FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a cold, still night as Jared made his way carefully down the dark forest path. As the park ranger for the entire area, he was out on patrol to make sure no one was dumb enough to try and camp out illegally or had gotten lost. Thankfully, it once again appeared to be an uneventful night for him as his breath clung in a cloud illuminated by the moon above. Just as he was about to turn around, though, there was a particular smell in the air that caused him to pause; the smell of burning wood. "I was so close..." he said with a heavy sigh as the hope that he would soon be back in the warmth of the station with a mug of coffee and his television were dashed.

"If it's those stoners again, I swear I'm going to leave them out here to freeze with their bongs in their hands," he muttered to himself as he tried to follow the smell towards the source, eventually seeing the orange glow of a fire. "No one would blame me, not this far out in the woods... ah, who am I kidding. At least now I have more snacks when they try to eat everything in the ranger's station, but this time I'm going to charge them for every single-"

His words were suddenly cut short when he broke through the last of the underbrush and nearly fell over himself, saved only by quick reflexes and a nearby tree branch. The ranger's mouth went agape when he saw what could only be described as an area where a bomb had gone off; small fires littered the entire area where smashed trees and charred rocks laid scattered about. As he started to carefully make his way into the blast radius, he thought back to when he had first started his rounds and remembered that he had heard something while he was just outside the station, which given the distance he had traveled both driving and walking, it made it reasonable that whatever caused the devastation was the source of that noise. At first he thought about calling the police, but as far up as he was, he would have to walk several miles before he got reception, and he at least wanted to know what he was looking at.

When he finally reached what he believed was the epicenter of the explosion, Jared took off his hat and scratched his head while he inspected the ground. There was nothing on the ground that made it appear to be some sort of bomb, but with clear weather and no other natural phenomena it had to be. As he pushed aside a rather thick tree trunk that had been split in half, his flashlight shined on something that caused him to pause over it. It was an egg shaped object, pure black with a shine to it like no stone he had ever seen before in the hills. He grabbed a nearby tree branch and poked at it, and when all it did was roll around slightly, he grew bolder and walked over to kick it with his shoe.

When nothing happened once again he knelt down and examined the strange object closely. It was pure blackness and the surface was completely smooth without a single flaw in it. His first guess was that it was some sort of obsidian, but when he pressed a finger against it, he found that the material had a bit of give to it. While it certainly didn't look like a bomb, it was the only out of place item he found in the damaged section of the woods. As he stood up to mark the location on his map he found himself continuing to glance down at the stone, as though it would suddenly jump up at him. When it didn't and his map was put away, he decided to take it in as evidence and wrapped it up in a foil blanket he kept on him before he tucked it away in his backpack.

With the strange item secured he began to hike through the forest once again, though the further away he got from the mysterious site, the less he remembered of it...

*****************************************

By the time Jared reached the ranger station he had completely forgotten to call the police, his thoughts more concerned with reheating his coffee and food before he settled in for the night. Once he was inside he set his pack down on the table and went over to the coffee pot, cursing under his breath at its temperature before he dumped it and started a fresh one. As he doted over the machine he failed to notice his backpack begin to wiggle back and forth, slowly at first but, as the seconds passed by it did so harder and faster. Finally just as the brown liquid began to drip into the pot, Jared jumped slightly when his bag hit the wood of the table, causing him to look over and see that it had fallen onto its side.

Curious, Jared walked over to it while his coffee brewed and as he picked it back upright he suddenly remembered that he had found some sort of mysterious object in the woods. His mouth turned down in a frown when he failed to remember how exactly he found it, but his curiosity won out nonetheless and he found himself unzipping the bag and pulling out the Mylar sheets that contained the strange stone. As it rolled out onto the table, though, he realized the consistency had changed, instead of looking like hardened stone it bounced like it was made of gelatin. Before he could take a better look at it; however, it continued to roll across his table until it reached the edge.

