Chapter One: Beautiful (Insane) Women
Joseph Willard opened the door to his local bank, intent on depositing his bi-weekly paycheck before the midday rush. He had opened the outer door, and was reaching for the inner glass door when he heard the door behind him slam shut noisily, more so than he was used to. As he looked back over his shoulder to ensure he hadn’t allowed the door to slam shut so hard it had come off its hinges. Doing so might have literally saved his face, as the inner glass door to the bank exploded towards him, inch long shards of glass bursting forward to lacerate his face, neck, with several more shards ripping through his clothing. One particularly long, jagged blade of glass embedded itself in his stomach, ripping through fabric, flesh and soft organs, blood spurting from his torso as his world slowly started to go black and red.
Flash
A red light, engulfing him.
Flash
Gasping, coughing, blood in his lungs and throat.
Flash
Soft hands, caressing his face. Pulling the blade of glass from his body.
Flash
Pure, white-hot pain lancing up and down his body, accompanied by a soft blue glow that clung to his body like mist around a forest floor.
Flash
No more pain, just radiating, comforting warmth. A woman’s soft, heart shaped face. Blonde hair, green eyes.
Flash
Darkness.
Joseph sat up groggily, wiping sleep from his eyes. He was lying in a hospital bed, sun shining in through the windows and birds singing in a tree growing right past his room. He looked down at the IV running into the back of his hand. Wincing, he pulled the tape off and slid the needle out from underneath his skin. Instantly, a monitor by the head of the bed starting beeping loudly. Joseph ignored it and threw back the sheet that was tucked in tightly around his legs, swinging his feet out over the floor. He stood shakily for a moment before finding his footing. He was peering around the room, still bleary eyed as a pink haired woman in a nurse’s smock burst into the room with a harried expression. She caught one look at him and then frowned, ushering him back into bed and pulling a new IV needle out of a pocket on the front of her smock, peeling off the packaging and affixing it to the hose that had previously been attached to his hand, tossing the old needle in a red waste bin.
He looked blearily up at her as words started filtering through his blank mind, his brown eyes blinking lazily as she gripped his shoulder, peering back at him. “…gotten out of bed, you’re not ready to be on your feet. I’m upping your dose of sedatives. We had to regrow large amounts of your internal organs, and you’re body needs time to get used to having a perfectly functioning kidneys and lungs for once.”
“Can… I have a… smoke?” The words came slowly, as if from far away, like he was reading a script rather than thinking on his own. The pink haired woman. Pink, why was her hair pink? Wasn’t there a dress code or something most hospitals had to observe, and didn’t it extend to hair dye? The pink haired woman brushed aside his long brown hair, putting a palm to his forehead.
“Still running a temperature. I guess it’s a good time your Megami got you to us in time. You had massive internal hemorrhaging, at least where there weren’t gaping holes in your stomach and chest. You were standing right in front of that bomb when it went off. You’re lucky the damage wasn’t greater or we might not have been able to do anything at all.” Joseph looked up at her quizzically, her words going too fast for his brain to follow as the sedatives put him back into a world comprised of blissful, painless darkness.
When he next awoke, a pretty, green-eyed blonde was standing beside his bed, her hands on the comforter near his head. He turned his neck staring at her hands briefly before trying to sit up again. He was forced back down again by her deceptively strong grip. Or was it his weak body? Either way, she kept him pinned to the bed as she turned her head and called for a nurse. He struggled weakly against her hands, and she turned to fix him with an appraising glare. “Calm down, Joseph. Everything is going to be okay. You’ve been in an accident, but you’re in the hospital now and you’re going to be okay.”
He glared back at her, uncomprehending, and had started to open his mouth when the pink haired nurse that had sedated him before entered the room, followed by a tall, lanky, grey-haired man. The man picked up a chart from a table at the foot of Joseph’s bed, peeking under a few pages and occasionally sneaking a few glances at Joseph and the young blonde woman beside him. Joseph followed his gaze and quickly averted his eyes when he noticed the low neckline and full bust on the woman next to him as she waited for the doctor or his nurse to speak.
