11

Disclaimers still apply.

Major thanks to Kerrik Wolf for proof-reading and offering spelling and grammar abuse corrections for this chapter. All corrections are his, all mistakes are still mine.

[Chapter 11]

The Lost Chance was dying.

Pokegirls weren't meant to have a full pitched battle in the confines of a wooden ship. Torn up and splintered decking was present in excess, rigging had been sheered, sails reduced to the consistency of cheesecloth. Two of the masts were cracked. Even one of the anchors was lost, utilized as a creative bludgeoning instrument when one was lacking and subsequently gone overboard.

Worse was the damage below decks. The Ophanim and Archangel had not been derelict in their attempts to purge as many enemy combatants as feasible before the tight confines turned it into an unholy abattoir. Anya had met their assault. While all three pokegirls had survived intact, none of them had been very gentle upon their environment. As a result, water was currently being taken in an amount that bilge pumps (one of the few items on the ship that was electronic) couldn't counteract.

The crew knew this. The Limbec pirates might have been a rampaging band of ruthless, animalistic, cutthroat entities that would make the most raging man-hating lesbian 'back home' look like a flower-print sun-dress heterosexual in comparison, but after living on the sea and a ship for so long, the ones that ignored their environments and the messages it told them were already dead by this point.

Micah calmly surveyed the assembled crew, resisting the urge to wrap his wings around him, forcing himself to keep his expression neutral. He could read it in their expressions, like they were a beaten puppy chastised for doing something wrong that it couldn't fathom. Confused, ill at ease, disorganized. Leaderless.

Defeated.

Micah held their gaze a moment longer before he spoke, voice carrying without being loud. "Your XO and Captain both have fallen. Your Captain in an act of mutiny; your XO in retribution for that mutiny." A calm quirk of a blonde eyebrow, his blue-on-black eyes looking almost amused. "Your XO likely didn't work alone, nor without support. It's clear by this point that a good portion of the crew has forsaken the agreement we entered into whenever I began traveling with you all. By all rights, I'm perfectly within the bounds of honor to kill every last one of you."

Several of them stirred. Not a defiant rouse to action; the motion of a cornered, frightened animal.

"However," Micah went on as if he hadn't paused. "I am not without mercy." That stopped them. "If I and my harem simply left, many of you would likely die. Not enough of you posses teleportation to properly evacuate, and I imagine a few of you might get left behind on purpose. So I will make a counter-offer." He let that sink in. "I will take every last one of you as capture. You will suffer no conditioning cycles while under my care, and I will swear on my honor not to report your previous... role of employment." A smirk. "While I'm sure some of you will take it upon yourself at your earliest convenience to rejoin the Limbecs, perhaps some of you will take this opportunity to do otherwise. A fresh start."

A Guntit stirred and dared to speak up. "What if we refuse?"

"Then I leave you here to die," Micah responded promptly.

"What if we want to join your harem?" This, from a Shadowcat that cocked her hips at him, her entire posture a clear invitation toward sex.

"Are you a StarlightXpress?" Micah replied.

That caused her to falter. "...no?"

"Then I decline the offer," said Micah. And waited.

No one refused.

Once the entire crew had been pokeballed, Micah picked a specific one out of the pile and handed it to Ludmilla. "The Milktit. Get her mentally checked out and make sure she doesn't have any loyalties to the Limbec. If she doesn't, she's going to live with Jericho and Delilah."

Ludmilla smiled. "Starting a home for wayward pokegirls?"

Micah rolled his eyes. "Just get it done, please."

Ludmilla wagged her tail, grinning in her particular way. "Yes, Master."

Anya came up from below deck. "All the prisoners are asleep." She flourished her Dream card. "I'll be able to move them whenever you want. Why?"

"Ludmilla's going to give them a mental once-over," Micah replied. "The Tamers, at least. Once she's repaired some of the mental damage from the abuse they suffered, she'll fuzz their recollection slightly to make sure they don't remember us."

"What about the Damsel, Angel, and Nursejoy?"

A rolling shrug. "The Damsel will likely go to Jericho and Delilah. We'll see what the Nursejoy wants. The Angel I can hopefully get on my side to help wrangle our Celestial Harem."

Anya smiled. "Home for wayward pokegirls?"

Micah let out an audible sigh. Anya reached over, running a hand through his hair, pulling close and hugging him around his waist. "What's wrong?"

Micah glanced at her, gave an irritated shake of his head. "Sorry. Just had a moment where the casual tragedy of this place got to me. I'll get over it."

Anya was careful to avoid his horns as she leaned in and kissed him softly on his lips. Micah returned the gesture after only a moment; when she pulled away, she was smiling. "Don't be sorry for something like that. If more people felt like you..."

