Morphia Episode 6: The First Contract
#6 of Adventures in Morphia
Episode 6: The First Contract
So it turns out that in order to graduate out of apprenticeship and advance in the guild, you need to prove you have the leadership skill to keep a subordinate protected in a dangerous situation. As it so happens, Medusa was now being tested to see if she had that skill, and I was the one she was supposed to be guarding over. Only there was one problem, SHE WAS TOO PROTECTIVE!
I had been on a contract to track down and subdue a dangerous pokemorph who had been causing trouble along the eastern road from Treasure City. And every time I tried to go off and do any sort of recon or detective work, Medusa would interfere, all in the interest of my safety.
Don't talk to random strangers, don't go down any dark alleyways, don't eat that food without checking for poison first! The people I actually did try to question, she turned it into an interrogation, applying threats that weren't needed!
We now sat in a diner as I tried to determine how to go about my contract without her getting in the way. The diner was dimly lit, as it was run primarily by dark type morphs, many of which were nocturnal.
"We can't find this criminal if you don't let me do any work." I said as Medusa sat across from me in a booth. She was still wearing only the pink bondage harness, leaving the rest of her body exposed. I had even realized that the harness only covered her upper body, if somewhat barely, and that her feminine slit was left fully exposed to the world, just below her hips where her tail started to form.
"Its my job to ensure you're safety." She said, folding her arms on the table, "If I can't return you in a healthy condition at the end of the contract, I fail my test." She added, her tail flicking under the table, producing a dull rattling sound.
"Yeah, well if I can't do any work, the contract will never be completed, so you fail anyways!" I tried to explain. I leaned back in my seat, rubbing my muzzle. "What are the details again? I've forgotten who we're looking for." I asked, as I pulled the contract out of my pocket and laid it on the table.
"From what we've managed to discover," Medusa said, "The criminal only attacks at night, and their victims are always found along the eastern road, so we believe that's where the criminal makes their lair." She explained.
"Wait, victims are found?" I asked, "What sort of criminal are we dealing with here?" I was starting to get worried now. It didn't sound like this was some mere bandit we were dealing with, although that's what I first though when I heard of attacks on the road.
"The target you're after..." Medusa started, "Is a murderer who has been responsible for the death of 6 young morphs." She finished. I went wide eyed at this information, and Medusa seemed to notice. "You remember when master Alex said this was an A rank mission, don't you?" She asked, as I slowly nodded.
"Contracts issued to guilds are assigned a ranking depending upon how dangerous they are. When we get a bounty hunting mission like this one, the criminal's rank is dependent upon the level of their crimes. Petty thefts, vandalism, tax evasion, and stuff like that are lower ranks, but a serial killer is a very serious crime, so they are given a much higher rating." She explained.
"Normally, an A Rank mission would require you to achieve a minimum of Silver Rank status before they'd even begin to let you accept them. But I'm a silver rank myself, so that's why I'm here." She went onto explain. "Oh and if you're curious, you're only a normal rank, as you're still fresh." She added with a reptilian grin.
We were suddenly interrupted from our discussion when someone in the booth sitting behind us leaned over and joined in the conversation.
"You're looking for that murderer?" The figure said, and I turned around to see the one leaning over was a Jigglypuff girl. Her bright pink skin, swirly hair, and rounded green eyes looked rather cute. Medusa, however, was once again on high alert, and was already on top of the table ready to strike if she made a move against me.
"Woa, calm down!" I exclaimed, as the girl ducked behind the booth again, scared of being assaulted. I peeked over the booth and tried to calm her down. "Please, what do you know about the target?" I asked. She slowly got over the surprise and rose back up to meet me.
"Well..." She said, "I was looking into it myself and..." She seemed hesitant to speak, "I believe the killings are... sexual in nature." She finally said, catching me off guard as even Medusa seemed intrigued now.