She didn’t have to wait long. “Well…” The grey-haired doctor cleared his throat noisily. “It seems that you’re going to make a full recovery, Mr. Willard. You were extremely lucky your Megami was able to get you to us in time. You had massive damage to your chest cavity and extremities. We had to regrow several vital organs, including your right eye, both lungs, and part of your stomach and liver.” He handed the chart to the pink haired nurse and took off his wireframe glasses, putting them in the breast pocket of his lab coat. “Not to mention you are, or were, I should say, an avid smoker, and had significant liver damage. Almost full blown alcoholic damage, I should say.”
Joseph swallowed hard and struggled to sit up. The woman beside him released his shoulder at a nod from the doctor. “Yeah, you should say. Can I get a smoke?”
The nurse shook her head exasperatedly. “I healed all the damage to your lungs and now you want to go and mess them up again?” The woman next to him eyed the nurse with a steely gaze, and the pink haired woman blushed furiously, turning away, muttering something about ‘Tamers’.
The doctor sighed and moved to stand beside Joseph. “Mr. Willard, we went to great trouble to repair not only the damage caused to you by the blast, but also the damage you had inflicted upon yourself prior to your injuries.”
“You keep saying I was in an explosion. I don’t remember that. What happened?” Joseph gratefully took a small paper cup filled with water that was handed to him by the nurse, gulping it down hastily as she frowned at him and urged him to slow down.
“I’m not sure of the details, that’s a matter for the police I’m afraid. I can tell you that you had major lacerations, I’m assuming from a glass window or door, judging by the shards we extracted from your chest. Your eardrums were blown out by the force of a shockwave, and your right eye had imploded.”
“My eye… then, how am I seeing? How did you fix it?” Joseph was starting to get confused. Of course most of his injuries were fixable by modern medicine, but how did they heal his eye, repair his damaged organs? Fix his lungs and liver, if they really had? The beautiful blonde on his left noticed his confusion.
“Doctor, I think my tamer needs his rest. I don’t believe his mental state has fully caught up with his body.” She fixed that steel glare on the two medical professionals in the room with them.
“Of course, you’re probably right. He has only just woken up. I’ll give the two of you some time alone, and set up some tests for later in the afternoon.”
“When will he be discharged?”
The nurse had already left the room, and the doctor paused and turned on his way out after her. “I can’t specifically say when we can discharge him. Legally, he has to remain in our care for 24 hours after we’ve confirmed that his major injuries have healed, just so we’re sure he won’t collapse on his way out of the lobby.”
“That may not be soon enough, Doctor. Destiny calls us.”
The doctor looked briefly perturbed, frowning. “I’ll see what I can do then, ma’am.”
The blonde beauty turned back to Joseph as the door to his room shut. He was staring up at her with an expression halfway between a question and a scowl. “Who the hell are you?”
She sighed, gently massaging her temples. “My name is Ruth. I am a Megami. Does that word mean anything to you?”
“Absolutely not. What happened to me? You act sort of like you know more than the doctors.”
“What do you remember?”
“Like I said, I’ve got no memory of how I was apparently blown up.”
She looked sheepish for a moment, smiling nervously. “Right. Sorry about that.”
Joseph blinked. “What do you mean, sorry? Did you have something to do with this?” He started to look around for the nurse’s call button.
Ruth grabbed it before he could, holding it out of his reach. “Please, don’t get angry, and try to stay calm. I didn’t mean for it to happen, and I had good reasons regardless.”
“The path to hell is paved with good intentions.” Joseph lunged for the call button, and she jerked it back out of the way.
“I’ve not heard that euphemism before.”
“Sounds like you should have. Are you planning on killing me?”
Ruth looked startled. “Why would I do that?”
“You blew me up. You’ve plainly admitted it. And now you’re keeping me from calling the nurse, which means I’m alone in a small room with the person that attempted to blow me to smithereens. It’s a reasonable assumption.”
