FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Here." Ilaria rounded a corner and pointed down another hallway. "I thought I heard another big hatch close up here somewhere when that rabbit took me away."

"Hare. Big, floppy ears." Robyn smirked back to her fiance as she looked back. "Hey, it's the least I can do for ~my hero~."

"Don't even, Pillow. I know you like me."

"And the cock. I heard bunny boys are pretty hung." Robyn nudged her snout forward and slowed down. "Where now?"

Iolvin jogged up behind them with Adrian in tow. "Another split? Just how big ~is~ this boat?"

Dee looked down the equally-choosable left and right paths before them and shrugged his shoulders. "Without a reference I can't make heads or tails of this place."

Elliot huffed his way over as well, carefully putting Ashe down after carrying her this far. "I don't mind a rest though. No offense, Ashe, but you're too large for me to keep that up."

"Uh... No offense from ~that~." Ashe stood up straight and hooked her arm through Ellie's "I ~don't~ like being toted around like a purse though."

Ari walked over and put a paw on the wolf's shoulder. "Feeling more yourself, hon?"

"Yeah, more or less." Ashe took a deep breath and pulled herself closer to Ellie. "I'll be fine though. We need to keep moving."

Viola walked over calmly and shook her head at the others. "Do you really have to run about like cockroaches in the light?"

"Well we are being ~chased by furs with guns~, missy." Ellie tugged on Ashe's shoulder and picked the left path at random. "This way then. We'll find some landmarks eventually, but we need to keep moving to do that."

"Woah." Ilaria hunched forward and drew the attention of the others. "Lightheaded all of a sudden..."

"Hey, you're glowing bright again." The otter's twin looked down to his own paw pads and noticed he was humming brighter with every breath as well. "What's that mean?"

Prisma slowly walked up behind Ari and gave her a hug, a much more cohesive Sprite transferring from shoulder to shoulder. "Auntie! Sprite feels better!"

"Yeah, we're noticing that too." Ari turned her head to Sprite and nodded to herself when she confirmed the fairy's condition had improved. "Glad you're not a pile of goop anymore, Sprite. Any idea on what's going on?"

The fluttery girl waved a paw and nodded back, Ilaria's artificial glasses constructing just to display her message.

"Oh. Wait, my glasses..." Ari concentrated on her paw and a faux watch latched around her wrist. "Oh ho. We're back in business, guys."

Elliot sighed to get attention and then continued down his chosen path. "Great. Can we try not to be killed now?"

Ilaria walked up behind him and ground a knuckle into his spine. "Maybe not if you're such a brat. Keep making that much commotion and they'll find us faster."

Everyone started moving forward, though the dizziness finally slowed down the other two glowing otters. Adrian braced against a wall for a moment, causing Iolvin to slow as well. "You alright there, Dee?"

"Headache. I'm good."

Yoyo nodded and helped Dee start moving again. "Same here. Just hope it doesn't get worse, like the bends or something."

Robyn spun around and rolled her eyes to the two. "It's not like your heads will explode or anything, I'm sure. At least you boys aren't spilling your lunch left and right."

Just as Robyn crossed the threshold to another room, the automated fire doors started shutting. Prisma barely made it through as well but stared through an unbreakable porthole back at Yoyo, Dee, and Viola. "Wait... Auntie, wait! They're stuck! Uncle Yoyo and Uncle Dee are stuck back there!"

"What?" Ilaria slid to a stop, nearly skating on her fake hindpaw. "Crap! Yoyo? Is there any way through?"

Robyn went to inspect the door and ended up shaking her head. "Not a fix in sight, love. These are hydraulically moved."

Elliot finally stopped his aggressive pace and looked back to the door. "DeeDee?" He guided Ashe to the fire door and pressed his face almost against the glass. "We'll get this fixed. We'll open it up and come back for you. I swear we won't leave you behind, sis."

Just as he finished his words the connecting breach door behind them slammed shut as well. Yoyo pulled up to the window and shouted out his own suggestion. "We're trapped now. Is there a way to fix it? A switch? Some kind of jerry-rigging?"

Robyn eased Ellie out of the way. "Yoyo, look to the right, yeah? Anything wrong with the pipes there?"

"Pipes..." He slid to the side and checked the whole corner from top to bottom, grunting when he found a puddle of oil, a pinhole, and some kind of stopper on a string. He plugged the stopper back into place and hopped back up. "Found it. There was some kind of trap they set to make it leak. It's fixed now, so how do we open the door?"

