Pokemon Umbral Charlotte's Sidequest, Act I

[Menarker]

*Posted on Drac's behalf*

Liz's Adventures!

Rio and Kiyomi

Elizabeth found Rio and Kiyomi just exitting a love hotel out near the red light district. Rio looked extremely satisfied while Kiyomi was leaning on Rio for support. Apparently her legs no longer worked the way they were supposed to.

"Oh dammit, I'm too late!" Liz bemoaned, an amused smile on her face, placing her hands on her hips as she faced the two women.
"Eh, Yomi here seizes up like a statue whenever I try to involve more people," Rio sighed. "And then it's like trying to hump a giant ice block. A sexy ice block, mind you, but an ice block nonetheless."
"Riooooooo, people are staring at us," Kiyomi whimpered.
"Uhh...yeah, Kiyomi, that tends to happen when two women exit a love hotel in the middle of the day," Rio said impatiently.
Liz sighed, still smiling. "Well, I wouldn't mind melting that ice with a few licks... but maybe we can talk business first."
Rio looked left and right quickly, then leaned in close. "Alright, it's $30 an hour. $50 if you want it to be weird..."
"... What's the price if I want it to be really weird?"
"Now that, my friend, is free," Rio laughed. "Anyways, I'm sure you're talking about a business proposition of a more professional nature? What'cha be needin'?"
"Well, how much did you two enjoy the photoshoot at the beach?"
Rio glanced at Kiyomi. "Well, I was kinda disappointed. I don't think there were enough guys eye-humping me, but then again, it was a reserved stretch of beach. If this is about something better, I'll be all over it."
She then squeezed Kiyomi's shoulder tightly. "Her too, of course. I think it'd be a good learning experience."
"Hm, I'll speak to the director, then. But yes, I worked out a deal with him. Us PATCA girls are really popular these days, you know? So if you'd like to make some money on the side, or just make a hot pose while getting your picture taken, he'll tell me about some jobs, which I'll offer to you, and you can accept what you want. That's the idea for this little business, just some part-time modeling gigs."
Rio definitely seemed interested. "Do we start now? She can't walk right now but I can carry her to wherever you want."
"Well, nothing high profile yet, because I wanted to check on your interest first. I do, however, have a small job available. A 'private' shoot in a hotel room or my apartment, involving the three of us and some whipped cream." She added with a wink.
"What do you think about that, Yomi-chan?" Rio asked Kiyomi.
"Urgh," Kiyomi managed to say. "It's not like I have a choice, do I?"
"That's my girl," Rio approved, then pulled Kiyomi onto her back to carry her.
"Good thing there's a place nearby..." Liz chuckled as she helped Rio carry Kiyomi back into the love hotel.

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Lola, Whitney, Milsha and Catherine

For once, Liz wasn't knocking on Renny's apartment door in order to flirt with Renny. Well, she'd still do that, but it wasn't her primary concern this time.
Milsha answered the door. "If'n yer lukin' t'flurt w'Renneh, 'e ain't here toduh," Milsha told Elizabeth is her classic drawl.
"Oh, Miss Liz is here?" Catherine's voice was heard from the living room. "Let her in, Milsha. Might be some fun on the horizon today."

Catherine explained the current situation of the house with Elizabeth. "I'll go and talk to Lola about whatever you might be interested in," Catherine promised. "It'd do her some good to get out of that damn hospital."

"Hm, shame Renny isn't here. I'm not actually here for him, but seeing him's always a nice bonus." Liz remarked as she was let inside.

"Ah, right, of course Lola's in the hospital with her sister... well, I was hoping to talk to all of you guys about a business proposition. Is Whitney here?"
"Nope, not her either," Catherine apologizes as she grabbed another beer. "Maybe she's stalking Renny. Or just getting some fresh air. Can't really tell what that girl's thinking."

"Well-"
"Ri!" Unexpectedly, Riolu sprinted in throught the front door before it was closed and leapt straight for Catherine's chest.
Liz giggled, rolling her eyes in amusement. "Right... so I worked something out with the direction of the photoshoot at the beach. PATCA girls are really popular with the public, so I thought we could capitalize. Basically, if you'd like to do some part-time modeling and make a few extra bucks, I'm your girl."
Milsha blinked and looked at Catherine. "Have we gotten popular?"
"Sure fuckin' have," Catherine said, draining half the can. "It's uncanny, but these days PATCA has the finest ass you could ever hunt throughout all of Honmyr."
"Exactly, we'll be selling like wildfire. I can already imagine you adveritising doggie food with Riolu nestled in your bosoms, Catherine." Liz suggested, and Riolu yipped his approval, snuggling into Catherine's chest.
"Well, if Riolu approves, I'd be dumb to not go through with it," Catherine said, then looked thoughtful. "And maybe there can be a Riolu costume for me. Not a stuffed animal costume, more like a bunny girl thing...except in Riolu form."
"I would probably be best for modeling farm equipment," Milsha offered. "I've actually sort of done that before, but it was for free. Couldn't hurt to actually make some money off of it this time. Maybe I can buy some nice things. I always wanted to wear a pretty dress."
Liz clapped her hands happily. "Good to know. If you two can talk to Lola and Whitney for me, that'll be great. Thanks for signing up."


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

Jeanette

Elizabeth found Jeanette where she usually finds Jeanette; in her cold, unfeeling and spacious office, looking over data. She had been spending nearly all of her time since the Millenium House nonsense, going through Faynoc's documents.

"Ah, Professor Ricewood? Got a minute?"
"This is unusual," Jeanette said as turned around in her rotating chair. "But anything, Miss Irons. Please. I'd do just about anything to break up the monotony of data research. Would you like some coffee? I think the pot's only a few minutes old."
"Coffee would be excellent, thank you." Liz replied pleasantly. "I actually came about a business proposition, Professor. Though I do know... other ways to break up monotony." She winked.
Jeanette fixed Elizabeth a mug and sat down. "I have to wonder. Was it you who made Pierce as perverse as he is or the other way around?"
"I'd say we were like birds of a feather."
"Then I imagine one day that you and him will team up to sexually conquer the entire world," Jeanette said jokingly but then her expression... "So, anyways, a business proposition, is it? Some kind of colaboration between Ricewood Masterworks and Ironworks or something far more intimate?"
"Oh... somewhere inbetween. You know I'm not with Ironworks anymore, Professor, though I wouldn't mind working together on a project with you. Or getting 'intimate'. But right now, I'm talking about you, nibbling the rim of your glasses thoughtfully, dressed in naught but your labcoat, studying a vial of love potion."

After a moment, Liz grinned. "I'm talking about a part-time modeling business I'm starting for us PATCA girls. We're very popular, Professor. You especially."
Jeanette removed her glasses to clean them. "Well, it doesn't sound like something that could explode in my face," she said thoughtfully. "If it gets me away from Professor Faynoc's mad experiments, then it really couldn't be a bad thing. I just hope my daughter doesn't get joked at for her mother doing some modeling. Or maybe it'll make her popular? She really does look like me when I was her age. Oh well. Yes, I think I'll take you up on your offer."

Jeanette paused. "Should I uhhh...spread your offer to others? I think both Darcelle and Karin would jump at such an opportunity as well."

Liz grinnned. "Of course. If you know anyone else who would be interested, I'd appreciate it. Though... you're okay with Darcelle modeling?"
"It's not like I'm her mother or anything, even if she is a clone of me," Jeanette said. "Besides, she already seems to be displaying frightening intelligence. I still don't have a clue how Faynoc made her, but I'd swear sometimes she's even smarter than myself."
"Well, okay then. I'm not too busy right now, so if you don't mind spreading something else, I can make your day more exciting for the next hour." Liz grinned.
Jeanette sighed, then set her glasses on the nearby table. "Alright, but try not to brag to Pierce about this. I imagine he'll demand more out of me."
"I promise nothing."

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Irene

"So Irene, how'd you like to have some fun by doing some part-time modeling?"
"Yes," Irene said with no hesitation.
"Wanna have sex?"
"Hang on, lemme ask Pierce," Irene said, then checked under the desk.

And that, as they say, is that.

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Eevee girls: Evangeleen, Shannon and Alphonsine

"Modeling, eh?" Shannon frowned. Elizabeth had found the three girls relaxing at an outdoor cafe. "I think I'd like to try it. It would certainly give me a competitive edge over Mirror and Cecilia."
"Ey, if I can make some scratch off of this, I ain't got no problems," Evangeleen shrugged. "But I can't imagine you'd make much off of me, or convince Alphonsine here. I mean, have you checked my webpage? My ass is all over the place. I don't even wanna talk about the videos I made of Mardi Gras. And Alphonsine has a professional modeling career with professional people setting up professional photoshoots. Couldn't it, like, hurt her reputation?"
"It could, but I think I'd like to try this anyways," Alphonsine butted in. "I've been having some...'friction' with my staff. And pictures of the us girls might in some way soften the opinions of any PATCA naysayers."
"That's a weird way to put it," Shannon chuckled. "It's like saying 'you can hate us all you want but you'll still be touching yourself inappropriately to our photobooks every night.'"

Elizabeth also noted that the three girls preferred to pose with their Pokemon.

"Don't worry, Alphonsine, we'll do our best not to hinder your reputation, and yes, you'd be doing these shoots as officially one of the women of PATCA."
Liz turned to Evangeleen. "And I'm sure we can find something new and exciting for you, Evangeleen." She smirked, rubbing the electric trainer's ankles under the table with her feet.
"Heh heh heh," Evangaleen laughed. "Y'know what? Maybe you should ask Angelo. I bet if he turned away from the camera, you wouldn't even tell he was really a guy."
"I think he's really trying hard just to get over that image," Shannon said. "Back in those days when he was the vocalist of that one band. What was its name?"
"Slash Fiction," Evangaleen said. "An all-boy rock band that decided their name when yaoi fanatics were already cranking out horrible fanfics about them. I have all their CDs. And posters."
"... Can I borrow them?"
Evangaleen nodded. "Well, it's all up on the internet, but sure, go apeshit."
"Well then, thanks for signing up, ladies. Evangeleen, did you want me to stop feeling you up under the table?" Liz smirked.
Both of the other girls looked at Evangaleen and Elizabeth. Evangaleen leaned on her hands. "Under the table, yes."
"I like how you think."

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Kimonos: Shizuka, Chizuru, Tsubasa, Takano and Kyrie

Elizabeth found the Kimonos either dutifully training or dutifully lazing about their mostly finished dojo. What's important is that it was all dutiful.

"Hello?" She asked, knocking.
Tsubasa was the first to greet her while the other Kimonos seemed perfectly happy to mind their own dutiful business. "Ah, Irons-san. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"Hello Tsubasa.-san Do you mind if I come in? There was something I wanted to discuss with all of you."
"Of course. I shall gather the others."

Ten seconds ago, they were gathered. So much for their duty. Chizuru basically had a large and varied lunch platter prepared for all of them.
"The freak scientist is here?" Kirie asked out loud. "Whatever she wants can't be good."
"Sometimes, a bad thing isn't so bad," Shizuka said, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "Especially if it's really bad."
"Then I think you may be delighted at what I have to offer, Shizuka-san." Liz smirked.
"I'm starting up a part-time modeling business for the girls of PATCA, you see. So if you'd like to excite your boyfriends and make a little money on the side, I could line up some jobs for you."
Takano frowned. "I don't think I'm perfect enough for this."
"The only reason you say that is because you haven't tried," Tsubasa suggested. "Chizuru's gonna go, see?"
"I am?" Chizuru asked innocently, her mouth half-full of pastry.
"You are, right?" Tsubasa told her more than asked.
Chizuru lowered her head a bit. "I...I guess so, huh."
"I'm sure Pierce will have many nice things to say, Chizuru-san."
"Count me in," Kirie said simply.
"That's uncharacteristic of you, Kirie," Takano said. "Why the sudden spirit?"
"If Tsubasa's going, then I'm definitely going," Kirie shrugged. "I bet I'll have more fans that she ever will."
"I guess everything has to be a competition between you two, huh?" Takano said. "Well, if everyone else seems fine with it, then I guess I can stop making arrows for at least that long."
"Great! What about you, Shizuka-san? I'm sure we can find a job you'll like."
"I would be interested in knowing what it's like to feel young again," Shizuka mumbled. "I'd ask Mika, but she keeps insisting that her decades of being a demon still doesn't excuse the fact that she's still a little girl. Regardless, the rest of us will gladly assist you."
"If you wanted to feel young, Shizuka-san, I would've been happy to help..." Liz suggested playfully.
Shizuka smirked. "I'm not sure how 'that' is supposed to make me feel young," she said. "I mean, maybe if we went out to the festival or something before it and got ridiculously blitzed..."
"Sounds good to me. How about I pick you up tonight?" Liz grinned.
"For some odd reason, I have a feeling I should bring my sword."
"Kinky. I can work with that."

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

Melanie / Kurika / Heidi

Elizabeth knew about Melanie's little S&M dungeon for quite some time, and found the black leather-clad Pokebrid nurse hard at work...

Although she probably didn't expect to encounter Kurika and Heidi down there.

"Surprisingly, they aren't masochists or anything," Melanie told Elizabeth. "They find this to be some kind of extreme endurance training. Well, masochists or not, those girls are more hardcore than any other of my clientelle. So, what're you here for, Elizabeth? Looking for pain? Looking to inflict pain on others? Or are you actually here for an abnormal reason?"

"Well, I've got Leprihare when I want to get that kind of kinky, you know? I was actually here about a business proposition, Melanie." Liz explained.
"Business," Melanie repeated. "I'm happy to listen to whatever goes on in that sick, twisted mind of yours."
"Oh, I'm starting a part-time modeling business for us PATCA girls, and I was wondering if you were interested. You'd be filling a certain... niche, for the fans that like it."
Melanie stroked her cheek. "That's-" she paused. "That's...surprisingly normal for a woman like you, Miss Irons."
Then she nodded. "Hell yes, I can do this. I've been dying to show off this really badass nazi uniform. And it could certainly boost the popularity of my own business."

She then pointed her left thumb at her two "prisoners". "Do you think the perverts would have an eye for muscle girls? I bet it wouldn't take any convincing at all to get them into whatever kinky attire you've got planned."

"Hah, I'll bet there are. Though now that we've got the normal, boring, business stuff done, maybe I could pull you away from your two... subordinates for a while?" Liz suggested innocently.
Melanie looked at Kurika and Heidi. "Ah, some fun of a different kind. I should probably let them out of their chains, though."
"No!" Kurika yelled. "Actually, me and Heidi are prepared to hone our abdomens! Get the candles!"
"Fine, back in a minute," Melanie said, excusing herself.

When she returned, she used the pulleys to make Kurika and Heidi dangle horizontally over two identical tables and then setup and lit roughly a dozen candles on each. The idea was that the candles would hurt a lot if they just lazily dangled there, forcing Kurika and Heidi to flex themselves back up. "Apparently it's one of the best weight-loss systems they've ever tried," Melanie shrugged. "Right next to that damn Psychotic Smorgasbord game. Anyways, shall we?"
"Well, I don't think most women in Honmyr have trouble losing weight. We seem predisposed to being at least moderately pretty." Liz shrugged. "Yes, let's. And don't worry about getting a bit rough."

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Cecilia / Mirror / Wilhelmina

Elizabeth's hunt for some of the richest girls in PATCA drew her back to the headquarters itself. Mirror was kneeling before Wilhelmina and was digging around inside her robot maid's left knee. Something about a faulty joint actuator. Cecilia was mindless practicing her magic tricks, focusing around tarot cards. Wait, card tricks using tarot cards? Isn't that just fortune telling?

"Hello you two. Not too busy I hope?" Liz greeted them cheerfully.
"Not really," Mirror said, not taking her eyes away from Wilhelmina's knee. "She's surprisingly easy to maintain."
"It would be difficult if I was a high-maintenance kind of woman, Mistress," Wilhelmina said matter-of-factly.
Cecilia looked into Elizabeth's eyes. "Hmm...well, if Moon is going to look at them, I don't think I'd mind."
"What do her eyes tell you?" Mirror said, switching tools.
"I have one clue," Cecilia said cheerfully. "I'm just reading the immoral hunger in her gaze."
"That sounds about right. Though I'll have you know I haven't gotten around to 'looking' at Moon. Yet." Liz smirked.
Mirror stood back up after digging around in the knee a little more. "Alright, give me a good walk around."

There didn't seem to be any problems with Wilhelmina from Mirror's observation, and then Elizabeth had all of their undivided attention. "So what're you immorally hungering for there, Elly?" Mirror asked her.
"Well, right now I wouldn't mind stealing Moon's harem, and Wilhelmina too." Liz remarked mischievously. "But I'm also starting a part-time modeling business for us PATCA girls and I wondered if you two would be interested in getting some sexy fame."
Cecilia mindlessly shuffled her deck. "I kinda wanna do that just to see what daddy would think," she said finally. "Fine, count me in."
"Well, if I didn't go, I'd just be losing to Shannon and Cecilia both," Mirror groaned. "So I'm taking on this challenge, too."
"Mistress, I do not believe this is a challenge," Wilhelmina sighed. "And besides, this might not be very safe."
"That's why you're coming with me," Mirror said. "Our company hasn't even thought about making more women androids like you, Wilhelmina. Maybe showing you off the world would bring in some lucrative offers?"
"As the Mistress wishes," Wilhelmina bowed.
"Well then, ladies, I'll have you know that as manager I hold the unique responsibility of, ahem, testing the good." Liz explained in a tone of mock seriousness.
"That might be helpful, 'cause I honestly don't know if she has those," Mirror said.
"Have what, Mistress?"
Mirror turned to her. "Wilhelmina, strip."
"What exactly would that accomplish?"
"I think a lot of the costumers would buy other models of you would wanna know if you're packing the good stuff."
Wilhelmina tilted her head. "Worry not, Mistress, I always have my rifle with me."
"Not your damn rifle! You know! Naughty bits!"
"Please define 'naughty bits'."
"Just strip, already! It's your mistress's orders!"
"Do you know I have to report all direct orders given to me by you directly to your father?" Wilhelmina folded her arms. "I think he would probably venture off to join a monastery if he learned his daughter was trying to get freaky with her own robot maid."

Mirror huffed and turned towards Cecilia and Elizabeth. "You two! Strip her!"
In one smooth motion, Wilhelmina deployed her sniper rifle and had it aimed directly at Elizabeth's left eye. "Yes. Please. I've been eager to test my rifle's latest calibrations."

"Well, uhhh..." Cecilia faltered. "So we're looking forward to that whole modeling thing, right?"
Wilhelmina lowered her rifle. "Yes, Miss Veldyne, we are."
"Hm, does she have networking capabilities? We could probably hack her that way. Maybe bring in Matthias to be sure." Liz suggested helpfully.
"Must you get down with every single woman in Honmyr, Miss Irons?" Wilhelmina asked.

Uhh...yeah?

"I have been hacked before," Wilhelmina pointed out. "All it does is fuck up my data and activates my Hell's Groove Mode. Not really the kind of thing you'd want to deal with."
"Fine, why not get naked with us, Wilhelmina?"
"I will do that if the situation calls for that," Wilhelmina insisted.

Liz sighed. "Okay, you can watch the door while the rest of us get naked and freaky."
"What kind of mistress have I been created to serve?" Wilhelmina whimpered pitifully.

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Laurith

This time it got a bit interesting. Elizabeth found Laurith while she was spying on somebody else. But just why did Laurith have any kind of interest in Donovan of all people?

"I'll admit, he has his good qualities, and Blaziken is a handsome form." Liz whispered, sneaking up behind Laurith.
Laurith turned around sharply, mouth open as though to gasp but, of course, no sound came out. No sound except for the slap of her Mantine's fin striking the wall. Her surprise quickly vanished, and it seemed like she was thinking of something. Then she raised her left arm and Elizabeth could see...something...shining inside of it.

Then Laurith pointed to Donovan. Just what the fuck was she trying to say?

"Um... okay, can I get a better look at what you've got in your hand there?" Liz asked.
Laurith turned her arm around so Elizabeth could see that the shining object was buried inside Laurith's arm. It was...uncomfortable to look at.

Elizabeth suddenly had an idea. Putting on her Inquiry Visor and switching on a certain program, the Visor could sort of accurately translate Laurith's words if she mouthed them carefully. The mute was quick to catch on, and explained that she and Donovan were very much alike and that she was worried about his...suffering?

Then Laurith asked what Elizabeth wanted.

"Oh right, well. I had something to ask you. I'm starting a part-time modeling business for the women of PATCA, and I was wondering if you were interested in looking sexy for some photos." Liz pitched her idea quickly. "I'm sure Donovan would like it." She added with a wink.
Laurith raised an eyebrow. Maybe Elizabeth was wrong about how Laurith felt about Donovan? But Laurith gave her a very enthusiastic thumbs up for some reason. This girl had some problems. Maybe it was a good thing that she couldn't give a voice to her thoughts. It could probably increase the number of Madsoldiers.
Liz shrugged at the lack of reaction over Donovan. "Well, if you're not worried about Donovan, then I think I should test the goods, you know how it is." She smirked.
Laurith was rather submissive about the whole thing, kind of still as though Elizabeth was going to play with a mannequin. It was really interesting to play with her. Perhaps due to her lack of a voice, Laurith was surprisingly more expressive with her body language. It sort of made Elizabeth hungry to tease her more.

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Alice

Alice was playing Psychotic Smorgasbord. Funny. Alice didn't seem to be the kind of girl who was into wacky shit like that.

"Agility training," Alice said. "And until I master 'Sundering Stars' on Psychopath, I consider my skills lacking behind Leonneth's."

Elizabeth knew Leonneth both for being the current Director of the Republican Guard and also a very lovely platinum blonde. A very, very deadly lovely platinum blonde.

"A worthy goal. Though, if you feel like showing off your lithe body, you might like my proposition." Liz said.
"Ah, rumors of that have been getting around," Alice frowned. "I don't mind terribly, but are you sure you want me to do it? I have an artificial arm and leg that are pretty obvious. Spoils of the war, you know."
"You just tell everyone it's a top of the line arm with heating pads, automated lubricant, six hundred horsepower hydraulics, and pump-action and you're gold." Liz jested.
Alice gave Elizabeth a long stare, then lowered her head. "Tell you what. I'll agree to your little voyeur ventures and then I'll go lock myself into a closet and weep. Does that sound fair?"
"... Why weep?"
Alice folded her arms. "Never you mind. It's just that knowing there are women like you kind of makes my faith in humanity hurt."
"Well, now I'm offended. How can I improve your impression of me?" Liz asked, folding her arms under her breasts.
"It's probably better if you don't waste your time trying," Alice advised her.
Liz shrugged. "Well I'd be breaking my streak of sleeping with everyone I've asked to model. I didn't even intend for it but now I kinda wanna see it through."
"You do realize that there's actually a problem with what you're doing," Alice got angrier. "But fine, if it'll get you to shut up and go away, then we'll do something that I'm not going to like. But not right now, I've got a report to make to the president."
"Well I'd love to know what that problem is, but something tells me if I ask any more questions you'll rip my head off." Liz sighed. "That being said, if you feel like getting it out of your system I don't mind hatesex."
"If it'll make you go away, we'll negotiate this at a later time," Alice said sharply and left.

Can't win them all...at least not immediately.


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

Violet

Elizabeth didn't even need to think about where she might find Violet. That girl spent half her day partying her ass off and the rest of the time waking up from being facedown in a bathtub as she stumbled around to find her now-missing ass.
Violet was in the middle of getting shitfaced when Elizabeth found her that evening.
"Hey, I'll have what she's drinking." Liz told the bartender as she sat down beside Violet. Turning to her friend, she smiled. "Hey hotness. Feel like having a wild night like we used to?"
"Normally I would, but I'm too fucking blitzed to remember it if we do," Violet said. "I'm still trying to figure out how I got that bite mark on my thigh. So, what brings you here, other than getting smashed?"
"Oh, that was Riolu." Liz commented offhandedly. "And, aside from thinking that it's been a while since we've had a drunken fivesome, I came to ask if you want to model for me. And yes, I do mean professionally as well as private nude shows just for me." She smirked.
Violet gave Elizabeth a long stare. "Yeah, just gimme four more drinks."
Liz ordered four more drinks for Violet and then four more for herself. "Don't worry, this time I won't take you over the bar." She said with a smirk, as she began to down her drinks.


