Chesra had finally snapped out of her day dream and let out a sigh for frustration. It had been quite a few years since that day and things had happened pretty quickly afterwards. Of the many changes to take place her own personal growth was one of them, increasing her power dramatically and eventually evolving into an Armsmistress. But the most significant and unexpected development was the hostage, the young niece of a General.
Negotiations for her release were being handled at the exact same time the operation was taking place. The result was the illusion that the Indigo League Government had everything under control from the start and that Team Rocket would not be tolerated. Everyone involved in the safe rescue was put on the fast track to promotions and this led to Marco being given the chance to turn his project into a full time specialist unit, and thus Avalanche was born. Marco and Chesra had made an impression on the brass of the military and got part of what they needed to get started. A promotion, funds allocated to a unit budget, and their own personal one story office building.
On the surface it looked like, now Lieutenant Colonel, Readman currently had a team of sixteen pokégirls under his command. The reality was that while they were a unit as a whole, they were separated into three different fireteams based around specific situations. Marco knew that trying to command them in the field would just be a difficult or just not possible at times and so the groups were teams of five with the beta chosen within the groups and one alpha that the three betas would report to. The alpha would then report to him and make things a lot easier to manage with clear and to the point information. Originally, as well as the betas each team was assigned a human ‘handler’ who pretty much served no other use than to tame them when necessary and handle paper work as it accrued. Chesra was initially given the title of the Alpha but said she would better serve as Beta of the first team.
Marco knew exactly what he was looking for in his squads and no one else could make heads or tails of his decision making. The most important thing he wanted was diversity, but not just in type or breed but in life skills as well. Chesra thought back to when the various Betas were chosen and held back a laugh.
The beta of his second squad was Mina, a former member of a criminal team and was slated to be turned into poképower after her capture. Her old role with her team was a thief; it made sense considering she was a Kunoichi. Her interview to join the team was interesting, attacking Marco almost immediately upon her release and trying to run away. He barely managed to defend himself before Chesra put her in her place and into a wall. To Mina’s surprise he took his seat again and still offered her the chance to join, explaining that he had no intention of destroying her mind to gain her cooperation and that her life experience and skills would be a valuable asset to the team. It was slow going in the beginning but she rose through the ranks and became one of the strongest members, gaining the title Infiltrator.
Number three was even more of a hand full, a CalamityJane, who was known to assist the police on occasion had taken an abandoned home in the forest of Route 3. She would wander into town from time to time to ‘talk’ with a local OfficerJenny and NurseJoy in Stone Town, and didn’t take being captured during a routine patrol very well. Though she managed to grow accustom to the military life style she couldn’t stand Marco. It was the principal of the thing, how could she take orders from someone who wouldn’t even tame her himself. She wasn’t alone in this line of thinking but managed to be the straw that broke the Cameltoe’s back. After she had voiced her grievances with him one too many times that cool head of his finally blew and he told her that they would settle the matter.
An Enchantress that Marco had gotten on rather good terms with had agreed to make him some very impressive augments to his strength and speed in the form of rings. This was of course done after the incident with the Kunoichi. These Items came at almost astronomical personal expense and an agreement to put in a good word for her with a soldier she had her eyes on. After some testing they had discovered that his body could only support items with double enhancement. Anything more and his body would overtax itself and the strain would cause it to break down. The pair of rings increased his speed and strength two fold, he would never be able to defeat a pokégirl in an all-out life or death fight, but it would be enough for what he had planned. He was going to earn her respect even if he had to take a beating to do it.
On a Thursday afternoon the CalamityJane found herself standing in the reinforced boxing ring of the gymnasium. There was quite the turn out, both pokégirls and humans were there for what they heard was going to be an impromptu battle. There was even a set of judges and a referee, she didn’t think that there would be enough room for a pokégirl battle in the size of the arena let alone the ring. She stood there in her corner waiting to hear the rules that would be imposed and see what pokégirl she would have to fight.
