FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

“No, we don't." Brody grunted, pushing away from the wall and backing toward the rear door of the bar, a cigarette hanging forgotten from his lips.

I stepped forward sharply. “Oh, yes, we do. Why'd you throw me under the bus, huh?" I angled toward the side of the alley so I could reach that door a few steps before him if he tried to bolt for it. “You know that asshole and his bitch started everything, not me."

Brody noticed my altered path and stopped, knowing he couldn't get the door open before I was on him. He had seen me fight the bruin and knew he had no chance, I could see it in his sudden defeated slouch. He reached up and fiddled with the cigarette for a few seconds before raising his other hand to light it. He drew a shaky drag and exhaled heavily before sighing.

“That 'asshole' was Nicholas Armadore." He hooked his thumb toward the closed back door of the bar. “You know, Armadore Suppliers?" Oh yes, I knew them. Everyone knew them. They ran the largest supply company in the city. It was unspoken knowledge that they were also as crooked as a mulberry twig but had both deep pockets and deeper connections to the city's political hierarchy and, as such, were all but untouchable. They had seized the contract for supplying that impromptu grandstand's vending contract pretty much immediately and uncontested. “No way am I going to finger him to the cops and lose every delivery contract we had. My boss wouldn't have fired me, he would've gutted me like a fucking fish."

“A chip off of old daddy's block." I scoffed, realizing I had been utterly outclassed. I'm surprised none of Armadore's muscle hadn't done exactly that to me. Jakob Armadore was a savvy businessman with some unsavory employees who were not 'officially' on the books. “So I'm the one who gets fucked. Well, jeeze, Brody, thanks. And here I thought we had something."

Brody jabbed two fingers toward me, cigarette held between them dropping ash. “You thought you had something, buddy. I never did."

“Awful flirty for all that, then. Nothing, huh?"

Brody scoffed. “Dude, flirting is part of the fucking job. Keeps customers at the bar, keeps them ordering. Get a clue and get over yourself, I wasn't and am not in any way interested." He took another drag of the cig, reducing its length by almost half before huffing a long breath thick with smoke. “You got no tail I want." His gaze shifted down toward my side, toward Ebonflame.

I followed his gaze, looking down at her too. She was a bristle furred bush of black, eyes a deep shade of scarlet and slit pupiled. I chuckled. “She'd bite your dick off, Brody." I growled and looked back up to meet his gaze. “That's if she could find it."

Brody scoffed and, having recovered his normal bravado, flicked the remains of his cigarette at me. It fell several feet short. “I've got plenty, buddy, so fuck right the hell off." Turning toward the door, which I made no move to herd him away from though my knuckles itched to feel his face disfiguring, he yanked it open and disappeared back into the bar. Yeah, he did have a package to go with those good looks, I had to admit. And a nice shapely ass I had wanted to feel under my fingers as I made him writhe.

Had. But now I just wanted to feel on the toe of my rapidly ascending shoe.

But, alas, it seemed that Brody was not done with us that easily. Before we had gone another fifteen feet down the alley a shadow loomed at its far end. I groaned inwardly at the muscular silhouette of what could only be a bouncer come to assuage Brody's fragile ego. He couldn't take me and he knew it, but the bar's door muscle?

Unlikely.

“You!" The silhouette bellowed, raising an arm to point at me as I heard the bar door open behind me once again. “You fucking cost me a prime piece of pussy, you sack of worthless shit!"

Oh, lovely, the Armadore brat, himself. Well, I had beaten him once, I could do it again. I let my briefcase fall and turned to look over my shoulder, then quailed.

The reason that fight had not reached its conclusion then had just stepped out of the bar's back door. The Snorlax and, behind it, that same beefy bouncer. Ebonflame had turned to face them, her fur still bristled but now leaking tendrils of inky black mist that pooled across the alley, swirling around my expensive office shoes.

Well, fuck my life.

“The floozy you got blind drunk, Nikky?" I shot back, turning my attention to him again. I heard a startled snort behind me but did not turn to look. A baritone string of surprised curses and deep, rumbling whines of pain or fear that were not human, and far too basso to have issued from Ebon's throat. “That the only way you can get laid, is it? Get 'em too stupid drunk to say No?" A moment later I heard the sound of the bar's back door slamming closed.

“Tryin' to muscle in on my girl!" Nicholas was closing the distance with a quick stride, his arms held out slightly, fists clenched. Was this guy that belligerently stupid, or just that drunk already? He had to remember how handily I put him down before.

“Your girl?" I laughed derisively, “Dude, I didn't want your slut at all! I was after the god damn bartender, not some worthless piece of stank pussy!"

“Fag, then, is it?" From the corner of my eye I saw Ebon's head snap around to look at me but I didn't let my focus waver. “Let me show you what a real man does to prissy little ass munchers, then." He closed the last few paces as I didn't move other than to settle my balance. Yeah, he was that belligerent, I didn't get any hint he was stupid drunk.

Just simply stupid.

His first jab came in straight from the shoulder, his body not even rotating to give it any strength. I leaned slightly and slapped it aside, rotating to let his launch carry him past. I saw Ebonflame dart out of the way, bouncing from the side of a dumpster with cat-like grace to land with Nicholas between us. “Nikky, dude, I handed you your ass with six shots on me the last time. Now I'm stone cold sober." I continued to rotate as he came around, turning in reverse to his expected rotation, to attempt a punishing backhand while he expected me to be defending for another punch.

