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Anthracite City: Rebel Offensive

By Psion

All Rights Reserved

Jessica McQuinn groaned and stretched as she set down her binoculars after watching the snow covered intersection outside of Port Clearfield for a few days now. The little hamlet outside of Anthracite City had been quiet since Adam and Elizabeth fended off the Frankenstock herd Jerome goaded into attacking them. No caravans, hunters, or random wanderers, nothing to report back home, she contemplated while taking a bite out of a grilled Frankenstock steak she cooked up for dinner. Oh well, after everything else she had been through lately, a little boredom was perhaps a good thing...

Elsewhere in the region, on the fringe of Anthracite City, the Rik-Tah had converted an old industrial park into a sprawling war factory. Captive humans lived in shacks tucked in between pre-war warehouses that once stored everything from books to consumer electronics. Since the Rik-Tah took over, nanofabrication equipment turned the distribution centers into factories for the production of robots, armor, and vehicles as well as personal armor and equipment. Human laborers wandered between the shanty towns and factories in the shadow of Anthracite City, the workers oblivious to the small squad of suspicious-looking humans sneaking through the shadows, carrying automatic weapons and dressed in the ratty remains of winter camouflage and military grade body armor...

Colonel Jonathan Wylder was silent as he led his squad on a commando raid into the manufacturing compound. Get in, steal a supply of ammunition to keep the base operational for a few more weeks, and get out. Simple, except it never really was. Two privates, Stanley and James, with him, Sgt. Townes and Cpl. Smith on sniper and spotter duty respectively, and Lt. Sarah "Treads" O'Connor driving the transport. All of them people he had come to know well since the aliens plunged the world into a new Dark Age. All of them people he trusted to do their best to unfuck the situation if this plan went sideways, which was almost a given.

"Cpl. Smith, report." The heavily armored black man quietly radioed to the duo on overwatch, finger tapping the trigger guard on his assault rifle nervously as the three soldiers hid near the mouth of a small alley.

About half a mile away, perched on a giant snow-covered slag pile overlooking the complex, a pair of camouflaged figures watched the proceedings below with unwavering attention. Smith didn't even take his eyes off of his binoculars before answering. "No White Mountain collaborators sir, only robots and offworlders watching over the civvies so little chance of friendly fire. Bot presence appears to be light, mostly light security drones. Merc presence seems to be the same. We got this one snow leopard who looks like he's from that one superhero planet and a bunch of those Arcanium fuzzballs, the British...ish wizards dressed in overcoats and top hats."

The Force Recon veteran grimaced as he swiftly went over the information in his head. An unknown free agent and members of the Emerald Lion sorcerer cabal, the former was probably manageable while the latter would be... difficult. Motioning for the rookies to follow him, the winterized commando lead on as he tried to find a good ambush point. The trio of soldiers was barely visible for a split second in the harsh artificial glow of the streetlights before disappearing into the shadows again. Staggering home after a 16-hour shift to get some sleep, a factory worker glanced after them briefly then moved on, deciding they were a hallucination fueled by despair and fatigue...

Towards the center of the compound, an open-air stockyard buzzed with activity as products were crated up and organized into nice, neat stacks of weapons, armor, and ammunition for a mix of conventional firearms and guns that Colonel Wylder never expected to see outside of a science-fiction movie. Significantly more valuable then the rest of the area, the stockyard received the majority of the security, Emerald Lions and android guards walking around forklifts and dollies carrying crates.

The Emerald Lions were a group hailing from a world where... Wylder was hesitant to call the energy that the Lions manipulated magic but that's what it sure as hell looked like. If the Rik-Tah had visited their world in another age, the Emerald Lions would be coming in with billowing robes and leather-bound spell books. As it was, the mix of anthro wizards traded their robes for heavy leather overcoats and their spell books for PDAs. It still didn't make them any less dangerous as the human soldier could attest from previous encounters. Right now, the only thing that appeared to be going his way was the fact that the leader of the Lions, a cultured-looking wolf dressed in his faction's signature coat and a black top hat, was currently in an audible argument with the snow leopard Smith had spotted earlier.

"What's the big deal eh Count Ferros?" The spotted feline began with a comically thick Northern Canadian accent, Jonathan had to fight to avoid rolling his eyes when he spotted the huge Canadian maple leaf across the cat's chest. "I haven't had any spandex pussy since I started this gig and you've been keeping some locked up in your barracks?"

"The female with the questionable fashion sense and loose morals is not a play toy for your amusement Alexander Sharps, she is a prisoner of war and she will stay my captive until I can hand her over to our patrons." Count Ferros replied with a shake of his head. "Honestly I wonder what insults my honor as a gentlefur more, your classless demeanor or her attempts to seduce me with that degrading damsel in distress routine." He countered, presently oblivious to Wylder's ambush.

With a single command whispered over his radio, the human commander sprung the trap. Sgt. Annabel Townes took the first shot, opening with a thunderous roar that ended with the splat of a large caliber bullet impact into the feline's chest. Bulletproof or not, Wylder had yet to see one of these alien motherfuckers take a round from a sniper rifle in the face and still keep smiling afterwards.

Barely taking the time to register that their first target had been taken down, the three riflemen opened fire as the Emerald Lions promptly channeled spells through their fingertips. The colonel and his men aimed short bursts into the troop of enemy infantry, dodging conjured fireballs and bolts of lightning as civilians panicked and ran in every direction. Trained trigger discipline kept the soldiers from accidentally hitting civilians while their arcane opponents summoned glistening shields of mystical energy and fought to maintain careful aim at their opponents, clipping bystanders with stray blasts of elemental energy that crackled and sizzled the cold winter air with a violent display of pyrotechnics. Jonathan kept his expression stoic as he downed one charging wizard and then another, Count Ferros had more men then he did and that damn shield of theirs meant the human was burning through more of his ammunition supply then was wise in the process of taking them down. Good thing the plan was a little more in-depth then simply "rob the warehouse."

"Colonel! I'm loaded up with ammunition and bugging out, you want me to pick you up at the extraction point?" Treads barked over the radio.

"Negative! Get out of here, we'll make our way out of the area on foot!" The hardened soldier ordered before shouting at his squadmates to fall back.

