FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The air was almost stifling the entire day; in the throes of summer in the megacity even the environmental control systems that were supposed to cool the air couldn't control the heat that saturated into the concrete and steel. It wasn't helped with all the technology that pumped out even more warmth as people turned to personal and building air conditioning to stave off the summer. As day turned to night however the citizens felt welcome relief as the burden from the sun was lifted from the machines that turned heat and humanity into merely a pleasant warmth. For scaled anthro creatures such as the cobra that walked down one of the busier streets however he didn't mind the heat from before, though the cooler air did help with his thermographic vision as he to one of the megacity's central plazas.

The business park was still thriving with people going to and from their places of work, mostly megacorperations that needed entire skyscrapers in order to keep the wheels of their industry turning. It was the time of day that the cobra had been waiting for; with people coming in and out for regular shift changes it was a sea of corporate wage slaves that all blended together. Most people wouldn't know if there was a new face in the crowd if they were paid and even if there was the turnover for such corporate jobs was so high that he could very well be a new hire. But for the criminal known in the underworld as Tanakeah he wasn't there for a job... at least not one that the companies of that building were aware of.

Unbeknownst to most those who were making their way through the plaza were walking a few floors above a top-secret bioweapon research facility. It was a dangerous place to hide such an operation but also one that would likely remain secret since the rumble of traffic and subways would disguise all but the most powerful ground-penetrating radar to its presence. Tana had no way of knowing exactly what they were working on but it was likely nothing good, especially since he had been commissioned to steal the research so that it could be released to the world and expose the company involved. It was no small order and the cobra was getting paid handsomely as a result as he went over to one of the air vents disguised as a tree and dropped a metal bead into it.

Tana waited for a few moments before he activated the tiny device that's sole purpose was to detect how far beneath the ground it was. When it gave a double-digit reading the cobra frowned and realized it was merely a vent down to one of the subway tunnels. The plaza was littered with large tubes that went deep down to the ground as a means to supply air to the structures below the ground, and as such they had to remain open and free of obstructions. Normally they would be obfuscated in some building but with dozens in the area he guessed the architects for the facility just figured they would blend in with the subway ones and they would be too exposed for anyone to try and go inside. This is where they would be wrong, Tana thought to himself as he took another bead and dropped it into one near a fountain which gave a similar result to the first.

It took two more tries and Tana began to wonder if he was going to run out of depth sensors when finally he got one that was almost three digits down. This thing was buried deep, the cobra thought to himself as he looked over the vent that was carefully set into the column of a statue that was near the center of the plaza. He looked at all the people that passed by the area and even with everyone preoccupied on their own lives it would look suspicious if someone just started to pry open the grate. Fortunately for him that was exactly why he had brought two tiny holographic emitters that he placed on the raised concrete about a meter away from him in a box configuration with the statue itself.

Once the tiny machines had been placed Tana stepped away so that it could take reference pictures, then stepped back into the area of effect. There would be no good time to activate these so he just went for it, pressing the button he had placed in his palm and watching as the air shimmered around him. If anyone had been watching intently they would have seen the cobra disappear, but as Tana waited for a few seconds no one came rushing forward to investigate. The holographic projectors only had about a minute of life in them and he didn't want to risk accidently being bumped into as he turned and popped the vent grate open with a mag lock.

A gust of wind greeted Tana as he slid inside, holding onto the grate cover from the other side as he hung over a sheer drop down into the darkness. With everything back in place the only evidence that he had been there was two small devices that had burned themselves out and a single carabineer hooked to the middle rung that was the same color as the metal it was attached to. As far as the cobra knew the rumbling of the surrounding area and the air flow made it near impossible to secure the shaft with anything motion or vibration related as he began to quickly plunge down into the darkness. Another fortuitous design in his favor was that instead of the old-school fans to move air they prompted for ion flow technology which pulled him down more and more the deeper he got.

But entering the facility was going to be the easy part, Tana reminded himself as he finally got to the bottom of the incredibly long vent and felt the almost cold metal against his feet. If this really was a bioengineering facility doing illegal research then everything would be heavily guarded including the information he was trying to find. As he carefully popped the vent access panel from its hinges he mentally went over the plan he had made from the blueprints he had been provided to get in and out. It mostly hinged on him being able to find something to disguise himself with, either a lab or security uniform, and hope that the identification devices didn't rely heavily on biometrics.