"We... shit. It doesn't work like that, mate." Robyn banged her head against the porthole and sighed. "Hydros are tossed. Only thing we can do now is find the overrides."

"Uh, Pillow?..." Ilaria walked over to the only other door out of their current location and placed a paw against it. "Unless that's in this room, I think we're all fucked."

"Bollocks." Robyn made her way over to the other hatch and kicked the border, shaking her head and sighing at the rather empty thud that resounded. "They've got to be on the same circuit. Clever bastards knew we'd get cornered."

"But there's no alarms, right? I'm not receiving any new radio patterns." Prisma sat on the ground in early defeat. "Was it just an accident?"

Ashe joined the android on the metal floor, Elliot kneeling to her side. "No, it's just a passive system. Next patrol should spot us and take action."

Ilaria set Sprite down next to Prisma and then took a good look at the dark room. "Maybe there's something we can use to get around it." She found a heavy duty light switch and twisted the toggle, the florescent bulbs above flickering alight. "Oh. Well that's a good place to start, but you're not going to like it."

Robyn spun around and immediately frowned. "You've gotta be taking the piss, Ottah."

Ari walked ahead and crouched before her new discovery, a paw dipping into the shimmering water of the moon pool in the center of the room. "Damn, that's pretty fucking cold." She looked back as she shook the water from her arm. "This has to lead outside. If I can get to whatever controls we need--"

"No. Just no, Ottah." Robyn slumped to her knees next to her fiance and placed both her paws on her tummy. "Don't make me lose you on the same day I find out we're with child. Please, Ari."

"Robby..." Ari sat down and gave her squirrel a hug. "If there's even a chance of saving you from these freaks, I just have to take it. If things keep up the way they have been, at the very least I don't think our whelp would survive. This is all I can do for the two of you."

Ellie sighed as he held Ashe closer, the wolf beginning to tremble again. "She's right. Just look what they did to Ashe. If we don't try something, we'll all probably be dead soon."

"So then ~help her~ at least! I'm not letting her go out there alone!"

"I can't. I have to--"

Ashe jerked herself free with a wince of pain and began rocking back and forth. "Don't leave me. I don't want to be left alone. If we're all gonna drown. I want to be with you."

Robyn stared at the two until she realized she couldn't break them apart, her head snapping to the pair of artificial furs next. "You're both machines. You go with her."

Prisma looked to Sprite and then back to Robyn. "Prisma and sister Sprite cannot handle more than basic overpressure. Prisma doesn't want to dissolve."

"But..." The squirrel gave her fiance a look of utter defeat. "Ilaria... please..."

"I need you to stay strong for me, Pillow. Go to Yoyo and tell him what I'm looking for. I'm sorry, but I have to take this risk." Ilaria stood up by the lip of the pool and broke free of a pleading paw of Robyn's. "I love you."

Ilaria jumped in the freezing water, her only saving grace being her thick, water-resistant fur. Even with a layer of insulating air trapped next to her pelt the sea still gave her a shock, one she forced herself to overcome. A few seconds of treading water and Ari was ready to get going, the otter taking a few successively deeper breaths of air as she stared into her sobbing fiance's eyes.

"Ilaria..."

"I'll come back for you. I promise."

The otter winked her ears closed and ducked below the surface of the moon pool. She pushed off of the metal frame and immediately regretted doing so, an underwater current snagging her and dragging her into darkness. After catching her arm painfully against an external pipe Ilaria recomposed herself, her new problem being visibility. Underwater her vision didn't require the use of her glasses and was close to perfect, but the lack of any form of light completely disoriented her.

Once Ilaria's eyes settled more into the darkness she noticed her own paw pads and webbing faintly coloring the side of the structure. She quickly visualized an analog to this, her thoughts materializing into a pair of large glow rods tied to her forearms. Her nanites began to burn much brighter to make the effect useful and they did the trick, at least well enough to see a few meters ahead.

«Lulu?» Iolvin finally remembered his ability to digitally link with his twin. «Robyn told me what's up. You alright? I'm feeling cold all of a sudden.»

«Yeah, I can handle it for a bit.» Ari pulled herself upwards along the pole until it returned into the structure. «What am I looking for? I need directions before I run out of air.»

