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Working with Criminals

Chapter 3: The Debriefing

For Taiko

By Draconicon

Alt conducted three different interrogations before the one-hour alarm went off in Nor's head. While there were still other prisoners that could be put through the wringer - and there was a guilty part of the mule that was rather fascinated at the way that the prisoners loved his cock so much - he knew better than to push his luck. One hour until the shell was gone meant that he had a half-hour to get back to the harbor and hope that there was a quick way down to wherever the Man in Red was hiding.

He left the cells, going back to city hall proper. The receptionist that had been behind the desk had left, leaving the room bright but empty. Nor glanced around, making sure that he wasn't being watched, then stepped out of the stairwell. He locked the cabinet door behind him, then left the building.

As he walked down the streets of Novus Ager, he kept waiting for the city to warp around him, but it never did. Not in the way that it was supposed to, at least. There was never the shift and swing of things, where buildings would jump halfway across the city or train lines would suddenly have stations inside of apartment blocks. There was only a feeling of rotation, of the ground reluctantly turning and spinning in one direction or another, and even then, only by a few dozen feet at most.

Something's wrong with the city, he thought, looking over his shoulder. And I'll bet Tantalus isn't the only thing wrong with it...

For all that the Lord in Lavender had cut an imposing figure, he didn't give off the same presence of power that Nor thought would be needed to do something like this. Oh, it wasn't a good feeling around the guy, for sure, but it wasn't at that tier. He imagined that even the combined might of the heroes back home wouldn't have been able to do this.

But that raised a horrible question of its own. If the heroes couldn't, and neither could the villains...what could?

He shivered, pushing that thought out of his mind. He did not need that worry right at the moment.

Eventually, the barefoot mule returned to the docks. Alt shimmered a bit under the moonlight, and Nor froze.

Don't fail on me now...

The disguise was the only thing that he had to keep him safe in this world. If it failed, if it shorted out before time, then someone might spot him and realize that he wasn't the Interrogator. They'd realize that he was from somewhere else, and with someone in charge of the city that understood how that worked...

Well, he doubted that the Man in Red would mount a rescue operation just for him. Olag, maybe, but not his boss. Not for someone that was little more than a resource. No, he imagined the mouse would cut his losses and run. Criminals were like that. They didn't stand up for anyone.

Nevertheless, here he was, standing on the edge of the dock and hoping against hope that the mouse was paying attention. The clock on the disguise was down to twenty minutes, now, delayed from all the city-spinning. Nobody else was out at the late hour, so there was the slight possibility that he might have a little more time than that, but he couldn't count on it.

The timer kept ticking down, minute by minute. Nor gritted his teeth, tapping his faceted toes as it went from twenty to nineteen, then to eighteen.

At fifteen, there was finally a crackle in his ear.

"Readings show you on the dock again. Ready for extraction?" the mouse's voice asked.

"Get. Me. Out. Of. Here," he grunted through clenched teeth.

"Heh, that bad? Alright. Just jump."

"Into the water?"

"Yep."

"Am I supposed to swim down to you? I don't know if I can hold my breath that long."

"Trust me. We already sorted that problem. Just jump."

"...Well...Geronimo."

Nor took a step and jumped off the edge of the pier, falling onto the water. He expected to bob up a bit, to start floating, but instead -

"Engaging magnetic weights."

...What?

There was a soft hum in his feet, followed by a tug so hard and so dramatic that Nor would have screamed if he wasn't underwater. Hell, it took most of his willpower not to scream anyway. He was being pulled through the dark depths of the harbor, past the silt and mud that covered the bottom towards the blackest, darkest depths that he could imagine.

Even worse, he could feel the constant adjustment of course. His body was whipped side to side, up and down, and spun around, almost like it was following some invisible slide that was pulling him down to his destination. He came within millimeters of banging off of rocks and old metal and worse along the bottom of the ocean, and didn't always avoid scraping his butt against the muddy seafloor.

After one last whip out to the side, he saw it. The slit of light that was at the bottom of the harbor, a crack in the reality. It must have been where he had come through earlier, and now he was being sucked right back out.

POP!

He was through, and suddenly, he felt the same sensation that he had while he was in the cannon just a few hours ago. The feeling of being real and not real at the same time, the sensation of being there and not being there at the same time.

He was real. The space was unreal.

The battleship floated in that not-quite-space ahead of him, and he was still falling toward it. Falling remarkably fast, actually...

He was a blur of yellow and purple, and there was a blur of white running down the deck to his landing point. Nor couldn't stop, and he started to scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - OOF!"

