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An Interesting Guest For repanbo By Draconicon

Kai Lee was deep in the accountant reports for the fall quarter when he heard the soft whir-whir sounds of something approaching from another dimension. The snow leopard didn't sigh. Sighing was for those that were annoyed at distractions, who had something to gain from showing their annoyance in hopes that it would get the distraction to not repeat itself. There was no point to that, so he merely put the paper down.

From the ceiling of his office came a small, swirling hole in reality. His eyes focused on the little black dot spinning about the swirls of blue, white, and black, following it on its path through the hole.

Twice before, he had tossed something into the vortex, curious past what Cornelius had been willing to tell him. The objects - a paperweight and an irritating client - had never returned, so he had stopped bothering with giving into his curiosity.

Instead, he waited for the hat to come free, watching it as the top-hat bobbed down, a few little rings of energy poofing out from the underside as it hovered in place. The feline kept his eyes on the headwear as the portal closed, waiting for the rabbit to pop out.

After he waited for nearly a minute, Kai Lee stood up from his desk, walking around it. The office itself was empty, a status he kept for just this reason. He didn't wish to keep tying up loose ends by getting rid of secretaries and employees. It was not good business.

Pillars that were not quite diagonal and not quite vertical supported a high glass ceiling above him, and the walls were thick panels of tempered glass that were interrupted by the occasional steel wire sculptures. The entire room was well lit from all sides, with light between the layers of glass compensating for the sun as it went above and around the building. His desk, the only furniture beyond a single chair that was placed before it, was made of steel and embedded in the floor by thick pillars of concrete, intentionally made immovable.

The hat continued to float over the one chair in the room, still dooting out the little rings of floatation energy.

"Cornelius. You have ten seconds to appear or remove your hat from the premises. Nine. Eight. Seven."

The hat vibrated slightly, and by the time he reached two, someone popped out, though not the person that he had expected.

Rather than the white rabbit, a black unicorn fell from the hat, growing to full size within the span of a millisecond. The snow leopard cocked his head to the side at the creature that had appeared in his office.

There was no explanation from Cornelius, just a sudden departure. The hat zipped up to the portal in the ceiling, then disappeared, taking the portal with it.

He didn't bother watching the hat go. The equine creature before him was far more...fascinating.

Lights in the ears, horn, and mane. He tilted his head slightly, checking something from another angle. And eyes. Obviously artificial, made to look real. Beyond the usual cybernetics, however.

A glance down her body, naked and 'used' as it was, confirmed that her parts imitated the real thing without being actual flesh. Despite the correct 'sag' to her breasts at their full size, as well as the squish of her thighs together as she started to stand up, there was an obvious delay to their shift, swell, and squish if one knew what to look for.

He grabbed her by the shoulder, his claws extending slightly from his gloves as he stopped her halfway to her feet.

"Sit."

"But he just - That rabbit just kicked me out of his hat without even a goodbye and -"

"I said. Sit."

He followed it up with a squeeze just tense enough to prick at her body. He had no illusions that his claws could hurt her, but the gesture...

Yes, that was enough. He saw the flicker in her eyes. Psychologically, she was still a prey animal. Something that responded to a little force. Not too much, however. One that was built rather than one that was born could have hidden depths, things to explore, things to protect itself against the usual enemies of the species.

He would have to take care as he examined her.

"Now. Your name?"

"Ellyra. Oh, um, sorry about your chair. Me and Cornelius -"

"All furniture in the company is made with a high standard of waterproofing, though not usually for this reason. That is not my concern, Ellyra."

"Okay...Um, is there a bathroom or -"

"You will be allowed to refresh in ten minutes."

"...That's an...arbitrary number."

"If I cannot understand you well enough to be satisfied as to your reason to be here in that time, then I deserve whatever you might do. Now."

Kai Lee leaned back against his desk, the unbuttoned jacket to his suit falling flat against him. His tie shifted slightly as he pulled one foot off the ground, a polished black shoe pressed against the front of his desk, his white suit wrinkling slightly in the arms as he crossed them over his chest.

"Ellyra. Artificial person. Obviously of a mechanical background. Mood is displayed through the lights of your horn and ears - ah, except for when you are made aware of it, at which point you will either turn it off or consciously choose a color, yes?"

