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Warning: This story contains corruption, transformation, growth, breast and muscle expansion.

Kaida the cheetah belongs to Giza.

Light Taker, by DragonMasterX.

Prologue

Money was tight for Kaida. Things hadn't worked out at her last job and she had been let go. Even with financial aid from her closest friend and apartment neighbor Justin, Kaida was still a month behind on rent and she could just feel her landlord was counting the days before she could evict her. Her bank had denied her application for a loan due to poor credit scores, and no amount of begging had managed to get her the help she needed to get back up on her feet.

For a cheetah in her early twenties, Kaida wasn't looking forward to the rest of her 'bright future' as she recalled the dean at her college had told all graduates during his sappy speech. She had never felt this powerless in all of her life.

Kaida's problem was in her inability to be assertive. Although she was fully qualified for the position, nervousness and anxiety had made her fail each and every non-technical job interview, stammering through personal questions if she didn't present awkward silence instead.

Three job offers she had interviewed for in the last month had gone to the more confident attendees, leaving her stuck in a barely decent retail job at a local electronics store.

Dealing with people had always been difficult for Kaida. With her 5'4" height, she was pretty short even when compared to other cheetahs. She had always felt like she was under everybody else's shadow, even at school. While every other female classmate had bloomed out into attractive figures, Kaida's lithe form had barely gained any sideways weight, even during her more aggressive eating period that she had to quit when she couldn't afford to eat as much as she wanted anymore. She might as well not have been there.

Kaida thought she had been doing an okay job stocking up the store and keeping it clean, but with her shy demeanor and unwillingness to take the initiative with customers, it didn't come as a surprise to her when Mr. Nguyen, the owner, had her replaced by Rosa.

Clearly, Kaida's androgynous appearance couldn't compete against a 6'ft. tall lioness with a confident strut and a chest 'big enough to have its own gravitational pull', in Kaida's opinion. She had even seen her ex-boss giving Rosa lecherous stares and before leaving even heard him give the busty girl a half-assed sorry about touching her behind on accident. At the very least, Kaida wouldn't have to deal with harassment, she guessed.

The young cheetah girl was destitute. Even with her pitiful severance check, she only had enough for a week of food at most. At this rate she would have to choose between services; already she was bumming off Justin's Wi-Fi as she couldn't afford an internet bill. And then there was the aggravated issue of rent, of course. There was only one place for her to turn to, even though she felt terrible about it already. She would have to ask for more money from Justin.

Kaida had met Justin in her second-to-last year of college. The husky boy had been a freshman back then, a jock with charisma and confidence unlike anything Kaida had. Back then, Kaida had been trying to score extra funds by taking on tutoring requests, and Justin's father, knowing his son was academically set for failure, had paid for his extra-curricular classes.

The money was good and although Justin was a pampered Daddy's boy without a care in his party-laden world, he didn't make her life terrible. The jock was handsome; a type that never gave her the time of the day, but he was pleasant enough to be around. Even with her difficulty at expressing herself beyond studying, Justin's easygoing nature had made it easy to befriend him. Nowadays, with both of her parents gone and no other relatives to turn to, her ex-student was the only one she could confide in.

With a little hesitation, Kaida knocked on apartment 1A. She lived all the way down on the opposite side at 1D.

"Hey, Spots!" Justin opened the door to his apartment with his usual beaming smile, contrasting Kaida's dour, forced grin. "Uhh, I don't suppose Mr. Nguyen gave you that raise?" Justin side-stepped to let his neighbor pass, watching her shamble inside.

'Spots' was Justin's nickname for Kaida. She always thought it a bit too on the nose, especially for a guy four years younger than she was, but she had never brought it up once during tutoring. By now she was more than used to it.

Sharing the bad news over a beer, Kaida's biggest relief was that none of Justin's classmates or 'friends' were around the apartment. Even during tutoring days in the past she often found people passed out on his couch and even the floor; she had once had to flip Justin face-down after a particularly rowdy night; so sometimes Kaida felt like his mother living across the hall. His seriously indebted, socially-inept mother living across the hall. And she really wasn't in the mood to even attempt being pleasant with even more jocks or cheerleaders right now.

The husky stretched over his couch with a heavy sigh. "That dude needs to get his ass sued," Justin said, eyes glancing straight at the ceiling. "Ain't there like a thing about discrimination in work law? It's not like you were bad at your job or anything, Spots. That's straight up BS."

"That's what I said..." Kaida paused, correcting herself, "Thought." She took another quick sip of beer. It tasted extra bitter. Disgusting, even. But all things considered it went with her current situation. "Should've seen everyone ogling that Rosa's boobs. It was like they all wanted to jump down her cleavage or something... Ugh."

"Think I know that lioness now that you mention her. She's like a year behind me. Not really super smart, but she's a totally cute..." Justin shrugged, rolling his eyes down with an enthralled smirk that shrank into a mellow expression as he met with Kaida's judgmental stare. "Sorry. Right. Anyway, that really sounds like a drag, Spots. Wish there was a way to help you get your job back."

"Thanks, but I don't think I wanna go back there," Kaida responded, quietly setting her beer aside and fighting every urge in her brain not to talk about bumming off money from Justin. Thankfully, much as she didn't enjoy beer, it helped with her inhibitions. "So um, if you really wanted to help me..." she leaned in, breathing into her closed fist before rubbing her hands together and returning her errant gaze to the husky, "...I could really, really use a few hundos. Just to get the landlord off my back while I look for a new job." She closed both of her eyes, already braced for a negative.

"Oh!" Justin sat up on the couch. He gave Kaida a grin. "Sure, no prob. I'll spot ya, Spots."

Kaida's left eye opened first and it almost lit up the room. "Wait, really?" she wasn't sure if to celebrate by jumping and hugging the jock. A less financially inclined side of her was urging Kaida to jump in the canine's strong arms, but not even beer was good enough to make her act on those urges.

"Hey, you were always looking out for me when I was starting out, _especially_on the days I was totally smashed!" Justin laughed, standing up and gulping down the last of his beer. "Plus last week you went and picked up my laundry, and I haven't paid you back for that one yet." Kaida remained silent, trying not to mention the other couple of hundos she already had bummed off Justin three weeks ago. Her eyes followed the sway of Justin's hips and well-toned jean-clad rump as he made his way into his bedroom, coming back out with a slightly overacted wince. "Am outta cash, but listen, I gotta bring something to dad, so I'll ask him for money. Mind if I give it to you tonight?"

Kaida bit her lip at the poor choice of words, but she could tell they had not been in his intentions at all; he could come off as simple-minded, but Justin was one of the few people Kaida could tell was sincere. "No problem at all!" she jumped to her feet, arms swinging besides her. There was an honest smile on her face. Kaida convinced herself she had no reason to be gloomy anymore. "Look, I really really appreciate what you're doing, Justin. So um, dinner's on me tonight? ...if you don't mind mac 'n cheese."

"With the little shredded bacon toppings?" Justin crooked an eyebrow, smirking.

There was no money for bacon. But Kaida didn't say that. "Of course! See you at 6?"

"It's a date. Lemme get my jacket and I'll see you out," Justin said, picking up a heavy looking parcel under his arm before getting his jacket from a chair. With a breath of relief, Kaida watched Justin leave and deposited her weight against the wall. Many thoughts crossed Kaida's mind, and while she could've done with a dozen fewer, for some reason she managed to hook onto the last bit of deli ham she knew she had in the back of her fridge. She hoped Justin wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and bacon.

"Man this mac rocks!" the husky was gulping cheesy down like some sort of machine. Spoonful after spoonful, the bowls seemed to be emptying faster than Kaida could refill them. "I swear, these bacon bits are the best, Spots. Gotta teach me how to get 'em cooked just right. Love the crunch."

Kaida felt a little bad about deceiving her friend, but a certain part of her felt proud at the way she had come to learn to fix herself some good food with as little as she could afford. Just watching Justin eat like that had managed to open up her appetite to have a whole bowl of mac herself when she had told herself she was barely in the mood to eat.

Justin had brought ice-cream for dessert; his way of apologizing in advance for never wanting to do the dishes even when he was invited over for dinner. She was envious of him for having a cleaning lady over every other day, but he really knew how to put her in a good mood. "So how are classes? Haven't really called for tutoring after you got through calculus."

"Still can't believe you got me through that. It suuuucked," Justin groaned with a spoon in his mouth. "Taking History and Sociology for a few extra creds. They're easy, so easy in fact I don't have to go to all the classes."

Kaida was surprised. "You don't...? Won't they fail you for failing to attend?"

Justin's eyes bulged and he spat out his spoon. "They can do that?!"

"Honestly, how can you be so carefree, dude?" Kaida couldn't help but laugh.

"They're boring classes..." Justin shrugged with a sheepish grin, "...with boring teachers? Oh hey! That reminds me."

Kaida cocked her head sideways as Justin produced his phone from his pocket. "So, I met dad earlier, right? Mentioned you were between jobs..." he took a pause as he heard Kaida shift uncomfortably, lifting his index finger, "...don't worry, didn't tell him I'm giving you money. But he did mention a friend of his boss' was looking for a volunteer for a project they've been working on."

"Volunteer?" Kaida set her spoon down on the ice-cream bowl, ears perking up. "For what?" she inquired.

"Sounds like this person's... right," Justin stopped searching on his phone and turned it around for Kaida to see a company webpage.

"NT Labs?" Kaida read aloud, "Don't they do stuff with the government? Robotics and military-grade tech? I guess they don't mention the government affiliation on the brochures... You know, I applied to an entry-level job here before."

"Really?" Justin's eyes seemed to light up, "And how did that..." he stopped himself from finishing the question. Kaida's eyes were starting to look tired. "Never mind. So dad says they're looking to hire someone to test some of their gear. Hear they had a volunteer but they had to cancel at the last second. I bet they're taking applications again now, but if they came recommended by my dad's boss, then..."

"Justin, I'm not sure," Kaida giggled nervously, "Sounds like a guinea pig deal, to me. Plus, I'm not sure I could handle..."

"I'm sure you could," Justin interrupted, throwing his arms back against his chair, "You could even get to see something really cool! Like lasers and stuff. And you'll get paid the big bucks too, if they're with the government like you said."

It was hard to argue with the enthusiastic husky. Kaida still seemed unsure. "I don't know. I've been botching all of my interviews lately..."

"You really think they're gonna interview a guinea pig?" Justin joked, getting a huff from Kaida. "Look, I'm sure if you go in with a recommendation, it'll smooth things over. Why not try it out? That's what you said when I didn't wanna learn about differentials. And now look at me!"

"Yeah. You're about to flunk History over attendance," Kaida joked back. "Sorry, not cool," she immediately apologized. Justin snorted and laughed.

"Just bring that sass with you as an ice-breaker and you'll be fine," he pointed at Kaida with his index finger before taking his spoon and going back for ice-cream. "I'll tell dad to set you up."

Kaida wasn't sure what to say. She needed the job, but going back to a place that had turned her down didn't feel right to her. However, one glance at the $100 bills stacked under her phone on the end table; the money Justin had loaned her; helped her not turn the help down.

Kaida was going to NT Labs.

Chapter 1: The Job

The building of New Technologies Laboratories wasn't far removed from the city. It was annexed to one of the three main universities in town, so NT Labs always had first picks on scouting for promising new graduates. After having blown her interview for data analysis, Kaida never thought she'd be stepping another foot past their foyer.

Kaida couldn't believe the world of difference it had been to volunteer for this project when compared to the time she had been here for an interview. All she had been asked to bring was up-to-date medical records, which fortunately she had on convenient PDF, as well as to submit to a blood and urine sample test to screen for drugs. Kaida was clean, of course.

She had been prepared for another unnerving onslaught of questions and the anxiety that came with having to defend her knowledge before complete strangers. Instead, she was given a simple psych evaluation with questions a child would've answered without missing a beat. Although nervous at first, Kaida managed to steel through. And after filling out some temporary employment forms, she wasn't just done. One signed Non-Disclosure Agreement later, Kaida was in.

"This isn't data analysis..." Kaida mused to herself as she followed the clerk down the corridor, soaking in the professional atmosphere in those sterile halls. It was all much quieter than she had been expecting, but that was probably because the rooms were soundproof and all of their doors were closed no matter how many people were filling out those labs. "...but it's got to be a start! First professional job! I can't blow it!" the cheetah thought to herself, excited.

She was dropped in the room at the far end of a long corridor. Two rows of five white metal lockers stretched ahead of Kaida, with a couple of changing rooms at the end and a door on the right corner. Four of those lockers had named labels: Nick, Lucille, Jason and Gil. The fifth's label appeared to be a designation: "I-001"; the other row of lockers didn't have labels on them.

"Your work clothes are in there," the clerk told Kaida without looking up from his tablet PC, and Kaida considered herself lucky she had caught his stylus pen pointing towards I-001. "One of the project assistants will be with you momentarily. Please return your gear to your designated locker and come meet me at the reception desk after you're done to get paid."

"I-I get paid by the day?" Kaida asked uneasily, coming off slightly more desperate than she had been comfortable with, but try as she might to hide it, her pupils were already dilated to twice their size.

The clerk appeared nonplussed. Eyes glancing over his glasses, he said: "It was in your temporary employment contract."

Kaida gulped nervously, completely without comeback. She had been so excited to fill out her first official employment form she had inadvertently glossed over a few important details. The clerk didn't seem interested in that blunder though.

"Here's the key to your locker," the clerk ticked something in his tablet and handed Kaida a flat plastic key, which she quietly accepted. "Take care of it. An embedded RFID chip will grant you basic employee clearance for this facility. If you lose it, you have to submit a form for replacement, and the new one will come out of your pay."

"Thu-thanks..." muttered Kaida while looking at the plastic key and then at the I-001 locker. She approached its door wondering what kind of gear she was going to find in there. Perhaps some cool safety goggles and a lab coat? She already was feeling like a scientist! Scientists working for labs these big had to be making bank. It made her wonder about her wages. "So uh, do you remember what the contract said about my..." she turned to the clerk, but noticed the guy had already left. "...pay...?" she finished in uncomfortable silence.

"Great first impression, Kaida," the cheetah chastised herself with a huff. She turned back to the locker and inserted the key into the slot. It turned with a satisfying click, allowing Kaida to open her locker. "Huh...? What's this?" she frowned with visible confusion as she realized there wasn't a lab coat or safety goggles to be found inside.

A tube and a wire hanger suspended some sort of sleek, folded black fabric in the air before Kaida's eyes. "Is this lycra...?" she curiously ran her hand over the piece of apparel, pinching the material and finding it to be less elastic than she had been expecting. "It's stretchy but not so much. Feels kinda heavy..." she murmured, finally taking the folded outfit into her hands to open it. It was a completely coal-black suit with short sleeves and legs.

"They can't be seriously expecting me to put on a wetsuit for a science experiment, can they...?" Kaida found herself murmuring as she turned the suit around, finding its equally black zipper at the bottom of the back. "Wait, what if I'm testing scuba gear? I guess I'd need one of these..." she shrugged and, knowing she wouldn't get her answers until she was picked up by the project assistant, decided to walk into the changing room to get ready.

"Smells kinda funny though... Must be neoprene," a nude Kaida thought as she began to slip into the black suit, reminding herself that surfers preferred the rubbery material for its buoyancy. She groaned while looking for the zipper on her reflection in the changing room mirror. "And why did they make it all black? This'd be a pain to find if this place wasn't all white," she had started mumbling her thoughts aloud, "And the design isn't exactly..."

"Sorry if it ain't a Gucci. I'm told they weren't available," a snarky voice coming from outside the changing room almost made Kaida jump out of her fur.

The cheetah's zipper was still down, so she popped only her head out from behind the curtain. There was a somewhat tall meerkat, taller than Kaida at any rate, standing in a pristine lab coat. The coat was open, so Kaida could see the meerkat's casual ensemble underneath. She didn't stare too long though, not with the impatient stare she was getting. Kaida mustered a little grin before greeting him. "Good morning! I'm..."

"My test subject, yeah," the meerkat interrupted, "You gonna be much longer? Everyone's waiting at the testing area."

"O-oh!" Kaida disappeared behind the curtain with a blush. She backed up closer to the mirror and leaned away, hurriedly pawing the zipper at her back until she had it. Easing the neoprene down Kaida finally managed to zip up. She walked out with her bundled clothes in arms.

"Stash that all in your locker," the meerkat said without looking at Kaida. He was standing in front of one of the lockers, but with the open door in the way, she couldn't see what he was doing. Kaida could see the name label on the door though. Even without introduction, this presumably had to be 'Gil'.

Not wanting to upset Gil any further, Kaida didn't even bother to fold her clothes properly, just throwing them into the locker. Before she could close the door though, Gil called her out, pointing down at her sneakers. "Footwear too, kitty."

'Kitty' was a name Kaida hadn't heard anybody call her since high-school. It was true she looked small for a predator, but the meerkat didn't have more than an inch or two over her. However, she tried not to think about the humiliation and instead focused on wanting to make the best possible impression with the people she was going to be working with.

After stashing her sneakers and socks into the locker, Kaida finally closed the door, locked it and put her hands at her back with a polite smile. Her locker key was firmly grasped in her right hand. "I-I'm Kaida. Nice to meet you, Gil."

"Huh..." While closing his own locker, Gil turned towards Kaida with a quirked eyebrow and a somewhat confused face. "Kaida's a chick name? Thought you were a very self-conscious dude for a sec there."

Kaida felt something drop in the pit of her stomach. There it was. One would think the cheetah would've had all of her life to get used to the fact her androgynous appearance and unassuming tone of voice caused plenty of people to misgender her, but it never got any easier. "Haha, yuh-yeah, I get that a lot," she let out a little laugh, "It's oriental. So that's probably why..."

"Yeah, let's go," Gil was already standing outside the corner door, holding it open for Kaida. She obediently skipped over to the corridor on the other side. "And before we leave, put this on. You'll need it for the experiment," the meerkat was holding up a peculiar wristband of the same charcoal black color. Kaida was starting to sense a theme.

Holding the wristband up for just a moment, Kaida didn't waste time observing in great detail, knowing Gil, and by extension the experiment, appeared to be on a tight schedule. Gil didn't even seem interested in watching Kaida strapping the wristband on, already a fair few paces ahead of her.

While tailing Gil, Kaida adjusted the straps and briefly eyed the small device mounted on the wristband. It looked like some sort of novelty wristwatch. The display seemed to be off. She figured the buttons sticking out from the bottom and top sides had to do with operation, but she didn't dare touch them without authorization. "Thu-this looks really cool," Kaida chirped up as she caught up with the scientist, trying once more to be chummy with her new employer. "You know, I once applied to NT Labs. To uh... for a data analysis position."

"Programmer, huh?" Gil's attention seemed to be on Kaida even though his eyes were glued to his phone. "Bit overqualified for this gig, don'tcha think?" before Kaida could respond and talk about her financial situation though, Gil cut in: "Not that it's any of my business. You like gadgets?"

Kaida noticed Gil's smirk when she saw he was looking at her still fiddling with the straps of her wrist mounted device. She nodded to him with a smile, "Then you won't just look like a kid with their new toy." He said.

The volunteer frowned a little, stopping and glancing down at herself. "First day, just roll with the punches..." she let go of her wristband, "Stupid thing is tight enough, anyway..." Kaida mumbled inaudibly. She soon found herself shielding her vision when Gil pushed a couple of double doors open at the end of the long corridor.

When her eyes adjusted to the large influx of natural light, Kaida saw a huge field stretching before her. In fact, she could tell it was at least half the length of a football field, except instead of grass the ground was almost entirely comprised of gravel. In the distance she could see some sandy patches, and only a couple of trees spaced out between each other. The rest seemed to be giant boulders or concrete walls in seemingly haphazard arrangements. The placed looked like some sort of desolate suburban arena.

Surrounding the arena were metal fixtures and catwalks suspended a couple dozen feet in the air, with multiple reflectors every thirty feet or so. Kaida thought that setup odd considering the 'stadium' was open, but she figured just like with that one hockey match she had seen on TV before, the stadium had a dome that slid on or off to suit the user's needs.

Kaida realized that if she squinted just right, she could make out equipment beyond one of the observation cabins looming over the arena. She wondered how things looked from up there.

"C'mere, curious cat," Gil's unapologetic voice brought the cheetah back to Earth. Gil had been met by four other scientists. "Meet the team. She doesn't look like the athletic sort, but she'll have to do, right, guys?"

Kaida tried to step in as confidently as she could with that introduction, but the words didn't seem to want to come out. With stiff shoulders and arms glued to her sides, all the cheetah could do was use her free hand to wave.

"Gil, you're being rude again," the tallest among of the group was a polar bear, yet his voice was calm and somewhat soothing, in Kaida's opinion. It was a wonder the buttons of his lab coat were hanging on as much as they were. Gil rolled his eyes but made no further remark, joining the rest of the team. It was an amusing sight to Kaida: Even though the bear looked like he could've snapped Gil in two, he wasn't making eye contact with him, or anybody else for that matter.

"You must be Kaida!" the other new male was a toned, bespectacled goat. He seemed to be even more casual than Gil, with an open coat and rolled up sleeves, plus a nerdy shirt featuring a certain pellet chomping videogame character Kaida quickly recognized. The goat stepped forth from the group with a hand up in greeting, "Cool name. Pleasure to meet you, I'm Jason, and not to toot my own horn, but you're talking to the brains behind this whole operation."

"O-oh...!" Kaida's eyes went wide. She couldn't help flinching with both relief and wonder as she realized Gil wasn't the one in charge, after all. "Huh... he's my boss...?" she thought as she found herself staring at the goat's muscular arms and handsome grin, feeling a tingle going up her spine. "Oh no, he's totally hot..." she bit her lips a little. "Hurry, say something you idiot! You can't make your first words to your boss be drooling...!"

But before Kaida could say anything, somebody else did. "Don't listen to this goober," the first of the ladies took a step forward, elbowing the taller Jason in the gut and making him gasp a little. She was a prim and proper otter girl, with round glasses and a delightful voice. "Lucille," she introduced herself, hugging a clipboard to her chest before sidestepping and gesturing back to the remaining female of the group. "The esteemed Dr. Sarah Rhodes is our project director," Lucille explained, using her head to gesture derisively at the well-built goat, "Jason is more of a class clown."

Dr. Rhodes was a stoic looking secretary bird. She was tall and lean; in fact, she was only second in stature to the quiet polar bear. Sharp spectacles complemented the natural sharpness of her crystal blue eyes, with a gaze so penetrating it was close to triggering Kaida's fight-or-flight response. Kaida felt like if this had been Superman she would have been burnt to a crisp by now.

All the nervous cheetah girl could do before this ensemble of lab coats was wiggle her fingers and grin like a goof.

"She will do." The avian said and without further commentary turned her back, leaving for the elevator under the observation cabin. "Get everything ready," she ordered, and the team began to scramble. Even Gil went to pick up equipment, helping the polar bear haul it to the center of the arena.

Lucille left with Dr. Rhodes, evidently her right hand, or wing, as it were. Left alone with Jason who seemed to be interacting with some instruments on a nearby wall-bound console, Kaida finally felt brave enough to use her words.

"Huh-hi, Jason!" Kaida greeted the goat. She had always had trouble speaking clearly with guys she thought were handsome.

"You must be wondering what we're doing here, right?" Jason chuckled, not taking his eyes off the console. His fingers were a flurry on the console terminal's keyboard. "Can't blame ya. NDAs after NDAs. Plus, we had that thing with the previous applicant..."

Kaida recalled Justin telling her about her predecessor dropping off the experiment. "Oh, yuh-yeah, I heard someone was here before me. No good?"

"They didn't even show, to be honest," Jason gave a light shrug, "Some people, right? Had to do a double take with their name, too. Stormy sounds like someone using their gamer tag or something. Ah, but that's kind of why we're in a rush. They ditched at the last possible second, so you're our stand-in."

"Wuh-well..." Kaida rubbed her arm uneasily. "You're right that I'm wondering about this thing I'm wearing. And this..." she held her arm out, showing Jason her wristband.

Jason smiled. "You're about to see something really cool, Kaida. Don't worry if you're thinking it might feel weird; it's totally safe. Lemme catch you up though: You familiar with CNTs?" Kaida shook her head no. "Carbon Nanotubes," Jason explained, somehow not missing a beat on his keyboard; whatever he was doing which Kaida could not understand was looking even more impressive by the way the goat showed great multitasking aptitude. "We use 'em in lots of hardware these days. Electronics are one of them. Sturdy stuff, conductive too. And flexible as hell. If arranged in a specific way, you can kinda trap light and never let it escape."

Kaida looked down at her wetsuit, tugging at the rubbery fabric of her short sleeve. "Huh... do you mean...?"

"Bingo," Jason pressed the Enter key one last time before devoting his attention to Kaida. He made a finger gun pointing at her. "Except this isn't your run-off-the-mill Vantablack film. Dr. Rhodes found this new element codenamed Idolon -that's Latin for apparition, by the way--which she used in conjunction with CNTs to create a material that can completely absorb all light. If you place it under a shadow, it's like it disappears. We're actually not a hundred percent sure how it works, but we've had some great results with small items and even machines, so we're moving on to people. That there's some expensive piece of rubber and tech."

"Wow! And I'm wearing it?" Kaida blinked in surprise, looking out for any shadows in their corner. Thanks to the exposure of the open-dome, the edge of the field only offered thin and irregular shadows from the catwalks. She frowned, cottoning to the fact she'd need a shadow covering her entire body for it to work.

Jason grinned, "Eager to test the Idolon Suit huh? Don't worry, so are we!" the goat gestured towards the center of the arena where a huge boulder was. "Go meet with the guys. I've set up all the recording equipment, and they should be ready with the mics and other sensors."

"The Idolon Suit..." Kaida repeated, her breath taken away. Camouflage was a popular stealth device used in many movies or cartoons she had seen. If this thing worked for real, was she truly in some sort of secret government project for some sort of super spy suit? Kaida had begun feeling the true weight of her role in this experiment.

"Might wanna get going, Kaida," Jason gave the daydreaming cheetah a sideways thumb pointing gesture. "You already know how grumpy Gil can get, right? Guy's real smart and a hard worker, but I wouldn't sign him up for any popularity contest." The goat leaned in to the smirking Kaida and gave her a complicit wink, "Don't tell him about the smart or hard-working parts, though."

"Smart, funny, handsome..." Kaida repeated in her head, doing her best to tear her eyes away from Jason as she made her way over to the staging area. The polar bear and Gil had finished setting up all the measuring equipment surrounding a 15ft. tall boulder casting a huge shadow. Now that was a shadow she could use to test the suit with!

As extremely eager as she was to hop under the boulder however, one glare from Gil was all it took for Kaida to keep her bare foot paw from touching the edge of the boulder's shadow. Folding her arms, she awaited instructions.

"Subject I-001's trial run," Lucille's voice echoed out in the field, prompting Kaida to look up at the towering speakers on each of the small stadium's corners. "Video and thermal imaging?"

"We're live, both monitors!" Jason's voice could be heard from way behind.

"Sound and vitals?" Lucille called out next, getting visual confirmation from the polar bear waving positive and saying 'check' on his communicator. "Subject!" the otter's voice seemed even clearer, making Kaida seize up. "We are going to ask you to step in the shadow of the boulder in front of you. Jason tells me you more or less understand what this experiment is for. That saves us a little bit of time. Just follow our directions to the letter. Report discomfort if any. Are you currently carrying any personal effects on you?"

Kaida was truly feeling like a mouse instead of a large cat. All she could do was raise her hand in which she held her plastic locker key. Every other thing she owned had been left inside of her locker after all.

"I'll hold on to that for you," the polar bear gently said, taking Kaida's key from her. "You'll do great!" he said even more quietly before stepping back to where the measuring instruments were.

Dr. Rhodes' voice took over the intercom. "Please stand in front of the boulder, subject. On my mark, make ten paces forwards, stop and turn around. Say yes, if you understand."

"Yuh-yes!" Kaida's voice broke up a bit, as she had been unsure how loud she was supposed to talk.

"Mic in your suit, analyst," Gil snidely remarked, getting shushed by the polar bear again. Kaida blushed in embarrassment.

"...begin!" Dr. Rhodes commanded.

This was it. Kaida had only been asked to walk, yet she was so nervous her body advanced at a robotic pace. One, two, three, she counted each step until she was almost hugging the immense piece of gravel in front of her. And then she turned around just as she had been directed. Then she saw it. Or rather, she didn't.

"Jesus..." the cheetah gasped. Nothing particularly felt out of place, but the second she decided to look down a ghastly sight was waiting for her. Kaida's torso was gone! She could only see her forearms and hands, and her legs and feet below the knee. If she hadn't been able to feel the rest of her extremities she would have been convinced she was just a floating head with four additional disembodied parts levitating under their own power. Kaida had to increase that count to five after she glanced back and saw her tail. Everything that wasn't covered in the suit she had been asked to put on had vanished from sight.

"Satisfactory thermal readings, doctor," Lucille said without using the intercom. She and Dr. Rhodes were watching the feeds from two different monitors. One showed real time high-definition image, while the second displayed the same capture generated by heat-sensing instruments.

Before their test subject had walked under the boulder's shadow, Kaida's thermal image had been what one would expect from a living being's heat readings: A vivid red and yellow silhouette with a green outline. The rest of the image was dark blue, owed to much lower ambient temperature.

After Kaida had stepped into the boulder's shadow however, the silhouette had become a much more peculiar sight. Much like in the real time video feed, the subject's neck, torso, upper arms and upper legs seemed to have fused with the dark blue while the rest remained red and yellow.

"Just like with the heat-emitter drone," Lucille confirmed, looking at her boss. "Should we power up?"

Dr. Rhodes seemed pensive. There was a wing folded under her chest, supporting the other which was hiding her beak. She pressed down the intercom button. "Subject," the avian spoke, "How are you feeling right now?"

"I'm fine!" Kaida spoke clearly this time, excitement palpable in her voice. "Thu-this is amazing! It's like half my body is a ghost! How does this work?!"

Curiosity always managed to get a smile out of the project director, be it from a peer or otherwise. She could spare a brief lecture adjusted to their subject's intellect. "Idolon exhibits peculiar properties not observed in any existing element, dear," Dr. Rhodes began to explain, "So far, when combined with our patented CNT-based stealth technology, it allows for a particular phenomenon I've personally dubbed "Shadow-Melding" to occur."

Kaida seemed to have fallen silent, shocked by the influx of new information. "I got CNT from earlier..." she scratched her head, laughing nervously at her own ignorance.

