Warning: This story idea was originally made by Metroanime. All of the foundational work belongs to Metroanime and all of his contributors. The contents of the Crimson League, however, are not Metroanime's. This storyline should be considered separate, but of the same universe. Most data entries were created by me and are not to be taken as canon Metroanime. Other data entries were taken from the BE Pokegirl Addventure.

Again, this work is NOT by Metroanime. Any similarities are purely coincidental or an attempt at kissing Metroanime's ass. As for anyone who pops up here as well as in Metroanime's storyline... well, everyone's got a twin, right? Well, sometimes that twin has a similar life too. Beeeedah! ^_^

Anyone who'd like to help out a story maker like me with ideas on possible tamers, storylines or pokegirls; you can write to me, send your e-mail to: akun15@hotmail.com

And please make it stand out from all the usual spam e-mails. I am, after all, on "SpamMail".

Actually, if you've found this chapter, what the hell are you doing reading this again?

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Wild Horses & Pokegirls - Crimson League
Chapter 17 - Answers

One week ago...

Team Rocket was notorious for many things. Most importantly, controlling pokegirls to do their bidding. So, it didn't really surprise the police to find a Team Rocket laboratory where scientists had been forced to work on creating and controlling some of the more powerful pokegirl breeds: Neo Iczel, Amazonchan/Amazonlee, Alakapam and Iron Maiden.

Not in the least. The Hunter's Guild had encounter enough Teams of Rockets and Rocket clones to know that any morality was pretty much nonexistant. Leon McNichol and his partner, Priss Asagiri, were busy cataloguing the last group of recovered pokegirls.

Priss looked over the pokeballs "Lessee here... two A-bras that are underage, add that pedophile charge to the list. Two identically named Neo Iczels, another two Neo Iczels that are also underage. Two Iron Maidens, an Amazonchan, six identical Amazonlee and an Alakapam. That pretty much does it for this batch."

"So, we've got four more charges of Pedophilia and sixteen more charges of illegal mind control experiments." Leon noted as he made the additions to the charges on his noteboard, before sighing, "How did we get relegated to mere police work?"

"It was Ihrie's new initiative and it was passed through the board. Besides, you know as well as I do that it's nice to have a few safe jobs every so often." Priss retorted, before inquiring, "Any word from Nene?"

"Yeah, she said we can come back once we dropped this load of pokegirls off at a pokecenter. They'll redistribute the girls to a Haven." Leon answered, scratching his blondish-brown hair briefly.

Priss nodded, then sighed, "I'll be glad when Mistress Miranda's plan finally pushes through so that at least pokegirls with a high enough intelligence will be able to go about their own lives."

"I know what you mean. The Havens are an excellent idea, but I'm sure about seventy percent of these girls would be happier being able to live their own lives." Leon responded to the brunette's statement.

"You think Ihrie came up with the Haven idea on her own?" Priss asked.

"Not entirely. I'm sure it was inspired from somewhere else." Leon replied, before adding, "Anyway, let's get going. I'll buy us some dinner."

"Why, Leon, I'd say that was a offer for a date." Priss giggled.

Leon blushed.

"Well, I suppose Sylvie won't mind. After all, it's not like you want her and Anri." Priss noted.

Leon McNichol decided he was having a better night than normal. Getting to go out with a human woman wasn't that common. Leon was so distracted thinking of his good luck, he missed the disappearance of a few of the pokeballs.

Present day...

Miranda Jahana watched her door open violently and rolled her eyes. It wasn't the first time she'd had a militant feminist reporter storm into her room and start making demands of her and it sure as hell wasn't going to be the last.

The female reporter began her tirade, "Miss Jahana! I've just discovered through various sources-"

"Read: Illegal." Miranda interupted.

The reporter glared at her, obviously angry at the CEO of Jahana for interupting her.

"Oh, please, by all means, continue." Miranda offered, idly twirling her platinum hair on one finger as she waited for something that was sure to bring a good laugh.

"As I was saying..." the reporter growled before continuing, "...it came to my attention that you have already discovered a means of preventing Threshold, and yet, you have no plans to market this cure! What is the meaning of this? Are you planning a powerplay? Control the world through the human women?!"

Miranda sighed inwardly. Not even entertaining. Some of them would break down and beg for the Threshold Immunization, some would pull a weapon (always amusing as none ever learned how to USE said weapon) or they would start inquiring if there was anything else (as if Miranda would suddenly spill all her secrets because one measly reporter found out about a project).

Miranda pulled out a keychain with a remote and pressed a red button. The door locked and six things in the room suddenly made a popping noise as they broke. All of them were electronic recording devices of varying sorts. The reporter looked in her purse with a tearful expression, obviously upset that her tape recorder had broken. Tomoyo would kill her for breaking it.

"You want to know why?" Miranda inquired.

"I, Sakura Kinomoto, demand to know!" the reporter answered.

"It's actually quite simple. The immunization got out of the test type stage two days ago and guess what the final result was? It's got to be calibrated to the girl's DNA and genetic ancestry. Do you know how expensive that makes it? We're not talking about a cheap and reproduceable immunization, like flu shots. We're talking about something that, even at an assumed mass production, would still cost well over thirty thousand dollars for each and every treatment." Miranda declared.

Sakura gawked, "THIRTY THOUSAND?! Why in the world would it cost so much?!"

"The Mutt Syndrome." Miranda answered.

"Phweeee?" Sakura inquired.

"The Mutt Syndrome is when three or more races exist in a single bloodline. With the vector changes popping up and changing children from their rightful heritage to something else, it's almost certain that the Mutt Syndrome has infected the entire planet. As such, finding out something like that for most people is damn near impossible because of all information gaps left behind by the more devastating parts of our recent history. Scars are still unhealed from Sukebe's War. There are two to eight continents that broke, sank or popped up during the war and we still don't have a complete map of the new Earth yet. Over nine distinct generations of humans have gone almost completely unrecorded." Miranda answered.

"Phweeee..." Sakura answered.

"In any case, it is of little value to waste our time trying prevent Threshold when reversing it is already becoming a possibility." Miranda replied.

"But why not do both?" Sakura inquired.

"Because of something that came to my attention. By reversing it, we remind people that it still occurs. By preventing it, we start a bad social trend." Miranda declared, standing to face Sakura.

Sakura's brow furrowed, "What kind of bad trend?"

"As you know, I am a 100% pure blood female and there are fewer and fewer of us as the years go on. Among my contemporaries, there is a level of 'smugness', that they are superior to those with poke-blood in their veins, but this is tolerated because there are very few of us and we are quickly becoming extinct." Miranda answered, sighing a bit as she closed her eyes.

Opening her eyes again, she locked her gaze onto Sakura, who wilted a bit, "By refusing to allow the immunization and instead pushing the reversal, we remind ourself that we are not better than than the Feral Pokegirls that still dominate most of the wild. We understand who and what they are and that prevents a social barrier from forming between domesticates and ferals. Besides, even are naive as you can be, Miss Kinomoto, you must realize that there are women who, even given the opportunity for immunization, would still refuse. And what if a girl WANTS to remain a pokegirl? What would you do then?"

Sakura's initial anger had all but faded and the sixteen year old reporter was looking much like a kicked puppy.

"In any case, refrain from reporting any of this or there will investigation into the means on how you learned of our development. Corporate espionage and slander are frowned upon, and no matter what profits you may think you will get by reporting, it will not cover the multimillion dollar lawsuit you will be slapped with." Miranda declared, turning her back to Sakura as she unlocked her office door with another push of a button, before declaring, "You may leave."

Sakura cowered a bit as she retreated from the room. She was glad when she'd finally closed the door behind her. She had no story and she'd gotten Tomoyo's tape recorder broken. On top of that, even if she did try and push her story, she'd get sued and likely blacklisted from every business under Jahana's control.

Miranda sighed to herself. Having to repeat that speech to every reporter that managed to sneak information was getting tiresome, but at least it was beginning to crack the other side of the problem for getting pokegirl rights in place. Male beauracrats tended to let things past so long as they retained a sense of 'safety'. Only Vince McMahon and a few others in the multitude of leagues understood the need for change.

Lao had screwed that up first, but her followers in the Limbec Pirates weren't much better. The Pirates had set back the enstatement of rights for pokegirls, which Miranda worked hard at setting back up after the initial damage had been done. Even in the Crimson League, where Miranda's control had all of the League officials in her pocket, it was difficult to pull off such things. Her advisors had asked that she at least wait until her daughter had a chance to enter the King of Fighters tournament.

Miranda hoped the Limbec Pirates didn't screw up her plans again. If she could contact them and tell them to keep out of the spotlight for at least two months prior and post enstatement, she was certain the enstatement of rights would pass unhindered and the threat of a repeal would diminish greatly. Because at the two month mark, pokegirls would be allowed to own property entitled to them by either family, friends or tamers and vice versa. On top of that, it would open the door to rights concerning the care given to pokegirls. Miranda wanted to see the day when she would not have to fear her granddaughters might be stripped of power and property simply because they were pokegirls.

Nor, Miranda sneered to herself, would they have to worry about some dickhead male tamer babbling on and on about what they'd do to her granddaughters when they owned them.

That reminded her... Miranda pressed a button on her desk. A few seconds later, on a screen to Miranda's left, a young girl with red hair appeared with a smile, "Hiya, Miranda. What can I do for you?"

"Professor Washu, has Reimi sent Washio back yet?" Miranda inquired.

"Yes ma'am. She's down here as we speak." Washu responded.

"Excellent. I'm coming down. Tell Washio that I just remembered a few more things that 'she' said about my darling little Reimi." Miranda declared.

A whimper became audible over the comm channel as the timid titmouse came on screen.

"Oh, and Washio, when we're done, you'll be an assistant secretary." Miranda declared.

"But I was a secretary before..." Washio began.

"You failed to catch the 'assistant' part." Miranda retorted.

Washio lowered her head. That meant double work and less pay. At least Miranda had forgiven her enough to re-employ her. If Miranda had been really pissed, Washio probably would have been sent to a town like Sex. Washio shuddered and tried to keep her mind away from that thought.

Ben, Yuka and Reimi left the Langoud's acquired building in relative peace. A lot of the smaller merchants and breeders had already taken off after cleaning up the area their stands had been (it was a very wise city regulation), but it was too early for most of the other tamers to be awake.

Reimi was a tad annoyed by the fact that Ben had three pokegirls out and around him. She didn't mind the kunoichi or the drow zee, but the peekabu's dashing about was getting tiresome.

"Can't you keep her under control?" Reimi asked as Elline bumped into her on the third lap around the trio.

Pirotess spoke up, "Not really. Elline said she was getting a magnetic reaction in town. I think she meant the tamer she wants to be with is in town."

"And what is the deal with that arrangement?" Reimi inquired.

"I haven't got the lack of heart to force a pokegirl to be with me, so if they don't want to be with me, I try and find 'em someone who they might like." Ben replied.

"Frankly, it's a rare, yet endearing quality." Miko spoke up.

"If you say so." Reimi answered.

"Come on, let's hit the park and relax." Ben suggested.

"It _is_ a nice day..." Yuka said.

"I suppose a little free time wouldn't hurt." Reimi agreed.

With that, the group turned and headed for the middle of town, while three other tamers had gotten the same idea.

In a room deep underground, a table that had a massive holoprojector in the middle was circled by eight chairs. Seven of the chairs were occupied.

Magma
Radiance----Arctica
Iron--------Thunder
Darkness----Venom
Phantom

"She's late." Madam Arctica stated in an irritated tone.

"She has not shown up for over twenty years." Madam Thunder responded coolly.

"I meant her replacement. If she could not be here in person, the least she could do is make sure her replacements are on time." Madam Arctica noted.

"I agree. In the unlikely event that any of us were unable to arrive, we would at least send our replacements on time." Madam Iron agreed.

"I'm sorry!" came the panicked cry of a Spinnertit as she entered. She hurried over to Madam Venom's chair and bowed deeply to the other Madams, "I was delayed due to a possible break through, but it turned out to be no good."

"That has been your excuse for the last six meetings." Madam Iron informed the girl.

"I know, but Madam Venom DOES believe we are VERY close to a breakthrough." the girl apologized.

"In any event, you will hold the mantle of Madam Venom for the course of this meeting. Just like the last ten times." Madam Magma declared.

"So, what new developments are there to report?" Madam Darkness inquired.

"Madam Yggdrasil has retired. Her replacement, Madam Phantom, is taking over Yggdrasil's group." Madam Thunder replied, motioning to the succubus who was sitting in the Earth Chair.

"The Geiselschaft will be 80% complete in two months. It should be fully operational in four." Madam Iron stated.

"Why the delay?" Madam Magma inquired.

"We are having trouble with the main cannon. In order to match the cannon on the Langoud, as was proposed during it's contruction, we will require a larger or more effecient energy source than what we can get with a fusion engine of the design size. As of right now, the cannon can fire, but it would drain the engine so much, that it would be unable to fire for an entire week." Madam Iron explained.

Madam Thunder frowned, "We'll have our researchers look into making modifications. As we all know, the only weakness of the Langoud's cannon is that ship cannot move and fire at that same time."

"The concerts are going according to plan. Our cover was strained because of the Hunter's Guild, but we managed to prove that we were not the ones responsible. Meanwhile, our evaluation is showing a bit more promising that originally anticipated. Instead of the 35% good tamers concept, we have estimates that our audiences are 75% good tamers. Of course, that could simply mean good tamers attend our concerts more often than bad or neutral tamers." Madam Arctica spoke up.

"The training of new recruits has slowed a bit, due to a slightly larger than expected class size and the required training to bring newbies up to speed, but we should be prepared with a sizeable force one month following of the Geiselschaft's completion." Madam Radiance reported.

"Have we discovered WHY the Widow Slayer had Madam Lao's spirit?" Madam Magma inquired.

"Not entirely, though we have speculated that the Slayer may be a minor spirit beacon. If that were true, then if he were in the vicinity of Lao's unattached spirit, it was inevitable that her spirit would be attracted." Madam Phantom explained.

"But, if what we know of spirit beacons is correct, literally anything can be a spirit beacon." Madam Darkness declared.

"That is true. But, what is more likely has to do with reincarnation. Madam Lao has been beyond our grasp for all these years, meaning she must have lived other lives. Her last mortal form must have perished in the vicinity of the Slayer in his travels." Madam Phantom finished.

"What of the Widow Slayer himself?" Madam Magma inquired.

Madam Darkness spoke up again, "From what I was able to gather, he has an ability to grow stronger from everyone around him."

"Everyone?" Madam Thunder asked.

Madam Arctica nodded as she continued where Madam Darkness left off, "It is an ability that has shown up in tamers of the past, but the tamer just winds up living without knowledge of the gift. In some cases, it simply may not have been utilized it to it's full potential. The closer the tamer is to others, the more power they have."

"The Widow Slayer may know of his power, though. He is already instinctively gathering people to him and if our estimations are even mildly accurate, he goes more powerful just by befriending anyone, even stronger if he tames or bonds with them. What we have here, my dear fellow Madams, is a human who may very well be the closest to a diety that any human can get. A diety that may be brought to our side with the proper motivation." Madam Darkness explained.

Madam Radiance smirked to herself, as if amused at an injoke, "A human god? That would indeed be amusing. If he were not a valuable potential asset, I would like to see how close to godhood he truly is."

"Assuming that he only needs one of each type or breed, he will likely leave three of them with others in favor of having one of each type. The types he does not have that would balance out his team are Dragon, Steel, Grass and Ghost. If we entice him with any variety of pokegirls of these elements, we would have a firm root in his group, should the need arise." Madam Iron spoke up.

Madam Darkness quirked an eyebrow, "Is that interest I hear in your voice, Iron-chan?"

Madam Iron spared Madam Darkness a glance before speaking, "Were I more expressive, I probably would have protested, but that would do nothing for my situation. But it has been four years, eleven months and fifteen days since I had a lover and I can feel that I am nearing my mating cycle."

"I thought you were a lesbian." Madam Magma spoke up.

Madam Iron shook her head, "Unlike some of you who dislike men specifically, we Iron Maidens cannot find much pleasure in the arms of most lovers, save fire types and the most powerful of fighters and even then, it is rare to find a lover that can endure. If the Widow Slayer is as powerful as you claim, he may be the first male that any Iron Maiden could mate with and I am willing to face disappointment more than most Iron Maidens. And on a personal note, he is not as entirely repulsive as some other Tamers or Harem Masters, like Happosai."

"Please, don't mention him. I still recall my run in with that disgusting lech. Had it not been for his ability to leech lifeforce, he would have died in the snow that day." Madam Arctica shuddered with disgust, before returning to the key topic, "In any event, should we not exercise caution? We should not treat him lightly. He has already shown he surpasses most expectations."

"I think Ar-chan has a point, but I have to agree with Iron-chan's intentions. If we have someone in his group, even if the tracer is found, we will always know where he is. And it is very unlikely that even someone like the Widow Slayer will be able to warm Iron-chan's heart to the point that there would be a risk." Madam Darkness spoke up.

"And what if he does succeed where others have failed? It would not be the first time he has done what was believed unthinkable. Let's not forget his first Widow was slain when he was only eight years old." Madam Thunder noted.

"I've been thinking on that. What if the boy is simply lucky? We could be overestimating how good he truly is." Madam Venom piped up.

