On the Run

“So your dad made you do all the chores?”

Mink nodded. “Yep, he said it was good for me and that it would make me
strong.”

Nikolas snorted. “Did it?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never had a chance to find out.”

Nikolas gave her a slightly lecherous grin. “Well, it doesn’t look like
it hurt you too much.” Mink blushed a little while Edora smacked him lightly on
the arm. “Heh, you know, you’re the same age as my sisters.”

Arial'> 

“Really?”

“Yeah, ya’ll were born within a couple months of each other.”

“Wow, and you’re taming them?”

When Nikolas paused in answering Mink’s question Isabella jumped in and
dreamily said, “Yeah, he’s taming us.” She giggled, “Taming us real good.”

Nikolas groaned as the three pokegirls had a laugh at his expense. “Why
don’t you three sit and have a talk since you seem to be getting along so well,
I need to go take care of something.”

“Awww,” Edora whined.

“No really,” he said as he stood, “I’m sure you two can find plenty of
things to embarrass me about.”

“Maybe we should tell her what Mihoshi told us about her first time with
him,” Isabella said as Nikolas walked away and he caught Edora’s assent as he
walked into the forest around the camp site.

Three minutes later Nikolas arrived where he wanted to be, the edge of
the pine stand overlooking Murkwood. He quickly found a soft spot at the base
of a pine tree and sat down. “Four more girls,” he muttered, “they’re gonna
kill me.” Nikolas looked at the pitch-black tangle of branches that was the
border of Murkwood and tried to clear his mind. As he watched the moon slowly
rise over the forest he thought, ‘It’s actually kind of pretty if you don’t
think about what it is.’ He allowed himself a few minutes of quiet before he
began to think about what he had come out to think about. ‘I’m going to have to
choose an alpha , li, like it or not there are just too many girls for me to
keep an eye on by myself.’ Before he could give it much thought a rustle in the
limbs above him drew his attention. “Is anyone th…” he stopped mid sentence
when something thudded softly to the ground in front of him.

Faye appeared in front of Nikolas as if she had stepped out of some sort
of liquid, her body shimmering into focus out of thin air less then a meter
from him. She didn’t say a word as she slowly bent over at the waist and
pressed her full lips firmly against his.

Faye fought to keeom gom groaning as she felt Nikolas’ rough lips press
against hers, normally she would have broken off immediately and made him do something
about them but now their rough condition was an all-too-pleasant reminder that
the person beneath her was a man. ‘It’s been waaaayyy too long since there were
anything but a woman around to get tamed by.’ Faye never broke the kiss as she
straddled Nikolas and slowly sank to her knees.

Nikolas groaned as Faye’s pleasantly warm weight settled onto his lap,
but the Cheshirestyle='font-family:Arial'> did nothing different save slowly introduce her
tongue into their kiss. It took him a moment to get used to the rough texture
on the top of her tongue but even as he did she would change her stroke and run
the soft underside of it across his. Every time Nikolas tried to use his own
tongue to play with hers she would pin his tongue against the nearest side of
his mouth before returning to the unhurried pace she was using to explore it.
‘Damn, I guess every muscle in her is stronger then mine.’ Even as he thought
this she slowly pulled her tongue out of his mouth and gave him one final peck
on the lips.

Nikolas opened his eyes as Faye pulled back and slipped her jacket off
her shoulders. When she caught his eyes she gave him a haughty smile as she
slowly unbuttoned both the buttons holding her top closed. She shrugged the top
off her shoulders and tossed it to the side with her jacket, her eyes never
left Nikolas’ and the self assured smile never left her face. Faye ran her
hands up her sides and cupped her breasts, slowly massaging the soft mounds of
flesh before capturing her nipples between her fingers and tweaking them to
hardness. When she caught him staring at her with his mouth hanging open her
smile turned into a smirk. Faye leaned down and pressed her Nikolas’ face
between her breasts but when he tried to raise his hands to touch them she
smacked them down and started to pull her chest back.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

Faye paused and considered Nikolas a moment before leaning back down and
brushing her nipples across his face. She let him capture one of the taut peaks
and “Mmmmmm”’d softly but then pulled back and placed one hand in the middle of
his chest to prevent him from following after. Faye quickly slid down the front
of Nikolas’ torso and down until she was crouched over his lap, her hands made
a quick run down his legs, framing his manhood before zipping back up and roughly
divesting him of his boxers. Her head snapped down and engulfed Nikolas’
hardness in one smooth stroke.

