21

Standard Disclaimers apply. Written by Micah Hakubi at feynman dot project AT SPAMOHMYGODHELPUSALL gmail dot com. You can guess the drill regarding contact.

The story is mine, the setting is not. We all give thanks to Metroanime daily for putting up with us messing around his in awesome world. Ahmen.

To quote Kerrik Wolf, "You should not read this work if you are under the age of legal consent wherever you reside. This work may or may not contain any and/or all of the following: death, dismemberment, violent acts, implied sex, explicit sex, violent sex, rape, cannibalism, blasphemy (depending on your religion), BDSM, torture, mimes, and just about anything unwholesome that you could consider."

Feedback welcome. I probably need the syntax abuse.

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

[Chapter 21]

Ludmilla was smiling.

Micah glanced at the Dire Wolf's expression, his gaze stained with suspicion. "What?"

Ludmilla grinned, showing far too much teeth, even as her tail wagged back and forth. "Just considering when the best time to say 'I told you so' is."

Micah cocked and eyebrow. "What for?"

Ludmilla kept smiling. "Remember when we discussed Sexebi being in the harem? I'd say forging a Delta Bond counts close enough."

"Kind of depressing that you could tell right away," Micah murmured softly.

"I'm one of the best at what I do," Ludmilla chided gently. Her white-furred ears swiveled forward. "How did you manage it?"

"I convinced the portion of her system that manages the psychic elements of a Delta Bond to effectively go into over-drive," Micah replied, settling in his chair and letting his wings flare out behind him.

"That's it?"

"Well, there was a lot of sex involved."

Ludmilla blinked. "You were only gone for..." Green eyes narrowed. "That little mischief. She's not going to have any trouble securing personal time with you, is she?"

"I didn't ask for her to do that, but, well..." A leathery shrug. "Compared to other Legendaries I could name, Sexebi is the ideal of manners and politeness, but I guess hormones can cause her to act first and apologize afterwards." A gust of a breath. "And I need to apologize. I'm sorry for the way I treated you when Sexebi arrived."

Ludmilla blinked; her green eyes wide with surprise. "Thank you."

Micah smiled faintly. "I didn't want you to think I was shoving you away just because Sexebi popped up unexpectedly. I didn't think having additional people around would help to calm her once she worked up the courage to face her little panic attack head on."

Ludmilla nodded slowly. "You're probably right." She stood, claiming his lap for her own as she curled up against him. "But it's nice to know you consider these things." A deep breath, that did interesting things for Micah's scenery with Ludmilla pressed up against him like she was. "Do I need to discuss with you how dangerous the knowledge of what you can do would be if other people found out?"

"I can think of a few nightmare scenarios," Micah murmured softly.

Ludmilla chuckled softly. "Even among those you can trust, you might want to limit its use. It's a little..." She paused, trying to find the right word.

"Pretentious?"

"Terrifying," Ludmilla said.

"Good to know," Micah replied thoughtfully. "I wonder why."

"...what's it like?"

Micah chuckled. "It's like a pure shot of liquid awesome, right into your veins. All the really good parts of writing, when you've got that killer idea or scene that's just begging to be let out onto paper and you're trying not to shake from excitement so you don't mistype." His smile broadened into a grin. "Not as good as sex, but afterward, you do have the urge to just bask in the afterglow."

"Must be nice," Ludmilla murmured wistfully, clawed fingers absently stroking the curve of one horn.

"I like it," Micah replied. "Which may be a warning. Still, it's nice to know... well. Hopefully this'll keep future surprises down to a minimum."

"What are you planning with Esthar and Yvonne?" Ludmilla murmured.

"They're resources on-hand," Micah replied. "I'd be a fool if I didn't take advantage of them. And if they can't handle rehabilitating an abused and contact-starved pokegirl... Well. Or better, know someone who -can-. Long-term, there's the remainder of
G-Splices to convert to Sanctuary Goths - I'm not creating more Grim Angels yet, I think - whom will also need rehabilitation."

"You're not going to indulge in further experimentation?"

"No," Micah replied. "Not enough payoff, for what I'd be potentially spending. I have ideas, but... They're the sort of thing I'm not willing to simply test out. I have one other idea for a new pokegirl breed, but that's mostly to salve my feeling of responsibility, as opposed to any tactical uses I'll get out of the Grim Angel breed." A deep breath. "Euphoria aside, the thing that seriously disturbed me is how -easy- it all is. It's like I knew instinctively what to do without really having to think about it. From a certain perspective, it makes sense. After all, I've been pulling information out of thin air ever since I arrived here."

"Your ability to tell pokegirl breeds by sight."

"Exactly," Micah nodded. "But the fact that I can do something like this and what it implies... It's not exactly very comforting."

Ludmilla glanced curiously at him. Leaning forward, she blew softly in his ear, making him jerk carefully back and give her a curious look of his own. Ludmilla smiled, letting her arms wrap around his neck as she murmured, "Euphemia told me about that little speech you gave, the first time the two of you had a lengthy conversation."

"Oh, dear," Micah muttered under his breath.

A curl of soft lips, being careful not to show her relief. "I just find it curious why a bastard who doesn't mind having a harem of women he can simply -use- objects to being worshiped."

"Different situations," Micah murmured in reply, trying not to look sheepish. "And my personal philosophy isn't very keen on the notion of being worshiped in a religious sense. And, you know, I was kind of cranky whenever I made that particular diatribe." He absently ran a hand along Ludmilla's back. "Worried that I was going to indulge in an 'A God Am I' moment?"

"Do you honestly think I'd stop you if you did?" Ludmilla murmured softly.

Micah chuckled faintly. "Probably not, no. Which, I think, probably serves to keep me grounded more than anything. Between you and Nunnally, I think I'll do alright."

-[***]-

"I am a horrible person," Micah spoke, voice pitched to carry over the wind that was a side-effect of he and his harem hovering sedately at such a high altitude over a lone island in the South Atlantic.

Sexebi glanced over at him, one of her small hands reaching out to grip his tightly, her expression curious. "Why?" Ludmilla also glanced over, ears perked.

"My brain is trying to grasp the enormity of utilizing time travel in a tactical sense, albeit so casually, and the best I can come up with is a paraphrased quote from a video game," Micah said.

Sexebi blinked her wide eyes. "What is the quote?"

"'The day I came into your life, destroyed your village, slaughtered your family, was the most formative day in your existence. But for me... for me, it was Tuesday,'" Micah mock-quoted.

Sexebi stared at him for several seconds before breaking down giggling. "That's horrible."

"Yes, it is," Ludmilla agreed. "If a rather astute observation."

Micah nodded. "Quite." He glanced down at the island, he and his harem currently over two centuries in the past from the current date. This was where the research for Sexebi's summoning would be taking place - one of the few of Sukebe's research laboratories either not looted or destroyed in the war. Anya and Euphemia were busy corroborating scans as they worked to have an accurate map of the installation, which would prove vital depending on what method of assault they choose.

"Okay, I'm confused," Otsana spoke up. The Gunnm currently hovered sedately on wings of glowing energy projecting from her back like some type of angelic butterfly. The reason she wasn't on perimeter patrol with Nunnally and Cornelia was due to her flight inexperience. "The lab is right there. Why don't we simply destroy it and be done with it?"

