***[Valor HQ]***
In the hidden back room that not even his alpha knew of, the man in red sat on his knees. A large, nearly empty room, this was the area in the HQ that truly showed they were in a cave. The rock walls went uncovered, and there was very little light, save for the lantern on a small wooden table in the center of the room. There was, however, someone else in the room with the Valor leader, someone he talked to quite often.
"My plans are going as well as ever mother. Your little boy is going to be the greatest dragon tamer ever!"
"..."
"I thank you mother, but assistance will not be required. My lovely alpha has everything under control. You remember Anna right?"
"..."
"Yes, that's her. Right now she should be finishing up with my newest lover, a Flarebra. Poor girl, tragically abused by her old master, brainwashed into trusting only those who will hurt her more."
"..."
"What do I mean? Ah yes, I haven't told you of him. A tamer by the name of Valkerous Denei has stolen and raped my poor Leanne. Worry not however, all my men are on the case!"
"..."
"Very well mother, I shall take my leave. Rest well, I shall see you soon. Also, I wish you would eat more, you hardly touched the food I left you."
"..."
"Haha, yes, you never did have much of an appetite. Good night mother."
The man dimmed the lantern and left the room. The exit of this area was comprised of several layers of doors and paths, so as to keep his mother safe from all. When he finally exited through the last door, he appeared in the middle of the meeting hall, his secret entrance secure as it was empty. With his talk done, he decided to check up on his new dragon, and the progress his Dragonqueen had made, though when he reached the training room, early signs were not good.
"WHY! WON'T! YOU! BREAK!?!" He heard, each shouted word accompanied by a sharp snap of a whip. Entering the room, he saw Anna covered in sweat, heaving from her efforts, her arms hanging slightly limp at her sides. The Flarebra, however, looked to be at her death bed. Chained up to a steel beam in the middle of the room, the Flarebra glared at the Dragonqueen. Covered in marks, her face made into one giant bruise, her eyes barely able to open. Her wings were sliced terribly, her tail seemed to be barely attached. Yet even with all that, the man's eyes went wide a bit in shock to see her grinning the best she could.
"Because seeing you get mad...makes the pain worth it." A small amount of blood dripped out from her mouth as she spoke, but the Flarebra paid it no mind.
"Anna, how goes your progress? I take it she isn't ready yet?" Anna snapped to attention at her master's voice, seeming slightly fearful at his tone.
"I'm doing all I can master, but she's the most stubborn one I've ever seen. None of the others took anywhere near this long, yet after over a week of taming, abuse, kindness, insults, she remains as she did the day we caught her. This may take far longer than I had hoped."
The man walked up to the chained up Flarebra, cupping her face and turning it towards his. "Why do you insist on defying me so? If you would just accept my love, accept all I have to give, you will be so much happier, I promise you.
The response he got was the same as before, as she spat a bit of blood in his face. "When you idiots turn me into a Penance, it'll be so refreshing to stop having you gush over me just because I'm a dragon."
"A Penance? No my dear, never. If that happened I'd kill whoever did that to you, even if it was Anna. Though, she knows better, so I doubt she has to worry, right my love?" Anna had a sharp intake of breath, and stood even more at attention than before, nodding nervously.
Before he could continue, a girl in a white lab coat charged in holding a few sheets of paper. "Boss, we have a news update for you."
"SILENCE!" He roared, and promptly smacked her with the back of his hand with enough force to send her reeling, falling on her ass. "I have made it explicitly clear that no one, NO ONE enters my personal rooms, do you understand?!?"
The girl rubbed the spot on her cheek where she got hit, glaring up at him but biting back her comment. Instead, she held up the papers she was holding. "It's urgent, and you weren't around. Besides, the training room wasn't listed as yours."
The man grumbled as she snatched up the papers and began reading through them. The girl got up, dusted herself off, and made to leave as his frown got even deeper, turning from annoyance to anger, then to rage.
"THEY LOST HIM?!? AND THEY GOT ARRESTED?!? HOW?!?"
"Master please, remember your temper. Razah, listen to me!" Anna said, at her master's side immediately.
Razah took a moment to breathe, collecting his thoughts as he tried to calm himself. "Thank you Anna, I needed that. Now, I think I have a way to kill two birds with one stone." He then turned to the Flarebra, who was surprisingly still paying attention. "How would you like to see Valkerous, up close and personal?"
*******
"Dragon Rage right about here, try and see if this leads us anywhere."
