Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones
© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Ten
Almost a week later and after several failed attempts to discover any data remaining on the shattered Pokeball’s core Sara was surprised by Constable Hendricks coming into her shop. Behind him came a pretty young woman, another redhead the Technician noted. “How can I help you Constable” she asked as she moved to the counter.
“This here’s Lucy De’Hind” the much older man explained. “She’s paid ‘er fines, Judge Lomus sent ‘er over here tah surrender ‘er stuff.”
Sara studied the redhead, pretty yes but not a match for her Penny. “You’re the one that almost killed the Illumise” she asked.
“Yes” Lucy admitted. “A fight between my boyfriend and I. He always seems to spend more time with that bug than me.” She shrugged. “Ex-boyfriend, he really lit into me in front of the Judge. Him and that bug of his. I didn’t intend to hurt the thing.” She looked up at Constable Hendricks. “Honest, I just wanted more of his time. I didn’t know that the cliff was there, I just threw it into the brush to get his attention.”
Sara gestured to the Constable. “All she has to do here legally is surrender her hunting licence and all her Pokeball’s then she’s free to go. Unless you need her, I think that Penny and I can take care of what needs to be done.”
“That’s all” the star carrying man asked.
“That’s all I’m legally required to do” Sara explained. “ I guess she’ll have to get a job now since nobody involved in Pokemon will let her near them anymore.”
Nodding in agreement the Constable turned to his prisoner. “You gonna be ah problem to this lady?” he asked.
Lucy shook her head no. “I’ll do what I have too then I’m out of this place. I’m going somewhere where Pokemon hunting is illegal so I’m never tempted again. Don’t worry Constable, I’ll be okay.”
Stepping behind the redhead the Constable carefully removed the binders holding her hands behind her. “You do what this woman says. You don’t, I’ll see you get ten years hard labor makin little rocks outta big boulders with a tack hammer. Understand?”
“Yes sir.” Lucy rubbed her wrists as the grey haired old man left, eventually turning her attention to Sara. “Card and balls, correct?”
“Hunters Licence and Pokeball’s yes” Sara agreed. “Don’t worry, I’ll compensate you for the balls at used rates. At least it will give you bus money.”
“Really? The Judge said you wouldn’t have to do that.”
Sara shrugged. “Legally no, but I believe you when you say it was an accident and I don’t penalize people for an honest mistake. I’ll release the pokemon you have, then service and resell them. Even paying you for them I’ll make a little profit. Not much but enough for a meal so you ought to get something out of that.” She pointed to the counter top. “Your things please.”
As Lucy placed her bag of Pokeball’s on the counter her stomach growled, causing her to blush. “Sorry” she apologized.
Opening the bag Sara began taking out Pokeball’s. “When was your last meal?” she asked.
“Yesterday, some jerky just before Yad stumbled across me. Since he dragged me back to town I’ve been treated kinda roughly. It’s no big deal.”
“Card?” Sara asked, finding Lucy already holding it out for her. “Thank you” she said as she stamped ‘VOID’ on its face. “This goes back to the local guildhall. It also clears you of any further legal problems unless you do this again.”
“Right, I better go now.” Lucy started for the front door before Sara stopped her.
“I need to pay you remember? And how about supper and a sofa to sleep on tonight” she asked.
“Really? After what I did?”
“Why not” Sara walked to the door to her home, opening it. “Penny, a third very hungry mouth for dinner.” She laughed when a wooden stirring spoon bounced off the wall next to her, then returned to checking the twenty-some pokeball’s on her counter.
“I still have to release these” she explained. “I don’t deal in the Pokemon trade, would you like to say good-bye to them when I do?”
Lucy walked over, touching one of the red and white balls. “Yes. Thank you. So what do I do now?”
Pointing to her homes door Sara gave her instructions. “Go in there, ask my wife if you can have a shower. If she says yes then clean up. Then maybe you can help her with preparing dinner.”
“Wife?” Lucy asked, obviously surprised.
“Wife. Now get, before I have a change of heart.”
While Lucy went through the door, backpack in hand Sara began resetting each Pokeball. It wasn’t until she reached the first unused one that a memory passed through her mind. “Sara, we’re going to need more subjects.” Lucy could be a subject she realized, she was banned from the Pokemon world now. She had already stated that she was going to travel as far away as she could. Anything could, and had happened to lone travelers even today.
