Trading

There's some pokegirl pics up on http://www.geocities.com/studio_vanir/

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: The character of N-Ranma (Native Ranma) is based on the manga
characterization of Ranma (with adjustments for growing up in this setting),
while Ranma (the one from another world) is based on the anime. 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.

There's now a pokewoman forum at:
http://disc.server.com/Indices/169881.html

--------

"Get away from her, quickly!" Jim ordered his pokegirls to move their fuzzy
little butts.

Perfume leapt away, curious but following his instructions immediately.
Vixxen was sufficiently occupied that it took a few moments for the order to
penetrate.

Akane flared as her still unstable DNA sought a pattern to stabilize itself.
It naturally latched onto the nearest one as primary.

Jim watched as the unstable pokegirl altered to become a Vixxen. He already
had one that he was quite satisfied with, that meant he had to trade off a
Vixxen as well as a Domina and likely that Naga.

Checking his pokedex, modified by the Agency he worked for, he confirmed
that the girl was now definitely a Vixxen and stable. She looked slightly
different from Sakura, red fur instead of silver, and more of a near-human
in appearance, but her abilities wouldn't be that different.

A grin formed. Jim pulled out a cell phone and tapped out a number quickly.

The phone rang four times before a boyish male voice answered. "Hello?!"

"Cousin? This is Jim. Listen, I've got some pokegirls I wanted to trade with
you."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Jim acknowledged, watching Akane and Sakura making slow motion
affection to each other. The silver-furred fox and the blackhaired one
(though with a nice red streak in the bangs) were going slowly, obviously
stunned a bit by the data transfer. "I'm sentimental enough I want them to
have a caring Tamer, and I think I remember something about you having a
couple I can use. I just got a second Vixxen."

"Yeah. I could definitely use someone to light campfires. As often as *I*
get lost and end up camping."

"So where are you?"

There was a pause from the other end of the phone. "I don't know. There was
a big explosion nearby, and I'm in the woods near a lake."

Having heard an explosion himself, Jim nodded. "Buggy Lake. Stay put,
Ryouga. I'll be there in a half hour."

--------

Nabiki, being a Cheshire, had two psychic techniques: Fade (psychic
invisibility) and Teleport. She had therefore easily distanced the
explosion.

Kasumi had been stunned heavily by the explosion, but had instinctively used
her wings to use the force of the explosion to sail away from it.

There had been a casualty however.

Ash had practically wailed at the heavens when his Peekabu died. Misty had
been pretty badly hurt as well, but a piece of shrapnel had caught the
electric mousegirl in the throat.

Ranma mourned for his sort-of-brother and the mousegirl to a lesser extent.
He understood that these pokegirls kinda grew on you, and that the Peekabu
had been Ash's very first pokegirl. Like Ash, and unlike most of the people
around, Ranma didn't have a problem thinking of the electric girl as being
"people."

The Professor had been slightly puzzled, but it was the pokegirls themselves
who had the most variety and extremes of reaction. Not only to the loss of
one of their own, but to the sight of the "bawling his eyes out" Ash and the
obviously stunned Ranma.

Some had felt it all unseemly, some had found the two Tamers' reaction
puzzling. Others had become quite intrigued.

The Professor had felt that their presence, particularly with Ranma's
evolved and cross-evolved pokegirls, would draw too much fire to his lab.
Which was neither a sanctioned Gym, Dojo, nor recommended as a battleground.

Which was what brought Ash and Ranma gently but firmly shooed away from the
lab. Their training journey began as soon as they buried the Peekabu.

At the edge of the fields, where the fence would protect it, Ash had
insisted on digging the grave and burying his pokegirl himself.

"She was my first pokegirl, my Alpha, and my friend," Ash confessed to
Ranma. "She was born Feral, so she never said anything beyond the occasional
'Peeka', but she understood a lot of what was going on around her."

Ranma nodded, not sure how he should respond.

"We went through a lot together," continued Ash. "I know, they say never to
form emotional bonds with your pokegirls - it's unprofessional and makes
them weaker in battle. I never found that to be the case, though. Peekabu
always gave her best for me."

Ranma nodded again, then noticed how the crowd of pokegirls surrounding them
were scrutinizing the two of them with the same sort of intensity that he
might give an "All You Can Eat" buffet.

"Peekabu, she was always a fighter. She didn't understand a lot of things,
if they grow up wild they never do get the hang of language or even manage
to use most tools or stuff you run into in the cities, but she was always my
friend and..."

Ranma looked elsewhere as the Selkie gathered her Tamer into her arms and
made little sympathetic noises. He heard a sniffle and noticed a LOT of the
others were getting Misty-eyed themselves.

"We need to get going soon," said Nabiki reluctantly. "The Professor is
right. You two staying here is going to make this place a target for more
Team Rocket types."

"It wasn't your fault, Ash, if that missile had actually struck, there
wouldn't be anything left of the Professor's lab OR us." A purple furred
mousegirl twitched slightly. "The Professor will have to work up Anti-Robot
Defenses now."

"Thanks, Hotaru," acknowledged Ash.

Ranma needed something else to focus on, so fiddled with his pokedex.

[Tamer: Ranma Saotome. Current harem:
#1 Nabiki, Cheshire
#2 Kasumi, Griffon
#3 Shampoo, Amazonchan
#4 Usagi, Bunny
#5 Rei, Icemaiden

[Tamer: Ash Saotome/Sexum. Current harem:
#1 Misty, Selkie
#2 CharAmanda
#3 Barbisaur
#4 Pidgy
#5 Minotaura
#6 Tigress
#7 Snorlass (storage)]

"I'll put the Tigress in storage too," said Ash after an appropriate
shudder. "That's just sick."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Ranma tended to agree. Taming
relatives just didn't sit right.

"Excuse me, there's a trading festival in the town of Dogpatch in a few
days," said a blue furred Mareen, adjusting her glasses. "I don't know all
the details, but I saw it on the Professor's calendar."

"Trading?" Ranma was curious about this.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of them," agreed Ash. "Never attended any. Not everyone
is satisfied with a particular pokegirl or type. Like if you catch a
Barbisaur but you want to specialize in Fire types, you'd go to one of these
PokeCon things and see if someone would trade you. I could trade the Tigress
and Snorlass for something a little less creepy. Of course, that means I'd
be trading my former brother and former father off to be Tamed."

Ranma considered that. "Yeah, that's got a serious creep factor too."

"Unfortunately, I can't think of anything else to do with 'em," said Ash.
Finally he knelt by the gravesite. "Goodbye, Peekabu. I'm sorry I didn't get
to know you better. We made a good team and I'll miss you."

"What else is at these trading festivals?" Ranma was hoping for martial arts
demonstrations, or at least all-you-can-eat buffets.

"I've never been to one either," said Nabiki, "but I've heard a few things.
Pokegirl spas and beauty clinics, pokegirl contests and games with prizes to
be won, food booths, that kind of thing."

"Food booths?" Ranma's interest had gone up.

"Yeah, I think I heard that some of 'em have cooking contests, so if we
could enter Kasumi there's a good chance of winning." Nabiki wondered if she
could run bets on the side. Kasumi being a Griffon now, there were those
who'd assume she couldn't cook. Nabiki liked other people making
assumptions: it was usually quite profitable.

"Sounds like a plan," said Ash, shouldering his pack.

--------

Jim flipped a ball briefly up in the air as he walked along, Perfume keeping
an eye out on the woods around them for danger.

He ignored the preening pokegirl on the rock, or the other one managing to
scurry from bush to bush, and the other little displays. These were wild
pokegirls that were interested in the attentions of a Tamer, and looking for
a little care & comfort as opposed to being out in the wild.

Not that he could blame them. However, this *was* nature and he had other
things to do. If he let himself get involved with every strange pokegirl who
decided she wanted in out of the woods he'd spend 24/7 Taming and die of
exhaustion before terribly long.

These displays were usually enacted when those pokegirls saw a Tamer who
either struck their fancy or seemed of greater than usual ability. So a
Pidgy would *happen* to fly by and start pecking on the ground where the
Tamer could see her. If the Tamer sent a pokegirl after the Pidgy, then
defeat that Pidgy, then he was likely able to handle her.

So Jim saw Pidgys landing and Cutiepies crawling along trees. There were
Buttsprouts and Pixies showing off their talents. Even a Spinnertit
displaying a lovely web out just to the side of the path.

He was tempted slightly by the Spinnertit. Some of them practiced an ancient
form of bondage-art known as shibari. They could come in handy. He was a bit
turned off by their feeding habits, however.

Still, the trade had gone off fairly well. Ryouga was his poor little
clueless relative, but capable enough if you got past his near-terminal
nosebleeds and tendency to get lost. Good heart though. Akane the Vixxen
would do well in his hands. Pun intended.

One of the pitfalls of beginning Tamers was to attempt marathon sessions at
every opportunity. Even those with Blood Gifts were prone to falling apart
after a couple of weeks of this attempt.

Those that survived either were intelligent enough to pace themselves, or
heartless bastards who could ignore their pokegirls even when they needed to
be Tamed.