Micah quirked an eyebrow, couldn't resist. "You could write physics papers in peace?"

Anya colored faintly. "Something like that."

Cornelia walked over, carrying a sack of pokeballs. "Are we still traveling to the Forest League?"

Micah gave a once-over glance of the Lost Chance. "No. I had thought to head to the Forest League and find a deserted island to practice magics and battle, but as things are now, we're re-tasking to head toward our original goal, the Scarlet League."

"It's library time?" Anya murmured in a far too distracting manner near his ear.

Micah nodded. "It's library time."

"It's -cold- library time," Cornelia muttered, before teleporting away with her ill-gotten gains.

-[***]-

Micah wasn't quite sure of where they were at the moment; some remote region in the Ruby League, according to Ludmilla. He trusted the Dire Wolf's expertise in this matter. Sipping his tea, he regarded the Angel, Nursejoy, Damsel, and one of the male Tamers as they shared tea over a StarMystic conjured-table. Well, Micah enjoyed tea and the occasional scone; his guests were involved in trying not to gorge themselves over a full meal in a long time, and mostly seceding. Thankfully, both he and Nunnally spawned enough confusion to make them hesitant to stuff things down their gullet, which was probably for the best. It wouldn't do for any of his guests to throw their meal back up.

After the meal, the Angel, who's name was Abiah, finally looked up at Micah and asked calmly, "Can I make a request?"

Micah sipped his tea. "I have one to make of my own, so that seems more than fair. Go ahead."

Abiah nodded slowly. "May I go with the female tamer you rescued, please? I would like to join her harem, after all we went through together."

"That's quite permissible. Half the reason we're having this little get together is to find out what the lot of you want to do next," Micah replied.

"Little confused why I'm here and the other guy isn't, then," the sandy-blonde male Tamer, who's name was Sam, inquired.

A shift of a wing from Micah. "That's easy. You're a Drag King."

Sam stared at him for a moment then let out a bark of a laugh. "Okay, I hate to insult my host after such a gracious meal, but you're more than a little nuts."

"While I could prove it by pokeballing you after disabling the anti-capture chip you have installed in your back," Micah went on, and something in Sam's expression faltered, "That's not the reason I'm bringing it up. The reason I mention it is because I have easy access to the Capital League, and given their rather liberal standings, it would be easier for you to get back to being a Tamer if I dropped you there as opposed to, say, the Orange League."

Sam stared at him, open mouthed. Abiah, the Nursejoy, and the Damsel, all stared at Sam, then swiveled their attention back to Micah. The Damsel, whom said her name didn't matter, spoke up first. "I would like to join your harem, Master."

Micah blinked. "I would have to decline the offer."

The Damsel nodded. "Yes, Master." Then disappeared underneath the table.

Micah blinked, then calmly reached underneath said table, claws extended, and pushed away from it. Glancing down, he eyed the Damsel, his hand on her head and keeping her from getting any closer, her hands caressing his groin and attempting to work his pants open. "-Stop.-"

The Damsel froze.

Micah didn't know whether to snarl or sigh. Perhaps he could manage to pull both off if he tried hard enough. Worse, his body was currently screaming vile curses at him for making her stop. "Stand up, please. Your determination is admirable, but you'll excuse me if I don't have you giving me oral sex underneath a dinner table when we've just met." Micah waited patiently as she stood, absently cursing whomever gave the breed their 'average' breast size; the black-haired, pale Damsel looked like an unmilked milktit.

"Can -I- join your harem if I give you oral sex under the dinner table?" the Nursejoy, Ekaterina, asked with far too much interest.

Micah made a noise. Said noise, if loosely typed out, would likely be done so as 'Grklph'. "No."

"Damn," she replied, voice heavy with disappointment.

Micah resisted the urge to throw his hands up in the air. "Getting back to the point at hand." He regarded Sam, whom was still staring at him. "The Capital League is fine by you?"

"Uh. Capital League? Yes, yes, that's fine!" He - she? - took a deep breath and let it out. "Thank you."

"You're quite welcome." Glad to have that over and done with as much minimum fuss as possible, he turned back to the Angel. "Now, concerning my request for you-"

"You want me to crawl under the dinner table and give you a blow job?" Abiah inquired, her voice carefully neutral and bland with only a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Micah quietly facepalmed.

Giggling softly, Nunnally nonetheless laid a hand on Micah's shoulder, as if inquiring if he needed her to step in; he waved the offer off gratefully, leaning forward to focus on the Angel. "No. The harem that attacked the Limbec ship - and, by extension, me and mine - is completely Celestial-aligned. I would like you to be there alongside an Archangel I know when I talk to the harem's Angel, to at least try and negotiate some sort of cease-fire."