"Put simply," Dr. Rhodes continued, "Your suited body has become one with the boulder's shadow," the bird dumbed it down for Kaida, prompting her to exit the boulder's shadow and walk back inside to demonstrate. "Do you see now? When in presence of shadows, the Idolon in your suit melds with them. This is why it seems you can see through your torso and down at the gravel at your feet."

"This is insane, it's like my body really has gone away...!" Kaida bounced up and down in place, squealing and wiggling in place.

"Much is left to discover about this new element," the director explained, "We are only getting started with Idolon. And if I can prove its applications for next generation stealth technology, this project will revolutionize and minimize field agent survivability in enemy territory. Subject!" Dr. Rhodes called out, making Kaida calm down and rigidly stand up again. "You are our first living tester for the Idolon Suit. Money and resources beyond your comprehension have been allocated for our experiments. I trust you understand the importance of doing as you're told, for the sake of this project's success."

"Yes!" Kaida called out, walking in the direction of the observation cabin while holding her pumped fists up. Contributing to safety, being part of something bigger than she was and getting paid for it? This was exactly what she had always dreamed of! She wanted to sound as sincere as possible. "This is so cool. I want to- I'll do as I'm told. I want this project to be a success, too!"

"Might wanna get back to the shadows there, sparky," Gil's voice made Kaida turn to him, then back to her body which now was completely visible again. In her excitement she had walked right out of her designated spot, without prompt this time.

"Sorry!" Kaida yelled a little too loud at her mic, causing both Lucille and Dr. Rhodes to flinch. "I'll go back!"

Dr. Rhodes tilted her glasses and nodded at Lucille who took over the intercom. "Stay where you are, subject," the otter said, making Kaida seize up and freeze on the spot. "We've gathered sufficient data from your current form," the odd choice of words caused Kaida to cock her head sideways in confusion. "For our next test, we will need to power your Idolon Suit with a nanite injection. Please hold your right arm across your chest."

Kaida was doing just as she was told, but all she could see on her arm was that peculiar wristband she had been asked to put on alongside the suit. "Nanites? Like... tiny robots?" The cheetah's voice broke up at the end. She hated that she had had to sign that NDA; Justin would flip out if she told him about this!

"What you're wearing is a wrist-mounted nanite injector," Lucille described, "It will be activated once you hit the release. A colony of microscopic robots loaded with materials will work in harmony to replicate our Idolon mesh. Their functions are to build and tear down; streamlined to be able to engage and disengage the suit at the user's convenience. This allows us to keep the suit compact and inconspicuous, and ready at a moment's notice."

"So you mean..." Kaida wanted to make sure she had understood: "It's like I'm not wearing the full suit, right now? I guess that makes sense, it wouldn't be a good stealth suit if people could see my head and extremities..."

"In a manner of speaking, yes. What you're wearing right now actually contains the bare minimum Idolon to induce Shadow-melding," Lucille said.

Kaida looked down at the jet-black rubbery fabric. She had never seen nanites at work so most of the explanation had flown over her head, no matter how incredible it had sounded. "I think I get it..." Kaida murmured as she thought about what she had understood. Transporting stealth equipment on one's person could be tricky, so disguising it as something that could be stored in something that looks like a wristwatch was one way to solve it. She still questioned the choice to make the rest of the suit look like neoprene leotard though.

"Subject," Lucille spoke out, the rest of her technical explanation having been drowned out by Kaida's thoughts. "When you're ready to begin, use your thumb and index fingers to press both buttons on the injector three times. You must be precise."

Kaida calmly drew in breath, putting her hand over the device at her wrist. After positioning her fingers where they were meant to be, she counted the presses. "One, two..." she heard a hushed, almost imperceptible click on the third push.

The injector was so dark that she didn't see any compartment slide open, but soon enough she felt something on her arm. It was like a crawling sensation, like thousands of invisible limbs crawling over her forearm. Kaida flinched once she saw a writhing black mass spread over her right hand, her feline pupils thinning out from the visual and tactile shock. The crawling sensation extended over each of her five fingers and she watched each digit turn charcoal black alongside her palm and the rest of her hand.

"It's working... oh my God this feels so weird!" Kaida thought as curled her fingers, the material feeling exactly as snug as that neoprene mesh hugging her torso. The black swarm moved up her forearm, fur pressed down by its darkening march until her whole right arm was black as the void. She noticed the short sleeves of her wetsuit had somehow managed to become even darker, making her body totally uniform in color.

Nanites spread out from Kaida's right shoulder to the left, going down and coating her left arm, homogenizing the rest of her wetsuit and dripping over her legs, feet and even her tail. Finally, they began climbing her nape and Kaida instinctively began gulping down air, holding her breathe as if she was being submerged in water. The world suddenly went dark before her eyes.

"What is this...?" Kaida thought, afraid to move. She still felt warm, physically indifferent other than the snug sensation of that automatically generated mesh coating every strand of fur in her slick body. She could hear the swarm chittering away like insects closest to her ears, which unnerved her. But soon enough, her vision was restored, although filtered. Kaida realized she was wearing a visor, with her whole head having been encased in some sort of tightly sealed helmet. She could feel it pressing against her skull, her cheeks, her nose, even her ears.

From toes to the tip of her ears, the cheetah had become little more than a living shadow. "Ahh!" she gasped out loud, finally unable to keep holding the air in. "I... I can breathe!" the masked cheetah exclaimed, hands flying up to rub her face.

"Of course, you dope," Gil smacked his forehead in frustration, "We're not trying to kill ya with the nanites."

"I... I knew that..." Kaida shyly said, her black ears flattening against her skull.

"The nanites coat you in breathable, form fitting material, and that includes your removable helmet," the polar bear chipped in, bent down with a shy smile and a small wave, "I-I designed their program... Hope it feels comfortable. I even managed to install minimal HUD elements on the visor... but those won't come up in our experiments, so I guess you won't have to worry." He mumbled, before raising his voice a little, "Um...! The latches on the sides are how you take the helmet off. Just make sure it's on when you want to disengage the suit. Wouldn't want to drop and lose it, heh!"

Kaida took a few experimental seconds to breathe in and out until she felt comfortable with the fully engaged Idolon Suit. She palmed behind her head, finding the latches the polar bear had described easily, but decided not to remove the helmet yet. The only semi annoying thing was the visor's filter, which made it look like she was looking through a car's polarized glass window. Kaida didn't remark on that, instead completely gushing at the full body suit she was wearing. She was overwhelmed with excitement! "This is... I... huh?" she paused, stepping on the gravel and looking left and right, bothered by something on the ground.

"Is something wrong?" Lucille called out from the intercom.

"I just noticed it but..." Kaida looked out under Gil and the polar bear, then back at her, "I can't see my own shadow."

"That is normal. Fully powered, the Idolon Suit does not allow light to pass through, or around it. Your shadow essentially does not exist, right now."

"This is the coolest thing ever!" Kaida went back to gushing, "I feel like a ninja! Like a goddamn... Uh... Suh-so..." she stopped herself, trying not to sound too dorky even though she had seen the polar bear grin at her; clearly pleased with himself. "Do I walk back into the shadow, now...?" she pointed sideways, hunching over nervously while glancing up at the cabin.

"Heat signature nominal," Lucille told Dr. Rhodes. The camera showed Kaida's full silhouette in the monitor on the right. The avian nodded, and Lucille turned the intercom on again. "As before, walk until you are right next to the boulder. You will remain in your position for sixty seconds. Proceed when ready, subject."

Feeling heavier with purpose, Kaida's steps were slow. She steeled herself and looked at the boulder's shadow, gradually gaining speed until she was walking into it. "One small step for a cheetah..." she thought to herself, closing her eyes to savor the her first fully powered step into the shadows.

"And it's falling. Temp is dropping, doctor," Lucille reported. Kaida's right foot up to the ankles had disappeared from both feeds. "Shadow-meld in progress..."

To those watching, Kaida's body looked like it was vanishing completely and without a trace. While the typical stealth technology observer would have expected to witness some sort of transparency, there was no such thing happening before their eyes. There was no outline or even a hint that a cheetah existed in that field.

None of the displays inside of the observation cabin showed a third person in the center of the field. Only the polar bear and meerkat assistants were standing there.

Kaida was completely gone.

The test subject's ears flickered to an unexpected, hushed whistling. Both of her eyes snapped open as she froze in place. "What...?" Kaida murmured to herself. She had mentally prepared for the dramatic reveal of her invisibility, but she saw something much stranger instead. For starters, Kaida found that she could easily see her hands, arms, and the rest of her body. But that wasn't what truly shocked her.

As she turned around, Kaida realized that everything else in the field looked strange all of a sudden. "This isn't like looking through polarized glass anymore..." the feline told herself as her eyes attempted to adjust to much darker colors.

Hues of dark red and brown had saturated her vision. Boulders, gravel, grass, metal; even the scientists had all become darker, almost gloomy. "This is... spooky." Kaida laughed to herself, "Um, excuse me, Lucille? Dr. Rhodes...?" the cheetah spoke aloud, "I think something's up with my suit. Hello?"

No one responded. Not even Gil or the polar bear seemed to have heard her. Were they that focused on the experiment? "This isn't right. Are they playing a prank on me...? I couldn't see my torso before, but now I can. They have to be able to, as well, right?" she frowned, starting to tap her chest, shoulder and neck in search of her suit-mounted microphone. "Hello? Is this thing on?"

No response again. Kaida tried waving at the two scientists 20ft. across from her, but they were simply too busy to pay attention to her. The cheetah tried walking closer to the polar bear, figuring he would see her once she emerged back out from the shadows, but to her surprise neither he nor Gil so much as reacted.

Kaida let out a concerned huff. "Are they really ignoring me?" she asked herself while watching the meerkat and bear working with the instruments of the testing area. "Maybe this is part of the experiment?" she thought to herself, but her train of thought got cut off when nearby shuffling caught her attention.

Kaida turned around with a nervous gasp. It occurred to her the gloomy field was silent, eerily so. It was as if all ambient sound had been replaced by that persisting wind-like howling. At the very most, she could hair faint whispers coming from Gil and the polar bear, but that weird shuffling had been clearly and crisp. Kaida walked back, taking note of the boulder's missing shadow. Among the disturbing environment she found herself in though, that was the least upsetting thing.

"What's going on?" Kaida asked, but received no reply. "I was feeling completely alone just now, and yet..." the cheetah swallowed saliva hard, feeling her heart starting to race. Her eyes were glancing at the corner of the boulder, almost as if she had been expecting a wild animal to jump out from it. She felt her legs trembling, unwilling to carry her behind the boulder. "Wild animals inside of a lab... heh," Kaida had to laugh at her overactive imagination, wanting to lighten up. Yet some part of her could not ignore that unsettling shuffling she was sure she had heard.

Much as she tried, Kaida couldn't shake the feeling something was very wrong with the experiment. Her apprehension grew. "I-It's this dark atmosphere... Almost feels like it's choking me... Ah!" Kaida gasped, turning around as she heard some chittering this time, but couldn't find its source. She couldn't take it any longer.

Reaching for the clamps of her helmet, Kaida disengaged the locks and pulled the helmet out with a gasp for air. Her eyes felt awash with cleansing light and everything regained its regular color. Gil and the polar bear turned their attention to Kaida, seeing just her head emerge from the shadows.

"What's wrong, kitty?" Gil approached with an amused chuckle, stopping at the edge of the boulder's shadow. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Kaida felt too upset with what she had just experienced to pay any mind to Gil's condescending tone. Before she could say anything though, the intercom began to echo. It was Lucille's voice. "Subject, you're nineteen seconds too early."

"Luh-listen!" Kaida stammered, surprised the mic seemed to be working now, "Something's wrong. I could see myself. And... and everything looked really off. Like, totally off. Everything was much darker and quiet and it was like looking through the red of a glass full of coca cola and then there was the uh..."

There was a brief moment of silence before Gil burst out laughing. "You serious? Of course you can see yourself."

Dr. Rhodes took over the intercom. "Subject, what you're experiencing is your visor filter's ability to adjust to the infinitesimal reflectance potential in Idolon. Simply put, you will be able to see into the same unique spectrum that renders you invisible to our eyes and instruments."

"Wuh-wait, hold on!" Kaida interrupted, "You're saying you couldn't see me? Even though I could...? Ah!" she flinched, glancing down at the very ground her head was floating above.

"Indeed," Dr. Rhodes said. "That dark-red filter you see is simply your visor adjusting your vision. Our initial tests involved us piloting a drone in Idolon coating, and its camera feed returned similar results. Without the visor's assistance, you also cannot see yourself."

"Buh-but..." the overwhelmed Kaida found that she wasn't sure what she wanted to object to next. Her microphone came to mind, but it was working again now. She felt like she'd just piss the scientists off if she talked about the weird noises she had heard. Gil was giving her an impatient glare.

"We're on a tight schedule here, princess," the meerkat finally said before turning to the cabin, "I wouldn't waste your time with more explanations, doc. It's not like they're getting through this one's thick skull. We captured 41 seconds of successful Shadow-meld. Think we're good enough to move on."

"...quite," Dr. Rhodes agreed, having listened to the entire conversation. "You may step out now, subject," she ordered, and when Kaida did as she was told, the rest of her suited-up form became fully visible under the light again.

"Hey, over here!" Jason hollered from far away, waving Kaida over. The goat was standing next to another boulder, except this one was half the size of the one the cheetah's first.

"Make your way over to Jason while we set up for observation, subject," Lucille instructed, "He will explain the next experiment." With a tired sigh, Kaida acquiesced. She felt herself perk up a little when standing next to the handsome goat as he gave her the rundown for the following test.

As Gil and his partner split between two locations to move the equipment around, Jason gestured for Kaida to see the next experiment was going to involve some distance. It would use not just the boulder Kaida and Jason were next to, but an identical one placed about 50ft. apart. She would have to move between the two objects.

"How's your running?" Jason asked as he helped Gil set up the cameras.

"Huh?" Kaida gave him a puzzled look. "I-I have to run?" she raised an eyebrow. Most cheetahs were known for their athleticism, but Kaida couldn't remember the last time she'd gone out for a jog.

"Not at all, that's the best part! Or at least, that's what we think!" Jason grinned, and to the now even more confused cheetah, he gave an explanation: "What if I told you the Idolon Suit lets you use Shadow-melding to move between shadows near-instantly?"

"Wait, what?" Kaida leaned in with her jaw dropping, "I've seen some weird things today, but y-you're making it sound like..."

"Teleportation. Sounds insane, right?" Jason smirked. "But that's what it is, basically. While testing with the drone I had accidentally set it to automatic roaming. When I couldn't find it even by kicking around I thought I'd lost it, even though its camera placed it about... there," the goat pointed at the boulder close to them, at its base more specifically. "Turns out it was in front of the boulder all the way over there!" he pointed at the far boulder the polar bear was setting up around. "They look similar after all. But here's the kicker: This was just a robot on threads, but even a flying drone couldn't move that fast from here to there. It's like it blinked between the shadows."

"That sounds... wow. Thu-that's a lot to take in," Kaida scratched her head, although she was smiling like somebody listening to some exciting science fair project being described. "And you think I can do that too? Like if I just..." the cheetah, feeling invigorated by the Jason's tale, strapped on her masked helmet again. Since she hadn't Shadow-melded yet, the visor was only making her vision a little dark. She focused on the far boulder, but nothing happened.

"Whoa, cowgirl, you're not melded yet," Jason laughed, making Kaida flinch and shrink a little with embarrassment. "We'll be testing Shadow-blinking soon, though, so get in position." He pointed at the edge of the nearby boulder's shadow.

"Subject, our equipment's ready," Lucille chimed in after getting the OK from her colleagues. "This experiment will involve you moving between point A and point B which are the two boulders' shadows, as Jason has explained. As it is yet unclear to us what causes Shadow-blinking's fast movement between two points, do not be afraid to take the initiative. Dr. Rhodes wishes for you to visualize you moving from A to B as well as you can. Point A's shadow is in front of you, and point B is where Nick is at," Kaida made a mental note about the polar bear's name finally revealed to her, but kept her focus on Lucille's instructions. "Once you've crossed over to B, disengage your helmet to let us know you've reached the target. You may take your time. Begin by stepping into point A as soon as you feel ready."

Reinvigorated or not, Kaida still felt a little dizzy from her first melding. She would've asked for a glass of water, but the excitement she felt at what these people were suggesting was pepping her up. "If this works the way they say it does, then this makes this more than a freaking stealth suit. It's like..." Kaida's eyes lit up behind her visor, her suited-up tail swishing with excitement behind her "...it's like I'm in some super suit from a comic book!" she mentally celebrated.

Taking a deep breath, Kaida walked towards point A's shadow. Just like before, the cheetah vanished from sight. Just like before, the atmosphere changed to that oppressive dark-red tint. She looked back at Jason with a bit of unease, her black ears folding down. "Okay, still creepy..." Kaida murmured, almost able to feel the cold when that hushed wind howl passed through her. "Focus, girl. You got this... They told you it's just the visor. It's probably some noise cancelling nanite thing, too. It's all in your head. Just focus..." she told herself, looking out at the boulder 50ft. away from her.

But no matter how hard Kaida looked at the boulder, she couldn't find it getting closer to her. "How hard can I think about wanting to teleport? How _does_one trigger teleportation...?" the cheetah huffed, getting closer to throwing in the towel. But then she recalled Lucille talking about initiative. "That's my problem. Not enough initiative..." she criticized herself, gazing at the boulder so far away from her while recalling Jason asking about how good she was at running. "Well, I have to move over there..." she shrugged, and finally decided to make it to point B the good old fashioned way.

Kaida found herself jogging at an easy pace at first. Her black feet bounced off the gravel firmly and without discomfort. The first few strides had felt a little labored, but she attributed that to the dark atmosphere of that shadowy world surrounding her. Nothing in the field had changed appearance, yet it felt completely different. In a way, it scared Kaida's jog into a sprint; she wanted to make it to point B as fast as she possibly could.

Nick's burly frame was coming into clearer and clearer view. Kaida could see him holding a tablet PC the entire time, staring down at the direction of point A, and even though the way she was running she looked like she was coming right at him he wasn't so much as flinching. "He really can't see me, can he? It's like before, even though I'm not under a shadow..." Kaida thought to herself, glancing up at the sky above them. Her eyes widened and she skidded to a stop, "What the...?"

The Sun was gone. Kaida could see red clouds hanging above the field, which explained how she had yet to lose her camouflage even though she had stepped out from the boulder; but the clouds bothered her. "It's not supposed to be overcast today, is it...?" Kaida reached down, swiping at the air behind her and sighing when she recalled she wasn't wearing shorts. Force of habit. Her phone which she usually placed in her back pocket was back in her locker. "Better not rain. I left my clothes hanging outside!" the cheetah mumbled, quickly shaking the distraction off before turning back towards Nick and point B, dashing forth.

Upon arrival, Kaida realized she wasn't tired after her sprinting. In fact, the muscles of her legs had hardly felt any impact after the initial jog. She decided to stretch a little, not wanting to chance pulled muscles in case she was misjudging anything. "Speaking of chancing..." she muttered, turning her head to the polar bear. "Hey... Nick, right? Know if it's gonna rain today?" Kaida asked the researcher, but she might as well have been talking to a wall of bricks. "Hello?" the masked cheetah insisted, walking closer to the researcher, peeking over his tablet and looking at his focused eyes.

Nick's fingers were very slowly tracing lines on the touchpad and typing away with the speed of an insecure octogenarian. Kaida decided not to bother him; he struck her as shy, but didn't really want to see a giant like him mad at her for breaking his concentration.

"Is he really ignoring me, though...?" Kaida thought to herself, walking closer to the boulder and glancing back at the polar bear. "Maybe they aren't allowed to talk to me while the experiment... oh shit. I'm here already and I forgot to take the helm off!" Kaida quickly reached up to release the clamps. "I'm here!" she announced aloud, making Nick jump.

"Holy crap!" Nick almost dropped his tablet, quickly turning around to look at Kaida's floating head.

Kaida raised an eyebrow at the exclamation. She hadn't been expecting that reaction; she thought the suit made her invisible, not completely silent. Had he been that focused? Whichever the case, she hurried to apologize. "Suh-sorry for taking long, I was just..." before she could finish however, Dr. Rhodes cut in.

"Time?" the director demanded. Nick scrambled to steady his tablet, sliding away from the weather app he had been checking.

"Two point thirty-four seconds, ma'am," the polar bear announced, silencing Kaida and causing her eyes to widen in shock.

"Two sec... what?" Kaida could hear the scientists discussing amongst themselves, but that hardly was of any interest to the cheetah now that she was struggling with a big contradiction to the facts as she knew them. "That little sprint had to have been a minute at least, especially with me stopping to check the weather..." she told herself, running the math over and over in her head.

"Remarkable speed," Dr. Rhodes whispered, turning towards Lucille in the observation cabin, "I still expected faster Shadow-blinking. I named the feature after how it took less than a second for the drone, after all. Do you suppose the subject's greater mass in relation to the drone could be a factor in translocation speed?"

Lucile was pensive for a moment. "It could be too early to draw that conclusion, doctor. Perhaps more testing is in order."

"Right you are, Lucille," Dr. Rhodes walked close to the monitors, both of which had been split into two images each. "Proceed."

With Lucille manning the intercom again, the otter began to speak out orders again. "Subject, Shadow-blink to point A."

Pulled back from her own thoughts, Kaida gripped her helmet tightly and realized she still had work to do. "Yuh-yes, of course!" After masking up, the cheetah looked out to Point A where Gil and Jason were waiting and focused. "Am I really moving that fast?" she spared doubt only a moment before she kicked into a sprint. This time, Kaida didn't feel sluggish at the start and she didn't stop for anything. She actually kept a mental count of her time and stopped as soon as she took her helmet off when at the point A boulder. "Thirty-one..." she gasped out quietly.

"Time?" Lucille was the one to demand it this time.

"One point seventeen seconds!" Gil shouted, "Hey, good job, sparky," the meerkat said to Kaida. "All that energy's finally good for something, eh?" he teased.

Kaida was unsure how to respond. Not because of Gil's remark, but the fact she apparently had left the boulder 50ft. away and made it to this one and in just a little over one second. "What's going on here...? I'm sure I counted to 31. Are they timing something else?" the cheetah wondered to herself.

The scientists were soon deep in discussion again and Kaida wished to interject, but she kept getting choked up, worried she might get chewed out for interrupting. Before she knew it, Lucille told her to repeat the Shadow-blink again. And again. And again.

Memories of P.E. came back flooding Kaida's mind as she ran laps between boulders, only stopping to unmask before being told to begin anew. The main difference between P.E. and this experiment was that instead of getting physically exhausted at the end of each sprint, Kaida didn't feel worse for wear, as if she had taken a single step instead of a dozen. To the scientists observing her, she might as well have been taking a single step between A and B.

In a weird way, all this exercise was making it slightly easier to bear that gloomy ambience she got exposed to each time she had to put on the visor. And the added boon of making her feel like she was getting back into a running groove was doing wonders for Kaida's everyday fatigue.

By the fifth lap however, things began getting weird again. With Kaida turning her brain off to the minimal physical exertion and leaving it all up to automatic muscle memory, she had time to pay more attention to her surroundings.

Kaida started noticing that the air was stale whenever she was running. It brushed against her ears the same way as that constant, somber wind-like howling did. She had been so concerned with keeping track of the experiment she had completely forgotten about the earlier shuffling and chittering. When the cheetah started hearing it again, she came to realize that much like with that sharp breeze, those sounds were all around her. Those terrible, out-of-place noises made her slow down to a careful, measured jog again.

"Am I actually losing it...?" Kaida could only question her ears. There was absolutely nothing she could see that could be making those noises she could swear she was listening to. "Hey, do you guys hear that weird noise?" she tried, but only got more wind and chittering for her troubles. Kaida wondered if her suit's microphone really was busted. But she was starting to entertain a different line of thought.

It almost felt as if whenever she was fully Shadow-melded she was also being disconnected from everybody else. Could it have been another feature of the Idolon Suit they hadn't bothered to tell her about? The way the researchers seemed to be going nuts in a good way with all the data she was getting them and pushing her to continue Shadow-blinking, she thought she'd never be able to ask.

After two more increasingly tense laps Kaida was starting to feel less like a test subject and more like a lowly guinea pig. She wasn't alright with that. Even if she had to raise an objection, Kaida decided she'd had enough anxiety for her whole day. "Okay, I have to say something," she felt sure about it. But before she could get to point B where Nick was waiting for her again, Kaida finally saw it.

Something had moved behind Nick, and darted around the boulder. It had moved far too quick for Kaida to identify it, but she had had enough of that. Some stray, feral animal sounded way less insane than her mind playing tricks on her.

"Can't believe they're not paying attention to potential vermin, it's a safety and health concern. So..." she mumbled, carefully tip-toeing towards the left corner of the boulder. "...I guess it's up to me," Kaida said, thinking if she found out what was making those terrible noises, she'd have something to give her a voice in that team. Emboldened by the idea, yet still a little hesitant, Kaida gently pressed her right hand on the corner of the boulder and started peeking around it...

And she instantly regretted her choice.

The chittering and shuffling weren't coming from some sort of feral rodent she didn't mind facing. She wasn't afraid of getting her hands dirty with pests; once in the past Kaida had to take care of a roach problem back at Justin's place, but a hundred more exterminations like that wouldn't have prepared the wide-eyed cheetah for what she was seeing now.

It had the hard shell of a beetle, thick mandibles like a scorpion's and more eyes than Kaida was comfortable counting. Transparent wings unlike any insect's she had ever seen jutted out from under a couple of pouches protruding from the creature's shell, shaking and flapping in erratic patterns. The thing stood on ten almost comically thin, pointed legs, five on each side, which made it resemble a crab. It had a long couple of curling tails that made Kaida think of chameleons. And every time the creature opened its mandibles to chitter, a disturbing collection of wriggly tentacles seemed to push out. However, nothing about the disgusting amalgamation was as blood-curling as its sheer size.

As far as Kaida was concerned, bugs were usually as big as her thumb at the largest. The thing had to be as large as yoga ball!

Every nerve in Kaida's body flared up at once. She could feel her fur trying to stand up only to be pushed back down by the Idolon Suit. She started breathing so fast her visor began to fog up. Fear was welling up inside of her; she was about to scream. She wanted to scream.

But she stopped herself. Before the creature had a chance to turn around, Kaida turned around and slid back against the boulder, both of her palms pushed up against her mask. "Eek!" she muffled a squeak when the chittering invited buzzing and she saw that dark denizen jumping onto the boulder right above her. Kaida's eyes rolled up, pupils thinning out as her brain screamed at her to run away, but she was too afraid to move her legs.

A second creature landed on top of the boulder, Kaida following its movements as it approached the first monster. "Where are they coming from?! How did I... how do they not see them?!" Kaida's mind raced, wanting to scream at the unwitting Nick for help, but her hands were still pressing her mask down. All she could do was observe for now.

The newcomer seemed to be simply blinking its countless eyes against the other as it walked closer and closer, clicking its many feet; the first returning the gesture without budging an inch from its perch. This back and forth went on until the mandibles on the first creature opened and it let out this otherworldly, ghastly wail, sputtering goopy drool over the second creature which was prompted to fly off.

"They're territorial...?!" Kaida thought, already feeling herself die a little when she saw that first monster stop to glance down. At first the cheetah thought the creature was coming for her, but all it did was leap off the boulder and land a couple yards away from her. It scuttled past Nick who didn't seem interested in moving or reacting at all.

Tearing a little and still hyperventilating, Kaida took a few moments to recover from that ordeal. "I'm done..." she finally said, standing up. "I'm done!" she wanted to shout, but all she did was raise her voice in her own head. She was too terrified of those creatures hearing her and coming back. Kaida was no longer interested in contributing to this experiment, not after what she had just seen.

Hurrying over to Nick, she looked up at the polar bear who seemed to be looking down the lap between point A and B with a confused stare; probably waiting for her to appear before him. Nick didn't seem at all bothered by what she had just seen. "Am I the only one who sees, who hears them?" she wanted an answer, but forgot her helmet was still on. "Nick... Somebody pay attention to me!" she whispered to the bear while rapidly tapping her shoulder, but the microphone didn't seem to be working again.

Kaida was quickly losing her patience. "Nick! Help me! HELP ME!" she started shouting, unable to hold back any longer. "What do I have to do for you to pay attention to me?!" she was so irate and so desperate that the idea she could not be heard simply didn't cross her mind. All she wanted was for the experiment to be over, to be home away from all of this.

"It's this stupid suit, isn't it?!" Kaida raised her right hand, looking at the wrist-mounted nanite injector. She had had enough of the Idolon Suit, so she did the only thing she had learned so do with the injector and pressed both of its buttons three times in a sequence. "I'm done!" she yelled as a stream of light suddenly blinded her.

"Whoa!" Nick finally reacted, almost jumping out of his fur as he watched Kaida reappear next to him. He saw the last of the nanites releasing her fur and wetsuit going back inside the wrist mounted injector before noticing the distraught expression on Kaida's face. "Wuh-what's wrong, Ms. Kaida? You look... perturbed." He said.

It was all Kaida could do not to cry, or allow her voice to break up. "I've had enough..." she softly said, her eyes staring straight at Nick's.

"Y-yes, of course," Nick offered the cheetah a comforting yet still uneasy smile.

"What's going on? Why is the subject not Shadow-blinking again?" Lucille's voice echoed in the testing field, "Subject, why have you disengaged the Idolon Suit? Explain yourself!"

Kaida couldn't talk, much less explain herself. Nick seemed to pick up on it quick, gently draping a large hand over her shoulder before tapping onto his own microphone: "Ms. Kaida appears to be unwell, Ms. Lucille. I suggest we suspend today's proceedings. She has been Shadow-melding all morning after all. Perhaps some rest, so that we may continue tomorrow?"

"I don't want to return, I'm done..." Kaida wanted to speak up, but couldn't. Lucille spoke against Nick's suggestion, as they were pressed for time and results, with Gil accusing Kaida of faking it. Only Jason appeared to believe Nick's assessment, but Dr. Rhodes was the one who shattered that tie. The subject was going home for today; after a quick medical examination.

Kaida wanted to leave, but was sternly reminded by Dr. Rhodes the contract Kaida had signed stipulated that for the sake of ensuring physical and mental employee health, checks would need to be performed before, during and after any stress tests at the call of the director or supervisor in charge. Without any other choice left, but tremendously happy the choice left was taking her away from the testing lab, she decided to submit. In the end, Kaida was given healthy results, although since she was showing signs of dehydration, Nick was waiting for her with a bottle of mineral water in his paws.