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

Calisto

Elizabeth kinda felt bad for Calisto. The girl spent entirely too much time in the PATCA HQ, doing maintenance on her sniper rifle. Granted, sniper rifles did demand a lot more care because of how accurate and reliable they needed to be, but the amount of attention Calisto gave her rifle, honestly, made Elizabeth a little jealous.
Right now the reclusive girl was flat on the floor of the firing range, using the only sniper firing lane available.
"Hey there Calisto. I know someone who wants to see you." Liz greeted the sniper, as Riolu bounded past her to hug Calisto's chest.
Calisto kneeled down and opened her arms to snatch up the excited Pokemon. It was like trying to handle a struggling fish and Calisto and Riolu made a really cute scene for a minute or two.
After the two managed to settle down, Calisto gave Elizabeth her undivided attention. "You wouldn't be happening to bribe me into doing something, would you?"
Liz smiled. "That depends. Would you like me to? Because my silver tongue has been praised a lot."
"I...don't quite understand."

Yep, definitely a pure young woman.

"Let's find a bed and I'll show you." Liz replied playfully, putting an arm around Calisto's shoulders and dragging her off.

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*Placeholder for Liz interaction with Hyacinth and Sophia*

[Menarker]

Hospital Visit and Slumming the Ghetto!

Renny was carrying a small cardboard box with some pastries and a large slice of sweet almond/lemon cake as he approached the hospital lobby. Approaching the receptionist, he politely questioned. "Excuse me, I would like to visit Harliette."
The receptionist was confused for a few seconds, then playfully popped herself on the head with the palm of her hand.
"Ah, yes, you mean that one with the Lopunny sister. Third floor, room 312, dear."

Renny found a really cute scene that he might've wanted to capture in the visor's internal library. Harliette was still a coma. Lola was in a chair next to the bed with one of Harliette's hands in hers. She was fast asleep. She must've remained awake for at least a day until she finally couldn't remain alert anymore.
Renny stepped into the room silently, closing the door so there would be no outside disturbance, especially to the patient. He took one of the spare chairs in the room and placed it right in front of Lola's 10'clock position. He then reached his hand out to touch Lola's free hand.

Lola suddenly jerked away and yanked on Harliette's hand.
"Sister?!" she yelped, then realized where she was and who was with her. Yep, she's definitely putting herself through the wringer.

"Lola, it's me." Renny said quietly but quickly as he rushed to put a hand on Lola's shoulder to calm her down. "Are you feeling alright?"
He held her close in a hug, his arm around her, still holding the box of sweets.
"I'm perfectly fine...well, physically, anyways," Lola said, reaching for a hot chocolate. Judging from the number of mugs that used to contain hot chocolate, Renny would wager that Lola has more or less been subsisting entirely on it.
Renny silently pulled his arm away to reveal the small box of sweets for them to share, although the cake belonged to her. His smile was kinda mischievous as if hoping she'd enjoy it.
Lola sighed. "Sometimes I think that you're just too good for me, Renny," she said, then looked at her sleeping sister. "I never thought I'd say this, but I really wish Moera was here. Not mom, though. I don't think I could stop myself from hurting her before she told me what was wrong with my sister."

Renny sat beside her with one of the canncinnos pastries in his hand.
"Yeah, I felt all too ready to continue that fight against her. What she has done, it's staggering to see how far she was willing to go. You think you could help bring back Moera, just like Harliette?"
"I didn't bring back Harliette, Renny, she joined on her own, and I think finding mom was the reason why. It must've had something to do with the mansion mission. Harliette probably knew about Faynoc's connection with mom, and then just put two and two together."

"Four."

"Renny, you don't have to...wait, what?" Lola paused.
Harliette slowly sat up and placed her back against the wall of the bed.
"Two and two is four, right? I can't exactly sit here in a damn coma when you so sugary sweet sickening lovebirds are having fun right above my prone body."

"Sis, you're okay!" Lola squeeled with delight, then froze when Harliette used her free hand to aim one of her shotguns at Lola's head.
"If you hug me, I will kill the stupid out of you. Hey, squirt, can you take Pinky with you and leave me alone?"

Renny looked downright surprised and happy to see Harliette back up, although that was quickly diminished with the appearance of the shotgun.
"I will." He clasped Lola's hand lightly ready to lead her out gently.
Lola was rambling on at high speed, offering her sister everything from fluffing Harliette's pillow to even sleeping in the bed with her so she'd have company. Harliette showed amazing restraint in not decapitating Lola, then finally made a decision.
"Could you go convince my father to visit?" Harliette asked suddenly.
Before Lola could ask, Harliette put her gun down and fished for a piece of paper and a pen.
"No way to know for sure if he still does what he does, but I guess he runs this small, poor hotel in the red light district. And remember, my dad's a black man, just so that you can't be mistaken about his identity."
"Of course, sis, I'll go right-!"
"No, you're not going to go right away. You're going to let the squirt drag you out of my sight and then you're going to sleep in his bed until those premature wrinkles go away. Then when you're refreshed, you can go scavenging for my pa. I guarantee it won't be easy if you don't have a full tank of energy."
"We'll find him. So just try your best to rest... You want a snack before we go?"
"Will it help my legs work?"
"Errr... I doubt it could do that. I guess that's a no. See you later Harliette."

He escorted Lola down the halls.
"Let's go home. You really do need a rest, after all you have done."
"I'll probably still be checking in on Harliette often. In her current condition, it took all the strength she could muster just to lift that gun. Almost made me sad that she didn't even have enough energy to remove the safety. But yes, sleep first. I wonder if Harlie's father is just like her? I have a feeling he's going to be a nice man."

Renny ended up having to lend Lola support just to get her into bed. Her body was so deprived of sleep that she was more or less in the same state as her sister.
Renny held her close during that night, cradling her in his arms.
"I missed you here while you were gone."
"Mmm...cheese buscuits," Lola mumbled.

...What? Lola was already soundly passed out. She was clutching the note Harliette wrote for her tightly in her hands. This woman could definitely be a handful, and if it was true that Moeni also did experiments on her body as well, then this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Of course, it's usually hard to think about things like that when a heart-meltingly beautiful woman was snuggling in your embrace. Renny knew. Renny knew that he could easily do just about anything he wanted to this woman and she wouldn't even care.

Renny woke up the next morning realizing that he spent much of the night with his face snuggled against her huge soft bosoms in lieu of pillows.
"You know, there are other inviting breasts in this place," Catherine said, standing in the door way with skillet in her hand, fried eggs still cooking on the heated surface.
He lifted his groggy head off Lola's chest wondering what was going on when he realized that one, Catherine was in his house again early in the morning, and that he had been using Lola's chest as his own pillows.

"Eehhh? OH!" He looked a little sheepish. "Good morning Catherine."
He gently removed himself from Lola's place and let her sleep some more as he got out of bed and moved into the kitchen, still dressed in very light pajamas.
"Are you feeling well today?"
Catherine ignored his question. "So do you want some milk, or have you already had enough last night?"
"Oh, leave him alone, Catherine," Whitney's voice was heard from the living room, just over the volume of the television. "I'm sure Renny needs all the milk he can get. That's why we're all here, right?"
Catherine sighed. "Well, I can't really complain about him being addicted to breasts since I have a nice set of my own," she said as she left the room.

Renny felt like he was walking on eggshells, as if the girls wanted that he didn't exclude them from whatever he was doing, even though he wasn't aware that his head moved to the wrong pillow set.
The talk of milk made him thirsty though, as he went to the fridge, only to be disappointed.
"Oh, we're out of milk. I was hoping to have some." He said as he switched to orange juice, plopping in a few berries and grabbing some of the prepared eggs that Catherine made.

"Thank you Catherine. Today is going to be a bit busy. Harliette woke up yesturday. She wanted us to find her dad." He said aloud so Whitney could hear, since the two were best friends.
Catherine looked thoughtful. "Probably not too busy. I bet Harley knows exactly where her father is."
"Well, she did give us directions for the place she believes him to live."

Renny pulled out the instructions that Harliette gave to him and Lola and showed it to Catherine as he was eating.
Catherine checked out the address. "Oh, hey, I know that place. Kind of a home for those of us that don't have a home. I went there more often than not back when I was doing just about anything to survive on the mean streets. Yeah, it's definitely in one of the more dangerous parts of the city. Might wanna bring some weaponry."
Renny looked a little surprised to hear the place was an unruly location. But he nodded with determination.
"I'm sure Lola and I can handle it with our pokemon. I'll definately watch over her."
"Well, as long as your Pokemon are vaccinated," Catherine said. "You seem a little uninitiated so I'll bring it home. In other nations, you got the Pokerus which is actually a good thing for your Pokemon to catch. In Honmyr, totally different bag of tricks. Madsoldiers become Madsoldiers because of the Rezonscape, Pokemon become Rabandito because of the Rabano Virus. Rabandito aren't really widespread or anything right now so you should be safe. Just...you know, be careful, alright? Your first conflict with them can be a really startling experience. It certainly was for me."

Renny arched his eyes with concern. "Rabano virus turning them to Rabandito? What exactly is that?"
"Well, thar, shunny boy, lemme terr you 'bout dem Rabandeetos!" Catherine drawled.
"Don't be stealing Milsha's shtick," Whitney scolded her lightly.
"Anyways, all those Pokemon experts started discovering Pokemon infected with Rabano several years after the creation of our fine city,"
Catherine stroked her chin. "And while I don't believe a cure was ever found except for a solid buckshot wound to the head, they did sort of come up with a vaccine that was mandatory for everyone living in Honmyr and everyone coming into Honmyr."
"For people who were already here, the vaccine was administered kinda incognito," Whitney told Renny. "At the Pokemon Centers. For everybody coming into Honmyr nowadays, you get your Pokemon confiscated, vaccinated, and then returned before you can leave the airport. Still, for as long as there are wild Pokemon here that haven't been vaccinated, there's always going to be Rabandito. They're fierce, violent, and inhibited by notions of fear or pain. I've never encountered one personally, but I hear that you should probably avoid them."
"Does the virus cause anything to humans or pokebrids? And is there a way to confirm whether my pokemon has been vaccinated?"
Catherine chuckled. "Do you or your Pokemon have glowing orange eyes and mouths foaming with pasty red mucus?"

Hooooooly shit, that's disturbing.

"They're pretty distinctive when encountered," Catherine said. "Poketologists say the virus isn't cross-species...at least not yet, so Rabandito bites are painful and all but not infectious."
Renny looked downright nervous and worried as he absentmindly thumbed his pokeballs.
"I meant a way to find out if my pokemon has been protected. Although I suppose I can stop by the center first to make sure before we head over there. In fact, I should make a point to reconfirm that all of PATCA's pokemon has been vaccinated later on, as part of my duties."
"As an agent of PATCA, your Pokemon have definitely been vaccinated, but if you really must know, you can just check them with your own Inquiry Visor," Whitney explained. "Actually, you should be able to identify whether any Pokemon you scan are infected or vaccinated or not, though when they're infected, it's usually pretty obvious at first sight."
Renny nodded. "Ah, ok. I was just wondering because I caught Shaymin out here in Honmyr. Or rather, befriended her, but still. And some of our pokemon were taken from other trainers who may have not have paid much attention to their wellbeing. Like Latias came from Moera. But I imagine all the healing devices in PATCA's medical center and that of the pokemon centers have vaccine detectors so as to alert the practitioners to administer the vaccine. But I'll double-check our pokemon before we go just to be sure. Thank you for your concern though!"
Renny gave Catherine an affectionate hug in gratitude.

He then went to grabs an extra plate of food and placed it on a tray and brought it back to bed. He gave Lola the slightest nudge.
"Good morning Lola. I got some food for you in bed."
"Mmmm...does it contain cheesy biscuits..." Lola asked, half asleep.
"I'll make some for her," Catherine said. "You should head out if you're going to do this today. Rabandito are more active in the evening hours."
"Good to know. We'll go as soon as possible and try to get everything done in that area before sunset."
Renny rummaged through the top of the dresser where she kept the previous day's clothing and retrieved her pokeballs. One by one, he summoned all of her pokemon and summoned all of his own, just to confirm whether they had all been vaccinated or not. He returned Lola's pokemon to their earlier location.

He quickly went to take a shower and making himself look presentable if he was going to meet Harliette's dad and request him to see her. He then went back into his room and grabbed his clothing so he could get changed in the bathroom, so Lola could eat without any distractions or embarrassment. He proceeded to feed his pokemon and get healing supplies ready for the trip, as if it was a mission. Once he finished with all of those preparations, he went straight into the bedroom to see how Lola was faring.

When Renny learned about Rabandito, he suddenly became sorta unnerved when he heard the calls of Pokemon as they moved through the red light district. He held her hand protectively as he had Umbreon on his shoulder watching his backside, the pokemon being partly amused by the sights of the red light district despite not entirely enjoying being out during the bright day.
The barking of dog Pokemon, shrieks from some inhuman creatures, etc. Still, there was quite a bit of light left in the sky and Renny found the address unhindered by anything so far.
"I don't think we'll be safe for the entire time" Lola said. "I doubt Rabandito are going to wait for us to stroll through the tall grass."
Renny thought hard for a bit.
"When we find Harliette's father, we'll fly home. It's a little bit tough, but Togekiss can manage two people if I leave behind most of the items in my backpack to make things lighter for him. He's used to carrying me and a full supply of trainer items. I only brought a few healing items though, so you should be fine if you ride with me."
"Awww, does that mean we don't get to help the city?" Lola asked him. "Besides, I'm pretty sure it's going to be three of us. I'd be willing to bet sis's dad doesn't have any Pokemon of his own."
"... You might be right. We'll see when we get there."

The building left a lot to be desired. No paint. Badly weathered. "I bet all money this place was here before the republic," Lola breathed.
While the outside was bad, the interior of the place seemed to be better maintained.
"The tenants understand the basics," a large black man told them when he saw their expressions as they entered.
"This place is only going to get as good as how willing we are to make it good. Hello there, I'm Samuel Gibson, one of the proprietors of this place. The two of you have some car trouble or something? We'll try to help, but the majority of us are working our butts off just trying to eat a sensible dinner so please forgive us if we can't help you."

"He's surprisingly nice," Lola said, then quickly corrected herself. "The name's right. This must be him."
"Samuel, I'm Renny and this is Lola. I'm here because of your daughter Harliette, err Sam, is in the hospital right now. She's getting better now, but she requested that she wished for you to visit her. Would you be able to come with us to see her?"
Samuel stood up and grabbed his leather jacket.
"She hasn't told you much, has she? My Harliette wouldn't exactly ask you to come get me if she wound up in the hospital. She and the hospital are quite familiar with each other as is. If there's one reason she would want me to come see her, it's because she's found out that Moeni's alive."
Renny's face went a little darker at her name.
"Yes. In fact, that's why she is in the hospital now. She encountered her directly and overexherted herself in her attempt to kill Moeni during our last mission."
Samuel laughed. "Guess she couldn't control 'erself when they met again, huh. Right, let's get going."

They heard some unmistakeable noises shortly after exiting the hotel. Even the young Renny knew those noises all too well.
"Sounds like little lady Mist is giving them a sound ass-beating," Samuel said.
"Lady Mist?"
"Mist is a fairly decent merc over at the Vorpal Frenzy," Samuel told the young lad. "She prefers taking on jobs to exterminate Rabandito. This neighborhood's filthy with the poor things."

Before they could really say anything, Lola suddenly broke away from the two men and starting sprinting towards the noise.
"Ah, the young damsel who loves looking for trouble," Sameul said with a sympathetic pat on Renny's shoulder.

Renny bolted to chase after her, looking back to make sure that Samuel was following. Umbreon jumped off his shoulder and ran ahead to catch up with her.
Lola's trail lead to a rather thin alleyway that opened into a filthy rectangular space connected to three other alleyways. She was very certain that the woman in the space was Mist. She was just so...white.
Samuel stopped just long enough to kick up a long, rusty metal pipe for him to use.
Renny sent out Magnezone to the area, reasoning that his robotic body would a solid choice to defend against these rabid things.

Mist was a tall, statuesque woman with white hair and makeup whole dolled herself up with a fancy fur coat and leggings. She used a long slim blade and seemed to prefer white Pokemon to boot, the neatest of which was a rare breed of white Arcanine.
The Rabandito were nearly perfectly described by Catherine. Glowing orange eyes, strange blood-colored sludge dripping from their mouths. They kinda resembled what a dire creature would look like.

"Out for an evening stroll, are we?" Mist said with no fear of the murderous beings in front of her.
"Gotta get some sun sometimes, eh Mist?" Samuel responded.
"Renny, I can't run away from this," Lola apologized. "If we ignore the infection, who knows how many more it can spread to?"
"Alright, let's take care of it quickly then."
Renny identified a Raticate, a Primeape, an Ampharos, a Houndoom and, much to Renny's chagrin, an Umbreon.

"Alright, change of plans... Return!"
Renny sent out Swampert in place of Umbreon who looked at the opposing horde with disgust and minor fear. The Gallade himself then took the place of Magnezone who was also swiftly called back.
"Swampert, use Earth Power on that Ampharos!"
"Swam?" It looked confused for a moment.
"We can't use Earthquake in this alleyway! Too much local damage."
"PERT" Swampert slammed his large foot onto the pavement as the earth underneath rippled and rumbled until it exploded underneath the rabid sheep's feet.

Renny darted sideways, staying close to Samuel as he swung his arm, sending a ranged psychic blade hurling toward the fighting type.
Both Samuel and Mist were a little unusual in her fighting styles. Samuel only used one hand to brandish the pipe, relying on his other hand to hold his jacket. Mist was a fencer who was impossibly flashy with her attacks. If there was ever someone who could rival Pierre in 'overpresentation', it'd be this chick. And just like Pierre, her Pokemon were also all about the presentation.
Samuel, on the other hand, had a very functional fighting style. His pipe really knocked some heads around and he could really put some serious hurt with those massive work boots of his.

"So uh, Mist, is Raine doing well over at Vorpal Frenzy?"
"Dunno. Spend most of my time here," Mist said dismissively. "Don't kill them, by the way. My job is to capture them using this variety of experimental cure balls."

The Rabandito were fierce, but grossly outnumbered. Aside from Samuel, all of them were packing Pokemon, although Mist's situation got a little more desperate with each capture. Unable to risk Rabandito being placed in the PC Storage System, she had to send one her current Pokemon there, and couldn't use the Rabandito she captured in battle itself. Too risky. But the fight was over before it really got good.
"Isn't it a little late for you to usually be out here, Mist?" Samuel asked the swordswoman.

Mist directed her slim blade towards someone they hadn't seen until now, a young man cowering near a pile of garbage with a gun in his left hand, covering the back of his head with his hands and shaking uncontrollably.
"Is that...a Madsoldier?" Lola asked.
"I wish," Mist coughed. "At least that would bring a little excitement to this mission. Hey, asshole, just how long are you going to hide there? If you pissed your pants, I'm leaving you behind."
The young man managed to finally stop shaking and stand up. "A-a-are they gone?"
"Yes, they're gone," Mist sighed. "Now do you see what it is we do out here? If you understand, I suggest you just go home and have a good long talk with yourself about whether to join the Vorpal Frenzy."
"Ah, a cherry popper," Samuel said, negligently tossing his rusty pipe aside. "Why did he wanna join the Vorp Corps?"
"Stop calling us that," Mist said, then looked at the retreating man. "I guess he was trying to prove how much of a man he was to some chick so she'd go out with him or something. Guys can be so stupid."
Lola looked thoughtful. "Miss Mist, can I ask you something?"
"You can just call me 'Mist', and fine, whatever."
Lola tilted her head. "Is the Red Light District where the most Rabandito show up?"
Mist lit up a cigarette, took a drag, and sighed yet again.
"With the crime and ne'er-do-wells all over this place, the City Management Bureau isn't able to provide as much service to these areas."
Lola frowned. "I don't get it. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Look at the ground, Tits McGee."
Lola turned her gaze towards the filthy pavement. "It's a manhole."
"There are roughly a hundred eighty different entrances throughout the city that link into the massive abandoned underground labyrinth you might otherwise know as Metal Hell," Mist explained. "The City Management Bureau tries to keep these entrances either permanently sealed or securely locked to all but authorized personnel only. The bureau's findings suggest that most Rabandito that enter the city come from underground, and since assholes in this district keep dicking around with these entrances into Metal Hell, Rabandito are finding their way up here. There's a small group of members in the Vorpal Frenzy, myself included, that specifically handle jobs posted by the bureau to handle Rabandito encounters before they become a serious threat. Scientists working on a possible cure for the Rabano Virus give us special Pokeballs to test out on any we encounter. We go in, fight 'em, capture 'em, then turn 'em in to the guild. Not really difficult work and it pays well. At least, for now it's not difficult. Can't imagine how fucked up things will get in the coming years."
Renny pondered to himself how increasingly frequent the location Metal Hell has been popping up in conversations. As dangerous as it was, it was bound to have something there worth noting. But that would be for another day.
"Ah, well, glad to know you're doing just fine. You take care. Thank you for your hard work."
Renny was not going to apologize for his and Lola's unasked intervention, if Mist had taken any offense to it.

"Lola, Samuel, shall we move on?" He glanced toward the two of them, as he lightly tugged on Lola's hand.
"Ah, Samuel, will you need a lift back to your place after you're done seeing Harliette? Or will you stay with her for the night at the hospital? It might be safer that way, not wandering these streets at night on the way back."
His unspoken mention of the Ranbandito was yet fairly obvious to anyone present.
"I think I'll be at the hospital for a good while yet," Samuel frowned. "My baby and I have some catching up to do."

The trip back was uneventful. "Okay, you two can leave now," Harliette said.
"You're oh so welcome, sis," Lola said in monotone.
"Well, if you guys weren't going to get him, I would've just visited him after I got out," Harliette shrugged. "All you guys did was save me a walk. A walk I'll probably be taking anyways. I love the red light district."
Samuel sighed. "I know that she doesn't get her attitude from me."
"Thank you for coming with us anyhow Samuel." He then looked at Harliette. "We'll be seeing you later."

Once he stepped outside with Lola, he looked at her. "Are you feeling alright? You seemed kinda down."
"I guess I was sort of hoping for a more heartwarming reunion of parent and child," Lola sighed. "Then again, our mother is the same psychopath so maybe I was expecting too much."
Lola did a full body stretch. "Anyways, I guess this means I'm done babying my sister. Now I can just go back to babying you, huh?"
"Oh hehe." Renny smirked a little as she said that although he was silent for a moment.

"I kept myself busy, but I missed you while you were away... you wanna go grab something to eat? You kinda pushed yourself hard watching her!"
"Sure, let's, but..." Lola frowned in thought. "For some reason, I'm craving cheesy biscuits."
"Yeah. You sleep-talked with cheese biscuits in your dreams." Renny lightheartly teased. "Let's go grab some."
He then added as an afterthought. "I've been preparing for the big party soon. It'd really make me really happy if you will come."
Lola looked thoughtful. "Okay! And I think I already have an idea on what I'm going to bring."
He looked curious at Lola's comment, but said nothing more, but smiled as he walked her to a store that sells Cheese Biscuits.

---------- Post added at 03:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:23 PM ----------

*Posted on AB's behalf! Need to confirm with Drac about Sam's condition at this point and whether she'd be introduced.*

"Possibly the Final Truckload of Friends You Can Get Without Grinding Optional Sidequests..."

Irene called for a general assembly in the Watchman's briefing room. General assemblies were pretty much casual but mandatory meetings. The top members of the Watchmen had to be there, although all were informed of it ahead of time, and since this meeting concerned two big items, new members and what would be the first time most of them had even seen the Corpsemire or met Nosferatu, the room was packed.

"So, as you are all aware, in a mere eight days we will be traveling north by northwest to go splashy splashy in the Corpsemire," Irene said. "But before I talk about any of that, allow me the opportunity to go ahead and introduce all these people because I don't think they want to remain standing up here for an hour. So, from your right to your left, here we go."

The first girl Irene stood by had a resemblance to her presenter. She was ravishing, with black hair styled in pigtails and what was apparently the Crosswald family's signature left red eye and right blue eye combination. One had to wonder why Rayleen didn't have those eyes. "This is my niece from my sister's side, born here in Honmyr but raised in the nearby Jurich region. Her name is Daisy Miltower and she already has a boyfriend that she is very, very happy with. Try not to bother her too much. If you think her aunt Irene is bad enough, just wait until you meet her actual mother."