The breath caught in Nikolas’ throat when he first felt Faye’s lips
slipping down around him and he gasped when he felt the underside of her tongue
stroking the top of his manhood, but when she captured the head of it between
her incisors and held it firm as she ran the velvety sandpaper of the topside
of her tongue around it he didn’t dare make a sound. When he finally did
breathe and dare to look down, the cat portion of her nature was in full force.
Between her teeth and tongue, ears and twitching tail there was no mistaking
the fact that she wasn’t human, but as she ran her rough tongue around the
crown of his dick he didn’t care.

When she was satisfied that her tamer was completely up for his duties
Faye released him with an audible pop. She cut off his complaint by rapidly
standing, spinning in place, and bending over to give him a face full of her
smooth and flawless rear. With a snap of her wrists she pulled down her shorts
and kicked them off.

The only thing that Nikolas could see were the twin moons of Faye’s ass
and the red suspenders that he could now see formed some sort of small panties
that only barely covered her and were very wet. He stared, awestruck, as Faye
ran one finger under those ersatz panties and pulled them aside, showing that
unlike Nina, the only place she had any fur was around the base of her tail and
her ears. He only got a peek before she turned back around to face him and
slowly pulled the suspenders off.

‘Finally,’ Faye thought. She had tried to proceed as slowly as she
could, but her instincts were screaming at her to get on with it. She quickly
straddled Nikolas and kneeled over his straining erection. She paused for a
moment to give him a heavy-lidded stare with a smirk before lowering herself
the rest of the way and engulfing his cock with her pussy.

Arial'>Nikolas let out a tortured groan as Faye started to rock back and forth
atop him, he closed his eyes as he felt her tight and wet walls pressing around
him. When hened ned his eyes he saw her smiling back at him with the same look
on her face that she had had on it the entire time, the look that said she knew
she was in control and was enjoying it. As she kept rolling her hips atop
Nikolas she began to purr. At first Nikolas wasn’t sure what the light
vibration he felt in Faye’s chest was, but as the soft vibration turned into a
deep rhythmic rumble he caught on. Her purrs were accompanied by her tail
starting to stroke at his leg.

As Nikolas felt the pressure building within him Faye was speeding up
and the purrs were becoming more urgent, when his face started to contort under
the strain of holding himself back Faye placed her hands on either side of his
hand and made him look at her. This time the smile she gave him wasn’t the
confident one he expected, it was an almost warm one as she nodded to him. Both
of his hands snapped up and grabbed into Faye’s hips and pulled her down on him
roughly, almost immediately he began to pump her full of his seed.

When Faye felt Nikolas loose himself in her she fell over the edge right
after him. ‘Gods,’ she thought as she felt his seed splash inside her, ‘it’s
been too damn long.’ Then she felt the warm wave washing through her that she
knew meant her body was imprinting Nikolas as it’s new master. ‘Too long since
I was…,’ she hissed as a particularly strong wave washed over her,
‘…possessed.’

Nikolas was stunned when the girl on his lap hissed and then faded from
view for a moment, he could still feel her weight on his lap and her heat on
his body, he just couldn’t see her. “Faye?” As quickly as she had vanished the style='font-family:Arial'>Cheshire
returned and Nikolas ran a hand through her hair. “Are you ok?”

Faye opened her eyes and looked at him with a dazed expression, “Chesh?”

“Are you ok?”

Faye stared at him for a moment before his question seemed to sink in,
her confident smirk returned and she nodded, “Shire.”

“Ok…”

Before Nikolas could say another word Faye extricated herself from his
grasp, grabbed her clothes, and disappeared from view. Nikolas stayed where he
was for several minutes, waiting to see if Faye returned or he could hear some
trace of her but when he didn’t see or hear anything he straightened himself
out and made his way back to camp. All of the girls had disappeared into their
tents by the time Nikolas returned and some noise was coming from one that had
a big yellow flower and some small red hand drawn crabs on it. “I guess she
really isn’t that small,” he thought.

“Where have you been?”

Nikolas turned to his left to see both Edora and Isabella’s heads
peeking out of their tent, a half a beat later Mink’s head joined theirs.
Nikolas gave a light laugh and told them, “I think I was getting tamed.” Before
the girls could say anything, he ducked inshis his tent and closed the flap
behind him.