I ducked smoothly and shot stiffened fingers up into his armpit making him grunt and clench his arm to his side. “Fucker!" He snarled and launched a kick at me that was so ill timed I didn't even have to dodge as he stumbled, off balance. I let him stagger, not capitalizing on his unbalanced vulnerability.

“Dude, like you said, I'm fucking gay, okay. Didn't want your bitch then, sure as fuck don't want you now, so give it up." I said as I circled slowly, keeping just out of reach as he regained his balance. “Not enough brains to be attractive and far too little dick to make me notice, anyway." Oh the easiest way to goad a prideful ego into rage, belittle their manhood.

With a furious roar Armadore lunged at me, arms open wide to grapple. That's when I noticed it was just him and me in the alley, the Snorlax and its attendant bouncer were nowhere to be seen, the door to the bar closed. I danced back and sidestepped, easily scooting out of the circle of Nicholas' embrace, swatting one arm aside as he stumbled past where I had been, catching himself against a dumpster before he face planted.

“Daddy should've paid for some self defense lessons, Nikky boy." I said as he spun around, looking for me in fury. “What on earth did he waste all of that money on, anyway?"

“To take what I want." Nicholas snarled as he stalked me but I minced - MINCED! - easily out of his way with that simpering sidle everyone expects of fags. Of course I never let my sense of balance waver, even as I waggled my fingers at him.

“Only after getting them drunk?" I asked, sidestepping slightly and ducking another haymaker. As he spun and staggered I reached out and grabbed his crotch. It wasn't a fondle, either; I grabbed hold and squeezed firmly, making him yelp in agonized fury and clutch at his groin though, by then, I had released and was well out of range. “Oh, dear, because they'd have to be drunk not to notice there's so little to deliver." I simpered at him, fully into the game, now.

He was just so easy!

I saw Ebonflame sitting atop one of the dumpsters, as prim as a cat, watching not the fight but just me, her jaw hanging in an expression of what looked, to me, like shock. She was not watching the fight with glee or expectation of needing to intervene, just… stupefaction.

“I'll deliver this." Nicholas snarled, yanking a long, wicked looking blade from the small of his back. Without brandishing it he simply lunged forward with a stab I easily sidestepped, then a wicked sideways slash I stopped with a quick upward snap of one foot connecting with his forearm.

Now it was real. I had merely been toying with him, previously. He snarled in pain as his arm was kicked back into him and came in with a low upward stab to catch me stepping in. I twisted as it came up, missing entirely but bringing his arm up in front of me. Catching elbow and wrist I continued the arm's upward swing, forcing his elbow to bend, and his snarl became a yelp as he nearly planted his own knife in his face. I had not intended that he stab himself, pushing the arm so that he would stab over his shoulder.

He jerked his head to the side and almost succeeded in impaling himself despite my efforts.

“Drop. The. Knife." I snarled with cold, hard, uncompromising flatness as we stood, momentarily face to face, his arm pinned to his chest and blade back over his shoulder.

“Fuck you. My fath-" My forehead into his nose abruptly stopped his threat. It had not been hard enough to actually break his nose, but made his eyes water as I released my hold and stepped back. He reached up with free hand to see if his nose was bleeding. “He will fucking gut you!" Nicholas snarled, pointing the blade at me as he fumbled in his jacket for something else.

A fucking Pokémon trap!

It wasn't like the old thing I had rescued Ebonflame from, it was far more modern. It was small, hardly larger than the lighter Brody had used, but when he pointed it at me there was no mistaking the tiny digitization lens on the business end. What the absolute fuck was he doing with one of those things? Here! In the epicenter of Pokémon emancipation where they were one of the most illegal items someone could have! More illegal, even, than a slug thrower!

I was momentarily taken aback, startled that someone would have one of them and having it pointed at me.

I saw a blue glow shimmer in the lens and Nicholas' victorious sneer before, abruptly, his sneer became a moue of agony. A sliver of darkness stood from his forearm just behind his wrist and, even as I watched, it twisted and his arm rotated with it, fingers conclusively releasing the trap. It clattered to the ground, along with the metallic clatter of his knife as he clutched at his wounded arm.

Other black slivers launched forward from a roiling cloud of black flames to halt in front of his face, poking at his throat, breast, and very firmly into his crotch. Ebonflame stalked forward past me, having abandoned her perch on the dumpster, only her head and the very tip of her tail identifiable from the mass of shadowy flames around her. The man went cross eyed trying to focus on the two spears of darkness in front of his face, lurching his hips back as his crotch was firmly prodded.

Then Nicholas simply collapsed in a heap, his pained cries escaping as a somnolent sigh before becoming ragged snores. Ebonflame's lances of darkness withdrew, leaving a clean hole in his forearm that leaked blood. It did not flow in a manner that would indicate any major vessels had been cut, for which I was thankful. Ebon's flames died down and I saw that, beyond Nicholas' crumpled form, the bouncer stood at the open end of the alley, his very timid looking Snorlax peering cautiously around the corner.