Sexebi's face scrunched up into an expression that could easily be described as pained, as if this was something she'd dealt with before and likely would many times in the future.

"Wouldn't work," Micah replied without pause, earning a surprised glance from Sexebi.

"Why not?" Otsana folded her arms together in a minor huff, lips pouting.

Micah checked Sexebi to make sure it was alright to continue with an explanation and then went on. "Assuming that we destroyed the installation in its entirety, all that would do is likely move the time-summoning research to another location. Which we'd have to go to the trouble to find again. In addition, it would simply create an alternate timeline where the installation was destroyed - and not our timeline, where the installation was intact to summon Sexebi. As we don't know the limits of the time-summoning research, it's best to assume that being in another dimension won't prevent such a summoning."

Otsana went momentarily cross-eyed and whimpered, reaching up to clutch at her head. "Argh..."

"That's the same reasoning that I haven't, oh, say, tracked down the names of the researchers and had them killed as children, or some such," Micah went on. "Or have them killed at a later date, after they've become involved in the project. For all we know, doing so prompts the improper summoning, which results in a Bad End however you cut it. No. If this problem needs a solution, it needs to be done in a single blow."

Sexebi was laughing as she flew forward and wrapped her arms around Micah to nuzzle him.

"I take it I got it right," Micah said, ruffling at Sexebi's hair playfully.

"Mostly right," Sexebi replied, smiling up at him happily.

"Well, feel free to correct me if I happen to screw up any future explanations I need to throw out."

Lina was looking positively bored, floating in mid-air. "So we're not making any earth-shattering kabooms?"

Micah shook his head. "Sadly, no."

"Meh." Lina reclined where she floated and threw a cloak over her head. "Wake me when you're ready to hop back. Yeesh. Who thought time travel could be so -boring-."

-[***]-

Micah was careful not to let his claws break through paper as he skimmed over one of the copied tomes they had 'checked out' of the Alexandria Library in the Scarlet League. He was currently double-checking up on his assumptions regarding blood-bonds and links. After all, he didn't want his Farcast spell to come back and bite him metaphorically on the ass, and he'd also likely need a type of loyalty bond in the future that didn't require taming to work.

He didn't flinch whenever he felt a warm body brush up against his leg. Who it was answered fairly quickly whenever he heard a giggle. Being fairly intimate with all of his pokegirls, the only one whom giggled like that was Illya. He didn't react beyond dipping a hand below the table and letting it curl up amid Illya's hair like he would an affectionate cat. Nor did he react whenever she began tugging at the zipper of his pants.

Naturally, that was whenever his pokedex went off, signaling that someone was calling.

Micah ignored the soft growling from Illya as he gestured, the pokedex lifting from its resting spot on the main desk to fly to his open hand. A light prick of claws kept Illya from continuing things even further, as he -seriously- didn't want to be distracted while
discussing things with whomever it was who had called.

Micah quirked an eyebrow at the caller's information, and clicked permission for the call to go through. Thank goodness for signal repeaters, he mused silently. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to receive calls while in his Sanctum Sanctorum.

"Good evening, Ekaterina," Micah spoke, leaning back slightly in his chair. "How are things settling in?"

Ekaterina grinned, brushing back hair from her face. The NurseJoy-cum-Sanctuary Goth looked positively smug. "I'm doing quite well, thank you. You'd be amazed how most people shut up and stop asking stupid questions when they find out you're skilled at healing."

Micah nodded absently. Healers were always in high demand regardless of where you were. And the Capital League had an overwhelming plethora of out-of-the-way towns that didn't so much as have an inkling of a pokecenter nearby. Taking feral attacks into account, well. He shifted his wings slightly as Illya slithered up from the floor and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "So," he remarked, "I take it you haven't had any problems."

"I just had one pop up, actually," Ekaterina replied. "I was thinking you could visit to help solve it?"

Micah could literally feel the glare of Illya's eyes on the back of his neck. "May I ask what exactly the problem -is-?" he queried in a dry tone.

Ekaterina giggled. "It's a good problem. You'll like it."

Micah resisted the urge to snarl, recalling the reasons -why- he was glad Francesca had taken to healing so well, and why Ekaterina was no-where near him. It wasn't that she was -lazy- per se. She just had an odd sort of stubborn challenge about her that simply didn't make anything with her -easy-, unless you were fucking her blind ever so often or putting her over your knee to give her a good spanking. As he had personally discovered.

An odd tangent of a thought occurred to him, even as he was entertaining images of making it explicitly clear to the NurseJoy that he wanted -straight answers- to questions he asked, recalling the incident with the Masui and the Celestials. He had sure as hell known that something was up -then-, even if he was damn well clueless as to how he pulled that particular miracle out of his ass. Recalling that didn't exactly help his suddenly sour mood. That type of Deus Ex Machina was positively worthless. Even worse, the idea that he'd possibly -need- it in the future and he wouldn't -have- it. And that because of his screw up and inability and fear to master such a capability, people were doing to -die-...

Micah suddenly focused on the screen, glaring sharply as something in his brain crystallized to actual certainty. "What the loving hell are five Hild and a Masui doing wanting to meet -me-?"

Ekaterina physically recoiled from the screen on her end. "Wh-how the hell do you know about that!?"

"That's not important," Micah replied in a sharp tone, "What -is- important is that you were trying to lure me into such a situation without knowing about it!" Jericho wasn't that stupid, hell, -Esther- wasn't that stupid! Wendi wasn't that stupid!

Ekaterina rolled her eyes. "What are you complaining about? So a bunch of powerful pokegirl wants to join your harem? Stop whining and enjoy it!"

"Jesus fucking Christ," Micah disliked swearing. But it was either that or he'd fathom a way to physically reach through the screen and choke the life out of Ekaterina. He reached up, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'll be there in an hour," he replied, and promptly cut the call before he said things he'd possibly regret later.

Illya's tongue licked at the edge of one ear as the Lucarda suggested, "Would you like me to kill and eat her, Master?"

"If I killed everyone that I thought was a fucking -idiot-, there wouldn't be that many people left," Micah growled back, even as he enjoyed the rather -unique- sensation Illya could manage with such a long tongue.

Illya teleported to straddle his lap, leering at him. "Oh? Should I make sure you're calm enough while having to deal with the pink-haired bitch?"

Micah couldn't help but smirk back. "You're welcome to try."

-[***]-

It took two hours to get everything ready for Micah to move in. This not only included putting together Micah's harem, but several Grim Angel Fireteams that would cover Ekaterina's home with crisscrossing streams of sniper fire.

As Micah and his harem made the slow walk to Ekaterina's home, he couldn't help but hope that no resident would take offense at the sheer, ungodly amount of firepower he was bringing to bear. With luck, no one would realize he and his... -associates- were present. They were approaching from outside of town, and it was small enough that there shouldn't be any large, powerful harems in residence.

With luck.

Micah didn't trust in his luck. Despite it likely making things worse if he did encounter anyone else, he was fully armored with Euphemia's artifact active as well, unconcealed by any magics Anya could have placed upon him. Sure, without them, in any sort of normal public, he looked like a literal freak of nature, but he wanted one of the magical heavy hitters in his harem to not have to split her attention right now.

