FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Sole of the Destroyer

Part 1: Nightfall

For EdgeofObsidian

By Draconicon

And so it is said that, in the days of steel and lightning, when the moon rises green and the bats rule the sky, when the red vixen hunts and the white trickster takes flight, the Queen of the Vampyres shall come. Under boot and under heel, the Queen and her Sirens will conquer, enslaving all before them in chains of sweat and toil, in bindings of power and devotion.

And she will seek her Destroyer, her fated love, for he is both the key to her success, and the only chance of her failure.

Fear him, for her enemy is our deadliest foe...

#

Edge walked down the streets of Westopolis, his face half-covered in his usual scarf and his coat pulled tight around his top. He was trying to keep his eyes on the sky, but failing since he kept tripping over the loose stones and debris that covered the streets.

Why does it have to be summer? he wondered, his cheeks burning as he tried not to think about what he would see if he looked down.

Feet, of course. Feet in barely-on sandals, the soles of a hundred, of hundreds of different girls that were walking from place to place in the large city. They were all here for vacation, of course, and every time that he left his house, he had found himself staring at so many different bare pairs of feet. It was almost maddeningly distracting for him, particularly considering his duty as a protector.

He stumbled again, almost falling into a bandicoot woman, and he gestured his apologies as quickly as he could before stepping away. She muttered something about the 'mute freak' before he did, and he shook his head.

The hedgehog did his best to avoid the others that were still in the area, leaning against the buildings at the side of the street and shuffling along them. His cheeks were still burning beneath his scarf, and he was doing his best not to think about any more of the ladies around him.

Thankfully, he had something of a distraction of his own to deal with.

Grrrph...

There was a slowly-building growl in the back of his head, something that had been growing stronger and stronger over the last few days. Normally, he was able to silence it with extended meditation, but the sound was coming back more quickly these days. Almost as if there was something drawing it out of him.

Edge shook his head, taking a deep breath and trying to collect his thoughts. With all the people around, however, it was almost impossible. There was too much noise, too many voices, and there was no way to properly center himself to keep the pressure on that growling.

And it was getting stronger, too, louder, and there were words in it, as well.

Must...come out...must...take...what is mine...

It was a grouchy sort of voice, the sort of thing that you heard from someone that hadn't slept well for too long, and who wanted to get a cup of coffee or punch someone in the face. You were never quite sure which when you heard that sort of voice, so one tended to stay out of the way.

Edge knew that if he let that other presence grow stronger, if he let it reach a height of power, he would be endangering the city. If meditation wouldn't work...

The hedgehog groaned, knowing that he was going to regret this. He glanced down at the street.

As soon as he did, he was bombarded with a constant stream of different colored feet. There were green feet, brown feet, purple feet, red feet, feet of cream-color and white, silver and gold, and even some that were blue. He could see soles of all sorts, long and thin, short and broad, and everything in-between. The toes danced at the edge of sandals, and he could just imagine a moment or two with his dick between them.

Uggggggh...stoooooop...

The grouchy voice was quieter, at least, half-buried beneath the sea of soles around him. Edge took advantage to keep moving, even if it did mean that he was walking through the crowd with a hell of a boner in his pants.

Edge took a deep breath, trying to ignore the sweat and musk smells that permeated the atmosphere around him. He knew that he had to keep moving, had to keep working. If he didn't, then he would be in trouble when night came.

When night came...

There's something that's going to happen tonight, he thought. I don't know what it is, but something bad is coming.

That was what all his friends had said. Both the scientific ones and the crazy ones that were more in-tune with the mystical stuff agreed that there was something coming to Westopolis tonight.

At first, he thought that they were just sensing the other thing inside of him, the voice that he kept having to suppress, but no. There was something else out there, some force that was rising and sending all sorts of measurement meters and smart people running for the hills. And it was coming right here.

They had told him to leave. He ignored them.

I'm here to protect people. What kind of good will I do if I run away?

That didn't mean that he was going to be stupid about it, though.

In addition to his other training, Edge had the power of electro-kinesis, the ability to control and bend electricity to his will. Most of the time, he simply used the energy in his body, and that was more than enough to do things. Other times, he was able to draw from the power grid to supplement the energy that he carried, and that was generally enough for anything, even the biggest threats.

But for this, he had a feeling that he'd need more.

So, he was walking around the city, laying his hands on the power lines, on neon signs, on as many different electrical devices that he could find and pumping his power into them, giving them a secondary batch of energy that he could draw on if he was in the area. It wasn't much in any case, always allowing him to regenerate it as he moved on, but it meant that there would be plenty of places for him to draw on if the fight got out of hand.

