Ch.01 How it Started

The Indigo League, easily one of the more oppressive leagues when it comes to the overall treatment of pokégirls. While there are specific cities and most of the Sexii islands that allow pokégirls to exercise a great deal of freedom it’s not the official political stance of the league as a whole, or it didn’t use to be. But time and effort has a way of changing people’s opinions. For the pokégirls and their supporters that seek equality and freedom for all it’s been a hard fought battle from what they believe to be the moral high ground.

Midafternoon in a little nondescript town found a young man, old by most standards, waiting patiently in the pokécenter. It had been an hour since he finished the last of his mandatory test and he knew he passed. Now he just need to get his pokédex and he would be on his way.

“ `Waiting and being rushed,’ truer words have never been spoken.” Chuckled the man as he sait in one of the chairs.

“Huh? Did you say something sir?” The NurseJoy looked over as she finished up the last of his paper work.

“Just something my father used to say when he was waiting in line for something. ‘There are two things in the world I can’t stand, waiting and being rushed, and what do you know it’s all I ever do.’” The man was outright laughing now as he was finally starting to get the joke after so many years. He’d already had a busy morning, going to two meetings and three different offices and it was only 1300. All that and he still needed to make it to a ranch and pick up a starter pokégirl before it got dark and the ferals got frisky. Though by the look of things he’d have to wait a while longer.

“You know what they say ‘hurry up and wait.’ And you are all… done. Just let me go down the list and make sure that all the information is correct.” The very cheerful NurseJoy walked from behind the desk and handed the gentleman his new pokédex before taking a seat in a chair across from him. “Okay, Mr. Marco Readman: Tamer score 100%, check, Trader score 96%, check...”

“Hey! I decree that those true and false questions are poorly worded at best.” Marco had been scrolling down the same list through his pokédex and was in a fairly good mood. The day was going well for the most part and he thought best to have some fun.

“I know but I don’t make them,” she chuckled playfully. “I don’t even give them, now let’s continue. Empathy score 263 out of possible 300, Storage Rights obtained, Age, too old to be doing this… I mean 26…”

“Ouch. Well… Karen…” Readman had tilted forward to get a better look at her name tag. “I’ll be sure to return your dagger as soon as I can dig it out of my spine.”

“Oh you can keep it, it’s my personal gift to you for giving me a laugh today.”

“Then I hate to see what you give someone you don’t like.”

Her eyes shifted slightly as memory surged forward and he could tell that something he’d said struck a nerve. “Moving on… Security Clearance is pretty high, but you had that before you came in… actually pretty common in this area. Blood traits: Low Rebel, Cool head, Trainer, and Psychic Visual Aura Sense? How does that work?”

His eyes began to glow an eerie shade of violet behind his darkened glasses. “Think of it as a combination of Aura Sense and mild psychic ability. Let’s just say, I know you weren’t always a civil service nurse and any tamer to try and attack you with a pokégirl would be in for a horrible surprise… then you’d probably heal them after you were done. Am I close to right?”

The perplexed look on her face gave away the answer as she tried to work her jaw well enough to get her question out. “How do you know that? I had gone through many a tamer and when out in the wilderness everyone’s life depends on not only being able to keep them alive when they get hurt but when I could help it, keeping them from getting hurt in the first place. I hate to think about how much harm these hands have done opposed to how much healing they did.” Karen had gotten this far off look in her eyes and she was lost in thought, memories of her past coming back in short flashes. But a pair of hands clasp around one of hers and pulled her out of her trance.

“You did what you needed to do to survive, and I apologize for dredging up bad memories.” He reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek then remember the box of tissues on the table and handed her one.

She gave a grateful smile and shook her head after wiping her eyes. “That story has a happy ending though. My last rather immature tamer managed to lose me in a salvage battle against an older tamer who was a criminal team member. A day later and before I was bonded to him he was arrested and I was confiscated, then given a chance as a Civil Service Pokégirl, things have been on the up and up since then.”

“Congrats, just never forget those experiences though, they served you well and will continue to do so.”

“Yeah, back to my pervious question though. How did you do that?”

“When activated I can see three different flames in a pokégirl… well anyone really. It’s a little strenuous on its own but I can also grant the same ability to someone I’m touching. The innermost is their emotional state, next is strength or power, and the last is threat… here, look at your coworker.” She turned around to view the Night Nurse typing away at a computer in the back bobbing her head lightly to a beat. As Marco place his hands on Karen’s shoulders her vision flashed and in the center of the girl’s chest were flames, pink, yellow, and white. “The pink flame means that she is happy, the yellowish-orange is her strength…”

“Why is that one white?” She cut his explanation short in childlike giddiness.

“The white one is her current threat level, she’s not paying us the least bit of attention so she’s no threat to us at the moment. That particular flame is the most important one in a battle but the pink one changes the most in you ladies.”

