FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Bobby looked around, trying to understand what was going on.

He stood in the middle of his lobby; in the luxurious office he'd designed, with the sounds of a city coming from the window. The delicate texture of the old varnished wood desk. The plush velvet of the office chair, the smells of dust, the same caught in a beam of sunlight.

The clarity of his senses confirmed it was his office. This was what he considered his best work. He was sure if he dropped someone here, they wouldn't be able to tell they were virtual until they exited the room.

The problem was that he couldn't figure out how he'd gotten here. He didn't remember stepping in, or even doing work. He was...

He tried to remember. He'd visited his father at a--no, he'd planned on it. The man had finally been caught and his testimony was needed. He was pretty sure he'd gotten into the public transport shuttle, but after that?

He looked at the old clock on the wall, and the second's hand was stuck, trying to move to the sixteenth second and bouncing back to fifteen.

"No--no--no," he accessed memory files. If his clock wasn't working, it meant it was disconnected from the net, and he needed to know how that had happened. He found the root folders and grabbed the most recent bundle, flinging them before him to watch. Instead of a replay of his memories, the files remained bundled with a message appearing before them.

"Please wait."

The knock at the door made Bobby jump. He reached for it, then stopped. If he was disconnected from the net, how was someone asking to enter his lobby? He brought up the security on his access, made sure all his measures were active before reaching for the handle. He hesitated again, having the feeling he'd gone through something similar before, and that the results hadn't been pleasant. He looked at the display next to the door, confirmed the security was up, and opened it.

Through the slight shimmering of the security measures, he watched as a tiger in a gray suit stood before him. Around him was...nothing. The tiger stood in the void of none-space. Bobby wasn't an expert in net investigation, but like he figured everyone did at least once, he'd looked unto the vast expanse of the net without entopic filters, the near-infinite connections vanishing into the distance, the brighter points of nodes and other users.

Even if there was a filter around the tiger to keep the visual noise to a minimum, there should be at least his connection line to the net, shouldn't there?

"Hello, Mister Power, I'm Uncle, may I come in?"

The voice was soothing, friendly, a man doing his best to appear inoffensive. It immediately made Bobby's hackles go up. "Who are you?"

The tiger glanced to his left, tapping something and scrolling. Seemingly satisfied with what he read, he focused on Bobby again. "As I said, I'm--"

"Not whatever handle you work under. Your name."

"Ah." The tiger hesitated. "My name is Uncle." The smile turned sheepish. "My situation is unusual. May I come in?"

Bobby glanced at the lack of anything around the tiger. Maybe they had him in a simulation? If they did, there was nothing he could do to keep the tiger out.

"If you're more comfortable this way. We can speak like this," the tiger said. "I'm here principally to update you on your situation."

Bobby looked back to the bundle of files he'd left hanging. The message was gone. A timer? Linked to him opening the door? Something else? He sighed. If nothing else, this indicated that as polite as the tiger was, he already had some level of access to his lobby. He deactivated the security and stepped out of the way.

"Are you sure?"

"You might as well come in. The faster we get this over, the quicker I know what's going on."

The tiger stepped into his lobby and looked around. "I guess growing up with Logan Power as a father doesn't make it easy to trust people."

"I have no problem trusting people. It's those who aren't entirely honest with me I have issues with."

The tiger, Uncle, looked at him with a fleeting amused expression, then grew serious. He indicated the bundle. "We partitioned your most recent memories so you wouldn't have to go through it alone."

"It's that bad?"

"More like intense." Uncle hesitated. "I can give you a rundown first, if you think it'll make it easier."

Intense didn't have to be bad, the Lands could get intense, and he always enjoyed that, but this was about his life, and the fact they were talking in his lobby instead of in the real world didn't bode well for him.

"I'm going to go with the rundown."

Uncle nodded. "You might want to sit down."

Bobby dismissed the files as he headed to his desk and sat. He conjured another chair opposite him, taking the time to make the leather on it old and supple, cracked from use. Once it was done, he motioned for the tiger to sit.

Uncle did so and reclined in it, running his hands on the armrest. "Trevor said you were an expert."

"You know Trevor Pakesh?" Bobby asked. If this was a friend or a coworker of his, did it mean he'd succeeded? Immediately he wondered what he might have succeeded at. "I think you should get on it with. Whoever did the work didn't partition everything and the impressions I'm getting are way more confusing than anything else."

"The mind is a complex thing," Uncle said. "Anything stored with your implant was easy to lock, but telling it to keep specific memories inactive is a more difficult task. It's not always fast enough to stop everything. But this isn't a course on implant-brain interaction."

"I had to go through the course to..." Bobby stopped. "Let's get on with it."

