04 Fallout

Fallout

Quatre looked over his shoulder at Schera and said, "I think now would be a good time for that group explanation."

Schera nodded and stepped out from behind Quatre about halfway. She looked at Heero first, and then Trowa and WuFei in turn as she spoke. "Some of those here already know my name is Scherazade. I am a pokegirl. I was created in the year 1991 AD. I have also been here for all of the intervening 316 years since my decanting, the last 300 of which...alone."

"That's an awfully long time to live. Are pokegirls immortal? And exactly what is a pokegirl?" asked Trowa.

"Three hundred years is a very long time to live alone. How did you not go insane?" asked WuFei.

Schera smiled at them wanly. "Very carefully. I promise to answer your questions, but there is an order to this story." She looked back at Quatre, who grasped her hand and smiled encouragingly as she started again. "To understand what a pokegirl is, you need to understand who their creator is. Jim Sukebe was a highly respected and intelligent scientist. He was also a dimensional traveler. He made amazing advances for humanity on this Earth by using the advances he found on others. He was also very interested in genetics and genetic engineering. He decided to create domestic companions to help with housework and be his lovers."

"He created personal sex slaves?" WuFei sounded outraged.

Schera looked at WuFei coolly. "Now you sound like Linda McKenzie."

"Who?" 

"Linda McKenzie, the woman who changed the world through the very same narrow minded, uninformed attitude that you are showing now." She arched an eyebrow haughtily at WuFei. "Maybe Jim was right. Humans are idiots."

WuFei clenched his teeth and tried not to spontaneously explode. "So explain it to me," he ground out. 

She continued. "Jim did not create slaves of any type, sex or otherwise. He was lonely, so he created companions. He was very kind and loved each of them very much. Then Linda McKenzie showed up. She was a reporter and thought that Jim wasn't allowed to have any secrets. She was certain there was a secret she could exploit for money. When she found Jim's first girls, Linda knew she had found far more than money; she had found instant power. Linda gathered evidence against Jim and unleashed it on the world. In the span of hours, Jim Sukebe went from being a brilliant inventor deeply vested in helping humanity to becoming Dr. Frankenstein. His home was raided, his girls confiscated and summarily executed as monsters, and his name added to the world's most wanted criminals lists for crimes against humanity.” 

Scherazade sighed again. “Jim was a kind-hearted man that wanted nothing more than to help humanity rise above its petty foolishness and start taking care of itself and the planet. None of us truly knew the original Jim Sukebe, but I’ve read his personal logs hundreds of times in the last three centuries, and I can tell you with honesty that whatever monster he turned into, humanity created. In the end, Jim wasn’t Dr. Frankenstein, humanity was, and Jim was their monster.”

Scherazade looked at her hand clasped with Quatre’s. “Something so simple will always be taken for granted.” She looked at the others again. “A touch, a look, things that make you feel loved and accepted; those are things that help define people and help them grow. Not just humans, I suppose, all beings. Even in animals, you can tell the ones that are cared and looked after by their parents or even surrogates. It’s easy to see the ones that act well adjusted. Unfortunately, other people can have those same effects on a being later in life. Even a lovable little puppy can become a ferocious monster if it finds itself owned by the wrong people.”

“Are you trying to compare Sukebe to a wounded animal?” asked WuFei.

“I suppose so, yes,” said Scherazade. “He was painfully shy. By all accounts, most computer geek types are. He never could get past his shyness to deal well with the opposite sex. It didn’t help that he didn’t have anything in common with most people. For whatever reason, he turned to his first pokegirls for the love and acceptance he needed. The real point here is that he truly loved them. When they were taken away, he hoped he could find a way to make people see reason and give them back. When they were executed, part of Jim died too.”

Scherazade leaned against Quatre who wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned over to kiss her temple. She smiled sadly and wiped at her eyes before continuing, “After falling apart, Jim turned to the one thing he had left…revenge. He disappeared into another dimension and came back with the technology to create more pokegirls. He made us stronger, more well developed, and with a few exceptions, smarter than the typical human. He gave each of us specific abilities that he later used when he launched his campaign against humanity. He also gave us the ability to breed and inter-breed with humans. He orchestrated events just so, and then launched a well executed war on humanity.”

“What happened?” asked Trowa.

“When the first pokegirls attacked Earth, many people died. No one knew what they were or why they were attacking them to begin with. The first line combatants were ferocious on purpose and decimated the unwitting humans by the score. When the militaries tried to step in and stop them, the soldiers found that most pokegirls were either too fast to target, or their skin was naturally too tough to be easily hurt by anything short of a nuclear blast. Some weren’t even hurt by that, though most can be hurt and we do die eventually. Some of us are just longer lived than others. In 1993, Jim released the ‘Bloody Flu’. While mostly non-fatal, it took the humans a few years to figure out its true sinister reason: it caused sterility in the women that contracted it. It was so virulent that ninety to ninety-five percent of humans came down with it.”

“So, Sukebe was killing humans right and left with a pokegirl army, but that wasn’t good enough so he released a bio-agent that would slowly kill them through attrition?” WuFei sounded like he wanted to go into another one of his patented injustice rants, but he managed to grit his teeth and stay quiet so Scherazade could reply.