Sara shuddered at the thought that ran through her head. Kidnap another human? Let the balls programming turn her into a submissive, a slave more than Penny’s playtime? Such a thing was illegal, completely illegal. She shook her head, throwing out those thoughts, they were not good thoughts. They were a step into darkness. Once she took the first step down that path she could never return. Then she remembered the ‘Copy Complete’ notice. What if, the redhead thought, she could capture Lucy, copy her into another Pokeball then release the original. Lucy would travel on none the wiser but a second Lucy would remain.
Groaning at the madness of her thoughts the young Technician realized the truth. She would have to try, if nothing more than to prove her thoughts wrong. To do it she would need to go into the basement and get one of the old type eights. Going to the basement would mean... Then she giggled slightly. In order to capture their guest Lucy would have to be in an orgasmic coma. That wasn’t going to happen, because unlike Penny and herself she apparently wasn’t interested in women.
Sara though, completely underestimated her wife’s imagination, and cunning.
After supper Sara told Lucy that it was time to release her Pokemon. While Lucy was getting ready Sara told Penny about her odd thoughts. “Am I going crazy?” she asked her wife. “To even think of such things?”
“Maybe this is why they never let this information out” Penny admitted. “It becomes addictive, the capture of pretty girls. While your out I’ll think about it, then let you know my thoughts tonight in bed when we can talk in private.”
“All right, I just don’t want to become some madwoman that ends her life sitting in a Pokeball the rest of eternity and I really don’t want to hurt anyone.”
Penny kissed her wife, “Don’t worry my love I will never let you hurt anyone. Unless they want it, or deserve it.” She licked her wife’s ear. “You know that storm room has enough space for some dungeon toys. I’d really like to find out how being a pirates captive feels like. Maybe even a small cage?”
Sara blushed, turning away in embarrassment at what feelings that image brought up. “You build it, I’ll tie you too it” she whispered back. “Now I have to get those Pokeball’s” she explained in a normal voice before walking away.
Penny’s giggle of amusement only made her blush the more.
Lucy was ready by the time Sara returned with the ex-Huntress’s bag of filled Pokeball’s. “We’ll go into the forest a few hundred yards, I’ve already set the units to release. You can say good-bye if any stick around long enough. I won’t interfere.”
“Thank you” Lucy answered, following the Pokeball Technician out into the darkness.
They walked a good three hundred yards into the darkness before coming to a meadow. Sara offered the bag to Lucy, then backed up several yards while the woman, her eyes filled with tears carefully released each one. Two ran off quickly, probably her latest catches. All the others though looked at her, talking to her in their alien voices while she explained why she was releasing them. Most couldn’t really understand, but there were two that obviously did. Both sort of bowed to her as though accepting her punishment as right then even they vanished. Either by flight or land.
“What happens to them now” Lucy asked as she returned the bag, and balls to Sara.
“They return to the wild, or whatever life they wish” Sara explains. “Their minds are coded now so any other hunters balls won’t capture them. In a way I guess they are still yours. If any of them had stayed with you, you could have kept them as a pet since there isn’t any law against a Pokemon remaining freely with a human. But for you? Your world just ended didn’t it?”
Lucy looked out into the darkness. “I feel like I’m dead inside” she admitted. “I feel like everything I built has come shattering down.” Abruptly the younger redhead started crying. Wisely Sara simply stood beside her as the great burning tears rolled down her cheeks.
When Lucy finally had some control of her emotions Sara indicated the path back. “What you need is a strong drink and some sleep” she offered. “I was warned I’d run into something like this at least once a year, but normally it would be the Pokemon’s hunter that did it. In twenty years you can appeal you know.”
“Twenty years” Lucy repeated in false humor. “I’ll be forty-two, too old to hunt anymore. A wife with a dozen kids maybe. Fat, old, no longer attractive, I’d rather be a slave than that.”
“Slavery’s illegal” Sara reminded her. “Even the Pirates rarely do it anymore. Besides, I hear that it’s no fun so don’t talk like that because there are people who would take you up on it. Come on, lets go back. Penny’s waiting.”
“Penny. Your lucky to have someone Sara. All my friends are Hunters and after this.” Lucy let her shoulders slump. “After this I don’t have any friends anymore. I just wanna die, or fall off the planet and be left behind.” She seemed to think of something. “Say, could you use a household servant? It would let me be around the Hunters, around the Pokeworld if even only through an open door and you wouldn’t have to pay me.”