"Defeating two Widows, perhaps, could be considered luck. Three makes the idea of _mere_ luck becomes very unlikely. When luck runs out, there is only skill and power. We know he has power. Now we must see if he has the skill to use that power, which is why we need someone on the inside." Madam Magma stated.

"I can supply a Succubus. She loves to fight and wouldn't mind men. As for the plant pokegirls... it will depend heavily on his tastes. We could use a Dryad, an Oriad, a Boobasaur, a FairyCute..." Madam Phantom spoke up.

"I will see about supplying an Iron Maiden to add to his party. If I cannot find any suitable replacements, I will leave my second in command in my place." Madam Iron responded.

"Ah, yes. Roll. I have missed seeing her...." Madam Darkness commented.

"Only one of us may leave the Geiselschaft during this portion of it's construction." Madam Iron answered the unspoken question.

"Is there anything else worth mentioning?" Madam Thunder asked.

"Yes. My girls have discovered another lab while mining materials for the Geiselschaft." Madam Magma spoke up.

The Madams all stared at Madam Magma.

"Was it left by Artemis?" Madam Radiance inquired.

"We do not yet know what it is or who left it. We are currently in the process of getting past the defences." Madam Magma responded.

"Do you require assistance?" Madam Darkness inquired.

"No. My girls can pass through the defenses with relative safety. The barriers merely slow us down. We will know what we have found soon." Madam Magma answered.

Madam Iron spoke up, "In any event, if there is nothing else, we should adjourn. We all have duties that require tending to. Madam Phantom and I will need the Slayer's next probably destination within a few days, Madam Arctica."

Madam Arctica nodded before the group stood and slowly exited the room.

Kyoko slowed as she heard a twig snap behind her.

"Are you going after her?" came an inquiry.

"What is it to you?" Kyoko demanded.

Her tailer smiled, "You know me. I can't help it if she has somethings I want."

"Your cat fetish is getting out of hand, Kusonoki." Kyoko noted.

"So is your ninja fetish, Kirishima." her tailer shot back.

Kyoko considered her tailer's words.

"All right, Manami. You may come." Kyoko stated.

Manami Kusonoki, the pink haired lover of cat girls, smiled as she stepped out from behind her tree. She wore a blue dress with a while apron, had her pink styled into two 'ears' and wore enormous cat-paw gloves.

If one were to judge her age simply by appearance, one would probably guess a single digit like 8 or very low double digit like 10. That guess would be wrong, as Manami was actually twenty years old. However, a rare hormonal imbalance from her elven grandmother had suspended puberty for the girl until she was roughly twenty-six or older. On the bright side, her lifespan was double that of normal humans.

"Hopefully, not without me." came yet another voice.

"When have my movements become so obvious?" Kyoko demanded.

"It's just like they say, Kyo-chan. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool everyone all the time. We both know you too well." was the other person's responded.

The red-haired tan fighter was wearing her usual denim jacket and jeans with the left leg missing. Underneath her jacket was her favorite faded purple shirt.

Where as Manami had a cat fetish and Kyoko had a ninja fetish, the last of the trio, Midori, had a different sort of fetish. She loved a good fight, followed by ravishing her won pokegirl.

"Is it a whim or personal interest that's bringing you along, Midori?" Kyoko inquired.

"Personal interest. I've got some business with one of them." Midori answered.

Lina Inverse was laying in bed. Before she came to this world, this was a luxury reserved for times after an adventure, but she didn't feel like disturbing Naga.

Gracia, Gracia, she reminded herself. Naga was back home.

Making love to Gracia was disturbing, exciting, terrifying and wonderful.

Gracia smelled like Naga. Gracia's voice was exactly like Naga's. Gracia's hairstyle was like Naga's. The feel of Gracia's skin was like Naga's. Gracia's stature was identical to Naga's.

The differences were just as obvious as the similarities. Gracia was much more timid. Sane, but timid. The clothing, for as long as it had stayed on Gracia's gorgeous body, was not Naga's.

Lina was confused for the billionth time in the last twelve hours. This time, it was not about whether or not Gracia and Naga were the same person. They were, but Gracia was what Naga originally was. Naga had apparently been tramuatized and left her home to try and forget whatever had hurt her. Her name had been changed to help protect or forget her family.

However, Lina was puzzling over hints, suggestions, even possible innuendo that had been hidden in everything Naga did that also involved Lina.

Lina was confused because she didn't know if she was more ashamed that she missed Naga's obvious cries for help because she'd been preoccupied with overcoming her own fear of her big sister Luna, saddened that she couldn't console her best friend/rival, depressed that she'd ignored or insulted Naga when the older girl wanted to be with her, or terrified that she might not be able to go home and fix what she now understood.

Misa and Misao actually looked cute over on their bed. The two could almost pass for twins if it weren't for the fact that Misa was a Naga and Misao was a Goth. Misao's nature gave her a pale palour while Naga looked like she was developing a faint tan. Misao, though, look a bit taller and a tad more muscular.

Sylphiel and Amelia were equally adorable as they were snuggled together under a sheet on the cot at the base of Lina and Gracia's bed. Lina smiled at the two dark-haired beauties and sighed again.

Again, the concept of flagrant sex seemed a bit much for Lina. And developing a 'niche' of six pokegirls was... exhuasting. Hell, Lina only had five and Misao had told her some Harem Masters got upwards of fifty or more. The humans of this dimension have a lot more endurance than I do, Lina thought.

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Driad, the woodland pokegirl
Type: Near Human
Element: Grass/Magic
Frequency: Very Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Soil, sunlight and water
Role: Protectors of the forests
Libido: Average to High
Strong Vs: Rock, Water
Weak Vs: Bug, Fire, Ice
Attacks: Growth, Vine Whip, Leaf Shield, Razor Leaf, Regenerate
Enhancements: High HP, Plant Empathy, Plant Telepathy
Evolves: Driad Queen (normal)
Evolves From: Nymph

Driads are have a very strong connection to plants. Ferals have an even greater one, as they can join with a tree and become it's guardian. This is advantageous for the tree during times of drought as the Driad can find water for it and it's advantageous for the Driad as she gets a place to retreat to should tamers try to catch her.

This is why it has become a custom for most tamers to ignore feral Driads as they can teleport back to their tree before the pokeball even leaves their hand. Even by surprising a Driad (nigh-impossible in a forest) does not allow a tamer to catch them as they teleport away the instant they are startled. Feral Driads do, however, lose the ability for parthenogenesis and thus require tamers to create offspring.

Feral Driads also gain longevity connected to the tree. So long as she has that connection with the tree and the tree remains alive, a Driad may be able to regenerate from any non-lethal wound.

Dominatrix
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Normal/Poison
Frequency: Common - Domesticate, Very Uncommon - Feral (Crimson League)
Diet: Normal human with lots of meat.
Role: S&M lover
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Weak-willed pokegirls, lower level Fighting, Megami
Weak Vs: Fighting, Magic, Elemental attacks
Attacks: Whip*, Wrap, Intimidate, Love Sting, Sex Attacks 1 & 3
Enhancements: Can attack twice in one round if wielding whip.
Evolves: Killer Queen (normal evolution)
Evolves From: Domina (normal evolution)

Dominatrix are considered slightly better than Domina as they have a greater sense of restraint. Unlike their younger counterparts, Dominatrixes have a greater understanding of how to mix pleasure and pain.

Dominatrixes also have a special version of poison sting developed from Nagas (called Love Sting), which turns the affected victim into a horny sex-starved girl the longer the pokegirl goes without taming. But unlike the Naga poison, the Love Sting's poison will simply render the target unconscious for a day if the afflicted victim has enough willpower to withstand it. This, however, entices the Dominatrix to catch and tame anyone with that level of will power.

Dominatrixes can also use their whip's like an extended limb, allowing them to manipulate their opponent to orgasm without physically harming them. Oddly, Dominatrixes don't have as big a problem with Growlies as their unevolved sisters Domina do.

Many Domina tamers, having seen the superior techniques of the Dominatrix, usually do their best to evolve their Domina.

Naga, the half-serpent girl
Type: Metamorph/Animorph
Element: Normal/Poison
Frequency: Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Small animals, pokechow, sexual fluids
Role: Enticer
Libido: Average to high
Strong Vs: Grass, Bug
Weak Vs: Ice, Ghost, Rock, Metal
Attacks: Leer, Poison, Wrap, Wrestle, Sex Attack 2, Bite
Enhancements: Extreme flexibility (bones are actually hard cartilidge with softer areas), poison injectors under the nails and in the fangs can deliver one of four poisons - selectable by the Naga. Hypnotic gaze that only works on specific types (mainly mouse, bug, or bird types) of pokegirl.
Evolves: Garter (Very Near Human type, weaker but more popular, mechanism for evolution unknown), Arbust (normal evolution, entire body becomes mildly poisonous and can spit venom), Sideviper (rare, only encountered as a Feral)

Naga is an unpopular choice for a pokegirl. Due to a lack of hard bones, her strength is usually blunted unless she can hug or wrestle with her foe. Her main attacks are through the use of the various poisons her body normally produces. Sleep venom is the usual attack, which is how she keeps her prey from struggling as she swallows them. There are also many other problems with having a Naga, such as their coldblooded nature making them susceptible to opponents with Ice attacks.

The most common poisons for a Naga are as follows: Sleep, Paralyzation, Lust, Numbing

There is an an ability with Nagas that is more common in Domesticates than it is in the Ferals: The ability to shapeshift into a full human form. Feral Nagas only do this to attract a male partner and thus, if any lesbian Nagas know this ability, it is not as commonly used. All Domesticate Nagas use it to allow them to regain a sembalance of their human lives and also to increase their speed inside cities, where their Naga form has trouble moving.

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Wild Horses & Pokegirls - Crimson League
Chapter 18 - Trades, Blades, and The Past

Yuna looked at the pokeball. She had purchased the Magikunt. Somehow, it wasn't as satisfying as catching and taming the girl herself. Yuna didn't have a name for her watery companion and she was already having doubts.

"Excuse me, miss..." came an inquiry.

Yuna looked up to see a man will long black hair running down his back and long sideburns. He was about a foot and a half taller than her, but she didn't feel that intimidated. Mostly because the man wasn't trying to be intimidating, but also because he had the look of someone who'd spent an entire night trying to climb a tree to retrieve a coin, only to slip and fall fifteen feet or so about six or seven times before giving up and deciding on his own.

"Yes?" Yuna asked.

"Pardon me. My name is Tsukumi and I was wondering if you had any pokegirls you'd like to trade." the tall man inquired.

"My name is Yuna and... I have this Magikunt from the Langoud..." Yuna responded.

Tsukumi's eyes brightened. Since he had decided to give up his Dominatrix and join his friend on the sea (hitting the ground repeatedly reminded him that, while he didn't mind bondage, he wasn't a masochist and thus couldn't enjoy his Dominatrix anymore), having a water pokegirl was a must and it couldn't hurt to have another one.

Besides, Langoud Pokegirls were coveted prizes. Unless someone visited the July festival, people had to win a monthly lottery in order to get ONE and even being rich didn't change one's chances that much as there were some months where NO ONE won the lottery. On top of that, most of the popular tamers in ALL the leagues had one and it usually wound up their Alpha or Co-Alpha.

"Really? Would you mind trading for a Dominatrix? Her name is Ihadurca and she's remarkably well behaved." Tsukumi offered.

Yuna considered it. On the one hand, she didn't know if she was into S&M like most Domina owners were. On the other hand, it might help Yuri and Polylina from fighting.

"Okay." Yuna agreed, handing over the Magikunt as Tsukumi handed her the Dominatrix. Their pokedexes flickered to acknowledge the exchange.

"Thank you very much. I will do everything I can to make sure she's treated well." Tsukumi said, bowing to Yuna.

Yuna nodded. Tsukumi turned and headed for the port town of Lavish, where his friend's boat usually docked. Yuna watched him go and looked at her new pokegirl. Her earlier problem started all over again. She just didn't know what to do with a pokegirl she didn't meet out of her pokeball.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Ben was going over his standard fighting style with his newer pokegirls. Setsuna, Tifa, Nine, Brittany and Brianna were quick studies. Ben had to, however, adapt his form for some things, like Brittany and Brianna's tails and Tifa's bird form. He knew that the Cheetahs' tails could be trained as an extra limb, but he had to figure out how to teach them how to be that agile.

As for Tifa's bird form, it lacked arms and instead had wings. On top of that, it's legs were reverse jointed, meaning the power found in her human-style kicks was lost in bird form. And if there was one thing Ben hated, it was allowing an enemy any form of advantage. He _had_ considered just teaching her how to do more with her pecks, but that left her vulnerable to faster judo-using pokegirls. Feather blizzard and feather shuriken required her to leap over her opponents for an effective attack. If her legs were bound, she would be unable to fight against any rear attacks. As seeing as Tifa's rear was quite lovely, Ben wanted to try to get past that.

Miko watched from a tree with interest. Fubuki, however, had already decided that she didn't like Ben's pokegirls. As such, the short-haired kunoichi was considering Yuka or Reimi, who were practicing with their own pokegirls. Elline was watching it all with a bored look. Racing was more fun to the Peekabu than fighting.

Lilica was pouting. She preferred it when Washio was around. Kiyone was neither a mouse, nor a bird with which Lilica could play with. The terrified titmouse was fun to tease.

Lilica did think about chasing after Tamao or Tifa, but she knew she'd either get pounded or ignored. The two bird pokegirls were MUCH more powerful than she was.

Ben finally retreated to the sidelines for a breather while his girls practiced against each other. Both Brittany and Brianna were helping Bambi train against faster opponents, Pirotess and Nine were trying to tag each other with their powers, Kei and Tifa were in a grappling match and Lita and Setsuna were working on breaking holds.

"You've got a nice spread." Reimi noted as she joined him.

Ben smiled, "I guess I'm just lucky. I'm sure other tamers would go for as many powerful types as they can. I figure that it's the pokegirl who EARNS power that is a lot better. After all, they have all the experience of being weaker, so if they're ever weakened, they'll know what to do a lot more than a powerful pokegirl who's never faced defeat."

"By the way, I've noticed you don't have any Domina." Reimi commented.

"Why would I want one? Kei wouldn't get along with it." Ben responded.

"Perhaps not. There are Domina who are more into bondage and sex games than actual S&M. It's the dominating S&M sessions that usually make Domina and Growlies hate each other." Reimi explained.

"Maybe. But outside of kinky stuff, why would I want a Domina?" Ben inquired.

"Domina are the best at maintaining discipline and loyalty. You just have to make sure they know who's boss." Reimi answered.

Ben frowned, "I don't like forcing anything on people."

"But what if they wanted it? There's no harming in roleplaying, is there?" Reimi asked.

Ben considered that, "If they truly did want it like that, I'd still have some problems with it, but I suppose..."

"Am I interupting?" Miko asked.

Ben turned to her, "Not entirely. What is it, Miko?"

"I've been thinking about it and I believe I will remain with you. However, I think my ally Fubuki will want a different tamer." Miko noted.

"Hmmm. Considering how she was denied cuddling with Kei, I wouldn't doubt it." Ben agreed.

"WAIIIII!" came a cry from nearby.

Ben, Reimi and Miko turned to see a young blonde haired tamer hugging Elline. Elline looked confused for a few seconds, then hugged Yuna back.

"Uh, ma'am?" Ben asked as he approached the tamer and Peekabu.

Yuna turned to see the trio looking at her with inquiring looks, "I'm sorry, I guess I got carried away! My name is Yuna and I've been looking for certain girls and this Peekabu is definitely one of them!"

Seeing their confused stares, Yuna amended her statement, "I mean I'd like to trade for this pokegirl. I've got a nice pokegirl to trade!" With that, Yuna pulled out her Dominatrix's pokeball and offered it to Ben.

"Elline? Do you really want to go with her?" Ben inquired.

Elline nodded vigorously. Ben nodded in agreement, pulled out his pokedex. Scanning the pokeball in Yuna's hands, Ben saw a word, then his head started to hurt. Shaking his head briefly, he looked again.

"A Dominatrix?" Ben asked.

"That's what the last guy told me it was." Yuna replied.

"Do you have any other pokegirls you'd like to trade?" Ben inquired, hoping to avoid any Dominatrixes.

Yuna shook her head, "Nope."

Groaning, Ben considered his options. He _had_ agreed to let Elline choose her tamer and the girl in front of him wasn't going to offer any others.

"Fine, let's trade." Ben sighed, handing over Elline's pokeball reluctantly.

Yuna handed him the Dominatrix's ball, then remembered a important note, "Oh yeah and her name is Ihadurca."

After their pokedexes recognized the trade, Yuna skipped off, tugging Elline along behind her. The two girls raced off before Ben could even think about asking for a tradeback. Not that he really would have.

"Congrats, you're a Dominatrix owner. They're a lot better than normal Domina. A bit more easy going and more focused on everyone enjoying themselves. My mom has one." Reimi complimented Ben.

Ben looked at the Dominatrix's ball with the same appeal one would spare a plugged sewage main.

"BEN!" came cry from behind the trio.

Spinning, Ben noticed a Gynadose attacking his pokegirls, who were backing away. The evolved form of the Magikunt reared it's opened it's mouth and fired a beam of pure energy, which tore up the ground as it passed. The strange thing was that it missed all of his pokegirls by a wide margin.

Gynadoses were generally ten feet tall. In a way, if it were for the fact that they had a tail, were more slender and could easily be considered as powerful as a Dragon, they could have easily been mistaken an Onyx. However, they had a very nasty feral state, one that bordered on infamy.

