::Pallet Research Lab #3 Main Computer
::Password?_
::Password accepted
::Secondary level password?_
::Password accepted
::Personal log?_
::Passcode 'Giovanni sucks worms' accepted
::Creating new file.

Hmmm. Where do I begin?

The beginning? I suppose. It just seems a bit trite and overdone.

Well, I'm Professor Aldus Hyram Mahogany Stroak. More often referred to as
either simply "the Professor" or as "Professor Stroak". My father Arus was a
minor League functionary who had a pokegirl assigned to him as a field
worker/researcher. My mother Peregrine was that pokegirl: an Amazonchan if
you must know.

I had a relatively normal childhood growing up in a small town that no
longer is even there. I *am* rather old, you know. Not dead, not nearly dead
yet.

I attended high school, fell in love, was rejected, and attended college. In
those days I had thrown myself entirely into my work, ignoring everything
around me. I was going to become the greatest of researchers and find a way
to discover what there was of Sukebe's science.

Oh yes, Sukebe was fascinating to me. Hardly anything was known of him at
that point, other than the press accounts from that time. His technology was
haphazard, you see. A bit here and a bit there and gaps all around. Which
didn't make sense until later. Much later.

After graduating, I became a teacher's aide briefly. At the behest of my few
colleagues, I needed some vacation time and so I scheduled a trip to the
Orange Islands.

How different my life would have been if I had chosen a mountain trip, or a
pokegirl expedition, or had even chosen to visit the tiny reclusive area
that was my mother's people. What would have occurred if I had gone
elsewhere than a quick three hour tour of those very islands so that I could
choose where to visit?

Things didn't go as planned. The weather started getting rough, the tiny
ship was tossed, if not for the stupidity of the crew then we wouldn't have
gotten lost.

Spending five years on an uncharted desert isle was an unhappy bit. I had
never even camped out before, and here I was "roughing it" and trying to put
together electrical generators with bits of wood and vine and palm leaves.
There were equal amounts of frustration and amusement at watching the antics
of the little social experiment around me. An odd group too.

There were many things that occurred on the island that I'm not proud of and
refuse to revisit. When we finally left, I had two pokegirls. Yes, the two
girls who had been with us had been through Threshold.

I could have stopped them. I could have kept them seperate and thereby they
wouldn't have been further triggering each other. Instead I actually
encouraged it.

The world was a different place back then. When we'd gotten stuck on that
island in 249, Mao Shin Mao had simply been a rumor. Pokedexes hadn't been
invented, and pokeballs couldn't be shrunk. There were scanners in
buildings, but not that common. Some pokegirls could pass for normal human
girls and did so. The pokegirl rights movement was going full speed and it
had been expected that by 255 they would be able to own some forms of
property and to have a say in who their Tamer was. Basic rights, but more
than they had had.

As a high level researcher, I've since had access to more information and
know more now about what was occurring than I knew then. Mao Shin Mao, more
often referred to simply as Mao, was a Tigress who committed the cardinal
sin of a pokegirl: jealousy. As she had a psychic bond with her Tamer, had
been abused previously, and now found herself getting less attention as a
result of her Tamer Recognizing an Elf, apparently  intended to wound her
Tamer in a taming - pointing out his lack of attention. Instead she killed
him, the psychic backlash along the bond drove her mad, and by the time she
had recovered enough to realize what was going on she had already begun the
Rebellion and was being influenced if not controlled by some of her own
lieutenants. From studying her actions, I think she woke up to this at the
so-called "Battle Of Pine Ridge."

For years afterwards, people were known to ask "where were you when Pine
Ridge occurred?" With shoddy radio reception, our little crew hadn't known
what was actually going on and had missed the speech.

As a result of that speech, the "pokegirl rights movement" was derailed. No,
worse than that. Pokegirls were being killed if they showed any signs of
independence and had no set Tamer. Humans may lack the powers of pokegirls
but when our very survival is being threatened and with the pictures of what
was left of the townsfolk who had resisted fresh in their minds...

I'm told that Mao herself had only eaten those who had resisted and was
actually upset at her own troops for assembling those who had surrendered
and killing them off however "merciful" those deaths were. Some of the human
women were "Tamed" and kept as slaves, some inevitably breaking under the
constant pain and humiliation as well as taming methods that had been used
on pokegirls for generations. It doesn't much matter. What does matter were
the results.

There were exceptions. The Amazonchan united in a single front and came to
stand against Mao. She had been trained in Amazonchan fighting techniques,
you see, and had a few of their breed tamed and under her command. Others
had fought to the end. There were pokegirls who saw the reversal of attitude
against them, the suspicion and anger, and then turned against their Tamers
to join the Rebellion.

Others proved themselves. Even under torture and brainwashing techniques and
even psychic assault, some breeds had a higher than average refusal to turn
against their Masters. These were, after the Rebellion, regarded as
acceptable pets for the non-Tamer.

Overall, however, the human race had rallied however briefly. The infighting
between the various Leagues and branches was set aside. It didn't last long,
but because of it, Mao and her cause lost even as converts swarmed to her
flag.

During this time I had dropped back to research. I was visited by Maryanne
and Ginger, and they ended up being my first pokegirls. It was dangerous to
be a "free" pokegirl at that moment in history, not because a Tamer would
catch you but because a mob might. Paranoia was high.

Oh, the others? Well, Gilligan was lost at sea one day not long after our
return to civilization. The Skipper opened a seafood restaurant in
Cinnaboob, and died just a few years ago from a heart attack. The Howells
were rich and retired. They passed on quietly within a year of each other
over twenty years ago. I suspect Gendo's father, and the Howell fortune was
absorbed by the Giovanni family except for a small amount that was in their
Will deeded to myself.

Thurston apparently had felt some guilt after all, and as he had been the
one to convince me to let Maryanne and Ginger be triggered and go through
Threshold, he was right to do so.

Ginger was killed shortly after Mao had finally been caught and executed,
but some of her lieutenants had escaped. One formed the Limbec Pirates and
these raided my laboratory in hopes of getting some advanced technology.
Maryanne was injured badly, Ginger was stolen. I found out later that she'd
been used and then killed. After which someone hunted down and killed that
particular band of pirates. Why everyone thinks I had something to do with
that, I'm not sure. I may be a researcher, and certainly I know how such an
explosive device could be built, but there are laws against hunting down
even scum like that.

Maryanne bore me a human son, Auron. He initially wasn't interested in
anything his father was. No, he was going to be a famous Tamer and have
greater glories than a mere Researcher.

Oddly enough, I think my proudest day was when Auron Stroak won a
crosscountry skimmer race while still in High School. Oh, to be sure, a car
would have been safer and a gravcycle flashier. His High School had a Racing
Club and he'd abandoned his childhood dreams of being a Tamer for the race -
for the thrill of doing something himself instead of a directing a pokegirl.
You've seen skimmers, I'm sure. Sort of a winged bobsled with a grav
repeller, no brakes and engine speeds of Off, Fast, Ridiculously Fast, and
Ludicrous.

I think his initial enthusiasm for the sport came from my disapproval. He
developed a love for tinkering with engines and high speeds in that club and
stayed with it after I stopped protesting. On my mantle I still have the
picture of him and his friends grinning at the camera, one of his friends
holding up the trophy.

About that time I had developed the first pokedexes. It was a wand-sensor
cabled to a box on one's belt that housed the computer. I experimented with
a visor-like version that turned out to be too buggy, but I've since
perfected it. Unfortunately by then the "book" shaped pokedexes are official
and getting the design changed in any major fashion would require getting it
through a committee.

After some time I went my seperate ways from Auron. He was going to go off
and become a racer for a few years, while I had a chance to explore some
ruins spotted by a Tamer named Bellerophon Jones.

It was in those ruins that I discovered the message from Sukebe. It was
triply encrypted when I found it, and after I had decoded and translated it,
the League decided to suppress it so that only a few would know its full
message. It told of his origins and his madness, of a woman named Linda
McKenzie, and of the why and how of his War.

The effect on the Inner Circle was electric, and that is why they concealed
this from the public. Sukebe had been an evil world-conquerer, a deranged
genius that had proven why the sciences should not be explored and only
certain types of research and development were permittable. That he had
intended to be mankind's benefactor and had been driven mad? That he had not
actually developed anything but a form of interdimensional transport
himself? That his entire War hadn't actually been an attempt to conquer or
destroy the world, but motivated by revenge and madness? That he wasn't
*dead* but would show up every so often to find out if his plan were
commencing?

It also raised a number of questions. What exactly *was* the plan? Merely
the destruction of the institutions he had held responsible? Where was he?
How did he do what he did - the dimensional transport technology was
completely missing!