“Nikolas?” Nina softly called from the pile of sleeping bags on the
floor of the tent.

“Oh, you’re still up?”

“Mmhmm, I didn’t want to go to sleep before you did.”

Nikolas smiled down at her, “That’s sweet of you, but you didn’t have
to.”

“It’s nothing,” she said as she rolled back over. As she did so she
dragged the blanket she was using with her, exposing her bare back to Nikolas’
gaze.

Nikolas sat down behind her on the clear side of the pallet. “Nina?”

The pokegirl gave no sign that she had heard him.

Nikolas reached over and started to stroke her arm. “Nina…”

He let out a heavy sigh. “Nina, I’m sorry if I scared you…”

Nina interrupted him, “You didn’t have to hurt that man, he hadn’t done
anything to us.”

Nikolas stared down at Nina’s back. “I know, damn it, I know. It’s
just…he was trying to take you away from me.”

“He only wanted to know if you would trade for me.”

“You had a collar on, what kind of idiot tries to find out if somebody
would trade a collared pokegirl?”

“He still hadn’t done anything to deserve what you did to him.”

Nikolas started to open his mouth to try to explain why he had done it,
but he realized he didn’t know himself, so he didn’t say anything. When Nina
didn’t make a sound he settled himself and continued, “Nina, I can’t undo what
happened, please just trust me in the future, ok?”

For a few seconds silence reigned in the tent but then Nina jerkily
nodded her head and whispered, “Ok.”

Nikolas brought his hand from her shoulder to her head and gently ran it
through her red hair. “Thanks.” When his hand brushed against her ear he felt
the Catgirl shiver. A small smile crept onto Nikolas’ face as he slid in behind
Nina, pressing his body up against hers, as he pulled the blanket over the both
of them he wormed one of his legs between hers, his grin getting wider as the
purple fur covering her legs tickled him. Nikolas whispered into her ear, “It’s
been a while since you were tamed last, hasn’t it?”

Nina nodded her head slightly.

“It’s been about four days hasn’t it,” he stated as he slid his free
hand up the length of her thigh, ruffling her smooth fur. As he felt her
tremble he thought, ‘Damn I need an alpha to remind me of these things, another
day and she would have been in a bad way.’ “Don’t worry,” he assured her as he
slipped the hand that had been stroking her thigh around to the inside of her
leg, “I’ll take care of you.” He moved the hand from her head down to around
her neck to better hold onto the shivering girl while his other started to coax
her legs apart.

As Nina parted her thighs before his exploring hand Nikolas realized
something that he had missed the first time he had tamed Nina, instead of the
thick tangle of curls he expected to find above her pussy he instead found that
the area around her sex was covered in the same short fur as much of the rest
of her body. When his hand started to trace along the outside of her lips Nina
groaned in frustration but when he lightly brushed a fingertip across her slit
Nina clamped her legs down around his invading hand.

Nikolas chuckled evilly as he chided Nina, “Uh uh uhhh,” he pulled his
leg from between hers and then wrapped it around her upper leg and pulled it
away from her other exposing her again to his touch, “no fair covering up.”
Again he ran a finger softly across her entrance delighting in the slight
dampness he felt and the quiet “Nyao” his actions elicited. ‘Damn I love
hearing that sound.’ When he brushed his thumb across her clit Nina went rigid
and let out a little whine, as he started to stroke his first two fingers
deeper between her lips she started to writhe and squirm in Nikolas’ hands.

With his hands full of squirming Catgirl Nikolas did his best to keep a
grip on her with his left arm but he made sure not to hold onto her too tight,
he was enjoying the both the feeling of the fur on her back and the smooth skin
on the rest of her body too much. “You like that Nina?”

“Nyyyaooo.”

Nikolas used his left hand to start to play with Nina’s left breast,
cupping the soft mound of flesh and squeezing it gently and brushing the
occasional finger across her nipple. He kept his thumb on her clit, rubbing it
slowly while he kept slicking his first two fingers in her wetness, when he was
satisfied they were wet enough he brought them to rest against Nina’s entrance.
“Do you want to keep going?”

“Yes…oooohhhhh!”