“The following will be a one on one fight, no powers, and no weapons of any sort. The fight will last for ten rounds at the max; three minutes each, and will end with either: a TKO, a Knock-Out, Forfeit, or Judges’ decision. Anything goes freestyle hand to hand combat. Basic treatment will be given at the end of each round, no healers for either side. Try not to kill each other.” The Ref finished laying down the rule and she slowly nodded in agreement.
With these rules she would be royally screwed if he decided to use any martial-arts pokégirls who were loyal to him. But she was quite surprised when the Lieutenant Colonel himself stepped into the ring… no pokéballs, wearing a pair of fingerless gloves, some tactical pants, combat boots, and no shirt. ‘Oh you have got to be kidding me!’ She thought to herself as she saw the names pop up on a betting board projector. She was the clear favorite and by the looks of things, most expected the fight to be over by round two.
“In the red corner and the odds on favorite… Henrietta the CalamityJane!!” The MaidYvette introduced her, and she was surprised to hear the cheers from the quickly filling arena. “And in the black corner… A man we all know, but may have spent too much time in the field… The Lieutenant Colonel, Marco Readman!!” The cheering was even louder but not by much, it was more so the humans than it was the pokégirl, but he has his supporters that weren’t from his unit too. “READY, FIGHT!” (Ding!)
“You’ve got to be kidding, there is no way you can beat me. I know it and you know it… so why are you doing this?” Henrietta, stretched a little and made her way to the center of the ring.
“I know I can’t win, but I have my reasons… respect… you and a lot of the others don’t respect my wishes or standpoint on my not taming ANY of you. You’re not the only one, and it wouldn’t be fair to any of you if I just tamed the ones I wanted to, so it’s come to this…” He stated plainly as he stretched one last time and left his corner.
“You have some guts, I’ll give you tha… ouhff…” She didn’t get a chance to finish before he hit her once in the stomach then right to the side of the head. Those two hits came out of nowhere and she hit the mat hard. The crowd was speechless, as she touched the side of her face and looked up at him her eyes began to water… and her anger grew.
Marco just looked stunned. “Um, you okay… uh… fuck!” She was faster than that and he knew it, he had seen her train and made it a point to train right alongside his girls everyday. He couldn’t help but feel a little bad… that was until she slid his leg out from his center of mass and launched a kick to his groin that forced him up and over her. Marco suddenly found himself wishing that he had gotten a ring of durability, but he was happy he wore a sturdy cup. ‘Mental note: CalamityJane tend to fight dirty.’
She picked herself up off the mat and watched as he stumbled back to his feet. There weren’t going to be anymore words between them for the moment, he just embarrassed her and while she wouldn’t kill him she’d make him pay for that. The fight had no restrictions so it quickly got down and dirty with the moves they used. He was a much better striker than her while under restriction, but she was still a good deal faster than he was. The one thing going for him was that she hadn’t really excelled at defensive combat and he would make her pay for every mistake she made.
Round one had ended and he wasn’t looking all that great, good for a man fighting a pokégirl but not great. The NurseJoy were being carefully watched by the judges to make sure they weren’t doing any healing. After a minute break the two stood up and started the next round. The CalamityJane was sporting a pretty impressive bruise on her cheek but looked to be in high spirits. He had some swelling under his eye and was a little sore from that first groin kick but was hanging in there.
Round two was a nightmare, Henrietta started by rushing him and opening with a spinning back kick. But it was read well ahead of time and she found herself caught and thrown straight into a corner, then pummeled with knees and elbows before she could plant a foot against his chest and kicked him to adjacent corner. She stumbled out of the corner and wiped some blood from her forehead. ‘Never figured it was going to hurt like that… forget the power, I need to rely more on my speed to take him out.’ She was astonished, he was just a human, maybe not pure blood but he didn’t have any enhancement traits that he was aware of. He pulled himself back out of the other corner and slowly made his way to the center of the ring.
