FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. All characters are of legal and consenting age, likewise if you are reading this story, you should be of legal age in your respective country.

All characters are my own creation, any resemblance to existing characters is purely coincidental and not intentional, please do not use them without permission. If you would like to use them in a story, please feel free to send me a PM either as Inja on SoFurry or TheRealInja on FA. As always, I am open to new story ideas or situations with existing characters as well.

Again, Mara/Mother is not my own creation and she belongs to her owner, whom I am eternally grateful for their support and encouragement these last couple of months. I am also thankful for being permitted to use Mara in this setting, she is an absolutely lovely character to write.

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Pip sat at the bar idly swinging side to side on his barstool, minding his own business as he sipped on a root beer. He'd never been partial to alcohol; he didn't like the bitter taste on his tongue or the burn in his throat. His long slender tail swayed in time to the classic rock tunes playing on the ancient jukebox tucked away in one corner of the run-down bar; his large round ears swiveling and listening to the various conversations all around him. The small, slender and well-kept mouse looked very out of place among the other rough looking bunch of bar flies, with all their tattoos and scars.

"We don't want your kind around here..." A gruff voice snarled as a large brown clawed hand slapped down roughly on Pip's right shoulder, knocking him from his barstool to the ground and spilling his root beer all over himself. When the small mouse turned to look back and up at the hand's owner, he was met by the scowling countenance of a massive and angry mountain of muscle in the form of a Kodiak bear.

"Yeah, why don't you take your candy ass back to the Inner Sphere before you get a splinter, princess" Another deep and gravelly voice joined in, this one belonged to a vicious looking black bull. Midnight black all over; his downward curved horns like polished obsidian, giving him an almost demonic look. The only non-black parts of him were the ragged and angry scars across his hide, indicating he'd seen his fair share of action. His broad chest and biceps bulged beneath his simple white stained shirt as he flexed his muscles down at the cowering little mouse.

An annoyed cough sounded from somewhere behind the two brutes, from the shadowy corner of the bar. A large figure partially obscured in the shadows; what little light did manage to reach them caused the figures eyes to glow eerily in the gloom. The person slowly leaned forward and into the light, revealing she was a large scarred white wolfess. Her voice calm and devoid of emotion as she uttered a simple "He's with me" while staring hard at the two large men.

"Oh shit, that's Mara Two Blades!" The black bull visibly paled and took a step back, raising his large hands in surrender. His eyes darted around the room, as if looking for support or at least a distraction to take the white wolfess's attention off him so he could escape. No one else in the bar was dumb enough to make that mistake however, forcing him to slowly back away and retreat with his tail between his legs.

"S...sorry, Mara. We didn't know!" the Kodiak whimpered, quickly scooping Pip up off the floor and setting him back on his seat, before the two large men backed slowly out of the bar. Like a scene from an ancient comedy movie, they bowed profusely as they went. A confused Pip turned on his stool to look at Mother with a questioning stare.

As the two large men retreated from the bar, an agitated looking Dance strode purposefully past them and into the bar barely a moment later. Pausing in the doorway, she scanned the room looking for her crewmates. "Mother, if you're done scaring the locals, we have an urgent call waiting for us back on the Violet Thorn."

"Put his drinks on my tab" Mara grumbled to the bartender before she begrudgingly left her comfy spot in the bar and headed out to follow Dance back to their ship. "Don't stay out too late Pip, you have combat sim training in the morning" she reminded the smiling mouse watching after her as she left. Back aboard the Violet Thorn, Mara met Dance in the meeting room, the communication channel had already been opened and a familiar face was on the view screen speaking with the young ebony wolfess.

"We're currently doing a delivery at New Abilene, Tank. It'd take about twenty-seven days for us to get there; think you and your men could hold out that long?" Dance asked with a frown.

"Yeah, they're not making a concerted push yet and they don't have anything more than a few men and vehicles right now, nothing my Centy and her AC10 can't handle. They're just testing the defenses so far, we've got a platoon of good men alongside my Centurion and a Wolfhound here for protection, along with a pair of old Galleon's. We should be able to fend off a few raiders, but I'd appreciate some backup to clean them our proper, once and for all" the old scarred brown bear on screen replied.

Mara was quickly caught up on their conversation so far, Tank whom was an old friend of theirs from their Solaris circuit days had taken up a career in private security. He was currently stationed on a small mining outpost on Manthraka. Recently a couple of raiders had been probing their defenses, at first it was nothing serious, but now it was starting to escalate to minor property damage. Tank, being the sensible sort he was, wanted to stop them before they got too bold and caused some real damage to the mining operations. He also couldn't risk having his only two mechs lured out of the compound and leave it undefended, so he was calling in a favor from some old friends he trusted...and whom owed him a favor he wouldn't have to pay for, of course.

Dance had already arranged another delivery at Ur Cruinne which was on the way, so it wouldn't be a wasted trip. As soon as all their crew returned from their shore break, they would depart for Manthraka via Ur Cruinne to arrive as soon as possible.

"I don't like this" Mara grumbled as she sat back with her arms folded beneath her bust. "Doesn't feel right."