As soon as he heard her start to say yes he slid both of his fingers
inside her and pressed down on her clit with his thumb, in his arms Nina went
rigid, trying to bow her back but Nikolas held her tight. Nikolas groaned as he
felt Nina’s wet and hot tightness surrounding his invading digits, ‘I wish I’d
gotten another of those drinks from Mihoshi,’ he thought. He started to pump
his fingers in and out of her as he kept his thumb playing with her clit, when
her “Nyao”’s started to come continuously he began to curl his finger tips
inside her at the bottom of every stroke. After a few minutes Nina was panting
hard and her vocalizations were becoming more strained, it was then that he
stopped curling his fingers together.

Nina had been close before Nikolas had started to move each finger
inside her separately and when he did that combined with a particularly hard
rub over her clit she felt the release she had been hoping for.

Nikolas felt Nina shudder and her pussy clamped down on his fingers as a
strained groan came from her lips. When she started to calm down he pulled his
fingers out of her and brought them up to his lips, while he was cleaning her
taste off of one of his fingers he looked down and saw that Nina had turned her
head and was holding her mouth open with a pleading look in her eyes. “You
naughty little kitty,” he said as he lowered his still soaked finger into
Nina’s mouth, “what am I going to do with you?” Nikolas chuckled as he felt her
rough tongue cleaning his finger off of her own essence, it almost felt like
she was trying to blow his finger, “I know.” Nikolas drew his finger out of her
mouth and crawled over to his pack, after a few moments he found what he was
looking for and crawled back to Nina. “Wear this,” he said as he released one
end of the collar so it could dangle in front of her.

Nina considered the collar for a moment before she sat up and turned
around. Nikolas scooted up behind her and wrapped the brown leather strap
around her neck, after he buckled it he adjusted it so that the silver stud
that held the anti-capture chip was in the middle of her throat. “You’re
beautiful you know.” A blush rose on Nina’s cheeks. “Let’s go to bed,” he told
her.

“What about you?” she asked cautiously.

“I’m worn out, so don’t worry about it.”

“But…”

Nikolas cut her off, “Don’t worry about it, getting to hear you get off
was fun enough for me.”

Nina didn’t sound convinced. “Ok.”

Nikolas pulled her down onto the palette of sleeping bags and pulled the
blanket over them. “Good night.”

Nina responded by purring and snuggling closer to Nikolas. Within a few
minutes they were both sound asleep.

“Nikolas, time to wake up.”

“It’s time to wake up.”

Nikolas opened his eyes to see Nina smiling down at him, a halo of red
hair framing her cute little face and the brown collar standing out prominently
against the pale flesh and purple fur around her neck. “Is it now?”

“Yes. Yerella…”

Nikolas pulled her down for a quick kiss before she could finish her
sentence. “Mmm, not a bad way to wake up.”

Nina blushed and sat back up, for a few moments she just sat there
looking cutely embarrassed as Nikolas just smiled slyly at her but then she
said, “Breakfast is almost ready, we should go.” With that she turned and
crawled out of the tent.

Nikolas watched her leave, paying special attention to the way her tail
peeked out of the tiny triangle cut just below the waistband of her red skirt.
When the last of her disappeared he sighed and said, “Yes mother,” before he
pulled a clean pair of pants out of his pack and crawled out of his tent. He
found everyone else already eating, but his sisters had saved him a plate and
handed it to him as he sat down. “I’m never going to get to eat my breakfast
early again, am I?” he asked no one in particular.

“Not if the girls have anything to say about it,” Lana answered him.

“Great.”

“You weren’t complaining last night,” Faye said as she gave him a sly
smile over her tin cup.

Nikolas looked down into his plate and muttered slowly, “Every damn
morning,” before he smiled and finished eating. As he dropped his plate on top
of the pile of dirty dishes he said loudly, “Everybody listen up, I got something
important to tell you guys.” The girls quickly quieted down and gave him their
attention, “Since Nina and Washu seemed so eager to run the show last night,”
he looked at the two nervous pokegirls, “You two are my alphas now, now let’s
get packed up and out of here, if we’re lucky and fast we might be able to make
it through most of Murkwood today and be out before lunch tomorrow.”

“Alpha?” Nina said quietly, while Washu just looked over at Gally and
laughed lightly.

“Yeah, Alpha, now crack the whip and let’s get going.”

“Whips, huh?” Washu asked Nikolas as he headed back to his tent.

Nikolas turned back. “Yeah, come on, let’s get going, unless you guys
want to spend lots of time in there,” he said as he nodded towards Murkwood.

