On the Run

‘…’ Thought

Chapter 11: Felonies

“She needs to go to a pokecenter now if we’re going to save her,” Washu
said.

“We can’t do that,” Nikolas said.

A half dozen indignant “What?”s greeted his statement.

“You’re just going to let her die?” Ceres demanded as her voice broke
and her eyes started to tear.

&n'> 

“No, no. I didn’t say that,” Nikolas said indignantly. “Think about it,
she’s been reported stolen and if we take her to a pokecenter they’ll scan her
and ID her in an instant and when that ens ens we’re all screwed. Now just give
me a minute to think this out.” Nikolas stood up and began to pace. “What about
‘balling her?”

“It’ll slow down the process but it won’t stop it,” Washu said.

“What about a medical store or a pokestore, would they have something
that can help her?”

“No, the kind of antibiotics we need aren’t sold in a store, you can
only get them at a hospital or pokecenter.”

Nikolas crouched down and rubbed his temples for a few moments. “What
about a healing cycle?”

“She needs antibiotics,” Washu said forcefully, “What about that don’t
you understand?”

Nikolas growled and smacked a fist into the ground. “I get it! I’m just
trying to find a way to help her without getting my ass caught! FUCK!” Nikolas
snatched his hat off his head and ran his hands roughly across his face and
through his hair before standing up and walking over to Ceres and Washu to look
down at Delta. ‘She almost looks peaceful,’ he thought. ‘For a demon she has a
sweet face.’ Then his gaze swept across the bandages on her arm and the
frustration came roaring ba/spa/span>

Yerella stood to one side watching her son as he stared at Delta and
then off into the distance. Washu stood up and was about to say something until
she placed a hand on her son’s alpha’s shoulder and quieted her. Nikolas paced
a few steps away from the group and pulled out his pokedex. For a few minutes
he worked its controls until he seemed to find what he was looking for and
snapped it shut. He turned back towards the group and walked up to Isabella.
“Drop the pack shorty,” he told her quietly. When she did so he rummaged around
inside it and pulled out two cardboard boxes and sat down with his rifle across
his lap. “The pistols, I need them back,” he said to no one in particular as he
removed the magazine from his rifle and started to reload it from one of the
boxes.

Faye walked over and handed him the pistol she had taken and a few
seconds later Nina dropped the pistol Ceres had used into his lap. “Nikolas,”
Nina asked, “what are we going to do?”

With the magazine topped off Nikolas slapped it back into the rifle and
cocked it. Before he pulled out his pokedex and brought up a map of the area.
“We’re here,” he said pointing to their position on the map as the girls
started to gather around. “We’re about five kilometers southwest of Cordale.
There’s a pokecenter there that’ll have what we need to heal Delta, I’m going
there to get it. I want you all to head directly north. There’s a river about seven
kilometers north of herd whd when you reach it follow it to the west until you
reach these falls,” he said as he traced the route on the map. “When I’m done
I’ll meet you all there. Oh, and ball Delta.” Nikolas shut the pokedex and
started to top of the pistols’ magazines.

“They aren’t going to just give you those kinds of antibiotics,” Washu
warned him.

“I know,” he said as he slipped the pistols back into their holsters and
pulled the knife on his belt out to examine it quickly before putting it back
into its sheath.

“What are you going to do?” Nina asked.

“Its better for everyone that you don’t know, now hurry up and get
going.” He reached back into the pack and pulled out a length of rope followed
by a pair of binoculars.

“Know what?” Faye demanded.

When Nikolas looked up at her he felt a sudden overwhelming desire to
tell her but he quickly overcame it and said defiantly, “What I’m about to do.”

“Why?” Ivy chimed in.

Nikolas was beginning to get annoyed. “Because if I’m caught I just go
to jail for the rest of my life, I’ve already got a murder two wrap coming so
whatever I do doesn’t really matter. On the other hand they put down pokegirls
who commit felonies.” Nikolas tossed the rope over his head and left shoulder
before slinging his rifle over the opposite. “Now get moving, all of you.
You’ve got a long way to go and not a whole lot of daylight left. I’ll meet you
as soon as I can.” Nikolas stood up and did his best to make it obvious that
the discussion was over.

