FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

After 3 years of burrowing through black highways under huge starry skies, Kai knew it was time to leave the Midwest and its ghosts behind. Whatever secret they had hoped was waiting for them in the dark, they would never find it there - only the endless slideshow of fluorescent-buzzing gas stations, yellow streelights through motel curtains, and dusty houses of secret misery.

Even the misery had grown predictable. I'm dead and angry and I'm going to throw things. Log it as a poltergeist. I'm dead and sad and I'm going to cry until the walls are streaked with black mold. Log it as a weeping wraith. I'm dead and lonely and I crave your body, little rabbit. Leave the house immediately, no matter how tempting its offers, and log it as a hungry ghost. By this point, Kai could practically guess a house's haunting type by the shade of taupe on its living room walls.

When Kai got on Zoom for their exit interview with Spectrex, they had a bitter speech prepared - how dare you sneak "some travel may be required" into your job description when you know full well that your ghost hunters will spend at least 100 days a year on the road - but there was no point. They could only move forward.

But where? Nothing came to mind, and they spent two weeks burning through their meager savings waiting for an answer to appear. Finally, inspiration struck one night at 2 a.m. after buzzing out a mediocre orgasm.

The session's decisive image belonged to Kai's favorite OnlyFans model, a slinky lizard who often posted from the balcony of his twenty-third floor waterfront condo. The luxurious backdrop made the $10/month subscription feel slightly more justified, but other than that Kai had never paid it any mind.

That night, however, they found their bleary eyes wandering past the scaly feet that filled most of the frame and to the jagged skyline and cloud-wrapped mountain beyond.

Seattle. Bound to the west by an ocean, bound to the north by the Canadian border, and densely connected by public transit, Seattle would surely feel small and manageable compared to the infinite plains where Kai had always lived.

The vision appeared before them fully-formed. They would find an apartment in a walkable queer neighborhood, get a couple queer roommates, and fall into an awkward situationship with one or both of them that would eventually develop into full-fledged romance. They would make actual friends and meet up with them every week for D&D, rock climbing, orgies, or whatever it was that normal people did in their mid-twenties.

They booked airfare and a week-long hostel stay on the spot. It was only when they awoke the next afternoon that they realized the flaw in their otherwise perfect plan: getting to Seattle would mean having to fly.

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Kai's footpaw thumped the epoxy flooring, drawing sideways glances from the other passengers in the check-in line. That anxious thumping had been growing more frequent as the departure date approached, and now that Kai was actually at the Columbus airport it was so constant that their shin ached.

It was the fear of being trapped more than anything. If Kai started panicking on take-off, they would be stuck panicking for the next five hours. Their chest tightened like a straitjacket at the thought of being pinned between two other passengers as turbulence tossed the plane from side to side.

Fortunately, Kai had a plan. After printing their boarding pass and checking their bags, they ducked into the stall of a unisex bathroom and pulled out the two tallboy IPAs they had stashed in their carry-on.

It was time to regress to their college-age problem drinking. It wasn't ideal, but since their psych wouldn't prescribe them Ativan it was the next best option to calm their lapine limbic system.

As they drank, pausing between each gulp to let the carbonation settle in their stomach, they realized that the out-of-order stall next to theirs was haunted. It gave off that familiar ghost-scent in waves, something astringent like cut grass.

At a young age, Kai had been diagnosed with HSC, High Spectral Conductivity - colloquially, they were ghost bait. If they wanted to, they could provoke the spirit into manifesting with just the standard opening question, "Is there anyone there who wishes to communicate?"

Curiosity tempted them as always. But three years with Spectrex had drained their wonder at the supernatural, traded it for a permanently warped sleeping schedule and candy corn-yellow teeth from lack of dental insurance.

Suddenly, the temperature plunged. The shadow of a skeletal claw faded into existence beneath the stall divider, unfurled its bony digits, and slithered along the tile floor toward Kai's footpaw. The rabbit moved their legs out of its reach and ignored the manifestation as they drained the rest of their second IPA.

By the time they reached security, their anxiety had melted into warm fuzz that made their whiskers feel like they were vibrating. It felt so nice that they wondered whether they had gone too far in cutting back their alcohol intake the last few years.

Even the TSA's vaguely perverted prodding at their footpaws didn't bother them. Sure, it was ridiculous to still do this twenty years after that one guy taped bomb components between his pads, but Kai could deal. They just counted themself lucky they didn't have a sheath.

At the other end, they reassembled their belt and bag with only a few minor stumbles. After scrutinizing their boarding pass for their gate number, they looked up and were surprised to find a tall, strikingly attractive fox woman in a blue vest smiling down at them.

"Hi!" she chirped. "I'm Becky, representing Northwest Airlines. I understand this is your first time flying with us?"

"Yeah?"

"Let me guess - is it also your first time ever flying?"

"Yeah," they said again. With the vixen's face getting blurrier every second, Kai figured shorter sentences were a safer bet.

"Aw, that's great! I'm here this morning to talk to you about our incentive package for first-time flyers. The package includes priority boarding, access to our rewards member lounge, and complimentary gummies for promoting wellness and relaxation. I noticed you seemed a bit nervous, and I think the gummies will be a big help."

Before Kai could respond, she produced a small, square-shaped carton and practically shoved it into their paws. The packaging was plain black, with a silver label that read, "Relax-a-cation Gummies. NEW! From FetTech." No further information was printed on it.

They frowned. "What's in these?"

"Special tea leaves and herbal remedies. And maybe one or two secret ingredients," she added with a wink.

Kai guessed it was CBD, maybe with some other dubious anxiolytics like lavender or ashwagandha. Becky was gazing at them expectantly with her bright blue eyes, so they shrugged, pulled a circular yellow gummy out of the package, and popped it in their muzzle. It was strangely earthy and bitter, somewhere between matcha and burnt popcorn.