Of those that were intelligent, Jim knew there were a few out there like
himself who saw their pokegirls as more than sextoys or the leftovers from
Sukebe's War. Some, like him, had had long experiences with domesticated
pokegirls who could communicate and reason. Some Tamers, like that Keiichi
fellow, had grown up with girls who went through the horror of Threshold
when their latent pokegirl genes suddenly flared to dominance. Some Tamers
simply got to know their pokegirls and developed bonds of affection. One
thing everyone knew though: keep it quiet and don't make waves.

There was beginning to be some changes in that attitude. More pokegirls were
being accepted as pets nowadays. Even that movie last year about a young boy
and his Growlie. Whatever the heck the name of it was. Considering his past,
he had *not* gone to see it.

The whole idea of being able to resist the illness of going Feral though,
*had* been planted. After all, Lao had been able to.

Jim ignored the way that Sandi just *happened* to pop her head up where he
could see her.

Besides, Jim had his hands full. Perfume, Sakura, Naga, the Domina, and now
he had a nice Pidgy.  Even more useful was that the Pidgy was actually
human-raised until the boy who'd been raising her since hatching had gotten
involved with one of those arranged marriages and the girl in question had
*not* taken it well that her betrothed had a pokegirl.

A Pidgy in the wild was fairly useless. A *trained* Pidgy who could speak
and reason was hardly useless. She was too young to require Taming, but
eager to please nonetheless. Jim had met young Safire during the trade and
had been impressed with the sad-eyed pokegirl's grasp of events. Ryouga had
gently explained that it was no fault of hers for the trade, but that he had
thought his cousin would benefit more from her skills.

Jim would have disagreed, but he could see that Ryouga still had some
problems around cute near-humans. And Safire was definitely a cute chick.

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

Three hours of hiking was nothing to Ranma. It was only a minor problem for
Ash, who was getting used to walking everywhere. With occasional rest stops
he was fine.

No, neither of the Tamers were having trouble with this.

"WAAAGGHHH!" (Tumble! Crash! Thud!)

Usagi was a different story.

"Isn't it time for another rest stop," complained Nabiki.

"You could just go into your pokeballs," Ash reminded them. "I did that for
Misty."

Nabiki looked distastefully at Ranma's "brother".

Ranma aimed one of the pokeballs at Usagi where she was sprawled in a heap
at the base of a tree.

"No, don't! I..." (SHOOM!)

Ranma shook his head and put the pokeball back onto his belt as he continued
walking. "I don't like puttin' her in this thing, but she's gonna get hurt
at this rate."

"I don't like puttin' them in pokeballs either. It's more typical to allow
your Alpha out. That is..."

Ranma didn't need to know Ash too well to know he was thinking about his
now-lost Alpha, the Peekabu. Time to change the subject. "So, tell me about
my family here. I don't even know if my Mom's still alive back home."

Ash straightened up with a visible effort. "Never met my Dad or brother
before this. So. My Mom's name is Nodoka. Generally goes by the nickname
'Delia', at least that's what a lot of the people around town call her.
Sexum is the last name, one of the first Tamer families had that name. I get
the feeling that grandmother or great grandmother was a pokegirl. Probably
an Amazonchan from the odd comment I hear every so often."

Ranma considered letting Shampoo out. He had a feeling that the
purple-haired warrior could handle the hike.

"Anyway," Ash continued, "there's not much to tell. Life in a small town.
Mom's got some old money, not enough to be wealthy but enough to get by in a
small town like Phallus."

Ranma stopped. "Your town is named *what?*"

Ash waited for Ranma to start walking again before going on. "Well, that's
the nickname. It's really called Pallet Town after the founder Ponchus
Pallet but it's either called Phallus or something like that by nearly
everyone. Just like Viridian is often called Viridick. Naming convention
that started years ago. Uhm. Anyway. These are called the Buggy Woods,
mainly cause there's a lot of Bug-type pokegirls around here. You know:
Cutiepie, Sworddancer, Gypsy Moth, and a few of the really dangerous ones
like Buzzbreast and Aupairsex. No Widows, at least. Any word that a Widow
had moved in and they'd likely burn the whole forest down trying to get
her."

"Widows are that dangerous?" Ranma was a little surprised as none of the
pokegirls he'd met so far were nearly as dangerous as the humans.

"Widows are trouble." Ash was serious. "If it weren't for Peekabu, I'd have
died. There was one near Cerulean and all available Tamers were mustered for
a search-and-destroy. Nasty. Six Tamers confirmed dead. Three missing. Eight
limbs: two human arms, two ending in natural knifes, four gripping
appendages. Poisonous, a webspinner, inhumanly strong, fast, literally has
eyes in the back of its head, and able to throw off almost any attack except
fire or electricity. Widows mate once, then eat their mates - and they ain't
picky about who or what they mate with. Even less about who they eat.
Nobody's quite sure how they survive or why they keep popping up."

"The theory is that they're an unstable mutation, that something going wrong
in the evolutionary process or something similar causes a more normal
pokegirl type to evolve to a Widow." Nabiki added then looked carefully at
Ash. Not seeing any alarm or upset there, the Cheshire relaxed slightly.
"Word is that nobody wants to see the slaughter that would result if it ever
turns out that there is a pokegirl breed that regularly evolves to Widow."

"They sound pretty tough, nobody wants to tame 'em?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki shook her head. "No, it's not a matter of them going Feral or
something. Something actually is wrong with their head where the only thing
that they can think of is destroying things and mating with things, mainly
both."

Ranma looked a little nauseous as he worked that out.

"You got *that* right," Ash said with a warding gesture. "I was maybe ten
yards away. I saw... what was left of a Tamer. She was still eating him. His
pokegirls were all ripped apart, and one of them was an Onyx. You know, the
Stone Giantess? It was *her* screams that brought me and some of the others
running. Turned out it was a trap, she'd made the wounds painful but not
fatal just to draw us in. Peekabu nailed the Widow with a Thunderbolt but it
was Richie and his CharAmanda who finally took her down."

"What happened to the pokegirls that were injured?" asked Nabiki in a quiet
tone.

"Died of the poison later," responded Ash as he looked off with a pained
expression. "That was 'seven kinds of nasty' as they say."

Ranma was puzzled by the comment, but decided not to pursue it. "Well, uhm,
any secrets you'd care to share with your brother?"

Ash snickered at that. "Hey, I wanted to ask you about *your* secrets. Going
around evolving pokegirls from the first Taming? Me, I ain't got no secret
beyond doing your best every day."

"So about this place we're heading to?"

Ash thought about it, then raised an eyebrow at Nabiki. "Well? I know darn
well you're smarter than you let on around the Professor. Got anything to
share?"

Nabiki considered her Master's brother for a moment, then smiled slightly.
"Not as dumb as you let on either. Okay, Dogpatch. Rural community.
Originally settled as part of a post to control pokegirl packs of Growlies
in the area shortly after Sukebe's War. Maybe 90 humans, double that in
number of pokegirls - mainly Growlies and a few other domesticateds. Other
than that, all I've gotten about them is that they have some kind of trading
festival regularly, though the exact day changes. First monday after a full
moon in a spring where some other event occurs or some bizarre thing like
that."

"Hmmm," hmmed Ranma. He wasn't sure if he'd seen a Growlie or not.

"Well, I don't know anything about Dogpatch, but I've been to a few
festivals. Usually they have cooking contests, strength contests, some
fights and other stuff." Ash pointedly ignored the Pidgy watching them from
a branch. He wasn't in the mood for catching pokegirls anyway.

"Oh, like a carnival then," Ranma suddenly made the connection. He'd been to
a few of those. It was usually something his father arranged for him, win a
few strength contests or beat twenty ninjas or do some dart throw for money
vouchers. He hadn't attended one in a few years but he kinda remembered
them.

"Any idea how long those pokegirls are gonna follow us?" Ash did *not* look
backwards.

"Maybe we should ask *them*," suggested Nabiki with a catty smile (of
course, being a Cheshire, all of her was catty to some degree.)

--------

Gendo Giovanni stood impassively above the newest failures, shadows cloaking
him partially as he considered his options.

The Limbek Pirates had grown out of Lao's old group. When he had come to
power, he had simply swept up the pieces from *that* organization as well.

The puppet master was a role that he felt he was particularly suited to. He
was openly one of the higher ranking members of the Pokewomon League,
helping to set policy and develop technology, and one of the premier Gym
Leaders in his own area.

The problem was that his puppets generally were neither very competent nor
successful. Team Rocket in its various incarnations was marked by frequent
failure. Oh, he had a *few* pairings which had been quite successful. One of
which had crossed paths with Trauma Team and was no longer viable. The other
two were out of the area entirely. One group that *had* been fairly
competent had just fallen into the patterns that often destroyed the others.

"Haruka, what *am* I to do with you?"

"It wasn't my fault. Besides, we caught a Tamer and his pokegirl. Where's
Michiru?"

Giovanni sighed. "In a healing chamber. It looks as if she may be going
through Threshold in response to her injuries."

Haruka took a step back, gasping in shock. Then shaking her head and
growling out a denial. "NO! You liar! I'll KILL you if something happens to
her!"

"Tsk," tsked Giovanni before snapping his fingers.