“Very sweet of you to say, calling us ladies… wait, are you saying we are prone to mood swings?” She asked with a rueful smile and eyed him suspiciously.

“Nope, just that you are all very emotional beings. All women, young, old, human, and pokégirl alike are super emotional… well… normally.” He corrected, hopefully giving himself an out if he offended her.

“You know that doesn’t happen often.”

“What’s that, the comparison to human females and pokégirls? We’re all trying to survive on this planet, and if we could learn to work together with no ill feelings it would be a better place for everyone.”

The glassy look in her eyes gave away the thoughts playing though her mind. It really hadn’t been that long since her last one but she suddenly could go for a good taming right about then, and the fact that he didn’t see her as just a service pokégirl or a second class citizen was adding fuel to the desire. “Um… I’m getting ready to go on my lunch break. Would you be willing to um… join me for an afternoon taming?”

Marco gazed into her eyes, he hated to disappoint her but there were places he needed to get to and had a particular taming reserved for someone else. “I appreciate the offer, really I do, but I must be going. I need to get to the pokégirl ranch to get my starter and there’s a bunch of people who need to yell at me. That and I would hate to disappoint you, performance anxiety and all.”

“Pardon?” She took a seat back at her desk, looking a little disappointed and then confused.

“You would think having served in the military I would done at least that by now. But I need to get going,” He saw the look of confusion on her face and cracked as smile. “When you get the meaning behind what I said send a message to my pokédex.” He checked the clock on his pokédex made for the door, giving her a wave as he exited.

“Um… goodbye Mr. Readman, Sir.” She waved at him trying to put his word into prospective.

“And the same to you, lovely Miss. Karen.” He waved again and slid out of the door. Checking the time again he sighed out and clipped the dex to his belt next to the other one that had been issued to him. “Next stop, the ranch.”

____

It was a fair day across most of Indigo. For most, there was nothing quite as enjoyable as the clear skies and cool breeze. Next on Marco’s list of things to do was procure some more pokéballs. It was regular Indigo League Military policy to use standard conditioning pokéballs for pokégirls in the squads. The low level conditioning cycle was supportive to the indoctrination of military life and made the girls easier to deal with. Marco on the other hand needed to use get Great or Ultra balls, at his own personal expense and the pokéballs in his unit didn’t have conditioning. The added freedom and implied trust it granted made the ladies under his command more willing to go the extra mile so to speak.

It had caused him no end of stress, but he never slept with any of the pokégirls or human women he commanded. That also stoked the fires of his girls; with the idea that maybe if they worked hard enough ‘she’ could be the first to take their Lieutenant Colonel’s cherry. The stress it’s self didn’t come from the unit he commanded as much as from the fellow humans he worked with, well use to work with. He was getting out of the military and ready to be a civilian again. But the need to protect people was a constant one and something he enjoyed doing so traveling as a Tamer/Tradesman/Hunter was the perfect opportunity to do just that.

It was just after 1400 when Marco arrived back at the Indigo Military barracks and he went straight for the pokégirl shop on base. He’d received a call to report back to the base, so the ranch was going to have to wait a few days. The shop had the normal gear for tamers and some special gear for the military squads. Of all the gear that was there though one item was sure to be on the list for things to purchase. The Automated Pokéball Launcher M550, APLM550, or as the soldiers started referring to it, the CATCHSURE. A mid-range (600 meters max) single shot rifle that fires pokéballs. Something new brought up by the R&D department five years ago and then remade for use in the civilian market as well. The rifle’s design was to propel the pokéball by electromagnetism and synced with the optional rangefinder attachment to keep the ball from breaking on impact.

Behind the counter was an Ingenue running the register, and a military police OfficerJenny standing in line preparing to checkout and leave. They both came to attention when they spotted the Lieutenant Colonel enter.

“Afternoon ladies, for goodness sake, at ease.” He smiled and waved them off and picked up one of the plastic hand baskets. “How are you doing today?”

“Very good Sir! We will be sure to attend your farewell banquet Sir!” The OfficerJenny was still standing strait and made sure to put an extra crack on her ‘Sir’.

“I said at ease, now relax, and that’s an order you two. Now I’m sure I’ll… see you… can you run that by me again First Sergeant Julia?” While still light hearted, the inflection in his voice said he wanted an immediate answer to his question.

“Um… you are getting out, correct Sir?” She asked and he nodded for her to continue. “There is a ceremonial dinner being held in your honor, for your dedication to the service of Indigo… among other things. Your specialist unit Avalanche pushed to have it setup... I thought you would have known about it…” There was a waver at the end of her voice as she realized that she may have just let a very important surprise slip and she would have hell to pay.