She flashed a smile. It looked mischievous, but then again foxes just had that look sometimes. "You should feel the effects soon! Now if you'll follow me, I'll show you to the lounge."

"Hang on. I only have-" Kai pulled out their phone and squinted at the wiggling numbers. "-fifteen minutes until my plane starts boarding."

"You can spare a minute or two," she laughed with a dismissive wave of her paw. "Even if you don't stay long, you can always load up on free food and drinks for the flight," she added conspiratorially."

Kai had a well-trained sense for the weird, and this was weird. Not weird like a room that contained an unseen presence or a person who was secretly possessed, but weird nonetheless.

"No thanks," they said.

"Oh? Why not?" Her tone suggested that she found the refusal absurd.

"I appreciate all this, but I don't need special treatment. I kind of just want to get to my gate."

"Oh. I see. Well, you seemed happy enough for special treatment when you accepted our complimentary wellness and relaxation gummy."

The vulpine's tail drooped and her smile crushed into disappointment, stinging Kai with guilt. She must have been depending on Kai's agreement for a performance rating, they realized sympathetically.

"Alright, I guess I can come see the lounge," Kai said.

Becky's tail shot back up and her pointed teeth glittered in a huge smile that made Kai's ears grow warm. "Great! Right this way, please."

She turned, so quickly that Kai heard her toeclaws scratch the floor, and strode away. The rabbit lurched forward, struggling to match her long-legged pace as she headed for Concourse C.

"I understand you're flying to Seattle with us today. What brings you there?"

"I'm moving."

"Oh, how exciting! Seattle is a beautiful city - I'm sure you'll love it. Are you moving there for work?"

"Not exactly. I don't have a job lined up just yet."

"Any family there?"

Kai nervously scratched one of their long ears. "No, none."

"Friends? Anyone expecting you at the other end?"

"No." They paused. "I need a new start. I don't know what I'm looking for, but hopefully I'll know it when I see it."

That was more personal than Kai had intended to share, but thankfully Becky only grinned. "Sounds like you've come to the right place."

Near the C gates, the crowd of other travelers grew so dense that Kai struggled to keep after Becky, occasionally losing sight of all but her billowy tail fluff. It didn't help that Kai now felt like they were walking in a bouncy castle. Even accounting for their decreased tolerance, the alcohol was hitting much harder than they would have expected.

Overhead, a blizzard of shed fur hung in the air, catching the low morning sun as it drifted toward the airport's gargantuan air purifiers. Kai paused as the shimmering murmurations held their attention.

"Still following?" Becky asked.

They pulled their eyes away and back to the fox. "Yeah."

"Great!"

As the rabbit's ears grew warm again at her earnest approval, they realized their earlier suspicion had melted away. In fact, they were glad to have Becky leading them. Without her, they would be overwhelmed by the skitter of bags, the beeping of golf carts, and the robotic voices warning of the endings of moving walkways. With her, Kai only had to follow the wave of her tail.

The rising planes out the big windows made their best effort to rekindle Kai's anxiety, but alcohol made the rabbit's brain too wet to light. They laughed aloud at the stupid metaphor, drawing a curious look from a nearby businessman who suddenly hugged his briefcase closer to his body.

Becky stopped before a door so nondescript Kai would have assumed it was for maintenance. After tapping out a long sequence of numbers on the adjacent keypad, she opened it and stood aside.

It led to a luxuriously carpeted room dimly lit by pleasant, warm-colored light. It was surprisingly small, furnished with only a plush couch facing a projector screen. Kai thought distantly that it was odd for the lounge to have only a single piece of furniture, but that piece of furniture looked so appealing that they couldn't stay worried about it. To the increasingly groggy rabbit, the couch looked like exactly what they needed.

"Here we are!" Becky said brightly.

"Thanks, miss," they said with a dumb smile.

"Safe travels, Kai."

With that, she placed her paw on their back and eased them through the door. Thinking of nothing but laying down, Kai didn't even hear it click shut behind them.

The rabbit flopped onto the cushions with a sigh, leaning their head back and letting their long ears drape over the arm. They were so comfortable here that they wondered whether they even needed to go all the way to Seattle at all.

A projector started up somewhere behind them - a sound that always reminded them of their brief stint working at a movie theater. They lifted their increasingly heavy head just high enough to see the screen and found an uncomfortable-looking canine glaring into the camera. "Hello. My name is Tiger Sapphire, and I am the CEO of FetTech," he said.

Kai giggled at the name's rhyming sound, the fact that "Tiger" wasn't a tiger at all, and the coincidental return of the name "FetTech." "'Hello, hello, Tiger,'" they sang back cheerfully.

The recording continued obliviously. "I'm speaking to you today because you have been selected for an exciting cross-world employment opportunity." Mr. Sapphire squinted as though trying to read a cue card. "By now, you should have been provided with our patented suggestibility-heightening medication. If you have not received this medication, please locate the nearest FetTech sub-contractor in your world for assistance."

By "medication," Tiger must have meant the gummy. Was that why Kai felt so loopy? CBD had never done anything for them before, but maybe it had some interaction with alcohol they weren't aware of.

Tiger continued, "In a moment, this screen will play a color pattern. This sequence will install preliminary conditioning to ease your onboarding process."

Kai yawned. As much as they felt compelled to listen to Tiger, they could barely keep their eyes open. It didn't help that Tiger kept using big words, or that his delivery was so flat and boring. The CEO sounded like he wanted to be anywhere else.

"Please do not remove your eyes from the screen," he droned. "Failure to continue watching this recording may result in-"

Kai didn't hear the rest. By the time the colorful concentric diamonds began to unravel from the center of the screen, they were already snoring.

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Kai remembered why they had cut back on drinking the instant they floated back to consciousness. An icepick vibrated in their skull, their breath was rancid, and their stomach was liquefying. Somehow, even their tail ached. No more alcohol for awhile, they resolved. No more weird gummies either.

