Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Thank You, Generous Host

We travelled all night, not stopping until the break of dawn.  We were all exhausted, both from running around all day and night and from the tension of being on alert for zombabe attacks for hours.  The lack of pokegirls in the surrounding areas now made sense to me.  Even most ferals have enough instinct to give zombabes a wide berth.  Certainly all of the breeds based on natural animals would anyway.  I suppose the rest might have joined the horde.

Seren found us an old abandoned house that was partially collapsed to camp in.  After Friday sniffed her way around the entire property she declared no pokegirls had been near the place recently but there was a family of gophers she might try to catch tomorrow for breakfast.  I told the girls we'd take two hour watch rotations because I didn't want us to be caught unawares and volunteered to take the first watch so they'd be more vigilant later.  There was some grumbling and arguing about this but I put my foot down and they eventually curled up in a silk nest that Scarlet quickly spun.

I had plenty of time to think while I was on watch.  Scarlet had proven herself quick witted and resourceful last night and had saved my life several times.  I was seriously considering naming her my alpha.  I decided to hold off a little while though to get to know Seren better and see how she integrated into the harem.  So far it hadn't been necessary to name an alpha as my first three pokegirls had gotten along well and none of them really pushed for a normal harem structure.  Seren had really only been with us a day or so though and, now that she could speak, I was hoping to find out more of what she was like.

With that decision I moved on to our gear.  I started by redistributing things so everyone had some of the food and a few of the healing and curative supplies and put the rest of the meds in my pack.  I was the most likely to be relegated to a backup healing role after all.  I also spread around the camping gear.  I had grabbed some tents without thinking about it and debated just chucking them since Scarlet could make something better and more comfortable in minutes but decided to keep them just in case since we had the storage space.

At about this point I remembered that I hadn't released Harley from her ball, but I decided she could keep until tomorrow when we were all more awake and rested.  After that I started sorting through the stones, crystals, and medals I had acquired with an eye toward what would be immediately useful.  I went through my mental pokedex entries rather than the ones on my new pokedex since my mind likely contained some data that wasn't in the official entries.

Scarlet's breed had no known evolutions and frankly I was pleased as punch with every aspect of her anyway.  She was beautiful, smart, and had some great abilities.  Doggirls had several useful evolutions and I considered several before deciding what I wanted to do with Friday.  There was indeed a Thunder Stone and we'd discuss it in the morning.  This reminded me that my shiny new pokedex likely had a shiny new data transmitter and I face-palmed as I realized I should have contacted someone last night about the town full of zombabes.  

Flipping the pokedex out I started sorting through the menus.  I stumbled on the gps and mapping function first so I took a look at where I was.  It was about like I thought.  The town was in Johto and was about a hundred km from the next nearest one and over five hundred from the nearest city.  Any way I looked at it, it was going to be a long walk to our next stop.

I continued sorting menus until I found the messaging system.  Then I stalled out as I realized I had no idea who to call.  I mentally smacked myself upside the head as I remembered that my pokedex would have sent up an automated flag if I had scanned one of the zombabes.  That alone would have gotten the military response rolling.  Of course, if this unit was the same as one from blue the sensor head was secretly omnidirectional and it should have sent an alert up on its own anyway.  

With nothing else to go on I said, "Pokedex, record message."  I waited for the flashing LED, then began.

"For whoever gets this message, the town of..." I checked my dex again for the town name. "...Tamington..."

Tamington?  Really?!

"...has been overrun by zombabes.  I repeat, Tamington is a graveyard.  There is NO, I repeat ZERO, containment in place at this time.  Urgent response is needed.  Wilt Chamberlain out."  

"End message," I said to the dex.  "Send that to all military, government, and police agencies flagged urgent."

There was a pause as the headers were added and then a message popped up.  NO SIGNAL AVAILABLE.  MESSAGE WILL BE TRANSMITTED WHEN SIGNAL IS ACQUIRED.  The Pokecenter probably only gave basic units which wouldn't have satellite uplink capabilities and the town no longer had power to run a relay tower or uplink, even assuming we were still in range for such after running all night.

I shrugged and went back to sorting.  I had an idea for Seren but I was debating whether to ask her in the morning or wait and get to know her better first.  Harley...I would have to see what she'd done before I could make further plans.  That's when I remembered I could just scan her pokeball with my new dex.  What?  There's a learning curve to this stuff. I'd worked in this world for weeks without one and they didn't quite exist where I came from...plus I was still coming down from the adrenalin jag I'd been running on for hours....so..reasons.