/Are you certain you don't want me to explain some things to Ekaterina?/ Ludmilla asked, not showing any hint she was telepathically communicating with him beyond a flick of one white-furred ear.

/No,/ Micah replied mentally. /And I'd prefer you stopped trying to get me to rethink that. You're supposed to keep some sort of restraint on my Id, not let it run wild./

There was a pause. /Is there a reason why you have a mental association of red hair and large robots whenever you think 'Id'?/

Micah smiled faintly. /Long story. Remind me to elaborate in full later./

Beat. /Up till now you've had a firm grasp on when things were about to go straight to hell. Are they?/

/No,/ Micah replied, his mental tone akin to a grumble. /That's what worries me./

When Ekaterina's house was in sight, Otsana spoke up. "A joint fireball salvo would be enough to catch it on fire. They'd even have time to evac."

Cornelia grinned. "I like that plan."

I'm beginning to understand why Teams are as bad as they are, Micah thought to himself. "Don't tempt me." He didn't break stride as he approached the house. He couldn't see anyone watching outside for them, but... Making a decision, Micah actuated the telekinesis spell to knock on the door while he and his were still well enough out of
range of any projectile or area of affect attacks.

A flash of hair that was more blonde than pink, now, as Ekaterina opened the door, blinking in surprise. "You're finally here!" She was about to say more when five Hild pokegirls and one Masui, the entire assembly a riot of style and colors, teleported to in front of Micah and dropped to their knee.

"Dread Lord," the lead one spoke, not raising her head. "We apologize for the time it has taken to find you, and the poor greeting. If it pleases, let us sacrifice this town for your indulgence and enjoyment."

Micah glared at the lead Hild, not restraining his wings as they flared out. His harem was taut and ready for combat, but the fact that the Hild still had her head in one piece meant the Fireteams had a firm control on any itchy trigger fingers. He ignored the gaping expression Ekaterina had on her face as he spoke, arms folded across his armored chest. "My defenses should have been absolute. Explain to me how it is you knew to look where you did."

"We know you bested our Mistress, Dread Lord," the lead one explained. "No other power could vanquish the Legendary Hild. We were numbered among her inner circle, Dread Lord, and one of us is a powerful seer. She saw our Mistresses defeat, and then saw how we could find you to offer our services."

Movement caught his eye when the Hild had stated the word 'seer'. Micah glanced over, one of the Hild having raised her head briefly. He only caught her gaze for a second, but he knew clearly what was in her eyes.

Fear.

Like a douse of cold water, Micah knew perfectly what this was. She -knew- damn well he wasn't the one whom had defeated the Legendary Hild. But if she had told the truth, then, more than likely, all it would have gotten would have been her death. She knew it. And she knew that he would know it.

In a way, all of this made perfect sense. The Masui and Hild breeds had been created by the Legendary Hild specifically because she was a totalitarian control freak with illusions of competency. Any pokegirls within her inner circle would likely be unable to operate
outside of any sort of absolute control. Remove the foci of control, and the solution was obvious - seek out the victor and pledge your services to it.

Micah took a step forward. "All of you served Hild loyally and competently. Otherwise, you would likely be dead."

"For centuries, Dread Lord," the lead spoke.

"Privy to her secrets, her hands and blood-stained knives in the dark," Micah mused aloud, tone thoughtful as he ignored what was the full bewildered glare of his harem.

"Our services are yours to be had."

"With skills and magical knowledge supreme," Micah went on in that self-same tone.

"We could turn this entire town into an abattoir at your slightest whim, Dread Lord. Give us your order!" The Masui was shaking where she knelt in near orgasmic lust.

"And now," Micah hissed in a tone that sent the hairs on the back of Ludmilla's neck standing on end and her tail floofing up, "All of you, mine by right of conquest. Swear to me. That all you are is mine to have. Your mind, body, and soul. Swear it!"

"We so swear, Dread Lord. Our mind, body, and soul are yours," six voices rose up as one.

"Good," Micah hissed, and one clawed hand reached out in a gesture toward the lead Hild, his eyes glowing as her body was obscured by an explosion of golden and white light.

When it receded, her entire figure was changed; she was slightly shorter, with wider hips, pale skin, blue eyes, and blood red hair that tumbled down her back. Slowly, a scream in the back of her throat building up from a rasping whisper to a full-pitched shriek, she reached up to her face and began violently sobbing.

"Ah," Micah stated brightly, ignoring the shocked looks on everyone's face. "Good to see she didn't die!" Without pause, Micah gestured over to the remaining five, and their bodies as well were obscured by an explosion of golden and white energy.

When Micah was done, the remaining five did much like the first; some collapsed, sobbing. At least one looked catatonic. All of them were changed in terms of appearance, though none looked identical to the first. Micah ignored them all, instead turning to Ludmilla. "Hacked Masterballs, please. I'll sort through them later."

"Nunnally, Cornelia," Ludmilla spoke. "If you please." Her gaze swiveled back to Micah as the two did as asked, capturing up the changed Hilds and Masui. Ludmilla's body was deathly still as she spoke. "Are you done terrifying everyone? For that matter, I thought
we had agreed that your abilities were best kept not used around anyone outside the harem."

Micah paused, the adrenaline buzz now just wearing off. And realized exactly where he was. "Shit."

"What are you?" Ekaterina whispered in a tone close to horror.

"Oh, -now- we get into the interesting questions," Micah replied in a dry tone. "Let me keep it simple; the worst thing I could possibly do would be to -tell you-." He reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Well. Ekaterina, it's been... something."

"I'm rather curious what all the screaming was about, Master," Illya looked vaguely interested as she twisted the parasol she was using to shield herself from the sun. "It looked rather fun."

"I'll elaborate on that later," Micah gave a pointed glance toward Ekaterina. "Let's get everyone home, first."

-[***]-

The family dining room wasn't anything fancy - just one rather large table in a fairly large room that was serviceable enough to do the job of seating Micah and his entire harem when they ate their meals. Once everything had been sorted out in maneuvering the Grim Angels from their assigned positions and equipment/ squared away, Micah retired with his harem to the aforementioned room.

Micah settled down heavily at the head seat, letting his armor de-summon into clothes more suitable for a casual evening in. He leaned against the table, absently rubbing at his face marks. "Argh."

"Are you really that ruined that we can't even take you into public anymore?" said Anya. Her tone was light, but there was a slight undertone to it, regardless.

Micah smiled weakly. "I was trying to make good of a bad situation. Getting pissed off... Well. Didn't help matters, but even in retrospect it wouldn't change much."

"Bad situation?" Cornelia frowned.

"The likelihood of six powerful magical pokegirls acting in concert having some sort of backup plan if I said 'no' approaches... well, near certainty," Micah replied. "Even if they didn't, I'm not going to take a group of pokegirls -personally trained by Hild- lightly. If
I can win a battle without fighting, period, I'll take that option." He leaned back, letting his wings uncurl from their habitual hunched position that he typically hated. But whacking something with a wing accidentally was just embarrassing.

"So what did you do with them?" Ludmilla asked.