Ruth colored slightly. “A Megami never kills unless she has no other option, and then only if her opponent is truly evil.”
“Noble. What the hell is a Megami, some kind of assassin?”
She frowned. “I expected resistance, or ignorance from you, Joseph. But not both.”
He smirked and made another lunge for the call button. “Congratulations, you’ve received the whole package.”
Ruth sighed and pushed him back onto the bed, turning and sitting beside him, tucking the call button under her legs so that she was physically between it and him. Reaching down, she laid her palms on either side of Joseph’s temples, and his struggles stopped instantly. She leaned down and pressed her forehead against his, and closed her eyes. A brief silence followed, and then Joseph was flailing on the bed, eyes wide open and mouth sputtering.
“What the hell was that? You’re psychic? A fucking angel? Where the hell am I really?”
Ruth smiled gently and stood back up, satisfied that he wouldn’t grab for the call button now, his attention focused elsewhere. “An Angel I am not, though I used to be one. I am Megami now.” She paused, brow wrinkling. “Oh, you meant ‘Angel’. No, I am not a representative of the creator of the universe. At least if I am, I am not directly aware of it. I do like to think of myself as working for a holy cause, however.”
Joseph sat up in bed. “Psychic?” Ruth nodded. “And you…?”
“Gave you a copy of my knowledge, what you needed to get up to speed on your current situation. You might have severe headaches for a day or so, but no long lasting damage.”
“You’re a… pokegirl?” Joseph nearly mangled the foreign word.
“That is correct. And I have selected you as my tamer.” Joseph colored as the implications of that rattled through his newly informed mind.
“God damn.”
“I hope not.”
Joseph slipped on the shoes Ruth had brought him along with his new clothes. They fit quite well, and were in a style he would have chosen for himself, a fact she explained rather casually as her learning his preferences when linking herself to his mind. Regardless, after the headaches had subsided, he had started to feel substantially better. Ruth and he had spent the entire night discussing the finer points of what exactly he had been pulled into. He had only received general ideas from her mind and memories, and he had hundreds of questions, something she took in stride, and seemed to secretly be pleased about, if Joseph was correct.
When it had come to the topic of ‘Taming’, Ruth’s euphemism for sex, both had been blushing furiously as she had explained how these human-like creatures known as Pokegirls required intimate contact with a full-blooded human to keep from falling down to the mental levels of wild animals. She had also informed him with a blush that she still had at least a week yet until she would need to be ‘Tamed’.
When it came to release him from the hospital, she had filled out most of the paperwork, listing his residence as the city of Dubris, and listing herself as his pokegirl-pro-tem, whatever that meant. The doctor had actually looked surprised at that, eyeing Joseph with a suspicious look that he ignored.
Joseph buttoned up the heavy cotton overshirt over the black tight fitting t-shirt Ruth had brought him, and pulled on the heavy grey wool jacket she had presented him with. The boots he was standing in were, new, to him. He rarely wore boots, much less ones that were both water proof and insulated against the cold of the Scandinavian region.
Ruth poked her head into the bathroom, eyes closed. “Are you done changing?”
Joseph looked up at her reflection in the mirror. “Yeah, I’m done.” He turned around as she opened her eyes and let the door swing open. “How do I look?”
Ruth gave a small smile. “Quite presentable, actually.”
“I hope so.” Joseph winced. “My chest still hurts, a bit. Feels like a cracked rib I once had.”
“The Nursejoy said you would have soreness, but there isn’t actually any damage, at least anymore.”
“Pity I can’t go in a pokeball and be healed, huh?”
Ruth looked shocked. “I wouldn’t joke about such things in public, Joseph.” Joseph just shook his head and laughed.
“So, what’s first?” He paused theatrically. “Oh, wait, you blow me up with a magic spell to drag me into an alternate universe. To what end, you won’t tell me.” He brushed past her roughly and picked up the backpack she had brought him, and began examining its contents. “X-Potion, Potion, Pokeballs, spare clothing, rations, lighters, matches, collapsible camp stove. Everything you need for a Tamer’s journey.” He looked up at her. “Except I’m not a tamer and I don’t want to be one.”