Wounded, with enemy fire lapping at their heels, the three soldiers disappeared as quickly as they came. Elsewhere, from their perch on the old slag pile, Townes and Smith quietly crawled away before rising to their feet and disappearing in the tree line. Later, once all of them had safely escaped the area, the last known remnants of the US military, the last that Colonel Wylder knew about at least, would meet up before returning home to their home base, an abandoned Army depot all but forgotten long before the Rik-Tah invaded their world...

Count Ferros exhaled as he finished channeling the healing energies of Angel's Breath through his system, converting the mana flowing through his body into restorative life energies. Completing his spell, the well-dressed wolf surveyed the damage to his cabal and their surroundings. Several wounded, some seriously so, but mercifully no fatalities. Resurrection spells were taxing and the Rik-Tah cloning process was expensive. The only death was Alexander Sharps, hardly a tragedy given how obnoxious the feline had been. What was a tragedy was the several wounded humans sprawled on the ground, groaning and crying in pain as they deal with serious injuries. Hearing the sound of the carrion drone buzzing in the distance, arriving to gather Alexander's remains, the count gave his order. "Alright you tossers, when you're done tending to our own, heal the humans. If they aren't up and back to work by the next shift change, we'll be docked for the lost productivity and if I have to lose money to the scalies, I'm taking it out of your pay." The aristocrat wizard commanded. Just because he was forced to work with hooligans like Sharps did not mean he didn't have to conduct himself in a manner unbecoming of a Lion...

<Forgot to tell you, Alex got a trip to the Vats last night.> Brandon projected suddenly via telepathy as Jessica continued her cold vigil at the intersection the following morning, monitoring traffic or the lack there of. Apparently not a lot of people used this route unless they were going to meet with Jerome, the wolfess decided as she leaned back into a comfortable chair and started to toy with different ways to kill time. How did real cops and superheroes handle all this stakeout stuff anyway? Brandon's interruption came at a perfect time.

<Alex is here?> She thought back, the sudden flood of memories tainted by an element of fear. She remembered her first encounter with Ralph after Jerome transformed her, the voluptuous wolfess was certain her leopard friend from her Aphrodite City days would look at her the same way the bull did.

<Yep, was brought back shortly after you and Ralph successfully proved your mettle to the bosses... if you could call serving as a meat- oh son of a bitch, AGAIN?> Brandon began to explain as something else suddenly demanded his attention.

McQuinn felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold as she felt her PDA buzz with a new text. Gloved hands trembled as she pulled the device out of one of her belt pouches and brought the screen up to her face. It was exactly who she thought it was... Jerome.

"G'day luv, thought you needed a friend." The message on her screen said. Never had so much been said with so little.

<Brandon is he...>

<Yes and I'm a little busy now. Son of a bitch upped his game, snuck in with a new script and... motherfucker, can't undo his changes without wiping the template and doing that at this stage could turn Alex into an amoeba. And as much as that would amuse me, there's a reason why I stick to information-gathering.> He replied telepathically, starting to talk as much to himself as he was to Jessica. <Okay fuck this, can't lock you out but I disabled your ability to manipulate the system so sit back and just enjoy the show asshole. Let's see, detox nanites to the gray matter so you doesn't turn Alexandria into a dumbass, a skillchip implant to the brainstem because I'm feeling nice, keep the double-D cup breasts, increase hip size and ass size, and definitely increase overall voluptuousness to outright 'Dayum.' Shame I don't have a pheromone sample of two particular people or I'd really toast your cookies right now.>

Jessica was silent throughout this monolog, her own duties forgotten as she listened to Brandon psionically talk to himself. The human meanwhile was lost in a digital battle of wits, the man that could cybernetically interface with computers versus the trained hacker, continuing to talk to himself in his link with McQuinn. <Anndddddd... you are out of here faster then an alien marauder in a Duke Nukem game!>

The wolf was expectant. <Well...?> She asked mentally, waiting for Brandon to give her some kind of news.

<Well, I did not manage to stop Jerome from continuing his weird hard-on for making nubile sex toys out of cold-blooded sociopaths, Alexander is now an Alexandria and I have a feeling that she might be up for some pole dancing once the screams and the "oh my god, what the fuck?"s subside. Not sure if I would count that as a loss but I'm pretty sure that if he tries this tsundre shit again on someone actually valuable to the oppression, Uncle Rikky is going to notice and let Jerome know exactly what they think of having to deal with his antics while fighting a war... by nuking him and anything that may happen to be around him back into the Stone Age.>

<What is around him?> She asked, briefly forgetting he was technically on the opposing side of this war.

Even with something as audible as telepathy, the silence was deafening as Brandon quietly debated what to tell her. <There's... something. Something that's close enough that it stands a good chance of being discovered if Rikky goes sniffing around looking for that bastard. Rest assured that this is the only reason why I would even care about this little sideshow attraction... Well, besides the fact that he's clearly unstable and actively trying to obliterate anyone he suspects of getting in the way of his pet project. That's kind of important too.>

<He's not far from my current location isn't he?> She asked, standing up to stretch and walk around.

<He's within a kilometer from where you are, that much I can tell you. Exactly where though... not sure to be honest.>

Stretching her arms against the back of her head, letting her abundant breasts bounce freely inside of her insulated jumpsuit, the wolf stopped and blinked as a thought occurred to her. Did the Rik-Tah destroy the city library? If so were any of the records preserved elsewhere? And just what did Jerome have against Adam and Elizabeth anyway? Besides managing to imprint themselves upon her in a weak moment on all their parts that is...

<That's... actually a good idea slut muffin. The main library in the city's gone but there might be a few local history references in that building you've holed up in. Maybe there's a map of the old Cold War bunkers in the area. Probably not a complete one but it would be a start. As for Jerome's problem with Lizzy and my brother... well just think about it for a moment. He tried to make you into a top-heavy bimbo capable of making sandwiches and not much else. Meanwhile... haven't you figured out what kind of girl the dynamic duo both like to bang by now?>

<Fat and squishy with a big... ohhhh, is THAT what this is really about? And I thought the Brothers and my old self were petty.> McQuinn mused as she started to pack up camp and get ready for her eventual trek back to Anthracite City. Four days and all she managed to discover was how much of a Frankenstock steer she could make disappear over that time.

