FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Angela walks through the streets of the city. Though some of the group are perfectly fine sleeping in one their bases or safe houses she always preferred to sleep in her own apartment. That said, she wasn't stupid. The squirrel morph had had a run in a long time ago by Michael. He found her, tamed her instincts and gave her direction. But at the same time he trained her on how to protect herself. As well as showing her how to read her surroundings and know when someone is trying to sneak up on her. As such she sees the two humans coming to sneak up on her from a long way away. She knows her route well enough and knows where the gaps in the security coverage are. She reaches into her purse and grabs out four little balls. She also grabs a stick of gum at the same time. She gives each of the four balls a tight squeeze with her hands before unwrapping the gum and sticking it in her mouth, dropping the balls as discretely as she can. Hopefully nothing will come of it and she'll just pick up Devon's little toys later on once they've left. As she walks into one of the gaps they step out, noting how there's no one around. Either paid off or intimidated away. Doesn't matter to her. One of the two humans has what looks to be a tire iron. The other has a simply metal chain. She spits at the ground in response to them and glances over to make sure that the toys have set themselves up. Very useful toys indeed when dealing with situations where one needs to be recorded in a location chosen for not having any security cameras.

She reaches into her purse and grabs a small knife before putting her purse down gently onto the ground, stepping towards them. She raises up one hand and then cuts that hand with the knife, keeping the cut extremely shallow from practice. She then tosses her knife towards her purse so that they can't use that as an excuse. She then shows them the orange blood coming out of her wound. "There, are you all happy?" She demands, swinging her hand out so that her blood splatters a bit onto the road in front of her.

Her blood being exposed, that particular defense can no longer be used. In almost all cases this is enough to deter any sort of real confrontation. They see they cannot attack her at no risk and they walk away to find a safer victim. Or they stand around and harass her verbally for a little while until they get bored and leave. This particular pair don't seem to be doing either option as they are still brandishing their weapons at her.

"Ah well, can't say that I didn't at least try," she says quietly as she starts to stretch her arms.

There isn't really all that much an issue for her though. She was trained on how to fight by Michael and kept up with her training over the years she's been working with him. These two attacking her are little more than thugs. No training, no discipline. Just all muscle. If she were able to fight on an even field beating them would be a piece of cake. But legally they aren't on the same footing. But rather, she has to make sure that any attack cannot claim that she is the aggressor. So Michael had trained her in a style designed not to beat an enemy mercilessly, but rather turn attacks against the user. And so she waits until they swing at her and retaliates.

Thankfully the one with the pipe is the one that attacks first as that makes it much easier for her. She waits for him to swing and then steps into him, grabbing the pipe and shoving him over her. She then turns around and uses the pipe to take the hit from the chain. It still moves and clips her in the cheek but it's nothing she can't handle. She steps forward and kicks him in the groin. As he goes down she grabs the chain and throws both it and the pipe well out of reach. No sense in allowing herself to be considered guilty of battery as well. The first one stands and charges at her but he's clearly not that bright, trying to still attack a morph bare-fisted. But not everyone has actual martial training. She deflects the punch easily. He's apparently not that much of a meathead as she thought as the punch doesn't leave any real openings. He wasn't committing that much to the punch. Angela guesses he's doing it to try and buy time for his compatriot to get back up.

Doesn't matter much, just shows what she can expect from the next one. She turns around to expose her back to him for a moment to face the other and has her head turned just enough to still see him out of the corner of her eye. As such it's quite easy to see when he takes the bait and lunges at her. She uses her tail to muddle the attack, causing it to become more of a glancing blow than anything. She then steps towards him and hits him just below the ribs. As he doesn't react right away she follows that up by grabbing the arm he punched with, twisting it behind his back and forcing him to the ground. If the other stays down that'll be the end of it as far as she's concerned. Perhaps a quick kick to the ribs for the effort, but still well within the means of a proportionate response.

Unfortunately, the other one didn't get the hint and staggers to his feet and comes at her, trying to free his friend. She steps off the one, digging in her heels in to his lower back as she jumps and kicks the other in the arm. He clearly wasn't expecting how much force she could put into her kick. She isn't able to knock him off his feet, but the way he's holding his arm after makes it clear to her that she had at the very least sublocated his arm.

"Are we done here? Or do you want more?" she asks.

She half sighs as the one behind her gets up and starts positioning himself so that they have one on each end of her. The one behind her pulls out a knife and lunges at her. She decides it's important enough to expose her back to the one to deal with the knife. As he approaches she grabs at the arm, his blade nicking her in the arm a bit. But she doesn't hesitate and with a quick motion breaks his arm at the elbow and stomps on his knee before throwing the knife away with the other weapons. The other sees this and decides that they should get some weapons for themselves. So they make a break for the weapons, forcing Angela to chase after. But she is faster than he is and leaps in and tackles him to the ground from behind while he's still only a few feet away. He still grasps vainly in an attempt at grabbing one of the weapons but she punches him in the side, just below the ribs and then stands up, Grabbing both of his feet and dragging him forcefully back away from the weapon and towards his ally. Once there, she lets go of his legs and goes about trying to tear his shirt off his body. He protests and tries to fight her but she just punches him in the ribs a few times until he lets her. Once she has his shirt she uses it as a rudimentary rope and ties his hands behind his back. She pushes him down once again rather forcefully before standing up and surveilling her work.