“Nikolas,” his mother intoned, “what exactly are you going to do?”

Against his better judgment Nikolas looked at his mother when he felt
her hand on his shoulder. ‘I never could lie to her,’ he thought as he looked
at her. “I’m about to go commit about three felonies I figure.”

“I said exactly.”

“I’m going to go break into a pokecenter, steal what we need, and kidnap
a Joy to heal up Delta.”

Yerella was taken aback a moment and tried to cover it up by
straightening her dress. “Well then.”

“Yeah.”

“You should get going.”

“Probably.” Nikolas took a step before adding solemnly, “Watch after ‘em
for me.”

“That’s your job,” Yerella answered softly.

Nikolas nodded and headed off quickly leaving the girls to fend for
themselves for the time being. The area along his path to Cordale was
relatively open plains with only a few scattered trees and Nikolas hoped to
make good time. After a few minutes of hurried walking he heard a dull thump
followed by a hissed curse. Turning quickly Nikolas saw a flash of red dropping
into the grass and Faye’s form disappearing as if it had been made of smoke. A
whisper could just barely be heard above the wind whistling through the grass.

Nikolas walked up and looked down at Washu. “Can I help you?”

Washu looked up from her crouch and flashed Nikolas a smile that went
from ear to ear. “Just making myself useful.”

“You and Faye go make yourself useful with the rest of the girls.”

“I told you you weren’t fast enough.” Washu grumbled as she stood up and
dusted off her khaki shorts.

Faye reappeared out of thin air with her hand on her hip. “Like you were
any faster.”

Nikolas sighed. “Both of you get lost, you can’t come with me,” he said
quietly.

“The hell we can’t,” Washu shot back determinedly as she fixed her
ponytail and bangs, “You obviously can’t take care of yourself.” Satisfied with
the condition of her appearance she looked back at Nikolas with a smirk, “You
need adult supervision.”

Nikolas locked eyes with Washu and scowled at her as he told both of
them, “You come with me and if we get caught the both of you get put down so
get out of here.”

“No.”

Both Nikolas and Washu looat Fat Faye questioningly.

“I doubt you’re a much better criminal then you are a tamer so you need
somebody who knows what they’re doing with you,” Faye explained. “If you get
caught we’re all in trouble and Delta dies.”

Between the disinterested look Faye wore and Washu’s defiance Nikolas
knew he wasn’t going to get rid of them. “I don’t suppose either of you are
actually going to listen too me will you?”

“No,” Washu said flatly.

When he didn’t hear anything from Faye Nikolas turned to her. “Will
you?”

Faye hesitated a moment before shaking her purple hair out of her face
and saying, “No.”

Nikolas quickly turned his back on them and stormed off through the
grass. “I don’t believe this shit.”

“We know what we’re getting into,” Washu told him as she hustled to
catch up.

“What about Mihoshi?”

“What about her,” Washu asked as she adjusted the straps to her pack.
“She’s a big girl, she can take care of herself.”

“Fine,” Nikolas muttered and for nearly half an hour they walked along
in silence. The gentle rolling hills of the plains started to flatten out as
the sun started to sink into the horizon.

Finally Faye couldn’t stand it anymore, “So are you just gonna walk in
there with your rifle hanging out or what?”

“Well it’ll be late and dark by the time we get there so it won’t really
matter. Exactly what are you hoping to accomplish by coming along Washu?”

“Do you know what you need from the center?”

Nikolas opened his mouth to say something but closed it just as quickly
and sighed, “No.”

“So you just walked off without really knowing what you needed?” Faye
asked stunned.

“Not much of a planner either apparently,” Washu teased.

Nikolas growled, “Give me a break alright. I was going to have the
center’s Joy tell me what we needed.”

“I could have told you if you’d just asked,” Washu said as she followed
Nikolas over the top of a hill.