With a quick blast of her attack, Cylene blew threw a load of rubble, leading to another dead end. Valk swore in annoyance, the constant lack of routes getting to him. For the past several hours the two of them had been trying their best to make their way through the cave, but the explosion did more than they thought, and many of the previously accessible routes had been closed off with rock slides.
"No, of course not, why wouldn't it be another dead end?" Valk sighed, his aggravation showing. He looked back at Cylene, and saw she had a bit of a smile on her face. "Something you'd like to share?"
"This is new, I like it. You're actually looking at me, talking to me, commanding me, all without me having to bury you in my chest, though that was always more for me than you."
Valk looked off to the side, not really searching for anything. "Look, we'll talk about me not giving you shit later, for now we have to focus on getting out of here. Hana and the others met up with Nicky, and with her book they should be safely leaving sometime soon, so we have to focus."
"Fair enough. Also, is it just me or is something behind you glowing?"
Turning his head, Valk looked at the spot she pointed out, and indeed, there were a few shimmering spots in the darkness. Shifting through a bit of the rubble, their treasure was revealed to be two Moonstones laying side by side.
"And here I thought this place had been picked clean. These guys must have been in the wall, and the explosion and your Dragon Rage must have knocked them loose. Good find Cylene, I would have walked right past these."
"Praise too? Pinch me, I must be dreaming."
"You're pushing it."
"Sorry."
Slipping the two stones into his pack, the two trudged onward, only a few remaining paths left for them to take. Fortunately for them, several of the lights were still working, their path illuminated to make things easier. The ferals in the area seem to have been frightened off as well, as not even a Zubutt has crossed them, either in fear or for battle, which suited the two of them just fine.
Checking his dex after a few more hours of exploration, they found it to be the dead of night, and set out to make a small hole off to the side with which to camp out in. Clearing out a spot with Dragon Rage, the two slipped in fairly comfortably, though Valk was in close proximity of her reach. Leaning back against the walls or on the ground to try and get as comfortable as they could, the minutes dragged by as both of them felt their inability to sleep.
"Would you be better off in your ball? I'd imagine it's more comfy than literal rocks."
"We need to be stuck in caves more often, a girl can get used to being cared about."
"Alright, I get it. I treated you like crap, I understand, but I can't exactly just apologize for it now can I?"
"I dunno, try me. I can be a pretty easy girl. if you get to know me."
"It's more about me than you, if I'm being honest. Look, you are the only dragon I have ever met that so far has done more good than bad. Part of me wants to accept this as the end of my bad luck with dragons, really I do. However, a stronger and much louder part of me is waiting for the punchline to happen, waiting for the big twist that turns this on it's head."
Cylene slowly rolled her eyes at him and wrapped her tail around his waist. She lifted him up slightly, just enough to drag him onto her lap, where she kept her tail around him, her arms joining as well as her wings. "Then I'll just take this to make my feel better. And besides, I KNOW I'm more comfy than literal rocks."
Though he gave a half-hearted struggle, her words held true as he leaned into her embrace subconsciously. The warmth and smooth feel of her scales easily lulled his tired body to sleep in next to no time flat, Cylene chuckling quietly to herself as she clutched his sleeping form. Gently using him as a body pillow, she closed her eyes as well, and joined him in slumber.
Though they were comfy, the thought of them still being in the cave kept them from falling too deep into sleep, and within a few hours were awake once more and on the move. Delving deeper into the cave, they were pleased to see the path getting less chaotic, and soon the tunnels were as they should be.
"Alright, not sure how we did it, but we managed to find our way back to the normal route." Valk noted. Off to the side on the wall, slightly visible from the light, a signpost was hammered into the ground. Reading the map placed on it, he let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good, we're nearly there. Just a little farther, and we should be out of here."
"Great, we'll be out and I'll be back to 'that one bitch' again."
"You're killing me here Cylene."
"Isn't that how we first met?"
Biting back his retort, Valk led the way further down the path. Some holes in the wall started showing up, one of them hosting a sleeping Sexlash, which both decided to leave be. It wasn't much longer until a break in the tunnel showed, and the soft glow of dawn filtered in from up ahead.
"Finally, we're out! Come on Cylene, Hana and the others should be close by." Though as he took a step, he was stopped by the clawed hand on his shoulder. Looking back, Cylene had a nervous look to her. "What's wrong now?"
"We really need to talk."
"Cylene, I told you, we can talk when we leave the cave."