“That," the burly man rumbled, “was all caught on camera." He nodded up toward something behind me and I turned, scanning the wall, until I spotted the small black dome of a security camera above the door of the bar. I noticed more over other doors along the alley. “No audio, so no idea what you two were arguing about, but when Brody said there was a fight out here I came to check it out." He grunted a rueful laugh. “That little black devil of yours sent my Sandy scuttling faster than I've ever seen her move." Sandy? The Snorlax? And then it clicked; sandman. “You want to wait for the uniforms or should I just say you fled after his attempted mugging?"

“The Armadors will just bury the incident even if I did report it." I admitted with a sigh as I felt my adrenaline beginning to fade leaving my legs unsteady. Ebonflame leaned against me, her fur slowly beginning to settle.

“Doubt it. Six or so cameras caught the whole event, and then there's that knife. That's deadly intent."

“And the Pokémon trap." I nodded toward the small blue and red device lying near Nicholas' slumbering form. The bouncer's eye blinked and he stalked forward, carefully around the Armadore scion, to look down at it.

“That's a trap? Fuck me." He sucked a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, that's going to be damning. You better go, I'll make sure he stays in dreamland until the law gets here."

“I assume Brody told him I was out here?"

“Sure did, and told me."

“Let him know just how… thankful I am." I quipped as I returned to my briefcase and picked it up.

The bouncer chuckled. It was not a gleeful sound. “Oh, if he's still inside when I get done here I think Sandy will let him enjoy some very… unpleasant dreams." He raised a huge hand and rested it heavily on my shoulder for a moment. “Get gone."

I did. We were just navigating past hastily erected construction barriers into the park when I heard the thin, twinkling wails of police and emergency services sirens approaching from opposite directions toward the entertainment district.

---

Deep in the bowels of an executive tower across the city a half dozen technicians, arrayed at workstations around a single server rack, looked up when the quiet, incident alarm began once again. It had taken them days to find it originally, lost in the furthest neglected corner of just one server room of several dozen. Since then they had relocated the rack to a larger space all on its own with a team to monitor it.

“Another activation." One of the techs said as he peered at his display. “Suburbs, to the west side of the city." He rattled off the address of a city block which was as close as he could narrow the signal which had already disappeared. He turned slightly to glance over at another person. “About a mile from the original activation."

Another technician left him to his study while she studied another, where the readings were also being echoed. “We can have a response team on site in… twenty minutes or so." She turned and looked to yet another person, who, dressed in a prim executive suit did not have the air of a technician. “Shall I relay?"

“Yes." The man nodded. “Tell them I will meet them there in," he glanced at his wrist computer, “fifty minutes." At his side a large golden leonine form shifted up onto its large paws with a deep, basso rumble of curiosity. When the man turned and swept out of the room his Pokémon followed with grace one would not expect of such a large specimen.

---

We got back to my apartment block just as the tram I would normally have ridden pulled away from the tram stop and I had to chuckle. If I had just been a little more patient we would have never encountered Brody or Nicholas Armadore. I had a sinking feeling that we would not be hearing the last of him.

I tossed my briefcase onto the table as Ebonflame scampered across the kitchen area into the living room and hopped up onto the sofa. Rather than sprawling out, however, she turned to look at me, a rapid-fire series of growling burrs and gekkrs rolling from her throat. It sounded like she was reading me a diatribe, though not angrily.

“What, Flame?" I asked as she continued whatever it was she was trying to say. “I can't understand a word of that, you know." Hanging my slightly rumpled, dusty, sweat stained blazer on a hook near the door and jerked off the employment noose from around my neck to hang with it. They, along with the rest of my office clothes, would definitely need a trip to the dry cleaners before I could wear them again.

Ebonflame gekkred and turned about on the couch a couple of times in frustration before abruptly halting, her gaze fixed toward the quiet holo bay. Or, rather, the shelf above it where I had placed nick-nacks and souvenirs of my life, the one that had ended five years ago. I had simply never found it in myself to pack them away. There were half a dozen framed holographs and flat images among the objects.

Ebonflame's fur puffed, spilling darkness across the sofa to drift over the floor as a long spear abruptly lanced out toward the shelf to halt before striking anything. It pointed to a flat image of me and Paul, both grinning like fools, standing atop a rocky promontory overlooking the western ocean. Both of us were wearing soaked souvenir t-shirts which showed off our toned, youthful physiques. I had let mine slip over the years, though not overmuch. I could still wear that t-shirt, if I could ever find out where I had buried it in my wardrobe.

I walked across the room, shucking my sweaty shirt and draping it over the back of the recliner, to take down the framed image. Ebon's accusatory finger of darkness withdrew and her aura of shadow shrank back into herself. Holding the image in my hands I simply stood there and stared at it for several long moments before turning and making my way back over to the couch. Ebon quickly moved to the other end and sat, her eyes and intense shade of sunshine yellow edged with orange. She looked from me to the frame in my hands and back.