They'll definitely be unable to continue their attacks on her for the time being. Angela looks over herself and sees a few tears in her clothing and a small cut here and there, but nothing that shouldn't be too much of a problem. She was mostly proud with the job she had done. She had avoided attacking their heads at all. Too much risk involved in potentially killing them to make it worth it. They do have a few injuries to remember her by, but none of them could be considered at all life threatening. She trills out a high-pitched whistle, signaling the little orbs to detach themselves from the walls and come back to the source of the whistle. She heads back over to her purse and digs out her phone. Being magnanimous, she dials the nearest human hospital and orders an ambulance for the two humans. They'll most certainly survive the encounter and given their tendency there really is no point in staying. If the cops learn she was involved they'd just arrest her regardless. They'll likely still arrest her but that's the point of the little orbs. She picks them up and puts them back into her purse. The little cameras will have caught that she spilled her own blood, as well as the fact that she could not be thought to have struck first but rather only in self-defense. And on top of that, there's plenty enough evidence that she stopped her attacks the moment both of the humans were completely subdued.

But still, it is strange that they sought her out. Just in case she takes her phone and takes pictures of the two humans. It'll be very useful to know what their connection to everything might be, in particular if they are being hired by the cops or the grabbers. But that's something the tech people back at the base can take care. Unlike what had happened with Alex, she doesn't really care one bit about these two humans. Once all the backlash of her fighting back is done she'll not even give them a second thought. She won't lose any sleep over them and has no interest in what happens to them.

She continues on her way to her apartment, fully intent on enjoying a nice relaxing bath after all of this accompanied by a glass of wine. After patching up her hand and arm. As she scans the area looking to see if there's anyone else hiding around the corner she texts one of their groups scouts to let them know of the situation. If she was attacked openly like this, others might be as well she would be irresponsible to not warn her associates of that possibility. Also she should let Michael know that the cops will likely come to pick her up. She reminds herself that she'll have to hide the orbs when she gets home. Not so much because they are illegal, but that they are somewhat expensive and the cops would be all the willing to destroy them just to spite her.

The two detectives step out of their car in what looks to be a night club. And without even having to really look that hard to find their target. John is standing outside, acting as the night club's bouncer. And he seems to be completely uninterested in doing anything but doing his job. He shows no bias regarding whether he lets in a human or a morph, even lets in a few nants as well. But still needing their information they walk towards and wave at him, holding out their badges as they try to get his attention. He visibly deflates at seeing the two of them but makes no motion to head in their direction. But, thankfully enough, he also doesn't run from them but rather keeps going about doing his job as the two detectives approach. They move to the side of the line, putting away their badges for the time being so as to not cause a panic from all the people still waiting in line.

"Am I under arrest?" John asks when they're close enough to ask the question without having to shout.

"No, we just would like to ask you a few questions. Can you step away for a few minutes?"

"Is it absolutely necessary?" he asks, turning to one of the people coming up into the line. He looks down at the human, particularly at his coat pockets and half growls. The human seems to lose his nerve and quickly exits the line. The rest of the people waiting turn to watch him leave and speculate amongst themselves but take no direct action otherwise. "Mary has the day off and Kevin called in to say he was going to be a few hours late. If I step out of the line we'll have to pull the supervisor off the floor or close the line which would cause a lot of disruption and a loss of a lot of money for the club."

"What was the situation with that kid?"

"Hmm?" John asks, having apparently already mentally moved on past it. "Smell was off. Kept looking around extremely anxious and covering a pocket in his jacket. Drugs or a weapon most likely. Don't really care which, don't want neither in my club and if I don't see it nothing to report to cops and no one wants that. No offense. But you're free to ask you questions here, I won't mind. I can do two things at once no problem."

"Well we were hoping to ask you about the group you associate with. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Shouldn't be. The owners know I work with them. They fully understand what that typically ends up entailing when it comes to police. That I am going to be arrested for absolutely any small offense they can find even if I have broken no laws. And they're okay with it so long as I don't let what I do there affect how I do my job here. Though, I am going to warn you ahead of time that I may not answer every question. You have not caused me a reason to mistrust your motives just yet. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to be okay just revealing all of our more sensitive information. We haven't survived this long by being stupid. Don't take it personally, but our group is more important than your feelings."

"And what is it that you do with them?"

"I'm considered an enforcer. I've been one since our group formed. Makes sense, really. I mean I'm a bouncer here, after all. What better person to enforce the people. I actually volunteered to convert. Needed to have the size and strength to be able to handle other morphs. But I am completely fair. That is why I was approached. I have no problems with humans. Far from it. But there is most noticeably an imbalance of power. As an enforcer, if the people find that someone is causing trouble, it is my responsibility to assess whether they are a threat, handle them if needed and inform others of my assessment."