Since it had been Nick's idea to interrupt the experiment, and being the one holding Kaida's locker key, he was the one to escort her to the locker room where she was able to return the Idolon Suit and get dressed. "How are you feeling now?" the bear asked.

Kaida could do more than mumble now, so she gave Nick a smile and said: "Much better, thanks," she paused to take a sip of water, turning to the bear, "I... I'm so sorry about that. I..." she couldn't bring herself to say what she had seen. She was still holding it in. Kaida hadn't told anybody.

It had been horrible. She could still see that disgusting, huge insect scuttling past Nick and how he hadn't reacted at all. She couldn't tell them. Kaida was in a top secret lab; telling them she had seen something she wasn't even sure she had truly seen wasn't the best plan of action. She could already imagine herself in a straight-jacket, or worse. After the way Dr. Rhodes had shoved her in that MRI scanner to get brain data or whatever she had said, all Kaida wanted was to leave NT Labs and never return.

"It's okay," Nick gently nodded after respectfully waiting for Kaida's pause and realizing she was having a hard time talking with him. "It's an intimidating crew. I should know. And we still aren't fully sure of any strain the Idolon Suit might put its user through, but thanks to all the scans we did, we know it hasn't harmed your body, or your mind. You might be fatigued, and that's perfectly fine, Ms. Kaida."

"Thanks..." Kaida was starting to feel perkier already. Something about the way the polar bear was talking to her now felt different in how shy he was being with her earlier, but she figured Nick and she had pretty similar personality types. "I... hey, Nick, is it... would it be super hard to, y'know, give my job to somebody else?"

"Hmm," Nick frowned, "Are you saying you'd like to quit?"

"I'm just..." Kaida grinned a little, rubbing her arm nervously, "Not sure I'm a good fit, is all."

"I would argue otherwise," Nick grinned back, "I can't make you understand all the data you've given us today, Ms. Kaida, but I can tell you you're our first live subject testing the Idolon Suit and we already feel like we understand its properties much more than we did yesterday when we were still doing drone trials. Your results have been extraordinary."

"Thu-they have...?" Kaida smiled nervously, gripping her arm tighter. She wanted to say she wished to quit so badly, but the way the bear's eyes lit up when talking about her results was making it hard. "I... I guess I was trying hard."

"I know this is just me talking, Ms. Kaida, but I think we would all hate to see you go after your first day," Nick reached up to scratch behind his head, "I'm no lawyer either, but I don't think your contract will let you leave before your term is up, not without paying back a... substantial fee. Um..." he raised both hands when he saw Kaida's eyes widen in fear, trying to deescalate. "What if you gave it one more day, at least?"

Kaida wasn't sure if she had just walked herself into some sort of trap; the fact Nick was spelling it out so nicely to her made it feel all the worse. Breathing in calmly and slipping her locker key into her jacket pocket, the cheetah nodded. "Alright. And thanks for... well, everything," Kaida shrugged with a little smile before turning around to leave.

"You know the way back, right?" Nick asked before Kaida opened the door. When she nodded back at him, he said: "Don't forget to talk to Margaret at reception. Dr. Rhodes told me your day's pay includes a little bonus."

"A bonus...?" Kaida repeated in her head. After getting a wave from Nick who left through the corner door in the locker room, it suddenly occurred to Kaida that the receptionist from earlier had mentioned the contract stipulated her being paid by the day.

Money. Kaida felt herself being energized all of a sudden at the realization. She was doing this for the money she needed, the money she did not have. The money she owed. She almost sprinted down the corridors.

Rigid strides carried Kaida out of NT Labs. She was holding that little piece of paper Margaret in reception had given her in both hands, holding it up like some sort of treasure. At first, Kaida thought there had been a mistake, perhaps she had received some advance. But Margaret assured her the numbers were right and that the project director had authorized a bonus for outstanding performance.

"This is nuts..." the cheetah kept counting the three spaces after the comma over and over. Kaida was afraid that when she went to the bank there'd be a problem with her check, but her malnourished wallet was soon served a heaping helping of green and all doubt was cleared from her head.

Downtown's elevation let Kaida peer down the road leading out to the campus NT Labs was annexed to. Kaida couldn't just forget what she had seen; the thought of all those legs and huge mandibles still made her skin crawl. "I can't quit..." she whispered on the low, holding her wallet tightly to her chest. "Who-who cares about some silly bugs?" she murmured with a half-convinced, shaky grin.

After multiple supply runs with her hard-earned cash, Kaida got back home a little over 6pm. Having spent a couple of months barely scraping by, Kaida was relieved she could finally fill up her pantry again; she had found all that money she could now spend guilt-free had been quite therapeutic. She put away the fridge stuff in its place and left the rest of the bags on her kitchen counter though, feeling starved after a long day.

Kaida headed back out into the apartment hallway with just two smaller bags of Chinese takeout in them, wanting to treat her helpful neighbor and friend Justin to a surprise dinner. But as she started down towards apartment 1A, a familiar yet disturbing sight made Kaida freeze on the spot.

Watching a beautiful girl sauntering down from Justin's apartment wasn't uncommon, but most of the time Kaida didn't even know who they were. It was hard not to recognize those long legs, that curvy figure and the long blonde hair of the lioness waiting at the elevator. "That's Rosa..." Kaida thought. She couldn't forget the girl who had taken her position at Mr. Nguyen's. In a short skirt and a top that hardly concealed her breasts, Kaida couldn't remember seeing a hotter, larger-than-life college girl so casually radiating femininity.

"No hard feelings, mm, Kayla?" was the last thing Kaida had heard Rosa tell her on her final day at work. She had even gotten her name wrong. Kaida decided to take advantage of the lioness being busy with her phone while waiting for the elevator and swiftly disappeared down the first five steps of the staircase in the middle of the hall.

Kaida had only just started feeling better after a rough day, she didn't want to ruin it by having to talk to Rosa, so she waited until she heard the lift bell and knew she was going down. The cheetah climbed back up and glared at the floor number on the elevator digital display, mumbling to herself: "Bitch's taking the elevator on the first floor, hmph... Can't even make fun out of her lack of exercise, stupid tiny waist." She grumbled.

Knocking at Justin's just a little harder than she had intended, Kaida fixed up her best smile and greeted her neighbor when he opened the door. "Oh, hey, Spots!" the husky beamed. He sure was perky; Kaida thought without changing her expression. "How'd your first day go?"

Lifting the food in her hands with her eyebrows raised, Kaida said: "Thought I could catch you up over dinner."

"Great!" Justin stepped out of the way to let Kaida in, "Was actually going out to get some, so you saved me a trip, neighbor. You got me egg rolls, right?"

Kaida had gotten Justin her egg rolls on top of his order; as usual. They ate together with Kaida telling Justin what he could of her first day at the labs. How she had no issue getting started, how what she was doing was cool and impressive, but she had signed an NDA that forbade her from giving out any specifics, but also how much the job was paying.

"Bam." Kaida said as she slapped Justin's coffee table with a small stack of Benjamins. Justin seemed shocked.

"Are... are you sure you wanna pay me back already?" Justin spoke amidst cheeks full of Lo-Mein. "Wow."

"It's just part of what I owe you. I still owe you from last time. Saved my ass from getting evicted..." Kaida huffed, relaxing on Justin's couch. The husky looked so dorky and childish when eating, not at all the jock persona he usually put forth in college; or perhaps it was all the same with him. It was oddly charming to Kaida. She wondered if that's why he got so many women sleeping with him. Women like Rosa. All of a sudden she was having a hard time keeping her beer down. "...twice," she finally said with a clearing of the throat.

"Alright, thanks." Justin didn't even bother picking the money up, just leaving it on the table as he went back to engulf more Lo-Mein. "You're looking tired though, Spots. You okay?"

"Oh?" Kaida paused to think about the question. Was she really okay? She had learned of the existence of monstrous creatures never before seen and she was deathly afraid of telling anybody. And the best part? The next day she was scheduled to go back into their playground. "Just peachy, Justin," she gave him a little grin. "You wouldn't believe how physical science can get."

"Not that you can tell me, huh?" the husky playfully chuckled, pushing his food down with another strong swig of his beer bottle.

It got late before long. Kaida was exhausted and after saying good night she went back to her own place to go to bed. While in bed, thoughts of having to see Rosa bouncing those fake ass tits around the apartment started getting Kaida upset. "Why did it have to be her, Justin?" the cheetah huffed, turning and hugging her pillow. "Did she know I live here, that I'm his friend...?" she turned again, "No, don't think that way. She doesn't even know my name; or at least doesn't care enough. That's it, I'm invisible to her, just like with everybody else..." she sighed.

Invisibility got Kaida thinking about her new job again. She wasn't sure if bonuses were going to be an everyday thing, but just that juicy base on its own was going to add up and let her catch up to her bills and rent before long. The giant insect thing was still going to be a problem, but then she thought: "If those things really wanted me dead, I don't think they would have to try hard..." she mumbled, starting to get drowsy, eyelids growing heavier. "Muh-maybe... maybe... not so dangerous..." the cheetah yawned, "...after all... mmm..."

Tomorrow was going to be another day.

It was well past midnight and Dr. Sarah Rhodes was poring over data when her assistant brought her a mug of coffee. "Thank you, Lucille," she said, hooking her wing fingers on the mug's handle to take a quick swig.

"Do we have any answer about the subject's earlier outburst?" the otter asked, tilting her glasses as she stood by the project director to look at the same display.

"MRI showed no issues with her brain waves, other than slightly elevated anxiety levels," Dr. Rhodes reviewed, tapping the image of a brain taken with magnetic resonance.

"That takes with the results from our psychological interviewer," Lucille nodded, glancing down at a document on her tablet. "Otherwise, she's perfectly healthy. Idolon isn't radioactive, so there is no risk of medical complications, through skin exposure at least..."

"Traditional medical complications, at any rate."

"...doctor?" Lucille turned to the stoic secretary bird, who took another coffee pause before responding.

"Our understanding of Idolon, especially with how it interacts with people, barely scratches the surface, Lucille," Dr. Rhodes admitted, her expression unaltered. "We had only been experimenting with coating electronics so far."

"But Shadow-melding did not seem to be affect her any differently. The way she spoke about the visor's filter matches with our video feeds from earlier experimentation," Lucille frowned, biting the back of her pen while trying to figure out what the issue might be.

Dr. Rhodes sighed, gently pushing her glasses up to rub at her temple. "It's not ideal given our constrained timetable, but we could be looking into extended exposure symptoms. It would hardly be ideal for an agent to break out into a psychotic episode during deployment."

"DARPA won't be happy we're delaying things..." Lucille bit her lips, frowning at the avian.

"They have been breathing down my neck more than I would like," Dr. Rhodes grumbled, "But they also know they can't take Idolon tech to Virginia without me. They will grant an extension. They have to. Neither they nor I would want faulty product."

"And the subject?" Lucille asked. "Nick seemed awfully concerned about her wanting to quit the experiment."

"He may be concerned in the way I'd be with an underperforming guinea pig; which is why I issued an incentive. I understand she's fallen under bad times, so she will have no choice but consider us her personal anchor. As long as she's sufficiently healthy and motivated, her behavior is controllable," the avian paused. "Have her here at the crack of dawn," Dr. Rhodes ordered, taking a seat in front of her desktop to begin typing away. "We have some catching up to do."

"Yes, doctor."

Chapter 2: A New World

The last time Kaida had walked outside with the sun barely in sight, she had been half her size and in a campsite with other pint-sized explorers. A bowl of cereal, fruit and a big cup of black coffee didn't feel like it had been enough to keep her awake. She certainly had not been expecting a call from her new job this early, but she wasn't exactly in a position to argue.

Kaida had been the only one in the bus taking her down to the university. It was still summer, so the streets were humid and she didn't have to layer up even though it was barely dawn.

When she got to NT Labs, Kaida noticed Margaret seemed to be working reception early, which made her question if this lady ever slept. The cheetah had to use a hand to cover her yawn and another to wave as she scanned her chipped key to walk through. It felt odd how at home she already felt navigating those corridors. "I guess it's just a straight walk..." Kaida rolled her shoulders, stretching her arms behind her head before she opened the door to the locker room.

To Kaida's surprise, Nick had been waiting for her in there. "Morning," the bear said to Kaida, holding a cup in each paw, "Sorry for the early hour, Ms. Kaida. Dr. Rhodes would like to continue testing. Um, coffee?"

Kaida was pretty sure the big mug she'd had back home had done nothing to wake her brain up, so she took up Nick's offer but only took a small sip before hissing a little at the bitterness and heat. "Pretty hot!" she giggled with a small sputter, "Duh-don't worry about it, Nick. I like it black. And I... I'm okay now," Kaida nodded with a smile, setting her cup down on the bench before going to pick her things up from the I-001 locker. "Is everybody mad? I did ditch on them all yesterday."

"Nobody is angry. It's just a time-sensitive project," Nick nodded, following Kaida with his eyes as she disappeared behind the changing room curtains with the Idolon Suit. "We want it to be successful. It is nascent stealth tech after all. I think it's important for you to be comfortable working here, so let me know if there's anything I can do to help you at all."

"That's nice of you, Nick!" Kaida was surprised about how cordial the bear was being. She could only remember him barely speaking the previous day; other than explain he had worked on the nanite injector. She guessed he had warmed up to her already. "Thank you. So, ignoring yesterday, how long are work days typically, anyway?"

"We work around the clock here, Ms. Kaida," Nick explained, "Are you worried you might get out too late today? I checked earlier and we'll only have rain two days from now."

"O-oh!" Kaida thought it strange to randomly get a weather update, but appreciated it anyway, "That's good to know. I guess you guys have lunch here while working too?"

"Indeed! The university cafeteria has a pretty good selection, actually," Nick's words appeared coated in pride, "Do you have any preference for lunch? I can take your order for later."

Kaida had been finishing changing into the black wetsuit when she began to feel something strange. She couldn't remember the last time anybody had asked her so politely what she wanted to eat. Not even restaurant servers were this servile. "Is he being this nice to me because he was ordered to...?" Kaida quietly doubted as she adjusted her suit, "They must really not want me to quit. I had no idea test subjects were hard to get..."

"Where's the subject?" a familiar grumble made Kaida's ears fall flat. "Thought she'd gotten clocked in by the system just now." The voice quickly got uncomfortably close to the changing room, making Kaida take a step back against the mirror out of instinct, "Anytime today, honey," said Gil from the other side of the changing room, prompting Kaida to slowly draw the curtains and step out. "Well, there you go. Jeez, women; you'd think you were going to prom night. C'mon."

Nick frowned, "Gil, that's enough. You can be more polite with Ms. Kaida..."

"Don't you tell me what's enough, buster," the meerkat glared up at the significantly taller ursine, his larger-than-life personality putting him a few leagues above the polar bear in terms of assertiveness, "I didn't get my beauty sleep and Rhodes is already busting my balls 'cause she's in a hurry to begin testing. Want polite?" he turned to Kaida, gesturing with his hand over to the corner door, "Please get your butt moving, Ms. Subject."

Kaida shrank her shoulders a little. She always had trouble with these loud-mouth types. Part of her wanted Nick to pick the meerkat up and press him like an accordion as she recalled it happening in some cartoon from her childhood; but that didn't seem likely. All she wanted was to finish her coffee, but she saw it missing from the bench she had left it on and saw the cup was in Gil's hand now. She realized she didn't want her coffee back and just quietly crossed the door. "They certainly didn't order this guy to be nice to me..." she thought to herself.

Nick sighed; Gil shrugging his shoulders as if saying: "See?" at him. The meerkat took a noisy slurp of coffee and coughed, "Blergh. You know I take it with two sweeteners, man, get it together."

Kaida found herself in the testing field again and it looked exactly the same as the previous day, with the equipment having been left at the two 50ft. apart boulders she had been Shadow-blinking between. The main difference was that there was a dome ceiling above her and the sky was invisible now. All light was artificial, provided by large floodlights.

Jason was the only one waiting there. Lucille and Dr. Rhodes were likely up in the observation cabin already. Kaida was immediately asked to engage the Idolon Suit, for which Gil handed her the injector. Nick offered to hold onto her locker key again.

After three button presses, the nanite swarm engulfed Kaida, snugly encasing her in body-hugging Idolon film. The suit was fully powered and ready. The visor was darkening her field of view and Kaida was already growing a little restless knowing what was coming next.

Lucille opened up the communications: "We will be picking up from yesterday, subject. Since we don't want to chance any ill side-effects from your exposure to Shadow-melding, today we will be measuring your endurance. We want you to Shadow-blink between point A, B and..." she paused, a spotlight turning on at the far end of a fixture and illuminating a large tree about 100ft. away from point B, "...point C. As with yesterday, remove your helmet to let us know..."

"Um!" Kaida raised her hand high. She couldn't hold her curiosity back any longer.

"...yes, subject?" Lucille sighed with a bit of impatience in her voice.

"I noticed my mic doesn't seem to work when I'm invisible, could it be breaking down?" Kaida asked, unsure of where to pat on her body to let them know. "'cause I could tell you I'm at each point without having to take off my helmet each time ruh-right...?"

"Our instruments cannot detect you when you're fully melded, subject. You bring up a valid point about your microphone, however," Lucille was forced to agree, "Idolon and Shadow-melding are known to interfere with sound waves. That is one of the phenomena we are currently testing for."

"Basically, all sound goes kaput when you're fully Shadow-melded, Kaida," Jason chipped in, pointing back over his shoulder with his thumb, "We tried everything with my drone and couldn't record a damn thing worth of audio with it. Mic's on the right of your neck, by the way," he laughed, pointing at Kaida's neck.

"Oh-oh..." she reflexively patted her neck, with Jason walking closer and looming his 6ft. height over her. Kaida's pupils distended a little behind her visor when he boldly reached around and prodded his finger over her neck, pressing down where the mic was to show her its location.

"Feel it?" the goat smiled, "Don't worry, it won't break down, but it's only really good when you're 'out' here with us."

"Ruh-right..." Kaida's tail wagged behind her, paralyzed by the closeness of that handsome caprine.

"...are we ready?" Lucille's voice echoed in the enclosed field. "Subject!" Lucille called out to attention, making Kaida jump.

"Ready!" Kaida cried out, turning towards point A.

The floodlights were turned off, and only the spotlights responsible for casting objects' shadows were left on. "Then begin the test!"

"Someone's snippy this morning..." Gil mumbled an amused chuckle, pressing his own neck to mute his mic so his remark would go unheard for the most part. Kaida wasted no more time and kicked off towards the first shadow, instantly melding with it and disappearing from view.

Once again, the dark-red filter appeared before Kaida's eyes. She could see it all becoming gloomy: Boulders, trees, the floor, the ceiling, even the scientists. She gulped, tip toeing around the boulder's shadow to make sure no monster was around. "I wonder if they left..." she thought, turned to point B and started sprinting towards it. Kaida immediately felt impressed by how little effort it took to get going, especially with how sleepy she had been feeling until now.

It took her half a minute to make it to point B, which thankfully had none of those insects around, so she removed her helmet to let the scientists know she had reached her goal and then started towards point C. The trek was a little longer, and as expected, the observers timing her were noting her taking a second or two at the most between sprints.

That loop was repeated three more times, with Kaida taking her time looking out for any sense of danger. To her surprise, the gloomy atmosphere and that ominous wind weren't bothering her as much anymore. It was amazing how the idea of running into those chittering, disgusting creatures had helped her normalize that otherworldly place she visited each time she fully Shadow-melded.

Seemingly satisfied with all those blinks, Dr. Rhodes asked Kaida to stop and explained the next test was going to be a little different. She was to stop at point C where Gil was and remain melded for as long as she could.

"It doesn't matter if it's seconds, minutes, or hours. But if at any point you start feeling any discomfort like you did yesterday, immediately disengage to let us know. Understood?"

"Gee, good thing they're looking out for me..." Kaida thought, regretting to be placed at point C, where the impatient Gil was looking at her with a judgmental glare. Taking a deep breath, Kaida Shadow-melded into the tree's shadow.

There was little for Kaida to do in this experiment, so she finally took a seat, relaxing. "This suit felt heavy at first, but it's actually surprisingly easy to move around in..." the cheetah mused as she ran a hand over her legs. She was still surprised her leg muscles weren't so much as warmed up even though she had just run what amounted to a couple blocks.

Sighing to herself in quiet boredom, Kaida looked at Gil. He was just standing there, eyes glued at his tablet. At least he wasn't glaring at her for a change. "What's his problem, anyway?" the cheetah grumbled. "He's like a bully, but nobody bothers taking him a peg down. I guess they're used to this jerk so they don't care..." she pouted, suddenly gasping and bringing her paw in front of her mask when she realized she was voicing her thoughts aloud when Gil was within earshot.

Basically, all sound goes kaput when you're fully Shadow-melded, Kaida.

Kaida let out a sigh of relief. "I guess they really can't hear me. It's like I'm in some other world," the cheetah thought aloud, looking around at the strange atmosphere. "Like some sort of Shadow World..." she wanted to kick herself in the head for that silly name, but the more she repeated it in her head, the more sense it made. "Maybe I _am_becoming one with the shadows. Shadows don't make a sound, so it makes sense that..." she stopped, startled by a noise.

Quickly turning around and going prone, Kaida hugged the grass and peered up at one of the tree's branches. In the Shadow World, the branches looked sickly and brittle, with once green leaves seemingly drained of their color. "Rustling leaves...? No." Kaida's eyes narrowed behind her visor. "It's one of those things; amongst the branches."

Familiar chittering joined the rustling tree and Kaida held her breath, deciding to not make a single move. A couple of those giant bug-like creatures chasing each other on the branches until one pushed the other down. She did her best not to breathe out when the creature landed perhaps a full yard away from her, flipped on its legs and spread its mandibles open, wiggling its many face tentacles at the bug on branches.

Kaida gazed up at the higher bug which hissed like a feral cat at the grounded one. "They really are territorial little buggers..." Kaida thought to herself, curious about their behavior. They didn't seem to be battling it out, but what truly surprised the cheetah was the creatures didn't seem interested in her. "It's like they don't know I'm here, though. Am I also invisible to them?"

She knew she had been told to disengage if anything started feeling odd, but morbid curiosity had taken over Kaida. Crawling closer, she gradually lifted her head to inspect the growling bug, "Eugh, so squirmy. They really look disgusting..." she thought, starting to smirk, "...in a really cool way. Wonder if I'm really the first one to see them? They need a name, don't they...? What?!"

Kaida pressed herself down against the grass when the grounded bug began to rise, but it didn't make use of its wings. The wings didn't flap once, yet the critter started elevating towards the branches pushed by its numerous legs elongating like a bunch of stretching rubber bands. Those long legs began to retract as they landed on a branch, followed by the rest of those strange limbs until the bug was perched against in front of its rival. "Holy crap... They can do that too?"

Entranced by the quirky creatures, Kaida fully committed to observation. Soon joined by a third bug that was equally uninterested in their voyeur, the group started chittering and hissing at each other. They bunted and growled, exposing their mandibles and face tendrils. Kaida thought they were threatening each other at first, but was surprised other than shoving there wasn't a lot of action going on.

"It's almost like they're... playing," Kaida noted. She was starting to feel uncomfortable lying prone, so she very slowly got up to her knees and sat back down, glancing at the communing insects. "Where do these guys keep coming from?" she questioned, watching a fourth and fifth gathering at the tree, bickering and hissing. "They only dwell in this Shadow World so... I guess that makes them Shadow Dwellers. Mm, that's a mouthful," Kaida paused, "Just Dwellers," she decided.

Dwellers seemed content munching leaves on the withering tree, or just hopping off their perches to scuttle about, roaming without a care in the world. Once Kaida had gotten over their unsettling appearance, Dwellers showed to be remarkably malleable creatures. To get around a Dweller and get to the leaves behind it, she saw one of them stretch its exoskeletal torso in a similar way as one had lengthened its legs to climb the tree earlier.

While the creatures showed to be capable of elongating in any way they chose, that wasn't the only thing Kaida saw. After eating enough leaves from behind it, the Dweller with its peer circling it eventually grew tired of being circled by the elongated one. Instead of climbing out of the way, Kaida watched the creature melting, losing its shape and flowing over the elongated Dweller like some sort of ooze which dripped down onto the grass and reshaped back into its insectoid form.

"Juh-just like that..." Kaida stammered, eyes wide with wonder and surprise. The Dweller that had become some sort of blobby slime was now emitting grunts and walking away. "Guess some are more neighborly than others and don't wanna get in the way..."

Fascination gripped Kaida. She had always had fun watching wild life documentaries but this was definitely something else. "Bet the Discovery Channel people would have a field day with this..." the cheetah chuckled to herself. Before she knew it, she found herself stalking Dwellers, following them around the Shadow World and watching their habits. She was especially drawn to a Dweller that seemed to have stopped over a patch of gravel and seemed to have all of its uncountable eyes trained onto the floor.

Kaida crouched next to the creature, deciding to speak to it like she was speaking to some unintelligent wild beast: "What'cha got there, pal? Find some tasty Shadow Truffle...?" she began to chuckle to herself. However, the intensity of the creature's gaze changed and Kaida instinctively pulled away. She saw the Dweller's mandibles extending before expelling flames into the gravel. "Jesus Christ...!" the cheetah fell down onto her butt, backing away fast as fire blasted the ground around the Dweller.

There was a sharp cry followed by a shadowy tendril shooting off from the gravel, towering over the Dweller. Kaida quickly got back up to her feet and started backpedaling to get away from that worm-like creature which had caught on fire.

Making trills, the worm wiggled desperately with the Dweller sinking its mandibles into its large body, causing it to stop moving even though it was still burning. The legs at the Dweller's front began to elongate, flaring at the tips before they burst into several little but razor-sharp-looking blades. The blades cut into the worm's body, splitting it apart to let the Dweller devour it with ease.

"...and here I thought I was dealing with herbivores..." Kaida gasped, both amazed and back to being terrified of the Dwellers. Her trembling legs gave and she fell back to her knees, laughing a little, "There's giant worms underground and the Dwellers eat them? But... It only seems to happen in the Shadow World..." Kaida paused, gliding a hand over the gravel with another at her chest; her racing heart rendered her unable to feel the ground vibrating underneath her. "I guess we're safe if this really is a different woh..."

The ground below Kaida split open, making her yelp out in a panic as a second shadowy tendril violently emerged and threw her off. "WHOOA!" the terrified cheetah screamed, able to brace just in time to land and tumble without getting seriously hurt. "Jesus...! Jesus Christ that thing attacked me!"

Kaida had little time to react. Before she could get up to her feet the new worm whipped its body, attempting to smash her. "Ahh! It's coming at me!" Kaida yelled and jumped out of the way just in time. But even though she had avoided the hostile creature something still felt wrong. The ground kept getting farther and farther away from her, and the ceiling closer. "Arrgh...!" she winced as her back hit the ceiling. "What the fu...?" she flipped in mid-air to look with bulging eyes at the 30ft. tall domed ceiling which was now starting to get farther and farther away from her; courtesy of gravity.

"Shoot, shoot, I'm falling!" Kaida rolled around quickly bracing herself for the fall, but the worm below was waiting for her. Its tip split open into five fleshy flaps and Kaida was able to see dozens of sharp teeth lining the beast's maw. "Oh God, no!" she cried out in fear, wishing she could move out of the way, in any direction, so long as it wasn't straight down into the beast's gullet. Kaida ended flailing her arms while screaming, and it was when her eyes locked on to the gravel-covered ground below that she noticed her hand gripping it.

"Wuh...?" she gasped, looking at her right arm which had extended all the way down without her. There was no use questioning why her hand was suddenly about 20 feet apart from her with her unnaturally elongated limb. Finding leverage on the ground, Kaida gripped as tight as she could and did what came naturally: Pulling herself down. Almost like a winch recalling wire, Kaida was yanked towards the ground with almost bullet speed. The worm tried taking a bite out of her as she zoomed by, but it was far too slow.

"Slow down! Slow down!" Kaida begged as she sped downwards, barely able to put her normal arm to brace for impact. "OOF...!" she grunted, feeling multiple pebbles smashing into her torso, thighs and shoulders. "Owww! Oww, fuck...!" she cursed in pain, slowly getting up to her knees and coughing as the dust cleared. "Please tell me that snap wasn't one of my ribs..." the cheetah whimpered, wiping dust off her visor.

Gasping, Kaida quickly examined her right arm which until moments ago had been over 20ft. long. "My arm just got freaky long, what?" she furled and unfurled each finger and rolled her arm to assure herself everything was still properly connected. But before she could devote much more time to her check-up, Kaida heard the creature ahead of her rumble. "What the hell are these worms? I didn't see them yesterday. Is it because that Dweller ate one?!"

Wiggling in place, almost confused over losing its sense of its prey, the worm hissed and began to thrash about, roaring out.

"Why are you so mad at me?" Kaida yelled out in anger, "That one's munching on your friend!" the cheetah pointed out at the Dweller still munching on the dead, burnt worm from earlier, realizing far too late her voice ringing out made the worm stop wiggling and instead slowly turn down, appearing to face her. Unlike the Dwellers which seemed to have dozen of eyes, the worm had none and that somehow made it even more unsettling. "Me and my big mouth..." Kaida whined, watching the worm howl at her with its gross maw yawning open again. It lurched down towards Kaida, prompting her to jump sideways to the right in order to dodge.

"Ugh! Gil...!" Kaida screamed while rolling on the ground, but the meerkat was too far away over at the tree. "...right, even if I was right next to his face he wouldn't be able to hear me!"

The worm reared back, preparing to attack again. Kaida winced and tried to remain as quiet as possible as she got up to her feet again, trying to be as quiet as she could when she noticed the worm was having trouble deciding where to lurch towards. Kaida surmised since it couldn't see her, it somehow was tracking her via sound or movement, or perhaps even both. Nothing was making any sense to her right now!

"How is it that he's not seeing any of this though?" the cheetah quietly thought to herself, "The ground should at least have holes. Holy crud, look at the dent that thing left when it smashed the gravel!" Kaida freaked out at the sight of the depression on the ground; she would be black and red paste if that giant thing had fallen on top of her!

"Is this really another world that's somehow on top of ours?" Kaida started shuffling back, mind racing while she paid careful attention to the aggressive monster in her field of vision. She had to stop moving when she saw the worm twitching every time she made a move. All she could do was stand perfectly still for the time being.