The tiger nodded. "You were kidnapped by your father, Logan. They connected you to a machine of his design but augmented with the infrastructure of one of the worlds from the Lands of Farr. Somehow you managed to escape their grasp within the Lands and made your way to a caern, where you were able to make a complete copy of your personality before they caught you, and send messages to your four friends. Once you were caught, your father replaced your personality with his, and went on his 'usual' business. I'm trying to build a timeline of your father's history, but he's been careful. Your friends were able to decrypt your message and follow the clues you left to the caern and retrieve your personality."

Bobby swallowed. "So I'm just a construct?"

Uncle shook his head. "While they were doing that, we had operatives working in the real world. Your father's alliance with one of the criminal organizations led to his downfall. They weren't as careful hiding their connections as he was, and while he and his army tried to keep your friends from rescuing you, we found where they were hiding. Your father was with them. We were able to reverse engineer how his machine works and put you back into your body."

Bobby let the information sink in. "So Logan's dead."

"He's in prison. He let his previous body keep all memories so no one would question they were different people. Not that anyone would even consider the possibility he'd copied himself."

"You should increase security on him then. Logan was nothing if not careful in any plans he made. He wouldn't let himself sit in prison any longer than needed for this to work."

Uncle nodded. "As soon as I was aware things were hinky, I took charge of his security myself. Of course, a lot of the charges against him come from you, so I expect the core of his plan was that Bobby Power was going to have a change of heart and reconcile with his father."

Bobby snorted. "You don't know Logan if you think that. He wouldn't care for anyone else, not even a previous version of him." He rubbed his face. "So I'm in my body." The relief was palpable, even if he didn't quite remember the events themselves.

"Yes. We 'woke you up' in preparation for waking your body. You've been in a maintained coma for almost a year." Uncle paused. "Do you know if your father--if Logan created this machine? It's an amazing piece of technology, even if the use he made of it was thoroughly illegal and immoral."

Bobby shook his head. "Logan didn't spend a lot of time--anytime--talking about what he'd done. He was too busy scamming people, including me. What's going to happen to that machine?"

"It's been destroyed. It's too dangerous. Even with it disconnected from the Lands, it could still override someone's personality with another. I'm worried enough there could be a copy of it floating around."

Bobby nodded. "I don't think anything Logan did was for the good of anyone but himself. You referred to operatives before. Who exactly are you?"

Uncle smiled. "I'm going to let Trevor handle that one. Do you want to go through your memories while they're ready to wake you up fully? With me here in case it gets too intense?"

Bobby considered the requests, the angles Uncle might be playing. If he let his imagination go, he could come up with hundreds, the bane of having watched Logan work for years, of having been on the receiving end of the man's machinations. But if he was being reasonable, everything the tiger had said and done seemed to be to help him.

He brought up the bundle, hesitated, then opened the first one, and memories flooded over him.

* * * * *

Bobby opened his eyes to a gray and fuzzy surface. The room's ceiling, he decided since Uncle said his body was in a hospital. He looked to the side and made out a form. He tried to speak, and of course, without his visor, he didn't have the speakers, so no voice. He sent a text to the closest person.

Is my visor here? I need it to be able to function.

The person moved, spoke, the sounds indistinct. Bobby turned to look in the direction he thought they were looking in and saw another shape. They left and the one remaining moved closer. Said something else indistinct.

Are you okay? The message appeared.

I am. Who are you? I can't see more than shapes without my visor.

I'm Trevor.

Bobby smiled. Trevor, it's great to finally meet you in the flesh. Thanks for helping rescue me. The form moved, and the bed shifted until Bobby was sitting. Thanks.

Another shape materialized. More speaking, then something was in Bobby's hands. He felt its shape and placed it over his eyes, establishing the connection. He still couldn't see and cursed quietly. The settings had looked fine, but someone must have played with it. Maybe tried to understand the changes the visor had undergone to be able to help him with his condition. When he could see and hear, it wasn't perfect, but he'd have time to fine-tune it later.

The tiger was good looking, dressed in a shirt and pants. He didn't look exactly the way Bobby had imagined Trevor to look, he'd expected something a little less muscular since he had an office job.

"Is this better?" Trevor asked.

"Is it," Bobby answered, only for his voice to turn screeching. He made adjustments. "Sorry, the settings have been screwed up."

"Sir," the doctor said, "you--"

"Not now," Trevor cut her off. The way the doctor didn't even argue with the tiger surprised Bobby. They exchanged a silent conversation, and the doctor left.

