FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The pale light of the crescent moon shown down upon the garden. The jungle there grown and flourished whilst it drowned in the torrent sea of moonlight. A thin and veiled mist drove in slow descent among the foliage. Some condensation forming further into tiny droplets to glide across the leaves and petals housed in the upper parts of the botanical garden where the star's light fed the plants. One droplet in particular made its way down, slide across the waxy surface of a fern. The droplet of water clung to the end of the fern for only the briefest of moments before in began its free-fall.

The sphere fell deeper and deeper, until not even the natural light of the heavens could rescue it with sweet and delicate light. Harsh and unnatural luminescence took the place of Luna, casting itself around the floor of the garden and onto the patrons there. Exclusive and enchanted dinners were consumed by furs that cared to dine in the company of the faux jungle.

The lonely droplet of water descended into a small pool of wine. Causing some small wake in its mixing. The wine stood and quietly accepted the water, being lonely in a bottle for so long it was glad for the company of others. The wine had lived a cruel life, being wrought and forged for the bloody and mutilated genitals of its parent grapes, before being sealed in glass seclusion for many years.

Bryon watched the drop of water enter his glass; the drop roused him from his thoughts in time to catch the last of a joke Rebecca was making.

"-doesn't scream when you put it in an oven." Finished Rebecca laughing slightly at her own humor.

Byron just stared at her, missing out in the humor having not discerned the set up.

Rebecca looked at him slightly worried. "What's wrong didn't you like the joke?"

Rebecca was a pure white feline with blue eyes and a bright and pink nose. She dressed elegantly and in elegant dresses. Tonight her figure adorned a thin and deep blue dress, which complemented the sapphires that hung from her perked ears. She was of average height and thin; and though a few furs commented that her curves left something to be desired Byron thought they were perfect for her.

"I'm sorry Becca I was kind of spaced out for a moment; I'd like to hear the joke though." Byron said apologetically.

"It doesn't matter if I tell you though; you're not going to laugh now because you're already expecting the joke. You can't laugh at a joke if you anticipate the punch line; it just ruins the whole thing."

"No, I promise I'll laugh at it." Byron replied determinedly.

"Well that's even worse, if I know you're going to laugh at it than it defeats the joke entirely, I might as well just say a random sentence if I know you're going to laugh." Rebecca huffed.

"Sigh, look I'm sorry I ruined the joke, how about I tell you a joke instead?" Byron said almost apologetically.

"Do I have to laugh at the joke?" Rebecca asked with playfully mocking him.

"Shut up you, now; there were three tomato's a papa tomato, a mama tomato and a baby tomato. Now they're walking along the street right, and the little baby tomato starts to lag behind a little. So the papa tomato walks back to it and steps on, and says. Ketchup."

Rebecca giggled a little in her seat, amused at the silly joke. They sat there looking at each other for a while after Rebecca stopped giggling. Byron was drawn to her blue crystal eyes, which went nicely with her blue dress and sapphire earrings.

"It's good to know you have good taste in movies Byron." Rebecca said looking down at her salad for a moment before looking back up at him with a more somber face.

"I've got some good news and some bad news to tell you about work though." Rebecca quietly said to him, trailing off at the bad news.

"Tell me the good news first." Byron replied simply.

"Well we're being transferred, the whole division that was working on project Key, and all the security so you're coming along as well. We're being moved to a new facility in Chicago, near a management center that Dr. Jekyll uses as the main hub for all the paper work and legitimate connections he uses like the C.I.A. Anyway we're moving two days from now, so we're going to be cutting it close getting everything packed to get shipped to Chicago."

"That's great news; I know you wanted your own laboratory for project Key, instead of having to share with Dr. Smith and his Obsidian project. I'm glad I get to go too, you know so we can still see each other, but what's the bad news about all of this?"

"Well, we just had a report come in the early afternoon, all essential personal was briefed immediately and I think they'll tell everyone else tomorrow morning but a group of our security was attacked in Chicago. The Shade was confirmed to be the culprit, but it's bad they killed one of ours and kidnaped another, we're not sure if there were any casualties on their side, but Bryon, well....." Rebecca trailed off, not knowing how to break the news to Bryon

"Byron, Percy was confirmed to be with the Shade at the attack, and if we go to Chicago there is a very good chance you might meet him, that you might have to fight him. Bryon I'm afraid for you, your brothers a killer, but you're so kind a gentle I don't think you could kill him." Rebecca was almost in tears at the thought of Bryon having to fight his twin to the death.

"Hey Rebecca it'll be okay. Look Percy made his choice and I made mine, and we both have to live with that. I swear I won't let him hurt you or me or you project. Now come on don't be so sad, I bet that salad you've been looking at all night is pretty good." Byron said.