"The others probably can't see or hear or feel anything that's happening right now. Wait..." she brought her wrist up, looking at her nanite injector, "If I disengage now, I'll get out of the Shadow World, won't I? They don't exist out there, do they?"

Kaida looked up at the worm wiggling again. She had never heard of huge weird bugs or people-eating giant worms, and she didn't care to risk being detected again. Three times. Three simultaneous button presses. But nothing happened. Kaida tried again. And again. And again. "C'mon, c'mon, you piece of garbage. Don't crap out on me now!" she lamented, trying her hardest not to vociferate. "Why now? Oh Jesus, why now?!" Kaida even tried to push the latches on her helmet to take it out, maybe get some outside help even though they'd just think she was having another episode. But the latches were firmly secured. It was almost like the suit was preventing her from taking it off!

And then the desperate Kaida saw it in her visor. On the top right corner some sort of notification seemed to have manifested. Its color seemed to match the dark-red filter, so it didn't make a lot of contrast and was a bit difficult to see. "Nick said the visor had a minimal HUD..." Kaida tried to remember the brief talk she'd had with the polar bear before. She could make out what seemed like a little skull with two crossed bones beneath it, making quite the grim icon. It was the universal symbol for death, or deadly danger.

"Toxic, poison...?" Kaida said in her head, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. "Must be some sort of sensor for deadly gases. Makes sense since this suit is probably meant for spies on dangerous missions, but... why is it detecting poison around me? Is that why I can't disengage the Idolon?! Is that thing filling the Shadow World with poisonous gas?!" she gazed at the wiggling worm monster. "Nuh-no, it doesn't look like it's spewing any gas, unless it's invisible... ugh, what a pain in the neck!"

The more Kaida tried to make sense out of it, the less she liked potential explanations. She tried engaging all of her brain power to think of any logical solution to her problem. "If those things hang around here and were poisonous, the place would be full of poison everywhere all the time and the suit wouldn't ever let me leave..." the cheetah reasoned, glancing out at the boulder several dozen feet behind the worm and then at the tree behind her, "Every time I've disengaged, I've done it from..." Kaida gasped at the realization, turning towards the tree, "...from the same place I melded in from; the shadows!"

Kaida wasn't a hundred percent convinced with her line of thought, but that was all she had right now. She had to hope the 'poison' which was keeping her stranded in the Shadow World would somehow not be present in the tree's shadow. The question now was how was she going to get there without alerting the worm and becoming the target of its vicious attacks. "This bastard's patient, so it looks like time is on my side, just gotta think..."

Back in the observation cabin, half-way into Kaida's excursion off point C to observe the Dwellers, a pensive Dr. Rhodes' concentration was broken when she felt her phone vibrating on the breast pocket of her coat. It was a call she couldn't ignore, unfortunately. "I have to take this, Lucille," the bird told her assistant, "How long has it been?"

"One minute, eleven seconds, according to Gil's timer, doctor..." the otter read the data back for the director.

"Looks like we had nothing to worry about our subject's resilience, after all," Dr. Rhodes mentioned, "Start preparing the next set of experiments for when our subject is out," was the bird's command before she left for the elevator of the cabin, where she could have privacy and pick up her call.

Nodding, Lucille engaged the intercom: "All instruments working fine, Gil?"

"All's fine. Mics are getting zilch, zero, nada. 'cept for the beautiful sound of my voice right now, that is," the meerkat responded.

"Think we can take a break, Luci?" Jason piped into the intercom, "Doesn't look like Kaida's gonna be coming back out anytime soon. Gil's in charge of point C, so we can head out and get lunch for everybody."

"O-oh," Nick stammered into the conversation, "Will that be fine with you, Dr. Rhodes...?"

"She's taking a call right now; I wouldn't bother her..." Lucille said, placing a hand over her stomach. Lunch wasn't for another hour, but she had to admit she was getting hungry. "...just hurry. And be sure to remember Dr. Rhodes is lactose intolerant, and that she hates potatoes."

"I-I will bring something for Ms. Kaida, too," Nick chirped with a bit of excitement. Both Jason and Nick signed off and left the testing area. Lucille decided she had some idle time before her boss came back, and there wasn't anything pressing to do, so she sat back and began texting on her phone.

"You always get what I don't like, Jason, you dork..." Lucille mumbled after deactivating the intercom. She made sure to send her order to him.

"Oh sure, leave old Gil alone with the invisible, soundless test subject..." Gil grumbled. He hated not having people to talk to, but this particular experiment really had nothing for him to do other than wait! "Pfft, be hilarious if I bumped into that little kitty... It's not like I can see or hear her, anyhow..." the mischievous meerkat grinned, starting to walk under the tree's shadow now that nobody was looking into him, and curiously kicked his feet here and there while humming to himself.

Kaida's little meditation was getting nowhere fast. She had no idea how to avoid the worm, but she couldn't afford to remain in the same position forever, unlike that wiggling beast above her. "Must really hate my guts or..." Kaida gulped, "...it considers me weak prey, since they get eaten by Dwellers... Either way, it's patient as hell." She sighed. "Make a break for it and don't look back? Nghh, I'll get smashed to pieces if I do..." the cheetah winced at the mental image. If only there was a way to just zip herself over!

"I can't zip myself over but..." Kaida looked down at her black hands and arms, then at the tree. "It's about 20, 30ft. away from here..." she thought, reminding herself about the little bit of supernatural action she had been exposed to when she jumped so high and then her arm elongated. "If I jump and overshoot, I'm dead anyway... but if I pull myself over to the tree... Just gotta hug the trunk and yank myself in. By the time I make real noise I'll be flying towards the tree."

With her plan chosen, Kaida allowed herself a long gulp of air before starting to focus. She had no idea how or if she could replicate the same ability that had saved her from getting eaten, but she made sure to focus every fiber of her being in her arms, both of them. Bit by bit, she felt an electrifying sensation crawling over her upper limbs, and soon enough she felt her arms growing before her eyes.

First, they seemed to deform but quickly Kaida got the desired effect of them stretching like silly putty. "Thu-this is too short, but maybe I just gotta whip 'em forwards..." she gulped, glancing back at the persistent predator behind her. "Now or never, Kaida. Do or die..." she brought back her arms and prepared to let them fly away from her, aiming for the tree in the distance.

The big worm had been looking forward to an easy meal now that its natural predator was busy with its fellow's carcass. But its own prey was slippery, bouncy, hard to track. Patience seemed to have won through, however. It sensed the moment something far away produced a loud snap. Prey was on the move.

Kaida's elastic arms looped once against the tree, tightly holding until she, like before, willed herself closer. She darted off the ground with a rubber-like snap. The moment she did though, the cheetah heard the worm coming after her, lurching with every intention of catching her in mid-air. Lucky for Kaida, she flew through the air faster than she had expected. Unfortunately for Kaida, she was flying faster than she could control.

"Stop, stop, stop...!" the cheetah cried out, but all she managed to do was release the tree and have her arms snap back against her with rubber-band effect. The impact caused her not only to lose momentum but hurtle through the air like a spinning diabolo. Fortunately for Kaida, she briefly caught the tree in her crash-landing trajectory. Unluckily, an unexpected obstacle lay in collision course with her.

"When did you get there...?!" Kaida cried out at the unaware Gil, unable to get him out of the way. "Aahhh...!" she cried out as she crashed onto the ground, tumbling forwards and putting her arms out in an attempt to catch the meerkat scientist instead of violently crashing into him.

"Auuugh...!" Gil cried out alongside Kaida, rolling onto the floor with the cheetah.

Lucille who was finally done texting looked up at the point C monitoring display with a huff. Gil wasn't there. "Found a way to be a slacker, I see. If I hadn't seen those two out to get early lunch, I'd reprimand him..." the otter rolled her eyes, deciding to start typing away to update the day's findings while waiting for Dr. Rhodes to get back from her call.

Kaida and Gil stopped rolling when they hit the tree together. It was just their luck that Kaida's graceless traversal and clumsy landing had made the worm misjudge its landing, instead impaling itself down into the grassy ground a few dozen feet away from the tree. When Kaida recovered from that rough tumble, she gasped and realized Gil was lying across her lap.

"Fuuuuuck. What were you doing in the way, man?" Kaida groaned and was surprised to hear a response.

"Whu-where am I?" the meerkat demanded in a shaky voice Kaida wasn't used to hearing. It wasn't just his voice; Gil was trembling all over. He quickly pushed himself away from his test subject, crawling away and failing to get up, he fell down again. "Guhhh... what? What is this horrible place?! What did you do to me?!"

"You can see me?!" Kaida was bewildered. She was still aching from all the roughness she had felt, but at least she could stand up to her feet now. She saw the difficulty Gil was having standing up and leaned down to offer a hand to him, "Wait," she cocked her head to the side, "You're seeing all of this? Without the visor...?"

"This place, this hellish place!" Gil babbled, kicking his legs and backing away from Kaida. The meerkat's eyes were darting everywhere at once. "This howling, this feeling... I hate it, I hate it here! Nnghh... bluuugh... So hard to breathe...! Get me out. Get me out! This is your fault, all your fault!"

"Cuh-calm down!" Kaida was starting to feel anxious, bringing her hands up defensively. "I dunno what happened, but you're in the Shadow World with me and..." Kaida became distracted when she noticed the skull and crossbones icon disappeared from her visor. In her pause she immediately looked at her wrist, then at Gil. "If I leave now," she thought, "...he'll probably be stuck here... with..."

Kaida almost lost it when she realized she had forgotten about the monster worm. She glanced left and right but saw nothing. Not even a Dweller around. All she saw was a large hole a few dozen feet away which she now knew the worm had left behind when it landed after her. It was now below them, and Gil wouldn't stop his incessant bawling.

"Gil..." Kaida slowly approached the panicked meerkat, but he wouldn't stop hyperventilating, crawling away from the cheetah as if she was some monster. "Gil!" she wanted to scream at him, but knew she could do so in a hushed tone at the worst. "You need to calm down. We'll figure something out, but if you keep raising your voice like this..."

"Nuh-no. You're out to get me, aren't you? You useless piece of crud cat!" Gil shouted at Kaida, "You're like every other woman in my life. Just parading yourself like you're better than everybody. You look like a freaking guy! Learn your place!"

Kaida had never dreamed the meerkat could get even more obnoxious. His insults weren't making any sense, yet they were no less grating. Part of Kaida wanted to leave him here to become worm food, but that was far beyond the kind of lesson she thought he deserved to be taught. "What's gotten him this scared? He hasn't even seen the actual monsters..." Kaida mused.

Her thoughts briefly visited the fact her visor had detected toxins earlier, and thought that since he wasn't wearing an Idolon Suit, Gil's mind might be affected by the overwhelming environment of the Shadow World. "It's not toxic for me anymore, though... maybe it's that dangerous if you're not suited up?"

The ground was starting to vibrate under her feet, "Gil..." she tried being reasonable with the guy, but he kept slapping her helping hand away, crying out the names of several women she didn't know. Kaida had no idea what was going on, but it was certainly starting to piss her off. The angered cheetah balled up her fist. "Gil, you have to be quiet or else..."

"NO!" Gil cried out, "You won't make me apologize. You can't have it. You can't take it! You don't deserve it you BITCH! AHHH!" the meerkat cried out as he was socked in the face by Kaida's fist.

"SHUT IT!" the cheetah demanded, feeling strangely good after delivering what she thought was the first punch in her whole life. Kaida saw Gil's fearful eyes quivering, but he wasn't making a noise right now.

Gil couldn't speak because he didn't have a mouth to so with any longer.

"Huh..." Kaida tilted her head sideways. She felt like she should have been more shocked about literally having punched a guy's mouth off his face, yet with everything that was happening Kaida felt like she was meant to start expecting the unexpected. "I hope I can teach myself how to undo that..." she briefly stared at the mute, desperate looking Gil. That look sort of fitted him and it brought an odd feeling of pleasure Kaida almost felt bad for relishing, "...eventually."

Gil was looking past Kaida with his big, crying eyes. Sticky drool was dropping down onto her right shoulder. In all the commotion, Kaida had forgotten about the worm.

Slowly turning around, she saw the monster towering above them. Its flaps open, its maw showing both of them its multiple, sharp teeth; the thing was clearly starved. But Kaida was done running away. It's not like she could, anyway. Much as she hated that pig of a meerkat researcher, it would leave a bad taste in her mouth if she let him bite the dust before she got through him.

Something had awakened in Kaida the moment she punched Gil. Something as dark as the oppressive environment around her. All of her life, she had been ignored or pushed around, and she had never known how to properly obtain the attention she wished for and defend herself from the attention she did not. All that pent up rage she had just released had made her realize one very important thing.

That crazy jump, the freaky powers that resembled the Dwellers' elasticity, even that impromptu ability to shut Gil up: Things in the Shadow World worked way differently than in their world. And while she couldn't claim to know all of this strange place's secrets, Kaida understood that the rules could be bent in her favor.

"Want some of this, you big, ugly worm?" Kaida shouted at the screeching beast. The worm was ready to lurch forwards before it sensed something change when Kaida began to stretch her arms above her. Her fingers curled, turning her hands into claws which began to multiply over the length of her arm, creating a sort of saw-like shape across Kaida's abnormally huge limbs. Kaida looped them around the worm's body, sinking each iteration of her claw into its shadowy flesh.

The worm could only stand rigidly up in place, crying out helplessly as its prey surprised it with painful bondage. Kaida kept stretching her bladed arms and looping them around the worm until it was covered in flesh-rending, elastic arms. "You and your buddies hate fire, don't you?" a sadistic grin formed behind Kaida's mask, "Then let's turn on the heat!"

Kaida's enemy screeched out in a panic as it suddenly caught fire when Kaida's arms lit up. She focused so hard on making her tormentor hurt that her serrated claws began to vibrate and spin around the burning creature. Kaida pulled her arms back as hard as she could, tearing through the creature's body like a pair of forks pulling pork. When Kaida finally released the creature, only bits of charred flesh remained, falling apart in chunks.

Panting and watching her arms slowly retract, put out and normalize, Kaida slouched over and fell to her knees. The adrenaline rush subsided, but the pleasure of total victory remained. "Ahhh... haaah..." the cheetah tried to regularize her breathing, forcing herself up to her feet. "So strange... I feel tired, but not hurt, even after all those blows from earlier..." she smirked, turning around and sauntering over in Gil's direction.

The meerkat's cheeks were still moist with his tears. He was still shaking, lying on his back, yet unable to do what he wanted the most: Scream. Kaida had taken his mouth, his ability to speak, and even though he couldn't see her face because of her mask, he could somehow tell she was grinning down at him.

With her hands on her hips, Kaida was still riding the rush of having shredded that worm to pieces. "That felt so good, Gil," Kaida purred, stretching her arms back and letting out a little moan, "What do you think? Do I make a badass monster exterminator, or what?"

All Gil could do was shake his head or nod it. He seemed pretty fine with agreeing with Kaida.

"Still think I'm a monster?" Kaida laughed, holding her hand up which produced an angry-red fireball. Gil kicked his feet and looked like he might be screaming his lungs out at Kaida, holding a hand out at her pleadingly. In an ironic twist, Kaida suddenly wanted to hear him speak for once. To fix his mouth, all that occurred to her was approaching him, pressing a finger to the corner where his mouth used to be and dragging it to the opposite side, as if drawing a smile. And just like that, Gil's mouth was back there, and the first thing he did with it was yelp.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" cried Gil, unable to tear his eyes from the fireball in Kaida's hand. He squeaked when she extinguished it by grasping it too tightly until her fist had closed around the dissipating flames.

"Poor little man. You're not used to being in this situation, are you?" Kaida taunted. Back during her terrible high-school days she had always wondered what it would feel like to be wearing the other shoe. It turned out to be freaking fantastic. "You're going to be much nicer to me now, I bet."

"Anything, anyth- huh...?" Gil's bulged out eyes froze in place, surprising even Kaida. "Ah-are you making that chittering noi-aaaaaahh!" he screamed as a Dweller landed on his chest. Followed by a second, and a third, and a fourth. The insects covered Gil until he was a mass of squirming bugs with a muffled man screaming underneath.

With a frown and a sigh, Kaida stepped forwards and whipped her right arm around, smacking each Dweller right off Gil. "Back off." She hissed at the growling creatures. The Dwellers that until then had not been paying attention to Kaida seemed to react strongly to the way she was staring them down through her visor. One by one, they all skittered right off. Kaida didn't see it, but her blue eyes were shining a deep, crimson red.

"Mmph, looks like these guys wanna eat you no matter what," Kaida thought aloud, "I don't like you, Gil," she finally confessed to the terrified meerkat, "But if you die here and I come back out alone, I'll have to answer more questions than I'd like..." she started pacing back and forth, tapping under her chin, "Then again, I did bring you in. So there's got to be a way to get you back out, too."

"Puh-please. I want to get out. I don't want to die!" Gil hiccupped and sobbed. The more pathetic he looked, the greater Kaida felt, but even she had had enough of watching the sad meerkat plead and beg.

"I pulled him in, so..." Kaida thought about it, and decided that overthinking anything in the Shadow World wasn't going to get her anywhere. It all seemed to work on instinct, so she listened to her gut, bent over and just shoved Gil backwards with both of her hands. She could swear she heard something that resembled a heart-beat echo in her head before she saw Gil suddenly change position.

The meerkat was still on the floor, but he was facing the tree instead of Kaida. The bits and pieces of his clothes the Dwellers had managed to chew off had returned to their proper places, as if nothing had happened to him. "I hope it worked," Kaida said, unsure. Since she was standing in front of the tree where she had initially Shadow-melded from, the visor still showed no sign of that toxic display.

Bringing the wrist-mounted device up to her face, Kaida's red eyes went back to blue as she pressed both buttons three times. And this time, the nanites receded, disengaging the Idolon Suit. The Shadow World seemed to melt before her eyes, and the real world emerged in its place. Every hole, every fissure, every missing leaf on the tree branches above Kaida: It was all as it had been before she had Shadow-melded. What had happened in the Shadow world had remained in the Shadow World.

When she looked down at the sitting down Gil, Kaida approached him, crouching before him. He looked pale, but otherwise unharmed.

"What gives?" Gil asked, "Got something on my face ...?" the meerkat grumbled, starting to get up to his feet. His tone seemed similar to what Kaida was used to, but he certainly seemed a little more docile. It was off-putting even to Kaida.

"What's up with him?" Kaida thought to herself, "I thought he'd be rushing off screaming about monsters and me tearing them to shreds and literally shutting him up, but..." she paused her line of thought, "It's almost like..."

"Lu, you got this?" Gil turned away from Kaida, holding his tablet up while speaking into it, "Three minutes, thirty-eight seconds."

"All of that happened in less than five minutes?!" Kaida's eyes were paralyzed with shock, "I must've been in there for almost two hours... Wait, that's it! That's why to them it looks like I'm warping between entry points when I 'blink'. I don't move faster; clock must tick faster inside the Shadow World as a whole..." she deduced, but still wondered about Gil. "Is he playing dumb? Or did he... forget?"

"A little less than I projected... but good results, either way," Lucille responded to Gil, "Thought you'd gone to the cafeteria for a sec there, Gil. Anyway, might as well head over there for lunch break. Dr. Rhodes said she needs to step out for today, so I'll be in charge of the rest of the tests for the remainder of the day. Subject, we'll be taking a brief recess for lunch break, first, so feel free to take a load off for now. I think Nick is bringing you something. He's got your locker key, doesn't he?"

"Shu-sure!" Kaida said with a smile, thinking it best to play along for the time being. She was really suspicious of Gil's behavior right now. "Was I okay back there?" she asked.

"I imagine you disengaged because you felt anxiety again," Lucille surmised.

Kaida rubbed her arm in an uneasy display. "A little, yuh-yeah..." the cheetah responded, casting a side-glance at Gil who wouldn't stop bringing his hand over to his jaw to rub it.

"It's entirely possible that in the same way Shadow melding interferes with sound it might be affecting your brainwaves..." Lucille didn't bother closing comms, but the way she was muttering she might as well have been whispering to herself. "You don't seem as disturbed as yesterday, though, she raised her voice again to ask: "Is the suit comfortable? Does it make it hurt anywhere near your cranium?"

Starting to feel like a guinea pig again, Kaida reflexively brought her hand up to her abdomen. She could still remember the gravel digging into her back in the Shadow World when she had crash landed after her amazing jump. Lucille couldn't see that, though. "Helmet's comfy, everything is, actually..." she said, thinking back to how resilient the material was. She didn't recall her suit so much as puncturing during all that insanity, and her black wetsuit definitely didn't look worse for wear.

"I see. You sound fine to me. However, if the director wishes to, we will submit you to another MRI scan. Don't worry though," Lucille said, "You can first eat lunch."

"Back to being a guinea pig, indeed..." Kaida thought with a pout. She thanked Lucille and waited for food to get there. She sat beside the tree's shadow so that her low-powered neoprene suit wouldn't activate. Even though the black neoprene wasn't enough for her to Shadow meld, it still felt weird to see only her torso disappear from sight.

While waiting for Nick and Jason to come back, the cheetah had time to think. And Gil was delightfully quiet for that time. The meerkat was moving equipment around like nothing had happened. "That all was pretty incredible..." Kaida admitted to herself, relaxing against the cool grass under her. She could still hardly believe she had just been in a fight for her life. So many things were nearly impossible to believe.

The Shadow World, a realm superimposed upon our own. And the Idolon Suit the scientists thought was merely cloaking its user actually transported them into it. The Dwellers and worms; creatures that only seemed to exist in the Shadow World. Curious monsters that displayed fantastic abilities Kaida could somehow replicate while Shadow melded. And then there was...

"What was wrong with him?" Kaida quietly looked at Gil, casually brushing the fur on her head between her ears back. "The Shadow World must've really gotten to him. I had a bad reaction too at first, but he got pulled in without_the suit on..." she mumbled, glancing down at the injector on her wrist. "I-001..." she read inscribed designation on the injector, "I guess I _am the first person that's gone in there. These guys might not even be aware of..."

Lucille finally joined Kaida when Jason and Nick came back with food and drinks. Gil joined them last after finishing with the equipment around point C.

"Going in early was the right call, Luci," Jason smirked, holding out a loaded tray full of goodies that he carefully set down on the grass. "First dibs on all the Mexican."

"You got me the salad, right?" Lucille looked up from the spread which Gil also seemed to be scrutinizing. Kaida thought the feast looked delicious, but she wasn't in the mood for heavy stuff; a simple salad sounded nice.

With a patient sigh and smile, Jason swiped a little plastic bowl from Nick's tray, shaking it a little before the otter. "Caesar's, no croutons, no chicken. You sure you don't want a little more boredom in there?" he teased, getting a sarcastic smile from Lucille, who took the plastic bowl off the goat's hands. "Heh, so how'd it go?" asked Jason as he brought in some folded chairs, setting them in a circle with Kaida's help.

Before the cheetah could respond, Lucille cut in, "She's doing okay so far." She sat at the chair next to Jason, coming in between Kaida and him. "But she also appears to be dealing with exposure issues. An unintended side-effect of Idolon with her brain, perhaps," the otter casually explained, "We need more data."

Feeling like she was a poorly worded comment from being dissected or lobotomized on the spot, Kaida went over to the chairs across from Lucille, remaining silent. Nick was there waiting with a seat picked out for her and everything, being his helpful self before starting to load up his own plate.

"I don't like the way she said that..." Kaida anxiously thought, "Could I really be hallucinating?" she quickly glanced down at her furling fingers on her right hand, attempting to trigger any physical change she had experienced back in the Shadow World. No anatomical changes, no fire, no blades.

"Nothing to your liking, Ms. Kaida?" Nick surprised Kaida as he sat next to her. She perked up at the looming giant.

"Um... suh-sorry. Thanks, Nick, but I'm not sure I'm that hungry..." the cheetah felt like an electric jolt running up her spine, but it just was the sideways glance she was getting from Lucille, who was still chatting Jason up about the project, setting her salad down on her lap while Jason gorged himself on tacos. An awkward feeling took Kaida over, almost like she was getting judged, and she quickly looked back at Nick with a small grin, "Maybe a little salad instead? Anything's fine for me!" she said, and added with a stammer: "A-and don't call me Miss, Nick. I feel like I should be the one calling you Doctor, heh!"

"You should," Lucille interjected before Nick could get a word in. "Dr. Hauser is our robotics specialist. Without him there'd be no practical compartmentalization for the Idolon Suit. How about showing some respect, girl?"

Kaida felt the invisible jab at the end of that sentence, which sparked a flame in the depths of her stomach. That newly awakened side of hers wished to go feral on that prim and proper lady otter, but she managed to calm herself down. This was less bottling things up and more not wishing to risk making a scene. Not when she now was as eager to conduct more experiments as the scientists themselves were; although for different reasons in her case.

Noting the growing tension, Nick stood up. "O-oh, duh-don't worry, Ms. Lucille!" Nick's white fur was starting to go pink. He immediately started waving his hands in an attempt to deescalate, "Nuh-no need for that. I was just trying to be polite, buh-but if it bothers you, I'll just call you by name, Kaida. We're all friends here, right?" Kaida looked up at Nick with a quiet smile and a nod, but it was hard to hide her discomfort; her tail was aggressively swishing behind her, to which Lucille seemed to be smirking at. "A-anyway, there should be one more salad down here..."

"Uh-uh," Lucille said while stabbing her salad with her plastic fork, "That one is for Dr. Rhodes when she returns. Kaida should get her own."

"Ah, darn," Jason huffed, "I'm surprised you gals all wanna cut back on calories that much. If anything you could stand eating a bit more, y'know?" he joked, but nobody did laugh. "Ahem..." After clearing his throat, Jason set his plastic plate down and started standing up, "Here, I'll go get you your salad, Kuh..." before the goat could get off his seat though, a side-glare from Lucille seemed to glue his butt down to his seat.

"Pft," the tension seemed to blow away with an annoyed, loud puff coming from Gil. "Never mind. You knuckleheads forgot the chalupas," the meerkat stood up with a roll of his eyes, "I'll go back to the cafeteria. What salad do you want?"

"Huh?" Kaida was suddenly surprised when the attention went back to her and it came from none other than an honestly helpful Gil. She had been expecting him to dogpile on her alongside Lucille in a matter like this. "Luh-like I said, anything's fine but..." she gave a little shrug, "I'll take a Caesar's if they already got it made."

"Hold the chicken, croutons, dressing too? Maybe your will to freaking live, too?" Gil snickered. Nick and Jason had to look elsewhere to avoid laughing at Lucille. Kaida only shook her head and said as is was fine. The giggling Jason got an elbow to the gut.

"And what are you smirking about?" the annoyed otter muttered, getting a huff and a quick apology from the goat.

As Gil left for the cafeteria, Kaida couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Since the first day in the project, the meerkat had been nothing but rude and abusive to her, but now he was not only being his version of 'nice' to her, he had just, in his own way, stood up for her. "He's being nice to me..." Kaida thought, her mind flashing back to her times in the Shadow World both that and the day before.

Hey... Nick, right? Know if it's gonna rain today? Hello?

Nick! Help me! HELP ME!

You're going to be much nicer to me now, I bet.

_ _

Kaida's eyes began to widen in realization. "Nick's random forecast earlier wasn't random at all. He's shy and anxious like me but he's constantly trying to help despite himself. And now Gil..." the cheetah put a hand to her mouth in deep thought. "But if Gil's being nice 'cause I brought him into the Shadow World and told him to be nice, how does that explain Nick? He wasn't..." she stopped, remembering the situation. She was in the Shadow World when she had said what she had to Nick. That made her think that maybe other people couldn't hear anything going on in the Shadow World, "...but if I was close enough to 'speak' to them..."

"Would you like some coffee, Kaida?" Nick was offering Kaida some in a paper cup like he had earlier. "Don't worry, I brought more than enough for everybody, this time. We drink a lot of the stuff every day, heh."

"I-I hear that..." Kaida softly laughed, taking the cup in her paws and staring down at the steaming blackness within. Kaida was reminded of how when black liquids like this or cola were exposed to light at the right angle, one could see shades of brownish-red; similar to the suit's visor. "I think..." she quietly shared with Nick, starting to smile.

"Yes?" Nick inquired curiously.

"...I'm really going to like it here, after all."

Chapter 3: Idolon Powers

Kaida's first week at NT Labs seemed to fly by. Although the Idolon Suit's melding and blinking had become the bread and butter of the project, the experiments involving those Dr. Rhodes and her assistants put her through grew in complexity with every passing day.

Adding to shadow-blinking tests, Kaida was given simple objects like Rubik's cubes and tennis balls to bring with herself, dubbed 'packages' by the observers. They told her to wrap the packages under her arms to hide them during a Shadow-meld, thus blocking all light from getting to the package and hiding the packages with her. That was how she found out that she didn't need to focus or do anything special to bring things other than herself into the Shadow World. Kaida began to call that ability a 'Snatch', after how she imagined it must have looked to the outside when she first had brought Gil inside.

She wished to test Snatching more, but it was hard finding moments where the others were alone. She had seemingly lucked out before, with the only potential witness having been distracted enough to believe Gil had been goofing off while he in fact was stranded in the Shadow World with Kaida. But it would be difficult to explain to everybody if one of them just up and vanished before their very eyes. Eager as she was, Kaida would have to be patient.

In the meantime, Kaida took her time during each test, confirming on each opportunity that the Shadow World's clock ran much faster, but not always. Now that she was aware the scientists weren't distracted or hyper-focused but merely moving incredibly slow, she could focus to see them move in real-time. Kaida heard a sound like a heart beat in her head when she saw things outside moving at regular speed, and another heart beat when they began to slow down again.

"This place is so incredible. It's like time doesn't matter at all..." she observed. Her surroundings always looked the same. There should have been deep trenches where the worm attacking her had slammed down, or giant holes in the ground, but nothing that indicated a fight or the Dwellers bickering or hunting prey down could be found. "I feel like I'll really go crazy if I try to make sense of how the Shadow World really works. But it's still so fascinating..." she admitted to herself.

Now that she knew she could mess with her perception of time in the Shadow World, she didn't bother with slow-motion unless she had to pretend she was Shadow-blinking. She found real-time useful to observe Nick and the rest while she was melded, and realized that while they could not hear her, she could easily hear them. Kaida thought about how handy that might come in the future.

However, fast-time was still useful to the cheetah. It gave her a fair amount of extra time to explore and start noticing peculiar things about the alternate dimension. While melded, it was easy to confirm the toxic atmosphere was indeed what filled every area of the field as long as she wasn't standing under a shadow large enough on 'the other side'. Shadows in the real world were like entry points; like holes in a cave where the air filters out.