“I screwed up ok? Damn.” The silence returned and the plains gave way to
crop lands as night fell over them. A while later Nikolas asked, “So where did
those things in the woods come from you think?”

“They were probably there the whole time in some form or another and
whatever made the forest that way made them that way too,” she explained.

“The blast?” Fayked.ked.

“Most likely,” Washu said.

Nikolas fell back until he was between the girls. “I’ve read a lot of
the histories of the world before Sukebe. I don’t remember ever hearing of
anything like those. Nothing that big hunted in pack and sure as hell nothing I
ever heard of looked like that.”

“Did you ever read of trees that looked like those did and that could
survive and explosion that could scrub hills off the of of the planet?” Washu
asked skeptically.

“Well no.”

“Then there you go.” Washu scowled as she continued, “I wish I could
dissect one of the bodies. I could have described an entirely new species. Do
you know how rare it is to find an animal of that size in the wild?”

“Yeah, I’ve never heard of anything that size off of a farm,” Nikolas
answered.

“We killed more in ten minutes then most people see in their lives,aye aye said. “How does something like that survive?”

Washu thought about it for a moment before saying, “Well individually
they are almost a match for a pokegirl and they hunt in packs large enough to
overcome a harem full of girls. You’d need a group of pokegirls our size to
have a chance against them probably.”

Nikolas looked off towards a house in the distance with its lights on.
“If those things ever came out of the woods….,” he said ominously.

“Since people tend to disappear from the surroundings I would suppose
they do from time to time but because no one has ever described one I would say
it’s not common and they don’t go far.”

“Then why didn’t they follow us?” Faye asked.

“The light? They had big eyes, and no iris that I saw just a wide open
shot to the back of their eyes. They’re probably blind in mid day light,”
Nikolas offered.

Washu smiled. “Smart boy,” she said patronizingly, “all the people who
disappeared in the surrounding areas disappeared at night. Between the eyes,
very astute I might add, and their pale skin they probably can’t stand direct
sunlight. The brightest it ever gets in Murkwood is twilight which makes it a
perfect habitat for those things.”

“Lucky us to find them,” Faye muttered as she rolled her eyes.

Nikolas snorted, “I don’t think we were the first people to find those
things, just the first to get away.”

Two hours later the three of them were lying on top of a hill over
looking Cordale. “This looks like it could be a nice place to live,” Washu
whispered as she accepted the pair of binoculars Nikolas was handing her.

“Yeah, sure,” he muttered. “The pokecenter is right down there on the
main road. Two story, brick, big white and red sign out front.”

“I see it,” Washu said as she made to pass the binoculars to Faye.

She shook her head no, “I can see it fine, how do you want to get in?”

Arial'>“We’ll use the ladder around back to get up to the roof and the use the
roof access door to get inside, unless you have a better idea that is.”

“No, that sounds fine,” Faye said as if giving a child permission.

“Glad you approve.”

“So when do we go?” Washu asked.

“We’ll give it another hour to make sure everyone’s asleep and then
we’ll go.”

The alley was dark as a pair of purple ears peaked around the corner of
a building followed by the rest of a Catgirl’s head. The head disappeared
quickly and a moment later it reappeared as the girl sneaked around the corner
and started down the alley. Quickly after her came a young man in a pair of
olive drab cargo pants a red t-shirt a black jacket with a bright yellow
wreckball cap pulled down so far that combined with how far he was bent over
the only part of his face that was visible was his scruffy chin. Bringing up
the rear was a young redhead with khaki shorts and a black t-shirt pulled over
a long sleeve white sweater.

The group stopped at the base of a ladder behind a brick building.
Leaping straight up the Catgirl easily cleared the grate that was protecting
the bottom half of the ladder and caught hold of it. She reached down and
pulled the redhead up onto the ladder who immediately scampered up it and onto
the roof.

“This might easier if you’d just get big you know,” Faye hissed.

Washu didn’t bother responding as disappeared from view.

“Little help here?” Nikolas asked from the bottom of the ladder.

n stn style='font-family:
Arial'> 

“Awww, I thought you were a big boy,” Faye teased.

“Just give a hand damn it!”