All this from a tiny little storage area found under a burned out building.
I researched until the official League scientists took over, and turned over
copies of all my findings.

Except one. There was another message after the first. Even more encrypted
and compressed than the first. It took me another five years to break the
code, but it's never been my area of specialty and you can understand my
reluctance to discuss this with others.

The message was simple and bore out something that I had long thought after
reading the first message. Our world was not the intention of Sukebe, who
couldn't understand what went wrong. I, of course, already knew. Or, at
least, had a theory that so far fits the facts.

My theory is simple: Sukebe was a college physics student who knew enough of
the other sciences to back-engineer a number of devices or combine the
inventions of other universes. He never completely understood them or
researched them thoroughly. In other words, the constant need to be tamed,
the enslavement of the pokegirls, the fragmentation of society and
scientific development, were all because an inexperienced young boy with his
head full of dreams didn't understand what kind of consequences there were
in life. Makes the terrible Sukebe a somewhat pitiable figure actually.

Auron met a nice pokegirl, a mechanically inclined Threshold girl Tomboy
named Dee Dee, during this time.

They made a happy couple, as such things are usually measured. For awhile at
least. Dee Dee was pregnant when Auron was entered in the 281 Crescent Grand
Prix and remained with me during that time. We were both watching when his
car was wrecked by another car losing control.

One day, not long after delivering her baby, I found Dee Dee on her bed. A
little smile on her face and dead for at least three hours. No mark on her,
so perhaps she had just gone to "keep an eye on Auron" as she had so often
done in the past.

The child, Gary, was human. I found some relatives who could take him in,
though most of the time he grew up in a boarding school environment. I did
what I could and kept an eye on him, but my work beckoned.

I continued working for another few years, gathering pokegirls at my lab
complex and researching them, working on improved pokeballs and certain
other projects that I did not want to let the League know.

I matched wits a few times with an irascible old mummy named Cologne. I
think she suspects what I do here, but either approves or is convinced that
I'm harmless.

A number of children came out to work at my lab and ranch over the summers,
and of them a few became Tamers last year.

My grandson Gary, who seeks to fulfill his father's young dream of becoming
a famous Tamer. He seeks to find the most powerful battle-hardened pokegirls
for his harem.

In some ways his opposite, in some ways his fiercest rival is the young runt
Ash. Ash, who seeks to become the friend of his pokegirls and in some ways
more resembles Auron than Gary does.

And, of course, more recently - one Ranma Saotome. A dimensional traveller
based on Doctor Reichman's experiments that utilized Sukebe's old
technology. Someone becoming more infamous as time goes on.

The importance of Ranma Saotome in the scheme of things is something I have
recently become aware of. An engineering student with a "pet" (having met
the two I was uncertain which was the actual Master despite the pokegirl's
demure nature) Megami was speaking of the recent interview with Saotome and
had clearly found some inspiration from the crude but heartfelt sentiments
there. I've even heard Tamers, hardened by experience and training,
thoughtfully discuss the possibility of forging emotional bonds despite the
potential for pain.

That's part of why Tamers are encouraged to think of their charges as less
than human and not to form emotional bonds. Often a Tamer's pokegirls are
sent into violent circumstance, and losing one's favored pokegirl is quite
painful. A thousand times worse if a psychic bond is shared between the two,
which worries me about both Ranma and Ash. Madness quite easily can result.

Returning to the engineering student and his Megami. A powerful Megami and
one whom I'm fairly sure saw through the facade I maintain to the world of
the "cranky old man set in his ways who sees pokegirls as merely tools to be
used."

Did she learn the truth? Did that knowing smile indicate that she knew that
under the facade that I maintain to the world that I'm working on methods of
stopping Threshold? Or of the (heresy of all heresies) anti-Feral
medications being worked on a little bit each day? No, even if she is indeed
in the know, it is unlikely she will say anything.

And so I sit here with my own mask and I work with one face hidden.

And I wait. In one year and one month, Sukebe will again walk among us. What
message or legacy will he leave this time?
 

Sidestory #4: Over the Threshold

WARNING: Dark. The Sidestories of WH&Pg are meant to further detail and
explain this mileau and how such a world either came about or operates. This
is the darkest of the planned sidestories, dealing with a girl experiencing
Threshold.

by: Tuxedo H

January 10, 289 AS____

Hello.

My name was Janet Burke, formerly of Stone City. One of the drivers
suggested that I describe what I'm going through. That it might help others
who go through the same thing. I hate this.

How to speak of it? How to describe it?

My life up until now has been pretty typical. My father and mother, as far
as anyone knew, were both purebreds. No pokegirls back for at least a
hundred years. My mother never cared for them - refers to them as smelly
animals. Mockeries of humans. Evidence of why our ancestors rightfully
turned from the sciences and embraced the Green lifestyle.

My father knew better than to argue with my mother. My father is a baker.
Our family business, the Burke Bakery does the usual bread and muffins and
fritter sticks. No pokegirls allowed, my mother's rule, but we have a side
window so that pokegirls can run errands for their masters and pick up bread
without coming in the store.

My mother and her friends would talk a lot about the scandalous way these
monsters were allowed to run around, and thank goodness we were in a modern
city where they at least had to be branded or collared or ident-chipped to
be allowed to go about on their own. Lots of gossip. Father wouldn't talk
much, the main joy in his life was the simple baking of bread.

That was perhaps the greatest part of my youth, working in the bakery with
dad when I was big enough to haul loaves out of the oven and hand him
ingredients while he worked. He was showing me the basics, and it was
expected that eventually I'd find a boy and carry on the family business
another generation.

Due to the usual gender segregation in schools I'd only seen boys while
working. Most of my life I considered them kind of icky, actually. Stupid,
loud, and always pushing each other around in one form of game or another.
Still, I understood, this was how things worked. Eventually they'd somehow
stop being icky. I saw even less of pokegirls, they tended to act scared of
momma.

My friends and school tended to have momma's attitude towards pokegirls.
Trained animals in perpetual heat. Monsters who would fight and slave for
their human masters. No more than that.

There was one girl. Amiedra, I think, genius girl who was going to be a
doctor. Whatever her name she didn't have any friends. She suddenly took
sick, some kind of flu where she ran a fever. That evening was the last we'd
seen of her, and the next day we were all gossiping about her perfect
attendance score being shot down and how she was such a quiet little witch
that she might as well stay home. Of course, two days later we got the
information that she wouldn't come back. Threshold.

So we laughed and joked about that. Friendless little meek girl. We bet she
was going to be a mouse of some kind. I think Penny was the one who
suggested buying the school snob at a pet fair and having her do our
homework for us.

Laugh's on me, don't you think?

It was November when I got those first shooting pains. Headache alternating
with stomach ache, fever turning to chills, sensitivity to light and loud
noises. My mother took me to the local doctor, who prodded and probed and
took all sorts of samples.

Threshold.

There was a lot of yelling and accusations. I was purebred, there couldn't
be any pokegirl genes for me to have Threshold. I was too *young* to have
Threshold. I was eleven years old, Threshold didn't hit until after fourteen
and usually after sixteen.

Apparently there was something different though, because a lot of girls
schools had reported having one or two members suddenly go through it.
Amiedra's fate didn't look nearly so funny all of a sudden.

My mother suddenly couldn't stand me. She yelled and threw things at me if
she saw me at all. It was *my* fault somehow. After the first big blowup,
father quietly arranged for this trip. A Breeder's Ranch in the hills where
I can learn to cope with this new development. How wonderful for me. I
haven't even shown any physical alterations other than my nails and hair
changing color and I'm already being hustled off as an embarrasment.

I'm no longer Janet Burke, legally. I'm simply Janet, unless someone gives
me a different name.

No longer of Stone City. I'm considered to be of the Daisy Hill Breeding
Center.

No longer human. No longer do I have rights. I am property. I'm listed
temporarily as being an Ingenue.

January 11, 289 AS___

Work at the Center is difficult. I swear that Domina has got it in for me.

When I'm washing off all the dust and dirt in our communal shower, I notice
that the gold in my nails and hair are coming in stronger. I used to be a
brunette, now I have strands of spun gold coming through it all.

Creator, don't let me become a Bimbo.

Too tired to write.

January 14, 289 AS___

I got really sick and some of the pokegirls here have been taking care of
me. A redfurred Vixxen whose fur and breath seem really hot has adopted me
as if I were one of her kits and has been feeding me soup when it seemed
like I could keep anything down.