“You fight like a pokégirl, vicious, brutal, and ruthless. I like it.” She popped her neck to the side with a snap. “Maybe you’re not as bad as I thought… but I still can’t let you win.”
“Never thought you would let me. IF… Big IF, if I beat you then I earned my win.” He spat a tooth out to the side. She had to give credit where credit was due, he was a lot tougher than she ever would have imagined.
By the end of the eighth round the pair looked like they had just come out of battle in the Revenge War. Marco was doing well for a human; there were a few rounds that had actually gone in his favor. But, at the end of the day he was still just human, the intense rounds had taken its toll and he was beginning to show signs of fatigue. Henrietta wasn’t faring much better, he had never planned to knock her out from the start and instead focused on working over her joints and muscles. This had caused her speed and power to drop dramatically, taking some of the sting out of her hits. Even though they still had two more rounds to go they both knew it was almost over.
‘He’s good, really good. But he is still just a human, I heal faster than he will. He’s slowing down too… I got him on the next exchange.’ Henrietta stood and stretched her arm, he’d put her in some kind of arm lock and it was still playing hell on her shoulder. “This has been fun, but I think it’s time to bring this fight to close.”
“Same to you… either way this goes… the first round is on me.” Marco managed to huff out. He could barely stand and knew that even without the NurseJoy she was healing her damage through natural born ability. His lip was pretty much obliterated and only one eye was still granting sight.
The ninth round started and before she could react he was in the center of the ring and throwing blows to her upper body. After she pushed him away she backed off and moved to a defensive stance. Her defense had improved quite a bit over the fight. He was going all out and she knew all she needed was one misstep to end things. Just as she thought it he swung and over extended, then the world slowed down in Marco’s eyes. In an instant she had grabbed his hand and in one swift action that completely defied gravity, had flipped over and tripped him with one leg while kicking him in the back of the head with the other. There was the sound of a loud crack and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell forward onto the mat.
~~~~~
‘Clean, cool, sterile, and white… yep that’s the infirmary.’ Thought Marco while looking up at the ceiling. Most of that last round was completely gone from his memory. It was just as well, there was a good chance that he may have embarrassed himself near the end. He did the best he could and going eight rounds against a pokégirl was nothing to sneeze at.
“Good to see you’re awake, sir.” Henrietta was sitting in one of the chairs near his bed side. She had a gentle smile on her face and really was happy he was ok. All things considered she didn’t look all that bad. She managed to dislocate her shoulder after landing poorly from her last attack; an eye was patched, and there was bruising around her face and various other parts of her body. She told the NurseJoys that she would only be healed after she was assured that he was ok.
“That was a hell of a counter you threw at the end (crack) oh yeah… much better…” Marco rotated his head to work out the stiffness then saw the Enchantress sitting in the chair on his opposite side. She was relieved to see he was okay, but also looked thoroughly pissed off at him. “Jodie… um… I can explain?”
“Oh I bet you can, but I don’t plan on giving you the chance. If I had known what you were going to use those items for… well I still would have given them to you.” She was more concerned than mad; at the very least she owed him for helping her out with her soldier now tamer. “Was it worth it, did you need to prove yourself so much, why… just why?”
“That really depends on her.” He stretched one last time and turned his attention back to Henrietta. “Henrietta, this was to prove to you I was worthy of having you on my team not the other way around. I still won’t be taming any of you because like I said it wouldn’t be fair to those I don’t tame, and believe me when I say it is NOT from a lack of interest.”
Henrietta was speechless, she and most of the others had never really considered his stance on the women he commanded and at the end of the day he respected all of them and deserved the same consideration. “Permission to speak freely Sir?” He nodded and she continued. “You have more than earned my respect, even with those rings you fought me fair and square. I now understand and respect your decision on taming us, and pledge to work with you with no more ill feelings… I do have a request though.”
“Well, we have established that I won’t be sleeping with any of you, I’ll do whatever I can to honor your request to the best of my abilities.”