"If they hadn't attacked," Abiah pointed out calmly, "Then all of us would have remained the Limbec's prisoner." Her tone wasn't accusatory, merely matter-of-fact.

"Trust me, I had no intention of leaving any of you on that ship. Once they had delivered me and mine to the Forest League I had planned to double-back and capture every last one of them." A leathery shrug. "Such is life, best laid plans, ect, ect..."

"Why didn't you just capture them right away and rescue us when you came onboard?" Ekaterina inquired, a small amount of heat in her tone.

"I promised that if they conveyed me and mine to the Forest League without harm, then I wouldn't kill each and every last one of them," Micah replied. "Would you have me go back on my promise?"

"And if the Limbec's were going to dispose of us before then?" Abiah asked, still calm.

Another shrug from Micah in reply. "Then I would have gotten a little peckish."

In response to the confused looks, Nunnally spoke up. "We specifically teleported out all the crew that was on the cargo ship they took. My Master then implied that he had eaten every last one of them when the Mini-top asked where they were. It worked."

"That was you!" Ekaterina blurted. "You're the one whom everyone was going on about!" Pause. "Did you really fuck the Mini-Top half to death all by yourself?"

"I don't believe that's pertinent to the conversation at hand," Micah pointed out.

Sam blinked. "You seriously fucked a Mini-Top half to death? Whoa! Why to go!" Then paused, and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Trained reaction. You've got no clue how Tamers can sometimes go -on- and -on- about feats of endurance. The way they talk you'd think half of them could have defeated Typhonna with their dick or something..."

"No," the Nursejoy replied in a wry, sotto tone as she sipped her tea. "I have no idea what you're talking about. All Tamers I've had the pleasure of suffe-I'm sorry, -swooning under- their seduction attempts have all been literal gods in bed with two-foot long prehensile cocks." She couldn't keep a straight face, and the two dissolved into giggles.

Abiah smiled faintly. She turned to Micah, whom was laughing quietly at their antics. "I would like to talk with your Archangel before, but I would be pleased to help you discuss things with pokegirls from this harem."

Micah nodded. "Thank you."

-[***]-

Micah regarded the two items spread out upon the table with a measure of lax apathy with the occasional mix of irritation interspersed with actual constructive thought. One claw absently rolled the pokeball across the wooden surface, it's occasional errant path making it collide with the metal scabbard of the blade he had taken from the headless corpse of the Celestial Tamer. He still didn't know the name of said corpse that had been summarily dumped over the side of the Lost Chance. The worst part was, he couldn't rouse up any energy to really care.

Ludmilla walked into the kitchen where Micah had ensconced himself away from the discussion. They were back at the Capital League, visiting the Manor where Jericho and Delilah currently lived out their days in Sapphic bliss, for the express purpose of having a conversation with the Angel from Mister Holy Roller's harem. After releasing her, explaining matters to her, making sure she wasn't going to make a violent escape, discovering that she was named Rachel, and introducing her to Delilah and Abiah, Micah had politely excused himself to let them hash things out without him standing over them, looking bored. Thankfully, before the three Celestials had gotten into a serious discussion, he learned why Mister Scary Tamer had been there in the first place; as a bounty hunter, he'd been tracking the Lost Chance for a while.

Sheer, dumb luck that Micah had to be there when he finally decided to finish the matter.

Granted, his sudden appearance apparently hadn't helped matters...

"I think they're about done," Ludmilla stated, eying the pokeball with only a hint of nervousness.

Micah glanced up. "What took them so long?"

A shrug of pale, naked shoulders. "Abiah, Delilah, and the Angel got into discussing things. Then Ekaterina forced herself into the conversation, and a few remarks made Jericho join in."

Micah let out a brief sigh. "Please don't tell me they're fighting."

Ludmilla canted her furred white ears in the direction of the gathering to quickly double-check, and replied neatly, "No." A pause. "Who's pokeball is that, by the way?"

"The Mini-top's."

Silence.

Green eyes regarded him with something approaching wariness. "Oh." Tail drooping, Ludmilla's ears went back as she stifled an audible whine. "You're going to do something male and stupid, aren't you?"

Micah's lips creased into a smile. "Male and stupid?"

Ludmilla seemed to realized what she had said; she blushed, then sighed, and went on. "I've seen it in several tamers. They get emotionally sucked in just because they fucked a particular pokegirl, and as a result their judgment gets compromised, and they do something completely asinine."

Micah's smile deepened. "I thought it was something like that." He regarded the pokeball. "I can't help but feel a sense of responsibility towards her. Logical issue of throwing her into the harem or no."

"All you did was tame her."

Micah rolled his eyes. "'All I did'. In some societies still where I come from, that would be grounds for marriage."