Grrrr...won't be a fight...

Edge ignored the voice again, suppressing it by staring down at the street one more time. The other voice retreated from the sexy thoughts that the many different pairs of feet provided him, and Edge kept working.

#

Edge emerged from one of the abandoned stores with a grin on his face. In the inner city, there were a great deal of stores that had closed down, most of them wrapped up with either steel bars or wooden boards. They were usually good places to store energy, but that last one had been a real godsend. Whoever had been working out of that shop had left a couple doozies behind, enough to tempt him to pour more of his energy into it than usual.

Of course, that left him rather dizzy, a bit like a person who had given a little too much blood at the blood bank, and the hedgehog stumbled a bit as he shut the door behind him.

Before he could keep going, he felt it. The voice was pushing at him, this time far louder, and far more aggressively.

It's my time. Down, Edge, down!

The mental pressure forcing its way on top of his mind was stronger than ever, stronger than any other time that he had ever felt it trying to take control. And considering that it had taken control in the past, that was saying something.

The weakness after dumping more of his power into what he'd found in the store didn't help, either. He was barely able to push back at the other presence, and he knew that wasn't going to be enough to maintain control of his body for long.

As thick white lines started to crackle between his fingers, electricity that was rising through his body begging for an outlet, Edge looked to the nearby rooftops.

Let me get out of the city, he muttered. Let me have that, at least.

If you do it fast, I may allow it. Otherwise...it is MY turn.

The voice didn't stop pushing, but the pressure didn't increase any further. Edge knew that the passenger in the back of his head was going to take over soon, no matter what he did. All he could do was limit the damage when it happened.

With a grunt, the hedgehog pulled at the electric power that he had left, surging up from the ground level to the rooftop. The sun was setting, he realized. He had spent more time at the streets than he had thought.

Zzzzap.

Zzzzap.

He zapped his way along the rooftops, transmuting himself into little bolts of electricity between the radio and power lines that spread over the rooftops. The best chances for that were the satellite antennae that lined the bigger buildings, allowing him to jump to them from further away.

And yet, despite how fast he was moving, he could feel the crackling white energy of the other spreading through him, the growling voice getting louder in the back of his head.

Out...out...out! I want out!

He landed with a thump on the next building, his boots crackling with energy beneath him, the material starting to break and crack and even shatter in places. His arms were getting a bit thicker, too. Not like the werehog that he had seen some time back, but just a little bit, a hint of muscular definition that hadn't been there starting to take shape.

Not much time left now.

Zzzzzap.

Zzzzzap.

#

Edge made it to the edge of the city when he finally lost against the rising power. The pressure surged forward, stomping him down like a foot on the back of his neck, shoving him into the back of his own head.

As he fell, he felt the presence of the other stepping forward, over him, taking control. He looked up to see a dark gray hedgehog stepping forward, sheathed in chains and rolling strikes of lightning. The other guy was much darker, much angrier, and he looked like he was ready to break things.

Things, in this case, probably being the city.

You have to let them live, Edge pushed. Something is coming.

Nothing can handle me. I am Abyss, the Destroyer.

And as Abyss took control, Edge was shoved away, into the deep darkness of oblivion that always waited for him when the other was in charge.

#

Abyss roared as he took control, his appearance ripping through the simple black that was all that the pathetic other half had to his looks. He ran his hand back through the spines on the back of his head, feeling them ruffle and spike as the electricity arced from his hand to the fur. Black and gray, they were, just like the rest of him.

He growled as the scarf ripped away from his face, finally exposing his mouth properly. It was Edge's look to keep it there, and though he couldn't get rid of the scarf, he could at least keep it from swinging in front of his face.

A chain of lightning arced about his waist, and then over his shoulders and down his arms. All one length, carefully folded around him, surging and crackling before settling into a metal length of steel links, it was his favorite weapon.

Abyss smirked slightly as he looked around. Edge had managed to take them most of the way out of the city. Most, of course, being relative. They were near the ring of skyscrapers that surrounded the city, near the power sources that fed most of the city and kept it from turning dark at night.

Near his greatest powers.

Abyss leaped into the air, extending one hand towards a power line. A white line arced from the end of his fingers to the black cord, and suddenly he was inside, running with the electrons and strings of energy that flowed through the city.

He knew where he was going by instinct, turning the power away from the city and back towards its source. The generators, the power plants, all the way back the way that they'd come. Further, further, up the side of the building until -

The hedgehog leaped from the power line, landing on his feet on top of one of the skyscrapers. He grunted as he turned, looking down at the city.

