Taschmonchen

Five - Veil

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"I had the weirdest fucking dream about katzchen." A voice cut through his conscious, poking at him to wake up. However, Roter just groaned and went to roll over, going instantly still as he found he couldn't because something warm and soft was in his arms.

He blearily opened one eye, and saw a grin beneath two emerald eyes. The blattchen immediately put a finger to her lips, as Roter felt terror race down his spine.

The zip of the tent started to lift, and the monchen's face fell as they both looked down towards it.

"I mean, katzchen don't even exist! But she called herself a fucking neko or some shi..." Blissbun trailed off, staring down at her trainer and the naked monchen in his arms.

Shade let out a nervous giggle.

Roter flinched, and swallowed, "It isn't... Quite... What it looks -"

"Buzz-buzz!" Blissbun screamed at the top of her voice, and even as the lightning arc'd through him, Roter could hear her voice cracking. The utter betrayal of her trainer, ripping her fragile heart to shreds.

Pain bursting out of her in jolts of power that curled into his muscles, twisting and cramping them up into tiny balls of knots, even as his head became detached from his spasming body. No control over the way his arms and legs contorted and started, as the nerves completely failed to transmit anything meaningful.

Knowing what she was feeling, didn't mean that Roter had any idea how to fix it. If he hadn't fallen asleep with Shade before he got his memories back, he was certain he would have spent the rest of the meagre night trying to work out what in the fuck he was going to tell Blissbun.

This was a betrayal.

It might be unintentional, because he did care for her. He had attempted to resist the blattchen, right up until the point where she cast a spell that made her all that mattered. He had literally forgotten that Blissbun even existed.

He doubted that the truthful explanation would make his betrayal any less of a knife right into the middle of her heart. She had tried to get him to open up to her, last night. Already jealous of Shade in a big way, and now... Now the other one had got the first taste of him.

As his full-body twitching slowed, and then stopped, to no surprise, he found the entry to the tent empty. The blitzchen had fled.

He groaned, sitting up and patting down his now-vertical hair. "You alive, Shade?"

"Y-yes." She said with a different sort of tone, and glancing down he saw that she had a hand between her legs and a dreamy expression on her face.

He shook his head at her enjoyment of getting caught, and maybe her possible enjoyment of getting electric whipped, and crawled out of the tent, before stumbling to his feet and heading towards the inside of the photo studio.

Roter was shocked to discover Blissbun was actually there - she hadn't run away entirely.

Chase was setting up the camera, taking a few shots and adjusting things, as the blitzchen was lazing about in front of a green screen, one foot on top of a beach ball, like it was nothing but an ordinary work day.

Her yellow eyes flashed angrily as she glared over at him, "Don't. Just don't open your mouth. I ain't fucking talking to you, until I'm done with work. Got it, motherfucker?"

He went to say yes, but caught himself halfway and just gave a small nod. She sneered and sniffed at him, before suddenly taking on the glitz and glamour look of a model having the most fun in the world.

He almost believed her smile was genuine, as she gave a sheepish grin towards the camera, tossing her hair backwards, before leaning on one palm and blowing a kiss towards Chase. That man stumbled, instantly charmed by her experienced movements.

Which gave Roter a bit of an idea, for later.

Blissbun was dressed in a fairly modest clothing set. A tight t-shirt, featuring a rainbow and smiling sun, a pair of denim shorts, and finally a set of white sneakers. All of it was new, and though Roter didn't exactly find them stunning, they did look somewhat nice on the model.

They were retail clothes. The kind of thing that anybody could pick up for five hundred, for the whole outfit. Incidentally, about the same price of her boots, that the monchen had thought were a total steal.

Her clothes were clinging tightly to her, and not just because the size was small. He could see it pulling in where it should be flaring, now that he knew to look for it. Her static was making the rough cloth rub her in all the wrong places for someone living with it, but the right way for an audience.

"Rawberry?"