"Why the hell is a feral Gynadose so far inland?" Ben wondered aloud.

"I don't think it got lost, if that's what you're thinking." Yuka commented.

"She's here deliberately." Reimi remarked.

Nine used her power over darkness to engulf the Gynadose while she and Pirotess used their psychic powers to pull the Gynadose down. Bambi, Tifa and both of his Cheetahs were doing their best to hold the Gynadose's mouth shut. Just as Lita was powering up an electric attack, the Gynadose was recalled.

"I thought so." Reimi commented.

Ben growled as a figure wearing a white cloak stepped out of the shadows with Setsuna. An energy blade was pressed to the back of Setsuna's neck. The figure's voice betrayed her gender, "Don't even think of attacking. Even if your kunoichi or Drow Zee managed to reach her, I could plunge this knife into her neck."

"Who are you?" Ben demanded.

"Call me Nobody." she responded.

"What do you want?" Ben inquired, seething.

"I want to know how to kill a Widow." Nobody answered.

Reimi and Yuka exchanged glances. Ben stared at Nobody for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.

"You-you want to know to kill Widows?! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ben roared, laughing uncontrollably. Pirotess snickered, but she managed to pass it off as trying to blow her nose.

"STOP LAUGHING, DAMN YOU!" Nobody snarled.

Ben finally calmed down, but couldn't help the occassional burst of giggles.

"You want to know how to kill Widows. Fine, then. If that's all you want, then release Setsuna. Once you've done that, I'll gladly tell you how to kill Widows." Ben told her, smiling evilly.

Pirotess winced as Nobody fell for it. Just as Setsuna was a safe distance away, Nobody's hand fell to her pokeballs.

"You can kill a Widow with overwhelming power. There, you now know how to kill a Widow." Ben chortled.

"You think me a fool!?" Nobody growled.

"No, I think you misphrased it. You simply wanted 'to know how to kill a widow'. And you can kill a Widow with overwhelming power. Any idiot knows that." Ben snorted.

Nobody gripped a pokeball just as a dagger pressed against her own throat. Pirotess whispered into her ear, "I wouldn't do that right now. He has quite the temper."

"I suggest you clear out before _I_ take offense, little girl." Ben snorted.

"You have not heard the last of me." Nobody declared.

"Yes I have. Nobody was talking to me, so I answered nobody. Nobody can take a hike! Nobody can shove their whiny demands up their own ass!" Ben called out as Nobody turned and left.

[Wise ass.] Nobody thought to herself.

Ben turned to Reimi and Yuka, "I'm going to be heading to Rage. You can follow if you'd like, but I think I'd better go now."

Yuka didn't like the sound of that idea, but Reimi was ecstatic. After all, that meant she and Yuka could have some time to be alone...

"Why did she ask you about killing a Widow?" Yuka demanded.

".........." Ben answered, trying not to growl.

"It doesn't matter that much, does it?" Yuka inquired.

Ben sighed inwardly, "I'm Benjamin, the infamous Widow Slayer of Tentaculus."

Yuka blinked and stared at Ben while Reimi arched an eyebrow. The next CEO of Jahana Corporation had believed Ben a possibility, but she had thought that he had tricked Nobody because he wasn't. To have the possibility confirmed after she had dismissed it had been a bit startling.

"Then why didn't you simply tell her?" Reimi inquired.

Ben turned and glared at Reimi, "Because once someone else knows, they get it into their stupid heads that they can beat a Widow! I've faced three Widows, and even though I did my damndest every time, it still racked up a body count. I tell no one because I can't stand to have more people to die, foolishly believing that they can do what only I can."

"Fire and lightning work..." Reimi began.

"Fire and lightning? BULLSHIT!" Ben roared, before seething out, "All that does is speed up the Widow's biological countdown and it dies a little sooner than it would normally! And in the time it takes for it to actually DIE from that crap, it's killed at least ten more people!"

Reimi unconsciously took a step back from the anger barely restrained behind Ben's eyes. Yuka wilted. Ben spun, recalling all his pokegirls, before marching out of town, unimpeded.

"Man, was he pissed or what?" Jun inquired as Ben left her line of sight.

"If fire and lightning only speed up a Widow's natural demise, then what could he possibly do that hasn't been done before against a Widow?" Reimi mused to herself.

"Reimi, I think we oughta leave it alone. He's obviously lost someone he cares about to a Widow..." Yuka responded.

"But that's just it. If he did lose someone he cared about to a Widow, wouldn't that make him teach it to more people? It's got to be something special." Reimi declared.

"Like my invulnerability to capture?" Yuka inquired in a soft tone.

Reimi's determination faltered. If it _was_ something like that, then it would make sense as to why no one else could do it. However, she was too curious to simply let the matter drop entirely. She'd have to borrow one of her mother's psychic pokegirls for something like that...

Misao was staring at the phone all throughout breakfast.

"Misao? Something wrong?" Lina asked, wondering why Misao was looking at the thing she'd ordered breakfast with.

"Well... I've been thinking... maybe I should call my mom. She's probably worried sick." Misao told her.

"Call? Isn't she across the sea?" Lina asked.

Misao sighed. As quickly as Lina picked up on technology, she was still mostly a stranger to the general idea of technology. Seeing as she came from a magic-heavy world where the only form of advanced technology was the refridgerator (Lina knew it as either an Ice House or an Ice Box), it wasn't entirely surprising.

"We have things called telephones. They allow us to speak to people over great distances without needing to send a message via carrier pidgeon or by mail." Misao explained.

"Do you have to shout?" Lina asked.

Misao shook her head and smiled, "The phone sends sound for you. I think the closest equivalent would be a telepathy spell."

"Ah." Lina nodded in understanding, "But isn't your mom a pokegirl too?"

Misao shook her head, "Threshold is a random thing. My mother was a human, but her mother was a Heroine. So long as a pokegirl in your ancestry, any girl can become a pokegirl, but they can also stay human."

"Sort of like half-elves. I get it." Lina noted.

Misao looked at the phone again.

"Well, why don't you?" Lina asked.

"........... I'm not really sure how my mom would react." Misao sighed.

"You love her, don't you?" Lina inquired.

Misao nodded.

"Then you owe her at least a phone call." Lina told her.

Misao looked at Lina, then smiled, "Thank you."

"Hey, I'm sure my mom and dad would want to know where I was." Lina explained, before mentally adding, [If they were alive, that is.]

Misao stood up and walked over to the phone, before picking up the receiver. As she began dialing her home phone number, Lina stood up abruptly and turned to the other girls, "I think we need to see the city. Misao can catch up when she's done."

Lina recalled the other girls and exited the room. Misao mentally thanked Lina for allowing her privacy. The phone rang once before it was off the receiver, "Hello?!"

"Momma?"

Ihrie stared out at the city. Rage wasn't the original home of the Hunter's Guild, but it was where she felt at home. The city's name fit well with what she felt inside.

There were many reasons to be angry. But her reason was mixed with self-loathing. In her mind, there was a person she'd looked up to. She was angry with him for leaving, but she hated herself for not being to help him when he needed her the most.

She had taken his dream and decided to make it a reality. Getting support had been difficult, but when the program showed great promise and improved the existing Hunter's Guild incredibly from what it had been before, the League had whole-heartedly accepted the idea and backed it with full finanicial aid.

She had taken runaways, feralborns, overflows from breeding farms and volunteers. She'd worked them up in training, schooling the feralborns so they could do things without the need of a tamer, softened the discrimination and come up with the best policing force in the League, outside of the official League militaries.

Ihrie had not undergone Threshold, but she was sympathetic to those who had. Her idol and mentor, Ben, had once told her that it didn't matter how much someone changed on the outside. It was who they were on the inside that mattered. Those words had endeared her and her lover, Rasha, to him. He had comforted Rasha when she began showing signs of entering Threshold.

The phone rang.

Ihrie turned her head, her long black hair hovering in the air slightly from the speed. Sighing, she told herself that she needed to switch to decaf and picked up the phone.

"Ihrie, guess who." came a voice over the receiver.

"Wyna, you slippery wench, what have you be up to?" Ihrie inquired, grinning as Wyna growled playfully over the line.

Chuckling to herself, Ihrie inquired, "What can I do for you?"

Wyna's voice spoke of barely restrained excitement, "I got news for you. Ben showed up last night."

Ihrie's eyes widened. Instinctively, her free hand came up and stroked the X-shaped scar on her right cheek, "Really?"

"He's looking good. He's a tamer now." Wyna said conversationally.

"So, Sodina was right." Ihrie noted, managing an amused tone, "Figures what with Jennifer-"

"Jennifer wasn't with him." Wyna interupted.

"Did he lose her?" Ihrie asked.

Wyna sighed, "..... we all did. She passed on when the last Widow attacked."

That news struck Ihrie hard.

"By the holy megami....." Ihrie whispered. It had been bad enough when Mat and Dan died against it.

"He's convinced that she's been reincarnated again, so he's been looking for her for all these years." Wyna explained.

"Where's he headed?" Ihrie inquired.

"Your way." Wyna told her.

"And you're sure he's okay, right?" Ihrie inquired, mentally adding, [I'd hate to see what he'd do to this town if he ever went on a rampage. I saw what he did to that last Widow all by his lonesome and that was five years ago.]

"He's actually holding up fairly well. I want you to refrain from trying to sway into joining the Guild, okay? At least for now. He's still looking for Jennifer's reincarnation and that's going to keep him stable... so long as he holds hope that she's still out there." Wyna explained.

Kotoe Amano didn't care about the tears running down her face. She was just happy to hear her beloved daughter's voice.

"Misao, is that you?" Kotoe asked, begging for confirmation.

"It's me, momma." Misao responded.

"Oh, thank.... anyone. Are you okay?" Kotoe inquired.

"I'm fine, momma." Misao answered.

"Oh, Misao, I was so worried when you didn't get home... I've been trying to get the boneheads at the police to look for you, but they ignored it and said you'd probably been caught..." Kotoe told her daughter.

"I was caught." Misao interjected softly.

Kotoe's stomach clenched a little, and she tried to keep the fear out of her voice as she answered, "Really?"

"Don't worry," Misao responded quickly, "She's a very nice woman. She saved me from a really nasty man. I like her much better. In fact, I've already evolved into a Loner and I think it won't be long before I become a Heroine, just like grandma."

Kotoe was doing her best to take that to heart. At least her daughter was happy, "That's... wonderful. I'm glad you can accept her."

"I'm sorry about worrying you, momma. I... I thought you might not... love me anymore..." Misao began.

Kotoe sniffled, then smiled, "Why wouldn't I love my pride and joy? I'll always love you..."

Misao smiled, "Thank you, momma."v

"Misao-chan... can I see you again? I know it might seem strange, but I'd like to see you again before..." Kotoe couldn't finish the sentence.

"I... I don't think we'll be here for long and I don't know where we're headed. But I promise I'll call when we get to the next town..." Misao started to say.

"Can I at least know where you are now?" Kotoe inquired.

".... I'm in July... in the Crimson League." Misao answered.

"Wha-how in the world-" Kazoue stammered, unable to comprehend how her daughter managed to get to the Crimson League in only a matter of days. Unless her tamer had caught her mid-flight to Vale and then drove from Vale to July, there just wasn't enough time in the world for that to occur.

"She has some... flying pokegirls." Misao explained as best as she could. It was lying, but she didn't want to spin a tale about how Lina knew magic, but wasn't a pokegirl.

".... I see... Anyway, please call again... whenever you can. I never want to lose touch with you, sweetie." Kotoe sighed.

"I will, momma." Misao replied.

"I love you, Misao." Kotoe said, fresh tears welling up in her eyes.

"I love you, momma." Misao answered.

Both mother and daughter refused to hang up the phone before the other did. Slowly, without even communicating it, they simulataneously hung up.

The tree was a mighty old elm. It, like thirty percent of the trees around it, had stood the test of time and was fifty years older than Sukebe would have been, had the old wizard remained alive. The elm had stood firm despite the ravages of the war.

Ben's fist toppled it like a contact-fused grenade hitting a sapling.

Ben threw back his head and roared in an unquenchable rage that threatened to consume the last of his sanity before falling to his knees. He wished he could forget. He wished none of it ever happened. He wished he could go back in time to that moment and save the one who held his heart and his soul. Again, the memories returned to him, like they had in Thrill. He couldn't stop them. He could only remember.

Five years ago...

It seemed like a cakewalk for them. Twelve of them against a hive of sixty Wasps, all of different ages ranging from ten to sixteen years old. Armed with staffs, light shuriken and some general anti-venom, they were more lightly equipped than any other attack force. But they were stronger and faster than most other attack forces, better prepared mentally and physically, and would definitely have the advantage of surprise. Once they got rid of the hive, they'd collect the reward and become the leaders of an elite branch of the Hunter's Guild of Tentaculus.

They'd moved silently through the forest until they found hive. Hives were always a surprise to the average viewer because it blended with the surrounding trees, making a sweeping glance useless. Rather ingenius considering that an entire Hive of Wasps had just enough brain power to make a lightbulb flicker for a few seconds. However, a hive wasn't difficult to find for the casual listener as the steady humm of the Wasps' wings made it's position obvious.

They spread out and surrounded the camp. Shuriken flew, striking down six and injuring six more before the twelve attackers let out a war cry and leapt down into the clearing. The sound of wood striking carpace and flesh was heard for three whole minutes before all sounds ceased in the forest. Then, a loud sigh of relief filled the area.

"Damn, that was intense." King said, wiping sweat off her brow.

"I told you all, this stuff is child's play." Ben snorted as he smirked roguishly.

Jennifer smiled and hugged Ben's right arm, "It's because you're such a terrific teacher."

Ben blushed and scratched his right cheek nervously. He wasn't used to being hugged by Jennifer. The brown-haired girl's smile was as radiant as a Megami's, causing Ben's blush to deepen.

Wyna huffed, "I wish I could've taken my hammer. It's more satisfying to smack things with it."

"Yes, but that would have weighed you down. Until you can move it as easily as you do a staff, you should refrain from using such bulky instruments in combat." Ben told her.

It was then that they heard the chattering. When the group saw Ben spin in alarm, they knew something was wrong.

"Look for anything suspicious! Look up, down, left, right! If you even THINK you see something, tell me immediately!" Ben snapped, changing from a laid back instructor and companion to hardened fighter in seconds.

"What are we looking for?" Dan inquired.

"Yeah, give us some details!" Mat demanded.

"A Widow! It can look like anything! Just look for something that isn't a wasp or a tree and you'll have found it!" Ben snapped.

"BE-AH!" came a cry that chilled Ben.

He turned to see a black spear lash out of the darkness and scratch Jennifer's right hand. Instantly, the hand turned a purplish-green. A female hand shot out and swatted Jennifer away like a rag doll, sending the girl against a far tree with a resounding 'crack'. She slid to the forest floor and was still.

Ben raced over to Jennifer's side and pulled a spare shuriken. He imbedded it into Jennifer's shoulder and with strength born of fear and desperation, tore her arm off before the hideous poison could reach the rest of her body. Jennifer's scream pierced his heart and tears welled in his eyes as he tore his shirt off and wadded it up before pressing it against the wound. It was for the greater good, he told himself. Better pain now than pain and death later.

He grabbed Jennifer's spare shuriken and used it to pin his wadded shirt against her wound to help clot the injury. He lifted her and hurried away from the Widow. He found a spot he was fairly sure was safe and put down down, using Jennifer's spare shuriken to hold the shirt in place.

Ben ran back to see a fight that was inevitably one-sided, despite the training, despite the preparations and long detailed talks about what not to do against a Widow. Ben watched as everything he had done crumbled like soggy cardboard before a Hyper Beam and he was reminded once again exactly why only he could kill Widows.

Tamers and their pokegirls had already shown up in the emergency and were either unconscious or dead. His friends were in the same state. The Widow didn't even look injuried. In fact, Ben was certain it probably felt amused. Ben numbly noted a HeroLee, who had been crying in her final seconds of life.

Humans and pokegirls alike were fodder for the beast called Widow. It would kill and devour everything it could. People would suffer like he had when he was forced to hurt Jennifer. It had tried to kill his friends and Jennifer.

For the fourth time in his short life, Ben's rational thoughts took a backseat to unrestrained rage. Ben was through with tactics or strategy. Even if it killed him, he would not let the Widow claim any more lives or cause any more pain.

Charging it, Ben was surrounded by a blackish aura. Panicking at the unusual aura, the Widow launched it's venomous stingers at the foolish boy, who caught said stingers and tore off the arms they were attached to.

Screaming in pain, the Widow tried to back away so it could use it's webbing, but the suicidal boy didn't give it that chance. The blackish aura grew in size and gained crimson flames as the boy reared a fist back.

The Widow felt the fist strike it's carpace, then felt the sensation of being catapulted through six trees going seventy miles an hour. Whining in pain, the Widow tried to pull itself upright, only to find that it's upper torso was no longer connected to it's lower torso, which had landed several feet to it's left.

The boy marched up to the Widow and gazed into it's flat eyes before raising a foot and mercifully ending it's life by crushing it's skull.

Ben turned around and walked back to the spot where he'd left Jennifer. Stumbling, he walked to Jennifer's side, the strength and anger he'd spent killing the Widow now taking it's toll on his body. Just as he fell to his knees next to her, he heard her wheezing for air. He looked at her and saw what he feared the most. Along her neck was the purplish-green venom darkening and coloring her veins.