As Tana got out of the vent and lowered himself to the floor however none of the plans that he had prepared for this mission would be able to be utilized as he suddenly found himself surrounded. Guards in chameleon suits... by the time he saw the shift in the air around him they had already descended upon him. As he attempted to reach for his weapon he felt several barbs hit him, his muscles suddenly seizing as a current of electricity was unleashed through his body. They were all using smart tasers that were able to calibrate to one another to make sure that he wouldn't be able to move and in the next few seconds the cobra felt himself hit the ground hard.

An ambush... if Tana's jaw wasn't clenched shut from being shocked consistently he would have let out a hiss of extreme displeasure. There was no way six guards using cloaking technology and synchronized tasers would just happen to be hanging out in the same area that he was entering the facility from. The fact they knew which vent he was coming down from meant that they had been watching him from the beginning, this whole mission a trap that left him stranded down in a completely hidden bioengineering facility. Even with his considerable skills and equipment he was no match for so many getting the drop on him, and within minutes he found his weapons and armor stripped from his body.

When the shocks were finally no longer administered Tana continued to feel his form quiver slightly, but as he let out a loud moan he heard one of the guards let out a chuckle before another quickly stopped him. "We were warned about this one," the one that appeared to be in charge said. "Get out the restrictors, orders are to bind him up once we have disarmed him."

"Which ones?" the guard that had previously laughed said, Tana detecting a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"All of them," the lead guard said. "If you miss even one link and he gets out because of it then you're going to be taking his place, got it?" The other guards quickly came to attention and inwardly Tana sighed to himself. He could already feel his muscles loosening up and if they had just taken a few more seconds to gloat like normal ones did he could have taken out at least two of them before they could have tasered him again.

Instead Tana felt his hands get brought behind his back and fitted with what looked like a set of wrist shackles, the cold metal clamping around his scales as a second pair were fitted to his ankles. It appeared they weren't going to let him walk on his own as a second pair were brought out and fitted to his biceps and thighs. They appeared to be magnetically bound to one another and even when he was able to get the movement back in his limbs there was very little that he could move. Once his legs and arms were bound together they lifted him up to his feet, but they weren't done with him yet. If he hadn't been so angry at being betrayed and captured the cobra would have almost been flattered as another piece of metal was secured to his waist while he felt his tail get pushed down his legs and fitted with a ring as well.

Other than the initial outburst from the lead guard they didn't talk much as Tana felt something press around his neck and his hands. He tried to shake his head a bit but it was a futile gesture as they secured some sort of collar around him, feeling the weight of it as it hovered a few inches above his shoulders. At the same time they secured heavy metal mitts over his hands, likely to prevent the use of his claws, and felt the ends connect with the cuffs that had been latched around his wrists. It would definitely be a tough situation to get out of but even as they finished securing the last of the straps around his bare chest he began to make mental preparations in order to escape.

Once again however Tana was surprised when the lead guard asked if everything was secured, but instead of starting to move him down into the facility proper he pulled out a small black box with several buttons on it. He pushed the largest one on it and the cobra suddenly felt every metal band on his nearly naked body activate. In a matter of seconds thin carbon wires snaked their way out of the cuffs and collar that housed them and crisscrossed over his body. He let out a small groan as his already confined limbs were restrained even further and caused his body to tremble in the grips of the guards that held him up, but was really surprised him were the ones that slithered up his head and looped around his serpentine snout before tightening and locking it completely down.

Tana let out several muffled grunts as he felt the wires continue to cocoon him until there was hardly any of his blue scales left to be seen, but even with his body completely bound the guards appeared to still have a few things left to do to him. With the carbon wires taut against his form all he could do was wiggle slightly like a worm as his body was lifted up before something black and shiny was slid out underneath his feet. As it was unfurled he realized it was some sort of reinforced black leather sack that one of them had started to pull up over his body. He could feel the warm leather slide over the carbon fibers that pressed against his scales as they quickly go up until it reached his neck before the reinforced straps within the sack adhered magnetically to the original bindings that covered him.