She frowned at him, a bit of that steel creeping back into her eyes. “You will be a tamer, soon. Our first stop after you are discharged is to register you as a tamer and me as your pokegirl, at a local pokecenter.”
“And if I refuse?” Joseph rubbed his head, where the Doctor had roughly cut his hair so that the Nursejoy could see better what she was healing.
“You can’t refuse, Joseph. I tried to explain this. Destiny has chosen you for a greater fate than wasting your life as you were.”
“Learning to be a certified pilot so I can get a high paying job is wasting my life?”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I honestly don’t. If this is one of those great quests you need a hero for, you’re better off sending me back where I came from and finding someone else.” Ruth stared at him hard, and then looked away, fidgeting. “What? You won’t send me back, or you can’t?” The pretty blonde was silent, and Joseph ground his teeth and sighed. “That’s what I thought.” He slung the backpack up on his shoulders. “Well, seeing as you’re unwilling to tell me how to get home, and I have absolutely no idea what’s waiting out in this big, apparently insane world, why not jump in with both feet and just hope I don’t get killed by… what did you call them? Widow, Mantis?”
“Either one would probably kill us both.” Ruth sighed and followed him out the door. She had to find a way to convince him to accompany her on her quest. Maybe the best way was to let him get his bearings first, and then slowly nudge him onto an acceptable path.
Joseph and Ruth stood outside the large, dome shaped red and white pokecenter. Their trip over had been uneventful, Ruth’s purposeful stride deterring any challenges for her. Joseph had stopped to stare at a few women during their walk, gawking. Which, as Ruth considered it, was understandable. He had been given her memories of a wide assortment of pokegirls, but even a psychically transferred memory paled in comparison to the wide assortment of varied pokegirls with his own eyes. At least he wasn’t running and screaming by all the inhuman appearances. That was a credit to his own psyche, and Ruth’s selection of memories, as it were.
The sliding glass door of the pokecenter opened, a young man and woman exiting. Ruth stepped forward, followed by Joseph. Inside, a frazzled looking Nursejoy was dealing with a long line of people. Ruth strode forward, pushing to the head of the line against the objections of the tamers and pokegirls she was cutting in front of. The Joy working the counter had started to raise her voice to tell Ruth to go to the back of the line when she snapped her mouth shut. If Joseph looked out of the corner of his eye, he could see a bright white glow clinging to Ruth’s body, seeming to wrap her in light. She spoke quickly to the attendant, and when she was satisfied with what she heard, she returned to Joseph’s side. “I’ve explained to her your circumstances. You will be registered as an Extra-Dimensional Traveler, and be awarded Tamer status without having to undergo a psychic evaluation or the normal seven week training course, seeing as I’ve already implanted all the information you need directly into your mind.”
“Yeah. Yeah, thanks for that, by the way.” Ruth was unsure whether or not he was being sarcastic.
“I’ve secured a starter that I believe will help us on our quest, and she will be delivered to us momentarily, along with your paperwork and pokedex.”
“How are we paying for all this?”
“We are not. I was able to convince her that Destiny will reimburse the league for the initial expenses they will incur by helping us.”
“And will it?” Joseph raised an eyebrow as a short woman appeared from a swinging door behind the counter and hurried toward them carrying a small box.
“Yes. I have foreseen that our later actions will more than compensate them for the fees they are waiving now.”
“Assuming I don’t say ‘Fuck you’ to Destiny.”
Ruth looked at him, appalled as he took the box from the attendant and thanked her, and started walking towards a booth in the cafeteria. “You cannot say such a thing. Destiny works as it wills, and to try and reject it is futility in its most base form.”
Joseph made himself comfortable on one side of the booth, pulling out a small cardboard box and sliding a plastic wrapped pokedex out of it. He depressed the on switch, and the newly activated pokedex clicked on, its internal battery coming pre-charged. “You say that now, Ruth. You’ll just have to watch and see how it turns out. Maybe I’ll be the first to successfully throw ‘Destiny’ the finger.”