There was a decent stretch of silence, though Ari could feel the tension rise on her brother's side. «Robyn says to go up. You're looking for a command or security room and those tend to be on higher decks.»

«And then what? How the hell do I get back inside?»

«Uh, right. No doors.» Another bank of silence built up some more stress until just prior to Yoyo's return. «She says something about a hatch like in the power station. That mean anything?»

«Sort of.» Not wanting to waste any time, Ari pushed off the side and started swimming directly upward. «Anything specific she can tell me? There something I need to do differently to open it? Any markings pointing it out?»

«Well... I don't--»

Suddenly Adrian chimed in with a hint of worry in his tone. «Hon, Robyn's breaking down. I'm not sure we'll get much more out of her.»

«Just...» Ilaria paused as she fought against another gust of strong current, her artificial leg in particular making things difficult in keeping her upright. «Just keep her calm. I'll focus on finding a way back inside.»

Ari pressed against the side of the structure after a rather far swim, long enough for her lungs to begin burning. She contemplated heading back for some fresh air just to cover more ground, but then it dawned on her that this structure was much, much larger than she ever expected. She looked down and saw the light bleeding from the moon pool close to fifty meters down and her plan fizzled immediately. This wasn't some simple submarine or boat.

Ilaria looked upward and found the natural sunlight was starting to bleed dimly onto the structure, though with a much more muted palette of colors due to the remaining depth of water filtering it. It wasn't readily noticeable but she managed to spot a yellow stripe on the side of the rusted metal wall. Ari took a risk and followed it sideways, thanking the gods when her glow sticks lit up a bit of text and an arrow labeling the area 'WET LOCK S-20' just to her left.

Ilaria found a large hatch much like the airlock in the enrichment room of the reactor, only four times larger and without manual toggles. «Yoyo, get Robyn. I found something called a wet lock and I don't know what to do.»

«Okay, one second...»

«Not that I'm holding my breath or anything.»

The return ping wasn't nearly amused, and in fact was quite fearful. «Hell, sis. Don't joke like that.»

Dee commented through the mental channel, stressing his point for Ari's sake. «If her air's running out she'll start losing her focus. Just help her, Yoyo.»

«Just shut up a sec. It's hard to talk and keep this up at once.» Another pause gave Ari a few seconds to shake some sense into herself, analyzing the controls on the hatch while she waited on her twin's response. «Okay, is there something mentioning 'cycling' or 'pressure' on the controls?»

«There's uh...» Ari checked the panel of twist buttons again just to be sure. «I see 'power cycle' and 'pressure fill' on there.»

«Okay, so it's a dock. One sec.» This time the silence improved in emotion, Yoyo calming down as things clarified. «There's supposed to be inner door controls. You need to close the inner door and then...»

Ari took the slight break to find and twist the appropriate switch. «Right. Sounds like it's working.»

«Good, Lulu. Now this is tricky. You need to find a safety lever or something on the door. If you can fool that into thinking something's docked then the doors should open.»

Ilaria looked around rapidly, her sense of balance quickly fading. She found various mechanisms and locks on the large bay doors but all of them appeared to be just for securing a vessel. Ari's eyes fluttered over the details of a few components and by chance she happened to double-take the correct part, a tee bar recessed in the center. She placed her hindpaws on the door and pulled the bar outward with all her strength, barely managing to slide it outward.

Upon sensing the bar in the extended position the remaining lock mechanisms on the edges of the hatch prodded outward to hold the nonexistent vessel in place. A few seconds later the doors themselves slid open, expelling a bubble of air only to quickly suction up Ilaria and the water around her. She slammed her shoulder against the inner doors but managed to find the midway control box.

«Yoyo, inside. Need the controls.»

«Oh, shit. Right.» That sense of worry returned to Iolvin's linked message, no doubt due to his sister's lack of vocal comprehension. «You need to find the door close button and then look for 'vent' or 'drain' somewhere. Hit them fast, Lulu.»

Ari scrambled to read the controls and just hit the first one that read 'door' at all. The inner hatch started opening and she toggled the switch the other direction in panic. The next door control had to be correct so she snagged it and gave it a hard twist. Thankfully the proper doors now slid shut, giving Ilaria enough of a morale boost to hunt down the next crucial toggle. In a second she had her paw working a switch called 'pressure vent', the water level soon lowering under the chamber's newly-established air pressure bubble.