Fifteen minutes later everything was packed up and they headed out.
Nikolas adjusted his rifle so that its strap sat better on his shoulder and
fell in beside Faye. “Umm, Faye, about last night…”

“What about it?” she asked, as dry pine needles crackled under her feet.

“It was…different,” he said hesitantly.

“Do you like your girls to talk dirty to you when you tame them?” she
purred.

“Uh well…” When Nikolas saw her smile at his consternation he changed
his tone. “Well a nice ‘Fuck me’ now and again doesn’t hurt,” he said levelly.

“Ohhh, a man who knows what he wants, I’ll be sure to talk to your
sisters and find out what else you like.”

He was about to fire back when he had to swerve to avoid plowing into
the back of his sisters and Mink, who had just stopped dead in their tracks as
they emerged from the pines. “This is a bad idea,” Mink whispered.

Before Nikolas could say anything, Nina placed her hands on Mink’s
shoulders and said, “We’ll be fine, there’s nothing to worry about.”

If her words offered any comfort, it was not evident on anyone’s face as
the group nervously crossed the strip of barren ground dividing Murkwood from
the rest of the world. Nikolas moved to the front of the group and led them
towards the dark and tangled mass of foliage that was the edge of Murkwood,
with every step through the dusty soil he found himself questioning his idea
more and more. ‘A green smudge on a map is one thing, but this….maybe Dorrie’s
right, maybe I am nuts.’ However as he got closer he realized that one of his
worries was unfounded. ‘This stuff isn’t as dense as I thought, guess I won’t
have to use one of the Daos like a machete.’

With a stomp Nikolas crushed down a cluster of dried branches and
started to clear a path for his girls. For several meters he had to shoulder his
way through the thick underbrush until he stumbled out of a thick cluster of
vines and into the forest proper, the girls quickly tumbled out after him.

“Ugh, this place is disgusting,” grumbled Mink as she saw the gloomy
underbelly of the forest.

Ceres surveyed the scene but arrived at a different conclusion. “I don’t
know, this place isn’t so bad.”

“Vampires,” Washu muttered as she heard Ceres’ comment. After a quick
glance at the girl, Washu smiled evilly and gave a tug on a new rip in Ceres’
yellow tank top.

“Heh, hey! Oh no, not another one,” Ceres moaned as her attention was
drawn to the condition of her shirt.

Nikolas looked out into the depths of the forest and found himself
agreeing with Mink. The trees were dark and gnarled, almost arthritic looking;
the canopy was only twenty feet or so over their heads, the floor of the forest
was almost overrun with roots and decaying leaves, and so little sunlight made
it through the canopy that it looked more like twilight then early morning.
Nikolas shook his head and said, “Let’s go, the faster we move the sooner we
can get out of this.”

When he shifted his rifle around on his shoulder to make it more
accessible he heard Sango say, “Hold on a minute, can you hand me my pokeball?”

“Sure,” Nikolas pulled her ball out of his bag and tossed it to her.

Sango tapped the activation stud and the familiar red light emerged anormeormed what appeared to be a six-foot boomerang.

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?” Sango asked as she removed her outer robe to reveal a tight
black leotard with reddish pink knee, elbow and chest pads with several scarves
tied around her arms and waist. Hefting the boomerang over her shoulder with
one hand she continued, “Did you ask something?” Behind Sango, Gally had
produced a meter long box with a hinge on one end.

“No, forget I said anything,” Nikolas answered as he started off into
the forest. He tried to keep the pace as quick as he could without straining
anyone. While most of the girls had little trouble negotiating the tangle that
was the forest floor, his sisters and Mihoshi were having a great deal of
trouble.

Two hours after lunch Washu said to Nikolas, “This shouldn’t even be
here you know,” as she gestured around at the trees.

“Really, why?”

“Simple, there’s nothing between here and the blast that would have
shielded this forest from it.”

“So, nothing says all these trees haven’t grown up since then.”

Washu rolled her eyes at Nikolas before continuing, “Except the
evidence, two hundred years ago some researchers cut down some trees on the
forest perimeter, all of them were at least four hundred years old, and a few
were more then six hundred.”

“Sooo?”

“This forest shouldn’t be here, it should have been flattened in the
blast but it wasn’t. What’s more, the forest was completely normal before the
blast, but when the researchers took their sas ths the forest looked pretty
much like it does now.”