And just like that, the pull was gone. He was surrounded by white fluff, a somewhat soft stomach, and firm muscle, all of which held him tightly. It had stopped his momentum all at once, absorbing it.

Nor panted softly as he lifted his head, seeing a wincing polar bear. Olag. Olag had caught him...

And caught him near the edge of the ship, too. If he'd kept flying by at that speed, he might have ricocheted off of the main deck and kept falling through the empty space, or worse, blown a hole right through the ship before going out the other side. The bear had stopped both from happening...and probably saved him.

"Thanks," he muttered, shaking his head.

"No - cough - no problem, little buddy."

"Olag? You okay?"

"Yeah. Just ain't had a...a light speed kick in a while."

"...A what?"

"You were coming through reality at over relativistic speeds, Denith."

Nor slowly turned around, his eyes narrowing at the white-masked, red-suited mouse stepping out of a hatch on the deck. When the Man in Red met his gaze, Nor wondered what was behind the mask...and whether the mouse had the same hungry look in his eyes that the Lord in Lavender did.

"It's the only way to get someone in and out of a universe without the people on the other side knowing. They can track a person, or a vessel. However, there is so much energy passing in and out of a universe at any given point that it is impossible to track it all. Of course, there's always the risk of losing a chunk of yourself to gravity at that speed -"

"What?!"

"Well, obviously, you didn't. You're all here."

"How can you tell? It's not like I'm -"

The mouse tapped his mask.

"It's more than decoration, Denith. Now, you got plenty of information, obviously. Let's go downstairs and get Alt uninstalled."

"Thank -" Nor stiffened, a bzzzt electrical feeling going through him. His lips tilted up in a smile, and he turned on his heel, looking up at Olag. "Big guys like you are always fun. Maybe I can introduce you to the 'big buddy.'"

Alt flexed his cock, slapping it up between him and the polar bear. As he did, the world seemed to go silent. One could have heard a pin drop as everyone seemed to hold their breath. Distant crew, Olag, the Man in Red, even Nor in the back of his own head.

One did not expect a polar bear to be quick, but Olag could defy expectation from time to time. Nor flipped head over heels, suddenly suspended by his balls over the edge of the ship, his cock pointed the other way, dangling over the abyss.

"You think you can fucking bend me over, you little -"

"Olag."

"...Captain."

And just like that, the mule was tossed halfway down the ship, bouncing off his ass and then landing on his feet. Alt was back out of the driver's seat, though the skin was still wrapped tight around the mule's body.

More to the point, Nor was panting hard, shaking his head at how close Alt had come to getting him in serious trouble. He knew Olag was not a bottom, and he knew that the bear had some serious sore spots about ever being on the bottom, but he hadn't expected it to be that violent.

He knew that was me, right? Nor wondered. He knew that it was still me under the skin? Not...

Alt. That was Alt's fault, and if that program was anything but a shell around his body, he swore he would have been dragging it out for a fight. It was such a stuck-up, annoying, overconfident -

"I think it's time we get you to the computer labs," the Man in Red said, suddenly appearing at the mule's side.

"What about Olag?"

"I'll fix things with him later. For now, let's get this off of you and find out what you learned."

#

Thankfully, Alt came off without a hitch. The shell of purple and white-yellow was gone, and so were the feet, the rings, and everything else that came with being that other Nor. He groaned, rubbing his hands along his properly-colored arms, along the muscle, and - and he couldn't believe he was thinking this - along the smaller cock that jutted out from his crotch. That, he was surprised, was better at its proper size rather than being so huge for...those other purposes.

Nor shook his head again as he leaned back in the chair, rubbing his hands over his face and muzzle. The mule had never been so happy to be back in his own body and not have some other voice in the back of his head.

"So."

But there was still more to do. He sighed, leaning forward again.

Tatyana, the tigress, was still seated at her computer console. She didn't seem to be part of the conversation, but he wasn't going to be stupid enough to think that she wasn't paying attention. Even though she was directing various techs and programmers, talking about how she was going to shift Alt a bit to make sure that it wasn't a problem in the future, he was sure that she had her ears pointed in his direction.

The Man in Red sat in front of him, a rolling chair that was pinned in place by his gravity powers. The mouse leaned in, looking through his mask at him.

"What did you find out?"

"The city's in trouble."

"That's obvious. Specifically."

"Something's keeping Novus Ager from changing. It's...not going well."