Ben was not above mercy killing. He had before when a Widow had injected it's toxic venom into the bodies of victims. It was better that they die soon with as little pain as possible than allowing the venom flow through their bodies until they died in the most painful manner imaginable.

Ben knew he had to do it. He couldn't bear to see the half of his soul he so desperately needed by his side day in and day out to suffer. The Hunter's Guild, the glory, his friends. It didn't matter to Ben anymore. They could all go to hell for all Ben cared.

He had to kill his other half.

In his eyes, the Widow had won.

Present Day...

To be reminded of the worst day of his life was his penance for not bearing it all himself. He was their guardian and he'd let everyone, including Jennifer, down.

Ben knew Jennifer was alive again, but he couldn't tell where she was. It was driving him crazy, but he was doing everything he could to stay alive and sane for Jennifer's sake and the sake of his other pokegirls.

As Ben was regathering his inner strength again to forage on, someone made the biggest mistake possible.

"So, the infamous Widow Slayer has feelings. Too bad. I guess it will make extracting the secrets I want from you a little more emotionally strenuous." came the voice of Nobody.

Nobody had been waiting for this. She hadn't been expecting this situation so soon, though. Out in the middle of nowhere and without his pokegirls out, she could easily overwhelm him.

Nobody chuckled, "Of course, Jennifer probably won't be getting tamed any time soon. Oh well. Guess the dumb bitch'll have to wait for you to recover."

Then Nobody's inner amusement faded as she saw Ben stand. A crimson aura, embroidered with black, flared to life around Ben as he turned to face her. His eyes locked onto hers despite her hood.

"I might have been lenient if you had finished with the opening remark. I could have spared you for taking Jennifer's name in vain. But calling her a bitch without even knowing her-," Ben began as the red in his aura swelled in size, before bellowing, "-IS THE HEIGHT OF STUPIDITY! YOU WANT THE SECRET SO BADLY, PREPARE TO LEARN REAL GODDAMN FAST, BECAUSE YOU WON'T LIVE LONG WITH THE KNOWLEDGE!"

Nobody hastily unleashed all ten of the Gynadoses she'd purchased the previous night. She'd seen martial artists pull off some crazy stuff when they started glowing and Ben was flaring with a very scary looking aura.

It is a well documented and accepted fact that Gynadoses are powerful. When in a pack of six or more, it's rare for them to face defeat, save for the occasions when they are faced with more powerful pokegirls of a large number. However, their opponent was known to slay Widows, which were ranked as the most powerful and dangerous pokegirl, outside of the Legendary Pokegirls.

The first didn't even get to see it's opponent before it was unconscious. The second managed to focus on it's fallen companion before it was sent tumbling backwards. The third and fourth powered up their Hyper Beams and fired them at what they thought was the opponent. The third felt a blow on top of it's head while an indentation appeared at the fourth's jaw, sending it through a tree.

The six remaining Gynadoses took one quick glance at their defeated sisters and instantly laid down, knowing that if they didn't, they would likely join the list of the departed.

"Im-impossible!" Nobody whimpered, having expected a completely different outcome to the fight. Four were out in twenty seconds and the others were already cowering in fear.

"They were fresh, so I took it easy on them." Ben told her coldly as he stood behind Nobody.

Nobody spun to see Ben, glaring at her as he grabbed her by the lapels and pulled her to him, increasing the intensity of his eyes. His gaze was intense and unwavering. Instantly, years of mental defenses with self control were destroyed as she felt his gaze burn into her soul. She was vaguely proud of herself for not losing control of her bowel movements.

"I-i just wanted to avenge-" Nobody began, tears forming in her eyes.

Ben looked deep in her eyes. She'd been hurt. Badly, it seemed. She, like him, found the strength to go on, despite the pain. She probably felt like she'd failed whoever she lost, just like he did.

Ben had once prided himself on being willing to help people when few others would. How many people had died because he was too wrapped up in himself to help? How many people had he let die because of his denial of his own abilities?

Ben thought long on that.

He let Nobody go. Nobody hadn't been expecting to be set down and lost her balance. Ben caught her arm before she fell onto her butt and waited until she regained her balance.

For a long time, he'd arrogantly thought of himself as the only person who would ever be able to go toe-to-toe with Widows and win. Other people were like legless and toothless sheep before a Widow, in his opinion.

However, Yuka had fought him to a standstill.

Perhaps, it wasn't entirely impossible that other people could develop the skills and abilities needed to face Widows. But, regardless of that, he knew that Widows were dangerous and if he were to teach anyone, it would have to first be about the most common lesson about Widows.

"If you plan to face a Widow, you'd better have nothing else in your life worth living for. Too many things can go wrong with any plan or tactic. Widows aren't invincible, but they aren't something that you should face willingly. The average human is better off with a lot of fire or electric pokegirls, as little good as they do, and a very good escape plan than trying to use a predefined 'strategy'." Ben told her.

"But..." Nobody began.

"I already figured out that you want to avenge someone's death. But if the Widow responsible is already dead, then there is no point in hunting down more to kill." Ben scolded her.

"I want to do it... I want to kill a Widow to ease my pain..." Nobody begged.

"A Widow brings only pain. You saw what I just did to those Gynadoses? It takes something with that much power to kill a Widow and there is no way in hell anyone can _learn_ that. Not without a lifetime of preparation" Ben told her firmly.

"Isn't there something I can do to ease my pain?" Nobody asked, doing her best not to whimper as he figuratively destroyed her dream of avenging her family.

Ben thought about her question before answering, "A Widow is powerful because it's lifespan is very short. It requires three things in it's short life. A place to nest, a mate and food for it's young. The Widow can't produce young if no men are around it. And so long as it doesn't produce young, it's life is a waste."

Nobody blinked, "You want me to keep them from having children?"

"It's the ultimate revenge on any living creature. Join the Hunter's Guild. You're more likely to face a Widow working with them than you are just wandering around." Ben explained.

With that, Nobody watched Ben walk away. Nobody glanced at her fallen pokegirls. As she examined their injuries, she noted that each would be unconscious for a while, but didn't require a visit to a healing center.

If he could knock out four Gynadoses in twenty seconds, he could have killed all of them in a minute. A chill ran up her spine as she recalled a saying common amongst fighting pokegirls, "Killing is easy. Any fool can do that. It takes a master to disable an opponent without maiming or killing."

Nobody decided that perhaps joining the Hunter's Guild would be best. She was growing increasingly allergic to the idea of facing Ben when he was angry.

Ben winced as a trickle of blood ran down his left arm. He murmurred to himself, "It's just a scratch." He paused to bandage it and winced at the size of injury. It'd been a while since he'd forced so much power through his left arm. He made a mental note not to use his left arm for the next few days.

He was actually feeling better than he had in a long time. It was time to stop denying himself. He was the Widow Slayer. As many people he had failed, he had saved many more. Besides, Jennifer wouldn't want him to wallow in misery.

Ben didn't notice some of the blood that had run down his arm being teleported away.

Yuka couldn't help but worry. She'd never seen anyone so angry. It was one thing to be mad, but she was sure he was bordering on out of control. She just wished she knew why. Of course, finding out he was the Widow Slayer was a bit of surprise. She'd grown up in the same town and she'd never seen him.

Then again, Yuka noted to herself, she'd never gone to the poor side of town. She and Reimi both lived in the middle and upper class areas and there was no real reason to ever go into the poor areas. Not to mention all the wild rumors of what went on in those sorts of places. Things ranging from street rape to drug dealing to underground pit fighting where they'd pit an orphan versus some blood-thirty pokegirl.

Still, she was worried that Ben might get hurt.

Reimi, on the other hand, was worried for a different reason. She had been meaning to face the Widow Slayer herself, to prove the superiority of her techniques while learning his secrets in the process. But having seen his rather... angry... response to Nobody, it was obvious he wasn't going to tell anyone what he used until he had valid reason to explain it.

Of course, from what she could recall, the Widow Slayer had been partially responsible for recreating the Hunter's Guild, at least through one of his disciples. The reforms hadn't been in place long and the Guild already had a much improved record.

However, Reimi was still happy to get some 'alone' time with Yuka. The last thing she wanted to do was leave Ben and Yuka alone again. Reimi shuddered at the idea of Yuka BONDING with Ben. But, it was very unlikely. Yuka had already bonded with her four of her own pokegirls.

Reimi's mind began to worry again as she realized bonding was fully possible. After all, Yuka hadn't reached the theoretical 'six pack' limit established by the Sex League Champion Kintaro Oe. Reimi wanted a clear shot at bonding with Yuka and her plans had been screwed up by Ben. She wasn't going to let him just waltz in and win Yuka's heart completely unopposed.

"Hey, Yuka-chan, how about we stop for a little break? I mean, I'm sure Ben will wait for us in the next town." Reimi suggested.

Yuka considered that, "But what if he doesn't?"

"Oh, come on. I think I know him a little after all we've been through. Besides, I can have one of my girls' e-mail him." Reimi responded.

Yuka nodded, "Okay."

Madam Radiance smiled. The others would wait to get Ben in their grasps instead of taking an easier route. Cloning. The original was nice, but why stop with just him? If cloning worked, then grow a group, just in case something happened to the originals. Besides, becoming reliant on a 'male' was something Radiance found repulsive.

Of course, the first problem was changing that XY pair into an XX without losing that potential for infinite strength. Second, they would need to field test their new diety. That meant letting her go for a while. She didn't want to lose their diety to some lucky idiot who caught her. What to do, what to do.

Well, there was that Amachoke posing as a female tamer... combining her DNA would likely result in an uncaptureable goddess. Radiance smiled. Like hell would Gendo Giovanni get his filthy mitts on something like that. No, as greedy as it sounded, she wanted a personal aspect to the clone, to make sure it was loyal. That was why she had submitted to joining her own DNA with the Widow Slayer's.

Radiance smiled even deeper at that passing thought about Gendo. Giovanni liked to think he had his little 'pet' secret. Well, he'd have to learn that some things were well known to the Limbec Pirates. They'd let him hold onto Typhonna simply because they knew he would believe he could control Typhonna. Controlling a Legendary wasn't totally impossible. Even Sukebe had just let the Legendaries do as they pleased, meaning he either didn't have a way or didn't want to bother. Both of which let the possibility stand.

Besides, even if Gendo did control her, Typhonna had been the most powerful pokegirl SUKEBE ever made. But the Limbec Pirates knew more about that war than historians did. At one point, Sukebe had focused on just making more pokegirls, leaving their deployment up to a few generals and strategists.

One of which was named Artemis, the Moon Goddess. With the help of her lover, Athena the Wise, Artemis had constructed numerous extra facilities for their descendents to find. Those facilities were gifts from their progenitors.

While the technology was no longer beyond the reaches of humans, it was impressive nonetheless. And it was in one of those facilities that the Madams learned how wrong it was to waste their time doing away with humans. After all, in a few more generations, what was left of the human male would begin disintegrating into half-blood males, then quarter-blood males, and finally the purity would be gone altogether. People like Gendo Giovanni were as good as dead.

The only problem was that people like Gendo would rather go down in a blaze of glory than to die quietly. Which was why the Madams were gathering what power and troops they could. The Geiselschaft would take care of Typhonna, should the need arise, and would be able to do battle with any other powerful weapons or pokegirls the Leagues brought to bear.

Radiance looked at the clone, already growing in physical age to match it's DNA partners. Once that happened, it's mind would be a swirl of memories from both of it's 'parents' and that would be when they would need to leave her in a safe place with supplies to start her journey.

Radiance pondered on that bit. A good place to leave their goddess? A place where her servants could look over her. She knew the perfect place. She turned to make the preparations, never seeing the clone's eyes open.

Ben paused. He couldn't believe he was lost already. He rarely ever got lost and that was usually on purpose. Then again, he often knew where he was going and made a straight line for it. Pulling out a pokeball, he released Setsuna.

"Hey, Setsuna, this is kinda embarrassing, but do you know where we might be?" Ben inquired.

Setsuna didn't answer immediately. Instead, she looked around, her eyes focused on something distant.

"Uh, hello? Setsuna?" Ben asked, waving his hand in front of her face.

"We're in the Master Forest." Setsuna whispered.

"Master Forest?" Ben inquired.

Setsuna's eyes returned to focus and she looked at Ben before remembering that he didn't have the benefit of genetic memory, "It's a random place of high magic that usually appears in forests. It's rare for normal humans to wander into one, but when you're in it, it's the best place for evolving certain pokegirls."

"Uh....huh....." Ben said, trying his best to take her seriously.

Then Setsuna raised her head and looked around, as if hearing something.

"Something up?" Ben asked.

"It's music.... The Song of the Blade." Setsuna told him.

Ben listened for any sound. He couldn't only hear the occasional high-pitched squeak like metal digging into metal. Setsuna took him by the hand and began leading him deeper into the forest. For some reason, Ben began to feel a bit sleepy. Yawning, he tried to not think about it. Today had been emotionally wracking and he was becoming too weery to give it much thought.

Ben forced himself awake when he noticed that they were in a stone temple. Looking around, there was a muriel of lovers that covered all the walls. Ben saw a few positions that forced him to tilt his head before blushing intensely. Who knew anyone was THAT flexible?

"This is the Chapel, where the ten Blades of Power dwell." Setsuna explained, pointing to ten blades that were imbedded in separate altars. Each blade was surrounded with a different aura. Gold, silver, grey, black, white, blue, red, orange, purple, and green. Ben idly wondered why yellow wasn't there, then realized the gold was was probably too close in color.

"And you know this how?" Ben inquired, eyeing the blades and feeling as thought he too knew what they were. He wondered if perhaps he had held one in a previous life.

"Genetic memory. I've never actually been here, but I feel like I have. I think someone once called it Deja Vu." Setsuna told him.

"So, what do we do now that we're here?" Ben inquired.

"We get naked." Setsuna declared.

Ben thought for half a second before replying with a smile, "I think I deal with that."

The Goth and tamer shed their clothing quickly.

"Now what?" Ben asked.

Setsuna motioned to two sets of foot molds on the floor, "We stand on those molds. Since I'm being called, I have to stand between you and the swords."

For some reason, as they approached, a chromatic wall appeared between the foot molds and the swords and Ben swore he heard something beep twice. However, they were already standing on the foot molds before Ben could even think of asking about the sound. Ben was surprised to find that his feet fit perfectly into the molds, but recalled that they were already dealing with something magical.

"Okay, what next?" Ben prompted Setsuna who was facing him.

Suddenly, Ben yipped in pain as he felt something sting the bottom of his foot, but his feet were magically stuck to the molds. Whatever it was, he sure hoped it wasn't lethal.

"Now, we make love." Setsuna purred, leaning against Ben.

That was something Ben didn't need any help with. Instantly, his mind began thinking of technique, but for some reason, his logical processes slowed to the speed of molasses. All he could think about was the wonderful girl in his arms. She didn't need a psychic ability to feel his spiritual anguish or deep set need for comforting while he was not with his soul mate, nor did he need technique to show her that he honestly did care for her.

She leaned up as he lowered his head. Their lips meet as their arms wrapped around each other. He leaned her backwards until they were laying on the floor. Neither of them noticed the foot molds release them or the chromatic wall fading. All they knew was each other.

Ben's mind was overwhelmed. He'd never known such synchronization. All his moves came from a combined rhythm between him and Setsuna. He felt like his entire body was on fire as he entered Setsuna and the fire grew hotter as Setsuna moaned. Setsuna pulled him deep into her and hugged him tightly.

Their bodies ground against each other as they felt the need for release mount. Before either truly released it, the rhythm absorbed them.

Ihrie sighed in disgust. Her mentor was coming soon and the very creature that had sent him away was seen roaming on the outskirts of the city. The attack was just the opening motions of the Widow's second stage.

Six were missing, five more were unconscious and more than seventy people in the immediate area had needed to go change their underwear.

There were times when Ihrie wished Widows didn't exist at all, but she knew the fickle nature of Fate. If the Widows didn't exist, then it was probable something worse might come along.

"Ma'am, a report came from a citizen that it fled to the North." Leon declared.

"That's nice." Ihrie deadpanned, before frowning, "Organize a search group."

Miranda heard the intercom buzz, "Miss Miranda, there's a Miss Diggers here to see you."

"Send her in." Miranda replied.

The Jahana CEO had expected a good number of things to occur following that command. She expected the door to open and Miss Gina Diggers, blonde-haired buxom archaelogist, to enter with an aire of repect and dignity. She would be wearing her usual blue legless leotard, baggy brown shorts, brown false-leather coat and fedora.

What she got was Gina, wearing the aforementioned outfit, bursting in, wild-eyed and out of breath, holding a sheet of paper in her left hand and a disk in her right. As the doors bounced off the walls and slammed themselves shut again, the Diggers girl ran over to the desk and set the disk down before slamming her hands into the desk, "MAOSHINAMOOoodizzy...*"

Miranda stared as Gina Diggers collapsed from asphixia. Sighing, the CEO of Jahana stood up and mentally wished Gina didn't insist on doing this every single time she made a startling discovery. Of course, Miranda didn't always mind doing what she always did next.

Gina was quite familiar with the Miranda's preferred method of dealing with asphixia. Of course, most other people didn't pause to make out with the victim after the victim regained consciousness.