As she gasped for air so forcefully that she inadvertently inhaled salt water Ilaria beamed back a very welcomed update. «Damn... Got it. I fucking got it, Yoyo.»

«Fuck, sis. Thank the gods for that.»

Ari coughed as the sea water burned her lungs. «Let Robby know. I've got the doors now so give me a sec and I'll try to see where I'm at.»

«Damn straight. Take it easy a minute, though. Feels like you're hurting pretty bad.»

«~You~ try diving that long with one good leg.» Ilaria toggled the inner door switch and waited for the hatch to fully open. «Just sucked up some water, Yoyo. I'll be fine.»

«Yeah, well I was so scared by that stunt that I'm shaking, big sis. Robyn looks like she just about had a heart attack herself.»

The otter looked at her new environment, the brighter lighting than the previous deck leading her to dissolve her glow rods back into her body. «Okay, I see some signs. Sub-level twenty... Medical center... Just what kind of place is this? Some kind of oil rig?»

«Never heard of one with that many floors before. Could be, I guess.»

Ari walked around a corner and found a well-lit area full of patient beds. «This medical bay is pretty large. Maybe they have their own security system for it...»

«Hmm? What's up? You feel a bit spooked.»

«Well... I have a bad feeling about this.» Ilaria noticed that one of the beds was ruffled up, the sheets stained various shades of pink and red. «Maybe I should hurry up before someone finds you g--»

Thwack!

Ilaria snapped awake at the contrasting sensations of freezing cold and searing heat on her lower body. She tried to make sense of what was happening but found herself blinking in sudden dizziness from a massive headache in the base of her head. She wanted to focus on the pain and figure out what had caused it but that immense heat once again called her attention.

"So you're still alive, bitch?"

Ilaria gawked at what she saw, her headache now going unnoticed. "B-But you're--!!"

Crouched with a paw between her now-unclothed thighs, Ilaria's most loathed liger grinned and licked his lips. "Dead? Not a chance, toots. Hurts like hell 'cause o' you now though." His paw splayed Ari's petals and allowed that blazing hot, rough tongue to slither its way inside for a moment. "I figure you punched me full of holes so I owe you the same, bitch."

Ari squirmed as Adem nibbled on her 'clit' piercing. "Fuck off! I didn't w-want to do shit to you!"

"You think I really care?" The liger pulled back a medical gown on his front and exposed his already-hard cock to the air. "I'd have my way with you if it didn't sting to move. So here's the idea--you suck my cock on your own and I don't snap your fucking neck. Can't even fucking paw myself off like this."

"What? Fuck no. I'm not--"

The liger rolled his eyes then grabbed Ilaria by the base of her tail and some sheets that bound her wrists behind her. "Fine. We'll do it the hard way, bitch."

With his paws sinking into her tail and more than enough icy cold water leaking through to her skin, Ilaria would have considered the liger's motions already painful and torturous. The real damage came when he lugged her back, impaling Ari in a single motion. The otter spasmed and jerked from the mix of pain and numbing cold, unable to tell any further if her breached womb was pained or burning or with heat.

"F-Fuck!"

"That's the point. Want to rethink things now?" After a few seconds with no more of a response than the occasional gasp or cough the liger started thrusting himself shallowly yet firmly. "Fine. I'm getting off one way or another, chicky-dick."

"S-Screw y-y-you."

"You always so stupid with your words?" The liger thrusted with pained grunts a few dozen times before growling in frustration and stopping dead. "One last chance. Suck me off or I'll make it hurt. Be a shame to die all broken to bits, right?"

Ilaria's whole body shivered from the cold and the dull sting of pain in her nethers. "G-Go f-fuck yours-s-self."

"Damnit. Whatever, crazy bitch." The liger took Ilaria's cock and pointed it upward, followed by pulling her head forward to meet the tip with her pursed lips. "How about you choke on your own freak dick instead? Sound fun?"

The brute forced Ari to curl painfully forward until more than half of her cock was lodged past her mouth. At the same time he started pumping his hips as fast and hard as he could muster. The combination of piercings being worked on Ari only served to betray her, bringing her to a very premature climax in the presence of such other extreme stimuli. A moment later she spasmed and pumped a slow, heavy flow of amber cream down her throat.