“I see, thank you Julia, you never said a thing am I correct.” They both knew that was a statement more than a question and she snapped to a grateful salute. He reached up and took her hand down giving it a gentle pat. “It has been a pleasure serving with you Julia. You and the other MP Officers are often an over looked and underappreciated part of our lives. In case I don’t get to see you later on I want to thank you now.”

She wasn’t quite sure when her hands got so clammy or when her knees didn’t seem to be able to support her weight; all the while she was trying her best to keep from doing something rash. “… Thank you…” Barely made it out of her mouth in something that wasn’t a moan or a whisper. Her mind suddenly came back to her and she gathered her things and bolted out the door before she could say or do anything stupid.

“You are a very cruel man Sir.” The Ingenue stood chuckling from around the counter, she’d seen the entire display and was sure that Julia was either heading back to the station to tell the other Jennies what happened or to her room to touch herself for a while, or one and then the other. “You know you have just given her enough frustration to drive a pokégirl insane, and now she’s going to boast to the others what happened.”

His eyes flashed purple for a moments and a malicious grim played across his face as he laughed. “I don’t remember saying anything that wasn’t true. They catch hell for any little thing that might go wrong just because they are guarding the facility. Not every problem can be avoided by ‘just keeping a sharper eye’, but I guess that’s why I don’t run things.” He had taken the tablet and was keying in his information for authorization for the APLM rifle. It was a specialty item and had to be shipped in but the shop had various displays so the customers could pick just the one they wanted.

“Marco, sometimes I’m not sure how you ever became an officer in the first place. You seem to take joy in pissing people off and you treat pokégirls like actual people instead of the Indigo’s ‘they are tools and nothing more’ philosophy. That kind of thinking really chaps the ass of a lot of the other officers… but that’s their problem…” She glanced at the display and cringed. “Ya know, those things really hurt when they impact, that’s how they caught me.”