They were no longer in the mysterious Northwest lounge of the Columbus airport but instead on the concrete floor of a dark warehouse. Dozens of strangers surrounded them, all facing the same direction in neat rows as if in military formation. Most alarmingly, they were all naked - even Kai had been stripped to their gray fur.

Kai rose to their footpaws, grunting as their brain sloshed in their skull. "Hello?"

Getting no response, they circled to the front of the man to their right. The man had a strangely shaped muzzle that made it impossible to identify his species, and was completely hairless. It was weird to see so much bare skin. It reminded Kai of an alternative health fad from a few years earlier where people would shave off patches of fur and lay in the sun, hypothetically to megadose vitamin D in lieu of getting vaccinated.

A flash of movement drew Kai's attention away from the man's bare chest and up to his eyes. It took a moment for their vision to adjust to the dark, but once it did they saw colorful diamonds flowing continuously out from the man's pupils. His expression was blank, and a trickle of drool flowed from one corner of his flat muzzle. As Kai moved down the row, they saw the same diamonds in the eyes of a raccoon, an otter, and a husky.

Kai had seen hypnosis before - had fallen victim to it themself more times than they could count. They had even once encountered a mesmeric diamond pattern exactly like this one. But what could hypnotize so many people so thoroughly? Why was Kai unaffected? Where were they?

Startled, the rabbit jumped as floodlights around the warehouse lit up. Exposed and uncomfortably aware of their nudity under the harsh glare, Kai scurried back to their original place in the formation so as not to stand out.

As they mimicked the slack posture of those around them, a holographic projection the size of a movie theater screen flickered to life above the crowd. It showed another species Kai had never seen before - a two-headed naga with bright blue scales. The naga wore a suit divided down the middle: on the right, plain formal black; on the left, magenta and neon yellow pinstripes. Somehow those garish colors were more offensive to Kai's hangover-induced light sensitivity than the floodlights.

"Welcome, new recruits!" the left head boomed. "It's lovely to be here. The name's Junior - Johnny Args, Jr. How's everyone feeling tonight?"

With zombie-like moans, the hypnotized crowd called back variants of "great," or "wonderful."

It seemed the video was live, because Junior responded by tutting and shaking his head dramatically. The naga's other head dodged away from the exaggerated motion with an irritated look and a flick of his tongue. "Come on, put some life into it. I said - how are we feeling tonight?" Junior cried.

This time, the response was ecstatic, and Kai imitated the energy as well as they could as they mouthed along. Whatever this weird gathering was, it felt uncomfortably like a high school pep rally.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Keep up that enthusiasm and I think we'll be looking at some future employees of the month," he said with a wink. Kai was no closer to understanding what was going on, but the word 'employee' added to their mounting dread.

"Now, you may be asking yourself, 'How did I end up in this strange place, listening to this handsome, charismatic man?' I'm sure you saw Ol' Tiger's little orientation video, but I doubt you remember much besides those pretty diamonds."

Kai started to piece things together. Those "pretty diamonds" Junior mentioned must have been at the end of the video in the Northwest lounge. Some part of Kai had theorized they had escaped hypnosis because they were especially strong-willed, but it seemed they had just passed out and missed the hypnotic part of the video thanks to the combination of the alcohol and the sedative.

The naga's other head sighed. "Brother, do we have to do this every time? They're entranced. We can simply give them commands."

"And here's my brother, my business partner, and my other half!" Junior said. "Give it up for Big J, everybody!"

The other head glowered down at the vacantly applauding crowd. "My name is Jonathan Argent II and you will refer to me as sssuch," he hissed, half to his audience and half to Junior.

"Come on, being friendly with the recruits helps smooth the process, Big J!"

"Don't call me that. And that's never been proven. You just like to hear yourself talk."

"Well, who doesn't love to hear me talk?" With that, Junior faced the camera again. "Am I right, folks? Anyhow, since my brother seems to have woken up on the wrong side of the heat rock this morning, I suppose we'll just have to get this show on the road. Come on now, step right up and follow the shiny arrows to the next room!"

A dozen hovering neon arrows flickered into existence, lending the warehouse the chintzy atmosphere of the Las Vegas strip. From the direction they pointed, Kai heard a whir of machinery and saw a large metal door slide open.

Despite the intense floodlights, the room it led to remained dark. It was a waiting, heavy darkness like a storm cloud, and gazing into it for too long felt like a 9-Volt battery on Kai's retinas. Their nose twitched to the smell of fresh vegetation inside, so palpable that it took them a moment to recognize it: ghost-scent. Whatever was in there was strong. Kai sensed it was dormant now, but if it woke up it could make the strongest haunting they had ever seen look like a kid in a sheet. They shuddered at the thought.

But as Kai looked around the warehouse they saw there was no other way out. Moreover, the other strangers had begun filing into the dark maw before them, leaving no choice but to follow or expose the fact that they had escaped hypnosis. Reluctantly, they let the crowd sweep them forward one hesitant pawstep at a time. The black door loomed larger and larger until Kai finally stood before its wall of shadow. Taking a breath and bracing themself, they took a step inside.

For the first several feet, there was nothing but dizzying void. Then the darkness slowly lifted as they neared another floodlight. However, despite the high-powered buzzing of the intense light, it lit only a small circle of concrete floor, leaving the ceiling and the rest of the room out of sight.

Examining the dark fog more closely, Kai realized it wasn't a continuous mass, but was actually composed of countless smaller entities. Each spirit would be an F1 if it registered on the Flynn Scale at all, but together they became something qualitatively different, like snowflakes forming an avalanche. The place was a wasp nest. It was an especially dangerous one for Kai, who felt the spirits align around them as if the rabbit were a magnet passing over a bowl of iron filings.

"Keep it moving, now! Plenty of room for everyone, no need for pushing!" Junior sang. The fog dampened sound as much as light, making it impossible to tell where his voice was coming from.