Ludmilla's tail briefly wagged. She didn't take the obvious joke, and instead did her duty as a Dire Wolf and went on. "If you were a normal Tamer, you might be able to integrate her into the harem as it is now. You did well with Illya, you managed Cornelia without having it blow up in your face. You even did reasonably well with me."

Micah quirked an eyebrow, saying nothing.

"But," Ludmilla went on, "You're not a normal Tamer. You're currently being hunted by a powerful force with ability to project military might well beyond their borders, and casually, as well. We don't have time to integrate a new pokegirl, combat-wise or socially in the harem." Silence, as Ludmilla almost ground her teeth together in an attempt to hold her tongue, then sighed and went on, playing the devil's advocate, "But, she wasn't originally the captain, which means she lasted long enough serving under someone else. None of us got a good idea of how she acts normally, as we purposefully spent the time isolated from the crew, so none of us have a specific clear idea to judge how she'd interact around other pokegirls."

"But you don't like her," Micah pointed out.

A brief growl escaped from Ludmilla's throat. She cut it off before it could develop further, and simply nodded. "I don't."

Micah smiled. "My. I wonder why?" A shake of his head. "Still, you're quite correct. Circumstances being what they are, we don't have the luxury of integrating a new troublesome pokegirl into the harm. On the flip side, I still have a sort of responsibility to her. On the gripping hand, I have a responsibility to my harem, as well." Micah stood, picking up the sheathed sword as he did so and pocketing the pokeball. "I'll be keeping her in stasis. Perhaps at some point in the future, we'll have the opportunity to sort things out better." A laconic, wing-rustling shrug. "And perhaps I'll discover a flying city that I can utilize to rain death and destruction down upon Sanctuary. Who knows?"

Micah paused as his pokedex went off on a silent alarm announcing that he had a video call coming in. Frowning, he set the sword aside and toggled his pokedex, to be greeted by the panicked expression of one Chibi-S-Goth.

"Where are you!?" Wendi blurted out. Micah quirked an eyebrow, more from the tone if anything else. Far from an imperious demand, it honestly sounded as if she was worried about him. It was quite the surprise.

"Somewhere safe," Micah noted calmly. "Why do you ask?"

Wendi let out a breath. "We tried to teleport back to your ship and couldn't. Some of us had thought the worst." She blushed.

"My apologies," Micah nodded. "I've been a little busy handling several unexpected surprises. Is there something that you need?"

Wendi nodded, calming down as she took his statement at face value without asking for any elaboration. "We - that is, I and my... friends, we've been discussing matters, and we wanted to... ask you if you would like to visit us on my private island, to meet and talk." She rubbed at her cheek, laced her fingers together, and folded them in her lap. "I was also wondering if you wouldn't mind doing a magical consultation."

Micah's eyebrows were making an attempt to meet his hairline, his expression one of frank surprise. Slowly, he nodded. "I'll need another day to finish things up, and then we can discuss teleportation over to your island. Fair?"

Wendi nodded. "I'll be waiting." Once they had finished up partings, she disconnected.

"So," Ludmilla drawled, "Trap?"

"Mayhaps," Micah holstered his pokedex. "Your opinion?"

"She had the same kind of nervousness a thresholded girl has about getting fucked for the first time," Ludmilla shrugged. "I don't think it was faked. And my prognostication doesn't sense any specific danger from her direction."

"So, assume it's genuine until proven otherwise." Micah nodded. "Let's go talk to our wayward Angel."

Rachel, Delilah, and Abiah's conversation seemed to have calmed down to the point where Jericho and Ekaterina were simply off to the side, no longer interjecting their own various points into the matter. Micah swept a wing aside and low, offering an approximation of a bow. "Rachel. I take it you've at least decided to be civil in discussing things with me?"

The brunette Angel slowly nodded. "I have." She paused, as if thinking. "I was told that if you truly were evil, you wouldn't have fucked that Mini-top only half-way to death."

Micah reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I see." Abiah was smiling faintly, Jericho was frowning, and Ekaterina was trying not to laugh too much. "Have you given any thought regarding the attitude of your harem sisters?"

Rachel looked down, staring at a point in front of her, avoiding his gaze. "I have." A sigh. "Esther, the Megami-sama, loved him a good deal. I don't think she'd be content to sit idly if she knew that his killer still lived."

Micah raised an eyebrow. "Did they share a Delta-bond?"

Rachel bit her lip, looking uncomfortable. "It... no. I don't think our Master really... loved us. That way." She fidgeted in-place, looking ready to say something, then seemed to change her mind and instead asked, "Why don't you take some of us into your harem? If all that you and your harem has said is true, wouldn't having a number of Celestial pokegirls deflect unwanted attention?"