“I’ve heard, I also wanted the range finder attachment. I can regulate the impact speed that way and keep the ball from just breaking on impact… that and slow it down a bit, thanks for the reminder.” He finished the registration for the rifle and went to the pokéball section. The base kept a healthy supply of the balls as well as a large variety. One could never tell when or how a service ball may be damaged or what maybe be needed for a particular operation.

~~~~~

The Indigo Military ceremonies were generally nothing to be excited about. But in this particular case one of the more ‘human’ officers was going to be leaving and it was a time to reflect on the changes his influence had made. None were more excited, proud, or depressed than Avalanche, Lieutenant Colonel Readman’s specialty unit. Sixteen pokégirls of various and mostly dubious background that were under Marco’s direct supervision under his idea of a new way of doing things. It wasn’t so much new than it was different; Indigo Military had a lot of grey when it came to the treatment of its pokégirl squads, but the tradition was to treat them like nothing more than tools of the trade. Most of the commanders preferred to get threshold girls and have them trained till they were just as strong as a feral of the same type, with this normally came a Level Five conditioning cycle so all they had to worry about was their military life from there on.

Marco on the other hand caught a feral born Amazonlee to start and had asked his subordinate officer to tame her. Said officer didn’t mind since it was part of his duties, it was just made clear what the chain of command was after he was done…

_____

10 years ago…

It was a painstaking process but Marco had her privately educated in every manner of military tactics, reading, math, advanced recon, cooking, combat, etc… and he had caught seven levels of hell for it. That was until their first operation together: clearing a Team Rocket hideout.

There were five teams of human pokégirl pairs, and the Marco/Chesra team where the dark horses. On the record, as long as Team Rocket was taken down with minimal civilian or personnel casualties the operation was a success. Off the record, this was the only chance that Marco was going to get to prove his unique style was more than a waste of resources.

The operation was set to start just after 0130 and all teams were set to move in simultaneously. The scenario was fairly straightforward; one large warehouse, darkened windows, low level security cameras, and an unknown number of pokégirls and team members inside. The military teams were already in place and waiting for the start time. Since the humans were considered more valuable than their pokégirl counterparts, according to military regulations, it was common practice for them to stay on the perimeter and let the girls do all the work. Marco and an up and coming Sergeant Sashi thought it better to be a bit closer and along with their respective partners managed to make it onto the roof of the building undetected. It was an overcast night and this gave the two teams the opportunity to look though the skylights and remain undetected.

“Unit Alpha in position, Cee has eyes on team trainers in building. Permission to take the shot?” On one of the taller buildings Ed and his Cuntraffe Clair had taken the snipers post. From their position 700 meters away she had her sights trained on the chest of one of the two Team Rocket trainers, but they needed permission to be cleared for a shot. As with normal standards for field snipers her rifle was magazine driven, and along with it was a small case of various elemental rounds to account for various type changes.

“That’s a negative, let Charlie and Echo get an accurate head and type count and we’ll take it from there.” Lex the team commander didn’t need any problems at the moment and the more Intel they had the better. While she didn’t always agree with Marco, she was willing to give him the chance she was told he deserved and was looking forward to seeing the fruits of their training. “Echo and Charlie, what do you see in there?”

“Echo/two, six PG hostiles and counting ma’am… one Foxx, we are going silent.” Chesra looked to her CO and took a smile at his nod of approval. Marco told her before the operation started that he had complete faith in her abilities and that she was in control unless things got out of hand.

“Charlie/two, targets appear to be watching some vid show… wait, the door to the back is opening. That is a confirmation on one more tamer, one female too young to be a tamer and a pokékit… both are hostages from the look of things, Pia pokékit. Both are bound, gagged, and were thrown into a corner away from everyone else.” Hildy, Sashi’s Guntit, spoke softly into her receiver as she steadied her rifle towards the Foxx. “Target acquired.”

“Ok people, possible hostages on site, let’s take it slow and do it by the numbers. Everyone on silence unless it’s completely necessary.” Lex broadcasted over the Comm. units. The next few seconds were a series of conformation beeps from the teams. “Unit Alpha, give us a countdown then take your shot. Unit Bravo hit the front, Delta backdoor, and Echo above, breach and clear after the shot. Unit Charlie take your shot with Unit Alpha.” Five conformation beeps came through.

Chesra was watching from above while the Team Rocket pokégirls were watching the video. Using Marco’s pokédex she had gotten accurate breed types on all the girls except one. This girl was partially obscured and wouldn’t register but there was something burning at the back of Chesra’s brain. She knew that she was dangerous but couldn’t tell why. It wasn’t until one of the trainers had walked over and given her a very deep very long kiss. It was the kind of passion that could bring the dead back to life; the pokégirl leaned forward to embrace her tamer with her sets of arms, and every alarm in Chesra’s head went off at once.

“Unit Alpha taking shot on mobile tamer in… 5, 4, 3, 2, …(beep, beep, beep, beep)” The display unit on Ed’s wrist beep and then flashed orange. The display said it came from unit Echo/two ‘Marco’s girl, she better have a damn good reason for sounding an orange alert.’ “Clair abort the shot.”

“Echo/two, what the hell is the problem?” Lex commanded into her comm. headset, the next thing she received was a message sent to her pokédex. [ORANGE ALERT, ARACHNAE ON SITE WITH HER TRAINER, TWO ARE VERY INTIMATE] Lex didn’t need to read any more than that. She had been in the Indigo Military long enough to know that Orange meant a very life threatening pokégirl could be around in the near future. But thanks to the depiction from the text she remembered why that pokégirl and her tamer needed to be handled with care… or brutal efficiency. “All units, abort targeting the tamers, I WANT THAT ARACHNAE DOWN, HARD, FIRST AND FAST!” An elevated whisper came though the headsets. “Chesra, you call the target. Alpha and Charlie, take the shots.”

“Nice work. You’ve got the stage; show them what you can do.” Marco gave her the praise she deserved for taking notice of a situation that could have gotten everyone in the area killed, and punctuated it wait a kiss on her cheek. Before she went back to her task he handed her a pair of heavy duty gloves and a pair of rings with some sort of cord attached in the middle. “Make sure the hostages are unharmed, their safety comes first.”

“Sir. Units Alpha and Charlie take the shots on GO, target the Arachnae, everyone else enter and take down the girls. Be sure to take out the Arachnae first if she is still standing… three, two, and one… GO.”

Team Rocket had secured the warehouse and was waiting to hear back from their leader. Unknown to the Indigo Military outside they had done a kidnapping earlier and wanted to know what to do about the ransom. Everything had gone well, their pokégirls had performed beautifully and were given some extra time out of their pokéballs, and so they were all sitting there watching old pre-war videos. This particular one was a standup comedy act, some old guy was on the stage, drinking and talking about getting thrown out of a bar, and everyone was having a good laugh.

The fun ended when a crash was heard. The Arachnae went down hard with a hole in her chest. A fire element round penetrated her heart and killed her instantly while cutting off the arm of her tamer and cauterizing wounds. Before the others had a chance to move the front and back door had been blown open and all hell broke loose. The Team Rocket Goblina turned and raised an elemental pistol towards the OfficerJenny at the front, but before she could fire her arm was severed by a piano wire wielding Chesra who dropped in through the ceiling. After a sweep kick that toppled the Goblina, she rolled over to the trainer and with a quick swipe of her tactical knife she relieved him of his pokéball belt. Hildy, who was still on the roof, fired a round into the leg of the Foxx before she could release her flamethrower then watched as she was taken by a beam of red light.

Lex sounded off through a megaphone from outside. “This is the Indigo Military! You are surrounded! Wait to be returned to your pokéballs or we will take further…” Before she could finish her statement the OfficerJenny was thrown back out of the front door and was partially on fire while more fire poured out of the doorway carried with the sound of a ferocious growl. “Action.”

______