Brandon merely laughed wherever he was. McQuinn finished packing then, with her pack strapped securely to her back, walked into the abandoned library and started scanning the titles in the history section. Most of it was just general American history, concerning a varied collection of topics ranging from the military history of the American Revolution to the psychology of the civil rights movement. Finally, as her gaze settled on the bottom shelf on the end of the history section, she found several references on local history shelved out of order. Dropping down in a squat that drew her ample glutes tight, the wolf skimmed the titles until she found one that looked promising...

The American Castle: A Short History of Bunkers in New England was a heavy book that did not look particularly short. Still, it was the only thing that looked remotely helpful so with some reluctance to the idea of additional weight, she stowed the book away in her bag and started to return home. With her triangular ears perked up and a crossbow cradled in her arms, she walked along, the crunching of snow beneath her boots the only sound for miles...

Even before she finished decanting from the Vats, Alexander knew something was wrong, so very wrong with their body. As the machines that nurtured the feline's clone body and implanted his salvaged soul gem into her new body plucked her out of the aquarium-like cloning vats and deposited her into the cold metal floor, the spotted snow leopard shivered. Her gray pelt still dripped wet with a thick, goopy slime, the revived mercenary tried to figure out what was different. Something was wrong, something was wrong with him. But when he finally looked up, focused unfamiliar eyes, and saw her reflection in the mirrored wall, Alexandria Sharps screamed.

<Hey, welcome back from the dead pussy. Tell me, how does it feel to be on the other side?> Seer projected abruptly, smiling within his sensory depravation tank as he mentally brought up Sharps' past exploits in Aphrodite City. <Regardless of how you feel, you look so... dayuuuuum.>

Already badly traumatized, the extremely curved feline dropped back onto the floor and cried as she hugged her knees. "Why, why? What is this? This has to be a dream, I just need to wake up somehow. Please let me wake up. Please let me wake up."

<Oh goodie, I forgot how much fun these first few moments were the last time I had to deal with someone whose template got hacked.> Brandon replied sarcastically as robotic arms presented Alexandria with a loose-fitting blue jumpsuit. Unlike with McQuinn, Brandon had managed to keep Jerome from hacking the leopard's wardrobe and changing all of her clothes into impractical sexy outfits. Her wardrobe would still need to be retailored thanks to her radically different measurements but she'd have time to sort that out once she finally calmed down and the hormones settled.

Throwing the garment on simply for the sake of having something to wear, Alexandria made a haphazard show of getting dressed before running out of the room. Inside his tank, Brandon shook his head and watched as the transformed feline raced to her dormitory, dodging looks from other pedestrians, and locking the door behind her before crawling onto her bed and crying again. Knowing he would be talking to a wall, the captive psychic turned his attention to the other activities going on concurrently...

Deep within his bunker, Jerome rubbed his chin in contemplation as he schemed and plotted. The last attempt to keep Adam and Elizabeth from corrupting his precious had backfired in a number of ways. Frustrating but not as frustrating as the setbacks he recently encountered trying to make a second precious for himself. Not only did the system admin monitoring the vats manage to lock him out but, in a move that could only have been out of spite, twisted his handwork into something perverse. But no matter, while quite chubby his second precious still wasn't quite as bad as some of those so-called heroines following Mentalrix around. The post-apocalyptic crash diet was pretty reliable anyway so Alexandria's weight was a problem he could fix later; first he had to make sure she didn't encounter those two damn meddlers so they could imprint themselves on her like they somehow did with Jessica. He needed to find a way to dispose of them and make it look like an accident but how? There had to be something he could use to destroy them, something he could lure in their general direction that couldn't be traced back to him. Maybe if he lost himself in the noise a solution would appear.

Slipping on his headphones, the slim man looked from one monitor to another. Hacked video feed from over a dozen different Rik-Tah surveillance drones played on a multi-monitor setup that would be the envy of any government intelligence organization. Slender fingers artfully danced on the keyboard as the human hacker cycled from one "secure" communication to another. The Emerald Lions had returned to Anthracite City for some R&R, Major Drums and the Children of Columbia were still recovering from a disastrous engagement with a mysterious rebel group known as the Mountain Men, and... hold on, perhaps this group would do in a pinch...

Their surroundings were quiet as Adam and Elizabeth did their best to discreetly walk alongside the deserted highway, taking care to watch the sky as they trudged through the smooth plain of ankle deep snow. During the early days of the war, this particular stretch of highway had been host to a battle between a wing of alien fighters and an ambushed armored convoy. The plasma-burnt husks of Abrams tanks and other military vehicles breaking up the otherwise flawless flat sheet of white snow, glorified hunks of scrap metal barely recognizable as former symbols of military might. Pulling a hauling sled hammered out of scrap wood behind him, the taller human looked up at today's wreck and shook his head. Hopefully they wouldn't encounter another burnt corpse, while both of them had seen enough death to no longer be shocked by the sight, the smell was still another thing all together...

Pushing unpleasant thoughts out of his head, Adam had just set down their hauling sled in front of a scrapped Humvee and pulled out a cutting torch when they both heard the ominous whine of an electric motor. The two scavengers barely made it to cover before their location was peppered with heavy weapons fire. There was only one group that would waste a Gating gun on a scrap run.

"Repent your sins heathens!" Came the battle cry of the Watchtower heavy gunner. Watchtower... if Adam wasn't currently trying to get a headcount of the rival scavengers without getting his shot off, he would be making a snarky comment about how it wouldn't be the apocalypse without a group of religious nutjobs fouling things up for everyone around them. But witty remarks were the furthest thing from his mind at that moment. At that exact second he was focused on four things, four things currently pointing guns in his general direction.

Elizabeth had managed to slip away, scurrying from one wreck to the next to get into a good position to take a shot. Adam meanwhile cradled his shotgun, his finger slipped in under the trigger guard as he tried to call attention away from Liz. "Four of you guys? Do I want to know how many fundies it takes to screw a lightbulb then?"