“Good, then we can discuss this on Saturday since the first round is on you. Now I’m going to go get healed and get some sleep. I will see you in the morning muster Sir.” With that she stood and walked out of the room.
A large smiled appeared on Marco’s face as he turned to the enchantress. “Yep, the beating I took was well worth it.”
____
At the time Avalanche was still quite incomplete, at only thirteen squad mates, three fireteams and the alpha Kelly. Once the girls started ‘taking care‘ of themselves and after a few allegations were made he dismissed the handlers and let the betas take over. Only the Delta and Indigo teams had betas with Chesra leading Delta and Mina taking control of Indigo. Marco was only mildly surprised to see Henrietta heading up the Echo team when he entered in the morning. He had to note that she really didn’t fit with the Echo fireteam but if that was the decision of the squadmates then he was fine with it. Each fireteam was set up with a particular specialty in mind; the Deltas were mostly comprised of demolition specialist, Echo were extraction specialist, and Indigo were infiltration specialist. The teams were each a separate entity, but they made a unit that stood together as a whole and worked well together on missions.
“Morning Lieutenant Colonel, the teams are assembled. No new business, so training as usual?” Greeted Kelly as he walked in. The 4’10, 24 year old, 14 year old looking Duelist, and Alpha of Avalanche, stood at rest with a clipboard. Marco couldn’t help but notice the tooth on a silver necklace strung up around her neck and gave her a look.
“Kelly, is that mine?” He chided her while walking by.
“Oh, yes Sir, one of your adoring fans had picked it up when your new Beta knocked it out last night. She didn’t want to give it up but I convinced her it was in her best interest of personal health to give it to me.”
“I see… you weren’t too hard on the poor thing were you?” He knew better than to ask, and a smile she gave him was all the answer he needed.
~~~~~
There was something to be said about Kelly. Thresholding into a Tarot, picked up by a tamer, well educated, and life was good. That was until her tamer had gotten in over her head. She and most of her harem sisters were killed by a feral Battle Angel while traveling on Route 23. Marco and the others were out in a field training exercise and had shown up just in time to run her off before rescuing Kelly and her only other surviving harem sister. The two of them were just barely alive but Kelly was undergoing evolution. Marco had them healed before releasing them to take part in a funeral he was holding for their now deeply buried friends.
After returning to the base Kelly had expressed interest in joining the Indigo Military, and the ladies of Avalanche welcomed her with open arms. Military life seemed to agree with her for some reason and she found it to be much preferable to the traveling tamers route. Marco was pleased to find that she had the same knack for tactical awareness and strategic thinking that he did, and with a unanimous vote she was made the unit alpha. But that wasn’t the end for her, self-improvement was always at the front of her mind and that kept her constantly in the gym and on the track. Then at yet another great personal expense Marco acquired three rings for her, two were the same as his while the last one increased her physical toughness. Even though under normal circumstances she couldn’t take more of the stronger breeds in a head to head fight her cards could quickly throw the balance in her favor.
~~~~~
“So… training as usual?” Kelly looked up at him then waved; Marco did seem to have this strange thing about spacing out or getting lost in thought. “Sir?! Are you ok?”
“Huh… sure, just thinking about the good old days.” With a quick turn he faced the teams, they all came to perfect attention and gave him a serious look. “Well it is Friday, and in honor and celebration of gaining our newest Beta, as well as her knocking me around. Unless you have duty, you have weekend liberty, have fun and try to stay out of trouble. Dismissed!”
“THANK YOU SIR!” Was the all-around response. The room had emptied and all that remained was Marco, Kelly, and Henrietta.
Marco always felt a bit of a big brother/ little sister relationship to Kelly, though he did already have a few little sisters, and ruffled her hair when he walked by her. His personal office was further in the back and he took a seat behind his desk while motioning for them to do the same. “So what can I do for you two?”