He took the proffered bowl, standing back and watching as Chase muttered grumpily to himself, and adjusted things here and there. Tipping lampshades to cast longer shadows, specifically double shadows. Asking Blissbun to scootch back a tiny bit on the floor, less than a handspan.

Roter felt the rawberry explode with flavour in his mouth. A sticky coating that came with a bitter aftertaste. It reminded him of home. He'd always used to grow them on a shelf, during the summertime. An easy thing to teach, but these didn't taste fresh.

Supermarket fair.

"Surprised Chase doesn't have you grow these, yourself, Shade."

"Huh?"

He turned to the monchen, who was on the other side of the room, with one arm into a t-shirt, as she quickly shrugged into one of the pre-prepared outfits. A smaller size than Blissbun, and without the cling, it did look decidedly less cute.

"The rawberries. You didn't grow them." He lifted the bowl.

She blinked at him, and then shook her head. "Nope. Not getting it. But I'll have one, if you're offering."

"No, she won't!" Blissbun growled, "Not with a white t-shirt, you dumb cunt! Now, get over here, already. Don't bother my assistant, asshole."

Roter sighed, "Back to asshole, are we? Guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'll take one. Where`d you find `em?" Chase asked, popping one of the bumpy objects into his mouth.

He frowned, "Shade gave them to me."

"No, I didn't." She brushed by him, giving a quick and flirtatious grin at the physical contact.

Roter cocked his head, "I thought it was you..."

He turned around in a circle slowly, and then all four of them took a rapid intake of air as a giggle came from overhead.

Roter's head snapped upwards, and he dropped to the floor, and dropped the bowl. The porcelain shattered as it hit the ground, before wobbling oddly and springing back together. "Everyone down!"

There was a huge gust of wind, that rattled and then cracked the windows, and the bowl rose up into the air. It paused for a moment, spinning slowly and reassembling, before vanishing altogether.

None of the others had been as quick to react.

Shade was sitting against a cupboard wall, groaning and touching her head from where she'd been knocked over backwards by the wind. The blattchen's emerald eyes an off-colour and reeling in a kind of daze.

Chase was touching his side and grunting, trying to carefully climb back off the camera tripod that he had been sucker-punched into. Looking confused and rattled, but not altogether out of things.

Blissbun, however, had been knocked backwards and over, thanks to having a foot on the beachball. So her butt was up in the air, and her cheeks were furiously arcing lightning in all directions. "The fuck!?"

Roter rubbed his eyes and stood up very slowly, "Does your brother have a haunter in his team, that you know of, Chase?"

"What? A ghost monchen? Don't tell me that you actually believe in that crap." The photographer sneered.

The trainer shrugged, "Unless I am very much mistaken, that was a verfolchen. They're really not that unusual. Not like a ghost as in a spirit of dead person. They're monchen, just like everyone else. It's just one of their main spells is called Veiled Manning. It lets them cross in and out of the tangible plane. Not well studied, but we know it's a real phenomenon."

Blissbun launched to her feet, snapping her teeth and her tail sparking, "Let me at her!"

"No verfolchen has ever been caught. They like... Playing pranks." Roter shook his head. "I'm a bit out of my depth. We should ask the research centre if they can spare a trainer to help encourage it to go on its way."

"Buuuuuzzzz..." Blissbun began to snarl, ignoring him.

However, that was as far as she got. There was a small shift in the shadows behind her, that Roter wouldn't have noticed without the lamp set up. One of the shadows bubbled, and then there was a terrifyingly loud pop.

His blitzchen yelped and wheeled around, "Don't touch my tail!"

"Ghosts are real?" Chase said incredulously, staring.

Roter shook his head, again. "She's a monchen. Same as Blissbun or Shade. She just doesn't need to be visible or tangible. Just another spell. Nothing groundbreaking there."

Before Chase could process this, Shade let out a shriek. Her leafy necklace was hovering as she grabbed for it. Trying to wrestle control of the jewellery from something invisible.