"I have a question for Miss Miltower," Jeanette said.
"You can just call me Daise," Daisy said. "Or Daisy if you absolutely must."
"Well then...Daise. You arrived her on the back of the legendary Pokemon Belzybrand, is that correct?"
Daisy nodded. "Yep. He's my new best friend."
Jeanette frowned thoughtfully. "Belzybrand was the last one."
The blonde girl standing next to Daisy came alert. "Huh?"
"That's right," Irene concurred. "Belzybrand was the last legendary Pokemon that wasn't currently living on Honmyr. The convergence is complete."

Irene then turned to the blonde girl. "By the way, Bianca, that woman who just spoke up is Professor Jeanette Ricewood. I heard you were working with Professor Juniper? She might be able to help you out."
"I see," Bianca said as Irene walked behind the girl and placed both hands on her shoulders.
"This is young Bianca Tanders, from the Unova Region. She's an assistant and friend of Professor Juniper and has been helping in some of the research conducted by the poketologists and scientists over there. She's also a very innocent and honest girl, so expect me to be a tad angry with anyone who tries to hit on her."
"He-hello, everyone," Bianca waved.
"Nervous already, Anca?" Daisy grinned.
"Everyone here looks so strong and intimidating," Bianca admitted.
"Yeah, but we're all good people," Bretton said, trying to make himself seem more approachable. "Well, some more than others, I guess."

Irene stepped away from Bianca and gestured towards the next individual. "Here we have Amelia Reinhart. Some of you might be aware that she was the dean of her very own combat academy. The reason she is here is due to...well, getting backstabbed by academy politics. I asked her to come work with us because I think she can be both an excellent leader and a great role-model. And who knows? She might actually get to love the simple pleasures of beating the crap out of unimaginable creatures, eh Amelia?"

The next woman was also familiar to some. "If you've spent some time with Professor Ricewood, then you've most likely met me and this little girl," the woman said, kneeling near the small girl standing next to her. "I am Karin Millsworth. I serve about the same role to my professor as Bianca does to Professor Juniper, except I have a lot of physical combat experience under my belt. And this girl is Myrie Ricewood, although she probably doesn't need to be introduced. Some of you had to fight her not long ago, didn't you?"
Bianca's eyes widened. "Fight her?! But she's just a little girl!"
Myrie laughed. "Don't worry about me! I have a crab on my side!"
"She's got crabs?" Daisy asked. "And I thought I started out too young."

Irene silenced Daisy with a light bonk on the head. "Karin is especially trained to handle dangerous experiments and rough environments. Think of her as a sexier Gordon Freeman. As for Myrie, she is host to the legendary Shadow Pokemon that we call Nosferatu. And in just eight days, you all will get to meet Myrie's host face to face."

And last but not least, Irene did what she could to downplay the strangest new addition to the group by far. "You've heard her voice in your Inquiry Visors during the fight with Moera and some of the Black Cradle troopers as though a fairy was whispering into your ears, but I bet you didn't quite expect her to be an actual fairy."
Irene opened her hands and presented a small mechanical woman with fairy wings and a simple black skirt dress. "This is Opticka. Do not hug her or pet her or call her Steve. She is a prototype. She is expensive. And she is also probably not able to be fully repaired from any considerable damage she might suffer. So be really gentle with her if you ever must touch her."

Calisto and many of the other girls were having some trouble resisting the urge to make Opticka theirs. Irene released Opticka who then flew over and landed on Bianca's right shoulder. "You can all be seated now, please," Irene said. "Time to start the briefing."

-----------------------------------------------------
"Time to get your feet wet...and cold..."

"The Corpsemire is an unnaturally-formed marshland about eight miles in diameter, vaguely shaped like a diamond," Irene said in her official speaking voice as she directed everyone's attention to the holographic presentation on the wall. "In the dead center of the mire, forgive my pun, Nosferatu waits patiently, fully aware that we will be there soon. Additionally, some of you may recall that the gateway that connects our Pokemon World to the Kimono's Hungry World lies right there as well. After we try to figure out why Myrie had to become the host body for Nosferatu's will, we will be attempting to enter this gateway and proceed to the Hungry World. I'm not going to name any names, but there are some people who will want to go there to acquire powers of a demonic kind. For those who aren't interested in these unfamiliar but otherwise safe powers, you can consider it training in advanced tactics, since it's very unlikely that any enemies we encounter will be familiar with you."

Irene turns away from the presentation to face the others. "In others words, even though the Kimonos are experts on the Hungry World since some of them have centuries of experience living there, they cannot give you any clear idea of what you might run into down there. Because of the Hungry World's nature of emulating other dimensions into itself, there are far more different kinds of creatures there than our entire world's population of Pokemon. I recommend that you prepare for just about any kind of encounter, which I'm certain will undoubtedly help you in the future."

"Now, when we get to the Corpsemire, let me do the talking," Irene continued. "The Pokemon inside the Corpsemire are federally protected species, and we will need to observe some courtesies. I know what to do, so don't freak out when you see them and just leave it to your leader."

Irene looked around at the gathered Watchmen. "So, uhhh...I guess that's actually about it. Are there any questions that you would like to ask me about the mission or about the new recruits?"

[Menarker]

*NOTE: Due to the number of characters present, some colors have been changed to make identifying certain characters like Milsha and Whitney easier.*

18th Birthday Party:

Apparently, for a special little guy like Renny, your birthday tends to be celebrated three times.

The first time, in the morning, Renny's most favorite girls catered to his every whim.
"Don't fill up too much," Catherine advised the young lad. "You can't imagine how big the second party actually is."

She wasn't kidding. The second party began in the early evening and was a grand affair.
"Although in hindsight, we never should've made his eighteenth birthday into such a big thing," Irene mused. "Now every bachelorette in Fainas is going to know about this boy becoming legal."
"It's even worse than Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh," Catherine said, already quite tipsy.
Irene blinked. "Why aren't you in the cake?"
"Have you seen the size of that thing?" Catherine pointed at the sugary monstrosity. "I'd probably have long suffocated in that thing before they ate enough of it away."
"Or froze to death," Lola observed.
Sure enough, it was a massive ice cream cake, intermittently being rechilled by ice Pokemon like Articuno and Garus' Pokemon.

Renny had a small plate of food that was almost bursting at the edges, having severely underestimated how hungry he'd feel looking at the delicious food, having lopped off a slice of cake and grabbed some ribs and fresh fruit.

"I'm glad you could all make it!" He said to Irene but kinda meant to everyone in general.
"Did you invite your family?" Irene asked him. "I feel like we're taking you away from them by having the party here and all. You're only eighteen once."
Renny was a little silent for a brief moment.
"... I'd probably see them shortly after the party. Have a private one of our own. Somehow I feel like something like this might be overwhelming for them at least. And they might want to monopolize my time after I left for months. For now, I just want to spend it with everyone here."

"Well, that'll probably take the rest of the day. All your buds are here, and I'd bet some of them want to monopolize quite a bit of your time," Irene said. "I remember back when I was that popular. Of course, I was also very intimidating so it was karmatically balanced."

Seems like most of the first floor was rented out for the party. Elizabeth had her own room for setting up her oversexualized photoshoot and the outdoor door belonged to them as well. And by some weird quirk of fate, they had two bands, although one of them performed a lot more than the other.
"Burfdeh pahtehs 'n' deff medel don't rightleh belung togeteh," Milsha said. "So Angelo is performing a lot more than Mass Martyr."
According to what Renny discovered, Angelo was the lead guitarist and one of the vocalists for a rock band called Slashfic. The band's appearance was specifically designed to inspire yaoi fanfiction, although Angelo was the only member from that band performing. Other members of the Thirteen Eevee Threat were performing with him.

Renny wandered within the same room, looking for the Eevee Evolution team members, but noticing that a bunch of them were on stage, he approached closer, expecting to find some of the others nearby to chat a bit after a song or two was done. Quite a few were available for chatting while the rest were playing instruments. But their attention seemed to be occupied by the way Alphonsine was looking at Angelo.
"She's been staring at him since he showed up on stage," Shannon observed to Garus.
"I didn't read too much into it," Garus admitted. "But apparently those two had a celebrity-esque relationship going on for some time. Seeing him back on stage must have rekindled some old cinders."

Angelo's appearance was rather wild. His pants were dark violet and obviously made of shiny leather. He didn't bother with a shirt, and it was clear that he must've rubbed oil all over his torso and arms. To top off the ridiculousness of it all, he went as far as to doll himself up with hair extensions. Apparently, a lot of the girls seemed to enjoy it.
Renny privately mused to himself. It had been a while since he first joined PATCA and the majority of them were his first opposition, especially Evangaleen and Garus, and soon after semi-reluctant allies, like Shannon in the mission after.

"It's really been a while since you guys all joined us. That bank mission was my first day on the job." He said to Moon and Shannon in particular. Out of all the main Eevee group, he got along with Shannon probably the easiest because of the second mission, and the occasional chats they'd have while off the job.
"Really, your first?" Shannon genuinely seemed surprised. "You sure had your head together a lot better than the others. Are you sure you're not a military experiment? I didn't know Burkmont had young men in his fucked up projects."
"... I probably did better then, than the next one with all of those zombies." Renny recalled him screaming in his headset from the shock of Moera's fight. "Glad you could all make it though. I hope you're all having a good time,"
Renny smiled as he intermittingly looked at the agents nearby and switched to watching the show while eating at his half eaten plate of food. "Things going well with the two of you?"
Shannon's face slowly became red. "No comment."
"Although it's obviously a lot better than the relationship between A&A," Garus remarked. "Unrequited love is the pits."
There was a nod there, although Renny wondered how they could have been in a celebrity-esque relationship and still have an unrequited love.
Garus seemed to be ready to explain it when an elegant fist crashed down on his uncombed hairstyle.
"You wouldn't by chance be saying anything about me behind my back, would you, Gary?" Alphonsine asked with an edge in her voice.
"I'm going to go swap out the Pokemon refreezing the cake," Garus bowed out.
"Be seeing you then!" the birthday boy waved as he looked at Alphonsine intergreting herself within the group.
"You really showed some great moves up there." Renny complimented, with a thankful tone for her showing up to the party. As popular a model as she was, she probably already had a full schedule.
"Yeah," Alphonsine said with an unhappy expression. Looks like seeing Angelo like that was really affecting her.
"I checked out those beach photoshoot pictures. Your agency did a really great job. Everyone, especially you, came out very well in those pictures!" Renny didn't mention about his own huge private stash of pictures. If anyone asked, he'd probaby just claim to view them on the internet.
Alphonsine seemed to be thinking. Her face was serious and unreadable. Just what was going through her head? "Did you really like them?"
Renny unmistakenably nodded in a huge grin.
"I see," Alphonsine said, her expression unchanged.

By this time, the band was over. Alphonsine had wondered off as the others stepped down. What would freak some people is out is how feminine Angelo looked from behind.
"Thanks for the performance Angelo! It was interesting to listen to your music." Renny normally didn't pay much attention to the music scene to compare to others, but he appreciated the entertainment nonetheless.
"Glad you like it, Renny," Angelo smiled. "I was pretty nervous. Haven't played this stuff in years. Too many memories, y'know, not all of them good."
Renny nodded. "The other players did well too. I didn't expect Bretton to be that skilled at playing one of your songs, even if he wasn't one of your regulars."
"Well, excuse me for looking like a musclebound oaf," Bretton folded his arms, but didn't sound hurt. "See if I train you on how to play and increase the number of chicks you get."
"I think his boyish good looks is enough of a chick magnet," Evangaleen chuckled.
"I have no talent with performing arts anyhow. I'd stick with what I got, since it seems to be working so far." Renny partly joked. Every word of it was true, but he was flippantly light-hearted about it.
"So... how did you all meet? I know many of you remained together as a gang, but I'm wondering what brought most of you together in the first place."
"Our hometown," Bretton said. "I think all thirteen of us were born in Mugenburg. Hard to remember. It's not like all of us met up at the same time and decided to be a thing."
"Some of us weren't so close but we were all together like that, yeah," Evangaleen said. "I met Bretton first myself. I think Moon, Darcen and Shannon were all really close neighbors and stuff."
Renny privately recalled Moon's confession to Shannon and how he berated himself for letting Shannon's attraction be taken by Darcen first.
The Gallade's sharp eyes spied some vaguely familiar faces entering at the door, people he barely knew but thought it might have been the group that Irene introduced.
"If you excuse me, I think I see some of the new PATCA members coming in, and I want to help them feel welcome, so I'll see you all later. Please enjoy yourselves! And thank you for coming!" Renny said as he glanced to all of the members briefly in turn.

"I'm sure he wouldn't have minded if you brought Javier to the party," Bianca was telling Daisy.
"He's furniture shopping," Daisy groaned. "I don't really care where we live as long as it's not cold enough to freeze my nipples solid, but that man is insane when it comes to this housing stuff. I'm sure he's got his mind on having a good house to raise our kids."
"Oh, children? That's so nice!" Bianca said. "How many?"
"I'unno, three?" Daisy shrugged. "I guess he's got a good idea going. I wouldn't want my kids growing up to be as fucked up as I am."
Renny waded through the crowd and made his way to approach them warmly. "Hello! I'm glad you could make it!" He thought for a moment to recall their names "... Daisy and Bianca, am I right?"
"Daisy Miltower," the raven-haired temptress confirmed with an extended hand. "Good to meetcha. And I hope you're not as much of a wimpy dork as Harliette says you are."
"Gosh, that's rude," Bianca said, then offered her own hand. "Bianca Tanders. A pleasure, I'm sure."
He took both of their hands in turn with a single warm and firm handshake.
"Likewise. Renny Tresserhorn. I hope you're both having no problems adjusting to life here in PATCA?"
"I'm not," Daisy said, then nodded her head towards Bianca. "That one is."
"I've been having problems adjusting to life ever since I met you, Daisy," Bianca sighed miserably.
"Want me to deploy Belzybrand to make you feel safer?" Daisy suggested.
Renny quickly confirmed Irene's warning to himself about their personalities.
"I work as the Sortie Coordinator in PATCA, to help determine our formations during our missions. So if you have any questions or concerns, I'll do what I can to help. But that can probably wait for later."
"I've been assigned as a Shock Trooper," Daisy told him. "Pretty obvious, considering how hard I work my body. Looking forward to our first fight."
"I just recently spoke with my professor back home," Bianca said. "I'm supposed to be receiving a really powerful scanning device, something like an uber-camcorder or something. Based on that, I've been asked to function as a Scout for now."
"She had her own Pokemon," Daisy pointed out. "But that whole Ranbito Virus scare you've got going on around her has her afraid for their lives. Couldn't convince her that the vaccine would work. Some girls can be so stupid sometimes."
Renny nodded rather understandably, given he reacted the same way. "I just learned about it a while back myself and even fought a few infected in the slums. It's rather disconcerting but at this point we can overcome it." He then pointed a short distance within the crowd, "Daisy, I last saw Irene over in that direction, if you are by any chance looking for her, but otherwise, feel free to mingle and enjoy yourselves. Bianca, you can obviously do the same, but I could also introduce you to Professor Ricewood. Her support would be a big help and you'll probably would have plenty to talk about, especially if you're here on your professor's behalf. We've all benefited from her wide array of expertise."
Renny shrugged "Up to you though. As exhausting as our missions have been, I'm hoping we can all relax and enjoy ourselves."
"Hey, Bianca, hold my drink," Daisy said suddenly.
"Something wrong?" Bianca asked.
"My ass hears a Hollywood Undead song," Daisy shrugged. "I am compelled to shake it."
Apparently, shaking one's ass to Hollywood Undead's "No Other Place" was a common practice for many of the girls at the party.

"So, what brought the two of you here to PATCA?" Renny started conversing with the dainty lady, trying to be gentle-spoken given her nervous nature.
"I believe that Daisy was trying to get away from the monotony of living in the Jurich region," Bianca spoke for the woman who went off to go make her hips bend in ways that one wouldn't expect of hips that large.
Bianca continued. "I went there to help with research on the Convergence Event. It's a scientific theory suggesting a great calamity bound to occur in Honmyr in the future, and the evidence is due to so many Pokemon congregating here, particularly all of the legendary Pokemon."
A small smile came out of that. "I guess I owe my friendship with the legendary Shaymin to that then." He thought for a moment though.
"Are you comfortable with the idea of working in PATCA though? I promise, I try my absolute hardest to make sure that everyone, regardless of their prior experience or lack thereof, makes it back safe and as unharmed as can possibly be from the missions. I mean, many of us here don't have any formal military training at all, myself included. Despite that, it can still be pretty scary sometimes."
Bianca looked thoughtful. "Well, it's not like I can just go home now, heh heh," she scratched the back of her head. "Besides, for some reason I feel rather compelled to stay with Daisy. I don't know why. Probably the same thing is what caused so many to join with Irene. They just seem to ooze charisma, even if they never mean to."
"Our numbers DID jump a lot when Irene woke up from her coma, although our numbers were gradually rising even before then... Anyhow, I have an idea of sorts if you can listen." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.
"This next mission is actually one of the best opportunities to determine your abilities and whether you'd like to continue working in PATCA as opposed to possibly working in a non-combat role, possibly as Professor Ricewood's assistant. We have an agent who has some powerful although limited capability to precognitively see the future. He was able to glimpse into several details of the next mission. Heading into the Corpsemire is scary, but it's supposed to be ultimately harmless to us according to him. Then there would be expected 2 battles once we get into the Hungry World. I can put you in a group with myself, and two other powerful agents. I can handle a bit of healing if push comes to shove, but this would be a perfect opportunity to see first hand what you might have to deal with on a regular basis but with greatly reduced risks for your first time. The chance to observe Shadow pokemon in their natural habitat is also a rare opportunity, given that the place is normally locked down by the president. What do you think?"
"I'll try, don't worry," Bianca said, sounding more certain than her expression suggested.
"Rest assured, we'll all watch each others backs." Renny looked at Daisy still dancing away. "This song is longer than I expected. May I introduce you to Ms. Ricewood, Bianca?"
"Don't worry, I already know her," Bianca said. "Thanks, though."
"Anytime. Anyhow, I'm going to wander around a bit more and enjoy my own party a bit, talk with some more of my friends and all of that. If you need anything at all though, you can ask me anytime. It was nice meeting you though. And Daisy." Renny quickly added her name as if it was an afterthought. Then he left to check out talk with the Kimonos. Since he'd have Bianca in the group, he'd want to have someone reliably strong to shoulder the burden and guide the way. And he had someone in mind.

Catherine recently finished shaking her ass to the music and was enjoying a beer while talking to Whitney, the latter of which did not participating in the gyrations of posteriors.
"It has to be one of us, Whitney," Catherine said. "What are the odds that Renny's going to spend tonight with Lola? They love each other, sure, but it's kind of a slow developing love. I'm just saying, if we're aggressive, then we get to be Renny's firsts."
"Maybe, but who will be the first of his firsts?" Whitney asked back.
Catherine crushed her empty beer can on her midsection and tossed it expertly into the nearest trash can. "You can have it. Renny wouldn't be my first like you, so I think I can stand aside while you experience your first times together. Besides, I have a feeling I've been too aggressive and didn't give any of you girls a chance at all. Lola's too pure, your emotions are too conflicted, and Milsha's too casual. When it comes to aggressiveness, I think Rachel's my only real competition."
"Hi! You're both having fun?" Renny was on his way to talk to Mika and Nyoka, but he slowed down for a moment as he saw the pair chatting.
"Heyo, Renno!" Catherine said, alcohol on her breath. "You know about the third party tonight, ey?"
Renny cocked his head in curiousity. He had an inkling of what they might be talking about, but he didn't have anything specifically planned that evening. "Not off the top of my head, but go on?"
"Yer eighteen now, m'boy," Catherine slurred slightly. "And there's probably no end of ladies in this very hotel tonight that would love to celebrate your coming of age in a very special way. So, a lot of us curious, and not just us who know you so well. I suppose you could always run away from it for now, but could you call yourself a man from running away from dozens of women ready and raring to tear you apart and make you forget what your own name is?"
"Ah, that." Renny thoughts were confirmed. Catherine defintely made it easy to figure out what was on her mind, especially when she's been drinking. "I guess we'll see what happens." He said in a simple "we'll see" sort of air. He wasn't completely certain either, although temptation, being what it is, was enticing.
"Told you he wasn't ready," Catherine elbowed Whitney.
"Give the man some time," Whitney reasoned with her. "It's not like he gets to decide when he turns eighteen. It's not like we can imagine what he must be going through right now."
"Well, I also kinda want the moment to feel good and natural and not just like clockwork just because I hit some semi-arbitrary date like my eighteenth. At least I don't have to worry about any of the legal issues anymore, so I won't have that holding me back. But yeah, I kinda want to let my feelings decide that when it comes, not having it preplanned like an agenda or anything. Anyhow, I got some more people to talk to, so I'll see you both sooner or later!"
After Renny left, Catherine and Whitney just looked at each other. "He's so innocent," Whitney said. "Kinda makes you want him more, doesn't it?"
"Actually, it just makes me feel terrible about how I abused my body in the past." Catherine frowned. "Seriously, why would he pick a beat up used woman like me?"

Renny next found Mika, Nyoka, and Cecilia all together. Apparently, the topic was technology.
"So Hungry World has technology like this, huh?" Cecilia said, gently caressing Nyoka's face.
"Depends on where you look," Mika was leaning on the nearby wall. "Thanks to those Reality Shards, it's possible for the Hungry World to have technology that is both extremely ancient and super futuristic, if you have the courage to hop into the shards and search for it. But Nyoka does come from modern Hungry World technology."
Renny silently melded into the group as he listened in with interest, curious about what was being said. He waited for them either to continue the interesting conversation or for them to change the topic.
Cecilia was now massaging Nyoka's tail. "So how do you get her tail to work? She's kind of like an actual Pokebrid, the tail and ears move so naturally."
"Magic," Mika said matter-of-factly. "Magic. Science. Technology. One of them or a mix of two or all three is the method by which we solve all our problems."
"She's so cute, I just wanna take her home and declare her to be my little sister," Cecilia stroked Nyoka's ears.
"Or big sister," Mika countered. "She's been around for a very long time."
Renny stroked her tail a little, although not nearly as much as the others. "It's still hard to believe that technology could create someone so unmistakenly life-like. Nyoka, I was hoping if you would be the guide for my group through the Hungry World for the next mission?"
Nyoka looked at Mika. "You can do it," Mika told her. "We built you tough just so that you could last even on your own."
"But Ren-nyan doesn't know anything about maintenance of infernal drivers, nya," Nyoka said.
"Infernal drivers aren't fragile, y'moron," Mika closed her eyes. "Especially in your case. You'll be fine. Trust your creator."
Nyoka paused, perhaps to ponder what Mika said, then nodded to Renny. "I am under your care, Ren-nyan," Nyoka said, her expression far too serious for her cute way of speaking.
"That's my line! You're my guide through the Hungry World after all!" He exclaimed jokingly with a warm chuckle. "I'll do my best to help take care of you too. You all enjoying the party, I hope?"
"I like the getting-together-with-friends part," Cecilia admitted. "Don't need cake or booze for that, though. Still, I'm glad I came."
"Me too. I especially want to thank you for helping me set this party up in this hotel." He privately mused to himself that she went a fair way in helping him despite very few interactions with each other. At most, she had pleasantly joked that Renny was heading toward the Harem route.
"It was surprisingly easy," Cecilia said. "I just told the female staff about you and they practically overpowered any judgment call made by the guys. Then again, my father does own this hotel."

Darcelle took a bit of time to track down and Renny found her in the pool. It was raining, though that was clearly because of Darcelle's Kyogre form. She was swimming gracefully under the waves, but apparently noticed Renny and quickly exitted the pool.
"I've been cautioned about being inside the hotel," Darcelle apologized. "All three of my forms could wreak havoc on your party, Ren-Ren. Sometimes it's inconvenient being so powerful."
"No no, I'm happy you could make it. Well, if you want, I could have Shaymin cast Worry Seed on you. You'll have a tempory case of insomnia, but you won't have the weather issue and you could stay up all night long for the party no problem."
Renny called out Shaymin from the pokeball, who was happily soaking in the rain as it looked up at Darcelle.
"I don't mind hanging out by the pool for now, though," Darcelle admitted. "The other girls like the rain, and...maybe...you like my swimsuit?"