Dumb animals my butt. Apparently Threshold girls go through this all the
time when they're sent here. The proximity of other pokegirls makes the
changes accelerate or else they stop changing altogether and are put under
the label of Ingenue officially. Vixxen knows how the whole thing goes and
has been keeping other pokegirls from trying to Tame me.

She helped me get to the mirror and look at myself.

One month ago I was a brown-eyed scraggly haired brunette with pale
complexion, freckles, a nose that was too big for my face, and thin lips.
I've always needed glasses but I looked like I'm squinting even when I
wasn't. A lot of my former momma in me. Definitely human though.

Now my face has gotten this relatively tiny nose. My hair has gotten thicker
and straighter, but what a cost to fix split ends. My ears changed shape and
begun their migration. Did I mention the tail?

It was obvious enough what I was becoming. There had been a TV series about
the exploits of the famous Tamer twenty years ago Shun Ukiya over in the Edo
League as he tried to route spies and agents of the Darth League. His band
of Threshold girls: Ruriko Ikusawa the Archer, Kaoru Konoe the enthusiastic
Saijin, and the others. Oh, and Reiko Asagiri. Kitten.

Vixxen held onto me when I would've run up to the roof and tried to throw
myself onto one of the stakes in the tomato patch.

I really hate her.

January 19, 289 AS__

My head really hurts. I'm going to ask the owner for something that I can
take for it.

I've been in and out of sleep for the past few days as the change speeds up
during this phase. Up in the usual place for such things, on Kittens anyway,
are my ears. My eyes are wider and longer and they've turned copper. Same
with nails. My hair's coming in the same color too.

It's not the only changes but then I haven't reached sixteen when I'd expect
to go through the rest of them and reach full Kitten status. We're called
Kits but then all pokegirl children are usually called kits or pups or
something like that. Never babies or kids.

I don't have fur, except on the tail, but Kittens normally don't. It's
Merrowl who get fur and all the other things.

I look in the mirror now and I see not Janet Burke, purebred human - and
therefore an aristocrat in these times.

I'm leaner and look like I'm a study in shades of copper. Definitely a
pokegirl coloration. I can see my ears flicking and twisting to catch sounds
and display my mood. So is my tail, it seems almost to have a mind of its
own at times.

There's other things I notice. Bright lights really hurt, but my nightvision
is a lot better. I startle easy and find myself acting more animal-like in a
lot of circumstances. If this continues, when I get used to my changing
center of gravity and that damn tail I'll be a lot more agile.

The thing is that all this extra sensitivity to my eyes and hearing is
making my head hurt. Not to mention what my sense of smell is doing. Yeah,
the owner's got to have something for this.

December 29, 291 AS__

Found funny marks on paper long ago. Not know what mean till now.

Hard to think. Still.

They say Tawny Kitten try kill self. They say Master take and put through
Level 4 Programming. Put in unhappy nasty girl and take out happy Kitten.
Not sure.

Started remember. Little bits. Here and there. Janet. Janet be unhappy
person thinks Kitten.

Kitten is Janet. Janet is Kitten. Not understand.

March 3, 292 AS__

It's my birthday so I thought I'd write this. My memories came back but it's
not the same. They don't care as long as I toe the line. I went through
Level 4 Programming, but there is a Level 5 and I really don't know if
anything would be left afterwards.

I am Janet. I am also a Kitten named Tawny. No longer an owner of property.
Now I am to be owned as property.

According to the calendar, I am fourteen years old today. Meaning that it
won't be long before I can be Tamed. Supposedly you can't be sold before
you're sixteen but that rule is definitely not in place. I don't look
fourteen either.

This creature in the mirror is me. The coppery look is stronger now. My
nails and skin, eyes and hair, all shades of the same basic color. The pudgy
girl who talked about fashions and the latest bands, and who had ate way too
much cheesebread growing up has been replaced. Sleek and sexy, yes. My ears
and tail are definitely part of the package, as are the pointy looking teeth
and those breasts. If we were allowed to wear clothes, I'd be a "C" cup from
my guess. Perfectly normal for a Kitten.

I'm still a virgin of course. It's a marketable thing, and without someone
Taming me I haven't gotten imprinted. That doesn't mean I haven't been
groped or passed around like a bottle of cheap whisky on the day after
finals by the other pokegirls.

I've gone through Threshold but not Feral. I've been Programmed but not
Tamed. Tamers have looked me over and gone on to the next one.

Legends like in the Edo League stories about Shun Ukiya's group or the
"Flower League" from even further back are one thing, but Kittens are fairly
common and not very powerful. Tamers generally don't go after them.

Kittens *are* popular as pets sometimes. One of the League accepted breeds.
They're also used in the League as clerks and "scut workers" - even a few
police have chosen to have a Kitten as their pokegirl partner.

Will I become someone's pet? Will I evolve? Will it hurt? Will I find
someone like Shun Ukiya was with *his* harem, who will listen to his
pokegirl? Or will I end up with someone like Damien Thorne from his TV
program who wants to crush my identity and will "for my own good."

Vixxen was sold sometime while I was under the influence of the programming.
I miss her.

March 4, 292 AS__

A Tamer came today and used one of the Taming Rooms to break in his new
Alpha. She was a Growlie and we never actually talked much.

What surprised me was all the pokegirls hanging around the room or peeping
through peepholes at the whole event. I just went on weeding the tomato
plants. One whiff of sex was enough to convince me of the danger.

Sure enough, most of those pokegirls watching turned to each other and made
a mess on just about any horizontal surface they could find. If I'd been
watching, the pheromones likely would have overwhelmed me too. Just all the
screaming and moaning and other noises were distracting enough.

March 3, 294 AS__

Well, I got my glasses back when I got picked. So now I can write again.

My new Master. What a strange phrase that is. Owner? I just call him Master,
it's an acceptable term for a Kitten to use.

It was almost six months ago with the final morphing to Kitten. My nails
changed, then I got the most peculiar sets of sensations. I became quite
aware of this pulsing hungry *thing* here between my legs. Kittens are known
for being mainly Hetero, with a few strict Hetero, so at least I was fairly
certain I wouldn't end up owned by a former classmate.

My new owner is a form of Researcher. He mainly needs someone to cover the
basic domestic duties and occasionally the odd paperwork. He was
specifically looking for a Threshold girl saying that he "didn't want
someone he'd have to watch over constantly" or "micro-manage."

So it is that on my sixteeth birthday I find myself owned by someone twice
my age and change. Thirty nine and the very picture of the doddering
professorial type. Hardly the sort I'd have imagined being with had I not
gone through Threshold but choices are one of the things pokegirls generally
don't have.

We left the Farm and ended up at his place, essentially a farmhouse where he
sifts through records left behind from the pre-Sukebe era. He looks for
clues as to some of the lost technology that humanity turned away from
during the bad times after the war.

He told me to put clothes on, which was a change from the enforced nudity of
the Farm. It feels strange after so long without to wear clothing again,
even if it's just a baggy white shirt belted at the waist. A private shower.
Typical bachelor's kitchen - I'll have to get him to buy some real
groceries.

Hey, I just realized that I'll be able to bake bread again!

Have to open some windows. My too sensitive nose is picking up all this
bachelor-scent.

--------

March 5, 294 AS

Ummm. Well. So *that* is what it is like for a pokegirl who needs a Taming
and what it is like to be Tamed.

Alan Smith. My owner. I know it's just pheromones and genetic programming
and the like. Still the reactions are a bit overwhelming. All it takes is a
smile and his hand smoothing my hair and I'm purring and leaning into him.
His voice, dear kami, just his voice makes me clench my thighs together and
try to get some control back.

The scent got to me apparently. I played back the security cameras because I
wanted to know what happened in those missing hours.

After I left the kitchen I dropped to all fours sniffing the air, then I
actively stalked and pounced on my Master. Who apparently hadn't been ready
for sex but did know enough to use a rolled up newspaper to fend me off.

My Master is apparently one of those who does not have the stamina of a
young man, nor does he have great esoteric knowledge of sexual techniques.
Sufficient unto the task, from what I can tell. And I'm able to write,
though my spoken vocabulary seems a bit simplistic right now. He doesn't
even seem to enjoy the act so much as view it as a necessary part of being a
pet owner.

I'll have to work on that, I think.

-------

March 25, 294 AS

It's my fault. It's all my fault.

I opened the door. I greeted the men in the suits. I didn't know. I didn't
realize.

Now I'm writing my last diary entry and waiting for the executioner.

My Master is dead. He threatened to call the cops when he saw them using a
shock prod on me.

They were actually after his research. They killed for his research. Now my
Master's been branded a heretic, with lies about what his research actually
was.