“So you’re saying the blast did something to the forest?”

Washu gave an exasperated sigh. “Of course it did, that’s not the question.”

“Then what is it?”

“What the blast did to it, of course.”

“Ah,” Nikolas said levelly. For several minutes they walked in silence,
Washu paying close attention to the shriveled black trees they were passing and
Nikolas to the little redhead beside him. Eventually the silence got to him and
he asked her, “So, how’d you wind up at Azusastyle='font-family:Arial'>’s?”

“Do you ask every girl that question?”

“Well, not really…”

“Then why do you want to know?” she interrupted.

“I just want to know something about you, I assume you did something
before there, I just want to know what it was.”

Washu looked Nikolas up and down for a moment before saying, “Why don’t
you go ask Faye or Sango?”

“Because I’m asking you,” he drawled. “Come on, I’m trusting you enough
to make you my alpha and I haven’t so much as tamed you, the least you can do
is tell me something about yourself.”

Nikolas was almost sure that Washu wasn’t going to answer him, as she
walked along for a few seconds in silence. “My first and only owner,” she
began, “was a researcher named Kagato. When he bought me, nobody, even I, knew
that I was a lolita, it was just assumed that I was a slow grower. For a few
years everything was fine, we kept busy researching power generation
techniques.” Washu’s deadpan delivery cracked as a small smile crossed her
lips. “I was actually very happy, mos I w I was kept busy with something
interesting to research, I had a fully stocked lab, I was a happy little
Supe-Bra Genius.”

“Mostly?” Nikolas prodded.

“When it became obvious that I wasn’t getting any bigger Kagato ordered
me to undergo a battery of tests and he found out that I was a lolita.” Washu
shook her head. “From that day on he wouldn’t touch me, he always had one of
his lab assistants take care of taming me. Not that I minded mind you, they
were a cute bunch of pokegirls and taming was just one more thing that took
away time from my research, but it was a bit of a letdown.”

“Yeah, I’d imagine it would be.”

Washu didn’t pay Nikolas any mind. “Around that time Kagato started to
do some research without me. Naturally I was interested, but Kagato wouldn’t
tell me what he was doing, in fact he punished me any time I even asked about
it or he caught me investigating.”

“You mean snooping,” Nikolas said with a grin.

“Investigating,” Washu snapped, enunciating every syllable.

“Alright, alright,” Nikolas said jokingly.

“Anyways…” Washu resumed, dragging the word out, “eventually I was able
to break into his files, it’s actually sort of embarrassing.”

“Why?”

“All he had on the files was a simple password, I spent months trying to
break in assuming he had used something more sophisticated but when I ran a
password cracker it was able to get it rather fast, just ‘Jurai’.”

“What’s that?”

Washu shook her head, “Damned if I know but it was the password for
every one of his important files. It turns out that he was just using my
research as a cover for what he was really doing, he was trying to find a way
to harness the energy released by the evolution of an Eva with an angel stone.”

“Was he out of his mind?!” Nikolas asked.

“Maybe, I don’t know, but I don’t think making power was all he was
planning on using that for. When I found out I immediately started to gather
all the data I could, but before I could send it to the league,” Washu’s voice
caught in her throat, “he found out.”

“Washu…” Nikolas’ voice was concerned.

The little pokegirl just continued on, “He wasn’t happy, I thought he
was going to hit me again but he didn’t, he just grabbed my arm and dragged me
to a lab we never used.” Washu’s voice got quieter and slower as she told her
story. “He tossed me down on the floor, I never thought a regular human could
throw somebody like me like that, but he did. When I got up and started to yell
at him about how he was going to get t oft of people killed with his
experiments he- he just hauled off and slapped me, told me that I obviously
hadn’t learned my place and that I was more trouble then I was worth. He picked
up this pokeball and aimed it at me, I didn’t really think anything of it until
I was inside. It was cold, gods it was cold.”

She paused for a moment. “…I couldn’t feel anything besides the cold,
and then I started to hear and see. I could see and hear everything going on
outside the ball but that was it, nothing like a normal pokeball feels like. He
held the ball up to his face and told me that now I was going to learn a little
respect. He put me in this little alcove in his private lab, for days I watched
him work on his little project, collecting and cataloging angel stones, every
once in a while he’d come over and gloat about how wrong and helpless I was,
then it happened.”