Indeedy he could have. For the most part, one would argue that Darcelle's choice in swimwear was more dictated by her form than by any choice of her own. Basically, she was wearing a Kyogre-themed one piece that didn't seem to be anything more than the aethestics of a Kyogre Pokebrid.
"I do! It looks especially good when you wear it." His eyes looked her over with admiration.
"Anyhow, how about I leave Shaymin with you for the time being? When you want to come to the main hall to get some ice cream cake or mingle or whatever, just ask her to use Worry Seed and come right in. I'd be upset if you couldn't join us whenever you felt ready because of your powers. She'd like the rain too. Of course, she'd like the sun too."
Without waiting, he passed the pokeball over to Darcelle. "You can give it back later, of course."
"Aww," Renny heard Darcelle's really cute pouting.

He stuck around for a little bit for a bit of small-talk. "Are you enjoying yourself here?"
"I am getting better at situating myself around here," Darcelle said. "One would think I would have trouble working somewhere, but my sister has had much use for me."
"Sister? Ah, I was wondering how Myrie would feel about you. The two of you are getting along well then?"
"We hardly speak," Darcelle admitted. "I was referring to the professor. She seems to believe there must be some kind of link between how I became a legendary Pokebrid and how my niece Myrie became a Shadow Pokebrid. Those both involve very difficult procedures with great risk."
"Entirely in keeping with what we knew of Faynoc." Renny said with some distaste of his memory. "But what you say sounds very plausible. "
"I should thank Mollesk again when I get the chance," Darcelle chuckled. "Odds are that if I remained down there, father would have tried to splice me with every legendary DNA sample available. Possible if only remotely, but I do not believe I would be able to retain my mind. Just having the three forms is what occasionally causes me to relapse into my childish state."
"Forgive me for asking, but if there was any possibility that Jeanette could reverse or remove at least one of the forms, if not all of them, would you be interested in that? Would that actually make it easier on you?"
"I'm fine with what I've got," Darcelle said cheerfully. "Seems like you find my child state rather cute, anyways."
Renny blushed a little, but nodded.
"Besides, even the smallest Pokemon DNA splicing can be fairly permanent," Darcelle pointed out. "Any attempt to remove the influence could remove something far more precious. I'd hate to lose things like memories and mental capability."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. You're pretty much perfect the way you are right now. I'd rather not mess with a good thing. Anyhow, I'm going to get going a bit. Still have some more people I'd want to talk with. You can hold onto Shaymin during the party, ok? She can use Worry Seed so you can freely move about without any worries. See you later!"

For reasons known only to Renny himself, Renny's next search target was Aster. Still a girlishly cute young man who continued to wear clothes that suited him really well but didn't offer him any points in masculinity.
"Happy birthday, Renny," Aster said, trying to sound cheerful about it but the expression didn't quite fit. "I'm surprised you can move around this place at all. Do you know how many girls are currently staring holes right through you?"
"Are you offering exact numbers?" Renny joked. "I'm glad you could make it. You know kinda deep in thought though. Is something on your mind?"
"It happens whenever I move close to Chief Crosswald," Aster said. "It could be attributed to that woman having so much violence and senseless bloodshed reigning her memories, but there's always something that never adds up."
Renny recalled the White Catseye Gem conversation. It spurred a lot of his recent plans and developments into action, although he still had no reason to doubt Irene at this point, as friendly and helpful as she had been.
"I see. Hopefully you'll figure out that gap sooner or later. By the way, your prediction on the next mission is definately a lot of help. Before I heard your prophecy, I thought the Corpsemire was an extremely hostile place."
"Ironically, it's probably the only really peaceful place in Honmyr anymore," Aster said somberly. "I'm sure the Corpsemire will be both a disturbing and yet beautiful place."
Renny nodded. "Quite a few agents want to check it out. That and the Hungry World. Out of curiousity, do you get much reception from there? Ignoring the mission portion of it, it seems like it'd be a fascinating place if it took bits of different worlds and incorporated it into its new design. And that the physics there is unusual as well."
"I do not intend to extend my sight there, for I cannot imagine that everything down there is going to be lovely or nice," Aster apologized. "In fact, there could be some very hideous, unspeakable places that will turn your heart cold and black."
There was a pregnant pause of sort before Renny nodded again.
"I see. Well, I'll try to be prepared for the worst for the mission. One more thing... I was just wondering if other people in your family had the same gifts as you, or how they thought of it. Or whether it was a heretitary trait."
Aster stared at Renny for a while, then smiled weakly.
"My family were cultists and archaeologists," he said. "Trying to figure out all the weird things that make Honmyr such a unique place. All of them receiving death as the spoils of their efforts and leaving me a nigh-incomprehensible book larger than an RDPA Operator's Manual."
"They left you a book?" Renny confirmed as if he thought he had misheard. "Incomprehensible, how? Was it the language? Writer wasn't entirely sane?"
"My parents were...fucked up," Aster said. Renny definately felt like he put his foot in his mouth at this point. "And the book cannot be read by normal means. You have to sort read the 'feelings' of those who wrote. It has multiple authors, you see. I think I've detected about nineteen different people involved, not all of them necessarily sharing my bloodline."
Aster shrugged. "I'm sure I'll figure it all out as I gain further power."
"I'm sure you will. I wish you the best of luck."

"Stop trying to eat that."
...What?
"Stop trying to eat that."
That's Irene's voice but...
"Stop trying to eat that."
...Oh. Heh.
Irene was gently using her right index finger to gently prevent Opticka from eating a spoonful of ice cream cake by nudging the spoon before Opticka could lift it to her diminuitive face.

"For fucks sakes, you don't even have taste buds," Irene groaned.
Renny approached and picked up Opticka from behind, cupping her into his palms, "And how are you doing Opticka? Hey Irene." He gave a side glance to Irene.
"Opticka is quick to accept ridiculous challenges," Irene told him. "Today's giver of challenges is apparently Bretton, and the challenge is consuming this frozen dairy monstrosity."
"I can do it if you'll just give me this damn spoon!" Opticka wrestled with Irene's hand.
"The only thing you'll accomplish by eating that is providing us with a scientific sample explaining how many parts per million is vanilla extract."
"Maybe just give her a new challenge?" Renny suggested absentmindly.
Irene thought about it, and then had the most unnerving smile ever.
"Opticka, I bet you can't take Renny's virginity before some other girl gets it." Renny flinched at the suggestion.
"That's ridiculous," Opticka said. "I couldn't possibly have sexual relations with Renny Tresserhorn."
"She's sharp," Irene observed.
"But I can surely eat this entire cake!" Opticka cheered and continued fighting Irene's fingers for control of the spoon.
"So, Irene, I met Daisy a short while ago. Just briefly. Apparently good friends with Harliette already." He said as mildly as possible.
"Gun-toting bitches just flock together, don't they?" Irene said casually. "Don't worry. Daisy finds being called a bitch a true compliment. Sometimes the world needs a good few hard bitches, right? I guess a crazy ass hard bitch like me knows that better than anyone."
Renny just smiled, while trying to not accidently confirm her statements. He'd hate to be thought as someone who called anyone a bitch or whatever.
"Stop struggling Opticka" as he restrained her a bit. "One slice of that cake is larger than your entire bodymass. I'm pretty sure Bretton was joking with you. Seems to the sort of thing he does regularly. Anyhow, I'm glad that we can all relax from all the missions we have dealt with so far, even knowing that there is more dangerous ones to come."
Then his imagination wandered toward the darker end as he wondered just as bad it could be. "Irene, what were the past wars like? I mean... how do I say it..."
Irene turned her gaze in the vague direction of the ceiling, which was pretty damn high up.
"Well, I guess now that you're eighteen, it couldn't hurt to tell you about war is. Simply put, war is hell. A whole bunch of samurai and ninja charging headlong into a battle they couldn't win because they believed their honor and faith rendered them literally invincible versus a bunch of roided up juggernauts brandishing guns and swords both larger and heavier than a human torso who saw money and opportunity in a foreign land. Corpses all over the ground, land on fire, skies of black. You can't get much more hellish than the Successionary Wars."
"And yet, it can only get worse..." Opticka said, no longer trying to eat the cake. "If we were progressing towards more peaceful times, I wouldn't exist."
"The only reason you didn't exist up until now if because we just didn't have the technology to make your cuteness truly manifest," Irene stroked the little machine's head.
"And what about you and Shevenston?"
"He was almost as good as I am," Irene said. "At least, when I wasn't using my full potential, that is. He wasn't that good at closing off his heart to the tragedies inflicted by war. Hence while he lived a relatively normal life despite having quite a bit of money, and why he yanked Catherine and those two children right off the streets."
"I... I think I see. A little at least. I'll probably see a little more soon. The Corpsemire is the site of one of the battles, right?"
"Yep. Probably not very indicative of the chaos of war," Irene frowned in thought. "Going there, you would swear you're visiting a different planet."
"I see."
Renny tried to soothe his mind and heart by grabbing another slice of ice cream cake, his expression changing to sheer delight upon biting the cookie and cream. After a few minutes and one less cake slice, he decided to wander around some more.

[Menarker]

Renny knew he was going to be walking into an awkward conversation when he neared Lola and Rachel. No doubt about it, the subject was who would claim the boy's innocence. Lola's entire face was beet red and she was obviously being playfully bullied by the younger, less curvaceous girl.
"Relax, it's totally going to be you," Rachel was saying. "Just use those ridiculous boobs of yours and he's totally putty in your hands."
"But...I...yet..." Lola faltered between words.

Renny didn't hear the details of the conversation as he approach from the sides and lightly slapped his hands on both their backs. "Lola, Rachel. How are you two doing?"
"You're a big jerk, Renny!" Rachel said, jabbing one of her fingers into Renny's chest. "Look, Lola can't do this on her own. All you have to do is attack her! C'mon, you got 12 AP!"
"It's fine like this," Lola seemed really uncomfortable. "Yes...it's fine like this."
"You can even use my AP too, you know," Rachel said. "Believe it, it's the only time you'll want to have the Exhaustion affliction."
"That's about enough, mousegirl."
A massive heavy blade slowly lowered itself to form a barricade between Rachel and Lola. Milsha sighed. "Y'all be jus' like eh buncha mankehs 'n eh zoo," Milsha drawled.
"Hey, Milsha!" Renny was relieved to see her, because the entire last 20 seconds was nerve-wracking in all the ways that Rachel specialized in. "Everyone enjoying the party so far?"
"Kinda hard to," Milsha said, lowering her sword. "There's something outside, bothering the good ol' folks."
"Eh?" Renny excused himself quickly as he went to check out what commotion was going on outside.

He wasn't quite sure what he was looking at. The creature was the shape of a fully grown man, muscular and roughly ten feet tall. But he was completely featureless. Naked, but completely white, like he was made of salt.
"I didn't wanna do nothin' to him...it," Milsha said, walking up from behind to join Renny. "He hasn't hurt anyone and people are only kind of creeped out by him. So I just called the cops."
"Did anyone offer him pants?" Renny said absentmindly. It would have been the simple solution, but for a 10 foot man, it was kinda unlikely. "Or at least, shorts?"

Police sirens finally got the large white man's attention. The man responded by turning to look at the approaching police cars, but made no other movements.
"Can you speak?" Renny said to the salt man as he craned his head up.
If the creature heard Renny, it made no effort to acknowledge him. The police exited their vehicles. Fortunately, no guns were raised.
"I wonder what brought him here of all places." Renny said quietly.
The usual police bullshit came out over a loudspeaker. The creature did nothing to acknowledge them, either.
"Milsha, let Irene know about this. If there is any possibility of a conflict, I'd want to avoid a panic at least. Possibly to be ready for combat." Renny privately bemoaned having another of his parties crashed by unexpected visitors.
In all fairness, that fucker was probably asking for it.

"To be fair, if the problem is him creeping people out, if you were actually interested in preventing it you'd just have thrown him a towel."
Hyacinth had enjoyed the party quite a bit during her stay, and had a bowl of the cake stuffed in best it could. Right now she was just sitting and watching the commotion, waiting for the inevitable fight.
Eventually, the police force lost patience with being ignored and one of the police, a rather large man in his own right, tried to force the creature to the ground. It didn't budge an inch despite the cop's struggles.
Irene stepped out just as soon as the policeman lost patience and then stepped back to fire a taser at the creature's pure white chest. Yet again, not even an inch of movement.
"Christ, just what is this thing?" the man demanded.
Finally, a movement. The monster reached for the live electric wire, then casually yanked them out and released them.
"There's two little red markings where the taser probes struck him," Irene observed. "Not blood. Just what the fuck is that?"
The question was answered quickly when the little red spots...started to move. They moved up and then down the monster's right arm, gathering into one spot on the palm.
Ein moved quickly then. In one quick movement, the arm was reared back and then flung forward, blasting the cop with massive electricity.
Ein then simply returned to his motionless standing position.
"Holy shit, shoot him!"
"Aw hell," Irene groaned as the police opened with small arms gunfire. "More spots are appearing on the body. I think I know how this is working."
They observed as the spots moved towards the palm again.
"The spots are becoming one again," Irene observed. "I bet it's going to fire one large shot instead of all the bullets it was hit with."
Irene's observation was right on the mark. The bullet that was projected from the palm was far larger and aimed at one of the police cars, causing it to crunch and explode from the mighty impact.
"So not only can it absorb any damage that hits it," Irene said. "It can even change the form the counterattack takes somewhat. Electricity for electricity, bullet for bullet. I guess it cannot break the rules of properties."
"Damn it. Can we get the police out of here? Like get them to block off the permimeter so no one wanders in the area?" Renny said as he looked at the demolished police car.
"Eck. A Shiny Wobuffet. Those're a nusiance for sure." Hyacinth smiled, calmly watching the rest of the force try to fire on the creature to no avail. "I wonder how you'll beat it..."

Ray did not want to be here. The decor was kitschy, the drinks were flat and the music had been selected by someone with a teenager's taste in entertainment. He could just have ignored the invitation and not gone, of course, but somehow, he was here, in a suit, sampling the 7-layer dip at the buffet. It wasn't even like he had anyone to talk to. Pierce had taken the job, Irene was (probably) still pissed at him, and he'd be shocked if Abereth let herself be seen anywhere around here.
It was a testament to the party's quality that Ray's mood actually improved when the supernatural abomination showed up. He came up behind Renny, nodding in assent.
"Yeah, clear the area. Honestly, get everyone out of here. It seems passive so far, but there's no guarantees it'll remain that way." He glanced at Irene, careful to keep his voice neutral. "You don't happen to know anything?"
"Pfft, like I know that guy," Irene smiled with a good humor. "He's very interesting, though. I wonder how we can even damage his milky white skin?"
Ray sighed. Once again, he was the only one taking the situation seriously. "You sound like you're in a toothpaste commercial."
He approached the creature cautiously, careful to make no sudden movements. The creature was largely passive, which, at this point, was probably a godsend, but Ray didn't count on it lasting. The man's blank, featureless expression was more foreboding than it was reassuring. Still, if they couldn't hurt it, maybe they could get it to respond. He stepped close and slowly, carefully, touched his palm to the creature's, tensing to jump back at any moment.
No reaction. Did this fucking thing respond only to hostile actions? But then what the hell brought it here in the first place?
But then, it seemed like the creature's turn to attack had come up. And Ray was its target. Ein turned towards Ray, then hopped back as its right arm turned into a lance larger than a tree. The road was savaged as the lance was thrust directly at Ray's heart.
Oh wonderful. It was aggressive. Ray desperately through himself aside, feeling the lance just barely graze his side, shuddering to think what that would have done if it had hit.
Instead of withdrawing the lance after thrusting it, the extra mass that Ein had built simply vanished into white gas that dissipated very quickly. And once again, Ein simply stood there.

"You violated his personal space," Irene chided Ray. "Let me try now."
Apparently, "trying" to Irene was little more than "take out both swords and slice the man up rather violently".
"Because thats totally not violating his space." She laughed, taking in their fighting capacities while putting another spoonful of cake in her mouth from her bowl.
Ray stood back, trying to make up a good retort to "personal space". He hated being talked down to. Which was probably why Irene talked down to him that much. God, that woman. At least he had a good chance of seeing the Salt Man retaliate, though. That'd be entertaining.
The only indication that the man has been cut up was that there were merely red lines on its body where Irene had slashed him. The red flowed to both of the forearms and Ein rushed Irene, swiping at her with both of his arms. Irene dodged near an object, then stepped to the side.
"When his hands and arms are covered in red, they can slice even better than my swords," Irene observed aloud, hopping away. She was also counting the number of slashes Ein made, finding them to be equal to her own number of cuts before the red vanished from the body.
"And what wonderful swords they are." Ray agreed. "Thankfully, it seems to telegraph its attacks, so we're not in too much danger, if we keep our wits about ourselves. Do you think we're hurting it at all?"
"Nope, but check this out!" Irene said, summoning Balor. After ordering Balor to basically soak the poor pasty bastard in toxic fumes, Irene laughed. "Hey, Kool-Aid!"
Don't make him entirely red, you crazy bitch!
Now Ein was projecting blasts of toxic fumes from his palms as the red coloration congregated there. Balor ignored the attack and Irene just stayed out of range. "Damn it, how do I fight this thing?"
Ray sighed, careful to keep away from Ein, intermittently dodging acidic jets.
"How about not making him entirely red, you crazy bitch?" He wasn't quite sure why he'd expressed it that way, but damn it felt good. Or maybe the fumes were just making him light-headed.
"Fuck... can we get Opticka out here? And evacuate all civillians? We need more information. And less risk of collateral."
"I'll go get her! You keep it busy!"

Ein was almost abnormally patient as they got Opticka to give it a good look.
"He's a strange fellow," Opticka said as she scanned him. "Seems to be made of some kind of salt. The only other records place this salt as existing in the Offlands."
"The fuck is an Offlander doing so far west from there?" Irene said, keeping her swords ready for the next attack.
"I'm sensing something else...kind of like an umbilical cord? That might be the reason it seems to regenerate completely and instantly from every wound."
Irene pressed a button of her Inquiry Visor. "Show me."
Ein suddenly disappeared in a similar way to how he deconstructed his lance.
"Crafty bastard," Irene growled. "It must be on to us."
A quick search revealed that it was pretty much gone.
"Well... that was an anticlimax. Glad we got rid of it, though. No other signs of it, Opticka? Can you point out where the umbilical cord was leading from?"
"Probably back to a big ol' salt chunk or something," Opticka shrugged. "Like wearing one of those beer helmets, except the beer is from Shadows of the Damned."
"What a strange comparison." Ray said, slightly bemusedly. "No, I'm more interested in this thing's home base. It must've had an origin. And I have the feeling it'd be in our interest to check in on whatever place that is. And... do some salt mining. Still, that'll have to wait. Let me know if you find anything else."
"Y'sed Offl'ns, eh?" Milsha asked Opticka. "That's that one place way out east where time and space are all fucked up."
"It's difficult to categorize the Offlands," Opticka said. "There are so few willing to brave such a dangerous place and most who do don't come back with a lot of helpful information."
"Regardless, put it all behind you for now," Irene instructed the others. "This is a birthday, a time for celebration, and we should be celebrating it. I'll talk to the Ruin Generals that work with us later and figure out what the hell that thing was. At least nobody's seriously injured, not even that officer that got the shock treatment."
Renny nodded, and left the police to cleaning up the mess outside while he and his other guests head back in.
The party was quick to recommense. In fact, in most areas, the party never stopped, particularly at Elizabeth's photoshoot. Those girls who weren't currently posing were just talking to each other while still wearing this or that rather flattering swimsuit or lingerie. If there was one thing Elizabeth knew how to do, it was to doll someone up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few hours later (Less mingling overall, more intense)


Angelo hadn't changed out of her band clothes after the song, but had at least toweled off all the lotion by the time Alphonsine found him.
"It's almost like I traveled back in time," Alphonsine began. "And all that time I thought you had tried to burn your ties to me."
"I didn't try to burn my ties to you," Angelo said. "I was trying to get rid of my ties to all those assholes who went nuts when I turned you away. 'Why the hell did you reject Alphonsine Dionne? She's so hawt, lulz!' Ridiculous. It's like they think I didn't have a life that I wanted."
Alphonsine lowered her head. "I'm sorry for that. I didn't recognize the pressure I was putting on you."
Angelo finished his drink and set it aside. "It's fine. Slashfic wasn't going to last forever. I'm still surprised that it lasted as long as it did."
Alphonsine and Angelo turned to face the window outside. "What do you think you'll do once your time in PATCA is over?"
"My time in PATCA is already over," Angelo said. "Same for the rest of us. We don't need to be here anymore, we just are. I prefer it this way. There's just nothing else I want to do now."

The woman was silent. "Then, do you think that...maybe..." she faltered. "I mean, I don't think I'm going to get to be a celebrity myself for much longer."
Angelo was quiet.
"After all, if you didn't believe there was still some connection between you and me," Alphonsine affixed Angelo in her gaze. "Then why would you ever put on leather pants again?"
Angelo finally laughed. "You do realize that I actually enjoyed being in Slashfic, right?" he said. "I'm just going to say it like this. I never really liked the idea of being with you. I especially hated it when everybody thought it was so awesome that this rock star and that professional model were going to be a couple."
He then removed the hair extensions. "I'm not going to lie to you. When I said what I said in those interviews, that was really just to spare your feelings, alright? I didn't pursue a relationship not because I thought it would adversely affect our careers or because I thought that our popularity would ruin any blossoming love we might've had between us, but it was really because I just didn't like it. I was really uncomfortable, Allie."
"I...see..." Alphonsine said. She remained on the spot for a minute or two, perhaps searching for something to say, but merely ended up walking away.

"You couldn't have put her down better than that?"
Angelo continued staring out the window. "What was I supposed to say, you know? Ever since people got that whole Angelo X Alphonsine thing in their heads, it's been a massive lose-lose situation. My reputation was destroyed, my band was destroyed. And my popularly skyrocketed, although that's not an entirely positive thing."
Evangaleen looked back out the door. "Do you think she'll be okay with what you said?"
"She'd better be, 'cause I'm not going back on it," Angelo folded his arms. "I still...I don't like to admit this, but I still...hate her for what happened back then. If only she put some forethought into what she told the press that day, I would probably be a lot more respected. I mean, this is the only place I can wear my stage costume, where there are people who either know the whole story or don't care."


Speaking of, the next time Renny turned around he found his face bumping into a familiar pair of pillows. "Happy birthday Renny!"
Renny looked up a little at her familiar face, "Liz, I'm glad you made it! I was actually going to head to the photoshoot to see if you were there, since I heard you were hosting it and all."
His eyes arched up in curiousity as he remarked with a little coyness, "We seem to be starting some sort of tradition of having bikini photoshoots at birthday parties. Either for 18th birthdays or people whose name starts with R. Don't know which."
"Well the photoshoot can run itself for a little while." Liz replied simply, still hugging the birthday boy as she kissed his forehead. Seemed she was mindful enough not to go for the lips in plain view of Renny's other beaus.
"How's the party? I really wish you had let me plan it instead, not that this is bad or anything, I just think my personal touch would've been fun."
"It's been pretty good so far. So far, everyone seems to be more or less enjoying themselves and I'm having a good time too. Would have been a little better if that Ruin General didn't cause a disturbance earlier, but overall it's been a good day. How about yourself? Did you get the chance to do anything else other than run the photoshoot?"
"Not quite yet, though I was hoping to change that. Would you grace me with a dance?"
"Oh, uh sure!" Renny replied. "Hope I don't screw up in front of everyone. I'm not exactly on top of this entire dancing thing!"

("Currently" playing is Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul.)

Liz took Renny's hand and pulled him to the dance floor. The song wasn't very good and Liz considered going up there and putting something good on, but that would cut into her time with Renny and she was sure as soon as she let go of him someone else would nab him. Instead she held him close in the middle of the floor, shaking her booty and grinding to the rhythm slowly with him, throwing her hands up above her head.
He stood close beside her as he pumped his feet lightly with the beat, one arm held up in the air and the other touching her back, occasionally bumping his butt against her own and feeling a rush of electric (pleasant) shivers as the two rubbed up and down against each other at intervals.