Thirty seconds later I had a result...and started suppressing my laughter so I didn't wake up the others.  She was a GunBunny.  Her "Shiny!" had literally been just that, a Shiny Stone.  The pokedex entry mentioned extreme otakuism.  I wondered how that would manifest.  On the upside she'd lose her clumsiness and gain some intelligence.  At any rate, her new breed had no known normal or stone-based evolutions unless I wanted to either turn her into an Angel or experiment.  Hmmm...a former GunBunny Angel...no.  Best to let her acclimate to one change before considering another.

Having made what decisions I could with stones I turned to sorting the T2s and the few spell books I'd found.  The common utility T2s like cooking, languages, and gardening went in one pile.  We'd hit them later, but they were low priority.  After a moment's reflection the cooking one got moved to the medium priority pile.  We weren't starving by any means, but good food was good for morale and I'd managed to clear off the spice rack at the Pokemart before things went pear-shaped.

Common attack techniques like Tackle went into the low priority pile as well and I ended up with a small pile of T2s that were unusable because I didn't have fire, water, dragon, dark, or plant types to learn them.  In the high priority stack went several attack techniques like Energy Blade and Feather Shuriken, several defense techniques like Aura Guard and Static Barrier, Speed Storm and Quick Attack which everyone who could would learn, and one of the biggest prizes from the box of rare T2s, Rune Chains.  Sadly we didn't luck into any Solar Beam, Hyper Beam, or E=mc^2 T2s.

At the top of the stack went Dream Time.  We could use it for team training and to allow everyone to get a little experience with their new abilities safely before trying them out in the real world.  I didn't have a psychic on hand right then, but I thought I would the next day.

I also had a small shelf of books I had grabbed without knowing what they were.  I figured they must have been something good as they were on the wall behind the counter and not with the other books.  I was not disappointed when I realized they were spell books.  After a quick sort I found we had books for Fire, Fira, Water, Ice Beam, Earth Spike, and Lightning.

I spent most of my watch shift going through our spoils and the last bit poking through the books Scarlet had picked up.  Most of them were romance novels (big surprise there) and a few mysteries.  When my shift was up I woke Scarlet.  I trusted her most to keep things on an even keel with interrupted sleep.  I told her to take two hours, then wake Friday.  Friday was to wake Seren when her turn was up, and we'd all get up and have a late lunch when Seren's shift was over.  After that I curled up in the nest, pulled a soft still-warm silk blanket smelling of Scarlet over myself, and dove into blissful sleep.

I was awoken a few hours later by Scarlet's "Master, you need to get up and come see this."

"Whuh?" I replied intelligently as I struggled back to consciousness.  I shook my head and tried again.  "Wha's going on?"  Much better.

"Friday's found something and I think..." Scarlett looked to the far end of the basement."...you should really take a look at it.

I sat up and scrubbed my face with my hands.  Having risen to wakefulness I then tried to ascend to my feet. Success!...I am not a morning person.

Friday was standing next to the pile of debris where the basement ceiling had caved in at the collapsed end of the house.  As I approached she silently pointed at a rock in the rubble.  Closer examination revealed the rock to be a human foot grey with dirt or possibly decay.  I wrinkled my nose.

"Was it someone living here who got caught in the cave in?" I asked.

"I don't know," Friday replied.

I sighed and swiped a hand over my face.  "Let me rephrase that," I said as I started getting cranky.  "Is this why you woke me up and if so what is it?"

"I'm not sure what it is," Friday said, "but I woke Scarlet up because it's alive.  She woke you up."

There was a brief pause while my brain tried to absorb this statement.  I'm not at my best after long hours of physical activity and little sleep.  "What do you mean alive?" I asked.

"I know what dead smells like," said Friday as she pointed at the foot.  "That isn't."

"Okaaay," I said.  I needed time to parse this.  "Is she injured?" I asked.

"I don't think so," Friday replied.  "I don't smell blood."

"Right," I said.  "It's too early for this shit."  I walked back over to my gear and came back with a regular pokeball.  I tapped it against the foot then dropped it as the capture beam went off.  It didn't rock once.  Whatever she was she was out cold and she wasn't registered to another ball.  I dropped the ball on my pile of clothes and said, "I'll deal with it in the morning," as I collapsed back into the bedding.

Hours later I awoke from a strange dream about a village full of people who all lived with just their feet sticking up out of the ground like some form of strange mushrooms.  Meh, I've had weirder. Oh, you doubt me?  I once had a nightmare where I went into my basement which had somehow become a dark foggy night in a plowed field full of rows where I fought for my life against a sword-wielding cabbage fencer, that's a cabbage who fenced not a man who fenced with cabbages.  I also once had a really great sex dream about a book, not the contents of the book but the physical object itself...uh, what were we talking about again?  Right!  Things outside of my head.