I turned it toward her, one finger touching Paul's manically grinning face. “This was Paul." I said as I looked down, angling the image to see the figures happily grinning from within. “He was… was my lover." I said at length, heaving a sigh. “My mate. He's dead, now, killed in a war to liberate a people from a repressive regime, and your kind as well." I frowned at the unquiet memory, of the war grinding to a stalemate that became nothing more than blockades and trade embargos. “A war that was, for all intents and purposes, lost. Your kind are still treated as little more than property, there. Paul's life was wasted on… nothing." I turned to set the frame on the end table, facing us.

Ebonflame's jaw hung, her expression aghast, eyes gone such a pale shade of yellow as to seem white. She huffed, looked at the image, focus shifting from my frozen face to Paul's, then she looked back at me. With a growling croon she dropped herself to the couch and briefly crossed her paws over her head, flattening her ears beneath them. As I watched, wondering at her consternation, she let her paws down and gazed up at me, whiskers adroop and ears backed, abashed. She gekkred a soft noise and nosed my hand. She then extended a paw, touched my thigh and then my crotch, pawing down slightly before tracing away and standing. She turned about, presenting her backside at me, tail held aloft and flicking to one side to reveal the shapely black diamond I had plumbed the night before. I blinked, not understanding, as she turned back around and huffed morosely before sitting again.

That's when I got it. “I'm gay." I said, timeously, after a moment. She nodded slowly, then again more vigorously, raising one paw and hooking it in at her breast. “But you didn't know that." Another slow, morose nod. “You didn't know, and you seduced me. And I'm gay." She nodded again, a bit more firmly, and looked down with backed ears and drooping whiskers.

I cocked my head slightly before reaching out and stroking my fingers along one side of her jaw, into the thick, deep fur there as I used my thumb under her chin to coax her head up. “Yes, Ebon, my lass." I said with a nod and a smile. “You seduced me and… well, brought me to do things I had never done before, never even considered. I was intimate with a female, with a Pokémon." She gazed up at me, those eyes darkening to a soft shade of umber gold. I leaned over, bringing my head down until we were nose to nose. “With you. And, you know what, my lass?" Her eyes flickered from one of mine to the other, brightness welling up along the lower curve of her golden vulpine orbs. “I regret none of it. You were my first female and, well, I suspect you will be my only. Ever." I captured her head lightly with both hands and gave her gleaming black nose a peck with my lips. “And, dear little one, notice I said will, present tense, not were, past tense, hmm?" I winked.

I watched as those dark slit pupils widened, like doors opening into the purest darkness and the gold shimmered to soft green, then an intense emerald that shifted to sapphire even as I looked into them. A warm caress crossed my lips, cool nose to one side of my own as she pressed in. I let her long, slender, oh so talented tongue invade my mouth in ways no human could ever dream of. My fingers dug into the thick fur of her neck, shoulders, sides, coming back up to her nape as I danced tongues with her.

At length she broke the awkward kiss and dipped her slender vulpine head into the hollow of my throat, her weight leaning in as she huff swift, deep breaths. When she brought her gaze back up to meet my own her eyes were brilliant sapphire, pupils widening until they dominated almost the entirety of her eye before narrowing to feline slits again.

I chuckled softly. Bringing up one hand I tapped her lightly on that glistening black nose. “I know what that color means, precious little Flame." I said with a wink. “Would you like me to set aside being gay now, or before bed." She blinked and gekkred, her ears twitching back briefly as I felt a dainty paw slowly drag down my crotch. She clicked her jaws twice before flattening the whiskers along one side of her muzzle with that long tongue before the other. “Ahh, hungry are you?" She growled and grinned a toothy vulpine grin.

Gently easing her aside I stood from the sofa and crossed to let the drapes down across the window. My view was simply out into the trees along one side of the building so, unless a particularly arboreal Pokémon or child challenging themselves to the trees, only squirrels and birds would have possibly witnessed our earlier heated exchange of spit. The drapes did not cut the light much, merely made it all but impossible to see what was going on within the apartment. Between windows I worked myself out of the scuffed, sweat stained business slacks and underwear, letting them join my shirt over the back of the recliner.

Ebonflame watched from the sofa, the tip of her tongue lolling from her partially open muzzle as that black bush of tail lazily swept back and forth. When I returned to the couch she sat up and, before I could turn to sit leaned forward to bury her long, slim muzzle between my thighs and upward to lift my balls. She shuffled a cool indrawn breath across my flesh as I scratched into the fur of her neck and shoulders. “All those times I thought you just wanted scritches." I commented humorously as I let her imbibe my, admittedly rather potent and sweaty, musk. She whuffled a soft gekkr and dragged her tongue upward across my balls, lifting my cock as her tongue continued upward. “You were seducing me the whole time."

Her head bobbed and she gave a playful, mock nip at my flaccid maleness, bestirring it into slow wakefulness. Turning slowly I eased back down into the sofa and she moved to stretch out beside me, her forepaws coming to rest on my near thigh as she gazed up at me. I stroked her neck slowly, enjoying the luxuriant softness of her deep fur and drawing her head against my chest and stomach. “Sorry I was a bit slow on the uptake." The plume of her tail lifted to lazily wave behind her as a small paw reached out to drag at my groin and cock, 'petting' me for lack of any better term.