Kelly took her normal seat since she was his assistant as well and pulled up a folder with a stack of papers. “You know, you do have a new Beta so there is certain paperwork that needs to be completed. The Standard pay grade increase, the formal rank increase, and so on…” She left out a deep sigh as she noted the boredom on his face. “It’s the standard bullshit that we always have to go through Sir: I sign, she signs, you sign, then we all leave this place and go about our business.” They all laughed and started the paperwork.
“Okay Henrietta, wait that is now… Master Sergeant Henrietta. You are now the Beta of the Echo fireteam. You are to turn in a weekly report on the unit moral. Any insubordination issues with in your team are to be brought to me, and then the three of us can work out whatever the problem is… if he” she motioned towards Marco. “Has to get involved, god help them.”
“Now that hurts, I seem to recall a certain very insubordinate Duelist, who always seemed to be in my office. She was in that chair so often that she had her own personal groove driven into it and gave it a name. She didn’t turn out all that bad… oh were did that special girl go?”
“She grew up, and is still in the chair, but has been reduced to personally working for a slavering jerk.” The two shared a look for a brief moment then they both turned towards Henrietta with a chuckle. “Anyway, if you have any questions you can come to either of us or the other betas. Any questions right this moment?”
“No ma’am. Thank you for the opportunity.” She gave a hesitant look around then fixed her gaze on Marco. “Um… can we reschedule for tonight?”
“I think that will be alright. Divine Intervention?” He looked up, then back down to the rest of the paperwork.
“Sounds good, see you at 2100.” She gave a quick salute and exited ever quicker.
Kelly leaned back in her seat and gave him a speculative eye. “Care to tell me what that was all about?”
“Sure, I owe her a drink and she wanted to talk to me about something.” The last of the paperwork was signed and placed into the folder to be taken to the personnel office.
“Really now… you’re not planning on sleeping with her are you? I’ve seen that look on many a pokégirl right before they try to snag a man.”
“No, I already made it very clear that I have no intentions on sleeping with anyone from the unit.” His eyes narrowed as he looked directly into hers. “Why? You aren’t jealous… are you?”
“You… I… No. I’ve never been with a man in my life, and I want to look out for you when possible. I know you see me as more of a little sister than anything else, which is fine I guess. But I will say, if you were going to pick someone from the unit I would prefer if it was her.” She was forced to stifle a laugh at the look on his face and put a hand up so she could explain. “I know Chesra has been with you the longest, and she is completely loyal to you. But Henrietta will stand up to you… and now she will stand up for you.”
____
Divine Intervention, the establishment was very nice for such a rural area and that particular part of town. It gave off the vibe of an evening lounge and sports bar with a nice touch of class. It was also one of the few places that allowed pokégirls to enter freely and interact with the humans who also frequented the place. The fact that most of the patrons were military, human or pokégirl, hurt either. The young soldiers tend to have a nifty thing about blowing money like it fell from the heavens.
Marco just couldn’t help his jaw dropping; Henrietta was worth a stare or three. Her long auburn hair was tied off into a ponytail braid that made it to the middle of her back. One could say that she was overdoing it a tad. But she was the only squad member next to Chesra and Kelly to ever get him to go anywhere with them. The black dress she wore looked especially nice, making a beautiful contrast between her pale skin, and red hair. The shoes couldn’t be comfortable to wear but nobody could tell the way she effortlessly entered the room. She wore glasses for nothing but show, but with them on it downplayed the size of her eyes and caused her to look completely human.
“Well if this is my reward for losing wonder what I would have gotten if I had won?” Marco stated as he stood and pulled her chair out for her before taking his seat again. He slid a card and pressed a button on the tablet attacked to the table.
“Well, you didn’t, so I guess you’ll never know. I always did like this place, so what’s on the menu?” She gave a nervous chuckle; she had gotten quite a few looks from people and pokégirls as she walked in. Then his statement threw her off her stride for a moment. She wasn’t trying to be overly flirtatious, just wanted to look nice for him if they were going to be in public together. Divine Intervention’s dress code wasn’t too strict but, most people made the effort to look a bit better than normal.