Faye reached down and pulled Nikolas up easily as she huffed.

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he went up the ladder.

“Don’t mention it,” Faye grumbled.

When they made it to the roof they found Washu crouched by the door
busily hooking her lap top up to the door’s security panel. “Just give me a
minute and I’ll be through this,” she said as she untangled a cable.

Faye walked up to the door and reached through it with her right hand. A
moment later the door slid open and Faye grinned as she gestured towards the
open doorway. “After you,” she said sounding sweet and sarcastic
simultaneously.

Nikolas unlimbered his rifle and started down the stairway behind the
door. After Nikolas passed Faye’s smile got even larger and more self satisfied
as she looked down at Washu. The little Supe-Bra Genius quickly packed up her
things and flicked Faye off in passing as hurrhurried after Nikolas. At the
bottom of the stairs they found Nikolas slowly walking down the hallway at the
bottom of the stairs. Washu tapped Nikolas on the shoulder and whispered into
his ear, “This floor is going to be recovery rooms and storage. The clinic will
be on the first floor.” Nikolas nodded and quickly moved to the end of the hall
at the back of the center and down the stairs there.

At the bottom of the stairs were several curtained doors to their right
and a couple of regular doors to their left. Washu quicklanneanned the signs
above them and went to the one closest on their left. “This one, the pharmacy,”
she whispered as she tried the door. “Damn it, it’s locked.”

Nikolas nodded towards the door. “Faye.”

She nodded and quickly opened it in the same way she had gotten them in
the building.

“What? Come on,” Washu muttered as she saw the cage enclosed counter
just inside the door.

Faye sighed and held Washu’s collar as she walked through the enclosure
pulling Washu with her.

“Nice trick,” Nikolas said as he stood guard at the door.

&n'> 

Washu glanced down at her body and ran her hands over her chest. “Wow.”

“Would you stop that and find what we need,” Faye snarled as she began
looking through the shelvesl ofl of bottles and boxes.

“Damn that’s a lot of drugs,” Nikolas said slightly in awe of the number
of pills, creams, and syrups behind the counter.

“Most of them lethal to humans,” Washu said off hand as she started to
check the tags on the end of the shelf. “Here we go.” She went two thirds of
the way down the aisle before stopping and looking up. “Damn.” Washu rapidly
grew to her full size and rifled through bottles of pills and serums.

Nikolas allowed himself a moment to admire the way that Washu filled out
her clothes in this form. ‘Almost as built as Mihoshi,’ he thought as he
grinned.

“You’re not supposed to be here!” a high pitched female voice squealed
from out in the hallway.

Immediately everyone’s eyes snapped around to the doorway and the
unmistakable form of a pink haired Nurse Joy standing in it. Almost immediately
Nikolas lunged forward and grabbed a handful of the Joy’s nihirthirt and drug
her forward into the small pharmacy waiting area he was crouched in. He dumped
her unceremoniously to the ground and against the wall below the counter.
Nikolas quickly covered the Joy’s mouth with his left hand as he allowed his
rifle to fall and hang by its strap and drew a pistol with his right hand. He
didn’t point the pistol at the Joy, instead he stayed in his crouch over her
and propped his right elbow on his knee with the pistol held straight up in the
air making sure that she could see it. “Be quiet!” he snarled as she started to
struggle and tried to talk through his hand. “You be quiet and nothing bad
happens, got it?” Nikolas kept his eyes locked on the Joy’s as he said,
“Sweetie?”

Washu caught on quickly, “Yes?”

“Grab anything that looks useful.”

“Got it,” she replied.

“Now are you gonna stay quiet if I take my hand away?”

The Joy looked back and forth between Nikolas’ face and the pistol in
his hand before nodding yes. “Good girl.”

In the enclosure Washu told Faye, “Bandages, disinfectant, things like
that, as much as you can stuff in here,” she said while she tapped her back
pack. A few moments later both girls stood before the enclosure and Washu
caught Nikolas’ attention by waving a hypo-spray. When she had it she pointed
the injector down at the Joy and raised her eyebrows.