I grinned. “If you're hungry I could get dinner started." A paw tightening upon my thigh, blunt claws dimpling flesh as she let out a slow, quiet growl of disapproval that stopped me as her head dipped and the cool touch of her nose grazed my half-awakened cock. I watched as her olfactory exploration worked from my balls to the tip of my cock and the amazing sight of those jaws full of dangerous white teeth opened and dipped. Her tongue lolled out, hooked under my tumescence, and drew it up to make the blunt glans of my cock disappear between those long, deadly fangs.

A sigh escaped my lungs as the heat of her muzzle eased down my length. My entire length, though not yet fully erect though that would take but moments, disappeared into that tapered black muzzle. She did not stop her consumption of me until the cool touch of her nose rested against one side of my groin. I could not look down to see exactly how such a narrow profile could take me but, by now, I no longer cared. She could and did so I was more than satisfied with that.

More satisfied than I had been in a very, very long time. More satisfied than I had even felt when I was with those brief flings since Paul was wrenched from my life. I sighed in bliss at the wonderful feeling of that marvelously skilled vulpine Pokémon's tongue rippled and stroked along my length, mostly to one side with her position but I was not arguing. The slightly askew angle kept that wonderful heat away from my most sensitive spots so I would last that much longer.

Not that, with her skill and warm embrace between hard bracketing teeth, allowed me to last terribly long before she got her snack.

---

The suited man with the Nemean Lion paused a block down from the trio of police vehicles with an emergency medical transport and watched from among the other gawkers. A few avian Pokémon circled overhead, kept well clear of the scene by lower flying but far more deadly looking Pokémon there to assist their bonded with the scene.

“What happened there?" He asked another man in a suit who had a simian Pokémon perched on his shoulder.

“Mugging, from what I heard." The taller man, who could see over most other heads in the crowd, said without looking over. “Knocked one guy flat out for the duration, that's why the medical crew."

“The duration?" The two had some breathing room as the crowd opened a little space around the intimidating golden leonine Pokémon at his side.

“Almost an hour, so far." The man shrugged and his small monkey mirrored the gesture almost perfectly. “But, then, well none of us can actually see what's going on down in that alley so the vic could well be conscious by now, just giving their report."

“Unfortunate. This doesn't look like an area prone to crime." The suited man observed as he looked around with idle curiosity. He saw plenty of cameras, and there had to have been witnesses due to the time of day. Evening was slowly giving way to full night, the lights of the emergency vehicles strobes getting swallowed by the brightly lit signs of eateries and bars.

The man beside him, and the man's small Pokémon, scoffed in eerie synchrony. “The eyes deceive." He intoned with a sigh. “Typical physical crime, like that mugging, maybe not so much, here. But the quiet crime is here, as everywhere, it's mycelium spreading everywhere as crime always does." With a disinterested shrug from human and simian shoulders in perfect harmony the man turned and began easing his way out of the crowd.

The suited man remained, leonine Pokémon rumbling like a combustion engine on idle at his side keeping people from getting too close. The man observed the signage of the businesses fronting the street, a slight frown pulling at the corners of his mouth. A mugging? In broad daylight? In this area of the city? Worrying.

Since it appeared that the emergency vehicles were not going to vacate in short order, he placed a call back to the Office to have someone procure whatever evidence they could outside of the police. There were plenty of cameras, they would have caught something. The sheer number of businesses to approach for their footage would be daunting, and well outside of the response team's abilities. He knew they were close, though not exactly where and did not care, save that they kept themselves as unobtrusive as possible.

No, they would need more time and resources to identify their quarry, then locate it, or them. But the net was drawing tighter after two activations. Hopefully, by the third, they could draw it closed.

The crowd relaxed a bit as the lion and its bonded left.

---

After Ebonflame had enjoyed her snack, which I also thoroughly enjoyed providing, I made dinner. We ate in front of the holo, watching another episode of the Paladin and his equine Pokémon's adventures; this week dealing with a particularly amorous succubus. Unfortunately for the infernal being the Paladin was as clueless of her allure as he was of the Pokémon mare's ribald innuendos and he dispatched the hapless hellspawn in a flashy combat scene. After that was the commune show with the rabbit's comic thought-bubbles about managing ride sharing when one of the vehicles lost one of its hover pods. Cramming them all into a compact skimmer like clowns was unexpectedly hilarious when the rabbit, among the smallest, was all but forced to sit on the face of one of the humans.

Then on to longer format programs on a history cast concerning the buildup of tensions leading to the war that would result in Pokémon emancipation. A lot of what it covered I had little knowledge of so I was rapt. Growing up in a household that eschewed a Pokémon's presence, or even a pet's, I had never been terribly interested in our own history. My country had been pushing for abolition of the Pokémon capture, training, and combat systems that had existed since humans first gained the ability to trap and hold Pokémon. When one of the more bellicose, though smaller, nations turned on another small but allied nation that had passed its own laws of abolition my country stepped in.

From there all hell broke loose, launching us into a twenty-year war which we had emerged from larger (having accepted the unity pact with some allied nations), stronger, more technically and magically advanced, and with Pokémon free. Mention of Greenpatch came up early in the program as one of the leaders in my country who had united various small factions into a strong political block that, eventually, assumed control and codified Pokémon emancipation. By then, however, Greenpatch was out of the picture though no mention was made as to how or why. Duke Elias Wade stepped into that void as the Freedom Monarch when the abolitionists assumed control.

