For his answer, Ranma just fell over onto his side, a snot-bubble enlarging and shrinking on his right nostril.
“WAKE UP, RANMA!!!” Jetta yelled quite irritably, as she started to tear a desk off from the bolts that connected it to the floor.
Shaking her head, Gina just mumbled, “Oh, Master...”
(------)
With a sound that was reminiscent of a dozen hollowed-out whiffle-bats being swung back and forth, the teleportation marker at the front of the Floating Magical Island of Vain had someone come in.
Séance Leer stood on the marker that was the sigil of a pentagram. Looking about, he could see Mages, both male and female walking about on their business, usually a pokégirl or two following their owners. He grunted as he made his way towards the Local Healer’s/PokéCenter. He needed to get the two pokégirls he still had healed up. “So I can start over.”
Sighing, Séance kept a slow pace; knowing that this was just not his week.
(------)
“Ow, damn it,” Ranma grumbled as he rubbed the side of his head. “What the heck was that for, Jetta?”
The Lupina’s eye twitched considerably. “Ranma! How could you just fall asleep!? We’re trying to teach you as best we can, but it’s no good if you fall asleep!”
Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Ranma apologized. “Sorry. I kinda get bored when people give lectures. And I was up late last night anyway Taming some of the girls.”
Rolling her eyes, Gina mumbled, “Well, he certainly makes excuses like a Tamer at least.”
Blushing so that he looked like a ripe tomato, Ranma averted his eyes from his pokégirls. Man, did it ever suck having to be the master of a bunch of women who were so much smarter than you some times.
(------)
“Hello again, Séance,” A NurseJoy greeted the young apprentice mage/pokégirl tamer as he walked into the reception area of the PokéCenter. “What service is it that I may perform for you today?”
Moving locks of black hair from his face, Séance took two PokéBalls off of his belt and placed them on the counter that the NurseJoy was working at. “Healing Cycle for these two.”
Blinking her eyes, the NurseJoy said, “Two, I thought you had three...pokégirls...” The NurseJoy trailed off at the look on Séance’s face. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
Shaking his head, Séance just snorted in disgust. “Look, it wasn’t much of a loss. Just heal what I have left, Joy.”
“Sure, Séance,” the NurseJoy responded as she took the two PokéBalls and carried them over to the Healing Machine. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Not bothering to answer her, Séance turned and started to leave. All he said was, “I’ll be back in a few hours. Hold my pokégirls until then.”
Nodding her head slowly, the NurseJoy of the Vain PokéCenter answered, “All right.”
Watching the young Tamer leave in such a foul mood, the NurseJoy shook her head. “So much rage and contempt for one so young. Very sad indeed.”
(------)
Ranma stared at Gina blankly. “Parthenogenesis is WHAT!?”
“Self cloning,” Jetta answered bluntly.
“WHAT!?” Ranma asked again, not believing what he was hearing.
Sighing, Gina answered, “I’ll explain one more time. Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction among pokégirls. This can only happen to pokégirls, not pokéwomen. The pokégirl spontaneously becomes pregnant, with no apparent trigger. The pregnancy takes the normal amount of time, but the children born are always pokégirls of the exact same type as the mother, usually in litters of two to five. The newborns grow up to be physical clones of their mother, with the same eye and hair color, birthmarks, that sort of thing. While parthenogenesis can theoretically strike any pokégirl, it usually only happens to Feral ones, with the only known exceptions being when a Breeder uses a Breeding Chamber to artificially incite parthenogenesis in a pokégirl he owns.
Still wide-eyed, Ranma scratched his head. “So you CAN become pregnant? Dang! And here I thought only Jetta and Genn could get pregnant,” Ranma said, not noticing his Lupina wince.
“In a sense,” Gina. “That’s why PokéBalls act as contraceptives, as to prevent parthenogenesis.”
Nodding his head, all Ranma could say was, “Dang.”
(------)
“Ghaleon!” Séance called out as he entered the research laboratory of wizard and pokégirl researcher, Ghaleon. “Are you in here, Prof?”