Scherazade shook her head. “No, that’s not it at all. Jim was mad, but there was a method to his madness. While true that it made the majority of women sterile, the Bloody Flu wasn’t supposed to kill them. It was a lesson to humanity. Remember, Jim made pokegirls capable of inter-breeding with humans. With the majority of human women sterile, it meant humans had no choice but to breed with us if they wanted to survive as a race. It was Jim’s ultimate revenge. Humans had condemned him for loving so-called ‘monsters’. Now they had to rely on those same ‘monsters’ to ensure their survival, or else let humanity slide quietly into the night and disappear from this reality altogether.”

“Couldn’t humanity quarantine themselves away from the pokegirls and start some sort of in-vitro type of breeding program with the women that weren’t sterile?” asked Trowa. “We’ve had a similar theme in our own timeline before.”

Quatre nodded. “I told her about how all of my sisters were basically test tube babies from that time and how that particular ban dropped around the time of our births.”

Scherazade looked at Trowa. “There is the possibility that humans could have done that, but Jim built pokegirls from the ground up and made sure life for the humans would have been nigh impossible if they had tried that. You see, pokegirls have a few very specific needs, above and beyond the typical needs of food and shelter. The first is the need to be attached to someone. Pokegirls bond to humans, ensuring their loyalty in all but a very few instances. This bond helps facilitate their other needs. The second need is to be useful. I know this one sounds odd, but it is in fact a need. Feral pokegirls even feel the need to be useful, taking over an area and becoming its self proclaimed protector or ruler, others choosing villages or communities to watch over and make sure no other ferals attack it. The last, and arguably most important need, is sex.”

“Sex is not a need,” said Heero.

Scherazade looked at him. “For us it is. We were genetically designed to need sex. Otherwise, we go feral.”

“I’ve heard you use that term a few times now. What does ‘feral’ mean to a pokegirl?” asked Trowa.

“Feral is a state in which pokegirls lose their ability to function normally. The severity of the feral state and its subsequent disabilities are in direct proportion to the amount of time that has passed since the last time a pokegirl had sex multiplied by the breed’s libido quotient and feral state variable.”

Three sets of eyes blinked several times while Quatre chuckled. “Yeah, that was my look too the first time I heard her definition.”

“I understand the math,” said Heero, “but I need an example to understand the variables.”

Scherazade nodded. “Every breed has a different type of feral state. Some pokegirls merely become morose or ditzy, to the point of not being able to put a sentence together. Others, usually the more combat oriented ones, become violent. They will go only so long before they finally find someone that suits their liking and then lure them away, in some cases just kidnap them, and seduce or rape them. Unfortunately, since most pokegirls are so much stronger than normal humans, if we go feral we can’t control ourselves and can easily hurt, or even kill, our lovers. Even within a harem, it’s not wise to tame most types of pokegirl without restraints, as we tend to get lost in the heat of the moment. Depending on the breed and how happy the pokegirl is in her harem, a pokegirl may only need sex a couple times a month or a couple times a day. If allowed to go feral, pokegirls will seek a place to hide, most often in the environment they are most comfortable, many times it’s simply the wilderness, and wait for an unwitting human to cross their path. During this time, they rely on basic instinct to look for food and shelter. If a group of like pokegirls band together, they grow more courageous, moving from attacking wandering tamers to attacking villages for food.”

“When you use the word ‘tame’, it was a synonym for ‘sex’, so can I assume that ‘tamer’ is a human a pokegirl has bonded to for sex?” asked WuFei. Scherazade nodded, so he continued. “So, their activities in a feral state would be the reason why it’s advisable for humans to keep pokegirls bonded to them.”

Scherazade nodded. “Yes. A bonded pokegirl will fight feral ones, help you capture new ones for your harem, and most importantly, not be a danger to anyone under most normal circumstances. Of course, you have to train them, but that’s all part of being a tamer. The term ‘Tamer’ does not merely denote having a pokegirl. It’s also considered a job class by today’s standards. Being a tamer means you have been tested and found knowledgeable and registered yourself as a tamer and have taken up the mantle of protecting humanity from the multitudes of wild ferals, be that through patrolling a certain region and taking on threats that come your way, or by travelling the world over, capturing feral pokegirls wherever you can.”

“Are feral pokegirls such a threat?” came a hoarse voice from behind Quatre. 

Everyone turned to look at Duo, who was looking at them through alert eyes. Quatre smiled and helped Duo sit up a little more. “It’s good to see you awake, Duo. How much have you heard?” asked Heero.

“Since the part where she said humans were idiots and Wuffers exploded. I couldn’t open my eyes until near the part where she was explaining that pokegirls need sex,” said Duo. WuFei must’ve taken pity on him as he didn’t even blink at the hated nickname. Duo smiled his thanks as Quatre helped him drink some water.

“Then you’ve heard all the important parts,” said Heero. He looked at Scherazade and said, “You’d think, with the amount of damage a feral pokegirl could be, humans would make a concerted effort to keep them from going feral.”

She shrugged. “I guess the ratio of pokegirls to humans just makes it a strong infeasibility.”