As the bag is slowly zipped up from behind the lead guard that had been staring at Tana the entire time is handed something equally shiny, though the material was rubberier in nature and had several tubes dangling from the muzzle. It was some sort of gas mask and it was made for an anthro cobra, yet another indicator that this had been a set-up all along, and with the cables keeping his head from moving around there was little the cobra could do but allow it to be slipped over his face. For a few seconds he was completely surrounded by darkness but as he felt it get adjusted over his face he suddenly was able to see through the tinted lenses that covered his eyes. By the time the rubber had been adjusted over the collar the leather sack had been completely zipped up to his neck where one of the guards snapped a keyless lock to keep the rubber hood and zipper locked into place.

This is getting considerably harder to escape, Tana thought to himself as the guards tugged on the straps that were built into the sack in order to pin his body even more inside of it. With the magnetic bonds keeping the two together the tightening only seemed to serve to cause him to wiggle even more, though with every inch they pulled it was another inch he couldn't move. As soon as they were satisfied that the cobra wouldn't go anywhere they attached a separate lock to make sure it didn't slide out, and though it was hard for him to see it Tana could tell they were keyless just like the one nestled at the back of his neck. By the time they were completely finished some of the guards sounded almost out of breath with one orc even wiping his brow to get the sweat off it.

Though it was hard to hear with the padded rubber pressed against his head Tana managed to listen to the head guard as he talked on his radio. "This is capture team," the head guard said while still looking over at Tana as if he was about to burst free at any second. "The intruder has been contained and we're going to be evacing immediately, have transport ready on mark in ten."

Tana realized at this point that these six were clearly a capable extraction team as the lenses he was looking through suddenly went dark and blinded him to the outside world. Several pairs of hands suddenly pressed against him and he was hoisted into the air before finally being moved through the facility that he had been supposed to steal from. He could only imagine the looks on the faces of the scientist as they saw the six walk by with the leather-clad body and gas-mask covered head of a creature that might vaguely still look like a cobra at that point. Underneath all that the one within tried to figure out some way to get out, but at this point he was as immobile as when he had gotten tased as he felt himself get moved into something that started to go up.

It didn't stop Tana from trying to struggle though and more than once he could feel one of the guards shift slightly, but by the time they got to what seemed like the ground floor he had made no progress in his escape attempt. When they started to move again the lenses of the mask shifted back from opaque to merely tinted and what the cobra saw in front of him was an unmarked van whose doors swung open on their approach. Inside the vehicle there was a row of benches on each side and several tube cages that were set up in the middle. He was brought to the closest one and unceremoniously dumped inside before the doors closed behind them and they immediately started to move.

Even with the layers of bindings that were already on him Tana found himself pulled up and one guard fastened a number of chains that looped through both the bars and the straps on the sack while another connected the tubes on the mask to ports that were installed above each cage. There was little room inside the confined quarters and as soon as he felt the ends of the hoses attach there was a hiss and slight pressure that came from it. After the guard inside the cage had looped the flexible chain around his body and the bars several times he slid out and slammed the door shut, which the cobra could hear lock instantly. Once that happened he could see through the lenses of the gas mask he wore that all the guards visibly relaxed at that, though Tana had quickly come to suspect that they were definitely not ordinary security forces that had captured him.

"I bet this one is still wondering what happened to him," the guard that had originally laughed while down in the facility stated. "Do you think he knows?"

"Someone of his caliber has already figured out most of the pieces I'm sure," the head guard said as he finally took off the mask that had obscured his face, revealing the large snout of a minotaur as his helmet was removed to which exposed his horns. "Perhaps if he hadn't snooped around so much while he was checking the place out or maybe did a little more background on his sources he could have seen this coming, but the fact he's sitting here with us tells us otherwise. I'm sure it's a mistake that he would be keen on correcting, unfortunately he won't be given such a chance."

The assuredness of what the minotaur said made Tana's blood run cold, especially since he was cavalier enough to expose his face. Since he had never heard of a group like this that were experts on counter-intrusion they were thickly veiled in the shadows even to those in the underworld. With more of them exposing their personal details to him and the fact they didn't bother to darken his lenses meant only one thing, they were more than confident that he wasn't going to see the light of day again to tell anyone. The realization of his potential fate caused Tana to thrash about even more, though the only thing it served to do was cause everything around him to rattle slightly.