"Really?" Medusa spat, "And what makes you think that?" She demanded, making the poor girl shake again before I held up an arm to get Medusa to stop, which she promptly ignored!
"Well...!" The pink girl stammered, " All of the victims have... have been young, pretty girls. A-and they were all found naked, or at least... their clothes were torn to shreds!" She explained.
"P-please, "I was hoping we could work together?" She asked. I was about to suggest it sounded like a good idea, but Medusa butted in once more.
"Of course not!" She said, "You expect us to trust some random girl who just happens to eaves drop and have some relevant information?" She asked. The puff was looking apologetic now, as if this had been a bad idea.
"I-I'm sorry!" She said before running out of the diner. I only barely had enough time to catch a better glimpse of her. She looked even younger than me probably, but she was already gone before I could get any more details.
"What the hell, Medusa!?" I snapped, the first real lead on the investigation we had all day, and she scared it off. I didn't care if we were alarming the other customers, I was sick of the snake bitch ruining my first real contract!
"Some random stranger starts giving us information and you decide to trust her?" She asked, leaning back in her seat and leering at me.
"Yes, because that's how an investigation works, you stupid bitch!" I exclaimed, making her tense up, she seemed noticeably shocked by my outburst. "I'm going after her!" I stated before she could respond and then rushing out of the diner, leaving her behind. She tried to call out to me, but I ignored her.
I probably should have taken a moment to calm down, but I was frustrated and angry from nearly a whole day of wasted effort. Now because of my frustration and impatience, I wasn't thinking clearly. My mind kept drifting randomly to the bet with Cheddar, the fact I only had one day left of trial membership, the fact I was dealing with a serial killer, trying to find the jigglypuff and find out what she knew, and wanting to distance myself from Medusa. Maybe I should have focused more on the serial killer idea...
It hadn't taken me long to track down the Jigglypuff, I had left the diner not long after her, and we were now taking shelter in a darker alleyway to avoid Medusa if she came looking for us. The puff girl was named Melody, and as I suspected, she was younger than me, by about 3 years!
She wore a dark blue T-shirt and matching skirt with white sneakers and gloves. She was about 4 inches shorter than me and due to her young age, didn't have particularly large breasts.
"How did a girl your age end up investigating a case like this?" I asked curiously as we stood in the alley discussing information, as little as I had, anyways.
"Well the contract..." She said, "Its... mine. I'm the client." She revealed, causing me to go wide eyed with surprise. She seemed to understand my confusion and took a deep breath before trying to explain.
"Two weeks ago, me and my friends started our own guild called the Sirens." She began, "We started off doing small jobs and just having fun with each other. But when we heard about higher level contracts, we got curious. Someone sent us a letter saying they had a special high level contract they would pay handsomely for. We thought it would be good for our reputation, so we went to meet the client." She continued on before her eyes started to water.
"It was a trap!" She finally blurted out," The one who sent the letter used it to bring us to a meeting spot and memorizes each of our identities. The victims were my guildmates and I'm the next target!" She cried, burying her face in my chest and sobbing. "He comes every couple of nights and targets one of us at random. I'm the last one!" She added through gasping breath.
I did the only thing I could think of and hugged her as I looked up, the sky was starting to darken. The killer would be on the move soon, according to the information we had. Melody seemed to begin regaining her composure as she started wiping her face.
"Don't worry, we'll catch whoever did this." I said, "Pink Power is a gold rank guild, we handle this kind of trouble all the time!" I said grinning, trying to reassure her. I decided to leave out the part about me not even being a full member. Still, it seemed to get her hopes up.
"Oh I very much doubt that." Said a deep, hissing voice that startled me, but shook Melody to her core. The voice was drenched in sinister emotion, and I was hesitant to look up, instead keeping my gaze on Melody who was looking straight up, her eyes unblinking and her mouth hung open in horror.