"I evolved them into a custom pokegirl breed," Micah replied. "Testing some of the ideas I've considered, but, well... Time will tell how they'll work out. Though their initial reaction seems positive. I effectively gave them a... conscience, so to speak. A moral compass. And several centuries of doing horrible things kind of... back lashed. Hence the screaming fit."

"What are you going to do with them?" Euphemia spoke up. "Turn them into Sanctuary Goths?"

"Once I've secured their loyalty, I plan to use their abilities and knowledge to the fullest," Micah replied. "I would be a fool if I didn't."

/You're not telling us everything, are you?/ Ludmilla thought silently.

/No,/ Micah replied without glancing at her. /But I don't want to scare any of you if I went in-depth to the changes I actuated./ "I'd like to say that their future service is a type of karmic backlash for all the horrible things they've done. And that might be a small
reason I did what I did. But it's a very small one. Quite frankly, I am a horrible bastard and willing to use anything I can to keep those I care for safe." A brief gust of a sigh. "They'll also potentially provide intel regarding Hild's habits and make sure I won't have to worry about any nightmare scenarios."

Otsana blinked. "Like what? She's been thrown three hundred years into the future. Sexebi put the hurt on her."

A casual shrug. "Well, some brands of magic users are capable of creating physically perfect clones of themselves, which they can then utilize to transmigrate their souls to in the event of death. And there have been mishaps where said clones awaken and think themselves the original, as opposed to sibling offspring. And while the mental image of several Legendary Hilds running around -is- amusing..."

"Eeep," Euphemia said, looking rather shell-shocked.

"But that's just one example," Micah replied, smiling.

"So why the screaming, Master?" Illya spoke up as she leaned forward against the table, palms flat against the surface as she leered. "As delicious as it would be, you've never struck me as one to indulge in random torture..."

Micah paused. "Come to think, that's more or less what I did. Sans the random part. I sort of forced a conscience on all of them, and the full implication of what they did under Hild's employ resulted in a revelatory state where they experienced an epiphany. Hence the breakdown." Micah thought it best not to mention that he had pulled some elements from the Megami breed line in order to get that particular result. He could only hope that the disparate elements that he had effectively grafted together would result in anything
messy, but that was one of the reasons he had his harem in the first place, beyond protection; to cover his ass and make sure he didn't actuate any monumental screw-ups.

"Why?" Nunnally whispered this question, but her golden eyes where sharp as she glared at Micah.

"Redemption is -never- without a cost," Micah replied, voice level, yet his tone heavy with import. "Be it effort, or pain. Such change -always- has a price."

Nunnally nodded slowly.

Illya laughed. "Those idiots wanted to serve a beast that vanquished their mistress. It's not your fault, Master, that they got -exactly what they wanted-."

"Thanks," Micah replied. "I... think." Beat. "Wait a minute..."

Illya smirked, her tone a sing-song voice as she wagged a finger. "And don't you remember? They stepped into it willingly. Mind, body, and soul. You hardly had to beat such a pledge out of them."

"Enough," Ludmilla glanced at the Lucarda, slightly gratified that the Chibi pokegirl lapsed back into grinning silence. "This distraction aside, we still have things that need to be done. Cornelia," Micah tuned the Dire Wolf out only slightly, listening to Ludmilla rattle off assignments; Chores, training, and assist with training the Grim Angels.

Micah was slightly surprised whenever Charolette appeared with tea for all; it was always slightly weird for him living with the equivalent of a live-in maid, and someone preparing him something as simple as a cup of tea always left him feeling disgustingly lazy(and not in a good way).

He accepted it anyways. Ah. Darjeeling. Delicious.

When they were alone, Ludmilla swiveled to glare at him, ears perked forward to match her intense look. "Alright. What didn't you want to mention around everyone else?"

Well. No getting out of this. "One of the possibilities I considered in engineering a pokegirl breed was including an intense and over-riding slavish devotion to me and me alone," Micah replied. "Given the circumstance, I thought it prudent to try and test out my hypothesis."

Ludmilla abruptly sat down. Blinked, as if she was surprised she had done so. "Oh," she murmured softly.

Micah nodded absently, staring into his empty teacup. "Quite." He glanced at her. "I'll need you to check them out mentally, however. Among other things."

"Such as?" And the fact that Ludmilla really couldn't think of them right at that moment told her exactly how out of it she was. The only thing that seemed to scream in her brain was the horror that would occur if people found out her Master could do such a thing.

"We'll need to check them all for any mental traps Hild engineered into them utilizing magic," Micah replied.

Ludmilla nodded slowly. "How? I know you and Euphemia are good, but..."

Micah shook his head. "We'll have the six of them investigate one another. Depending on the results, we'll work from there."

"We're dealing with the after-work of a Legendary," Ludmilla murmured, even as much as it hurt to admit this. "It's possible that my own skills won't be up to investigating any mental influence she had over them."

"I know," Micah replied. "Hence, that's why what we'll do will depend on the results."

-[***]-

Sexebi looked up from the book she was reading, her small body curled up in Micah's chair in his Sanctum Sanctorum. Her face lit up, giggling happily as she set it aside, leaping from the seat, using the table-top as a running start as she flew the rest of the way, wrapping her arms around his neck as she hugged him tightly. "Micah!"

Micah smiled faintly. His earlier somber mood considering the evolved Hilds and Masui disappeared in the face of Sexebi's rather buoyant attitude. "Hey." He wrapped a single wing around her as he hugged her tightly. "Glad to see you're in a happy mood."

"Are you okay? I felt you were worried earlier, but I didn't want to get in the way, and I knew that you had gone out to deal with the Nurse Joy. What's wrong?" Sexebi blinked wide blue eyes only a few inches away from Micah's own.

Micah chuckled faintly, smiling. He couldn't really remain in a bad mood, given Sexebi's proclivity to be the metaphorical equivalent of several hundred watts of brightness, sunshine, and good feelings. The Delta Bond had only made things, well, more intense. "Ekaterina wanted to introduce me to some pokegirl that had tracked me down," Micah elaborated as he walked toward his desk, settling neatly with Sexebi still clinging to him. "Or, more precisely, tracked -her- down. Apparently, they were a group of pokegirls that had served a part of Hild's inner circle of agents. One of them was apparently specialized in seer magic, and used that to learn of their Mistress' defeat." He quirked an eyebrow.

Sexebi paled slightly. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Micah gave a firm shake of his head. "None of which, I'll note, is your fault. If you want to track down first causes, you'd have to go to Macavity."

Sexebi considered that, and frowned.

Micah chuckled faintly. "That's a fierce look, for you. Thinking of tracking the catgirl down and teaching her a lesson or five?"

Sexebi leaned away, blushing from embarrassment. "What! I, I wouldn't, I mean..." She trailed off. "...maybe?" Beat. "So, um, what did you do with the pokegirls?"

"Well, that's the scary part," Micah replied. "I evolved them into a new breed of magical pokegirl." A gust of a breath. "It'll require testing, but I attempted to engineer a specific trait that'll make them slavishly loyal to me and me alone."

Sexebi blinked, considering that. "...oh."

"Yeah, well," Micah replied awkwardly. "Not one of my finer moments."

