Forgotten - Chapter 3: Wildfire

Story by Hushpad on SoFurry

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#4 of Forgotten

The odd object is brought aboard and brings an intruder onboard with it.


Chapter 3: Wildfire

The retrieval went smoothly, and after lunch and hours of trying to swat down guilty thoughts of his infantile fetishes, Syne had a Minor bay with five rocks and one large black specimen box. Inside of which was the red thing which wasn't, he believed, a black hole. The whole crew was there with him, their curiousity perked. Syne couldn't blame them. Flicking a single ear, he looked to Tanjent and woofed, "What's it's readings? Is it safe?".

"You want to open it?", asked Tumbles in disbelief.

"Not sure if I do or not, that's what I'm trying to find out.", Syne explained.

"Look, this thing is weird enough that we could sell it as-is...", argued Tumbles.

"Oh really. What would we advertise it as, a black hole in a box?", asked Syne sarcasticly, "We need to know something about it to figure out who'd want it, or at least something better to classify it as than 'Unknown object that looks like a black hole on radar'.".

Tanjent played with her bracer for awhile, then shrugged. "If it's dangerous, it's nothing obvious.", she concluded.

"Open it.", ordered Syne, voice full of curiosity. Most of the rest of the crew took several steps back. Tanj pointed her left arm, the one with her bracer-tool on it, to the black box and tapped a single button with her right hand, tensing up as she dug her heels in, ready for anything.

There was a hiss, and black pegs burst from the smooth black box's faces as the specimen box collapsed back into it's non-holding shape, a thick, heavy black square of metal and plastic on the floor. And upon that square rested... well... whatever it was they had found. Pulsing in brightness from dim to brilliant with it's red light, the object itself was about 1 3/4 feet in diameter, and more or less unviewable beneath a corona of light. The seven crewmates stared at it intently, and, once he realized none of his friends were in any trouble, Tumbles let out the breath he had been holding. Ignoring the snickers and chuckles and amused looks at their raccoon friend, Syne took slow steps, one paw after another, towards the ball of light, stopping in front of it and kneeling in wonder.

"Maybe it's a new kinda light?", offered Frost.

"Light doesn't absorb other things. At least, not that I've ever known.", countered Bell, scratching her head.

"Are you sure you should be standing so close to it?", Doc's voice carried over various debates and chatter, calling everybody's attention to where Syne was crouching, staring into the light, trying desperately to shake the idea that this was the light from his dream. Inside, he was sure this was some sort of fateful encounter, that this could not possibly dangerous, but something had his neckhair on end anyways.

"Check the inside for current.", Syne said to his sister, backing up a bit and looking to her, shaking his head as she raised her left arm to the sky and clenched her fist, extending a foot long metal spike from her bracer, "Go retro Sis. Old school multi-meter and hold it with something insulating.". Tanjent pouted as she retracted the probe, scurrying to a supply closet and coming back with thick gloves and a industrial style multi-meter. Donning the gloves, she held a probe gingerly in her hand, looking at Syne once, for support and to make sure it's what he wanted. He gave her a nod, and, with a shrug, she stuck it into the light as the crew tensed again.

And nothing happened. The readout read .0003 volts, flickering a bit every so often; nothing more than the background fuzz you'd find anywhere. Tanjent prodded carefully, letting out a mrew of curiosity as she struck something hard, floating in the center of the sphere of light. She traced over it carefully, finally pulling it out.

"No current, but there's something hard, something cube-shaped I think, in the center.", Tanjent mrewled loud enough for everybody to hear. Syne picked up a loose length of pipe from the bay floor and poked it in himself, feeling out the hard part. With a confused grunt, he shoved against it, but it held fast, solid, despite being supported by nothing.

"What the-...", eyes opened wide in confusion, trying to figure out how on earth it could be moved in a box, but not with his pipe. Temptation grew too great to ignore anymore.