"Relax, you taught Tank everything he knows. He'll be fine" Dance replied, trying to sooth the large white wolfess. "As soon as the others get back on board, we're hightailing it out of here to get there as soon as we can."

Mother huffed and continued to growl softly, but did not say another word. She knew Tank better than anyone, he wasn't the sort to ask for help so easily. If he'd called and asked for aid, especially her aid, something was up. Even with their jumpship running their engines to breaking point, they would still take nearly a month to get to him. A lot could happen in a few seconds on the battlefield, but in a month, the world could change.

With nothing else left to do, Mara left the Violet Thorn and headed back into town, gathering the crew well ahead of schedule and forcing them back on board so they could leave. There was a bit of grumbling, but one look at the white wolfess's scowl quickly silenced any protests. Before long, they were docking with the Ebony Rose, their jumpship, and preparing to embark on the first leg of their journey.

The first week went by without a hitch, the raiders had been spotted on Manthraka, but they were keeping their distance for now. Tank had his men doing round the clock patrols, making sure the raiders spotted them to try deter them from trying anything funny and so far it seemed to be working. Despite Dance and Tank's optimism, Mother still was pensive about the whole situation. The funny feeling in the pit of her belly would not go away.

By the time they had reached Ur Cruinne, Tank had lost his two Galleon's and a few men in minor skirmishes when the raiders started hitting their supply lines. Another week later, he had lost the Wolfhound and pilot as well; the raiders had managed to get their hands on a Spider equipped with an extended range large laser. The Wolfhound was already damaged from other minor skirmishes when the Spider pilot had camped out on a ridge not far from where its patrol route was. It had waited for the Wolfhounds back to be turned to land a shot on its rear side torso where the armor had been damaged. The pilot didn't have enough time to eject before his engine went critical; Tank had seen the explosion from his office. The raiders had gotten bolder since the loss of the Wolfhound and he was losing more men daily, the old bears grip on the situation was now tenuous at best.

Then, out of nowhere, aid had come in the form of a lone MechWarrior. "She's like an angel of mercy, right when we needed her most!" Tank had said with relief in his voice and etched in his eyes. Beside him sat the MechWarrior whom had come to save him and his compound.

"It's nothing, you'd have done the same for me, I'm sure!" The beautiful tawny furred Sabretooth Liger replied with an embarrassed laugh. She was older than Dance, but younger than Mother by what they could make out over the video feed. Mercy as she was called, piloted her families' old Warhammer 6R. With twin autocannon tens and four medium pulse lasers, she had been a good deterrent against the Spider. Tank was grateful for the backup; his Centurion was taking a beating from the long-range beam of the Spider and he had already lost too many men trying to set up an ambush for it as well. They had been shredded by its quad arm mounted machine guns the last time they'd tried.

For a while, things seemed to calm down, between Mercy and Tank, they were holding the Spider at bay and the mining compound was safe, for now. Dance breathed a sigh of relief; they were still a week out from setting foot on Manthraka. But on the battlefield, there is never really such a thing as quiet, there was only "too quiet" and all-out war which usually followed it. Dance awoke with an ache in the pit of her stomach, something was wrong and she could feel it in her bones. As soon as she had gotten dressed, she left her quarters and headed to Mothers room, but found it empty.

"I'm so sorry, they got more reinforcements...we tried to hold them off, but they lured us out of the compound into their trap. I started taking fire from the Spider up on a ridge and turned to engage...then I heard explosions behind me...and when I turned around..." Mercy was on the display screen, tears in her eyes as she explained to Mara about Tank's demise.

Mara growled at the screen, turning and calmly leaving the mission room and stopping briefly to whisper "I don't trust her" again to Dance as she entered. Dance took over the call, Mercy quickly filling her in on the situation. It seemed the raiders had gotten more support, there was now no longer just a Spider to contend with. They had something with long range missiles; knowing the area and factions around them, it could only be a Catapult of some kind. There was a third mech, something small and fast but it didn't register on her heads-up display so it was obviously some kind of light stealth mech. After a brief discussion, Dance had a pretty good idea that it was a Commando 2D from what Mercy had described.

"That's not good, those little shits are notoriously hard to hit. They seem to shrug off shots that would down a heavy mech like they're nothing" Dance sighed as she tapped a finger to her chin in thought.

Time was of the essence; Mercy was the last bastion of defense for the Manthraka mining colony now. With the Ebony Rose's jump engines running close to the point of failure, they pushed to get boots on the ground as soon as possible. Dance checked in with Mercy every couple of hours, both to give status updates as well as checking how she was doing.

Mercy was tough, she'd seen her fair share of combat as well being a mercenary herself. She told Dance that she felt a responsibility to the people of the Manthraka mining colony to stay and protect them, even if she wasn't getting paid. She felt she owed it to Tank, he was honorable right to the end, the true spirit of a MechWarrior if ever she'd met one. The more they spoke, the more Dance began to warm up to Mercy. Dance began to think Mercy would even be a good addition to their crew, an honorable pilot with experience such as hers would be invaluable in taking down her uncle, but first they needed to exterminate the raider threat.