“How many are there?” asked Trowa.

“The last count I heard estimated there were fifteen pokegirls to every human,” she said.

“What! If this Earth is anywhere nearly as populated as our own, over crowding must be a serious issue,” said WuFei.

Scherazade shook her head. “The world’s not nearly as over crowded as you’d think. You see, after Jim released the Bloody Flu, the Chinese government took a sample of it and mutated it. They re-released it on the world hoping it would kill off the pokegirls. While one breed was almost wiped out by what they called the ‘Monster Flu’, it only gave most pokegirls flu-like symptoms for a couple of days. That was in 2000, seven years after the Bloody Flu was released. In 2004, it was found that the Monster Flu had mutated again, this time on its own, and was now affecting humans. They called it the ‘Red Plague’. It was even more virulent than the Bloody Flu. Everyone got the Red Plague. Unfortunately, the Red Plague had a ninety-two percent mortality rate. After the Red Plague hit and decimated the numbers of humans left, it became even more imperative that humans turn to pokegirls for help surviving because in the span of one generation, not even a full fifteen years, the world as anyone had known it, changed.” 

Heero looked at Scherazade, then Quatre, and said, “You say this scientist was a dimensional traveler. Do you think we can use his research to get back to our own dimension?”

Schera looked down, and Quatre wrapped his arms around her from behind. He looked over her head at Heero and said, “I doubt it. I already asked her the same thing. From what I gathered earlier, Sukebe had several space stations, each one devoted to a different technology or purpose. Schera has been on this one for over three centuries, but it’s the only one she has access codes for. She hasn’t been able to access anyone on the other stations either. She thinks everyone either abandoned ship or they went into cold sleep. Either way, she has no idea which station was the one in charge of dimensional research, nor if it’s one of the ones that have managed to survive the ensuing years in orbit, unmanned. The only contact she’s had has been the other Video Girls on the planet. She’s been able to keep from going insane by visiting them through the internet and staying in her hologram form. She doesn’t have as many emotions in that form and doesn’t require taming to stay sane.”

Schera looked up again. “Another thing you should consider is what is happening to you now and how well you’d be accepted in your home dimension.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Duo.

“I mean,” she turned to look at Duo, “you may have been infected with Threshold Fever. If so, who knows what that might be doing to you right now? You might be turning into pokegirls, you might not. Even if you two males aren’t being affected, the two females may be. Those are all variables you need to consider before making your next move.”

Duo coughed on another drink of water, and lay back against the head of the bed. No one talked as they let the reality of their situation sink in. Minutes ticked by as they all looked from one to another. Finally, Heero spoke up. “I think we should find out everything we can about Threshold Fever and see how the four of us pull through this.”

Schera looked like she wanted to say something, but merely averted her eyes from Heero’s as he tried to figure out what she was thinking. Heero looked at Quatre who nodded and whispered something to Schera. She ducked her head and then spoke. “I want you all to be aware everyone may be infected by now.” She looked at Heero again. “Quatre and the others wouldn’t leave you four in the airlock, so we have no idea yet if you’re contagious or not. Beyond that, the very air we released when we opened the doors may have still been laden with the Fever and these three could have been infected that way. Either way, I think all of you should be very conscientious of your condition and let someone know the moment something feels wrong. I don’t know much about the various bio-agents Jim left on board the station, but I’ll find out everything I can about Threshold Fever.” She turned to look questioningly at Quatre, who was still holding her. He gave her a quick kiss and nodded to her as he let go of her. She quickly took her leave of the sickbay. 

“Are you feeling alright, Quatre?” asked WuFei.

Quatre looked at him curiously and said, “Yes. Why do you ask?”

WuFei looked at him steadily. “You just seemed to have taken up with your ‘ghost’ rather quickly. I’m somewhat concerned she’s bewitched you somehow.”

Quatre chuckled and shook his head. “No, I’m not bewitched, at least not in the way you’re implying.” He sighed, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “Schera is bewitching in her own way. Everyone knows I’m empathic. I just know what people are feeling.” When he stopped, WuFei nodded to him to continue. “Well, with Schera, it’s like being with someone who not only wants me, but she needs me. Honestly needs me. There’s no guile, no petty thoughts of how to best use me to get her own way, just honest to goodness need. It’s actually kind of intoxicating,” he said with a bemused smile. “I’ve never felt this kind of basic core connection to anyone. It’s like the connection I have with Trowa, only on a completely different level.”

“Good,” chuckled Trowa, “because I don’t want to be on the same level with you that Schera is. No offence.”

Quatre laughed, “None taken.” He looked directly at Trowa. “You’re like a brother to me, but she’s like a breath of fresh air. In a way, I think I need her as much as she needs me. I’m comfortable around you guys, but I don’t let many people in since my last relationship. Maybe she’ll inspire me to open up again.”

“Just don’t take in anyone like Dorothy again,” said Duo. “She damn near ruined you with her twisted mind and weird psychobabble.”

“Don’t worry, Duo,” said Quatre. “I’ve learned my lesson. No more ‘psycho stalker chicks’.” They both laughed at Duo’s definition for his last girlfriend.