No answer.
Straining his ears, Séance could heard the strings of a sitar playing. “He’s in his courtyard,” Séance mumbled as he then started storming through the entrance, looking for a door that would lead to behind Ghaleon’s lab. He found one rather easily.
Outside, Séance did indeed find the good professor of magical pokégirl sciences. The elder white-haired gentleman who didn’t look a day over twenty, (thanks to his Youthful Vigor Blood Gift) was wearing a purple tunic and sandals rather than his black robes, and playing the sitar rather skillfully. Yes, he was deep into his own trance music.
Walking over to Ghaleon, Séance coughed a little to clear his voice. “GHALEON!” Séance then shouted again, only this time into the man’s pointed-ear.
A string of his sitar sprung loose as Ghaleon fell over onto his side from the sheer force of Séance’s shout. Wiggling a finger in his ear for a moment to try and regain his hearing, Ghaleon stared flatly at his sometimes-apprentice. “You bellowed?”
Séance looked at his sponsor seriously. “Prof. Ghaleon, we have a problem.”
“Do tell...” Ghaleon mumbled as he looked at the broken sitar string. Damn it! He had just gutted a Catgirl to make these strings last week!
Frowning, Séance spoke out, “I’m serious!”
“So am I, you idiot!” Ghaleon shouted back at his feeble-minded apprentice. “These strings just don’t grow on trees, you know!?”
Wincing a little at his trainer’s verbal reprimand, Séance calmed down enough to speak in a more even tone. “Prof. Ghaleon, I’m serious. We’ve got a very serious problems on our hands.”
“Oh?” Ghaleon asked, staring sideways at his apprentice. “Like what?”
“One concerning Sextome,” Séance said irritably.
Nodding his head at that, Ghaleon seriously asked, “Did the Daimon I gave you do the trick and help you win back that very rare Rack-Shasa?”
Shaking his head, Séance muttered, “Not exactly.”
Leaning forward, Ghaleon said, “Do tell...”
(------)
Cracking his back, Ranma asked, “Can we break for lunch yet?”
“No, Master,” Gina said as she shook her head. “You need to learn as much as you can. While you have the chance too.”
Rolling his eyes, Ranma asked, “Do I gotta?”
“Yes, Ranma,” Jetta spoke up. She loved the kid, she knew she did. But right now, he had REALLY been trying her nerves. “You have to understand, there will be severe consequences if you get caught! We can’t just let you shoot your mouth off without knowing what people talk about or how they act. Hell, it might have been dumb luck you got us through that first PokéBattle with Séance!”
Of course, deep down Jetta knew Ranma did so well because of ingrained instinct, it just had to be. But she wasn’t going to tell him that. Nope! She felt he needed some incentive to learn this, and she didn’t want him getting a swelled head like a lot of Tamers tend to get.
Sighing, Ranma sat back and wrapped his arms behind his head. “Okay, okay... I’ll wait... Well, what do you suggest we talk about now?”
“Speaking of PokéBattles,” Gina piped up, “Perhaps you should hear a rundown of pokégirl elements, Master. It will give you at least a basic idea of how you should use us and fight against other pokégirls in PokéBattles.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Jetta said, “Yes, Gina, I think that would be for the best. This way, Ranma will understand how to use us efficiently in fights.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Ranma said, “All right.” Though, truth be told, Ranma would prefer to fight his own battles. Too bad no one here seemed to know how to fight without using pokégirls.
Looking at her master, Gina said, “First we’ll go over the elements you’ve seen, and then I’ll tell you about the others. The most common type of pokégirls are the ‘Normal-type’. These are the most underestimated, because most uneducated people assume that since they have no special elemental skills, that they are therefore easy to defeat. Many people who encounter the more aggressive Normal-type pokégirls normally don’t survive the encounter. However this is rare, as most Normal-type pokégirls are peaceful and domesticated. There are also many subdivisions of Normal, those being the animal categories as many Normal-types take the traits of animal categories of certain animals that existed before the time of Sukebe. Jetta for example is a Normal-type, her species category being wolf.”