The religious fanatics naturally did not share White's sense of humor, voicing their displeasure with a volley of weapons fire that sent him further behind the sturdy cover of the wrecked tank. Fortunately the templars of Watchtower weren't particularly big on tactics beyond "drown the target in overwhelming firepower." Once Elizabeth lined up a shot with the heavy gunner's head, taking him down with a thunderous crack from her rifle, the remaining three panicked just long enough for Adam to rise up and nail two more with two quick pumps of his shotgun. Elizabeth got the third but not before the last fanatic caught Adam in the right forearm with a gazing shot. Temporarily paralyzing shoots of pain ran through his arm as the bullet bit a small chunk out his arm before auguring itself in the snow-covered pavement.

"Fuck that hurts... you okay Elizabeth?" Adam asked with a pained growl as he fumbled to reload his shotgun and shoulder it.

"I'm fine, guess you took another one for the team?" Elizabeth replied, as she emerged out of hiding, still cradling her homemade rifle the Big Bitch.

"Yeah... this hurts." He grumbled while pulling back his coat sleeve to check the wound and apply a bandage. The cold winter attacked his exposed skin with a vengeance, numbing the pain as he wrapped a cloth bandage around his arm. Not the best but it would have to do.

Looting their corpses, lugging even the heavy homemade gating gun onto their hauling sled, the two scavengers collected less scrap metal then they intended but were confident the ammunition they recovered was a fair trade. Their sled full, the two turned back home, oblivious to Jerome banging his desk in frustration and swearing in astonishment at what it took to kill these two. Clearly this was going to require a more personal approach...

Jessica McQuinn smiled as she walked back into Anthracite City. There was a brief moment of hesitation before walking through the automated security checkpoint but apparently they weren't interested in human books taken as trophies. Still, the well-curved wolf mused silently, it was something she would have to keep in mind if she wanted to smuggle out gifts for Adam and Elizabeth... Not that she was thinking of supplying rebels of course, that was stupid. But surely there were a few small things she could sneak out to help smooth things over so she could go back to drinking in... it was still hard for her to describe just what it is she needed from them. It was their taste, their smell, the sensation of their skin rubbing against her fur. Her train of thought was quickly derailed when she remembered it was supposed to be Jerome's taste, Jerome's smell, Jerome's skin rubbing against her fur. The realization made her ill, the female wolf shaking her head and focusing back on her surroundings to try and clear her mind.

The inner city where the Rik-Tah had made their base was the same as she left it, towering buildings looming overhead, a mix of structures built by the original inhabitants and megastructures built by the invaders. Yet a few new faces from Urth joined the usual crowd of amoral mercenaries and guns for hire this time around. McQuinn didn't know much about Urth, some highly advanced but still fairly feudal world where most of the factions were locked in a war with dragons from the moon or something crazy-sounding like that.

The current group from Urth was surprisingly not more of the tall and heavily armed dragon anthros, a development that surprised the conflicted wolf in a good way as the dragons were assholes as far as she was concerned. Elitist, arrogant, and always looking at her with a glint in her eye she remembered seeing once before... in Amp the canine rocker before the old Aphrodite heroine killed her. Regardless, this bunch in her view was clearly from one or two of the Urth kingdoms that were at war with the dragons. Several adventurers clad in heavy, hulking power armor watched her silently from across the street. The almost robotic-looking suits of armor could hide their appearance but there was no mistaking that divine scent to her canine nose.

If hormones hadn't clouded her mind at that moment, she would have wondered what a bunch of human-smelling mercenaries from offworld were doing here. Sure there were the White Mountain collaborators but otherwise the Rik-Tah didn't like working with humans too much. As her mind was on something else entirely, McQuinn merely used the wrist-mounted controls on her smart clothing to adjust the tightness of the fabric on her Adaptive All-Weather Clothing until the AAWC looked like it was stretched to fit over her hourglass figure. Not a word was said or a gesture made between them but she knew she had the undivided attention of some of the Urth humans as she playfully winked at them and coyly walked past, tail raised and wagging happily as her hips swayed like a metronome and the insulated fabric called out with an alluring creak. They probably didn't know enough about wolf anthros to recognize the invitation but no matter, there was a certain undeniable appeal to showing herself off that... well maybe not everything Jerome stuck her with was a bad thing.

<I hate to interrupt this monolog but I need your help with Alexandria so if you could get to your apartment and drop off all your bangsticks within the next five minutes that would be really great.> Brandon projected suddenly, his voice carrying a mix of exasperation and frustration she hadn't heard in a while.

<What's wrong?> McQuinn asked, adding a bit more swiftness to her stride. Her dormitory wasn't far away from her current location.

<Back in Aphrodite City... you always were the more restrained one weren't you? On second thought don't answer that, I can already tell. Just... you remember that club where you danced in a thong for the Pride? Alexandria's over there right now, putting you to shame for them and a bunch of the Emerald Lions. Normally I wouldn't bother telling you except... Ralph's starting to head in that general direction.>

McQuinn didn't even bother changing out of her AAWC, barely spending the time to set all of her weapons on the kitchen counter, adjust the smart clothes back to a more modest fit, and pocket a small taser before walking back out of her apartment and locking the door behind her. Security tended to get annoyed if people waved military-grade hardware around in the bars and brothels but stun weapons were usually acceptable. And even Ralph couldn't take a jolt to the crotch without crumbling like a house of cards...

The small club was exactly as she remembered it. Dark, with most of the lighting focused on the stage in the center of the main room, raunchy Latino hip-hop the Rik-Tah likely stole from the humans blaring over the sound system, and the stench of alcohol and musk from over a dozen different species tickling her sensitive nose. The crowd consisted mostly of the usual customers, Pride and Emerald Lions like Brandon said but the armored mercenaries from Urth had also found their way into the establishment, having finally taken their helmets off and confirmed what the wolf's nose had already told her. All she needed to find was... why hello there.

Not entirely familiar with American slang, McQuinn hadn't really understood what Brandon meant when he described Alexandria's figure as "Dayum." That changed when she saw what had become of the snow leopard. Standing on stage with her back to the audience, Alexandria was currently down in a squat, thrusting and swaying her hips in an elaborate routine. Platinum blond hair had been grown long, her mane wore loose and reaching down to the small of her back, while her ice blue eyes were currently closed and her head tilted up towards the ceiling as she lost herself within the dance. Her spotted gray pelt was immaculate, glistening with a faint sheen of sweat as she flaunted her curves and oh did she have curves. A pleasant pair of Double D-cup breasts led down through a tapered chest before ending with broad, flaring hips and a protruding bubble butt, to say nothing of those puffy, pouty lips. All of this in nothing but a patriotic pair of panties done up like the Canadian flag... Alexandria definitely made out well in the remodeling department whether she knew it or not. It was enough to make McQuinn jealous... oh well it wasn't like she couldn't make a few alterations of her own with the cosmetic modifications for sale in the city.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Want to take this bull by the horns?" Came a familiar voice that was almost as expected as it was unwelcome, Ralph had arrived. Thank the heavens he had not made enough to start turning back into the super-strong brute he used to be.