By the time Dance and her crew finally landed on Manthraka, Mercy greeted her like a long-lost sibling. The large feline hugging the smaller wolfess so tight, she swore she might have actually cracked a rib from the tight embrace. "I come baring reinforcements!" Dance grinned, pointing her thumb back over her shoulder at her battle worn Griffin.

"Ah, very clever! The 2N with its guardian electronic counter measure bubble, it'll counter the missile lock from the Catapult, very nice!" Mercy laughed, reaching over to ruffle Dances hair.

Dance smiled, maybe even blushed a little at the compliment and ruffling of her hair. She liked Mercy, the older feline had a very motherly aura about her, even more so than Mother did. The battle scarred white wolfess would however keep her distance from the Sabretooth Liger, growling softly every time she lay eyes on Mercy, no matter how much Dance tried to convince her otherwise.

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With Aurora, Mother and Pip's mechs left behind to guard the compound, Dance and Mercy were able to head out and scout for the Spider and Catapult. Pip's stealth Raven's ECM bubble would also be able to jam the Catapult from locking onto the two assault mechs inside the compound while they could easily fire back if they spotted it, preventing the raiders from trying to attack while Dance and Mercy scouted the surrounding hills and canyons.

Dance found that Mercy was very easy to work with, the Sabretooth Liger seemed to fall in well enough and even complimented her movements as they worked together in synch. The longer they were out scouting, the more at ease Dance became, even nearly forgetting why they were out there in the first place, at least until she caught a brief blip on her heads-up display, the inside of her cockpit flashing a single pulse of white light when something targeted her.

"Just got pinged, it's definitely out here with a line of sight on us. Stay frosty" Dance keyed her local short range commlink to let Mercy know.

"Yeah, they pinged me now too. They know we're here, but I don't think they're close enough to get a good scan on our mechs yet. Might want to set your ECM to disrupt now we have their attention" Mercy growled with a grin, gripping her controls tighter and getting ready for a fight.

There was a faint whining whisper of something not far behind them, a shadow briefly crossed over the ground as something small and fast jumped across from one side of the canyon they were using as cover to the other. "How cute, he's stalking us" Dance laughed as she and Mercy continued to head further into the canyon network before ducking their mechs into an abandoned mine entrance. Hiding themselves in the shadows of the cave a little way down tunnels branching off from the main entrance, they could see the Spider's own shadow jumping about outside as it searched for them. Eventually the pilot gave up trying to spot them from the air as he pop tarted, hoping to get a lucky shot off. Reluctantly, the slender light mech landed on the ground on the far edge of the canyon from where the mine entrance loomed ominously.

Dance and Mercy retreated further back into the shadows, setting up an ambush for the Spider. Dance reached out and flipped her Guardian ECM from disrupt mode to counter so as to not alert the Spider pilot of her presence by causing interference with his HUD and risk giving herself away. She wouldn't need the ECM bubble inside the cave anyway as the Catapult wouldn't be able to get a lock on her, even if it did, she was under cover and safe from its missiles. The ebony wolfess watched as the red blips on her seismic sensor showed the Spider was getting closer, finally entering the cave and cautiously making his way further inside.

She scoffed at the Spider's foolishness, either he was very brave, or just very stupid. She never would've entered into such a restricted space where she couldn't use her speed and maneuverability to her advantage, especially when being outnumbered like this. Dance remained motionless, letting the Spider venture further into the mine after he passed by the opening where her Griffin was tucked behind abandoned vehicles and structures before she made a move. Even though the Spider was moving slowly forward, he was still moving so she knew she wouldn't be picked up on his seismic sensors, if he even had any. With Mercy alongside her, they both backed out of the mine slowly, intending to trap the spider inside.

A brief white pulse flashed inside Dance's cockpit, but the spider was facing away from her meaning she wasn't showing up on his sensors. Someone else had just targeted her mech! Whirling her Griffin around, she spotted the Catapult staring down at them from up atop the far ridge, its missile pod doors lifting open to reveal dozens of missile tubes aimed right at them. "Catapult!" she yelled, knowing the bastard had a lock on her already, she quickly flipped her ECM back onto disrupt to cover herself and Mercy under the guardian electronic counter measures bubble and hopefully breaking the missile lock.

"Incoming missile" Dance's Bitching Betty announced, the Catapult pilot was not as foolish as the Spider pilot it seemed. Undaunted by not having a lock on her anymore, he dumb-fired his missiles at them. "Move!" Dance yelled over the short range commlink at Mercy.

"Shit!" the Sabretooth Liger growled, pushing her Warhammers engine to the max and barely avoiding being caught in the rain of missiles when they slammed into the rockface all around them. Rocks rained down and clanged with a loud clatter against her mechs armor, but by some miracle, she avoided being caught in the landslide which collapsed the mine entrance they had just exited behind her.

"Mercy, still with me?" Dance called out in panic, she had lost sight of the Warhammer when she had run for cover and now the dust cloud was obscuring her view.

