?”
Leo smiled, “Yes Ember good, you can look over the spell casters for loot.” He turned to look at Jana, “I’m hoping I didn’t make the wrong choice but I’ve never heard of their type and well your tamer was dead…”
“No, they jumped us, actually literally.”
“Well I don’t suppose you want to come with us? Well that is unless you have someplace else to be.” He had scanned her before and knew that she was a wet lass, which as far as he was concerned would be perfect for naval defense. He flashed her a charming smile. “Oh right, names Leo, you are?”
Jana smiled, “Jana and the other girl was Olga. I’d be happy to go.”
“What about her?” He glanced toward the pokeball in Jana’s hand.
“What about her?”
“She’s not exactly the type of girl I’m looking for, does she have any family or such?”
“Not that I know of, I know a guy that would offer you top dollar for her.”
“Not a fan?”
“She’s not exactly that useful for holding a conversation, nor sex.”
He was about to respond when he was interrupted by Ember’s screaming. He glanced over to watch her quickly changing shape as an ebony colored stone under her foot pulsed with energy. Apparently in her zeal to loot the magic type she hadn’t noticed the black stone before stepping on it with her bare feet. Before his eyes her ears moved down the side of her head, he gasped as they turned into rather cute human ears. Her body hair vanished as if it had never been. Before long Ember looked like a very pretty if pale human girl with crimson hair.
Ember frowned before reaching a hand up to touch her now human nose. “Ember confused, What am I?”
Leo frowned before pulling out his dex and scanning her, “I’m not sure, but we’ll find out.”
Jana blinked, “She’s a Sanctuary Goth, oh this isn’t good.”
He frowned, “A what? And what the hell was that stone, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Jana sighed, technically everything about the Sanctuary Goths was classified but when you had lived near them your whole life you learned a thing or two. She wasn't exactly sure how he had gotten himself in the middle of the jungle without knowing about such things but the sooner they got out of there the better. “Look I don’t suppose you have a way out of here? I’ll tell you what you need but after we get out of here.”
Leo nodded, “Sure just let me collect the other girl and I’ll see about teleporting us back to camp.” He used his wand to undress the S-Goth sprawled on the ground before tapping her with an empty pokeball. He pulled his pokepack out and carefully used it to collect her gear.
Laura looked Ember over, “You’re sort of cute like this.”
Ember smiled slightly, “Thanks, what about the monster girls?”
Laura shrugged, “Leave them, I’m sure the ferals would like a meal. Jana you should probably strip your old tamer for supplies.”
Jana felt a little bad that her old tamer was dead but being that he hadn't been all that nice she wasn't all that heart broken over it. Still hopefully this tamer wouldn’t take her as far from water as her last tamer liked to.
~
Gabrielle sighed, she was less than happy to get paired off against a man that was nearly half as wide as he was tall, not because she had any worries about winning but damn it was hard to make winning not look suspicious when they were that damn big. His legs looked like small tree trunks and his arms were so corded with muscle she was surprised he could move as fast as he could. Still she had seen his last fight and it was impressive, not quite as impressive as some of the slayers she had seen but still fairly decent. While nowhere close to her he was faster than a non blood gifted human had any right being. She was fairly sure there was more than a bit of fighting type blood in him. She wasn’t used to fighting human opponents nearly a foot taller than she was, which wasn’t all that surprising considering that she was tall for a girl at six foot. The first few rounds of the tournament had gone well enough. Her opponents had been the typical rough and tumble crazies. They had been a decent warm up. She smiled as she dropped into a fighting stance.
The announcer smiled, “We have the challenger, Mistress Raven verses the reigning champion Blade. Give a round of applause for Blade.”
Leo sighed as the crowd went wild. He was fairly surprised that his sister’s opponent wasn’t leering or making any sick comments like the rest of her opponents had. Though perhaps he had seen what she had done to the ones that had. The rules said no killing your opponents but they said nothing of breaking multiple limbs nor anything about crushing their hands to mush. He knew his sister could be a bit vindictive but he had nearly been sick at what she had done to the last opponent because he had groped her breast. She had reached out and lifted him by his shirt with one hand before using his nuts as a kicking bag until the man was so broken she couldn’t electrocute him awake any more. She had dropped his broken body on the ground before kicking in his teeth. The announcer had been a bit green in the face when he called the fight over, which considering the brutality of the fights this illegal ring normally saw was saying something. He blamed her temper on spending the day comforting her crying cat girl. Still better that a bunch of street fighters suffered her wrath than him or the girls.
Blade wasn’t really happy for the current match up, he had seen what happened to Slick Larry in the last fight. While Larry hadn’t been in his league strength wise, the ease with which the girl had broken him was more than a touch disturbing. Not that he was complaining, the guy was an ass after all. If he didn’t know that they tested everyone that came in the doors with a magical trinket designed to detect pokegirls he would be a bit worried. Still he wasn’t sure how the girl was so strong.
