FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Wind was rushing through Kanno's hair as he ran across the roof of a darkened high-rise building, the neon holograms of the advertising billboards far below him casting a ghoulish glow upon his face as he clenched a data chip tightly in his hand. He panted loudly as he dashed past steam stacks and ventilation ducts, before slipping behind one and slumping to the ground to try to catch his breath. He peeked his head around the corner just in time to spot a trio of armed guards storm up the fire escape stairs, sweeping their laser-pointed weapons in slow arcs, searching for something.

Searching for him.

"Shit..." he muttered to himself as he slipped the data chip into his pocket, before glancing around his half of the rooftop nervously; if he didn't find a way out of here, then he'd have far more to worry about than ExaCorp's hired goons getting him. Being a runner was often a risky business; it usually involved the transportation of either highly classified or dangerous information, and if you screwed up and were nabbed, your employer would often take steps to ensure that nothing gets leaked.

He rubbed the back of his neck, his fingers brushing past the black fur and white hair to press against the device hooked up to the dataports hidden back there. If it looked like he was going to be captured, an outside party, his employer maybe, would activate the micro-EMP generator mounted on his neural interface and burn out every piece of electronics within three metres. It would wipe the precious data chip he was carrying, but more importantly, it would destroy his memory storage devices, leaving him completely unaware of who he was, or what he was doing.

The lion growled a little to himself as the goons approached, casting his gaze desperately around the rooftop now; he'd seen enough people taken down by micro-EMPs to know that he would rather die than suffer through that devastation. He tapped at his boot nervously as he looked around for a way out, before spotting the building adjacent to his, on the other side of a busy street. The jump was a dozen metres, maybe more. Far too far to jump, normally. But lucky for him, he had an advantage, something that was doubtful the ExaCorp thugs would have.

He tapped a command into his wrist computer and glanced nervously back at the guards, before taking a deep, calming breath, then breaking from his cover and sprinting towards the edge of the building. Immediately, the guards spun around towards him, their rifles raised, but before they could do more than bring their fingers to their triggers, Kanno's boots were already hitting the ledge.

As he kicked off, a deep rumble emanated from his boots, before a miniature explosion erupted from his soles. The extra force from his thrust boots catapulted him into the air and lasted for all of three seconds, before cutting out with a loud whine. He gulped loudly in mid flight and looked down, "Oh, not good, not good!"

He flailed his arms as he reached towards the ledge before him, his heart plummeting almost as fast as he was as he soared towards the building across the busy road beneath him. He managed to grab hold of the ledge with his fingertips as he impacted the wall with a dull thud, the force of the collision almost enough to dislodge himself from the wall. But his fingers were quivering and straining to hold on, and before he could do more than look down, his fingertips lost their grip.

Kanno fell, his arms splayed out as he plummeted the many dozens of stories towards the bustling road below. He careened through a holographic display, scattering hundreds of pinpricks of light as he tumbled, like a cybernetic Icarus falling from the heavens as his wings disintegrated. Unbidden memories flooded his mind as his eyes drifted closed in acceptance of his fate, of family long since abandoned, of friends long since driven away. He was truly alone as he fell, with no-one to fall back on or rely on. He had no-one...

But himself.

His eyes flew open as a surge of self-preservation rushed through him. He was looking down at the approaching ground beneath him now, still at least ten seconds away at his current speed. He glanced to the building racing past him and spotted an emergency stairwell clinging to the outer wall and did a few quick calculations in his head. He glanced down at his wrist computer and took note of how much fuel he had left in his boots; about enough for a two second burn, at most. Maybe enough to slow him down.

Maybe.

Kanno spread his arms and legs to right himself and manoeuvred himself closer to the building whizzing by him, the wrought iron and sheer concrete of the structure coming dangerously close to grinding away some of his fur and skin. He pointed his feet down and took a breath, before activating his boots again.

This time, a foot-long gout of flame shot out from his boots, causing his legs to wobble unsteadily as he tried to keep them pointed down. His vertical speed plummeted rapidly so that the building was no longer a blur, and he could now make out windows and floors as he dropped passed them. With the last dregs of fuel in his tanks, he angled his feet down to push him towards the wall and the emergency stairwell.

It took all of his strength, but he managed to grab hold of one of the railings and stay there, almost dislocating his arm in the process. Kanno winced through the pain and hauled himself onto the landing, before glancing up to the top of the megatower he had just fallen off of; almost indiscernible from the darkness of the inner-city sky, two tiny figures were looking down and watching. There was no way that they would be able to see him from there, so they were likely waiting for something, maybe the reaction of the crowd, he reasoned, to a body hitting the pavement at high speed. Knowing that he was likely still on the run, he dashed down the fire escape as fast as he could to join the throng of people below.

Kanno was out of breath by the time he reached the drop off point, having sprinted through the crowd and an arcade to make it in time. Glancing around nervously to make sure that he wasn't being followed, he took a few cautious steps into the alleyway and approached one of the many trash bins neatly lined up against the wall of one of the buildings. Steam coiled away from a AC unit as Kanno gently lifted the lid off the thirteenth can in the row and attached the data chip to the underside with a piece of adhesive tape.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he replaced the lid, before his ears twitched at the sound of something heavy hitting the ground behind him. He spun around, startled, and saw a figure slowly straightening up in the darkness of the alley. Her glowing purple eyes fixated on Kanno as he took a nervous step backwards, to which she replied by taking one forwards. This was enough to bring her partially into the light, but this did little to assuage his fear.