The test-subject turned explorer inevitably ran into more Dwellers during her Shadow World excursions. Curiously, it didn't matter if Kaida was in fast-time or real-time; she could perceive Dwellers moving at the same speed. More importantly, the shadowy denizens seemed to be aware of Kaida now. They had gone from completely ignoring her to acknowledging her, even keeping out of her way, as if intimidated by her presence. Ever since the incident with Gil, the only worms that came out were the ones lured out by hungry Dwellers, too. She wasn't prey anymore.

"I don't know what those worms do while underground, but out here they only exist to be eaten..." Kaida kept thinking each time she observed that one-sided relationship.

Using any down time earned in the Shadow World, Kaida also worked to explore two other major aspects that the scientists ignored. One was how malleable her body had become while melded. Indeed, Kaida quickly confirmed that all it took was a little focus on her part to stretch her limbs out into incredible proportions. She tested herself to her body's limits, finding herself to virtually become silly putty while in the Shadow World.

She could alter her proportions as much as she liked and go back to normal with a snap just like the Dwellers could. And just like them, Kaida found out she could just collapse herself and "melt" herself into black goop to ooze around; she was completely blind during the experience, but could feel her way around. The way she could easily pick up on the Dwellers' skills made her wonder if these abilities weren't exclusive to them, but anything that could make it into the Shadow World. Both Kaida and the Dwellers were both their own clay and sculptor.

But it wasn't just her body: Creepy as it was, the alternate dimension also provided Kaida with powers beyond what the regular demi-human was capable of. She found herself clearing dozens of feet in one leap, even lifting boulders that in the world outside would've been impossible to even budge. Kaida quickly found out flames weren't the only things the cheetah could hold above her hand, easily making them go away with a gust of wind, replacing them with little rain clouds that thundered at her command. "Too bad I can't bring all of these sick powers outside..."

The other aspect that Kaida carefully explored was what she had simply dubbed a 'Hush'. Snatching was going to be very difficult, but throughout the week, each time she approached Nick and Gil while melded, Kaida would lean in and say something, knowing full well they could not hear her in the traditional sense. Sometimes she would say nonsense such as: "Tell Jason he looks good, today.", which to her delight saw a flustered Gil pay random compliments to the confused goat. While in other cases she would make common requests, like telling Nick exactly what she wanted for lunch. All of it to confirm that they, in fact, were responding to her Hushes.

No matter how one sliced it, Kaida was starting to feel powerful.

Hushes were better than ordering takeout, which was one of the things Kaida was starting to abuse, in her own opinion. But after long days at the experiment field both training with her new powers and researching the Shadow World while also doing everything Lucille or Dr. Rhodes told her to, all the cheetah wanted to do was collapse in bed. Her new income enabled her to eat what she wanted without guilt, so she would indulge.

One night after she was getting back from work, an exhausted Kaida got a call back to the first evening after work when she ran into Rosa the lioness, who once again was waiting for the elevator after likely having left Justin's apartment. Even though Kaida remembered her well, Rosa didn't seem interested in her. At least she wasn't until the tired Kaida failed to realize she was staring.

"Hi there," Rosa spoke with the voice of an angel, her smile practically sparkling. "Do you live here?"

Caught with her guard down, Kaida couldn't help but huff a little. "Bitch took my job and doesn't even remember me!" she thought, rage perking her right up. Taking a deep breath, the cheetah tried calming down but she somehow couldn't let that slight go. Usually she would fake a smile, but all she did was lower her eyes to the floor before hastily stepping down the corridor, away from Rosa.

"What a troubled little guy..." Rosa mumbled with a small shrug and a pout of her full lips. "At least he was cute," she giggled to herself, walking into the elevator before the doors closed behind her.

Kaida had really good hearing, unfortunately. She slammed the door to her apartment with a hiss. "That... that dumbass..." the cheetah couldn't help but think about Justin, sliding her back against the door. "Is he really _dating_that skank? Is it serious?" she turned around and made the door fly open, only barely managing to catch it so it wouldn't slam against her wall. "Mmph... what are you doing, Kaida?" she asked herself, her eyes trained on Justin's door on the other side of the corridor. "Gonna go in, make a scene at his house because he's seeing someone you hate? Worried somebody who doesn't even know you exist is gonna take away your only friend? Yeah, he won't find that creepy at all."

Pushing air through her flared nostrils, Kaida slowly closed the door and hurried to her bedroom, throwing herself onto bed to scream at her pillow. "I'm not angry at Justin. I'm not..." she repeatedly told herself, "He can see, fuck, date... whoever he wants," Kaida trailed off, fiddling with her phone to set her alarm for the next morning. She didn't have time for petty jealousy. Earlier that day, Jason had told Kaida a little about the next experiment they would do; which would involve bringing him things taken from a series of small corridors. Work was still busy.

With each test progressing smoothly they had been moving phases along and Nick had mentioned, with very little probing from Kaida's part, that some interested parties would be dropping by to observe the Idolon Suit in action soon and thus why they needed to up the spectacle.

Kaida thought back to Jason. Handsome, tall, well-built Jason. With her eyes closed she could see him in his rolled-up sleeves, thick arms on display, pecs pressing up against his dorky shirt. Nick was burly as a bear, but Jason was pretty buff for a goat scientist. "You're so high-strung," the cheetah told herself, "When's the last time you got laid?" Kaida briefly thought about asking Jason out. "Yeah right," she laughed at herself, "Little Kaida who can't stop stammering like a doof..." she paused, remaining in silence for a few seconds before opening her eyes wide.

"...on the other hand, Kaida in the Shadow World...?"

At the far end of the testing field, a series of shipping containers had been arranged in a sort of labyrinthian configuration. Apparently, it had been Jason and Lucille who had designed the test, which explained why the latter wasn't watching from the now empty observation cabin. Dr. Rhodes was busy attending an important meeting.

The new test was relatively simple: A series of motion-sensor cameras had been installed in various locations within the labyrinth, as well as a varying number of packages that Gil and Nick would swap out at each opportunity. The subject's mission was to retrieve the package or packages and make it to the end of the labyrinth to hand them over to the handler: Jason.

The motion sensors were placed along the main path for the most part. Since it was an enclosed space with limited lighting, hanging lamps scattered across the corridors served as a way to reduce available shadows. The objective of the experiment was to see how effectively Shadow-melding could be used to traverse complicated layouts while totally avoiding detection.

Kaida was starting to feel like she really was a movie super spy. Too bad none of the researchers knew exactly how super she really was. In a way, however, the secrecy of it all made it feel much better to her. For once in her life, she was the one holding all the aces and her regular, meek self was the best poker face she could've hoped for.

Lucille was standing at the entrance of the container labyrinth, where she asked: "Done hiding the package yet, Gil?"

"Keep your panties on, Loo, I'm done," Gil's voice echoed back out.

"You too, Gil," Lucille snapped back with a smirk, "Jason's waiting on the other side, y'know."

"Shu-shut it!" the meerkat yelled from the other side, "And what are you staring at, horns?!"

"Alright, subject," Lucille turned towards Kaida, "We'll start with one package retrieval. You will be timed. Do you understand what you have to do?"

Kaida quietly nodded. Lucille wasn't that much taller than the cheetah, but the otter's no-nonsense attitude made her look much bigger when she was this close. Up until now the director's assistant had remained all the way up in the cabin after all.

Already with her Idolon Suit engaged, Kaida began the test, walking into labyrinth and melding with its shadows. The lights and sensors were inconsequential to her while moving through the Shadow World, but Shadow-blinking was expected, so she made sure to move in fast-time. "This is cool," she said while traversing the labyrinth, "Kind of like an amusement park attraction. Now where did Gil hide that package...?"

After hitting three dead ends with empty tables on them, Kaida finally found the Rubik's cube atop a table on the fourth path she took. She didn't even bother disengaging and just Snatched the item into the Shadow World with her. "This was almost disappointingly easy..." Kaida sighed, playing catch with the cube as she returned to the main corridor, walking towards where she saw Jason waiting with his tablet; probably timing her with it.

"So much for a super spy mission. All these lights really make it look like a carnival..." Kaida giggled a little, watching the crudely set up wiring until she was suddenly blinded and heard loud blaring. "What the heck...?"

The motion sensors had picked her up. Kaida quickly realized she was back in the real world all of a sudden. One of the flickering lights along the main path had stopped working, adding a shadow which was not meant to be there while Kaida had been walking underneath it, thus creating a new entry point. When the malfunctioning lamp came back on, it shone so brightly the entry point was removed. It was so much light all of a sudden that Kaida felt her eyes burning, prompting her to shield them and throw herself sideways into another pathway with no lights where she could meld back in.

"What was that? That lamp flashed me so hard it... kicked me out?" Kaida gasped, "I guess if an entry point suddenly disappears it confuses the suit or something... Oh right, the test! Hope they didn't see that..."

Jason had been looking down the corridor when one of the cameras suddenly beeped; Kaida had been moving too fast for him to notice her though. "Nick, was that you?"

"Just struggling with this old generator, is all," the polar bear hollered from around the labyrinth, "Looks like I should've requisitioned the new model. Should be working fine now though!"

"All done!" said Kaida as she disengaged in front of Jason, holding the package on the top of her hand.

"Oh!" Jason jumped a little, laughing at himself and quickly tapping the stopwatch button. "I don't think I'll ever get used to you appearing like that, heh." He took the cube off Kaida's hand. "That was a super-fast time, too. Well done, Kaida."

That simple praise was enough to make the cheetah swell with pride. "Compliment him, c'mon. You had no issues using Gil as a proxy for that..." Kaida bit her lip, but she was too nervous to say anything.

"Let's up the difficulty for the next one," Lucille appeared, walking between Jason and Kaida, "It'll be two packages, and you'll actually have a time limit this time, subject." The pretty otter explained. "From all the data we've gleaned about Shadow-blinking so far, you should be able to get this done in less than 10 seconds. Do you think you can pull that off?"

"Y-yeah, I think so," Kaida stuttered with a meek nod. She had been caught off guard fantasizing about Jason. Flirting wasn't her specialty, especially with others around her. "What am I doing?" she chastised herself. "I can have him." she proposed to herself. She felt strong and more confident in the Shadow World, and nobody would see or hear them. It was the perfect plan. Kaida considered the difficulties first, though.

Even if she were to use fast-time, would they notice Jason disappearing for a little while? Once Gil was done hiding packages, he would go around to help Nick with the other equipment, so those two would be too busy in all likelihood. The real problem would be Lucille who was paying attention to the experiment next to Jason. If only there was some way of having Lucille move away, thus isolating Jason...

"All done with package hiding!" Gil hollered.

"Get a move on, subject," Lucille ordered, prompting Kaida to engage her suit. She really preferred it when Lucille was up there in the cabin.

"Wait, that's it!" Kaida thought, hopping into the labyrinth's shadow as Jason started the 10 second timer. Moving in fast-time, she stood behind Lucille and leaned in to Hush.

"Be right back, Jay," Lucille suddenly said, turning towards the elevator in the field, "I forgot something up in the observation room."

"Bingo. Now move along..." Kaida smiled to herself, observing the otter in real-time until she was sufficiently far away before reactivating fast-time again. Turning towards the slow-moving Jason, a tingle of excitement ran up Kaida's spine. "C'mere, stud," she purred, approaching Jason and throwing her arms around him. With one pull followed by a reverberating ba-dump , the goat had been Snatched.

"Bwah!" Jason dropped his tablet, suddenly finding himself hugged and submerged in a dimly lit version of the testing field. Looking down he found that he could not only feel but see his test-subject hugging him. "Kuh-Kaida?! What happened to the lighting? Why did you disengage? ...and are you hugging me...?"

The goat's confusion made Kaida giggle. She realized she had never really seen him this confused and vulnerable. It was making Jason even cuter. "Do you have something against hugs, big guy?" she asked, glancing up.

"I uh... no, not per se," Jason curled up a commissure into an uneasy smile, "You feel surprisingly soft actually, even though you're coated in Idolon mesh and neoprene. Nick must've done a great job with the nanites!"

"He's great," Kaida smiled behind her mask, "But you know who I like even more?" she purred, nuzzling up the goat's firm chest while tracing a finger up and down his pecs.

"Kaida, I..." Jason stammered, his cheeks starting to flush, "I mean, I'm flattered and all but..."

"What's wrong, Jason?" Kaida slowly started to pull away, "Not your type?" she pressed her hands down to her hips. Even without a womanly figure, the body-hugging nature of the suit really brought attention to her petite curves. What surprised Kaida was when Jason's jaw started dropping and his eyes widening in terror. His legs began to buckle and he fell down on his butt.

"Whu-what's with this place?!" Jason started shivering, his chest rising and falling faster. It was almost like the moment Kaida had let him go, the weird lighting had gone all horror-movie like, with an ominous dark-red tint taking over. "Kaida... Kaida help!"

Kaida flinched when she noticed Jason's conditioning worsening. He seemed to be wracked with fear. "He's starting to act like Gil. Damn, I thought he was fine..." she cursed. And while debating what to do with herself, she began to hear all-too-familiar chittering from above the containers. "Dwellers..." she furrowed her brow, glancing up. Her eyes behind her visor started shining with a red glint. "Go away!" she growled at the now flaking insect. As more Dwellers showed up, baited by Jason's fear, she decided to get aggressive.

Swiping her arm across the air, Kaida made lightning strike down from a dark cloud manifesting above her. The bolt hit the ground next to her, blasting up a large hole. "He's mine!" Kaida shouted with finality at the gathering insects. The menacing crackle of thunder so close up made Jason cry out but it also scared the Dwellers away.

"I'm yours!"

Kaida gasped, suddenly feeling Jason's arms around her ankles. The way he was shaking one would think that the thunderbolt had struck him instead of the ground. The cheetah couldn't help but feel a rush she had never felt before. No, she had felt it once before. It was the same rush as when Gil had been begging her within the Shadow World. It made her feel strong, powerful. And coming from a guy she found attractive? It made Kaida feel... horny.

Without saying anything, Kaida reached down to grab Jason by the collar of his shirt. In a display of unassuming, superior strength she pulled the goat up to his feet and dragged him along inside of the labyrinth of shipping containers as if it was her apartment. The Dwellers didn't seem to like going inside; probably because of all the flickering lights, but she hoped her warning had been clear. She did not want to be disturbed.

After guiding Jason to one of the dead ends where she knew she wouldn't have to worry about lamps, Kaida let go of him and turned around, leaning back against the container's wall. Even though she didn't have much to show off, she still pushed her chest out to put it on display, rolling her hips with preemptive delight. She'd been aching to blow off some steam after last night.

But Jason wasn't making the first move; he wasn't acting like the dominant top Kaida had been imagining him to be. Instead he was standing there, shivering as if he had been standing under freezing rain for the past hour. "Don't you want to warm up, together?" Kaida tried her best sultry impression, hesitatingly putting her right arm out before beckoning with her index finger.

As if pulled by strings, Jason almost lurched forwards, landing his palms over Kaida's shoulders. She could feel the strong grip of his digits digging into her deltoids. "He's sturdy, alright..." Kaida thought, eyes darting all over the places where Jason's muscle tone presented fabric stretching bulk. "I want to see you naked, Jason. Don't you want to show off to me?" she purred.

Finally, the goat was smiling. But it was a nervous smile. Understandable from Kaida's perspective, considering what she knew about the Shadow World's influence. But Gil had been fine; in fact, he had turned out better than fine. There was no reason she should be worried for the studly, stripping goat. The coat slid down first, followed by him pulling that dorky gamer shirt over his head.

"I knew it. It's not a six-pack but still, just look at those abs! He works out!" Kaida could feel herself starting to drool, fingers gripping the wall behind her as more articles of clothes followed. It took her a moment of looking away from his more-than-agreeable physique to cotton to his approval-seeking expression. Jason didn't seem disturbed any longer, but he still was looking bashful. She decided to pay him a compliment: "Looking sexy, Jason. How about a flex?"

"Thanks, Kaida. I'm happy you like..." Jason's smile seemed to grow into a sincerer one as he took the time to bring his right arm to a flex, exposing the biceps of a guy who took his dumbbell curls seriously. "What do you think?"

"He's so obedient!" Kaida thought, her red eyes growing with intensity as her thighs rubbed together with need. "Why didn't I do this sooner?"

The cheetah couldn't fight her urges any longer when she saw Jason's member hanging half-erect against his thighs. It had to be 8 inches at the very least. "And hung too!" Kaida bounced herself off the wall a little harder than she had meant to. Jason opened his arms to catch her, but ended up on his back on the ground when Kaida's unassuming strength brought him down with the cheetah straddling him. "I want you so bad, Jason," she spoke aloud, starting to grind herself against his hardening cock.

"Ahhnnghh... Kaida, you're so strong. Is... is it the suit...?" Jason questioned, but Kaida ignored him. She was too busy drinking in that delicious picture underneath her. The goat didn't seem like the type of guy who would let himself be under a girl, but considering how she kept manhandling him, it was easy to see how he had no opportunity to even think of fighting for control.

And Kaida was loving it. Throughout her limited sexual life, she had no memory of ever having topped a guy, much less one with almost a whole foot over her! It was pure ecstasy. She could feel her vulva swelling against her suit and growing wet with arousal when it hit her. "O-oh..." the cheetah paused, spreading her legs and looking down at herself.

"_This_is probably why I didn't do this sooner..." Kaida huffed, finally realizing that the Idolon Suit was in the way. And it would have to be if she wanted to have her privacy with Jason in the Shadow World. "No, wait. I know, I got an idea..."

While lifting her butt off Jason and spreading her legs in a half-split, the desperately horny Kaida aligned her crotch as if she were about to lower herself onto her lover. She made use of her exceptional strength and balance to keep herself aloft with a seriously impressed Jason.

"Yuh-you sure are flexible... man, this is so hot!" Jason was blushing, his dick twitching as the sight of so much body control. It was as if nothing but what the suited up cheetah was about to do with him mattered. And then the goat felt his sex pressing up against the smooth surface of Kaida's Idolon Suit, right where her womanhood would be. "Mnnghh..."

Kaida matched Jason's grunts, enjoying that brief little erotic brushing, but so far it barely counted as molesting. Indeed, with the suit in the way, penetration would not be happening. But, Kaida thought, while Shadow-melded her suit was just an extension of her being. It would stretch, melt and morph with the rest of herself. So why not mold it to suit her current needs?

With a nebulously lustful mind, it took Kaida extra will-power and focus to pull it off, but she very gradually bent her arms while descending upon her partner's sex. She hissed, hearing Jason's moans of pleasure as the Idolon-CNT mesh coating the bottom of her neoprene suit began to collapse, stretching and pushing into the female's love tunnel alongside the goat's erection.

"Ahhh...!" Kaida began moaning, feeling her womanhood open to accept her partner's organ as her insides were slowly lined with her suit molding for the occasion. "I'm doing it..." she paused, glancing up from her successful venture to the flustered goat, smirking at him with satisfaction. "We're doing it."

Jason could hardly comprehend what was going on from a logical viewpoint. Kaida hadn't taken her suit off, yet he could feel himself sliding inside of her. It felt familiarly warm and, surprisingly, little different than when he was wearing a condom inside of another woman. "Guhh... God..." he felt his legs twitch when Kaida finished taking him up to the hilt, the cheetah letting out a gasp. It was hard to tell if she was enjoying herself outside of her groans, the helmet's mask making it hard to see any expression. "Do you really think I'm that hot, Kaida...?" he asked with that insecure smile.

Straddling the goat again, Kaida could feel his manhood throbbing inside of her even through her suit. She found the goat's fishing for approval unexpectedly cute. And somewhat amusing, too. Only about a week ago she had been dying to get swept up in the researcher's arms and taken in a janitor's closet if it pleased him. Now he was the one under her, asking for her opinion while she fucked him. And with that, Kaida realized that this rush she was feeling, this sensation of superiority that was tugging at her heart strings and making her sing within was none other than the acknowledgement of her dominance over Jason.

"Maybe..." Kaida smirked, palms falling onto the goat's nude chest while she pushed down with her rump, making him squirm as his balls felt increasing amounts of weight. She purred at him, wishing she could lick his vulnerable little face. To her surprise, Kaida's facemask began to stretch and open, revealing black fangs and a black tongue which had been lined by her suit on command.

She made use of the opportunity to drag that oral muscle over Jason's cheeks, even going as far as lengthening her tongue so that she could drag it across his face. She found that she could taste him. Or perhaps it was just the taste of his raw sexual need, of his reverence for her. When she lapped that monstrously oversized tongue over Jason, she heard him whimper. "You're cute, Jason. And I want you. Is that what you wanted to hear?" she said as her mask normalized. With another whimper, he quickly nodded. "You're not a very confident guy, are you?"

"I... I..." Jason stammered, his fingers trembling. His hard cock was making a mess of pre-seminal fluid in Kaida's protected vagina; it was twitching so much that Kaida felt like she was dealing with a ticking time bomb.

"He must really be getting off on this," Kaida thought to herself, but she couldn't blame him. So was she. With a finger pressing down to his lips, she silenced the stuttering goat before pressing her face against him. Her mouth opened and she boldly shoved her black tongue deep into Jason's throat, making him gag. As they made out, Kaida finally started rocking her hips against him, executing shallow, rapid thrusts to get him off.

For all of her life, Kaida had never once considered what fun reversing the roles could be; let alone if they could be reversed. She had relegated herself to spend the rest of her existence under other people's radar, even if it also meant sometimes she'd have to be under the collective boot to reach any measure of happiness. With that sexy stud squirming under her, his mouth and rod at her mercy, Kaida couldn't conceive of ever going back now.

With each thrust, their muffled moans and the meaty noises of their bodies mashing together were the only sound filling the Shadow World. Kaida could feel Jason's insecurity making him all kinds of submissive, feeling herself growing stronger and more dominant by the second. It was unlike any sensation she had ever sampled, and she wanted more. She wanted so much more. "Give it to me," she thought, her eyes shining so brightly her visor was turning red.

Give yourself to me, Jason.

There was no need to speak the command. Jason couldn't hold on any longer. Arching back, the heavily aroused goat felt himself discharge a hefty load inside Kaida, the suit's lining catching all of it and making it splash back out all over his groin. Overwhelmed by the aggressive lovemaking, Kaida too went through delightful orgasmic bliss. She felt it in her spine, shooting up like a bottle rocket and exploding with sparkly flair in the back of her head. The cheetah had come, but her squirting did not escape.

The two broke the wild French kiss, letting out a sexually gratified, unified moan. Jason was left panting, mumbling intelligibly about how good he felt, about how much he liked what Kaida had done to him, about how he could hardly _breathe_after the world-shattering kiss he had just gotten.

As she rolled off the incoherent goat, Kaida took notice of his fluids falling to the ground, pushed out by her suit regaining its original shape at her groin; the spooge sliding off as if water on an impermeable. She quickly got rid of the rest clinging to her with a wipe of her hand, deciding to use fire to cleanse it. "Better than any contraceptive," Kaida joked, finding it surprising how she didn't feel exhausted after that fuck when compared to Jason. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready for another..."

"Jason?" a voice echoed in the Shadow World. Kaida's heart skipped a beat. The cheetah rushed to the corner of the dead end. There was nobody inside of the corridor, but Kaida was convinced she had heard Lucille's voice.

"Oh crud. Did I accidentally set it to real-time...?" Kaida put a hand to her cheek, starting to get worried. How long had it been since the switch? Had she done it unconsciously because of sex? None of that mattered. She quickly headed out and confirmed Lucille was wandering around the outside of the labyrinth, talking to Nick and Gil who were none the wiser about Jason's whereabouts.

Taking a deep breath, Kaida made sure she heard the heart-beat noise in her head and saw everybody outside slowing to a crawl. "Okay, okay, much better... let's leave the horny for another time," she assured herself, dashing back into the labyrinth to get Jason back out. She skidded to a halt when she saw a Dweller had begun making its surreptitious advance towards the half-conscious goat. "What did I say?!" she yelled at the bug, which cried out in shock and backed up, shivering in the corner. Kaida didn't have time for any nonsense, so counting on the fact she could just slap the Dweller away, she knelt down and started helping Jason put his clothes back on.

"C'mon, man, chip in over here..." Kaida grunted as she struggled to dress the less than cooperative Jason. She had to stop when she felt something wrapping around her ankles. Looking down, Kaida glared at the Dweller whose front noodly legs had started holding onto her feet. In a strange way, it reminded her of Jason screaming that he belonged to her not too long ago. "I don't get you," she told the largely pacified, shivering Dweller, "Are you trying to apologize to me...?"

Dwellers didn't seem capable of traditional communication, but Kaida saw its intention when another bunch of noodly limbs approached from the sides bringing other pieces of Jason's clothes closer to Kaida. The cheetah was taken by surprise, "You want to help, huh? Alright, whatever. I got my eyes on you though!"

Before long, Kaida had managed to put all of Jason's clothes back on, including his lab coat. She made sure not to button it up. "Now make yourself scarce. I'm bringing him outside," she waved dismissively at the Dweller which appeared to understand Kaida, dashing off with a chitter. "I can't believe I'm trying to talk with bugs now. Okay, now to get him out. It'll be weird if he comes out of the labyrinth, so instead I'll push him out of the shadows of the containers outside..." she quickly resolved while helping the mumbling goat up.

"Can't walk, can you...?" Kaida scoffed, half-proud of the pelvis-abusing action she had been able to put the bigger guy through. Since Jason was still light-headed, Kaida made sure to support him as they walked out through the main corridor. "Almost out, just gotta..." she was interrupted by a blinding flash. "Oh no! Not..."

The Shadow World started vanishing before Kaida's eyes. A lamp in the main corridor had turned off and back on again while she and Jason had been under it. "...now!" she finished, mentally cursing herself after realizing she had unintentionally yelled with her and Jason standing in the real world.

"Ms... I mean, Kaida, is that you?" came Nick's voice, and soon he was standing at the end of the labyrinth, followed by Gil, and then Lucille.

"Jason?!" Lucille dropped her tablet, rushing into the labyrinth's main corridor. "What are you doing in...? Why are you limping like that?" she turned her glasses-magnified eyeballs at Kaida, and even through her black visor Kaida could see hellfire in the otter's peepers. " You. Start talking."

"I um..." Kaida began to stutter. She had not mentally prepared herself for a situation like this. Between Lucille's deathly glare and the other two gossiping scientists at the end of the corridor, Kaida's returning anxiety was like a wrecking ball shattering that monumental ego she had just been building up. "Juh-Jason came in because of that!" she pointed up, directing everybody's attention to the occasionally flickering hanging lamp above, "He must've been trying to fix it when we bumped into each other and..." she paused, mental flashes of the mind-blowing Shadow World sex causing her to hesitate with her lie.

"And?" Lucille's breath was like a gust of blizzard.

"I think I made him hit his head something fierce..." Kaida was lucky they couldn't see the nervous grin past her facemask.

"You brute!" Lucille accused, stomping forwards and shoving the cheetah right off, making Jason lean over her instead. "Hey, Jay...? Does it hurt...? Are you feeling okay?"

Jason was blabbing something about having the best day of his life, but nothing specific that might have gotten Kaida in serious trouble. "I'm a big boy," he almost drunkenly said, "Look at these, babe." He snickered, curling his right arm and flexing his fairly-toned biceps for Lucille. "How could I not be fine?"

Lucille couldn't have been blinking any faster, or been more appalled at the reply. She turned to cleave her eyes back on their test subject, who seemed to shrink as she innocently waggled fingers at her.

"You... You dumb pig, making me worry!" Lucille glared up at Jason, pushing him off against the corridor's wall. Directing her attention to Gil and Nick next, she yelled at them: "What are you looking at? You're supposed to be working on the experiment, not goofing off! Clearly we can't work with that old generator, so get a new one!" she barked, making both the meerkat and bear run off.

"Um..." Kaida raised her hand quietly, Lucille perceiving her voice easily and turning back to her. "Ahh, does this mean we're not doing this test anymore?"

"No," Lucille stomped back towards Kaida, lowering her voice to an almost imperceptible, venom-filled hiss, her finger practically stabbing down onto Kaida's chest. "And don't let me see you touching him again. Understand? That mousey act of yours might be working on these ding-dongs, but not me. You want to continue working here? Then don't forget who's in charge. Now get out of my sight. You're no longer needed for the rest of today, subject."

Kaida had to take a deep breath after that. She hadn't been told off this way since the cheerleader captain in high-school had stuffed her in her locker for having _dared_to get the football team captain's attention. Her fingers were still trembling when the angry otter turned around to leave the main corridor. But Kaida wasn't feeling afraid right now. She was feeling hatred for that impertinent way of speaking. The cheetah felt like she was about to explode, lose control and scream less than pleasant words at the uppity bitch.

And then Kaida saw it. The lights were turned off and she saw a pair of noodly limbs emerging from the shadows, tangling around Lucille's ankles and making her trip. "Whoa!" Lucille cried, her glasses flying off as she hit the floor.

Part of Kaida was worried about the limbs emerging from the ground, but they disappeared before anybody, even the still light-headed Jason, could tell what was going on. Kaida couldn't help but hold a hand in front of her facemask, muffling her giggle. "Good boy..." she whispered. Dwellers could hear her and could sense her, making themselves useful, as she had just found out.

"Luci, you okay?" Jason asked, finally shuffling forwards and helping the otter up. Lucille was blushing from embarrassment more than any real pain.

"It's this dark place. Must've snagged my foot..." Lucille winced a little, suddenly turning the volume up again, "I better not see that piece of junk generator tomorrow or else Dr. Rhodes is gonna hear about this, you two!"

And Kaida was going to have a lot to think about from now on.

Chapter 4: (In)Visibility

It had already been an hour since Kaida had gotten changed and left NT Labs, and the cheetah was still wearing a big, happy smile. Things hadn't worked out exactly as she had planned them back during the latest experiment, but the results had been different levels of amusing and enlightening.

For one, she had finally determined the cause of that rush of ecstasy she had been struggling to describe to herself. People begging her, looking up to her, even frightening predators reducing themselves to servile sycophants for her grace. Kaida had never thought dominance could be oh so delicious, like pure ambrosia invading her taste buds and overwhelming her senses: More nurturing than any meal, more addictive than any drug.

Walking on that refreshing air, Kaida felt so surprisingly light on her feet after leaving the lab that she didn't even take the bus back downtown. She didn't feel tired even after riding Jason like a bucking bronco, even though he seemed so overwhelmed. Thinking back, much like how she had lost control of her time-dilating ability, Kaida thought she might've gone harder on Jason than she had intended to. "Good thing he's such a big guy," the cheetah snickered to herself.