"..." She stared at him, blushing, but before she could say anything, he continued.

"You have a bosom of substantial size, though from the way you carry it, it is new. Either it was recently installed, or you have a way of upgrading your size at the request of another. I cannot see the need to do it for yourself, so Cornelius must have been having one of his fantasies.

"In addition, you have little modesty, nor any inclination to cover yourself, yet you apologize for the potential damage to property. This suggests to me that you are something made to take care of other living things, able to satisfy their needs while also ensuring that you are responsible enough to manage things outside of the sexual realm.

"However, while making a sexual and caretaking partner is obviously possible, someone took it further with you. Yes or no: you were not made on this, or an equivalent, planet or plane of existence?"

"...Meep."

"Are you declining to answer the question?" Kai Lee asked, tilting his head to the side. "I am relatively sure I can find the answer one way or another, though I do not wish to take things to that extent if I do not have to."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head rapidly. "I just...hadn't had anyone do that before. How did you know?"

"Your shoulder." He held up his hand. "When I touched it, I expected something similar to gel or latex, something soft but firm, imitating flesh but easily damaged. While your substance imitates flesh, it would crack my claws sooner than allow them through. There is not a material that can feel like flesh and yet be that strong. Not on our world. Not at our current level of technology."

"Yeah, but...I mean, you're not wrong, but what if I was just made by someone more advanced than you know about? Like Tatyana?"

"I was about to guess that you knew the tigress." He shook his head. "I am aware of the technological advances of my own world, and have extrapolated the various leaps and bounds forward by those that Cornelius is likely to visit. There are no others that would have a technology capable of making you, and no others that have such material. Even my company would struggle to make an imitation of you."

"...I'm confused."

"About?"

"You sound so...sure of yourself, so confident, so powerful, but then you say you can't do something?"

"Confidence is based as much around the knowledge of your inability as your ability. Stand."

"But -"

"Stand."

"...Yes, sir," she said, her voice rising higher and faster than she did.

The unicorn stood from the chair, starting to turn in place. He caught her by the arm before she could make more than a quarter turn.

"I did not tell you to spin. I told you to stand."

"Yes, yes, you did. Sorry. I'm just..."

"You are used to others. Those that wish to use you regularly, those that activate certain instincts. I do not."

"That's kinda mean."

"It is not an insult. I merely do not have such urges."

"Gay?"

"Experimental."

"Okay, and what the heck does that mean?"

"Perhaps I will tell you. Come with me."

He curled his finger in summons, drawing her to one of the glass walls of his office. She followed at his side, only to whistle when they stood beside it.

It was quite the view through the glass wall, even he admitted. The skyscraper of his company, KL Inc., stood over the rest of Kusan City by several hundred feet. The rest of the city was in the process of becoming modern, with a series of skyscrapers in the center of it and more rustic, ancient buildings towards the far end of the city.

However, unlike others, he had pushed hard for every building, no matter how old, to have all the different luxuries that the ones in the center had. Power. Plumbing. Communication equipment. Heating. Cooling.

Everything that was required of a modern household was installed, over complaints and over thanks. It was a standard that the whole city had to meet, and he'd made sure that they had.

"What is this place? Where are we?" Ellyra asked.

"Between Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam," he said, shaking his head. "Atop a former bandit camp."

"It's...beautiful," she said after a moment of hesitation.

"It's in the process of becoming. The jungles once were, the city never was. We are in the process of shifting towards it."

"We? Who is we?"

"My company."

"Ugh..."

"You will find I am startlingly literal as well as rather observant."

"Yes, I'm starting to get that picture."

"You will get others." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You have yet to tell me your purpose here."

"You didn't ask," she said with a pout.

"It is up to the guest to announce their purpose, not to the host to demand it. However, I will shift from being host to being warden, if I must."

"..."

"Do you insist that I take up that position, then? Shall I treat you as prisoner rather than as guest?"

"...I...Meep..."

She was an interesting specimen, that was for certain. The more that he pushed, the less that he understood, and the more that he tried to get her to bend the way that others would, the less she seemed willing to do.

He stepped closer to the window, laying one gloved hand on it.

"Let us begin somewhere simpler, hmm?"