Rebecca smiled slightly at the end of his condoling, she was so happy that they would have a whole new research lab, and that Byron would be there to head security.

3 days later

Byron walked from the back of the train, passing through the coach cars making a regular sweep. The Amtrak train they were aboard had two coach cars, then an observation car, dining car, then finally three sleeping cabins. The two closest cabins to the locomotive housed a quite packed team of twenty researchers while the farther car housed Byron and his security team of eight.

Byron was passing through the last coach car, to the observation car to meet with the two guards keeping watch there. All sorts of furs were in the coach car, some looked like important business men while others looked like bums, in the end though they all had somewhere important to them to go.

Byron saw his two men as he entered the train's observational car. One was reading a newspaper casually while watching the door that Byron had come from, the other was opposite and to the back of the car, on his phone watching the other door.

Byron gave them each a slight nod as he passed through the car, knowing that while blending into the crowd perfectly both had their standard issue glocks that Byron had his security use. He quickly made his way through the dining car and through the security sleeping car before stopping in front of the security guard he had posted to stand watch by the door leading to the researcher sleeper cars.

"No disruption or suspicious characters?" Byron asked his voice hushed even though everyone in the sleeper car worked under him.

"None sir, all rotations have checked in and the situation is still normal."

"Good, I'll be informing Dr. Milton, if there are no unexpected stops we should reach Chicago around eleven at night so be ready to disembark then."

The guard nodded his head and stepped aside to let Byron through. He made his way through the first of the researcher's sleeping cars and to the back of the second one, stopping at the end door. So far so good he thought; there hadn't been anything suspicious and all was going smoothly, he just hoped it stayed that way.

Rebecca came to the door soon after Byron had delivered a soft series of knocks. He stood in the door way not coming in but seeing two of Rebecca's colleagues looking over designs for complicated looking machinery.

"Dr. Milton we will be arriving in Chicago around eleven this night, please prepare your staff to disembark then, as of now all situations are normal and are expected to stay as such." Byron said to her in a monotonous voice of firmness.

"Oh Byron I wish you would call me Rebecca all this seriousness is so silly." She said somewhat teasing.

"I'm sorry Doctor but security tends to fall on the serious side of business, I must depart now, we're scheduled to make a stop soon, and I need to be there to scan the crowd." Byron explained before turning and leaving.

Rebecca sighed a silent sigh before returning to her work knowing they Byron was so serious about the security for the need to protect her. She still didn't like the behavior though, and she wished he wouldn't try to shut out her help.

Byron ran down to the observation car so that he would have a decent aerial view of the passengers as they either disembarked or boarded. Soon the train came to a stop at some station in a small town in the southern part of Illinois, a few furs boarded but more left. Total only three new passengers got on, and a half dozen left the train. The oddest by far was a puma wearing a traditional Arab garb.

He was rather tail and had a somewhat sun bleached tanned puma fur. The whiteness of the robes he wore further offset the tan of his fur. Byron watched the other furs move to and from the train, but his gaze again wondered back to the decidedly Arab looking Puma. In a very bizarre moment the Puma turned his head back and looking directly at Byron gave a wink with his left eye, before calmly walking away again.

The train doors shut with an automatic whoosh of air. The trained jerked slightly, suddenly, sending the passengers of balance for only a moment.

After the odd moment staring at the puma the train lurched slightly and began to move again. Byron went to the back of the train to do another scan, the puma's wink had given him the feeling that something bad was just about to happen.

Byron searched the coach cars up to the secured observatory car, not seeing anything of danger or suspicion he was puzzled. Why would such a strange individual suddenly wink at a stranger he had never even met? He lashed his tail in frustration, and decided to go to the bathrooms under the observation car to cool down and splash some water on his face.

As he took the small spiraled stair down to the lower level of the car he saw some other fur emerge from the bathroom. Byron's training kicked in the second he saw a puma veiled in white Arab robes emerge from the bathroom. He drew his glock and aimed for a center of mass, but didn't fire just yet.

"Freeze put your paws on your head palms down." Byron said in a calm and demanding tone.

The Puma smiled and reached down to his waist quickly drawing a Janbiya. However the Puma didn't advance he simply remained with the Yemen dagger drawn at the ready.

"Drop it right now or you'll find a bullet between your eyes." Byron said in the same calm and commanding tone.

"Better hurry up kitty the trains about to blow and you're still chasing shadows I'll tell Percy you said hi." Said the Puma before suddenly vanishing into the air.

"Shit!" Byron cursed, just then realizing that the Puma was Daniel in disguise.