"...The city's not changing...hmmm...Now that's a twist..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, much as I love to put down my fellow Council members, one thing that our lovely Lord is not is that level of control freak. Oh, sure, he'll mess with people, he'll try and make sure that they do the profitable thing, but controlling such a chaotic city?" The Man in Red shook his head. "No. That's not his style."

"Do you think that he's responsible for something else, then?"

"Maybe. He might be looking for the one that did it, but I wouldn't put money on it. I'd guess that he sees it as a dying world and wants to milk all the value out of it before it's completely gone."

"The world's more than just the value. He'd do something like that?"

"In a heartbeat. Most of us aren't in the charity business."

"And you are?"

"More than the rest."

He doubted that, but he wasn't going to push it. The last thing that he needed was to start an argument with someone that could crush him through the floor with seemingly no more than a thought. Shaking his head, he continued.

"The city's in bad shape, and so are the heroes. They're...in positions of power, and they really shouldn't be."

"That is something we can agree on."

"You'd have the villains, then?"

"God no," the mouse said, shaking his head. "Power like that, put into power over others? It's bad enough that I want to keep them on the streets, to let them run wild. At least out there, there's the chance of heroes being their natural predators, of some sort of equalizing going on. You put someone like them in power, it'll go just as bad as heroes being in charge."

"...I think that you are looking down on the heroes a little bit more than you need to."

"I'll be the judge of that. Anything else?"

"You were right about the Lord in Lavender being in a relationship with the hero-mayor. They're definitely involved, but..."

"But?"

"I think that he's also interested in Alt."

"...Oh, ho ho ho, this is better than I thought. Explain?"

"He...looked at me."

"Yes, and?"

"There was a...kinda hungry look in his eyes. Something that I hadn't seen before."

"...Define hungry?"

"Like...greed, and lust, and need, and...and some kind of possessiveness, all rolled into one little package."

"Did it look a bit like...this?"

The Man in Red shifted his mask slightly from the side, pulling it down from the top and corner of it. It seemed to go from solid to something more like peeling paper, and he focused one eye on the mule.

At first, it was just a normal eye, something that looked curious, something that was intensely interested with the situation, but no less normal for that. He opened his mouth -

Then the Man in Red stared, and everything shifted.

Nor shivered as he felt the hunger in that gaze, the sheer greed that came through that eye contact. He didn't gasp, or break down, but he could feel the sheer power behind the gaze, how it almost pinned him to the chair before it was masked again.

"That...that was close," Nor admitted, nodding a few times. "There was more lust in his, but that was very, very close."

"That's the stare of a Councilor, alright." He shook his head. "And it's the sort of stare that we only give something that we own...or something that we want to own."

"What does it do? What even is that thing?"

"It's a means of staking claim, of letting someone know that we're coming for them, or to let them know that we're already in charge, and they're one of our little possessions. If he was looking at you like that..."

"What?"

"Well, it either means that your cover is blown, or that he's thinking of making a move on you."

"What? Why would that mean my cover is blown?"

"Well, think about it. If he wants this universe's Nor, then he couldn't exactly date the man, now could he? Not when he was also dating the hero-mayor."

"That's...true."

"So, if he wants the Chief Interrogator, then he needed to find a way to make him disappear. And if he did make this universe's Nor disappear, then there's every chance that he knows that you're not the real thing.

"On the other hand, if the real Nor didn't want to be claimed that way, and just went off into hiding, then we have an opening here."

"...You want me to date the big guy."

"I want you to go on a date with him, yes."

"You're kidding. Please, tell me you're joking."

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"Well..."

"Okay, do I sound like I'm joking?"

"Not really."

"Good. Because I'm not."

"But I don't even known what the Lord in Lavender likes. How am I supposed to be able to keep up the disguise? Or - and I can't believe I'm saying this - flirt with him?"

"Leave that to me. I know what he likes. I've known him long enough that I could probably write a booklet on how to get his attention..."

"But -"

SLAM!

The heavy metal door between the computer room and the hallway slammed open, and Olag stood in the doorway. Every tech, every criminal, froze in what they were doing as the bear crossed the room, stepped around the captain's chair, and grabbed the mule by the waist.

"What are you - ooof!"

Nor grunted as he was thrown over the bear's shoulder. He was confused enough that he didn't have the chance to squirm as he was carried away. He half-expected the Man in Red to say something to slow the bear down, but if he was going to, the mouse waited too long. They were already out in the corridor in moving.

"Olag -"

"Don't talk."