"Please. You're making it hard to think."

"Then answer this question. Did you come here with the intent to harm?"

"No."

She was quick, almost too quick, but her reflection in the glass was easily enough read. A truth.

"Did you come here to steal?"

"No way! I have everything that I want back home."

Another truth. Interesting. Usually, when Cornelius dropped someone in his lap, it meant that the rabbit needed someone disposed of. Usually someone that the rabbit had caught in the middle of a crime, someone that the rabbit had convinced to try something stupid enough in the snow leopard's property to get killed or otherwise harmed for.

Not in this case, apparently.

"Did you come here with the intent to seduce someone?"

"Well, no, but...I'm not opposed to doing it, but...I'm pretty bad at it unless I know them."

"Your honesty does you credit." He nodded. "And Tatyana has not sent you here?"

"No."

"I am slowly beginning to understand your purpose here."

"Then you're doing better than I am."

"I do better than most. You are allowed to seek the bathroom now."

"Great. Where is it?"

"Out the door and to your right, just past the elevators."

She nodded, but didn't leave. Good.

"You have permission to go."

"Oh? Do I need it?"

"You seem to believe you did."

"...Nnngh!"

She ran off, her cheeks blushing nearly as brightly as her horn, mane, and ears. It was rather amusing, and he stored the memory away for later.

Once he was alone, he looked out at the city again, counting out the buildings as he occasionally did, taking in the sight of the great structures in the distance and the smaller ones at a greater distance. Markets that ranged from the supermarket to the street ones filled the city, and in several squares, slave markets ran.

It was a city that was stuck in the past in many ways, and he planned to take it into the future.

Perhaps, in exchange for compensation, the unicorn would be willing to help.

When she returned, he welcomed her with water, oil, and bread. She looked at it, then at him. He answered the unspoken question.

"I may have an understanding of what you are, but not what you have need of. Perhaps you eat and drink as an average person does. Perhaps you do not. Thus, there is sustenance, and there is maintenance."

"You scare me."

"Perhaps that is good. From what I gather, you are used to flippant people, to those that joke frequently and need the reassurance of smiles and laughter. While they are certainly things of value, as I understand, they are not reassurances that I require. Your wellbeing, such as it is, is something I trust you to keep me informed of. Should it falter, you will tell me, and I will take the appropriate measures to treat it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir. I mean...well, yes, sir."

"Good. Now. We were in the process of discussing your purpose."

"Yeah. You said that you were starting to figure it out. How?"

"By defining the whole."

"You mean that thing where you keep saying different stuff, and you figure out what it is by what it isn't?"

"Correct. You are not here for any criminal actions, and you are not here for a purpose that you understand. This implies to me that you are being directed by another. Your master. He is a certain dragon, yes? White-eyed and black scaled, in charge of a city of his own?"

"Yes, he is! Do you know him?"

"Everyone you have met thus far does. I imagine that he is sending you about, making contact with different people, learning about the world that he is aware of. For whatever reason, he didn't inform me or the others of this."

"Why wouldn't - well, he does like to fuck with people."

"..."

"What?"

"You are missing a word."

"...Oh, sir?"

"That will do." Kai Lee nodded. "And indeed, he does like to, as you put it, 'fuck' with people. However, that is not what he is doing this time."

"Why do you say that, sir?"

"Better." He leaned forward over the table, crossing his fingers and gripping his hands together. "I believe that your master wishes you to experience the universe. To take in whatever you can from everyone that you meet. He wishes you to improve however you can. Would you say that this has happened so far?"

"Well...I did..." She rubbed the back of her head. "Tatyana did a lot...and Jina gave me some fun, at least."

"The Russian and the Queen. And you have met Cornelius, obviously, and likely been exposed to the time and multi-verse tech of his hat?"

"Multi-verse?! He had that stuff on that thing?!"

"Apparently he kept half of it from you, then. That is probably for the best."

He shook his head. This was not the first time that the dragon had sent one of his belongings on a walkabout, nor was it the first time that one of them had made their way to him. It was, however, the first time that he had encountered someone that was mechanical rather than biological.

And it presents an opportunity.

Particularly if the others had been as invasive as he imagined they were. Tatyana, in particular...

He stood up, walking to one of the windows.