Westopolis. One of the biggest cities in the region, and the one that had been the bane of his existence so many times over. Edge and his pathetic little friends were quite the band of protectors for this place. The blue hedgehog that led them was a perpetual thorn in his side, of course, as were the people that supported him...

But tonight...

Tonight was his time. Tonight, he would rain destruction such as they had never seen on this place. Tonight, the city would see the power of Abyss the Destroyer, and they would know who was their true master.

Tonight, he would show them the power that came with electricity.

The hedgehog gestured back at the power banks that lined the top of the building. The whole structure was a giant solar panel, the company at the forefront of energy storage technology. Days-worth of power had been stored up here, the surplus of weeks held in battery form. And now...

Crackle, crackle. The white lines of energy streaked towards him, the weaker streams hitting the top of the building like miniature lightning strikes, a constant roll of thunder at the splitting of the air. The rooftop heated up around him, making it feel like a summer's day, and then like an oven around him. Abyss didn't mind. The heat was power. The lightning was power.

This was his place.

He walked through it, gathering it as it streamed through the soles of his feet and through the palms of his hand. He didn't smirk or laugh the way that a supervillain might have done, or how that incompetent buffoon of a 'genius' kept doing when he tried to take over the world.

No, there was no need for that. There was only need for this.

Lifting his hands, Abyss watched the electrical storms form above his palms. First, it was merely miniature lightning strikes, but that grew as his power did. Swirling spheres of ball lightning, clouds of jagged edges and powerful, slicing lines of electricity burned over his fingers. He smelled the burning oxygen, the bitterness in the air that was left behind after every single strike.

And still, he drew more.

The world will see.

Westopolis was only the first. After tonight, though the rest of the world would see him and try and prepare, they would never be able to mount a defense against him. After all...what could anyone do against the power of lightning?

He raised his arms, pulling the storm into a swirling cluster around him. The sun had set. It was time for his moon to rise. Abyss turned -

And then stopped. His eyes fixed on the great orb of night that was coming over the horizon, shaking his head.

"The moon...isn't green..."

Or at least, it shouldn't have been. It was supposed to be white. Off-white, if one wanted to be truly technical. Pale and dominating the night, not this strange, deathly, sickly green color.

...I hate it when that pitiful do-gooder is right...

The electrified hedgehog scanned the city, pulses of his electric power rushing back through the power lines. As amped up as he was, the normally-draining effort was barely a little tiring, and it gave him valuable information.

It was a...finer effect than he usually attempted, but as he amped up the electrical output of the power lines and everything that they were attached to, Abyss was able to build a picture in his head. Like echolocation, the bouncing electrical signals were able to form a network with the electrical signals in brains, in other devices, bouncing off of everything in the city.

There were other people on the streets, more people on it than there should have been. There were people landing out of nowhere, thumping down to the ground as if they had just...appeared out of nowhere.

They weren't just appearing, though. They were dropping. Coming from the sky.

Abyss whipped his head up, his eyes flaring with white lightning. It wasn't a military paradrop; he would have seen and felt that. No, it was some sort of -

There.

He growled deep in his throat as he saw a poof of energy just above the rooftops, a bat-like creature suddenly turning into a hedgehog. She dropped out of sight almost immediately, but she wasn't the only one. Just the first one that he had noticed.

Beasts that were sneaking into the city. Into his city. Unannounced.

And worst of all, they were magical. He sneered, slamming his fist down against the edge of the building.

"Sneaking into my territory...using foul magics to avoid me...this will not stand."

Abyss pulled at the energy tanks of the building, leaping into the sky. The lightning stretched out, forcing an effect similar to a repulsion between two similar magnets as he raced over the city, lightning streaking from him in a perpetual storm connecting him to the earth below.

His eyes darted this way and that, looking for more of this strange flock that had invaded his space. There had to be another, something that was still in striking range.

He was wrong. There were three.

As he looked up towards the moon, he saw three silhouettes. Two that were flying behind the third, and all of them were slowly circling the city in their little bat form. As if they thought that it would keep them from being noticed.

That they thought they were so much better than him, that this would be enough to keep them safe, incensed him.

The hedgehog did not hesitate. Roaring at the top of his lungs, he propelled himself on wings of lightning and swept out his arms, calling his chain to him.

It came as it was called, and the lightning-charged links swept out like the metal had come to life, becoming a great striking snake that hit where he told it to and moved as he asked. The bat furthest back, one that was vaguely purple-tinted, was struck in the wing and fell quickly.

The other two broke formation, one flying up and the other flying at him. Abyss called the chain back, bringing his other hand forward.