"Yeah, still kicking...no major damage, just some scratched paint" Mercy's angry voice came back over the commlink.

"Fuck sake...the Catapult vanished, but it looks like we at least got rid of our Spider problem" the ebony wolfess chuckled as she surveyed the collapsed mine entrance once the dust began to clear. "Tank sends his regards, asshole..." Dance growled while she stood staring at the still settling rubble, making sure the Spider was dead and buried.

"Hmmph" Mercy huffed before turning and heading back toward the compound, leaving Dance standing motionless for a long while before she eventually caught up with the Sabretooth Liger.

"I think this calls for a celebration! C'mon, I'll even buy the first round!" Dance offered cheerfully, pushing her mech to max speed and soon overtaking the bigger Warhammer.

"You know what, that actually sounds perfect" Mercy replied with a grin.

True to her word, Dance bought the first round of drinks and offered a brief little speech in memoriam of their fallen friend, Tank. Mercy sat beside and slightly behind Dance as she spoke, grinning at the young wolfess while idly sipping her beer. Mother sat not far off; her glare thinly veiled as she stared hard at Mercy with her hackles raised.

"What's up, Buttercup?" Aurora asked when she plopped herself down in a chair beside Mother.

"I don't like her" the white wolfess growled, taking another long draw of her beer.

"You don't like anyone, well except for me and pip. But who wouldn't like me and Pip, we're totally amazing and super cute" Aurora teased, trying to lighten Mara's mood. But when the wolfess remained glaring at the Sabretooth Liger, she knew she was deadly serious. "I'll keep an eye on them, you best go see what Pip is up to. He's been far too quiet for my liking" Aurora switched tones and dropped her playful nuance. Mother had an uncanny sense about people, she'd long since learned not to doubt the wolfess's read on someone.

Mara nodded once before tossing back the remainder of her beer and leaving the bar, comfortable knowing that Aurora was watching over Dance. The felines grin grew broader as she spotted the white wolfess leaving, suddenly hopping to her feet and heading over to the bar counter to order the next round of drinks. As the night wore on, Mercy plied Dance and Aurora with more booze as they shared stories, their crowd growing ever smaller until it was just the three of them left. Dance even laughed when Aurora lay her head down on her folded arms and proceeded to fall asleep at their table.

"Those beers must be stronger than I thought they were" Dance mumbled to herself as she tried to stand up and make her way to the bathroom to relieve her full bladder. Her head was spinning and her vision starting to blur, giggling like a drunk schoolgirl, the wolfess stumbled her way through the bar toward as door she assumed was the way to her relief. "Huh, what the?" Dance mumbled, stumbling around as she suddenly found herself outside and in the back alley behind the bar. The world was starting to spin and blur, no matter how much she tried to focus her eyes, she was unable to. Sounds started to slow down, as if someone was playing an old record and pressing a finger to the turn table to stretch out the music.

"Hey, are you alright?" A warped voice called out from the darkness, a blurry shape approaching her.

"Yeah, I'm good...just need a minute" Dance replied, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes while she tried to stop the world from spinning. Suddenly lips were against hers in a forceful kiss, even when she opened her eyes to try see whom was pressing themselves up against her, her vision was too blurred and further hampered by the darkness of the alleyway to see much, if anything. The wolfess whimpered against the lips forcing themselves against hers while she was being pinned up against the wall and unable to move or escape. One of the strangers' hands pushed up and under her top to grope over her breast while their other hand worked its way down into her pants and inside her underwear. The hands owner wasted no time in hooking two fingers up into the smaller wolfess, making Dance whine and squirm under the harsh touch. She tried to stop them, but her arms felt like lead and wouldn't budge, no matter how much she willed them to. Her tail tried to tuck between her thighs as she quickly realized she was unable to defend herself as this stranger forced themselves on her. The ebony wolfess briefly hoped that Mercy or someone else would come to her aid once they realized she'd not come back from relieving herself. The slower her thoughts became, the more panicked Dance became also, what ever was in her system was too powerful to resist as it pushed her waking mind down into the darkness of unconsciousness.

The alley around her began to spin, everything was moving so fast and the world began to blur. Every time Dance blinked, it seemed like she was jumping forward in time. The last thing she remembered was being outside the bar in the back alley with someone forcefully kissing her and fingers twisting painfully inside her, then darkness took her briefly before she awoke again and they were stumbling through the streets somewhere unknown. Dance briefly recalled looking up at a rundown building, the flashing neon lights outside had broken and collapsed so that it looked as though it simply flashed the word "HEL" over and over again.

The next time Dance awoke, it was with a sudden pain between her thighs and around her scalp. She was now laying nude and face down on someone's bed with something hard stabbing into her over and over. She tried to lower her tail down to protect herself, but something was holding it uncomfortably high against her back. Her arms felt heavy, like they didn't want to move, no...that wasn't it. Someone was holding her wrists pinned behind her back with her tail caught under them to keep it out the way. Her shoulders ached from being held up behind her at such an unnatural angle too, but it was nothing compared to the claws digging into her flesh and making sure she didn't move.