A figure stepped out onto the arena floor behind Haruka.

Haruka whirled at the sound of a footstep on sand. "Who?"

"Name's Tarou. Makin' threats against the Boss like that ain't real smart
girl. Betrayin' him even less so."

Giovanni shook his head. "Considering how most women are sheltered all their
life, and that with the amount of human women who could bear 'purely' human
children always in decline, how people must have reacted to the two of you
in your relationship? And yet *I* took you in. I gave you a place in my
organization, and you planned to break with your affiliation with me and
bring information on some of my practices to the other members of the
League. Now this failure. Shame on you, Haruka Ten'ou."

"Shit," growled Haruka, settling into a defensive brawling stance.

"A little test," indicated Giovanni. "You can fight Tarou here. If you win,
you will be free to go. Lose, and well, I could always use more experimental
subjects. Say you *and* that friend of yours?"

Haruka had fought most of her life. Some guys had thought she was a pokegirl
(a Tomboy to be exact) and had tried repeatedly to capture her. She had
always been attracted more to girls than guys, and in her society that was
more than frowned on. Human women gave birth to more humans, unlike
pokegirls who only irregularly birthed human babies. So a girl who only
wanted to pair off with other girls was pretty much an abomination, unless
she *was* a pokegirl. Then it was merely amusing. As a result of this sort
of thing, Haruka had become pretty good as a fighter but had generally
stayed away from pokegirls rather than risk associating with them and take
the chance of triggering Threshold.

As soon as the sniggering figure of this "Tarou" came within range, Haruka
unleashed a quick kick to the crotch which she expected to be blocked - but
this would leave an opening for another attack. It worked all the time.

Except that Tarou didn't bother to block and it felt like she'd kicked a
rock.

"Pathetic," pronounced Tarou, sneering even more openly at Haruka. "You're
not taking me seriously? Maybe you want to lose? Tell you what, after I warm
up on your friend, I'll take you and maybe even keep the two of you
together. On pokeballs on my belt, that is."

Haruka snarled further and pivoted, her leg sweeping out in a kick that she
knew could break through a bar table.

Tarou blocked, managing to look bored. "Damn. I was hoping for a decent
workout at least. Oh well."

Tarou moved faster than anyone that Haruka had ever fought in the streets or
in a bar. His punch imbedded itself sufficiently far into her stomach that
Haruka was thrown several feet away and found herself wheezing and trying to
get her breath back.

Tarou simply walked up and began hammering the girl until she was a bruised
and bloody mess.

"Enough, Tarou!" Giovanni interrupted when it was obvious that Haruka was no
longer able to muster any defenses. "Put her in Lab 4. Strap her in. I'll
inform the physicians. You need to prepare for your mission anyway."

Having lifted up the fallen girl's head by her short hair, Tarou spat into
the sand. "Well, I hope I get a better fight out of them than I did here.
Can I have these two when you're done? Think it might be amusing to have
this one watch while I tame the other one."

"No. This one wasn't the instigator of their little plot anyway. It was the
other who approached one of my colleagues in the League with plans of
betraying my... experiments." Giovanni smirked and sat down, steepling his
hands in front of him. "Use the A-bra and the Drow Zee that I have provided
you, along with your own talents, it should be enough."

-------

The two walking along the forest path were dressed in comfortable hiking
clothes. They were also engaged in a familiar practice: arguing.

"Kazuki, you are such a weenie!"

"Hey!" Kazuki favored his Alpha, Mitsuki, with a glare. "I seem to do okay.
I don't see why you need to steal some secret tools."

"You'll see," assured Mitsuki. "When we've gotten the legendary Dildo of
Evolution from that Tamer, then *I* can evolve." ~And that will show your
other Mitsuki! Urrr. Why did you *have* to get her too?~

"What makes you think he's even got such a thing? Isn't it just an urban
legend, and not a very reputable one at that," complained Kazuki.

Mitsuki rolled her eyes. "Because he's evolved two Kittens into forms other
than Catgirls. He has to be doing something, and as soon as I find out what
it is, we'll just 'borrow' it, that's all."

"At last I have found you, Ranma Saotome!"

Kazuki and Mitsuki blinked and looked at each other. Then slowly turned to
see the Tamer behind them. "Uhm..."

The boy in the white robes and thick glasses gestured to the heavens. "How
dare you capture and tame my precious Shampoo!"

"...but I'm not Ranma Saotome and I don't do anything perverted with hair
soap..."

"Maybe you should," griped Mitsuki.

"Shampoo is destined to be MY Alpha!" The glasses-wearer proclaimed.

"Wouldn't a pokegirl make a better Alpha," protested Kazuki. "And what has
that got to do with me?"

"Defend yourself, Ranma!" The boy reached into midair and seemed to pluck a
pokeball out of nowhere. "For I am Mousse, the MASTER of Hidden Pokeballs
Style!"

Kazuki started waving his arms around, anxious to avoid this situation.
"You're initiating a pokebattle? But I'm not..."

"That's funny, he doesn't look like a moose," commented Mitsuki.

"Pickles! I screw you!"

*SHOOM!* "Mer! Mermaid maid maid!"

Kazuki and Mitsuki stared. Then Mitsuki started laughing.

"Uhm," Kazuki helpfully pointed out, "you *did* know that a feral Mermaid is
pretty much useless on dry land. Right?"

"Hah!" Mousse said with a flourish. "And now my real attack! Go,
CharAmanda!"

---------

Ranma blinked from where he was peering from between a pair of fronds.
"Okay."

"C'mon," Ash suggested from behind a tree. "Maybe we can sneak off while
they attack each other."

This wasn't a martial arts battle, and it sounded like they had their own
issues. That meant he didn't really have a need to stick around. "Sounds
like a plan."

Nabiki agreed with them. Some fights just weren't the effort.

---------

"Yahhhhhh!" Mitsuki went from laughing to being engulfed in flame.

"Mitsuki, Agility!" Kazuki commanded. The flame died out and Mitsuki
collapsed. "Never mind. Dee! Your turn!"

A small girl with green hair appeared. Then looked at the flamethrowing
CharAmanda.

"Shampoo? No, too short. Surrender Shampoo or you'll pay, Saotome!"

--------

Kotoro Nambura looked up at the sky. "I feel a copyright infringement
occurring. Nobody must punish Kazuya Saotome but me!"

--------

"Dee! Psiwave!"

The air shimmered around Dee and slammed into the CharAmanda, sending her
flying.

Mousse slapped his hands together then moved them far enough apart to reveal
another pokeball. "Okay, I have to pull out the big guns now! Go!
Sworddancer!"

"Mermaid," protested the Mermaid who was still sitting in the middle of the
road.

"Dee, return!" Kazuki put his A-Bra back and took out his Eva. "Go
Mitsuki-chan!"

*POOM!*

Mousse adjusted his glasses. Kazuki stared. Mitsuki winced, she was a cook
and skilled in a lot of things, but wasn't that good really at combat.

Tarou cracked his knuckles. "Which one of you two is Saotome?"

"HE IS!" Both declared, pointing at the other.

"Well, I'm just gonna have to hurt *both* of you then check your pokedexes.
Heh." Tarou grinned.

"A truce?" Kazuki asked Mousse.

"No need, I'll defeat him, then deal with you!" Mousse began producing
pokeballs.

----------

Ranma and company rejoined the path at the next bend.

"They were looking for you," pointed out Ash after they'd walked another
mile.

"Nope," disagreed Ranma. "You met the native me. Figure they must be after
him."

Ash was about to disagree but thought about it. "Hmmm. Maybe in part."

Nabiki shrugged happily. There had been no profit in that particular battle,
and it could have turned nasty with the possibility of wild pokegirls being
drawn to the area. Strong chance for loss, no chance of profit - a fight
best avoided.

----------

Haruka startled awake, feeling a male presence. There was some indistinct
muttering over a roaring noise, and she heard Michiru's voice responding? An
eye slowly opened enough that she could see what was going on. She was lying
propped up against a concrete wall.

The roaring noise was water going over the lip of some tunnel to land in the
distance below, the whole thing some massive part of what looked like a
storm drain system. Dim lighting from bulbs recessed into the stone was all
the light she had. It was enough.

There was some nervous-looking Tamer, speaking with *her* Michiru. The
aqua-tressed girl was sitting, naked, and looking up at the boy with a look
of...

Haruka moved as soon as the boy's back was turned. He began to turn back,
but by then Haruka had already struck. She got a brief glimpse of the
terrified boy's face as he tumbled into the darkness below, but there was no
splash to indicate his passage.

"Okay, we're safe," began Haruka.

*SLAP!*

Haruka stared at Michiru who was now standing and looking more ticked off
than Haruka could ever remember her lover being. "Don't tell me he already
Tamed you..."

*SLAP!*

"No. Haruka, we've both done things we're not proud of." Michiru said gently
though she was quite obviously still very unhappy.

"Only what we've needed to do."

"That," indicated Michiru at the sheer dropoff, "was one of my fans.
Remember the Princess Day party? Who was rescuing us from the labs."

