Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones
© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Forty-Four
Penny came home on a blustery day, a cold front had come in that morning from the North promising rain so the wind had whipped Penny’s hair into knots. She laughed as Sara tried to help her get the worst of the tangles out until they fell together one the sofa. “So, how were you while I was gone” the librarian asked, having put up the ‘closed for lunch’ sign as she came in.
“Selfishly missing you” Sara admitted as Patricia came out of the basement. “I’ve been talking to our visitors lately. I’ve got a type seven that need’s complete rebuild and four elevens I’m going to let you service. The seven belongs to a young teenager so hands off her, the eleven’s were dropped off this morning. A Huntress dropped her pack into a mud pool and wants them professionally cleaned.”
“Deep mud pool?” Penny asked.
“The one you fell in” Patricia answered as she moved to the kitchen to set out lunch. “Fallows Well?”
“Ah yes, sixteen thousand feet deep in the center local legend says. More like four feetof ice cold sticky muck. How have you been Patricia?”
Turning her head to face the two women who ‘owned’ her the raven haired ex-Huntress smiled. “I still have the nightmares, but the two of you are good for me. I’d... I’d like to ‘move in’ if you don’t mind. I keep getting scared about what would happen if something happened to you like it did Sara.” She started setting plates, only two in case someone showed up.
“You want... You finally want out of that ball” Sara asked seriously.
“I’m happy enough in it” Patricia admitted as she worked. “I’m safe there but we have been talking, all of us. After what happened to Sara, if only one of us were around. Sara has her own business trips, what if something happened to Penny. We are useless in those balls in that case.”
“You couldn’t release anyone else Patricia, you know that” Penny reminded the woman. “Pokeballs are very specific.”
“Wrong Penny” Sara corrected her wife. “She can release them, she can’t order them to do anything. Only I can do that but they are all intelligent, they would be able to manage just fine.”
“Oh, I thought...” Penny started when Patricia laughed.
“If” the ex-huntress said, “If say I went down and triggered Lucy’s ball she might or might not come out. It’s a secret really, one you have to be in the thing long enough to understand. When your owner triggers the ball you have to come out, but if a third party triggers it you have a choice. At least if you are intelligent, I don’t know about the majority of pokemon though. Most are not as intelligent as a dog or cat.”
“Why you” Sara asked. “Why not one of the others?”
“Simple” Patricia answered. “When it comes down too it, when you are in that ball you can tell who’s strongest and smartest. I am, so I’m their leader, plus we voted on it. You see three is another secret to those balls, the longer you are in one the more your owners desires, needs and wants become yours. That explains, I think, why older Hunters pokemon act so much in concert with each other. They want what their owner wants.”
She finished putting lunch on the table, making a sandwich for herself as the other two settled down. “And the rest can experience everything that happens through me. Look Sara, Penny. I don’t want to be a huntress anymore, I don’t want to be a tech. I really don’t know what I want to do now but I can be a darn good maid for both homes, I can cook and be a baby sitter when you start your family. They will live through me and it’s the perfect cover for everything. Why your buying more food, why we are being seen around the place. Plus you can talk to the others through me as long as I’m close enough to their balls.”
“What do you think Sara” Penny asked.
“I don’t know.” She turned to the third woman in the room. “May we think about it?”
Patricia smiled, “As long as you want and you can choose one of the others instead. We know how important this project is to you, you can’t release Penny from her ball, but when you can you can release us. And Penny? We remember the real battle we lost against you when you hunted us. It was completely fair, with you being in the same situation as us we accept it. In fact for all of us we have found the reason we lost, and we are finding ourselves together now.”
“I think we need a Phy-sigh-ah-krist” Penny almost whispered.
“I agree” Sara and Patricia said together, looked at each other and laughed. “I guess you will just have to capture one Penny” Patricia said as she sat down with her food. “Make her a pretty one, we like to play too. I just love the sound when you say ‘I choose you Precious Patricia.’”
Thus it was that three days later Patricia walked into town wearing ragged but clean clothing, a haggard look and very short hair making a bee line to Sara and Penny’s home, all while the townspeople of Stonehome stared in wonder.
It was true, the dead could come back to life.