Chapter 23: Pupil 23

Zara was sure that something was wrong since she was in the park at the usual time, yet she was still alone. The partner for this week should be around somewhere unless today’s course was canceled, she thought.

She checked her messages on her phone to be sure she didn’t miss any memo about the course being canceled for that day when a loud, ear-piercing shriek slashed through the air which was later followed by more.

Three naked women were running toward her and yelling like animals. All three of them looked identical. Their hair was purple colored, styled into a punkish spikey shape. Their hazel eyes looked a little bit glossy as if they were drunk or something. As they got closer, Zara noticed that even their pubes were purple and shaved into a butterfly shape. Their boobs were bouncy C-cups with a little slope to them.

Zara acted on instinct and kicked the closer one, who ran at her like an animal, into the face. The other two, ignoring their fallen friend, jumped at her from the sides, trying to grab her but Zara swiftly turned her hands into wolf-heads and grabbed the wrists of the hostile twins, squeezing with inhuman strength.

“Now calm down and tell me...” Zara couldn’t finish the sentence as she noticed that the arms of the two girls she was holding fell off.

“What the...?” she gasped. Someone had to react because the girls themselves were unresponsive as if they were brain dead.

As Zara examined the stumps she noticed something. There was no sign of blood or bones or anything. They ended in a pink nub as if there were no arms there at all, or as if the girls were made of something else other than human body parts.

“Not bad,” she heard someone clapping behind her.

It was a girl. She looked mostly similar to the naked triplets but she wore clothes.

“Who the hell are you? Do you know these freaks?” Zara glared at her.

“Hey hey. Hold your horses,” the girl replied with a smile, “These are the duplicates I made with my Legion Lutin powers. It was just a little test to see how strong you are.”

“These are ... your clones?”

“Yeah, but they are not as durable as a real human. As you can see, they don’t even have normal human anatomy beneath their skin. They are just mindless soulless puppets that can age to death quicker than a mayfly,” the girl pointed at the one that Zara kicked in the face. It was already dead and its body began to decompose into dust. It was like watching a video on fast forward.

“Interesting power, not gonna lie,” Zara examined the pile of dust.

“Jacintha Dove,” the girl introduced herself with a grin that showed her sharp canines.

She looked pretty unique, to say the least, because Jacintha’s body was a canvas of body modifications. Aside from the spiky purple hair and the sharpened teeth that gave her a vampiric look, she had a bunch of other things. She had snake bite piercings on her lips, and a surgically split tongue, and she had both eyeballs tattooed into the same purple as her hair. Because of the short leather pants, Zara could see that she had corset piercings on the behind of both of her calves and a bigger one on her back that started right below her neck and peeked out from below her shirt. The three sets of corset piercings were decorated with black ribbons, matching the rest of her clothes. She also had one subdermal implant on the back of each hand in the shape of a skull. Above these, she had full-sleeve tattoos depicting black roses across her arms. In a nutshell: she didn’t look like the type of girl a mother would want her son to bring home.

“Zara Cromwell,” she shook her hand, “I see you got a nice collection. I bet they were painful.”

“Of course they were. That’s what makes them special,” Jacintha stuck out her split tongue.

“By the way. Can you make these disappear?” Zara pointed at the remaining clones, “They freak me out.”

“They can decompose naturally so we just only have to wait. Although I can do this as well,” Jacintha shrugged and placed one hand on the shoulder of the closest copy. Its body began rippling as if it turned into liquid and then the whole body was sucked into Jacintha’s hand.

“What are you doing, pupils?” Aritimi appeared behind them, “You keep attacking people with your clones, Jacintha?”

“It’s just training for my powers. Plus my clones, by themselves, are not enough dangerous to seriously hurt someone,” she shrugged.

“Just be careful when you use your powers. Hester had a seizure last week and lost control over her power for a moment,” Aritimi scolded her pupil.