I was more familiar with King Elias as almost half of a semester was focused on his achievements. I had never even heard of Greenpatch until freeing Ebonflame from her trap.

That program ended and another began, a science themed program about modern building techniques which I followed to learn more about what I would have to learn if it ever reached the production stage. Ebonflame must've found it particularly boring because, not even fifteen minutes into it, her tongue once again found itself exploring my naked maleness. I looked down and chuckled softly, between sighs of building pleasure, as she coaxed me into my second erection of the evening.

Rather than holding me in that wonderful muzzle for long, however, she merely suckled until I was considerably firm and drew her head up and gave me a toothy leer as she licked her whiskers and stood. Stepping over my lap she turned, straddling my thighs as I quickly drew them together, and reared up to drape her forepaws over my shoulder. When she settled toward my lap I knew exactly what her intention was and used one hand to guide my very needy erection to the hot, slick wetness of her sex. Her hunches shifted and twitched, trying to assist my aim until my blunt, broad tip settled against the soft lips of her vulpine diamond. Moving my cock a little against them I coaxed them to part, hissing a breath at the sudden smooth caress of their inner heat, until I settled against the yielding strength of her center.

Lidding her cobalt blue eyes she growled softly and let her weight down, drawing a grunt from my lungs as my cock was pressed against that tightness until it relaxed. Then I was in, the tight embrace of her vaginal depths clenching powerfully even as her slickness allowed me to continue as she slowly eased down. It took several long, decadent moments before I felt her settle completely, the stretched heat of her lips caressing my balls with the warm slick wetness leaking down over them. She growled a beatific, pleased gekkr and nuzzled into the hollow of my throat, panting heavily.

My hands cupped her haunches and rump, holding her steady in what seemed like an awkward sitting position in my lap, legs splayed to either side across my thighs. I let her control the movements while I supported her weight, blunt claws digging at my shoulders as she drew up slightly and then dropped back down. Again and again she lifted herself, my hands giving her some assistance, and settled. Sometimes it was just a slight movement, an inch or two, while other times it was almost my full length. Her motions became more frenetic, the drop of her haunches heavier, as she panted and growled and gekkred with each thrust she inflicted against herself.

I felt her constrict more than a few times, a series of soft or intense flutters that soaked my balls and must have been doing wonders for the sofa beneath me. As my own incipient release built she drew her head up from my throat and lashed an eager, breathless stroke of her tongue across my lips. I parted them, allowing her tongue entry as I stroked her fur and shared that awkward kiss of lips to muzzle. I felt my thighs tensing, my balls churning and drawing up even as my cock seemed to grow even larger within her. Or it was just her inner walls becoming tighter, hotter, more slick in their motions.

I came a moment before I felt the intense seizure of her inner walls and she let out a long, almost howling gekkr into my mouth. I answered it with a grunt, fingers seizing into the fur of her haunches as my cock tensed and jumped. She was so tight I could feel my release churning up my length before it burst forth and poured my own slick heat deep into her vulpine depths. She clenched, her body shuddering and twitching against, upon, and around me. Our kiss never broke even as I spent myself entirely, long before I felt the fluttering grasp of her own orgasm faded.

She slumped against my chest, paws still upon my shoulders, and I simply held her close. She drew her head away, once more tucking her muzzle into the hollow of my throat so we could each catch our breaths. Even after her orgasm faded she did not move to release me and I did not seek to move her, basking in the delight of our union. The architecture holo droned on, utterly forgotten. We remained like that, joined together, fur against flesh as I embraced her and she tried to return the embrace awkwardly from her position seated in my lap, through the duration of the program.

She pounced again as we prepared for bed, rousing me a third time despite the spent reluctance of my manhood. Even when I was a teen three times in a day would have been a stretch, but just shy of thirty saw me having to put some effort into it. But, as she had the night before, she was satisfied to relax once I had claimed her again, both of us finding slumber with my erection clamped within her, sustained by the slick tight heat embracing it. I could feel her pulse, swifter than my own, through that union and knew that she, too, could feel mine.

Paul did not bother to intrude on my dreams but I could've sworn I could hear his infectious, quiet chuckle of mirth.

I was awakened shortly before my alarm sounded by the warm, rippling heat of her muzzle on my already very well awakened erection. Having had a wonderful night of sleep my body had recovered and was eager to respond to her desires. When she realized I was awake by the stroke of my fingers along the nape of her neck she drew off of me, gave my lips a quick lick, and stood on the bed. She turned about and flicked her tail up, offering me a nice view of that pouty black diamond beneath the pucker of her equally black anal ring, already glistening with her desire.

It took me a moment to get my bearings before I could lever myself upright and out of bed but my erection had not flagged much. Reaching out I grasped her haunches and drew her toward the edge of the bed as I stepped up close. She growled eagerly, tail flicking and lashing, as I watched that pretty diamond twitch and glisten. What would it taste like, I wondered, with two offerings of my seed still held within? Surely she had given herself a bathing by tongue at some point in the night, I thought, but what would she taste like at all? I took a step back to lean down but she let out a short, sharp gekkr and pulled away, turning slightly to shake her head at me.