Jared quickly reached out and managed to catch the object with his outstretched hand, but as soon as the material made contact with the warmth of his hand, it started to instantly melt. Once again he cursed loudly and cupped the strange ooze with both hands as he ran to the bathroom with it. While he wasn't sure if it would do anything to the wooden floor he wasn't going to let any of the oily substance stain it and cause a cut to his pay. He was just thankful he was able to make it all the way to the sink without it dripping as he took his hands and dumped the strange substance into the basin...

...except that none of the black material dropped down into the sink. As he stood there in confusion, he watched as the gelatinous substance defied gravity and started to ooze back over his hands. "What the hell is this stuff?!" he shouted as he tried to scrape it off his hands and into the sink, and when that failed to work he turned on the faucet and stuck his hands underneath. Despite the water running at full blast, the liquid almost seemed to be repelled by the shiny substance, and after a while he shook his hands in frustration and walked out of the bathroom.

Jared was just about to try with some lava soap when he noticed that the blackness had not been contained to just his hands as he noticed black lines traveling up past his wrists and under his coat. His anger and frustration turned to panic as he quickly ripped the heavy garment off and the long sleeved shirt underneath it, as well. When the clothes fell to the floor his eyes widened as he saw the strands of rubber-like material tendril up his forearms with increasing speed. By this time his hands had been entirely coated in the shiny substance and felt almost alien to him as they gleamed in the artificial light of the cabin.

His brain felt like it had begun to slow down, as though his thoughts were being pulled out of his head as he stumbled his way to the land line that served as the only means of communication in the area that wasn't spotty cell reception. Every step towards the phone felt like he was moving through wet cement, and the entire time the alien substance continued to move up his arms. It wasn't long before the shiny rubber material had assimilated his flesh all the way up past his elbows, though he couldn't see much past that with his shirt on. An idea that he had to keep watching entered his head, and he stopped in the middle of the floor to unbutton his shirt and take it off.

When he undid the cloth that been tucked into his belt, his coated hands accidentally touched the hair of his treasure trail, and as soon as it made contact, the shiny material began to spread like wildfire. Jared didn't know what to do, every moment it grew harder to think and the rubber had started to spread over his shoulders. Suddenly his undivided attention went to his groin as he felt the cool material start to spread over his cock, and without a second thought he undid his pants and pulled them to the ground with his underwear. When his saw his somewhat small dick turn shiny and black he put his hands to his face, realizing what he had done too late as the alien material transferred to his cheeks and began to coat his head.

Unbeknownst to Jared, the alien symbiote had already started to make its home in his human brain, slowly turning the neurons there into jelly as it took over his nervous system. Already the alien had assimilated most of his host's memories, getting what he needed about the planet he had landed on. As he moved onto the personality that would help him blend in the world he realized that these creatures, these... humans, had developed a complex emotional system that seemed to somehow rise above the normal instinctive chemical reactions that his kind and encounter. As he continued to learn about them he found strange sensations in his own mind, the merging process allowing him to do something called 'feel' that made odd sensations spread through his system. He resolved himself to learn more about this fascinating prospect as his cells continued to infiltrate and change his host.

Jared fell to his knees as he clutched his head with his hands, unable to comprehend what was happening to him anymore as the thick rubber covered his hair and melted it into his skull. By now the substance had completely covered his face and left it almost featureless, save for a small mound with two holes under it for nostrils. What garnered most of his attention, though, was the feeling that came from his groin; a muffled groan coming out of his latex-filled mouth as he not only felt it seal against the sensitive flesh of his member, but also began to push between his butt cheeks. As his rubber hands began to stroke his cock he paused as he forgot what such a sensation he was feeling was called, then remembered that it was pleasure, and he seemed to mentally file it away once again before he stroked himself.