I stretched and cracked my jaw yawning as my brain rebooted.  I was fully rested this time and judging by the reddish light leaking in by the hole we came in through it was headed toward sunset.  Sunset!  I was awake faster than the last time I realized I'd overslept my alarm for work.

Friday and Seren let out startled shrieks as they were half flung from the bed because I did a kip-up to go from lying down to standing next to the bed without realizing they were snuggled up to either side of me.  Scarlet was sitting on a silk ground cloth quietly knitting and humming.  

Without looking at me or my complaining bedmates she said, "There's food on the table," as she pointed towards a camp stove set to low heat.

"Why didn't you wake me?" I demanded.

"You needed rest," she replied.

"Dammit, Scarlet!  I wanted to be up so we could get moving today.  I don't like how close we still are to all those zombabes!"

"Oh.  You didn't tell me that!  I'm not a..a..mind reader," she said as she fumbled with the unfamiliar word.  "You know you could share more with us, talk to us more.  Now that the words make sense I realize there's a lot you haven't told us.  We talked while you were asleep.  You haven't even told any of us your name!"

This was the longest coherent string of words I'd heard out of any of my girls and I worked to contain an angry retort as I recognized the truth in what she said.  "...Have I really not told any of you my name?"  Her angry stare was all the response I needed.  "I'm sorry," I said.  "It's been...I felt like...I've treated you all as lesser than me because we could barely communicate, because none of you could talk except Harley and she could barely...nevermind..." I said while shaking my head.  "I'm sorry.  I will try to treat you all better from now on.  For the record, my name is Sean Abbot.  And I'm a Gemini for what it's worth."  The Gemini comment drew blank looks.  Guess that language T2 didn't cover astrology.  Oh well...

"Sean..." Scarlet said with a smile.  "I like it.  Your name sounds...warm."

"Will you forgive me?" I asked.

She rose from the floor and slid her arms around my waist as I embraced her back, tucking her head under my chin.  Without another word she drew back but kept her grip on my hand as she led me toward the bed and her two eager-looking harem mates.  A guy could get used to this, I thought.  What's one more night...

The taming orgy lasted well into the dark hours.  I released Harley who was upset at having been left in her ball for so long but was too interested in events to offer more than token complaints.  I made sure to give her some extra attention that we both enjoyed to make up for it.  Since we started before it was truly dark we actually got to sleep by midnight meaning we were up at first light the next day.  I thought we'd failed to set a guard but Scarlet later told me she'd set trip wires to alert her of anyone's approach.

We had a fairly tasty breakfast of toaster pastries heated by the camp stove and were moving again in no time.  I knew there was still our unknown guest to deal with, but I wanted to wait until the rest of the girls settled a little before I got her back out.  After all, I hoped to evolve at least one of the girls before the day was out.  When we broke for lunch I decided it was time to talk.

"Ladies," I said to get their attention.  "Part of the loot we got from the Pokemart included evolution stones.  I bring this up because I'd like Friday and Seren to consider evolving, but I won't force it on either of you.  Friday, I'd like to use a Thunder Stone on you to evolve you into a Byte Bitch.  It would give you both electric and psychic powers including eventually cyberkinesis when you became a Data Dog and would increase your intelligence greatly.  You'd likely lose some of your physical prowess, but I think the tradeoffs are worth it.  I'll pull up the entry on a pokedex for you."

Suiting actions to words I pulled out one of the spare pokedexes.  I'd registered them all to myself while going through the equipment the day before and now keyed this one to Friday and pulled up the Byte Bitch entry.  I showed her how to flip between that and the Doggirl entry to compare and then left her to read it herself.

"That one is yours from now on," I said. "Seren, I know you haven't been with us long, but I'd like you to consider becoming a Psifey.  They're not very common, but they can be quite powerful.  You'll gain psychic abilities and become much stronger magically.  With training and time I think you could become a powerhouse of mind and magic.  I'll let you read over the entry and tell me what you think."

I keyed another pokedex to her and showed her how to access the entries for both Psifey and FaerieCute.  Leaving the other two to read I then keyed dexes for Scarlet and Harley as well.

