Chapter 4: Wild Horses & Pokegirls
The Duties Of A Tamer

WARNING: This is a fic that has silly moments and plotlines, but is set in a
dark world and explores concepts dealing with the darker side of human
nature. It also is *not* recommended for the young, rated NC-17 or something
or like that. There are elements which will disturb me, the writer, for
crying out loud.

DISCLAIMER: Various elements from this come from Greyman and a few other
erotic (or at least adult-oriented) Addventure writers on the web, Nintendo,
R.Takahashi/Viz, and other writers.

"I've got to be the very best!
 Like no one ever was!
 To catch them is my real test
 to tame them is my cause
 I will travel across the land
 searching far and wide
 a way back home and outta here,
 it's all just way too weird!
 pokegirls!
 Kasumi and Nabiki...
 Some say it's my destiny!
 pokegirls!
 and Shampoo too,
 my friends brave and true,
 you teach me and I'll teach you,
 po-ke-girls,
 gotta catch 'em all!"

------------

"Well come on, Ranma."

"..."

"We'll be safe once we get to Tendo's place."

"..."

"Boy! Straighten up and fly right! Were you not prepared to give your life
for the Art!"

"ARRGGHHH! YOU DIRTY" *WHAM!* "STUPID" *WHACK!* "BRAINLESS" *BAM!* "OYAJI!"
*POW!* "MY LIFE YES!" *KA-POWIE!* "MY MANHOOD IS ANOTHER STORY!" *CRUNCH!*
"MY HUMANITY DEFINITELY NOT!" *SLAM!*  "IF WE GET CAUGHT, WE'LL GET *TAMED*!
DAMN YOU!" *WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM!* "WHAT KIND OF FUTURE DO YOU THINK WE'VE
GOT?!"

"...owie..." said the portly pokegirl sticking partly out of a wall.

Ranma considered a couple more "damn you"s and a few more beatings but his
dad (her former dad?) could soak up punishment as a Snorlass. No matter how
hard the bearlike pokegirl was hit, she'd shrug it off soon enough. Sighing
deeply, knowing a level of depression beyond anything he'd ever known, Ranma
considered the large ranch that was their destination.

"Safe, Oyaji? We'll never be safe if we can't find a cure, and we've done
looked for a cure without finding jack. If your friend can't find us a cure,
what's gonna happen? Will we go Feral? Will I get Tamed? You wanted me to be
the greatest Fighting Type Tamer, wasn't that what all that training was
for? Now what?"

Genma brushed debris out of her fur. "Tendo will know what to do. Trust me,
I know what I'm doing."

----------

Happosai dropped back. The ancient and most evil Harem Master in the world,
wanted for numerous crimes dating back a hundred years, chortled evilly.

All the eggs in one basket. All the targets in one place.

Twenty years ago, he had been betrayed by his two pupils: Soun and Genma.
Twenty years ago some of his greatest secrets had been leaked to the League.
Twenty years ago there had been *some* of the information made available and
he'd been thrown into a deep dark cell where he could see the trial via
video. Only some of the charges were made public. Assault, attacks on human
women, theft of League property, genetic experimentation, study and
collection of Sukebe's ancient equipment, these were enough to have him
thrown into that cell and the key thrown away.

The charges that did *not* make the newscasts were enough to have levels of
security around him that would have stopped a lesser man. Yet they couldn't
kill him. Human life was sacred, after all. Besides, they wanted information
only he could provide.

Eventually, he'd escaped anyway.

A news report had told him of Genma's likely fate, and how he'd delighted in
seeing how the two had turned out. Genma had a son, now daughter. The Toxic
Spell Dump of Jusenkyo. Genma had doomed both himself and his former son.
Taming Genma's son would be a perfect vengeance.

As for Soun, he had become a Breeder. The problem with Breeders were that
they were not very mobile. And there would be plenty of pokegirl daughters
for Happosai to Tame and train and then turn Feral. He knew tricks he did.
Oh yes, he had his revenge planned against Soun.

And he even had brought allies. Simple, as long as his identity remained
concealed, and so far the League didn't want to admit that the infamous
Happosai was on the loose.

Yes, his revenge would come soon.

-------

"So, this is a 'pokebattle'," said Ranma as he watched the scuffle.

"Ohohohohohohoho! Face the terror of the Black Rose!" The leotard clad
pokegirl held up a rose, which morphed into a barbed whip in her hand.
"Black Rose Special Attack! Call Me Queen!"

"Hmmm, rapid strike technique," mused Ranma from where he watched the fight.

"The Rose Whip can be used for a number of attacks," said Nabiki sleepily.
"A number of poisons, usually paralysis or weakness. Kuno's Dominatrix
appears to be using the will-draining poison. That leaves her opponent more
vulnerable to attacks like Glare and Dominate."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Ranma. "Now that one with the pink hair's got some decent
moves."