She still didn't quite understand if Gil and Jason had failed to mention the Shadow World due to being afraid of her or having had their memories scrubbed after being kicked out. If the latter, it made Kaida feel slightly offended that Jason might never remember the way she had rocked his world. All the same, the way Jason had been so drunkenly elated and funnily walking like a guy who had just ejaculated his brains out told Kaida that his body; at the very least his subconscious; could not forget. It was simply intoxicating knowing she could take on anybody as long as she had that suit and the shadows.

Coastal breeze stroked along Kaida's spotted fur as she suddenly stopped walking. She glanced back at the university with NT Labs annexed to it some six blocks away, then back ahead to the city. Finally, her eyes settled on a large sundial statue which was cleverly projecting its shadow over the beach.

"Too bad the suit has to stay there. There are shadows everywhere..." Kaida muttered, starting to fantasize how different things could be for a nobody like her if she were to use the Idolon Suit outside of the lab. Using Hushes and Snatches in order to manipulate people from the shadows sounded like a much more fun time than limiting herself to be a mere stealth gear test subject.

Nick, Gil and now Jason had been influenced by her actions in the Shadow World. All Kaida had left was two more scientists to put in her proverbial pocket. "But those are still only researchers," Kaida thought, "With the right Hush on the right person, I could have anything I want!"

Beyond the exciting adventures into the Shadow World and the superpowers she had come to enjoy in that place, being able to run things felt like the ultimate form of power. All she needed was to take care of her employers and have them allow her taking the Idolon Suit outside of NT Labs without anybody asking questions. Once Lucille and Dr. Rhodes were convinced of her authority, that would no longer be a problem. "Who cares if I can't hurl myself through the air or shoot fireballs from my hands out here?" Kaida began to smile wider and wider until her fangs began to show in a predatory grin.

"Nobody will be able to ignore me again once I'm through with this place."

As the week progressed, Kaida's plan to have fun with the Idolon Suit outside of work seemed to grind to a halt. Dr. Rhodes was starting to grow more intense and demanding with everybody in the project.

Kaida was introduced to the reworked labyrinth. The layout was now different, having been expanded and additional packages hidden among its many dead ends. More cameras had been installed, and the hanging lamps replaced by bright rows of fluorescent tubes. To her surprise however, she was made to run it without engaging the Idolon Suit at all. She had forgotten what it was like to run outside the Shadow World.

"I will be absent two days from now," Dr. Rhodes boomed out from the cabin, "Important 'friends' of ours will be coming to observe our progress with the Idolon Suit, subject. I will be in a meeting to determine when our demonstration will take place. For the experiment to go on uninterrupted, they must be suitably impressed, do you understand? Shadow-blinking is a phenomenon that requires further study, so we will concentrate on melding, instead. To that end I've asked Lucille and everyone else to modify this obstacle course."

"I-Is there a reason I'm not melded right now, doctor...?" Kaida panted into the mic while running, holding one of the two packages under her arms as the cameras filmed her.

"I want you to grow familiar with the new layout and simultaneously gain physical footage," Dr. Rhodes continued, "Instead of having dark dead ends to blink to and from, we will instead feature entirely dark corridors you will traverse. With limited light, you would otherwise find it difficult to navigate, yes? This will give you an advantage."

Kaida's shins weren't enjoying this advantage at all. She was being timed, as well. Not even P.E. had been this exigent! "Good pay or not, I'm tired of being this lady's lab rat..." she thought, annoyed that she seemed to have missed her chance with Lucille who was back to accompanying Dr. Rhodes all the way up in the cabin.

To get to them one at a time, she had to make sure neither suspected the other was missing when she Snatched them. Kaida wasn't sure she'd be able to successfully pull that off with director and assistant-director being so tightly knit together. For now, she decided to play the nice, good subject.

Putting that part of her plan on the backburner, Kaida instead focused on intelligence gathering. Once she was starting to run into the labyrinth in her fully engaged suit for her new trials, Kaida used every single chance the men were out of sight and Snatched them to have conversations with them.

Kaida started with Nick, who she had to calm down after she realized he had never actually entered the Shadow World before. From the moment he was brought in he wouldn't stop screaming about not wanting to be alone or left behind, about hating how lonely the atmosphere felt; just as desperate and nonsensical as the other two before him had been. She had to catch his attention by slamming her foot down, the resulting tremor causing one of the giant worms to pop out of the ground before dozens of her tamed Dweller pets intercepted it and tore it apart in mid-air. The huge polar bear couldn't stop staring up at the powerful cheetah from atop his knees as if she were the giantess instead.

"Lady Kaida!" Nick screamed, practically bowing down at her feet, "Please spare me! I will humble myself for you; I'll do anything!"

"...lady, now?" Kaida cringed, even if part of her relished the way he was venerating her; that was new. "How many cartoons does this guy watch?" she sighed, but wasted no time in inquiring about security. About cameras outside the locker room where she always left her things. About any sensors and inventory checks. Unfortunately, all Nick confirmed was the lab's closed circuit camera network, but was told Gil often went to security.

After replacing Nick who she only saw shiver before going on with his business, Kaida went back to complete another labyrinth run before moving on to Gil. She had to Hush Nick and Jason away for a moment while being careful not to make them seem suspicious to the observers above.

With Gil, Kaida had a much easier time. She kept a Dweller on her shoulders like an oversized pet lemur while looming large over the shivering meerkat. She was so unbelievably strong within the Shadow World that the huge insect wasn't even making her budge. Gil was eager to answer her security concerns: Sensitive tech like the nanite injector was GPS-tracked. A server storing location logs acted as a real-time manifest that made it doubly hard to move things outside the labs in an unauthorized manner.

"I want the suit for a night. How do I get around that, Gil...?" Kaida pressed, stroking the side of the Dweller at her shoulders; the creature letting out a menacing shriek that made Gil back away in a panic. "Relax. He won't bite. Unless I tell him to."

"I- I suppose if we jammed the tracking signal, or- or disabled it for the night... but I'd have to doctor the location logs too. I could get in trouble..." Gil pleaded.

Kaida didn't reply. But the Dweller cried out, jumping off its mistress' shoulders before landing in front of Gil. The insect-like creature's eyes glared, mandibles opening.

"Eeeee...!" the meerkat squealed, "I will do it! Buh-but to write a program like that on my own..."

"What if Nick helps you? He's pretty good, isn't he?" Kaida suggested, getting a slow nod from the meerkat.

"I guess it'd take us days instead of weeks, yuh-yeah..." Gil's eyes couldn't stop bouncing between Kaida and her pet Dweller. "Please tell this thing to back off, it's going to bite my feet off, I know it will...!"

The Dweller was beckoned by Kaida, who allowed it to climb atop her shoulders again. "You have two days, Gil..." she said to be as precise as she could, but remembered one annoying detail. As far as she knew, victims of a Snatch became sympathetic and susceptible towards her, but seemed to forget everything that happened in the Shadow World. A serious boon for somebody trying to be sneaky like Kaida was, yet counterproductive for anything other than having conversations that only she would remember. She would have to fix this with a Hush for both Gil and Nick.

The day droned on without any suspicion being raised. Kaida put the idea in both coworkers as she wished for and completed the next trials. She had honestly been expecting an easier time for somebody as powerful as she was, but she truly didn't want to have to deal with the consequences of being found out.

Patience was something hard to come by for Kaida. Between the increasingly pushier Dr. Rhodes and Lucille being extra-snappy whenever she took over the intercom, the cheetah was rapidly accumulating stress that she was having trouble dealing with. Her eyes inevitably set on Jason. The telling-off she had received from Lucille not long ago only served to make her want to fuck his brains out even harder. All it took was another Snatching, after all.

By now, Jason was like a devoted, loyal puppy to her and they already knew the motions of how to do it in the Shadow World. Kaida felt vigor returning to her after sexual relief. In fact, she felt stronger and more awake than ever, even after strenuous physical exercise outside. She truly had been missing out all these years! "I could go for another..." Kaida licked her lips hungrily within her mask, staring down at the physically drained goat who looked way worse for wear than she did. "I'll end up breaking you, little man." The straddling cheetah chuckled to herself.

The truth was that Kaida still felt horny, as if her burning libido hadn't been doused one bit. She didn't recall being this fiery even when pleasuring herself in the past. Ever since she had first done it with Jason, Kaida had felt a strange influx of energy bursting within her. At first she thought it had merely been the adrenaline of basically having sex 'out in the open', but when the same jolt made her feel her whole body electrified with power, Kaida began to wonder if, just like with all the incredible phenomena of the Shadow World, sex was having a special effect on her. She definitely felt invigorated and her arousal was still begging her to take a man. She looked out at Nick and Gil with a gradually enlarging grin. "A woman has her needs, after all..." she reasoned with herself.

Fast-time gave Kaida the opportunity to return the sexually exhausted Jason to the real world, only to replace him by Snatching Nick next. She didn't even bother asking him to undress, merely taking his member out and rubbing it until it was hard enough. Nick was happy to please 'Lady Kaida' in whatever way she saw fit. Gil, too, needed little convincing in giving himself up to her. She was so needy and eager for satisfaction, her burning libido so demanding, that even a guy who initially disgusted her was viable to Kaida.

The more she was physical with the researchers, the better she felt. But it wasn't mere sexual gratification. Kaida felt her energy reserves topping off as if she had been guzzling coffee instead of riding males to exhaustion. By the time she had started straddling Gil, she felt all of her muscles tensing and burning with power and orgasmic afterglow didn't so much as make her feel tired.

Unfortunately, no matter how high her libido had become, she was worried about crushing the poor scientists, so she only did them once each and made a mental note to make this a regular ritual for every day she had to wait to get what she wanted.

Days went through almost as quick as Kaida went through Jason, Nick and Gil. Each time she touched them she could feel their vigor seeping into her. All the exercise she was getting metabolized this energy she was taking, adding slight tone to her arms and legs, burning away residual fat in her abdomen that she had always struggled to take care of. Even her virtually nonexistent chest had begun to push out against her clothes.

It was as if the more vitality she took from the guys, the stronger her body became. And the best part was that unlike anything else in the Shadow World, Kaida was bringing all of those changes outside with her. She was surprised, of course, but also intrigued and no less determined to continue using her boytoys as often as their bodies allowed.

It was amusing to Kaida watching the guys limp around with goofy smiles on their faces before she went in to complete disengaged labyrinth runs. They had no idea what was happening to them, yet it all came back to them when she Snatched them; and they wanted it as much as she did. With her seriously improved yet largely unnoticeable musculature, Kaida was starting to enjoy those sprints as well. She had never felt so alive. And she owed it all to her boytoys.

Or her after-run 'snacks', as she inevitably turned to think of them.

Before she knew it, Kaida had developed quite the athletic body. She even had to start thinking of actually getting bras as even her breasts had begun to push into an actual cup-size! She couldn't help but wonder just how far she could take this...

Soon enough, the day Kaida had been waiting for arrived. Dr. Rhodes was away for her meeting and Lucille would likely rejoin the team back on ground level. What the cheetah did not expect was being greeted by Lucille outside the changing room of the lockers that morning.

Understandably, the otter was shocked when she saw Kaida climb out of the changing room in that body-hugging neoprene suit. It had been days since Lucille had seen Kaida face to face after all and she had certainly not prepared herself to see muscle tone lining the cheetah's once scrawny, practically featureless body.

"Morning...?" Kaida had to greet the shocked Lucille first, snapping the mesmerized otter to attention.

"Morning," Lucille tilted her glasses with a little clearing of the throat, pressing her tablet to her chest in a semi-self-conscious manner. With the tight wetsuit hugging her form, Kaida's emerging physique was easy to admire even with its subtle changes: Muscles, hips and bust were all fairly more prominent than before. "Have you um..." Lucille wasn't sure where her question was going. She felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her; that cat didn't have a chest as big as her own weeks before. "...have you been working out?" she finally asked.

Kaida gave Lucille a little shrug. "Just a bit of extra exercise between all this running around you and Dr. Rhodes been having me do!" she smiled.

"...in any case," Lucille huffed, put the nanite injector on Kaida's palm and turned to walk over to the corner door of the locker room, "As you probably recall, Dr. Rhodes is out on a meeting that will determine our showcase in the coming days," she held the door open for Kaida to follow her in. The cheetah strapped her wristband and walked besides the otter. "It might be tomorrow, or in a few days, but we have to be ready. Today, we'll all be setting up thermal detectors and other measuring equipment across the labyrinth."

"Aren't those useless? It's not like anything can detect me when I'm Shadow-melded..." Kaida questioned, getting an impatient sigh from Lucille. Her initial shock had dispersed and the old, bossy otter was back.

"Our showcase aims to demonstrate the Idolon Suit's properties, Kaida," Lucille explained, "How would you demonstrate something is convincingly and unequivocally undetectable?"

"I guess..." before Kaida could respond, Lucille opened the double doors to the testing field, turned to her and spoke.

"You don't guess," Lucille said. "You take everything that might set off a reaction and ensure your material does not. Now, we will be doing some more runs after we finish outfitting the labyrinth. Report to Gil and help the guys with whatever they might need. They probably need a hand carrying some of the boxes and setting the new cameras up. Could use someone to hold up wires for them."

"I'm helping them set up?" Kaida quirked an eyebrow up. It was the first time since the experiments had begun that she was ordered to become a menial helper.

"Will that be a problem?" Lucille turned around with a quiet smile and an icy glare. "Don't tell me you forgot our little chat the other day."

Kaida gulped. "It's not fair. I'm stronger now. The boys will do anything I tell them to. Why is this bitch so good at pushing my buttons?!" she was screaming in her head but presented a shy, docile grin and a silent nod before turning away and walking off.

On her way to Gil, Kaida's expression became sullen and full of disappointment. The comebacks were only occurring to her now. "I honestly couldn't hear you over the sound of Jason babbling about how much he likes me on top." Came to mind as she glanced back and saw the otter and goat discussing something together in the distance; probably more design choices.

It was clear to Kaida that Lucille seemed to have a soft spot for the goat. Sadistic pleasure bubbled up as Kaida briefly fantasized with breaking the otter's heart by showing exactly who was running things behind the scenes. And then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

There was no reason she shouldn't.

"You're looking pretty pale, Jay," Lucille couldn't help but notice a tired, sucked-up expression on her coworker's face. "Have you been missing sleep?"

"No, not really," Jason unwittingly said, putting a hand to his neck and rolling his shoulders, "In fact, I've been going to sleep pretty much as soon as I get back home. Been missing some Warmor 4, though."

Lucille frowned, "That's the game you and Nick like to play online, isn't it? He also seems a bit low-energy. Gil, too. I hope you guys aren't coming down with something. Dr. Rhodes expect us to show off soon. We need everybody in tip top shape for the demo."

"I'll be fine, mom; not like I've been running a fever or sneezing. So... the boys from Virginia, right?" Jason stretched and yawned a little, "It's kinda crazy how far we've come. Think we'll get scouted by DARPA to work full time on R&D?"

Lucille's nostrils flared as she let out a quiet sigh. "Here's hoping. Becoming Dr. Rhodes' assistant had been my dream since I was an intern, but we'll inevitably wrap this project up months, maybe a year from now, huh? It'd be fun to work somewhere that high-profile together... um..." she paused with a little, awkward laugh. "Hey, Jay, do you think maybe we could...?"

Jason's tired eyes were set on Lucille. Before she could finish asking her question though, a loud crackling noise made both of them jump in place. What followed was a waning whirring noise as the lights went out completely. Floodlights and spotlights had all turned off as well, plunging the entire testing field in darkness. It was so dark that Jason and Lucille could only see each other thanks to the light from her tablet's screen. Emergency lights had come on up in the observation room above. "What the heck?! A blackout?!"

"Didn't sound like a transformer blowing out," Jason said. "Shouldn't the backup generator come online in situations like these?"

"Hold on, I'll contact Gary. He should have an answer," Lucille looked down to rummage through her lab coat's pocket for her phone, but when she looked back up something made her gasp. "Jason...?" she called out; the goat was nowhere to be seen. Lucille turned around in the darkness, her brow furrowing as she became unable to locate him. "Jason, where'd you go?"

Finding herself suddenly alone in the dark, all the otter could do was feel her smooth fur starting to stand on end. "Jason!" she raised her voice, "Come on, this isn't funny! Is this one of your stupid pranks?! I'll get really mad!" she threatened, taking a few cautionary steps in the direction of the cabin since it was the only well-lit place, even high above. "Where's everyone?!" she demanded anxiously just as she began to feel a pair of arms draping over her shoulders from behind.

Freezing on the spot, Lucille felt herself getting yanked back, but her scream was drowned out as if she was being submerged underwater. For a brief instant she lost all feeling, even the ability to breathe. She heard a loud heart-beat echoing in her head and the absolute darkness finally dispelled. She could see the testing field again, only it looked all kinds of wrong now. The world had been taken over by dark-red tint and an oppressive atmosphere was making it hard for her to remain on her feet. Lucille dropped her devices to the ground in a panic when she realized she could still feel hands atop her shoulders. She turned around a little too fast and lost her balance, squeaking as she landed on her butt. Looking up, Lucille's heart skipped a beat when she saw not Jason, but the fully-engaged Idolon Suit covering her test subject from head to toe.

"Heya, Lulu," Kaida casually greeted, her jet black-encased tail swishing lazily behind her. "Welcome to my world."

"Your... your world?" Lucille sputtered, "What...?" she narrowed her eyes, "You're fully-engaged. You should be melding in all this darkness. How can I still see you? This doesn't make any sense! What did you do?!"

Lucille's shivering confusion was making Kaida feel all sorts of tingling sensations; all of them delicious. The fact she was floored and looking up at her was positively tantalizing. With a hand rested on her thigh, the cheetah leaned in and simply said: "I brought you in. To show you."

"Show me...?" Lucille was shaking her head. The cheetah had taken to use such a solemn tone all of a sudden; even her body language conveyed such an imperious, larger-than-life impression it was hard for Lucille to accept she was speaking with the same mousey test subject she had come to know. "Shu-show me what...?" she stammered.

"See, I thought I'd make this really long exposition, but you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you," Kaida said in a derisive, condescending tone, "That's why I thought I'd make a show of it. After all, what's life without a little... drama?" a pregnant pause took over as Kaida curled her free arm back and her furled index started to beckon.

Lucille's eyes widened behind her round glasses. Finally, she was looking behind Kaida at someone dragging themselves over the gravel, stopping behind the cheetah and throwing their naked arms around her legs. "Juh-Juh-Jason..." gasped Lucille. In her attempt to get off the ground she immediately lost her footing to the oppressive environment's weight and found herself on her hands and knees, panting out at Kaida: "...I knew it. I knew it had to be you. You've been drugging them, haven't you? You bitch!" she screamed, "What have you been doing to him?!"

The seething rage in Lucille's eyes was all Kaida had been looking forwards to. A little taste of her defeat. "It's not what I've done to him," she purred, "It's what I've been allowing him to do... with me." She brought her hand down, gently stroking Jason's cheek and following his face as he slowly rose up to his naked feet, standing behind Kaida with his snout over her right shoulder and his hands on her sturdy hips.

"Y-you..." Lucille was frothing at the mouth, her teeth clenched with fury. "You're also behind the blackout, aren't you? You have to be. Just what are you trying to do, sabotaging the experiment?! Dr. Rhodes would hate to see this. Nuh-no, I can't let her find out, she would be so disappointed with me..." she began to sob. "Juh-Jason, why?!"

Much as Kaida was enjoying herself, she was starting to notice the emerging pattern of doubt and insecurity everybody she Snatched into the Shadow World went through. In Lucille's case, it was clear she saw the director as some sort of maternal figure whose attention she was constantly vying for. Soon, the otter would become as psychologically malleable and suggestive as the others and there would be little fun in teasing her this openly. That's why the cheetah wasted precious little time and snapped her fingers above her head. "Bring 'em in," she said aloud.

Lucille's ears picked up an unsettling buzzing followed by otherworldly chittering. Her pupils shrank away from her bulged eyes as she saw a couple of flying people approach from a long distance away. The closer they got, the clearer the image became to her. Gil and Nick weren't flying. They were being carried in by flying insectoid hybrids keeping them bound in rope-like appendages.

Lucille almost lost her morning coffee, emitting a drowned out scream when she saw those huge beasts stare her down with their multiple eyes as they gently set their passengers down and released them. "Wuh-what... ? What are those things...?"

"Useful," Kaida smirked, dismissing the Dwellers which left with an intimidating wail. "And so are these two, don't you think?" the cheetah spread her arms out, prompting the shaking polar bear and meerkat to approach her from behind. Nick pressed himself up against Kaida from the side opposite to Jason, while Gil crawled and hugged Kaida from behind, nuzzling the side of her waist. The trio of males, naked or otherwise, looked like they had all popped ecstasy.

"But then again, they're familiar with the layout here. Causing a brief blackout was probably cake to them. That's why I had them fetched instead of expecting them to run all the way back here. It's hard to move around this place without wearing the Idolon Suit. Isn't it, Lulu...?"

Lucille couldn't stop panting. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Her soul was getting crushed by the magnitude of pressure she felt around her. And Kaida lording over her and making all of their coworkers rub against her wasn't helping. They looked like horny animals instead of the highly-intelligent researchers they used to be. And the worst part was the big, infatuated smiles on their faces. They all wanted Kaida. Her new muscles and her snugly-dressed, curvy form.

The sight filled Lucille with jealousy, but also admiration. She hadn't felt his kind of reverence for another since she had first been to Sarah Rhodes' physics lectures while she was still a university student. Lucille was overwhelmed by the visage of someone who projected confidence and self-assurance. The way that once pathetic and meek cheetah just stood there with all three men clinging to her like she was their God was causing Lucille to see a shining light where there was only darkness. A beacon as attractive as it was alluring, and she was but a moth being drawn to its flames.

"We have a bit of work to do, Lulu." Kaida said simply after watching the starry-eyed otter start crawling closer. "And you will make sure not to stand in my way..." her hand left Jason and held out, open for Lucille to nuzzle her face against it like a submissive little puppy, "...won't you?"

A feminine, drawn-out moan filled the Shadow world.

With Lucille hopelessly infatuated, Kaida finally had free reign in the experiment field. To avoid rousing any suspicion from the rest of the labs however, she Hushed the guys to rush over to the janitor in charge of the building's power and 'aid' him in repairing the damage they had done. Once they were back, she had Lucille and Jason worry about setting up for the demonstration while Nick and Gil finished up with the solution Gil had promised her to get the Idolon Suit out for a night.

Out in the real world, she was largely getting the same treatment as before, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened to the four researchers. Kaida was still that cute 5'4" cheetah-shaped guinea pig, yet for some reason, to them, she was looking pretty good not doing any work while on the clock. For once, all Kaida had to do while on the job was lie back and watch the others work, instead. "I can't believe I'm getting paid for this," she chuckled to the irony while relaxing back on a chair. Everything felt so different yet so right.

Lucille was quick to get on others' cases as usual, but this time she showed up with a soda for Kaida, who had asked her for it. At first, it was a little off-putting how the director-assistant was looking at her with her eyes looking the same as they did when Dr. Rhodes was in her field of view. But Kaida couldn't deny it made her feeling of self-importance swell. This was what it meant to be above others, after all. It was something she would gladly start getting used to. "She's still probably jealous and is having trouble sorting her feelings for me..." Kaida couldn't help but amuse herself at the chaos she had sowed.

Soon enough, Nick and Gil had finished with their preparations. Through a little bit of chatting with Lucille, she coaxed out from the otter that Dr. Rhodes's meeting was taking part across state lines and that she would only return with their high-profile guests once the official date for the showcase was decided. This would give Kaida some time, but she made sure to set Lucille up for notifying her as soon as she heard Dr. Rhodes was coming back. Kaida knew she was practically free to do as she wished, but she wasn't so arrogant as to admit she'd want to leave any loose ends untied.

Every hurdle had been cleared for now. Kaida left right after lunch, sauntering down the corridor to the locker room where she got her regular clothes back and wore them over her wetsuit. Her jacket sleeve covered the wrist-mounted nanite device. As she got her check from Margaret at reception, Kaida felt like a clever movie heister, extracting herself and super-secret technology through the main door.

All in all, NT Labs had been fun for her, but Kaida was a city cat. And it was time for the cat to play outside.

Chapter 5: Devotion

Mr. Nguyen was a middle-aged rat supervising one of many electronics stores at the downtown mall. From phone and computer accessories as well as the odd videogame console and games, his racks were always fully lined with goods loud kids with rich parents dragging them over to the mall. And thanks to his new, highly popular hire, the demographic had expanded to much older guys willing to buy cheap cased earphones just to have a chat with her.

There was no doubt in old Nguyen's mind. Rosa had managed to drum up business at his little corner store in the mall. The girl still could've stood to learn the difference between iTunes and any other music player, but the rat really wasn't paying her for her ability to inform clients. Most of them didn't even pay attention above her neck.

"I said USB-C, that's micro, lady. Who even uses micro-USB these days?"

"Oh. Then why don't you use this one? It's the one I use and it charges really, really fast! I saw lots of those in the back!" Rosa quickly reached down to produce a white charging cable, showing her customer the pin.

"That's 8-pin! I don't use Apple stuff. Do you even know what you're selling...?"

Mr. Nguyen came down from the register, gently coaxing his lioness assistant to move, allowing him to take over. The truth was the girl had a big smile and an even bigger pair of boobs, but the latter didn't help when the client was savvy and wasn't interested in women. "Sorry about that, sir. How about I show you our fast-charging, rapid data transfer cables over here?" he said with a grin, turning to Rosa and gesturing towards the back, "Rosa dear, why don't you run inventory for now? Make sure everything's in order, yes?"

"Oh, okay! Sure thing, Mr. Nguyen," the curvy lioness said with a smile, walking into the store's back room and closing the door behind her. The back room was dimly lit by a sole hanging lightbulb. Rosa was used to ticking boxes and she was getting good at it. Mr. Nguyen was an old-fashioned owner, so he still kept his inventory records all on paper. Before she could reach for the clipboard on top of the drawer on the corner, she heard a click and the lightbulb above her turned off. She felt a cold breeze suddenly cut through her waist.

Rosa shivered and gasped, feeling a small tug out of nowhere. "Whu...?" she barely managed to look down before the tug turned into a strong pull that forced her to fly backwards screaming. After she finished sliding all the way back against a stack of boxes, Rosa grunted and realized the lights were back on, except everything had changed to a dark-red coloration and it was getting hard to breathe.

Standing above Rosa was Kaida who slowly approached with a bit of a gait in her step. Of course, to Rosa this was just a feline in all-black, defined musculature and fairly curvy proportions. If she hadn't committed Kaida to memory it wasn't going to happen now. And Kaida was fine with that. "Who are you...?" the blonde asked, eyes widening in terror.

Dropping her weight down onto Rosa, Kaida straddled the taller female, staring her down through her visor. She boldly took Rosa's breasts in her hands and gave them a squeeze, eliciting a reluctant moan from the lioness. "Knew it. Plastic," she said aloud, prompting Rosa's cheeks to blush. "I don't see what Justin sees in you, but it can't be this fat pair of lies, can it...?"

"Who-who do you think you are?!" Rosa shouted angrily, bothered by the abuse, "How do you know Justin? A-and let go of my chest! Not my fault you got breast-envy, girl!"

"Envy, huh?" Kaida grinned behind her mask, taking a brief little gander down at her own chest. It had been further augmented by all the vitality she had taken from her coworkers to the point they actually stuck out against her body-hugging suit. While Kaida figured she was close to a C-cup by now she was nowhere close to Rosa's top-straining knockers.

She repeated the word 'Envy' in her head while setting her eyes on the nervous lioness. "You know, Rosa," she started talking back, surprising the lioness with the knowledge of her name. "Once, I would've agreed with you. I used to be so envious and jealous of everybody. You and so many others have it so easy being able to be seen, heard, acknowledged... it used to feel unfair. Now?" she took a pause as she leaned closer and closer to the increasingly tenser Rosa, Kaida's mask inches away from her face, "I don't really envy your position at all."

"What do you mean?!" Rosa demanded only to scream as she saw Kaida's mask open a hole in the center. She could see straight through Kaida's head as if a baseball had been pitched with enough force to bore through. "What the fuck? Your head! Your..." she stammered, watching something gooey and unpleasant crawl up into the hole before spurting out in Rosa's direction. A Banshee-like wail shook the Shadow World as jet-black tendrils shot out of Kaida's face hole, wrapping around Rosa's head.

The blonde's screams were muffled as her body squirmed, still helplessly pinned down by Kaida. The tendrils hugged her head, shoved themselves down her throat and sucked on her face like she was receiving the world's most horrifying kiss. Rosa thought she was going to choke to death. And in the next instant, Kaida pulled her head away. No tendrils or face hole in sight. Only a jet-black, abnormally long yet arguably normal tongue slipping away from Rosa's mouth and into Kaida's black fanged maw. It closed down and once more the terrified lioness was looking at her masked captor. "Whu-wuh..." the lioness babbled, entirely susceptible now.

Kaida couldn't hold it in anymore. She had to know. Grabbing Rosa by the underside of her chin, she held her head in place and asked. "Why are you seeing Justin?"

After a moment of gasping with a vacuous stare, Rosa gave Kaida a goofy smile and a small shrug. "He's uhh... like, really cute and junk. And I heard his dad's totally loaded... He's saving me a ton of money on awesome dinners, so it must be true!" the lioness giggled.

There was a little pause. Kaida's fingers could've snapped the jawbone right off that blonde's perfect chin. But she held back. "Poor little Rosa," Kaida looked down upon the overwhelmed lioness with drool dripping down her overwhelmed mouth, taking her hand off Rosa's chin and wiping it across the larger feline's uniform. "You still think you like guys?" she grinned, tracing a finger down the store clerk's cleavage next, "When I'm through with you, you won't."

Rosa was dead silent, yet panting. She couldn't stop nodding, eventually growing a vapid, empty smile as she went from confused and scared to completely infatuated and submissive. And she was only the start. After the lioness came Mr. Nguyen.

The old rat had dared to fire her when he knew she was having a hard time with money. And all because she didn't have big tits like Rosa did. Kaida waited until the store owner showed up, pushed Rosa out and Snatched him before he could go flip the light back on.