Whether because of the music or fear, Alex carried on as if she hadn't heard him. A dangerous mistake, both of them knew Ralph didn't like being ignored back in Aphrodite City and it looked like coming back from the dead didn't change him all that much. Turning her head ever so slightly towards the direction of his voice, Jessica managed to spot him. Clad in jeans and a black t-shirt, his hands in his pockets, he was still fairly easy to spot. Then again, she would have to have been blind to not see someone as tall as Ralph Casing.

Alexandria may have been tuning Ralph out but his outburst didn't go unnoticed, nor did what seem to be absent from his hand. Several of the other mercenaries reclining in the club grumbled behind towering mugs of ale, clearly wanting to enjoy the hypnotic show in peace. In an instant, the two highest-ranking members of the Emerald Lions and the Pride had risen up and appeared beside Ralph.

"I may not be familiar with this sort of establishment but isn't it customary to first tip someone that is dancing for your amusement?" Count Ferros asked with a smug grin as he tossed a wad of paper credits onto the stage at Sharps' feet. On reflex the feline scooped it with her foot and stuffed it in her panty leg without breaking her rhythm.

<Dude must not realize he's ogling someone he was having an argument with not even a week ago. Or if he is he's more comfortable with it then I would have expected... I think I'll just let him leave him be either way, this is too funny.> Brandon interjected briefly. Jessica only briefly noted the observation before turning back to the confrontation at hand.

"The hell you doing cramping my style fancy pants?" Ralph growled back.

"You would have to have a style to 'cramp' first for me to ruin it." Ferros replied with a smug grin.

Ralph glared at the smart-aleck lupine wizard but before the Pride commander could deck him one from behind, a bulky security droid appeared through the main entrance and dragged the boisterous bovine out with it. Apparently the club manager had called security before the altercation could come to blows. Jessica wasn't too surprised, fights in bars and strip clubs were not uncommon. Eventually the management would have had to develop a good eye for preventing them before they could start. Regardless of the why, the bull was forced to make an abrupt exit. Problem solved which left Jessica to briefly wonder what to do next before making her choice.

Barely a minute later, a friend joined Alexandria on the dancing poles. McQuinn had stripped down for an encore of her previous performance in front of the Pride. Wearing nothing but a familiar blue thong, the plush wolfess took up a spot next to the feline dancer and joined in her routine without skipping a beat. The audience cheered and whistled lewdly as the two voluptuous girls showed off on the poles, bouncing and hip checking off of each other as the two former villains reunited for the first time since their separate transformations...

Normally Adam and Elizabeth didn't like doing ruin runs for other people, it tended to get dangerous enough when it was just for the supplies they needed to conduct their day-to-day business. When the person making the request happened to be one of the few doctors left operating in the area however, well they couldn't refuse the Hospitallers could they? Which lead to where the duo was now, inside an abandoned hospital in Susquehanna City. A smaller city then neighboring Anthracite City to the north, Susquehanna City was abandoned as far as anyone could tell and based on what Adam heard from the locals, that was a significant improvement on how it was before the invasion.

The hospital was still surprisingly clean despite being in a state of disrepair for nearly a year, giving it a creepy atmosphere that made the hair's on Adam's neck stand on end. Even though it was devoid of activity, the shotgun-toting scavenger still expected to see someone in blue scrubs running out into the hallway on some urgent errand. Other then the sound of the wind blowing outside and their boots echoing against the tile floor, the place was as quiet as a tomb. There were small signs of wild animals breaking into the lower levels and nesting out of the cold but the upper levels were abandoned, desks abruptly abandoned with paperwork left half-finished. Weapons in hand, the armed duo carefully made their way upstairs into the surgical wing. The main storerooms were picked clean; the pharmacy near the lobby was the same way. Neither of them was surprised to discover this but they both knew from experience that most hospitals kept a second storeroom near the operating suites for efficiency purposes and most survivors tended to overlook these locations.

After half an hour of systematic searching through poorly lit hallways, Elizabeth opened the door to a darkened room and switched on her flashlight. "Okay I found it! Let's just find the orthopedics section and load up so we can get out of here."

"Yeah, let's get the bone stuff before someone tries to mug us again. I'm still not sure how the Tower freaks ran into us." Adam replied as he turned on his flashlight and joined his partner in searching the room.

"They probably picked up our radio chatter with someone. They're zealots Adam, not luddites." Elizabeth answered over her shoulder, finding the section they were looking for and starting stuffing her backpack with casting supplies.

"I know, I just think it's strange. We rarely see them outside of the Watchtower except when they go on those big crusades of theirs. So how did a salvage party managed to stumble on us and almost blow us away? I mean don't even get me started on the damn Gatling gun, wouldn't be surprised if they learned military tactics from an Xbox." Adam rebutted as he found more general supplies and started filling his bag with disposable scalpel blades and more different kinds of bandages then he ever had any reason to exist. Cotton rolls of all shapes and sizes, adhesive bandages with all sorts of chemical treatments, all of it sealed in sterilized wrappers that should still be good judging by the expiration dates.

Shaking his head, White finished loading up his backpack. It was time for them to leave. With their packs full, the two made their way back downstairs to the main lobby. The moment they had gotten past the information desk set in the center of the cavernous waiting area was when the ambush appeared out of nowhere. Charging through the wrecked windowpanes was a trio of salvaged Rik-Tah combat robots. The exchange of fire was short, brief, and entirely in the attackers' favor; reinforced android chassis shrugged off shotgun pellets like it was rain, Elizabeth was quickly singled out and taken down with a quick blast of electricity from a pair of arm-mounted tasers. The last thing Adam thought before getting hit and blacking out himself was that the modifications made to this particular trio of junked robots looked familiar. Almost as if the two humans made them themselves...

