InuYasha Fan Fiction / Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction / Dragon Half Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction / Hellsing Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Words Worth Fan Fiction / Battle Angel Alita Fan Fiction ❯ On the Run ❯ Trepidation ( Chapter 9 )

On the Run

By: bsmart (a.k.a. Tiek Mo Shet)

Disclaimer: Why the hell am I writing this? Nobody reads them and they have no legal weight. It's a complete waste of time and bandwidth and yet I'm still typing. If you're under the legal age where ever you are don't read this, but since you're going to anyways at least don't let your mommy catch you. This fic is very much NC-17.

Note: This is an Orange League fic. To be honest I don't know a damn thing about pokemon and I want to keep it that way. If I make a dumb mistake feel free to point it out. I've done as much research as I can into this to keep it consistent with what seems to be the accepted canon of the pokegirl world. Also no one that I know of has done anything with the Orange League so I'm making it up as I go along.

"…" Normal Speech

`…' Thought

Chapter 9: Trepidation

"Why couldn't you two wait to do this until I woke up?"

"Well technically we didn't let them out until you woke up, you were just occupied."

Nikolas groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Damn it Washu, you know what I mean!" Nikolas had brought both of the pokegirls behind his tent and out of sight of the rest of the group so that he could talk to them.

"Well you never said we couldn't," Washu said defiantly.

"That's not the point."

"Nikolas," Nina said softly, "I'm sorry if we upset you, we were only trying to help." Nikolas looked over at her and saw that she was holding her hands in front of her and she was staring at the ground. "We wanted to let the girls out and talk to them so you wouldn't have to, we know you don't like repeating your story."

What little anger there was left in Nikolas vanished as he looked at Nina. "Look, it's ok, I was going to let some more of the girls out tonight. You did the right thing, I do need some more girls who can help out with the protection and all that, I just planned on being the one to let them out, ok." Nikolas reached out and rubbed each of the girl's shoulders, "I'm not mad, I don't know what I am really." For a moment he just stood there with a hand on each of them, "Come on, let's get back out there and be sociable." Nikolas was watching them turn around when he remembered his mother's words. "Nina, hold up a minute."

"Yes?" she asked cautiously.

Nikolas tried to make his order sound like a question, "Spend the night in my tent?"

Nina paused for a heartbeat before nodding her assent and then heading back for the fire.

Nikolas waited until Nina was out of sight before letting out the breath he had been holding in since he finished the order. Before he joined everyone else at the fire he ducked inside his tent to pull out his rifle along with its cleaning kit, manual, and a towel to put all the parts on. When he stepped back outside Nikolas saw that the girls were in a fairly tight circle around the fire, the only opening was between Mink and Ceres. Nikolas sat down and spread out his stuff as he started to disassemble the rifle Mink leaned over and asked, "Whatcha doin'?"

"Cleaning my rifle."

"Why?"

"'Cause if I don't, it'll stop working."

"Why?"

Nikolas looked over at the girl but didn't find any trace of guile on her sweet little face, `The horns are kind of cute,' he thought as he looked at the horns coming out of her temples. "Well, every time you fire it a little crud builds up in the barrel and on some of the parts, if you don't clean it often it'll stop working eventually. Can we talk about something else, I honestly don't know that much about this."

"Ok…umm what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, how'd you wind up at Azusa's?" he asked as he pulled the cleaning rod through the barrel.

"My dad sold me," she replied cheerily.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Anything happen before that?"

"Like what?"

"Where are you from, how old are you, that sort of thing."

"Oh, I was born in Trella and I'm sixteen."

Nikolas set the barrel down and picked up the bolt, normally he'd be frustrated by the Dracona's answers but something about her cute face and the pleased expression that was on it just made him want to laugh, "Tell me about your parents."

"Well, my mom is a Dragoness named Mana, and she and my dad were league champions about twenty years ago."

"What was your dad's name," Nikolas asked suspiciously.

"Rouge, the Red Lightning," she answered proudly.

"Your Mana's daughter?" Yerella asked from across the fire.