The trainer sighed, "Chase... Mind stepping outside for a second? Take the camera, too. Shade, keep struggling. Blissbun... Do what you do best."

"Fucking right!" The blitzchen growled.

"Wait for them to -!" Roter tried to ask her to hold on for a second, but it was already too late. Her cheeks had gone a bright red, and sparks were flicking out far enough to catch at her fringe and lift the edges of it.

The built up anger in his first monchen flooded out, "Buzz... Buzz!"

Chase dove for the doorway as a brilliant light flashed through the room. Roter blinked furiously, completely blinded, as he heard Shade squeal out a high pitched sound that started off with pain before ending up a little dreamy.

Even with dots bouncing around his eyes, he could see Shade lying on the ground - and her necklace was missing. However, he couldn't see a trace of the monchen that had been stealing it.

"Crap." Roter looked around quickly, "I think it... Dodged, somehow."

"Nothing dodges me!" Blissbun growled angrily.

As she said the words, the back of her hair lifted up, and not just the way static would do it.

There was a brief little giggle, and Roter stared as the verfolchen slowly appeared. The woman was rubbing her face into Blissbun's locks happily, and didn't look at all like he'd expected.

She was wearing some kind of black dress that instantly felt like it wasn't made of any material he'd ever seen. It was jagged at the edges, all of them. Ending just above her knees, and at almost her elbows.

The dress was also high-collared, tucking right up underneath her chin. If the dress wasn't enough to make you realise that she was far from human, her eyes lacked any pupils or colour. Just two lovely white spheres that sent a shiver down his spine.

Roter had to admit that he knew next to nothing about verfolchen. He'd never expected to meet one, and he had thought that their ability to disappear and reappear was an exaggeration.

However, no one had said that whilst the verfolchen was on a different plane that they could still interact with this one. She might have only used it to hold some hair, but it was a complete game changer. If she could do something like that in a battle, even if it was just a tiny touch, it rewrote the entire game.

Even something tiny like a tickle from an untouchable was disproportionate to any kind of response.

Along with that shocking bit of trivia, Roter also realised that Blissbun hadn't zapped him, for once. She was also both mad at him, and using an area of effect attack.

The only possible reason that he wasn't twitching down on the ground, right at this moment, was that his blitzchen had intentionally avoided striking at him.

He doubted most girls would have that kind of niceness in their hearts, after catching their crush naked with another woman.

Blauer would have straight up killed him.

He was snapped out of his analytical thoughts, as Blissbun's yellow eyes widened. He saw her stiffen first in fear, before doing her usual and defaulting to all out rage.

The redness of her cheeks deepened, and her mouth dropped into a determined frown. Yet, her attacks had so far proved utterly useless.

Roter couldn't remember even a half plausible story about anyone catching a verfolchen. No interviews, no training. There wasn't even a story about an attempted breeding that came within a day's travel of reality.

Another mortar had every chance of exhausting Blissbun, but no chance of hitting the target.

"Refocus!" Roter shouted quickly, "Don't try and hit them. Hit yourself!"

The blitzchen shot him a look that told him everything he needed to know. She had not forgiven him, and would really rather prefer if he shrivelled up and died.

She also, grudgingly, accepted he knew what he was talking about.

"Buzz." Blissbun grimaced, and the flash arced downwards, between her hands, and for some reason into the zip at the front of her shorts.

The verfolchen was completely taken by surprise as the hair that they were busy hugging, became electrified. Lightning doesn't take a moment to transfer, it lights you up, all at once. Too fast for anyone to avoid.

Roter's blitzchen fell to her knees, feet pushing apart as she trembled at her own forced orgasmic moment, even if that wasn't really what he'd asked her to do.

At the same time, the other woman reeled for a moment, falling backwards, before dropping to the ground. Roter took a flying leap to catch her, before her limp head struck the brutal and unyielding floor.