Bobby studied Trevor. "Okay, I'm going to ignore the way you just got a doctor to leave their patient for the time being, but trust me, we're going to address it. Someone called Uncle gave me the rundown of what happened and we went through my memories of what happened. Do I need to point out how suspicious it is that I woke up just when we were done discussing how I felt about the whole ordeal?"

"Uncle kept us up to date on how you were doing and once he gave the all-clear, the doctor woke you. So yeah, it's probably as suspicious as it gets."

Bobby chuckled.

"You never mentioned any of that." Trevor indicated the visor. And Bobby sobered.

"Not exactly something I like to advertise. Are my bracers close by? I'm going to need them when it's time for me to get out of this bed."

The hesitation was palpable and Bobby threw the covers off his legs, breathing easier when he saw he still had legs. He couldn't imagine Logan doing anything to ruin his body, but there was no telling what had happened during his capture. He felt along his legs and immediately knew something was off.

"The hospital kept your body in shape through nanites," Trevor said.

"That's not it. Where did all those muscles come from? I had to stay healthy, but my condition makes it pretty much impossible for me to gain muscle mass on my legs."

"Ah, you--I mean your father, treated himself to some body redesign. You still look like yourself," Trevor hurried to add, "but he had improvements done."

"He better not--" Bobby grabbed his cock and balls and immediately knew the asshole of a man had made changes there too. His balls felt larger. His cock felt sort of the same, but it was soft and--

He yelped as lips wrapped around the tip and his hand was moved off.

"What are you doing?" then Bobby moaned as the tiger swallowed the whole of his cock, head bobbing up and down before releasing it.

"I figured you were feeling for changes, and you'll get a better sense of it if you're hard."

Bobby felt his cock, it was thicker and longer. Of course Logan hadn't been happy with what Bobby had. His cock had been perfectly fine.

"We can undo whatever you're not happy with," Trevor said, "but you should wait until you've readjusted to your body before you do anything."

Bobby leaned back, running a hand over his arms and chest, almost more muscular. "I'm just pissed that he did any of this. Why even take my body, with all the problems it has." He sighed. "But how are the others? Uncle said you guys rescued me. Are they going to be coming over anytime soon?"

Trevor pulled a chair over and sat. "Horace, he played Marc, is gone. He left earth a few months after your rescue. I tried to reassure him he was in no danger from the people who'd kidnapped you, but he never signed up for this kind of adventure, not in the real world, anyway. David, he played--"

"I know who the players are, Trevor."

"Sorry. Of course, you do. David is dead, for all intents and purposes. They did to him what they did to you, but he didn't have a backup of his personality. We're still sorting things out, but of the hundreds of people involved in this, it looks like there were only a dozen actual people and they had their personalities stamped on the others."

Bobby swallowed. "Logan?"

"Only one of him. Well, one left now. In prison."

"It's been a year and you're still not done?"

"The organization is dismantled, but the personality stamps complicate things. The lawyers and doctors are dealing with them, but it raises a lot of questions on how to deal with them."

"No wonder Uncle had the machine destroyed."

"Yeah. It's too dangerous."

Bobby fell silent and waited, feeling less and less comfortable when Trevor didn't mention the last member of their guild. "That leaves Nori," he finally said.

Trevor didn't answer immediately. "Nori is--" he stopped. Even with the poor resolution from the visor's sensors, Bobby could read the expression on the tiger's face. "Nori is the real hero," he said. "He saved you. He held on for the duration of the transfer. I can't imagine the pain he was in, but he held on."

Bobby couldn't say anything to that. He'd known Logan had destroyed countless lives, even before this. The man had no regard for the damage he caused. But these two were too close. They'd been friends, guildmates. Bobby hated the man a little more because of that.

After the silence stretched into minutes, Bobby took a deep breath. "You've used 'we' a lot of the times when talking about what's happening in rounding up the criminals, figuring out what to do with the people who were victims. You told that doctor to leave. I get you're an inspector, that you'd be involved on some level, but you make it sound like you're deep into it and I can't imagine a simple inspector doing that." He looked at the tiger. "And Uncle said you'd explain who you are, as in all of this."

Trevor nodded. "He told me. The bastard had to let me handle that part." He forced a smile. "My punishment for not coming clean sooner, like he kept saying I should." He stood and stepped to the bed. "My name isn't Trevor Pakesh. It's Trevor Orr. As in the corporation," he added before Bobby could puzzle over it.

The raccoon let out a breath. "Well, that certainly explains how you ordered her around.

* * * * *

Bobby walked slowly through the gray, featureless corridor. It felt strange to walk, to feel the floor under his feet. For his legs to support his weight. He'd expected the revelation his friend was an Orr to be the biggest that day. Finding out his infirmity had been manufactured had definitely overshadowed it.