By this point the alien symbiote had completely covered Jared's naked body, the glistening black rubber stretched out over his frame like a second skin as he writhed on the ground while he masturbated. When the last of the human flesh was consumed Jared's body suddenly convulsed, then spasmed several more times before he laid completely still on the floor. Anyone who would have happened upon his body at that time might have mistaken him for some sort of sex doll, especially since his erection continued to remain. Underneath the latex skin the symbiote was making the last necessary steps to ensure complete bonding with his host, including the elimination of now unnecessary vital functions and turning the last of his insides into alien rubber. It took a long time for the symbiote to learn how to mimic the complex nervous system of the creature he had bonded with, but after almost an hour, the blank, rubber, humanoid form began to twitch slightly.

As the creature began to move again the alien tested its newfound body, experimentally moving his fingers and toes as he got used to the sensations that came with the form. Though his rubber had completely covered over the eyes of the former human he could still sense everything perfectly, using the entirety of his synthetic skin to see where everything was. Once he, something he realized now referred to the gender of his body, made sure that he could move everything like he was supposed to, he slowly stood up to his feet. More than once he could feel himself wobble, saved only by the muscle memory of the host as he got used to the new gravity and motion while he examined his surroundings.

The cabin he was in was sparsely furnished and lousy with the technology that he found out the humans of this planet had. From what he could gathered they still primarily relied on signal technology, something that caused the symbiote to sigh before he stopped suddenly when he realized what he had done. Once again those complex emotional states came flooding back to the originally apathetic alien creature. He had never had to deal with anything such as feelings, but the imprint from his human host made it abundantly clear he would have to learn how to deal with them quickly if he was to blend in with the world.

As the alien began to move towards the couch, he suddenly felt a ping from deep inside his psychic core and realized that the other alien that had been sent to this planet had successfully taken over their host, as well. He made a beeline to the nearest couch and sat down, then as he let his arms fall to his side, the shiny rubber that comprised his body began to ripple and undulate as the alien's consciousness was pulled inward. Soon all his surroundings faded away to black, and when the light returned he was once more surrounded by forest. The alien knew this wasn't outdoors; however, instead it was a construct of the psychic field that his kind generated.

The second the alien reformed his body in the middle of the woods he noticed a campsite and saw the real Jared sitting there, fishing pole in hand on the edge of a river. As soon as the human noticed he wasn't alone, he turned his head and looked at the alien form of his own body, except covered in thick black rubber and incredibly toned, but instead of seeing terror or shock, there was instead a look of placid calmness on his face. "Am I dead?" Jared asked as he cast his line out into the water once more.

"Not in the traditional sense," the alien replied. "We are merged in the truest sense of the word, but in this place our individual personalities are still separate. You are still 'you' in that sense, and I suppose 'I' am still me, though this concept of self-identity is... bizarre. That and these emotions of yours, I don't understand why you would need to have such things to survive in your world."

"Wow, you really aren't from around here," Jared said with a chuckle as he reeled in the line.

The alien was about to inquire further when he suddenly felt the presence of the real reason he had come to their psychic network in the first place. It was a humanoid creature just like him, head to toe in brilliant silver latex with the same featureless face as his own. He knew it was his partner, the one sent with him in order to infiltrate and establish a foothold in this world, but even as they approached one another, he knew it was more than that. They shouldn't have even contacted one another, considering that their sole purpose for landing on opposite sides of the world were so that if one of them fails to get a host or is somehow captured, the other one still has a chance. Yet once again the newly hybridized aliens began to feel those overwhelming sensations once again, especially as they put their hands up against one another.

"We should not be doing this," the other alien symbiote stated simply, though his words were betrayed by his actions as their fingers clasped together. "Even in this safe plane of existence we should not meet, but why do I feel this way? What are we thinking right now?"

"This is something new," the black, latex alien said. "I don't know why, but I must meet you... and not here either, in the real world."

"I'm afraid my host is unable to travel at the moment," the silver-skinned alien replied as he turned his head away. "If I leave now it's going to raise suspicion towards me, and I can't draw that kind of heat this early in our incursion."