Finally, I forced myself to look upward as the last of the sunlight vanished, and was face to face with another morph. Its mouth was open impossibly wide, a pair of long, dripping fangs gleamed in the dark. It clung to the wall above her with clawed digits, and a long, prehensile tongue snaked around in the air, taunting us.
"Hello Melody." It said in that horrifying voice, "I'm hungry again." It then began to laugh, slowly and quietly at first, before gradually erupting into a full blown manic hysteria.
Before I could even react, the creature released its hold on the wall with a crunching sound as its claws were pulled free of the stone. A large pair of wings unfolded from its back as it dropped towards us in a dive. I felt the creature slug me in the face, knocking me to the ground as it snatched Melody in its grasp and flew up into the sky again, its wings flapping heavily as it stopped and turned to face me. Now that we were out of the dark alley, I could see it more clearly in the moonlight.
The morph was a Golbat male. Its wings were enormous and would probably have resembled a cape if they were folded back down again. Its arms and legs were thicker than the spindly Zubat from nearly a weak ago, and its body had much greater muscle definition, clearly being stronger than its pre-evolution. The mouth of this creature stretched nearly from ear to ear in width, and when it opened, the jaw expanded down to its collar bone. The creature wore no upper body clothing, and only a pair of tattered pants. He was holding Melody with his talon-like feet by her wrists as she kicked and flailed weakly in his grasp.
"There's nothing quite as sweet tasting as the blood of a virgin! Too bad you're not a Zubat, I might have offered to share!" He taunted me. Even though Melody was kicking and flailing, he seemed completely unaffected, able to remain hovering in the air with both their weight.
"Let me go!" Melody squealed. Instead of acknowledging her, he took off through the air, heading towards the east, and I realized he was going for the road. He wasn't attacking people on the eastern road, he was dumping the evidence!
"Melody!" I shouted, climbing to my feet and chasing after her. But I was trapped on the ground, where as he could fly over buildings and alleys. I'd never catch him on foot.
"If you want to catch a predator, you need to use bait." another voice said, as I turned to see Medusa slithering after me, "I tried to explain to you before you ran off." She said, "And before you ask, yes, I have been tailing you two the entire time." She quickly added.
"How do we catch someone who can fly in a city?" I asked desperately. Medusa scoffed as if it were a stupid question before launching herself at one of the buildings. I expected her to slam into it, but instead she twisted herself along the side and slithered up to the roof.
"What the... how the hell did you do that?" I asked. But I didn't have time to think too much of it, because Melody was in danger. Instead, I tried to take the higher ground, "Alright... Quick Attack!" I called.
My training with Cheddar had taught me how to perform Quick Attack by accident as I was learning to adapt to his speed. I still didn't have full control over it, and that was obvious by how I temporarily blacked out. One moment I was on the streets, the next, I'm 30 feet in the air kicking and flailing as gravity was starting to take effect. Thankfully, I managed to land next to Medusa, and not get splattered on the streets below, but I was still shaken from the experience.
"Nice work, but you need more training." Medusa said before immediately speeding off as I struggled to catch up to her. From the roof tops, we now had a better view of the city, as well as Melody being carried off to be eaten.
"Golbat is a poison-flying type." Medusa said, "That being said, my poison type moves won't be much use against him. But maybe I can knock him out of the sky at least." She opened her mouth and fired a barrage of needles, which I recognized as a Poison Sting attack.
The Golbat turned in mid flight and folded a wing over himself like a shield as the needles bounced off. Even from this distance, I could see the angry scowl he gave her. The Golbat seemed to adjust himself as he grabbed Melody and pulled her up to eye level, holding her wrists with his hands and glaring at her. She soon went very limp and silent.
"That was... hypnosis!" Medusa gasped in surprise, "He's got an Egg Move!" She exclaimed, "Don't look into his eyes, Chiba!" She ordered. With the now incapacitated Melody, the Golbat seemed to focus his attention on us.
I watched in horror as he bit into Melody's neck, immediately shocking her back to her senses as she siezed up, her hands bunching into fists.