"Why did you do it?" Sexebi wasn't flinching away, her small hands instead lightly rubbing his face. Pokegirls were typically, as a rule, touchy-feely, but Sexebi currently made most pokegirls look like a confirmed ascetic.

"I was angry, predominately," Micah replied. "The surge of helplessness didn't help, either. The seer," he elaborated at Sexebi's curious look, "Claimed that I vanquished Hild. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was lying. And, I think, the fact that she would have been killed out of hand for telling the truth... I guess the 'Mightiest of Magical Legendaries' being smacked down by the petite Mistress of Time didn't sit well with their overall outlook on life."

Sexebi frown looked more akin to a pout than anything. "Is... is it okay to be offended by that?"

Micah quirked a smile. "I think so, yes."

"Okay," Sexebi nodded. "I'm offended." There was a brief hesitation as Sexebi suddenly found his shirt to be predominately fascinating, the way her hands were tugging at it. "Do you want me to join your harem?"

"By 'join', do you mean have sex with me at a regular interval? Which I'm reasonably certain we're doing anyways - or add yourself to the frontline combat?" Micah kept his amusement from his expression, primarily from a desire not to offend Sexebi.

Sexebi blinked. "The latter?"

Micah nodded. "There are two problems with that," he replied. "One, it's difficult for you to masquerade as another pokegirl, to my knowledge. Second, putting you as a pokegirl in my harem means you'll get shot at, which you don't react to well." Sexebi looked ready to literally flinch away. Only a warning squeeze on a wrist gave a hint that Micah wouldn't be happy if she did that, keeping her where she was. "No," Micah went on. "That is -nothing- to be ashamed of. Everyone has their limits."

"Even you can fight and kill if you need to," Sexebi whispered.

"True, but I don't exactly enjoy it. As a matter of fact, if there's one thing that I've learned since coming to this world, is that I hate killing people."

Sexebi blinked.

"Don't get me wrong," Micah said. "I'll do it if I perceive it necessary. I won't even regret needing to kill. But like it? No. And there's nothing wrong with -you- not liking to kill, either."

"Oh," Sexebi whispered. "So... you don't want me to come along?"

Micah smiled. "I didn't say that, either. While I know the idea is kind of anathema in this world, where I come from healthy relationships tend to be about give and take. The next time I and my harem need to travel somewhere for whatever reason, if you want to come along, then we'll figure something out."

Sexebi blinked. "Oh. I... I think I'd like that. A lot."

"Well, there we go. We'll just have to figure out someway to make sure people won't recognize you immediately as the Mistress of Time and Space."

Sexebi shook her head. "I can take care of that." She held a hand high, one finger point upward. "Illusion!" A ripple of magics played over her form, and she now looked... well, human. Only the too-wide play of her eyes hinted at a not-normal ancestry, but she could have passed for an extremely cute, blonde-haired woman at a distance.

"Huh," Micah replied, eying Sexebi with a look of surprise. And nodded. "That would work." A faint smile. "Most people will likely wonder why I'd be dragging my girlfriend along on a Tamer Journey, but..." A leathery shrug.

"Girlfriend?" Sexebi still blushed as easily as before, despite the magical illusion she was currently wearing.

"Well, it would be kind of awkward if we tried to pass you off as my sister," Micah held a straight face only as long as it took for Sexebi to take in his words and pout at him. -Then- he burst out laughing.

"Mou," Sexebi wagged a finger at him. "You're not being very nice!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Micah grinned. "You have to admit, it -would- be kind of funny."

Sexebi's pout twitched slightly into a slight smile. "...maybe?" Her face lit up. "Ah! I almost forgot!" Micah watched curiously as she scrambled out of his lap, only to hand him a data card and a letter. "From Kerrik!"

Micah took the proffered items, his attention mostly focused on the letter. "An actual letter? Odd. I wonder why." He trailed off, calmly set the items aside on his desk, and rubbed at his face. "Argh. I feel like an ass. I never sent a reply to the other video." He let out a gust of a sigh. "Any particular order I should be consuming these in?"

"Umm," Sexebi picked up a data card. "This first, then the letter."

"Didn't think I'd ever need an actual computer system down here," Micah noted. "Go figure. Let's head up to the living room and watch this, shall we?"

Sexebi dismissed her illusion and promptly latched onto Micah's back, letting him carry her up the flight of stairs, through his bedroom, and up to the second floor. The supposed 'living room' was a mix of library, reading room, game room, and entertainment center - Movie night with the entire harem could get downright -interesting-.

Sexebi unlatched herself and secured a place on the sofa across from the large screen. Micah slotted the data card into the player, settled down next to Sexebi with his wings settling behind him courtesy of the sofa's low back, and hit 'play'.

Kerrik's somber face appeared on the large screen, an array of candles that burned with black flames behind him, giving his otherwise normal appearance a rather menacing cast. "Micah, first of all you should only watch this with your personal harem and most trusted friends. I'm serious. I'm going to reveal information that could compromise certain relationships that you might be involved in, even if the personnel you know weren't directly involved. If they were, it could cause instant violence to break out. Please clear the room before I continue."

"...okay, I wasn't expecting that," Micah spoke, his tone somewhat bewildered.

Sexebi nodded; eyes wide. "Neither was I. I wonder why those candles are like that."

"I... have no offhand clue, really. He could have enchanted them, somehow," Micah replied, then slowly shook his head. "I wonder who he thinks I show these videos too, anyways. Even if I did, probably best I not show anyone this particular video. Black flame producing candles? Yikes."

Kerrik smiled broadly on the screen. Micah glanced at the chronometer, and quirked an eyebrow - Kerrik had timed that to sixty seconds almost perfectly. "Hello, Micah. It's time for another installment of strangeness from me. In today's news, I and my harem traveled to the Sunshine League on an errand for a friend." Kerrik's smile died. "While we were there, we discovered that up until just a short time ago Kelvin's Choice had been there and been involved with a conspiracy involving some of the highest ranking members of the Celestial Alliance trying to cross to a nearby pokegirl dimension and derail Ranma's speech so they could take over and remake the world into a haven of happiness and joy, at least as they perceived it. This conspiracy also involved a good portion of the rank and file. Considering their idealism, I think it would have ended up a lot like 'A Brave New World' or George Orwell's '1984', neither of which I would care to visit, much less have to inhabit. Sometimes utopia is vastly overrated."

Micah didn't hear the rest of it, mind blanking out as it struggled to cope with the full implications of what Kerrik had just told him. When he realized the message had continued on without waiting for him to absorb everything, he abruptly stabbed pause on the remote, leaning forward slightly to rub at his face. He had to grit his teeth to bite back the surge of anger. Megami. A totalitarian conspiracy of -Megami-? Was the only way he was going to be insured of peace, quiet, and non-stupidity was if he just went ahead and sterilized the entire fucking planet?

He felt Sexebi shiver next to him. Micah stole a glance, only to be concerned by her rather pale expression. Torn away from his dark musings, he slipped an arm around her waist, rubbing her side reassuringly. "You okay?"

Sexebi swallowed. "I'm... okay," she replied, voice coming out in a squeak. "I just... had to handle things?"

Micah blinked. "You -felt- that?"

