FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

*present day*

"You know," Newlyn said as he looked through the binder he had found, flipping through the pages of the rules that had been laid down for the Starpoint Facility before it had been taken over by the Bal'Kar as they waited for the signal. "I wonder if they ever realized that as soon as people started to get converted that everyone who was briefed on this would have given the playbook over to us. I mean, we're a hivemind, the second someone with this information gets assimilated everyone in the hive knows what's going on when they attempted to implement these things."

"Well there is a reason why Bal'Kar are the superior species!" Erin said chipperly as she looked around the nearly empty garage. It was one of the few places that had initially gone untouched when they had first taken over the place; it was detached from the rest of the facility to serve as a motorpool for people who needed to visit the nearby military base or go to the town they were about to visit for emergencies, and since that rarely happened no one was inside when they had struck. By the time others realized the facility had been completely compromised they had already closed off the main garage that the military used, so it was one of the few places free from their corruptive influence.

It was one of the reasons that they had snuck there in the first place. Serathin informed them that even with their primary spy satellite down they may have back-ups just in case they had found out about the shutdown, but it was likely going to be smaller cameras focused heavily on main points such as the primary facility exit and the collapsed military hanger that led down into the hive. Even with that assertion however they continued to keep a low profile while they stayed inside, which meant they would have to wait and not even start up the vehicle they were taking. It was a small armored transport module used mainly for hauling heavy machinery, which they hoped would also haul them given their immense weight.

Chaos had been checking out the vehicle in the down time and even though it was reinforced they could tell if more than one person went into the front they were going to have a problem. Since Erin couldn't drive due to her feral nature Chaos was the next lightest that was going to drive and when he sat in the driver's seat the cab was practically against the concrete. That meant the other two were going to have to sit in the windowless back and try not to slide around since there were no seats inside the back of the modified carrier. Everything had to go smoothly to make sure that they got out of the spy satellite's detection radius before it completed the maintenance cycle, which even with Serathin stalling the reboot process was only going to be about eight minutes at maximum.

But one can only remain on high alert for so long and with the system still on-line all the three could do was sit around and weight, the only thing they heard in the cold, clear night was the occasional breeze of wind that whistled through the windows. "At this rate we're going to have to revert back to our true forms before we get out of here," Newlyn said with a sigh, tossing the book aside and pinging Serathin to ask if they were ready yet only to be told to hold once more. "I don't mind waiting a bit to expand the hive but I'm starting to get the itch."

The other two knew what Newlyn was talking about, nodding slowly. Being creatures of lust they were used to being able to breed whenever they wanted when they were down in the caverns, now that they had to not only maintain their disguises but stay on guard to make sure that they were ready to go as soon as the signal happened was already starting to get them a little pent up. But they weren't going to succumb to their desires just yet when they had the chance to get out of the facility and go back to their old home town. Soon they would be experiencing an entirely different kind of pleasure, one that came from them laying the foundation to spread their influence.

Suddenly the three of them nearly jumped in unison when they heard Serathin practically shout at them through the web that it was time to move, the three of them piling into the personal carrier and starting up the engine. "Been a while since I've driven anything," Chaos stated as he put the car into gear and began to drive out. "Just like riding a bike, right?"

"I mean, sure, if the bike is a couple tons and was capable of going through a brick wall," Newlyn said as he settled in, looking at one of the few tablets that survived the initial incursion. "Just get us out of here, I'm linked up with Serathin's computer so I'll know how close we are."

The husky nodded and honked the horn before accelerating... very slowly out of the garage and onto the street. Though it was capable of hauling very heavy things speed was not its strong suit, and since they were going down a mountain they couldn't exactly just fly down the road without risking taking a turn to hard and rolling over. If the military found out they had tried to make a break for it when their satellite was shut down not only would they no longer think they could contain the threat but it also meant they would figure out that the sabrewolf Bal'Kar had gotten into their systems. One of the reasons Starpoint was such a high priority for them to keep was the pipeline that they had managed to force open to their network using the military-grade hardware that had been left behind that they thought was destroyed during the incursion.

As Chaos kept his eyes on the road Newlyn and Erin both watched as their marker, seen only by them and Serathin, slowly made its way towards the red line that indicated the range of the spy satellite above them. The entire time there was a clock in the corner that counted down how long until it was back online, and as they watched their dot go back and forth along the road winding down the mountain it looked like they were going to be fine. Just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief however they suddenly saw the three in the minute section of the clock skip over to a one, the box flashing red that the reboot cycle was almost complete. When they asked Serathin what was going on he told them that the update they installed must have eliminated the redundancy upload that he had installed to give them more time.