"No, like, we really need to talk now."
"Ok fine, you want to do this now? We can do it now, but I'm not repeating myself, so listen carefully. I never actually really hated you, happy now?!?" Cylene looked as if she were about to interrupt at first, but at that confession, her mouth shut tight.
"I wanted to hate you so bad, but I couldn't. I liked how you look, I admired your strength in battle, you won me my first gym badge, your undying loyalty no matter how bad I treated you struck such a cord with me and you saved my life. Plus, and this kills me to say, holy fuck you are fun in bed, but why did you have to be a dragon?!? Nothing involving dragons has ever gone right for me, and this paranoia is eating away at me, just waiting for something to go wrong. So yes, I treated you like crap, I'm sorry, I'll try to be better, can we please be done now, because that was not easy to say."
Cylene stood there in shock, blinking quickly as she processed all this. She tried to work her mouth in an attempt to respond, yet nothing came out, as her pounding heart and sudden warmth spreading across her face distracted her too much to form words. Yet she shook herself vigorously, trying to snap herself out of it.
"W-w-we can...umm...I didn't mean that, I need to talk about something else. Something very important, in a very serious manner."
At his silence, she inhaled deeply, gathering her courage for what she had to say. "Within the time frame we have, this is probably the most you will like/trust me, so it has to be now. The truth is, I am an escapee from Team Valor."
As she feared, his hand slowly went to his sword, yet he seemed to be thinking as his hand rest on the hilt. "Let me finish! Please, let me try to defend myself." At her pleading, her sincere tone won him over in the end, and his hand dropped off the hilt, yet still rested on the sheath.
"Several months ago, I was just a normal Medra travelling with a tamer. Life was ok, nothing too great nothing too terrible, just ok. That didn't last long though. I wasn't with her for very long before she wandered into the wrong crowd. Apparently, life as a tamer was too hard for her and she gave up, and joined Valor. Once they realized I was part of her harem, I became the entrance fee for her to join, and she accepted easily. Needless to say, I was, and still am pretty pissed.
So there I was, waking up to a new area, chained to a table in a lab. It's pretty fuzzy around that point, but I do remember a man in red, his hair matching his suit, looking at me like he just earned a trophy he'd been after for years. Even with my armor on, I felt naked at his gaze; uncomfortable, and very creeped out. I don't know his name, apparently no one does, and I barely remember what he looks like. You remember that old scientist in the forest? He was the one who tortured me for so long, running all sorts of experiments on me.
I managed to escape after the red guy got a little greedy. The scientist's experiments seemed to be done, and I was to wait in a room for him to come tame me, apparently making me his once and for all. Lucky for me, a dumber, greedier Valor member came in to try and take me for himself. Yeah, he died once he tried, and I took my chance. In the amount of time I had before I became feral, I did some digging on Valor, which is why I haven't said anything about it. They are jokes, the dumbest of the worst of the incompetent.
When we were in Pewtit, in the pokecenter, that guy who came up and demanded you give us all to him. At the time, I swear to all the gods I wasn't sure he was Valor. At first, I thought it was just me being nervous, and I tried to shake it off. Then, a week ago, that Damion guy was Valor, but from what I squeezed out of him, they have no idea where you are, and their best idea is to split up and try to take you on 1v1. I thought as long as that was the case, I could handle it and didn't have to reveal this, but after three Bombshells nearly kill you and the others, I can't afford to keep quiet anymore. And before you say anything, if I had told you sooner, you would have gotten rid of me the first second you had a chance."
Though he wanted to retort, the more Valk thought on it, the more he had to agree she had a point, and his argument died before he ever spoke it. "So you think they're going to attack soon?"
"I can only guess from how short the attacks happened between each other, but it's a safe bet."
"Well, I am a little annoyed now that I have to deal with this, but if I'm thinking about it, I would have been incredibly pissed off had you said nothing, and I found out from them or something. So, thank you for telling me, though now that Hana was right that you were hiding something, she won our little bet, and is going to be insufferable. Never bet on a dragon, never."
"Hon, I thought we were passed that."
"I said I would try, I did not promise results."
With their confessions out of the way, the two felt they were finally ready to leave. Stepping outside, Valk and Cylene took a deep inhale of fresh air, simply grateful to be out of the cave. Over to the side, a familiar looking fuzzy fox was waving at them, Shira, Nina, and Fey standing by her. Giving a wave back, he made towards their direction, Cylene flying above him, eagerly taking the chance to stretch her wings.