"Melody!" I shouted as the Golbat mockingly fed upon her in front of our very eyes. When he had taking a few gulps, he let her go as she dropped out of the sky towards the streets below. "Noooo!" I shouted and used another Quick Attack, blazing my way towards her. I felt something in my arms as I caught what I could only hope was the young girl, and came out of my technique just in time to go skidding across the dirt, holding Melody in my arms.
"A Golbat has a voracious appetite. We can drain a near fatal amount of blood from a single feeding." The killer said, distracting me for only a moment before I turned my attention back to Melody. She had puncture marks in her neck and blood was trickling out.
"Shut up!" I called up at him. Melody was very weak, her breathing was shallow.
"Normally, I can control my hunger enough to not leave behind a trail of dead. But its just too tempting not to drain a virgin dry. Their blood is so..." He continued to mock from above.
"Shut up!" I roared, and was surprised when I felt Melody grab my uniform. I looked down to see she was holding an object to me. It gleamed in her palm and I recognized it was a golden seed.
"K-kick... his..." She gasped before passing out, the seed falling out of her grasp.
"Oh look at that, she went and died. But what's this, a golden seed? I think I'll-" the Golbat was interrupted from his taunt when Medusa finally caught up. I watched as using that unbelievable speed she had used on Cheddar, she appeared above the Golbat and somersaulted her tail into his face.
"Poison Tail!" She cried, the impact sending him crashing to the ground, and even making him bounce. I probably should have gone to attack when I had the chance, but I was still holding Melody who's breathing had now stopped. I tried to listen for a heart beat, and I heard it growing fainter and eventually stop. She was dead, killed by the Golbat. I thought back to her final words, she wanted me to kick the guy's ass and was trying to offer me the power to do it.
I probably should have felt remorse or fear or sadness for the little girl dying in my arms. But to be honest, the only thing I was able to feel at that moment was blinding rage. Before I even knew what I was doing, I snatched the golden seed off the ground and dropped it in my mouth, chewing furiously as I blew into a Quick Attack.
The Golbat was starting to sit back up again, but I promptly corrected by slamming my knee into his face at invisible speed. This caused his head to cock back and I hoped his neck might have snapped. But much to my surprise, he reacted by grabbing me by the ankle and slamming me to the ground.
"Nice try, fox boy, but a 5 level increase isn't enough to reach my power!" He exclaimed as I was knocked back to my senses from the pain of being slammed into the street, the Golbat now rising to his feet.
"Then what about a 40 level increase!?" Medusa shouted moving in for another Poison Tail attack. This time, however, our enemy was ready, and once again used his wing like a shield to absorb the impact before blowing her away with a swat.
"You are actually dangerous. So I'm taking you down for a while." He commented before opening his mouth widely and unleashing a high pitched shriek. The super sonic attack hit the off balance Medusa in the face as the sound vibrations messed with her inner sense of balance, inflicting confusion and disorientation.
"I don't smell virgin blood from either one of you, but I didn't have a chance to properly enjoy my dinner, so I'll just have you as side dishes to fill me up." He threatened in that sinister voice of his. "Starting with you, slut." He said, wrapping his wings across Medusa's back and pulling her against his body.
"Get away from her!" I called and began to attack, but he casually batted me to the ground with a Wing Attack. However, that moment was the opening Medusa needed. Since she was wrapped in his wings, he couldn't use them as shields against her!
"Hiyaaaaaahh!" She screamed and punched the Golbat in the stomach so hard, I saw the imprint of her fist on his backside. He immediately released her and collapsed to the ground, vomiting a fountain of blood from his stomach.
"Unfortunately for you, I know the hidden technique called Strength. Comes in handy when I need to beat the shit out of tough opponents like you." Medusa said, dusting her hands off. The Golbat probably couldn't hear her as his eyes watered and he could scarcely breath from the massive dent to his abdomen.