“We can’t afford a housekeeper yet Lucy, not even a free one. That’s why Penny gave up her career as a Librarian because we really needed one and it was cheaper for her to set her career aside than it was for me. Plus there isn’t room for a third person, unless you joined us in our bed.”
“Uh, I’d have to think about that.”
Sara wasn’t sure, but she thought that Lucy might be blushing.
“Sara” Lucy continued as they walked. “Is there any secret way a human can be held in a Pokeball? I could wait out the twenty years then still be young and able to hunt.”
Sara stopped, they were still over two hundred feet into the forest. Reaching into the Pokeball bag she removed one of Lucy’s balls. “Lucy, two things. One, even if there was a way to capture humans twenty years in a Pokeball would not be twenty years punishment even if the Guilds did accept your petition. Second, I’ve only been a Technician a few years but everything I have read, heard and experienced has shown to me that it is impossible. I believe that, with all I am, that you cannot capture a human. The ball’s programming detects human thought even when you are in a coma from injury. Here, I’ll prove it.”
She activated the ball, dropping in on the ground in front of the ex-hunter. “Slave Lucy, your mine” she said softly.
Instantly the balls capture field activated. But unlike with Penny it simply shut down without further action. Reaching down to pick up the ball Sara opened it, triggering the reset. “So no Lucy. You can’t spend the rest of your life hiding from your guilt in a Pokeball.” She dropped the ball into its bag, noting Lucy’s eyes on her. “You just have to face up to it. At least it was a mistake, not an intentional act and that counts big.”
“You said Slave Lucy” the ex-Huntress whispered. “If it had worked, that’s what would have been on the label isn’t it and for the rest of my life.”
“Right and Wrong. Whatever name you give your capture is just a name. It hasn’t got anything to do what the capture is. But remember I KNOW you can’t capture a human with a Pokeball so you were never in any danger.” Sara turned back to the trail, thinking. “I’m really sorry we can’t afford a servant Lucy, we are barely making it as it is even though you are very attractive. The local Pokehall is sending one of their sons to Technician school so in three years I’ll be losing a certain amount of business. More importantly, I am working on a theory as to why a Pokeball cannot hold more than one Pokemon so I can’t chance a leak. So just go home to your parents tomorrow, forget about that grand escape to where no one knows what happened, or cares. In three years you’ll be settled in a new life and all this will just be bad memories.”
“Bad memories, well, Mom and Dad own a hotel I guess they could use the extra help anyway. Being a maid can’t be all that bad I guess.” Slowly Lucy stated walking back along the trail. “And thank you for talking me through this. I guess I said some crazy stuff but right now all I want to do is give up. Who knows, maybe some Pirate will capture me and I can spend my punishment years really paying for my mistake. Maybe it would even be fun.”
“You did say crazy stuff and you still are” Sara agreed. “But then everyone does now and then. Even though you would make a really sexy slave, all chained up naked and the things we could do to you.” She laughed. “Sure, as if that could happen.” She led the way back to her home, letting Lucy go in first. “I’ll get your money and receipt then you can sleep on the sofa. Tomorrow you can stay for Breakfast or leave before we get up. Its your choice.”
“Thank you Sara. Maybe I will stay for breakfast.”
In her shop Sara was counting up the money she had promised Lucy when Penny came in. “Hon?”
Sara looked up. “Not in the shop, I’ll never get the smell out.”
“Funny girl” the brunette countered, lightly rapping her wife on the arm with a lightly closed fist. “Lucy asked if I could talk with her a while, do you mind?”
“No, just cuddle up when you come to bed, I’m exhausted.” She closed her strongbox, following Penny back into their home. “Here you are Lucy. It isn’t much but I know its enough for a bus back to Vermillion city and a meal a day. If your still here when I wake up I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Thank you Mrs. Richards” the ex-hunter replied, slipping the money into her backpack. It was more money than she had expected and a bus ride was always preferable to walking on the road. Chancing running into someone she knew was a horror right now.
Sara went up to bed then, sleeping so deeply that even her wife slipping into bed late hardly stirred her. But she knew that touch, and the feel of those soft breasts so she simply murmured “I love you” before falling back to sleep.