"Chaos, are we still going straight for next minute?" Newlyn called out, seeing their dot skirting the edge of the border as the one minute ticked over to zero and the seconds began to count it down.

"No the road is going to switch back once more!" Chaos shouted, the snow leopard fearing he would hear that as he saw the white line that represented the road they were on curving and bringing them further back into the range of the satellite before finally taking them out.

"You're going to have to take a shortcut!" Newlyn stated as he saw half a minute left on the timer.

"No way Newlyn!" Chaos exclaimed. "It's not a cliff but there's a reason why they don't have this road going straight down! If we shift at all going down it we're going to roll!"

"If we don't get outside of the range of the satellite the military is going to light us up!" Newlyn said as he motioned for Erin to try and hold onto something as best she could, the entire screen of the tablet flashing red with ten seconds left as it warned them they were still in range. "We'll be fine, just do it!"

Two seconds later it felt like the drop fell out from the bottom of their stomach as Erin and Newlyn practically floated in the air as the vehicle launched itself off the road, other pieces of equipment doing the same as they heard the engine roaring. They had enough hang time for both of the Bal'Kar in the back to bump into one another as the APC continued to catapult forward through the air. The snow leopard still managed to hang onto the tablet the entire time and they watched as their dot sailed past the border just as the timer ticked down its last seconds, showing that they had cleared detection right as the satellite completely rebooted. There was only a split second to feel the victory as everything quite literally came crashing back down to earth.

The sound of metal hitting rock was ear-splitting as both Newlyn and Erin hit the ground hard, then flew back up in the air as the APC bounced on the edge of the hill before continuing its slide downwards. In the front of the cab Chaos had to manifest two of his tentacles just to keep the wheel from bucking out of his hand, making sure that they stayed as straight as possible to prevent a rollover. Several more bounces later he could feel the rubber of the tires practically getting scrapped off as he continued to hold it, though as they got close to the bottom he thought that he had managed to keep everything under control. Rock turned to gravel which then turned to dirt and with the Bal'Kar's weight plus that of the engine Chaos practically snapped against the seat belt he was wearing as all the momentum they had gotten came to a sudden stop that almost threatened to flip over the entire vehicle.

Once things had settled down and the groaning of metal could no longer be heard Chaos quickly got out of the vehicle, which meant sliding out of the window since the door was partially underground at this point, and immediately ran to the back to check on the others. When the dented metal wouldn't open for him initially he took a basher and sank the bony spike into it, ripping it away before using it to hoist himself inside. The insides were covered with bio-extract and laying near the front of the vehicle was Newlyn and Erin, both of them with large gashes exposed that were wiggling with seethers. The husky immediately got in and slid down to help them and as he saw them slowly regaining consciousness their bodies were already in the process of stitching up their guise form.

"Oh man, you two alright?" Chaos asked as he tried to help them to their feet, watching as seethers that had been lost came crawling back to their respective owners.

"We're fine," Newlyn said, his voice slightly garbled before there was a pop and his jaw relocated itself. "Takes more then that to kill a Bal'Kar, you know that. Good jump keeping us from getting tumbled around in here too much, had we rolled you'd probably be looking at some sort of kitsune and snow leopard hybrid."

"You say that like we haven't done such a thing before," Erin responded with a wink before looking around. "Of course even though we're going to come out of this in one piece we really can't say the same thing about the car."

"Wasn't planning on taking it into town anyway," Newlyn replied as the three of them hopped out of the wreckage. "Soon as someone ran the license plate and found out its registered to the Starpoint military base it would blow our cover. Still... I was kind of hoping that we wouldn't have to walk through the woods at night, but here we are."

The three of them looked at one another before sighing and walking into the darkness of the trees. It wasn't that they had anything to worry about, they were more of a threat to anything in the woods then the other way around, but it also meant that they didn't have much time to go hiking. They only had three days until the second reboot of the satellite and with the tablet completely smashed up in the car wreck they were going to have to keep tabs on the time with Serathin and the others to make sure they were at the spot to get back in. While their exit point had been the road their reentry point was a large mountain that was right behind the Starpoint facility that they weren't monitoring as much because it was basically a natural wall, but the hike up was half a day in itself and with such a narrow window they couldn't risk any delays.