He passed out as Medusa slithered over to me and helped me back to my feet, then we both looked at Melody's body.
"You kept your promise to her. We avenged her guild." Medusa said, "We'll take him to the authorities and they'll notify her family." She went on. All I could do in response was nod sadly.
"Medusa..." I said, causing her to look towards me, "I want to become stronger with the guild." I commented. "Stronger than Cheddar, stronger than you, stronger than Alex, I want to get so strong that the next time I make a promise, my friends don't fucking die!" I said, my fists and teeth clenched in anger.
She chuckled and placed a hand on my shoulder as I looked to her, relaxing in surprise.
"Then you'll need to work for it." She said, "Predator or prey, we've busted our asses for the power we have, and its not given freely just because you want it." Medusa chastised, "Now you are going to face Cheddar tomorrow, and you are going to beat his ass!" She finished with a grin that I almost thought may have had pride to it.
When we returned to the guild, things weren't as happy as they could have been. Alex was alarmed to hear that the very person who hired us had been killed by our target, but was also pleased with the knowledge that we captured the target and avenged our client's murder.
"Despite the unfortunate circumstances." Alex said, "You did fulfill the contract, and were returned safely. As the protection of the client was not demanded in the mission parameters, I must conclude the mission was a complete success, although I suspect Chiba may disagree." He went on.
"Medusa!" He exclaimed, "As of this moment, I am hereby promoting you to the rank of Graduate, and for Chiba, your mission reward as promised. A total of 1,000 Poke and a golden seed." He said, handing me a bag.
"But... wait, I already." I stammered in confusion. "She... had a second golden seed?" I asked, opening the bag to see a golden seed laying atop the money.
"All contracts are paid up front and the prize is given to those who complete them. Whatever Melody gave you during the battle was different from the promised reward." Medusa said, clasping a hand on my shoulder. "And more importantly..." She said, pausing dramatically.
"BITCH!" She called out, and quickly, Canvas began to rush down the hall to greet us.
"Coming Mistress!" She exclaimed before skidding to a stop as Medusa held up an arm.
"You will not need to call me that anymore, Bitch." Medusa said, "I am hereby releasing you from service as per my promotion." She declared. Surprising both me and Canvas with this news, and even Alex.
"In order to rise to the top of the guild, you need to have mastered your sexual urges. We all know that." Medusa said, "I can't say I've mastered them if I have a sex slave on my beck and call. So here's my first step in advanced training. I'm letting you go." She explained before she started to glow brightly.
"I've also suppressed my evolution." She said, her voice taking on an echoing effect, "I wanted to save this for my promotion!" She laughed as her form began to change in front of us. The glowing became too bright to look at, but eventually faded, showing off Medusa's new form.
She stood now at 6 feet tall, with an 8 foot long tail. Her body had taken on a thicker form as her muscle mass increased, changing from the slender female into a more amazonian warrior appearance. A flexible hood grew around her head and neck, adorned with a natural marking resembling a face. It wasn't as wide as a real Arbok, the species she had now become, but it was still noticeable.
"Cheddar couldn't keep up with me in my Ekans form. Tell him he doesn't stand a chance now." She said, laughing triumphantly before waving good bye and slithering off down the hall.
"Well..." Canvas said, "I guess I'll need to wear some more clothes again." She sounded half hearted, almost as if she was unhappy to be released.
"Congratulations on your first successful contract, Chiba." Alex said, "Tomorrow is the deadline on your trial membership, and you will be asked whether or not you wish to join us. You also have that duel with Cheddar, so I suggest you get some sleep." He said.
To Be Continued
Preview of Next Episode:
So I'm an official member of Pink Power, that's not really a big surprise. But now I've got my fight with Cheddar and its drawing in a crowd who wants to see if my training paid off. The golden seeds appear to have given me the boost I need to match his Quick Attack, but what happens when Cheddar starts throwing out all the other moves he never showed me in traning?