Kai continued to play along. Once they got a better idea of what they were dealing with, they could form an escape plan. And if they needed to run, the ominous ghost-fog would at least lend them cover.

More new shapes appeared, dark blobs resolving into blurry pillars which resolved into vertical glass tubes as Kai got closer. They could only see one at a time clearly, but they sensed there were countless more in orderly rows. Each stood seven feet tall and had enough space inside to contain each of the hypnotized captives who began to sleepwalk inside.

A raccoon woman clambered into the nearest one, and a second layer of glass slid shut over the opening as soon as she tucked her ringed tail inside. It was only then that Kai noticed two mechanical arms dangling into the tube from the darkness above. One of the arms held a glass visor, which she took in her paws and pressed firmly against the dark mask of her face fur.

As soon as it was in place, straps launched from the back and fastened together with a click. As if woken by the sound, the raccoon jolted out of her trance, the last of the diamonds leaving her eyes and fading away.

"Huh? What the hell?" she asked.

Startled into action, Kai ran to the now-lucid captive. "Hold on, I'll try to get you out of there!" They ran their paws over the glass chamber but found no controls or other ways of opening it.

The visor flashed on with an eerie electronic buzz and projected that familiar diamond pattern, only much brighter and far more intense in its effect. The moment it kicked on the raccoon immediately slumped forward, drooling muzzle resting against the wall of the tube.

The other mechanical arm hissed, and as Kai looked up they found that this one was a nozzle at the end of a hose. The nozzle bobbed once, twice, then jerked and sprayed a load of black, sticky goo into the tank below, splattering the raccoon with clingy webs. As Kai watched they saw the goo move, wriggling under her fur and down to her skin.

Yet more machinery whirred to life overhead. Tearing their gaze from the horrifying sight before them, they looked up and saw an industrial fan suck in huge gulps of ghost-fog. In the brief moment of visibility it created, Kai saw the fan was attached to a tangled mass of piping, one branch of which fed the hose going into the chamber.

The nozzle bounced again and shot a spray which fully enrobed the raccoon, drenching her head and torso with shiny latex which rapidly slithered down to her legs. Despite the powerfully hypnotic visor, she must have still retained some resistance because her tail lashed weakly in an attempt to shake off the liquid. Then she went still.

Before Kai stood a sleek, shiny silhouette, perfectly black besides the colors endlessly washing over her helpless eyes. Between her legs, the latex slowly caved in to form a slick onahole, making the purpose of this process clear.

The chamber sounded an electronic ping and an unseen projector shone a label on the glass: "#7041" - no name or other descriptor. Kai swallowed back a rising nausea that had nothing to do with their hangover.

Black mist unspooled from the drone and rose out of the tube. At first Kai thought the latex was somehow evaporating, but as they looked closer they realized it was fragments of the raccoon's shattered psyche joining the other ghosts filling the air.

So this was how the Argents operated: they adulterated their living, liquid latex with the recycled spirits of their own victims. It was sick, but the logic behind it was no different than the way Spectrex would cut back staff and safety measures year after year, preaching the need for budget cuts at the same time as it exponentially increased executive payroll. The same system that had controlled Kai all their life ruled this place too, wherever it was. And as much as they wanted to hold on to their fantasies, it would have been just the same in Seattle.

They balled their paws into fists. "Let her go!" The words burst out of them so suddenly that even they didn't know who they were addressing.

Then the hypnagogic shapes flickered out of the fog in distorted, knife-thin parodies of the anthropomorphic form. Hot blood pounded in Kai's ears as the manifestations crowded around them.

Go away. Their voices were distant and scratchy, but their malice toward the mortal rabbit was unmistakable. This rage was unsurprising given the trauma of their identity death.

Kai swallowed and said in a shaky voice, "Please, let her go. Some of you are inside that stuff, right? You can work together and-"

GO AWAY. The inflection was unchanged, but the words now clipped and distorted as if played from blown out speakers.

Spindly limbs flailed for Kai, as numerous and flexile as the legs of a house centipede. The rabbit wheeled away just in time for one freezing claw to graze their tail, then fled blindly down the row of tanks, passing under the blind gazes of a dozen of other drones on the way. Sliding to a stop at the end of the row, they crouched behind a pile of machinery, ears straining for any sound of their pursuers. Everything was quiet now. However, Kai remained acutely aware of the ghost-fog around them like a blade ready to fall.

Spectrex would award this place a brutal "C-minus" on a workplace safety inspection, Kai thought distantly. Maybe even a "D" depending on the owner's political connections.

"Well, well. Looking at our monitors here, it seems one of our recruits has decided to play hooky," Junior's unwelcome voice chimed in.

Kai's long ears shot up again. They turned every direction looking for the source of the sound, but it was too muffled by the fog. The naga's head might have been speaking from a distant loudspeaker or from mere feet away.

"I told you we shouldn't have skimped on those sub-contractorsss," Jonathan hissed. "This is the third time they have failed to ensure the recruits are fully entrancssed."

"Don't blow your stack, little brother-"

"We're the same age!"

"-we know how to deal with layabouts here, don't we?" Junior cleared his throat and softened his tone. "It says here your name's Kai. Nice to meet you, Kai! Now, before you make any rash decisions, let me tell you a little bit about the opportunity we're offering."

Kai felt blindly through the dark for the wall they sensed was nearby. When their paw met the solid surface, they looked down and found a metal grate. They saw it was an air duct, one large enough to crawl through, and felt a swell of hope for the first time since they arrived.

"We're talking guaranteed job security, Kai. Useful work making people happy. And isn't that what life ought to be about? Trust me, Kai, nothing out there will give your life as much meaning as getting passed around as one of our toys. You'll feel incredible doing it, too! Nothing but bliss all day every day, Kai. What else are you really doing with your so-called freedoms, anyway?"

