//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: A New World, a New Ranger // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Abby let out a large yawn as she pushed herself out of the bed and her mind swam disorientedly for a moment before it righted itself and she shook her head. That was odd, she normally wasn’t that bad when she woke up. Heck, this was probably how Kasai felt most of the time! It wasn’t just that her mind was sluggish, though that was certainly a part of it, it was as if her entire body had been drained of its energy and wanted nothing so much as to simply fall back to sleep again. The Ninetales was contemplating doing just that when the door was nosed open by Kasai, the Arcanine’s eyes widening with what was clearly relief when he saw her. “Abby! You’re okay!” the Arcanine exclaimed, rushing up to her and nearly knocking her over with the intensity of his joy, showering her face with a hundred wet licks. Abby spluttered something out, some form of surprised exclamation, but thought better of interrupting her clearly joyous mate’s affection. All it would land her was a mouth full of slobber, and while she didn’t really mind the taste of Kasai’s mouth at this point, she wasn’t really in the mood for it. Eventually, the onslaught ended and Abby’s face was nearly dripping with his saliva. The Ninetales stared at Kasai. “... I’m going to take it that I got hurt?” she asked, blinking twice. Kasai only ever reacted that way when she’d been injured in some way, like the time she’d gotten knocked out by a falling Geodude that one time. “Yeah... you did,” he said before he reached forwards with his forepaws and pulled her to his warm chest, bringing his head down to nuzzle her. “Your eyes started glowing and you were screaming with rage. Then the mare who kicked the Azurill started screaming and you collapsed and-” “What?!” Abby exclaimed, pushing her head away from his chest. “Slow down and start from the beginning Kasai! I don’t remember any of that happening!” “... you don’t?” Kasai asked, his eyes widening in surprise. “... you put a mare in the hospital with your mind...” “I did!?” Abby shouted, her eyes widening. “How!?” “I don’t really know...” Kasai answered before shaking his head and moving his head down to nuzzle her. “Don’t worry though... she’s fine... kind of.” “What do you mean?” Abby inquired, not allowing herself to be distracted by the nuzzle. “Come on Kasai, I need information... if I hurt someone then Ace might arrest me.” Kasai let out a sigh and shook his head. “I don’t think she will... She might have wanted to before I explained everything... but the mare did buck a baby in the face.” Abby scrunched her eyebrows together and tried to remember what had happened. She got a dim impression of a mare yelling at a small blue shape followed by a deathly cold voice in her mind. You like hurting things? The Ninetales shivered as she heard the voice in her mind. It... sounded like her own but all emotion, other than spite, had been drained from it. In truth, it sounded almost as if she’d been transformed into an enraged Froslass. “Yeah... it was pretty scary,” Kasai confessed, giving her a nuzzle. “Even I was scared of you for a minute there.” Abby frowned up at him, her eyes worried. “I... right...” she closed her eyes and began to think, her Ranger senses taking over. “Tell me what’s happened to this mare.” “She was in the hospital last time I checked up on it,” Kasai said with a small nod of his head. “The Guard’s doctor said that you gave her ‘heightened nerve sensitivity’ or something. Apparently, it makes it so that even the lightest touch causes intense pain.” The Ninetales nodded her head as her tails began to weave around her, her thoughts drifting back to long ago lectures in Ranger Academy. “So... I began to freak out after she kicked the Azurill?” the Ninetales asked, her eyes closed. “Yes, that’s right,” Kasai said with another nod. “Okay...” Abby nodded her head, her tails swirling a bit more until she opened her eyes. “Okay, I think I know what happened to me.” “You do?” Kasai asked, frowning faintly. “Yeah... Ninetales are very vengeful,” Abby answered with a small frown. “There are hundreds of thousands of cases involving them hurting someone without even touching them... most particularly for either pulling their tails or trampling on them.” “Ah... right,” Kasai blinked twice before nodding. “I remember now, the Curse of the Ninetales right?” “Yeah, exactly,” the Ninetales agreed, nodding her head. “Now that I think of it, my mom warned me against hooking up with a Ninetales because of it,” Kasai said with a small chuckle. “Sorry mom.” Abby glanced up at him, cocking her head to the side. “Really? Is now the time to be joking Kasai?” Kasai frowned down at her and gave her cheek a long lick. “Abby, I’ve spent the last twelve hours worrying about you as you slept the day away,” he stated, his voice becoming protective. “I’m doing my level best to keep from hugging you to my chest so hard that