FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rodney bounced on his toes and knocked on the door, trying to keep his tail from lashing too hard. When it opened and the bulk of his friend filled the door frame, he tried to duck into the narrow space between his lats and the standard-issue cream-painted wood.

"Hey there," the snow leopard said breathlessly. "Where is it? I want to see!"

Cooper thumped a large paw on the door frame, his thick arm rippling with the impact. His long ears flicked and he stared down at the smaller cat with a bemused expression, doing his best to look severe.

"Whoa. Where's your manners, son? Good evening, how are you, my you're filling out that tank top really well today."

To his credit, Rodney's small ears folded and he did a good approximation of looking abashed. "Sorry." He stretched up on his toes to kiss the kangaroo on the cheek, lingering just long enough to purr into his ear. "Good evening, stud. Thanks for having me over."

The big kangaroo looked mollified by that, rising up to his full height and thumping to the side so Rodney could come in. "That's better. Good evening yourself."

Rodney slipped in and closed the door behind him. Cooper's apartment was usually a sparse affair - low, functional furniture spaced far apart to make room for the roo's immense feet, legs and tail - but now it looked like it had been gutted. The large couch had been moved back to the wall right next to the door, trapping a bookshelf. The coffee table had been pushed beneath the big-screen TV to the left, and the recliner had been moved to the "exercise nook" in the far left corner of the place, next to the kitchen. The huge Aboriginal rug in the center of the room was exposed, a whirl of black and red and yellow and white dots arranged in sweeping circles.

Cooper moved through the empty space with a sort of brutish grace. Rodney took a moment to appreciate it; the way his heavy tail swayed in his wake, balancing the motion of his rump, legs and arms caused his entire body to sing with strength and size that should have been incredibly awkward. He made it work somehow, but that was the gift of the kangaroo - making a coherent whole out of a bunch of disparate parts.

"Do you really think we're going to need this much room?" Rodney circled around the room and stood in the middle of the big bare spot. He couldn't imagine the space being filled.

Cooper looked back at him with a smirk as he entered the kitchen. "Better safe than sorry. I'd rather put in too much work now than have you break something of mine."

The leopard mewed in protest. "Hey, I'm not going to be that clumsy!"

"I've been about this big my entire life, so I've had plenty of time to get used to it. And you've seen how often I bump into things even still." The kangaroo opened the refrigerator, ducking down to peer inside. He was all but invisible now, except for the tip of that massive tail still in the kitchen's doorway. "Trust me, you don't know what it's like. You're going to be all thumbs through most of it."

Rodney smirked, then bounced towards the low partition separating the kitchen from the living room in two easy steps. He bounded onto one of the stools, leaning over the counter to peer at the 'roo. "You say this like you've had some experience."

Cooper simply snorted. Rodney waited for the silence to fall for a few moments before asking, "So, can I see it?"

Cooper pulled something out of the fridge, spun around and thumped a water bottle full of golden liquid in front of the cat. "Here, drink this."

Rodney wrinkled his nose. "What is it?"

"It's chamomile tea."

"OK, why?"

"It'll help make sure the current spreads easily throughout your body."

"Wait, what?"

Cooper shrugged. "It's what Dr. Fossle told me. Something about chemicals making it easier for the process to work."

Rodney's whiskers bristled, but he took the bottle and began to drink. "Sounds like bullshit to me."

Cooper's broad shoulders lifted in a shrug. "Sounds like bunkum to me, too. But if we trust Dr. Fossle can invent a machine that does what he says it does, I guess we've gotta trust him to know what he's talking about here, too."

"I guess so." Rodney took a long drink and stuck out his tongue. "Tastes awful."

The kangaroo chuckled and leaned on the counter. "Oh, shut up and stop being such a baby. Just because it's not loaded with sugar and crap."

"It's not the sugar, it's the fat." Rodney's tail lashed once. "We've been over this."

"I know, but it's still fun to take the piss out of ya." Cooper's massive covered the top of the leopard's head and ruffled his fur quite a bit. "Now finish your drink; when you're done we can get started."

"Can I see it?" Rodney took a deep breath, and then another deep drink.