Trowa helped Heero sit up to sip some water, followed by a coughing fit that left him rubbing his chest and grimacing. When he finally laid back again, Heero closed his eyes, sighed and asked, “Does your throat feel like you tried to swallow ten-grit sandpaper, Duo? Mine does.”

Duo nodded, “Yeah, and my lungs burn like hell every time I cough.”

Heero nodded, “Mine too.” He sighed again and looked at the guys. “I don’t know what’s happening to us, but I intend to find out. Quatre, can you get Scherazade to patch an uplink to my laptop so I can read whatever she finds out. If she’ll let me have her access codes, I can hack the security system.”

Quatre nodded, “Sure. I’ll get your laptop up here in a few. Why don’t you rest a bit though? We’re obviously not going anywhere for a while.” He looked at Duo. “That goes for you too, Duo. You were out for well over an hour and I still haven’t even checked on the girls.”

Trowa looked at him. “WuFei already slipped in there. Why don’t you see if he needs some help, Quat. I’ll watch the two knuckle heads.”

“Thanks, Trowa,” Quatre smiled at him before ducking around the curtain separating the girls from the guys.

Duo shook his head, winced, and looked over at the curtain, though his comment was directed at Heero and Trowa. “Even in the middle of something as strange as all this, Q still acts like he’s on ‘ludes.”

Heero merely grunted. Trowa was quiet a moment before murmuring, “He thinks it makes the situations we get into easier to handle if he’s super cheerful. If nothing else, he makes himself a convenient target for venting. He does it more since Dorothy.”

Duo sighed. “I know. I just wish I’d killed that bitch back in the war, when I had the chance.” He turned toward the guys again. “Did he ever go to counseling?” he asked. 

Trowa shook his head. “No. He talked to one on-line for a while, but that was as far as he got.” He shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I’ve watched him closely since then, and I honestly believe he’s getting better.

Duo nodded. “Good.” 

A few minutes passed before they heard WuFei’s voice hiss something that was obscured by the curtain, followed by the sound of someone becoming ill. It was ended on a nasty moan that died quickly. Heero tried to sit up when he realized it was Relena’s voice, but Trowa held him down. He glared at Trowa, who merely told him, “Tough. There’s already two of them in there. Wait a minute, and I’ll see what’s going on.”

Trowa waited until Heero laid back down before ducking behind the curtain. A minute later, Trowa came back out, followed by the sound of Relena vomiting again. Duo shuddered, looking a little green. Heero looked at Trowa expectantly. He sighed.

“They’ve got her turned on her side, and she’s doing well, though she’s still technically unconscious. She’s pale and feverish,” the brunette informed Heero, before rummaging through the shelves of stuff by the desk. “She needs some acetaminophen.”

“Go to the crew quarters,” said Heero. “I brought the emergency kit from the shuttle up with a bunch of our stuff. It’s in my room. I know the meds in it are fresh. Who knows how long ago that stuff expired?” he motioned at the boxes on the wall.

Trowa nodded and disappeared out the door. 

Duo looked at Heero and cringed as he heard Relena again through the curtain. It didn't seem like being closest to the curtain was helping him any. "I wonder if she's still out," he said quietly.

Heero didn't respond. He merely stared at the curtain intently. Another few minutes passed by in silence before Relena could be heard again. This time, Heero threw the blankets off himself and climbed out of the bed. He staggered a few steps before pulling it together enough to walk straight. His jaw set in a tight angle against the pain that reverberated up and down the length of his legs. He got to the foot of Duo's bed when the pain in his legs shot upward to coalesce just south of the pit of his stomach. He grabbed the footboard of Duo's bed, doubling over with a low grunt of pain. He tried breathing through the stabbing pain, to no avail. The pain kept ripping through him, a sharp clawing in his gut that started coming in waves. He took several deep breaths and tried to stand again. He wanted to check on Relena himself. He heard Duo say something to him as he got another five feet toward the curtain, halfway there, when he was driven to his knees by a pain so intense he could only wrap his arms around himself and curl into a ball.

Duo watched Heero as he got out of bed and headed toward the curtain. He didn't bother trying to stop the guy. He understood what Heero was thinking. Hell, he wanted to check on Hilde himself! Unfortunately, he also knew that his head wouldn't let him try. Every time he lifted his head off the pillow, he was hit with a wave of nausea that wasn't being helped by listening to Relena some fifteen feet away. When Heero stopped at the edge of the bed, Duo knew he must be in some extreme pain. Heero was the pilot that set his own broken leg and walked away on it like he wasn't even hurt! He watched Heero falter after he started to walk toward the curtain again. 

"You ok, 'Ro? Maybe you should lay back down," he said. Duo watched as Heero ignored him and continued toward the curtain. He didn't really expect Heero to lie back down, but he didn't expect to see Heero hit his knees either. He watched as Heero curled into a ball on the floor with his head down and his arms wrapped around his stomach. Duo carefully pushed the blankets back and tried to sit up. He made it upright, but his head and stomach decided they were going to spin in opposite directions at the same time. He felt the world spin and caught himself before he fell off the bed. He leaned back over before he had no choice but to vomit. A few deep breaths later, he found his voice.