"Do you know me, Ellyra?"

"Um, no, actually. I just started calling you sir, and -"

"My name is Kai Lee. Come here."

She responded to orders faster this time, marching over to stand at his side. As she approached, he pulled off his glove, dragging the white accessory off of his hand and turning it so that the palm faced upward.

Across his palm was a tattoo, one that was wrapped in a tight, red circle. Various symbols and runes were inscribed upon it, as well as various numerical equations. He clenched his hand into a fist, opened it, repeating the process a few times.

"Do you recognize these?"

Ellyra leaned in, staring at his hand. There was no huff, no puff of breath. Eventually, she stood up straight again.

"No. These are brand new to me."

"Good. If you understood them, we would have had difficulties." He rested his hand against the glass. "They've been part of me for a long time. Not much to look at, but..."

As usual, it was less a matter of pushing something down his arm and more relaxing the barriers that he had in place. Suddenly, a surge rose from his core, a red light glowed between his palm and the window -

CRACK!

And suddenly, the entire glass wall shattered, turned to powdered glass in less than a second. The force of it propelled it outward, where the wind caught it and took it toward the distance.

Ellyra stared at the opening as Kai Lee pulled his glove back on.

"They do have their uses."

"How did you...what the..."

"It is a skill I have come to call Transmutative Transformation. It is the use of energy, channeled through a mathematical equation and certain other symbols, by which you can reform, re-shape, or obliterate what you are touching. It can be as destructive as you've just seen, or it can be used to remake something."

"Could you have..."

"Used it on you?"

She nodded.

"Probably. I have yet to test it on your materials, and I do not know if it would work the same on them as it does on the minerals and elements of this earth. However, provided that it is still operating under the same laws of physics, then I believe that it is entirely possible that I could have obliterated all or part of you."

"Is that why you're so confident? Because you can kill anyone?"

"Not in the slightest. I haven't killed half the people I would wish to."

"That's not very reassuring, sir. It really, really isn't."

"Ah, but it should be. It means that I will control myself even if I despise you," he said, making sure that the glove was on good and tight. "I will hold myself back from delivering any harm, provided that I can be convinced that it is more correct to leave such a being alive rather than dead. Such a thing can't be said for most others."

"...Why did you show me this?"

"If your master sent you here, then he wished for you to learn something, to gain some new thing from being in my city. Perhaps it is a chance to discover Transmutative Transformation. Or perhaps there is something that he hopes you gain from the company labs, considering that Tatyana doubtlessly could not improve you with her devices."

"She gave me a few things."

"Yes, including that slight bulge along your back, I imagine."

"What? What bulge?"

"If I am incorrect, I apologize," he said, turning her around. "However, here, and here." He touched her at the left and right of the spine, two inches out from where the cord would lay. "There are slight imprints in the flesh. Places where something was taken out, or put in. Subtle, but out of place to your biology."

"What - those weren't there before! I swear, those were never, ever there before. What are they?"

"You could scan them, but I'm relatively sure I already know what they are."

"What? Tell me, what the heck are they? I'm...I'm kinda freaked out here."

"You may be more worried before you get the answer."

He leaned out the window, looking down. It was a remarkably clear day.

"Why? What are they?"

"A question for you. Can you fly?"

"What? No!"

"I think you'll be surprised."

Moving too fast to allow her a chance to respond, he grabbed the horse by the wrist and swung her around. The dark-colored unicorn seemed to hover in mid-air for a moment...then started to fall.

Her screams rose faster than she fell, and the snow leopard leaned forward as she continued to descend. In a handful of seconds, the option to leap out and save her was taken away, as even he couldn't catch her after that. She kept falling, kicking and flailing as she went, more than halfway down the building.

Yet, he didn't have any particular concerns.

She is built well enough to take the impact, though it is doubtful that she'll trust me again if I'm wrong. If I am right, however, and Tatyana merely decided to delay the trigger for drama...

Less than a hundred feet before the pavement, the unicorn's back finally opened up. He could just barely make out the thrusters that poked free from the sides of her spine, but he could hear the roar of the flames and the thrust that they made. A slight smile pulled at the sides of the feline's face as he nodded.

As expected. The tigress could not help herself.