"When you're done with your tea." Cooper laughed at the look the cat gave him. "All right, fine, you great big whiner. Hold on a minute." The kangaroo walked into the bedroom, giving Rodney a great opportunity to watch that ass and tail in motion for nearly a full minute before it rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

He barely had time to imagine what the contraption looked like before Cooper came back with it in his paws. It looked like some kind of alien artifact; all smooth and shiny metal with two strange liquid-looking tendrils coming out of a base that was roughly the size and shape of a watermelon. The only thing that made it look remotely terrestrial was a cord sticking out the bottom with a standard plug on the other end.

"So....how in the world do you use it?" Rodney slipped off the stool and padded towards him on quiet feet. He tried to keep his voice casual, but his tail betrayed him by lashing violently behind him.

Cooper glanced at the long, fluffed appendage and chuckled. "Well, there's a little attachment that goes here--" he bobbled the thing in one paw and pointed to one of the tendrils--"and you simply breathe in when a light comes on."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Cooper squatted down in front of an outlet and plugged it in. Almost instantly parts of the metal base lit up - flashing red, then solid red, then yellow, and finally green. It took more than enough time for Rodney to be able to finish his drink. "It's ready whenever you are."

The snow leopard felt his heart beating quickly in his chest. His mouth went dry. If this worked... "I still can't believe it all works."

Cooper chuckled and leaned back on his tail. "I can barely believe it myself, to be honest. But from what little I know about the science, it's sound. The trick is getting enough energy to convert into solid matter. But once you have a good enough energy supply and the means to convert it properly, why shouldn't it work?"

Rodney shrugged. "It just doesn't seem like it should, is all."

"Well, we don't have to go through with it..."

"I wasn't saying that!" The cat stepped right up to Cooper and tried to ignore the fact that the kangaroo was two feet taller and three times his weight. "I'm just saying, if it was so easy to do it, why hasn't someone invented this already?"

"It's not easy, mate, that's the thing. And I'm sure they've had the ability to do it for a while - just not the ability to do it easily or safely. You know how complex this process is. We've been preparing for like, a month. Daily nanotech pills - you did take your nanites, right?"

Rodney nodded.

Cooper narrowed his eyes. "Every day?"

"Yes!" Rodney didn't think it was necessary to tell the kangaroo about the three times he had forgotten - he made up for it with a double dose the next day, so what was the harm?

The kangaroo nodded, the tension in his massive body fading. "Good. This is just a prototype, anyway. Even if it works, it's a long way from going to market."

"Market? Can you imagine, being able to buy this and grow to any size that you want?" Rodney practically drooled at the prospect.

Cooper grinned. "Oh, trust me, I don't think it'll go that far. Once the government gets wind of this they'll want to clamp down on it really quick. So it's best if we have our fun with it while we can." He waggled his eyebrows. "So are you ready?"

Rodney nodded wordlessly and tried to swallow the heart that had leapt into his throat. All of his life, he had been the smallest of his friends - short and light, any mass he appeared to have nothing more than a trick of the thick fur that was his birthright. He had been fascinated with size, wondering why he wasn't as big as the other cats that he knew, or even the herbivores that mostly towered over him. Now, at long last, he had the opportunity to change that.

At least, for a little while. The experiment was to last for no longer than 24 hours, and during that time he was not allowed to leave the apartment. Once the 24 hours were up, the nanites suffusing his entire body would start breaking down the extra mass and producing energy as a waste product automatically. He had been told he would need to use the conversion apparatus to "ground" himself, or there was the remote possibility that he would catch fire or become some sort of instant lightning bolt. While that sounded like a cool superhero origin story, it really wasn't a risk that Rodney had wanted to take.

He took a deep breath and stepped forward. Cooper dug into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be a mouth guard with an antenna sticking out one end. "All right then, bite down on this. We need to make sure that the nanites are at the proper saturation point and that they've done their job properly."

Rodney bit down dutifully, and crossed his eyes to look at the thin metal tube jutting out in front of his nose. Underneath the metal, a red light slowly approached the rounded end, then turned yellow, and then turned green. He felt his teeth buzz with the cheery little beep that presumably told him the measurement had been taken.