Miranda returned to her seat and waited for Gina to stop blushing long enough to give her report, [Honestly, Gina. I'm only twice as old as you are. It's still perfectly acceptable. Now if I were four times your age...]

Gina shook her head, "I've got terrible news!"

Miranda arched an eyebrow as she leaned back in her chair, "More terrible than the time you stayed up six days straight and thought hamburgers ate people?"

"I'M SANE RIGHT NOW!" Gina cried in protest, waving her arms wildly.

Miranda sighed, "I can see that."

"Mao Shin Mao is innocent of the crimes she was first listed with!" Gina exclaimed.

That got Miranda to sit upright, "What?!"

Mao Shin Mao's murder of her master and the pirate's later exploits had been a black mark on the Crimson League's history books. Miranda didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it had numerous implications.

Gina held out the sheet, "Mao Shin Mao was convicted in absentia for the murder of her master, Gargoyle. However, she was originally sold to a man named Jean, NOT GARGOYLE, who was found dead with a sword through his chest! As we all know, Mao was famous for never using a weapon! Even more interesting is that the fact that even eighty years ago, they required notation for pet transfers to be filed in three places, where they would take a hard copy and an electronic copy! But when I investigated, no such files were ever filed or even written up!"

Miranda arched an eyebrow, "How did you stumble upon this?"

"I was doing research underwater when I found the tattered remains of Mao's diary. I specially dried it and looked over what I could. She made notations that she'd been convicted of a crime she never committed. At first, I thought it was just an attempt at trying to win sympathy after the fact in case she was killed, but when I investigated, I found she was right!" Gina exclaimed.

Miranda considered the facts now presented to her. If Mao had been owned by a man named Jean who was killed and the man who Mao acutally killed was named Gargoyle had taken her from Jean... if all that were true, then Mao had been avenging her master instead of killing her master.

And that meant the rule to prohibit higher education to pokegirls was not, in fact, a safety measure. It was simply a method of keeping pokegirls under control. Of course, proving any of it was difficult for an ordinary person, but Gina was lucky to be working for Miranda.

Miranda pressed a button on her intercom, "Washio, I have a job for you. Bring the Ether Recorder."

Miranda let go of the button and turned to Gina, "The Ether Recorder will allow you to view the events as they actually went. Unfortunately, since it's such a precious device, we can only afford to use it on extreme cases like this. I want you and Washio to go to the houses where Gargoyle and Jean were and find out the truth about this incident."

Gina nodded and exited the office to await Washio and the Ether Recorder, leaving Miranda to contemplate the new revelation. If everything did go as Mao's Diary and Gina said it did...

Miranda's eyes narrowed. She wasn't going to allow certain to continue if it were true.

She called up one of the senior executives of her company, "Damien, I'd like you to find everyone in the company who has children undergoing threshold. We're going to be starting up a new program. Also inform the League officials that we may be lifting those education restrictions sooner than we had anticipated... Much sooner. How soon? We'll see at how certain evidence rolls in."

Ihrie was facing a group of eighty. A good portion of them were from the Hunter's Guild, but she had to address them all like rookies as most had never actually seen a Widow, "We'll check all eight major directions and groups no smaller than ten. I want this thing dead as much as anyone else, but that's no reason to get sloppy. No heroics, everyone stay alert."

"But, I thought it fled to the north." a new face inquired.

Ihrie rolled her eyes, "Yes, it probably did. Listen up, because I'm only going to explain this once. A Widow is not always as stupid as the League registry would have you believe. Don't make assumptions that it's just a 'dumb beast'. These things can be both as cunning as a Psi-type and also as single-minded as a Wasp. You can NEVER be certain which it is and if you think you're smarter than it, you're dead. As such, we can't be sure if it fled north to throw us off track or not, thus, why we're all going to go into the forest in separate directions. Eight of you should watch the compass points, four on the ground, four in the air. Two of you should make sure nothing happens to the rest."

Ihrie's eyes managed to sweep the crowd in a matter of seconds, but each of them felt her burning gaze hit their eyes individually, "I've seen five Widows in my life, three of which were killed by a single man. But don't kid yourselves in the least. The Widow Slayer is light years beyond each of you in power and even he couldn't stop people from dying. Carelessness against this kind of opponent is not just a stupid mistake, it's a stupid AND FATAL mistake. If you encounter it, radio in immediately. Don't think you can win a badge for bravery, because we still hand out the Darwin Award in the Crimson League and anyone that moronic will be an immediate candidate."

Rasha sighed as she watched her lover instill the need for sharpness into the group. Rasha knew that Ihrie always wanted to inform people honestly of what she thought of their skills, but Ihrie also tended to go a wee bit overboard when it came to browbeating common sense into people.

"Ih-chan, I think we'd best go. Otherwise he might arrive before we leave." Rasha whispered, twirling her long blonde hair in one finger.

Ihrie nodded. She wasn't about to let him come to this sort of fiasco. Not the boy...no, the man who had taught that she was stronger than she thought she was. Not the man who had thrice saved her life.

In some manner, even though she had been four years older, she found herself still desiring him in a way. After all, the age difference was less than a decade... no, she loved Rasha. She also respected the love between him and Jennifer too much to even think of horning in on Jennifer's memory. Perhaps a one night stand, but not true love.

In the furtherest edges of Ben's mind, there was a stray thought about how the hell he'd gotten so popular, but his body was too busy resting to bother acknowledging it.

Setsuna had undergone two startling transformations in less than two hours. Startling because of the fact that she grew three inches taller and her thin teenage goth appearance had all but completely dissolved into the mature figure of the Heroine she now was. Her muscles were thicker and more pronounced without becoming overly masculine.

However, from experience, he knew that ALL her muscles were stronger. The sudden transition in muscular strength had shocked him a bit. The sudden increased speed was another thing. He hadn't totally recovered from taming Tifa or Nine and that combined with the speed that they'd been going at it had the undesired effect of rubbing part of his manhood a bit raw.

"I'm sorry..." Setsuna apologized.

"It's okay. I was just surprised is all... I'll heal." Ben responded, pulling his pants on carefully, "Besides, the more important thing is that you got what you were called here for."

Setsuna looked at the Blade of Darkness, Black Dragon, which lay in it's sheath and smiled, "It's a high honor to be allowed to wield this sword. Unlike some of the blades, which have already left this Chapel and returned, this one has never been drawn before. It's scrutiny of both the wielder to be and her lover is quite high. Of course, seeing as you evolved me twice in one session, it's hardly that difficult."

Setsuna leaned against Ben's chest and purred in appreciation, "And had I been less fortunate as to have a lesser master, I might not have passed this blade's requirements."

A sarcastic part of Ben's mind wondered if they could put the sword back, only get belted in the nuts by the kind and compassionate part of his mind. The rest of his mind winced at that.

"Uh, let's go. Yuka and Reimi might worry if they don't find us on the way to Rage." Ben declared, wondering why he had the nagging feeling he knew that Black Dragon from before.

Setsuna arched an eyebrow, but nodded.

Fatora sighed as she finally dragged herself from her warm bed. Qawool, Alielle's new Naiad, had been a nice lay. Such a nice lay that Fatora had awoken a few hours later than she normally did, indulging in a longer snuggle session with Alielle and Qawool than she would have otherwise enjoyed.

"Ahhhh, that was WONDERFUL. Now, let's hop on the next bus to Rage." Fatora declared as she stretched.

"Why Rage?" Alielle inquired sleepily.

"Because, silly, that's where Makoto is likely going to go. And like hell am I going to let him get away." Fatora responded.

"Oooh, come on, Fatora-sama! I'd like to have Shayla Shayla and Nanami too, but let's face it, he's got more pokegirls and it's too much of an effort." Alielle complained.

Had Fatora not enjoyed the previous night as much as she had, she probably would have snapped at Alielle for saying such a foolish thing. However, Fatora had gotten a strange vibe the other night after Makoto had gotten his two new pokegirls. The Mousewife wasn't a problem, but that Djinn definitely was. On top of that... on top of that, Alielle was right. Chasing skirts that already belonged to others had only gotten Fatora Roshtaria into trouble.

"Very well, then. We will rethink that possibility. In the meantime, we will continue to follow Makoto until such time as we are either strong enough to beat him or we find something better to do." Fatora answered.

Alielle watched Fatora enter the bathroom to shower, then squealed and hugged Qawool, "That's was a wonderful plan, Qawool! I never knew you could be so sneaky!"

Qawool blushed, "Well, I just don't like raining on other people's parades."

The Fairycute's smile widened and took on a naughty tone, "I don't know about that, I wouldn't mind a little rain from you..."

Qawool didn't protest as the Fairycute slid down between the Naiad's thighs and began tasting the blue haired girl's 'rain'.

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Special Notes

The Master Forest is a special place that is only open to pokegirls who are of a Good alignment and have a lover of Good or Neutral (but never Evil) alignment. The Master Forest can actually be reached at anytime, but it will usually only open when the pokegirl and her lover are alone. The Master Forest doesn't open solely for those who are invited the Chapel, but it may also open to those of Good alignment who are in need of protection or a place to hide.

The Forest allows those who enter to exit into any forest that they want to pass through. It can even send people into a good place with only the vague idea of safety.

Pokegirls instinctively know that they've entered a place of high magic, but only Magic, Psychic or Grass pokegirls will actually know where they are. Coincidentally, this is also the best place to evolve those three types of pokegirls.

The Chapel holds the Ten Blades of Power. When the destined user of a blade has entered the Master Forest, they are summoned to the Chapel and anyone with them who might protest is placed under a magical weariness to prevent them from trying to leave. Only the destined one will hear the call. The destined one is always a type that can use the blades, either with their hands or through telekinesis granted by the blade itself.

Once at the Chapel, the destined user must prove their inner worth by making love to their companion. During this time, the Blades each note the emotions involved in the act and either accept or refuse the user. If all the Blades refuse, then either the destined user has come too early or must otherwise prove herself worthy of possessing the blade she destinied to have.

The Blade that has been drawn the most is the Crimson Blade, Red Wolf. This blade is a fierce defender of lovers and will not hesitate to use it's full might in defense of it's possessor. It's last appearance was twenty years ago on Island where witnesses reported a crimson wolf-esque head rising from the ocean and engulfing the human pirate vessel Soja and all crew loyal to the pirates. Amazingly, anyone not loyal to the pirates survived and were recovered hours later. The user of the Red Wolf was never found.

The Blade least drawn is the Dark Blade, Black Dragon. This blade and it's purpose is unknown as it has never been drawn prior to Setsuna's drawing of the blade.

The other blades, Golden Woman, Silver Floret, Grey Vengence, Cerulean Hawk, Violet Nobility, Forest Venom, White Horizon, and Orange Dawn, have been drawn before, though no one is quite certain how often or what their exact purposes are. Unlike the Crimson Blade, their actions were not as clearly reported.

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Loner, the wayward pokegirl
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Normal/Psychic
Frequency: Very Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Near Human Diet
Role: Last Minute Reinforcements
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Fighting, Poison
Weak Vs: Bug, Ghost
Attacks: Fade, Teleport, Shield, Psychic
Enhancements: Psychic abilites increase from Goth state
Evolves: Heroine (when bonded)
Evolves From: Goth

Loners usually evolve from the same-named sub-category of Goths. Most of their powers and attitudes are increased. However, a Loner has much more leeway if they return to their tamer or not, though they will return to tamers that are still good.

Loners have never been captured away from their tamers. Many scientists aren't sure how this is done, though they believe that the Loner may be able to sense danger and teleport around it. Loners can also teleport to their lover's side should their love become endangered.

Heroine, the general heroic pokegirl
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Fighting/Psychic
Frequency: Very Uncommon/Rare (Crimson League)
Diet: Human diet
Role: Champions
Libido: Average (high with bond partner)
Strong Vs: Ice, Normal, Poison
Weak Vs: Flying, Bug
Attacks: Deflect, Pose, Aura of Doom (all other vary depending on any weapons)
Enhancements: Improved fighting skills and psychic powers
Evolves: None
Evolves from: Loner

Heroine cast off their aloofish ways from when they were a Loner and become powerful fighters. They lose some of their weaknesses, but also some of their strengths. Heroines are very affectionate towards their bond partner.

Heroines can use any weapon and have access to any Fighting or Psychic attack. The variation of techniques makes them a very difficult opponent. Heroines can also use the Pose technique, which allows them to recharge their strength and continue fighting. (this technique does not add to HP)

The Aura of Doom, once believed to be only available to the Sanctuary Goths of the Dark League, is also useable by Heroines. However, Heroines will only use it if they are far too exhuasted to continue fighting or if there is a greater emergency to be attended to.

Herolee, the kicking heroic pokegirl
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Fighting
Frequency: Very Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Human diet
Role: Champions
Libido: Average to high
Strong Vs: Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock, Steel
Weak Vs: Flying, Psychic
Attacks: High Kick, Low Sweep, Hyper Kick, Rolling Kick, Jump Kick, Lightning Kick, Fire Kick, IceBlade Kick
Enhancements: Improved kick strength, jumping, and running speed
Evolves: None
Evolves from: Amazonlee

Herolees are an impressive evolution of the Amazonlee. Like their counterparts, the Herochans, they develop a plethora of elemental based attacks.

One thing that is quite intriguing about Herolees is the fact that they will often try and urge their tamers into using sexual positions that take advantage of the Herolees' incredible leg muscles.

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Wild Horses & Pokegirls - Crimson League
Chapter 19 - Truth Known

Sasami Kawai was worried. Misao hadn't shown up in Umi no Hoshi High School in quite a while, but Misao's mother had managed to get the school to let Misao finish out the semester. The day Misao had disappeared was the same day she was scheduled to return to school.

She hoped Misao hadn't been caught by some balding middle aged man who would defile her best friend's young and pert body- Sasami bit her tongue to snap herself out of the daydream about Misao.

Frustrated, she thought about calling Miss Amano after school again. Miss Amano probably hadn't heard anything either, but Sasami wanted to know what had happened to her best friend. Misao was, after all, the reason Sasami had taken the Tamer Test. Part of the reason was so that Misao and her mother wouldn't be parted. The other part was that Sasami knew she wanted Misao to be with her forever.

Sasami looked up to see the brown-haired tan captain of the soccer team, Hiroto, and his paler dark-haired compatriot, Kenji. Since Hiroto was the most popular man in town and Kenji had a fondness for women (he had an perfect memory when it came to anything female, but he was also easily distracted because of it).

"Hiroto-san, Kenji-san, have you two seen Misao?" Sasami inquired.

Hiroto and Kenji shook their heads. Hiroto spoke up, "I haven't seen her for three days now. I hope she's all right."

Kenji nodded. Sasami sighed in despair. She desperately wanted to make sure Misao was all right.

"Hmph, playing with unclean filth like her will only get you in trouble, Kawai-san." came the snide declaration fro the most annoying green-haired girl in school, Konoha.

"Fuck off and die, Konoha." Sasami snarled at the green-haired snob.

"My, my, what filth comes from your mouth. You're lucky Misao underwent threshold, otherwise your relationship would've become very dangerous." Konoha replied, smiling evilly.

"I'd swear I've seen friendlier attitudes out of Psidykes and Domina than out of you, Konoha." Hiroto snorted.

"YAAAN! Hiroto-sama!" Konoha cried as she glomp-hugged Hiroto, who instantly looked ready to vomit.

"Get off me!" Hiroto growled, trying to pry Konoha off.

"Haida-san! Control yourself!" the red-haired class president, Eimi Date, declared angrily.

"Date-san, have you seen Misao?" Sasami asked.

Eimi arched an eyebrow in thought, "I thought I saw her a few days ago near a grocery store... there was this greasy looking middle-age man following her with a Naga..."

"AAAHH!" Sasami cried out in fear, before spinning and running towards Miss Amano's apartment.

"It'd do Amano some good to get caught. At least we won't have any more filth in our school" Konoha sneered, before heading to school to spread the good news.

"Unsympathetic bitch." Kenji growled after Konoha, elicting a curious eyebrow from both Hiroto and Eimi.

"Kenji, that's the first time I've heard you actually insult anything female." Eimi declared.

"What can I say? I liked Amano much better than Haida. And without her, Kawai-san won't be as energetic. That's two less friendly faces each day." Kenji responded, before sighing, "I hope Amano-san is all right."

The three teens nodded solemnly in agreement before following Konoha to school. Without Amano or Kawai there, the building seemed very unfriendly for some reason.

Lina sighed. Memories of her older sister began nagging at her. Maybe her older sister wasn't always nice to her, but that was usually when Lina did something even she had to admit was bad. Her older sister could be nice at times.

"Miss Inverse?" came an inquiry from Lina's left.

Lina glanced and nearly leapt out of her skin. There were two people. The first was a fairly tall man in his fifties or sixties with grey hair and a grey mustache. He wore a black bodysuit with a loose ornate robe. But he wasn't what shocked Lina.

Next to him was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties with shoulder-length purple hair with the front covering most of her eyes. She wore a red bodysuit with a less ornate robe than the man's.

"Oneesan..." Lina whispered in fear at the sight of the woman.

Both the man and the girl arched an eyebrow at each other as Lina recovered from her initial shock.

"I guess she really is my younger sister's dimensional twin." Luna Inverse commented.

The man nodded, before addressing Lina, "Miss Inverse, my name is Theodore Diggers. I am currently one of the Mage Guild's special investigators and this is my human apprentice, Luna."