"These are for you two," I said.  "You can use them to access the internet when we're within range of a transmitter.  They have a mapping function and I've linked all of them so in an emergency anyone can use the gps on one to find the others if they're outside a pokepack.  They can be used to read ebooks and send messages.  We have to be in range of a tower for the messages to be sent and to download new books although I did grab a few chips full of novels when we raided the 'mart.  You're more than welcome to look through them.  Harley, you should also look through the entry for your new breed.  You have several unique abilities and I expect you to work hard to master them.  You can summon any handgun at will.  I want you to get good enough to be able to summon strong elemental bullets.  We can get you a long gun as well...well, as soon as we find a town that has a gun store and isn't crawling with zombabes anyway.  Scarlet, I think there was also a chip containing magazines including some on weaving, sewing, and making clothing if you'd like them.  They might give you some ideas."

Scarlet gave me a kiss on the lips and a squeeze for my thoughtfulness, and I decided to give the girls an hour after lunch to read through their dex entries before we started walking again.  Changing your body in a major way was no small step in spite of how flippantly most people in this new world would throw evolution around.  I would not force such changes unless they were necessary for our survival.

While I waited I began doing pushups.  The way my arms felt after that brief zip-lining incident i couldn't have gone three rounds with a fruit fly.  An Ingenue could have finished me off.  Yesterday made me realize I needed to start working more on my own body.   I was losing weight at a steady pace and still packing on new muscle from all the walking and outdoor work as well as the fact that I was probably eating the healthiest diet I had in years; high in protein, low in carbs, and no oils or preservatives, at least until yesterday.  Nonetheless I intended to survive, which in this world meant being ready to fight.

We turned southward after midday.  I'd intended to speed to the next town but after reviewing the map more closely I had found a campsite listed that was much closer.  What peaked my interest was that the campsite boasted a solar-powered comm relay tower which could be accessed for a nominal fee.  I didn't have any accounts here to draw from, but perhaps the owner would send on an emergency message or I could get him to take something in trade.  At the very least if Friday agreed to the evolution I proposed she could probably hack us in.

We scared up a cluster of three Pidgies which everyone but Seren enjoyed taking down and a Buttitsfree that tried to flee briefly before Friday tackled it out of midair.  I caught all four with expertly thrown pokeballs...is what I'd like to say, but truthfully it took seven throws to hit them.  I guess I needed to work on my pitching too.  I wasn't interested in any of them but they'd be easy to sell or trade.

As evening approached the camp drew into sight and we all heaved a sigh of relief.  This forced marching was no fun.  The campsite had a general store, but the lights were out and no one answered when I knocked.  There was a cabin behind it, presumably the owner's, but the door was unlocked and there was nobody home.  I began to have a sense of deja vu and had to briefly consider the possibility that the zombabes might have made it this far.  If so we were in trouble.

The owner's cabin was pretty well built with sturdy concrete walls and built in sonic barrier generators and it all ran on solar panels too.  From pictures and framed articles on the wall it looked like the owner was a pokegirl hunter who ran the campground as a side business to attract wandering tamers.  I decided we'd try to gain access to the uplink in the morning.  Until then we could all use a good fuck n' cuddle.  I also wanted to see if Friday and Seren had made up their minds yet.  I approached Friday first.  She was in the basement sniffing through the owner's belongings

"Hey Snugglepooch," I said as I slid up behind and wrapped my arms around her.  

"Hey yourself," she said, trying to play it off cooly even as her tail began to beat me about the legs.

"Have you considered what we talked about earlier?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"...and?"

"...As long as you promise to always play and tame with me and never make me leave I'll do whatever you want," she said while pressing her rear back into my crotch.

Well that's a yes, I thought.  "Alright.  After you evolve I'll make sure to play with you lots," I said with a leer as I gave her a squeeze.  She giggled and grabbed my crotch.  I thought about continuing but knew there'd be time for that later.  I kissed the side of her face and then let her go so I could look for Seren.  "To be continued," I said.

I found Seren out behind the cabin playing in a large garden.  There were rows of various vegetables, herbs, and even some tomato plants.  Off to one side was a medium-sized apple tree.  The apples were just hitting ripeness and I plucked one to try it.  Oh, sweet nectar.  After weeks without sweets of any kind this was heavenly.  When Seren saw me she came over and kissed me for a taste.  She was in her miniature form which made kissing her an interesting experience.  I more or less just had to hold still while she placed a butterfly kiss on my lips.

"You like it here?"  I asked her.

"Oh, yes!" She replied as she resized before nipping a bite out of my apple.  "This is a very friendly garden.  The plants here liked the man who was here before."

"Wait, you can talk to the plants?"

"Oh my, yes.  These plants are quite happy so they sing about it," she said as she took my arm in hers and we began to walk aimlessly.