"Fuck that tiny pussy's great..." Without so much as a warning the liger's own length slammed deep inside Ari's warm folds, blasting volcanic heat directly into her frozen core to seemingly devastating effect. As Ilaria came from her feminine attributes this time the paw on the back of her head grasped tighter. "Too bad that's the last you'll feel of it. You'll make a good fuck pocket for a few days though."

The liger slammed Ilaria down and fought to work her knot past her teeth right as an unknown set of footsteps tapped down the connecting corridor. "Adem...?"

"Oh. Good timing, kid." The liger slowed his assault on that knot long enough to wave Carmine over in the pair's direction. He lifted Ari's arms by the wrists and forced her to roll out her hips for the hare. "Wanna get a fuck in before she dies? I'd hurry up before she chokes though."

Carmine ran over and pulled on Adem's paw with both of his own, barely having an effect. "What are you doing?! Stop, Adem!"

"Fuck no. Can't change my mind this time, kid." Ilaria's shivering and gagging started becoming much more pronounced not just because her air supply was running low but because her arms were being torqued to their limits as well. "Bitch has been a thorn in my side too long. She's done."

"No!" Car took his paws away and placed them on the liger's cheeks. "~Please~, Adem! She's going to be a mother!"

Adem released his grip on Ari's head, and when Ilaria didn't move he lifted her off her length with a jerk of her wrists as well. "That true? Fuck... She's pregnant?"

Car nodded his head emphatically, knowing it wasn't the whole truth but going with it anyway. "Yeah. Just found out today."

"Fuck... Well fuck me..." Adem's expression suddenly went much softer, then contorted into one of fear and disgust like a whole different fur. "I didn't... I mean..."

Car grabbed a nearby pile of unused gowns and started wrapping the sopping otter with them. "Gods. She's on the brink of death, Adem. What the fuck's gotten into you? It's never been ~this~ bad."

The liger crawled backwards, pulling Ilaria upright with an unexpected pop of her shoulder as he distanced himself. "I don't know! I don't want to hurt her! Fuck!"

"GAH!! Fucking... bastard..."

"Shit, Adem." The hare removed his uniform jacket and carefully set it over Ari's shoulders. "She's freezing to death on top of that. You probably are too and just can't feel it."

"I didn't know that! I swear!" Adem crawled up next to Ilaria, not complaining in the least when she started weakly wailing on him with her good arm. "I'm ~so~ sorry. How can I help? I have to make this better."

"Just get the ~fuck~ away from me, fucking psycho." Ari choked as a bit of her own cum came back up from her throat. "Carmine... I need a--kuh!--a security room. You still want to... to help?... Oh gods, my arm..."

"Easy, girl. I'll take you to one." Carmine untied Ari's arms and helped her to her hindpaws. He then sternly pointed the liger to his bed. "You need to rest. Faster healing or not, you can still die too, Ademeus."

"Y-Yeah..."

"Well? Get moving or I'll--"

A heavy thump followed by voices drew everyone's attention and made Ilaria cringe defensively. "What the hell is that?"

"Elevator. Shit, if the others see you..."

"I can distract them." Ademeus picked himself up off the ground with a drawn out wince of pain. "I'll just use the usual excuse. Alright?"

"You can't even stand, Adem. I need to do it." Car helped Ilaria right herself against a wall and pointed the way the sound had come. "Right next to the elevators there are checkpoints. You'll find whatever you need there if it's security stuff. Can you hide on your own?"

"Fuck..." Ari stood up a bit taller, clenching her minimal clothing for dear life. "Probably not, but I'll make it work. I owe you another one, Carmine."

Ademeus leaned against a wall of his own and walked back to his bed. "Good luck."

"Yeah? Fuck off, asshole." Ilaria nodded to Carmine and headed down the hallway, ducking into a side room when she found one. "Can b-barely move like this..."

The voices bounced between each other, slowly proving to be from only two souls as they got closer. Ilaria grit her teeth as she let her failing arm fall limp, the weight bearing immense pain on her shoulder due to the dislocation of the joint. Instead of focusing on the pain she instead used her good arm to help hold her balance as she passed through the small examination room she'd entered. The two furs rounded the far corner, something Ari found out the hard way as she discovered that the bulk of the wall she was against was actually a large observation window. She quickly fell to the floor, barely catching herself with her one paw.

"You sure he's well enough, Lilly?" The male fluff drake led his sister down slowly down the hall, spinning to walk backwards and face her partway. "I don't want to wake the big guy if he's in a bad mood, y'know."