The kangaroo glanced at his phone and nodded, his muzzle spreading into a slow grin. "All right then. Everything checks out. You're ready."

"Now, what's going to happen next is going to feel a little weird. You'll breathe in, and then you'll feel like you're...buzzing or something. And you're going to feel really amped up, like you want to run around and bounce off the walls and stuff. It's really important that you stay still and let the nanites do their job, OK? You don't want to give the energy a chance to escape." Cooper set the Conversion Apparatus down and attached a strange metal cup off one edge; it looked like one of those muzzle masks people wore in the hospital or on airplanes, only shiny and high-tech.

Rodney perked his ears. "You sound like you've done this before."

The kangaroo's long ears swept back. "Well, I took this thing out for a test run a few days ago. Had to know it worked, right?"

The leopard pouted. "Awww, you went ahead and did it without me? I would have at least wanted to be there! I can't believe you were the first person to use it!"

Cooper shrugged and waved the cat over. "I'm not gonna ask you to try some highly-dangerous experimental machine without knowing what it's going to be like to do it. It's irresponsible."

Rodney crooked a grin as he stepped forward. "This whole thing is irresponsible. It shouldn't even be out of the lab, right? The nanites or the apparatus."

The kangaroo grabbed his hand and tugged him down until he was on his knees. "Well, no. Not technically. Which is why we should be careful with it, but have fun with it too."

"Oh, I plan on it."

"I know you do," Cooper chuckled. "Now lie down. It's easier to be still if you're already resting comfortably."

The leopard obliged. The rug in the center of the room was rough and scratchy, digging into his back. He barely felt it, though. He was so excited he felt a tingling in his fingers. It was almost as if the energy was filling him already. He forced himself to take a breath, wriggling on top of the uncomfortable floor.

Cooper must have noticed. "Sorry about that. I keep forgetting how scratchy that rug is."

"Don't worry about it. Give me the apparatus." He grinned big at the kangaroo, who flicked his ear with a chuff.

"Here you go, jerk." The big marsupial held the apparatus above him and tipped it so the face-mask rested right above his nose.

Rodney lifted his neck so that the tip of his snout pressed into the cool plastic. The smell of it was kind of like a hospital, sterile in that aggressively-scrubbed way. Cooper pushed a button and immediately he smelled something different entirely; a rainstorm without the rain, or the air around an electric fence. Then he felt the air in his nose buzz right down into his throat, through his lungs and into his bloodstream.

The cat was a fairly energetic sort anyway, but this was something different entirely. It felt like every muscle, every strand of fur, tingled and rose. It felt like he was built to move, and that right now he needed to get up and run somewhere, anywhere.

"Steady," he heard Cooper saying, and he remembered that he was supposed to be staying still. But it was the hardest thing in the world; his heart hammered inside his chest, and his tail lashed against the carpet. The pins and needles of the carpet at his back made it that much worse.

Then it felt like his whole body was falling asleep, making him squirm for a different reason. His breathing was heavy and quick; he could feel his chest rising and falling, and then rising...and rising.

The growth was such a strange sensation. It felt like his whole body was stretching; he could feel muscles and tendons tensing, lengthening, straining until he could feel it in his joints. And then everything kind of shifted to accommodate. His chest pushed against his skin, which stretched around his growing frame, forcing his fur to prickle and grow to compensate. Then the whole process began again.

He heard himself laugh, the sound booming and then deepening as his back spread against the carpet. It was happening. It was really happening! He could feel his heels pushing off the edge of the carpet, feel his limbs growing heavier and stronger. Rodney couldn't tell if the tingling in his head was the process working its way through him or the elation he felt at having this impossible dream come true.

"It's something special, ain't it?" Cooper's voice sounded lighter, further away somehow. The big (and growing) cat turned to face him and felt the breathing mask slipping off his muzzle, which was now too broad for it.

Rodney purred. He couldn't stop smiling, feeling it spread further as he grew. Even his teeth felt huge, sharp and wicked. He felt the floor beneath him rumbling with the sound of his voice. "It's amazing."