"You challenge the Destroyer himself. For that, you will taste oblivion!"

Lightning streaked from his hand, cracking and smashing the air itself into nothingness. The bat pushed forward, oozing with red energy that formed a shield. A powerful shield, at that, one that was able to stand up to the first set of bolts, and the second.

They reached a point of stalemate with the flapping creature still a few dozen feet away, and the hedgehog growled at the defiance.

"You should know better than to anger me. Your power means nothing compared to mine."

The bat seemed to smirk...and then poofed.

Floating where it had been flying was a red woman, a vixen with a more definite smirk on her face that stretched from one side of her face to the other. Dressed in a robe with her feet sticking out the bottom, she gestured with her hands, forming more of that red energy, creating a barrier and shield around herself that split the lightning in two directions.

"I think that you need to learn who you're dealing with, hon. Fiona's here to teach you a lesson."

"I have no need for a teacher. But you have a desperate need for discipline. Hraaa!"

Abyss swung his leg around in a powerful kick, a thunderous blast that boomed through the air. This vixen, Fiona, winced, covering her ears, the shield dropping.

He was right in that gap, teleporting in and punching her in the chin. She went flying up and back, spinning through the air, but he was already behind her.

CRACK!

CRUNCH!

A kick to the spine and then a blow to the back of the neck with his fist. She coughed, sputtering for a moment, whipping around.

The chain was there to meet her face, sending her spinning end over end. She slammed into one of the buildings more than a hundred feet down, leaving a crater behind that would doubtlessly attract the locals.

He didn't care. They were his. He owned them, and he could destroy what he liked, as he liked.

Where is the other one...

Abyss glanced towards the sky, but if the other bat was still fluttering around, it had disappeared into the darkness. Which left the one that he'd struck -

"Sugar...mmmph. That hurt."

He looked down. It wasn't the feral bat that he had hit, but rather, one that had a white fur to its head and a purple sort of color to its robe. Again, the robe didn't cover its feet, but it didn't seem to care as it fluttered its smaller wings to float in front of him.

"Hmmph. So you could take a hit, after all. You should know not to come here, whatever you are."

"We come at the call of the prophecy, sugar. There is no denying that call."

"Prophecy. Hmmph. There is no such thing."

"Heh, are you telling me that you haven't heard the story of the green moon?"

"I don't care. You do not belong here."

He felt the stirring of magic, but he was faster. Abyss darted forward, wrapping his hand around the other woman's throat. She gagged, her fur and hair suddenly jolting out in jagged spikes as he channeled his lightning between his fingers, shocking her inside and out.

"And for coming here...you die."

The lightning channeled through him, rushing from sky to earth with him as the conduit between. The scorching smell of burned air filled his nose, and the woman in his grip dropped to the earth as soon as he let go.

Two down...where is the third...

He felt little satisfaction in their destruction. They had survived a couple of blows, but they still fell. The third, he hoped, would prove slightly more entertaining.

Abyss was not someone that fought merely for the joy of it, though it was fair to say that the creature enjoyed a good challenge. No, it was more the thrill of utterly obliterating something, of leaving them broken and defeated and even dead before him. There was a thrill to destruction, and he didn't have the time to do that to the two women that had challenged him so far.

Where is the other? he wondered. She must have flown far...perhaps she is a coward.

He snorted. If he was forced to choose, he hated magic slightly more than he hated cowardice, but it was a slim line between the pair. Cowards were hardly worth destroying.

Hardly.

Knowing that he was burning through the storm that he had pulled from the skyscraper, Abyss lowered himself to the top of a nearby building. The craters that the other women had created when they'd fallen had crumbled their respective buildings into piles of rubble, and he imagined that they were both at the very least unconscious. Possibly dead from the fall, for that matter.

But he would check them, just to be sure. They were strong enough to take his first hits, and he doubted that they would be dead already. It was always better for destruction to be thorough.

And there were other members of this flock on the streets. If they were all as strong as those two, he would be burning through more energy than he liked to take them down.

But take them down he would. He would have no challengers to his rule.

The Prophecy spoke of a Destroyer, great and powerful. To see such might displayed before mine eyes...truly, thou art mine fated lover.

The hedgehog froze in place. His lips slowly curled into a great sneer, his head turning back to look up at the sky.

To have a voice in his head was the most foul intrusion that he could think of. It was intrusive, invading enough to have to share it with the pathetic little whelp whose body he inhabited. Another trying to slide in was completely intolerable.