It made sense, looking back on it. The medical company that had explained his condition had been privately owned. The researcher who'd been somber as he promised Bobby he'd do everything he could to help him cope with his condition until he found a way to fix the damage his early implantation had caused hadn't been corporate-funded. The damage had been real, initially; he'd been implanted much too early, but the implant had fixed it once his brain had stopped growing. Only the doctors who looked after him, who did everything they could to make his life just a little easier, kept adjusting it so it would cause his body to never be entirely under his control.

And he had one person to thank for all of that. The one he was going to see right now.

The older raccoon sat on the other side of a simple table, his face brightening on seeing Bobby. "Son! What a surprise. I didn't think you'd ever want to see me again."

He could have done this over the net. Bobby had seriously considered it. Virtual was just as good as the real thing most of the time. Most of them.

"Hello Logan," Bobby said, looking the man in the eyes.

"Don't you think it's time you called me father?" the man answered with a chuckle.

"No," Bobby replied flatly. "You're thinking of someone else." He waited for the man to work out the implications. "Someone who didn't survive to come see you."

The man swallowed, and it was the only reaction. Bobby was certain that no one watching the feed, or the recordings later, would realize the significance. Logan had always been a master at hiding his feelings and reactions. The man before him wasn't a poor copy, he was the original. He might be older, but he wasn't any less crafty. He'd been caught because both Logans had wanted it that way. It was going to be a temporary thing, just long enough for it to feel plausible.

"I'm here," Bobby said, "to let you know that I've gone over all my testimonies, all the lawsuits I've filed against you. To that I've added the doctor's and expert's testimonies regarding how you paid them to keep track of me, to ensure my 'condition' never improved."

"Bobby, son. I... I don't know what you're talking about. I'm overjoyed you're better, but--"

"You can stop, Logan. This is over. You're the only one, and you're going to spend the rest of your life in a cell with no one for you to even con again. You have broken so many consent laws I'm surprised they aren't simply erasing you, but someone involved in your prosecution made a case that would be letting you off too easily. Honestly, I don't give a fuck. You're going to be out of my life forever. That's all I care about." He turned.

"Bobby!" Logan called after him. "You can't do that to me, I'm your father. Bobby, I order you to come back here!"

The door closed on the rest of what the man yelled, and Bobby finally felt free.

* * * * *

Horace looked at the tiger's face floating before him. The message had been waiting for him when he arrived at Titan Station. He'd considered erasing it outright. For it to be waiting meant the tiger hadn't had to decency to even try to contact him directly. But he'd kept it, and now that he was past the halfway point to reaching home, past the point where anything that tiger might say could change anything, he'd finally given in.

He started the playback.

The cocky grin fell off the tiger's face. "Hi, Horace. I'm sorry Trevor couldn't convince you that you're safe. I don't know if it's because you don't trust us to keep you safe or if it's because we're, well, us. I know us corporate types don't have the greatest reputations among those who don't grow up within the system. That's probably a failing on our part, and not yours. This isn't about arguing it one way or another." He grinned again. "Not that it would be much of an argument with me talking. Everyone knows I don't have the brains to argue any point except the benefits of having sex with me. I just wanted to say I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to get to know you. Trev sings your praises any chance he gets, It would have been fun to find out how much of it is true." He fell silent, forced a smile. "Thank you for the help, I know Bobby's your friend and all that. But with you there, keeping Trev safe was a little easier." He was quiet again. "That's going to be it. I'm not exactly one for talking. I've attached a file. It isn't encrypted it's just a family message for Theo. We have ways of sending him messages, but there's no way to ever be sure they aren't tampered with, to make sure he doesn't get anymore corrupted by the corporate family he's involved with. I'll understand if you don't feel comfortable acting as our messenger and hand it over to whoever deals with that, but I'd be grateful if you gave it directly to Theo." The cocky grin came back. "If you ever make it out this way again, I'll show you just how grateful I am. Tucker out."

Horace was mildly surprised the message hadn't been explicit. Tucker's reputation was such that he wasn't supposed to be able to do anything without ending up naked, hard, and with a cock into an orifice. Even in the Lands, Tucker's biggest frustration had seemed to be the general rating of the places they were in.

He stored the message and attached file into a secure section of his implant. He'd hand the file to Theodore Paso once he had the chance. He wasn't sure there was any point in trying to hide anymore. According to what Caduceus told him, within a decade Uncle would start approaching the other corporations about the colonies' existence. After that, it would be what? Two, three decades at most until any choice was taken away? They'd have to join the rest of the solar system or deal with the consequences.

Regardless, remaining hidden was no longer feasible.

Time would reveal if this was a good move or the worst mistake ever made.