“What did?” Nikolas asked to keep her story moving.

“My safety net, a little virus I planted in his file server when I was snoopi…investigating,”
she corrected herself when she saw Nikolas begin to grin. “It came online while
he was working and since I hadn’t reset its timer it wiped every computer he
had, all of them, of everything, it even sent a message to the league telling
them what kind of research he was doing.”

“Cute.”

“It was rather brilliant, at least I thought so when I planted it, I
hadn’t really planned on being caught.”

“People rarely do.”

“Kagato was furious, he had to abandon his lab, his work, everything and
start over, the only thing he didn’t abandon was me, he made sure to grab my
ball before he left, told me he would make sure I regretted ever being born.”

Nikolas winced but Washu was no longer checking on him and what he
thought of her story. “When he started his new lab he put me in this little
room, like a closet. I think it had some sort of lock because he was the only
one to ever come in there. There was nothing in that room and it was perfectly
sealed and dprodproofed, when the door was closed nothing made it in, no light,
no sound, nothing.”

Nikolas placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her around a root she
had been in danger of tripping over. “Thank you,” she said distractedly. “I
guess it was my punishment, he came in every day days, I think, it could have
been minutes, or months, or years, I couldn’t tell, he never seemed to age.
Aside from that it was just dark, always dark, and cold. I tried to keep myself
busy with math lemslems and proofs, I played chess in my own mind, I tried
everything I could think of to not think about what was happening to me.”

They continued on through the forest silently for several minutes before
Nikolas asked, “How’d you get free?”

Washu laughed lightly before looking behind them at Mihoshi. “That
wonderful little Bunny right there.”

“Well, that explains that.”

“One day the door opened, only it was Mihoshi not Kagato, she wondered
about my little enclosure for a few minutes before she spotted me. At first she
just stood there staring, then she reached for my ball. I was ecstatic, all she
had to do was pick up me up and let me out, but before she could touch the ball
Kagato found her. I didn’t see her again for a while.”

Nikolas glanced back to see that Mihoshi’s ears were flattened back
against her head and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“He…punished her, but not like he did me.”

Nikolas got the feeling that Washu was leaving more then a few details
out about this part.

Washu pressed onward, “Later she came back, only now the area outside
the door was on fire.” Washu smiled. “She tripped over the doorsill and fell
onto the podium my pokeball was sitting on. She knocked it to the floor and it
rolled behiome ome shelves. I heard her scrambling around trying to find me and
then I heard a man’s voice yelling for her to get out, something about the
building falling down. Mihoshi wouldn’t go.” Washu laughed, “it’s the only time
I ever remember her not doing what she was told, she just ignored him and kept
on looking for me and when she found me she handed me to the man and I didn’t
see anything else.”

“What had happened?”

“Apparently the league put a reward on Kagato’s head and somebody
finally found him, a boy named Tenchi to be exact. I never did find out what he
did, but the end result was that Kagato was dead and his lab destroyed.”

“So this Tenchi guy caught you, why’d he turn you over to style='font-family:Arial'>Azusa?”

“Impatient aren’t we? Well, I was almost there, but now you’ve gone and
spoiled the dramatic tension,” she scolded, sounding for all the world like a
petulant teacher.

“Washu, come on,” Nikolas implored.

“Keep telling him Washu,” Mihoshi encouraged. “Please?”

“Fine, but only because Mihoshi asked.”

“Goody!” the Bunnygirl squealed.

Washu rolled her eyes and explained, ”It’s Tenchi’s pokegirl’s fault,
well actually it’s his fault since he can’t seem to make a choice.”

Nikolas started to ask what choice that was but when Washu glanced up at
him he decided not to.

“Good boy, you can learn!” she said mockingly. Nikolas just glared back
at her. “He had, well has, a Dominatrix named Ayeka and a Warcat named Ryoko,
naturally they both wanted to be his alpha, but the spineless wonder couldn’t
make a decision, apparently he was content to listen to them bitch andn
an
about who should be alpha, unfortunately they both agreed on one thing, Tenchi
got no more girls until he made a decision.”

 pan>pan>

“Why didn’t he just tell them no?” Mink asked. Washu and Mihoshi both
giggled at her question. “What’s so funny?” the Dracona asked.

“Tenchi wasn’t exactly in charge,” Washu explained.

Between her cute little giggles Mihoshid, “d, “Ayeka and Ryoko tamed
Tenchi!”