"I guess that means you all lost to Elizabeth," Calisto observed, now wearing her normal dark blue trenchcoat. "What do you thi-aw shit."
Renny and Elizabeth were suddenly and forcibly separated and before Renny could tell who it was that segregated them, Renny's face was shoved into a different large pair of breasts. These were a lot more familiar, however, and Renny didn't need to know who was asphyxiating him now.
"I might welcome Catherine's advances on him," Lola said, affixing Elizabeth with a double dose of stinkeye. "But I do not wish to tolerate you with him."
"Did...not expect her to have that kind of reaction," Calisto said.
Liz sighed, placing her hands on her hips as she met Lola's stare with a bemused look.
"I'm pretty sure I can't turn him into a sex fiend, if that's what you're worried about." She replied simply.
"Considering that I'm the girl he likes the most, I'm pretty sure he's already a sex fiend," Lola says, releasing Renny and folding her arms in a way as to emphasize her already-absurd breast size. "But he's my sex fiend, and you don't get to have him."
"Sex fiend?" Renny thought, too shocked to do much more than react.
"Maybe it's because of all the huge threats we've been dealing with these days," Irene said while nursing a drink. "I guess it's broken down Lola's saintly patience bit by bit and now we see the barebone results. She's not a shy little rabbit anymore."
"Well, if you're finally making a move on him, you should go all the way, you know?" Liz said with another sigh. "And no, I don't mean sex. Just don't half-ass your confession."
That was Lola's weakness. Being put on the spot. But it was being put on the spot like this that caused Lola to behave in irrational, extreme ways.
"Fine, then!" Lola said, forced several shot glasses down, then grabbed Renny by the head and almost slammed her face against him.
Renny was about to interrupt her, but his aborted "Wait" was intercepted with the forceful kiss.
There's a sound effect in which a record is stopped in mid-play. This is a perfect time for that.
A lot of people stood there, dumbstruck, watching Lola kiss Renny, despite it being obvious that this was something that should've happened a long time ago. Others were smiling. Some even started to applaud.
When Lola finally removed her lips from Renny, her face was darting back and forth between emotions that she simply couldn't seem to grasp. Confusion? Nervousness? Even fear, by the looks of it.
Renny's expression was similar, as if taken aback by the sudden aggression and force that Lola uncharacteristically used.
"You were hoping that giving Renny your first kiss was going to be a more romantic, perfect moment than this," Irene spoke Lola's warring emotions for her. "Well, to be fair, there were plenty of worse opportunities that you expertly sidestepped."
Irene then raised her glass. "Congratulations, Renny. Congratulations, Lolianne. May your wedding be bright and your kids be as nutty as you two fuckers are."
"Good for you. But I hope you realize this means war." Liz said with a fire in her eyes as she locked eyes with Lola.
Liz's words seemed to bring Lola under control. With a flushed face, Lola walked over, retrieved Milsha's TekSaber, then brandished it with both hands, although she clearly wasn't built like Milsha to hold giant swords.
"Just don't half-ass your assault, you succubus," Lola hissed.
Another cliche was inbound as some people could swear they were seeing two mighty beasts being shaped out of the violent auras being displayed by both girls.

"ENOUGH!" Renny cried out, rather disconcerted by the manner in which the two, especially Lola was behaving. He leapt in front and used Knock Down on the blade, trying to prevent any accidents from the oversized blade, especially when wielded by someone with seemingly unstable and/or drunken emotions.
Milsha strolled up and easily hefted the mighty blade over her shoulder with one arm.
"Easy, girl. Sure, everybody wants to see you and Elizabeth do some sexy wrestling in the middle of the floor, but no need to be hauling my steel into this mess."
Not the fucking problem, Milsha!
"Okay, okay, that's enough now," Irene stepped in. "This is a time for celebration, so let's just get back to celebrating. Let's let Renny do what he wants and when the party is over, he and his new lover will have a long and possibly steamy talk, okay?"
"Don't I get a say in this? Sex Fiend this, lover that! End of party "celebration". I'm just not ready!"
His chest looked tight as he suddenly became self-conscious that potentially the entire gathered group might be gathered and staring at him.
"I invited everyone because in some way or other, I care for what might happen to any of you, especially in the future when we don't know which of us will live on to the next day. I know it is getting to be very much an open secret that I'm especially fond of several individuals in particular... But I'm still struggling with... all these pressures! All these expectations everyone has, all these feelings from many of you, and I'm trying to accomodate everyone as best as I can! But I draw the line at those I care for fighting each other, or trying to declare who are my real friends or lovers!"
He looked at Lola in particular. "Can we go and talk a bit? What I saw there... It was so much unlike what I have always known of you."
Liz chuckled. "No one's really fighting, Renny, we're just posturing. And I think we all know to respect what you believe in the end." She tried to explain.
Renny's expression looked downcast. Lola never seemed to have been the sort for posturing. He feared that her actions, along with several influences, were based off her very real emotions.
Lola was definitely not herself.
"I...I uhh...I'm sorry!"
And that's when she ran away. At a full sprint, no less.
"That girlie's pro'bleh best leff all alone," Milsha said in her characteristic drawl.
Despite what Milsha advised, Renny chased after Lola, leaving the party to its own device.
"I guess I've got some catching up to do." Liz said quietly as she watched Renny chase after the nurse.


The chase took them right outside. Lola was pushing her talents to their breaking point, literally leaping from wall to wall on nearby buildings to scale upwards and hit the roofs.
Previously, Renny would have had to use Togekiss to follow along, but the slayer training over several months had done a lot to improve his overall agility, as he pushed himself to not lose track of where she was.
Lola was pretty easy to track, given that her coloration was very bright, all pink and white. However, she wasn't easy to catch up to. She was running like a demon possessed, and great leaps carried her from rooftop and rooftop.
"She must have gone completely berserk," Irene's voice emanated from Renny's Inquiry Visor, which helped greatly in keeping her position locked on. "I would expect that the only reason she's running now is because you're chasing her. Catch that wabbit, Mister Fudd."
Renny didn't know if Irene was joking about how Elmer could never actually catch the rabbit no matter how much he tried, but he had more tools on his hand than the typical games-hunter.
Renny finally jumped up and deployed his Togekiss, raising his elevation so he could see her clearly, and then glared with his Mean Look technique, one meant to prevent non-ghost types from fleeing. The pair flew over to approach.
Lola jerked violently when caught by Mean Look and remained on the roof of what Renny remembered as the Skycrown Metropolitan Bank, where his very first mission for PATCA had taken place.

As Renny approached, he could see that Lola was doing everything in her power to try and escape again, and couldn't raise her face to look at him. He'd have to approach her with caution. If he pushed too hard, Lola might be crazy enough to deploy her own Pokemon to fight him off.
"Lola, can we sit-"
"No, I'm just going to say something stupid again!" Lola cried, still hanging her face low enough that Renny couldn't see it. Judging from the sound of her voice, Renny was glad to have stopped her so soon. She was definitely crying, and with tears in her eyes she could've missed a leap and suffered deeply for it.
"Lola... How long ago have you felt this way?" He was a little nervous, although felt a lot better about asking this conversation in private. "I was always feeling nervous because I was always second guessing whether you liked me in quite that way. I mean, I know a lot of people suspected it... but I was never confident enough to assume that was 100% true."
"I! I don't know anything!" Lola continued to wail. "All I can think right now is that I want to punch something!"
True enough. Lola's fists were balled so tightly that her knuckles were pasty white. And her stance was suggesting that she was about to lose the ability to keep herself still.
"Just hug her you fool." Came Liz's voice over his visor.
Renny was surprised by Liz's voice popping up on the visor. But after a moment of deliberation, he took a few steps forward, trying to appear as unthreathening as possible. And then another few steps.
Step by step, Lola matched his pace backwards. Fortunately, the edge of the roof was still pretty far away, so that wasn't a problem. The problem was that Renny was seeing two small red lights coming from near Lola's downturned face.

"Careful, Tresserhorn!" Irene shouted over the visor. "Her fractured emotional state is allowing Rezonance to build within her at an alarming rate. I'm on my way."
It took nearly an entire minute for Irene to arrive on top of Balor, but it felt like an eternity.
"I don't think she's in danger of becoming a Madsoldier, but we've gotta bleed her Rage out of her," Irene said. She passed on her swords and Pokeballs to Balor and discarded her armored overcoat. "Let's try not to beat up your girlfriend too badly, shall we?"
"Wait what? I don't want to beat her up at all." Renny protested, even as he noticed the raised levels of rage within her.
"Lola, please listen to me. Many of us have people who touch our lives in varying different ways. Over the past two years, I have several people who have had a strong point in my life...
"GrrrrRRGH, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!" Lola shrieked as they finally saw her face. Two big red lights where her beautiful pale green eyes used to be. "Go away! Leave me alone!"
Irene sighed. "If only I could've just said that during the two wars and made my enemies go away."
"Alright, I guess I'm ready for that intervention now." Renny said with a rather depressed expression. "What do you suggest I must do?"
"Tucker her out," Irene said, assuming an Aikido martial arts stance. "She's too excited and her emotions are playing havoc with her rationality, making her a perfect conduit for Rezonance to invade her mind. You don't really have to pound the stuffing out of her, just get her too tired to think of anything."

That having been said, Irene certainly didn't fight like she was merely trying to exhaust Lola back into control. Irene rushed Lola. Lola rushed back. Irene was a methodical machine of grab and counter, with each counter offering more force to stagger Lola for longer.
Renny sword danced while Irene kept her occupied.
"I'll deal one large blow on her. I know I can put her down without going overboard. It's what I've trained to do for so long." His arm looked blunted as if false swipes was active.
Lola struck again. Irene countered once more, this time knocking the bunny nurse clear off the roof. Renny jumped off in pursuit as Irene leapt down after her. Lola met the pavement of the nearby parking lot feet first and hurled herself back up. The two ladies clashed in midair, causing both to bounce to the ground. Lola was now on all fours, poised like a panther.
"Probably a positive," Irene observed to herself. "I wonder how happy you'll be if she was this wild in the sack, eh Renny?"
"Can we keep that imagination in check for a moment?" Renny bounced in, springing on his ankle before pivoting at the last moment and struck downwards toward her back with his arm.
"If she goes down on the floor, I'm pinning her." He strategized to himself, knowing that his blow would not actually knock her out, although it might come close. He didn't mention the plan to Irene in case Lola caught wind of it... and because Irene would probably quip about how kinky the strategy was.
The blow almost knocked Lola off of her hands and feet, but she hopped back, only the rise as Irene struck her with a palm to the stomach.
"With me, Renny. I'll set her up. You take her down. Then we swap. Lather, rinse, repeat until sedated."
Surprisingly, despite their opponent, this strategy worked well. Lola became too focused on the first hit that never came, she wasn't prepared for the next strike, and in four of these set up, take down maneuvers, Irene had Lola braced against a brick wall by the throat.

It was over. Lola's eyes weren't glowing anymore. Irene reared back with her free hand and nearly smashed Lola in the face, causing the nurse to yelp.
"Clear," Irene said, releasing her grip.
Renny jumped in and pinned Lola to the wall, holding her close in case she would fall or run.
Renny could feel nearly Lola's entire weight on him. She had passed out.
"I think she's under control now," Irene shrugged. "I dunno, I'm not a specialist in the Rezonscape, although I don't think anyone is. Now all she should need is a good night's sleep...and possibly some morning snuggles."
"I'll take her then. When you head back, tell the others that they can still party or whatever, but I won't be there for the rest of the night. Although..."
Renny rested his hand on her body, and expended some of his own rage that was building up during the conflict as he focused on her. Drawing upon some of Lola's supply, he drained away a sizable portion as a currently pointless Serene Blessing upon the two of them.
Togekiss, who had stayed out of the fight due to having not been given an order, flew back down to see if Renny needed him at this time. The Gallade carefully propped the Lopunny's body against its back as he sat behind her.
"Thank you for your help, Irene." Renny said glummily. The hysterics of the previous situation aside, he privately lamented that he couldn't save Lola himself. That he needed someone else to run in and practically do it for him.
"I'll take care of the party, just take care of her," Irene sighed. "She's a special lady, one that hasn't lost all those dreams girls like us had when we were kids. It's a powerful gift, but with the Rezonscape, also a damning curse. It couldn't hurt to reassure her every now and again that you're not going to abandon her, no matter what."
And with that odd note, Irene turned on her heel and lazily strolled back to the party as Balor gathered her overcoat and went ahead to wait for her, leaving only Renny, Lola, and his Pokemon in the dark and street lights. This was about the perfect time for a saxophone.

"Togekiss, home. To the balcony." Renny didn't want any particular attention from anyone else, bringing back the unconscious Lola. So he hoped that entering their home from the balcony would be more private.
Renny's apartment was bare of life, which suggested that the other girls were keeping their distance so that Renny could work in peace. Lola seemed to be fine when she was placed in her bed, even going as far as to unconsciously grab for the nearest pillow and hug it into her chest, her unique sleeping ritual. To ease her comfort, Renny instinctively removed her Pokeballs and set them on the nearby counter.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It was Milsha.
"Irene's got the party back on track," she said. "And she's told everyone quite firmly not to discuss what happened with Lola unless you do. Anyways, why don't you let me watch over her while you get back to celebrating your birthday, hopefully with no more interruptions."
His first instinct was to shoo Milsha back to enjoying the party while he stayed with Lola. He didn't think he could really enjoy the party anymore with Lola in her current state. But looking at Lola and recalling the freakout was painful and personally embarressing, and he could definately trust Milsha to take good care of her.
"... Alright. Thank you. Milsha. I guess I'll see you later."
Renny went back to the balcony, making sure that Milsha was not in eyeshot and recalled Togekiss, who seemed a little surprised to be resummoned so soon. If anything it wasn't expecting to be soaring the skies again.
Renny climbed Togekiss and whispered. "Let's go home."
Togekiss looked at him with a puzzled expression until his master pointed out to the far distance toward a familiar landscape. The pokemon cooed knowingly as it took off and sped away toward the old home.

[Menarker]

About 15 minutes later, Togekiss touched down onto the backyard, leading to the back of the house. Renny tip-toed along the path of his own home, or what used to be home for him. While he didn't think mom or dad would react that badly, there was an ill-feeling at heart. The tension of the separation that he forced when they wanted to take him away from everything here.
He did notice something a little odd though. The place was mostly spartan in design. While it was somewhat clear that someone was still living at this residence, gone were the decorations that the yards and the outer walls of the house had. At most were a few chairs, a table and one or two tools closest to the garden.


*Remaining part of Family Reunion is To be Written*
----------------------------------------------------------

*Assume a few hours has passed and it's possibly a little after midnight*

With bitter-sweet parting, Renny flew back to the hotel. He stopped by first at the balcony to ask Milsha if anything had changed since he left... and to check on Lola.
"Hello? Milsha?" He said with a low whisper as he opened the door to his and Lola's room, partly expecting Milsha to be there watching over her.
Milsha rose up from the chair she placed by the bed. "She's been awake for quite a while now," Milsha told Renny as she was about to leave. "Give her time to explain herself. She's probably the same emotional wreck that she was when she fled from the party."
"I heard that," Lola's voice emanated from under the trick blanket.
"And you should be more honest with your feelings," Milsha shot back at her. "Anyways, take your time and scream if a naked white dude bursts into the room."

Renny was silent, but nodded thankfully toward her as Milsha left the room. Then, taking a deep breath to calm himself, he climbed on the bed and snuck under the sheets too. He gazed at Lola as he tried to collect his thoughts and while he waited for her to speak first if she wished.

BGM: Innocence from Katawa Shoujo

"I uhh..." Lola began. "This closeness really makes me nervous. But this could be okay, too."
She couldn't look into Renny's eyes, though this seemed to be because she wasn't sure of her feelings quite yet.
"Well, I'm humilated myself completely just a little while ago so I guess a bit more embarrassment couldn't hurt."
Now her eyes met his.
"I'm just going to say it. I'm in love with you. Madly, absurdly, ridiculously in love with you. And I've felt this way about you for a long time. I didn't say anything then because I did kind of think that it wasn't healthy for me to feel this strongly for you so soon, but the more I thought about it, the more I saw that it possibly couldn't be anyone else but you."
"But don't worry, I don't expect you to say or do anything right now that you might regret later. I feel like I've put you on the spot with what I just said and I don't want there to be any mistakes. So, uhhh...you don't have to respond to me immediately. I'm happy enough that you might think about what I said, and that's good enough for now."
Having run out of what she thought about saying, Lola's eyes drifted away again.
There was a lingering silence. An incredible warmth. A little hot actually. Was the room turned up a little too high or were the blankets just that good at keeping heat in? The confession was something he had privately hoped for a while and his thoughts dwelt on her expressed feelings. Then he spoke slowly, and while he tried to be calm about it, it may have come across with a little bit of tension, like walking on a tightrope.
"I... was surprised by what happened earlier. I've always known you as a gentle person, with an open heart... I was... Do you remember back over at the bank? When I was saying about there being many people who touch our lives in different ways?" He didn't know for sure if she recalled everything that had happened during that high-powered spat.
"I think I remember hearing you say that," Lola said. "I was so absorbed in trying to solve my unsolvable problems."
He sympathized with an understanding nod.
"Well, over the time I've been here in Honmyr, there have been several people to whom I'm fairly fond of. They have helped me out in various ways, lending me their support and all that. But you... you changed the shape of my dreams."
The words he wished to say took a little effort to voice, but became easier by the moments.
"For a time, things looked so bleak in my mind that I was this close..." He had his index finger and thumb held in mid-air almost in contact with each other. "to possibly leaving PATCA and maybe Honmyr all together. But you changed everything about that. I was scared about what could happen the next day when I go to sleep each night. But your words then and the kindness you've given me since then... I then can't help but want to stay. Every other person, who had touched my life with their kindness also helped me feel more confident and stronger. But you in particular always made me look forward to the future. I... wanted to say this before, but at times I worried that you merely thought that we were just good friends or that it wasn't the right time to say it. I admit, that I was afraid of that and I regret that I didn't say something earlier... That I want to devote myself to fulfilling everyone's happiness. Especially with you."

Lola was silent for a moment, then let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "So, in other words, I put you in even more danger than I already have."
Then she smiled. "Just messing with you. Anyways, I'm ready to get out of this uncomfortable heat and maybe find something cold to drink."
Renny smiled back, but leaned over as he kissed Lola on the lips, slower and warmer than the hasty one at the party. Then he could go for a drink too, he figured.
"You can go ahead and get a drink first," Lola told him. "I just need to do something real quick."
"Alright." He slowly moved out of the bed, feeling much elated and calmer, now that the issues both recent and long-term had been resolved in his mind.
He went for a glass of water, and fed his pokemon. He recalled that he left Shaymin with Darcelle to enjoy the party.
When Renny left the room, Lola did the only thing she could think of.
She shook her ass. "I got myself a boyfriend! I got myself a boyfriend!" she chanted with all the happiness of a devoted cheerleader.

"Milsha, did Darcelle happen to drop my Shaymin off somewhere? Or is she still holding onto her for now?"
"It's on the balcony," Milsha nodded towards the open screen door.
"Seriously?" He looked a little puzzled and bemused as he went to collect the pokeball and let Shaymin out to get her dinner. "Did the rest of the party go well? As least according to her?"
"More or less," Milsha shrugged. "Cake's in the freezer if you want some. I think the party's pretty much wound down now."
"That's probably for the best. It is getting pretty late. Thank you."
Renny truly wasn't that hungry, but he had a tiny slice while it was still 'fresh' and which he rinsed it down with a glass of water and brushed his teeth since it was pretty much time for bed for anyone who wasn't staying up late. His pokemon remained out, content to laze about. Togekiss especially dozed on the sofa after all the flying he had done.
Renny then knocked on Lola's door, letting her know he was there.
The door opened suddenly and it was almost like Lola teleported right through him.
"I'm gonna be for a while," Lola said while wearing her red form-fitting negligee. "All this conflict resolution has made me so hungry."
"Alright! Cake's in the freezer. Enjoy yourself!"

He recalled that after all this commotion, he forgot to check out any presents that might have been given to him at the party. Finding them in the corner of the den, he started opening up the wrappings.
"How kind of them to bring it up here for me." He remarked, pleased with their thoughtfulness as he proceeded to determine what new gifts his friends had given him.
The gifts were a random bunch of things that were either really nice ideas or ideas that were difficult to comment on.
He got several holoframes. The things were just hitting the market, but they didn't require any manual to figure out. The Inquiry Visor and just about every 3D camera or recording device were compatible with them. All Renny had to do was transfer any kind of image data to the frame and it could project the image as a 3D "holorama". Given the IV's access to a lot of different material both saved to the PATCA server and on the net, he had a lot of different images he could put there. They even have a 'girlfriend' mode that allowed him to use a "safeword" to quickly change all the images within earshot to something more tasteful.
"Oh neat! I really got to thank everyone for these!"
He could see several useful purposes for these as well as the various sentimental aspects of them.

Next up, a collection of eromanga. Sigh. Renny could tell from the art style that all of these were drawn painstakingly by the same bowl-haired, bespectacled, overdressed young man with a Glaceon. Now probably wasn't the best time to enjoy them, but they seemed focused on the circle of girls Renny had to himself with various concepts like yuri and power fantasies.
In hindsight, Renny was pretty sure these could easily be acted out in real life.
Renny quickly flipped through a few pages quickly in genuine surprise before he quickly moved to stash them with his photoshoot album collection (including a small digital camera storage disk compatible with the new holorama he just got).

Oh hey, toys. The action figure and model varities. Most of the action figures were based on stuff like RDPAs and there even seemed to be a few Pokemon and PATCA agents. Although it was kind of dissatisfying. The action figure of Catherine couldn't punch half as fast as the real deal.
The models? Girls, obviously. Seemed to be Elizabeth hard at work, promoting a whole new generation of hikkomori. Renny wasn't sure how he felt about there being mass production models of his girls to be lusted after by perverts all over the continent.
He also wasn't so sure about having them openly in display in the same appartment that he shared with Lola and Milsha.
"I'm going to need a bigger hiding place for my stash." He thought as he delicately handled the models.

That holorama technology was also being pioneered in the next present Renny recieved, a set of eight Pokeballs. By visiting a Holoprogrammer, of which there were quite a few and going to be far more as the technology became more commonplace, he could get the Pokeballs to display just about anything when his Pokemon took the stage.
He stared at the pokeballs, somewhat conflicted. "These look downright neat, but my pokemon's current pokeballs makes them feel more comfortable. I wonder if there is a way to combine the two effects. Wasn't there a similar casing for pokeballs that did the same for smaller effects? Maybe they can work on that." He set them aside carefully while looking to see what else remained.
His reputation for being a lover of his Pokemon apparently shined through, as the majority of the other gifts involved Pokemon care products. Lotions, perfumes, polishes, brushes, snacks, instruction manuals for breeders...or maybe they just didn't know Renny enough to think of anything else?
"Oh, I could use these. At least it saves me the money and time to get these later." Swampert came right over and snatched the bag of snacks, opening it up and munching on it a bit before hugging Renny as in belated wishes happy birthday. Or perhaps thanking him for the snacks.
Renny started multi-tasking between opening what few remaining presents there were, and fiddling with his holo-frames, linking them with some of the videos and images captured by his Inquiry Visor. He didn't put in any pics requiring the girlfriend mode yet, although he'd probably do that once he could think of a safe-word that wouldn't be utter easily in complete.
"Got a lot of new stuff Lola! I'll show you them tomorrow though!"

He moved back and forth between his room and the den, moving his gifts to the top of his dresser or the closet as needed, and throwing away the wrapping papers as he got ready to head to bed. He snuck a few glances toward Lola, his thoughts still bubbling from her confession... that and the general arousal of the red lingerie she wore that accented her curves.
Renny could hear it over the silence after he turned out the lights. Faint footfalls. Having been hugged by her and hugging her more times than he could conveniently count, he knew the contours of his main squeeze.
"I assume you're still awake, huh Renny?" Lola's voice asked him.
"I am." He turned around and hug warmly, as he held her closely within his embrace as he gently swayed.
"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep at all tonight," Lola admitted as she snuggled close. "What the hell is it about you and attracting all manner of crazy troubles whenever you want to celebrate something?"
He chuckled mirthfully. "The thought has occurred to me as well. I'm thinking that I'd tone down my future parties... keep to... a select few individuals." He grinned for a moment as he looked at her face.
"Lola. I love you." It took some effort to say it straightforwardly without any evasion or sidestepping. But Renny felt that it must be said in complete honesty with no room for misunderstanding.
Lola was silent for a moment.
"It all just seems so unreal, doesn't it?" she asked herself. "It's difficult for me right now, Renny. It's next to impossible for me to get my mind straight, not with everything that's happened recently."
Then Lola got wild, rolling over until she was on top of Renny and sitting up. She reached up and release her hair so it hung naturally instead of the ponytail she was so fond of. And then...she negligently threw off her negligee. Renny could see it all.
"My mind's too overloaded, Renny. I can't process what I'm hearing. So...I need to know how you really feel through our touch. I'm sorry, I know I must sound completely crazy, but-"
His face was also in a mix of disbelief and amazement as he shook his head to reassure her.
"Then... shall we remain silent for the night? Let our actions speak for itself?"
His hands reached for her, touching her sides and pulling her in closer as he kissed her deeply.