Nodding, Ranma looked at Jetta, and shrugged it off. “All right.”
Seeing her master accept that, Gina continued. “While not suited for combat most of the time, they possess many skills that are useful outside of combat and also have a higher amount of intelligence then other elemental pokégirls, barring the Magic and Psychic-types. Most commonly, they are strong against Ghost-types, but weak against Fighting-type pokégirls.”
Ranma nodded his head. “What about you, Gina?”
Gina said, “Well I, Britanny, and to a lesser extent, Sheila, are Fighting-type pokégirls. Fighting-type pokégirls are some of the hardest pokégirls to recognize, as most of us look like normal females, at least until we start picking up steel girders and bend them! This type of pokégirl is usually domesticated and works with normal people since they are so easily mistaken as a human female unless they show off their powers. Some fighters also use weapons to augment their skills or posses a natural affinity for a certain weapon and take such skills into incredible realms of mastery. The majority of Fighting-type pokégirls are found in the Joketsuzoku preserve, a place of training and learning of the most powerful Fighter skills.”
Ranma gawked. “Joketsuzoku!?” There were analogues of the Amazons here TOO!? Oh that was just freaking perfect!
“Yeah,” Gina said. “What about it?”
Shaking his head, Ranma said, “Nothing. What else can you tell me about Fighting-types?”
“Well, Fighting-types are naturally strong against Bug, Dark, Ice, Normal, Rock, and Steel-type pokégirls. Unfortunately, we Fighting-types have a natural weakness against Flying and Psychic-types.
Ranma nodded his head. Okay. I remember Jetta said Sheila is an Ice-type. What’s that all about?”
“Well,” Gina started, “Originally thought of as a sub-division of Water, Pokégirl Researchers discovered that Ice and Water-types were completely different. Ice-type pokégirls are extremely difficult to Tame due to the fact that they by nature are loners and trying to Tame them usually requires special conditions, (especially for the Tamer!)
Ranma blinked his eyes. “But Sheila was VERY affectionate.”
“Well, you have to remember, she also has the sub-division of Fighting-type,” Gina explained. “Icce-types are also rare to find, since they only live in arctic temperatures. The only reason why an Ice pokégirl would be in a climate other than their liking is because they were either raised in such a one, (Domesticated) they are Tamed and their owner is in such a climate, or they are seeking something, (normally revenge). Ice pokégirls will also hunt down someone if they feel they have been wronged, but a smart person being hunted will run as fast as they can to someplace warm where an Ice-type will normally give up the chase for then. But woe to those that tempt fate a second time! Ice-types are not only strong against Flying, Ground, other Ice, and Plant-type pokégirls, but they are also one of the few elementals that can stand up to the rare and very powerful Dragon-type pokégirls. However, they are normally weak against Fighting, Fire, Rock, and Steel-type pokégirls.”
Ranma nodded his head to that. “Okay. Well what about Genn? She’s the same type of pokégirl that Séance guy used.”
Shrugging her shoulders, Gina explained, “Little is known about Magic-type pokégirls. Researchers that try to gain one always seem to lose it as soon as they get it, or they get into some predicament that forces them to release their pokégirl. What is known is that Magic-types are capable of using abilities that act like an elemental attack. The pokégirl herself seems to choose what skills they learn. There are two types of pokégirls in Magic-type; strong and weak. Pokégirls like FairyCute possess little magical powers while pokégirls like Megami seem to possess strong powers. Research has yet to determine what the limits are for Magic-type pokégirls.”
Ranma nodded his head again. “That’s good...” He said in a monotone voice.
Gina nodded. “Indeed. Shall I explain more, Master?”
“...”
“Master?” Gina asked curiously.
Ranma fell over onto his side, a snot-bubble enlarging and shrinking on his right nostril.
“DAMN IT, RANMA!” Jetta shouted. “I SAID, PAY ATTENTION!”
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(Posted Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:32)
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