Micah stared at her long enough for the matter to become awkward, then let out a weak cough. "Uh. No. First off, to correct matters, you haven't discussed things with any of my harem." He nodded toward Abiah, Delilah, Jericho, and Ekaterina. "They are all their own women in this matter, and I haven't slept with any of them. Second of all, I wouldn't do very well with a large number of Celestials in my harem." Even as he said that, he couldn't help but privately grin at the likely reaction of people trying to reconcile his appearance with a bevy of celestial pokegirls at his beck and call. It likely wouldn't go over well.

Rachel blinked. "Why not?"

A shrug from Micah, letting his leathery wings wrap around him as he did so. "I'm too much of a selfish bastard to devote my life to the greater good." His lips curled into a frown, and he finally gave into the urge to reach up and rub at his face, querying in an exasperated tone, "Also, if you don't mind me asking, but you just mentioned that Esther wouldn't rest as long as her Tamer's killer was still at large. Soon there after, you suggest me letting her join my harem. If you don't mind me putting it bluntly, what the hell?"

"Um." Rachel blushed, letting her own snow-white feathered wings wrap around her in embarrassment. "You've treated me and all the pokegirls you've rescued rather nicely without asking for any sort of reward. Actually, you've... really treated me better than my old Master did, sometimes. And it wasn't really you who killed him, it was your Dire Wolf, so. And from the sound of it, you've been unjustly associated simply because of your appearance. If I tell you about the Harem-sister that might seek out revenge upon you at a later date, what will you do with them?"

"Put them in stasis for release directly before I leave this world," Micah replied.

Rachel blinked. "Leave this world?"

"I'm a dimensional traveler, pulled here not of my own choosing," Micah stated, earning looks of incredulity from Abiah, Jericho, Delilah, and Ekaterina all. "And I want to leave. There are matters operating here that can likely only be solved either by massive amount of death or conquering larges portions of this world. As I favor neither of those options, coupled with the responsibility I have toward my harem, leaving is the simplest solution available to me."

Rachel canted her head to the side. "I see. Why didn't you simply level-five all of my Harem sisters?" Delilah and Abiah both gaped at Rachel.

"I disfavor such a procedure on personal grounds," Micah replied. "If I'm going to kill someone, I'm at least going to be honest about it." He wasn't going to mention that, in theory, it could be reversed; such a technique was likely a Wolf Family secret, and if they showed up anywhere near him, the last thing he'd be concerned about is them reversing a level 5 conditioning.

"You Level-5'd the Mazoku," Ludmilla pointed out. Delilah shivered faintly, obviously recalling some unchoice memories.

Micah blinked at her. "It was a bloody Mazoku. Never mind her sadomasochistic habits, knowing my luck she reported directly to Hild. And if -she- shows up, I don't want to see the resulting brouhaha that would come about."

Ludmilla smiled. "Not a fan of Hild, are you?"

"She's a petulant queen-bitch immortal with a self-absorbed attitude of a teenager flaunting abilities and gifts as the pinnacle of power and moaning piteously when she encounters something that might be able to defeat her," Micah replied. "In other words, no."

Ludmilla tongue lolled out as she laughed. "You don't like any of the Legendaries, do you?"

"Some of them, I do. But when I have to share house with them, the majority..." Micah directed his attention back to Rachel. "Getting back to the point. In addition to everything else, I am not some sort of bestial, sex-crazed creature than can pleasure fifty pokegirls in one go and cause an entire city to go into a state of panic simply because I'm visiting on holiday. Simply put, I have six pokegirls in my harem already, and I'd prefer not to add any more due to the logistical issue alone." Micah absently thought about the numbers he'd seen in a few harems in some of the pokegirl stories and tried not to shiver.

Rachel blinked, looking all of a sudden disturbingly innocent. "You handled the Mini-Top well enough, didn't you?"

"...yes?" Micah cautiously replied.

Rachel nodded. "You've demonstrated a remarkable habit of sacrifice and good. And if you can tame a Mini-Top into submission, then you should be able to handle a few more pokegirls in your harem."

"...okay, allow me to state a point; this isn't up for debate," Micah replied. "Barring extremely unusual circumstances, I have no plans to add any pokegirls to my harem." He tried not to think about 'extremely unusual circumstances' - he could come up with a depressing number, given his luck. "I'm sure Abiah's tamer wouldn't mind a few Celestial pokegirls, if you requested."

Rachel smiled. "I'll decline the offer, thank you. You're letting the NurseJoy stay with Jericho and Delilah while she makes a decision of where she wants to go next, aren't you? If you don't mind, may I do similar while I consider what number of my Harem-Sisters might fit best joining other harems?"

Micah stared at her.

Rachel kept smiling as she brushed her hands against her jeans. "You're likely thinking that I'm doing this to angle a chance at joining your harem, but there's another element you might want to consider."