"Get back.", Syne growled, staring into the light as his friends and family shuffled backwards. "Do you have any idea what that might do to you?", came Doc's soft, concerned voice.

Looking behind himself to make sure they were far back, the coyote sighed softly, breathing deeply and gathering his courage. "Not a clue.", he growled again, thrusting his paw into the light and grabbing the solid center within. He felt it, cube-like, but not quite as he felt around it's outside surface. In the silence of the bay, something clicked into place with a sound like metal sliding against greased rails, and suddenly instead of in his paw, the solid bits were Around it. Eyes opening wide in surprise, then slowly fear, Syne tried to pull his paw out, realizing it was caught fast in the light.

"G-guys, I-", Syne started to bark, his voice steady, but not devoid of fear, but then he saw, or thought he saw, something: Eyes. Two of them. Brilliant white and red, pure light, looking into his eyes. Gazing. Staring. Observing. Then the burning began, painful, but barely, against the top of his paw. He let out a whimper and started to call for help, but before he could open his mouth again, those burning eyes slanted. The last thing he realized before the light swallowed him was that he was being laughed at.

*****

"A Coyote!"

The words came out in a raucous cackle, violent and entertained. "Oh How Gloriously Fitting!", the voice bellowed as Syne slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't move, couldn't look at himself. Something felt wrong, but he couldn't tell what as he helplessly stared at the two burning eyes. He saw now that they were set in a face, the face of a thing he'd never seen, read or heard of. Bathed in red light that shifted and roiled like flame, it's body was slender and hairless, maybe even skinless, composed of pure white ember.

The eyes didn't exactly soften, though the voice did, "And here you are, with absolutely know idea why. I bet you wouldn't know a roadrunner, or a spirit for that matter, from a hole in the ground! I see my body scares you. I'm not one, for the record, and I am not Real, per say. I made this body so I could talk to You! Why? Absolutely no reason!", the voice broke into giddy laughter, as Syne began to believe that whatever he was speaking to must truly be insane, if this whole thing wasn't a delusion of some sort brought along by massive trauma, "But enough banter, We've something important to talk about, you and I! I'm speaking to you because I, I!, Glorious Glorious Me, have been-A COYOTE! You're a COYOTE! HAVE YOU ANY IDEA HOW MARVELOUS AND WONDROUS THAT IS?! AND YOUR BROTHER TOO!... Where was I?".

Syne just whimpered, beginning to believe that this couldn't be a delusion. Nothing in his own mind was this disjointed or insane. His sister, maybe. But not him. "B-... Banter?", he offered in the meekest, softest little woof to ever leave his muzzle.

"YES! I was Bantering. But enough, and I mean it this time! I am speaking to you because I have been Forgotten. Whelp, who gave you your fur?".

"A Doctor, our Doc... Someplace special.", Syne replied slowly, measuredly, trying to figure out where he was, but there was nothing but the dark, and the creature before him.

"No, little far-spawn.", the voice whispered, incredibly soft now, "No. I gave you your fur. I gave it to Anybody, to Everybody... and you've seen what the world has done with my gift. They've chased it, persecuted it, but they haven't stopped it."

"Well hang on, it depends where you go! Some sectors are bad yeah, some corp's-well, most of them hate us, but some of them employ us!", Syne barked softly.

"Employ? Oh yes... Guard Dogs. Lovely pun, epitomy of humor right there. Some sectors? MOST sectors. Life is hard for those who've taken what I've given. It was supposed to be pure, but some people just cannot live in peace, cannot accept one another. You weren't born this way, you chose it. And thanks to ME, you have it. But do you know my name, little boy, far from home?"

"N-no... Should I?", asked Syne, voice filled with terror at the possible consequences.

"All who've made their flesh serve them should know my name. All who've lived more than a lifetime should. Tell me child, who was the first human to find something other than human to become?", the flaming eyes looked intently into Syne's.