"Hey, 'Fei, can you come here a minute?" he called to the curtain.

"I'm a little busy right now, Maxwell," he heard growled back.

Duo smirked a little. "Aww, but Wuf-fers," he whined. He barely caught the annoyed mutterings WuFei started before flinging back the curtain.

"What do you want, Maxwell?" he snarled, though not nearly as vehemently as normal. Duo pointed at the heap of Heero on the floor. 

WuFei looked over to where Duo was pointing and cursed quietly under his breath. Heero was curled into a ball on the floor, slightly shaking. He squatted next to Heero and checked his head. "Feverish," he muttered, "Damn it." He looked up as Trowa walked back into the infirmary with the first aid kit and a couple blankets. He waved at Trowa to come over. Between the two of them, they got Heero up and back onto his bed, where he promptly curled back into a ball on his side. WuFei looked at Trowa and asked for some Tylenol. It took a few minutes but they finally got the pills down the Japanese young man. He looked at Duo, who was gingerly trying to shimmy back under the covers. He quietly helped the American cover up and asked, "Are you ok, Maxwell?"

Duo nodded slightly, but swallowed against the rolling feeling moving his head produced. "Yeah, just don't ask me to move my head and we'll be good." He turned a little green as he heard the sound of someone else gagging from beyond the curtain. "On second thought, maybe not. Get me the trashcan, would you?" 

WuFei handed him the small can from beside the bed and turned to Trowa, motioning him to follow him behind the curtain. They found Quatre holding Hilde over on her side, watching her vomit into another trashcan. Relena was already lying on her back again, and seemed to be panting lightly. She had a fine sheen of sweat on her skin that glistened in the lights over the bed, highlighting how feverish she was.

Quatre looked over his shoulder at the other two pilots and breathed a sigh of relief. "I no sooner got Relena to relax and lay back and Hilde started gagging. What happened out there?"

WuFei came around the other side of Hilde's bed from Quatre and started wiping down her back through the opening in the gown. Trowa came over and handed the first aid kit to Quatre, taking over his place of holding Hilde over while she was sick. 

"Duo called me out there because Heero had gotten out of bed, evidently intent on coming back here, and ended up huddled on the floor," said WuFei.

"I thought I heard a small thump, but I wasn't sure over the sounds of Relena getting sick," said Quatre. 

Trowa didn't look up, but asked, "Did Relena ever wake up during this?"

"No," said Quatre, "she was out the whole time. Hilde hasn't so much as blinked either. If I hadn't taken care of you guys so many times after our poker nights, I would never have believed someone could vomit while unconscious." He chuckled lightly, shaking his head.

"Well, just wait," said WuFei. "I think Duo's going to be the next one we have to clean up after." He explained about Duo and Heero's symptoms.

Quatre shook his head. "This could be bad," he said. "According to Schera, there are things that can make men turn into pokegirls, and who knows what this 'Fever' is capable of. I just hope that doesn't happen to them."

"I don't know," said WuFei, "I could imagine Duo as an onna. He whines and bitches like one half the time." His tone said he was joking, but Quatre was still less than amused.

"You just remember that, 'Fei, if he turns into a pokegirl and needs a Tamer. You going to volunteer?" he asked. The sour look on WuFei's face answered that question. "I thought not," said Quatre.

"Do you seriously think they'll change?" asked Trowa.

"Who knows?" said Quatre. "I honestly think it's a possibility we need to be mindful of."

The next several minutes were spent in quiet contemplation, sporadically punctuated by the sound of Hilde and her trashcan.

~*~

Soft hands slid over Quatre's shoulders from behind as he stared intently at the laptop on the desk in front of him. Quatre had taken over the Medical Officer's desk once it had become apparent that neither Hilde nor Relena were going to vomit again soon. Quatre raised a hand to lay it over the arm that had slid around him. He smiled but continued reading. A minute later, the hand started to work its way down his chest. He chuckled and stilled the hand, turning to face Schera. "Yes?" he asked.

"It’s after 2am. You haven't taken a break since you tamed me yesterday," she said.

"That was still only about eight hours ago. Do you need tamed again?" he asked, looking her over.

She shook her head, "No, but, unlike me, you need sleep. Besides, just because I don't need a taming, doesn't mean I don't want one."

Quatre shook his head, "I can't. I made the other two go to bed, and I can't leave the med bay un-manned, just in case something happens. If you're tired, you can sleep in my quarters, Schera. You don't have to wait on me."

Schera smiled and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "You're wonderful." She looked like she was watching a little boy get into trouble, rather than complimenting her tamer, though to her there was little difference. "How about this? Why don't you get a few hours sleep, and I'll watch the sick bay for a while?"

"That's not fair," he said, "Besides, I'm trying to get through all the data you dug up on 'Threshold Fever'."

Scherazade shook her head. "You know it's probably useless, right? I told you what it said. There's no cure. Jim made the 'Fever' just so he could use it on intruders. It hadn't even been tested before now. If they're going to turn into Pokegirls, there's most likely no stopping it. The only real questions are: What will they turn into? and Who will claim them?" she said.