"What's that?" Micah said, cocking his head to the side despite the tone of exhaustion in his voice.

"You've treated both me and my harem-sisters fairly despite the brutal things you could legally do to us, if you so wished. More so, some of it might make things easier for you." Rachel nodded. "If nothing else, that kind of sacrifice should be rewarded, and the least I can do is assist in protecting you should you gain the attention of a larger group of Celestials."

Micah let out an audible sigh. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Rachel replied.

-[***]-

Micah felt the cool ocean breeze slap him in the face, his eyes squeezed shut from the sudden brightness. Letting them adjust, the world came into focus, and he let out an involuntary whistle of admiration at the tropical sights that greeted him; from the lush forest to the white sandy beaches and the frothing water that pounded up against it.

Ludmilla leaned against his arm and grinned. "Nice, isn't it? Regretting making the decision not to head to the Forest League?"

"I admit some temptation," Micah noted in reply, his brain involuntarily conjuring up imagery of his harem in various states of dress and non as they danced among beaches, surf, and tropical forest paths. He carefully shook his head, wings absently rustling behind them as they caught the scent of wind.

Ludmilla's broadening grin was hint enough that she had caught that thought easily enough. "We could always go take over the Silver League."

Micah rolled his eyes. "Gah. Don't even joke about that." He fell into silence at Ludmilla's muffled laughter, and absently continued in a thoughtful tone, "Besides, I'd already discarded the idea of taking over a League."

Ludmilla's laughter ceased as if a switch had been flipped. "Seriously?"

Micah nodded. "Seriously. It was one of the options I considered whenever I had first arrived here."

"Why didn't you?"

"Groundswell opinion, no easy method to become the power behind the throne in most cases, and doing so would likely bring me in contact with the Author that wrote in whatever League I picked," Micah replied. "Among other things."

"THERE YOU ARE!" came the yell from down the path away from the ocean and into the forest. Wendi came bounding up, wearing her customary sun-dress and waving her arms wildly in greeting as she ran. She stopped a gasp for breath, then took a hold of Micah's one free arm. "Come on. I want to show you something before you meet the rest of the group."

Micah obediently followed along with a bemused expression, trusting Ludmilla to be on watch for anything dangerous. A mile in found the trio at a loosely arranged compound amid the forest, a number of strategically cleared cuts affording picturesque views of the sea. A small slice of tropical paradise amid the post-apocalyptic world.

Rather than lead him over to where the main building was situation, she guided him and Ludmilla along to one of the smaller, yet no less well-furnished buildings set by itself on the perimeter. Inside was what could only be called a Sorcerer's Laboratory; an arcane mix of books and workplaces with plenty of cleared space as was needed.

"There was a lot of discussion," Wendi began, letting go of Micah as she headed over to one of the worktables. "And we decided you were right about -some- things, at least. If we're serious about asking your help and giving it in turn, we need to treat you as a peer." She drew a metal box sitting on the worktable close to her, undoing the security latches and hinging it open. "As such, I, on behalf of our group, would like to give you a gift, without expectation of recompense." She stepped away. "One of the two Ebony Stones we've been able to secure. I would also like to formally request your assistance in magical study and examination of them, in hope we can produce more."

Micah didn't hide his expression of surprise, and Ludmilla's sharp intake of breath made her own shock clear enough. Peeling himself away from the Dire Wolf, Micah stepped over to the open box, scooping the blacker-than-black orb into his hands and letting it turn over in his grip, eying it thoughtfully. Paused, as the stone turned a certain way, and had to resist the urge to make an eight ball in the corner pocket joke. Taking a deep breath as he set the Ebony Stone back into it's container, Micah replied, "I thank you and yours for the gift, and formally accept the request of assistance in studying them." Micah closed the box shut as Wendi beamed happily.

"Thank you," she replied, then took a hold of his arm and tugged him along once more. "C'mon! Let's go introduce you to the rest of the group."

Counting Wendi, Tamar, and Udiya, there were ten S-Goths in attendance at the gathering. Jadzia and Julianna were two blonde twin Chibi S-Goths, who, like Wendi, enjoyed wearing their younger form when able. Parisa was the other Blessed S-Goth aside from Udiya; Vlasta, Klasina, and Truss were all Infernal S-Goths. Celosia was a Charred S-Goth, and when introduced grinned at Micah with an expression that was more akin to a leer, nude from the waist up, her tattoos gleaming red, her eyes colored to match, and large piercings on her nipples that jingled as she moved. "So you're the one whom claimed to be a god."

Micah gave an easy shrug, the question distracting him from staring at Celosia's exposed piercings, wings shifting as he did so. "Trust me, if I had the power of a god, you'd have ample evidence and demonstration of such a claim."