I've made contact with one of the jailors, a girl named Michiru who tells me
to continue writing.

I saw them coming in here. To Viridian Gym. The lobby has these pokegirls on
pedestals all around the lobby.

Stuffed. With glass eyes that seem to watch you from the shadows. All posed
in such a way to emphasize that these are not humans but "animal mockeries."
My mother would get along here quite nicely.

Oh, they're coming. I need to hide this. Michiru, I beg you. At least let my
words escape this place.

-------

Jan 9, 299 AS:

I felt the need to add one last chapter to the tale of Janet Burke, aka
Tawny Kitten. Her diary, such as it is, reached me recently and points out
the pitfalls of being a Threshold girl.

Fully half end up "pets" of one kind or another. Some end up happier than
this, some end up in the blood sports of the underground pit fighting
circuit, some end up in Tamer's harems, and others end up dying at their own
hands. More than three quarters of those who do not choose death request the
level 5 programming, by the way, wanting to forget that they were ever human
rather than deal with what they've lost.

Though there are those who treasure Threshold girls as the pinnacle of
Domesticated pokegirls and treat them more like humans than not, there are
dangers to being too obvious in such cavalier attitudes in the cities. Alan
Smith, Doctor of Pre-Sukebe History, lived too near Viridick and frankly
could have used a combat-trained battle-hardened pokegirl. Such as one of
those whose Tamer has retired and needs a good home.

A day ago I had to visit the Gym at Viridick. Sure enough, one of the
examples of taxidermy sitting on display is of a copper haired Kitten
crouching on all fours over some rocks - her face permanently frozen in a
snarl.

Of this "Michiru" I have no knowledge. One of those on the Council I count
as an ally got me this and reported that two who wished to claim sanctuary
on the preserve had abruptly vanished.

Typical, but one hopes they escape.

I wonder if it is too soon to have an electrical fire break out in that
lobby?

-Cologne, Elder of the Joketsuzoku Preserve
 from a privately coded transmission to one of her field agents.

==========

Sidestory #5: Portraits At An Exhibition

The WH&Pg sidestories are meant to give a look at the background in a way
that the main story cannot and add detail to the setting. Each of these is
meant to be a quick look at a person or type that are important in the
development of that world during the turn of the third century when things
are developing to a head.

A) Ancient Eyes:

"So, I hear you wanted to interview me. That you sensed a song to be made
here that might make a decent ballad to be emplaced on that new album. I've
followed your exploits, Tengoku-san. Continue listening to your pokegirls
and they'll tell you if you're releasing anything that should not be heard
by other ears.

"Yes, I am Cologne. Yes, I'm 300 years old and the single surviving
Amazonchan from that time. As you can see, the years *have* had their
effect.

"I was grown from a mixture of human DNA, RNA, and plasm, with bits and
pieces added in from other sources in 1991. There was a method of
fastgrowing a clone available and so a year later I was released as a 14
year old girl. I was released to be a soldier in what was once called the
Dakotas and I fought human soldiers when I found them. Then it was kill or
be killed.

"I quickly found that I was close enough to human that my odd hair
coloration could be passed off as a result of hair dye. At which point I sto
le some clothes and made my way into human society, the same as the rest of
my squad.

"There were six of us, all named after grooming products for whatever
reason. Cologne, Perm, Blush, Mascara, Gloss, and Liner. We had no clue as
to what we were doing, just that our strength and speed served us well and
it was easier to disrupt human society from the inside than from without. We
had some basic skills and information but no details at trying to survive in
human society.

"We lost Mascara and Liner in an attempt to infiltrate a military base. They
wanted to go off on their own. The soldiers caught them, of course, and
neither was inclined to be taken prisoner.

"Gloss and Blush decided to go off together, leave the battles behind and
live without the humans altogether. Which brought it down to me and Perm in
about 1994.

"We'd noticed something infiltrating human society and it's still true
today. The vast majority of humans are neither good nor evil, just
reflections of the status quo. I heard someone refer to them as 'Mundanes'
once. The bulk of humanity, placeholders or statistics if you will. At need
some of those could be cultivated to heroes or villains but they lack the
seeds of greatness. Which is fine: not everyone is suited to lead or to
shine particularly well.

"So, at this point the Bloody Flu was sweeping the empires and we were
sleeping with each other and occasionally with humans that we found
attractive. There were a few lovers that we traded off on, ah, but we were
young and wanted to maintain our cover. Among other things.

"No, we didn't get Tamed like that. If anyone Tamed anyone else it would
have been Gloss who had been my Tamer as she was my first partner like that.
It wasn't until 1995 that DNA scanners first began to make it off high
security installations and into cities, and oh about 1998 before they got to
the towns and such.

"Me and Perm lasted until about '97 of the old calender. We split up at a
place called Wheeling at a bus stop, we were going to hit a factory
researching particle beam weaponry developed to deal with the 'monsters'
attacking. That was when Typhonna hit.

"Perm never has shown up, so after all these years it's safe to assume she
never made it out. Typhonna's carved out a channel that you know as the
Divide Sea. All I knew at the time was that the ground suddenly lurched down
an awful long drop and buildings were collapsing and fires starting. What
she had done was take eighteen feet of the continental plate and reduced it
to one foot through gravitational manipulation. Just eighteen feet, though
the segment she hit was one mile across and over a thousand miles long.
There were peripheral effects.

"Typhonna was called a pokegirl, but she wasn't. She was a biomechanical
device built as a doomsday weapon on some Earth that Sukebe had visited. Her
entire purpose was to destroy, nothing more. Frankly, I don't think Sukebe
intended her to do more than menace coastlines. I found out years later that
the control device for Typhonna was damaged and that she had gone berserk
almost immediately.

"Hmmm. So I stopped in a human church and prayed for Perm. The faiths then
were a little different from now. There were all these different churches
and each claimed to have a lock on the truth. The thing was that a lot of
'em tended to say similar things. Like 'Karma Happens' or 'Wouldn't it be
nice if we stopped killing each other and learned to get along' and stuff
like that. I haven't had a lot of truck with religions before or since, but
they got the right idea that a quiet place of solitude is a good way to
center yourself.

"Perm never showed up. I had to decide what to do and where to go. It was
obvious that with their supply lines cut and their numbers going down
further, that the humans would win the fight eventually - but would likely
backslide into some form of barbarism. As their machines broke down there
was little in the way of replacement parts.

"One of the talk show hosts of that era came to an interesting conclusion.
Forget his name. Humanity had achieved technological maturity, but not
maturity as a species. Apparently genetic engineering of viruses was
understood by the really big governments, but it was pointed out that in
forty or fifty years the technology would allow the smaller governments and
some individuals to be able to genetically engineer their own viruses. It
might be illegal but they'd still be able to manage it.

"I managed to find a soldier and be captured. There was no love involved,
each of us saw something usable in the other. He was a Major in the United
Nations Armed Forces with connections. Part of the special branch trying to
study the "monster girls". I needed to work from within the system as the
writing was clearly on the wall. His name was David Tarr. With my assistance
and information he was able to increase his value within that faltering
empire.

"When the end of the empires came they were like giants so vast that they
couldn't even tell they'd been dealt a mortal blow. They still went about
things as if they were still operating despite their lines of communication
and supply and transport were crushed. It was a subtle change of the reins
of power to begin with. David? His hands were so dirty it wasn't funny, but
he kept his word. One of the things that let me select him as a potential
mate/ally.

"In any case, politics have always made strange bedfellows. David used me, I
used him, and there was definitely no love lost. He died in, oh, it must
have been 2049 or 2050. Somewhere in there. I was only there because of my
people.

"Amazonchan and Amazonlee. We were one people at that point. Very Near
Humans with enhanced strength and speed. We've drifted apart -
philosophically at first and physically as time went on. The Amazonchan
Village was set up not far from where Jusenkyo was, which not incidently was
where Gloss and Blush had set up. I tracked them down using David's
resources and part of my wheeling and dealing got them set up. I had to do
some things and make some deals that I was not and am not proud of.
Sacrifices necessary for the cause.

"The village of Nichieju. Anyway, Gloss and Blush had found a nice guy who
didn't mind that he was playing second fiddle to their relationship between
each other and they made a happy trio. Gloss and Blush begat six kids who
had six kids each. The only one that amounted to anything was Lilac. Such a
handful *she* turned out to be.

"Lilac? She was born about, oh dear, was it 63 AS? I'll have to ask her next
time I see her. Oh yes, she's still around. Just spends a lot of time
mooning over her lost Douglas. Douglas was her human lover. I told her that
human men were trouble, can't count on 'em, he'd leave her sooner or later.
What happened to him? He died of old age back in 140 or 150 AS. Thoroughly
maudlin overdramatic thing. Made her promise that she wouldn't follow him
before her time.