"Yeah!"

Nikolas snorted mirthlessly, "I don't believe this."

Mink looked confused. "What, what's going on?"

"Do you want to tell her?" Nikolas asked his mother.

"Go ahead."

Nikolas turned back to Mink. "My mother is the pokegirl your mother defeated to win the championship. Mana ruined her leg, it ended her career."

Realization dawned slowly on Mink, but as it did her countenance fell and she started looking back and forth between Nikolas and Yerella. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I…I'm sure she didn't mean too. I'm sorry," she quietly whined.

Yerella gave Mink her best smile. "It's alright dear, I know your mother didn't mean too. Besides, if she hadn't hurt me like that I never would have had my son or met Lana."

"...and I'm sorry that my dad didn't take you to the pokecenter sooner…"

"It's fine dear."

"…he should have taken you right away but he didn't and because of that…"

"Mink!" When she looked at Nikolas he assured her, "It's fine, nobody's mad at you."

"Oh, ok."

"How long were you living in Trella?"

Mink thought about it for a moment. "Since I was about four I think."

Nikolas looked over the fire at his mother, "Do you believe this, we've been living in the same city as them for twelve years and we never knew it."

Yerella gave the contents of the skillet she was holding a stir. "It's a good sized town."

Nikolas turned back to Mink. "So, I guess if your parents sold you then you just went through puberty?"

"Yep, my dad was pretty excited about how much Azusa was willing to pay for me."

"I'll bet."

"Huh?"

"Pretty little thing like you, and a Dracona to boot, you're bound to be worth a lot."

"You think I'm pretty?" she asked excitedly.

"Well….yeah, I mean you're gorgeous."

Mink smiled and lunged at Nikolas and wrapped him up in a hug.

"Mink….." Nikolas grunted, "you're….crushing me."

Just as quickly as she had grabbed him Mink released him. "Sorry."

"No problem," Nikolas wheezed as he tried not to inhale too deeply.

"Dinner's ready," Lana announced.

Nikolas nodded and while the girls started to get their plates ready he started to reassemble his rifle.

"Thanks," he said as Mink handed him a plate. He sat it on the ground next too him and finished attaching the fore stock to the rifle. "There, all fini..."

Nikolas glanced down at the towel he had been setting all the parts on and saw a single pin still lying there. "Oh hell."

By the time he found where the pin went and got the rifle reassembled his dinner was lukewarm at best, and Mihoshi and Nina were already cleaning up. Nikolas finished off the stew his mother had made as quickly as he could and handed it to Mihoshi when she came around collecting everyone's dirty dishes. The rest of the evening passed quickly as everyone went about their business; Washu spent the night pecking away at her laptop while Mihoshi and Ceres reclined against a nearby tree. Nina was sitting beside Nikolas' mothers and talking about something, Faye was sitting quietly with Gally and Sango, and Mink was chatting Nikolas up while the twins leaned against him.

"So your dad made you do all the chores?"

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

Nikolas snorted. "Did it?"

"I don't know, I've never had a chance to find out."

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

"Really?"

"Yeah, ya'll were born within a couple months of each other."

"Wow, and you're taming them?"

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

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

"Awww," Edora whined.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sorry," he muttered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Are you ok?"

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

"Ok…"

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

"Where have you been?"

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

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

"Oh, you're still up?"

"Mmhmm, I didn't want to go to sleep before you did."

Nikolas smiled down at her, "That's sweet of you, but you didn't have to."

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

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

The pokegirl gave no sign that she had heard him.

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

He let out a heavy sigh. "Nina, I'm sorry if I scared you…"

Nina interrupted him, "You didn't have to hurt that man, he hadn't done anything to us."

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

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

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

"He still hadn't done anything to deserve what you did to him."

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

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

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

Nina nodded her head slightly.

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

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

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

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

"Nyyyaooo."

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

"Yes…oooohhhhh!"

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

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

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

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

"What about you?" she asked cautiously.

"I'm worn out, so don't worry about it."