“Oh, oooohhhhh,” Mink said as she got what they were implying.

“Exactly,” Washu said. “Unfortunately, those two wouldn’t even let
Tenchi get near us when he let us out at the hotel he was staying in, Mihoshi
had to,” Washu paused, considering her words. “…take care of me and I her while
Ryoko and Ayeka had their turns with Tenchi.”

“They wouldn’t even let him watch,” Mihoshi complained.

Washu shook hea head before saying, “They insisted that Tenchi get rid
of us immediately, but Tenchi showed a little spine for once and told them that
he was going to leave us with his father and come back for us later.”

“So Azusastyle='font-family:Arial'> is Tenchi’s father?” Isabella asked.

“Exactly, Tenchi left us there and said he was going to come back for us
later.”

“So why did you agree to come with us?” Nikolas asked. Washu glanced up
at Nikolas and raised one of her eyebrows. “Uh, sorry,” he stuttered.

“I suppose I can forgive it this time, you’ve bed yed yourself for a
while. Simple, we had been at Azusastyle='font-family:Arial'>’s for nearly six months, he wasn’t coming back for
us, and I doubt those two girls of his would have let him anyways. Besides, I
wouldn’t want to be in any harem where one of them was the alpha.”

“I dunno, they were both sort of cute,” Mihoshi murmured.

Washu rolled her eyes. “Besides, Azusastyle='font-family:Arial'> wasn’t exactly accommodating, he wouldn’t let me
near a computer.”

“He wouldn’t even let her have a pencil and some paper!” Mihoshi
exclaimed.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Washu said, “He was even annoyed when he found me
writing in the sand, though Mihoshi usually let me know when he was coming.”

When Washu didn’t say anything for a few moments Nikolas nodded.
“Thanks.”

Washu nodded back and continued walking.

“Hey Washu,” Ceres asked, “if you were letting out fighting types why
didn’t you let out Ivy?”

Nikolas’ head snapped around to their left as he thought he heard
something.

“Because,” Washu explained, “if you let her out you know she’s going to
want Harley out.”

“Yeah,” Ceres said slightly annoyed.

Washu explained like she might have to a child, “And if you let Harley
out then you know she’s going to let out Kaya in the middle of the night and
give her a face full of lust dust.”

“Did you hear that?” Nikolas asked no one in particular.

“Yes, I did,” Sango answered.

If Ceres and Washu had heard Nikolas and Sango they gave no sign of it
as Ceres continued, “Oh right.”

Washu said, “Yeah, that little spaz thinks that kind of thing is funny.”

“Well, what about Delta?” Ceres asked.

“I think it came from over there,” Sango said, pointing off in the
direction Nikolas was facing.

Arial'>“Why, miss your girlfriend?” Washu teased.

Arial'> 

At the same time Ceres indignantly yelled “Hey!” a female scream came
from the direction that Nikolas had been looking. Immediately he was sprinting
off through the forest, charging through the underbrush and over fallen trees
in his path. After pushing his way through one last clump of dead vines he saw
who was making all the noise.

In the center of a small bowl formed by the bases of several trees was a
Naga. For a half second Nikolas thought that maybe it was this purple-haired
pokegirl who had made the noise, and he froze where he stood. The upper half of
the Naga looked like a normal human girl of maybe eighteen, a beautiful one,
but that ended just below her waist. From her hips down, the girl was all
snake, her thick tail covered in scales the size of dessert plates, with the
back of it covered in yellow scales with black diamonds running down her spine.
At the tip of her tail was some sort of knotted growth that she was flicking
rapidly back and forth, producing a loud, intimidating rattle. It was only when
she opened her mouth to reveal a set of eight centimeter fangs that he realized
she wasn’t alone. From out of the Naga’s coils emerged a single gn han haired
head, adorned with a set of large curving horns that curled back on themselves.
When the blonde haired girl let out a scream the Naga tightened down on her
choking off the scream. When the Naga reared back as if to strike, Nikolas
charged.

When he was halfway across the small distance between them, the Naga
spotted him, uncoiling faster then Nikolas would have thought possible, the
girl pivoted on her center of gravity and stuck him square in the middle of his
chest with her tail, lifting him up and pitching him through the air. Before he
could even comprehend what was happening, he felt something tear into his right
shoulder and then something slam into his back.

He never felt his body hit the ground.