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

It had almost seemed like a dream until the next morning. Lola was wrapped in sheets, the only thing she was wearing, sleeping peacefully and obviously content. How many times had they done it last night...and this morning? At least she looked like she didn't regret it. And what a helluva birthday present. Renny was still practically attached to her, close together using her chest as substitute pillows.

Catherine and Whitney were both in the kitchen, the former instructing the latter on cooking, an increasing common sight in the apartment. Milsha wasn't in sight, and since she usually awoke as early as four in the morning, she was likely already gone, probably over at PATCA. Letting Lola sleep was probably the best option. She was going to head back to the hospital once she was ready and the scent of breakfast would wake her anyways.
Renny got up first, as he ventured toward the shower, getting himself washed up, still slightly dazed but otherwise in hearty spirit. He then headed to the breakfast table where he greeted the other two ladies in his household as he looked at the food nearly prepared.

"Good morning! I hope you're both feeling well!" He sniffed delightfully at the aroma. "That smells great! I can't wait to have a taste."
Catherine and Whitney turned around at the same time. "Yep, he totally did it," she said.
"He did, huh?" Whitney frowned. "How can you tell?"
"There's definitely a change in a person when they're done it for the first time," Catherine shrugged. "I bet Lola will be a lot different, too. Probably not Milsha, though, whenever she gets her first turn. She seems like the kind of girl who doesn't think about it as a big thing, like me."
Renny blushed a little with amusement at Catherine's keen insight on sexual matters, but said nothing in response.

Catherine and Whitney returned to their cooking lesson while some of the items were already placed on the table. Standard breakfast items like biscuits and butter and waffles with chicken. One of those days, someone would have to explain how fried chicken and waffles ever became a combination. With a bit of maple syrup added to his waffles and honey garlic sauce to his chicken, Renny enjoyed the breakfast, doing the dishes while the other two continued with their lessons.

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

Enter the terrific yet terrifying teacher, Xiulan!

Some days later after the party, Irene introduced a seriously looking Xiulan to PATCA. While she isn't employed as a combatant, she was exceptionally skilled in various techniques and possibly equally adept at teaching those same skills. She didn't look like she favored small talk though as she went off to train as soon as introductions were over.

*AB may put his own introuductions here if he wishes*

Some days later, Renny found Xiulan where he would probably always find Xiulen; in her designated training space, training more and more. Renny figured that not even the hardcore warriors like Irene, Kurika or Bretton were this devoted.

"Hello, uh, Xiulen." Renny stammered slightly as he attempted to recall the name. "Have you been doing well these days?"

Xiulen didn't even spare Renny a glance. Irene had told Renny that Xiulen was a completely no-nonsense kind of woman and that he should simply state his purpose, receive what he asked for, and leave. Still, old habits of courtesy were a diehard quality in Renny.

The elite move trainer was thrusting her palms forward to collide with a thick log of wood bundled in rope, and Xiulen's nature of being quiet and focused only made the crunching sounds of her strikes even more disturbing and fearsome. Oh well, at least she wasn't a mean woman like Harliette or Discord, and was very helpful and supportive for those who needed her.

"I heard that you could teach pokebrids and pokemon techniques that they would otherwise be unable to use through normal means. If that is true, will you please teach me and my pokemon?"

"Which moves?"

Renny explains the moves he wants to learn while deploying Togekiss and Swampert, then lists moves that he would like them to learn as well. Xiulen remains motionless and affixed Renny with a rather unnerving gaze through the whole explanation, and only starts to move again after Renny is finished.

"I can teach you and your Pokemon all of these moves. However, there is one issue that I must address with you. In order for you, Renny Tresserhorn, to learn Flame Charge, your body will need to be subjected to a little corrective physical restructuring."

Xiulen closed her eyes. "In other words, I will examine your body closely, have you do specific poses for me and hold them, and then I will inflict injuries upon you. The purpose of this is to alter your body in subtle ways. You will be in pain for a couple of days as your internal wounds heal, but after the procedure is complete, you will be able to use Flame Charge without losing the potential of using other moves. You can have this move learned at a Poketology Clinic just like how you got your Pokebrid form in the first place, but the process is long and gradual in order to ensure safety, and they will require that you remain bedded and monitors for several days while you are recovering from any potential side effects of the drugs or procedure. Either method is suitable, it's just that mine is more barbaric and quicker. There are no issues with the other moves or for who I am to teach them. Now, if you choose to learn Flame Charge through me, I advise that we start immediately so that you have ample time to recover and practice while I teach you and your Pokemon the other moves you have requested. Now what say you?"

Renny knew. He knew that it was going to be more than a little painful. Xiulen was too well built to not hurt him badly. She was sort of like a shorter, less muscular and sexier version of Kurika.

"Thank you. Let's get started right away." Normally Renny might have gone on a bit more about how important this was, but Irene's advice on her personality meant that he decided to just 'Cliff's Notes' the acceptance and get straight to work.

Xiulen nodded. Then she instructed Renny on how she wanted him to stand. As Renny held the position, Xiulen was all over him, checking his torso, arms and legs. After roughly one minute, Xiulen returned to her position and nodded again. Then she did perhaps the most ridiculous pose Renny had ever seen.
"Stand like this. I will tell you when you are doing it correctly."

Renny stared for a moment as if wondering if she had a sense of humor, but he dared not risk offending her and twisted his body, making minor adjustments trying to match the pose she had been doing.
Xiulen watched him for more than a minute.
"I guess that will just have to do. Now close your eyes."
Renny wasn't quite expecting the next thing that happened when he closed his eyes.
"And now to rape you."

0.o

...What?!

Before Renny could come down from the shock of what Xiulen had just said, his body was struck in about seven different places, followed by a second of air time, following by colliding with a padded wall.
"Hmm...okay, that is it for now. You will feel some discomfort."

Uhhh...some? You broke my freakin' spleen before I could even one-day find out what the spleen does in a Wikipedia article, Xiulen!

Renny felt some aching in some areas and tingling in others. According to Irene, Xiulen had well over a decade of experience in both acupuncture and chinese martial arts. She could literally alter her opponent's body with her hands. Was this how it worked? Could Xiulen literally use finger strikes to allow him to use Flame Charge?

Renny groaned a bit from the aches and pains, and a burning sensation inside. His other two pokemon, despite knowing that it was for their own good regarded Xiulan with a sense of fear, especially Togekiss who was cowering behind Swampert's ankles to protect his soft soft body.

"You two can just relax. Learning moves like Foresight, Sweet Kiss, Aeroblast and Belly Drum are a lot easier and less painful. Just be lucky I don't need Lugia to help me teach Aeroblast. It's not exactly easy to learn and memorize moves when you might've only seen it on the internet once."

Swampert went up first, presumably to reassure Togekiss if Xiulan's words about the rest of the moves being less painful was true, but also so he could quickly try out Belly Drum as soon as possible.

Xiulen was relatively quieter about this, actually doing the move herself to help give Swampert visualizations so he could help himself along.
"You should stop there. Remember what the move does to your health."

Swampert tried to follow along although he was a little impatient. After a few minor repetitions of stances that Xiulen did, Swampert went ahead and went all the way, roaring from the sudden raw power. Picking up Renny by the back of his shirt with seemingly casual effort and then stood his master on his feet. Renny didn't try to charge at first, his legs still feeling like lead pudding, so he focused on gathering heat within his body and extending the flames around his forearms to further cover his body, bit by bit.

"Take your time," Xiulen instructed quite firmly. "Neither of you are in any condition to do this continuously. Start off slow the first day and put more effort into it on following days. Otherwise, your bodies will feel like shit in a few hours."

"Alright."
Renny calmed down the flames a bit and sat down near Togekiss, trying to reassure the pokemon with his presence. Swampert walked about slowly. While calming him down was somewhat pointless in his excitement, he focused on burning his energy in slow stretches. Togekiss still looked nervous but went ahead and spreaded its wings widely for Xiulen to get a better look. He also took deep breaths in the attempt to ease his tension.

Watching Xiulen train Togekiss was quite a sight. When it came to Renny learning Flame Charge, Xiulen struck him in very specific locations. But when Xiulen was training Togekiss, there was a lot more to show. Just how in the hell could Xiulen use her arms to cause massive blasts of air like that? Was she some kind of freak?
Togekiss tried to flap its wings in the same pattern and rhythm as his tutor.
Xiulen nodded. "That is good form. Now you would just need to focus on making it stronger."

That left such moves as Foresight, Miracle Eye, and Sweet Kiss. "Renny, step forward. Don't worry. I will not punch you this time."

When Renny approached to reach a certain distance, Xiulen asked him to stop, and then did something Renny would never expect a normal person to do. He had to check his Inquiry Visor just to be sure that it really happened. Somehow, Xiulen was actually able to make herself into a Ghost type!
"Watch me carefully, trying to focus on my body and then strike with a Normal or Fighting type of attack. If you land the blow, then you've managed to capture the technique of Foresight, if at least at that moment."

Renny rubbed his leg and shoulder for an instant, still aching as he glared at Xiulen, not out of malice, but because he tried to use the sensation he'd experience whenever he used Mean Look. He had half a guess that if he could alter the move slightly, he could force the Ghost type to be unable to "flee" to the opposite dimension that ghosts were privy to. He then bolted forward with a Rock Smash attack at normal power. Something weak but appropriate.
His blow passed effortlessly through Xiulen's body.
"I can see that you're trying. Keep it up but don't push yourself too hard," Xiulen encouraged Renny, hopping back so that Renny could just rush her again.

"What is it like, being incorporeal?" Renny was curious about the capability, both for the practical purpose of trying to determine if he could take advantage of the knowledge and for pure youthful curiousity.
"It's...cold," Xiulen said. "But not in a way that you can just shiver for warmth or throw on a jacket. I think that when it comes to using Foresight the easiest, that you're not actually aiming for what you perceive to be my body, but something that you can't normally see. My soul. In other words, Foresight isn't about seeing me with your eyes. It's about seeing me with your own soul. Hell, you might be able to do it better if you struck me with your eyes closed."
Renny figured that this might in some way be related to the auras that Mika told him about. Seeing his target in a way his eyes wouldn't normally perceive, eh?

Renny decided to try it Xiulen's way and closed his eyes, taking deep breathes that got quicker and shorter. He looked deep in thought for several moments, but his forehead looked relaxed as he finally moved toward Xiulen in a smooth darting motion and just threw his fist in the direction he thought Xiulen would be.

It seemed like he actually felt a little resistance this time. "Sorry, I accidentally used Detect," Xiulen apologized. "I'm just kidding, that was better. I could feel your fist this time.
"It was... hard. I kept trying to think how exactly I should make the attack, the approach, what style. Then I just felt that I shouldn't really try to think of a tactic or trick. Or rather, nothing at all. I can't really explain properly... just that I felt that using a specific move, or a style of some sort was kinda... deceptive? I dunno. It just felt more like the truth when I just put all of myself, and just throwing it out there."

"However you envision it, it's starting to work," Xiulen said. "And now perhaps trying the Miracle Eye."
Here, Xiulen assumed a rather sinister-looking combat stance that made Renny wish he was wearing a protective cup.
"My Dark Stance allows me to be a very interesting opponent for you. Your Gallade form's Psychic powers are completely useless, but I'm weak to your Fighting type skills. Regardless, the point of this is to help you use Miracle Eye so that your Psychic type attacks get through my otherwise impregnable defense. To understand how to breach a Dark type's defenses against Psychic damage, you need to understand the mentality behind Dark type attacks. It's all about violence. Dirty tricks. Playing nasty just to win. It's this dark, abysmal mentality that makes the Dark type so resistant to your psychic attacks."

Renny understood what she said, although his perception of the dark type felt different due to his own experience with Umbreon.
"To explain it in easier terms, a psychic cannot see the mind of the dark target in other to strike it with mental assaults. Miracle Eye makes that psychic connection possible by shining an invisible light in a sea of intangible blackness. You will use your special vision like before, except this time you're looking for my mind, which in my dark stance might even be more difficult than hunting down my spirit."

At least Renny didn't have to move very far. With his signature move, Psycho Cut, he could release the attack from the distance. He stared once more into Xiulen, looking into her eyes, and drawn drawn into a seemingly expanseless void. He staggered and shook his head.
"It's like trying to find your keys when you dropped them in a public pool filled with used oil, isn't it?" Xiulen asked. "It takes a special kind of focus to see in this kind of darkness."

"You are a painter with words." Renny said, feeling that had pretty much exactly described the enveloping darkness. After a moment, he tried again, looking back into it.
It really was like trying to see when you were completely submerged in tar. How the hell were Pokemon able to make it look so easy?

"Why is it that this move allows psychic types to hit dark types? Why is it that psychic types are ineffective against dark types? I didn't think that smarts and tactics would be useless against their rough tricks... Or rather, why they weak to dark moves in the first place? Psychic types weaknesses... dark, ghost... and bug. Is there a link to them?"

After a moment, young Tresserhorn powered up a large beam of violet light from his arm and flung it toward Xiulen watching it impact.
Renny took a deep breath as he looked at Xiulen. For the minor amount of physical exertion, he looked visually exhausted.

"It... it is fear. The phobias such as creepy crawlies, the supernatural and the unknown in the dark is what causes both the psychic type to become vulnerable, and in the case of dark type to lose their power, because they can't defend against what they can't comprehend."
"You might have a point in saying that," Xiulen nodded. The damage she received was genuine, but Xiulen knew how to take a blow...any kind of blow. "Poketologists the world over are always conducting research on matters such as these, trying to figure out the reasons that things are the way they are, like why the water and ground types are effective against fire but not the ice type. For me, it's little to do about research and more to do about feeling. Not even the wisest people in the world can figure out absolutely everything. Otherwise, Poketologists probably would no longer exist."

"Before it evolved, my Eevee used to be afraid of the dark. She would be practically paralyzed come nighttime, rattled from the slightest noise and terrified by the shadows that moved from beyond our sights. I tried to encourage her, let her know that I was there and so were my other pokemon, but that didn't help much because back then when we were out in the wild at night and all of my pokemon were unevolved, we all feared the night then. Then one night, we were caught outside on a cloudy night. At first Eevee and I were spooked by the various outdoor noise, but then the clouds parted and we were under the light of a harvest full moon. Everything under its pale glow was revealed for as what they actually were, mostly others that hid in the dark because they too feared what they couldn't see. It wasn't long until Eevee evolved and was able to shine her own light."
"Be that as it may, consider your training over for now. If we continue any further, you're gonna pop your carotid artery or something. Eat some food, get some sleep, saddle up with your favorite girl, etc."

And just like that, Xiulen dismissed him and returned to her own training. She had some crazy potential, literally able to change her own form based on how she stood.

[Menarker]

*About two days later*

After some time had passed Renny came back, feeling still slightly sore but mostly rejuvenated. He had spent much of his time on aiding Swampert with Belly Drum, healing the pokemon's self inflicted stress by some application of Heal Pulse. His own training was more gradual, as he felt like he burnt more energy than normal, especially when he tried to practice with Flame Charge. He compensated for this energy expense in between training with delicious food and lots of soaking in the bath. Practicing Miracle Eye was mostly a matter of trying to levitate his Umbreon and doing other non-damaging psychic moves to the rabbit/cat pokemon. However, it would be more difficult to train Foresight given that he owned no ghost pokemon of his own. And the only ghost pokebrid he knew off the top of his head Whitney, he didn't want to directly challenge to a training spar, especially so close to the party.

He then dropped by again to see Xiulen, respectfully sneaking into the room quietly while she was in the midst of training only speaking up once there was a lull in her actions.
"Hello? Xiulen? I was wondering if we can pick up from where we left off?"

Xiulen nodded. "I am to teach you Sweet Kiss and your Swampert is to be taught Soak. Very well, then. Leave Swampert here and I will begin his training. As for you, I will require that you bring a girl here with whom you will learn and practice Sweet Kiss. If you should decide that this girl is me, that is fine. But I'm sure you would prefer to choose who you will be kissing."

And without waiting for a response from Renny, Xiulen began to train Swampert in the use of Soak. It looked easy enough. Just generate enough water with which to thoroughly drench the target from hair to clothes to skin.

Renny looked downright sheepish as he left Swampert with Xiulen, waving to his pokemon, promsing to be back soon, which Swampert seem to have assumed without needing to be reassured. The Gallade wandered the PATCA halls slowly, thinking on who he would be kissing.

Swampert inhaled and took a deep breath, his belly swelling to large proportions until he released the lock on his mouth and let it all erupt, flooding Xiulen general location with water.

Renny wandered the PATCA halls nervously as he thought of whom he would have to do the kiss with. Then he bumped into Darcelle.

"Darcelle! I wasn't paying attention. I'm so sorry!" He apologized for not paying attention to his surroundings, absorbed in his thoughts as he was. "Have you been doing well?"
Renny then realized that it was kind of pointless to ask that when talking to Darcelle. This chick always looked like she was jacked up on sugar. "Oh, it is you, Ren-Ren! You seem to be in a rush of some kind! What is that has you rushing to and fro so much!?"

Goddamnit, she was so unusual to have a conversation with.

Renny explained without thinking. "Xiulen was going to teach me the move 'Sweet Kiss', and she needed me to bring a girl along to practice with." He rubbed the back of his head in embarressment. "I wasn't looking where I was going because I was thinking who I should ask."
"Oooo! That sounds like such fun! You should totally ask Miss Rio to help you learn that! I think that she is the kind of person who has a lot of experience with kissing people! I would volunteer myself, but I do not think I have ever kissed anyone before! It would not be easy for you to learn that way!"

Renny just had to note that Darcelle was saying all of these things rather loudly. It wouldn't be long before his fellow agents were going to show up to investigate this awkward conversation.
Renny thought quickly about what Darcelle said. Although Rio was attractive for sure, he just didn't feel that sort of chemistry between them. As for the girl in front of him...
"If you are interested... Would you like to try it anyway?"
Renny tugged on her hand trying to lead her along gently to Xiulen so as not to be stuck in the same place if someone showed up to investigate her loud voice blurting out potentially embarrassing facts.
Darcelle was strangely quiet and obedient when Renny brought her along for his kissing lessons back in the underground.

"Okay," Xiulen began as she dismissed Swampert. Seems like he mastered the very easy technique, given how thoroughly moistened Xiulen was. Renny just had to wonder how in the hell Xiulen was able to use Sunny Day inside a building to dry herself off.
"Please describe for me your kissing experience."

Renny flinched a little. "Err... I have only done it a few times, like two or three times ever? I think I can safely say that I'm not very experienced."
"I have not kissed anything except for a tentacle!" Darcelle shouted enthusiastically.

Oh gawd.

Xiulen folded her arms.
"I would think you should find someone with considerably more experience, because it could be difficult to master Sweet Kiss when you are a person inexperienced with kissing who is kissing someone else that is inexperienced with kissing. But at least one of you seems to be enthusiastic about this."

Renny felt a little embarressed by this comment. He did like Darcelle, it's just that the entire ritualized aspect of this kiss done to learn a pokebrid move caused him to be nervous. But he tried to relax and lower his guard for her sake.
"When one thinks of a sweet kiss, they expect it to have a single defined form," Xiulen pointed out. "However, that is not the case. Remember that the object of using Sweet Kiss is to impart confusion unto your opponent. The same kind of kiss delivered to the same kind of place will not work. So, in actuality, practicing with just this woman will not be enough for you to master this move. Still, by this practice alone, you will at least come to understand the principles behind it."

"Your objective in learning Sweet Kiss is to kiss your partner that you can literally rock the person's mind," Xiulen continued. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to learn this without trying. So, begin and experiment, and try to figure out just what can make your target feel like they're flying."

Having to kiss Darcelle was difficult and nerve-wracking enough, but then Renny saw her face. Her expression was dead serious, like Darcelle was trying to crush him with her own gaze.
Without a single word, Darcelle grasped Renny's head, holding him in place. And then her face came in for the kill.
"Renny, I believe that you're supposed to be the one to learn Sweet Kiss, not her," Xiulen was laughing.

If confusion was something that was supposed to happen, then Renny had to admit that Darcelle was an expert. He had to focus on breathing through his nose because Darcelle had nearly clogged his throat with her tongue.

Renny was short on breath as his tongue pressed against hers trying to push it from the back of his throat to get some air. The sensation of her tongue and lips against his was electrifying. Then he tried to wrest control from her, one hand running along the back of her head, held firmly and the other sliding down her spine down to her rear which he clasped just as tightly as he pulled her close to the point that there was no space in between the two. His tongue was wrapped in hers forcefully, a fierce power struggle between the two in the attempt to determine who could pin the other into submission.

Xiulen sighed, then turned to Swampert. "Swampert, use Soak!"

Swampart almost seemed too enthusiastic to splash his master with water.

Renny parted, still feeling very hot under the collar, and looking at Darcelle with downright amazement. She was even sexier when soaked. Water droplets in her raven black hair caught the light and sort of resembled a tiara. Though this was offset by the fact that she was in her rather spooky Darkrai form.

"You're supposed to be trying to learn Sweet Kiss, not dueling each other to each which of you can eat the other's tongue out," Xiulen said with a shrug. "I would tell you to try again, but this isn't really something you should rush because then you'll end up impregnating Darcelle. Try it later, and maybe get some other girls to try it with. Just don't get weird about it."

Renny recalled his smirking pokemon to the pokeball. He was stumped since the previous instructions was to try to mentally overwhelm her although if something on the scale of what Darcelle and Renny just did failed to, then he was kinda lost on how to proceed from there.

"Well, we were trying our best to 'rock each other's world' so to speak. If something like that isn't the way to go, do you have any other suggestions on how to approach it? Frankly, I felt dazed from that at first, so I thought she wasn't too far off."

However, he also thought privately to himself... "Although I probably need to think of a faster kiss that'll do the trick. It's not like I can prolong the kiss in the middle of intense combat situations. Not unless everyone stops what they are doing to watch..."

"Unfortunately, this is not one of those moves that you can understand by pounding on your stomach or flapping your wings in a certain way," Xiulen said. "There's a sort of X-factor that you just won't understand until you happen upon it, usually entirely by accident."

"... I guess so. Thank you for the help you have given me and my pokemon. I won't let you down."

Renny took Darcelle's hand and started to lead her to a dressing room, where she could get a towel and dry off. For that matter, he'd need to dry off too after that torrential output.
"... I hope I didn't betray your expectations for your first kiss." He absentmindly licked his lips from the lingering sensation.
"What expectations could one possibly have, Ren-Ren?" Darcelle asked him with a cute little tilt of her head. "A kiss is far more than merely the pressing of one's lips upon those of another. It is rather difficult for anyone to express what a kiss might truly be about."

Renny was very certain that Darcelle was packing multiple personalities in that head of hers. This wasn't anything like how she behaved merely fifteen minutes ago.

"I guess you're right. I suppose I was thinking too hard about it." He was a little surprised at the response. It was a very mature sort that clashed with the behavior she had shown not too long ago. "But... I really enjoyed it. At least I feel happy having done it with you."
Darcelle blushed happily and embraced Renny with a hug that could make any man melt. "Awww, you're such a little sweetie pie! Just don't forget that you are supposed to actually learn something from kissing me other than what I had for lunch."

Renny hugged back feeling much better about the entire experience as a whole, even if he was a bit nervous earlier.
"Well, I definately feel more experienced now, thanks to you. But it's like Xiulan said... I'll have to practice some more... Maybe we should do this again sometime..."
"You can count on Darcie!" Darcelle said, flexing one of her slender arms. "But you might learn quicker if you kiss lotsa girls!"

Kissing a lot of different girls, eh? Renny knew some that he could count on for training.