While Faye and a now young Washu walked back through the solid counter
and grate Nikolas asked the Nurse, “So, how long have you worked here?”

“Wha….I’ve work EEEP!” the Joy exclaimed as Washu pressed the hypo-spray
against her neck and triggered the spray. The girls pupils quickly dilated and
she slumped over unconscious within seconds.

Washu held up the hypo-spray, “Aladrazine, she’ll be out for hours and
wake up with a hell of a headache. With any luck she won’t remember a thing
either.”

“Do we need anything else?” Faye asked.

“To wipe our faces off the record,” Washu said as she pointed to a
camera at the end of the hallway.

Nikolas grimaced and shook his head. “Where?”

“Any computer will do,” Washu answered, “The lobby is sure to have one.”

The three moved quickly down the hallway to the front of the center and
its lobby. As Washu disappeared behind the reception desk and began to set up
her computer Faye and Nikolas wandered about the lobby examining things. When
Nikolas walked by the entrance to the pokecenter something on the bulletin
board beside it caught his eye. “What the hell?”

“What is it,” Faye asked as she walked up beside him.

Nikolas pulled a notice off the board. “I don’t believe this!”

Faye glanced over his shoulder and saw that he was holding a wanted
posted of his self. “I know, that’s a horrible picture.”

Nikolas shot Faye a disapproving glance, “Well yeah but five thousand?
That’s it?”

“Five thousand isn’t chump change,” Faye told him, “That’ll keep your
average bounty hunter in the black for two months or better.”

Arial'>“Yeah but look at this,” he reached up and tapped another pair of wanted
posters. “These two goons are another one of those “Team whatever-the-hell”
clones who haven’t done much more then harass some tamers and steal a few
pokegirls and they’ve each got a ten thousand credit bounty on their heads.”

“Organization has its benefits.”

Nikolas folded his wanted poster up and stuffed it into one of his thigh
pockets. “There is no justice.”

“If you’re done feeling sorry for yourself can we get going now?” Washu
asked.

Faye was a little surprised, “Done already?” she asked.

Washu was incredibly pleased with herself, “It wasn’t hard,” she
explained, “all I had to do was wipe out tonight’s security logs and shut down
the cameras.”

Arial'> 

“Then let’s get out of here,” Nikolas said before heading for the stairs
at the back of the center.

Arial'> 

Faye was almost to the first landing and Nikolas was just starting up
the stairs when Washu’s delighted squeal caught their attention. Nikolas
quickly spun towards her with his rifle up only to see Washu disappearing into
one of the exam rooms with a huge smile on her face. Nikolas quickly chased
after her and found her examining a shoebox sized piece of equipment on top of
a table. “Washu what the hell do you think you’re doing, we have to get out of
here.”

“I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it.” Washu rambled as she fell
over the machine and started to hug it and stroke it.

“What is that?” Faye asked as she came in and saw the cause of Washu’s
enthusiasm.

Washu squeezed the machine harder for a moment before letting go of it
and starting to fiddle with the controls and cables attached to it. “It’s a
Czerka Corp. mobile healing center,” she gushed. “Oh we have to take it.”

“Mobile? I thought a healing machine was the size of a closet,” Faye said.

Washu snatched the machine’s plug out of the wall before dragging a case
off the shelf built into the bottom of the table and loading the machine into
it. “Normally yeah tha that’s because a normal unit’s programmed to deal with
everything that could come up.” She pulled a wallet off a shelf over where the
machine had been and opened it up showing Nikolas and Faye the I.D. card sized
cards inside it. “This machine only fixes the problem you program it too with
these. It takes longer because you have to change out cards and everything but
just look at!” She held up the case holding the machine. “A portable healing
machine!”

“It could be useful I suppose.” Nikolas said.

Washu looked at him as if he was insane, “Useful? Of course it is! Don’t
you get it? Anytime we’re somewhere we can plug this in we can heal everyone!
We’ll never have to come to a pokecenter again!”

“Be quiet!” Faye hissed, “There might be other people still in here.”