"Enough!" Jonathan broke in. "Lisssten to me, little mammal. If you don't sssurender now, I will place you with an owner who will beat you and break you. I will leave your pain receptors intact so you will experiencsse every moment, unable to protessst, unable to ssscream. Make your decisssion now, little mammal, because I'm coming for you." With that came the pop of an intercom switching off.

Cold dread blanketed Kai. There was no way the Argents would do something like that, was there? Surely it was just good-cop, bad-cop. Then again, that was little comfort considering the "good cop" was, by definition, always the one putting on an act.

Kai shook their head. The raccoon's fate was painfully burned into their mind, and there was no way they would let themself go out the same way. Bending down, they yanked at the grate. It popped off easily, but their trembling paws slipped and it fell to the ground in a clatter that sounded explosively loud in the otherwise silent space. Fortunately, there was still no one nearby - no one that Kai could see, anyway. They crawled into the opening, paws and knees banging on the sheet metal.

It felt like being squeezed through of a tube of toothpaste, but Kai didn't mind. Like most rabbits, they were comfortable with tight spaces as long as they didn't feel trapped. And, having investigated a number of industrial sites like the one in which they now found themselves, they knew the duct must lead somewhere - maybe another part of the building, or maybe an outdoor exhaust vent if they were lucky.

But what would they find outside? Surely not Columbus - nor Seattle for that matter. Kai remembered Tiger using the phrase "cross-world." They had, of course, noticed that the Argent Company's technology was different than any they had seen before, to say nothing of the naga themself. But surely "cross-world" was just meaningless corporate speak, right?

Kai froze at a sudden bang from behind them. Panicked, they ducked their head to look between their legs, but didn't see anything in the upside-down way they had come. It must have just been the metal cooling, they decided.

Then a shadowy shape pounced from the foggy distance and scrabbled toward them. The shiny black drone moved with alarming speed, kaleidoscopic gaze fixed on Kai with deadly purpose, and the rabbit squeaked in alarm as their flight instinct took over. They kicked frantically to propel themself faster, but their padless footpaws only slid off the metal and the drone caught up to them in seconds.

Smooth, squishy latex wrapped around the rabbit's ankle with crushing strength and dragged them backward. Kai flipped onto their back, banging every limb in the confined space as they did, and tried to wrench the drone's grip open. Even as they dug their claws in, the drone felt no pain and continued to hold firm.

Finally, Kai coiled one of their spring-loaded legs and launched their footpaw into the thing's flashing visor. Shockingly, their single kick put a spiderweb crack in it. Its diamonds were replaced by solid red, and as the drone went limp the screen flashed the text "MAINTENANCE REQUIRED."

The hypnovisors were nothing but flimsy plastic. If Kai had to be abducted by an evil fetish company, couldn't it at least have been a good one? They giggled at the absurdity between adrenaline-filled gasps for air. Once they caught their breath, they continued on, ears straining for other danger.

The duct soon ended at a vertical shaft too high to climb, leaving another grate beside it as the only exit. Kai's heart sank when they saw the darkness on the other side. The grate would lead back into the same room they had left, leaving no choice but to go back in and seek another escape route.

A horribly familiar voice greeted them as soon as they crawled out. "Kai! Glad you could make it!" cheered Junior.

Kai sprung to their footpaws and broke into a run, but skidded to a stop when they found three drones waiting for them. Another group of three closed in from the other direction and the naga emerged from the shadows, fully encircling Kai.

In person, the naga was surprisingly small, scarcely taller than the rabbit, but their squad of drones made up the difference. Worst of all, Jonathan's arm held the end of a latex hose while Junior's held a hypnovisor.

"You can't do this!" Kai yelled.

"That's demonstrably falssse," Jonathan said.

"Be reasonable, Kai," Junior purred. "I feel for you, I really do, but I have obligations. I promised FetTech a product, and I can't very well go back on my word just because I feel like it, can I? Like it or not, we've all got jobs to do. That's just the way things work in this sad world of ours."

"Sssad? I don't feel sad when I'm counting my creditsss."

"There's no call to be vulgar now, Big J."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and returned his attention to Kai. "My earlier deal still standsss. Sssubmit and it will be easssy."

Kai looked around at the drones. Their varying bodies and minds, their life experiences, all reduced to disposable tools for the appetites of the rich. It was infuriating. If only the drones could return to awareness long enough to realize that they far outnumbered the two-headed naga.

Inspiration struck. "Fine," Kai said. "I submit. I'll...accept the job offer."

"Great to have you onboard, Kai!" Junior said, flashing a grin. "You're gonna love it - we're all one big happy family here."

Jonathan, for his part, simply hefted the latex hose and steadied it on his shoulder. Without another word, he turned his head, clamped his jaw around the handle of the nozzle, and yanked it back. The hose trailing behind it puffed up and expanded as thick poison raced down its length.

Kai waited until the precise moment it was ready to erupt before diving out of the way, gushing fluid splattering the wall behind them. The shot would have missed them entirely had they not extended their right arm, letting gooey, surprisingly warm latex soak their paw. It moved on its own, itching like spiders burrowing through Kai's fur as it spread down to their elbow.

Jonathan cursed and pumped the nozzle to ready another spurt. As he did, the rabbit softened their gaze to focus on the ghost-fog around them. That attention alone was enough to cause a shift in the air like a dozen ears swiveling toward them. Few other people would have gotten such an instant reaction, and for once Kai found themself grateful to be ghost bait.

Oblivious to the manifestation, Jonathan found his target and fired again. This time the jet hit Kai in the stomach hard enough to knock the air out of them, but they ignored it and held their paw higher. "I'm one of you, and I say we get these guys," they told the ghost-fog. Kai pointed at the Argent brothers with their tainted paw, prepared to say more, but then the latex overtook Kai's throat and cut off their ability to speak.

"Now what was that all about?" Junior asked his brother.