Lilly sighed and spun her brother around by his shoulder. "I saw him earlier and he's fine. Stop being a wimp and be nice to him for once. Okay, Vorak?"

Ilaria found a gap in their attention and slid forward, making sure to flatten her long tail behind her. She heard Vorak groan and then a few footsteps, cueing her to rush for the far door. She barely made it past the threshold when one of the drakes slipped a head into the room out of curiosity.

"What now, dummy?"

Vorak shrugged his shoulders and went back on his way. "Just thought I smelled something. Hunter's instinct or something I guess."

Ilaria plastered her back against the far end of the corner as the dragoness checked around randomly. "You and your genes. I swear you're going paranoid, brother."

With a hushed sigh of relief, Ilaria worked her way up the connecting hallway. She paused as an echo of voices bounced back her way, Carmine's added into the mix as he apparently started his distraction. Now that the others would have their attention elsewhere Ari searched the area at her own pace, finding the elevator about a hundred yards straight ahead.

«--ear me? Ari, pl--»

Ilaria slumped against a wall and focused on her digital telepathy. «Dee? Dee, can you say that again?»

«Ari! Damn, I've been trying to get back to you for like twenty minutes. What's going on?"

Ari took a deep breath as she pondered her words, noting that Adrian was quite distressed by his emotional end of the link. «I ran into a snag and was knocked out for a bit. Took a while to calm down enough to talk. What's been happening with you guys?»

«Oh... Well if you're fine then good. Not sure what happened but Yoyo passed out too. He also sort of... uh... had a good dream though I think. Other than that we've just been sitting here.»

Ari looked up and then rolled her eyes when she spotted a large booth with 'Security' labeled on the glass. «I just found a security room. See if you can get Robyn's attention. Maybe Ashe's too.»

«Oh, sure. One sec.»

Ilaria popped open the door to the booth and checked a large control panel that was lit up inside, its abnormally exquisite screens revealing camera feeds around the structure. «Hey, I've got cameras here. Any way of telling which one to swap to for you guys?»

There was a pause before Dee answered. «The door says 'S-28 C-12E' if you can find that.»

Ari tapped on what appeared to be a keyboard but was actually a basic holographic interface. After a bit of fiddling and searching she found a swatch of cameras with similar labels to Dee's description and loaded them onto the displays. «Oh, there. I can see you guys. Hey, is my brother sporting ~a boner?~»

«I thought I explained that bit.» Dee slumped down from the door's porthole for a few seconds and adjusted Iolvin's pants. «Okay, what next?»

«I'll try and find something to help. Wake up Yoyo in case you need to move.» Ari watched from the corner of her vision as Dee gave a series of progressively harder slaps to her twin's face, some of which she could feel. Meanwhile she rummaged through the applications and digital controls of the console, pulling back her paws occasionally as the keyboard morphed to include switches for specific programs. «Okay, so this isn't that simple. I need some kind of secondary door controls though... Right?»

«Yeah. Robyn says... electric backups should be in the doors. I have to agree with that. Makes sense from an engineering--»

«I got it, Dee. Ooh... actually...» Ilaria flipped to another program that showcased a suite of emergency fire systems on the vessel. «Let's see what pops up for your location... Oh, good stuff.»

Ari stared at a smorgasbord of controls for the entire floor, confused at everything since it was all scaled down to fit on the holographic field. She tapped a small search field and entered the sub-location Dee had given her, grinning widely as seven-eighths of the controls fell away. What remained fell into two categories, fire suppression and damage control systems. Within the later of the two rested exactly what Ilaria needed, primary and secondary fire shutter master switches.

«Bingo! We're in business!» Ari reached for the two-way knob of light for the secondaries, flipped it to the 'open' position, and glued her eyes to the video feeds for the results.

As the doors started slowly sliding open Dee helped Yoyo to his hindpaws. «Gods, you're amazing Ari.»

«Alright, now get the others and get ready to head out. I'm right next to an elevator so I'll meet you guys that way.» Ari tapped a few keys and backed out the camera feeds into a two-dimensional camera map of the floor. «Sweet. You guys are here so... got it. Tell me when everyone's ready to move.»

«Lulu?»

«Oh, good. Yoyo, help everyone get ready to--»

«I heard, sis.» A burst of emotional feedback made it quite clear Iolvin was worried about something. «Lulu, do you need to talk?»