She seemed about his height or maybe an inch or so taller, but that was where the similarities ended; upon closer inspection, she was definitely a tiger, and instead of fur, she seemed covered in a layer of black latex. No, that didn't seem right. It wasn't that she was coated in the stuff, it was like she was made out of it! And there was no argument to be made that her gender was ambiguous either, since all of her assets were on display to the world. Along her upper arms and her thighs were a pair of dark blue armour plates (that matched the colour of her head too), while her forearms and shins were covered by heavier white and pink armour. She had a pair of heavy looking, clawed gauntlets pulled over her arms too, and was pointing the palm of her hand at him.

Kanno stared at her, dumbfounded, as this creature shook out her mane of white hard-light hair, before settling her gaze back down upon the terrified lion. But instead of saying anything, she sauntered over to the bin he had left the data chip in and opened it. She removed it without even pausing to look for it, before turning back to him, "So, you're XR24, huh?" she asked him in a soft, sultry voice.

Kanno was taken aback, not the least because she called him by the pseudonym he used when taking on runner jobs; now that she was closer, he could pick out details that he hadn't noticed before; her face, he had originally assumed, was either a hologram or some kind of mask. But watching the way she talked, it seemed too fluid and synced to her words too well to be either of those.

His unknown assailant chuckling brought him out of his daze, before he felt his chin lifted by a single clawed digit as she inspected his features with near-mechanical precision, "So, you've caught my interest, Kanno," she commented as she looked over him, as if the fact that she knew his real name was as inconsequential as the weather, "Twenty-five successful drops made, from everyone from Mimito Biotech to Exacorp. You've got quite a bit of skill behind that fluffy head of yours, don't you?"

Kanno growled a little and swatted her hand away as he stared indignantly at her, an ember of anger sparking in his belly, "Who the hell do you think you are!?" he snarled; he had already survived one certain death scenario tonight, why not go for broke?

She just tutted softly and was quiet for a moment as she pondered her response, before acquiescing, "Very well, since I know a fair bit about you, it would only be fair. I'm, well, people call me 13. I'm a DIGOS Unit, and we've been watching you for a while now."

Kanno was instantly taken aback and folded his ears, his fiery ember of anger now replaced with a cold pit of dread; he had heard of the DIGOS, even if it was just scuttlebutt. Not much was known about them, but wherever they were seen, strange disappearances weren't too far behind.

"W-why?" he managed to stammer out, feeling more in danger now than he had when falling earlier, "Why have you been watching me?"

13 shrugged nonchalantly and smirked a little, "We, or I guess more in particular I, was interested in your skills. Your adaptability and resourcefulness..." she trailed off, before giggling softly and scritching under his chin playfully, "It helped that you're such a cutie too!"

Kanno's face turned crimson under his fur as he lifted his head away from her dancing claws, before a thought crossed his mind, "Was that you messing with my boots? I tested those systems before coming out here, I know they were working fine up until I made that jump!" he accused, frowning at the Unit.

She sighed a little, "Technically, no, it wasn't me. But it was done on my orders. I wanted to see what you would do in that situation," she explained, looking a little uncomfortable nonetheless.

He growled angrily, "Why, might I ask, were you trying to kill me?" he retorted, his anger now starting to reassert itself.

She snickered softly and tapped the side of his leg with her own, yet to Kanno, it felt like his legs had been swept away from underneath him as he was sent tumbling to the ground. 13 strode over sultrily, her every footfall clacking as she approached, before pointing the glowing orb in the centre of her gauntlet at him, "Trust me, if I wanted you dead, we wouldn't be having this conversation..." she commented, glaring a little down at him. After a moment, she powered down her weapon and held out her hand to help him up, "I have a proposition for you."

Kanno was loathe to take her hand, but the mention of an offer left him intrigued. He grumbled and hauled himself up with her help, before leaning against the wall of the alley and waiting for her to elaborate.

13 shook her head, bemused, "We know you have no surviving family, nor any close friends. Our models indicate that you're passively suicidal; you won't go out of your way to kill yourself, but if a speeder was heading towards you, you likely wouldn't get out of the way. You feel like you have no purpose in life anymore, that you're just drifting around, taking jobs as they catch your eye and doing them almost solely for the thrill of it. Is that right?"

He stared at her, open-mouthed in startled silence as her words hit home. Their piercing weight tore through him, all the more so because he knew each and every word was true, "H-how do you know all that?" he managed to stammer out.

She giggled in response and winked at him, "We've got a couple of very, very smart people in our midst," she replied, but it seemed obvious to Kanno that there was something else she wasn't telling him. Then, in an instant, it hit him.

"You've got AIs!" he exclaimed, staring at her incredulously, "That's the only way you could have psychological models that precise and be able to hack through the security I have on my stuff!"