“Standard beer, then we can order… oh for fuck sake…” His head started to lower and hit on the table.
“What’s wrong?” His thumb motioned over to one of the monitors hanging down from the ceiling; Henrietta stifled a gasp then her laughter. “You did well, what’s the problem?”
The larger monitor and a few of the smaller monitors in their section was running PSN (Pokégirl Sports Network), apparently a few of the Cameragirls had gotten some bright ideas and sent his fight with Henrietta into the network. “Well I was planning on watching some of that footage to see where I went wrong, ugh it’s just starting.”
“They weren’t in the ring with you. Nobody else but you and I know just how difficult that fight was. I’m happy I won, sure, but I’m even more proud YOU were willing to get in the ring against me… which kind of brings me to my request of you.”
Just as she was about to continue various shouts were heard from another section of the club. In the sporting area a groups of soldiers were getting pretty rowdy and were giving their servers a hard time. Behind them at another table were their girls, some of them looking embarrassed to even be near the group and sat in silence. They just did their best to ignore their masters and watch the fight on the TVs. Marco shook his head and looked up at Henrietta.
“They’re new recruits, just made it out of boot camp. I can only assume that those are their girls sitting at the other table. Poor things must be mortified, but they don’t want to say anything.” Henrietta stated then returned her look to Marco; he was busy messing around with the ordering tablet. “Oh dear, what are you up to now?”
“This is a civil peace offering. There are ways of doing things to try and get the response you want. You can be nice, you can ask, you can use force, or in our case we can just pull rank. So now we see which ones will be used tonight.”
He finished speaking and placing his orders, soon his server returned with two more. Each of them had a tray. The first tray was loaded down with twenty-five shot glasses, the second had a few large pitchers of beer with chilled mugs stacked on top, and the third one was double stacked pitchers of water. In the time it took them to bring the order out Marco and Henrietta had scanned the pokédexs of the group of rowdy soldiers and I.D.s of the pokégirls to find the leaders. Marco had stood and motioned the servers and Henrietta to follow him over to the other tables.
“Evening gentlemen, it looks like you just got out of boot camp, congratulations. I’ve brought you something to help enjoy the evening.” He picked up a shot glass, and waited till everyone else had taken one as well. There were three glasses left on the tray and he motioned to the three pokégirl servers who bowed gratefully and took their glasses as well. “To the Indigo Military, pokégirl and human alike, we accept all and turn away none, to make our league safe for everyone.” They all slammed back their shots, then the glasses down on the table.
“Thanks mister. We did just get out of boot camp are letting off some steam.” Ken, the squad leader stepped up and shook his hand.
“Yes, I noticed. I also wanted to ask if you could keep it down and be nicer to your servers. They are trying their best to meet your demands and really don’t need to be hassled.” Marco noticed the play of emotion going through the eyes of the men and women at the table, the pokégirls on the other hand were just staring in awe at him.
“Look bud we appreciate the drinks, but I think we know what we’re doing here. So why don’t you take your lady, go back to your booth, and mind your own business. Or else Ivy over there will have to remove you from the building.” When Ken finished Ivy, his Fearleader, stood up from her chair and moved next to her tamer.
“See what I mean Henrietta? That was one and two, now we move on to number four.” Marco nodded to Henrietta and she pulled her I.D. from her shoulder bag while he pulled his from his shirt pocket. “Corporal Ken Davidson. You ARE going to sit your ass down, and you WILL apologize to your servers for the way you and your men were acting. Or so help me; you will NOT enjoy what is going to happen when you get back to the base.”
Ivy’s eyes went wide, then blank as she looked at the two I.D. cards. She was already a military pokégirl but had never seen Lieutenant Colonel Readman before and the only time she’d seen members of Avalanche were when they were leaving or returning from field training exercises. Before Ken had the chance to read the cards completely Ivy had already snapped to a Salute then returned to her chair. His voice got caught in his throat and he backed away slowly while turning pale. Before he could answer Marco had cut him off.