"Amazonchan. They've got some weird hair colors, but they're pretty good in
hand-to-hand." Nabiki gestured offhandedly where the pink-haired pokegirl
was beating the royal snot out of a serpentine pokegirl.

*FWOOOOSH!* A foxlike girl breathed a cone of flame that had the leotard
girl shrieking and ducking.

[Vixxen, the firefox pokegirl. Vixxen requires regular Taming but can be an
affectionate and loyal pokegirl. Vixxen is always hot and ready for whatever
her Tamer is up to.]

Ranma looked down at his Pokedex and wondered why it didn't give him some
*useful* information. Then back to the fight, where some leather-clad
pokegirl was getting pounded by the leotard girl. "So some pokegirls can zap
people, and others can do fire?"

Nabiki shook herself when she realized she'd been staring at her Tamer and
purring. What an incredible Tomcat of a Tamer he'd turned out to be! "Some.
Sukebe originally wanted superhuman soldier sexslaves. So some have
elemental powers like Water, Fire, Electric, or Plant."

The Tamer with the bokken unleashed some rapid strike technique of his own.
The Vixxen just concentrated her flame breath in a continual wave until the
Tamer ran off with his bokken ash and his pants on fire.

Kasumi had finished fixing a rice and soup mix and brought three bowls out.
"Master, after last night you really need to get more protein. You used up a
lot of calories."

Ranma tried to remember details again and failed. "What did I do?"

Kasumi all but purred. "Tamed AND bonded us! You have the instincts of a
*grrrreat* Tamer."

Ranma was *really* beginning to worry, and so focussed on the battle.

The bokken wielder was having trouble dealing with the foxgirl. Ranma
started working out defense and tactics if one fought him.

--------

Bunny, sometimes known as Usagi, and sometimes as Serena, and even as
Dumpling-brains to a few, was really bad at a lot of things.

She had rated negative scores in Cooking and Domestic, was hopeless at
Exotic Dance, and her one attempt at a Sword Dance was best forgotten. Like
the overwhelming majority of Bunnygirls, Bunny wasn't as idiotic or
scatterbrained as a Psidyke - though neither breed would exactly win awards
for intelligence. Her attention span was pathetic, her ability to focus on a
given task was all but nonexistent, and her strength minimal.

That being said, there *were* some things Bunny was quite good at. Running
was one of those. Though not as fast as a Cheetaur or Mongoose, Bunny could
be quite quick and agile when the need was impressed on her.

"Gotta run, gotta get help, gotta run, gotta get help!" Bunny took a few
things seriously. A call from Bell stating that her danger senses had gone
suddenly off, with images of the Ranch in flames, was something to give
serious consideration to.

She ran past the emitters on the path, she ran past a Titmouse who looked
lost, she ran past a Dove that was fighting with a Buzzbreast. She ran past
a Tamer who was apparently trying to grab all three. "Gotta run! Need to get
Ranma! Daddy said 'get Ranma!'"

Usagi was proud that her Father had trusted her with such an important
assignment.

---------

Soun looked out the window, puzzled over why Usagi had gone running off like
that. Oh well. "Shampoo, could you fetch Ranma and Genma? I think
they're..."

*VROOOOM!* *Screeeechhhh!*

Now SHAMPOO was off and she was taking her motorcycle at high speed down the
path.

"I meant the OTHER Ranma!" Soun attempted to yell after Shampoo. Then he
just shrugged, heck they were in the next room. It was faster just to get
them himself.

---------

Hans checked his blaster, an ancient weapon that he'd rebuilt before
beginning his life of crime. Not that this bothered him. Just owning such a
thing was criminal. Actually, whatever he could get away with was okay by
him. If anyone crossed his path they were either something he could use,
something he could ignore, or something he would eliminate.

Trixie grunted as she slapped battery packs together. "Why do we have to do
what that disgusting little Tamer asks again?"

"Because 'Happo' is actually 'Happosai' - the ancient lech who uncovered a
lot of Sukebe's ancient secrets," Hans said quietly, checking the targeting
computer and frowning. "If we play along with him, we can find out where
some of his stuff is hidden. Besides, this'll provide some decent loot and
we can get that rare pokegirl Soun's reputed to have."

"Still not sure about that. Half-pokegirls sometimes have odd tricks, but a
Bunnygirl with psychic talents?" Trixie shook her head. "Much less a rating
like that."

"We'll just have to see. Need to have something to stun 'em, don't want a
slaughter like we did at that Gym."

"Stuff happens. We'll see," said Trixie.