That meant by the time they had gotten out of the woods and saw the sun starting to shine over the town that had been their target they had maybe two days to scout the place and try to plant a few Bal'Kar seeds. As they walked into the nearby clearing and could feel the dew against their bare fur both Newlyn and Chaos realized they also had another problem on their hands, looking down to see that their clothes had been fairly shredded by the accident and subsequent romp through the woods. Though they had one extra set each that they had brought along that was their last pair, which meant if anything happened to them they were going to have to try and find more clothes elsewhere as they hid in the tall grass while they changed. Once they were ready to go in they found an area where the plains met the back of a few houses and snuck their way through before entering into the town proper.

"Wow..." Erin said as they looked around the nearly empty street devoid of the usual people just getting ready to start their day as they stood there on the sidewalk. "When even was the last time that we were here?"

*****************************

*some years ago*

"We're back baby!" Erin exclaimed as she hopped off the bus, Newlyn and Chaos right behind her as they set foot on the streets of their old town. For almost a year the Starpoint facility had been their home, and though they were friends with many of the people there having to eat, talk to, and otherwise socialize with the same people all day every day had gotten tiresome. Though at first it was extremely difficult to get the higher-ups to sign off on people leaving the base suddenly they were offering it hand over fist and even included a bus services to reach the nearby town. When asked why by all three they got varying comments of being told to just enjoy it while they can since soon they probably weren't going to be able to leave at all for a while.

"So what should we do first?" Chaos asked. "I for one would like to see a movie in an actual theatre instead of trying to fight the others to see whatever has been released over a year ago that the facility got on video. I mean I know that we have highly sensitive information but they can't get one streaming service to come in on those lines?"

"I know what I want to do," Erin stated as she pointed her nose towards the park. "Have a picnic at the spot we found, maybe just walk around and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. Being underground for so long can make you go stir crazy and being up in the mountains makes going outside quite the chilling experience."

"Well I know what I want to do first," Newlyn replied. "I don't know about you but I'm starving and have been looking forward to eating something that I've actually chosen instead of being told what to eat if I wanted hot food. I'm thinking pizza, maybe Danny's place?"

The others nodded and went down the street towards the Italian restaurant that was owned by a rather imposing dragon man named Mr. Marozza. Though the actual name was something in Italian hardly anyone ever used it, instead they just called it Danny's place since one could normally find Danny Marozza, Mr. Marozza's son, holding down the fort. Among other things Mr. Marozza was also a master electrician and plumber, so when he was out on the job it was Danny that kept the restaurant running while his father way away.

Sure enough when they got there they found the rather busy establishment manned by the bronze-scaled dragon, the three of them waving at him as they walked in before they found a booth to seat in. To their surprise he soon found Danny standing in front of their table. "Can I take an order for some of the prodigal children who have returned to grace us with their presence?" he said with a smirk, pulling out his tablet as they ordered an extra-large pizza and a calzone. "I've been seeing quite a few old faces coming back to the neighborhood, what gives? You all get homesick at once?"

"Starpoint is letting everyone out for a bunch of leave," Erin said after stating her drink order. "Some big project is coming up that's going to make visiting difficult so we decided to come down and get our fill before we're all locked away again. Speaking of which I saw that your dad was one of the main contractors doing maintenance, did he manage to get away long enough to come down here and see you."

"Nah, they also got him sequestered up there for some big expansion project," Danny replied. "Has to keep all hush hush about it but he told me they got him working in some cave doing a bunch of really sophisticated electrical work. Said if he wasn't there they'd probably have to bring in a specialist; which is great for our wallets but not so good if we want to keep remembering what his ugly mug looked like. Anyway let me go put this in so I'm not talking your ear off all day."

The three nodded and as they waited for and subsequently ate their food they mentioned how strange it was hearing about their work like they were some sort of celebrities. Also hearing what Danny's dad was working on made them wonder if that had something to do with this secret project they were all about to get sequestered for? When their food came Danny talked to them for a bit more, then came back once they had finished and made sure everything was alright. Everyone, especially Newlyn as he patted his full stomach, thanked him for the food and conversation before asking what the total came too.

"Ah, don't worry bout it," the dragon said with a wave of his hands. "This pie is on me."