I break your ribs. So, forgive me if I’m trying to lighten the mood a little bit with a joke, okay!” Abby flinched slightly at the volume of his voice and looked up at his golden eyes. They were full of worry and anxiety, all of which was now directed at her. “Abby...” he trailed off and let out a sigh. “I’m doing my best here to stay focused... but at the moment... all I really want to do is hug you and make sure that you’re okay, alright?” The Ninetales’ lips lifted into a slight smile and she moved against his chest again, placing her head beneath his chin. Kasai let out a worried sigh and brought his head down overtop of hers and gave the back of her neck a lick. Abby smiled as his smoky smell rolled through her nose and her nine tails did their best to wrap around him. “I’m okay Kasai,” she said, speaking into his chest. Kasai just let out a tiny whine and pulled her tighter to his chest. “You... you always cause me so much stress Abby,” he said, his voice low as he nuzzled her. “Always throwing yourself into the jaws of a Houndoom instead of letting me take care of it.” “I can’t let you do everything, Kasai,” Abby said with a small sigh. “We’re partners.” “Yeah, but that’s no excuse for you getting hurt when it should be me taking the hits,” Kasai said, giving her another lick. “Especially now that you’ve got an egg on the way.” Abby blinked twice. To be honest... she’d kind of forgotten about that. “I was so worried that not only had you been hurt Abby... but also that the pup might have been harmed too,” Kasai continued, still nuzzling her worriedly. “I mean... I’m going to be a father Abby... and you’re going to be a mother... we need to be more careful.” Abby nodded her head lightly. She knew that he was right. “Yeah... we do,” she agreed, nuzzling deeper into his chest. “But... I’m not just going to sit around the station doing nothing. You know that that’s not me.” Kasai let out a low, frustrated growl, but nodded his head. “I know... I know...” Then he drew his chest back a little and used his nose to direct her head upwards so that she was looking into his eyes again. “But you are going to be more careful from now on.” His voice was serious and unbudging. The Ninetales looked into his eyes and then nodded her head. “Alright... alright, yes, I’ll be more careful Kasai,” she said slowly, her ears flattening. “But I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to stay completely out the action. You know how much I hate watching all of you fight without contributing.” “We know,” Lex’s voice suddenly spoke up from behind them. Abby blinked and glanced around Kasai’s bulk to see that the rest of her Team had entered the room. “Now stop hugging the mutt and let the rest of us see you, damn it.” Abby blinked twice and then gave Kasai’s cheek a lick before she disentangled herself from him and bounded over to the Sylveon. “Permission to lick?” “Granted,” Lex replied with a small chuckle as he leaned his cheek up to her. Abby smiled and gave him a few licks before Rill all but pulled her into a tight, draconic hug. “Abby! You must stop only giving Kasai your attentions!” the Flygon instructed strictly. “It is becoming more than I can bear! He is hardly worth all of it either, were it not for Lex and I, the Azurill would have been left in the street!” “Hey!” Kasai protested. The Ninetales glanced over at Kasai through the shiny Flygon’s arms and raised an eyebrow. “You forgot about the Azurill?” Kasai glanced away. “It wasn’t my fault, I was so worried about you that I was barely able to get someone to help me with that mare before I vaulted off towards the station,” he defended. “Still, your training should have prevented that,” Lex stated flatly. The Arcanine let out a low growl. “We’ll see you say that if she gets hurt,” he stated, eyes narrowing while glancing at Rill. “That’s hardly the point!” Lex protested with a small growl of his own, though it was nowhere near as intimidating as Kasai’s. “You still left an unconscious baby in the street!” Before things could go any further, Axel spoke. “Enough of this pointless arguing!” he exclaimed, his axe coming down so that it was separating the two of them. “I haven’t had a good fight since we got here and you two bickering over this is just getting my blood up!” Silence fell between Kasai and Lex, neither wanted the Haxorus to get angry, even though Lex was by and large able to take the dragon down on most occasions, he still didn’t want to be responsible for destroying half of the Guard headquarters in the process. That, and Axel was his friend of course. “Axel’s right,” Abby said as she squirmed out of Rill’s powerful arms and walked over between the Kasai and Lex. She turned to Kasai. “Kasai, you should not have let your emotions control you and left the Azurill behind,” she stated before turning to Lex. “And Lex, just because Kasai screwed something up, that doesn’t mean that you’re allowed to antagonize him about it.” Kasai and Lex looked away, unable to meet her gaze. “Apologize,” Abby