"I... I don't know!", replied Syne, confused. It was just one more thing taken for granted, ancient, but he realized now that it was pretty big on the list of inventions that had changed things. Einstein, Edison, Newton, Louie Pasteur, Martin L. King and other names from the 20th century filled his mind, but the responsibility for the creation of a new set of races... who's shoulders did that lay on?, "You?", he offered in wonder.

"Yes. Me. But what is my name?"

"They don't teach us that. They hardly even acknowledge the existence of non-humans, I have no idea where children born that way go for school, honestly.", Syne confessed, having, like most of the crew, lived his earlier years as a human until he had the money and resources and want to become something else. "Look, most people... they're crazy. That's what I'm doing out here in the first place, what we're all doing. It's been a long time since we cared what 'cultured' society is up to. We have eachother, we have the ship, we harvest the rocks that buy us anything we could ever imagine wanting, and life is good. There's... there's a few places they give us shitty prices for our ore, but it's not like we need the money anyways."

"This is a beacon. A curiousity. Did you not find it curious? Of course you did. It was meant for ones who had not taken my gift. Meant for those and the descendants of those who have willfully forgotten me, yet thrive off the other things I've created. In this light lays a virus of sorts, a quite contagious and clever one. One that has little need for things like cellular walls. Pervasive, and invasive DNA... But it's not meant for you. You don't leave something that precious and volatile laying about unattended, so I left a bit of myself behind with it to make sure it didn't somehow... mis-operate... in the case that something unexpected happened. 'Unexpected' meaning something like them ever even allowing non-humans to operate their own vessels."

Syne was baffled by this, and his voice betrayed it, "Yseng Corp is a lot of evil things I'm sure, but they're not stupid enough to discount an entire demographic based on their species! They're the only one, but one's all it takes really. Its getting better you know, at least, I like to believe it is.". The coyote lowered his ears.

"You're a sweetheart. Little naive, perhaps, but a good one. I bet your crew is too. All furballs?", the burning creature asked, and received a nod in return. It hesitated, then continued, "You're telling the truth. Interesting. This plague, and my name, are not meant for you and your own. I will give you neither. But I will give you a gift. I'm afraid, like all my gifts, that it will be... two-sided.", those eyes glimmered again, perhaps with dark intent, though the smile on it's brilliant face looked fairly genuine, "For you. And your crew.".

"W-wait, can we talk about this, Maybe we'll just let the world know your name?", Syne stammered. The creature shook it's head, "I'm afraid not. I've written my name where it will be found, a eternal signature in an appropriate place, once one of these beacons finds a suitable target. But I can help you, puppy...", the creature purred, "with that little... problem of your's."

"N-No... Please NO!", Syne shouted, but then the world shook again.

*****

Syne found himself back on the bay floor, paw still in the light, family and friends still around him. He blinked, realizing that somehow, no time had passed. Opening his mouth to tell his crew to run, to leave him where he was, the material around his hand suddenly heated rapidly, turning what would've been directions to a howl of pain.

Cosyne grabbed him first, tugging him backwards, but the second he touched his brother, he was stuck fast, and his paw burned too. Both coyotes howled as the air began to smell like burning fur, neither able to move their hands. The other crewmates followed, piling on them and tugging, each getting stuck and burned, branded, with a single equilateral triangle on their paw-tops, tip pointing up their arms. It didn't last long, and soon the pain, the world, and everything else faded.

*****

All seven found themselves in the dark, in a ring, on their knees, looking at eachother. Somehow, they were all naked here, and unable to move much other than their heads and eyes and muzzles. In the center, smouldering, stood the creature. "Not a one of you know Who I am. My name, my identity, is forgotten. And I'd love dearly to tell it to you, for you have a right to know, but I fear it's not yours' to know. All of you follow a Coyote, and there were days when people knew better than to do that, or at least knew what doing so might entail. Still, that you exist warms my soul. Each and every one of you has a demon, a lust, a hidden want, or,", the burning thing turned it's eyes to Frost, "perhaps even a powerful, longing desire for power, brought about from the shame of being at the bottom for so long. Like all good gifts, you Will earn this. With your love for one another. You will face yourselves and one another, together."