There was a moment of silence between the two before the black alien spoke up. "This host has no real connections to speak of to this place," he said finally. "It is settled then, I will make the journey to you and then we can be together... I mean, we can sort out these confusing emotions we've seemed to have inherited. Just be safe until I get there."

"But what of your mission?" the other alien asked. "These humans are nothing if not mistrustful, and if you spend your time traveling to me, you can't set up a nest."

"I will assimilate along the way," the first symbiote replied. Before the other being could put up a protest he left the psychic plane, returning back to his body still sitting on the couch. The featureless rubber male stood back up once more and wordlessly walked back to the bathroom. There he found the mirror that the human had stared at mere minutes ago before he had taken over his form. Now it was time to take the process a step further, the alien thought to himself as he concentrated.

Almost instantly the rubber on his face began to sink in as the pigmentation changed, flesh tones replacing shiny black as the changes cascaded downwards. A horizontal slit appeared on the front of his face as the flesh-colored latex swelled out into a pair of lips. Nostrils opened and ears grew out and a slight itching sensation could be felt on his scalp as he grew out his hair. When the transformation finished he looked much like the human he had assimilated, save for some minor cosmetic changes. The word 'handsome' appeared in his mind and he quickly realized that such a concept was used by humans in order to lure others into their presence, something that he was more than willing to use for himself.

When he looked down at the body type of Jared his new lips fell into a bit of a frown. Memories from the human revealed that what he had wasn't the ideal body type, and the new Jared resolved to fix that immediately. He let out a small grunt as the paunch of fat that the ranger had developed from years of sitting at a desk in the station melted away instantly, replaced with a set of washboard abs that even the alien found sexy, despite having only been introduced to the concept a few hours ago. Once he got started he couldn't help but going all the way, making every muscle swell out in his body until he looked like a bodybuilder, then dialed it back to an athletic build when he realized it was too much. Once he was done, the word 'model' came to mind with his chiseled muscles and blemish-less features.

Once he had finished with his transformation he went to the human's bedroom and tried to pull on his clothes, only to realize his alterations had caused them all to fit funny. He resolved to take care of that in the future and grabbed a pair of sweats that were able to contain him as well as a heavy jacket and wallet with keys. Just as he was about to leave the ranger station, a sudden wave of fatigue washed over the alien and he mentally cursed that with his incursion into the psychic realm and his radical transformation, he used a lot of the body's physical energy. At this rate he knew he would be in trouble, unless he found something easy to assimilate, his journey may be short-lived.

Jared stumbled around in the ranger station, opening up various doors that led to nowhere he needed. As much as he wished he could use the memories of his human host, that would take energy as well, and right now he needed everything he had to keep himself upright. If he passed out or ran out of energy, he might lose his camouflage and anyone could stumble in and find out what he was. Luckily he finally passed through a door that led to the main entranceway of the ranger station, and there near the heat register and visitor sign-in station was what he was looking for.

"Well hello there," Jared said, the alien surprising himself with his sudden use of verbal language as he stripped naked, pulled the lid off the terrarium, and reached inside. The boa constrictor inside was at least six feet long and would cause any normal human to be wary of those coils wrapping around them, but for the symbiote it was exactly what he needed as he coaxed the creature to crawl up his hand. Though it seemed weary at first, it seemed to know its master enough by sight to start to slither over his body. As soon as enough of its body was anchored on his own he pulled the rest of it out and wrapped it around him.

Almost instantly the hungry latex tentacles began to emerge from his skin and wrap around the snake's body. It didn't take long for Jared to completely cover the reptilian creature, which continued to wiggle underneath the layer of skin until it was assimilated into latex. A small smile appeared on the alien's face when he realized that somewhere in the psychic realm a snake slithered about now, though it was unlikely to enjoy it being a creature of instinct that he was more used to. Once his skin once more returned to normal and he felt the familiar rush of energy he put on his clothes once again and continued towards the car he now knew was parked in the nearby garage. As he did strange thoughts began to filter into his mind that were brought unbidden by his feeding; the strange thought of humans with animal features that his host knew didn't actually exist, but were a part of the lore of this planet.