“You are a very rude man, Joseph.” Ruth slid into the seat opposite him, smoothing her dress.
“Only when I have to be. Or when I’m in a situation I don’t have any experience with.” He looked up at her. “I’m only being candid about this because I suspect you’ve already dug around enough in my brain to realize it. I’m no psychic, so I can’t exactly keep you out.”
Ruth’s appalled expression returned. “I would never venture into your mind without your permission, no celestial pokegirl would.”
Joseph looked at skeptically. “You already have.” He pressed his thumb against the pokedex’s fingerprint scanner, setting the lock.
“I only did that because otherwise you would have been left in the dark about the society and culture you had been dragged into.”
“You could have just talked me through it. Meaning you have no real justification for doing so.”
Ruth frowned and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. Joseph watched her for a minute, then returned the frown. “Please don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Cross your arms under your tits like that. You’re making me horny. And I want to be mad at you, not lusting after you.” His words brought a severe blush to Ruth’s cheeks, and she quickly uncrossed her arms.
“You’re very forward.”
“No, I’m just stating facts. Where I grew up, beating around the bush would get you beat. So, I say what I think. Some might argue that I should think before I speak, and for the most part, I do. I just think fast, and don’t wait long to let my opinions be known. If that’s rude, or ‘forward’, well, I can’t do anything but apologize for it. And I get tired of apologizing.” Joseph blinked as the forward facing camera on the pokedex flashed, and his scowling face appeared on the screen facing up at him. “I never was very photogenic.” He finished entering his information, depressed the enter key, and set the device down, picking up the pokeball out of the box the attendant had brought. He held it over the scanner on the pokedex, and the red and silver handheld chimed once, then displayed a picture of a green skinned young woman with shiny emerald hair, and little green nodules around her wrists. The woman in the picture was, of course, nude. Joseph narrowed his eyes. “She has green skin.”
“You’re going to have to get used to a few oddities. For instance, I’m psychic, I can fly and do magic, and you have to follow Destiny’s lead.”
Joseph looked at her again, his brown eyes meeting her steely green ones. “Oddities I can do. Certainties not so much.” He stood up, taking his starter’s pokeball and his pokedex with him.
“Wait.” Ruth stood up and pulled a second pokeball from the box on the table. She held it out to him. “You have to capture me. I’m not your pokegirl until you do.”
“If I don’t capture you, someone else could? They could take you out of my hair?”
Ruth scowled. “In theory. But I’m much too strong to let that happen. I’d merely follow you until were forced to capture me.”
Joseph looked at her for a long, solid minute, and then took the pokeball from her grip, tapping her on the wrist with it. Ruth disappeared in a flash of liquid red light. He looked down at the pokeball and reflected how after the Megami’s psychic intrusion, things that should have freaked him out to no end, like a person disappearing into a baseball sized metal and plastic container, seemed run of the mill and common. He shrugged and headed off to the hallway with rooms reserved for taming.
The Chikotit appeared in a flash of red light, coalescing into a teenage girl of about five foot. She had a light green tinge to her skin, much less noticeable than her pokedex entry suggested she would. Her emerald hair came down just past her shoulders, and she was wearing a pair of tight fitting shorts and an oversized t-shirt. Joseph suspected it was to draw attention away from her nearly flat breasts. She looked around nervously for a moment, before her wide green eyes settled upon him where he sat in a semi-comfortable armchair.
Joseph cleared his throat. “First off, you’ve been given to me as my starter. Neither of us had any choice in the matter. I won’t tame you if you don’t want me to. I have another pokegirl, a Megami. This means if you want to return to wherever you came from, that can be arranged. You can also go to another tamer, if you so choose. I’m not going to force you to have sex with me.”
“You don’t want me?” The frightened-looking girl looked genuinely hurt.