The entity stood before Syne, looking down, and walking from shipmate to shipmate, looking at one after another with every declaration, with every step, "Captain... First Mate... Technician... Doctor... Chef... Engineer and Geologist... And you...", he hesitated in front of frost, his burning form lowering as he squats in front of the fox-wolf, "Vehicle Master... or Kid Brother? Both, I suppose.", he purrled before standing up and walking to Syne again.

"All of you, you have other names. Let me give you them, in lieu of my own.", a flaming finger pointed towards Syne as he started one more round, "Puppy...", at his words, Syne's thighs spread as a massive, thick, white crinkling diaper appeared between them. A pacifier appeared in his muzzle, which he helplessly sucked on as a blue bonnet appeared over his head, matching mittens and booties over his paws, and a teddy-bear printed romper over his chest and crotch, doing nothing to hide the huge diaper. As the Coyote's cheeks turned bright red, the creature stepped in front of Cosyne, pointing to him next, "Pet...", Cosyne found himself forced to all fours, wearing a rig developed by certain humans to keep sentient, bipedal canines where they thought they belonged: in the place of a household pet. It covered his paws in thick rubber, robbing him of his thumbs, and kept him from standing by running a long length of firm metal across his back, curved to fit his back and held in place by a locking ring around his waist. His muzzle was muzzled, his neck collared, and a leash ran to a hasp firmly planted in the darkness in front of him. As surely as the front of Syne's diapers/romper were bulging, Cosyne's own length dangled lewdly between his hindlegs, his cheeks as red as his brother's. The creature moved on. Looking down and pointing at Tanjent, he licked his lips, "There isn't a single word that sums you up, little one, but Slut comes close to what you want. You want to serve as nothing more than a method of relieving others of their fluids, both the kinds used for procreation and... for other things. Especially by...", the creature smirked, "Well, letting your friends know that yourself will be half the fun.".

Tanjent pleaded, begged, cried, shook her head as she realized what the beast somehow knew, but her cries were silenced by a rubber cock, one shaped like a dog's, which, like Syne's pacifier, she couldn't help but suck. She felt her loins tingle, and trembled, moaning as pressure built to unbearable levels until she did what the creature wanted her to do. She rolled on her back and lifter her thighs and legs, spreading them and holding her paws up cutely. She found her head lifted so she could clearly see the others, and the others could see her. When she felt her cheeks burn as her glistening folds were bared, she thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, but then another rubber cock appeared, and another, one slowly slipping between her nether-lips, the other up her tailhole, slowly, gently stretching her before starting to hump her in unison. As her ears turned pink and she started a long battle of resisting orgasm, the creature laughed and said a single word, Tanjent's 'other' name, before moving to the next crew-member, "Toy... Ah. And the Doc. You're not so dissimilar, a Toy of sorts yourself, but something else in secret, the kinda thing Frost is openly, a bitch, a child, a ward. Something controlled... Ah yes, not property, like the Pet, but a Servant.". Doc found her wrists, ankles, thighs and neck encircled by unbroken, shining steel bands with hasp points. Her muzzle was filled by a black rubber cock, strapped behind her head and locked there while cold steel rings appeared in her suddenly pierced nipples. "Sit.", the burning thing said, and, of her own free will, Doc obeyed, as wet as the cat next to her. Another step took him to Tumbles, whom he looked at with a chuckle. By now, all were watching him with wide eyes as the creature announced his 'name', "Girl. As in the weaker sex. The one that takes whatever it's given... not what they are, of course, but thats what it is to you.", the cheerleader skirt and tanktop appeared on the raccoon, as did his earrings and hair-ribbons as he burst into humiliated tears. His knees helplessly spread as he rose on them and his hands lifted his skirt in the front to show the large bulge in his white silk panties. Another plodding step, and he was in front of Bell, where he hesitated again. "You're something special. Really special. You have two names the other's don't know about, one of which you yourself are unaware. The first is Boy, and that is what you are, no doubt.", as the fire-clad thing spoke, Bell felt something new. Looking down between her spreading knees, she saw a badger's cock, and, beneath it, a badger's testicles, hanging freely. She shuddered, knowing the rest of her was intact and untouched. "If you know I'm a boy, why leave the rest?", she asked, her voice as steady as ever.