"Still got a bit of fight in this one," the orc man said as the leader slowly stood up and moved towards some sort of tank that was secured to the ceiling. "Nothing he can do now but hurt himself."

"I think it's time that our passenger get some rest," the minotaur replied as he turned one of the valves. "Last thing I need is my pay docked due to damaged goods. If they're taking all the trouble of hiring us to bring them in alive than it wouldn't do us any good for it to harm itself."

Once more the cold manner in which the minotaur regarded him had struck Tana, especially since it appeared the leader of the group thought nothing more of him than cargo. It was clear that this group were professional kidnappers, not bounty hunters or assassins otherwise they would have just killed him right then and there, but why go through all the trouble of bringing him in? He may have been good at his job but there were others out there that had similar skillsets, and from the way the team operated it was likely this job caused a minimum of six figures in credits. Since there was no way he could escape for the time being Tana attempted to put the puzzle together of what was in store for him when they delivered their prize, hoping that it would present another opportunity to get out.

Unfortunately yet another problem arose for Tana as he began to feel something tickle against his muzzle and realize that the minotaur had started to pump gas into the hood he wore. It had come so silently that it had caught him by surprise and though he managed to hold his breath he could still feel a bit of it sting against his inner nostrils and throat before going numb. This wasn't good... if they managed to knock him out then there was no way that he would know where they were going or who he was about to be delivered too, but other than keeping hold of the oxygen that remained in his lungs there was nothing else he could do. He attempted to move his head around and maybe dislodge one of the hoses, which would have the added benefit of knocking out those inside the van, but they were sealed tight against the mask and the cobra quickly felt his lungs starting to burn.

Tana could hear the chuckles coming from the other guards as they seemed to know what he was attempting to do as the gas flooded the gas mask he wore. He could vaguely hear one or two start to take bets on how long he would hold his breath and though it caused him to scowl he also knew that it was true. Even if he could somehow hold his breath the entire duration of the car ride they would probably just stop and wait for him to completely succumb to whatever they were pumping him full of before they continued. This group was a bunch of professionals, they weren't going to make the rookie mistake of having him feign being drugged only to escape later.

Eventually the strain got to Tana and he felt himself exhale hard, which prompted several of the guards to laugh and one in particular to cheer about winning the bet. He couldn't focus on that though as he had to take a deep breath in, and as soon as he did he could feel the effects of the drug hit him hard. Even without inhaling it before his mask being filled with the gas had started to affect him, and when he got a deep lungful of it the room immediately began to shift and spin. Up until that point he hadn't realized how long he had kept his muscles tense until the potent narcotic had suffused into them and caused every inch of him to relax all at once. There were a few more moments that the cobra tried to struggle but soon he found himself slumping within the confines of the tube cage while his breathing normalized and filled his system with the gas.

"You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had just done that in the first place," the minotaur said with a smirk as he sat back down with the others, leaving the gas on so that it continued to fill the mask it was being pumped into. It was starting to become hard for his mind to latch onto the words that were being said to him even with the leader speaking directly at him as his eyelids drooped slightly. "Don't worry, we've already erased all traces of your failed incursion into that lab, and once we're done here it'll be like you never even existed in the first place."

As the cobra struggled to maintain consciousness despite being pulled down by the gas the words of the minotaur echoed through his mind. Normally he could find some way to get out of whatever bind he was in, but in this case they had taken every precaution in order to make sure he couldn't escape. With his breathing continuing to get deeper and steadier the drugs being absorbed into his system would soon make it so he couldn't even take the time to think on what to do next, thoughts disconnecting and disappearing from his mind before they could even fully form. Soon the only thing that he could do was feel the gentle motion of the fan and feel the restraints against his body as his gas-masked head drooped forward.

"That's it..." the minotaur said as he reached in and rubbed underneath Tana's face. "You know you were never going to escape from us in the first place, whether I had turned the gas on or not this was always going to be your fate. At the very least we make sure that those we put under have the most pleasant of experiences, so just let yourself drift away until you need to be awoken again..."