She wanted my cock, not my tongue. I smiled and reached up to ruffle between her ears. “Okay, hon. Maybe I'll make that discovery tonight, after work." Stepping back up to the bed I met her stepping back until my groin met her exposed rump, the heat of her need pressing firmly into the hair of my groin. Taking hold of my erection before it could decide to punish me for not giving in to its immediate demands I brought it up to caress those black, wet lips.

Lips that were glistening soon enough as I rubbed my blunt tip against them until they parted. I eased into the satin wonder of those depths and slid upward into the hotter, tighter embrace they offered. My cock slid smoothly into her, the tightness less restrictive and more demanding, allowing me to slide in full with one slow, easy thrust. I grasped her flanks, just forward of her rear legs where I imagined a male's legs would rest, and drew back almost entirely before easing inward again. Ohh but it was decadent, that slick, muscular heat. I was amazed I even fit, but I did, and she accepted without any sounds of protest or discomfort, just deliciously appeased growls. As I slid into her she pushed back, our bodies meeting and bouncing apart as her weight shifted forward and her tail curved up over one hip.

With each thrust she moved more swiftly and I matched her motions as best I could. Before long we were driving ourselves together with all of the urgent need of any male I'd ever been atop, or beneath. The wet slither and meaty, liquid slaps of our flesh filled the room under the growls and grunts of our passionate exertions. Her musk was sharp, deep, alluring in its fiery dryness and my own was the expected mélange of deep, robust masculinity.

I had no idea how many times she came because her depths never stopped their rapid, desperate clutching and the wetness of her release was a steady drip from my balls and leaking down my inner thighs. When the liquid fire of my release joined her own minutes later I felt her body clench down with surprising force, rippling muscularly along my length as if to draw even more of my seed into her willing heat.

Was this what a woman was like, I wondered somewhere in my lust-addled mind. What a human female was like? I thought not but, in the end, knew I would never bother finding out. Ebonflame was the only female I had any desire to share such intimacy with in any regard. Small, furry, non-human female that she was meant nothing anymore.

Thoroughly spent, and thoroughly fuzzed with loose black fur from breast to knees, I managed to pause her self cleansing for a moment to give her a slow kiss. I could taste myself on her tongue, smell the richness of our joined musks from as close as that kiss brought me to her loins, and relished in it. After letting her return to her bathing I staggered across to the bathroom for my own.

When we sat at the table half an hour later to share breakfast I noticed that something distinctly odd was happening with her. While she ate with her normal appetite and delicate etiquette I noticed that she was… shivering. Not the cold kind of shiver, her body was not quivering as if at a high emotional state or cold, it was her fur. It shifted and shivered, rising and falling, small puffs of shadow mist bursting forth and fading as it cascaded toward the floor.

“Ebon?" I asked over my eggs and oatmeal as she nibbled upon her own after dispatching the squirming Pulki with a quick nip to remove its head. “Lass, are you okay?"

Green eyes blinked up at me and her head cocked, tall ears forward curiously. I waved my fork toward her. “You're… smoking, I guess?" The black mist puffed and leaked, never rising as smoke might and darker besides. She turned her head to look along her side before shrugging, offering a toothy grin and returning to her eggs. Whatever was happening did not have her in distress. That prick eared grin she offered even seemed to convey she was pleased by whatever it was.

She seemed pleased but it disconcerted me to no end. The condition only became more pronounced as time passed, black mist spilling from her in fitful waves as she sprawled on the couch to watch me clean up our breakfast dishes. By the time I went back to my room to get dressed that mist was pooling across the floor in front of the couch and swirling around her in the way I had seen it at the practice range or the alley. When I emerged to leave she was all but consumed by it but for her eyes and upright ears, her misty tail draped over her muzzle.

“Will you be all right, Ebon?" I asked as I knelt in front of the sofa, feeling the strange duality of cool mist and warm desert heat that radiated from the churning darkness. “Should I take you to the clinic?" She flashed a toothy grin and shook her head, giving my nose and lips a brief lick before tucking her muzzle beneath her bushed tail once more. “You're okay, here?" She nodded, her eyes a deep forest green tinged with yellow highlights like sunshine in that same forest clearing. Unconvinced, I stood and picked up my briefcase. “Okay, hon, I'll accept that if you want me to." I waggled a finger at her. “But if you're not okay I will be very wroth with you. I left one of the bedroom windows unlatched so if you need to go to the clinic just push it open." Again she nodded, slit pupiled eyes rolling in what all evidence indicated was exasperation. 'Okay, dad!' the expression seemed to say.

If anything, whatever was happening seemed to have her… excited.

It had me worried, but I had work that needed doing and a job that could not be neglected overmuch. With a sigh I took up my briefcase and left.

---

“Another activation, sir." One of the techs reported as he scowled at his monitor and another silenced the alarm. “Nebulous, though, we can't get any sort of good reading. Same general area, it seems. But I can't narrow it down beyond a twenty square mile area. And there's that huge park with very few sensors."

“Can you triangulate?" The suited man said, turning in his chair. To one side his feline bonded sprawled with boneless grace, his huge mane pooled out around his forequarters.