«What? No, don't worry about it. We need to focus on getting out of here.»

«I can't explain it, but I can feel everything you do. I don't know, maybe it's a twin thing.» Ilaria checked the minimized camera feeds and found Yoyo walking around with a paw on his right shoulder. «You're not doing good, and I know it's not just your arm that's bothering you. I'm here if you need me, big sis.»

«Yoyo...» Once the group was up and about Ari found the perfect excuse to change the subject. «Just go out the door near Ellie and Ashe. There should be a few turns but... the third right is the one you need. I'll meet you at the elevator.»

«Lulu...»

Dee put his arm through Robyn's and said something, likely the directions he'd just heard, as he started moving out. «Thanks, Ari. I'll get Robyn back to you safely.»

Ari snapped the cameras over to an adjacent set so she could watch the group's progress as well as check for potential threats. «Hurry up, guys. Looks clear for now but I've got company near me.»

Iolvin spread the news to the others and they picked up into a jog, all except for Viola at least. «If you need to hide I'd do so, Lulu. There's no point to this if you're caught.»

«Not a chance, bro. You're never leaving my sight if I can help it.» Everyone bunched up around the elevator cage but a bit of commotion started brewing. «What's happening? Call the damn elevator.»

«It's not doing anything.» Sure enough, Yoyo was jamming on the call button to no effect. «Think they locked us out?»

Adrian quite visibly sighed in frustration, though the sensation worked back through the link as well. «Maybe just this floor? Can you check it, Ari?»

Ilaria looked at the control panel and swiped until she found a page relating to lockouts systems. «No, not the floor...» She went through a few more programs until randomly coming across elevator controls. «Oh, crap. The elevators require security cards. Here...»

A few taps and the elevator was manually told to go to the S-28 floor, drawing Yoyo to look up the shaft. «I see it, Lulu. Just call it back up once we're on and we'll get out of here together.»

«No... I'm sorry, but no. I can't go with you.»

«Lulu? What are you saying...?»

Ilaria looked at her brother through the elevator camera as the car arrived, a soft squeak slipping past her lips. «Get on the elevator, Yoyo. I'll try to find another way up but...»

Dee finished moving Robyn into the carriage and then hugged Yoyo's arm, coaxing him inside as well. «She needs to work the controls, hon. I'm sorry... Ari, I'm so sorry you're stuck behind...»

«--ilt for--» A familiar female voice fizzled into the feed, the signal filled with more white noise than anything else. «--mp on--ride--»

Due to the lack of real emotion and the way Prisma was tilting her head and staring blankly forward Ilaria guessed the source of the new signal. «It's okay, Prisma. Just tell them vocally for now. We'll work on this kind of speech later.»

The android snapped back to life and said something very enthusiastically to Iolvin. «That's pretty good. She's saying to call the elevator to the right floor and then hop on top as it passes yours. Can you force open the gate somehow?»

Ari scrambled to find a switch that controlled the safety gates and found nothing of the sort. «I don't think. What the hell can I--?»

«Just freeze it.» Adrian cut in with a valid, if overlooked, suggestion. «You can do that stuff with your nanites, right?»

Ilaria stepped out of the booth, cringing when she heard voices growing in volume from the hallway. «Damn. I have guests.» She placed her paw on one of the slide locks to the gate and thought of it being icy cold, her nanites spilling forth in an amber cloud to make it a reality. «Shit, we'll see if it works soon enough.»

The lock cracked and sent a loud echo down the hallway, which in turn cause the voices to burst higher in intensity. Ilaria knelt down to give the same treatment to the lower bracket, waiting until it reached the same icy cold as the first before standing back up. She wasn't sure if it would break like the first, but time wasn't on Ari's side. She quickly slid over to the controls and tapped the floor index, gawking for a moment at the numbers that appeared.

The listing clearly showed more than a hundred subsurface decks, but the point of note were the countless hundred more greyed out above the surface. This wasn't your ordinary elevator. «Guys? This could be rough. Hold on to your tails.»

Ilaria scrolled back to the first floor of this apparent space elevator and gave it a tap. Upon her claw crossing the holographic button a slight countdown appeared, a high speed traversal mode charging up for a count of five seconds. She couldn't waste time, especially when she made eye contact with the pair of drakes. Ari spun on her artificial heel and darted to the cage door, slamming into it with her good shoulder.