"Wow, really?" Chaos asked. "You didn't have to do that for us."

"That's alright, I actually didn't!" Danny replied with a grin as he put the bill down in front of them. "You all makin that science money out there can foot it to the poor pizza guys like me." The others just chuckled and put down the money for the food, the dragon gathering it up. "Pleasure catching up with you, and if you see my pops up there tell him if he doesn't get his scaly butt down here soon ma is gonna start tossin his stuff into the pizza oven until he does."

The others just grinned and nodded, walking out and letting out a sigh of contentment from the meal. "Well we got to do my thing," Newlyn stated as he looked at the other two. "What's next?"

"Park?" Erin asked, wagging her tails in anticipation...

************************

*present day*

"This is... definitely a new development," Erin said as the three of them stood in front of the park, all of them looking through the sunglasses they had stolen in order to hide their glowing eyes as they surveyed the empty, leaf-covered space. What the kitsune was revering to specifically however was what looked like a large monument that was in the middle of the park where a water fountain had bit, the base of which was still there as they walked over towards it. "Is that... a memorial?"

"Looks like it," Newlyn said as they went up to the slabs of stone and found that the polished sides of the rock had letters engraved on them that he read. "A tribute to those lost in the Bal'Kar invasion of the Starpoint Research Facility."

"So they just are acting like everyone that was up there is dead?" Erin stated as she looked at the names on the list. "Man, it looks like half the town is on the list, they really pulled a lot of people from here in order to staff the place." When her eyes stopped at one in particular they suddenly widened. "Wait, that's me!"

"I'm here too," Chaos stated, running his finger along his own name before going down a few more rows. "And here's Newlyn. According to this we're all dead."

"You could probably say the same about this town," Newlyn said as he looked around. "We're starting to get close to noon and I have yet to see a single soul outside of ourselves. Do you think they evacuated everyone after Starpoint fell?"

"Well they stuck around long enough to put up this monument," Chaos stated. "Maybe if we look around for a bit we might find a straggler or something, someone that can tell us what happened here. Either way it's looking less and less likely that this place is going to be ideal to start expand a nest or start a new one."

The others nodded and reported their findings back towards Serathin, who gave an equally grim assessment of the situation but told them to keep searching if they could. If there were truly no people there then they might find some clues to why that was, or even so potential intelligence on anything the military did if they were there. There were traces of their presence the more they looked, everything from a military tent that had been left behind to obvious military tags that had been painted on several buildings and the street. Though it was hard to gauge exactly what type of operation they were attempting to do there they must have thought that the Bal'Kar were going to move on the town next and attempt to take it over, something that Serathin had anticipated and held their actions on doing.

As they walked down yet another empty street they saw a familiar sight that caused them all to experience a twitch of nostalgia, seeing Danny's place on the corner. Like most of the buildings it was completely boarded up save for a window or two, the three deciding to go in and have a look. The dragon kept pretty meticulous notes on business sales and such so it was possible they could figure out on what day everyone decided to leave town... or when they were ordered to. When they walked inside the door made its usual dinging noise and they saw that whatever had happened had been at least a few weeks ago as they heard the leaves crunching under their feet while they walked across the dirty floor.

After they had raided the back office the three of them sat down in their usual booth and though they heard it groan slightly under their weight it held them there as they tried to figure out what to do next. "It appears that our benefactor was a bit of a celebrity," Chaos stated as he put down the piece of paper with the draconic sabrewolf's face on it along with a reward for anyone who spotted him. "It's starting to look like our theory that they thought we would attack the town next might have been spot on."

"From Danny's records it looks like after we took Starpoint business continued on for a while longer," Erin said as she used her forepaw to flip through the book. "Sales had definitely started to decline though and I think this M next to the orders means military, so after a while most of his food orders were to those who were stationed here. Then about a month ago it just stopped, so that was probably when this entire thing closed down."

"Man, makes you wonder where he is now..." Newlyn speculated as he looked down at the other evidence he had gotten.

"Uh... I think he's closer then you think..." Erin said, Newlyn looking up in confusion to see that both their eyes went slightly wide and the husky was raising his hands in the air. "Like... right behind you..."