“I’m guessing that thing’s not cheap,” Nikolas observed dryly.

“Let’s just say that the bounty on your head wouldn’t even make the down
payment for one of these,” Washu explained.

“Alright grab it, it’ll be useful. Now let’s get out of here, no more
distractions.”

Moving quickly they made their way back up to the roof and down to the
ground. They made their way through alleys and small streets eventually making
their way into an industrial park on the edge of town. The park consisted of
dozens of two story warehouses arranged in rows. Most were closed up but a few
were left open to the night. Flood lights placed near the roofs of each
warehouse illuminated the concrete parking lots and loading docks around each
warehouse. Nikolas paused at the corner of one warehouse and let Faye and Washu
pass him so that he could check to see if they were being followed. After
spending several seconds scrutinizing the area behind them Nikolas was just
turning back to follow the girls when a flash of blue and green caught his eye.
When he looked back he didn’t see anyone behind them and was about ready to
dismiss it until he saw a long thin human shaped shadow on the ground at the
corner of the last warehouse they had passed.

Nikolas’ face paled as he hustled up to Faye and Washu. “Both of you,
get out of here, now!”

“What do you think we’re doing,” Washu asked sarcastically.

“I mean run,” he told them.

Faye raised and eyebrow and asked, “What got into you?”

Nikolas pulled the pistol out of his left holster and handed it to Faye.
“The bounty hunters found us again,” he deadpanned, “Make sure Washu gets back
with that medicine; I’ll make sure these guys don’t catch up.”

“What? What if they have a pokegirl?” Washu asked.

“They didn’t have one last time, and I doubt they’ve gotten one in the
last four days.”

“I’m not just leaving you here,” Faye insisted.

Nikolas shook his head, “Just do it.”

Faye tried to disagree with him but when she looked in his eyes her body
refused to cooperate. “I’ll get her out of here and hide her but I’m coming
back to help you.”

Nikolas decided to leave it at that, he wasn’t entirely enthusiastic
about facing the bounty hunters again by his self anyway. “Alright then, hurry
up and get out of here.” Faye nodded and Washu and she rapidly disappeared from
sight.

‘Ok, first to make sure they see me,’ Nikolas thought. Moving to the
corner of the nearest warehouse with an open bay door he tried to make it look
like he was checking the group’s rear to make sure they hadn’t picked up a tail
without actually looking to where he was fairly certain the hunters would be.
‘I can’t believe these guys are still after me, they know I have a rifle and
that I’m willing to use it and they’re still willing to come after me for a
measly five grand.’ Nikolas paused as he realized where his thoughts were
heading. ‘If these guys are willing to keep after me when they know I’m armed
and they’re good enough to have found us again just wounding them is pointless.
They’ll just keep coming.’ Deciding that he’d given the hunters enough time to
spot him he turned and headed into the warehouse moving quickly amongst stacks
of structural steel and crates of large metal machine parts. He found what he
was looking for when he ran across a stack of crates chest high with a clear
view of the door over them. Nikolas settled his rifle on top of the crates and
sighted the door down the barrel. The three meter high eight meter wide opening
was back lit and Nikolas reckoned it would make an excellent spot for an
ambush.

‘If I don’t do something I’ll never be rid of them and eventually
they’ll get lucky…’

In the doorway a tall thin man appeared moving cautiously. A half second
later an equally tall but much heavier built silhouette appeared. Nikolas aimed
low on the men, hoping to hit them in the legs. ‘Unless I do something,’ echoed
in his head as his aim point rose towards the center of their chests. Nikolas
muttered to himself, “You should have just let us go,” as he tightened his
finger down on the trigger of the rifle.

Nikolas’ Girls

Nina – Catgirl

Ceres – Vampire

Washu – Supe-Bra Genius

Mihoshi – Bunnygirl

Gally – Battlestyle='font-family:Arial'> Angel?

Faye – Cheshire

Mink – Dracona

Sango – Kunochi

Delta – Daimon

Ivy – Boobisaur

Harley – Ocelolita

Kaya – Wildcat

Naga

Billie