"Foolishnesss of a cornered animal," Jonathan answered. "Get the visssor ready."

Kai sensed the air shift uncertainly. The spirits were awake now, even the ones inside the drones and in the latex swimming over Kai's fur. Kai felt them bounce intermittently like popcorn kernels popping in a microwave, but it was only agitated, unorganized chaos. There was no one coming to rescue the rabbit.

The latex hugged Kai's head, leaving only a narrow gap where the hypnovisor would inevitably go. The goo even rolled up the inside of their sensitive ears, itching so horribly that they would have torn them off were their body not stuck in place too firmly to move.

"That ought to do 'em," Junior said. He raised the visor and the naga slithered toward Kai.

The rabbit squirmed in their tightening encasement. Even their muzzle was covered to their nose, forcing them to gasp for air. At this point, they were almost eager for the hypnovisor so at least this awful fear and discomfort would be wiped away.

"I do so love seeing them break," Junior said. "By the way, we're selling the bunny to Oceanus, right?"

"I was leaning toward Anther myssself."

"Oh, that's a great idea. Little cottontail's in for a world of hurt."

Kai's lungs burned, but the latex clung too tightly to their chest to allow a full breath of air. How did the other drones breathe in these things? Horrified, it occurred to Kai that maybe they didn't.

"You know, maybe I'll have this one myself before we ship it off to Anther," Junior said.

"Absolutely not. Be professssional," Jonathan said. He put his jaw over the handle again, apparently ready to fire a superfluous third load onto his victim. But when he pulled it back, nothing happened.

Startled by the empty click, Junior turned to his brother. "Don't tell me it's jammed again."

Jonathan opened his mouth to respond, then frowned. Kai's vision was growing dark, but they thought they saw something strange in his mouth. Jonathan started to ask a question, then coughed. One of his fangs dropped to the floor, and Kai saw it had turned completely black.

Junior eyes widened as it began to steam. "Everything alright there, Big J?"

"Don't-" Jonathan began, then coughed again. This time, his forked tongue wriggled out of his mouth and hit the ground with a wet smack. It was followed by a splatter of black fluid which should have been blood.

Junior dropped the hypnovisor in a panic and turned to run, but only the left side of the naga's body responded. "J!" he cried. Then he, too, was wracked by a coughing fit and the naga fell to the ground.

The drones turned toward the Argents, their once-solid forms now rippling like grass in the wind. A wave across one's body reached so high that it touched another drone, and their shells snapped together like two water droplets. Their amalgamation soon pulled in the other drones and then began to pull in the ghost-fog itself, becoming an undulating, pulsing mass that Kai could not begin to categorize or rate on the Flynn Scale.

Kai struggled in their bonds again and this time found the latex pliable enough to tear off with a swipe of their claws. The latex writhed on the ground like a wounded animal before it too swarmed into the growing mass.

The naga shook uncontrollably and Jonathan vomited a long tangle of wet, black cords. Kai realized it had been an intestine. The ghost-fog which had been in the naga's lungs was rebelling and rotting them from the inside out.

The intestine lashed back and forth until it found Junior's mouth and forced its way inside the screaming man. Even as it did, Junior dug his claws into the concrete floor to pull himself along, only stopping when his arm popped off at the shoulder in a thick spurt of black goo.

Kai shook with adrenaline, triumph, and anger. "You ever hear of OSHA, assholes?" they said to the unrecognizable shape on the floor.

The room was finally clear of ghost-fog. Unhindered, the powerful floodlights were blinding, throwing the now-massive black amalgamation into sharp contrast with the white walls and gray concrete.

The creature half-walked and half-rolled over the dark smear that had been the naga and drew it up into its body like a shoe pulling sticky strands of gum from the sidewalk. When all traces were gone it throbbed and rotated toward Kai, then waited as if expecting something.

"Thank you," Kai told it.

It tilted forward and slopped toward the rabbit. As the towering mass loomed larger, Kai reflexively backed away step by step until their back hit the wall. As the thing kept coming Kai realized it wouldn't stop, and they broke away just as it crashed an orifice-tipped vine against the wall where they had stood a fraction of a second earlier.

Not looking back, they sprinted toward the now-visible exit - a large metal garage door beyond the drone chambers. The sounds of squelching and shattering glass pursued them, and even the walls shook under the force of the juggernaut.

Suddenly, Kai tumbled dizzyingly off-balance. It was only as the room wheeled around them and went dark that they realized it was already over. The latex shell sealed around them, boiling hot and buzzing around their entire body.

[center]-[/center]

This part of the waterfront was disgusting, Glenn thought. Nothing but ugly warehouses, barnacle-infested pilings, and shanty towns subsisting on whatever pollution-poisoned fish happened to belly-up each morning. He expected that at any moment some roving gang of drug-addled thugs might rush at him out of the night, tempted like dogs in heat by the glitter of his diamond-encrusted watch and platinum-plated limousine flyer.

If anyone did try anything, of course, his security team would splatter them across the rotted wood of the dock before they could spew their first halitotic vulgarity. Still, it was a sight Glenn would rather not have souring his evening.

The ermine had better plans. FetTech had just announced a new drone drop courtesy of their contractor, the Argent Company, and he planned to purchase at least a dozen the moment they became available. It was best to sample them straight from the conversion chambers, when the latex was still hot and their brains were still addled. If Glenn was lucky, some of the drones might have some lingering resistance which he could personally snuff out.

He wasn't the only one there for the drop, of course. From his vantage point, he could see three other limousines glinting under the yellow lamps of the wharf and the red glow of several cigarettes hovering around them. They were the types to treat this as a social occasion, practically a "tailgate party." The ermine had once tried to join them, but the tenor of their conversation was far too base for him.