“Seizure?” Zara raised an eyebrow then she remembered what Aritimi said about staying silent about the real nature of the incident to avoid panic, “Ah, yeah, I remember now.”

“Enough, talk,” Aritimi opened a portal for them, “We going to visit the Crisis Response Team today.”

“Hmm, if I remember well, they are some kind of military force of the HSA, right?” Zara asked.

“Yes, a unit like this is a rapid-response team that deals with large-scale monster attacks on human settlements. Most big cities have their own teams,” Aritimi explained as she entered the portal.

The place they arrived at looked like a classic American ranch from a Western movie. The only thing that ruined the picture was the high voltage, monsterproof, electric fence around the property.

“Oh, this place looks more like what I imagined for the Agriculture Protection Unit,” Jacintha remarked.

“Yep, they really like this style. They always said they were born into the wrong century,” Aritimi chuckled.

Suddenly, a weird mechanic sound pierced the air as if heavy machines were turned on and began to move at full speed.

It didn’t take long to meet the sources of the sounds as the mechanic horses galloped out from a stable. Each one had a woman riding on them.

They came at high speed at the trio but stopped with deadly precision right beside Aritimi, then the duo jumped off of their mechanic steeds.

“Timi!” the women said in unison. It was quite obvious that they were identical twins.

“Long time no see, girls,” Aritimi gave them a tight hug, “I could only meet your daughters yesterday when I brought my other pupils. Not like I have issues with them, it’s just hard to recognize who is who.”

Then she turned back to the girls.

“Pupils, they are together the bosses of the Crisis Response Team, Dallas and Dakota Winchester,” Aritimi introduced the twins.

Dallas and Dakota looked incredible even for someone in their mid-fifties. They didn’t look as young as Aritimi but one could only assume they were in their forties at worst. Beneath their cowboy hats, their golden blonde hair was styled into braided pigtails. They had tanned skin as if they spent their entire life under the sun. Their features were rugged but beautiful, with strong jawlines and high cheekbones. At first sight, with their cowgirl aesthetics which was combined with their blonde hair and blue eyes, they looked like cowgirl-styled Barbie dolls rather than a monster hunter duo. But as they stood there, it was hard to ignore the strong aura and powerful presence they had in person.

“Nice horses,” Jacintha patted the side of a metal steed, “But a car or a bike wouldn’t be quicker than a robot horse?”

“These are experimental. The research team tries to replicate the powers of monsters mechanically and they gave us these mechanic Dire Horses to see how good they are,” Dallas said.

“Also, it fits our style better,” Dakota added.

“And they working?” Zara joined.

“Yes,” the twins nodded in unison.

“Not as good as a real Dire Horse, because those are bigger and stronger,” Dallas started.

“But still better than an average horse,” Dakota finished.

“And what is your augmentation?” Jacintha asked eagerly, “Mine is this,” she raised her hands into the air and a bubble of flesh grew urgently in both palms which then separated themselves from her body and grew into full-sized replicas within the blink of an eye.

The clones tried to attack one of the sisters but the sounds of two gunshots shook their air. Then the clones stumbled backward with a bullet hole in their torse and fell to the ground.

“Ours is this,” they said in unison with a smile.

“With our Warfare Warthog powers...” Dallas started.

“We can produce these,” Dakota finished and then they both raised their arms. The bones and muscles of their hands reshaped into the barrel and cylinder of a classic six-shooter revolver.

“Cool,” Jacintha exclaimed in awe, ignoring her decomposing duplicates on the ground, “What are you shooting from those?”

“We can shoot bone fragments that can regenerate over time,” Dallas answered.

“But we can shoot other things as well. If we eat small pieces of metal, we can turn them into metal bullets in our bodies,” Dakota continued.

“We can also shoot compressed air out of these if we don’t want to cause too much damage to our targets,” Dallas added.

“That’s not all,” Aritimi revealed, “Their daughters got the same augmentation from the same monster. They technically have an entire army of augmented hunters.”