--------

Ranma had determined there were three weak points that he could use if he
ever had to fight a Vixxen. Which wouldn't help much if he were cornered and
she used that flamethrower trick, but if he had sufficient manueverability,
he ought to be able to beat her.

"...so, I was thinking maybe some additional Taming this morning before we
get started," suggested Nabiki, using one bare foot to stroke along the
outside lines of Ranma's hip and thigh.

"Perfume, finish him!"

Ranma wondered about the 'Amazonchan' however. Obviously pretty good (though
nowhere near his class, of course) and he'd rank her as being about third or
fourth dan black belt in what looked like a variant of Wing Chun Style Kung
Fu with a smattering of Kempo.

The pinkhaired girl finished off the recovering kendoist by tying him to a
tree. "Perfume no like stupid stickboy, so stickboy stop trying to get loose
or Perfume will stick scorpion down his shorts!"

"I despise you," quoted the slightly charred boy.

"Uhm, nice fight," said Ranma to the other Tamer.

"Not exactly match rules, was it?" The other Tamer called back. "I get so
tired of these Team Rocket types, don't you?"

"Yeah, that's right," Ranma responded. In a much quieter voice he asked
Nabiki: "What's a Team Rocket?"

Rather than mope about her attempts at seduction were being ignored, Nabiki
decided that this fell into her role as an information specialist. "Team
Rocket was a group of pokegirl thieves that started operating a little over
a year ago. Two person Tamer teams working for some mysterious boss. After
it became obvious that the law wasn't effective in catching or holding those
people, other groups got into the act. Copycats of a sort. Team Pop Rocket,
Team Hard Rocket, Teen Rocket, Terror Rocket, Team Punk Rocket, etcetera
etcetera. Prior to that were groups like the Limbec Pirates, but they never
really went as out there as some of those groups. And then there are groups
like Trauma Team which are outright killers."

"Trauma Team?" Ranma nodded. THAT group was familiar, they were responsible
for him being here. "Where are they?"

"Nobody knows, all of the criminal groups are either in hiding or keep a
mobile base of operations. Trauma Team is especially bad, they and Team Hard
Rocket are very similar except tht Trauma Team doesn't leave witnesses
alive." Nabiki shuddered. She started praying that her Master wasn't going
after Trauma Team. She didn't want to lose him so quickly.

Ranma cracked his knuckles, considering methods of payback against this
'Trauma Team' - they'd be traumatized if *he* got ahold of 'em.

"Oh my, look at that," exclaimed Kasumi.

With a roar, a motorcycle with two passengers leapt into the Rest Area.

---------

"AACHOOO! AAACHOOO!"

James looked over at his Dominatrix, Jessie. "Bless you."

"Maybe Jessie is catching a cold," Jessie said, sitting back and
considering.

"Maybe you're just getting old," suggested a Merrowl (similar to a Kitten
but furrier and less human in the face and hands) with an odd charm on her
forehead.

*WHACK!* *WHAM!* "Keep your opinions to yourself," replied Jessie, putting
her shinnai aside after giving the Merrowl a couple of satisfying thwacks.
"So what do we do now?"

"Well, we could always go after Ash's Peekaboo," suggested James. "It's
always been our default activity."

"No, we've been doing that for the past three months. Jessie thinks we're
not getting anywhere with that. Instead of digging pit traps, we've dug
ourselves into a rut." The Dominatrix with the weird hair considered the
forest as if trying to find an answer there.

"Besides, an electric mousegirl is still a mouse. We might as well go after
common Titmice if we's gonna do that." Merrowl wasn't happy about it either.
It used to be sort of a game. Then the other groups and now that Trauma Team
were making the game a different sort of atmosphere entirely.

"There's Martial Beach," suggested James. "Pokegirls wanting to prove their
martial arts prowess come from all over to compete there."

"Do you really want to fight an entire beach of trained kickbutt martial
artists?" Jessie sighed at the thought.

"Good point," allowed James, then straightened. "So we wait until they've
tired each other out, then we grab the ones that have already been defeated
when nobody's looking."

Jessie brightened a little. "That's so simpleminded it just might work."

"On three," said Merrowl. "One, two, three."

"Ah hah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Cue evil laugh.

-------

Ranma hadn't really been comfortable with the idea of putting Nabiki and
Kasumi in their pokeballs. He wasn't comfortable with the term "Master" for
that matter. Still, he'd seen the need to get from point A to point B in a
hurry.

Then he'd discovered that he REALLY wasn't comfortable with hanging onto a
hardbodied Amazonchan named Shampoo while she drove crosscountry at speeds
that really pounded one's kidneys. Not that he would admit it, and he was
already putting the whole thing off as endurance training.

Now they were on a hilltop overlooking the Ranch, and there was no sign of
disaster.