The alien tried to shake off yet another strange thought as he got into the garage and started the car. In the back of his mind though he continued to dwell on such creatures, though his main focus at that moment was the operation of the automobile that would get him to a place with more humans. While the snake was good physical energy, the mental energy he got from it was rather lacking, and he would need more in order to return to the psychic realm. Plus there was the abundance of physical energy, something he desperately needed for the next phase of his plan as he pulled out of the driveway and began to drive down the mountain.

*********************************

The moon was high in the sky when Jared drove his car into the empty parking lot of the department store of the small town. The rest of the town was fast asleep, and that's what the alien counted on as he got out of the car and made his way towards the darkened door. From the knowledge he assimilated, he knew that the tiny town really only had one night officer, someone to handle minor events and to call the sheriff if something bigger came up. What Jared hoped to do was to keep the response in the former category as he walked up to the door and pulled the handle. With his alien strength he easily popped the deadbolt and door lock and cracked the frame, which also would trigger the alarm which blared to life.

As Jared waited for the police officer to come, he browsed the small selection of clothing that they had, hoping they had something that would fit his new physique. The minutes passed and he thought about trying something on when he saw the flashing lights of the police car pull up to the front of the building. The vehicle stopped and the alien could hear barking from a dog, which Jared suddenly remembered was the German Shepherd the night officer had, and then the creak of the damaged door. "Hey, anyone in here?" the officer shouted out as the beam of a flashlight could be seen. "You are trespassing on private property, now whoever is here come out with your hands up!"

It took all the willpower the alien possessed not to snort at such an absurd comment as he pulled off his jacket and began to disrobe. With the officer the only one responding, there would be no need to keep up the disguise as his skin grew shiny and dark. As he once again retained his black latex skin, his thoughts turned to the humanoid animal creatures he had seen in his mind's eye and he realized that humans in and of themselves were not great bodies to hunt. These strange hybrids though, the ones he saw play out in his mind that came from a form of media called movies, always seemed to have the upper hand on the humans they hunted. It was then he realized what he was seeing, it was his rational instincts telling him that if he were to do the same, he would possess a very significant advantage over his prey.

As the rubber continued to develop, Jared concentrated and a scale-like pattern formed on the shiny surface that hadn't been there before as his hair and ears melted into his skull. Instead of his lips retreating, as well, he let out a small grunt as his face actually began to push out, forming into a familiar serpentine snout as his tailbone experienced a similar sensation. His jaw stretched wide as sharp fangs slid out and his wagging tongue grew thin and forked, the black alien looking at himself in surprise as his body mutated into that of a reptilian creature. Though his musculature and body type remained mostly the same, his feet grew thick and balanced with the tail that had grown out of his backside and he could feel the new speed and strength he possessed that surpassed even what he had in his symbiotic form.

Just as he was about to stand up he heard the police officer shout something and then came the sound of a leash hitting the floor and an animal running towards him. It didn't take long for the trained police dog to find what he was looking for, and as soon as it turned the corner and saw Jared's new body, it immediately skittered to a stop with a loud whine. "Well hello there," Jared chuckled lowly as tendrils of latex began to push out from his scales...

Officer Kyle Yates continued to carefully walk forward where his dog had ran, weapon drawn and flashlight up. Despite the fact that nothing appeared out of place, the fact the door looked like someone had kicked it open caused him to be overly cautious, feeling an unwarranted fear in the pit of his stomach. That sensation only grew when his dog suddenly stopped barking and everything went completely silent. He tried calling out to it, but when he got no answer his flashlight beam started to waver ever so slightly.

"Alright, whoever's in here you have the count of three to show yourselves with your hands in the air!" the officer shouted as he reached the spot where he had last seen the canine unit. "One... two..."