Joseph sighed. “That’s not what I meant.” He stood up, shrugging out of his jacket. “No, you aren’t the ideal body type I look for in a woman. Yes, I am hesitant about having sex with you, since we just met. That doesn’t mean I won’t have sex with you. You’re pretty, I’m horny. That’s about all it takes on my part. But I’m not going to force you into this. You have options. Do you understand that?”
She looked at him for a long couple of seconds, and then nodded. “I think so. If I don’t want to tame with you, I can get another tamer, and you won’t be angry?”
“Precisely.”
“I want to tame with you, if you want to tame with me.”
“At this point, even though we don’t even know each other’s names, yes, I do.”
She fidgeted. “I don’t have a name.”
“What were you called wherever it was that you came from?”
“I was born and raised on Ray’s Ranch. They just called me Chik.”
“Not much of a name.” He frowned. “I’ve never named someone before. Any suggestions?”
“Not really…”
He thought for a moment. “How does Marie sound to you? Yes, no?”
A smile slowly formed on the Chikotit’s face. “It’s perfect!” She plastered herself to Joseph. He laughed wrapping his arms around her and cupping her ass. She squeaked as he gave it a firm squeeze, the fabric of her tight shorts doing little to hide her from his probing fingers. He leaned down, capturing her pale pink lips in a kiss as his hands came up slightly and then slipped down under her shorts to squeeze her warm cheeks. She moaned into his mouth, hands around his neck. Joseph hooked his thumbs around the hem of her shorts, dragging them down around her thighs as he pulled her back towards the armchair. He sat down heavily, drawing her into his lap and slipping her shorts completely off. She wiggled slightly in his lap, making his already stiff member throb painfully. He fumbled with the button of his jeans, popping it off before raising his hips, the petite girl in his lap giggling as she was raised along with him. He slipped off his jeans and boxers, letting them pool around his ankles.
She slipped from his lap, turning as she went. She nestled herself between his thighs, arms in his lap as her mouth engulfed him. He threw his head back as her teeth gently nipped at his mushroomed head, lubricated lips sliding down as her tongue thrashed against the underside of his prick. He gathered up her shining emerald hair in a makeshift ponytail as she bobbed, holding her head down as she tried to take him deep. He felt himself throb powerfully as she gagged on him, the tip of his cock tickling the back of her throat. He pulled her off and looked down into her gasping face. Drool bridged from her tongue to his prick, and as he watched she swirled her tongue around his head, slurping up the precum and saliva dribbling down his member.
Grunting, he pulled off his shirt, pulling her up into his lap. He tugged her shirt off of her, turning her around roughly and cupping her thighs in his palms. He lined her pale nether lips up with his throbbing meat, and she groaned as he lowered her slowly down, her hands braced on the arms of the chair. She rocked back and forth in his grip, painting her lips with the spittle and pre on his tip. He growled, and pulled her down on him, his girth splitting her open as she gasped. He shuddered as her tightness gripped him, wet and warm. He held her close for a few seconds as he twitched within her, and then his seed exploded into her, the warm jets of spunk splattering liberally against her insides as she moaned and writhed in his arms. They both sat panting for a few minutes as they regained their breath. Joseph smiled suddenly, thrusting his hips up into her, causing her to fall back against his chest. He latched his mouth onto her neck, suckling hard as his fingers found her nipples, gently pulling and twisting the little nubs as she ground down on him. He felt himself stiffening again, and bumped his hips up against Marie’s ass. The petite young woman giggled, lolling her head back on his shoulder as he began thrusting into her properly this time.
Joseph, Ruth, and Marie stood outside a clothing shop on Third Street. Joseph had insisted on getting Marie clothes that fit her better, as well as obtaining two extra pairs of jeans for himself and a good leather jacket. Along with the supplies they had bought earlier in the day, most of his money was gone. He had been surprised to know he had any to begin with, and Ruth had merely acted smug when she said Destiny had provided the funds that had been deposited into his Tamer’s Bank account overnight. If he had a mind to argue, he would have pointed out that his vintage Rolex watch, a gift from a well off cousin, had disappeared after the first night he spent in the hospital. Not that he could rightly accuse her of pawning it off, but he would keep a sharp eye out for missing items whenever a mysterious windfall came his way from now on.
