The quality of life in the wing had seriously downgraded from the first wing that he was marched through. Where back there was a sterile atmosphere that was comfortable… in an uncomfortable way… here, lights were dim and dingy, there was little natural lights, and the cells were cramped and uncomfortable… in an uncomfortable way.
The inhabitants weren’t impressive, themselves. Many of the girls were dirty and ragged looking, and all had varied moods. Some were despondent, some were angry, some were mad, and some seemed like they weren’t even there. Ranma shuddered as he glanced at a pokégirl that he couldn’t even identify screaming and laughing at the same time.
One of the guards noticed this and smirked. “Wishing you didn’t have to get a girl here, yeah?” he remarked. “The girls held here are considered too dangerous to be allowed in society. There are a couple of pokégirls here that only committed one too many crimes, and they can’t be picked up by…”
Ranma and the guard heard a screech and a thud to their side, then the other guard shouting, “Gack! Dammit!” The turned to see that he had gotten too close to one of the cells, and a crazy looking Tigress was trying to claw him. The guard swore, and pushed the slightly frozen Tamer out of his way so that he could help club the inmate off.
Ranma winced as he hit the metal bars hard. “Stupid moron…” he muttered, rubbing his head. Thus, he was totally surprised when an arm reached out and gripped his shoulder. Ranma slapped the hand away with alarming speed and spun around, to face the offender.
He instead blinked as he beheld the strange looking pokégirl, whose appearance deviated from most of her own type, who was staring at him in return with a hopeful and desperate expression. “Please,” she whispered, “you gotta get me out of here!”
Ranma looked back of his shoulder, where the guards where grappling the Tigress, much to the amusement of the other inmates, and looked back at the abnormal pokégirl. “Why?”
The girl gripped the bars and leaned in close. “Listen, there’s something that I need to do. The world’s in danger!” she explained quickly and quietly.
Ranma blinked, trying to figure out if she was just making up something. She did sound sincere… He looked back at the guards, who had finally gotten away from the girl and was examining the scratches and tears they had received. “Hey, I wanna talk to this one,” he said, jerking his thumb at the suddenly relieved girl.
* * *
“Thanks for taking me,” the inmate confessed. The two were sitting in a dimly lit room, with the only furniture being a table and two chairs, all securely bolted into the ground. Ranma sat uncomfortably in one chair and the pokégirl sat in the other, hands and legs heavily chained.
“Hey, I didn’t get ya out yet,” Ranma remarked, crossing his arms. “I just wanted to know what the hell ya were talking about back there.”
The girl fumed, then sighed. “Okay, do you know why I’m here?” At Ranma negative response, she continued, “Basically, I was part of a gang. Team Snatch’em.”
“Never heard of it,” Ranma replied honestly. The girl boggled at him in surprise.
“’Never heard of...’ Jeez! Have you been under a rock? We were one of the best pokégirl thieving rings in One Island!” she exclaimed, her chains rattling.
“… Still doesn’t ring a bell.”
The girl started, then sighed. “Okay, you don’t know. Great. I can deal with idiots…”
Ranma glared at her. “Hey, this ‘idiot’ might get ya outta here.”
The girl made a squeaking noise and nodded frantically. “Right! Right! Short story is, we were responsible for over fifty thefts. Not bad for a small group. We had a secret weapon, you know,” she stated conspiratorially. At Ranma’s inquiring noise, she continued. “We had made this device called a ‘Snatcher’. Basically, we could ‘snatch’ the girls and put them in a new pokéball, so that they wouldn’t be listed under their original owner.”
Ranma thought about this. “Ooooookay… So what?”
“Well, this other group found out about the ‘Snatcher’. They decided that they didn’t want us around, so they found our hideout and destroyed it and the big ‘Snatcher’. I was one of the only survivors,” she ended sadly, visibly disheartened by the loss.
The pokégirl-less Tamer nodded, noting that this girl at least had a heart or something. “Okay. So ya want revenge on this other team? So what about that ‘world in danger’ crap?”
The pokégirl looked away in thought, before looking back at the prospective Tamer. “The world is in danger because of the ‘Tainted’ girls.”
“The what?”
The prisoner shook her head. “Team Shadow was the other group. They did some experiments on pokégirls, trying to create a new sort of modification. I can’t really describe it to you without the notes we stole, but what they did is infuse the girls with some weird shit, which enhances their strength and makes them ‘Shadowed’.”
Ranma’s brows furrowed. “So they make ‘em into Shadow types?”
“No, they don’t. To tell you the truth,” she said abashedly, “we didn’t really think much of it, at least until we found out that it was contagious.”
“Contagious? It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Ranma asked. The girl leveled a gaze at him.
“Well, considering that it also made the girl very aggressive, almost to the point of being feral, I would say yeah.”
Ranma frowned. “Damn. And how does it spread?”
“Easily,” she replied. “All it requires is a scratch or a bite. Fortunately, we managed to find a way to stop it.”
“Wait, wait,” Ranma interrupted. “You guys were thieves; why wouldja care?”
“Hey, tainted pokégirls are kinda counter productive,” she replied. “Besides, we first discovered it when one of our own Merrowls got infected. It was kinda a matter of honor, you know.
“So, we managed to do two things. First, we found an ‘antidote’ that could be used to cure the girls. Second, we had me,” she remarked with a tight grin.
“You?” Ranma asked, interested. “What about you?”
The girl looked around the room, then leaned closer. She managed to beckon to Ranma to lean in closer with her bound hands, which he did. “You see, I see Tainted girls,” she whispered.
Ranma blinked. “… You see them?”
“All the time. Genetic engineering that I went through, which lets me identify them easily. I have no idea how it works, but it does. Also, it makes me immune. You remember that Tigress that attacked the guards? She was infected.”
Ranma nodded in comprehension, now realizing just how bad it was. “Okay, so what do you want to do about it.”
“Well, obviously, since I am the sole person who can track these contaminated girls down,” she said with a grimace, “you need me in order to cure these girls before they can spread it too much. Else, it’ll be like the war with Sukebe.”
Ranma thought about that name, and the history associated with it. “… You have a point. Still,” he said, giving her a flat stare, “it ain’t exactly outta the good of your heart that you’re doing this,” he stated flatly, inciting an embarrassed chuckle.
“Heh, well, consider it community service. So, you’ll take me, right?”
Ranma considered her pleading stare, and said…
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(Posted Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:04)
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