"I suppose I would." He smiled broadly. "Anyhow, we should be getting dried off! Swampert really went overboard with soaking us. I'm so sorry about that."
Darcelle already had a solution in mind, Pokeshifting into her Groudon form. They were getting dry really fast.
"There, all dry. Or maybe you would have preferred I shift into Kyogre and we could get even wetter?"

Renny chuckled. "Perhaps at a later date. Got a lot of preparations for the coming mission to make." He said as he turn around to face the rays here and there, drying off his shirt and pants.

[DanteFalcon]

Matthias / Jeanette / Mio

"You might feel a sharp prick..." "I feel this is hardly the time."

Jeanette was studying a bunch of notes on a clipboard at her desk. According to what she had told Matthias, these were datalogs retrieved from Millenium House. If there was any chance of Matthias safely becoming a Ruin Pokebrid like Mio, it was going to have to be at the expense of relying on the late Reynold Faynoc's nefarious research.

"Are you certain this is how it goes?" Jeanette asked the very young daughter of Empress Sakuya.
"Is it safe? Am I certain that's how it goes? What are the possible side effects?" Mio asked in mock sarcasm. "Professor, try to understand that there are no absolutes when it comes to this. If Sona-san is that determined to become a Pokebrid and you're not going to give him a definitive 'no', then you're just going to have to trust Professor Faynoc's research."

Jeanette looked at Mio, hoping she might say something more helpful or reassuring, but got nothing. She sighed and slid the clipboard so that Matthias could have a gander.
"The process is remarkably similar to how one splices Pokemon and human DNA to create either Pokemon Hybrids and Pokesapiens, but there're some alarming differences in specific areas. Like large injections of drugs that I would normally never offer in such grandiose amounts. And Mio's saying you'll probably be hallucinating the whole time you assume that form, whether at peace or in combat. I can't really deny you since this is you and your body, but are you sure you want to go through with this procedure?"

"The hallucinations aren't terribly bad," Mio shrugged. "Seeing random splotches of blood on walls, spotting flowers growing right out of solid ground, a possible run-in with a ghost that doesn't actually exist. It's not so bad when you get used to it."

Matthias flipped through the clip board slowly, just re-examining the paperwork while the two informed him.
"Well as far as I see it, the insight could be useful, I've been through multiple pokebrid forms already so I'm used to side affects with each one. Hell, for a while I couldn't invite anyone over without effectively calling in a hazmat squad to clean up the apartment. Besides..." Matthias smiled slightly as he continued. "No absolutes right? I might gain super powers from this then. What's the worst that could happen? And if you say death, I'd say you aren't creative enough so please don't."
He shrugged slightly.
"Frankly the choice isn't really about me one way or the other so I'd rather not waste more time talking about it."

Jeanette stared at Matthias with a concerned expression on her face. Geez, her green eyes were so pretty.
"Well, that's that, then, I guess," she said finally, getting out of her chair. "If the patient would follow me, please. Kazetsubaki-chan, you too."

Matthias was strapped down as usual and left to wait for the injection that would knock him out so that the procedure could begin. When he awoke, he had to admit that he didn't feel any different.
"Is he experiencing any side effects, Mio-chan?"
"No way to tell. He's still in his current form. He should be able to sense the addition to his little DNA library. Once he Pokeshifts into a Pulverot, that's when the magic happens."

For the safety of the staff and the facility, Matthias had been moved to a large but solidly confined space. A dark window on one wall indicated that he was probably be watched by people he couldn't see. Mio, on the other hand, was inside the room with him.
"Professor, once he shifts to his Pulverot form, there needs to be absolutely no sound coming from the exterior of this room. If his mind gets taken over by the Rezonscape, your voice is going to drive him to violence."

Mio then slowly approached Matthias as he was automatically released from the holding table until she stood about ten yards apart from him.
"Well, Sona-san," Mio said after a deep breath. "Give 'er a shot."

Matthias stretched slightly, glancing to the window and then to Mio before closing his eyes, breathing slowly, counting under his breath as he cleared his mind and found his center.
"If this goes poorly, my apologies in advance Mio."
And with that he tapped into the new and reticent DNA, bringing it to activity. His skin paling as it became dominant, small blades forming near his wrists and a dark spot between his eyes, doing his best to remain focused and in control.

Matthias automatically noted several odd features as he Pokeshifted into his new form. For one, he was quite a bit taller as he watched Mio get smaller. He could smell his own body, a scent that he couldn't quite describe but didn't find all that unpleasant. And holy shit, the muscles! He could probably crush bricks with his chin. Mio seemed completely calm despite the sudden changes in her temporary roommate.
"Is your sight okay? I doubt it's normal."

True dat. Matthias was certain that Mio was standing on soft grass and that he could see a waterfall not five feet behind her. The colors seemed to wash together on occasion but he was getting used to it, bit by bit.

"Well, just to make sure, we have not, in fact, teleported outside of the room we were in right? And they did not do sudden landscaping and adding of a waterfall in here in the time it took me to transform. Just to make absolutely certain that yes, I am crazy and not just narcoleptic. Otherwise, physically I feel mostly fine. Sight is....partial colorblindness and hallucinogenic but improving. Admittedly, I'm not used to being this physically fit. I feel like I just cheated my way through a lot of steroid usage."
Matthias shifted about slightly, stretching about as he lightly tested the limits.
"That's it? Kinda boring," Mio admitted. "I think I was in Narnia for a whole month after Faynoc pulled this kind of crap with me. Anyways, on to the hard part."

Mio turned towards what Matthias now saw was the black window.
"Alright, Professor, please read off the following internet memes provided. Let's see how he reacts to voices not from others of a similar mental state."

The loudspeaker crackled with the clearing of Professor Ricewood's voice. If Matthias was expecting agony, he was quite disappointed.
"Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level? It's over nine-thousand!"
Then there was a pause. "How is that an internet meme? That doesn't seem really funny."

The whole time, Mio was carefully watching Matthias. "No fair. You're doing a lot better than I was. I wonder if it's because you've been a Pokebrid for a long time before the procedure?"

"Admittedly, I did find anger about that meme still being around. At all. Seriously, it wasn't even funny the first time. It must've been originally said when I was like 5 or something."
And with that, his face paled a bit, his eyes flickering to a ghost at the edge of his vision.
"That's...gonna take getting used to. Deceased siblings are not fun to see. Any actual hauntings or just sporadic hallucinations from your experience?"
Matthias was visibly shaken for the first time in quite a while, rolling his shoulders to try and work off the shock.
"But if that's the worst of it I guess I should count myself lucky. Though I did miss out on Narnia."
"I'll keep an eye on him," Mio offered to the professor when they were allowed out of the chamber. "I'm sure he's fine, but you can't be too careful. He might have an adverse reaction in combat. The Pulverot mind is all about a lust for violence and destruction."

"That's the reason I chose it so I would hope so. I'll do my best to keep it targetted on our enemies alone. I might also want a sparring partner to get used to controlling it during high stress situations."
Matthias walked slowly, still getting used to the body change and trying to ignore hallucinations as they cropped up, no matter how much Jeannette looked good in a hotdog outfit.
"Have you ever sold concessions at ball games Jeannette?"
Jeanette tilted her head quizically. Mio shrugged. "It could be worse. He could be seeing you in a dominatrix outfit."

The professor frowned. "And to think I had enough disturbing thoughts with my daughter being a Shadow Pokebrid."

[Menarker]

When dating gets really physical: Renny X Catherine


It's not often when a guy and girl consider a training gym as a place to have a romantic date. But then again, Catherine wasn't a particularly romantic girl. She was more about relationships with a strong physical attachment.

"I'm just saying, don't you feel a little embarrassed that I can benchpress more than you?"
Catherine was asking Renny as she checked out a towel. "Then again, you've never had much of an ego on you, have you?"

Renny wiped his brow a bit.
"Well, I've only started training in earnest some months ago." He protested halfheartedly. "I'm actually a bit stronger than I was before!"

That said, the fact that Catherine could benchpress more didn't bother him, given that several other ladies in PATCA have proven to be able to kick his butt already. Kurika especially did a number on him already. Also, the stronger they were, the better the chance they'd survive the future battles.

Renny noticed that Catherine focused a lot more on speed training and aerobic exercises as opposed to beating the snot out of a punching bag. He found it particularly arousing when Catherine was jumping rope. So much jiggle... He stared a bit with his head bouncing in tempo, although he would turn his head away and get back lifting weights when she looked his way, so as not to look like he was slacking.

"Do you always train like this? Or rather, if for some reason we didn't have to be fight in the future, would you still want to practice boxing?"
Catherine looked thoughtful for a moment. "Here's an interesting tip about women, Renny. We actually love to punch things. We just don't have the fists for it, so assholes get a slap instead. Although I guess some women still put their fists to work in the end, I got around it by boxing."

Renny nodded slightly, as he laid back and refocused his effort on lifting the bar and a few bells attached to it. He was awfully self conscious about not dropping the bar onto himself or finding himself in a situation where he'd lack the strength to lift the bar back onto the rack, but continued to exert himself.
"I'll grab it if you can't lift it anymore," Catherine offered with a smile.

Well, thanks for the offer, Catherine, but do you have to straddle me while you watch?!
No doubt about it. People were definitely watching Renny pumping iron while Catherine pumped Renny. Some of them were shocked. Some of them were jealous.

The Gallade finally lifted his last rep of the set as he let his arms droop for a moment along the side of the bench, as he looked up at Catherine who had mounted him. He sweated a lot, and he looked at her shirt for a moment, half tempted to see if her shirt became a little more form-fitting or see-through after a heavy work-out too.

"Don't overdo it or you won't be able to get out of bed in the morning," Catherine encouraged him. "Although I would have no problem being in bed with you all day."

As usual, she didn't hold back. Catherine also did some muscle training, mostly abdominal crunches while holding weights similar to the ones used on the weight bench. She already had an impressive muscle line, but it looked rather beastial when she was flexing it like that.
During the moments that Catherine took brief breaks, Renny approached from behind and used some of that massaging touch of Heal Pulse to soothe any of the aches, although he was a little less self-conscious about using it this time around, as he dug his fingers in a more firmly, starting with her shoulders and back, and running them along the sides, arms and hips. For the legs, he switched to moving to her front, where he devotively worked to soothe her calves and the outer part of her thighs, although he did blush heavily as he did contemplate being a bit more thorough.

"I was exercising with Bretton a while back. Hurt myself during training, so I got a massage from Raine. Trying to do it a bit like that, since it worked wonders for the pain."
He moved his fingers along her collar and neck, rubbing warmly, firmly but not gripping.
"Is that helping you feel better?"
"Maybe if there wasn't so many clothes between you and me." Catherine sighed contentedly, then checked the time on the Inquiry Visor.
"I guess it is about time we call it done after a nap in the sauna."

Renny helped her up and let her used his shoulder, even if she probably was strong enough to do without, leading her toward the change room. "I guess I'll see you in the sauna then."

Renny went to get changed into his swim shorts, black with yellow and red stripes slanted along the outer sides. He then checked outside not too far from the change room to find her relaxing exactly where she said she'd be.

Catherine was with him in the sauna, though Renny couldn't quite tell if she was topless just to tempt him or if it that was just how she also sat in the sauna. She had leaned back against the wall with her eyes closed, so Renny was certain that she probably did intend to take a nap here.
With her eyes closed, the more perverted and curious side to his nature overtook him as he studied her well built and endowed curves. He sat beside her protectively, watching her breathe in and out as she supposably slept. One hand was upraised, instinctively tempted by sight to touch what dangled seemingly unprotected in the open. With her leaning back against the wall at an angle, he slowly and gently wrapped one arm around her bare back. Then he leant in close and gave a kiss on the cheek, not wanting to go further while she was still possibly sleeping. All the while, he constantly made sure she was breathing and not overheated.

Catherine shifted towards him to lean on him.
"Maybe you shouldn't train all the time though," Catherine murmured. "I only like it when certain parts of you are hard. The rest can be nice and soft all it wants to."
Renny eyes were arched in a bit of surprise, but he was embolden as he gave her a kiss on the lips, held one of her hands and held her close to make sure she didn't fall over as she leaned on him more. He also whispered in her ear.
"Catherine, with you helping with my training, you can probably help mold me to be the best... at anything."
"2 B A Mastah?" Catherine joked lightly. "Do you want to be the very best? That no one ever was?"
Renny chuckled mirthfully as he held her tight in an embrace, feeling her chest against his own.
"Mind if I say something before this sauna gets a whole lot steamier?" Catherine offered.
"Renny Tresserhorn has many fine qualities," Catherine began. "He's young, cute, cunning, I could just go on and on, but the more I say, the more that I feel any relationship between us is a bad idea. You know my past, but I feel I should clearly point it out in comparison to those of others. In other words, Renny Tresserhorn could easily have a harem of dozens, but I speak more of quality as opposed to quantity in this case. Lola is a fine woman, as are Milsha, Whitney, Rachel and Darcelle. But myself? Seems even to me to be kind of an awkward curve ball. At least those five were, or are, virgins. But I'm just a used up tramp, regardless of how lovely my gift wrap may be."

He looked downhearted as he heard all of this. "Was that bothering you all of this time Catherine? Your past was never something I would have ever been ashamed of. You were and still are the sort of freely caring, afffectionate and supportive person that I'm attracted to. That isn't the sort of thing that would get 'used up' no matter how much you give it away. "
He cradled her in his arms as he tried to reassure and comfort her. "You're just as incredible a woman and I would be a fool to throw a gift like you away because of something like that."
"Well, in that case, you can just consider me the gift that keeps on giving," Catherine said.

Needless to say, Catherine was a lot more experienced than any of the other girls, and as such, took the initiative on doing things that Renny certainly hadn't done with Lola yet. It was rather short lived, unfortunately, as they really couldn't remain in that sauna forever.

Renny heaved with heavy breath. "We... should probably find a more appropriate location. Or at the very least go for something good to eat. Something to enjoy after a workout like this." He commented mischeviously, much elated.
"We will go to Subway for pizza!" Catherine declared. "Which I always found weird, like how Dairy Queen has chicken strips. Why the fuck does Dairy Queen have chicken?"
"Heh, sure. Let's go!" He held onto her up until the change room where they had to part and get cleaned up in the showers to continue the rest of the date.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whitney/Renny: Connection in Metal Hell


During one of the days that Whitney came over to his place, Renny sat nearby on the couch.
"So... I have the day off tomorrow. Would you like to go out-"
"I don't think I'll be available for a while, Renny," Whitney interrupted him. "I'm going to Metal Hell and I plan to be there for some time."
Whitney then checked her Inquiry Visor. "Actually, I guess now's as good a time as any."
Renny still had questions about her departure to Metal Hell, but tabled them for later, while he got ready quickly. He had a notion there was going to be little negotiation in the matter.

"Alright Whitney. Do you have someplace in mind?"
"I have no idea. Metal Hell has so many entrances," Whitney looked thoughtful. "I guess the entrance right behind this hotel will do."

Renny nodded as he proceeded to escort his current partner down the hotel and through the manhole cover. Slumming the sewers was definately not something he had planned this week, or the next, although he knew deep down that he'd eventually have to check it out one day.
"So, Metal Hell has various levels right? Were you hoping to checkout the first floor? Or one of the deeper levels?"
"It's probably deeper than the first level," Whitney said, never elaborating on what 'it' was in reference to. "Well, ladies first."

Metal Hell described the place they found themselves in pretty damn well. There was a lot of metal, plus it was both dark and a little hot.
"Definitely lower than here," Whitney observed to herself. "Maybe there's a ladder or some steps or something..."
Renny looked around in the dark slowly, watching his steps making sure there wasn't any sudden drops or sudden threats around the corner. He activated Flash (The TM move, dummy!) and lit the place up, although it was still spooky as the walls glistened with wetness and trash littered the floor with mold and a stream of whatever... gunk it was... Probably sewage.
"If we follow that, there is probably going to be a section leading down. Perhaps a service maintence ladder would be nearby... Not that this place gets any much needed clean-up."
As they traversed the tunnels, it wasn't long until they figured out that using Flash wasn't the best idea.
"We're getting into a lot of Pokemon battles," Whitney said as she checked Scolipede and Armaldo's status. "I think the brighter lighting is pissing them off."
Renny shut down the beaming radiance with a sorry expression. Without Flash, Whitney had to instruct Renny on how to use psycho vision. It was...weird. Like seeing vague lights in a fog.
"Well, just stick close to me, then," Whitney offered, taking Renny's hand. "I'd never forgive myself if you got hurt because of me."
Renny took her hand, the feeling being rather mutual.

Granted, it wasn't that dark, and they began to realize why. Metal Hell was quite populated in certain areas. There were even a few ramshackle houses with working television sets after some people with electrical skills connected the electronics up to power boxes that they should never have been hooked up to.
"So err, why did you want to stay in Metal Hell for a time?"
"I might not have to," Whitney said. "Maybe. I need to see what my mind is telling me."
"Alright." It was still vague, but he was getting used to that.
They stumbled across what could only be thought of as a makeshift Pokemon Center. One of the healing machines was hooked up to the city power and a young girl wearing flattering, if not filthy, clothes was standing near it, ready to serve customers.
"Welcome to the Pokemon Center," the girl said with a smile on her face. "Unfortunately, Pokemon Centers here in Metal Hell do charge money. Gotta eat somehow."
Whitney shrugged and paid for her services and Renny did likewise. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. Information is still free down here."
"Odd. Information can get pretty expensive aboveground," Whitney observed to herself. "Anyways, I'm looking for a man. A Gallade Pokebrid."
"But miss? There's one standing right next to you. And he's really cute."
Whitney shook her head. "No, this guy is different. Actually kinda looks like me, goes by the name Wyatt."
Renny looked astounded but said nothing while Whitney was talking to the Center's Matron.
"So, another Gallade Pokebrid?" the woman confirmed. "Well, if there is one, he didn't come through here."
Whitney frowned.
"Don't worry, I would know," the woman continued. "We all would know. People pass through this place maybe once every two weeks or so, and they usually liven up the town just by being another conversation piece. By the way, a word of advice, if I may. People got their eyes on you. You look like you carry more money than what you paid me, and some assholes don't much care for good, honest work to earn their daily bread."
Whitney thanked the woman and left.

"Metal Hell extends far and wide...and deep. Maybe he found a different way into the sub basements."
"So... What made you think Wyatt was down here? Did you overhear some info or something like that?" He didn't dare mention that it sounded absurd to search for a man supposably killed in front of their own eyes by Phantomere himself.
"I...can't really explain it very well," Whitney said. "I can admit the truth. He's dead, and I saw it with my own eyes, but not very long ago I started...sensing him. I've been having dreams, seeing visions whenever I let my mind go idle. Maybe it's because we were twins, I don't know. But something down here 'feels' like him and it's going to drive me apeshit."
"Let's go find it then." The other Gallade said, clenching Whitney's hands reassurably and with a small smile. "Doesn't matter what we saw before. You think you sense him? We'll check it out until you're satisfied."
That said, he paid more attention to his surroundings. While he left Whitney to focus on the feelings of her brother and whatever direction she might scry him to be, Renny bared his attention on the more earthly matters like random pokemon or the more unruly bums out for their money and goods. The arm not holding her own wielded protectively with an extended armblade.
"We should probably turn back," Whitney decided finally. "I dipped around the minds of those below us...and I'm not comfortable with what I got. If we go down, we should be prepared to kill something."
"... As you wish. But I've been practicing. I can fight to my fullest without worry that I might kill anyone. It's up to you though. We can come back later with a bigger team."
"Who do you think we can get?" Whitney asked him as they started heading back.
"Hmm.... Lola said that Laurith has been around Metal Hell before. She might be useful as a guide. If it isn't too traumatizing to ask. Aster might be able to help with detecting psychic energy or using his psychic abilities to guide us in other ways. Otherwise, we got lots of good fighters." Renny said offhandingly with some suggestions.
"So... Anything else down here you want to check out? Or you wanna head back to the surface and do something else?" Whitney's escort tried to think of ideas. "I do have a promise I haven't kept with you yet still."

And then Renny had to stop when he realized that he was the only one walking. Whitney was suddenly as still as a statue... well, except for the shivering. Her eyes were wide and afraid, darting in random directions. Her mouth hung open as though she couldn't fit her thoughts into words.
He darted back toward her taking his place at her side, blades at ready and focusing his willpower toward his eyes as she had recently instructed him.
"Whitney, I'm right here."
Renny didn't sense something until he accidentally brushed up against her. The psychic shockwave nearly floored him. Then he could see it, too.
"So you believe that I should have been the only one who repented..." a familiar voice emanated from ahead of Whitney.
Renny was sure it was Wyatt, but somebody emptied the special effects budget for him. His body appeared wobbly and indistinct and his face was so warped and mangled that it didn't even look human. Renny recognized the fatal wound left on him. It continued to bleed far more than a wound should ever have.
Whitney fell to her knees and was weeping uncontrollably in her hands. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! Forgive me, my love!"
There's that creepy incestuous vibe again. You'd think she'd have gotten over it after he died.
It wasn't easy to tell, but Wyatt was now holding a great scythe that resembled the one wielded by Phantomere when the latter ended the former. Wyatt took one step and somehow cleared ten feet.
Renny stepped in between Wyatt and Whitney, opposing his counterpart defiantly.
"If you have any love for your sister, stand back. Why do you torment her like this now when she had nothing but affection for you and your memory? Why are you here specifically in this place?"
"I remember you," Wyatt lisped. "I take it this is why my sister refused to end her suffering."
"Stop it, brother!" Whitney wailed. "He has nothing to do with it, I stayed my death on my own hands!"
"We thought... I thought Wyatt fought to the end to protect her life, to ensure her happiness. How dare you demand she ends what her brother Wyatt spent his life, alive and at death for? I doubt if you're truly him, or an imposter. But even if you're truly him, that is truly a selfish demand."
"You are one to speak of imposters," Wyatt chuckled. "Did you become a Gallade Pokebrid in order to replace me as her most precious object? Perhaps you did so to convince her that life was still worth living? I wonder what would happen if I were to simply remove you from her life?"
One more step and then the great scythe was arcing towards Renny's neck.
"Go away!" Whitney shrieked, driving Wyatt back dozens of feet with a psychic blast that almost knocked Renny off his feet.
Whitney stood up and walked forward several paces. "Harm him and I will consume you!"
The distorted Wyatt struggled to his feet. "Is that the power of your pure and selfless thoughts or perhaps just focused insanity, sister? Well, I suppose I will go now. I wish not for my sister to be devoured by the Rezonscape. Not even she deserves that."
And like that, Wyatt vanished in a distorted wash of colors. Renny barely had a chance to move before Whitney dove into him, hugging him close enough to break him in two and crying.

Renny said nothing but held her close and let her cry. Nothing that he felt he could have said seemed like it would have made this tragic moment any better. To have the spirit of a devoted loved one perverted into a hostile spectre seeking her death. It left a bitter taste to his memory.
After a while, he stood her up, still holding onto her. "We should go. I don't think there is anything we can do here now."
"Yes," Whitney said, managing to pry herself from his body. "Yes, we should hurry. I need to think about this. I hope this doesn't mean that Phantomere hasn't died properly."
They were troubled no further as they made their way back up. It wasn't the entrance they used before, and now they were standing near an Italian buffet that Renny recalled to be just a few city blocks down from the hotel.
"I don't remember too much of Reynold Faynoc's research into the Rezonscape," Whitney took in the fresh air. "But I think that bringing back the lost psyches of the slain is beyond the power of the Rezonscape, no matter how mysterious and powerful it is. Something else must have bound my brother to this place, and I can think of no-one or nothing save his murderer, Phantomere."
"It's a possibility. While I could have sworn we dealt with him, something that deals with souls and spirits might have a means of dealing with their own death. I'll keep an eye out and make a report to Irene about this, if you want. So we can all keep an eye out for him." He then thought for a moment.
"If Wyatt threatens you again, will you let me know? I don't want you to be alone when trying to deal with him."
Whitney nodded. "Yeah...but for now, we should eat. I overused the piss out of my mind and I will require many calories."
"Would here do nicely?"
Whitney took a quick moment to sniff herself. "Yeah, I think we look okay."
Renny sniff himself for a moment too, given that they just came out of the sewer. "Not exactly smelling like a Roserade, but I guess no one will complain. We could freshen up later." He agreed.