Quatre didn't like the idea of his best friends turning into Pokegirls, but he himself had told the others that it was a possibility they would have to consider. He wasn't sure what Duo would do, he always had been slightly effeminate, but he was pretty sure Heero would have a mental break down. There really wasn't much soft or giving about Heero. He had loosened up a bit since the Eve’s War, but he was still very much the 'Perfect Soldier'. Having to submit to being someone's property or, someone's love slave...well, Quatre had the distinct feeling Heero would rather die than face that fate. 

He still held out some hope. Genetic engineering was something he was familiar with, considering all twenty-six of his sisters were born during the era when all children were test-tube babies. Not to mention, all the experiments the pilots had gone through at the hands of the scientists... Quatre had spent the last four hours pouring over Dr. Sukebe's work on 'Threshold Fever' and thought it was far more likely that Relena and Hilde would threshold than the guys since it was pokegirl antigens than had been used to create the virus and female genes would most likely be taken over by the virus. At least, that was Quatre's hope. As much as he hated to admit it, Quatre knew Hilde and Relena would adapt to being pokegirls far faster than any of the pilots. 

Quatre had been silently studying his laptop without really seeing what he was looking at. He was about to tell Schera to go to bed, when she sighed and walked over to the bed Heero was resting on and started running a few diagnostics with the bed's scanners. Quatre wasn't sure what she was looking for. He had already done the same every hour since she had shown him how. He looked at his watch, 2:45am. He rubbed his eyes. Schera was right; he had been up long before he'd tamed her. He really did want some sleep. He sighed to himself and leaned back in the office chair. It was comfy and well balanced. He shut his eyes, trying to figure out what they would do if any of them turned into Pokegirls. It wasn't long before he was dozing quietly.

Schera glanced at Quatre and smiled. He was out like a light. She turned back to the diagnostic display on Heero's bed. Suprisingly, he wasn't exhibiting any pokegirl features, yet. However, his estrogen levels were spiking. She still wasn't sure if Heero would threshold or not. He was still curled up on his side, but he was asleep, for now. His forehead was starting to get sweaty, so Schera checked his temperature. 101.5 F. 'Ouch,' thought Schera, 'I'll have to watch that fever and keep it in check. Humans...so fragile.' She got some cool water and proceeded to bathe his forehead and face, anything to make him more comfortable.

She moved on to Duo. He had never been ill like the guys were expecting. He had fought the nausea and won, but it looked like he was paying for it. He was curled up in a ball on his side, arms wrapped around his stomach. Every now and then, he would gasp or groan in pain, and yet, he had refused to take anything for the pain. Schera ran a diagnostic on him, including temperature this time, and waited for the results. A minute later, the display read that his temp was 101.9 F, and his estrogen levels were also fluctuating. Schera shook her head. If Duo's fever continued, his brain would fry. She didn't hesitate to try to get him to take something. The Tylenol wouldn't help the cramps so much as bring down the fever, but that's the part she was truly concerned with. In his semi-conscious state, Duo happily accepted water to drink and didn't seem to notice the medication floating in it. Schera bathed his face as well, before moving on.

Schera went behind the curtain again. For all the two guys seemed to be doing well, the girls were doing rather poorly. Both Hilde and Relena were lying on their beds, soaked in sweat, shivering, and panting like growlies in the desert. Schera went to Relena first, being closest, and started to run a diagnostic on her. It took her bed's sensors longer to bring up a display because she was twitching so much, her hands clenching and unclenching, head tossing back and forth slightly. When it finally brought up a reading, it was exactly what Schera had expected. Relena was showing signs of threshold. Her hormones were spiked, her temperature was 103 F, and her DNA was starting to exhibit pokegirl qualities. Schera shook her head. 'The poor girl,' she thought, 'she's going to become a pokegirl and who knows if her boyfriend will stay male to claim her. I wonder who will claim whom? They don't seem like a group to be split up easily. I'd expect them to fight to stay together. I better start explaining things to them in more depth.'

Schera went over to Hilde's bed and started the diagnostic before retrieving a couple of blankets and starting some water in a bowl. It was done when she came back over with the supplies. Hilde was exhibiting the same signs as Relena, only slightly more subdued. Her temp wasn't as high, and her hormones weren't racing quite so out of control, but her DNA was definitely exhibiting pokegirl qualities. If things continued this way, it looked like Hilde's trip through threshold would be easier than Relena's. 

Schera went back to Relena's bed and pulled off the cover and sheet, followed by the soaked gown. She then started to wash the sweat off while doing a physical exam of the girl. Relena's body seemed to be tightening and firming in all the normal places a pokegirl's does; her stomach was noticeably flatter, the breasts were noticeably bigger and perkier, and she was definitely horny. She was starting to bruise slightly on the face and forehead, though they didn't seem overly sensitive. Her breasts were obviously sore as, even in her sleep, she tried to move the offending cloth away from her nipples. It amused Schera to watch as Relena put a hand over her breast to protect it, and then pinched her own nipple, eliciting a quiet groan from her own throat. "Oh yeah," murmured the video girl, "You’re definitely becoming a pokegirl." Schera continued to drag the wet cloth over Relena's stomach and then lower, watching the girl's responses. Relena didn't seem to pay her stomach too much attention, but she started panting harder as Schera washed her core. She couldn't decide if she wanted to pull away from the cloth or press herself into it. Schera got a clean cloth soaked in cool water, wrung out, and placed it over her forehead. She covered the girl back up with a sheet, as she figured the gown was a moot point anyway. 