There it was once more, that painful stabbing sensation inside her again...and again....and again. Dance started to become aware of someone talking to her, or rather down at her while they growled her name, but their voice was warped and distorted making it hard to understand. "Like that you little canine slut? Yeah, take that fat cock, bitch!" she heard the person say as she felt hips slap against her behind. Someone was fucking her, but her mind was too sluggish and cloudy to recall whom. The ache between her thighs grew while something far too thick for her was rammed into her aching cunt again and again, soon causing the young wolfess to whine and squirm, but the person wouldn't stop and they certainly didn't seem to care about her pleasure or even willingness to do this either.

"What's the matter, pup? Not used to taking a real MechWarrior cock?" They asked mockingly, giving Dance's hair a rough pull to force her head back further, adding even more strain and pressure to her back and shoulders. Their hips worked with a firm steady pace as they fucked the smaller wolfess with a thick and hard length, they were evidently loving how the canines soft little pussylips had protested and eventually stretched taut until they reluctantly took the girthy member and were now gripping tightly around it still.

"S...stop...what're you doing?" Dance tried to ask, slurring her words as she struggled in vain against the strong grip about her scalp and wrists. Her vision too blurred to make out much in the dark room, eyes too unfocused to see who was doing this to her. She tried to kick back at them, using every ounce of her willpower to move her leg, but she could barely wiggle her toes let alone get her limbs to cooperate. Whatever drug she'd been given was far too effective, she had no control over her body right now.

"Ever taken it up the ass, princess?" the voice asked mockingly, the words sounding like someone was slowing down a recording for comical effect, but this was far from humorous. Dance knew that wasn't the case though, her mind was too heavily drugged to process everything as fast as it normally would, making it seem like everything was slowed down in perpetual bullet time. Being called princess caused her to panic more than being taken against her will however, no one else beside a few of her most trusted crew knew her real identity. Dance felt tears begin to form at the corners of her eyes as her panic grew uncontrollably, had someone found out her secret, was this someone her uncle had sent after her?

"Noooo..." Dance whimpered, worried her true identity had been discovered and someone was about to capture her and deliver her to her uncle before she could get revenge for what he'd done to her family. The sudden laughter from behind her just made her feel more helpless and vulnerable as the person leaned down to growl "Relax and enjoy it...I know I will" before they nibbled along the rim of her ear. The painful ache withdrew from between her thighs, suddenly leaving her feeling empty. Just as worryingly though, something warm and hard came to rest just under her tail.

"Cry all you want; you can't stop this...or anything else I have planned for this shithole and your worthless crew" the stranger snarled and began to sink their hips forward against the ebony wolfess's pert round behind, laughing all the while as Dance whimpered and cried out from the unwanted and unwelcomed intrusion beneath her tail.

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When Dance finally awoke, she didn't know what time of day it was, or even what day it was for that matter. All she knew was that she hurt, everywhere, even places that shouldn't be hurting. Even though she'd been asleep for who knew how long, she still felt exhausted, her muscles protesting in agony as she forced them to move. Sitting up in the strange bed and looking around, she didn't recognize the room. There were no personal items and everything looked a uniform grey, probably a cheap motel somewhere. As she tried to stand, pain flared between her thighs, knocking her legs out from under her. Sitting down wasn't much better either, there was an unusual pain around her tail as well, both at the base of her tail as well as beneath it...almost like someone had...no, she couldn't stop to think and dwell on that now. She needed to get back to her crew, even more than the various pains about her body, something else was screaming much louder in her head. They were in danger, she needed to warn them.

With a snarling hiss, Dance forced herself to her feet, a hand cupping between her bare thighs as she stumbled toward what looked to be the bathroom. Thankfully, it was, though rather small and not very well maintained. But it would do for what she needed to do, try wash some of the disgusting feeling from herself before she faced her crew, though she knew a shower alone would ever be enough to make her feel clean again. As the hot water began to rain down on her, new pains flared up all over her. Long lines of hot lava burned across her skin, no...scratches, maybe cuts from a blade? She wasn't sure, but they were all over her and every single one of them burned like a blowtorch against her skin under the scalding hot water. The pain was good though, she needed it, let it fuel her anger and keep her awake while she fought the lingering effects of the drug she'd been given. She had a job to do, people were depending on her. She would save her crew first and take care of herself after, if she lost them now...she didn't want to even think of that.

Every brush of her hands across her own body brought flashes of what had occurred during the night screaming back, how she'd been touched and forced to do things she never would've done of her own free will. She could still hear herself begging and pleading for them to stop, but they didn't, they kept forcing her over and over again to take them inside herself. She recalled how they laughed every time they forced their hardness into her openings and deep inside her, the shapeless form looming over her as she was almost folded in half with something painful buried deep inside. How they made her sit in their lap with something pushing up under her tail again, the harsh slap between her thighs which made her squirm and cry out in both pain and embarrassment.