"You're damned right it is." Cooper grinned and planted a paw on the leopard's chest. It felt so small, sinking into the plush fur there. He couldn't resist flexing into it, pushing up just as the kangaroo was pulling his hand away.

"Can I move now?" He lifted his neck, surprised at the feel of his head's weight.

Cooper was hugging the Conversion Apparatus against his thick torso, poking at the egg-shaped base with a small frown. He glanced up, his expression lightening immediately. "Oh, of course. Sit up carefully, stretch a little, feel your new body. You're, uh, still growing, mind."

"Something wrong?" Rodney rose up to sit, planting his paws on the scratchy carpet. The world sunk a lot more quickly than he was expecting, enough to make his head spin. "Oh. Geez."

Cooper smirked as he looked up. "Told you."

"Feels so strange." The now-giant leopard looked at the wall of the kitchen ahead of him, trying to focus on it so that he didn't feel quite so dizzy. His brain adjusted slowly. "But good, too."

The kangaroo was poking at the Conversion Apparatus a few times, and muttered something under his breath. When he spoke again, his tone was distracted. "I'm surprised you haven't tried to jump my bones yet."

Rodney's tail made an audible thump on the carpet. "Give me a few minutes. Once my head stops spinning you're in trouble."

It didn't help that Rodney was still growing, albeit not as quickly as before. But he could feel his hand spreading over more of the carpet, feel his rear and heels sliding along the floor. His head inched towards the ceiling, and the neutral spot along the wall he chose to focus on was sinking lower and lower. When the big cat took a breath, he felt his chest inflate grandly; when he exhaled, it didn't go down nearly as far. There really wasn't a feeling that could compare to it. It made him feel so...invincible.

His sheath swelled between his legs, and as soon as he felt its weight the thickly-furred tube had his full attention. He resisted the urge to squeeze it, though he was sure Cooper wouldn't mind. It just felt odd to be pawing off right in front of the kangaroo while he was messing around with some contraption. It would be best to wait until he had the marsupial under his spell.

"So what's wrong with this thing?" Rodney leaned forward, twisting his body to one side so he could get a better look. Muscles that he had never noticed before rippled underneath his pelt, and he was surprised by the way he actually had to navigate around his own bulk just to plant his paw on the ground. The shifting made the apartment rumble; he could hear glasses and dishes in the kitchen shuddering uneasily.

"Eh, it won't turn off." Cooper was disappointingly focused on the apparatus, poking at one side of the smooth metal object. Lights kept blinking underneath the glossy surface, flashing green, then blinking yellow, then going solid red for a few seconds before repeating the whole cycle again. "Usually when it runs out of its energy stores the whole thing shuts down automatically. But it's not doing that."

Rodney raised a brow and leaned in closer, as much to get a better look at the kangaroo as to keep his ears from brushing against one of the hanging lights. "Weird. Shouldn't you just unplug it?"

Cooper shook his head. "Not if there's still energy inside there. It needs a power source to keep it all contained. Unplug it, and there's nothing keeping all the energy where it's supposed to be."

"Sounds like a design flaw." The cat hunched down, feeling his shoulders bunch and his thick fur bristle. Oh yes, he could certainly get used to this.

"Well, they haven't worked out the possibilities for every situation." Cooper finally looked up at Rodney; the cat purred at the shocked look he was given. "I guess that's why the good doctor had me field test it."

Rodney chuckled, thumping one broad paw right next to the kangaroo. "Well, if there's still energy inside of it, maybe I should have a second go-round, yes? Then once it's drained you disconnect it really quick."

Cooper laughed and shook his head, leaning back on his tail. Rodney could tell that he was having a hard time taking his eyes off of him, that vastly-improved physique holding the roo's interest quite well. "You're big enough, mate, and you aren't even done yet. I'm not gonna have you wreck my apartment to get your jollies."

"Awwwww." Rodney turned until he was on his knees. He felt the wooden floorboards creak and bend quite a bit underneath him, and the entire room shook when he put his other paw down on Cooper's other side, framing the little marsupial with his body. Just the fact that he had been able to do this was thrilling; this time his sheath stirred again and he could feel the tip of his member pushing out into open air. He did nothing to discourage it. "Just a little taste? I promise I'll be extra careful."