"Lilac is *still* giving me grief about how wrong I was about him. Pfeh.

"Well, you know how it is. We get older and our opinions change. The
accumulation of wisdom. Other than the originals, and Lilac for some reason,
we Amazonchan are just coming full into our wisdom and putting cruel biology
behind us when our health begins failing. And as far as I know I'm the only
original pokegirl left.

"I've heard from other breeds that there's a chance of parity. That the
breeds of pokegirls and the human race can co-exist with neither held over
the other. After a century of hearing about this, it was enticing enough for
me to start working towards it. I rejoined the League at that point and I've
been butting heads with the Giovanni family among others all the time.

"Parity is the dream, but my goal all along the centuries has been the
survival of my people. Whether you call us Amazonchan or Nichieju or simply
those Amazons - the important thing is that we live and continue on. If we
manage to achieve that dream, so much the better.

"Now, I don't know *how* you'll make a ballad of my life. You'd probably be
better off going to Lilac. Love affairs make better songs than affairs of
duty."

- Though their "Portraits" album was fairly popular, Mineko & The Pussycats
song "Ancient Eyes" was considered too controversial and banned in several
communities like Viridian. Oddly enough that banning seemed to make it even
more popular in areas like Nerima.

-----------

"Relative Dark"

B) Gendo Giovanni

Some call me evil. Some call me insane.

I call them clueless.

I have at the young age of 42 increased my family's territories and wealth
by double. Which was already considerable considering that we originated in
a place known as Sicily and were part of a worldwide crime syndicate until
Sukebe unleashed his horrors on the world.

My father, and his father, and his father before him. We Giovanni were born
to hold power and accumulate wealth.

It doesn't matter the time or the place. When dealing with humans, you can
never go broke playing to their baser instincts.

The base populace are sheep, they'll agree with the last argument and follow
their zone of comfort. They need people like myself to guide them, for they
have no clue.

I don't actually hate Cologne. She does what she can for her people.
Unfortunately, it is necessary for human survival that she fail.

I won't bore you with the details, but her dream of parity is just that- a
dream. It will some day come to which will survive, humans or pokegirls, and
I unflinchingly choose humanity. We cannot, as the naive might suggest,
co-exist.

My reasons for coming to that conclusion were simple enough. Oh, when I was
young I had some foolish ideas, but then I learned of something that
illustrated how apathy could no longer be an option.

When I was five or so my family had long been secret supporters of the
so-called "Dark League" - the underground bloodsports that eschewed the weak
civilized rules of proper League matches. My father had recently found a
Psi-dyke trying to investigate our estate.

She had just been captured when I first saw her, and was immediately
impressed by the amount of hatred she had for me. I was just a child at that
time and she had flung herself at the bars of her prison, claws slashing and
words of the purest vitriol storming from her lips. It was that intelligent
hatred, the reasoning light in her eyes as she tried to work out a way to
get to me, as her mental attacks to try and lure me close caused pyrotechnic
displays on the psychic grounding elements, and then turning all sweet and
nice in order to try and beckon me closer. I ran upstairs, hearing her
cursing and snarling and calling me a coward, terrified.

When I next saw the Psi-dyke I had come down to visit my father and he was
using a chemical interrogation method to cause the psychic type to babble
and be unable to focus her psychic talents. In my young and naive mind, I
had first deemed it all some sort of story, a fabrication. A hidden pokegirl
city where they planned the subjugation and eventual extermination of the
human race? How silly it sounded! How could stupid pokegirls do such a
thing?

Then, even as young as I was, I noticed my father's sobriety. Also that he
had a psi-device I'd had used on me a few times - a truth-detector. The
needle wasn't quivering, so there were no lies from the mouth of the
Psi-dyke.

My father, who had joked and laughed much of his life seemed to lose his
sense of humor after that. Just as well, I never got his jokes.

I have since run into the rumors repeatedly, tenuous stories only, never a
location.

The fools, and I include Cologne in that category, speak of parity. They
speak of a world where pokegirls can be trusted and given rights. That
humanity would not end up on the dinner plate and then pass into legends
about bad old men, that we would not end up enslaved and our numbers shrunk
every year until extinction took the human species the way the old
Neandrathal had gone.

I know better. They're out there somewhere. Gathering strength. Gathering
resources. Waiting for the moment when the fools have handed over their
trust.

The underground fights have been encouraged, with the most powerful
survivors bred to produce even more powerful pokegirls. Genetic
experimentation on pokegirls and on upgrading humans to beyond pokegirl
levels. Experiments in stimulating Threshold, because once the mechanism is
completely understood it can be halted.

No. I am neither mad nor evil. I simply do what must be done without the
luxury of what the weak call "morality" or "ethics." The human race will
survive or will drag their conquerers down with them into that final void.

This I have vowed.

-The fifth track on the "Portraits" album is simply called "Shadows" and is
a largely instrumental moody piece dealing with unseen threats.

-----------

"Threshold girl"

C) Amiedra Tengoku

"Are you sure you want to interview me? I mean... oh dear. Uhm. Okay, I
guess.

"I was born Amiedra Stall, a human. I was a high school student who wanted
to be a doctor. We don't have enough doctors who can treat humans, you know.
Psychic healing is good but it can't treat nearly enough and so much was
lost after the various sciences came into disrepute. Uhm, sorry.

"Anyway, I was in junior high school when I got sick. I was always thin, but
suddenly my nails and hair started getting this odd blue color. My mother
Kumori knew what this meant but not how. We were purebred humans and I was
too young for Threshold. It was so strange.

"I was in denial at first. It couldn't be happening. My plans and my dreams
were now unattainable. Pokegirls in Viridian weren't allowed even basic
education after all.

"My mother being a doctor had made a number of contacts over the years and
one of them was able to find a place for me. During transit I got very sick
and when I came out of it, I was physically transformed. My tail had come
in, my ears were up near the temple and I was a Kitten. Naked of course:
pokegirls didn't own anything themselves. My glasses were taken from me,
what did a pokegirl need to read anyway?

"The kind man who had taken me away from mother explained all this and that
he had a nephew who already had a Kitten. As a favor to my mother, I was to
be delivered to this nephew so that I could be properly assimilated to my
new position. Due to events at a checkpoint, I was put through a Level 3
Programming. Just to make sure I knew my new status in life and wouldn't try
to commit suicide or something.

"Uncle Jeff didn't like it but he was a canny old men and arguing with
arrogant bullies who had shock-rods would likely get him in jail and I'd
have gotten a Level 5 Programming. In which case I'd likely have been stuck
saying 'meow' a lot and not remembering at all that I'd been human. My name
was officially altered from Amiedra Stall to plain simple Ami.

"When we finally reached the house I was still somewhat in shock. I met my
new owner, Mamoru, who turned out to be kind of cute and nice. He handed me
a box, which turned out to have my glasses and some clothes sent ahead of
me. I was quite grateful to see these signs that my life was not effectively
over. Then when I got to the room I was to share, I was literally bowled
over by this other Kitten saying hello in a most enthusiastic manner.

"That was how I met Mineko. It was hard to stay mad or depressed around her,
and it was she who pointed out that while I couldn't be a doctor -there
*were* pokegirl nurses and assistants. Kittens were also one of the most
trusted and dependable sorts, so my dreams would have to adapt but I could
still attain some measure of them.

"Mamoru promising to bring me home schoolwork and study materials also
helped. All I had really known was study and schoolwork, and this measure of
the familiar helped enormously. That and Mineko was always there to try and
get me to lighten up and play.

"We were young, and so when we played or wrestled, it was just that. At age
eleven our concerns were not quite what they would become. I was surprised
when he got me that collar.

"Oh, I had been aware of the collar that Mineko wore. She'd even look at her
reflection in the mirror and flick the tags. Hers was a basic collar,
looking like a torc or something. The round leather tube sort with the tags
and lead ring. Plain, cheap, but it said volumes. An adornment, status
symbol, license to move around without fear of being captured if you went
out of the house, and the symbol of something more important. It means that
your owner or Tamer plans on keeping you and trusts you. I'd barely been
there over a month before he got me one, like Mineko's a simple and plain
model.

"I was quite unprepared for the feelings such a simple thing gave me. I had
come to terms, to some extent, with the change. That I would legally be
property and that my dreams would be again cancelled unless I somehow lucked
out and found another owner as progressive as Mamoru. Now here was a sort of
promise. I wouldn't have to find another owner and I could still be myself
and follow those dreams.