"But -"

SMACK! The mule's eyes went wide at the sudden spank, blinking to himself. He was so surprised he didn't even know what to say.

So, he said nothing. He said nothing all the way back to the bear's quarters, where Olag dropped him onto the foot of the bed, then stomped back to slam the door shut. The clang echoed through the ship, and he would have been surprised if there wasn't a dent in the door from that.

Then, the bear turned to him...and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

"...I beg pardon?"

"I'm sorry for holding ya over the edge of the ship. Shouldn't have done that."

"...Well...apology accepted."

"Thank fuck."

The polar bear sat down beside him, shaking his head, and Nor just stared at him. Apologies, now. Would wonders never cease.

"Didn't mean to scare ya. I just...don't like people threatening to do that, ya know? And sounding so cocky...I just reacted. And I shouldn't have done that."

"I didn't know you had it in you to see that."

"Heh, most of the time I don't. But you're my little buddy. If I can't try with you, who else am I gonna try with?"

"That's one way of looking at it."

"Good way?"

"Better than some."

"Heh."

The bear pulled him into a one-armed hug, one that the mule didn't have any objection to sharing. It was nice to be back to normal for a bit, not thinking with his dick or worrying about the possibilities of...dating...a super-villain of the Lord in Lavender's caliber.

It also was a good distraction from the bad possibilities that were lingering in the back of his mind. Meshiah didn't have the power to be halting the way Novus Ager worked, and he couldn't think of any super from back home that came anywhere near that level of raw strength. What the hell had happened to his city to make it act like this?

Every time he thought about it, it worried him, and he didn't know what he was going to do to solve it. This simple item retrieval mission was getting more complicated all the time.

But for now, at least he could share a bit of time with the big bear, and just...relax.

Eventually, they returned to the computer chamber, Olag leaving the room shortly after escorting him there through the ever-changing ship. The bulkheads that had popped up along the way, the rooms that shifted around them - taking them from a hallway to a shower and then back again - reminded him more than ever of a proper Novus Ager, but there was no explanation as to how it worked. Olag didn't explain, just guided him there.

As the bear left the room, probably not wanting to be around when Alt came back out, Nor sat down in the main chair and took a few deep breaths again. The idea of going back under that shell wasn't appealing, but...well, if he was going to do the job, he needed to do it right, and he needed all the knowledge that Alt had.

"Now, I programmed all the desires that I remember the Lord in Lavender having," the Man in Red said, helping Tatyana set up the electrodes again. "It might not be a complete list, but unless he's been nailing that other Nor for weeks, he probably hasn't gotten around to revealing all of them, so you should be okay."

"How do you know all this, by the way? Spies?"

"More like a really ill-conceived one-night stand," the mouse said. "Nice knot, but a terrible personality. Not much of a kisser, either."

"..."

"Being a criminal genius doesn't preclude bad romantic decisions, okay?"

"Apparently."

The electrodes were soon all hooked up, and Nor took a deep breath as everyone took the requisite number of steps away from him. This time, the mule deliberately lowered his defenses as fully as he could, keeping them out of the way. At the same time, he knew that something was going to be different with this installation, and so he waited to see what it was.

The energy current slammed into him again, and the programs flowed down the electrodes. The muffling, subsuming programming slammed into his cells...

But this time, they were ready for it.

Rather than covering his body and turning every part of him into a transmitter for commands that Tatyana chose, the programming was altered as it hit the cells. The cells still became a receiver for the information, but the command prompts that were normally installed afterwards were left behind. This time, he would be the one that actually chose what happened to himself.

Of course, that level of energy was still hard to handle. It was like holding onto a power line and trying to think clearly as who knew how many volts of electricity coursed through him. He bit his lips, trying to stay conscious as the purple replaced his blue and red colors, but it was impossible.

As his hooves started to flatten out, he blacked out.

Nor woke up again on the docks, his head hanging over the side and a distinct feeling of teeth around his ankle. The mule groaned, looking over the other side of the dock to find a shark going chomp-chomp on his leg.

"Get off. Get off!"

He ended up having to kick it in the nose to get it to let go. Not that it had done any serious damage; his body was very resilient, though not entirely invulnerable to harm. There were a few marks around his ankle, making it look like a bruise-anklet, but that was all the harm that had been done.

Shaking his head, he looked back at the city. The same lavender glow as before loomed over everything, and he knew that the Lord in Lavender was probably nearing the end of his date with the hero-mayor of the city. Not long now until the thief would be coming looking for him.

What would he - oh.