“By the way, let’s show them our girls, sister,” Dakota offered.

“Oh, I bet they gonna be surprised,” Dallas giggled, “Follow us, girls.”

“Hey, Zara,” Aritimi elbowed her side as they followed the twins, “Do you remember what Hester said about a lot of children, last week?”

“Oh, yeah,” she nodded, “So they have more than five? I mean together or individually?”

“Both,” Aritimi snickered as they entered a building that looked like a typical saloon from the outside and on the inside as well.

Zara almost gasped as she saw the people inside. They were all women, and unmistakenly the daughters of Dallas and Dakota. There were dozens of them, all dressed in the same cowgirl outfit with the wide-brimmed hats hiding their faces.

“Hey, girls. Greet Timi and her pupils,” Dallas said to the crowd of cowgirls.

The saloon echoed with the sound of dozens of booted feet tapping on the wooden floor as the daughters lined up to greet their mothers’ guests. Although it wasn’t the same shade as their mothers’ but they all had blonde hair braided into pigtails, and the same piercing blue eyes as their mothers.

“Girls, this is the Winchester Herd,” Dakota introduced their daughters.

“Damn. You are a freakin’ breeding machine duo,” Jacintha said jokingly as they walked into the saloon, her eyes wide with amazement, “How many daughters do you guys have? Are these all yours? There’s no way you all did give birth to these.”

“Together, there are fifty of them,” Dallas announced proudly.

“We gave them birth in groups. Twin births or more are a common thing in our family,” Dakota continued.

“Okay, not that common. Looks like our augmentation triggered it in our genes and because of that, we never gave birth to only one child at a time,” Dallas added.

“I think you should introduce them to Zara and Jacintha,” Aritimi advised.

“Sure,” the sisters nodded.

“Firstly, these triplets are my firstborns,” Dallas introduced them, “They are Alabama, Alaska and Arizona.”

The eldest sisters looked like slightly younger versions of their mother. Except for their hair which was platinum blonde, almost white.

“And these quadruplets are my firstborns,” Dakota continued, “They are Arkansas, California, Colorado, and Connecticut.”

Similarly to the others, their only notable difference was their shad of hair color which was light golden blonde.

“My second batch are the quintuplets, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, and Idaho,” Dallas pointed at the next five girls.

Their hair was honey blonde, but aside from that, they looked like their mother.

“My second batch is a set of sextuplets, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana,” Dakota introduced them.

Their hair was a warm caramel blonde shade.

“My third batch is these septuplets, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Missouri,” Dallas continued.

Their hair was dark honey blonde.

“My third batch is the octuplets, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and North Carolina,” Dakota continued the line.

These girls had bronze blonde hair.

“My fourth and final batch is also a set of octuplets, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and South Dakota,” Dallas finished.

Her last girls had light brownish blonde hair.

“My last litter of lovely ladies is none other than a set of nonuplets, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming,” Dakota finished the long line of girls.

These had a deep golden blonde hair color that was bordering on brown.

Jacintha was in disbelief, “You’re not serious. That’s fifty kids! How do you even keep track of their names?”

“We named them after the fifty states of the USA, in alphabetical order,” Dallas said proudly.

“Um ... so when you first gave birth to your triplets, you two already planned to have a kid named after each state?” Zara asked.

“No, I just wanted some good-sounding, patriotic names for my babies and the first three states from the alphabetic list of states sounded cool. Dakota continued it with her babies and so on,” Dallas explained.

“And what if you’d end up with more than fifty? What would have been their names then?” Jacintha asked curiously.

“Well, we had some contingency plans. We could have moved on to the capital cities, I guess,” Dakota said with a wink.

“I doubt the HSA would mind if you guys keep breeding. The Winchester family is almost legendary at this point,” Aritimi acknowledged.

“And what we gonna do here? Is there any crisis you have to take a look at or something?” Zara asked, looking at the army of cowgirls. Seemingly, they could take on any danger.