Laura was practically jumping up and down with excitement as she watched the fight. She really wished she could fight the big guy if only to prove why fighting should be left to the girls. Still Leo wasn’t bad it’s just that it was hard to compare against a genetically altered war machine. Still she had to admit Gabrielle had nice technique.
Blade wasn’t happy, he had known pokegirls that couldn’t take a hit as well as his opponent. He was fairly sure she was fooling the crowd but she wasn’t fooling him. Still it was shaping up to be an interesting fight. He was for the first time in a long time pushing himself as hard as he could and she was matching him. Still after taking a couple of hits from her he was fairly sure the fight was going to end badly when she stopped playing around. He knew he should be pissed but for some reason he wasn’t. Which was why when a female voice popped into his head and said ‘Hello’ he didn’t do the first thing he thought about which was scream cheater. ‘Yes?’
“We could keep doing what we’re doing but the audience is getting restless, I need the Dawn stone that’s the prize, so I can’t afford to toss the match. I don’t suppose I could trade you the secret for how I’m so much stronger than I should be for you losing the match?”
“You’d give me what you’re using?”
“And more than that if you toss the match.”
“It doesn’t seem right throwing the fight, but I don’t suppose I have much chance of actually winning do I?”
Gabrielle tossed a few kicks and such that were easily blocked as she carried on the mental conversation, “Not so much, here’s what you do, bring your arm up to block tight to your body so that I can kick you out of the ring and have the match be done without snapping anything of yours.”
Blake ‘Blade’ Macpherson wasn’t a large fan of this idea but he had landed a few heavy shots earlier and she hadn’t really moved as much as she should have, so reluctantly he braced himself for the hit he was going to take.
~
Gabrielle smiled as she examined the dawn stone she had gotten from winning the fight. “At least this completes our set of evolution stones. I’m hoping the lab techs can come up with a way to replicate them.”
Leo nodded as he thought back to the stuff he had found out about the S-Goth, “Not really sure I want to replicate an oil stone, but still it might help figure out how to create something that would turn people into pokegirls. Though I’m more interested in seeing if the lab techs can figure out how to break the feral part without turning them into S-Goths. Speaking of which, what exactly are we going to do with the one we have?”
“I figure we can stick her in a magical circle that prevents teleportation and make a deal. She teaches Ember her powers, she goes free. We aren’t going to be here long enough for her people to come looking for us.”
“I guess, still I suggest mailing her back to them in a pokeball.”
“And I thought I was supposed to be the mean one.”
“Hey, I’m just being careful.” Leo grinned, “Besides I want to be long gone before they come looking for me.”
~
Rose was quite amused as she watched Rain giving the hunky nearly naked man various enhancement tattoos. She might have standards but that didn’t mean he wasn’t yummy looking. “So how many tattoos are you going to do?”
Rain smiled, “As many as he’ll let me.”
Blake chuckled, “Hey, I’m an open canvas.”
“So how come you didn’t get any enhancement tattoos done before now?”
“They’re typically expensive as all hell.”
Rain chuckled, “Don’t worry by the time you get out of here you might actually be able to last against some of the lower level pokegirls in a fight.”
He chuckled, “Not that I would like to try, but that sounds sort of amusing.”
Rose chuckled, “I’ll go get Raven so she can take some pictures.”
Rain grinned, “Hey that’s a great idea.”
~
Gabrielle glared at the S-Goth, it had been a long week as they had been working almost around the clock to get everything settled, “You can stop that, they don’t work. You more or less held up your end of the bargain so is there someplace you would like to be sent before I leave for home? Or should I just drop you back where we found you?” She relaxed slightly when the S-Goth stopped her aura. While it didn’t do what it was supposed to, it was a bit annoying how it brushed against her wards.
“Just send me back to where you got me.”
“Fine.” She returned the S-Goth to her ball then rigged it to a timer. She smiled briefly, “At least I won’t have to put up with her bitching anymore, nor the constant watch on the girl.”
Leo smiled, “I still can’t believe you just gave away the airship.”
Gabrielle shrugged, “It’s not like we can take it with us. Besides we can always build better ships when we get where we are going.” She smiled as she washed the area in magic designed to destroy any trace of them having been there.
Leo reached out and placed a hand on Gabrielle’s shoulder, “Two to beam up Scotty.”
Gabrielle just barely had time to say, “Xander is a bad influence.” before she vanished.
Rose smiled as the last of the girls walked through the portal to home, “Fair thee well sweet world.” She blew the world a kiss before stepping through and letting it close behind her.
~
A/n: It’s been an interesting trip, thanks to anyone still reading.