"Mineko joked about how we had a Mamoru, a Mineko, and an Ami and that we
ought to try and find an Usagi. Since we'd both read that old manga, we
shared a joke there but Mamoru didn't get it. I still don't think he's read
that story...

"It was maybe four months later that we were attacked. You know what
happened, some sort of genetic experimentation had triggered my Threshold
and two other Kittens were recovered when my Master used his Boost ability.
I was *furious*! These people had stolen my dreams, my childhood, and my
humanity! A local Researcher named Doctor Deviance (obviously a psuedonym)
had made the determination but told us that pursuing the matter would likely
only draw undesirable attention down on us.

"So now it was four of us, unusual for a non-Tamer to have one pet let alone
four. Mary Phelps had been a shrine maiden, one who was training to become a
priestess in the Thousand Gods faith. Makoto Rawlings had been a real 'bad
girl' or juvenile delinquent but also a track star. Due to there now being a
Makoto and Mineko's earlier joke, we finally managed to convince Mary to
become M'rei. It was a more fitting name for a Kitten anyway. So officially
we were four Kittens - Mineko, Ami, Makoto, and M'rei. We even managed to
put together some uniforms and play out scenes from that old manga in the
back yard while Mamoru was away at school.

"It was kind of a golden time for us after we got over the events that had
brought us together. Playing and helping out around the house, helping with
the local harvests. That little community has always had a fairly friendly
policy towards pokegirls, and nobody much cared as long as we wore our
collars and didn't break any laws. Everyone got to know us as 'Mamoru's
Sailor Team' and we'd even go play in the park or along the street, looking
for evil-doers to punish. 'In the name of catnip and cuddling, we'll punish
you! Meow!' That kind of thing.

"We were also aware of the odd bond between Mamoru and Mineko. Mineko made
sure that we all got quality time, but when Mineko and Mamoru were together
there was something between them that you couldn't see but almost could
feel. We learned right away that you could tickle Mineko and have Mamoru
fall over laughing, and that neither of them could surprise the other, but
we didn't understand until after we finally got to the whole Taming thing.

"Ah? Uhm, well, it was... interesting.

"We were just over fourteen so it was sort of early for us, but then we
*were* living in close proximity with him. We shared the room, but we
weren't sharing the bed unless we had nightmares. Mineko was first to show
the symptoms, but then she apparently triggered the rest of us.

"My mood swings were terrible. One minute Mamoru was this trusted friend who
was always nice and kind and was the same boy I'd known for the past three
years. Then I'd suddenly want to beat him over the head for being such an
idiot. Then I'd want to climb up into his clothes and hide. Then I'd want to
run screaming away from him. And so on. We all realized that it was us, that
Mamoru hadn't actually changed other than to look completely confused and
pathetic a lot of the time.

"Oh. Mineko told you about that? Yes, uhm. I actually did do that to him
during one of those mood swings. I wasn't aware of what I was doing!
Mamoru's mother got a picture of that and she's been known to use it to
embarass me at odd times. You do? Oh dear.

"Oh my. Yes that's it. My legs wrapped around his waist, my arms clutching
him, my claws had come in at that point, and I'm biting his shoulder.
Thankfully you can't see my face. Uhm. You're not going to run that picture,
are you? Oh dear.

"Well eventually he was told what he had to do before one of us went Feral,
or as would be more likely in that sort of situation, raped him.

"Well, technically in modern parlance it was a Taming, but neither he nor
any of us really thought of it like that. It wasn't the sort of gentle,
kind, patient thing we've got now... I didn't say that, did I? Oh dear. Uhm,
anyway, the first time is always kind of, errr, inexperienced. Yes, that
works.

"We received, partly due to our own nascent psychic talents and partly due
to his talents, what they call a Second Level Bonding or just Bonding. Not
the merely physical bonding that you get from pokegirl biochemistry, but the
rarer psychic sort.

"I, I, I, I don't know about that! I've only known Mamoru and occasionally
the others so I can't make any comparisons!

"Well, we got to see the bond between Mineko and Mamoru and even experience
it some through our own bonds with him. We were quite jealous at first. He
loves and trusts all of us, and we can feel it especially strong when we're
physically close. At first the Bond between us wasn't that strong but it's
gotten stronger. Still not what Mineko and Mamoru has, though we are trying
to find a way to get that ourselves. Not that we're still jealous mind you.

"Recognition. Two souls that come together to complete each other. Even if
we all died tomorrow, they'd be together no matter what happened. Were they
born again a thousand years from now they'd meet again and fall in love. A
psychic Bond means that we will never part for long in this life, we'll
never grow tired of each other and we'll always find comfort in the presence
of the others. But to be Recognized...

"Okay, maybe we're just a little bit jealous still.

"The four of us learned to play music and sing. Mineko was always the bubbly
would-be star. If she hadn't been born a Kitten she'd have been a Diva.

"Mineko evolved to Catgirl right after we opened for the Baka Street Boys,
she lost that slender Kitten quality but got a bit, uhm, chestier. We also
got a ceremony after that. Somehow he'd managed to surprise even Mineko.
Learning to mind shield after discovering what happened to us when he and
Mineko were together, I suspect.

"Marrying one's pokegirls isn't illegal. It just isn't proper or done.
Extremely scandalous in areas like Viridian. Still, the Thousand Gods faith
makes allowances for something similar. We got another tag on our collar, a
ring on our fingers, and a last name. I was briefly reunited with my mother
who was just as happy and proud as she could be that I was continuing my
education between concerts and doing so much for pokegirl rights.

"Makoto practically choked on her collar. She got so excited when she
realized what was going on that she evolved to Tigress. M'rei became a
Cheshire that night.

"A lot of people don't recognize it and a lot of areas ignore it. Instead
we're just considered to be permanently Mamoru's property but as we make a
lot of money they can see why he'd do it. Of course, that isn't why he did
it at all and we know it.

"Nonononono! *That's* not it either. I mean. That is. He doesn't see us that
way, not as property or as responsibilities or as pokegirls. Oh, how do I
put it? To a lot of people, even today, we're simply trained pokegirls. I'm
just a blue haired Kitten and Hotaru's just a Titmouse and Mineko is just a
Catgirl that have been trained well. Pet owners I think would understand. He
doesn't see me as Ami the Kitten or the poor little Threshold girl or even
as some friend. I know because of the Bond. He sees *me*, he accepts my
faults and there's this... delight in my differences. He listens and talks
to me. He loves each of us, not the same, but also not for the same things.
It's... hard to explain.

"Ah, yes, back to the, uhm, right.

"It was some of our toughest times. Working concerts, studying, trying to
get our first album finished, our tour to promote that album, working at
farms and odd jobs along the way. It was also an incredibly fulfilling and
happy time, filled with cuddling up on cold nights and just the knowledge
that while we had all once been free human beings - we were loved and cared
for and at the pinnacle of what could be achieved considering our new
status. Technically we were slaves and property but Mamoru never treated us
like that, and through our bond we knew he regarded us as beloved and
trustworthy partners. I can't really explain how it makes you feel to have
that sort of undeniable conviction.

"We added a few roadies. There were some guys with similar attitudes with
pokegirl "pets" who could help set things up or do work and also help defend
us from pokegirl thieves and the occasional overenthusiastic fanboy (or
fangirl as also happened.)

"We added Sakura after visiting a Breeder Ranch in the Edo League. There was
this pokegirl with a sword, practicing chi attacks. When we left we were
maybe a day out when Mamoru was trying to rest and he accidently found this
extra pokeball.

"Sakura can be shy and demure and act the part of a proper deferential
pokegirl. It's sort of an illusion. I know darn well that she Tamed Mamoru,
not the other way around. By the time we let ourselves out of our pokeballs
(a handy trick we've since perfected) it was too late and Makoto (who had
been on guard) had been found unconscious. We tried to return her but the
Breeder just laughed and said it was fate. No it wasn't, it was a sneaky
pokegirl trying to get off a Ranch before she ended up with a nasty Tamer.

"She's mellowed a lot since then, has a nice voice and can do backup
singing. She's also good with that sword and unarmed fighting techniques and
gets along a lot better with Makoto. The two spar a lot.

"Also in Edo we ended up with a new drummer. Another Threshold girl, this
one had become a Tomboy. She'd fled home when she went through Threshold,
unable to face her family or friends, even though it wasn't that obvious
she'd gone through any changes. Maya. We got her to change her name to Maya
Tono after that manga. We were still snubbing Sakura for being so
underhanded and wanted someone who fit our group a bit more.