Dance growled and forced those thoughts and memories from her mind, once she knew her crew was safe, she would hunt down the bastard who'd done this to her. Heaven help them if they did anything to any of her crew as well, she wouldn't stop until they'd suffered tenfold what ever they did to her and her crew. As the water began to run cold, the wolfess finally snapped out of her reverie and began drying herself off while looking for her discarded clothing, snarling as she noticed her underwear was nowhere to be found. No doubt it had been kept as a trophy by the stranger she would soon be hunting. With one last look at herself in the mirror, she knew this was as good as she was going to look for now, but it'd have to do as she had bigger fish to fry.

"You look like shit, can't handle your pale ale, huh kiddo?" Mercy teased with a grin when Dance entered the meeting room aboard the Violet Thorn a short time later. Dance lowered her ears, not sure what to say to Mercy. She wanted to shout at the feline to shut up, but then Mercy didn't know what happened to her and it wasn't exactly her fault. Part of the young wolfess wanted to also leap into her arms and just cry, she wanted for Mercy to comfort her and tell her everything would be okay, but that wasn't what a Commander was meant to do. With a deep breath, Dance steeled her nerves and looked around the room at everyone present.

"Where's Pip?" She asked when she didn't see the young mouse anywhere.

"We have a problem, Pip is missing" Mother stomped into the meeting room with a growl, glaring directly at Mercy as she spoke.

"Woah there, last I saw him, he was mucking around the mechbays, probably fell asleep in an ammo crate or something" Mercy held up her hands in surrender, paling under the white wolfess's glare. "I'm sure he's around somewhere, he'll turn up sooner or later. But I hate to add more shit to this turd sandwich we all seem to be enjoying this morning...that Spider is still alive. Sonuvabitch must've dug himself out from under that landslide, are you up to joining me to finish the job?" Mercy turned to ask Dance tenderly, almost caringly at seeing her state.

"Y...yeah, I'm good. Mother, best check on Aurora, then you two can wait here to see if Pip turns up. If he's not back by the time we return from Spider stomping, we'll organize a search party, I'm not losing anyone else to this shithole. Tell Aurora to give the Ebony an update as well please" Dance growled and turned to leave, heading toward the mechbays. Her mind was already racing a mile a minute, she had a sinking feeling start growing in the pit of her belly at this. As she wasn't paying attention, she missed the brief look between Mara and Mercy, the Sabretooth Liger smirked at the wolfess with a knowing wink before she caught up to Dance to begin preparing for launch.

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Dance followed the Warhammer leading the way ahead of her, frowning as the readout briefly glitched and showed a different mech. The wolfess shook her head, the drug still seemed to be affecting her mind and eyesight it seemed. Mercy had told her were the Spider had last been seen and headed out toward the mountains where she guessed they must have a hideout. It was a mountainous area with lots of winding paths and high arches that looked reminiscent of ancient animated cartoons with a dog of some kind that kept falling off of them. The thought usually would've made Dance laugh, or at least smile, but something felt broken inside of her. Like she'd never be able to smile or laugh again, she just felt...hollow and empty.

"You go on ahead, I just want to check this spot quick and make sure nothing is going to sneak up behind us" Mercy ordered, turning to look down a gap between two large boulders which looked like it could be big enough to hide a small mech between unseen.

"Roger..." Dance absently mumbled over the commlink, pushing her Griffin forward and out onto the narrow archway of stone that bridged a deep crevice cross a canyon far below. Small stones tumbled over the edge, falling out of sight as the large mech slowly crossed the narrow bridge made of natural stone formations. Dance's heart pounding harder as she heard a few worrying cracks of the stone beneath the weight of her mech, but thankfully the bridge seemed to be holding on, barely.

"You know, I was really starting to like you, kid. But just like that fat old bear, you couldn't keep your nose out of my business" Mercy's angry voice crackled over the commlink. "I was hoping I'd be able to win you over eventually and get you to join my side so I wouldn't have to kill you too, but then you had to go and kill one of my men. Why couldn't you just have left well enough alone and let us get a few shipments of ore off this Godforsaken rock!"

"You killed Tank..." Dance spoke with a low growl of her own, looking back over her shoulder even though she couldn't actually see behind her.

"Oh, I did more than that, pup. Your little whelp was snooping around the mechbays while I was fixing the damage to my mech, kid was too smart for his own good. He spotted the extra ballistic nodes in my mech, figured out this hunk of tin isn't a 6R and that I was hacking my transponder. He put two and two together, realized I was working with the raiders and not against them. Tough little shit too, wouldn't crack and give me the access codes to your mechs either, but my men will get them out of him soon enough."

"Your men are already dead; they just don't know it yet...did you get all of that, Mother?" Dance grinned, lowering her hand from her visor and releasing the all channel commlink she had keyed in so everyone could hear.

"Already moving..." Mara growled out.

"She'll never get there in time. Light 'em up, boys!" Mercy snarled across the all channel commlink, the sound of Mother's AMS starting to fire coming back across the commlink a moment later.

"Shit, stealth Commando fucker NARC'd me!" Aurora yelped, sounding half asleep.

"We got incoming, stick close kid!" Mother yelled at Aurora before the commlink went quiet.