“A simple yes sir will do. I know you’re young and new, and that you would never give the Indigo military a bad name by mistreating a pokégirl. We of the Indigo Military are held to the highest standards of Pride, Honor, and Integrity, which is why when you say ‘Yes Sir’ I know you mean ‘I will apologize and we will conduct ourselves appropriately.’” His eyes narrowed as he continued. “Just as when I say ‘you will not enjoy what will happen’, it means everything you think I could mean and a whole lot more. So… as you were.” Marco finished his statement by pouring a beer and handing it the young man.
Both tables stood up and gave him a salute. “YES SIR!” Before returning to their seats.
“Have a good evening.” He turned around and looped his elbow around Henrietta’s arm and she gave a happy smile as the two of them waked back to their booth. “Do you think that did the trick?”
“I would think so; Ivy looked like she was going to pass out. I’ve seen her in passing before but never really talked to her. Davidson looked like you scared him sober and the others really didn’t know what to do, ahhh I love newbies.” She took a long drink of her beer and her eyes shot up, she didn’t expect anyone from their group to approach them after that little episode, let alone it being a pokégirl. “You have incoming.”
Marco turned to see Ivy slowly making her way up to the two of them. “And what can I do for you, um… Private Ivy?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to thank you Sir. None of us wanted to say anything for fear of getting into trouble. But it’s good to finally meet the officer who looks out for everyone, human and pokégirl alike...” A semi-loud but low rumble came from her section and she had almost fallen over in shock when she saw the human table stand and give a very vocal apology to the servers they had harassed earlier. “… There is hope. Now maybe he will start listening to our suggestions as well.”
Henrietta shook her head and coughed to get her attention. “It’s a two way street Private. Before he will listen, you have to make it known that your input is worth having. Try giving a suggestion to him privately and waiting for it to pan out. If what you suggest doesn’t work, be a real pokégirl about it and accept it when you’re wrong. When it works be proud, but be humble.” Henrietta refilled her mug and looked back up at Ivy. “He’ll get the picture soon enough.”
The entire room seemed like it had suddenly gotten brighter in Ivy’s eyes and she nodded in a agreement. “Thank you Ma’am, Sir,” Suddenly the monitors caught her attention and it finally hit her. “You?! You two fought each other? But here you are having dinner together.”
Marco chuckled and shook his head. “Yep, we had a little bit of a disagreement. If my girls are having a disagreement I give them the chance to talk it out before they have to fight it out. Why should I be any different?”
“Because you’re human… um… no offence?” Ivy, really didn’t have any other answer than that.
“I guess you are right, but in my unit, I like to think of us all as equal parts of the same whole.”
“Well that is the way he runs things. He’s crazy but he makes sure we are well taken care of, even if he refuses to tame us.” The look Marco threw her made Henrietta pause and cover her mouth, then he shook his head and smiled at Ivy.
“Well now you know what we were fighting about. It was better after I explained that I refuse to play favorites with them. I would rather not tame any of them, than sow unrest by only sleeping with the ones I like. Of course when I get out I may still have the same problem.”
“But you took her to dinner; doesn’t that do the same thing?”
“You would think so Private, but he said the first round was on him. I won he lost, he still won’t tame me but this is my reward, so here we are.”
“Well I’m sorry to intrude. One last question…” Marco waved it off as Henrietta nodded. “Who won?”
“Who do you think won?” This was from Marco; he was clearly having a good time watching her squirm under his eyes.
“She did.”
“And what makes you think that?” Henrietta smiled and rests her elbows on the table while placing her head in her hands.
“The same reason he’s different. You’re a pokégirl, no offence again, but his chances of winning are just horrible.”
“Well you’re correct again, but round two is starting. You should see how long I lasted, you may just be surprised.”
“Sir, Ma’am, thank you for your time.” She gave a quick salute, bowed, and returned to her section.