"Oh." Haruka looked down into the darkness and tried to judge how far down
it was. As it was dark and the rushing water kept much of anything from
being heard, she wasn't able to tell from here. "Oh well..." Yet another
person's blood on her hands. And this one hadn't done anything apparently -
yet.

Letting out a deep breath and remembering that her lover *did* tend to be a
bit misoandric, Michiru decided to shelve the unhappy fate of her rescuer
for now. Probably the boy's fate would have been quite a bit worse if
Giovanni had caught him. "No point in dwelling on it. We'll have to steal
clothes and equipment as we go."

Haruka nodded then looked down at Michiru's arm where a blemish had appeared
since the last time they'd met, a glance at her own arms found a similar one
in the opposite arm.

"What did that bastard do?" She was not referring to their late rescuer.

"Transfusion of Nymph blood and a shard of Evolution Stone buried in the
tissue," explained Michiru. "Apparently nothing happened but the scientists
thought it likely something would happen later. One of their experiments."

Haruka scowled. It had been "experiments" like that that had prompted them
to betray Giovanni in the first place. Well, that and the two of them would
be able to comfortably retire away from prying eyes and not have to
associate with pokegirls. Not that there was anything wrong with pokegirls,
it was just that until they reached their mid-20s there was always a chance
that they'd start going through Threshold if they continued to associate
with them. Michiru's hair color was an indication that she *was* a candidate
for Threshold.

Michiru spared a glance at the darkness where their rescuer had been
launched, then began making her way down the tunnel, only pausing to pick a
red-and-white sphere off the ground.

"We were in pokeballs?!" Haruka's eyes bugged as she located a sphere on the
floor where she'd awakened.

"How do you think Yuji carried both of us away from the labs?" Michiru
stopped held up her own pokeball. "We both register as being in genetic flux
Threshold, otherwise we couldn't be captured in one of these. Another danger
we'll have to face."

Haruka let out a deep breath but ran back and picked up her own sphere.
Since this was already keyed with her data, it could be used to recall her
as long as there was a line of sight. She briefly considered then threw the
sphere out into the darkness that had claimed that boy. Hell if she was ever
going to let some guy Tame *her*. Or Michiru.

---------

It had absolutely nothing to do with Ash or Ranma, or even Tarou or
Giovanni, but it was important to one or two individuals.

Ami the Mareen was a shy water-mouse. Most Water pokegirls tended to be a
little pudgy, but Ami was quite slender. She was also quite intelligent and
very learned in a number of fields.

She had never been Tamed, however, though she had studied the matter from
all angles. She had also been aware that time was running out for her, she
was old enough that she expected her pokegirl need to be Tamed would be
triggered at any time.

Still, she had expected to be picked over. She was just skinny little
bookish Ami after all. Love hadn't even been a vague consideration. What was
the use of trying? All she'd get was pain. Disappointment colored all her
dreams.

Then she saw his face. NOW she was a believer.

Ami had approached it in typical fashion for her. She'd gathered all her
information and approached it with cool logic, for all that she felt her
hormones bubbling up and trying to knock the rational portion of her mind
offline. An arranged meeting between two people of similar interests, human
boys and girls did it all the time.

The boy had been startled to find that the person sending him e-mail was
actually a pokegirl, but he adapted. The two had had an interesting
conversation dealing with each other's dreams. Similar to a typical marriage
meeting except for the lack of a supervising matchmaker. Well, up until the
time that Ami's hormones had slipped their leash and she'd jumped the boy.

Ryo might have expected this but wasn't quite ready for it. Ami had made
sure that he *was* acquainted with the problem, managing to slip it into the
conversation at one point.

Still, her chosen Tamer had done pretty well. He'd rallied after the initial
assault and had lasted until Ami had finally cried out, given a sigh of
satisfaction, and curled up asleep. At which point Ryo had collapsed.

Which led to the current situation. Ami had curled up and was holding onto
her Tamer. Both her legs were wrapped around one of his, and her nails
lightly scratched a pattern on his chest. (Her name if you must know.) Her
long pom-pom tipped mouse tail twitched, wanting to wrap around her Tamer
too.

Ami's only regret (at the moment) was that she would *not* be joining Usagi
on her journey. She'd be a lab assistant for awhile at least. Something she
could certainly deal with.

A hand came up and began scratching Ami's ear.

Ami's eyes began to close in pleasure and she felt one of her legs
twitching. It got better?!

Her hopes were confirmed as the hand scratching her ear dropped down to
stroke lightly along the underside of her breasts, then inwards in a slow
spiral. Yet at the same time her Tamer came up and nibbled lightly on that
ear.

The mousegirl squeaked in pleasure and frustration as the game began again,
this time she was not the leader but instead being played. There was
evidence of his inexperience, but he was also quite obviously doing his best
to play. Whether the game or simply her was unclear.

Ami spasmed and bucked and squeaked as she found herself pinned, with her
tail getting a playful tweak and then that hand began working in slow
circles around her feminine mound.

The Mareen protested wordlessly. She was quite aware that *all* mouse-types
suffered from a low pleasure threshold. She'd weathered her first Taming
quite well, but it had been a near thing. Now her Tamer was demonstrating
that he *had* learned from his first encounter. And he was learning as he
went along.

At this rate he'd end up knowing everything there was to know about
pleasuring her and she'd have no choice but to go through regular study
sessions and...

Ami squeaked as Ryo finally started handling the source of her problems and
she felt herself practically melting under his ministrations.

Maybe this wasn't the best time to try being analytical.

---------

Jim leaned back against the rail watching the pokecenter from a distance, he
thumbed open the can of Stamina+ and took a deep swig. Long day, and his
night looked like it would be pretty full as well. Not that his Pidgy had to
be Tamed, she was too young, but he had a feeling Sakura and Perfume were
ready.

The roar of a motorcycle gradually came to a stop nearby, then the sounds of
thick leather boots walking along the bridge.

"Nakajima," acknowledged Jim without looking.

"Bader," responded the policeman.

A few moments of silence were broken only by the sounds of the river lapping
up against its embankment.

"How's Miyuki?"

"Good, she's resting in her pokeball. She's had some problems with some
water she drank in Fight City."

Jim nodded. "Kittens sometimes *do* have delicate digestions. What about
Natsumi?"

"Chief took a fancy to her. Hated to break up the partnership, but you know
how it is. She liked him, he liked her." Ken Nakajima, the famed White Hawk,
shrugged.

"Way of the pokeworld," agreed Jim. "So you just here to catch up on old
times, or does the Old pokeghoul have a message?"

"She hates that name, you know."

"Ask me if I care."

Ken shrugged again. "Emma's been 'dealt with' and 'turn not to Jusenkyo or
forever will it dominate your destiny' or words to that effect."

"Cute," said Jim. "Anything more useful or just more crap like that 'always
in motion is the future' psuedo-Zen stuff?"

Ken grunted. "Yeah, three things. Lots of people are apparently keeping tabs
on the kid. Especially now that news of these 'Saotome Secret Techniques'
are out. Second is there's a bad storm coming. Hit the coast not long ago,
moving inland. Give it another day and a half." There was no need to say who
the 'kid' was.

Jim nodded. "Better get Miyuki to the Center. I'm gonna use my new Pidgy to
spy on the kid."

"A Pidgy?" Ken shrugged. "Okay, but according to the Professor, the kid's
heading to Dogpatch. You might want to maintain a distance, they're about to
have Sadie Poken's Day."

----------

"Where did you get *that* idea?" Ash asked incredulously.

"I heard it somewhere," said Ranma with a shrug.

"No, my mom's Nodoka though she sometimes goes by 'Delia' to her friends.
She's not a pokewomon. I'd lived with her for fourteen years, I should
know." Ash shook his head, uncertain where these rumors started.

Ranma shrugged again. He was beginning to get the feeling that rumor and
innuendo was a way of life around here.

Nabiki caught a flash of yellow in a tree and slowly moved so that she could
get a better look. It was just a Pidgy, but this one was observing them and
*taking notes*?!

The Cheshire smirked. Cats were strong against birds. All she had to do was
use her Fade technique and sneak up on the little birdy and find out what
she was up to. No problem!

Nabiki faded from view, then quickly snuck back and up the tree trunk. There
it was, out there by the end of the branch, putting its notes away in a
little carripouch. The Cheshire licked her lips, she'd just dominate the
pokegirl quickly then get away with that notebook!

She slowly crept forward, then crouched. The bird-girl was a bit young, but
that just meant she wasn't experienced enough to tell what was going on.
Nabiki pounced, claws extended where she could grab tightly.

The bird flew up abruptly, gliding to another nearby tree.

Nabiki hung in mid-air, looking quite surprised momentarily. Then she
dropped, managing to hit four other branches on her way down before she
landed on her tail. "Owie."

The bird started tweeting and chirping, and it didn't take long for Nabiki
to realize that the Pidgy was *laughing* at her!

Nabiki fumed. She'd get that tweety bird yet!

--------

Ash sat back at the campsite, getting the fire going. It was a good
campsite, on a slight hill, the river curving around, the area sufficiently
clear that they didn't have anything sneaky pokegirls could hide in.
Buzz-B-Gone dispensers had been set up and a sonic field could be set up
pointing away from the camp to keep some potential intruders away. They'd
been lucky nobody had been here.