"But…"

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

Nina didn't sound convinced. "Ok."

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

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

"Nikolas, time to wake up."

"Wha?"

"It's time to wake up."

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

"Yes. Yerella…"

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

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

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

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

"Great."

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

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

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

"Yeah, Alpha, now crack the whip and let's get going."

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

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

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

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

"It was…different," he said hesitantly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Are you kidding me?"

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

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

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

"Really, why?"

"Simple, there's nothing between here and the blast that would have shielded this forest from it."

"So, nothing says all these trees haven't grown up since then."

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

"Sooo?"

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

"So you're saying the blast did something to the forest?"

Washu gave an exasperated sigh. "Of course it did, that's not the question."

"Then what is it?"

"What the blast did to it, of course."

"Ah," Nikolas said levelly. For several minutes they walked in silence, Washu paying close attention to the shriveled black trees they were passing and Nikolas to the little redhead beside him. Eventually the silence got to him and he asked her, "So, how'd you wind up at Azusa's?"

"Do you ask every girl that question?"

"Well, not really…"

"Then why do you want to know?" she interrupted.

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

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

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

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

"Mostly?" Nikolas prodded.

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

"Yeah, I'd imagine it would be."

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

"You mean snooping," Nikolas said with a grin.

"Investigating," Washu snapped, enunciating every syllable.

"Alright, alright," Nikolas said jokingly.

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

"Why?"

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

"What's that?"

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

"Was he out of his mind?!" Nikolas asked.

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

"Washu…" Nikolas' voice was concerned.

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

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

"What did?" Nikolas asked to keep her story moving.

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

"Cute."

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

"People rarely do."

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

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

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

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

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

"Well, that explains that."

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

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

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

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

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

"What had happened?"

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

"So this Tenchi guy caught you, why'd he turn you over to Azusa?"

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

"Washu, come on," Nikolas implored.

"Keep telling him Washu," Mihoshi encouraged. "Please?"

"Fine, but only because Mihoshi asked."

"Goody!" the Bunnygirl squealed.

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

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

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

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

"Tenchi wasn't exactly in charge," Washu explained.

Between her cute little giggles Mihoshi said, "Ayeka and Ryoko tamed Tenchi!"

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

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

"They wouldn't even let him watch," Mihoshi complained.

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

"So Azusa is Tenchi's father?" Isabella asked.

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

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

"I suppose I can forgive it this time, you've behaved yourself for a while. Simple, we had been at Azusa's for nearly six months, he wasn't coming back for us, and I doubt those two girls of his would have let him anyways. Besides, I wouldn't want to be in any harem where one of them was the alpha."

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

Washu rolled her eyes. "Besides, Azusa wasn't exactly accommodating, he wouldn't let me near a computer."

"He wouldn't even let her have a pencil and some paper!" Mihoshi exclaimed.

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

When Washu didn't say anything for a few moments Nikolas nodded. "Thanks."

Washu nodded back and continued walking.

"Hey Washu," Ceres asked, "if you were letting out fighting types why didn't you let out Ivy?"

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

"Because," Washu explained, "if you let her out you know she's going to want Harley out."

"Yeah," Ceres said slightly annoyed.

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

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

"Yes, I did," Sango answered.

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

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

"Well, what about Delta?" Ceres asked.

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

"Why, miss your girlfriend?" Washu teased.

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

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

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

He never felt his body hit the ground.

Nikolas' Girls

Nina - Catgirl

Ceres - Vampire

Washu - Supe-Bra Genius

Mihoshi - Bunnygirl

Gally - Battle Angel?

Faye - Cheshire

Mink - Dracona

Sango - Kunochi

Author's Notes

Acknowledgements:

Lighthawk - My designated pre-reader, who subjected himself to this every way too often.

Warpwizard - Who's given me a lot of advice on the mechanics of my writing.

Notes:

1) There's never been a really good explanation of what a Naga looks like to my knowledge, I'm going with something akin to a mermaid, only replace the fish parts with the back end of a snake.

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