His last word stopped dead in his throat and his flashlight clattered to the floor when a very large creature stepped out from behind the shelf, the light shining on the black rubber skin of the alien creature in front of him. It looked like someone wearing a snake or lizard costume made out of latex, but the way the muscles moved and the pupil-less eyes stared straight at him betrayed the alien nature of it. What caused Kyle to nearly scream was the dog tail that stuck out of the creature's abdomen before black strands of rubber wrapped around it and completely covered it. "Three." The rubber snake alien said with an evil grin.

Kyle's gun fell to the ground as the human turned to run in sheer terror, only to be pounced to the ground a few feet away from where he had originally stood. As soon as Jared's body made contact with the startled male his features began to deform and melt, tentacles forming and wrapping around the struggling human. The alien grunted and managed to roll onto his back as the human was quickly pulled into his naked form, rubber effectively slithering up and coiling around his body. When Kyle finally found his voice and began to scream, his mouth was filled with one of the tentacles that had wrapped around his neck and shoulders, the only sound he was able to get out were some muffled cries as he watched the rest of his body sink into the larger latex creature.

The alien creature watched as the human continued to futilely struggle against him and his rubber. He could see the pair of hands stretch out his pectorals and abdomen while the rest of the body was merely a series of lumps under his skin. The last thing to disappear was Kyle's head, which the thick latex had spread up his neck and over his skull until it completely coated his face. The defining features of the human's head slowly disappeared as he was pulled inside completely.

Even before he had completely assimilated his latest prey, he knew he had enough mass now not only to permanently stabilize his form, but also to create what he would likely need to survive. While he converted the flesh to rubber, he closed his eyes and scanned the psychic plane where the two consciousnesses would be. The first he found was the real Jared, but he didn't want to use him quite yet, and extended his reach farther until he found who he was looking for. Both the German Shepherd and the human who identified himself was Kyle were in the same place, playing fetch in a grassy field they had created in his plane. The snake-headed creature grinned and closed his eyes, then in the next second, he opened them and found himself standing there in the same field.

"It's you..." a voice next to him said, the alien turning to see the human and dog walking towards him. "What did you do to us? Last thing I remember I was in the store and when I shined my flashlight I saw you standing there."

"The short explanation is I have assimilated your form in order to strengthen my own," the alien explained. "What your species calls a 'soul' was brought here during the process, along with your... companion."

"You ate my body and trapped my soul here?" Kyle repeated, his mouth slightly agape in shock.

"You are not trapped," the rubber snake creature replied. "Your psyche is free to leave here whenever you'd like and you will dissolve away from the place, what your kind would equate to death. However, I have an alternate proposition for you, one that would have you return to the material plane once again. I require a bodyguard and a guide to help navigate me somewhere in particular, as well as use your resources, and in exchange I will create a form for you to reside in."

"So you're saying my choices are to die, to stay here in this... place, or to work for you in exchange for being back out in the real world?" Kyle asked, to which the alien nodded.

"I will tell you now that the process will change you," the alien explained. "Normally I don't warn of such things, but I'm feeling something strange called... compassion? In any case, if you take a physical form you will no longer be human. You will be reborn as an alien like myself and as a servant to me much like this creature is a servant... no wait, that's not right... a pet, like this creature is a pet to you. Do you understand?"

The human stood there for a minute in deep contemplation, the alien able to feel his thoughts as he waited patiently for an answer. Finally Kyle looked up and gave him a slow nod, which caused the rubber snake to smile. "What about Trigger, though?" he asked as he pet the dog between the ears, which caused him to start to pant. "Is he coming with me?"

"He doesn't have enough sentience to be given a body of his own," the alien replied, though as he looked between the two, the smile on his muzzle widened even more. "But I think I have an idea since you two seem rather inseparable..."