"It never ceases to amaze me that you can eat that stuff," said Misty with a
shudder.

Ash looked down at his Red-E-Meal ("Lasagna with meat paste") and wondered
why more people didn't admit eating them. It had all the vitamins and
minerals you could want, it was cheap, and in the tough plastifoil packets
the stuff had a shelf life that could be measured in centuries if not
millenia. They were also lightweight and filling if you prepared 'em right.

Misty watched Ash eating that goo and shuddered again. Of course her tastes
had changed some since she'd become a Selkie, but she'd *never* liked
Red-E-Meals. And Ash was taking those yummy fingerling fishes she'd caught
earlier, cooking them on sticks over the fire, and eating them with the goo!
Yech!

"AaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAAAA!" *SPLASH!*

Ash didn't even look up. "Usagi again?"

Misty nodded. "Yup. Looks like she not only bounced off again, but this time
she managed to hogtie herself in her own ears."

"Waaaaaaaah!" *GLUB!* "help!"

Misty excused herself and went out to assist her fellow pokegirl.

Ash got up, taking one of the fingerling fish with him, to talk to Ranma.
Rather than face what was likely in the tent at the moment, Ash just sat
near the tent flap. "You know, big brother, you're gonna have to use the
restraints."

"Don't wanna," Ranma responded, though there was some frustration in his
voice.

"She's bounced off you three times and ended in the river twice," Ash said,
wondering how it was that someone that inept hadn't ended up in his own
harem. "You're gonna have to use a tether or something at the very least."

Ranma grumbled something indistinct.

"Look, you've got a Griffon, a Cheshire, an Amazonchan, and a Bunny.
Griffon's are metamorphs, they have a Battle form. What happens when dear
sweet Kasumi hits an orgasm and her claws extend? You could end up little
shreds? Or Nabiki, for that matter, a Cheshire doesn't have big claws but
any of the cat-types could do serious damage. Those claws aren't just some
decoration or something. Or your Amazonchan. She can lift how much? A ton?
Two?"

"Three and a half."

"And you've still got to Tame that Icemaiden of yours. You've got to use
tools on that one at the very least." Ash sighed. "At least until she's
thawed to you, at least. Man, when you get freezer burn down there it can be
a real problem."

"Voice of experience?"

"Yeah, it can be a problem just with the ones that want to be with you and
get *enthusiastic*," said Ash. "Except for the Griffon they're all *very*
near human and the only Elemental you've got is the one you haven't handled
yet."

"Hmmmm."

Misty brought the sopping wet bunny up to the tent, looking a little
disgusted and more than a little wet herself. "You wouldn't believe how
tangled up she got."

"Yes I would," said Ash completely serious. "Here, Usagi, use these and
chain yourself to the bed this time. You're going to draw Feral Water
pokegirls and you know how those can be."

"Hardy har, Ash. Maybe you should be a comic," replied Misty. "Though you
ought to take off that locket before you strangle yourself on it, Usagi."

"It's my lucky moonstone amulet," Usagi replied, clutching it. Though her
other hand seemed to be weighing the fetter speculatively.

Ash motioned Misty away from the tent and back to the campfire. "You suppose
this time?"

----------

Meanwhile a figure finally saw the campfire as a beacon.

Finally. A quest of ten years could be resolved. Finally.

===========

end chapter 10 pokegirls.

MEGAMI, the really damn unpredictible pokegirl
TYPE: Very Near Human
ELEMENT: Magic/Psychic (Varies)
FREQUENCY: Rare to Uncommon, often found in groups when found
DIET: Eats human style food
ROLE: often found in pokecenters in the Blue League, alternatively found
working in hospitals and other caregiver facilities
LIBIDO: Varies from pokegirl to pokegirl
STRONG VS: Ghost, Dark
WEAK VS: Varies
ATTACKS: Varies. Common are: Bestow Luck, Lightning, Teleport, and Heal
(Other)
EVOLVES: None
ENHANCEMENTS: Extremely high psychic or magical abilities.
 Each Megami is different and can have wildly different powers. The things
all Megami have in common are that: they are very humanlike in appearance,
they are both beautiful and very powerful, and that they usually have some
form of healing magic/psi. Some are Psychic types, some are Magic types,
others are able to draw from both. Something of a Megami's sphere of power
can be divined from their facial markings. These markings and their oddly
fluid joint structure, are the main ways to tell a Megami by sight from a
human woman.
 Megami are one of those pokegirls that are powerful but not popular with
Tamers. Most regular training and taming methods prove to be less than
effective with Megami, and those who mistreat their Megami often come to
unfortunate ends. Megami are registered as "pet types" and found in the
private sector, often working in hospitals or other care-giving positions
where they seem to thrive.

PIDGY, the tweety bird pokegirl (aka Birdy, alias Canary)
TYPE: Anthropomorph, bird.
ELEMENT: Air/Flying
FREQUENCY: Common
DIET: Insectivore, some plants
ROLE: often used as a pet, sometimes as a courier or scout
LIBIDO: Weak
STRONG VS: Bug, Grass, Fighting
WEAK VS: Cat, Rock, Electric
ATTACKS: Gust, Swift, Taunt, Move By
EVOLVES: Pidgette, Pidgeota, Hawk*, Dove*, Angel*
ENHANCEMENTS: minor levitation ability, lightweight frame, altered digestive
system, hips and knees are free-jointed, feet are prehensile, arms and hands
are wings, lack of hair (down & feathers), improved respiration, small size.
Pidgy are one of the common "pet types" found among human society. They are
small and lightweight, don't eat a lot, and don't require a lot of
maintenence. Feral Pidgy are nearly worthless, even after intensive training
their attention span is extremely low. Domesticated Pidgy are often used as
couriers or messengers, particularly in mountainous areas where
communication lines are difficult to maintain.
 

Wild Horses & Pokegirls
Chapter 11: Megami

There's some pokegirl pics up on http://www.geocities.com/studio_vanir/

WARNING: NC-17. At least. There are elements which will disturb me and i'm
writing this, for crying out loud.

DISCLAIMER: Various elements from this come from Greyman and a few other
erotic (or at least NC-17) Addventure writers on the web, Nintendo,
R.Takahashi/Viz, and other writers. This story was born of frustration that
on that addventure there was an idea but all it was was a boinkfest when it
could be fleshed out and become something more. Hence the "pokegirls"
setting to differentiate it from the "pokewomon" setting, sort of an
illegitimate daughter of the other.

There's now a pokewoman forum at:
http://disc.server.com/Indices/169881.html

--------

Usagi clutched her lucky amulet in one hand hard enough that her palm bled.
This was rather more than she had expected.

She'd held to the assertion that there really wasn't as much to all this
Taming stuff as some pokegirls made out. It looked sweaty and kinda
disgusting and might be something you needed but you also needed to bathe
regularly and *that* wasn't a big deal. Usagi would just handle it when the
time came.

She had been born a pokegirl, of a litter of six identical pokegirls. Her
litter-mates had all gone on to other places to be raised with other
pokegirls. She had become friends with a number of other pokegirls, notably
Ami and Lita. Due to an old comic book, it wasn't that uncommon an
arrangement.

She was *half* human, but all that meant was that she wasn't one of those
who would grow up in two years to adulthood and then die of old age around
her fifteenth birthday or something. This was the usual fate of Feral
pokegirls, unless they got eaten or broke a leg or something and starved to
death.

Half human meant some problems. She was still a pokegirl so she didn't have
to worry about Threshold, she was already past that problem. She was a Bunny
so when she was younger she fantasized about being the personal pet of some
handsome rich guy who would come and sweep her off to his mansion. Bunnies
were, after all, one of the primary choices for pet pokegirls.

That this dream-hunk wore a tuxedo, had a long flowing cape, and roses
filled the borders was no doubt due to the aforementioned old comic book.

As she had gotten older, Usagi had determined that rich and handsome hunks
with their own mansions were not going to be riding up on white horses.
Fairly well off presentable guys driving a fairly new car were briefly the
fantasy of choice. Then she'd beheld Ataru Moroboshi not too long ago.

Ick-ee. The drooling, moronic, lecherous fellow (whose Oni confided that his
libido was quite high, but there was an inverse proportion there with his
sexual endurance, leading to the nickname of "One-Two Ataru") was everything
she did *not* want in a Tamer.

So Ranma wasn't perfect, but the world wasn't perfect after all. If it *had*
been, then Ami and Lita and a bunch of new friends could have come along as
well. And frankly, Usagi didn't trust Nabiki at all. You heard what Cheshire
were like.

So Usagi handled this with her usual bubbly optimism, perky enthusiasm, and
complete lack of attention to detail. Also clumsiness. She needed a Taming
to be accepted in the harem, but was a little nervous. Would she evolve?
Would she go through Shock and end up just making animal noises for a few
weeks?

There was also several different sources of nervousness here. You couldn't
avoid *some* knowledge of the Taming process from living on a Ranch. However
some of it was downright scary to a young Bunny growing up. And some of what
she'd seen were things like Taming Shock, Personality Inversion, Tamer
Dependence, and physical injuries (both to pokegirl and Tamer) of all sorts.