“We rarely get called to super big cases in the city, but we still have things to do outside of Crowsend,” Dallas replied, “Hester often calls us when a big horde of monsters is close to the Amish community. Bo also calls us sometimes to assist with big monsters, and we also often go to check on camping sites around the area.”

“Mothers, we got a call,” Oregon announced as she was looking at a laptop’s screen on a table, “Tourists reported a herd of Hucows marching by the river, toward the lake and the city.”

“Oh, Hucows, that’s great!” Aritimi exclaimed, “The research team has been nagging us for a while to collect more for the Milk Mansion.”

“For what? And why they are so important?” Jacintha asked.

“The Milk Mansion. It’s a wing in the Crypt, the monster prison, where we keep the captured Hucows,” she explained, “They are useful because their milk is good for humans., especially augmented ones. It helps heal quicker if you drink from it and it can also help hunters rehabilitate after their augmentation surgery. Also, the research team tries to make some kind of healing potion but they need a lot more for the tests.”

A sudden pair of whistles pierced the air as Dallas and Dakota whistled in unison.

“Get ready, girls. We will have to capture a whole herd,” Dallas announced, and the room buzzed with excitement. The daughters looked eager to jump into action, their hands morphing into various types of guns.

“No need to hurry. According to the latest reports, they stopped to rest between the river and a camping site,” Oregon added.

“Good, we will have time to call for the portable containment units then,” Dakota replied.

“I already doing the call,” Colorado said.

“I’m already ready,” Aritimi announced as she stepped out from her jumpsuit and stood butt-naked in front of the crowd of cowgirls, “Pupils, get into your hunting gears as well.”

Zara nodded and she was about to undress but Dallas stopped her.

“We have a changing room,” she pointed at a door, “You can leave your stuff there.”

Zara and Jacintha entered the changing room. Zara didn’t hesitate to get rid of her clothes, she knew Aritimi’s perverted way of hunting and training naked. She was surprised that Jacintha didn’t try to oppose though.

As she placed her clothes into a locker, she examined herself in the mirror at the locker’s door. She visibly gained some weight since the beginning of the course which was months ago. Her breasts and ass became bigger and rounder, giving her a more feminine look she never had before.

Zara then turned around and saw the naked Jacintha. She was an unusual sight to see both naked and clothed. She had a nice shapely ass, Zara could see the whole corset piercing now which started slightly above Jacintha’s butt cheeks and ended just below her neck. The black rose tattoos on her arms looked eerily beautiful. Also, Zara could see that similar to her clones, Jacintha had purple pubes in the shape of a small butterfly. The only completely new thing about her was the scarification on the girl’s breasts.

Jacintha had small butterfly scars all over her breasts and even one on her left areola. The intricate design looked both painful and mesmerizing, standing out against her alabaster skin.

“No offense, I mean ... your body your choice. But why did you choose to permanently mark your body with things like these?” Zara asked, trying to be polite.

“I like to express myself, you know?” Jacintha shrugged, twirling her hair around her finger, “Plus, the pain helps me focus. It’s like a reminder that I’m still alive, still kicking ass.”

“Okay ... I guess. By the way, I’m surprised that you were okay to get naked for the hunt. Others usually try to argue with her.”

“Thanks to my clones that I can only create as naked replicas of myself, people already see me naked often in one way or another,” she shrugged again.

“Sorry, Timi, but we not going to go out with you and your pupils naked,” they heard Dallas’ voice from behind the closed door.

“Yeah, your perversion here is as welcome as a rattlesnake at a square dance,” Dakota added which made some of the girls chuckle heartily.

“Fine,” they heard Aritimi sigh loudly.

“Oh my God! It’s happening. She can’t get what she wants,” Zara smirked.

“I didn’t want to use my strongest weapon right now but you forced my hands,” Aritimi continued, “If you gonna hunt with me naked today, I will give you an N-word pass for the rest of the year.”