“Not very well, sir, due to the dearth of available sensors. There are enough along the outer beltway to reveal it is still within that perimeter, but that is about all those sensors can tell us. It's ongoing, however, already several times longer than the previous activations." The tech turned to another who was also reviewing data on their screens. “Possible lower level evolution, potentially only a transitional shift of primary aspects, or buffing already existent attributes or aspects."

But why, the suited man wondered. What would prompt their quarry to evolve, even if it was merely a lateral change versus attaining the next tier of evolutionary growth. Had they found some aspect in the world to make their already potent abilities even stronger? That did not sit well, if history was accurate. Their quarry was already recorded as extremely powerful, but known. The idea of them altering their abilities or aspects would throw quite the wrench into their objectives. It would not change them, with luck, but certainly complicate them.

“See what we can do about getting mobile sensors into the area. Even if the activation ceases before they're in place it will improve our coverage for future occurrences."

“Yes, sir, we'll get on it." The tech turned to pick up his desk phone.

---

Work seemed to crawl by worse than middle grade primary school lessons and I was all too ready to quit the office long before I was actually able to. The review of a new arcology for another city entirely had been brought to us for independent review and it took two entire teams to pore over it for most of the day. On top of that the tram was late arriving and stuck in traffic just long enough for me to regret not simply walking home, even if the route would take me past Brody's workplace again.

I fumbled the key into the lock of my door and I more fell into my apartment than stepped, shoving the door closed behind me with a foot so solidly it slammed. I almost called out for Ebonflame before my vision cleared the kitchenette counter and I saw her stretched lazily on the sofa looking up at me with a toothy vulpine grin, green eyes gleaming.

The strange shadowy surging I had seen that morning was gone, leaving her once more looking her normal lovely ebony furred self. I tossed my briefcase into a corner and stepped into kneel in front of the sofa, sliding my hands into the fur of her neck and shoulders. “You're all right." I sighed, bowing my brow to hers as I did. “I was beside myself with worry all day." Ebonflame nuzzled into my cheek, whiskers tickling my neck and nose before her head ducked into the hollow of my throat and she gekkred in a deeper register than I was used to. “What was that, anyway?" I asked as I drew back to stand, then crossed over to remove my blazer and hang it on a hook.

I chuckled at the smattering of black fur clinging to the lapels and collar. I would have to take half my wardrobe to the cleaners between sweat stains and shed fur. Luckily the week was over and I had the next two days to put my wardrobe back in order, even if my life was quite disordered since Ebonflame's unexpected addition. The slender vulpine gekkred at me, a soft rolling sound that suggested laughter and splayed her ears momentarily in what I gathered was a shrug.

“Not going to tell me, then, hmm?" I joked as I added my shirt to the hook, down to nothing more than my undershirt and work slacks. Those I began removing as well. Having become as intimate as we had, and her own complete nakedness, wandering around in my underclothes, or less, did not leave me blushing at the immodesty. I hung my slacks from the hook and walked back into the living room to dump myself on the sofa. “Was that evolution, then?" I asked, stroking my fingers through the fur of her nape and back. “The fourth, I think, from what the vet at the clinic said?"

Ebonflame shook her head and let it rest in my lap, nose and whiskers brushing the front of my loose briefs. “Not an evolution?" She waggled her head side to side, not a negative but not an affirmative, either. “Something else, then?" She splayed her ears in a shrug and nodded. Okay, that was as much a 'sort of' as she could communicate. “Fox of mystery, you are." I laughed and gave the thicker fur of her shoulders a ruffle. She gekkred a laugh in response and nodded.

After taking a few pleasant minutes to relax and enjoy the unexpected new addition to my life and how it seemed to make the days brighter I levered myself up from the couch. “Care to go for a walk, my lass? I need to take my clothes to the cleaners and we're out of eggs, and your Pulki." Ebonflame nodded, slipped off the sofa, stretched, and followed me toward the bedroom. She sat at the door with her tail curled about her paws as she watched me dig out some relaxed jeans and shirt to replace the t-shirt. I grabbed my used clothes and one of the cleaner's garment bags to put them in.

She walked at my side as we strolled across the park, around the sports field and practice range, toward the small commercial strip where vehicles were banned most of the day. I deposited my clothes at the cleaners for pick up in two days then made our way down to the open-air market. I picked up a few things for dinner, more eggs, and a couple boxes of Ebonflame's grub delicacies before we headed back toward the apartment. There was a new release movie with a Pokémon lead I had been ambivalent about until I had a Pokémon sharing my home that I now wanted to see, with her and my side.

Alas, the simple desires of life, so easily sent scattering to smash like eggs.

I heard the sound behind me and sensed Ebonflame tense, my attention turning slightly so I did not see the form that emerged from behind a tree directly in front of me. The line of forest between the market and sports fields was almost a quarter mile wide, criss-crossed with trails yet pleasantly wild. Unbonded, feral Pokémon and natural animals called it home.

And goons called it ambush. The man's arm caught me across the chest at the same moment Ebonflame yowled a sharp vulpine warning and I was sent sprawling backward. The cartons of eggs spilled sending their contents bounding across the ground and bursting with phlegmatic splats. I converted the backward tumble into a roll, somewhat, coming up on a knee and a foot to quickly gauge what had assaulted me.