Jessica McQuinn made sure to lock the door to her apartment once Alexandria and her were safely inside. Dancing was fun, the Pride still loved her performance and she seemed to have acquired a few new fans in the Emerald Lions. Once they dressed back up, the Australian merc maiden made sure to escort her friend back to her apartment. Back inside the voluptuous leopardess looked back at her with dawning realization as Alex finally figured it out. "Jonathan?" She asked with disbelief.

"It hasn't been Jonathan for a couple months now, good to see you again mate." The wolf bimbo answered with a coy giggle and gently sway of her hips.

The Canadian super-tramp hugged her knees, her abundant breasts squishing against her legs. "What's happened to us? Why are we like this?"

"You mean why are we turned into the kind of sheilas we hoped the Brothers would throw our way back in Aphrodite City? Well, it's kind of a long story and I'm not sure if you'll believe it, at least not until Jerome starts messaging you on your PDA." Jessica began, shaking her long mane of black hair. Crikey, even after what happened to both of them the story still sounded completely absurd in her head.

"Jerome?"

"The human hacker who broke into the Vat computers and hacked our templates. He's been stalking me for the past week or so; I first heard he was doing the same to you from him. Said he was making a little friend for me. Seer couldn't stop his hack." She explained, omitting that some of Alex's new measurements were because of the telepath's meddling.

"What did he do to us? Why is he doing this to us?"

"Because he's like us Alex... like how we used to be. He wanted some toys so he made some out of the two of us. As for what he did, he hacked our Vat templates to make us into two slutty sheilas that like cooking, cleaning, fucking, and the smell of human pheromones." Jessica explained, smiling cruelly. "But that's where he messed up I guess."

"What does that mean?" Alex asked, it was only now that Jessica realized that the leopard had made it through most of their conversation without adding a single characteristic "eh" to her sentences.

"I... don't fully know, I'm still figuring things out myself. What I do know is that I have two new friends you really need to meet."

"Who?"

"You'll see when I can get a hold of them." The wolf smiled mischievously. Two problems solved at once, Alex will be more likely to resist Jerome or a random human bandit if she was bonded with someone that would actually look out for her like Adam and Elizabeth and as for her... surely giving them such a thick, juicy little kitty as a present would be enough for them to forgive her.

<Ummm, that may be a bit of a problem...> Seer interrupted telepathically, abruptly butting into the conversation. <I lost them.> He apologized frantically to both of the females, unusual behavior for someone that had always been fairly antagonistic with the both of them.

"Lost them? How did you lose them?"

<Easy, they got ambushed by Guess Who while doing a supply run for the Hospitallers. Jerk rushed them with the same repurposed robots they built for his protection and now he's somehow managed to take them somewhere I can't follow with either clairvoyance or the drone network. Meaning the son of a bitch probably has them in his bunker underground. And since I already know what your next question is going to be, yes I can take you as far as where I lost them. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out where he is from there. It shouldn't be far from Port Clearfield. Here's what you should bring...> Brandon explained, telling the girls what they'd need for the inevitable rescue. Jessica meanwhile felt a mix of unfamiliar emotions she wasn't used to feeling upon hearing the news, ones she never felt before Jerome had gone and messed up her life...

Adam groaned as he slowly regained consciousness and was able to look at his surroundings. Finding himself awaking in something of a standing position, he attempted to walk forward and immediately encountered resistance. Wrists and ankles rubbed against supple leather as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. Arms and legs were spread out in a X-shaped position, Elizabeth in a similar position to his left against another X-shaped metal construct, the room around them full of leather, rubber, and fur-lined metal implements and restraints... White's mind had just finished processing where he must be when he finally noticed Jerome, sitting on a folding chair and looking at both of them with a malevolent bespectacled grin.

"Well... I'm flattered but this really isn't our scene Jerome." Adam began, Elizabeth waking up and taking in what her partner had already seen.

Jerome continued to smile, rising to his feet as he picked up a shock baton from a metal instrument tray set up on an end table next to his chair. "No one can save you now, I know the gasmask bunny and her friends are in Detroit. No one can help you steal my princesses away from me." He replied, his normally friendly demeanor acquiring an unsettling sociopathic quality as the baton was wreathed with crackling static electricity with the flip of a switch.

Elizabeth glared at the Australian computer nerd as the pieces began to fall into place for the two prisoners. Jessica's transformation, her growing apparent subservience to the two of them, it was all starting to make a sense of sorts.

"Are you kidding us? You think THAT is what this is all about? Us being in the wrong place at the wrong time and intercepting your fuck toy before you could collect her?" Adam asked incredulously as they realized what they had suspected was true.

"Yes, you stole my precious princess away from me and you'd steal the other one if given half a chance. You threaten to lead them astray and-"

"Are you even listening to yourself? You are less then a mile from the route connecting Anthracite City to aid bases hidden in the Detroit ruins. If the Rik-Tah start looking for you around here, that road is as good as gone. Are you seriously risking cutting off food and medical supplies for nearly a thousand people just to build a little harem for yourself?"

"It's only a thousand people. I don't see why you have to make such a fuss about it."

"Only a thou- we happen to be two of that thousand. That thousand includes people fighting to keep from puking up their lungs thanks to alien plagues, that thousand is fighting over soup cans and considering doing things I'd rather not think about just to dull that gnawing pain in their stomach. This isn't the fucking superfur fandom where you can write a blurb about how a villain killed a thousand people just because he felt like it and no one bats an... wait a minute, RedWolf999?" Elizabeth asked, eyes lighting up as she reached the end of her argument with a horrible gnawing realization.

Jerome blinked, clearly not expecting anyone to address him by that name anymore, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Gunblondvixen?" He asked as he realized who she must have been to know that name.

Elizabeth groaned in reply. "I always knew I'd die horrible in this wasteland but I didn't expect it to be at the hands at a hack writer that kept changing his name to get off of my blocklist."

"I AM NOT A HACK WRITER!" Jerome shouted.

"YOU WRITE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS SMUT THAT MAKES 50 SHADES OF GREY LOOK LIKE SHAKESPEARE, OF COURSE YOU ARE A HACK!" Elizabeth screamed back.