Back in the real world the alien creature's eyes suddenly snapped open and began to glow fiercely as he let out a loud groan and his hulking, oversized body fell to its knees. His rubbery body began to quiver and deform as two lumps began to bulge out from his chest, the ends forming into hands as they stretched outwards. Soon a third bulge formed between the two outstretched arms, at first it looked like a humanoid head, but as soon as the newly formed latex was exposed to the air it mutated to form a muzzle and pair of pointy ears on the top of its head. As the maw split open and stretched its new jaws the alien's pectorals doubled in size, then separated out as the upper torso formed from the snake alien's form.

The alien creature hissed loudly as he felt his hips and legs stretch out as the rubber canine continued to split off of him, the latex that comprised both their bodies undulating and writhing while it formed the new body of the second creature. He was just glad that he didn't have the complex internal organs, bone, or muscular structures that humans had as he rolled back on his heels. As he fell backwards the new rubber alien stumbled forward, his own feet forming as they stepped out of the synthetic snake's before he nearly crashed into a nearby display case. The original alien took a minute for his body to resolidify as he watched his creation wobble around while he tried to get used to his new form.

Once he had properly stabilized himself, he stood up just as Kyle seemed to regain enough composure to keep his footing as he turned towards the alien. "How are you feeling?" The alien asked as the former human looked down at himself in awe.

"I feel... amazing..." Kyle replied as he grew more confident with his body in every passing second. "I was in an accident a few years ago and the bones never set properly and caused me constant aches, but now they've completely disappeared! It's like you gave me a whole new body, one that was even better than my human body in my prime!"

The reptilian rubber creature watched in mild amusement as his newest offspring ran and jumped around to test the limits of his new form. For all intents and purposes he had, the alien mused as the canine creature jumped and did a standing backflip, his muscular body completely comprised of his own xenomorphic material that shined in the light from his muzzle to his tail. As he continued to admire every curve, every bulge of muscle from the naked male, he suddenly had to pull away when he felt his arousal build once more, catching the alien by surprise as Kyle bounded up to him.

"I thought you said that Trigger was going to come out with me, though?" Kyle asked, to which the serpentine creature held up a clawed figure before he reached down and picked up a piece of wood from one of the shelves. With the knowledge he had gained from his newest acquisition, he tossed it over Kyle's head and down the aisle. "I got it!" He shouted before he practically ran on all fours, skidded to a stop and grabbed it, then ran back and dropped it at the alien's feet before he suddenly looked confused.

"Trigger is with you," the alien clarified as he picked up the stick again and the former human found himself wagging his tail. "As I said before he didn't have enough sentiency to gain a full body like yourself, and to make a dog form wouldn't be worth the effort, so I merged his instincts with your consciousness. In a way, you are Trigger now."

Kyle just nodded slowly and ran his hands down his new form, which once more caused the alien to look away as his drone explored himself. "We should actually get going," the rubber canine said as he suddenly looked around. "I left my lights on, and if I stay here too long people are going to get suspicious. We can deposit my squad car back in the motorpool and pick up my own vehicle, then get started to the airport after I pick up a few things."

The alien just nodded and walked out with his newest creation, his mind in deep contemplation. This had never been part of the plan, he thought to himself, this town would be the perfect place to start a nest after his first drone conversion. His first acquisition was also strange, as well, as he watched the former human hop into his car and turn the lights off. Normally he would have molded the personality until it was mindless and obedient, but this time he left everything mostly intact. How much of these human emotions have affected him, and will they continue to warp his senses?

"Alright, off we go," Kyle said as he started up his car after having to adjust his seat all the way back to accompany his new form. "By the way, what do I call you? You have a name?"

The serpentine creature was about to curtly tell him he was to be addressed as Master, but even as he opened his mouth, the words didn't come out. The assimilated information in his head bubbled to the surface that having someone call him such, even if he was his bodyguard, would look strange in this society, so his mind began to churn for alternatives. "I... I don't know..." he finally admitted. "This human form was named Jared."

"Jared from the ranger station?" Kyle replied in surprise before he turned to focus on the road once more. "Well that won't do for you since you aren't him, but I'm sure we could think of something while we travel. You at least know where we're going, right?"