____
The night had continued on without any further incidents. PSN had finished running the fight between the two of them and some people were really disappointed. The pair of had attributed it to people betting on the outcome. Henrietta was really knocking them back and if Marco didn’t know any better she was trying to drink her problems away. In reality she really didn’t know how to open the question she wanted to ask. After two of her attempts being disrupted she needed some liquid courage to get it out. Marco on the other hand was really enjoying the evening; he didn’t get out too often for things not related to work so it was a welcome change of pace.
“Sooooo sssssir… you mentioned you were getting out?” Henrietta drunkenly slurred, while attempting to not spill her eleventh drink.
“Yep, another three years and I’ll be out of the Indigo military.”
“So what will you be doing then? Going to find yourself a normal job?”
“Well I like the idea of what we do in the military; I just don’t like taking orders. The idea that on a mission I should be able to order you all to your deaths… it just never set right to me. So I’ll probably end up becoming a tamer or tradesman. I can still do the things that I think are important, on my time, with no one trying to oversee my actions.”
Henrietta’s eyes brightened at the end of his statement, she was hoping for something along those lines for her request to work out. “As for my request then…” He nodded for her to continue, “I want to come with you, when you get out.”
“… What? Why, why would you want to come with me?” He gazed into her eyes, and they were quickly sobering up.
“Because, I want to. You said you would honor my request to the best of your abilities as long as it had nothing to do with taming. This is something that I want. You’re the one who took my life away from me. What you’re talking about is what I did, aside from the occasional taming that I got from a Jenny or Joy; I would take jobs helping where I could. You just happened to get me while my anti-capture collar was broken. All I want is to get back to helping the people that need help, and if that is what you’re going to do then I want to be there with you. I think you would owe me at least that much.”
“… You’re right, but what will I tell the others. I have a responsibility to everyone, especially Chesra.” Marco explained, taking a very long drink and setting his mug back down.
Henrietta couldn’t help but smile; it was exactly what she expected to hear from him. "Well there is that… and I think I've bonded to you." She could feel the skepticism from the look he gave her and continued. "I think it happened during our fight, I don't know about you but I believe that the only thing more intimate between two people than sex could be a fight. I could feel myself growing closer to you as it went on. Sure it didn’t stop me from beating you, but it didn’t feel right either."
"Well stranger things have happened I guess. But what about the others? Do you think they would want to come with me also?"
"A lot of the others like you well enough, but I don't think they will want to be in a harem with you. Kelly just wants you to succeed. As one of the few pro-pokégirls rights officers the more power you gain the better it is for everyone...” A thought occurred to her and she stopped to try and find a way to phrase it properly without seeming too intrusive.
"What is it? You look like something just struck you?"
"I have a personal question but I'm not sure how to ask it."
"You just asked to be with me after I got out... to spend the rest of your foreseeable future with me. You can ask whatever you want."
"What’s so different about you? I have met plenty of people native to Indigo but you seem to be more sympathetic to pokégirls than most."
"Oh that, I was born on Foreplay Island. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not some crusader for pokégirl rights, I just like to see everyone treated fairly. I hate to see people mistreated, especially when you depend on them. Though I guess it is true that most people born on the islands don't tend to leave them. The mainland can be rather stifling."
"Oh, well I guess that explains that. Back to the others, they are yours after all. If you become a tradesman or tamer you could keep them all. But a few of the girls might be bonded to other people so that would make things rough." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. ‘He still hasn’t given me an answer yet, I guess he’s going to say no.’
Marco sighed and looked up for a brief moment. "Yes, I would be more than happy to have you in my harem. At the very least I know you won't have a problem with me bending a few laws. The problem will be with the rest. If I can’t take them with me at the very least they deserve something more fitting for their many years of service, than for their lives to be left to my discretion.”
“Welllll, between the two of us I think we can come up with something. In fact I have an idea, it’s going to cost you though.” The two continued their dinner and proceeded to come up with a plan that was hopefully going to make everyone happy… well maybe not everyone but the ones who were the most important.
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