Damn, this guy is good, Tana thought to himself as he felt a strange feeling of pleasure suffuse through his system along with the increased drowsiness. Even though he tried to remain awake those words seemed to adhere to his mind, just drift off... relax... it was an extremely tempting prospect that became better with every second of his body going completely numb. Soon he saw nothing but darkness, and at first he thought they had made the lenses go dark before he realized they were his own eyelids. With nothing left to stimulate his senses he finally slumped forward completely, the bindings on his body keeping him upright as he was completely put under.

Hours pass with the group of kidnappers idly talking to one another now that their delivery was completely knocked out until finally they arrive at the destination given to them. The sudden intense level of preparation combined with the flow of gas being cut off to his mask allowed Tana to regain a slight bit of consciousness back, but it was only enough to hear the others talking about getting ready. Everything felt like he was underwater and wasn't even aware that they had stopped until the back doors opened and the team filed out. The last member to leave was the team leader and before he stepped out of the van he had undone the chains and the tubes that had connected the cobra to his cage before hoisting him into the air.

The area that the van had parked in was an abandoned section of the industrial district that lay on the outside of the megacity. The once sprawling port had been abandoned when more effective means of goods transportation had been invented, which left a lot of empty warehouses that no one really checked on. The group remained vigilant with the head of their team keeping a hold on their package until one of them that had gone off returned with a shipping dolly. Once again Tana felt himself get dumped onto it before they began to wheel him forward into one of the warehouses, the door opening as soon as they got close.

When the group got inside it looked like any other abandoned warehouse that was out there, but as they continued to move closer they saw something come up from the middle of the vast space. To Tana he was still so heavily drugged that all he could tell was that they were two white blurs, which caused him to moan softly that got their attention. "I was hoping you would sedate the subject before you came in," one of the two blurs said, though Tana could only understand about every third word himself. "Has everything been arranged?"

"Yep, every trace erased," the minotaur leader stated as he handed the scientist something. "Like he never existed, as arranged. If anyone does come snooping around looking for him they'll just think that some megacorp threw him in a hole for a botched mission."

"Very good," the second white blur stated. "We can take it over from here, the rest of your fee will be wired to your account before your van leaves the lot. As always I know I can trust you with the upmost discretion and have your number in case we need any more."

Tana's entire body shook slightly within the leather sack as he felt himself get moved again, this time by the two scientists that brought him back to the platform they rode up on while the mercenary group moved back out to their van. "What do you think, should we unwrap our present now?" one of the two scientists said to the other as they got on the platform and began to move down. "Or do we put it in the closet until the experiment is ready?"

"Considering the dossier on this one I think it's best to keep him on ice until we're completely ready," the other scientist said. "The reason we had to hire that team in the first place is because they're an expert on slithering out of tight situations, makes me wonder why he chose him in the first place. A big dumb troll would have fit the bill just as easily in my opinion."

Even though his head was floating Tana managed to grab a few stray pieces of conversation, but it wasn't enough for him to do anything with. His body felt extremely sluggish and other than a slight twitch he couldn't move anything as the platform stopped and he was moved to another room. This one was completely devoid of anything except for a few circular cutouts on the wall and as he was wheeled towards it by one of the scientists the other pressed a button on one of them to reveal a frosted tube. The cobra had no ability to do anything with the drugs still coursing through his system as he was deposited next to it and lifted upwards into it, practically rolling inside before they adjusted him on his back and attached new tubes to his gas mask.

All Tana could do was let out a muffled grunt as a new gas was pumped into the mask, this one causing him to shiver slightly as he was strapped down into the tube and had several connectors jabbed into the leather sack. Once again he started to feel numb, but unlike the other drugs that made him feel very groggy this one seemed to have an anesthetic effect to it as his lips and tongue went completely limp. At the same time a clear blue biogel was pumped into the pod as well while the lid closed, and it wasn't long before his body was completely submerged in it as the two scientists watched on.

With every second Tana's body moved less and less until finally it stopped altogether, though as the two looked on the monitor attached to the end of the tube they saw his vitals were merely entering into a hibernation state. "You were right, this was probably the best way," one said to the other as they pushed a button, watching the gel freeze solid to completely encase the cobra within. "Alright, time to get everything ready, I want him thawed and ready for the experiment before the month is out."