"I'm going to die and my last memories will be of two Fur Affinity addicts arguing with each other." Adam grumbled before jumping into the conversation. "Listen Jerome, Anthracite City is one of the few weak points in whole Northeast, how far back do you think you'll set us if you cut off a major supply route to things here?"

"Does it matter? I have plenty of food, medicine, and even entertainment to last me for years. By then the Rik-Tah will have gotten bored and moved on or something."

The taller male glared at his captor, this was quickly going nowhere. Figures someone they thought was an ally turned out to be a sociopathic fuckwit. "If we really lived in whatever comic fantasy your head's at, this would probably be the part where I make some big damn speech about altruism. Since we're not, I'm just going to tell you to go shove that prod up your ass and promise that the instant I get my hands on Jessica I am going to engineer a way to fit an entire Frankenstock steer into he-ARRRGGGHHH!" Adam threatened, prompting Jerome to give him a sudden jab to the crotch for his troubles. For a second the intense pain nearly made him black out, when it subsided to the point where he could speak if only barely, the tall engineer continued, "At least you just did it... instead of make a show out of threatening me like in all those shitty stories you and your friends write." White commended with a hoarse whisper.

"I AM A GOOD WRITER!"

"Jerome... good writers get book deals. You had a small club of fellow hacks and hug boxes dwelling in their mothers' basement. You guys couldn't write a tale that captivated people outside of your comfort zone if you tried. Hell, you guys couldn't even write a good story for people inside of your comfort zone if you tried." Elizabeth continued for her injured friend.

Jerome looked like he was about to hit Summers with the crackling baton but both captives were saved by the bell, literally. At that moment the intercom buzzed with the news that someone was at the door. As the doorbell buzzing abruptly cut out, the speaker and two-way monitor came to life with the voice and image of a familiar figure and someone that had to be Jerome's other "princess."

"Master let us in! It's cold out!" Jessica whined into the intercom microphone, the wolfess and a leopard female Elizabeth didn't recognize flashing their abundant cleavage and squishing it against the camera. The petite blond fought to keep from smiling as she watched four oh so pliable breasts press against the cold glass. As canine and feline nipples hardened in the frigid temperatures, the short gunsmith finally surrendered to a slight grin. This adventure in particular left her with way too many things to sort out but given her current circumstances, it was nice to see a friendly face regardless of who it was.

Distracted by the sudden appearance of his playthings, Jerome still held his baton threateningly above his head. Looking back at Elizabeth, he snarled and gave her a quick smack against the breast with his baton before leaving the room in disgust. The petite wastelander bit her lip to keep from crying out in agony as electricity danced through a sensitive part of her anatomy. Exhausted by the day's events, particularly the events of the last few hours, Summers had to face it, her and Adam's safety hinged on Jerome's own bimboified sex toys. Unless of course...

Contrary to the ease at which he was distracted would suggest, Jerome was not completely stupid. He knew his toys were broken, that Jessica was enraptured by those two thieves and was trying to hook up Alexandria with them as well. The attempt to bond the feline to those two was likely some misguided attempt to keep her away from him. The only reason why they even bothered tracking him down was because he had Adam and Elizabeth locked away in his dungeon. Unfortunately for McQuinn and Sharps, he had been preparing for this possibility...

The Restrainer Mk. II was a weapon originally devised by the Rik-Tah to facilitate the collection of human prisoners during raids. A vaguely pistol-shaped device with a gunmetal gray finish, the Restrainer fired gobs of a rubber-like nano-membrane that wrapped itself around the target. It was an incredibly effective restraint; a single aimed shot to the chest or the legs could immobilize a target. Only after was it discovered that the weapon had an unexpected reaction with the smart fabrics that made up the AAWC's worn by most mercs was the weapon completely removed from circulation. Almost completely that was, a few could still be found here and there in old supply caches the Rik-Tah didn't update the inventory. Jerome wasn't entirely sure what the problem was but the Restrainer in his hand would help put an end to this foolish rescue plan. All he needed to do was go about this intelligently.

The blast door keeping him safe from the outside world slowly creaked to life, being opened with the aid of mechanical arms and the thunderous sound of warning klaxons as Jerome ducked behind a console. Just needed to get behind cover behind the door control console and wait for the girls to try and quickly rush in... and time seemed to seem to freeze as the rebel hacker saw the grenade thrown in a perfect arc towards his hiding place. The flashbang exploded with a blinding light, forcing him to shield his eyes and look away while firing blindly over the console. Jessica wasted no time, rushing in with weapons raised. Next thing Jerome knew, the Restrainer was shot out of his hand and he was starring down the barrel of a Rik-Tah pulse rifle held by a very angry-looking wolfess. In his panic, Jerome had only managed to hit one of his targets. Unfortunately for him, it was the wrong target. Alexandria, less accustomed to her change and following McQuinn's lead, lay on the floor as the Restrainer goo merged with her AAWC and turned it into a padded black bodysuit with her arms and legs somehow trussed up.

Jessica growled as she held her pulse rifle to Jerome's head, finger gently caressing the trigger. Just pull it; just pull it and... the room echoed with the sound of a gunshot that didn't come from her weapon. One second Jerome was glaring back at her, the next the bottom half of his face was torn asunder by the impact of a high-caliber round. Turning her head, she looked and caught a glimpse of Adam and Elizabeth. Both of them had managed to break free from their bonds and find their weapons, a faint wisp of smoke escaped the barrel of Adam's revolver as he lowered it to his side. For once the sarcastic human was without a witty retort, remaining deathly silent as he drew a large Bowie knife and walked up to the barely alive Jerome. With a furious glint in his eye, White practically slammed his blade into the hacker's chest. As the traitorous computer expert was slain, McQuinn felt her vision begin to blur as something began to feel... wrong with her body_...._

Jonathan McQuinn groaned as he was finally decanted and discharged from the cloning vats, his best friend and partner in crime Alexander Sharps right behind him. Lying on the cold metal floor, naked and dripping wet with embryonic slime, the lupine mercenary's head pounded as he recounted fragments of his dream. He couldn't recall dreaming before the last time his scaly benefactors had to transfer his consciousness into a new body but they didn't tell him anything to say that it wasn't possible. What a strange dream though, a rebel hacker had broken into the computer systems that controlled the cloning facilities and changed him from a bloke to a sheila while his forming body swam in the sprawling aquarium of resurrected soldiers. Then as she had just started getting used to being a pinup for human rebels and banged like a cheap hooker, the hacker made himself known to her and started stalking her. Jerome was his name, a spindly specimen of humanity that Adam and Elizabeth apparently trusted or at least had until he betrayed them. And then there was the bit where Alex was turned into a lady as well; a thick, meaty one that the two rebels would have been willing to bang with barely a moment's hesitation.