"What's the matter, princess, not having fun? Didn't you have fun last night either, I know I sure did. You whimpered like a little bitch under me, almost as pathetically as your dumb friend did before I alpha'd him in the back when he realized what we were doing" Mercy laughed maniacally and opened fire on Dance's Griffin. She so loved making other MechWarrior's whimper and cry out when they took her fake cock, if only she'd been born a man so she could feel even more pleasure from asserting her dominance on these lesser specimens. She enjoyed that almost as much as she enjoyed destroying their mechs before killing them.

Dance was forced to retreat further back onto the stone bridge as Mercy pushed forward, her twin autocannons pounding and soon shredding the Griffins armor before blowing open the left torso and eradicating her ECM. "Uh oh, no more cover for you and your little friends. This time my Catapult is going to get a lock on your tight little ass and blow it to hell. Pity though, it really is a nice tight ass...I should know" Mercy mocked and stepped out onto the archway, starting to hammer at the Griffins right torso even as Dance tried to turn and shield with her damaged left side.

"You know what else I have beside a nice ass?" Dance growled back over the commlink, a grin spreading across her lips.

"I'd say a nice tight cunt, but I wrecked that too, so...what?" Mercy replied even more mockingly while she pushed forward and tried to angle to get a better shot at the right side of Dance's mech for the killing blow. Her Warhammer standing only a few meters away from Dance, both mechs now positioned almost exactly in the middle of the stone bridge.

"Jump jets!" The ebony wolfess snarled, aiming at Mercy's feet as she fired her remaining weapons into the stone pathway beneath them. The explosions of her missiles and lasers were enough to shatter the walkway beneath them. The Warhammer Black Widow didn't have enough time to turn around and get to solid ground before gravity caught it and sent it crashing down among the rocks and debris.

Dance gave an initial burst of her jump jets to slow her descent before fluttering them to land as softly as possible on the ground far below, but the landing was still hard enough to bounce her around her cockpit like a pinball. With some measure of satisfaction, she noted the only part of Mercy's mech visible was a motionless outstretched arm, as if her mech was begging for someone to save her. But that was not possible, with the hydraulic fluid already seeping out from between the rocks like blood, there was no doubting her mech had been crushed beyond saving. The young wolfess turned to face the pile of rubble and fired off another salvo of missiles and lasers before growling to herself "Fuck you, bitch..."

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The stealth Commando made the mistake of standing still for just a fraction of a second too long, what he hadn't counted on was that even with a blinding hangover, Aurora was still a crack shot. His left leg evaporated in seconds, crippling his mech in the blink of an eye with the brightly colored Direwolf stomping angrily toward him. "I haven't even had my morning coffee yet and you're already shooting at me!? Fucking asshole!" the vixen snarled as she picked the Commando apart with unrestrained anger. Taking his left arm first, then the right, then his left torso and again his right before finally coring his center torso out and finally obliterating his cockpit with her rapid fire LBX2's.

"Soooo...no doing anything to the vixen before morning coffee, got it..." Chief mumbled while sitting in his seat aboard the Ebony Rose. He'd been watching Aurora in action and listening to her commlink chatter. The big bear winced as he watched her farm the unfortunate raider's Commando, picking it apart like a cat would do to an insect before killing it.

The Catapult made the mistake of trying to fire on Mother, her custom Corsair 7a, which Pip had tweaked her quad anti-missile systems into overdrive, easily fended off the salvos of long-range missiles he was firing at her. Even without the aid of a commlink, it was easy to see the pilot was panicking when the large assault mech quickly closed the distance and got inside his minimum firing range. "Where's my kid?" Mara growled over the short range commlink once she stood almost nose to nose with the Catapult, her rotary autocannons trained on his cockpit.

"Here...he's here! Please, I was just doing my job..." the pilot whimpered as he hastily sent Mara the location of their hideout where the remainder of his crew was interrogating Pip, hoping to buy his freedom.

"So am I" the white wolfess growled, squeezing down on her triggers and spinning up her rotaries. The cockpit of the Catapult was shredded to scrap in seconds under the hail of bullets.

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Mara growled as she heard Pip's pained cries coming from the other side of the mechanical doors while she fought to pry them open. Through the gap she had already created, she could see the young mouse bound and sitting in a chair with four large wolves standing around him. His left eye swollen shut and bruised, blood stained the corners of his lips as he snarled up at the large grey wolf pressing a pistol against his forehead.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, my mother wouldn't like it..." Pip smirked up at the wolf defiantly.

"We'll kill that crazy bitch next, besides...she'll never get those doors open in time to save you" the wolf replied smugly, just before the sound of tortured and screeching of metal sounded behind him; the doors had finally given in. "What the...fuck are you?" He whirled around in panic to face the large scarred white wolfess storming toward him with her fangs bared and a growl like thunder.

"His Mother!" Mara snarled and shouted angrily, quickly closing the gap between them. In her right hand was her silver and green vibro knife which made a soft "snickt" sound when it entered through the bottom of the raiders jaw and quickly protruded out the top of his head. Mother smirked as she watched the dying twitches of the wolf and the life fading from his eyes, realizing too late what a mistake he'd made before she let his lifeless body crumple to the floor.