Usagi's hand spasmed on her one possession, a moonstone pendant that she'd
found years ago and her daddy had let her keep. Two stones, one of which was
a moonstone. It had brought her luck so far, and maybe it would bring her
luck now.

Now she just wanted this ride to be over! She felt the forces building up
within her, reaching a crescendo but felt as if there was just a little
further she had to go. Just a little more.

-----------

Ranma had been very reluctant to use restraints. It wasn't like he was in
any physical danger from the Bunny. Unfortunately her powerful leg muscles
tended to bounce her completely out of the bed and that had gotten tiring
very very quickly.

So there were restraint harnesses that could be used. The
strength-restraining set for Shampoo would have left Usagi helplessly spread
eagle. A set of harnesses designed for a feline type with claws worked
better, Ranma had merely needed to bind Usagi's legs so that her feet were
resting against her buttocks to keep her from accidently exiting the tent
again.

Usagi whimpered as Ranma began work. Ash had made a suggesting using a
substance similar to Alka-Seltzer in what seemed like an odd method, but
which apparently worked very very well on his own Alpha if not used too
often.

Ranma had to fight his own urge to gag after stimulating Usagi to wetness,
then crushing a segment of one of the tablets, mixing it with water,
swirling it in his own mouth, then using his mouth and tongue to apply the
fizzing substance to the sensitive folds of Usagi's sex.

The straps were made of thick brass-reinforced leather. Usagi's thrashing
and squirming couldn't break through, especially with her current lack of
leverage.

As for Usagi's hands, they didn't really need to be bound. Ranma had
problems with the entire idea of tying someone down and restricting their
movement, so he had taken a minimal approach. Bunnies didn't have claws the
way the various felines did, nor did they have the fangs and jaws of some of
the other types, nor stingers or similar problems that needed to be
addressed.

One of Usagi's hands clawed at nothing in particular, while the other held
onto her amulet with such force that a thin trail of blood could be seen
oozing from within that clenched fist.

Ranma was engrossed in these activities as a sort of martial arts match, or
at least a competition. Each girl reacted to slightly different stimuli,
though a lot of things were in common despite the species. For example:
Usagi's nipples were *extremely* sensitive. The fizzing in her lower lips
was causing her eyes to roll, back to arch, and she was spasming frequently.

Another surprise was that apparently Usagi was a talker. Or at least a
babbler. Her words were disjointed and seemed to be random firings of
something within her brain. She kept coming back to words like "yes" and
"please" and various entreaties to the kami but then would go on about
cherries or chocolate or laundry or something to do with makeup.

Another spasm, and a gushing noise. Well, *this* was different.

Ranma noticed that Usagi was at the pleading portion again and her eyes
(well the right one anyway) was focussed on him. Time to finish it. Or her.
Whatever. Ranma positioned the head of his little soldier at the breach,
then began the final attack, not incidently pushing further in more of the
still fizzing fluid that hadn't washed out.

Each thrust was punctuated by Usagi letting out a small eeking noise. Now
her eyes were closed though it was difficult to tell from the way her head
was whipping around.

Yeah, now this part was similar to the way it went with Kasumi and Nabiki
and Shampoo. The way their muscles cramped and trembled. The way they
shrieked and spasmed. The way that glow built up around her clenched hand
and spread throughout her body.

Huh?

Oh man, not again!

------

"So you're another Tamer who wants to speak to Ranma? Man, he's getting
really popular." Ash shook his head as he helped the Tamer set up his tent.
Then he stopped as a thought occurred to him. "Uhm, do you want the Ranma
who was born here or the one that's the new arrival?"

The Tamer stopped working on pulling loops over tent pegs. "That's a good
question. My business is with the native I suppose. Is this bit about there
being one from another world for real then?"

"Yup. Guy doesn't know a lot of stuff. A speeder-bike passed us on the trail
today and you should have seen the way his jaw dropped. Don't think he's
ever seen a hoverjet before."

"Hmmmm," said the Tamer, before unslinging a bit spatula-like tool and
slamming the peg expertly into the ground. "Don't understand that. So the
native's here too?"

Ash reached into a pocket, inflated a pokeball and flipped it up into the
air. "Yup. She's right here."

"*She*?!" The Tamer staggered.

"Don't understand much about it myself," answered Ash. "The Professor said
that Ranma and his dad went to someplace called Jusenkyo."

"They didn't. The Toxic Spell Dump? Were they idiots?!" The Tamer seemed to
think for a moment. "Actually I could see that Dad of his doing it."

"So they went to this place and got turned into pokegirls. Ranma's a
Tigress, his dad's a Snorlass." Ash frowned a little. "Or I should say 'our'
dad's a Snorlass since according to the Professor I'm Ranma's brother."

"I didn't know Ranchan had a brother..."

Ash noted the strange look and pet name and wondered just how close
Ranma-native had been to his friend. Some guys were like that. They had sex
with pokegirls but insisted that love was between guys. If native-Ranma was
like that, it would explain a few things. It would also mean that reuniting
the two was the only solution that made everyone happy. "So you want to see
the native Ranma?"

Ukyo considered carefully. "Yeah. I wanna see this mysel... WHAT THE HECK?
What's all that light coming from that tent?"

"Looks like not-the-native brother is evolving one of his pokegirls again."
Ash shook his head. "I gotta find out how he's doing that, though I won't
evolve a pokegirl unless she wants to evolve." He tossed a sphere to Ukyo.
Maybe this was for the best.

Ukyo Kuonji took the sphere and stared at it, the mysteries of this other
Ranma and his impressive record of evolution-through-orgasm falling to the
side for now.

--------

The two Alphas looked out at the night. Misty stretched and then seemed
fascinated by the thin webbing between her fingers.

"So are you *bonded* to your Tamer?" Nabiki asked the seal-pokegirl. The way
she said the term left little doubt that she wasn't referring to the typical
misuse of 'bonding'.

"Ash? Yeah. All the Tamers out there and I get Mister Clueless." Misty
shrugged and began using Water Gun from one finger to zap mosquitos.

"Yeah, got to love 'em." Nabiki sat back and watched the Water type miss
more often than not. It was easy to see she was using the opportunity to
work on her aim, anticipating the day she'd need to use it in battle again.
"But it's kinda neat being able to feel their presence and something of what
they're thinking."

Misty smiled and shot a moth out of the air. "He's getting me a collar."

"No!" Nabiki looked properly envious for a moment before she covered it.
"Oh, well, that's nice."

"Took him forever to afford it. And a ident-chip," added Misty slyly.

Nabiki pouted briefly. Getting Ranma to do this might be difficult but
Nabiki thought she might be able to cajole him. "It's not a big deal."

"With all the thieves around?" Misty snorted. "Oh yes, it is a *big* deal.
My 'collar' is a manacle, and it has the very latest anti-capture
technology."

Nabiki scratched at her own neck, which had no adornment of any kind and
suddenly felt naked. And not in a good way. "It's no big deal."

Misty wasn't fooled. "Did you hear about that catgirl singing group? Their
Master got them collars and when Team Rocket tried to crash a concert of
theirs and capture them, the anti-capture circuits worked."

"'Mineko & The Pussycats'?" Nabiki didn't particularly care for their music,
but they *were* Kittens and feline types - so she certainly felt a certain
connection and pride at their accomplishments in a human-dominated market.

"That was them. Heard they've got ident-chips too," Misty said with a
certain degree of envy.

"Their Master would be nuts *not* to," said Nabiki with a *lot* of envy. In
terms that Ranma might understand, a collar was much like an engagement ring
in terms of an indication of a permanent commitment between Tamer and
pokegirl. Lots of pet pokegirls had collars. Few Tamers did because changing
the paperwork was a major problem. The next step in that progression was an
ident-chip, implanted in the pokegirl's neck. The equivelant of a human
marriage, it meant that no transfer would ever be possible without surgical
removal of the chip. Otherwise the ident-chip would still carry the name and
identifying data of the original owner. "As much time training and marketing
them as he's done, it'd be a major screwup not to do everything he could to
protect them."

Misty just smirked and continued to shoot bugs that wandered too close,
while Nabiki wondered how to broach the subject to Ranma.

---------

Usagi flared as the energies of her lucky pendant were consumed and fueled
her transformation.

Not into Moonbunny as she'd thought. Those were simply Bunnies with some
Psychic talents.

Ears shrank and placed themselves in the usual human positioning. Her tail
was absorbed into her body as well. Human proportions reasserted themselves
subtly all over.

Usagi shrieked loud enough that had any glass been present - it would have
shattered. Her slightly pudgy fingers became slender, the hands smaller and
daintier. Likewise the feet altered from the huge feet of a Bunny to become
smaller human-shaped feet.

There were internal changes too of course, from her teeth to her excretory
system. From the internal bracing of her musculoskeletal structure to the
firings within her grey matter.

Ranma watched from a slight distance. He'd seen this before but was
wondering *what* Usagi was becoming. Then he thought to find his pokedex and
point it.

Usagi's hair lengthened and lengthened again, and her small firm breasts
trembled and increased visibly in size. The glow began vanishing, eventually
leaving behind odd crescent-moon shapes on her forehead and under the corner
of both eyes.