Kaida decided to torture the rat with a vision of his store burning up which was easy to conjure when flame towers were so easy to manage in the Shadow World and the damage did not actually translate into the other world. Kaida took the chance to remind him what a discriminatory jerk he had been with a loyal employee of his, and as Mr. Nguyen's fear of the phantom-like feline drew in familiar chittering, she made use of Dwellers to further scare him with the nightmarish idea of 'pests' tearing everything apart.

"Only two showed up. There had to be at least twenty back in the labs..." Kaida thought as she absentmindedly watched her victim cower under her ability to make the Dwellers twist themselves into even more deformed monstrosities for his terror and her amusement. She thought it made sense to find more Dwellers in the city's Shadow World, but it was odd the bigger place wasn't teeming with the critters. She figured she'd be able to bring some from the labs if she really needed to, though.

By the time Mr. Nguyen started begging pathetically, Kaida had had enough. Any more and she thought he might die of a heart attack, so she dispelled every flame tower and dismissed both Dwellers immediately. She was here for her idea of justice, not murder. "I'm hoping you'll treat your future employees better... sir." Kaida put sarcastic emphasis at the end before rolling the cowering rat out of the Shadow World with a foot.

Letting out a cathartic sigh, Kaida stretched her arms and moved back out to the mall's public bathroom where she had hidden her clothes. She put them back on after disengaging the Idolon Suit and left to grab a quick snack.

While eating, Kaida checked the time on her phone and began to smile. "Justin's probably back home," she put a hand to her thigh, rubbing it and biting her lips in playful anticipation. "I'm thicker now, but also up top," she gently brushed her arms together, feeling her larger bust apply a little soft resistance. It felt so weird finally having breasts to think about. "He'll like it, I bet. Can't wait to see his face..."

Kaida's figure wasn't the only thing that had blown up after all. Her increased sexual appetite reminded her that she had only banged Jason back in the labs; and she knew exactly who to use for that. The cheetah shot Justin a quick text telling him she had something to show him later at night; and that she'd bring food. "You also deserved a bit of the new me," Kaida thought with an excited grin. He had always been such a good friend, after all.

That night, Kaida showed up to Justin's apartment in a nice new dress she had picked up at the shopping mall. Her new figure filled out nicely, and since Kaida had bought her first bra in years, she was taking advantage of its push-up function to make her nice C-cups stick out in the first real cleavage of her life. She still felt embarrassed about using a stuffed bra way back at the end of high-school. But now it was all hers.

But the reaction she got from showing all of her in that nice dress to Justin wasn't exactly what she had been hoping for. She had been half-way expecting him to immediately go: "Did you bring the egg-rolls I like so much?!" as usual - and she had - but the husky jock appeared bummed out at first.

"Hey, Spots..." Justin greeted with only a quarter of his usual energy. He froze up a bit when he was caught off-guard by the girlish clothes, which naturally brought his attention to Kaida's breasts before returning to her face. "Uhh..." he had to make a double take, "You're looking good," he brought a hand up to rub behind his head, "Bit overdone for Chinese, don't you think?"

"At least he's laughing like a cute dumbass again," Kaida remarked to herself as her frown softened. As she walked in, for the first time in their friendship Justin took the bags of food off her arms and brought them over to his coffee table, himself. "Thanks," she finally replied to his comment, rubbing an arm uneasily, "Just wanted to show you how well I've been doing lately but... is something wrong?"

Justin sighed and plopped on his couch before inviting Kaida to sit down to join him. The husky shook his head and smiled with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Forget it, it's dumb. Let's eat. You got a heck of a spread over here, Spots."

"Turns out not having to worry about budgeting rice and deli ham for the next month really opens up one's appetite," Kaida grinned.

"Oh yeah. How's the job? You guys invent new rocket fuel or something?" Justin asked while opening the box of dumplings and opening the sweet-and-sour dip on the side. "Haven't seen you in forever."

"Just been really, and I mean really busy," Kaida mentioned, "Which reminds me..." she said, reaching down for her wallet and taking out some money which she politely set down on the table. "The rest of my debt. Thanks for all of your help, Justin."

"Whoa, forget rocket fuel," Justin quirked a brow up, "Are you guys experimenting on a money printer?"

They both laughed and started eating. In the middle of the meal, Kaida wouldn't stop stealing glances at Justin, feeling a little awkward that he wouldn't spare her the same courtesy. An inner flame in the cheetah's loins was urging her to make her move and not to wait. But Justin's absent-mindedness inevitably made her worry and also filled her with an overpowering curiosity. "Hey, Justin um... I don't mean to pry or anything but is everything alright? You really seem kinda down."

Setting his own food down, the canine sighed and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. With a click of his tongue and a small pause, he finally spoke aloud: "I'd started dating a really nice girl," he was tapping his palms on his knees and avoiding eye contact. "Happened shortly after you went to work at NT Labs, actually." He sighed, gesturing emptily at the air, looking unsure. "And y'know me, I like to sleep around but... it kinda started getting serious."

Kaida remembered that knee tapping, nervous glancing habit of his whenever Justin used to beat around the bush about not having done his homework during tutoring. She could tell he was holding something back. Unfortunately for him, she already knew. But she pretended she didn't. "And what happened?"

"Ahh, well... she was uhm..." Justin stumbled upon his words, "She's... I guess it doesn't really matter who she is now. But I thought we had something. Like for reals, Spots. I felt like she got me, understand? Anyway... I got a call like an hour, maybe two hours ago. She dumped me. Said it wasn't working for her anymore. She... said she found someone else. A girl? Kayla...? She dumped me for a chick..."

Kaida remained silent. He had refused to speak Rosa's name, but she knew. Quietly setting her food down, Kaida stood up and walked around the coffee table to sit next to Justin's side. She began to lean over and put an arm around him with a gentle smile. "She was a bitch," Kaida said without holding back.

"Spuh-Spots...?" Justin shifted uncomfortably on his seat, although his tail gradually started wagging behind him when he felt the sturdy touch of the strong cheetah's arms.

"She obviously didn't know how to appreciate a man like you, Justin."

"That's a strong grip..." Justin laughed nervously as his own arm draped over the curvy, muscular cheetah. "You've been working out, haven't you?"

Purring, Kaida walked two of her fingers up the dog's chest. "I could show you, if you like."

There was a brief pause during which the two neighbors' eyes met. Kaida's blue eyes were simply shining with lust. Justin saw it as their snouts began to close in, but his hand eventually came in-between them. He gently pushed Kaida back by the shoulder. "I... I can't..."

Kaida could barely hold in her shock. Her newly found sexy confidence seemed to shatter to bits and she instinctively pulled away on the couch, eyes quivering with self-doubt. She couldn't look away from Justin. "You don't find me attractive..."

"No, no! No, it's not that... I think you look great. Luh-like, wow, Spots. It's like you've had a total makeover, but it's still you and..."

"You don't like me; you don't want me," Kaida spoke in rapid bursts. Justin tried reaching out for Kaida, but she stood up and backed away before he could grab her arm.

"Look, I'm sorry, Spots," the handsome husky stood up after her, his ears flopping. "Any other night I'd be up for it but... I'm kinda dealing with something right now. I just..."

"Can't stop thinking about Rosa, can you?" Kaida huffed.

"So, you knew...?" Justin closed his eyes, deflated.

"I saw her once or twice coming out of your apartment. I was really surprised seeing her more than once."

Justin began to explain, gesturing with his hands. "I swear it kinda just happened. We bumped into each other at a party, I was drunk but then we..."

"Started to 'get' each other, right?" Kaida huffed again, the fires of jealousy starting to consume her. "Figures he'd seriously fall for that bimbo. It just figures!" she thought, her stare starting to turn into a glare of contempt.

"Duh-don't look at me like that, Spots," Justin tried, "C'mon, we're still friends, aren't we? I know you hate her guts for taking your job. But she's... she's uh... out of my life now. You won't see her around again."

"But you'll keep thinking about her, won't you?" Kaida's thoughts were a mess. Without thinking she had brought miserable pain to her dear friend and simultaneously ruined her chances at satisfying her own needs. Between her uncontrollable libido and the hatred at this awkward, humiliating situation that she had brought upon herself, what rose through her was a desire to have it all under her control again.

"I can fix it," she finally told herself, looking at Justin's depressed face and cocking her head to the side, an idea bubbling in Kaida's head. "I'm sorry, Justin," she apologized, turned to go get her wallet and keys off the table and hurried to the door. "I'll make it up to you."

Justin was about to go after Kaida, to beg her not to leave angry, but he grinded to a halt after the first step. "Wuh... what?" he was so confused at the sudden promise that all he could do was watch Kaida disappear behind his closing door. "Why was she grinning like that...?"

Fifteen minutes, five ignored calls and a stream of delivered but unread direct messages later, Justin had had enough trying to get ahold of Kaida. "I need to let her cool off, I guess. I can see her tomorrow in person..." the husky yawned and set his phone down, getting off the couch for a stretch when the lights suddenly went out. "Ugh, just perfect. Not like I was gonna clean all this up anyway..." he carefully walked around the table with the leftover Chinese and was about to reach for his phone for temporary illumination when he heard a knock at his door.

"One of the neighbors? Maybe it's building-wide," Justin thought, swiping the phone and turning on the flashlight before putting a pep in his step. "Kaida?" he said hopefully as he opened the door, but there was no one there. The corridor was empty and just as dark as his apartment. "That's strange..." Justin huffed. But before he could entertain the thought maybe he was hearing things; he felt a cold embrace from behind and was pulled back into the shadows of his own apartment.

"Hey again, puppy boy," Kaida purred over Justin's neck, holding him still.

"Spuh-Spots?!" Justin gasped, his ears and fur standing on end as he cottoned to the fact the area was no longer black, but eerie and overwhelming. "When did you come back into my apartment? What..." he paused, noticing her black arms around his body, and with a quick glance backwards he saw the rest of her encased in a pure black bodysuit, "...what's all this?"

The horny cheetah couldn't stop grinding herself against her neighbor. "I'm sorry I stormed out like that," she chirped while boldly feeling the husky's sturdy body up. "But I promise I'll make it stop hurting, Justin. Just leave it all up to me."

"What're you talking about, Spots? Hey!" Justin struggled against her when he felt her hands on his groin, catching Kaida off guard and pulling himself free, although the dark-red atmosphere's pressure made him stumble and almost fall. He caught himself against the wall and looked back at Kaida with a frown, "Thu-this isn't like you, Kaida. What's going on? Is this..." his eyes wandered around the strange, dark-red version of his apartment, "...is this what you couldn't tell me about your job?"

"What are you waiting for? Take him!" Kaida's inner voice demanded that man in front of her. He was shivering. For once since she had met Justin, she was seeing him in a vulnerable state. "I'm here for you, Justin," Kaida said, stretching her arms out while sauntering closer. "I know it feels weird, but soon it won't. Just let me..."

Justin's legs were buckling. He was rapidly losing it to the Shadow World's pressure. "Kaida, what is this place? What..." he puffed, sliding down against the wall with breathing difficulty, "...what are you doing to me...?" he whimpered when the black-clad feline began to climb him over.

"I'm letting you love me," Kaida purred, starting to grind herself against Justin again.

"Nuh-nothing matters..." the depressed and confused Justin babbled, "There's no point in anything. I don't know where my life is going, Kaida..."

"There is_a point, Justin," Kaida assured, "Forget about Rosa," she said, undressing the husky. Her inner voice was celebrating already. Kaida's eyes were starting to flash red behind her visor. "Focus on me." She ordered as she took his pants off, sliding them down to his ankles, "She didn't love you. Loving a shallow bitch like her _is pointless. So make it a point to love me , instead."

Justin's tail began wagging left and right fast.

Sex was fantastic. The Shadow World began to dispel around them when the main breaker of the building inevitably got found and fixed, but even when the sudden stream of light got them both kicked out it didn't stop them for long.

After closing the door to Justin's apartment, they moved to his bedroom to continue with Kaida disengaging her suit; finally enjoying their fully naked bodies together. Kaida had never had someone like Justin before. He wasn't only virile and strong, but also seemingly inexhaustible. That combined with Kaida's enhanced libido had them both going until morning.

And yet when the sun started rising, Kaida still found herself wide awake. Even outside of the Shadow World her body had become so unassumingly strong that even her endurance had grown beyond average. The only reason they weren't doing it any longer was because the husky was conscious no longer.

"I love you so much, Spots," Justin mumbled in his sleep, giving the cheetah pause.

"It worked..." she mumbled to herself. Any other day hearing even a sleepy love confession from her hunky friend would've stolen her breath away. But Kaida wasn't enjoying it at the level she imagined she would. "Why did I order him to love me...?" was the question bouncing in her head as she slid off the husky's arm and slipped out of the bed.

Looking at the smiling Justin, Kaida could tell he had literally fucked all of his worries away. She truly had 'fixed' him, in a way. On the other hand, she started to wonder if what she felt for him was anything similar. He was good looking, he was capable, charming and confident; Kaida would be lying to herself is he had never seen him in a positive light. And then the Shadow World had shown him to her at his most vulnerable: An aimless, lost boy with little faith in the future. In the course of a few hours, she had managed to restore him and from now on he would be just as devoted to her as every other one of her Snatched victims. She had gone from being invisible as a woman to the love of his life. No confusion, no insecurity, just singularly obedient direction.

"That's it..." Kaida murmured while reaching down for her suit on the ground. She hadn't bothered to remove the wristband. As she slowly made her way outside of Justin's bedroom, she paid him one last glance. "This isn't about me being visible to anybody; it never was," her gaze began to harden, eyes gaining focus that for a moment she thought she'd lost. "Forget respect. Acknowledgement. It's not about making them a part of my life..." Kaida began to smile, starting to dress herself back up. She engaged the Idolon Suit and slowly melded into the shadows in the corner.

Their lives should all be devoted to me.

---

---

For the rest of the day, Kaida started a small tour around the neighborhood.

She started at the bank three blocks away from her apartment, where she knew the clerk who had denied her a loan worked. Kaida still remembered what it was like not having a penny to her name; the despair of knowing she might be out of a home; needing to beg for help.

It was easy to invade the Shadow World of the bank's covered parking lot. All she had to do was wait around the time her target would arrive in his fancy car. Her target was a skunk. Another member of the fortunate elite. Kaida was quick and just shy of merciless.

With the skunk Snatched into the shadows, Kaida made him experience horrible things: His car being destroyed by rampaging, howling Dwellers. The ground opening up with a mass of squirmy tentacles coming out to squeeze the air out of his lungs, but never hard enough to allow him to lose consciousness. Kaida roared at him all the petty insults and enraged remarks she had held back on the day he had so snottily told her: "Tough break, young lady."

By the time she was done with him and he returned to the outside world, the bank employee looked distraught, reaching for his phone with the idea of placing calls and making things right. His wobbly legs carried him into the bank to get to work. No later than half an hour later, Kaida's notifications showed an e-mail from her bank, using terminology she was unfamiliar with yet boiling down to an error making her the beneficiary of compensation. Her account soon was flush with an important injection of funds.

Like that, the cheetah began to pay visits to anyone she remembered having given her a hard time. From previously abusive part-time bosses and coworkers to job interviewers who had mocked her stuttering habit when she got nervous; all the way down to her high-school bullies. They would all soon remember her name, and the desperate apologies would soon follow alongside confessions of their terrible behavior online. Kaida made sure they all learned what a true, nightmarish bully could be.

By the time she was through with most of her list, Kaida realized night had fallen. Streetlamps were close calls with their flickering, but she found that with her ability to clear impossible jumps and climb to be wherever she wanted to be in seconds, the city had become just a scaled-up version of the experiment back at NT Labs.

Sitting at the edge of the bank building she had visited early that morning, Kaida flipped through social media while admiring her work. She had made sure nobody mentioned her name in their posts; just their horrible misdeeds. When she was checking mail, she saw Justin had been leaving her audio messages all day, but she also saw a message from Lucille which urged her to check. They had been covering for her, but Dr. Rhodes had just told her the demo would be held first thing in the morning on the next day. "Time to go home, I guess..." the cheetah huffed, a bit disappointed her fun had to end.

As she was standing up and getting ready to leave however, Kaida heard the screams of a woman running down the alleyway between the bank and its neighboring building. She couldn't see well, from so far above, but she was clearly getting chased by at least half a dozen guys. Kaida didn't know any of them. "There are so many of them. Too bad I can't get all of them at the same time..." she said just as the small collection of Dwellers she had recruited earlier began to show up behind her. "...then again...?"

"Haha! Where are you going, darling?"

"C'mere, have some fun with us!"

"You didn't think the cocktails were free, didja?!"

"Get away from me, freaks!! POLICE!" the running girl called out as she ran. She was missing one of her shoes and decided to throw her remaining one at her persecutors. "PLEASE HELP!" the screamed at the top of her strained, burning lungs. But her feet weren't carrying her any further any faster. "Please...! Huh...?" the panting lady turned around to see nobody coming at her anymore. The alleyway was empty.

But its Shadow World was filled with the screams of six would-be-rapists caught or otherwise ensnared by six growling Dwellers obeying their mistress. Kaida was looking down at them from above, giving herself time to come up with creative ways to make those predators suffer. In some cases, devotion to her wasn't sufficient.

Mr. Nguyen had fired Rosa for her and was already trying to give her more money to make up for his pitiful severance check. Rosa had stepped away from Justin's life. She had nothing these six idiots could give her. So instead her order was for them to turn themselves in. But they'd have time to do that after she was done having her fun with them. They all needed to be given a taste of helplessness, of having their true selves exposed to their abuser, of knowing there was no escape.

She'd bring late pizza to Justin for being a good and patient boy.

Morning on the next day began earlier than usual for Kaida. Knowing the time Dr. Rhodes and her entourage would arrive thanks to Lucille, she made it a point to show up a good deal of time earlier. She returned to the premises much like how she had exited last time, Idolon Suit concealed by her clothes.

Nick was waiting in the locker room, coffees in paw as usual. She asked about any news while getting changed and learned the others had set up the container labyrinth just how Lucille had mentioned a couple days ago. Nothing seemed to have changed and she assumed neither Lucille nor Nick mentioning anything about her day off meant her little excursion had been a resounding success.

Walking back into the experiment field, Kaida thought of what a similar sensation to returning home this was. It had only been two nights and a day she had been away from it, and yet the young girl felt she had been on a long journey of discovery, and this was her homecoming.

Kaida was surprised when she found she could detect the individual presence of every Shadow-Dweller in the field even without engaging her suit. She could sense them lurking about in every adequate shadow. She could almost see one of them following Nick's shadow, as if waiting for her command to Snatch him. "My connection to the Shadow World here must be stronger than anywhere else..." she mused as she glanced about.

The floodlights were off since the dome was open and natural light was pouring in. Entry points were few and far between, but the Dweller hanging about in Nick's shadow gave her an idea.

Kaida didn't have to wait long to see Dr. Sarah Rhodes emerging from the double doors leading in from the main labs, a group of five walking in with her. Accompanying the tall avian was a big, scary-looking Doberman dressed in a decorated military outfit like the ones she used to see in war videogames. The Doberman was holding his cap under his arm.

The four other anthros following closely behind him and Dr. Rhodes were wearing common military fatigues and caps. The rigid front soldiers' walk made Kaida giggle a little, especially the big contrast between their immutable facial expressions and the curiously gazing soldiers in the back. The latter were carrying some sort of tablet PCs, so Kaida assumed the two at the front were security and the other two were military scientists.

With her usual sharp gaze, Dr. Rhodes stopped shy of looming over Kaida. "Good morning to you." The secretary-bird greeted simply, stepping to the side so the equally intimidating Doberman could also have his turn lording the almost entire foot of difference between him and Kaida. Eyes bouncing between the director and military man, the cheetah's spotted tail couldn't stop swishing left and right.

"So, this is your test subject, is she, Rhodes?" the Doberman asked without even looking in the avian's direction. "A sportsy type, eh?" he was clearly sizing her up. Kaida found herself standing up straighter than usual, but while the old her would've instantly started shaking and babbling, she remitted herself to merely returning a quiet yet steely gaze. "I like those eyes, young lady," the military man finally stuck his hand out. "Know that your work is aiding your country."

Kaida firmly shook hands with the canine. It was the first time she had ever gotten that kind of compliment about her eyes; probably because she always avoided contact with them. For a moment, she began to wonder if he was just cordial or if he truly could see something in her eyes; perhaps the burning new ambition of her life. "Thank you..." she finally said with a smile, and after a short pause added: "...sir. My name's Kaida."

"Well met, Kaida. General Edmund Blake," the Doberman introduced himself, "I work alongside DARPA's chief director. We've been following progress on Dr. Rhodes' Idolon project. My subordinates and I are here today on her behalf so that we can observe and measure. We're hoping for a good show." General Blake then turned to Dr. Rhodes, "Speaking of which, are we ready for the demonstration, then?"

"My assistant tells me we're ready to begin at any moment," Dr. Rhodes responded, gesturing at the labyrinth at the far end of the testing field using a winged arm. "Are you ready, subject?"

Kaida let out a little huff. She personally felt like she was well past being a mere test subject. As she watched the half-dozen people walk off in the direction of the labyrinth, her right hand balled into a fist. She could almost hear her hissing, otherworldly pets eager to carry out her will and Snatch all of them into the Shadow World at once. But she calmed down. That would be so easy and quick. She wanted to toy with her prey a little. "They want a show first, don't they?" Kaida smiled to herself, having become a fan of using dramatic effect in the last few days.

The demo group stood at the exit of the labyrinth where Lucille aided Dr. Rhodes with a brief and concise description of Shadow-melding and the goal of showing the Idolon Suit's capability of avoiding complete detection from conventional sensors and as well as the naked eye. Meanwhile, Nick, Gil and Jason made sure every instrument and display were working perfectly. There were a variety of monitors with several video feeds, including those from the multitude of cameras distributed within the labyrinth. Once Kaida was in position, the demonstration went underway.

There was nothing that remained of the word 'obstacle' for the course she was meant to navigate. Even though the warm-up run consisted of Kaida performing a single-package extraction without melding to first show the observers what the course looked like for a normal person, the cheetah had energy to spare. Kaida received a few gasps of admiration from the outsider scientists when she first fully engaged the suit before their eyes. Up until then they had only seen footage of it, as evidenced by their surprise.

Kaida began to run melded courses one after another while the General and scientists observed from a distance, where they could see evidence of her disappearance, and the packages vanishing, as Kaida retrieved them. Each time they saw the well-toned cheetah in the bodysuit melt away into the shadows of the labyrinth and come out on the other side with the packages safely tucked under her arms, they seemed to grow all the more mesmerized. Except for the General, who seemed to be watching it all deep in thought.

Dr. Rhodes shared the General's mostly expressionless visage. She simultaneously kept tabs on the demo while stealing multiple glances from Lucille over fractions of a second. "You're distracted, darling."

"Huh...? Oh!" Lucille quickly pressed her tablet to her chest, realizing Dr. Rhodes had her hand open in front of her, expecting something. "Yes, doctor. I didn't forget." The otter smiled, fishing a pair of shades out from her coat pocket.

"General." Dr. Rhodes took the shades and offered them to General Blake. "Adapted from the Idolon-LCD hybrid we came up with for the suit's visor, this is currently the only aid capable of detecting a Shadow-melded unit."

General Blake harrumphed, "Peculiar filter, I must say," the Doberman commented after confirming Kaida was still visible after the start of her latest run, immediately returning the shades. "You said we were out of the element, Rhodes."

There was so much repetition one could take before things got boring. By the third run Kaida was simply having Dwellers fetch her the packages and bring them to her at the end of the labyrinth.

"It's true," Dr. Rhodes shot back, replacing her glasses with the shades so she could take her own turn observing. She saw something that didn't agree with her, but she managed to keep herself talking. "We had to dismantle and repurpose what we used for our drone to finish the suit. However, we now understand enough of the Idolon's composition to synthetize its basic properties. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near the stage to begin mass-production."

"We allowed you to keep all of it, Rhodes. And all you have to show for it is a pair of shades and one souped up stealth suit," the General harrumphed again. "You have to give me something. I will allow your project to continue here, with your team, but you will forward all your data concerning element synthesis to my aides before we leave. Understood?"

Dr. Rhodes turned to the labyrinth. "That will be enough, subject," the secretary-bird finally waved Kaida down.

As she disengaged and set the last batch of packages down, Kaida's thoughts droned on about having the project director in her pocket; her assistants were one thing but someone of her position was bound to have powerful connections. The idea made Kaida shiver with delight. The military man and his posse had seemed less interesting to her, but when she thought about it, she realized there was no way General Blake didn't have powerful connections, too.

Eager for the Snatching to start, Kaida was finally done with the preamble and was ready to turn shock and awe up a few notches. "Time for the main show." the cheetah turned to the unsuspecting group of observers, sauntering towards them as she mentally commanded the Dwellers to position themselves on each person's shadow.

Kaida was ready, but something was bothering her about Dr. Rhodes and the General; they were looking at each other with glares that could've stabbed with dagger-like precision. "Oooh. Maybe the drama's started ahead of me," Kaida thought.

"Indeed, General," Dr. Rhodes finally responded to the Doberman, "Your terms are fair, of course. My assistant will forward our data to yours." She acquiesced, getting a satisfied nod from General Blake, and began discussing terms with him.

The cheetah frowned, realizing she had walked into nothing more than some negotiation that had no pertinence to her. The Dwellers were wiggling erratically in place, seemingly growing as antsy as she was. But before she could begin, Dr. Rhodes said something that finally piqued her curiosity.

"...and can I expect to see you at the gala tonight, General?" the avian casually brushed her silver hair out of the way before folding her winged arms.

"I'm not much for parties," General Blake admitted, "But it's a part of my trip. Your city's mayor is an old colleague of mine, after all."

"He's a fan of these fundraisers. Every major authority in the city will be making an appearance, as I understand," Dr. Rhodes sighed, "Honestly, it's drivel. But it'd reflect poorly on me if I don't also attend. Well, that should be all for now. Shall we adjourn to the university's cafeteria? I'm sure you'd like to pay your respects to the dean, General." Finally, the avian turned to Kaida, taking her shades off and looking straight at her: "We're done for today, subject. Most illuminating performance." She then told Lucille to wrap things up for her, as she would retire until the big event at night.

Kaida had to stop her tail from twitching as she watched the demo group being escorted out by Dr. Rhodes. "A fundraiser gala," she excitedly repeated in her head. "They'll be there, everyone will...?" the reviewed, almost drooling at the idea of having the mayor and other powerful figures in her pocket. Forget free gifts, money or tardy apologies: She could start having real influence, work the city and start running it from the shadows. "I'm settling for a ham sandwich here. I could go for the mother of all steak dinners!" she tried not to grin too much, mentally thanking Dr. Rhodes for the bit of intel. "You all get a little more time being yourselves until tonight..." she thought with a roguish smirk.

Coaxing the time and place for the gala was cake for Kaida; Lucille was an organic schedule for Dr. Rhodes after all. And after making sure with Gil that she could still sneak the suit out with everyone else being none-the-wiser, Kaida carefully, if hastily, made her way out of NT Labs once again. So eager in her purpose that she didn't even stop at registration, or bothered to listen to Margaret telling her she was forgetting her pay for the day.

Kaida spent that afternoon casing the joint. The reception for the fundraiser gala was happening at an uptown hotel; and it would begin around 6. Sunlight would be almost entirely gone by then and shadows would be abundant but the hotel's lighting could prove to be an issue; especially at a showy event; she didn't want a repeat of what had happened to her at NT Labs with the flickering lamps.

Security was already heavy around the building, but that was to be expected. Since she wasn't thinking of going in through the front, she checked the back. In order to preserve her inconspicuousness, she decided she'd go incognito, take care of the lights and then meld into the hotel's Shadow World to have her fun with all the guests. All Kaida had to do for her plan was find out was where to go in from and who the one in charge of maintenance was. Kaida chose the service entrance and it didn't take long for her to find out who the hotel's janitor was.

As reception for the gala was starting, Kaida took care of the one guard at the service entrance by using a Dweller to lure him out to a dark corner, where she Hushed to him about a last minute delivery. She later showed up to the service entrance dressed like a delivery company employee, holding an empty box for extra credibility.

Making use of her guise to have the staff guide her to the janitor, she easily singled him out. Being seductive had become second nature to her by now. She led him into a closet where the moment the door closed, she was finally able to drop her outfit. Three clicks, and she was melded.

The closet door soon cracked open and the janitor walked out with a slightly disturbed, chilled expression on his face. He kept mumbling something about needing to perform emergency maintenance in the generator room. Light poured into the closet, forcing Kaida out of the Shadow World and she disengaged, making sure to close the door behind the janitor as she lied in wait in the darkness by herself, like a predator preparing for the hunt to begin.

Within minutes, she heard clicks from several lights outside failing. Kaida gently pushed the door to the closet open and smirked. " Now it's going to be a show..." she sang out, re-engaging her suit and as soon as she melded with the hotel-wide darkness, she switched to fast-time.

To those on the outside, a lovely evening had suddenly had its curtains drawn early. The booing and shouts began. The mayor who until then had been chatting with the well-dressed General Blake was already surrounded by his bodyguards.

"What's the meaning of this? I can't see a damn thing!"

"What a terrible party..."

"Whose hand was that? Pervert!"

The guests were starting to grow restless. But soon they went back to quietude. With the help of Dwellers, Kaida could Snatch dozens at a time, but she made sure to be personal with high value targets like the mayor and the General. Deans from the city's universities, CEOs from banks and other local businesses. Security was overwhelmed within seconds. One by one, everybody in the gala was inevitably transported to Kaida's very own party.

The cheetah was trembling with anticipation as she watched oodles of once powerful people panicking at the Shadow World's influence, begging for a way out. With her appearance at the center of the foyer, she rose the very floor out from the ground into the shape of a looming throne. Kaida sat down and crossed one leg over the other, marveling at the sight of so many men and women looking up at her both in reverence and fear.

"You won't remember tonight, friends," Kaida assured her Shadow World guests as bright orange geysers of lava erupted from the hotel's tiled floors around her. A thunderstorm manifested above everybody, covering the ceiling with roaring thunder. "But what you will know from now on is that only one person should drive your every thought."

People screamed in terror as some of the Dwellers began swelling and distorting, their insectoid bodies bursting with larger claws and thicker tendrils. Some became as large as a feral elephant while the rest continued mutating horribly, as if showing those present a consequence of boring their throne-looming host.