"Because your other name is Little Girl. You've overdone it Bell, and the parts of your male friends that are kind of broken,", he glanced to Syne, diapered and sobbing in humiliation, Cosyne, muzzled, collared, and heeled; whimpering, and Tumbles, also crying profusely in his cheerleader get up, complete with pom-poms now, "are also broken in you. There is no 'weaker' gender, and just because your craving to be something other than the 'weaker' sex is louder than your craving to be what those three have also wanted to be and ignored all their lives doesn't mean it isn't still there.", with another glance to Syne, the thing continued, "Your pride will go the way of your shipmates', I'm afraid, Little Girl.", and with that, Bell found herself shrinking. Her muscle, hard-earned, turned to shapely curves and babyfat. She was no weakling when it was done, but was no longer a behemoth either. Her cries of dismay had hardly begun before she found herself in a pink diaper every bit as obvious and large as Syne's. Next, her paws got mittenned as well, followed by her feet, in thick, pink, slick rubber mittens and booties. A pink rubber collar ringed her neck loosely, with a heart-shaped tag from it that read 'sweetheart'. As tears formed in her eyes and her whole body flushed hot with humiliation, a pacifier with locking straps appeared before her mouth, but unlike Syne's, this one had an obscenely detailed pink cock for a nipple. It slowly inched into her muzzle, grazing her helpless tongue before the straps fastened behind her. Next came the romper, with a padded crotch and a frilly 'skirt' made of pink vinyl, and finally, though it looked absurd, a pinafore with a large white bow in the back. "Suck.", the creature rasped, watching. Her cheeks and ears burning, heaving sobs muffled by her gag, she started to suck of her own will, betraying to herself and those watching that there was an ounce of truth in his words, though her defeat would not last long. "You all cannot see, but I assure you that she is as hard and as wet as any of you are right now... And last of all... Frost.", he stopped before the fox-wolf, who looked up and swallowed nervously, "You want respect and control, even as you want it taken from you. Your name is Child. But that's hardly a secret, so I'll give you a special gift. A chance to have both. You'll suffer all that your shipmates do, the rest you'll understand later.". Frost whimpered as he too felt strange things in his groin, then chest. He squealed as he realized he had become like Bell, something between sexes, with all possible equipment. One by one, what happened to the others happened to him. He was muzzled with a cock, stuffed in both his tailhole and his new-grown cunt, diapered, dressed, bound in cuffs, laid on all four's and chained to the ground. He didn't cry though, unlike all the others, but he certainly blushed. And like all the others, found himself quite aroused.

"You've an interesting time ahead of yourselves, little ones. Enjoy. Maybe we'll meet again someday.", and with that, the world went black again.

*****

They came to on the Bay's floor, naked and unclothed except for the shackles and metal rings on Doc. Seven specimen boxes formed a ring around the sphere, the belongings and clothing of each crewmember in one. Bell was still the softer, weaker, version of herself, complete with her new parts. Frost had kept his as well. The rest were naked, and none could move.

The creature stood on the floor, Tanjent's eight androids before him and her bracer on his wrist. It started fiddling with each one. Everytime he finished programming one, it dashed off into the ship. Eventually he had hit all eight. After depositing the bracer into Tanjent's box, he smirked and vanished. The lights died as the crew fell asleep against their wills, until the only visible thing left was the sphere of light itself. They slept, while the androids went about their new jobs, altering eachother, altering the ship, before convening in the bay, their electronic eyes taking in the seven sleepers.