Surely, thou will become mine ally, to spread mine own will upon this bleak earth, and I shall share with thee mine bed and heart -

"Show yourself!" he shouted, another bolt of lightning called upon his head as he turned and glared at the stars. "I do not talk with witches that will not show their face!"

"Then look upon mine, oh Destroyer, and see thine fate."

Abyss turned slowly, looking up at the speaker. She was standing at the edge of a nearby building, robed and hooded, unlike the other two. She reached up to the edge of her coverings, pulling the hood down and showing her face.

If he were to be attracted to mortals, then perhaps he might have said that she looked fine enough. Her eyes were gleaming in the dark with the same green glow as the moon, and he guessed that she was probably the one responsible for the whole mess. If the crown hadn't made that clear, of course.

She held out her hand to him.

"Come to me, oh great Destroyer. Allow thine knees to bend, to offer thineself into the service of the Queen, and she will grant thee -"

"Speak not the old languages unto me, witch-woman! I care not for the speech of old! I use it now for one reason, and one alone. Thou have sealed thine death warrant."

She stared at him, and strangely, her smile did not fade.

If anything, it seemed to grow. Abyss growled in his throat, his chain rising with a thought to his hand, lengthening as he began to spin it at his side. He took a step forward -

Kaboom!

Kaboom!

Only to whip his head to the side, staring as the vixen and other bat leaped from their craters, looking completely unharmed. Even the vixen, the one he'd punched about and battered with electricity and physical blows looked as if she had been completely untouched.

They flicked the dust off their shoulders and robes, looking down at him with disdainful smirks.

"Really, hon? Is that all you got?" the vixen asked. "I thought that you could have at least made me break a sweat."

"Perhaps you need more...incentive," the bat said. "Sugar, I think I can give you plenty of that..."

A lesser man would have stepped back in shock, calling the whole situation impossible. Abyss was not a lesser man.

"Let's see how many times I have to beat you for you to stay in the ground!"

He lunged for them, and they lunged for him, bat and vixen rushing in from either side. The hedgehog spun, his chain spinning with him in a tornado vortex of death, while the other two went high and low, dodging around it.

Abyss growled, swinging his chain up towards the bat. She'd gone down first the last time. Probably the weakest of the bunch to go down with a single hit, and he wasn't about to fight two at a time if he didn't have to. He wasn't entirely stupid on that front. He swung it out -

And she caught it.

He stared, caught off guard for the split second that the bat needed to yank him out of position. She spun him around, slamming his back against the building he'd just left before he could charge the chain again.

Even as her scream of pain filled the air, the vixen was on him, swinging her leg overhead and bringing it down with a thump. A crater of stone and mortar was left behind where her foot landed, right where his head had been just a moment before.

She was relentless, and fast to boot. She chased him across the rooftop with punches and kicks, her face a mirror of his own half-rabid grin. Unlike him, she was obviously someone that enjoyed the conflict, pushing herself harder and harder in the fight. And in turn, pushing him harder and harder.

Their arms and legs blurred as they blocked and struck and redirected each other, the vixen pushing too fast for him to get a good blow in, never able to focus his full power into a strike that would send her flying. And she was pushing him right to the edge of the roof.

Rather than jump or fall back, he zapped to another roof, knowing she'd follow, and then -

CRACK!

He lifted his foot up in a sharp kick, hitting the vixen in the guts and sending her flying right back into the other building. They were both down, again, but he'd seen what had happened last time when he waited.

He pulled his chain taut between two fists.

Not this time.

Just as he was about to zap his way over to vixen, however, a shadow fell over him from behind. Abyss turned -

Only to take a purple foot right in his face. Damp, slippery as could be, and with sufficient force to shove him onto his back, it had come out of nowhere. The stink was like nothing else that he had ever encountered, ripe and thick and salty and hot.

And it was foul as could ever be imagined.

Before he could fight the 'Queen', the other two returned. They were still robed, though their robes were damaged from the fight, and they did not look particularly happy. The vixen, in particularly, growled under her breath as she looked down at him.

"Do we really need this one?" she asked.

"The Prophecy specifies that our Queen needs the Destroyer," the white bat said. "And he did name himself as one, didn't he?"

"Mmm, whether this one is my Destroyer remains to be seen, but our hand shall be held from his destruction. Bring upon him the Sleep of Peace, so he may bear our mark," the purple bat in the center said. "Sleep, mighty one, and if thou be the Destroyer of the Prophecy, seek me and mine out. We shall await your arrival."

A purple foot smothered his mouth, a white one his nose, and the red sole of the vixen came crashing down on his throat. In seconds, the world went dark, and he was left sleeping dreams of rage.

The End