"We were on tour in Johto when we were camped out and our violinist joined.
She was this thin little thing who was in a panic, ran into our camp and hid
inside the tent. When we saw this crazy looking guy come by with a piercing
set looking for his lost Titmouse, Mamoru offered to buy the underage girl
off of him.

"So, for about the price of a decent meal, we got a Titmouse. On getting a
better look at her we immediately named her Hotaru and cleaned her up. We
have no idea who she used to be and she'd obviously gone through a Level 4
Programming, but it doesn't much matter anymore. She's got her own fanclub
now, did you hear? She can alternatively be as scary as a Goth or project
that vulnerable cute persona that won our hearts over when we met her.

"Setsuna joined us not long after that. We were just setting up camp, I was
studying my medical text, and I'm handed a cup of hot tea. I thanked her,
expecting to hear Mineko's reply when I realize that wasn't Mineko's voice.
Yes, it turned out to be Setsuna with her mysterious Megami ways. Acting
like she'd always been part of our group. Well, at first she was mysterious.
Still is in a lot of ways, but you should have seen... I'm not sure I should
relate this.

"Well, ok. If you say so. She was calm and cool, unruffled by anything going
on. She was just going to become a member of our band, and that was that. As
if it had already been determined and it was inevitable. She also knew us,
as if we were open books to her - even the roadies that were with us at the
time. Well, yes, but we hadn't known that Megami often had psychic powers at
that time. They're rare you know. We were all fairly common types: Kittens
or evolved Kittens, a Ronin or Amazonlee, a Tomboy, and a Titmouse.

"Then Mamoru returned from his errands. She was smirking that little
so-in-control smirk and driving us up the wall with her superior attitude.
He must have had his shields up because he was planning on surprising Mineko
with a new guitar. She could feel his presence but not what he was doing
when he did that. Setsuna turned and looked at him and, well, the ice queen
melted.

"Yes. I do know what happened. Mamoru was surprised and dropped his shield.
Setsuna was probing him psionically and saw him in all his simple
straightforward deeply caring self.

"Love at first second sight, I've heard it referred to as. Not Recognition
but it was close. We later figured out that with her psionic gifts she had
seen her destiny intertwined with us and had decided to just go ahead and
insinuate herself in and gain control. Even though she is quite intelligent,
she clearly did not factor in her own reactions to finding our Mamoru to be
what we already knew him to be. From calm in-control Ice Queen to giddy
schoolgirl who was stuttering and tripping over her own feet. She still gets
that way frequently and it is still amusing.

"Honey was unusual. She joined us as a favor to Cologne of the Joketsuzoku.
Who were we to refuse her request? Anyway, she's proven to be a valuable
member of the band.

"Why are we retiring? Oh well. We're just not going to be on tour quite as
much and spend more time at sort of... Uhm. That is. There's the medication
to keep Cat types of the Kitten branch from going Feral, you know? Well,
it's kind of... We were sort of... Then with Mineko and he, and she...

"Well, it's a good thing I'm studying Nursing and Midwifery, isn't it?"

-Taken from the January 305 AS "Pet Fancy"

-the sixth song on the album "Portraits" is Ami's "Don't Need To Be Tamed,
I'd Rather Be Loved"

----------

"a Titmouse Blooms in Johto"

D) Philip Bloom III, Daedalus Enterprises

"Let me just say, Ms. Tengoku, I've been following your career and those of
the rest of the Pussycats for quite some time. Adding Hotaru to your band
was an inspiration to all of us out there with Titmice. The Titmouse is
generally looked down on, they are, but those of us who has 'em are quite
fond of the breed on their own merits.

"What does my company do? Well- you know there's lostech or the stuff we
don't know how the Ancients managed or else the used resources we just don't
have no more. Then there's the forbidden tech like those particle beam
rifles Trauma Team has got. Recovery companies go in and find the lostech
and try to figure out ways of makin' do, right? Well, what Daedalus does is
concerned with one of those lostech things that we're making using modern
materials.

"See, when the War broke out we lost some resources, and when things fell
apart down in the Orange Islands they got e'en worse.

"Oh, here we are. Main floor of the plant. We use pokegirls who are
partnered to humans mainly. Carefully licensed of course. We get some from
the Boulder Ranch, a few from the Tendo Ranch (horrible business that was,
hope he gets his stuff together again soon-like), and the bulk of our
workers are from just like people in the area. Those that *do* have human
partners we work out arrangements for the purchase of collars and the like.

"Oh, see there. That be my own Titmouse, Denim. She's a bit shy, and I'll
admit she's not the brightest bulb in the pack, but she does her best and
you really can't ask for more than that, eh? What she's doing right now is
loading the packing balls into the hopper. See she's waving. She's... Oh
dear. Well, I *did* say she wasn't the brightest. At least she didn't do
something like that while she was loading the ink vats.

"Excuse me down there. Can someone get Denim out of the packing hopper?
Thank you.

"What we build here are wiring harnesses. Mouse-types and other agile sorts
have fingers that are especially good for detail work like that. A human
would find this sort of thing all sorts of boring but for a Titmouse it's
generally fine. Oh excuse me just a second.

"Can someone get Denim AND Brandy out of the packing hopper?

"Sorry. Hardly our brightest moment, is it? Doesn't normally go this poorly.
Maybe it's because they recognize a celebrity? Perhaps.

"In any case here we make wiring harnesses for planes and boats. Over there
we actually make the wires, over there the sleeves and connectors, and over
there we make the control plants. We then ship these out to boatmakers along
the coast. We also manufacture replacement parts for a number of other
products, though we use human workers for that end of thing. Well, no,
actually we *tried* using pokegirls for that end of things too. We just had
a few... accidents. Some Ingenue would get distracted or something and
then... We *had* to go to using humans.

"Oh crikey. I don't believe it and I just saw it happen. Tiffany? Check the
conveyer belt for the package wrapping machine? Yes. No, just open a little
bit near their mouths so they can breathe. Leave them tied up there for now.

"That's right buggered. First Denim, then Brandy, then Kyoko tries to pull
them out and all three go over the rail. I haven't seen anything like this
since the time Lucy was working in the candy factory. Hmmm? Oh, I own
Daedalus and I own the Sweet Tooth Candy Factory on the other side of town.

"Never. Ever. Use Titmice in a candy factory. Or Pidgy. Titmice on a sugar
buzz are not something you want to deal with on a regular basis. Pidgy get
nearly as bad except they keep flying into walls. Terrible. At least if the
Amazonlee get into the malted milk balls you don't have that much mess, just
a lot of Very Near Humans stoned out of their minds on a sugar high.

"Hmmmm. Well, I don't suppose I'm giving you a lot of material you can
actually use in a song, am I?"

-In the Mineko & The Pussycats' final album - "Portraits At An Exhibition",
the track by Hotaru titled "Chocolate Parfait Monster" (detailing a very bad
day at a chocolate factory) was their first foray into comedy. Despite being
a "novelty" song it was one their most requested songs according to "Da
Beat" magazine. The picture of Hotaru pouting and covered in chocolate was
made available and sold over 120,000 copies in 306 AS.

------

E) Boulder Ranch

"Hey, Tengoku-san! I've got all of your albums and... you didn't bring
anyone with you? Oh. Darn.

"Okay, well, my name is Brock and I'm a Pokegirl Breeder. My goal in life is
to be the best Pokegirl Breeder around! Admittedly I'm not as big as the
Mendo or Tendo or Daisy Hill, but what I do here is quality not quantity and
I certainly don't go for the Tamers types.

"You grew up in the country, right? Well close enough. So you know that
fighting and sex is all that pokegirls are known for doing mainly because of
the Tamers and League battles in the city. And you know that that's a load
of fertilizer.

"Yeah, you use Feral girls for that if you only want strong attacks and a
willing sex partner, but that's not what you visit a Ranch for. Too bad some
of my so-called colleagues have forgotten that.

"Domesticated pokegirls and halfbreeds and Threshold girls. The first two
originate here and the third was originally because we can provide a home
and eventual placement service. Look at that one over there. She's Windsong,
an Elf. She's a Domesticated who grew up right here and she has considerable
skills with plant magic. I've had two offers from local farmers who want to
hire her out, but I'm hoping that I can find a nice farm that'll take her on
permanently when she turns 16 in a few months.

"Yeah, you know how it is at harvest-time. Just about any of the kits will
lend a hand then, but look at some of these others. Uhm, not there. Look
that was a mistake and I'm still trying to find homes for all of these
Bunnies. They've got good hearts and are friendly as all, but they're a
handful at times. Hey, they're all named Usagi, maybe you... You don't have
to laugh like that.