"Human apprentice? But I thought the only females who could use mage are pokegirls..." Lina asked.

"That's what we advertise. In truth, there are human women who can manage magic... however... they are a bit limited. In any case, Miss Inverse, we're here to discuss your recent entry into this world and your magic..." Theodore began.

Lina was about to ask them how they knew she was from a different dimension before she recalled that there were magics to divine answers.

"I see. And just what would you want to know?" Lina inquired.

"We're not sure how much you know of this world, but we'll try to explain as best as we can. You see, in our world, magic has never been as potent as it is in the Post-Sukebe Era we live in. We are quickly finding that all of the ancient magics of this world are either... distasteful in nature, incredibly feeble or not as potent as what we now know." Luna spoke up.

"And you believe that I'm different." Lina noted.

"More than that, Miss Inverse. We believe you may be able to aid us in creating magics that will help revolutionize the world into a more stable place. There are many places in this world where Pokegirls may go in order to hide from the cruelty of male Tamers..." Theodore began, "...but that still leaves those intelligent to retreat to those areas fairly powerless and without basic rights."

"So, what is that you want?" Lina inquired.

Luna closed her eyes. The average observer wouldn't have been able to tell, but Lina knew her sister better than most other people, "It's sad to say, but there are many in this world that require a show of force to change their ways."

"Ordinarily, there are those who catch women exhibiting Blood Gifts and change them into pokegirls. The thought that a human female could exhibit a powerful blood gift would definitely cause panic in those organizations." Theodore explained.

"Why?" Lina asked.

"Isn't it obvious? If human women have that much power and have full rights..." Theodore began.

Lina's eyes narrowed in realization, "Then there's no need for taming and thus, no way to control her. I think I see, now."

"Luna is currently the most powerful human female mage and by our estimations, you are easily three to four times more powerful than she is. Were she a Sorceress pokegirl, she would match you, but we don't want to do that to her. You, on the other hand, know more about tapping magic than any other human female on this planet." Theodore informed Lina.

"So, you want me to teach her how to use more powerful magic?" Lina inquired.

"In lieu of joining us, yes. We'd like you to take her on as an apprentice." Theodore answered.

Lina was laughing on the inside at the irony of it all. Her big sister had taught her the basics of magic, especially on how to make it more powerful. Lina took those lessons and became much more powerful. And here, they wanted her to teach her own big sister how to cast more powerful magic.

On the other hand, it WOULD let her get over the phobia of meeting her big sister. This Luna was not as intimidating as Lina's real older sister had been.

"All right. In exchange for food, I'll teach her." Lina answered.

Theodore smiled weakly. At least the Mage Guild was hard at work making a Bag of Endless Goodies, having divined Lina's enormous appetite. Which reminded him, he had to find the man who'd caught his two adopted daughters.

Yuka sighed in content. Reimi's techniques were quite good. Yuka wouldn't have thought Reimi would know just the right techniques to make Yuka moan. Reimi smiled. Yuka's naked body was like putty in her hands.

"Oooooooh, REIMI! I've never felt so goood..." Yuka moaned.

"I know, I've got magic fingers." Reimi answered.

"And here I thought my mother was exaggerating when she said body massages were almost as good as sex." Yuka murmurred.

Reimi smiled, "Well, we could always compare..."

Yuka considered it. She was definitely feeling good enough and it wasn't like Reimi was a stranger. They'd known each other as children and while she couldn't say Reimi was her _best_ friend, they were on friendly terms.

Yuka had actually thought Reimi would ask earlier, but it was becoming obvious that Reimi didn't want to do such things with Ben near. Ben was nice, but he'd been a partner that could satisfy her more heterosexual desires.

"Maybe when we have more time. I mean, we'll be staying in Rage for a few days, right? So, there's no reason to rush, Reimi-chan." Yuka answered.

Reimi frowned a bit, but at least it wasn't a rejection. Besides, it meant Yuka wasn't totally obsessed with Ben.

"Miss Amano! Miss Amano!" Sasami cried, pounding on the door.

"Sasami-san?" Kotoe inquired as she opened the door and let the exhuasted blue-haired teenager inside.

"Misao-" Sasami panted, trying to regain her breath.

"She called me. She's been captured-" Kotoe began.

Sasami felt her blood turn cold at the thought of a sleazy middle-aged man having her best friend.

"-by a nice female tamer." Kotoe finished.

Sasami's blood rose in temperature and she stared in shock.

"She WHAT?" Sasami inquired.

"She's been captured by a female tamer. She's going to call me soon so I can come out to meet her tamer." Kotoe answered.

Sasami's mind was in turmoil. On one's hand, she was happy Misao hadn't been caught by a sleazy middle-aged man, but on the other, it was still terrible that Misao had been captured by someone else.

"Where is she?" Sasami inquired.

"The Crimson League." Kotoe answered.

Sasami stared for a few seconds, before sighing.

"Sasami? Thank you for coming by." Kotoe said.

Sasami blinked, "Huh? Why?"

"It means a lot to me that other people still care about Misao." Kotoe answered.

"Well, she's my best friend. What kind of friend would I be if I just forgot about her because she was a pokegirl? Besides, I really liked her." Sasami answered, blushing a bit.

Kotoe hugged Sasami, bringing a faint blush to the blue-haired teen's face before she felt Kotoe's tears touch her shoulder.

"Miss Amano?" Sasami asked.

"I also want you to know how glad I am that you've been there for Misao during this difficult time. You came over even though others were afraid." Kotoe sniffled.

Sasami hugged Kotoe in return, "Miss Amano, I can still come over if you need support. My friendship with Misao doesn't just stop with her, I can be here for you too."

Kotoe nodded and they stayed like that for a while.

Ihrie was getting more frustrated as time passed. She'd been hoping all this would be over by now, one way or another, but every passing moment brought Ben closer to Rage.

"Ihrie? Is that you?" came the inquiry.

Ihrie knew that voice. It had changed with puberty and time, but to her, it was unmistakeable. She turned to face the forest to her left, where a young man was exiting the shadows.

"Ben?" Ihrie asked with a bit of pained hesitation.

"Okay, that was the least jolly greeting I've ever heard. No 'Hey, where the hell were you'?" Ben inquired.

Ihrie smiled weakly, "I'm sorry... but..."

Ben examined the group, who were silent, pending the orders of their leader, "Rather nice squad you've got. Lemme guess, Widow Hunting?"

"Sorry..." Ihrie apologized.

"Unless you've personally fed the damn thing, there's no reason to apologize, Ihrie." Ben responded.

"I was hoping to get rid of it before you showed up." Ihrie explained.

"Ma'am, just who is this?" a young female tamer by the name of Nanako inquired. The brownish-black haired girl was hoping that, whoever he was, he was a lot friendlier than her semi-rival Ogami.

"His name is Ben... he's an old friend." Ihrie began.

"You should get out of here, this has nothing to do with you." an angry Kazuya Mishima told him. The black-haired man had already assessed Ben as a weakling.

Ben arched an eyebrow, "Excuse me, but from the sound of it, you've never faced a Widow before. I'm probably the only human alive with any real experience with them."

"PFFFT! You sure as hell aren't Widow Slayer material, buddy." Kazuya responded.

Ben bit his tongue in an effort to stop laughing, but the real struggle was holding in his smirk. After all, from the chiseled pectorals to the washboard stomach and the well-perfected glare that seemed to say, "Fuck off!" even when he was happy, it was obvious that Kazuya had aspirations that the Widow Slayer looked more intimidating than Ben did.

"Now, now, Kazuya. He's a friend and a reasonably good fighter," Rasha's soothingly voice cut in, "And with anything as powerful as a Widow, one doesn't take chances."

Ben considered the forest around them, looking up at the trees before smirking.

"You're on the right track. The Widow's web is near here." Ben said.

"And how would you know?" Kazuya inquired.

Ben picked up a stick and flung it at a tree to Kazuya's left. The group followed the stick's path to a strange indentation in the bark that would have gone unnoticed in their search.

"Widows aren't exactly light on their feet, so the brighter of the bunch hide their tracks by running from tree trunk to tree trunk, which only leave marks that are easily ignored. The slightly more intelligent will make mini-webs that they can use like a tightrope, but that tears bark off the trees." Ben explained.

"I see." Kazuya began, "Just the sort of thing the infamous Widow Slayer would know."

"Maybe." Ben answered, shrugging non-commitedly as he joined the party.

She was one of the Blessed Chosen. In her mind, anyway. She was a member of the Dark League, and as such, she was allowed her little whims and beliefs which would have been illegal in a few of the more anal-retentive Leagues.

Mia Alice was a Sorceress. She'd begun thresholding at the tender age of nine, much earlier than most. However, she knew little about control when her magic began manifesting. A tiny spell that were meant to startle bullies and drive them away became a block-busting explosion that left major property damage and plenty of charred corpses, including her best friend, Nash.

She ran from civilization and was found by another Sanctuary Goth, Saki. Saki brought the young Sorceress into the Sanctuary and helped her learn control over the mystical forces so that Mia could cast a light spell without having to worry about punching holes in the roof.

Once she'd mastered control over the level of energy in spells, she astounded the entire community by inventing specialized spells left and right, ones that could be used in or out of combat with great effect.

When she was growing up in the Dark League, she became fascinated with a legendary boy that had popped up in the Crimson League. However, she was much too young to investigate. Now that she was eighteen, she was actually on a fact-finding mission for Arshes Nei, a Drow Zee who was friendly with Sanctuary. Her mission was to find out what she could about the Widow Slayer.

She knew plenty of spells that could reveal the past. The problem was that they had to be cast upon a corpse or in the place where the events occurred. As the Widow Slayer was still alive, she had to divine the place where he was born, which was trickier than most people might have thought.

Magic was funny in some ways. No one could simply ask "Where was I born?", because you'd get about ten to fifty-eight answers, most having to do with genitalia, conception, bars, homes, cars, hospitals or, strangely enough, in the middle of a street as the sperm or embryo that had half of one's DNA pattern was formed. Unless you specialized in Divination magics, of course.

The average questioner had to be specific to the point of near-redundancy in order to get the right answer. It was even worse when the person in question had no last name, was in absentia or had never been viewed by the caster.

However, Mia believed she had managed it. She now knew, she hoped, where the Widow Slayer was born. She memorized the location and picked up a Memory Crystal. The last thing she wanted to do was be forced to repeat the history of the Widow Slayer again and again.

She quickly chanted the teleporation spell and appeared at the Widow Slayer's birthplace. The instant the spell had finished transporting her, she decided to cast a light spell and take a look around.

It was not what one could truly called 'traditional' for having produced a child. Well, to the 'civilized' minds. From the looks of it, it was an plain-looking cave. There were a few token stalagmites and stalagtites, but otherwise, the cave was fairly bare. Too bare. It was obvious from the lack of moss, mushrooms or puddles that moisture had not been in the area for a while. As light as she was, her feet had made an impression on the cave floor... or rather the dust on the cave floor.

Mia intensified the light spell and noted that save her own foot prints, there was no sign that anything else had ever disturbed the dust, meaning no one had passed through the cave in a long while.

Frowning, Mia followed the cave back into it's depths and found a room that was a fusion of an altar of some sort and a scientific laboratory. An enormous fire pit, now dormant, lay a few feet beyond the altar.

There were twenty tubes. All, save one, were completely intact. The damaged one looked like something had smashed out from the inside. Considering the fact that it was made of an inch thick plate of glass with the remains of a Glassteel spell on it, that meant whatever broke out was a monster of incredible power.

Sighing, Mia began chanting the spell to find out the history of the place while activating her memory crystal,
"Those whom hath been forgotten,
Your past is no longer known,
Reveal the tapestry of time
And allow thy truth be shown!"

Darkness enveloped the entire room, then seemed to drain away, revealing the way the room had been long ago. The tube which had been broken was shown repaired. The fire pit glowed with a rainbow hued flame. The room, as a whole, was much smaller. A single woman was in the room and she was marking the altar. She had long brown hair to should have touched the floor, yet the tresses were held off the ground by magic.

As the woman turned to examine the tubes, Mia noticed the blue mark of an eye on the woman's forehead, a shield emblem on the woman's right cheek and three diamond tattoos of varying length on her left cheek. Likely a Megami, but Mia didn't recognize the markings.

The Megami was mumbling something angrily. Mia couldn't tell what the Megami was saying entirely, but she was sure the crystal would pick it up. All Mia could hear was something about "betrayl", "revenge" and "bowels of hell". From the look in the Megami's eyes, it was certainly possible that the Megami might have gone off the deep end or teetering on the brink at the very least.

As the Megami gestured at the tubes, time seemed to accelerate as whatever it was in the tubes began to change from a tiny speck of something floating in fluid to a large ball floating in fluid. Those balls began reforming into the general shape of humans. Some were male, some were female, some were fully hermaphoriditic, and a few were no discernable gender whatsoever.

The Megami seemed to judge each of the creatures as they progressed from infancy to the full adult. The Megami gestured at the genderless creatures and they dissolved back into the goo they floated in. Mia could only offer silent prayers for the poor beings.

The Megami then gestured at a different creature, a female. The female seemed to flinch as if in great pain, then her body began to collapse in on itself. By the time the process was done, all that remained of the female creature was a single foot long golden crystal that was two inches thick.

The Megami summoned the crystal out of the liquid and walked to the fire. She thrust the crystal in the flame as she spoke,
"Sacred Flame, I command thee!
Charge this crystal with thine energy!"

The rainbow hued flame lost it's yellow hue as the Megami removed the crystal, which shone as brightly as the sun. Walking over the altar, the Megami laid the crystal down gently. The Megami then began chanting a spell in a language Mia didn't know. The crystal shifted into the shape of a sword. The Megami smiled briefly before picking up the sword and setting it aside.

Mia watched as the Megami repeated the process eight more times, each time the Sacred Flame losing another color from it's multitude of it's hues before she noticed one of the creature still in the tubes was awake. It had black gem in it's chest and red gems in both of it's arms and legs, but otherwise didn't have much to distinguish it. It watched it's brethren being changed into swords, one after another. It's body seemed to shift into a more menacing form as it began beating on the inside of the tube, growing more and more violent in it's efforts to free itself as the Megami transformed one of it's fellow brethren into another crystal, this one black as twilight on a moonless and starless night.

The Megami's eye tattoo became a real eye a brief second before the young male was slammed back and forth in it's prison. A minute of the relentless bashing against the inside of the container left the struggling male floating helpless in it's tube. The Megami's third eye became a tattoo again as she pressed a button which froze the fluid inside the tube. Another creature began pounding on it's tube, only to be frozen as well.

"Just remain quiet, little ones. Your turns shall come as well." the Megami told it.

Then, Mia heard the Megami murmur, "Stupid War Espers."

War Espers? Mia knew about Espers, the term used for some of the earlier magic-type pokegirls who's DNA was more magically inclined. Unfortunately, most of the Esper race was either dead or had left for a sub-dimension. Mia decided she had to do some research when she got home.

Just as the final blade was made, the Megami turned to make the rebellious War Esper into a sword when she suddenly jerked and stood straight, her eyes wide. Without warning, she teleported away.

Mia watched as the ten blades, sensing the disappearance of the Megami, flared. The hues still remaining in the Sacred Flame were pulled into the crystaline swords until the flame was extinguished. Still emitting their chosen auras, the ten swords vanished from sight.

Mia watched time progress even faster as her spell began fading. The room began to expand and the markings on the altar faded as the creatures still unfrozen in their tubes melted away to nothing. Eventually, the water seeped out and evaporated. Everything began to resemble it's state when Mia had entered the room as the spell faded.

Something must have happened at one point that freed one of the War Espers and it, in turn, freed the other. The problem was that the spell hadn't gotten to the point that revealed what any of the events had to do with the Widow Slayer, unless...

Mia blinked in surprise. Unless the Widow Slayer was one of the two War Espers. Or at the very least, one of the War Esper's descendents. Things began to make sense to Mia. Whatever powers the War Espers had were still immense, even when diluted by time.

Mia stopped the memory crystal and looked at it. The War Espers, a nameless Megami committing a horrible crime against nature, ten crystal swords of power...

Mia knew that without proper research and further investigation, all of what she had seen could lead to a very violent reaction from a lot of people. One of the most important things was finding out what the War Espers were.

The swords of power Mia was already familiar with. There was a popular legend about a forest that let pokegirls and good tamers in and a mysterious chapel that had ten magical swords. In fact, she was sure there were a few records of the swords that were in the chapel.

Putting further thoughts on hold, Mia chanted the teleporation spell again. She would have to deal with her discoveries, but after she was better informed.

The two female tamers were not expecting any surprised on their journey. That was obvious from the fact that they both nearly leapt out of their skins when Kyoko appeared.

"What are you doing here, Ninja Mistress?" Reimi demanded, trying to recover her composure as she silently kicked herself for becoming so relaxed in Yuka's presence. Yuka was trying to figure out how the hell Kyoko had managed to do that.

"I came here to challenge you and a gentleman who caught two more of my students." Kyoko answered.

"Well, you've missed him, but I'm always up for a fight." Reimi responded, tensing slightly.

"Phooey! The guy's gone?" came the voice of a pink-haired girl Yuka didn't recognized as the young stranger sat pouting in a tree-branch.

"It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather take on the brunette." a cocky-looking redhead declared as she stepped out of the shadows opposite from the pink-haired girl.