Whitney's mood dramatically improved now that she was well fed.
"One thing you guys should remember is that the way to a woman's heart is usually also through her stomach," Whitney pointed out as she dragged Renny off to a love hotel. Renny may have had some reservations about doing these kinds of things with Whitney after what happened just beneath the very streets they were walking on, but they weren't walking.
They were staggering. Whitney hit the sauce pretty damn hard, though Renny was sure she didn't do it to put her awful experience to rest.
Renny had Whitney lean on him for support even though he wasn't the stablest at the moment either. When they got to the love hotel, he reserved a room with a big bath so they could freshen up in comfort and then took the elevator to the room.
Whitney laid on the bed after her shower, loosely wrapped in a towel as she surfed channels of the television.
"You know, I'm surprised," Whitney slurred. "I thought there would be a lot more porn. They actually have cartoon network and stuff."
"They probably got everything to cater to anyone's interests, especially before and after." Renny said as he wiped himself off with a towel, getting himself dry and soon laying beside Whitney on the mattress. As his first experience in the love hotel went, he felt more relaxed than he expected to be.
"I guess I was overthinking things when I thought of a love hotel before." He mused to himself privately as he glanced from the TV to look at Whitney wrapped in only a towel right beside him. He was curious about what she was thinking at this exact moment, especially with all that was happen not even a few hours ago.
In one movement, Whitney turned off the television and turned over to mount Renny while leaving her towel behind.
"I had to drink, you see," Whitney told him. "I had to drink to get my nerve up. Otherwise, I don't think I could have ever mustered the courage. I won't lie to you just like I won't lie to myself. I'm a damaged woman, Renny. Not physical or nothing but mentally. Who knows? Maybe it was me that created Wyatt since I've never been able to get over his loss. But regardless of what my mind might do to destroy me, I won't let it harm you."
She leaned back so that Renny could see everything.
"I don't know if you ever intended anything by becoming a Gallade Pokebrid, but in a way it kind of cementing the connection I feel with you. You've taken up a place in my heart. A place I simply can't empty anymore. A place not even my brother could hold. So please, Renny. I'll do absolutely anything, just never leave my side."
The Gallade didn't say anything at first, listening intently as he carressed her thighs and sides and eventually cupping her chest with his hands as he gazed at her nakedness. Then when she finished, he leaned forward with a kiss.
"Well, I'd try to say something deep, but you told me before that I talk too much during these moments. Instead... let me demonstrate to you how I feel..."
He pulled her closer as he nuzzled the nape of her neck, kissed her firmly on the lips with raw passion and touched at all of her intimate and secret places with his hands and the rest of his body, holding back nothing from his companion.

It was too bad that they couldn't stay, but the trek back to Renny's apartment wasn't difficult and Whitney was responsive up until he placed her in his bed.
"Brother, I'm so sorry..." Whitney mumbled in her sleep.
No doubt about it. Whitney was probably never going to be alright in the head until she defeated this demon within her.
Renny was deep in thought about how to deal with this phantasm that plagued Whitney. In particular, he especially worried that he could physically manifest again and attempt to take her life.
After she rested a bit and woke up... He made a suggestion.
"Whitney, about before. I don't like the idea of Wyatt being able to phase in at almost any time he pleases and trying to kill you. I was wondering if you like to stay here as one of my room-mates, at least until we get all of that sorted out."
"For the sake of making any kind of shoddy defense for him, I will go ahead and at least say that my brother can't just up and try to guilt trip me into suicide whenever and wherever he prefers," Whitney said in a really oddball humor. "There's something keeping him here and it isn't me. It's down there where he is, in Metal Hell, and I plan to go down there again at some point to find out what. I can't just leave it like that. No way in hell. But are you sure it'll be alright for me to stay here? I don't want my brother spying on Lola in the shower or anything."
"Well, he definately tried to kill me with that scythe of his, so I'm not ruling out the possibility that he couldn't kill you on his own. And I'd rather you'd not have to deal with this alone. I suppose I'd still need to ask Milsha and Lola if it is alright for you to room here, but I doubt they'd leave you alone like this. Anyhow, I agree something is odd with Metal Hell. I mean, I don't know of any reason why he would be connected to that place. His place of death was in Mystery Mansion... Did you or he have any deep connection down there during his life? Like living there for a time?"
Renny sighed for a moment. "Anyhow, when you try to go to Metal Hell again, take me with you."
"Well then, I guess I'd be an idiot not to accept staying with you, especially after what we did back at the hotel. As for Wyatt, I guess there's a possibility he was involved with that place while working for Faynoc, which of course he did until he died. I know Reynold was investigating the Rezonscape and probably Madsoldiers as well, perhaps believing they could be some sort of bridge when it came to understanding that phenomenon. But that was just business. I doubt he had a spiritual connection like a girlfriend or nothin'. He would've told me, I'm sure."
Renny nodded. "Alright. I'll talk with Lola and Milsha about letting you stay here, and I'll talk to Irene about this Metal Hell business, since there seems to be several messy business surrounding that area for it to be left alone for much longer."
"Sounds more like Prideguard business than anything PATCA can do, but sure," Whitney nodded. "There must be thousands of violent wackos beneath the first sub basement. With all of that, my brother should actually be the least of my worries."

[Menarker]

Renny's Household! Discussion of the future and adventure with Milsha.

Renny had gathered several of his closest friends around the dinner table. Lola, Whitney, Catherine and Milsha. He had a serious but non-threathening visage.
"Alright. I brought us here today because there might be some possible changes to make for the next few months. Whitney has been getting violent hauntings from her deceased brother Wyatt, who seems to be responding somehow to Metal Hell. He has also tried to kill me during the most recent one. There is also the experimentation done on Lola by Moeni that seems to react to strong emotions, which is also tied to the Rezonscape below Metal Hell. As such, until we dealt with these issues, I've offered to Whitney that could possibly join us as a room-mate. Also, Catherine, I was wondering if you'd like to join in as well. You practically already live here, you and Whitney get along well it seems, and with more people in the apartment, we can have a better chance of watching over each other."
He paused for a moment though. "That said, Milsha, a large part of this is up to you since the apartment is under your name. Also, I cannot deny that this means that for the next few months, we might be under a fair deal more risk. I can't be sure it will or won't... That and we'd need to discuss all the normal stuff like who sleeps where, getting a second fridge for all the food we'd need to get and all that." He was a little light-hearted as he said that last sentence but got more serious again.
"That said, I don't want any of you to have to cope with these situations alone. So I suppose I'm asking if we'd all agree to watch over each other, like one big family."
Milsha nodded without a second thought.
"They pretty much spend the night here sometimes anyways. And I've always been a huge fan of scary movies and video games."
Catherine got herself a fresh beer. Did she already start drinking this early in the morning?
"Yes, but these are real ghosts that can probably really kill you, Millie."
"That makes it even better!" Milsha said cheerfully. "Relax, we're not gonna die. We've got the sortie coordinator with us."

That part out of the way, the girls began their usual daily routines. Lola prepared to leave to go see her sister in the hospital again.
"She can't even stand without assistance," Lola was telling Catherine. "Think you can come with me and maybe figure out how to help her recover faster?"
"Eh, sure," Catherine said after crushing the can against her head and tossing it into the garbage. "You'd better take the wheel, though."
"Guess I'll help Whitney get her stuff back over here. I'll do the same for you Catherine, once you're done helping at the hospital. Hmm... Do we have enough spare rooms?" He was wondering if sleeping routines needed to change as well.
"It's not a big deal. I don't even use my room," Milsha said. "Strangely enough, I find the floor more comfortable than the bed."
Milsha took Whitney to her room that they now shared, although it was going to become Whitney's room very shortly. Milsha was an incredibly simple girl.
"Ok, so Milsha is sharing with Whitney. So I guess that means Catherine is sleeping with Lola?"
Then he wondered where he was going to sleep. Although most of his stuff was already in Lola's room. Although he didn't rule out the possibility that he'd end up sleeping on the couch, or switch rooms regularly.
"I guess you find something like this easy to get used to Milsha, living with several brothers on your farm." Renny observed. He on the other hand was an only child.
"My room is eight times larger than I need it to be," Milsha shrugged. "Then again, I do have a giant sword now, so maybe I need a little more space, but not much. If there is one thing I'm concerned about, it is where this Wyatt will sleep whenever he shows up. We may have to buy a sleeping bag or something."
"Wyatt has been harassing Whitney for quite a while. I'm not putting up space for him to sleep when he has been trying to kill her." Renny said flatly. Normally, he'd think that comment was a joke, but coming from Milsha, he was less certain.

Milsha looked thoughtful, then reached for her sword and left the apartment. Oh gawd, what's going on in that head of hers?
Renny stared with a little confusement and curiousity before he left the other girls to their devices and followed after Milsha.
"Everything alright? I didn't mean to be that curt with you. Or did you have something in mind?"
Milsha turned around and gave Renny a victory sign with her free hand. "I'm gonna go talk to Wyatt," she said as though she was just visiting a neighbor, then made her way out of the hotel.
"What? Err, wait, let me come with you. Perhaps I can at least show you where I last saw him. Or try to detect the energy I felt when he was around." He remarked quickly as he followed after her and into the sewers of Metal Hell again.
He guided Milsha through the darkness with the psycho senses that Whitney taught him recently.
"The wild pokemon don't seem to like bright lights" he explained. It didn't take that long to head back to the original point once they knew where to look...
But Milsha didn't stop there. Without even hesitating, once she found a way into the second sub basement, she took it. The air got slightly cooler, and more foul.
"I smell something that shouldn't be," Milsha said quietly, finally drawing her sword. "Try not to speak or make any other loud sounds."
Renny readied his arm-blades, following after her with a little distance between the two so she could swing her sword freely without worry as he tried to focus on her immediate surroundings, wondering what Milsha detected with her senses. He also readied his Foresight to prepare a defense against apparations like Wyatt.

The first scene they came across was like something out of a nightmare. A man in rags writing on a wall using blood from a severed Pokemon limb. Looked like a Houndoom's paw. And if that wasn't violent enough, the three-legged Houndoom darted out of the shadows and tackled the man to the ground, violently tearing at his face and throat.
Renny felt like he was gonna be sick, and doubted he'd get any sleep that night as he held a hand to his mouth.
It looked towards Milsha's direction before running away again. Milsha held her sword loosely and began to walk forward.
"So this is what the Rezonscape does to people," Milsha breathed as she glanced briefly at the corpse, still clutching the Houndoom's claw, and then examined the writing on the wall.
"I can't believe it's possible that someone can write worse than my little brother Jeb," she said. "Scarlet baptism... worship She who has paid the price of blood to grant us freedom from our fears. The hell?"
There were eyes in the shadows. No doubt that they were being watched by Rabandito. "No clue what that madman's thinking. There's plenty to fear down here."
The Rabandito scattered in small groups, spurred into flight by mad cackling. The snaking tunnels made it difficult to determine just where it was coming from, or how close it could be.
"If Wyatt is a maniac at this point, then he certainly belongs here."
Renny had clutched onto Milsha for a moment after the cackling, his teeth gritted as he watch the bandito scatter. He got off shortly, but still looking downright shaken. "I'm sorry. I've never been one for horror. The sight of gore, and all that... makes me feel sick."
"It'll probably only get worse if we go deeper," Milsha said, setting her sword aside and kneeling to look at the body. "These clothes of his are ripped to shreds, but I think...yeah, these're prisoner clothes. Was this an escaped convict or-?"
The sounds of violence jerked Milsha into action, and in one smooth motion, she had her blade in her hands and was staring into the shadows.
"Another one of those Madsoldiers," Milsha listened carefully. "Fighting something a lot bigger than itself."
And a lot louder. Whatever this thing was, it had a big gun to match its big bulk. Milsha shifted to the right as a man's shape flew out of the shadows and collided with the ground near the corpse, also dead. This one's body had been impaled with seven metal stakes. The one that killed him could be seen as a black silouette against the very dim light.
"That's a tall drink of milk," Milsha observed. "Screw it, let's get out of here. We probably should've run into Wyatt by now. Maybe Whitney needs to be with us down here for that creep to show up."
Renny agreed all too readily as he assisted in guiding their steps back.

"By the way, I wanted to thank you again for letting Whitney and Catherine stay. I get that you might not think it's a big deal, but it probably meant a lot to them. And it definately means a lot to me." He was starting to feel a little better now that they were getting out of subfloor 2.
"I think I remember now," Milsha said to herself. "I'm not proud to talk about this, but one of my uncles was a political prisoner after the First Successionary War. Mom and dad wouldn't tell us his crimes, but I think he did something really naughty to a Hiroshiho girl that didn't want it. That uniform that those two bodies were wearing is the exact same one. I wonder if that means that my uncle's now a Madsoldier down here? He was a pretty unsavory kind of guy, had no respect for the other gender. I've no clue how he was in the Republican Front."
"I see. I kinda wonder why he is down here. This doesn't seem like the sort of place one would normally hold a prison, if you meant to rehabilitate them..."
"There's always a lotta mysteries surrounding that whole thing," Milsha looked thoughtful as they reached the streets. "There was this construction project and nobody knows where they went after that or what the hell they constructed in the first place. Just talk of a big accident."
Renny nodded. "Any thoughts about that thing that killed the other guy? Those metal stakes don't seem like conventional weapons. If that place was supposed to be a prison and away from everyone else, maybe there are robotics?"
"Renny, that's a great idea!" Milsha marveled. "They're not using conventional weapons and stuff. We should totally send Arnold P. Howard down there to have them fill out some files."
Renny arched his eyes for a moment, wondering how getting them to fill out forms would help one bit.

Milsha decided to be serious now. "I expect that kind of weapon to be used by an RDPA or a wicked military weapon, although I guess those terms are synonymous."
"I guess that's possible." He thought over the recent events for a bit.
"I'm glad you're coming with me for Hungry World and the Corpsemire... If it is anything like down there... I, I could really use your support." He felt a little ashamed that he would have been shakened up like that in front of her."
"It's going to be super fun," Milsha was smiling like it was Christmas.
"Glad to hear. Anyhow, we should definately freshen up. This is the second day in a row that I've entered the sewers. I, for one, really need to get extra clean." He said that last bit with a little bit of annoyance as he looked at his shoes, legs and arms.

He recalled briefly with a little blush the time the two shared a shower. For all he knew, that might become more common with more people joining the household. He always had trouble remembering to lock the bathroom doors and it's going to be increasingly unlikely that at least one person won't be using it.
"Anyhow, I guess we should tell Whitney what we, err, saw. Even though we didn't find whom we were looking for." He privately hoped she wasn't being haunted during the time she was alone in the apartment.
The apartment was entirely undisturbed since they left. After Milsha set aside her sword, she sat at the table and placed her chin on her joined hands.
"Scarlet baptism," she recalled. "Worship she who has paid the price in blood to free us from our fears."
She leaned back. "Doesn't seem like the kind of stuff you'd just write at random when you go mad. It has to mean something."
"Now that you mention it, it is oddly coherent, although I don't have that much experience with Madsoldiers admittably." Renny pondered the recalled words while trying to block out the scene itself.
"Seems like yet another cult, and a rather bloody one from the sounds of it. But it's not really our immediate concern. We can investigate it on the side, but it doesn't seem to be directly connected to anything we know about."
"Not 'we'," Milsha said. "You don't know anything about it. It'll take some research, some net surfin', but I might be on to something."
"Ah?" He looked a little taken back, but still impressed. "Alright! Let me know if there is anything I can do on my end. I'll research to see if there are any events in the past related to this or if this is a recent thing."
"Judging by the looks of their bodies and the wear and tear of their clothes, they've been down there for years," Milsha pointed out. "I'm sure they were prisoners, and I think I know exactly which prison."
"There is one other thing though... The wording of "she who paid the price of blood to free us from our fears". I'm not exactly certain if this is a cult with a slightly benign martyrdom angle toward someone who they believe is comforting them... or a death cult, possibly with a sacrifice aspect, which basically kills them to end their suffering of fear. " Renny said all this with a great deal of disgust.
"Try not to think about it," Milsha said dismissively as she activated her Inquiry Visor and passed out on the couch.
"Ah, one more thing," Renny gently nudged her. "What was your uncle's name? The one you were telling me about?"
"Don't worry, you don't know 'im," Milsha replied.
Renny meant more for research purpose, but he left Milsha to rest peacefully on the couch as he went to soak in the bathtub, cleansing himself and meditating on the recent events in Metal Hell and trying to recall other details he might have heard about it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Renny / Liz (Third Time is the Charm)


The young man was a little stumped as the Inquiry Visor said that the Liz's phone had not been picking up. While he was busy for about half of the several days that came after the party, there were other days that he was at PATCA HQ. During those days, he had saw Liz and called out to her in what he thought was a friendly conversational manner, but she had been ignoring him or blowing him off. Just recently he tried to call her, but that ended uneventfully with no one picking up the phone.

"Did I do something wrong or offensive to her?" He questioned to himself. He tried to recall the last tiime she was open and friendly with him.
"I guess that was back at the party during the dance. Then Lola started that fight which started to go out of control. I broke it up and went after Lola when she fled. Liz was paying attention too. Even gave me advice at the time. What did I do then to upset her?"
He mulled things over, trying to do some of his tasks, freshening up and agonizing over the question of what he did wrong.

"Or rather, what did I NOT do. I didn't see her afterwards, instead heading to my parents' place. Especially since that scene was probably not that pleasant for her either. And I probably imagine the news of me and Lola improving our relationship is probably going to be big in PATCA's gossip chain. And possibly also of Catherine and Whitney. She probably thinks I went and forgot all about her. Shit, I really screwed up. Badly."
Renny resolved himself to redeem himself for his insensitive omission as he thought of what to do. He got some white roses and did something a little unusual. He cut the stems vertically in quarters and put each individual stem in water mixed with a bright food coloring. He got himself cleaned up and dressed nicely, spending a bit of time to get ready. By the time he was done, the roses had drawn in the colored water into the petals, giving them a bright custom rainbow hue.

If he couldn't reach her by phone, then he was probably going to have to visit her in person. Fortunately, since he had gone to her place twice, he was pretty familiar about the location of the apartment she lived in and where-in. He knocked on the door, waiting quietly as he mulled over what he was going to say, his roses in hand. After a few moments, the door opened and Liz appeared in the doorway. As soon as she saw who was calling on her, her expression became worried before she quickly caught herself and gave him a gentle smile.

"Oh... hi Renny, what's up?" She asked politely.
Renny didn't say anything at first, but presented her with the bouquet. After a moment, he spoke with an element of boldness.
"I would love to take you out at your earliest convenience. I'll be glad to take you wherever you'd like to go."
Liz looked surprised as Renny presented the bouquet, but took it before as she replied nervously.
"Oh... that's... really nice, Renny, but I have a project to work on and not enough time, so..." She answered dismissively.
"Then, I'd be happy to help you with whatever it is you need!" Renny looked a little desperate as he said reactively. "I realize that I really blundered back at the party. I panicked much of the time, but I know that I must have left you hurting badly... and I would really like the chance to rebuild our relationship again, if you could forgive me."
Liz sighed. "Renny... I know you want to be friends, and I'd really like that, because you're great. But I really need some distance from you first, to stop myself from seeing you as this really amazing guy I want to be with. Otherwise, I couldn't keep my hands off you, and you'd get in trouble with Lola." She finally admitted with a sad look on her face.
"You're absolutely incredible too though. And I don't see why I should have reject any of the amazing people in my life. Let me worry about whether I'd have trouble with Lola. I'll talk with her if the time comes. But I still want to spend time with you, especially if you feel the same way deep down."
This brought a small smile to her lips.
"That's sweet, Renny but... we don't feel the same way, do we? You want to be friends and I want more with you, and I couldn't stop myself if I went with you tomorrow."
Renny stepped closer toward the door within its doorframe.
"I just follow my feelings at the time. Back then, it was just very good friends because I worried I would get those I love in trouble if we went any further... But now..."
Liz almost flinched away as Renny stepped closer, but she held steady. Her lips parted as she exhaled a breath. "Renny, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
He touched one of her hands and stepped closer inside. "I want to show you how I feel, no holding back this time."

Before he knew it, Liz's lips pressed against his and her arms were wrapped around him. She kissed him deeply and passionately, taking all of Renny in and sharing her feelings through the connection. Eventually, she broke the kiss, but still held him.
"Why, Mr. Tresserhorn, so brave after just one little birthday." She joked, giving him a genuine smile now.
He smiled back with incredible warmth as he held her tightly, the tension lifted from her brand of forgiveness.
"So... are you still busy with that project of yours?" He stepped inside and closed the door, just to make sure no one was peeking at them.
"I can definitely take some time off now..." Liz whispered sultrily, nibbling Renny's ear as she led him to the bedroom. He nuzzled the nips of her neck and giving generous amounts of kisses as he followed her to her bed, removing some of his more cumbersome clothing like his jacket along the way.
As far as sex with Liz went, she was actually surprisingly receptive, letting Renny take the lead and explore on his own. At least... for the first few times. Then she went all out, and boy was his world rocked.

Afterwards he looked downright dazed but kept his hands on her as he rubbed soothingly and still pressing his lips to hers on occasions.
"So... Still up for tomorrow?" He said with little words, as he caught his breath between speaking and kissing.
"Definitely." Liz purred as she kissed back and nipped his neck. "Are you, though? Because I'm sure whatever you have planned is going to get you laid... a lot."
He nodded. "Well, if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear."
"Nah... I think I'd like to be surprised."
"Heh, alright. Bring a towel though. Swimsuit... you can decide if you need it."
"Oh, maybe I won't bring a towel. I'm sure you'd like to see me all wet and gleaming..." Liz teased.
Renny chuckled.
"I'll be sure to bring a swimsuit just for you, too."
"Ah, alright." He noted to himself to bring a towel anyways. While seeing Liz wet would be awesome for a time, he wouldn't want her to catch a cold at the end.
"So, what have you been up to after the party?"
"Mainly? Keeping to myself, and avoiding you... which honestly seems very silly now."
"Well, I suppose I could understand that. I am sorry about putting you through that grief." He kissed her again.
"I spent the last few days checking out Metal Hell. I hate that place so much. Gruesome atmosphere and the like. Whitney is being haunted by the ghost of her brother, which tried to kill me too. Don't know exactly why, but we suspect something in Metal Hell or the Rezonscape below is causing his spirit to act up."
"Well, that doesn't sound very pleasant at all. You should really be careful, Metal Hell isn't someplace you should just wander into. Bring a proper team in with you next time."
Renny nodded as he calmed down. "I will. The first time Whitney and I saw him at the first floor. The second time, when I went with Milsha, we didn't see him even though we went as far as the second floor, but scary stuff aside, there seems to be a prisoners held there. Political ones based on what Milsha said. Also, one of the Madsoldiers was scribbling cultish scriptures of some sort on the wall. Talking about 'Scarlet Baptism' and this woman they worship who paid a blood price to free them from their fears. Clearly there is a lot more going down there than we suspected."
"Sure sounds like it, seems like PATCA should go down there in an official capacity at some point and figure out what's going on."
He nodded "I plan to ask Irene about that soon, after the Corpsemire and Hungry World mission."

He then buried his face in between Liz's bosoms, as was their customary greeting and otherwise holding her tight.
Liz laughed happily. "I'm glad we're together too, Renny."

[Dracorion]

Sam and Pierce Reunion

A stiff breeze could probably cut the tension. It was palpable.

Pierce sat beside Sam's hospital bed, averting his gaze from his sister, while she attempted the same.

"So... you wanna talk about anything?"

Pierce shrugged.

. . . . .

"I'm so sorry, Pierce."
"What? Sam, you have nothing to be sorry about, I-"
"I told you you couldn't come back, I was so angry and-"
"-couldn't deal with mom and dad's deaths and I took it out on you-"
"-I'm so sorry about the things I said to you when we met again I was screwed up-"
"I should've been there to take care of you, if I had this wouldn't have happened to you-"

At this point the two siblings realized they were blabbering over each other and both fell silent at the same time.

After a minute, "Well I screwed up the most."
"I'm not arguing that." Sam replied with a chuckle.

"Look, we're both safe, we're together, I'm not hopped up on creepy mind-control drugs and you've got your head out of your ass, how about we just enjoy it?" Sam suggested, holding out her hand.

"Sounds good to me." Pierce smiled and took the offered hand, holding it tightly.

. . . . .

"So... are you seeing anyone?"
"Um, well..."