The kangaroo took an instinctive step back and shifted the apparatus to one side. "No way - if it's malfunctioning there's no telling what it might do. We've got to be responsible, remember?"

Rodney shifted his weight, feeling the room struggle to hold him. He was still growing, but the rate had slowed to the point that it was barely perceptible. He had no idea how big he was, all hunched up like this in the main room. But he did know that he still loomed over Cooper, his arms bent around his bodybuilder's chest, the massive ruff of fur brushing against the floor between his paws. He glanced at the apparatus and bared his fangs in a mischievous grin. All he had to do was reach out and take it. There was absolutely no way for the kangaroo to stop him.

"There's something about being a giant that makes you want to behave irresponsibly. Surely you know what that's like." The leopard felt almost drunk with power, and he was surprised by how completely it had overtaken him. He never would have done something like this before. He leaned down further, forcing his chest to bump the floor so he could meet the kangaroo's eyes. "Besides, taking something like this out of a controlled environment without any safeguards? You're just begging for some sort of accident."

Cooper grunted when Rodney's lips took the face mask into his maw and began to suck. The kangaroo tugged, and the snow leopard responded by rising up, his bullishly-thick neck rippling with the motion. Just like that, Cooper was taken off his feet, dangling a few feet in the air and clutching the Conversion Apparatus for dear life.

"Dude, what's gotten into you? Put that down right now!" Cooper glanced down, his oversized hindpaws bicycling in the open air. Rodney responded with a rumbling purr and a shake of the head.

It amused him to see the kangaroo bark in fright and scrabble at the smooth sides of the apparatus for some kind of purchase. Rodney could feel the tiny string of metal connected to the face mask warm, and he felt the buzzing between his lips that told him energy was being siphoned. He closed his eyes and waited for the rush of bliss to overtake him, sinking back onto his rump. The room shook and several of the floorboards cracked, but he scarcely noticed.

The tension of the apparatus was suddenly gone; either the plug had come out of the wall or the cord had broken. That didn't grab Rodney's attention, but the sudden whirr of the apparatus did. He opened his eyes in time to see the whole base begin to light up with some kind of electric heat. At first it was purple, but then it rapidly built to white. There was a sudden pop, and a bolt of lightning passed from the machine to the kangaroo holding on to it.

Rodney opened his mouth to gasp and the apparatus fell away, but not before Cooper shot like a bullet towards the outside wall. His back and rump slammed against the brick strongly enough to make a crater, and Rodney was sure he heard a horrible crack before the kangaroo slumped, wedged into the hole he made.

"Oh shit," he whispered, the bliss of energy replaced with horror and shock. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..."

He crawled towards Cooper, ignoring the fact that he felt his fur standing on end again, that he was seized with the sudden crazy nothing that he should get up a full head of steam, burst through the wall and curl up around the kangaroo to protect him from the two-story fall. A small voice in the back of his mind told him that was the supreme rush of impossible amounts of energy talking, and hopefully the nanites would be doing their job soon.

His body gracelessly shoved aside several bits of furniture as he hunkered in front of the kangaroo. At first he didn't know what to do; electric arcs danced along Cooper's hide, making his limbs twitch unconsciously. His paws were so big, his forearms as broad as the kangaroo's shoulders; if he had broken something, then it probably wasn't a good idea for him to be moved. He should call an ambulance, but how on Earth was he supposed to use a phone at this size? And what on Earth would he say to the first responders when they got here?

Rodney sat up on his haunches as he tried to figure out what to do; he heard the floor break beneath his rump and paws, and his head put a dent in the ceiling before he could fully stretch his torso. To make things even worse, he could feel himself slowly sliding along the floor again, his vision blurring as it was forced to adjust again and again.

"Oh man," he said, his voice properly deep and rumbling even as he spoke quietly. "I really messed up. Hey, Cooper, please don't be dead. Wake up buddy, OK? Wake up."