Marie was clinging to his side, and Joseph picked a direction at random and began walking, hand in hand with the plant-type with Ruth shadowing his every step. A few people came up to him in the street and challenged him for the Megami, but he waved them off by saying that she was part of some grand quest and would go apeshit on their ass if they tried to pull her off it. When Ruth attempted to point out that he himself seemed set on preventing her from following Destiny, he merely returned her to her pokeball.
“She’s kinda annoying, and she’s not growing on me like I thought she might. She’s acting more like an overbearing older sister than a friend or guide.” He sighed and hugged Marie close. She squeaked, but otherwise stayed silent. He knew he couldn’t keep ignoring Ruth, treating her like she wasn’t a person was what other people in this strange reality did. If he intended to keep himself somewhat stable in accordance with his moral compass (which he would be the first to admit was slightly crooked), he had to try and treat at least tamed pokegirls as people. Ferals would be another matter. If they didn’t at least act some semblance of human, he couldn’t feasibly treat them that way in his mind. He didn’t want to dwell on all the implications that line of thinking might have, so he had resolved that he wouldn’t hold himself back fighting or capturing ferals, but would avoid killing them whenever possible.
“So, what attacks do you know, Marie?” Ruth was sitting across from the Chikotit at their campfire while Joseph worked on dinner at the collapsible camp stove. Both Ruth and Marie had been surprised that he knew how to cook, and even more so that he insisted on doing so. His reasoning, as he had explained it, was that he ‘didn’t trust anyone else’s ‘home’ cooking, at least not until he had watched them in the kitchen to ensure they knew how to thoroughly cook a steak so that whoever ate it didn’t get sick’.
“I know the basic attacks for my breed. I was evaluated on them before being put up for adoption by the ranch.”
“So that would be… let’s see.” Ruth keyed up Joseph’s pokedex and looked at the Chikotit entry.
“I could just tell you.” Ruth looked up at Marie and frowned. They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then the Megami blinked, a slow smile forming on her lips.
“Please do then.”
Marie nodded and curled up, bringing her legs to her chest. “I know the basic plant-based techniques Leech Seed, Vine Whip, and Bullet Seed. I can also use a wide range of normal attacks, from Slap to Cheer to Tackle.”
“Tell me more about your Vine Whip attack. How many vines are you capable of using on each hand?”
“Two, though I had started pushing towards three before I was told I was going into the adoption pool.”
Joseph approached the campfire, settling down next to Marie. Ruth’s stare went unnoticed as he handed them each a bowl of noodles, Ruth and Joseph’s had seared meat strips mixed in, while Marie, the lone vegetarian of the group, contented herself with a piece of fruit to go along with the steaming bowl of noodles. “Let’s keep in mind I’ve never even seen a pokegirl battle, much less either one of you use any of your attacks. Though I wouldn’t put it past Ruth using her stare to make someone surrender unconditionally.” Marie giggled as she leaned against her tamer while Ruth shot him a withering look. “What I’m saying is I’m going to need a lot of practice, quickly. And I take it that Marie will as well.” He looked at Ruth. “I have no idea about anything about you besides the fact that you have an ulterior motive that requires that you sleep with me.” Marie grew quite against his side as Ruth slowly rose and stormed off to one of their tents.
“Sir… I don’t think that was very nice, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
Joseph hugged Marie to his side. “I know it wasn’t. But she’s been trying since we’ve met to push me in the direction she wants me to go. I don’t like being pushed. Everything I do has a purpose. Usually that purpose is protecting myself, or those I care for.” He bumped his forehead against Marie’s. “Remember that. You’re now one of those people. If Ruth ever gives you any reason to be afraid, you come straight to me. She shouldn’t, but she knows more than me, and as I told her, has an ulterior motive for everything she does. She and I are alike in that regard. Maybe that’s why I’m so wary of her.”