Sexebi nodded shyly. "I haven't been... -really- angry in... um. I thought it was -me- getting angry for a moment, and I... um. Sorry?"

"Not your fault. Mine. Well, more like an unintended consequence... I guess the focus of most Delta Bonds tend to be the pokegirl toward the Tamer." Micah frowned. "I'm not sure if anyone ever focused on the possibility of the Tamer influencing the pokegirl." He shook himself out of that line of thought and shelved it for later. Something occurred to him, and wondered tangentially what would happen if they both got angry at the same time and a semi-feedback loop occurred.

From Sexebi's expression, she just had similar thoughts.

"It's okay," Micah said, voice low and soothing as he rubbed at Sexebi's side. "If something like that occurs, well... we'll apologize for the missing continent afterwards." That received a weak giggle from her, even if she looked as if she was half ready to throw up. He waited until Sexebi had calmed down enough before rewinding the message to the right spot and hitting 'play'.

Kerrik's frozen image resumed speaking, taking a deep breath. "It's also interesting to note that at least some of the episodes of the summons of authors by the Sanctuary Goths were research into dimensional travel to aid in this project, although indications are that Sanctuary was unaware of the true nature of the work and did indeed bring us through to remake the world in their image. The end result was a good news / bad news situation. The good news is that Kelvin succeeded and stopped the Alliance conspiracy, although he did not wipe out all of the conspirators. The bad news is that during this, Kelvin was murdered by the legendary Hild. Apparently she doesn't want us around and so I'm warning you so you can try to protect yourself."

Silence.

This time, Micah remembered to toggle pause. "Oops."

"Oops?" Sexebi asked.

Micah nodded. "Oops." Beat. "Well, at least that's one problem I can reassure Kerrik we won't have to worry about."

"Please don't tell them," Sexebi whispered.

"I won't tell them -you- did it," Micah replied. "I can be mysterious enough to allude to the notion that I wiped Hild from the face of existence accidentally in a sneezing fit, or something." A glance at the screen. "That brings to it unique problems of its own, but...
hell. In for a penny."

"Thank you."

Micah playfully ruffled at Sexebi's hair, the toggled the video to play once more.

Onscreen, Kerrik fought not to grin. "There's some wacky news in there too. When Kelvin died, it turned out that Hild was masquerading as a member of his harem. He died alone with her, and after making sure his body was completely obliterated, she sauntered back to this dimension with the rest of the strike squad and reported that Kelvin had been killed by Evangelion for having the temerity to get involved. Naturally this piqued my interest and I used your dimensional travel gate to go to this alternate universe. There I summoned his shade and we had a talk where he obliquely revealed who had actually murdered him. The spells I used had a set duration and I left before they had expired. This is important because after that a few members of the people Kelvin had been involved with, working with a couple of members of his harem, used those spells to bring him back to life permanently and then to return him to this universe." He leaned back in the chair. "His harem is happy and his friends are happy and so I don't think the situation needs reversed, even if I could think of a way besides killing Kelvin myself, something I am loathe to do. I didn't get to talk to Kelvin, and so I don't know if he is happy, but if he's not then there is always seppuku. Those choices are up to him."

When Sexebi shivered, Micah toggled pause on the video to glance down at her worriedly. At his look, Sexebi whispered, "it is scary how he can talk about killing his friend like that."

Micah shook his head carefully. "I think that's just Kerrik being Kerrik. He doesn't mean anything -offensive- by it, but he's always given the impression of being the kind of guy who refuses to -not- consider all options, no matter how distasteful they are."

"Oh." Pause. "Is it alright to still think he's a little scary?"

"Oh, don't worry," Micah replied. "I'll be sure to protect you from the big, bad Wolf."

"Mou!"

Micah tried to restrain his laughter. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."

"Mou..."

Micah rubbed at Sexebi's hair until the Legendary was mollified, and then hit play to continue the video message.

"However," Kerrik's image went on, "That does not change the fact that Hild killed him and she might see the rest of us, however many there are, as threats that also need to be neutralized. Right now I'm still weighing my options. I don't know where she is, so even if I were inclined to track her down and kill her, I wouldn't know where to start. Then there's the fact that even if I did corner her, I might not be able to kill her. I think we're both aware that one does not get second chances when trying to kill a legendary. Right now, I'm leaning towards maintaining a state of heightened awareness but not changing what I have been doing since she hasn't been a threat to me as of yet. Whatever I decided, I thought it only fair to share what I knew with you so you would be forewarned. After all, you have been much more active than I have and it's likely you'll show on Hild's radar long before I will. That's why you're receiving this immediately. So, you've been warned and I wish you well." Kerrik leaned forward, and the message cut off.

"Came back from the dead," Micah rubbed at his face. Distracted as he had been during the video, the full import of that little factoid seemed to finally settle in his brain. "Gah." At least it wasn't auto-resurrection. "Granted, he had help, but still..."

"Is Kelvin your friend?" Sexebi was looking at him curiously.

Micah considered that carefully. "I wouldn't... well. Before all of this, I didn't really talk to him all that much. Read his stories, certainly. He wrote well, even if he had a habit of pulling decidedly -odd- ideas from places I could never find, so to speak. Out of all of us, I'd easily say he's the one with his heart on his sleeve the most. Which is odd, for an engineer. But, there you go. It takes all kinds." He paused. "Come to think, that makes perfect sense, now."

"What does?"

"How Hild somehow snuck into his harem. Though I wonder how big a harem he has that whatever slip ups she had were unnoticeable..." Micah trailed off, frowning thoughtfully.

Sexebi leaned against him. "What's wrong?"

"Mmm? No, I'm just considering the implications of what Hild did," Micah replied. "I had thought, up till now, the Authors and Legendaries existed in a sort of state of MAD. We can play along nicely; just don't do anything you'll regret when your first shot misses, so to speak."

Sexebi smiled faintly. "Except for those like me and Evangelion."

"Well... yes," Micah nodded, admitting the point. "Then again, considering Bastit and Sexmet..." He paused, considering. Come to think, any bastard lucky enough to tame those kittens would probably end up a terrifying force to contend with. Pity he didn't have anyone on hand to throw at them. "Anyways. Example enough. They don't try to kill us out of fear they'd miss. Now... No, I'll consider this in full later." He glanced at the other item that Sexebi delivered. "Now, let's see what Kerrik sent along." Pulling open the letter, he began to read.

Micah,

I have received a message from Kelvin. Apparently the business he had with the Celestial Alliance that I alluded to in my last message to you has not been completely concluded and for some reason he needs access to the dimensional portal spell that you sent to me. I know that you told me to freely offer it to any of us who might want it, but apparently he wants to trade and I wanted to pass the information on to you. You've got a bunch of Sanctuary Goths and he's got a regiment of Tyrannodames in search of mistresses. I don't know the details on that one, but it sounds like a hell of a story for afterwards. He wants to trade the spell for the dinosaur pokegirls.

In any case, until you can work out or request a way to contact Kelvin directly (asking me, for example), for the time being I will be more than willing to serve as a go between for the two of you. Do you want however many Tyrannodames are in a regiment? Do you want him to have the spell without you getting these Tyrannodames?

No, these and many other questions will not be answered on the next episode of Soap, so you'll have to answer them yourself and get those answers back to me.