"Huh.." I said.  The weirdness of this world just kept finding new ways to sandbag me.  "So what do they say about the man who was here before?"

"They say he fed them and watered them and made noises at them that they liked.  Then he went away."

"Do they say how long ago he went away?" I asked.

"Plants don't do so well with any concept of meaningful time that we would understand, but I'd say it was during this current growing cycle," she said.  "Otherwise I don't think they'd remember him at all.  Also this garden would be in worse shape."

"Hmm..." I said.  "I guess there's no point in worrying about it.  If he comes back we'll deal with it then.  So...have you thought about the evolution?"

"Yes!  I would love to be able to use more magic!" she said with a beaming smile.  "Speaking of magic..."

I couldn't help but grin back as her smile turned wicked and her eyes filled with promises.  We made love under the apple tree on a blanket of grass.  In this case I only brought my A- game, didn't want to trigger an orgasm-induced evolution right now.  (No, that is not hubris.  I had already given Scarlet one.)  I still brought her off twice, but I wasn't trying to keep her at the peak of passion the entire time.

Friday eventually smelled us and came out to join the fun.  During a lull in our romp I went back inside and grabbed the Thunder Stone and Psi Crystal for their evolutions.  I brought Scarlet and Harley back out with me to watch as their sisters transformed.

"Everyone, gather round," I said. "This is a special occasion and everyone in the harem should be present to support the one who is evolving.  This will always be the rule.  Seren, step forward."  I placed the Psi Crystal in Seren's hand and she was enveloped in light.  

When it faded I thought she hadn't changed too much.  She was a little taller and her hips were perhaps a little rounder.  Her breasts had shrunk a tad but they were still lovely.  Then she spread her wings and I realized they were at least half again bigger than they'd been.  The original stained glass look they had was now complimented with an almost glowing electric purple that had black light overtones.  I was genuinely curious what we'd see when it got dark tonight.  

"You look beautiful," I told her causing her to smile and blush.

I gently ushered Seren aside as she began to sort out her new senses and got her sea legs psychically.  Friday stepped forward and I picked up the Thunder Stone and set it in her hand.  Her glow was no less intense although it seemed to last a little longer.  When it faded there was a new woman standing in front of me.

Where Seren had undergone few outward physical changes Friday's new breed were almost universally less animorphic.  She still had claws and her eyes were still beautiful silver-blue wolf slits.  Her wolf ears, tail, and hair were still the same beautiful copper red as well, but most of her body hair was gone.  In its place were acres of unblemished silky smooth skin.  Her legs had gone from digitigrade to plantigrade which was going to take some getting used to on her part.  She had a perfect womanly figure with large rounded C's, delicious curves, and a fresh girl-next-door face.  I really wanted to see what she'd look like in a slinky red dress, but instead of daydreaming I caught her as she started to take a step and fell.

I asked the others to give us some privacy and spent the next couple hours teaching her how to walk, run, and move with forward-facing knees.

After that we all frolicked around the camp for a while.  There was a small clear river with a rock beach where we went skinny dipping.  We played a sexy game of tickle tag where I was it and got to tickle whoever I caught until they cried uncle or peed.  I declared Seren out of bounds after she refused to return to ground level which meant she became part of the "it" team.  She chased down Scarlet and both their squeals filled the air.  Friday let me catch her after a merry chase but she wouldn't cry uncle so we shortly both needed to jump in the river again to clean off.  Then we both chased down Harley while she shrieked about us being wet.

It was the most fun I'd had since before I came to this world and I decided this would be a good place to stay and train for a while once we'd sent off a warning about the zombabes.  We were at least forty kilometers from Tamington and I had neither anything better for a base of operations nor the means to acquire such.  This was far enough.

These thoughts reminded me that I had once again managed to put off accessing the relay tower so after dinner I found the keys to the store on a peg in the house and went to search it for the password to the wifi.  It wasn't hard to find.  The owner, one J.T. Parvo according to the framed business license in the office, had pre-filled-out wifi access cards for sale.  You just bought one and you had the password for your stay.  He probably changed it every month or two.

I plugged the code into my pokedex and the internet was spread out before me.  I made sure the message I made earlier had gone out and then decided to look up the current news.  The first link that came up was dated 8 months ago and I skimmed past it to the next which was also months out of date.  Then the headline of that first link caught up to my brain and I nearly sprained a finger scrolling back.  

ZOMBABE CRISIS REACHES GLOBAL LEVELS

THE END OF EVERYTHING?

My blood ran cold as the implications hit me so I began reading articles.  By the sixth one I was convinced.  It was very likely I was living on a dead world.