The metal mesh broke free as the motor clamps shattered into large chunks. Ari checked behind her as the drakes started to run for her, not needing any more encouragement to go through with her stupid plan. She looked down the shaft as the elevator made a loud hiss, the brakes unlatching. Yet the car still remained in place, floating by some unknown force. Without further notice the hiss turned into a crackle and the elevator accelerated extremely rapidly up its shaft.

Ilaria couldn't spare a fraction of a second. She leapt off her floor and smacked into the roof of the moving carriage, more than just her shoulder taking a painful beating upon the forceful impact. She didn't have time to recover however, the lift's source of motion revealing itself by magnetically ripping at the metal in her leg. She held on as long as her one arm would allow but eventually the overwhelming force yanked her into the side wall. Ari barely managed to grab back onto a rail on the side of the car as it flew by, but not without dragging her leg across the electromagnets on the way.

Ilaria groaned as her leg sheared away part by twisted part until the elevator shaft simply had no more to claim. She dangerously flipped into the underside of the carriage as her balance shifted, causing her to hook her right arm around a new bar so she wouldn't lose her grip. Ari temporarily placed all of her weight on her dislocated joint until she could assist with a similar hold with her good arm. Then just a few seconds later the driver magnets stopped, allowing the carriage to glide upward to a gravity-powered stop.

"Ari?!"

"Lulu?! You okay?!"

"Ottah?!"

Ilaria groaned as she tried to hold her weight, the complete lack of anything below her for a hundred floors blocking out even the immense pain and cold wracking havoc on her body. "H-Hel-l-l-lp!"

Iolvin slammed the safety gate open and jumped out, looking through the grated floor above at his precariously placed twin. "Lulu! Hold on! I'll--"

Before Yoyo could react a series of large clanks shook the entire structure. The bulk of the group backed up into the elevator, drawing Yoyo's attention to the hulking mass of metal that captured their gazes. He looked about and found a way down via a ladder, the elevator having apparently stopped a floor above ground level. This odd, hulking creature of steel and stone followed in its own manner, leaping over a railing and landing on the solid concrete surface below.

Yoyo immediately went to help his sister, crossing between the monster and her with his arms thrown out wide. "Over here! You don't want her! Come after me!"

Just as the robotic creature started moving forward, the strange mixed-species mustelid from their abduction landed between them. He stood up straight and held up a paw, the webbing noticeably changing its glowing color from dull cyan to a brilliant indigo. "That's enough, boy."

Yoyo cringed as the brutish machine continued anyway, but found himself at a loss for words when the lightest of contact with this stranger's paw halted the robot in place. "Wh-What...?"

The otter hybrid held his paw in place as the robot's lights slowly shifted from white to the same indigo hue. "No more messing around. Tell him to help Ielunschra, Eve."

The robot pulsed a few times as it received its new orders. A few seconds later the fifteen-footTall machine walked around the two and stretched over the pit. It carefully cradled Ilaria, allowing her to fall softly so she was cradled in one of its arms. In contrast to its previously aggressive motions, the robot handled itself and its passenger with smooth, fluid care as it came back in front of the stranger.

"Wh-Who a-are y-y-you?" Ari barely managed through her body's intense shivering.

"Carbon." He knelt down and the robot followed suit, depositing Ari on the floor before him. "But you should start calling me Major Optik from now."

"Hey! Take a look at her, buddy! She needs--!"

The smaller otter threw up an arm and hit Yoyo just right in the neck to shut him down without doing much real damage. "We didn't expect anyone to go for a swim. Nothing we can't fix though." Carbon's attention went right back to the injured girl sprawled out ahead of him. "You know, your two are just like your father. It's hard to surprise me these days too so this is interesting."

"Wan-nt... f-f-freedom..."

"Well you get to fight for that now." Carbon placed his paw on the robot's again and it gained a new set of orders, slowly lifting Ilaria from the ground. "Take her to medical. I can't let my most promising new recruit die of the cold, now can I?" He turned back and checked on Iolvin's condition, adding an order to bring him along as well. "Welcome to The Hotel, guys."

Ari rolled her head back and tried to keep the otter in her fading sight while the robot carried her away. "Wh-wh-hat-t?..."

"Rest up, baby Lulu." Carbon waved away the robot and watched as it headed for a larger freight elevator. "My, how you two have grown."