She tortured them with various visions, horrible otherworldly dangers. The place shook with gigantic Dwellers making a show of brute strength by wrecking the Shadow World's hotel. Kaida made some of the Dwellers bubble up and momentarily turn to oozing goop which quickly assumed a slimy shape resembling her own suited-up form. The Kaida-Dwellers wrapped themselves around some of the guests, taking some of them closer to the frightening marvels while others got almost uncomfortably personal with their captives. There was no escaping the orgy of unsettling wonders.

"Whu-who..." the mayor, with his hands on his head and on his knees, dreading those falling lightning bolts and rampaging beasts, barely managed to look up at the shadowy feline on her rocky throne. "Who are you...?"

Kaida had been about to announce her name to the masses, but she thought about it. They wouldn't know who she was or how to recognize the real her. She could make her name become meaningful to them, but she instead decided to use a pseudonym. "Light!" the cheetah boomed with all-encompassing authority, after the way everybody was looking up at her like their shining Sun in the dark Shadow World. "Etch it in your heart, not your minds. Whenever Light introduces herself to you, whenever you hear my voice , you will feel it deep within you. You will drop everything and come meet my demands, whatever they might be at the time. My whims are your reason for being. You will find no greater happiness or joy than being able to make my life better," she leaned over her throne, visor growing hot red as she looked down upon the cowering mass of people below. "You are now all devoted to me!"

"I don't want to stay here, help! Please, Ms. Light!"

"You're my mistress, I will do anything for you...!"

"Anything, anything to have direction in this meaningless life!"

"Life is pointless without you, mistress!"

"Mistress Light...!"

"MISTRESS!"

It was all music to Kaida's ears. She couldn't help but moan, sexually aroused by the collective submission of more people she cared to individually acknowledge. From lowly servers all the way up to CEOs and the city's mayor, they were all the same level of insignificant simp for her now. The Dwellers that still could fly circled above her while those at ground level vociferated victorious hisses and growls in celebration.

Good.

Kaida looked around at her handiwork. So many people, so many wills broken; the light snuffed out of their eyes. The cheetah amused herself with the sight of the groveling General Blake being as submissive a puppy as her boyfriend was. She couldn't find Dr. Rhodes anywhere in the crowd, however. "Did she really not come tonight? She said she would... I better check later with Lulu to make sure she doesn't know anything." Kaida thought, making a mental note to correspond with the servile otter later.

A satisfied Kaida hopped off her throne, sauntering away in the direction of the closet she had begun her operation from. She ordered every Dweller to release its victim and she undid her 'wonders' on her way out. With real-time enabled in the Shadow World, it didn't take long for the janitor to come to his senses; having been the only one left behind.

As the lights and music came back on in the enclosed foyer, the Shadow World began to melt away, finally releasing the guests from its pervasive, gripping influence. Just as Kaida had promised them, not a memory from the horrible and awkward things they had been shown remained. Only but a single sensation of emptiness still nagged at each individual heart. Most of the guests related to it as being hungry or homesick. Strangely, they all collectively started feeling happy and relieved together.

With food and entertainment soon returning, the gala soon continued as if nothing had happened. To their guests' brains, the blackout had lasted less than a minute.

The first thing Kaida did upon recovering her things was shoot a text message to Lucille. She replied that she had been working with Dr. Rhodes all day on compiling data, and that they would be busy for the next few days. "She doesn't suspect a thing about the GPS tracker or the doctored logs. Please take as long as you like." Kaida was happy with that response.

With her job complete, the delivery girl left out the back with a smirk on her face.

The plan had worked. Gala goers had been implanted with a seed that would only bloom for the right person with the right voice. Even if she now stood out a lot more as a curvy and athletic cheetah, Kaida was no more recognizable than she used to be weeks ago, and that allowed her to approach any of her unsuspecting victims in the real world and trigger their subconscious need to devote themselves.

Throughout the week, Kaida tested the limits of her new influence, starting big with the mayor. She showed up to city hall unannounced and without appointment. Normally the mayor's secretary would just bump people like Kaida away, but the secretary had been with her boss at the gala. "My name's Light," the cheetah purred down to the secretary, "And I'm here to see the mayor."

Dropping the pen she had been holding and immediately standing off to the side of her desk, the secretary rushed over to hold the doors to the mayor's office open. "Oh-of course, Ms. Light..." The secretary was shaking and smiling nervously at Kaida, who sauntered past her.

The mayor was initially surprised when an unfamiliar civilian strutted into his office, especially when he remembered telling his secretary he would be busy all day and didn't wish to be disturbed. When Kaida introduced herself at his impatient demand, the mayor suddenly got a lot less demanding and significantly more eager to please her.

Kaida realized she could use the mayor to get a list of guests from the event, names and occupations. She was only interested in the big players. What followed was the director of the DMV. Kaida had been putting off renewing her license since until recently she hadn't been able to afford a car. Even if getting herself immediately revalidated felt pointless to her, the knowledge that bureaucracy was no longer an obstacle to her made her feel powerful.

Throughout the week, Kaida visited banks and other companies. A new car, favors and gifts, buying large chunks of stock at dirty low prices and becoming an investor. All she had to do was show up before them the most powerful people in the city, taking whatever she felt like from them as if they had all become voice-activated robots eager to be in her thrall.

One word was all it took to get them to their knees.

Light.

It amused her. Little difference remained between the Kaida outside and the one inside the Shadow World. Both operated either from unassuming or out-of-sight positions, bending others' wills for her own benefit. Whether it was daytime or nighttime, whether Kaida engaged her Idolon Suit or not, it was all the same. She was running things now. Finally, she was starting to feel what true power felt like.

Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last. Kaida inevitably began to realize what she was doing when one day she caught the news on her impractically huge, fancy OLED flat-screen at her and Justin's apartment. "Upcoming elections across the country..." she repeated the headline, sipping her drink from her comfortable sofa as her boyfriend gave her a foot rub with a big smile on her face.

"Who are you going to vote for, Spots? I'm thinking lesser of the two evils, again," the cynical husky said with a half-hearted chuckle, but Kaida was focused on something else. The "phrase across the country" continued to make noise in her head. She was being content with just one city and that felt wrong.

Kaida realized she was doing it again, what she had always done all of her life. Settling for what she already had. So what if she was running an entire city from the shadows now? That felt paltry, a pittance when compared to what her true potential was. All of a sudden it didn't feel enough. There was an entire state, a whole country ripe for the taking. But how was she going to do that?

"Y'know, with all these jackasses we keep getting," Justin continued, "I'd vote for you in a heartbeat if you started running for an election. The Spots Party, hehe."

Justin's idea had its merit, enough for Kaida to consider it. All she had to do was begin her own party, maybe with a less dumb name. She already had 'friends' in politics that could arrange it all for her. Kaida could see herself taking the mayoral title in this election, and then slowly working through the grapevine, influencing other players into giving her more and more control, more influence. She could get into the institution, take over from within all the way until she got to the president.

"No," Kaida stretched her muscular arms above her head with a sigh. "That would take too long. Politics is how any old shmuck slowly and steadily secures a slice of the pie, Justin."

"And you're not a shmuck, right, babe?" the canine let go of her feet, climbing the sofa and putting his hands all around her upper body. He was dragging his snout over her shoulder and neck. "Mmm, you smell so nice."

Kaida reached up for Justin's head, pushing and sliding his snout down to her chest. She could hear his wagging and hitting the back of their couch. She began to think. Power wasn't something she had to wait for. "Me, joining a race for power that only the powerless pursue..." Kaida finally began chuckling. She had seized a city in days with nobody wising up; all thanks to the Shadow World and its servile Dwellers.

The Dwellers. How had they come to be? It was crazy to think they were always there, but regular people were unable to see them. Without someone like Kaida giving them direction, they were mere mindless beasts. With her at the helm, they had become extensions of her being. If their presence littered the city's Shadow World, it only made sense there would be more in other cities, in other states, in other countries... But she couldn't sense those. It only made sense her reach would be limited in some way.

So then Kaida came upon a thought: "What if I brought all the Dwellers together? They have crazy powers; they probably have a way to communicate with one another."

All I have to do is find out how, and then nowhere will be out of my reach...

Kaida was convinced that the natural progression for realizing her ambition involved using the Shadow Dwellers. And she knew the biggest concentration of the creatures was at NT Labs. Her destination was clear. It was time to go back.

Finale

Kaida didn't waste any time. She drove along the coast in the direction of the university in her shiny new car, speeding along a largely empty driveway. It was after 10pm and the heavens were inky black thanks to the new moon providing little next to no light.

The labs were closed to the general public at that hour. Margaret was nowhere to be found at the reception, but Kaida had texted ahead and told Lucille to use her clearance to get her in. The labs welcomed her with open doors; just as it had all those mornings. Only the building itself could share the secret of her journey of betterment.

It was the first time Kaida wasn't greeted by anybody in the locker room. It had become routine; almost a ritual. She had been expecting obedient Lucille to come fetch her, but Kaida didn't care. She was here for the Dwellers after all.

The testing field was somber and quiet without humming equipment being on. Without a single light on, Kaida almost felt like she was taking a stroll across the Shadow World already, even though she had yet to engage her suit. "Lights are off..." Kaida remarked in her mind as she glanced about. With her eyes soon adjusting to the poor lighting, she could barely make out the observation cabin above. "They're off up there too."

Something felt off. Lucille was nowhere to be found. Kaida suddenly got an odd feeling in her gut. "This almost feels like... Ah!" Kaida hissed as the heard the sound similar to a heavy, massive switch being thrown on before the entire world went up in a flash. She brought her arms up to shield her eyes as floodlights and spotlights illuminating the entire field came on at once. "What the hell...?!"

"Idolon Test Subject Zero Zero One." A voice echoed in the empty field. Kaida lamented being able to quickly tell whom it belonged to. When Kaida's burning eyes finally adjusted to the bright white light, she was able to see her standing atop the catwalks, behind one of the huge spotlights. Dr. Sarah Rhodes was looking at Kaida from up above; light reflecting off her glasses. "Good evening."

"Fancy meeting you at this hour, doc..." Kaida did her best to smile despite the harrowing circumstances. "That's a lot of Light, isn't it...?" she attempted, putting emphasis on the trigger word. But Kaida quickly found it didn't work on the scientist. "Damn, she really lied about going to the party, didn't she...?" she thought with a growing scowl.

"You're well past overtime, Kaida," Dr. Rhodes said. "I don't suppose you're here to return my Idolon Suit, mm?"

Kaida's nostrils flared. She was starting to get anxious. Those weren't the words of somebody who was surprised or shocked. She tried lying. "Lucille told me to come. Said we were going to..." but before she could finish, something fell to the ground by Kaida's feet.

It was a plastic case wrapping a smartphone. Kaida looked up at Dr. Rhodes, then back down before picking the device up. It was unlocked, the screen showing a direct message log with Kaida's and Lucille's correspondence. "...when did you find out?" she finally asked.

"Lucille, the dear girl, was my confidant," Dr. Rhodes replied, "While I was on my trip to Virginia, she was practically accosting me to get you replaced; she was furious with you; God knows why. But she was my favorite, and I was ready to acquiesce on my return. Imagine my surprise when I found her completely turned around on her opinion. Gilbert, Jason, Nicholas... I'd been noticing small behavioral changes on them too, but with men it was easy to justify. They see something they like, and they chase it, damned the consequences... Lucille, however? She hardly got emotional, much less reversing to the other direction on what seemed to be a whim..."

Kaida patiently listened while looking around. All obstacles had been removed from the field. The shadows from the catwalks were too thin and broken up. Dr. Rhodes had positioned all lights to eliminate almost every shadow! She had walked into a trap. Kaida needed to buy time to figure out what to do, so she thought to keep Dr. Rhodes talking when she realized something about her words. "You keep talking about Lucille in the past tense..." Kaida glanced up, "What have you done with her?"

Dr. Rhodes was silent for just a moment, crossing her arms behind her back while lifting her beak to peer down at Kaida. "I don't yet know how you did it, but you contaminated her. Corrupted her from within. Her, and all of my assistants as well," the avian added. "They no longer serve any purpose to my project, as I can no longer trust them. But that will not be a problem. All to the contrary, they are now one half of my new research."

"What do you mean?!" Kaida demanded, "That almost sounds like you're turning them all into guinea pigs..."

"They will be treated with care and respect as I have their brains and bodies examined," Dr. Rhodes spoke in a matter-off-fact way. "As for you..." the bird's left winged arm raised.

Kaida gasped as she saw people emerging from the cabin. They were dressed in black, covered in masks and wearing gear. More importantly, they were all armed with assault rifles. She took a few panicked steps back as she heard gun safeties being removed one after another. The cheetah looked back at the double doors she had come in through only to see more guards pouring in. Kaida's gaze hardened and she glared defiantly at the cold-eyed scientist, "So you're gonna have me shot?"

"Only if you do something foolish," Dr. Rhodes calmly adjusted her glasses. "You see, you're the other half of my new research. You've clearly found out something about Idolon that I have not. And I intend to use you all to find out everything about it. If you cooperate, things will go smoothly for both you and I. But if you don't..."

Kaida gulped. Those were too many guns and she didn't have her Shadow World abilities out in the real world. These didn't look run off the mill guards either; they had their barrels trained down on her. All it would take is one bullet and it was curtains for her! "The Dwellers..." she reminded herself.

The guards and Dr. Rhodes all had shadows she could manifest Dwellers from to in order Snatch them. But she wasn't sure she would get them all before others started noticing they were disappearing. "If they start panic shooting, things could go south pretty fast..." Kaida lamented, "I don't even know if these are all the guys she's got, what if there's one hiding somewhere and he gets me?" she panted as she glanced behind her, feeling totally cornered. It was while looking back that she finally saw it: Without her fully engaged suit, her own shadow was still visible behind her. Kaida looked down at her wrist.

"Don't think about running, Kaida," Dr. Rhodes taunted. "You aren't even fully engaged. Melding is impossible right now. They will shoot you down before you press the injector release even one time. And even if you engaged, where would you meld? Silly girl. You are out of options."

"You're right." Kaida sighed, slowly starting to lift her arms above her head. "I can't run," she smiled, "But I'm not out of options."

"What...?" Dr. Rhodes appeared confused. She hurried to lean over the railing with a gasp when she saw Kaida starting to fall backwards in an odd way. "No, she's not falling..." the avian corrected in her head, "She's getting pulled...!" the bird cried out, "SHOOT HER!"

Kaida held her breath and closed her eyes as she felt a slimy grasp pull her back from under her. Bullets started flying her way, but before they could impact the Dweller had already Snatched her. When Kaida opened her eyes, she found herself back in the Shadow World. Instead of cold, she felt a warm sensation breeze over her.

"Bwah!" the cheetah gasped, opening her eyes to the dark-red tincture of that familiar, alternate dimension. The Dweller released Kaida, letting itself be used as a lean-on so that she could stand up straight. She felt odd, which prompted her to check herself out, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Unlike her victims Kaida didn't feel crushed by pressure. In fact, she felt just as well, if not better, than her regular melding venture. "I might have gotten too used to this place..." the cheetah mused, watching the hail of bullets from the outside world in slow-motion.

Refocusing to the situation at hand, Kaida glared up at the panicked scientist in the catwalks and raised her arm with the wristband up. "You wanna know what I do, don't you, Sarah?" the cheetah hit the release 3 times, engaging the nanites which snugly covered her in the Idolon Suit. Her visor was already glowing red. Ba-dump.

"Stop, stop! Where is she?!" Dr. Rhodes demanded, starting to grow anxious. She quickly fished into her pocket and shakily replaced her glasses with the special Idolon shades she had created. "Oh God..." she gasped.

"Cease fire!"

"Hold your fire!"

The guards yelled and the hail stopped. As the dust settled, they could all see bullet holes had riddled the grassy floor Kaida had been standing on, but there was no corpse, not even a little bit of blood.

"It's not possible..." Dr. Rhodes was starting to feel faint when she saw the Dwellers again; they were all positioned behind an unwitting soldier. "It's them again; they've returned. Look out behind you...!" she screamed at one of the unwitting soldiers at ground level before he and the rest were Snatched. The avian slowly backed away behind the spotlight. "If she really can control them, then it must really mean that..." before she could theorize further though, Dr. Rhodes suddenly felt a couple of hands at her back. Then everything went black.

"Wakey-wakey, Sarah," Kaida mocked, crouched beside the secretary bird who took a panicked gulp of air as she sat up on the grass of the shadowy testing field.

"Y-you..." Dr. Rhodes stuttered, glancing back up at the catwalk before returning her attention to Kaida. "How...? Nuh-no, don't tell me..." she looked around at the screaming soldiers being tortured by Dwellers of various shapes and sizes. "You used the extra-dimensional fauna..."

"Extra-dimensional fauna?" Kaida repeated incredulously, suddenly curious. "Wait, you know the Shadow Dwellers?"

"Is that what you call them?" Dr. Rhodes inquired. For once, somebody was more curious than terrified of Kaida's pets. "I confirmed them being around during the demonstration. They were surrounding you, but I had no idea you had tamed these... Dwellers."

"Answer my question," Kaida insisted, crossing a leg over Dr. Rhodes and pushing her down before crouching over her. With her arms crossed over her lap, Kaida stared the director down. "Have you known about the Shadow World all along?"

"Not exactly..." Dr. Rhodes answered. "This place, this marvelous place... it's beyond even my wildest imaginations. And who knew it was right under my own nose?!"

"You're talking in circles, Sarah! What. Do. You...." Kaida's mask began to morph, impatience taking the form of a large maw full of teeth and a black tongue that could pass for a slimy, spiky worm on the feline's face, " KNOW?"

The sweat covering Dr. Rhodes made her crooked shades slide off. She was speechless at first. "God, it's true... I had only been scratching the tip of the iceberg with Idolon..." the scientist marveled at the revelation. When Kaida's monstrous tongue pulled in and her expanded, sharp maw menacingly chomped the air inches away from her beak, Dr. Rhodes squeaked. "It was an accident!"

Kaida retracted her monstrously altered maw. "What was an accident?" she asked, "Idolon...?"

"Yes..." Dr. Rhodes confessed, "It was five years ago. I was part of a team working on advanced quantum research, the results of which culminated in a portal to a different world."

"The Shadow World!" Kaida exclaimed with Dr. Rhodes slowly nodding.

"We didn't know it was a dimensional space superimposed on our own. We truly thought we were stepping into another planet. We didn't know what to expect, so the director and some team decided to outfit themselves with state of the art protective gear and weaponry in hopes of exploring this great beyond..." the avian paused, "But we lost them. Communication was lost shortly after they went in, and when we pulled the safety tether back in..." Dr. Rhodes seized up again as she heard one of the Dwellers hissing. "That! Yes. I can remember it even today. It was one of those things. It was trying to come through the portal, so we had no choice but to destroy it, and with it our hope of getting the team back."

"They were lost in the Shadow World, stuck with the Dwellers and..." Kaida looked at her gloved hands, "...Without an Idolon Suit protecting them." She could remember the way the Dwellers attacked those overwhelmed by the gloomy atmosphere; Gil had almost turned into Dweller chowder weeks ago. "And what happened next?" Kaida asked.

"The team disbanded soon after, and the project was shelved. However, while I was examining the safety tether, I noticed the blackest liquid I'd ever seen dripping from it," Dr. Rhodes continued, "At first, I thought it was blood from one of the exploration team members, but it turned out to have strange properties when exposed to shadows. I somehow knew it had to belong to one of the things that got the team. So, I named it after what I thought I had seen appear through the portal. An apparition. I thoroughly researched Idolon for years in an attempt to find out what we had found that day."

"And then the military wound up finding out, so you had to disguise it as some fancy stealth suit, huh?" Kaida tugged the fabric of her suited shoulder, slowly standing up and turning around to pay a good glance at the surrounding Dwellers torturing all those Snatched soldiers. "I can't believe it..." Kaida looked down at her black hands, "This is why I can mimic their abilities. I'm basically wearing their blood. And in this world, they can take on any form they want. I'm not wearing your Idolon Suit, Sarah," Kaida turned to look at the sitting director, "I am wearing a synthetic Dweller."

"Don't be foolish!" Dr. Rhodes chastised, "If that was the case, why would it not have attacked you since day one? Are you going to tell me you tamed it from the start when you didn't even know what it was?"

"We had to go through some things together..." Kaida admitted, remembering the days spent adapting, observing, training and even fighting.

"How do you do it?" Dr. Rhodes' voice cracked up, "How are they listening to your every command? You must tell me! This is the scientific discovery of the century, Kaida!"

"I'm wearing a Dweller..." the cheetah was murmuring to herself, completely ignoring Dr. Rhodes now. "And I control Dwellers... There really is no difference between them and I when I'm like this."

"Whu-what are you going on about now, girl?" Dr. Rhodes sputtered, starting to feel the crushing pressure of the Shadow World on her very soul. It was starting to get harder to breathe.

With a wave of her arm, the Dwellers everywhere in the building stopped what they were doing and lined up in rows of 5 before their mistress. There was a wicked smile on her face that her mask was hiding. "I need more power, my pretties. Enough to be able to increase my range, my level of influence, to be able to reach everywhere ," the cheetah sauntered forth, holding her arms out.

The chittering insects stood up to attention, "If I can replicate your powers with just one of you..." she was beginning to salivate behind the mask, "...imagine what I'll be able to do if I merge all of you with me."

Dr. Rhodes didn't have to beg for an explanation of what was going on. Every gloomed person in the laboratory field's Shadow World saw it happen at once. The Dweller closer to Kaida growled and jumped onto her, clinging its multiple spindly legs around her torso.

The black second-skin of Kaida's suit began to bubble up, tendrils emerging from her sides, her arms, her shoulders, her hips and legs. These jet-black tentacles wrapped around the clinging Dweller. The creature cried out as it was squeezed with crushing might, its body starting to sink into Kaida.

"Oh my lord..."

"Jesus fucking Christ, what is she doing?"

It wasn't just Dr. Rhodes questioning what was going on. The anxious and overwhelmed guards had become reluctant witnesses to the strange process going on. They all saw Kaida's body shuddering as the Dweller was steadily subsumed. While that happened, the cheetah herself could feel something changing not on her, but within herself. It was similar to the alien sensation she experienced each time she used the suit's power to alter herself and use her powers, but this time it felt different. It felt more... permanent.

Kaida was swelling before everybody's eyes, gaining one, then two, then three inches. "Gh-geez... this feels good!" she mewled, starting to pant as she felt her body stretching in every direction until she had grown a whole foot taller. Standing at 6'4" now, the cheetah was feeling like a powerful amazon. "Well, well... I'll be damned!" she grinned behind her mask. The Dweller on her was gone, and she was feeling more powerful than ever. "It fucking worked."

"You devoured- you subsumed that creature..." Dr. Rhodes began to cower, "Ruh-remarkable but..."

"This place doesn't make sense, Sarah," Kaida interrupted, turned herself around and loomed over the secretary bird. She stuck an intimidating double bicep pose, relishing her own new size. "But you wanted to learn about it from me, didn't you?"

"I wish to learn..." Dr. Rhodes was starting to look obsessive, dragging herself on her knees closer to Kaida. "...if only I had my instruments here. I have to know what your body must be like right now. It's clearly being affected. Such a fascinating subject...!" she began to squeak.

"Who do you think you are?" Kaida boomed, making the secretary bird flinch, "Hah-hah-ha...! Oh bless your soul!" the large cheetah woman taunted, "Do you really think you are in control? Let me show you, Sarah."

A second Dweller launched itself up, clinging to Kaida from behind. Kaida's suit bubbled again, tendrils emerging and capturing the insect before pulling it inside with a high-pitched squeal. Kaida's form was further magnified by the new addition, only this time she swelled to a simply statuesque 8ft. tall.

"Ahhh...!" the cheetah moaned, her voice starting to fall an octave lower, "I can taste it. This is power. It's like sweet nectar!" Kaida laughed, turning to look at the increasingly smaller-looking insects before her. She picked one up by the back in just one hand. The tendrils grew out of her forearm this time, encasing the Dweller fully before it was crushed and absorbed into Kaida's arm. "Yes... mmm!" she moaned as she further swelled, "More. More power."

Other than Dr. Rhodes, everyone in the Shadow World wished they could look away from that weird spectacle. The woman was growing larger with each monster she absorbed. She was soon looming over everybody like some monolithic giantess, and that didn't seem to be enough for her. Her size exceeded 20ft. tall already, and the more she reduced the Dweller numbers, the huger she became.

Soon, the voracious Kaida was simply stomping the Dwellers like the bugs they were, feeling them become assimilated with her even from below. "This..." the empowered cheetah panted, "Feels... amazing! Mnnnghh.... Rrrrgggff...! MORE!" she demanded with a powerful roar.

The closed dome above everybody started sounding like it was getting pelted by heavy rain. But soon it was clear the ceiling was being battered by desperate Dwellers from the outside, lured in by the hungry call of their mistress.

"Grrrrawr!" Kaida's facemask deformed once again, splitting open into a gargantuan maw. It remained that way as a swarm of Dwellers inevitably tore the field Shadow World's dome open and streamed in directly into the monstrous woman's ravenous gullet. After 30ft. tall, suddenly she wasn't growing any taller. But as more and more Dweller mass was consumed, Kaida's form began to become radically altered.

First, Kaida's red visor became completely black, fusing to her head. Moments later, a couple of red eyeballs appeared on top, followed by another pair, and then another, and another... Much like the Dwellers, she had innumerable red eyes covering her facemask. Her Dweller-consuming maw became split at the commissures from where large and thick scorpion-like mandibles appeared, remaining spread open so as to not to interrupt the feast.

As Kaida continued to gulp those creatures down, the bulge in her neck became less pronounced, with her neck elongating to over twice its original length, becoming a prehensile connection for her separating head and shoulders.

Fleshy lumps began to grow on her shoulders next. These swells burst once they became twice the size of her deltoids, a pair of extra arms protruding from them. Digits furled and grew into razor-sharp-looking claws.

Four pouches emerged on the back of the giant mutating cheetah, each one sliding open for a transparent, beating wing to emerge from. Kaida's torso elongated, adding another five feet to her overall size. Her tail split into two, gaining both length and girth, tapering and curling back from the middle point.

Bulging larger and larger, Kaida's muscular legs saw the most staggering change. Her feet first merged with her ankles, disappearing and creating a pair of stumps which managed to hold her new bulk up. Her kneecaps looked to be receding, but they were in fact melting away along with the rest of her leg bones. Her lower extremities were left a pair of long, straight black pillars. The pillars started wobbling before they began separating into three smaller appendages, for a total of six new limbs. The flexible, tendril-like legs bore a striking resemblance to the Dwellers' multiple legs.

"The more she eats..." Dr. Rhodes was trembling in place as she watched the incredible transformation unfold. Other than the black-coated feline ears on top of Kaida's head, it was now impossible to tell she had ever been a cheetah, "...the more she resembles those Dwellers..."

Once the very last of the morsels had given its life to fuel Kaida's ascension, the long necked creature that used to be her began to slump, holding two of her four arms to her swollen gut. She let out a ground-shaking growl with every one of those red eyes rolling up in pleasure. It was almost like that terrifying maw had let out the world's most disgusting belch. "Ahhhhnnghhh..." the giant monster panted, gasped, and finally let her long-necked head slump as well. The second right arm curled and its claw fell atop the monster's head. "Ahhh... haha... hahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Laughter so loud it blew everybody back a few paces started booming out from Kaida. Dr. Rhodes could barely hang on to the grassy ground. In that moment, beholding that maddening appearance, Dr. Rhodes thought back to her past ambitions. Taking over the project of her late predecessor, playing with forces beyond their comprehension, and getting that once-meek cheetah girl involved had to have been her life's worst mistakes. "Whu-what have I done...?" she asked aloud, longing for some sort of divine intervention that might be hearing her plea.

But of course, there was nothing divine about what the people stranded in the Shadow World with Kaida were witnessing. That deep, warping laughter didn't just echo in the dark-red field, it resonated within their minds, shaking their very cores. It was so infectious, though. Soon, they were all laughing with Kaida, the sclera of their eyes turning from white to a stark black until the color had consumed their irises, leaving them with empty hollows. It was as if the very light of their eyes had been sucked into that towering beast.

" Haaaaah... Haaaaah..." Kaida could understand so much more than before. Merging with the Dwellers had allowed her to empathize with them, to understand that despite their sacrifice, no part of them had been lost. It had all become part of Kaida. She now understood the creatures' plight was no different to her own: They wished for order in their chaotic world. That was why the worms from deep underground had to be devoured. The weak had to become nourishment for the strong to thrive and to rule. And Kaida was now the strongest among them; the Dwellers' very own queen.

As the Dweller Queen slithered over to the center of the field, she became convinced about what she had to do. If she was to consume and subjugate, her plans remained unchanged: Her reach had to become absolute and limitless. Day and night should become one and the same. The Shadow World and the outside world had to become one, that she might assimilate all light and bring her order to all.

Kaida's limited imagination had set her upon the idea of Snatching people and transporting them to the Shadow World as her only recourse. But that was a thing of the past. She was now much more powerful. If the Shadow World could not be easily brought into the outside world, then she would bring the outside world inside. Snatch the very planet into her own domain if she had to.

And she began with NT Labs.

Tendrils emerged from the giantess, reaching out into the world outside via every conceivable shadow. The guards on the catwalks who still had been wondering what was going on with everybody who had disappeared below had seconds to react to the gigantic tentacles spawning outside and dragging them in alongside the catwalks themselves. Every one of the queen's tendrils seemed to snag into the very structure of the testing field, reaching out into the laboratories and their corridors, filling the building up and taking it over from the inside.

The tendrils bulged and crushed lights, plunging the building into further night darkness, gripping corners, walls, ceilings, the very floor. Every bit of space was getting gripped from multiple angles, and the Queen did not stop until her reach had covered the entirety of the building complex.

From the outside it looked like a powerful inwards pull had begun collapsing the building, pressing it together and then compressing it until it looked like it had imploded upon itself. In a full second, it looked as if all of NT Labs had been wiped away from existence, leaving only a hole in the dirt where the foundations used to be. And that was only the beginning for the Dweller Queen.

Her name used to be Kaida. Somebody with little love for herself. Somebody who had found it hard to trust. Even before NT Labs, her life had been one long, dark tunnel where the light at the end seemed forever out of her reach. But she had found out she didn't need to come out of the dark tunnel. She didn't need a light of her own. She could take everyone else's.

With her new form and abilities, Kaida came to realize she had cast away everything about herself in exchange for power. The power to become one who devours others' light. A Light Taker.

And by the Light Taker's command, the Shadow World had begun to encroach upon Earth.