As the unicorn rose up from the ground, wobbling as she got used to the thrusters but adjusting quicker than the average person would - doubtlessly from her mechanical side - Kai Lee took a few steps back from the window. It didn't take long for the unicorn to return to his side, landing with a thump on the edge of his office.

She was shaking like a leaf, her eyes going everywhere. She'd look back at the jet engines on her back, then at him, then out the window again. Her mouth moved, but for a goodly number of minutes, no sound came out.

The snow leopard sat down at his desk, pulling the accountant report back up. The little gibbers of her voice occasionally penetrated his consciousness, but he tuned it out for the moment, doing actual work.

He was halfway through when she slammed her hands down on his desk. Despite it being made of steel and supported by concrete, the edge still dented from the force of impact.

Note to self. Super strength as well as super endurance. Enhance the furniture appropriately.

"What the fuck was that?! Sir?!"

"You do well to remember the title in times of panic," he said, setting the report down. "Are you referring to my action, or the result?"

"Both, sir. Fucking both!"

"I see we have departed from your sweeter nature."

"You threw me out a window, sir!"

"Would you have lived when you hit the ground?"

"Yes, but -"

"Did you experience any physical pain or damage from the activation of the thrusters?"

"...No, but -"

"Besides the fear of falling, a fall that, provided I am correct, you would not have been hurt by provided you initiated a shutdown in time, was there any difficulty or pain inflicted upon you?"

"There's something seriously wrong with the situation when you can say something like that and I feel like the bad guy for being mad."

"That is the power of logic, Ellyra," he said, turning to face her. "Are you requesting an explanation?"

"Yes! If you can just...just tell me..."

"Then I will."

He gestured at the seat, and she took it. She flinched back slightly, and he imagined that the primary reason for waterproofing the seats was a little more evident now. Not everyone had a bladder immune to fear.

"As you stated, you were unaware of the additions to your body. This implied to me that there was a mechanism Tatyana added to them to keep them hidden from you. Judging by their construction, they were meant as a life-saving mechanism rather than as a means of relaxation or leisure. As a result, I doubt that there would have been any way of finding them through a scan in my labs, or any prompt way of you finding them with a scan of your own.

"Following on with the assumption that it was meant to save your life, it was logical to assume that it would require acceleration to terminal velocity combined with a sufficient fall to trigger the sensors for the jet engines. Such a thing could only be accomplished by falling from a great height."

"That still doesn't tell me why you threw me out the window, though."

"Can you control them consciously, now?"

"Of course."

He arched an eyebrow, watching as the unicorn processed that information. He saw the slight confusion as she narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows scrunching up. The moment of processing -

"AH!"

And the gasp of understanding. She lifted off the floor as the jets fired, and she grinned as widely as it was possible for a unicorn to grin.

"I can fly! I'm a pegasus!"

"Pegusi have wings," he said, taking up the report again. "You do not."

"Don't care! I can give myself some!"

"If you must, please do it outside the office."

"And I can go FAST! Oh god, these things are amazing. They can break the speed of sound."

"Of course they can. Tatyana gave them to you. I have every confidence that they can go two or three times the speed of sound."

"Sonic rainboom, here I come."

"Now that I doubt."

"Can't know until I try. Wheeeeeeee!"

And just like that, the unicorn went flying out through the open hole in the office. He shook his head as he watched her fly towards the distance, gathering speed as she went faster and faster.

As long as she doesn't sonic boom the office, she may do as she pleases, he thought, looking down at the report again. I'll need to account for more glass, I suppose. It was a bit of a grandiose display. Not to mention paying for further collateral damage...

The snow leopard sighed. Back to work before the unicorn found another way to interrupt -

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

She went flying straight through his office, only to crash right into the window on the far side. There was a crack, but not a full collapse. Kai Lee shook his head as Ellyra slowly slid down the tempered glass, the unicorn groaning.

"That was supposed to breaaaaaaaak."

"There are ten layers of bulletproof glass with layers of tempered glass, air, and steel between them," he said as he set the report down, pulling out one on the developments from R&D this quarter. "If you wish to try spearing through them, you will need more than simple speed."

"Time to try the plasma cannon."

He absently nodded as she took off, then paused.

"...Plasma cannon?"

The End