"GRRR! Where did that jerk go?" the pink-haired girl growled.

"Great... the Gang's all here." Reimi commented idly.

"Reimi, who are these girls?" Yuka inquired quietly.

"This is the Girly Gang. Three tamers who specialize in certain breeds. In front of us is Kyoko the Ninja Mistress. The 'little girl' in the tree is Manami the Cat-tastrophe, a fetishiest who adores feline-esque pokegirls. And the redhead is Midori the Mighty, who collects powerful pokegirls and makes them subserviant to her. I'd heard they all went their separate ways a year ago, but apparently, they've gotten back together." Reimi responded in a low tone.

"So, what would they be in a gang?" Yuka asked.

"They're Battle-Sharks. Their personal stock of pokegirls are well-trained, but they used to pick on dumb, weak or new tamers who had pokegirls that tickled their fancy, goading their victims into a fight where the victim was way over their heads. On occasion, though, they test themselves against opponents they judge have pokegirls that are the equals of their own personal stock." Reimi replied.

"And they want to fight us why?" Yuka inquired.

"We've got pokegirls they want, of course." Reimi answered.

"Of course, we don't _just_ want YOUR pokegirls, Reimi-chan. I'm going to make you my personal fuck toy." Kyoko snarled.

Reimi arched an eyebrow, "Aren't you going a wee bit overboard? For crying out loud, I beat you once."

"That's once too many. Until you can along, no one from my entire household had never been defeated! And then you add to the indignity by taking my top Kunoichi!" Kyoko growled.

"First of all, an art that has met no defeat never improves. Secondly, it's not my fault you zigged when you should have zagged." Reimi retorted.

Having come from a proud heritage of kunoichi training and having worked extremely hard for her current skill in ninjitsu, Kyoko didn't take criticism very well. Especially since she had been accepted as the rightful heir by her very own mistress, who was harder to impress than a Neo Iczel.

Ordinarily, Kyoko would have sent out a Kunoichi to deal with Reimi. However, this was a personal grudge. Thus, Kyoko herself would fight. After all, when you want it done right, do it yourself.

"It's here." Ben declared.

The group glanced at Ben, who pointed at the Widow's shadow. The tamers scattered as the Widow slammed down in their midst. Ben frowned as he look at the Widow. Something was very wrong with it. He'd seen Widows in all three stages of it's life and he'd never seen _THIS_.

Instead of two stinger-arms, the Widow had as second set of arms. Both sets of arms shot webbing at the scattered tamers, hitting two and almost catching a third.

"RASHA!" Ihrie called.

"FLARE!" Rasha chanted.

Multiple microexplosions flared around the altered Widow before engulfing it in a burst of flame.

"That's not good enough, child." the Widow hissed, swatting the blonde Sorceress into Ihrie.

"Funny, all the other Widows I've killed never spoke. Is this a mutation on your part or a genuine evolution?" Ben inquired calmly.

The Widow turned to look at the impetuous young man as Ben took note of the lack of eyes in the rear of the Widow's head. The Widow reared back all of a sudden.

"YOU!" the strange Widow cried in fear.

"I see I'm still popular as ever." Ben commented.

"Fuck this shit! I'm outta here!" the Widow cried, leaping into the trees and skittering away as fast as it could, which was much faster than the average human could follow. Even Ben found himself a bit in awe of how fast it was moving.

"Okay, there's a sight I've never seen." Ben noted.

"Why the hell did it run off? I thought they were fearless." Ihrie inquired.

"Well, it recognized me and it was speaking. It's stinger arms were replaced by normal ones and it had no eyes in the back of it's head. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a genuine Widow Evolution." Ben declared.

"WHAT?!" Kazuya demanded.

"There's no mistakes about it. That was a Widow that had evolved. No other pokegirl looks even remotely like that and there sure as hell is no one in a costume could run that fast." Ben stated, before adding, "Incidentally, it's web is right above us."

"Should we go after it?" Ihrie asked as she tried to shake Rasha out of her daze.

"No. We've got people to rescue. Besides, I doubt most of you could keep up with it. In any case, we should alert the League about this." Ben said.

Ihrie watched Ben as he took a bottle of industrial grade alcohol and began shimmying up a tree to where one of the web's anchor points was. He'd changed. And it was definitely for the better.

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

Herochan, the punching heroic pokegirl
Type: Very Near Human
Element: Fighting
Frequency: Very Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Human diet
Role: Champions
Libido: Average to high
Strong Vs: Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock, Steel
Weak Vs: Flying, Psychic
Attacks: Comet Punch, Uppercut, Hyper Punch, Evade, Counter, Lightning Punch, Fire Punch, Ice Punch
Enhancements: Improved punch strength, speed and endurance
Evolves: None
Evolves from: Amazonchan

Herochans are, like Herolees, a step up from their other brethren. Herochans, however, have a lot more control over their power than Amazonchans and thus are often more levelheaded about their competition with their kicking brethren.

Herochans enjoy stroking and caressing during foreplay and throughout the entire act of sex.

Dryder, the Widow Evolution
Type: Animorph
Element: Unknown
Frequency: Very Rare (Crimson League)
Diet: Unknown
Role: Not Wanted
Libido: No One Wants To Know
Strong Vs: Unknown
Weak Vs: Unknown
Attacks: String Shot (all others unknown)
Enhancements: No time limit, intelligence, intuitive knowledge
Evolves: Unknown
Evolves From: Widow

A Dryder only occurs during the Second Life Stage of the Widow, when the Widow regains any knowledge they had before. If the Widow knows about it's limited lifespan, it can save itself by ejecting all of it's poisons through it's venomous stingers. Once it has done so, it evolves into the Dryder.

Dryders are a lot safer to deal with as they lose all of their lethal poisons, though rumor has it that some may retain dangerous variant chemical that must be injected in a different manner. Their venomous stingers, no longer necessary, becomes duplicate arms for the Dryder to fight and emit webbing through.

Dryders retain their intelligence from their pre-Widow lives and can act accordingly. It's assumed that they have similar life cycles to the Widow, but this has not been confirmed.

Until most information on the Dryder has been confirmed, this evolution should be treated with the same regard as the Widow.

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

Wild Horses & Pokegirls - Crimson League
Chapter 20 - Look At All The Syndicated People

The base was in flames. Soldiers dashed about in confusion, trying to battle the flames and find the source. Whatever attack force had tried to attack had already been driven or scared off.

Just as the fires were put down and the fire alarm stopped, the soldiers heard a different kind of alarm just as the wall of one of the storage units burst open, revealing several large mechs.

A large air-transport landed quickly in the yard near the mechs. With ease that was too quick to be entirely natural, the mechs loaded themselves onto the transport just before it rose into the sky, this time a bit slower as it's engines revved up to compensate for the additional weight. However, it wasn't long before the transport was well on the outer edges of the radar and fading quickly.

"Why the hell isn't someone following that thing?!" Colonel Yeager demanded.

"Because the doors to the hangars were welded shut, ma'am. We're still trying to get them open." Lt. Jinto Lin apologized.

"RRRRRRRGGGGGGG!! The first attempt to bust into this facility in over six years and it had to fall on MY watch." Colonel Yeager growled in anger as she just knew she was going to be demoted for the incident.

"Don't worry, Colonel." Mr. Prospector spoke up, "We knew that security was weak. If we were at war, this would have been a shameful display, but since this was planning on our part, you won't be demoted or have any kind of blackmark on your record. Nor will any of the base's staff."

"You mean you had this planned. Let me guess, a means of tracking down Team Rocket or one of it's copycats?" Colonel Yeager demanded.

"Exactly. Why do you think we transported those mechs here and allowed their position be so widely known?" Mr. Prospector inquired.

"I'm afraid that was a year ago, so forgive me if I feel it was a bit... redundant." Colonel Yeager noted.

"Of course. After all, it takes a while to entice people while still leaving the bait out in the open." Mr. Prospector responded.

"You like fishing analogies a bit too much, Mr. Prospector." Colonel Yeager declared.

Meanwhile, Team Gundammers was celebrating. Sure, they'd lost some valuable pokegirls, but the tech they'd just gained more than made up for them. It was more than likely that they'd be inducted into the Limbec Pirates' list of elites.

Fatora was cursing her luck. She'd taken Alliele's advice and went for a shortcut to the next town. Of course, Alliele's shortcut consisted of traveling "as the crow flew", as the old saying put it.

It turned out that crows were either drunkards or had a really shitty sense of direction as Fatora found herself standing near a base that was on the exact opposite side of Rage from where she had started. In fact, to have arrived at the base while missing the town was something... special.

As Fatora started towards the town that she know saw clearly, she tripped over something. Or rather someone, Fatora realized as she managed to keep her footing and looked down at what she'd tripped over: a girl with long black haired, tired blue eyes and looking very worn out. She was wearing a tattered brown skirt and little else. She was also soaked to the bone, having gotten wet from a nearby stream.

"Hey, are you okay?" Fatora asked as she realized she kicked the girl's head.

"......" was the girl's response.

Fatora tried lifting one of the girl's hands. The skin had very little give to it and she could barely feel the girl's pulse. Fatora noticed the girl's eyes focusing a bit and locking onto her. Fatora began praying that all those horror movies she'd seen about psychotic pokegirls were wrong and that the girl was just dazed, before silently slapping herself.

She cursed herself for watching those things. The acting and lighting was always poor and even a lunatic could tell the pokegirls who were playing the 'evil' pokegirls didn't have their hearts in it. Then again, considering that they were made simply to hype up anti-pokegirl hysteria, it didn't need to be good in the least to convince the stupid.

"Can you speak?" Fatora asked.

The girl slowly nodded her head.

"Are you in pain?"

The girl shook her head slightly.

"Just exhuasted?"

The girl nodded again.

"I'll help you up, okay? We'll get you to town and find you a nice warm bed, okay?" Fatora inquired.

The girl didn't react to that. Fatora slowly slid her body underneath the girl's arm and used both of her arms to slowly help the girl into a kneeling position, then to a stand position.

"Just lean on me if you need to, okay?" Fatora inquired.

The girl nodded weakly.

"You'll be okay, trust me." Fatora told her soothingly.

With that, Fatora unleashed Alliele. It was time for the meddlesome little Fairycute to earn her keep. The purple-haired winged girl appeared, but before she could say anything, Fatora spoke, "Alliele, find us a hospital or a hotel or _something_. We need to get this girl to a warm and dry place as fast as possible."

The FairyCute took note of Fatora's companion, who looked notably ill, and quickly flew up to find one of the aforementioned places.

Ben was sitting in a cafe, sharing a cup of cocoa with Ihrie and Rasha. In many ways, the scenario seemed very familiar. Only in the past, it had been heated tap water, a warehouse and cardboard boxes for seats.

Ben was doing his best not to focus on the evolved Widow, now temporarily named "Dryder" for reasons that were beyond him. Ihrie was doing her best not to speak about the Dryder either. Rasha was wondering what else they had to talk about.

"So, what have you been up to recently?" Rasha inquired.

"I visited July's Sadie Poken's Day. For a single day event, an amazing amount of energy goes into it." Ben commented.

Ben watched Ihrie and Rasha nod, Ihrie nodding a bit more than she should have as she was trying to find a topic that was as far away from Widows and the past while still maintaining a level of conversation.

"I remember a time when this sort of thing was a pleasant daydream." Ben laughed a bit.

"Yeah, those times were tough." Ihrie agreed.

"And you weren't so distracted with work." Ben remarked.

"Yeah, work sucks." Ihrie agreed.

"And you used to cover yourself in butter and rub yourself against dancing poles for warmth." Ben continued.

"Yeah, poles su-huh?!" Ihrie asked, trying to grasp what Ben had just said.

Ben began laughing and Rasha sighed. The blonde sorceress loved Ihrie, but at times, the dark-haired commander could still be a dork.

"At last, she's in the present." Ben stated with a grin as he sipped a bit at his cocoa.

Ihrie sighed, "Sorry."

"Hey, you're just distracted with trying to dance around the past." Ben replied.

Ihrie seemed to cower, "You noticed, huh?"

Ben closed his eyes, "I know because both you and Wyna have been tip-toeing around the fact that I left without a word five years ago and all of a sudden, I pop right back up. On top of that, Wyna's probably already told you about Jennifer and tried to warn you about not speaking about her..."

Ben opened his eyes and stared in his cocoa, "I'll admit, it's always going to be a tender subject, but I've got to admit one of these days that I did my best and still failed. The point is, Ihrie, that we shouldn't distance ourselves because of that. I did that for five years and all I got was... nothing. I was at the bottom and it came to me just today that it was all because I'd thought too highly of myself."

Ben raised his eyes and met Ihrie's, "This new Widow has shown me that while I have been given the title of Widow Slayer, I'm letting more people suffer because I refuse to give the secrets away."

Ihrie felt a strange feeling run up her back. On the one hand, the secrets had been hidden for a reason. On the other hand, she felt like older times when Ben was teaching them how to fight.

"Mizuki? Mirei? Hikari?" Sasami inquired as she opened the door to the mansion.

Mirei was the first to appear. The brown-haired brown-eyed Cheshire was always working on her teleportation abilities. The catgirl hugged Sasami just as the human girl closed the door.

"Sasami! I'm so glad you're back!" Mirei cried.

"Hi, Mirei. Sorry to keep you guys waiting." Sasami responded.

Mizuki appeared next. The green-haired Succubus was always wearing exotic outfits she made herself. Prior to threshold, the Succubus had dreamed of being a world famous designer, but a rather bitchy female tamer had forced Mizuki to leave her home and her plans behind. The odd thing was that if Sasami put her hair in a single ponytail like Mizuki instead her usual two ponytails and changed it's color, she and Mizuki would have looked almost exactly the same. The only difference would be their irises: Mizuki's were green and Sasami's were pink.

"Did you bring anything new to eat?" Mizuki asked.

"Yeah, mom made lots today." Sasami said, holding out a basket.

Sasami looked around, "Where's Hikari?"

"Miss ShieldMaiden is upstairs. She's looking through her family's tome again." Mizuki sighed.

Sasami groaned, "Again?"

Mizuki nodded, then shrugged helplessly, "She's trying to find the 'screw up', so to speak."

Sasami rolled her eyes, "Anyway, eat up."

Mizuki plucked the basket from Sasami's hand and the trio entered the dining room.

"We're lucky this mansion's been abandoned for so long, though. Living at your house was getting a bit cramped." Mizuki said conversationally.

"I know, but mom didn't mind. With dad working all the time, you guys were great company." Sasami replied.

"Yeah, but we didn't want to trigger her." Mirei answered.

"That's an old bitch's tale!" Sasami huffed angrily, "I wish I knew who started that so I could kick their asses really hard!"

"I agree with Sasami. Threshold is already chaotic enough in it's timing. Why would the chance encounter between a human and a pokegirl trigger Threshold?" Mizuki agreed.

"But it _has_ been documented as occurring. As such, we cannot threaten Honoka-san's humanity." Hikari's voice cut in.

The trio turned to see the green-haired ShieldMaiden walking down the stairs. Her green hair was of a much darker shade than the pale green of Mizuki's hair and Hikari let her hair grow wild. Hikari's dark red eyes locked onto the basket, "It was nice of your mother to make us food."

"Regardless of what you three might think, Mom isn't worried and neither am I. She works with pokegirls every day at the CD store, used to play with pokegirls when she was in school and was nursed as a child by her mother, who is a pokegirl. If anything is going to trigger mom's threshold, it'd be something from those sleazoids in Team Rocket or a Legendary. If it weren't such a pain in the ass to get pet licenses in this city, Dad would've gotten Mom a few pokegirls to play with on a daily basis." Sasami responded.

"By the way, are you a tamer yet?" Mirei inquired as she and Mizuki began looking over the mixed sandwiches and bentos. Honoka used to travel a lot and fell in love with the old Japanese bento boxes as well as the old American sandwich. It reflect in the way she mixed a lot of rice and beefy sandwiches.

".....yeah..." Sasami answered.

"Then why haven't you even thought of catching us?" Mizuki inquired.

"I wanted to catch Misao first, but she's already been caught."

That stopped the other girls in their tracks. Hikari's expression saddened as she asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, she called her mom today and told her. She's in the Crimson League already." Sasami answered.

"Then there's no time." Mirei declared, "We have to go to the Crimson League and save Misao-chan!"

"That's nice, but we don't know where she's going. She said she was in July, but her Tamer was already planning on leaving." Sasami replied before sullenly adding, "And what if she's already bonded?"

"NO WAY!" Mizuki snapped, startling Sasami.

Mizuki seized Sasami by the shoulders, "Misao-chan is NOT bonded! You and her share an incredible bond, even without taming, Sasami-chan! I know she would never become bonded to any other tamer!"

Sasami nodded and smiled softly, "Thanks, Mizuki-chan."

Mia knocked on the door. It opened to reveal a woman who looked to be in her late thirties to early forties with long brown hair wearing a purple skirt, a yellow t-shirt and an apron.

"Yes?" the woman inquired.

"Are you Himiko Takeuchi?" Mia inquired.

"Yes, I am." the woman acknowledged.

"My name is Mia Ausa and I'm from You-Know-Where. I was wondering if I could talk to you in private." Mia inquired.

Himiko allowed Mia inside and closed the door. Heading downstairs, they entered a specially made soundproof room that had orihalcon and strong magnets to cancel both magical and technological spying. Mia noted that because the orihalcon was on the inner most wall.