He wasn't here for a mere "fuck." He was a connoisseur of sensation, of which sexual gratification was only one. In fact, he had a grand design for this current batch of drones - an opera of sadism in which he would star and direct before those few who shared his sophisticated palette. As with his prior works, half the drones would likely be non-operational after a single performance, but this was no great loss. There would always be more, especially with FetTech's recent innovations in cross-world recruitment.

The tall door of the factory creaked open. At the sound, Glenn's fellow people of means stubbed out their cigarettes or finished swilling their drinks and came forward to join him near the entrance.

That familiar unnatural shadow filled the interior. The Argent brothers always insisted that that deep darkness was only a trick of the light, that they would never cut their living latex material with other organisms, and it was only out of respect for their father's name that Glenn pretended to believe them.

A minute ticked by, during which time Glenn was forced to overhear a fox woman bragging about the size and shape of the various silicone phalli with which she intended to outfit her drones. He did his best to shut out her claptrap as he waited for the Argent brothers to appear.

Where was that jumped-up naga, anyway? As distasteful as Glenn found them, they could usually at least be counted on to be punctual. At this rate, the latex would be room temperature by the time Glenn got his new drones back home for quality testing. The Argent Company had fallen off disappointingly quickly following the death of the senior John Argent, and not for the first time Glenn considered whether it would be prudent to take his business elsewhere.

Glenn saw a darker portion of shadow shift inside the factory. It was massive, nearly reaching the top of the huge doors.

This was hardly unusual. For awhile there had been one regular customer, some reptilian or other, who made a habit of ordering bespoke drones designed to fulfill his fantasy of being stepped on by giantesses. The last Glenn had heard, the lizard or whatever he was had gambled away the remains of his inheritance - typical for one of such lowly, submissive tastes. The ermine glanced around the small crowd, wondering which of them had picked up that man's depraved mantle.

The shape continued to swell as it approached. It had none of that obnoxious thumping as it took each ponderous pawstep, but instead seemed to roll or glide along the ground.

Now Glenn was curious enough to engage socially with the bores around him. "Which one of you ordered that juggernaut?"

The bores glanced at each other, none taking the credit. That was odd. The gaudy, undoubtedly expensive purchase should have been a point of pride among such people.

"Wow, would you look at that thing?" exclaimed a mouse. Yazen was his name, Glenn remembered - a nouveau riche finance type rumored to have relations with his twin sisters.

Despite Glenn's reluctance to follow the suggestion of such a man, he turned back to the warehouse and saw that the juggernaut had come out of the shadows far enough to be seen. He grimaced. Its matte black could hardly be called latex at all and its rippling, saggy texture was nothing short of abominable. The latex had not even solidified - as it bobbled awkwardly along the ground, it left steaming black puddles behind.

The ermine's nose flared. The thing even smelled foul, stinging like cut grass. Glenn so hated that smell that he had had his assistant memorize his golf courses' landscaping schedules in order to avoid it.

He could bear this no longer. "Right. Whoever commissioned this atrocious thing, speak up now. This has gone quite far enough."

"I don't think any of us ordered it," the vulpine size queen said.

"Where are the Argents anyway?" the incestuous mouse asked.

Glenn frowned. Yazen had a point - the naga should have been leading their drones, yet here was the drone leaving the warehouse of its own accord.

The hideous blob turned like a globe on a tilted axis to reveal something like its face. The familiar, colorful diamonds of the Argent's hypnovisors glowed at dozens of random positions and angles along its uneven surface.

Glenn felt a chill. Turning to his bodyguards, he said, "Tell the driver to start the car." The nearest one nodded and leaned into the driver-side window and a moment later the propulsion jets flared to life.

Meanwhile, the juggernaut extruded several tubes from its body like disgusting, crooked coral. The tubes twitched and launched sticky globs into the air like mortar fire.

"Run!" one of Glenn's security cried.

Hardly needing to be told twice, the ermine and the others turned and sprinted down the wharf moments before the missiles touched down where they had been standing. As Glenn's limousine dissolved in a splat and crunch of steel, he automatically calculated the financial loss - over a million credits for the car itself, twenty thousand for the liquors in the cabin, and five hundred for the driver's lifetime employment contract. (The driver was no great loss - he had been middling at best, and Glenn long suspected him of stealing sips of the fifty-year scotch.)

As Glenn raced past the "tailgating" vehicles, a second missile landed among the cars and shattered into webs that writhed and slithered along the ground. Glenn had to hop over one of these as he continued to flee down the wharf with his security, who threw panicked looks over their shoulders as they ran.

The third landed much closer, in the very midst of the refugees. The resulting splash encased four of them so thoroughly that their humanoid shapes were no longer recognizable, and another two were glued to the ground. The victims' bodyguards bent to scrape them free, but only managed to enmesh themselves as well.

One of Glenn's security grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed to the shanties nearby. "We need to take cover inside while we wait for backup."

Horrified, the ermine shook his head. "Imagine the diseases I might catch in one of those hovels. I'd rather take my chances out here."

The bodyguard seemed about to protest when his body collapsed under the impact of yet another missile. This one shot out writhing tentacles in an attempt to grab Glenn, and he fell back onto his tail as he dodged away from them.

Yazen appeared over him, wild-eyed in panic, and offered a paw. The mouse was the only other individual still standing, Glenn realized in horror. The ermine's entire security team had been overtaken, the nearest one currently pinned down with a vine forcing its way down his defenseless throat. Glenn took the pink outstretched paw, stood, and continued his flight beside Yazen.

Distant police sirens rang out from somewhere high above. Finally. Capillus City's privatized law enforcement could be so useless sometimes.

"I suggest we take cover inside until they arrive," Glenn declared, gesturing to the shanties. The mouse only nodded.

They had to circle around a fence of corrugated metal to find an opening, missiles exploding on their trail and dripping tentacles pursuing them all the while. When they finally reached a gap in the fence, they were alarmed to find a dozen of the shanty's denizens blocking their entrance.

"Evening," said one particularly foul elderly human woman.