Thanks for your time, and I hope this missive finds you as well as possible.

Kerrik Wolf

Micah's eyebrows shot up.

Sexebi let her chin rest on Micah's shoulder as she read. "A regiment of Tyrannodames? That's a lot, isn't it?"

"Pretty good number, yes," Micah allowed. "I wonder how he knew about our little renegade Sanctuary Goth group. Pity that they've already got Tyrannodames..." His voice trailed off, eyes narrowing. "I wonder... But that's impossible. There's no way he could have knowledge about the Grim Angels. Unless... being dead gives you more of a unique perspective than I thought."

"Is that bad?"

"I can only hope that no Authors remain in Sanctuary's hands, one way or another. They supposedly have a number of skilled Necromancers on-hand. Killing an Author and then binding him some how as a necromantic oracle wouldn't be beyond what tactics they'd utilize."

Sexebi shivered. "So horrible."

Micah nodded carefully. "I agree. Now I need to figure out how I'll respond to both Kerrik and Kelvin both. -After- I have the rest of the harem look over the messages to cover anything I missed."

It was a few hours later, once training had been wrapped up, that Ludmilla brought the rest of the harem up to the living room to watch the message in question. The reactions were, understandably, mixed.

"Holy shit," Cornelia whispered.

"I wonder if he bothered to just enchant those candles," Euphemia said, peering at the screen.

Otsana felt that Cornelia's opinion was very astute, and verbally mimicked her harem-sister. "Holy shit."

"He used a Hellfire attack to light them," Illya replied, looking torn between amusement and boredom.

Euphemia glanced up. "How do you know?"

"I've seen it used before," Illya said.

Anya was staring at Micah. "You can't die."

Micah glanced up from his notes he was compiling for the message to Kerrik and Kelvin. "I'll point out that depending on your magical paradigm, resurrection like that typically isn't that big of a deal."

Euphemia glanced curiously at Micah. "All the current accepted research into the matter by Magical Academia and R&D think-tanks says that resurrection is impossible."

Micah snorted faintly, even as he leaned back in his seat, setting a pen aside. "Unfortunately, their research is erroneous. I can think of, oh, three different magical paradigms where resurrection is possible. And there's been at least one mage on this planet... two, really, if you want to get technical, that has access to a resurrection spell."

Anya seemed to shake herself out of her shock. "Except Archmages have proven incapable of developing such spells."

Micah's lips quirked into a smirk. "That -does- sound like their problem, not mine."

"You're horrible," Anya murmured, but she was smiling as she said so.

"In that line of thought, Master," Illya smirked, "Hellfire and Damnation are such useful tools. It seems like such a waste to not let me have their benefits, don't you think?"

Micah's frown was near a scowl. "Are you suggesting that I given you an -Infernal Blessing-?"

"Of course not," Illya leered as she leaned forward. "I was thinking that you could make a template of your own, for me."

"..." Micah's expression went through several varying emotions before finally settling on neutral. "Ah."

Ludmilla swiveled her ears as she directed her full attention on Micah. "Can you -do- that?"

"Assuming I don't pull off anything monumentally stupid - again - there are theoretically a lot of things I could -feasibly- do," Micah replied. "Beyond one more new pokegirl breed, I wasn't really planning on experimenting to a grand degree."

Euphemia glanced up. "Why not?"

Micah's lips quirked into a wry smile. "Too many unknowns. I've displayed a number of abilities that are blatantly unnatural and freakish. It's entirely possible that if I start using them in excess, I may develop -other- capabilities that, once out of the box, I won't be able to stuff it back in. I will be -very- cranky if I start going Akira or Evangelion 01 on things."

Sexebi blinked. "Why would emulating Evangelion be a bad thing?"

"And what's an Akira?" Euphemia asked.

Micah chuckled faintly. "Sorry. I'm using different terminology. Evangelion's... name, title, whatever you want to call it comes from a world where it was also the designation of a humanoid bioweapon used to battle against monstrous, blatantly alien entities. Said humanoid bioweapon could also, through consumption, gain some of the abilities of said alien entities. The end result... well. If I suddenly gain several more wings, start glowing an ethereal white, and all pokegirls around me start dissolving into an orange, goo-like substance, that would be kind of bad, don't you think?"

"Eeep," was Sexebi's basic opinion on the matter.

"Yeah, that... that's pretty bad," Euphemia squeaked out. "I'm guessing Akira is something similar?"

"A bit more localized phenomena, but it would end up bad for me regardless, yes," Micah said. He glanced at Illya. "I'll consider it, but only consider."

Illya smiled. "Thank you, Master."

"Now," Micah glanced at his notes. "If all of you would kindly vacate the room so I can compose a message back to Kerrik without distraction?"

Ludmilla smiled. "We're a distraction, now?"

Micah quirked a blond eyebrow in reply. "You of all people should know how much I dislike video messaging."

Ludmilla laughed softly. "Alright." The Dire Wolf began to chivvy everyone from the room - Sexebi gave him a kiss for luck, which resulted in the rest of his harem having to do likewise, which added another 15 minutes to clearing the place.

"Woof," Micah rubbed at his face once alone, absently thankful that none of his harem delighted in ostentatious makeup. Otherwise, he'd probably be cleaning his face off with a bar of heavy duty soap so as to look semi-normal for Kerrik. He checked over his notes one more time, checked the recording equipment, checked behind him to make sure there was nothing odd the camera would pick up beyond shelves and books in excess, then turned back and hit record.

"It's good to hear from you, Kerrik," Micah began, letting his wings settle behind him. "First off, I apologize for being a bit of an ass with some of my mentions in the previous video. Yes, I know the only way I could have avoided a faux pas is if I suddenly gained
omniscience." A brief snort. "Though given everything, that's not that funny a joke... Anyways, I apologize regardless, and let that be the end of that."

His expression became wry. "I -also- apologize for taking so long for a follow-up message. The reason I didn't immediately reply back is that I couldn't come up with any starting monologue that didn't begin with 'I'm going to kill you for those plushies', which isn't really conductive toward peace, harmony, and good relations." A snort. "Though seriously, no jury would convict me. I could haul a bundle of those things up to the judge and he'd immediately rule it justifiable homicide. Yeesh." Micah stuck his tongue out at the video recorder, a purely childish gesture, and went on.

"Congratulations on going beyond the impossible and knocking up Evangelion. I'm sure Sexebi'll be delighted at the idea of throwing a baby shower for her. I hope your children are healthy, beautiful, and do not take after you whatsoever in the 'attracts chaos like lightning to a lightning rod' trait."

Micah took a deep breath. "In that theme, allow me to remark that I may possibly be the -worst person ever- for you to tell of this news, given how many Legendaries have at least taken a -passing- interest in me. To date, I've had to contend with Macavity, Shiva, -Hild-. Bastit has given me an open invitation to her island, Sexmet apparently has at least wondered how tasty my entrails would be as sausages, and I've been within spitting distance of both Whore-Oh and Moan. I can only come to one conclusion: These people need to get a -fucking life- if I'm suddenly the most interesting thing to occupy their time with. Well, barring Shiva. She's nice. Apparently. Kind of." A snort. "Thankfully, the majority of them seem content to stay the hell away from me after the initial contact. So while both I and my harem are morbidly curious as to how a pregnant Whore-Oh would act, we won't be seeing that experiment performed any time soon. I hope."