But that was just a dream wasn't it? McQuinn shook his head as he tried to clear it; his brain feeling like it was still swimming in the viscous fluid in the tanks. As the automated processes of the discharge chamber came online, Jon and Alex were both blasted by gentle jets of warm, soapy water erupting from the floor and walls, washing the slime out of their fur before rising them off and letting them dry with a strong, warm gust of air. It was a process that reminded the Australian wolf of being on a factory assembly line but the robotic process gave him time to try and figure out what was real and what wasn't. And then there was the comment he was almost expecting at this point...

<Welcome back from the land of the dead Beavis and Butthead. Maybe next time you can make my job easier and stay there?> Seer projected telepathically as the two of them were given the standard-issue jumpsuits allotted to the recently decanted. The human telepath was as irritating as always, as to be expected of a captive teenager trapped in an armored isolation tank.

<Oh piss off already Brandon, isn't enough that your brother Adam got to beat us?>

This stopped their cynical handler for a moment. <Who told you he was my brother?> Seer asked finally.

<You did, back when Jerome first changed me into a sheila and I went on that big adventure to kill him...> Jonathan replied, his train of thought trailing off as he realized that really must have been a dream.

<Dude, I told you letting that that one Rik-Tah scientist hook up your developing clone brain to the simulator network was a bad idea. You're just lucky you only came out with a fucked up dream instead of permanent brain damage.> Brandon answered dismissively but the Aussie terror of Aphrodite City could tell the human was unnerved by something about the conversation...

From: Oracle

_ To: Hephaestus_

_ Subject: Something weird_

_ Hep, I know it's not a good idea to send you another message so soon after the last one but something freaking bizarre happened today that I wanted you to be aware of. You remember those two Aphrodite City screwballs you and Athena greased about a month ago? Crimson Screamer and Hypothermia? Well, they were finally decanted today and that's where things started getting weird. Basically they both somehow had the exact same wacky dream while they were in the tanks. I'll spare you most of the... screwed up details but basically they had a dream about Jerome, one where they mixed up a couple details from that one trader from upstate New York. You know, that guy you traded with only to have him stab you in the back and tried to lock you in his playroom until Mentalrix and co could save you? Yeah I know, I know, I'm already looking into it, I'll let you know if I find anything._

Meanwhile, a pair of Rik-Tah scientists conversed over the results of their experiment in one of the high towers overlooking Anthracite City. The results of the simulation appeared to be successful though the question remained as to whether they could put any of it into practice remained to be seen. The two blue hermaphrodite lizards cackled to each other as they both stood on three sturdy legs and discussed their findings. Members of a dying warrior race turned to hyper-capitalists, the Rik-Tah here were much like most of their peers, using statistics and probabilities to predict battle outcomes and financial returns as if they were one and the same.

"The simulation has completed, what do you think of the results?" The intelligence officer asked with a sly smile as his simulation concluded.

"What is the likelihood of this becoming the actual course of events?" The chief tactician for the city's garrison replied quizzically.

"The probability that the computer expert Jerome will do something reckless the other human rebels will take issue with is almost a perfect certainty. Based on his personality, we predict this scenario to be the most likely outcome. He will attempt to break into our systems to create or capture a female he finds particularly desirable. The mercenaries Crimson Screamer and Hypothermia might make an ideal feint in this scenario, both have so far managed to repeatedly perform below expectations even compared to their fellows from the City of Beauty... By the way, were we ever successful in identifying what those two entities were?"

"What we could steal from their remains still defies our current classification techniques. Regardless, back to the current matter, there is a strong likelihood that Jerome will attempt to sabotage our systems for his own petty ends."

"I fail to see why that is a problem. At the worst, we do what you suggest and sacrifice some of our most ineffective mercenary warriors in order to get him to reveal his position. At best, we get several of the human rebels to fight amongst themselves and leave all of them in a weakened state we can exploit. Neither of these outcomes is undesirable. What of the rest of the details of the simulation, the probability that he is in a government bunker relative to the suspected location of the Anthracite-Detroit supply route? Or that he will present us an opportunity to deal with those two tech-raiders from Sentinel City." The garrison commander countered, calling up three-dimensional holograms of Adam and Elizabeth on a projector behind him. Even with the alien characters over their heads, it wouldn't have been hard for an outsider to recognize both of those pictures as wanted posters; wanted posters advertising a positively enormous bounty on each of them.

"All embellishments of the simulation I am afraid. There is a possibility Jerome is such a facility located near some location of strategic interest but there is not enough intelligence to confirm this. Regarding the two survivors of the fall of Sentinel City in the region, it is highly possible that they may intercept the chosen bait and cause a conflict we can exploit. They certainly roam widely enough that they could encounter the two females. If we let Jerome think he succeeded in breaking down the firewall surrounding the cloning templates for Jonathan McQuinn and Alexander Sharps and achieve all of his desired edits, the probability that the involved parties will create a desirable situation all on their own is almost a certainty. Though, speaking of the survivors of Sentinel City... another one has been spotted entering the region."

"Which one?"

"The one called Harold Maalouf, the chemist that fought alongside these two during the siege of Sentinel City." The intelligence officer sighed as the two holograms were joined by a third along with a file for the new antagonist. An Anglo-African interned at Wyatt Technology by way of Cambridge University, Harold was employed in the company's chemical research division. A lean man of average height, the African male human still had the physique of the soccer star that landed the scholarship that got him into Cambridge. That exceptional agility and speed continued to serve him well in the apocalypse, allowing him to evade capture as he searched for a route back home to England. His skill with chemistry lead to a number of useful gadgets that meshed well with the rest of his friends as they fought to survive the initial invasion, his arrival in the area was not a welcome development to the local Rik-Tah commanders... not at all.