13 smiled slyly at him and bowed her head, "We do have an AI or two in our possession, yes," she admits, grinning a little now.

"But why do you need me then? If you have access to AIs, what help could I possibly be?"

She shrugged, "It's a long story. One of them is extremely specialised, and the other, well. She doesn't have your street smarts and knowledge. But more importantly, none of them have your instincts. And that's what I'm after."

Kanno tilted his head, obviously confused, and starting to grow a little concerned, "A-and what does that mean for me?" he asked nervously.

"Normally, we'd invite you to join our little collective... But I have something in special in mind for you," she replied softly, slowly starting to approach him with dainty, measured steps, "You see, while a Unit such as myself has access to a range of abilities, there's something more that's needed to unlock all of them..."

Kanno shuffled back a little closer against the wall, suddenly really not liking where this conversation was going, especially as 13 draped her arms over his shoulders. But there was something about her, about the way she was talking to him, about the way she talked about him, something sensual and alluring. He felt her fiddling around with something behind his neck, before he felt the micro-EMP generator falling to the ground behind him.

"Units are born incomplete. We need a biological mind and body to help bring everything together. And I'd like you to help me."

She pulled back as she said those last words, their noses almost touching now as her purple eyes, now softer, stared into his.

But Kanno was trembling a little now with nerves, "H-how?"

13 smiled and reached up to her collarbone, before digging a claw in and tugging it down her armour-free belly. As she pulled, like a zipper, the latex making up her chest parted to reveal a hollow inside, just big enough to fit someone if they squirmed in.

"By climbing in," she replied once she had slit open her torso from collarbone to groin, the barest hint of a smirk dancing across her lips momentarily.

Kanno glanced between the void in her chest and her face, "What will happen to me?" he asked quietly, still a little concerned, but more curious now than anything else.

She smiled cryptically in response, "We, become us. I'll feed my sensory inputs into yours, and we both decide where we go from there. We can give you a purpose again."

Kanno's mind raced as he scanned through everything, before bowing his head with a slight smirk, "Aww, what the hell. It's not like my life amounts to much out here anyway," he acquiesced, "What do I need to do?"

Her smile turned into a grin at this point as she licked her lips, "First? Strip off. You won't need clothes anymore, not when you've got me!"

Kanno sighed a little, a part of his mind convinced he was dreaming or something, before complying with her request and removing his clothes, leaving them in a messy pile on the ground, on top of which he reverently placed his thruster boots. He shivered a little as a chill gust of wind blew through the alleyway, before he turned to face 13, "O-okay, now what?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around himself to keep him warm.

She twirled an index finger in the global symbol for turning around; he grumbled a little and complied, but before he could utter a witty retort, he was picked up by the hips by a pair of surprisingly strong hands. 13 gently lifted him up against her chest, allowing the bottom of his bare feet to dangle against the opening in her chest, "Just like putting on a suit," she reassured him as she gently lowered the lion into her.

Kanno's nerves had returned, but at this point it was far too late to do anything about it. He angled his feet as best as he could as he was lowered into her cavity, his legs seeming to fit perfectly to her inner void... The implications were numerous and disturbing, and not something he wanted to consider right now.

As his feet slid into hers and his legs and torso settled into place, the seam started to slowly seal itself up, prompting the latex below the belt to spring to life. It latched onto his body like a vice and held him close, before Kanno yelped in surprise as he felt it engulf his nethers. But what was more surprising was the latex pushing inside his rump, causing him to squirm and whimper.

He gritted his teeth though and threaded his arms through hers, his fingers slipping into hers perfectly like they were expertly tailored gloves. The same thing happened with his arms then, as the latex latched onto his limbs and held itself tightly to him.

At this point, the seam had almost completely disappeared, save for the just enough space he'd need to get her head on. He took a deep breath and pulled it over his eyes and wriggled it down his neck. The instant it was settled, two things happened; first, he felt the latex pulling itself close to his face, before it started to shove itself into his mouth and nose. He gagged and writhed only for a split second, until something connected to the dataports on the back of his neck and seemed to pull himself from his body. He was now staring out through her eyes, minimally obscured by a bang of her hard-light hair.

"Our hard-light hair, you mean?" a soft voice whispered in his mind, as his new arm reached up to brush it aside; Kanno wasn't entirely sure if it was under his own control or hers at this point, "But why not both?"_13 asked sultrily as they dropped a hand down to rest on her breast, _"We should probably head back to the complex, no doubt Amby is already missing her drone we borrowed,"

The instant her words appeared in his mind he knew what she was talking about; the buried complex about 100 kilometres outside the city limits, the Unit, Amby, and that peculiar AI drone that had hacked past his systems. He thought for a moment, before turning to the discarded pile of clothes on the ground and pointing his palm at it. With barely a flick of his thoughts, a blaster bolt erupted from the gauntlet and impacted his thruster boots, all but disintegrating it in an instant.

"I'd rather not leave it to scavengers," he explained, "I'd rather see them as melted slag,"

With a nod, satisfied that his, or rather their, work was done, they took one last look around the alleyway, before grinning and slipping out of sight, back into the shadows.