Micah shook his head. "Thank you, by the way, for the warning about Hild. Ironically enough, it's slightly wasted - Hild has already been dealt with." He smiled faintly. "You'll excuse me if I don't elaborate on the details, but I find it extremely doubtful that she'll be able to come back considering what was done to her. And if she does... well. I'll be impressed. And then deal with her again. Apparently, she took exception to my idea of making more Sanctuary Goths in excess."

Micah settled back in his chair, letting claws rap out a discordant beat against the desk's surface. "Speaking of which, I probably haven't mentioned this, but I do have a fairly large number of Sanctuary Goths under my direct command, putting aside the number of
other pokegirls outside my harem that I've evolved. Congratulations. Your plushies were a hit with them."

"And now," Micah shifted in his seat slightly, leaning to one side, "It's now time for -me- to drop a bombshell or two. Given that you apparently knocked up Evangelion -by accident-, I thought it best to avoid a similar fate with Sexebi. Sterilizing half the world in
pre-emptive self-defense is not my idea of a pleasant Sunday afternoon. I have no clue exactly how you do it, but my typical habit in getting my abilities under control involves traumatic mental experiences and psychosomatic self-mutilation." His tone was so wryly
sarcastic it was difficult to tell if he was joking or not. "And, once I had things firmly under control and I didn't have to worry about accidental evolutions any longer, I discovered that I -also- seem capable of creating custom pokegirl breeds, as well. Naturally, I'm trying to keep this under wraps, and the full extent of this capability I've been rather loathe to test, as I at least like to pretend I have a moral compass." A wing-rustling shrug. "Though I'll confess, given the recent news of some Megami-engineered foolishness, I'm heavily tempted to see if I can somehow remove the 'Tyrannical Asshat' trait that has mysteriously infested the majority of that entire breed line." Micah found that he was making good on grounding his teeth together, and forced himself to relax. "I've already created at least two custom breeds. Beyond crafting a special evolution for one breed, I don't intend to do anything further with it." Micah let out a gust of a sigh. "Right. Road to hell, and all that."

"That said," Micah resettled once more, "I'll be sending a copy of the letter I'll be composing to Kelvin so you and your harem can read and laugh at it at their leisure. Congrats on pulling him back from the land of the dead, or wherever it was he ended up. If the worst should occur and you should somehow be required to sterilize the Sunshine League because he came back wrong, or something similar, at least give me some forewarning so I won't suddenly worry that Sanctuary got infected with some intelligence." Micah gave the recorded a sloppy salute. "And I'll close with that. Good luck, stay safe, and everything else." Leaning forward, Micah toggled the recorder off.

"Woof," Micah breathed out, then pulled over his PDA to start working on the letter to Kelvin before he got distracted somehow.

Roughly thirty minutes later, Micah nodded to himself as he looked over what was effectively the last draft of the message.

Dear Kelvin,

First off, congratulations are in order, given that you managed to effectively crawl your way back from the dead without becoming some sort of lumbering necromantic monstrosity. As it took a Legendary to kill you the first time, I can assume you've been doing rather well for yourself on the harem-side of things. Again, congratulations. I
also apologize for not having opened up any lines of dialogue before this point; I've been rather busy, and the only other of our kind that I know of for certain in operation is Kerrik. From my understanding, you've been operating in the Sunshine League, which adds to things; I have a number of Leagues that are crossed off my travel list for a myriad of reasons, and Sunshine is one of them. Nothing personal in regards to you; I just plan on staying well away from the SLIS and Granny Weatherwax. I limit my travels in the Blue League for much the same reason, as I intend to stay well away from the BLSF and the Wolf Clan's myriad tentacles of influence. Never mind the Pendragons.

As this is the first time we've communicated, I feel the need to explain my current overall plans. I've considered and discarded simply annihilating the Dark Continent and letting others tally up the ashes. My initial assumptions concerning said locale being populated
by Sanctuary Goths and their pokegirl breeds in exclusion to anything else was, after investigation, in error. Ergo, I've had to consider the possibility of innocents being wiped out as a result of my anger and the desire not to have a knife at my back. After all, if
Sanctuary summoned me once, it's likely they can do so twice. So, I will simply be content with wiping out Sanctuary's leading council. Of course, Kerrik seems to be planning similar, and I wish him all the blessings he might require to pull this off. Should he manage this feat before me, I won't pout; I'll buy the man a bar.

Another element of my plans involves a solution to the feral problem. Its likely many of 'our kind' would find this notion abhorrent. I don't care. If they wish to argue the matter, they're more than welcome to track me down and discuss things. In the direction of this, I've fathomed a method to evolve a pokegirl to a Sanctuary Goth sans ebony stone. I won't tell you how (yet), and I don't intend for this to be the end of my research into that
particular issue. Furthermore, I've been paid quite well by a number of organizations to evolve a number of their preserve members into Sanctuary Goths, that being the Ice Maiden Preserve, the Elven Preserve in the Blue League, and the Joketsuzoku. Telling you this is not a breach of contract; secrecy costs extra as does exclusivity. This is also just a simple heads up - please don't unthinkingly shoot at any Sanctuary Goths you run across.

The reason I'm doing this is less for money and more an attempt to spread the breed out and beyond the Dark Continent, the case one of our brethren decides to drop Cruithne on the place, or engineer a magical plague designed to wipe out Sanctuary Goths exclusively. The other aspect is an attempt to see what letting the genotype that produces Sanctuary Goths have some fun in the wild; a few generations down the road and we'll likely see a number of new blood gifts arising, or S-Goths being the result of thresholding, and whatnot.

On to other things. Kerrik told me of Hild, and I'm not certain if you have him (and vice versa) on speed dial, so I'm uncertain how quickly the two of you communicate, so I have to apologize once more for removing Hild from the playing field. Yes, I did not stutter; she is no longer an issue. Apparently, she learned of my playing around with creating Sanctuary Goths, and tried to have me killed via one of her minions. Someone rather close to me took exemption to this attempt, and decided to make sure Hild didn't get a second opportunity. So, I apologize for effectively taking away your chance at whatever vengeance you might have been planning.

The spell for dimensional travel. I had intended it to be a freebie for all of my fellow authors, but if you're anything like me, you probably dislike getting anything free, even if it's from a friend. You apparently have a large number of Tyrannodames whom like to do some good work directly under Sanctuary Goths; I have a dimensional travel spell. This seems like a fair and equitable trade. Understand, mind, that I'd like to at least discuss things with the group's leader before anything is set in stone, so I apologize in advance if I somehow managed to terrify them into running right back into your tender and caring arms.

(That was a joke, by the way. Your 'tender and caring arms' part, at least. Knowing my luck, I really -will- terrify them right back too you.)

In closing, have fun, stay safe, enjoy your harem (and they you) and don't kill any body you happen to like.


Micah nodded thoughtfully. Now, all that was left was to print the damn thing out, sign the bottom, make sure to include a copy for Kerrik and then go beg Sexebi nicely to play the messenger girl.

-[***]-