"Good evening," Glenn said through gritted teeth. "My companion and I have found ourselves in a great deal of danger and would be in your debt if you would let us pass."

The human woman chuckled. "Hear that, Rossi? The rich pervert wants us to let him in."

A young doe crossed her arms. "Why, so you can take more of us to be turned into fuck dolls?"

Glenn grimaced. "I assure you, miss, that no one would source their drones from this...population."

"Oh, we're not good enough for sex slavery, are we?" the old woman asked.

"Can we please put petty class resentments aside? We're all sentient beings here, and should have compassion for each other. I'm in danger!" Glenn hated the pleading tone creeping into his voice.

A hulking tiger pushed his way through the crowd. Glenn backed away at the sight of a two-foot length of rebar in his huge orange paw.

"If you're not gone in five seconds, I'll show you what danger looks like," the tiger said.

"Hey, Neso. Make him hand over his watch," a cougar suggested. His eyes shone green as they fixed on the diamonds at Glenn's wrist.

"Good idea, Cane. You heard him, rich man." The tiger, Neso, banged the rebar twice on the asphalt to emphasize the point.

Glenn's body shook with rage. He desperately wished he had brought his incendiary pistol, but its gunmetal gray had struck an insufficient compliment to his maroon vest.

Before Glenn could exclaim his protest, Yazen shot out his pink paw, ripped the watch from the ermine's wrist, and tossed it to Neso. The ermine glared at the mouse. He would make the man pay for that eventually, and not just monetarily.

The tiger caught it easily. "Thanks. Now piss off."

Tears of outrage stung Glenn's eyes as he and Yazen backed out of the fence. To his great relief, he didn't see any more vines in pursuit, and the juggernaut across the water had vanished. Perhaps they were in the clear after all.

The sirens were getting close now, Glenn heard to his relief. Once they landed and he was safely back in his penthouse, he would make a few calls to have that shanty torn apart and his watch recovered. Not that he would ever wear the befouled thing again, of course.

A wave splashed against the wharf, an oddity in the otherwise still night-time waters. He looked down in curiosity and saw the juggernaut half-submerged below. It now resembled a distorted humanoid face with an open maw like a cavern. As if in a dream, Glenn turned just in time to see a great muscular arm of black latex that swept him into the waiting dark.

[center]-[/center]

Kai awoke to the feeling of cool water against their cheek. Everything was scrambled in their mind, and they couldn't remember where they were for several long moments. It came back to them in patches - the warehouse, the naga, and the latex katamari. They couldn't remember what happened after the blob rolled them up, but at least it was done with them now.

When Kai finally rose to their footpaws, they saw they were on the dark shore of an industrial waterfront with an unfamiliar skyline towering overhead. Garish neon advertisements washed over its obscenely tall buildings and silhouettes of flying cars swarmed around them like gnats.

Kai knew only one thing about this city: it was a place that bought and sold hypnotized latex sex drones, and did so in such great numbers that it had to get them from other worlds. It was an evil place, and at the center of it all was a monstrous black tower dwarfing even the other monuments to excess around it. Kai hoped above all that they could find a way back to their own world. However, the next best thing would be to burn this city to the ground, starting with that central spire.

Blue and red lights splashed the concrete of the wharf only two hundred feet away. Taking a deep breath and collecting themself, the rabbit broke into a run and vanished into the night.

[center]-[/center]``

Lilac approached the CEO's desk meekly, datapad in its paws. "News for you, Maestro."

"Hand it here."

"Yes, Maestro."

The dragon took the pad, and as she began to read she leaned back in her huge chair and put her feet up on her desk. Squirming, the kittypup blushed and tried to look away, but its eyes magnetized to those huge red talons exactly as Cobalt had intended. The fae creature was well broken by this point, but a little reinforcement of conditioning never hurt.

According to the report, someone had just wiped out the Argent Company. The organization was only a bit player in FetTech's operation, but at this point any break in their revenue stream could prove devastating.

"It's good news, right Maestro?" Lilac asked in a strained voice. It was visibly fighting to keep its paws off the caged-up clit beneath its skirt.

"On the surface, yes. We can't say for sure until we know who carried it out and why."

"Um, it must have been another rival of FetTech, right?"

Cobalt tapped the report. "Did you even read this, kittypup? Several of the oligarchs who died on the wharf had controlling interests in FetTechs' competitors."

"Oh. Right." Lilac tried to turn its head away from the huge paws in front of it, but failed. Cobalt recognized the look on its face with a thrill - the kittypup knew the last dregs of its willpower were draining second by second, that it would soon be unable to stop itself from begging, yet it still couldn't look away.

Cobalt continued, "Besides who and why, there's also the question of how this was done. Causes of death include blunt trauma, suffocation, and spontaneous necrosis of tissue from the inside out."

"M-maybe the factory exploded?"

The dragon shook her head. "Two of the deceased died far away from the site. They were pursued."

Lilac closed her eyes. "I don't know, then. You're just so much smarter than me, Maestro."

"Mm, that's right. So why don't you worship my paws while I do the thinking for both of us, princess?"

The kittypup squealed and transformed into a familiar rabbit boy - the most subservient of her forms. "Yes, Maestro!" he said. He was so small that Cobalt could envelop his entire head with a curl of her talons, keeping him from breathing anything but her scent.

So she did. And as the bunny whined and huffed, Cobalt continued to ponder the report in front of her. She had many of the puzzle pieces of Capillus City and a detailed plan to arrange those pieces to her advantage, and although this attack accelerated her plan as regarded FetTech, it was a piece that didn't fit.

She set the pad down. Much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't know and control everything in the city - not yet, anyway. Eventually, she would identify the ones responsible for this, assess their motives and capabilities, and, as surely as she had defeated the once-proud fae witch who was presently on the verge of cumming to her paws, she would twist them to suit her own needs and desires. It was only a matter of time.