Parisa was skeptical. "What would you do, if you had such power?"

Another shrug. "Stellarform Jupiter, translate the resulting star out to around Sedna, terraform Venus, put it in proper orbit around the new star, and teleport all Sanctuary Goths onto the newly habitable planet."

Everyone, Ludmilla included, stared at him. Wendi couldn't decide which was worse; that he had an answer to the question or that he rattled it off in a manner that implied he had given the issue heavy thought.

"Either that, or transform all pokegirls on the planet into S-Goths," Micah added in afterthought.

"All of them?" Jadzia blurted out. "Why?"

"Well, it would certainly keep Sanctuary busy and out of my hair, wouldn't it?" Micah replied.

-[***]-

Three days later found Wendi wearing only a button up white shirt as she yawned and stumbled into her workshop, the time for her, early morning. She found Micah already there, looking far too aware and cognizant for her well-being, that disturbingly useful Grimorum of his floating just off to the side as he stared at the Ebony Stone set amidst an arrangement of various other evolution stones, his expression one of an annoyed frown.

Micah glanced up as Wendi walked in, giving her a nod in greeting. The entire get-together with the S-Goths had slowly turned from a 'professional' gathering to a loosely assembled party. He would admit to being unfamiliar with such things; he was not the most socially gregarious of creatures, but he would like to think he had handled it pretty well. Especially went it got the point that a few S-Goths made several blatant offers of wanting to 'try out the merchandise'. The last thing he wanted was to get sexually involved with any of them, even if they were all, to the last, downright hot in terms of appearance. He privately attributed the offers to general shift in Sanctuary's social culture in effectively treating men like pokegirls. He sure as hell didn't get such offers before he arrived here.

Social minefields averted, the other two days had been spent in relative rest, Micah and his harem investing heavy research time, focusing exclusively on the Ebony Stone.

Wendi found it privately galling to admit that Euphemia and Anya both out-classed her in terms of sheer brilliance. Watching those two and Micah pour over data extracted via magical scrying and study had been more than slightly worrisome, as she'd been soon regulated to doing nothing but answering questions while the three of them threw out theory after theory and tried to work to prove each one wrong. Micah didn't match Anya or Euphemia in terms of sheer, almost disturbing intelligence, but he had a knack for throwing completely out-there ideas that at least narrowed the possibilities down.

Wendi reached up and rubbed at an eye with a balled up fist, not caring that she hadn't even taken a shower yet. It pricked her ego, but Micah had yet to demonstrate any sexual interest in her whatsoever. Yawning, she asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Two hours," Micah noted, taking a sip of the mug that had been placed on another table entirely. "I'm glad you're up. I need a second opinion."

"Where's Euphemia and Anya?" Wendi asked, pulling over a chair and kicking her feet loose as she sat in it. "Why not ask them?"

"They helped me come up with this theory, so they're biased. I need someone to look at the data and tell me I'm a fucking idiot." Micah gave a shrug. The conclusion the three of them had come up in studying the Ebony Stone and how it operated made -sense-, but it was disturbingly simple. And he seriously doubted such was the case. He pushed over a sheaf of typed up and hand-written notes over to her, filled with data and magical notations. "Here."

Frowning, Wendi took up the assembled data, muttering as she ran her finger over the printed type, eyes moving rapidly as she skimmed over the cogent points. Paused. Looked up at Micah. "The Ebony Stone is structurally different from other Evolution stones?"

Micah threw up hands up in the air. "So we're -not- insane."

Euphemia padded into the workroom, carrying a mug and wearing only a tight, white t-shirt and a criminally tight pair of short shorts. She plastered herself to Micah's side, sipping from her mug and commenting to Wendi, "Near as we can tell, there's a fundamental difference between the Ebony and other Evo Stones."

Wendi folded her slim arms across her flat chest. "Am I going to like this?"

"Maybe," Micah shrugged, letting a wing curl around Euphemia, and stated, "Normally, evolution stones act as a type of burst to a pokegirl's system, an energy boost that excites their biology to a higher state and kicks off an change in their structure, IE, evolution. This is just a theory, mind you, but it's a pretty good one. Likely, the majority of energy of an evolution stone is wasted whenever it's utilized, but again, just theory."

"You're saying an Ebony Stone is different," Wendi replied. "You're saying the data you gathered -says- it's different."

"It's close, but not quite," Micah replied. "Any pokegirl, when exposed to an S-Goth, can be evolved into one. Structurally, that makes no sense. Either the motivating factor to shift into an S-Goth is present in -every- pokegirl, which, evidence-wise, doesn't logically follow up. It's only in the past century have you seen weird evolution jumps on occasion, likely caused by thresholding being the problem it became and cross-breeding between various pokegirl sub-species. Or..."