Just as Newlyn was about to turn his head to see what was going on he heard the sound of someone pumping a shotgun and was told to stay right where he was and put his hands in the air. As he did so he looked back over at the reflection in ceiling fixture to see a familiar bronze-scaled dragon with a shotgun pointed directly at his head. "You got about three seconds to tell me how you managed to come back from the dead," Danny demanded. "Or I'm going to make it that they'll have to carve your name in that memorial for a second time."

"Danny... it's really us..." Chaos said. "Please, put down the gun and we'll explain everything, no need for any of us getting hurt." While Bal'Kar were immune to most guns even while in their guise form the sound of a shotgun blast was going to alert anything and everything that might still be in this town, including potentially the military. Both Erin and Chaos attempted to talk down the demanding dragon while Newlyn sat still and made sure not to move since it was him the gun was trained on in the first place.

After what felt like an eternity Danny's resolve was starting to weaken as the gun's barrel started to lower, until finally it pointed down to the ground. Much to their surprise as soon as the shotgun hit the floor he started to weep, the three going and consoling him as they looked at one another on what they were going to do next. While they hadn't expected to console anyone it appeared that this dragon might have been the last living inhabitant in the town, and if they wanted to find out what was going on they were going to need him for information. Once they calmed him down enough Danny asked if they wanted to his place, the others nodding and following him down to the basement after Newlyn took the shotgun and unloaded all the shells from it before setting it aside.

"You... live down here?" Erin asked as they got to the storage area of the restaurant to find sleeping bags, a computer, a mini-fridge, and a few other things. "Why?"

"At this point I can't really tell you myself," Danny replied as he sat down on a couch that clearly looked like it had been dragged down there. "Ever since the whole Starpoint debacle every day has been one miserable blur. You see, once everything went down with the facility the military came rolling in here with enough firepower to take out a small country and had made all sorts of preparations."

"I see..." Newlyn stated. "Were they the ones that evacuated the city?"

"Nah, they actually wanted people to stay," Danny clarified. "Of course that was before they took everyone that even looked at the Starpoint facility, including my pops, and then after that everyone else just kind of fled. When they say you're living next to a bunch of tentacle monsters you don't tend to want to stick around... unless you're into that sort of thing. Anyway after all the people left the military types must have thought the town wasn't worth protecting anymore and they left too..."

"Right..." Chaos said. "I don't think the military were attempting to protect the town... I think they may have been attempting to use is as bait to lure u...the Bal'Kar out. But my question is if everyone is gone why are you still here?"

The dragon shrugged several times and they could tell that he was going to tear up again before finally he was able to speak. "My pops isn't a huge fan of phones and after ma left there wasn't going to be anyone waiting for him when he got back." The dragon looked down and sighed, putting his hands against his head. "And before you say it I know that he's not coming back, haven't seen a single person that they promised would come back after a few days... probably got them buried underneath the trees in that forest so they could be sure they weren't turning into one of you guys."

"One of... us guys?" Newlyn stated in slight confusion. "Do you know that we're Bal'Kar?"

"Of course I know!" Danny shouted, then took a second to calm himself before continuing on. "I mean c'mon, I ain't stupid. Three people who worked at the place suddenly show up with those glowing green peepers and I'm to think, what, you survived all that time up in the mountains and have some sort of eye condition?"

"Then why didn't you shoot us?" Erin asked.

"They told us guns don't work," Danny explained. "Said that if we see one of you then we just tell them. At this point though, I really just don't care. So go ahead and eat me or put alien larva in my belly or something, just do a friend a favor and make it quick."

"That's... not quite how this works," Newlyn said. "But if you really are interested we can always show you."

The dragon seemed interested enough that they decided to drop their guises slightly, their eyes glowing even more intensely as they began to let their Bal'Kar nature show. One of the first things they did was get out their controllers and point them in the direction of their newest prey. Under the influence of six controller tentacles they watched as their powerful lustful resonance turned his mind into mush, making him into their ball of putty as more tentacles began to emerge from their body. Newlyn and Chaos quickly shed their clothes before they ripped out of them as the transforming snow leopard took his throbbing black cock tentacle and began to push it into the subdued creature while Chaos took him from behind. For Erin she was just content to wrap her emerging tentacles around him and pull him close, the three of them infesting their old friend as bronze scales on his maw already began to darken and his horns began to lengthen and droop...

"Wait!" Erin said suddenly, the other two stopping mid thrust and pulling out as the kitsune looked around. "Do you guys see something here that may be a problem here?"