Alt was already feeding him information, and he was rather surprised at just how much stuff there was that the Great Dane enjoyed. He stared at the list inside of his head for a moment or two before rubbing his forehead.

Well, this is going to be as undignified as you can imagine...

He waited on the steps of city hall, his cock standing up and throbbing the whole time. No matter how much he tried to ignore it, Alt kept reaching down and stroking it, making it stay up. Every now and then, a citizen of the city would walk by, but they'd look at him and then hurry up a bit further. Whether it was because he was the chief Interrogator or because he was a hero, he didn't know, but it was wrong.

More wrong was the grinding feeling of the city moving, and he was so distracted by it that he didn't notice a shadowy figure coming down the steps until it was too late.

"Ha!"

Nor jerked as a sharp, electric jab caught him in the back of the neck, flailing for a few seconds before he fell over. He grunted at the fall, paralyzed on the steps of city hall, his cock pointing right up to the heavens.

His attacker slid out from behind him, the raccoon grinning down at him. He looked almost like some villain from back home, but there were so many of them that he started losing track. He held a rod that sparked at the end, though, so he was obviously some sort of gadgeteer trying his luck.

"Looks like I managed to catch the Interrogator off his guard," the raccoon said with a smirk. "One of the mightiest heroes, down at my feet. And look at that. His cock, free for the taking."

No. This isn't just a messed-up universe, it's a parody universe. Lovely.

The raccoon straddled him, the leather thong he was wearing getting shoved to the side as a muscular rump pressed against his cock. The villain laughed, rolling his hips forward, backward, forward again, grinning all the while.

"The mighty Nor, laid low by little old me. When I figure out how your cock can control anyone you fuck, I'll have the mightiest tool in the city. I'll be able to use it to control anyone that I can pin down."

"..."

"I see that my plan has rendered you speechless. Don't worry. I'm not going to get you. Yet. I'm just going to taste this cock, now that you've been rendered harmless."

Alt would have chuckled, Nor felt, and a second later, he saw why. The raccoon pushed his ass against the mule's cock, grinding a pre-lubed hole against it, and then -

"Ahhhhhh~!"

The raccoon moaned as the head of the mule's cock slid in. Nor found it rather pleasant, but the raccoon was on cloud nine, gasping for breath, his toes curling up against the stones on either side of the mule. He wriggled back, muscular cheeks trying to swallow more mule dick, but every little wiggle he made caused the raccoon's bulge to throb all the harder in the front of his 'costume.'

"Ah...ah...oh god...it's still...so good...when you're not even..." The raccoon moaned, his leather darkening in the front from pre-cum. "Fuck...I need to...study this..."

Nor laid there, feeling the pleasure of a tight ass, but knowing he was a long way away from cumming. It felt good as the raccoon rolled his hips down, good enough to keep him hard. He couldn't grunt, couldn't make a sound, but he enjoyed the feeling of that tight ass bouncing on him, taking a bit more with each thrust back.

Yet, that was nothing compared to how the raccoon was reacting. The villain was panting, gasping, and was whimpering and shaking in less than a minute. His eyes were glazed over, shaking from taking so much cock, but it was more to it than that. It was like the prisoners under the building, how they were gasping from his cock, how much they loved it, how eagerly they gave themselves to it.

Nor would have moaned as the raccoon finally hit the base of his cock, but the raccoon screamed in pleasure. He arched his back, his leather thong filling with cum, and his eyes went hazy, almost like -

"It seems as if the Interrogator caught another one."

Nor couldn't move, but he could see the Great Dane walking up the steps. The towering canine gripped the raccoon by the scruff of the neck, slowly pulling him up with a surprising display of strength. By the time that Nor's cock popped free, the raccoon was a cummy mess, and still completely out of it.

"Ah, another new one. I suppose they have beginner's luck..."

In another surprising show of force, the Lord in Lavender threw the raccoon away, sending him tumbling over two houses before coming down with a thump in the distance. The Great Dane reached down, helped Nor to his feet, and smiled.

Then the Dane kissed him.

Nor's eyes were thankfully paralyzed, otherwise, he would have given the game away as soon as those lips touched his. He couldn't move, couldn't say anything, but his cock sure as hell throbbed from the...

Absolutely horrible kiss? No. But from the rod that the Dane had, yes, his cock commanded to grow, his body commanded to think that the kiss was great. The kiss finally ended, and the Dane smiled, those eyes fixing him in place.

"I've missed you, my Nor...Wherever you disappeared to, I don't plan on letting such a valuable treasure go again."

The End