:Megami - The Psychic/Magic Pokegirl. Individual Megami have individual
powers so it is difficult to tell in advance what the capibilities of any
given one is.

Usagi looked down, then looked up. "Whoa." (THUD!)

Ranma shrugged and returned the unconscious Usagi to her pokeball.
Unfortunately he was still raring to go. Now what to do.

--------

Ukyo had the sphere in her hand.

What did she want?

Revenge? To force the two to do what had been promised? To do some serious
damage to the both of them in a pointless but cathartic battle?

What had she accomplished in her quest for vengeance? She was now, due to
her abilities as a Ditto, a Tamer. If you knew where to go, and could pay,
identification could be forged. She could change any part of her body to
resemble another pokegirl, and thereby duplicate attacks or defenses at
will, providing she had been able to copy them to memory. She was also able
to copy male anatomy. Which Ukyo felt was icky, but it *was* necessary.

"Almost ten years ago, Genma and my father decided that I would be Ranma's
Alpha. We got along so well back then. Then they abandoned me, kicked me to
the curb." Ukyo wasn't aware she was speaking aloud, or that Ash was
listening. She was entirely caught up in her thoughts. "I found out that
Genma had done this before. Made promises to Breeders and other Tamers and
some Researchers. Kaori, Miki, Sasqi, Rena, Latifa, Sakura, Hinoko. He's
done this for decades, selling off his son for food or sake or whatever else
he needed, then stolen him back and the two have gone off again."

Ash surreptiously checked his pokedex.
:Ditto, the shapechanging pokegirl.

"Ten years on a vengeance quest. Now what do I do? The kami have already
punished Ranma by turning him into a pokegirl. Unlike me he can't be a
Tamer, they'd never let a Tigress through. Now what? I..." Ukyo stopped.

Ash smiled. He generally trusted his instincts more than rational thought.
Not just because being a runt had gotten him multiple blows to the head, but
because he was generally more successful following hunches and instinct than
trying to plan ahead. Here was proof that his instincts (and desire to get
rid of his brother while making sure the Tamer who got him wasn't going to
be abusive) were good again. "There's an obvious solution."

"What?" Ukyo continued to turn over the concept but hadn't foreseen this as
a real possibility.

"Take Ranma as your Alpha," suggested Ash. "He, no- she, isn't into guys.
Having his old buddy as a Tamer, especially as you're actually female, has
to be better than having some strange guy screw her brains out."

Ukyo blinked repeatedly, slowly beginning to smile. Not the solution she'd
planned, but it *did*  have a certain ironic appeal. She could get her
revenge *and* be re-united with her Ranchan.

Ash considered offering Ukyo the Snorlass as well, but decided to refrain
from now.

Leaving the two to get re-acquainted, Ash wondered about dealing with *that*
angle. His mother had been quite clear on the lack of sterling qualities of
his father over the years. She had raised Ash to be as different from his
father as possible, and Ash had repeatedly heard over the years about "damn
fool things only Genma would do." Well, *he* certainly wasn't going to be
the Tamer, but he had to find someone who could take a Snorlass and wouldn't
be *too* bad. Genma *was* his father apparently.

Maybe at this festival.

------

His name was Persona. He wasn't a Tamer per se. Like his fellow student Ryo,
he was simply someone who had a couple of pokegirls and was trying to learn
more about their care and feeding.

Which was why he had gone to the Tendo Dojo, as a famous Breeder would be
likely to have all sorts of information. When the smouldering wreck had
turned out to be the Dojo, he had turned to his second choice - Professor
Stroak. Though the Professor was too busy to answer e-mail, maybe the famous
Researcher had a FAQ or couple of books he could recommend.

Persona Ohnlyne, a college student whose major was computer science, had
gotten one pokegirl in a contest held at Whatsamatta U and another as the
result of an unlikely series of events involving an Officer Jenny, two rolls
of toilet paper, a downed power line, some duct tape, and some guy who'd
been robbing a hardware store.

So, at present he had two very different pokegirls with very different
backgrounds.

His winning in the dorm contest was a cute little Eva named Lynn. She was
domesticated, and had a number of skills related to cleaning and cooking.
She was friendly and cheerful and had an intelligence level and disposition
of a grade schooler. You couldn't fault her for trying, but she wasn't used
to thinking for herself.

The former thief accomplice was an Amachop named Amachop. Persona was still
trying to come up with a better name for her. Like all Amachop she was short
and gray-skinned and weighed a huge amount for such a slender pokegirl.
Persona remembered from the history books that Amachop (and their evolved
forms Amachoke and Amachamp) were largely bulletproof. Also incredibly
strong and having a distressingly low pleasure threshold.

They were also both very young. Neither had the need for Tamings they would
in about a year, as both were just past puberty.

Persona's musings were cut short as a tree fell across the path. "What the
?!" He was aware of Lynn hiding behind him and Amachop settling into a
defensive posture of some kind.

A figure walked out of the deepening gloom from where the tree's base still
pointed up. "Ranma Saotome?"

"No, don't know any Ranma Saotome," said Persona.

The figure cracked his knuckles. "Well, too bad. Now I have to kill you.
Nothing personal."

Persona felt a cold shiver at the matter-of-fact way this guy said that. As
if saying what time of day it was. "You're with Team Trauma?"

"Nah, you don't need to know any more though." Tarou smiled coldly as he
continued to walk towards his target. Two pokegirls, one of whom looked
ready to bolt at any moment. One who had at least some fighting training.
Not enough, not nearly enough. At least more of a challenge than those two
he'd just finished in the woods.

--------

Ryouga was happy. Well, relatively happy.

One of his favorite cousins had just traded him a Vixxen for that Pidgy. And
a really cute Vixxen to boot.

He could use a Vixxen more than the Pidgy, since the Vixxen was old enough
to Tame. Once Tamed, the Vixxen would be more likely to be able to find him
if they got seperated due to the Vixxen's keen sense of smell.

Ryouga had taken the dazed and horny Vixxen, tamed her thoroughly, and found
a nice collar and leash for her.

Though he had a problem relating to his ability to get lost ridiculously
easy, Ryouga had one more even more embarassing problem. The closer to human
a pokegirl looked, the more nervous and flustered he got. He had an Ingenue
named Akari, but he'd left her in stasis at home (she wouldn't age or go
Feral that way) because she was *way* too close to human for him to do
anything with her.

The pokegirl had been briefly upset with him, for some odd reason, but had
calmed down eventually. Weird. All she could say were animal yelps, but he'd
gotten from Jim that her name was Akane Tendo and she'd gone through some
nasty sort of genetic shock effect. Oh well.

"Come on, Akane, we've got to get to... oh my gosh."

Akane sulked. Bad enough she was now a furry Fire type, but now she was a
Tamed pokegirl. And her Tamer was an idiot. Worse, her hormones were all in
a froth and she was going through mood swings that would require a
seismograph to fully chart. Eyes caught a glimpse of what her Tamer had seen
and she stumbled to a halt. "Eeee?"

Ryouga quickly crossed to the first one and checked for a pulse. "He's
alive. Damn. Someone broke both his legs, smashed his glasses, and tried to
stick a training potty up his butt."

"Vixxen vi vixxen vixxen vix," agreed Akane. (And almost succeeded from the
look of it. Darn. That looks like it'll hurt.)

"This guy's pretty bad too. Not as bad as the longhair," said Ryouga.

"Vix." (Dang it, I wish I could talk!) Akane glared around the clearing,
wishing someone would show up so that she could have a nice cathartic fight.
Preferably not with the nice young man who'd helped her with that *ahem*
pressing problem.

--------

"It's clear," said Haruka as she checked the tunnel. "Are you okay?"

Michiru nodded, still huddled and curled in on herself. "Just the shakes.
Oh. Well I guess it wasn't *just* the shakes."

Haruka had to look very close to see what her Michiru was talking about.
Even then it took a few moments and Michiru repeatedly blinking her eyes for
Haruka to see.

(Blink blink)

"A second eyelid," Haruka said, knowing exactly what that transparent shine
meant. "Uhm..."

"Not a Psi-Dyke at least," Michiru said in a voice nearly devoid of emotion.
"So I won't be hating men and biting the heads off rodents or anything."

Haruka checked her own teeth with her tongue so that she could be inobvious
about it. She would be *far* more likely to go that route herself if all the
figurative blood on her hands was any indication. No preponderance of sharp
edges so she was safe for the moment at least.

Michiru got up fluidly, trying to focus and not let the horror of the
situation get to her. "By now they've discovered we're missing and are
searching for us."

Haruka was naked, weaponless, and had no idea where she was. Those hunting
for her and Michiru would be better armed, better supplied, and Haruka knew
she had as much chance against Tarou or even most of the more competent
agents in her current state as a tribble does against an industrial
tree-shredder. If they caught up to her: none, nada, zilch. She knew it.
Michiru knew it.

Haruka smiled at her lover and slapped a fist into the palm of the other
hand. Then she said it. One of the most terrifying phrases known to man. (It
was also the sort of phrase pokegirls dreaded to hear.) "Don't worry. I know
what I'm doing."

--------

Persona realized he was alive.