With Hana wrapping her arms around him, Valk looked to the rest of his girls, and then saw Nicky talking with an Officer Jenny. "-and then we made it out. We don't have too much to give you, sorry."
"The important thing is that you are all alright, though the fate of the other tamers that perished is a great shame. We have those three locked up in Stone Town where my cousin will no doubt have fun interrogating those Valor members. To think a joke Team like them could actually do something. Anyways, would you and your girls like a teleport to town?"
"Actually, the majority would be mine, and if the offer extends, we would greatly appreciate it." Valk said, raising his hand. Cylene landed next to him, and the others huddled close to him as the Jenny brought out an A-bra. The sleepy psychic type looked around groggily, then back to the Jenny. With a nod from her, she gave a tired shrug and held out her hand. Valk took it, as well as Nicky, and with their girls clinging to them, were transported in a blink of an eye.
*******
After they had a few more hours of sleep at the center, the group ate and plotted out their day.
"Alright ladies, here's what's gonna happen. Hana is in charge while we're away. You all are going to begin training for the gym match, but in the meantime, Nina and I have somewhere to be." Valk said, addressing everyone.
They looked to him in confusion, even Nina herself. "We do?"
"Yes we do little kitty. You once told me you lived here, and I felt I should introduce myself to your parents, maybe have a little get together with them." He expected her to be happy about visiting home, yet the look she gave him was not encouraging. "Something wrong Nina?"
"No...no, nothing's wrong. Let's go." She seemed reluctant as she held out her hand. Valk took notice, and began wondering what the story was at home that would make her so hesitant.
Stepping out of the center, Valk got his first good look at Cerulesbian City. Large buildings decorated the busy streets, the massive amount of people everywhere making it feel even bigger than it already was. Letting Nina take the lead was probably the best idea Valk had in a while, as he would have gotten lost in seconds. The prospect of getting lost reminded him to buy another guide book, something to do after this meeting.
Nina used to live somewhere close to the middle of the town, so travel through the busy sidewalks was horrible, yet mercifully quick. She held back a bit as they approached her old house, letting Valk walk up alone to knock on the door.
The door opened, and a man in a brown sweater vest and tie greeted them. "Yes, can I help you?"
"Good morning sir, I believe I found your cat." Valk said, and stepped aside to let him see Nina. The man's eyes lit up as he saw his daughter, and rushed over to hug her. Though she didn't return it, that did not deter him in the slightest, as he yelled over his shoulder "Honey! Get William, our little Greta has come home!"
"Dad, please stop calling me that."
"Nonsense! We got that name just for you from a Megami-Sama of the highest order! You should be proud to wear that name." Before Nina could retort, a woman roughly the same age as the father bolted out the door in nothing more than a long, yellow sun dress as she dove at her daughter, joining the hug. "Oh my little Greta, mommy has been so worried about you! Don't you ever leave us again!"
"Woah now, let's back up about three spaces, we don't seem to be on the same page here. I didn't come here to give her back."
The dead silence was both a surprise and unnerving, as both of the parents went stiff. Nina simply sighed at this, as they slowly turned towards Valk and spoke at once. "What do you mean you aren't giving her back?"
"I mean what I said. I have long since already talked to Nina about this, and this is her choice that she made of her own free will. Plus, she has grown rather attached to a certain member of my team, and it would be a real shame to just separate them like that."
"Dog breed?"
"Lupina."
"Yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it real good. Listen son, you don't know our baby girl like we do. She just isn't cut out to be a fighter in some tamers harem, she needs to be kept safe and sound with a pet owner."
Nina had her face buried in her paws at this point, scratching her forehead as she listened to the conversation. As the three of them went back and forth, a young male about the same age as Valk casually strolled outside, giving a wave to Nina.
Waving back, she felt a bit of relief. "Hey big bro, just thought I'd stop by to say hi."
William smiled at her and playfully roughed up the fur on her head. "I see that kiddo, nothing else could make mom and dad go this crazy. Who's the dude?"
"That's my master. His name is Valk, and he's pretty nice... to those he likes."
"Huh, neat. Sounds like you got a good one. He rename you?"
"Yes, thank the gods. He named me Nina, and I love it so much, it just sounds so cute!"
"Nice, your old name sucked so bad. So, what do you think the odds are of mom and dad convincing him of letting you stay?"
"You've never met master."