After getting clean water, Schera returned and followed suit with Hilde. The dark haired girl was just as sweaty as Relena and Schera stripped everything off her as well. It was interesting to see that Hilde was more muscular than Relena, though more like a gymnast than a body builder. As such, her body was rather firm already, but Schera could see the tell-tale signs of Hilde's breasts firming and getting bigger. Oddly enough, Schera thought her short bobbed hair had grown a little since yesterday. She wasn't sure, but she'd check again later today to see if she was right. When Schera started washing Hilde, she didn't try to pull away or stop her. Instead, she arched into the touch, moving to get caressed where she wanted and moaning low. Again, Schera was amused as she ran the cloth over Hilde's skin and watched the girl writhe. Hilde actually made a disappointed sound when the cloth pulled away from her breasts, only to gasp as it trailed down her stomach to her core, where Hilde actually clenched her legs together, trapping the cloth, and subsequently, Schera's hand, between them and started moving against the cloth. Schera got her hand out but Hilde kept the cloth, rubbing it against her core until she let out a ragged moan, going ridged, and then relaxing against the bed. 

Schera knew it was probably wrong on some level, but she couldn't help but be amused. It was probably the voyeur in her after all these years. It was also hot enough to make her want to go jump Quatre where he was. She quickly washed Hilde's core again, eliciting a small whimper this time, and covered the girl up with a clean sheet. She quickly disposed of the dirty water and linens, and headed out to check on her tamer. 

Quatre was still laying back in his chair, dozing lightly, when Scherazade found him. She looked over at the two unconscious males in the room and thought about closing their curtains, just in case. She looked back at Quatre and decided maybe she could get him to go back to their quarters for a bit. She leaned over to place a soft kiss on his lips and frowned. She then reached up and felt his forehead. He was burning up. She gently shook him, trying to wake him. "Quatre," she tried, "Quatre...Master, wake up." A minute later, Quatre finally opened one bleary eye to look at the girl leaning over him.

"Schera, what's wrong? Has something happened? You look worried," he said through a very dry throat. He sat up and caught himself against the desk as the world started spinning. He groaned and leaned over the trashcan just in time to hack up the sparse dinner he'd eaten hours earlier. When he was done, he looked at Schera, who was handing him a glass of water, and groaned again. He accepted the water and drank like he was thirsting to death. When he came up for air, he looked at Schera and said, "Damn it. Of all the times to get sick, it has to be now."

Schera nodded. "I know. I did warn you that this could happen," she said.

He nodded. "Yes, but it was a chance we were willing to take. I'm not going to regret it now. How are the others doing? I saw you checking on them before I passed out."

She nodded. "Heero is ok. He's still feverish, as are they all, but his is the lowest. He appears to be in minimal pain and has yet to exhibit any pokegirl traits. Duo is also doing well. I got something down him for the fever, it's still too soon to give more to Heero, and Duo is also free of pokegirl traits at present. Though, his hormones are fluctuating more than Heero's."

"And the girls?" asked Quatre when she stopped.

Schera sighed. "It's as I feared. They're going through threshold. Relena seems to be having a harder time of it than Hilde, but they're both changing regardless."

It was Quatre's turn to sigh, but he nodded anyway. "I expected as much really. After looking over Dr. Sukebe's notes, it seemed much more likely that females would succumb to the worst effects before males. Though I'm still not counting us guys out of the forest yet."

Schera shook her head and said, "Don't talk like that. I just found you. I'm not ready to give you up yet."

Quatre took hold of her arm and pulled her down into his lap. He nuzzled against the top of her head and said, "Don't worry. I don't think I'm going to threshold into a pokegirl. The 'Fever' may mess with my genes a little, but I don't have that 'oh shit' feeling in the pit of my stomach." He turned her face up to look at him. "I'm not going to leave you alone again, Schera. Trust me." She nodded and leaned back against him. Quatre held her for a few minutes before he felt like he was going to be ill again. Schera jumped up and out of his way, just in case. 

While Quatre was trying to hold down the water he'd drank, Scherazade got another one of the beds ready for him. After another few minutes, Quatre leaned back in the chair again. Schera walked up to him and said, "Come on, let's get you into a bed. I know you don't want to," she said in response to his half formed denial, "but this way I'll be able to use your reading to compare to the others. We'll be able to see if there's any difference in the changes that happen depending on the amount of exposure to the agent."

Quatre looked thoughtful, but let her lead him to a bed in the end. As he got comfortable, Quatre looked at her and said, "After you've run a few tests, I'd appreciate it if you would check on Trowa and WuFei for me. I'd hate for them to be going through this by themselves and we never knew it."

Schera nodded. "I will, after I have you settled." She went to work setting up the diagnostics panel to recognize Quatre's bio-rhythms and told it to run a full spectrum analysis. It started up and Schera looked at him again. "It's running. While it's doing its thing, I'll go check on the others. You stay there and try to relax, ok?"