This made the headache a lot more bearable. "Where?"

Lynn's face popped up into his field of vision. "Drag you here. Bad man go
away. Lynn get you away so bad man no find."

The comp-sci student nodded thoughtfully. Eva were one of the breeds
credited with resisting during Lao's campaign even when threatened with
personality dissolution. Hence being on the list of "pet" types: they had
proven their mettle under the worst duress. "How did you beat him?"

Lynn mumbled something that Persona couldn't quite make out.

"What was that?" He wondered if maybe there was some secret he didn't know
about Lynn.

Lynn mumbled a little louder, turning away partly and blushing through her
fur.

Persona made it out. She'd been very scared and had pissed herself while the
human had been trying to crush the life out of her. The "bad man" had run
off to go wash off the "insult". Lynn had then dragged him and Amachop a
short distance to hide. "Well, whatever works," he allowed.

Lynn nodded, obviously relieved that her Master wasn't going to make a big
deal out of it.

Persona didn't know much about the odd boy. He did know that "Bad Man"
wanted to find someone named Ranma Saotome. He also knew that he himself
wanted to put a stick into that boy's eye.

Simple enough. He'd try to find this Ranma Saotome himself and give warning
about Mister Attitude.

"Hey, Lynn, Eva have really good senses of smell, don't they?"

----------

SNORLASS, the obese lazy glutton pokegirl
TYPE: Not Very Near Human.
ELEMENT: Normal
FREQUENCY: Uncommon
DIET: Omnivore. If it fits in the mouth, it's pretty much considered food.
ROLE: Generally not used. Far too lazy and the food bills are way too high
to make this gourmand a likely choice among Tamers or as a pet. Sometimes
found in circus acts.
LIBIDO: Normal
STRONG VS: None
WEAK VS: Rock
ATTACKS: Sleep, Body Slam, Trample, Panda Sign
EVOLVES: None
ENHANCEMENTS: Stores fat all over its body, increased mass (some have been
recorded at over 2000 lbs), ability to hibernate, extremely efficient
digestive process
Snorlass was one of the pokegirls to appear 100 years *after* Sukebe's War.
Snorlass was at first heralded as a powerful pokegirl, after all - she has a
considerable amount of mass and strength. Then the feeding habits, bills,
and tendency to hibernate for several months at a time became known.
Suddenly nobody wanted a Snorlass. They can still be found in circuses and
the occasional zoo.

ELF, the mystic woodsgirl
TYPE: Very Near Human
ELEMENT: Plant/Magic
FREQUENCY: Uncommon
DIET: Omnivore, tend to lean towards vegetarian diet
ROLE: Groundskeepers, gardeners, farmhands. Elves tend to make poor laborers
but excel when working with plants. Crop yields are 120% when Elves are
used. However they make poor pets in an urban or polluted setting.
LIBIDO: Normal* Can be higher when emotionally attached to their Tamer.
STRONG VS: Plant, Water, Psychic, Rock
WEAK VS: Ghost, Metal, Poison
SPECIAL WEAKNESS: Domination attacks cause Elves to physically sicken and
are not recommended.
ATTACKS: Leap, Command Plants, Sleep, Mystic Bolt, Shield
EVOLVES: Grandelf*, Elfqueen*, High Elf (normal)
ENHANCEMENTS: Longevity, Elemental Affinity: Wood, Magical Affinity,
Nightvision, Flawed Constitution, Reduced Feral.
   Elves are more commonly found in areas distant from civilization: they
tend to sicken and may die if forced to spend time in a fairly polluted
area. They are often used as farm labor. Elves are one of the pokegirl
species that have an odd Feral state in which they become more prone to a
form of torpor/hibernation instead. They usually combat this by working
farms or travelling in groups.

WITCH, the magic abuser
TYPE: Very Near Human
ELEMENT: Magic
FREQUENCY: Uncommon to rare
DIET: Human style diet
ROLE: Magic wielders that are attuned to a particular sort of magic. Witches
are low power but can usually be counted on to have minor tricks that they
can use in day-to-day affairs.
LIBIDO: Low initially
STRONG VS: Ghost, Fighting
WEAK VS: Psychic, Magic, Water, Fire
SPECIAL WEAKNESS: Ticklish
ATTACKS: Mystic Bolt, Shield, Witches' Curse (causes odd and unpredictable
minor effect)
EVOLVES: Sorceress (normal), Enchantress (moonstone), Elementist (any
elemental stone will produce an elementist of that type)
ENHANCEMENTS: Magical Affinity
  Witches are often one of the meaner-tempered pokegirls available. They can
be more vengeful than a Minx, more jealous than a Tigress, and more
hot-tempered than a Tomboy. On the other hand, when they evolve their
attitude can undergo a dramatic transformation for the better.

AMACHOP, the tough pokegirl
TYPE: Humanoid
ELEMENT: Fighting
FREQUENCY: Uncommon to Rare
DIET: Human style
ROLE: Physical labor, particularly in construction
LIBIDO: Often more interested in testing her strength.
STRONG VS: Normal, Ice, Rock
WEAK VS: Poison, Flying, Bug
SPECIAL WEAKNESS: Can't swim
ATTACKS: Body Slam, Toss, Crushing Punch
EVOLVES: Amachoke, Amachamp
ENHANCEMENTS: high density, armored skin, super strength, reinforced
musculoskeletal structure
   Amachop are short (4'0") grey-skinned and tough. Despite their apparent
size and slender builds they eat as much as a larger pokegirl and weigh over
two hundred pounds. Their physical density is such that small arms fire
during Sukebe's War was ineffective against them.

PSI-DYKE, the man hater
TYPE: Humanoid
ELEMENT: Psychic
FREQUENCY: Rare
DIET: Carnivorous. Prefer raw freshly-killed meat.
ROLE: Mainly found in the company of female Tamers or in the wild. Due to
their inherent hostility towards males and their desire to be in control,
only strong-willed female Tamers are likely to have these in their roster.
LIBIDO: Exclusively lesbian, Moderately High
STRONG VS: Ghost, Magic
WEAK VS: Ice, Dark, Steel
ATTACKS: Mind Flay, Dysphoria, Confusion, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Hell
Claw
EVOLVES: None
ENHANCEMENTS: Nightvision, Skin has a special oil that allows for long
periods of immersion, strong psychic abilities, high pain tolerance,
functional claws.
   Psi-Dyke are a rare breed, especially in the wild. Their tendency is to
seperate things into that which can be mated with and that which is food.
Everything else is a concern only in how it can be used to get either more
things to mate with or more things to eat.
   Psi-Dyke hate males of any species. Their esper powers are considerable
and only the strongest willed of female Tamers has been known to keep in
control of a Psi-dyke. Psi-dyke have also been known to cause some dismay
due to their habit of swallowing live rodents whole, though some have
adopted a more civilized habit of biting the heads off before devouring
their meal.

Professor's Notes:___

LEAGUE PROFESSIONS: Within the professions sanctioned and supported by the
League there are four official professions, each with its own
responsibilities and

TAMERS: These equate to the soldiers and special response teams of Ranma's
homeworld. The profession was first begun by soldiers fighting Sukebe who
discovered that these bio-weapons could be enlisted in their own cause. Like
those ancient warriors, most Tamers utilize a team of six and wander from
Pokecenter to Pokecenter while they train their pokegirls and seek troubles
to shoot. Others base their activities around a single activity and work out
of a static location, though it is usually a Tamer who has attained Master
rank who will go this route. Tamers are considered the high-profile/high
glamour end of things, and usually are human males of ages from 16 to 24. At
the end of this time they either settle down to a normal job, switch to
becoming Watchers, or find some other career choice. As the old saying goes:
"Taming is a job for the young."

WATCHERS/RESEARCHERS: Watchers begin their career about the same time as
Tamers. Unlike Tamers, they usually have one or two pokegirls - at most
four. Watchers collect data and observation on pokegirls for the League and
for Researchers. When a Watcher feels he's ready, he takes a test and
delivers a thesis to the Research Bureau. If both are deemed sufficient, the
Watcher is given a lab or research posting to pursue their new career as a
Researcher.

BREEDERS: There are several advantages to those pokegirls raised by a
Breeder. Their human ancestry means they grow up at a human rate, developing
skills and personality that a wildborn cannot. While lacking the strength
and toughness of a pokegirl who grew up in the wild, their ability to
communicate and handle other tasks make them more versatile than a Feral.
Breeders are the most laxly monitored group, as they develop understandable
if otherwise unacceptable bonds with their charges. Some rely entirely on
Brooding Chambers, while others produce pokegirl children in less distant
fashion.

HAREM MASTERS: There are the Gym Leaders who are fully functioning members
of the League who operate a League-sanctioned Gym. There are the wandering
Masters who still seek to perfect their craft on some self-determined quest.
There are even Masters who hire out their pokegirls for more mundane tasks.

PET OWNERS: It was inevitable from the start that a cute pokegirl would find
her way into a human male heart, though it is usually frowned on. Some are
worked hard and shown little affection, others find a kind owner and have
been known to practically move mountains to please them. These are not
official League owners, and the League has in fact tried to limit their
spread over the years.