True to her statement, looking back at them showed both parents looking visibly frustrated while Valk was still plainly calm.
"Are you even truly aware of the dangers out there? Teams left and right, Widows, Mantis, Buzzbreasts, all sorts of hazards that you want to expose our daughter to?"
"Oh don't forget Bombshells. Yeah, just yesterday we had three of them blow up in our faces. Ah, good times, good nearly dying times."
""YOU WHAT?!?"" Nina couldn't help but flinch at their shouting, their tone all too familiar to her. They were in full over protective overdrive mode, and she wouldn't wish their wrath on even Typhona.
"No chance in the deepest pit of hell are we ever, EVER going to allow this to continue! Greta is coming home with us this instant, and there is not a damn thing you can do about it! Are we clear?!?" The mother yelled hysterically.
Yet still, Valk remained unfazed as he held up a pokeball. "Yeah that's neat, hey guess what this is?"
"A ball? So?" The father asked.
"You're right, a ball. That I bought. And caught her in. Now, thinking about it, there's this funny little thing called a law that might have a say in who she belongs to, but who knows really other than everyone. Listen, your daughter will be exposed to danger, but in this world, danger is everywhere. Teams attack cities whenever they please. Widows and Mantis are going to kill or at least injure several people before they are stopped, and yes, even though we were nearly killed by Bombshells, we weren't because we had each other. She has helped rescue prisoners from a Dark Queen, fought and won in an official gym match, and looked death in the eye and flipped him off, and we are just beginning. She wants to stay with me, and there is not a god damn thing you can do about it, understand?" At the end of his rant, Valk drew his sword for emphasis, getting nervous glances at it from the two.
Nina could feel herself blush at his words, her desire to stay burning more than ever as she walked up next to him and clung to his arm, purring lightly. Valk smiled down at her, and looked back at her parents with a bit of a smirk.
"So, you've made your choice then Gre...Nina?" Her mother asked somberly. She simply nodded back at her.
"Please say there is something we can do to convince you." Her father said, as both he and the mom gently hugged her goodbye. Nina shed a tear as she shook her head no, which made both the parents brake down and cry.
"Umm...I know you're kind of having a moment, but...I do have a Grandelf who can teleport."
The crying stopped almost immediately as they both snapped up straight, beaming with sudden joy. "That's wonderful news! Now our baby girl can come home anytime she likes!"
"Oh I knew you weren't a terrible son of a bitch, I could just feel it! Welcome to the family, new son!"
"Wai wah?"
Valk was swept up by them so suddenly he didn't even have time to process it as they took him inside the house, chatting away merrily. William looked to his sister and shrugged, Nina simply sighing in return as they followed behind.
*******
It had been two hours of nonstop talking and negotiating, but Valk was finally freed of their constant talking. "Ok, never doing that again."
Nina walked alongside him, her arms around one of his as she purred softly. "But it was really sweet of you to do that. Sorry, by the way. I probably should have mentioned my parents are a little...enthusiastic."
"Gee, you think?"
Nina giggled as they walked back to the center, the sidewalks as busy as ever. When they were nearly back, they passed by a Cafe, with a Lady Luck sitting at a table chatting away with a Selkie.
"So these two weirdos come up to me just because I borrowed a robe from my alpha, and ask me to name their unborn kid! How crazy is that?"
Nina stopped dead in her tracks, Valk nearly falling backwards at the sudden stop, though she paid him no mind as she listened closely to the chat.
"So, being the silly little Trixie I was, I came up with the dumbest and ugliest name I could think of, expecting them to question the powers of Megami. Imagine the look on my face when they thanked me sincerely for calling their unborn baby girl Greta! I tell you, I could not breathe I was laughing for days about it."
The Selkie started to laugh, though stopped cold and looked in fear. Confused, the Lady Luck turned to see what the cause of this was, only to be greeted with a set of very sharp claws in her face, their owner positively livid. "Funny story, really had me going. Now let dear little Greta tell you a better one."
Seeing the new threat, the Lady Luck reached for her cards and drew them for her attack, but to both her shock and dread, came up with all jokers.
"Don't be so shocked. After all, you ran out of luck 17 years ago, it's just now catching up to you is all."
*******
Valkerous Denei
Status: Tamer
Harem:
(A) Eva-Hana lv38
Lupina-Shira lv29
Catgirl-Nina lv20
Medra-Cylene lv37
Non-Combatant
Grandelf-Fey lv20