"Get her!" One of the remaining raiders shouted, firing off a shot that caught her in the shoulder. Mother briefly looked down at the weeping wound before glaring at the culprit before advancing on him. "Oh shit..." he yelped as she vaulted forward over the table, kicking the side of his helmet with her steel toed boot mid-leap, hard enough to shatter his visor and send the smaller canine toppling limply into his frightened comrade beside him, his head and neck bent at an unnatural angle.

"Crazy bitch!" The still standing raider growled while he fought to unholster his pistol in defense, but Mother was far too quick for him. He suddenly found her hand on his, holding his pistol inside his holster when she forced his finger to squeeze the trigger, pain spearing through the wolf as he was forced to shoot himself in the leg. Mother let go of his hand briefly, allowing him to clutch at his wound, but only so she could grab his pistol and jam it up under his helmet against his chin before pulling the trigger. Movement beside her caught her eye, it was the last raider struggling to crawl out from under the body of his teammate. Mother turned and stalked over toward him, slowly raising the pistol to point down at his head.

"Wait...wait...please!" the wolf begged, raising his hands pleading for mercy.

"You touched my kid, I can't allow that" the angry white wolfess replied with no hint of emotion, squeezing the trigger and casting the room into silence after the last shots echo died down. She turned about and surveyed the bodies scattered around the room, ensuring all threats had been eliminated before starting to untie Pip. "You need a bath mister, you stink. I'm making stew and dumplings for dinner, your favorite!" she almost hummed as she retrieved her vibro knife from the soldiers' head and used it to slice through the stubborn bindings about Pips wrists her fingers were too big to untie

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With everyone back on board the Violet Thorn and the threat of the raiders finally dealt with, Dance needed to see Mother. Nervously she knocked on Mara's door, waiting to be beckoned to enter before opening it and slipping inside.

"How's Pip doing?" Dance asked with a note of worry.

"He's in the med bay, a bit banged up, but he's a tough kid. He'll pull through alright" Mara replied as she lay on her bunk, idly sharpening one of her many blades and ignoring the pain from the gunshot wound in her shoulder. "How're you?" the white wolfess asked without raising her eyes from the blade of her knife.

"I'm okay" Dance replied, brushing her fringe back behind an ear.

"No, you're not. You never will be either if you try bottle this up inside, kid. It's just going to eat at you until it either changes you into someone you're not, or it ends you" She growled softly, finally looking up from her blade.

"What do you want me to say? I messed up, I let my guard down and...and...she hurt me. She hurt me so bad..." Dance's words hard started out hard, her growl fiery, but that all quickly died down as she bared her soul to Mara, the tears coming unbidden and streaming down her face. "She...she killed Tank...I trusted her, let her get close, and all this fucking time she was a snake in the grass who did...things...unspeakable things" Dance felt her shoulders slump, her tail lowering limp behind her. She didn't see or even hear Mother get off her bed, but she was instantly wrapped up in those strong white furred arms.

"You made a mistake, that's all" Mother answered softly, gently petting along the smaller wolfess's hair. She noted how Dance winced and jerked as she was still sore all over, Mara could only hazard a guess as to what Mercy had done to her.

"You knew, right from the start. You knew and I didn't listen" Dance sobbed against Mothers shoulder, her arms wrapping about the white wolfess tightly. She needed something or someone good to hold onto and believe in right now, she couldn't think of anyone more deserving than Mara.

"Only because you didn't. I'm old, bitter and cynical. I look at the world through shit-colored glasses, but you don't and I hope you never do either. I was hoping I was wrong the entire time, I hoped like hell that that bitch was going to be something good in your life finally. Lord knows you deserve it more than most" Mara sighed, gently walking them back to her bed to sit down as she pulled Dance down with her. The white wolfess lay back with Dance against her side, idly stroking her fingers through her hair, just as she had done all those years ago when she'd first met the little stray on the streets. "Some people will hurt you in this world, you just need to find the ones worth hurting for. Not everyone that looks good has a good heart, just like not everyone that looks bad has a bad heart. Ain't nothing wrong with trying to find out which is which though."

Dance didn't reply, she merely nodded in understanding as she raised a hand to gently touch her fingers along one of the many scars which marred Mother's stern face. She knew Mother looked scary as all hell, she could back that up too and had done so many times before. But for the ones she cared about, the ones she called family, she would tear down heaven and hell to protect them.

"I can tell you this though, that bitch is lucky you took care of her. If I ever got my hands on her, I'd have peeled her skin off one inch at a time, salting the wounds as I went. I'd make sure she knew that even being tormented in the depths of hell wasn't the worst a person could suffer in this life or the next for hurting my family" Mara growled, sighing softly when for some reason, that actually got a slight smile out of Dance. Mara never said "I told you so" to her, nor would she ever do so. Grace had learned a hard lesson, one she wished she never had to, but now her only job was to help her work through the trauma and heal as best she could. There was war on the horizon and they all needed to be ready for it.