instructed, feeling for all the world as if her team had turned into children again. “Sorry,” Kasai and Lex said at the same time. “Good enough,” the Ninetales said, nodding her head a little before glancing at Rill. “I’m sorry Rill, I’ll make sure that I give the rest of you the attention that you deserve too.” “Thank you Abby,” Rill said, bowing her head down to nuzzle the Ninetales. “He has already made you pregnant, I do not think he really needs to spend that much more time with you.” Abby looked up at Rill wryly. “Feeling jealous Rill?” “No... I just want to do something other than laze around this building listening to Axel roar about how much he wants to fight,” Rill answered, narrowing her eyes slightly. “You have been spending all of your time with Kasai you realize. That may have been acceptable when we were being kept by the Rangers when you did not have us with you, they had places for us to roam, but here? That is not the case. It would not surprise me if Axel destroyed a wall out of boredom soon.” “... I should have realized that...” Abby groaned, facepawing. “And I bet you really want to get a flight in don’t you?” “It would be nice,” Rill agreed, nodding her head. “I do not like keeping myself constrained for so long to one building. You understand, of course.” “Yeah, I do,” Abby said before letting out a sigh. “Now then... let’s go talk to Ace... I’m sure she wants to see me about all this.” Ace stared at Abby. “I hope you realize how thin of ice you’re standing on,” the dark maned mare said flatly. “If it wasn’t for the testimony of the Azurill, then you would be behind bars.” “I know,” Abby said, meeting the mare’s green eyes. “I would never have done something like this if I was still a human, I promise you that. It’s just that... I don’t really know what I’m doing as a Ninetales... the power to Curse caught me by surprise... I forgot that Ninetales could do that.” Ace just stared at her and if it wasn’t for all of Abby’s time as a Ranger she would have been quaking in her metaphorical boots. “Make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” the mare stated crisply, her eyes narrowing at Abby. “We can’t have ponies worrying that the Guard is going to turn them into writhing balls of pain for no reason.” “She did kick a baby,” Abby pointed out. “Yes, I know,” Ace stated flatly. “But the public doesn’t, or at least not all of it. During the day that you’ve been asleep I’ve received over two dozen letters from concerned citizens who are worried that you and your Team along with any of the other Pokemon in the city, are going to hurt them. Heck, the Las Pegasus Daily Newspaper has been calling you all menaces and incidents like this are just fueling the flames.” Abby nodded her head and then glanced at Ace. “For what it’s worth Ace, I’m sorry.” Ace just shook her head. “It’s fine...” she let out a sigh. “I’m not sure how I’d be doing if I was thrust into a new world in a new body that could breath fire and ‘curse’ people.” “And... gotten pregnant to boot,” Abby added with a small, uneasy smile. “Oh yes, I heard about that, congratulations,” Ace said, giving Abby a genuine grin. “How long until I have to take you off of your patrol routes?” “Around two weeks I think,” Abby answered with a small, slightly worried smile on her face. “At least... I think... I’m not positive on when the egg comes... it’s the first time I’ve ever been pregnant.” “... Egg?” Ace asked, blinking blankly. “But... you’re not a reptile.” “... it’s a Pokemon thing,” Abby said with a small blush. “Humans give live birth but all Pokemon lay eggs, regardless of ‘type’. Do only reptiles like Serperior and Treecko do that here?” “Yeah... that and a few monotremes like the platypus,” Ace answered before she frowned. “So... all Pokemon are monotremes?” “I guess,” Abby said with a small shrug. “Sorry... I’m not really a scientist.” “I only know it because Blackwing is interested in that sort of thing,” Ace said with a small shake of her head. “Anyways... is there anything else you’d like to talk to me about before you go out on your patrol?” Abby was silent for a moment before she nodded. “Yes, do you think you can keep your ears open for anyone named Scarlet or Lance, Claire, or Vivi?” she requested. Ace frowned for a moment but then nodded her head. “Sure, why?” “Scarlet’s my foster mother and is a Hell of a lot better then I am at getting things organized as far as the whole ‘Ranger’ thing goes. So she’d be a big help while I try and set up my own branch of them on this world,” Abby answered with a small smile. “That... and I would really love to make sure that my mother is okay.” Ace’s face softened a little and she smiled. “Sure, I’ll keep my ears open.” “Thanks Captain,” Abby said, giving her a nod before she got out of her chair. “I’m taking Axel with me today so that he doesn’t end up tearing down the building out of boredom.” “Thanks, I appreciate that,” Ace said dryly. Abby smiled faintly and walked out of the rooms, her tails swaying gently.