He reached out with a growing finger to nudge the kangaroo, and that's when Cooper groaned and shifted. His whole body tensed and squirmed as the electric arcs died down, fading out along the tips of his fingers and toes. They left behind the faint scent of burned fur and ozone.

"Coop!" The room shook with Rodney's voice; he winced, and brought his tone down. The floor was cracking steadily now, and he could feel it sinking more and more under his weight. He didn't want to think about breaking through to the apartment below. One problem at a time.

"What...what happened?" The kangaroo's voice sounded strange, as if the words were suddenly molasses that he had to roll on his tongue. His eyes opened slowly, taking a long time to focus. When they did, Cooper gasped. "Rodney? What did you do?"

The snow leopard tried to scoot back, but the movement was meant with an alarmingly loud crack and a sudden jolt that lowered him a few inches. He stopped immediately. "I...I'm sorry, I--"

"You messed with the blasted apparatus and now look!" The kangaroo squirmed until he was out of the wall, several bricks falling to the floor around him. "You're gonna get hit with another growth spurt and break right through my apartment! Do you have any idea how long this is going to take to fix? Do you have any idea how much trouble we're going to be in? Dr. Fossle's going to lose his bloody job for this!"

Rodney's ears flattened against his skull even as the top of his head brushed the ceiling. Within a few heartbeats, it was pressing against it. The kangaroo was right, of course - he had done something he couldn't take back now. But the growth had felt so good, and all he could think about was having more of it, how unstoppable he felt. Even now, as it dawned on him how irretrievably screwed they were, his shaft pushed out of his sheath and throbbed in the open air, filling the apartment with the more immediate scent of his arousal.

"I can't believe you," Cooper continued to rant. "I let you do this, because I know how bad you want it, and you go and throw it back in my face..." The kangaroo was breathing heavily, and his ears wouldn't stop flicking. It took Rodney a moment to notice, but the marsupial's voice was growing deeper. His chest boomed inside of its shirt, stretching the fabric in one breath and then breaking it in the next. His legs ripped through his shorts as if they were made of tissue paper, and his paws ballooned larger and larger over the floor. His tail, as thick as a fifth limb and wadded with muscle, grew thicker and longer behind him, pushing against the broken brick wall and curling against it. "How on earth are we going to explain this? What are we going to do?"

"Uhm...Cooper...?" Rodney's voice was a bass boom now, strong enough to rattle the windows on the apartment, shaking every wall around him. "I think you're--"

The floor beneath the snow leopard bent another foot or so before finally giving way underneath the giant cat's rising tonnage. Rodney yelped as he disappeared in a great crash; an enormous, gaping hole stood where he did. In his panic one monstrous paw reached up and swatted at a wall to keep himself from falling. It slammed against the floor and immediately opened up the hole several feet wider. There was a gaping chasm now separating Cooper from his front door; the kangaroo stared in disbelief as the sounds of rather severe destruction died down.

He could hear Rodney's panicked booming on the floor below, and the sound of water rushing from broken pipes. The kangaroo knelt at the edge of the hole and looked down. The leopard all but filled the room below, a shifting mass of spotted fur and muscle. It took Cooper a few moments to make out what part was where, and he was startled to find Rodney's huge grey eyes staring right up at him. There was an expression of abject horror on his face.

"Oh shit," the snow leopard boomed. "Cooper, I'm so sorry." He turned onto his side to get a better look at the kangaroo, trying his best to avoid damaging the apartment below him. He did not succeed. "What do we do?"

The kangaroo glanced down at the cat and saw with some small dismay that he was still growing, Worse yet, he could feel himself getting bigger with astonishing speed; the broken floor sagged beneath him, and his tail hit the far corner of his apartment and kept going. "I think I might be able to get out of here before this gets any worse, at least. You're going to have to try and minimize the damage and just...ride it out."

Rodney's chest heaved up and down. His eyes were wide and frightened. "Ride it out? How...how big am I going to get?"

"How should I know?" Cooper snapped, feeling his head and shoulders bump against the ceiling. The floor creaked, and he heard one of the boards snap under his feet. He had to get out of here. "Too big, is how big. But there's nothing to be done for it. We're just gonna have to deal with it."

End of Part One