Quatre smiled. "Alright, alright. I'll be good. You be careful." Schera nodded and left the infirmary. 

~*~

It was three hours after Quatre had come down with the 'Fever' and he was passed out in the infirmary. Schera had drug both Trowa and WuFei into the sick bay as well. When she had checked on them, they both were feverish and ill, and Schera figured that they might as well all be puking in the same room. Luckily, the last three to come down ill hadn't really lost consciousness, they were just sick. So, she'd been making the rounds between the seven of them, checking temps, hormonal levels, and overall level of consciousness. All of them were asleep at present, after she had gotten medication into all of them for fever, and Schera was starting to feel like she needed a break. She checked on Quatre again and found he was still feverish, but sleeping and breathing easily. She pulled a chair up to his bed, sat down, and rested her head on her arms on the edge of the bed. About an hour later, Schera woke up to Quatre tugging on her arm. He pulled her up onto the bed beside him and curled around her. Schera snuggled into his embrace and quickly fell asleep.

~*~
Five days later....8pm

All five of the guys were sitting around the table they had taken to eating their meals at, with Scherazade sitting next to Quatre. The two ladies were sleeping in the rooms they'd been moved to. After all the hacking and icky parts seemed to be over, no one could see a reason to stay in the sick bay longer than necessary. Heero and Duo had come through the worst of it three days ago; the other three guys, the day after. The girls were still going through threshold when they moved them two days ago, but they were at least having lucid moments. 

"Yeah," said Duo, "Hilde actually woke up for a while last night. I got some food into her. We talked for a while before she looked like her brain was fried."

Heero sighed, "Relena has had a sparse few minutes of consciousness, but I wouldn't classify it as lucidity."

Quatre said, "Well, they'll come out of it sooner or later. When they do, we'll need to be ready."

"For what?" asked Trowa.

"For a myriad things," said Schera, "foremost being, who's claiming them?" 

"They're not property, Schera," said WuFei. "No one will be claiming anyone."

Schera shook her head. "That's where you're wrong, WuFei. While some of the Leagues are rather forward thinking, and a few of them actually let pokegirls be Tamers, most of them are still of the opinion that pokegirls are property, to be won, sold, traded, and used as their tamer sees fit. The sad fact is, we'll have to go planet-side some time soon, and if one of you haven't claimed them, someone will. Like it or not, they're pokegirls now. They're going to need to be tamed regularly, claimed as someone's property, and trained to fight, because most leagues don't let you turn down a challenge if you're a tamer. Turning down a fight generally means a forfeit, which means they get to choose one of your girls...whether you like it or not." 

There was a tense silence while WuFei and Scherazade glared at each other, which was broken by Duo's calm, "I'll claim Hilde." Everyone stared at him while he looked at his hands, clenched together on the table. When no one said anything, he continued, "We kept putting off getting married until things with Relena and the Preventers quieted down. Five freaking years we waited. And now, if what Schera has been telling us is true, we may not get that chance, but I'll be damned if I let anyone else claim my girlfriend. Hilde's mine. Period." Without saying another word, he got up and went to the room he was sharing with Hilde and shut the door.

The remaining pilots looked at each other a moment, before Trowa said, "There isn't any question who's claiming Relena..."

"No," said Heero, "there isn't. I've protected her for the better part of six years. I'm not going to stop now. Relena's my responsibility. I'll claim her." Everyone but WuFei nodded, like they expected it. He glared at the table like he could burn a hole through it with his eyes alone. 

Quatre let him seethe a minute more before he said, "I know this whole idea is rather foreign and barbaric to most of us, but we're going to have to get used to it if we want any hope of fitting in...and that means we're all going to end up with at least one pokegirl. Even you."

WuFei's head snapped around to look at Quatre fast enough to give someone whiplash. "Oh, no you don't, Quatre Raberba Winner. I will not have any part in this craziness you've let her talk you into. In all fairness, I know Schera's not a bad person, but this really is a crazy plan. Seriously, do you really expect me to participate in making some poor girl be my personal sex slave? Just so we can fit into a world that's even more fucked up than the one we came from?"

Schera looked at WuFei, and asked, "Can you hear yourself, WuFei? Can't you see that your very reasons for not wanting to be a Tamer, are the very reasons you should be a Tamer?" He looked at her blankly, so she continued, "You don't want a pokegirl to be your slave, mainly because you don't want a slave at all; you want them to be treated like real people."

"Because you are real people," he grumbled.

"That's exactly it," she said. "You are one of a very small minority of men that think that way. You would be a very good tamer for a pokegirl to have. You'd be able to train her well. You'd treat her decently. By the gods, 'Fei, any pokegirl that got lucky enough to get you for a tamer wouldn't know what to do with herself! You may not like the world you ended up on, the very world you'll end up living on for likely some time to come, and you can't change the whole thing at once, but you can make a change...one pokegirl at a time. Come on, 'Fei, won't you save at least one pokegirl from another stupid tamer? Show one what a real man is supposed to act like?"

WuFei looked thoughtful for a moment, before standing and heading for his room. Finally, he grumbled, "I'll think about it," from outside his door, before disappearing through it.