Byron ran to the bathroom knowing that Daniel must have been using his fade to check on something there. Byron burst into the bathroom and saw that the plate covering the lower portion of the sink was pried off and leaning up against the opposite wall. Under the sink was a shoe box, which after looking around for wires Byron carefully picked up. Bryon grabbed his cellphone and hit the number eight button three times, this sent out a signal to all guards to start the process of evacuation.

Byron felt the train jerk to a halt as the brakes were applied. Byron carefully sat the box on the sink and when the train was totally stopped opened it.

A blast of confetti burst from the shoe box showering Byron in the cramped bathroom. Byron looked into the box and saw a simple trip spring that led to a small confetti bomb, under the bomb was a photograph. Byron to the photograph out to look at and was shocked and disgusted.

The picture showed Percy in front of a screaming Dalmatian, who had about half of his fingers cut off at various joints and was clearly alive and screaming from the pain.

Suddenly Byron heard the sound of a gun going off in the upper cabin. He rushed to the top observation deck from the bathroom gun still drawn, expecting the worst from the sound. As he rounded the spiral stairs he saw his two guards both dead. One with a knife wound to the throat while another lie bleeding from a gunshot to the head right in the bridge of the nose.

Byron hurried forward gun sweeping the dinning cart before advancing to the sleeping carts. The guard he had posted at the door there was busy below helping all the staff evacuate, as were the rest of the security. Byron shouted down at them from the upper part of the sleeping car, yelling for a few of them to help him sweep the rooms above for the armed and dangerous intruder.

They cleared the first of the researchers sleeping cars quickly, and then moved on to the second wasting no time, they checked the first door, then the second, the came to the final door. Byron swung open the door, guns up and ready, his guards were right behind him, all of them pointing their guns at what lay in the room.

Nothing was in the small sleeping compartment, there were bed sheets and papers scattered everywhere, but no one was there. Byron and the rest lowered their weapons.

"Where the fucking shit did he go!?" Byron yelled out to his guards.

They all looked around not knowing what to say, and wondering where the intruder could have been. Byron went into the room and sat on the bed, pondering on what to do next. One of his guards walked into the room hesitantly as if to ask for orders when he suddenly tripped, and fell, as if he had bumped into someone.

The second the guard fell it all snapped into place for Byron who jumped up from the bed and yelled for everyone to get down. Byron raised his gun and let loose a spray of fire, shattering the window in the hall of the train car. On the last shot there erupted not only a shattered window but a spray of red mist, confirming what Byron thought must be true. He went up to follow Alexander the invisible mouse whom he knew must be the intruder. Right as he turned to go out the door the guard that had bumped into the then invisible Alexander tried to get up, causing Byron to tumble over the clumsy guard.

Alexander had enough of a head start from Byron tripping over his guards to successfully make it to the back of the train. One at the back he jumped from the second story of the train and ran into the surrounding forests of the state, cloaking again while still holding his bleeding arm. Byron rushed to the back of the train just in time to see Alexander vanish into the wood.

Some hours later

"Byron please you can finish the reports tomorrow, you need to sleep right now. You've been up since last afternoon on the train." Rebecca asked him almost worriedly.

Byron sighed in annoyed defeat. He had gotten up at eight a.m. yesterday and he looked at the clock now to revel it to be two a.m. He was trying to file reports for why he had three subordinates killed in action. It wasn't even his first day and Byron sat filling out funeral papers.

"Byron it's not your fault, they were doing their job that's all. They saved everyone else on that train from that mouse with the gun." Rebecca said trying to get him to stop writing out the report.

Byron suddenly quit moving the blue pen he held. He turned from the hotel desk he was at to look at Rebecca.

"Yeah they were just doing their job, and if I hadn't done such a shitty job they would still be alive. I should've called a security lock down, not a fucking evacuation damn it!" Byron got up from the business chair the hotel provided and angrily paced to the window.

"The worst fucking part of it is I don't know what the fuck they took! I lost three good furs and I don't even know why, and everyone higher up won't even tell me what we're testing! My brother, my twin fucking brother is in the shade torturing people for a living and I can't even keep three fucking train cars secure from a bunch of coward terrorists. I swear if I ever see Alexander, or Daniel, or my piece of shit brother ever again I'll RIP THEIR FUCKING HEADS OFF!" Byron roared at the end slamming his fist into the nearest piece of dry wall, he turned around to hear the scolding he would get from Rebecca but just saw her frozen.

The sight of Rebecca frozen hit Byron hard. She was frozen in the panic of seeing Byron punch a hole through the wall. Byron relaxed and let time flow again.

Rebecca let out a scream and ran to the bathroom locking the door behind her. Byron sat down on the queen size bed; he could hear Rebecca sobbing gently in the bathroom. He put his head in his paws and said to himself

"Now you've really fucked up Byron, now you've really fucked up."