"Now over here is more like what I was talking about and you've worked on
farms so you know.

"We have Water types who help out fishing vessels or patrol waterways. We
have Rock types who assist miners. We have Flying types who can act as
couriers. Plant types normally assist with the planting and weeding and
caring for growing crops. Any number of kinds work for being a pokegirl
partner of a police officer. Then there are the jobs in firefighting, or in
construction, or even things like road maintenence. You can't trust a Feral
to do jobs like that, and without all that technology our ancestors had we
use pokegirls to pick up the slack.

"There are a lot of jobs that can be done better by pairing up a
Domesticated pokegirl and a human partner. Oh, sorry. I just get carried
away sometimes.

"There's a Threshold girl right over there. When Nita came here she was a
wreck - her family was one of those who wanted to sweep the incident under
the rug. Despite the high number of girls with Threshold that attitude still
seems pretty entrenched. Anyway, she's gotten a lot better and I've gotten
scores back from her testing that she's rated as Cooking 2, Domestic 2. As
soon as I had that I knew how to get prospectives and it wasn't long before
I had a nice arrangement for her. She'll be working on the ferry to
Cinnaboob Island, I know a guy there who'll get her some additional training
in the kitchens there before she goes to work over in the Marina.

"Yup, a *good* Breeder has to wear a lot of hats. Not only do we have to
breed them, which sometimes requires more talents than you might think, but
we also have to be: teacher, dietician, engineer, scuba diver, matchmaker,
cheerleader, job placement counselor, mother, doctor, an expert on pokegirl
physiology and Threshold symptoms, and stern but loving disciplinarian.

"Each and every pokegirl that leaves this Ranch has the skills necessary to
make a living for herself and to try her best in what is often a cold cruel
world. But I do the best I can and so far it's been enough!"

-the song "Breeder's Blues" recounts the basic joys and pains of raising a
child and then seeing them off into the world, of "kissing your hurts
goodbye one day, kissing you goodbye the next" and "tearful hellos and
farewells"

--------

F) Freja, level 36 Domesticated Sorceress, Tangerine Island

"Hey. I've heard some of your songs. Not bad though I generally prefer Bach
myself.

"Well, I'm a typical Domesticated, I suppose. Not that a Feral Witch
evolves. You have to be able to read and speak to manipulate magic to my
degree.

"My spells? Well, all Sorceresses specialize in a particular field of magic
or else a type of magic. So a Sorceress might be a specialist in Invocation
or a specialist in spells that are defensive.

"My specialty is what they call Divination. Hence the name of the company:
Freja Informational Services. Lose a Kitten? I'll track her down. Relative
gone missing? No problem. Not sure where your life is going? Tricky but I
can usually get a basic reading on the near future at least. What's your
love life going to be in the near future? I get *that* a lot.

"I also do some work for the Police every so often. Forensic work mainly.
Does this blood match this blood? Was this pipe the murder weapon? Who
framed Brenda Bunny?

"Oh heavens, Mineko Tengoku. In *your* case it's way too easy. You
Recognized your soul-mate. Unless the shadows lurking in your future manage
to cut you down, I foresee a bright future. Hmmm. Yeah. There's shadows
springing up lately in a *lot* of people's futures. Even if they do you'll
meet in the next life.

"I don't want to get into that. There's three sources of these shadows. One
is in the League itself, the others are far to the West and one far to the
East. I have some ideas but I foresee shadows in *my* future if I get too
nosy.

"Magic isn't exact, usually. One of the frustrating things about it.

"Did you see that cute guy who works the front desk and screens calls? Yeah,
he's mine. Technically and legally he's my owner but actually he's more of a
partner or employee.

"No. Don't confuse me with some Psi-Dyke or Pokegirl Supremist like those
Pirates. I'm not a Domina either. It's a practical thing and he and I manage
a measure of happiness. As I'm a Sorceress I'm not some meek Titmouse and
I'll rip into him from time to time but I feel it's better to divide areas
of control.

"Hmmm. Since we're on the subject, and this *is* on the record (so to
speak), let me say something. I don't know if Cologne's parity is possible,
but I *have* heard from some of these morons who feel that maybe the human
race's time has come and gone. Just one word: MORONS!

"Oh, I suppose you want an explanation. Without getting off on too much of a
tangent this usually comes from people who have been exposed to the
preachings of certain factions and just accept them at face value. They'll
question the mainstream society but don't question these other sources.
Foolishness.

"Humans and pokegirls are related. Can a pokegirl give birth to a human
child? Yes, it happens all the time and not all those children go through
Threshold. Can a human mother give birth to a pokegirl? Yes, if there is
pokegirl ancestry somewhere in the past. Are more humans being born with
Blood Gifts all the time? Yes! Our lives and destinies are intertwined. If
the human species, homo sapiens enhancus, dies off so will pokegirls. If the
pokegirls die off at this point, so will humanity. I have Seen this. There
is too much crossover between the species like two vines which have grown
together.

"Sorry. It just bothers me sometimes. And all this talk about raising the
breeds of pokegirls over the race of humanity coming from some people merely
fuels the flame of paranoia. It isn't practical or likely. That's just my
opinion, though, not something I have Seen.

"Anyway the business is good. Plenty of people wanting to check on things.
For example, I recently had to do a fairly complicated spell to look at two
people who had an arranged marriage. Both families wanted to determine that
the other had no pokegirl ancestry. Did they have anything particular
against pokegirls? No, they hired me after all. It was merely important to
them to maintain a clean history. It was distasteful, but I took the job and
determined that both *were* purebred. I didn't tell them that the young lady
in question was having all sorts of fun with the downstairs maid - an Eva.
They didn't pay for that information anyway.

"Hmmm? Well, that's the problem with a war nowadays between man and
pokegirl. There's way too much collusion with the enemy.

"Back to business. Sometimes I use other pokegirls in my work, there's times
you need to do legwork on a case. A lot of spells require you go to the site
or travel to locations frequented by the target or whatever. There's a
courier service down the block that uses Carrier Pidgy, I use them
frequently. They're cheep. Sorry, couldn't resist though it *is* an old
joke.

"There's a bar down on Milne Street: "Becerra's" - a few Goth working there
but it's also known as a place for those friendly to pokegirls as a hangout.
You get to know the regulars and some of them are good sources of
information, and the occasional job. You know how some people are, they
don't pay attention to the hired help. One of the little things is that even
if the speaker is a pokegirl herself, she usually overlooks the Titmice and
Kittens. The help is part of the background, you know.

"There's dangerous jobs, and there's an Amachamp I've worked with
frequently. Mary Blackhand. Makes a darn good bodyguard or just when you
need someone to look intimidating. Used to work on the pit-fighting circuit,
you know- the Dark League. Yeah, well her owner got what was coming to him
during a police raid. Mary escaped, found this decent sort of guy while she
was on the run, and got registered as his pet. They're an odd couple, I'll
admit. She's a bruiser whose previous idea of a nice time was not being
chained to the wall between fights. He's this accountant nerd who looks like
a strong wind would break him. It's weird to watch her fawn over him, but
apparently he knows how to scratch her itch. She's still tough enough that
she can take out opponents you'd swear a Fighting type couldn't scratch.

"When it's raining, and along the coast here it's frequent, some of the
Flying types will hang around Becerra's place until the downpour lets up.
The ones that do inter-island flying usually have some decent stories to
tell, stuff that don't get in the news. Sometimes it gives me an idea of
what's coming down the pike.

"Hey, I've heard you met that kid Ash. Is he half what he's cracked up to
be? Hmmm. Hopeful that. No, I didn't catch Ranma's big speech. I've seen the
transcripts and I've heard the stories though. Makes me sorry I missed it.

"Big problems? Well yeah. I did take one case that turned out to be a
problem and a half. Off the record I could mention it, but this is one of
those 'if the word got out there'd be panic' stories. Yeah, you actually
*are* better off not knowing. My partner out there had the shakes for a week
when we found out what happened to some kid whose only problem was he tried
to keep some Pirates from snatching a Threshold girl who happened to be a
childhood sweetheart. Considering your bond to your manager, you'd probably
all get paranoid when working in their territory.

"Though maybe you ought to. Shadows, you know."

-The last track on "Portraits" was M'rei's solo "Breaking Barriers, Not
Hearts" - dealing with the fact that pokegirls were now being employed at
jobs that once only humans held and vice versa. At the end of the song she
reveals that she was going to be one of the first accepted pokegirls to
become a full priestess of the faith of the Thousand Gods and tend to the
spiritual needs of pokegirls at the new University that her and her sisters
were going to found.