"Quite a room you have here." Mia noted.

"It pays to have connections." Himiko said, smiling slyly before motioning to a chair and shut the door behind them.

As the two women sat down, Himiko frowned, "So, what can I do for you?"

"I discovered your true origins through some research a while back and I was wondering if you could confirm or deny something for me." Mia began.

Himiko sighed, "The War Espers... yes, what can I tell you?"

"Well, namely who is the Widow Slayer? Is he the other War Esper that survived?" Mia asked.

Himiko pondered that, before finally answering, "I know what the Widow Slayer is and I can tell you he's not the other War Esper from long ago."

"So, where is the other War Esper?" Mia inquired.

"Oh, that was Daniel Jahana, Miranda's late husband. You see, when I broke free, I let Daniel out too. We exited the cave, but the climate was harsh and the weather unforgiving. Both my husband, Akira Takeuchi and Miranda Jahana had been hiking in the mountains and literally stumbled over us. If not for them, we'd have perished. It... endeared us to them. Daniel was named by Miranda and married her. Akira let me choose a name that I like and I married him. Since Daniel could pass himself off as a human, he did so. I could have to, but I wanted to give my children an idea of what other pokegirls went through, so I became Akira's 'Amachoke'. Since I'm a Fighting type War Esper, I can match any Amachoke, thus it was the perfect disguise." Himiko answered.

"So, what's the Widow Slayer if he's not one of you?" Mia inquired, wondering why she had been led that cave if the Widow Slayer wasn't involved.

"That's a complicated answer. You see, Miranda was curious the find out about invulnerability to capture that War Espers have. I don't personally understand, but it has something to do with our genetic makeup. I think it was a result of the gene-tampering that made us. Well, one of Miranda's scientists was actually working for a pokegirl smuggling operation that sold rare pokegirls to the rich. He figured that a War Esper would bring an excellent price and so he took blood samples from me and Akira." Himiko began.

"He tried to clone you two." Mia noted.

Himiko nodded, "And he succeeded with a mostly female hermaphordite he called Konami. He also tried to graft some of the DNA onto some orphans to see what sort of unique blood gifts they could attain. Maybe they were hoping the DNA graft would act like a specialized version of Jusenkyou water. I have no idea what they were thinking, but only three children survived. Daniel and I started sensing Konami's presence and sought out the base."

"And what happened when you found the base?" Mia inquired.

"Well, all I know for certain is that all three children survived, the ones responsible are dead and Konami passed on from some form of DNA breakdown. I think they failed to stabilize her." Himiko answered.

"And one of the children is-" Mia began.

Himiko nodded as she finished Mia's sentence, "-the Widow Slayer."

Mia considered that. The DNA grafting meant that the Widow Slayer was originally human, but was now much more powerful than he would have been otherwise. A question remained, though: what of the other two children?

Reaching the building wasn't the easiest task in the world, even with Alliele helping, but they'd finally made it inside, where a Nurse Joy examined the girl for injury, dehydration, pneumonia and exhuastion.

Fatora, for one, was glad that the girl, Gilda, was only exhuasted. Of course, the Iron Maiden would have to spend a few hours in a revitalization chamber. Whatever had been done to the poor girl, her health and spiritual energy were dangerously low.

Fatora realized where she was. Haven. It was one of the few places where pokegirls were brought where they were treated kindly. Here was where many people who were pro-pokegirl went so that they could do what they liked to do: help pokegirls.

Fatora considered that as she sat down on a couch. Then, she noticed the girl on the other side of the couch blushing and looking away. The girl had deep tanned skin, white hair, pointy ears and blue eyes. She was currently wearing a plain white t-shirt and shorts. At a guess, Fatora would have to say the girl was likely a Drow Zee.

"Hmmm? Something wrong?" Fatora inquired.

"I wasn't expecting company." the girl answered.

"Oh, don't mind me. I have a tendency to sit near the cute girls." Fatora said, smiling at the girl.

The Drow Zee's blush increased.

"In any case, you don't mind me being here, do you?" Fatora inquired.

The Drow Zee paused, then shook her head as her blush lightened.

"I'm Fatora." Fatora introduced herself.

"Kalia." the Drow Zee answered.

"Pleased to meet you, Kalia." Fatora said.

"Pleased to meet you, Fatora." Kalia replied.

"So, what's a cute girl like you doing sitting all alone?" Fatora asked.

Kalia's blush faded and her entire body began to slump a bit.

"Are you okay?" Fatora inquired, worried at the girl's sudden depression.

"I... recently underwent threshold and... my.... parents abandoned me." Kalia answered.

Fatora winced. She knew of that horrible practice. After all, a large number of Haven's population was abandoned pokegirls, but many were left behind by tamers or were kidnapped by Team Rocket and liberated by the Hunter's Guild. Such practices were frowned upon in the Crimson League and earned the parents a major social stigma far worse than having a pokegirl for a daughter.

"I'm apologize. I didn't mean to bring up a painful subject..." Fatora began.

"Would..." Kalia started to inquiry, hesitating as tears brimmed in her eyes, "....would you know of anyone who.... needs a Drow Zee? I'd like to be of value to someone."

A chill ran up Fatora's spine. She knew girls going through Threshold often experienced physical pain from the transformation, but it wasn't until Kalia spoke that sentence that Fatora realized how traumatic the entire process likely was to the victims. Having a low percent chance of thresholding, Fatora looked upon the abilities of Pokegirls and only saw the nifty powers.

She hadn't really stopped to think about how it would feel to suddenly feel as though you're only value was as a Tamer's pet. Seeing the tears in Kalia's eyes, Fatora began to feel like a heel for even being a Tamer. Then, she saw an answer. Perhaps it wasn't the best in the universe, but it was better than letting Kalia cry.

"Actually, I don't have many pokegirls. If you wouldn't mind, you could accompany me." Fatora offered.

Kalia blinked and stared at Fatora.

"You... you want me... to come with you?" Kalia asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

"If you don't mind coming with. I'm not rich, but I think I make good company." Fatora answered.

Kalia hugged Fatora and began sobbing. Fatora held the crying elf girl in a tender embrace and sighed inwardly. Fatora Roshtaria simply didn't have the heart to chase after Makoto anymore. If anything, Kalia had shown Fatora what would like happen if she did take Makoto's pokegirls away.

Manami was bored. Bored, bored, bored. Sure, the fight between Kyoko and Reimi was impressive and all, but there were no catgirls involved. And Yuka and Midori were wrestling in an effort to overwhelm each other.

Manami sighed and wished for the eighth time in the last ten minutes that the third person in Reimi's 'posse' had been there. Manami had every cat-type pokegirl save the Cheetah, the Griffon and the WarCat (the last one being too rare for Manami to get). The last person she'd tried to hit up for their Griffon had lost it to some masked tamer called Tamer X and Manami hadn't heard of Tamer X since.

So, Manami had come to try and nab a Cheetah. Unfortunately, the only ones at July had been captured already. Manami was sick and tired of being too late, so she was determined to get one of the two Cheetahs.

Yuka and Midori separated and glared at each other. It was obvious from their five minute struggle that neither of them was stronger. So, it was time to resort to the pokegirls. Yuka pulled out Jun's pokeball and let the tanned Ria loose. Midori unleashed a Minotaura.

The taller Minotaura was more impressive, but Jun had developed more than pure strength, whereas the Minotaura had not. Jun easily skipped out of the way of each attack the Minotaura launched before Jun grinned and gathered her electical ki attack in her hands.

"GUNGNIR!" Jun cried as she slammed the blast pointblank into the Minotaura's gut, sending the larger pokegirl sailing backwards to hit a tree and fall limp.

"Juggie-chan! Are you okay?" Midori asked.

The Minotaura moaned.

"That was overkill, Jun. You could've taken her with a Kubota Spark." Yuka admonished.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Jun asked, grinning.

Meanwhile Kyoko was throwing shuriken at Reimi, who was dodging with ease.

"No wonder your Kunoichi lost! You stink!" Reimi taunted.

Kyoko growled and began to throw more shuriken wildly. It made Reimi's dodging much more difficult, but it wasn't long before Kyoko noticed she had just thrown the last of her shuriken.

"And now, Rose Thunder." Reimi declared, red lightning crackling around her before she hurled a thick bolt of plasma at Kyoko, who didn't dodge fast enough. Kyoko hit a tree and slumped down, out like a light.

"That'll teach you to try and pick on the 'weak'." Reimi snorted, before turning to Yuka, "Come on, Yuka, let's go."

Yuka nodded as she recalled Jun. The two female tamers left the Girly Gang behind.

Leno and Mary were looking at the map. According to the Marble, if they didn't choose a target soon, they would be in danger of losing their backup.

"How about Vale?" Leno inquired.

"I suppose, but there isn't much there." Mary answered.

"Look, I don't think our higher ups will really care so longer as get something done." Leno growled.

"Fine." Mary replied.

"I'll go revv up the mech." Leno declared.

Mary watched Leno go. It was obvious that the male was no longer fooled by Mary's disguise and was simply going along to get along. The Marble was actually glad that Leno had chosen to do so. After all, she would hate to follow the standard procedure for dealing with rebels.

Leno was not unpleasant to look at. And after this, they would be allowed a break. A smile graced the Marble's lips briefly as she considered taking Leno to a hot spring and showing her appreciation for all his hard work.

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Esper, the Magic Pokegirl
Type: Varies
Element: Magic/Varies
Frequency: Very Rare (All Leagues)
Diet: Varies
Role: Varies
Libido: Varies
Strong Vs: Varies
Weak Vs: Varies
Attacks: Varies
Enhancements: Varies
Evolves: None
Evolves From: None

Espers are, perhaps, the most chaotically arrayed pokegirl types ever. When they are born (in recorded history, only 1% of all Espers have ever resulted from threshold), the Esper may or may not gain an elemental affinity. Espers can only be identified by pokedex scans. Otherwise, there is a strong possibility for them being confused for another pokegirl type.

Most Espers left for a subdimension after the Sukebe War rather than live on Earth. Those that continue to live on Earth are very rare and are constantly being mistaken for other pokegirl types. No one knows why, but there is a belief that they may return to Earth should parity become a reality.

War Esper, the Forgotten Poke-Type
Type: Varies
Element: Magic/Varies
Frequency: 1 (Crimson League)
Diet: Near Human
Role: Replacements for males
Libido: Varies
Strong Vs: Varies
Weak Vs: Varies
Attacks: Varies
Enhancements: Varies
Evolves: None

Created by the Moon Goddess Artemis at the behest of her lover, Athena, the War Esper was an attempt at creating a replacement for human males. However, this race wound up being a PERFECTLY equal mixture of male, female, hermaphordite and genderless. As such, the idea was abandoned and those that were made were kept to see what use could be found of them.

The War Espers were found to have the unique ability to become more powerful when they came into contact with friendly pokegirls. The more intimate the War Espers became with others, the more powerful they were. It was the pure-breeds that became juggernauts of power. However, with the variable lifespans and genetic instability, many of the War Espers died after one year. Those that survived managed to produce offspring, but of the species they mated with.

It is believed that the power of the War Esper lay hidden in the generations and was spread about the world in the form of some of the more common pokegirl types. It is uncertain, due to the Mutt Syndrome, exactly how many people may be descended of this race, but it has been speculated that the unpredictable nature of the bloodline has produced some of the more unique and powerful blood gifts. This is, of course, speculation.

Only one War Esper is known to still be living, though it's location is only known to trusted individuals that will never betray it's trust. All that may remain are half-breeds and those of a tiny strain that managed to remain throughout the ages.

Alakapam, the Super-Psychic Pokegirl
Type: Near Human
Element: Psychic
Frequency: Very Uncommon (Crimson League)
Diet: Near Human
Role: Humanoid super computer, security cameras, etc.
Libido: High
Strong Vs: Fighting, Poison
Weak Vs: Bug, Ghost, Dark
Attacks: Psychic, Psywave, Teleport, Meditate, Boost
Enhancements: Psychic powers, high intelligence
Evolves: None
Evolves From: Ka-D-Bra

Alakapams (or Alakawhams) are the highest level of psychic pokegirl as they often use their powers to keep their enormous breasts from jiggling, weighing them down or forcing them off balance. Their IQ, if it could be measure, would be about 500. However, this only applies to logical situations. When dealing with emotions or chaotic people, Alakapams usually don't do so well.

Alakapams have high libidos because of their ability to pick up images and emotions from the subconscious of those surrounding them, which leads to them becoming aroused easily. Indeed, if one wants to make use of the Alakapams' powers, it is not suggested that you have a lusty pokegirl, like a Succubus, a Foxx or Vixxen, Growlie or Growltit, or similar pokegirls around the Alakapam. In fact, tamers themselves should stand a few feet away to allow the Alakapam to focus better.

Alakapams are rarely found alone in the wild. Many have usually attracted a following of lusty pokegirls that have fallen for the Alakapam's psychic sexual prowess or their enormous chest size. Breast fetishiests seek out these pokegirls to add to their collection, though evil tamers had best beware. Alakapams may take offense to the idea of being enslaved.

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Ben reveals to Ihrie and Rasha the secrets of slaying Widows.

Manami and Theodore Diggers hunt Ben down.

Leno and Mary head to Vale.

Gym Battles.

Sasami sets out to find Misao.

A few more trades, but with a curious subplot.

Gina and Washio uncover Mao Shin Mao's past.

And Washu's experiment goes awry.

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

Current Pokedex

Ben (Tamer/Demi War-Esper, Level 45) - Kei (Growltit, Level 26)
Bambi (Milkmouse, Level 20)
Pirotess (Drow Zee, Level 37)
Lita (Joltina, Level 23)
Tifa (Chocoboob, Level 15)
Nine (Umbrea, Level 15)
In Storage-----Setsuna (Heroine, Level 25)
In Storage-----Brittany (Cheetah, Level 15)
In Storage-----Brianna (Cheetah, Level 15)
In Storage-----Ihadurca (Dominatrix, Level 30)
In Storage-----Miko (Kunoichi, Level 20)
In Storage-----Fubuki (Kunoichi, Level 10)

Yuka (Amachoke/Demi-War Esper, Level 41) - Satomi (Flarea, Level 30)
Jun (Ria, Level 34)
Elena (Milktit, Level 28)
Hiyori (Vaporita, Level 20)
Tamao (Pidgerseat, Level 19)
Inez (A-bra, Level 5)

Junpei (Tamer, Level 40) - Airi (Ditto, Level 20)
Celcia (Elf, Level 31)
Ritsuko (Charamanda, Level 24)
Mike (Youma, Level 12)
Rapier (Amazonlee, Level 20)
#388 (Ice Nymph, Level 10
#239 (Flamasaur?, Level 15)

Reimi (Tamer/Demi War-Esper, Level 49) -
Chiho (Kunoichi, Level 31)
Maya (Dragonfair, Level 24)
Lilica (Merrrowl, Level 24)
Nanvil (Drow Zee, Level 27)
Kaori (Amazonlee, Level 39)
Kiyone (Kitten, Level 5)

Yuji (Retired Tamer, Level 16) - Rio (Jigglyslut, Level 23)

Sara (Drow Zee, Level 60)
Arshes Nei (Drow Zee, Level 73)
Eris (Sorceress, Level 30)

Madam Arctica (Ice Maiden, Level 50)
Madam Magma (Magmary, Level 80)
Madam Phantom (Succubus, Level 35)
Madam Iron (Iron Maiden, Level 65)
Madam Radiance (????, Level 55)
Madam Darkness (Drow Zee, Level ??)
Madam Thunder (????, Level 50)
Temp Madam Venom (Spinnertit, Level 20)
Madam Yggdrasil (VenusBloom, Level 99)

Professor Fujisawa (Professor) - Miz (Naiad, Level 23)

Jinnai (Citizen) - Diva (Buzzbreast, Level 30)

Fatora (Tamer, Level 4) - Alliele (SexyCute, Level 5)
Qawool (Naiad, Level 15)
Kalia (Drow Zee, Level 1)
Gilda (Iron Maiden, Level 5)

Makoto (Tamer, Level 4) - Shayla Shayla (Growlie, Level 5)
Nanami (Merrrowl, Level 5)
Afura (Djinn, Level 5)
Rune (Mousewife, Level 5)

Lina (Tamer, Level 5) - Misao (Goth, Level 5)
Sylphiel (ShieldMaiden, Level 10)
Misa (Naga, Level 15)
Amelia (Amazonchan, Level 28)
Gracia (Sorceress, Level 20)
Guest-----Luna (Sorceress, Level 34)

Sasami (Tamer, Level 3) - Mirei (Cheshire, Level 2)
Mizuki (Succubus, Level 2)
Hikari (ShieldMaiden, Level 2)

Ihrie (Hunter's Guild Commander) - Rasha (Sorceress, Level 30)

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OMAKE!
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Misao thrust her fist up into the air, screaming. "YES!! Blood Feud!!! Konoha Haida, you are an enemy to myself and my family clan. I swear by all my ancestors that you shall no longer pollute the land of the living with your vile presence! No force on this earth, nor power beneath it, can save your life!!! And I shall accept no plea from mortal being to spare it! You are a viper, a crawling, evil thing whose putresence befouls. And I shall laugh aloud as I destroy you!!!!" Lightning struck her upraised fist and illuminated her arms as she screamed in rage.

"Konoha Haida, Prepare to DIE!!!"