His knees skidded against the ground painfully, and she ended up with her long purple hair in his lap. A terrified chill ran down his spine as his eyes fixed onto her blank and white ones. Unable to read her emotions at all.

Not that those emotions were probably... Happy.

She looked at him blankly for a stunned moment, and then all the weight in his arms vanished, as the verfolchen disappeared in an instant.

The sudden imbalance jerked him forward, hands hitting the cold and hard wooden floor.

Roter looked up and around quickly. He hadn't been sure that the buzz mortar would even hit the woman, but that it did, and then she'd recovered this quickly, was completely unprecedented. No monchen had that kind of regenerative ability.

The strength to be able to recover from such a large electric shock, and a personal touch of paradise, and then immediately be able to cast a spell to step outside the usual bounds of reality... The woman's genetics must be beyond unstable.

Verfolchen might be the key to determining if evolution or crossbreeding were possible.

Blauer would kill him, just to have a chance to look at a lock of this woman's hair. He was honestly almost as interested. This monchen might be the key to everything, and she'd just turned up inside his house to fool around.

Though, getting distracted by the newcomer was probably not that safe, when his main girl was already angry at him for cheating. Blissbun also had a touch more than rage towards this ghostly presence, and would not take it well that he would really like to add the woman to their posse. Or at least interview her.

There was a living legend somewhere inside this room.

Roter knew he was out of his depth, by a very long way. Unfortunately, he suspected that if he left the room, to go hunt down someone who could help, the verfolchen probably wouldn't be here when he got back.

There was also no way to seal a room to keep the woman around. She could nearly instantly recover from Blissbun's mortar, and pass through every physical thing, as far as Roter could tell at this point.

The best option seemed to be to hope that Chase was going for help, and to keep the verfolchen's interest. To either provoke her, or intrigue her, so that she stuck around long enough for someone to notice.

Over analysing was a problem of Roter's.

Whilst he was busy flicking his mind frantically for a strategy that might work, the woman in question seemed to develop a touch of boredom, and decided to tease the hell out of his blitzchen.

A necklace, made of large green leaves, appeared gently around Blissbun's neck. It lowered down onto her so softly that the blitzchen continued snarling around the room without noticing a single thing.

Roter noted the cheekiness, more than the confidence, of the verfolchen.

Confidence was something that could just be a thing of personality. It could be misplaced trust in the woman's own abilities. However, cheekiness went beyond merely trusting in your own abilities. It spoke to the motives of the creature who had somehow chosen to reveal itself to them.

If they were going to resolve this situation, then blindly lashing out with lightning wasn't going to do a thing. They needed to comprehend the woman, why she had chosen them to as her targets. What she was trying to get out of this little encounter.

He needed to make her laugh.

Blissbun's one spell was entirely useless in this situation, but hanging Shade's necklace on the woman might just be the mistake that Roter needed. It was a link, a bridge, putting Shade on both sides of the room.

Unfortunately, Roter didn't really know Shade's training. He knew her memory spell firsthand, but it didn't help to shellshock something when they're completely intangible.

He just had to hope she knew it.

"Shade! Use Puffing Blossum!" Roter ordered, pointing directly at the necklace.

Blissbun took immediate offense, "Don't you fucking dare!"

The blattchen bit her lip nervously, hesitating and ruining any surprise to the attack. Roter heard a light giggle, near to Blissbun, before his vision suddenly swam.

A puff of pink clouded everything, little petals falling softly through the air to land on every surface. Landing on the ground, the photo studio, his own shoulders. Roter's head spun, and the wooden floor slapped the left side of his face.

He dimly saw the blurry figure of his blitzchen collapsing. Blissbun crumpling to the floor, as if... She'd just taken a fistful of poison to the face.

Shade wasn't moving.

She was standing stock still, and as Roter's eyes began to close, he saw a dim shadow right behind the woman.

His wild bet, hadn't paid off.

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