"...or?" Wendi prompted, hands gesturing wildly.

"Or the Ebony Stone itself contains the information necessary to create an S-Goth pokegirl, -in addition- to the energy burst that an evolution stone normally conveys," Micah replied. "And from the examination we've done, apparently, of the two options, it's the latter."

"...whoof," Wendi replied weakly, the implications settling.

"Of course, now that we -know- this, we just need to find a way to utilize it somehow." Micah shook his head. "It's a pity we don't have some sort of delivery method already to cause a shift to a specific breed of pokegirl."

Silence.

Euphemia's head came up, eye's wide as dinner plates, only a second after Micah's, the G-splice blurting out in response to Micah's eureka moment, "No! It would never work! The engineering behind the information change-out would be -staggering- -"

"It -can- work," Micah replied just as quickly. "If we utilize the magical precepts of sympathy and contagion, we can skip the engineering stage entirely and just swap the requisite information out! They're both the same thing, they just utilize different delivery methods! There's no reason why it -wouldn't- work - we have to test it - can you get the supplies we need?"

"What are you two gong on about?" Wendi asked, irritated that she couldn't follow along.

"Later, later," Micah replied. "I want to see if it works before making a complete fool of myself."

-[***]-

"You're both mad," Wendi replied softly, though her tone was doubtful as she watched Micah set the vial of vicious fluid in one of the cleared circular spots in the magical diagram, the Ebony Stone occupying it's opposite.

"They laughed at me at the academy," Micah replied in a soft murmur as he readied himself.

Wendi looked confused. "What?"

"Sorry, obscure cultural reference," Micah replied in an absent tone. "Now, hush."

Micah took a deep breath, wings spread behind him, looking at the result of his work and intoned, "Code. Spell Pattern Circuit Open. Seal... Release."

A gleaming, brilliant white circular ideogram erupted beneath his feet, doing likewise underneath the vial and the ebony stone as the magical inscriptions gleamed with a sound somewhere between an acetylene torch and a high-pitched scream. Micah said nothing further, trusting the inscriptions to do their work as he funneled power into the spell.

The spell continued to build in intensity, reaching a crescendo of power that was so brilliant it made Wendi and Euphemia flinch away. With the last intense flare of energies had passed, the spell ended. No one dared move until Micah gingerly made his way over; the Ebony Stone was unchanged, just as intended, but the fluid inside the vial had changed from a foamy, thick, greenish-yellow to a purple that was so dark it was black; Micah thought it was a trick of the light, but he almost fancied the liquid glowed in a similar manner to the Ebony Stone.

"Blood and darkness," Wendi whispered. In reverence or horror, it was hard to tell.

"Quite," Micah held the vial in his hands. He could no longer call it Vampire Venom; he cradled in his hands, as far as he understood, the only extant example of S-Goth Venom in the world. "Now," he stated, "We just need a test subject."

Wendi swallowed. "I may have one."

-[***]-

80,000 feet above sea level grants you witness to the curvature of the earth and turns the sky above you black; few pokegirls could ever claim witness to such a sight. Had anyone been watching at the moment Nunnally flew above the Scarlet Continent, they might have mistaken her for a star, but the illusion would be quickly shattered; no star moved that fast.

Keeping her speed at a 'just' below mach one, she flew on her pre-determined course, receiving the occasional course correction from Ludmilla via Euphemia.

Nunnally's goal - an abandoned research settlement on the interior -was just in her sight whenever Ludmilla's telepathic voice interrupted her private musings. /Scrub the mission. Micah just got called; Our little gothic 'friends' are almost having heart attacks to get him over to their island./

Nunnally didn't complain; she and the Dire Wolf were of the same mind whenever it came to trusting the S-Goths. IE, they didn't. And both had every intention of giving Micah as much protection as possible whenever he visited said island.

-[***]-

It had been a week earlier whenever Micah had first visited the private room on Wendi's island, it's environs having been converted over to a makeshift hospital room. There was one drastic change, however; instead of a tall, lightly scaled pokegirl with a thick, prehensile tail laid up on her stomach on the room's one bed, in her place was an Amazon-looking woman with pale skin, a light fuzz of hair growing on her scalp where feathers had shed, clutching at Vlasta, both of them crying happily.

Micah and Euphemia stared, Micah's own capabilities confirming Euphemia's quick scans. "She... no genetic abnormalities or flux detected," Euphemia whispered. "She's an S-Goth. Your... it worked. Your idea worked."

Micah dumbly nodded.

"What are we going to do now?" Euphemia asked quietly as Wendi joined in on the celebration with the crying pair.

"I think I'm going to go get a stiff drink so my hands don't start shaking when I fully grasp the implications of what I've just done," Micah replied, and Euphemia could only nod in reply.

-[***]-