"And what do you mean by handle?" Detective Matthews asks.

"Again, I'm a bouncer. If you two had been posed as a threat, police or otherwise, I would have escorted the two of you out. I may not be able to legally harm you two, but I can be quite able to block you from going anywhere that isn't out. And most definitely so long as I made it clear that you weren't welcome there would not have been a single person that would have been at all willing to give you any information. And most assuredly you would have been unable to do anything you wanted. Believe me, we've had our own run-ins with police before and when one of the enforcers make it clear that cop is not wanted, they quickly give up after a block or two and leave. No one would be willing to put up with someone where there is no possible chance to do anything. The citizens would avoid them and act as if they aren't there."

"So you would never directly attack a law enforcement agent?"

"Of course not. Our lawyer makes sure that all of our operatives that are out in the public know full well the extent we are able to move within the confines of the law. If I am never outright breaking the law, then I have a legal defense that could help me avoid any major jail time. But I'm sure you both know about that, what with your digging into us recently. Anyone not law enforcement. Well, let's just say that we do what the police will not."

John's phone beeps at him, alerting him of having gotten a text message. He pulls it out and glances at it a moment, frowns and then puts it away, looking over the line and paying the two detectives not all that much attention.

"What was that about?" Matthews asks.

"Nothing for you to concern yourself about. Just one of ours being attacked by a couple of humans. I'm sure your friends will be making an arrest of them later. But it was just a general notice so that we'd all be aware in case it's a more coordinated effort. The scouts will be making themselves scarce for the rest of the night. They're probably making a point of giving out the signals telling everyone of that effect. On that note, she's fine, by the way," John adds suddenly.

"What?"

"Alex. She's still got a bit of a limp from when she fell. But she's doing well enough for now. She doesn't blame the two of you for almost getting her killed."

"We weren't trying to kill her, we were only trying to see she got the care she needed."

"Whatever you say. All things considered she probably would have been far better off if you had just left her in the road. We're diligent enough about things like that, we'll escort them to a doctor that can be trusted and get them back on their feet in short order. Happens often enough what with the nbd. Anyway, why are you lot really here?" he asks, pointing someone else in the line to leave. "You two almost exclusively work in the human sector. There's no possible way that you two are only here to look into the goings on of a Morph group."

"Do you know about any sort of individual that's been abducting people lately?" Detective Ryan asks

"You're joking right?" John stares at them incredulously.

"Well, we're talking about someone who is killing people using a syringe. We're following a case that has had a lot of people just suddenly show up dead without any evidence of them being there. When we looked at police reports we found that at first they seemed to be primarily attacking you sub--your people but have since stopped."

"Ah yes, we hate them. A lot of our groups influence actually got a lot stronger because we began actively taking measures against this kind of behavior. Part of the reason you don't really see any more cases of Morphs getting abducted and killed in such a manner is because of us. We patrol the streets. We have a network to get help very quickly and we flag anyone acting at all suspicious. They probably went on to attacking you humans because your guard isn't up on them and at this point it's simply far easier to attack a human, even if legally its preferable to attack one of us. But if you think it'll help to bring them down once and for all I'd be willing to arrange for a copy on all the information about them that we are at liberty to disclose. Obviously not tonight, though. After the attack we're all going to be shut in and it'll take a bit of time to get everything ready anyway. Will that be sufficient or is there anything else that you need to pester me about? If you need information about my own personal whereabouts or what not I can tell you that. But I don't have a computer on me and I'm not really interested in all the tiny details. So long as everyone plays nice I generally don't get all that involved. That they stopped bothering us is enough for me. Some in our group may have looked more into the issue but I don't care enough."

"Well, I think that should be enough for now. If we think of anything else then we obviously know where to find you," Detective Matthews says as the two detectives walk off. John makes no response to their statement, instead go back to watching the people as they try to get into the night club.

"Well," Detective Ryan says when they get back to the car, "what he says does give a good enough explanation for why they stopped attacking them. Way too many people to really do that in the real cities, though. But did you get the impression that he knew a lot more about the people we're looking into than he let on?"

"I think he knows a lot more in general than he's willing to tell us. I think he probably only told us what sounded good to get us to leave. We'll have to see what all this evidence he claimed he'd give us actually contains. It might end up being nothing more than what we had already connected."

"Assuming, of course, that it isn't exactly the data that we collected. He clearly knew stuff about us. And the records clerk did say they had issues with people stealing records. Though I suppose we can at least feel assured that that little fox girl turned out all right. So at least there is that. We'll have to go about making sure to come back and get that information. But on the whole I would still very much prefer it if we knew why it was that she felt the need to jump out of a fourth floor window. But I guess there is no real point in stalking out the group seeking out one little girl. But I guess we might as well head on back. Nothing more we can do for our case tonight."