"Well? What's the big rush?" Ranma finally got off the torture machine and
unsteadily walked to the edge. "I don't see anything."

A slight whistling preceeded one section of wall coming apart in flaming
ruin.

"Uhm..." Ranma said, reconsidering.

"Ahhhh! That was nursery!" Shampoo gunned her bike's engine and sped
forward, forsaking the safe path in order to make a straight line towards
the burning building.

Another missile struck causing another plume of fire.

Ranma stared. His life had been largely defined by violence, but this was an
entirely different sort of violence. In the martial arts matches he'd been
in, there was violence but it was all regulated and controlled. It was
violence, but it was within rules. When someone died it was usually an
accident. In street fighting and similar venues, the violence was harsher
but there were still rules and a code of honor that most adhered to.

A line of light briefly connected from some car to Shampoo's bike, which
came apart and sent the pokegirl sprawling.

Ranma was immediately running towards the car. He didn't need no pokegirl to
fight his battles!

He dodged the first energy beam. Then another. Then was almost halfway
across the field when he noticed something that looked kind of like a tank
with legs.

Then there was a bright flash, a feeling of heat and some impact, and
everything started going dark.

The last thing he heard were two noises that sounded like *SHOOM!* *SHOOM!*.

---------

Tatewaki struggled against his bonds. That sneak and charlatan! He'd heard
the pokegirl on a motorcycle (a scandalous thing that was something else the
Blue Thunder would have to correct) refer to the OTHER Tamer as Ranma.

"Huh, if he's the Blue Thunder then I'm a Purple Avenger, and I'd look
awfully silly wearing tight..."

 Jim considered the gagged and bound Tamer as he scratched his Vixxen behind
an ear.

"To protect the world from devastation," suggested Perfume, trying to get in
the spirit of things.

"To tame pokegirls with fornication," added Jim.

"To denounce the evils of rogues and thieves," mused Perfume.

"With many tricks I've up my sleeves," said Jim.

"Perfume!" "Vixxen!" "Domina!" "Jim!"

"Team Jim striking with strength and precision!"

"Surrender or lose and be treated with derision," suggested Perfume.

Jim considered for a moment. "Nah. Doesn't work that well for the originals
either. Well, come on. Vixxen, return! Perfume, get your pack. We've got a
long hike if we're gonna get to Fight City today."

Kuno continued to struggle against his bonds. He would get revenge against
the Purple Avenger AND Ranma Saotome now! First Ranma, of course, because he
had to free the precious and tidy Akane Tendo from the evil clutches of that
fiend!

================

AMAZONCHAN, the fist fighter
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Fighting
Frequency: uncommon, mainly found in Jozetsuzoku Preserve
Diet: any human style food except alcoholic beverages and milk
Role: a largely protected group. Only a few are allowed off the Preserve
under special circumstances.
Libido: Low (High with a Master they like/trust)
Strong Vs: Nonelemental, Ice, Rock
Weak Vs: Flying, Poison, Psychic, Bug
Attacks: Pummel, Tackle, Kick, Comet Punch, Gatling Punch, Chi Blast
Enhancements: High Strength, Agility, Durability, Speed
Evolves: Herochan
Among the most human in appearance are the Amazonchan and the Amazonlee.
Amazonchan are stronger but slower than Amazonlee. They are more human
appearance than the three stages of the Amachop (Amachop, Amachoke,
Amachamp) and often better fighters than Tomboys. Amazonchan are skilled HTH
fighters, though they are often very skilled with one or two weapons as
well.
Due to a peculiarity of their digestive system, alcohol will make an
Amazonchan ill while milk products will actually act as an intoxicant.

AMAZONLEE, the kicking fiend
TYPE: Very Near Human
Element: Fighting
Frequency: uncommon, mainly found in Fight City
Diet: any human style food except high sugar foods.
Role: a largely protected group. Only a few are ever allowed out of their
barracks in Fight Town.
Libido: Low (High twice a year)
Strong Vs: Nonelemental, Ice, Rock
Weak Vs: Metal, Psychic, Flying, Poison
Enhancements: 4x human strength, High Agility and Speed, Durability
Attacks: Gatling Kick, Tackle, Hurricane Kick, Chi Blast, Legsweep
Evolves: Herolee
Among the most human in appearance are the Amazonlee and the Amazonchan.
Amazonlee are faster but weaker than Amazonchan. Amazonlee are skilled in
HTH combat styles and almost entirely rely on kicks and speed techniques.
Their are much fewer Amazonlee than Amazonchan.
Due to a peculiarity of their endocrine system, Amazonlee who eat high sugar
foods grow torpid very quickly until they've had a chance to digest it and
recover. Tamers running across wild Amazonlee have used this to capture the
pokegirl without exhausting her in a battle.