FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This will be a serialized novel. That means updates will probably be sporadic, since I'll be working on this between different projects. Although I have to say, the potential for this story to go anywhere and everywhere is greater than I even can imagine. And I wrote it! Helluva lot of fun it was too. *Ahem* Standard eighteen or over warning, contains sex, (Wooh!) kick ass fight scenes, (Sweeeet!) and material not suitable for whiners. Enjoy. ^-^

D.Divers

In reality we are comforted by a world where light falls upon sanctuaries that gleam. However, just beneath its surface we have dreams; filled with dark corners and places where nothing is what it seems.

Episode one: What lies beyond sleep.

The Majestic was an old theater that had seen better days. With its wonderfully sculpted walls covered in trailing ivy vines and heavy velvet curtains that parted before every show, it clung to the days of its former glory like the tattered remnants of a fading dream.

The night's entire audience was a man wearing a bowler hat sitting in the front row enjoying a box of popcorn.

Carl the usher swept the lonely aisles in silence. Maybe more people would come. He thought. If they actually showed a different movie every once and a while.

Every night it was the same show. A movie about a man with no face riding on a train. Even Carl didn't know who the man was or even where the train was going. But that was mostly because he always woke up before the movie ended.

It wouldn't be much longer now. The train was about to reach the tunnel. Then it would simply end without ever revealing the man's identity.

Carl counted it down in his mind. Three . . . two . . . one. Without even needing to look he knew that, right on schedule the train had reached the tunnel. After that the film would simply stop. That was it. No credits, no intermission, no nothing. There simply was no more.

The man with a bowler hat rose silently from his seat and walking up to Carl tapped him on the shoulder.

Carl turned around and felt his heart leap into his throat.

Where his face should have been was nothing but completely smooth skin. "This dream is very good." Said the man without a face. "Is it yours?"

* * *

Carl awoke drenched in sweat. A scream dying upon his lips, lying stillborn in his throat.

It had been so vivid, so real, that even now the nightmarish being seemed ready to step out of the dream and follow him into the waking world.

Clutching the silk sheets around himself like a shield he leaned over and picked up the phone. "Dr. Ross . . . he was in my dream again."

A gentlemanly voice answered in a cultured British accent. "I'm afraid Dr. Ross can't come to the phone right now." The man on the other end chuckled. "Feel free to cry for help now if you want to. I wouldn't hold out much hope for it coming though."

Carl slammed the phone back down onto the receiver, only to notice to late that the man in the bowler hat was already standing at the foot of the bed.

"Because in dreams." He said. "No one can hear you when you scream."

* * *

Doctor Aki Ross, lead researcher at R.E.M. industries and pioneering developer of the integrated consciousness neural interface system more commonly known as the D.Diver was working yet another late night in her lab.

The second richest woman in the world the revenues from the commercial applications of the D.Diver alone had made her a multi-billionaire over night. The fact that it had been designed to treat mental illnesses otherwise incurable by conventional methods had little to do with its meteoric rise to success. If anything, the reason it was so popular was because it allowed people to dream at will.

Mardos Aims thought the woman was quite possibly mad. Brilliant. But mad.

He peered through the observation dome. Lying on a medical bed in a sterile white room was a little girl with blond hair that fell to her ankles wearing a simple nightgown. "When will our little princess awaken?"

Aki spared a glance over her shoulder, wearing his best pressed suit and tie tailored to fit his portly figure Mardos was no doubt here to deliver yet another ultimatum. "Who knows." She said. "Alice is still in the Tabula Rasa stage. Its impossible to predict when she'll accumulate enough information to achieve consciousness."

"Dr. Ross. R.E.M. has funneled a great deal of money into your little side project and."

"And you want results. Is that it?" Aki waved the soldering iron she was holding at him like a sword, punctuating her words with jabs that made him step backwards. "My father founded this company. He built it into what it is. And as the majority shareholder I think it is in my own self interest to keep it running as profitably as possible, don't you?"

Mardos had the good sense to look flustered. "Yes, well. The board of directors simply wants to know."

Aki spun around so quickly her braid ended up striking him in the face. "You can tell the board of directors that they can keep their jobs." She spared him a parting glance. "So long as they let me do mine."

With the sound of feline laughter following after his footsteps Mardos left the lab in a huff.

Aki sighed as she went back to work. "He really is an officious bureaucrat isn't he?" She was rewarded with a purring chuckle. Jin's reaction to Mardos' presence always managed to make her smile. "At least he can do his job though."

* * *

Jin had been running the simulator nonstop for several hours now. Combat training, physical conditioning, spatial reasoning. After a while it all blended together, becoming boring beyond belief.

He lifted the virtual interface visor, revealing his feline face. A perfect blend of human and feline attributes he was a white tiger morph with an arresting gaze and blue eyes that seemed to stare into the depths of the soul. "We should go home now." He began removing the skin tight suit which connected his bodies muscle responses to the simulator. "Its already three in the morning."

Aki pushed her glasses closer to her eyes. "We can go home once I've worked out the remaining flaws in Alice's secondary operating systems."

Jin yawned, revealing a rough pink tongue and very sharp looking white teeth. Knowing that arguing was useless he curled up into a ball at her feet and made himself as comfortable as possible. They had spent more than a few nights asleep in the lab. So what was one more?

Half human himself Jin was a companion class hybrid. Created to fit whatever need humans had of them in reality the hybrids themselves were little more than expensive toys for the powerful elite. Treated by many of their owners as second class citizens they had few rights and little or no say in the lives that were their own. Only their dreams could be said to belong to them alone.

Reaching out and scratching Jin behind the ears started him purring in his sleep. What will you dream about tonight? She wondered.

* * *

Jin dropped to all fours and started running faster. Her scent was getting closer, the intoxicating mix of vanilla and cream was filling the air with its pleasing sweetness. He could feel himself growing drunk on her scent alone.

Her laughter was getting closer as well. She was eluding him, making him chase her through the pitch black forest. Refusing to let the chase end before he had proved his worth to her.

He felt his heart beat faster as he caught sight of her lithe feline body running naked through the moonlight. The pursuit would merely make the prize all the sweeter when he did catch her.

With a final burst of speed Jin wrapped his arms around her. Lifting her off the ground he misjudged their combined weight and toppled over backwards. The world disappeared for all but a moment as they lost sight of the stars above.

Regaining his senses he found they had collapsed into a tangled heap of bodies. So mixed up, so intertwined that it was hard to tell were one began and the other left off.

"I've come to claim my prize." He said, and lifted her tail.

She grew still as he tasted her. Using his tongue to tease and excite her deliciously wet pussy he grasped her by the hips, turning her around so that her body lay on the grass with him on top of her. From his vantage point he could enjoy every curve of her body, the way her pert breasts were soft mountains of creamy white fur framed by a mask the color of pale chocolate. Even the way she was looking at him with eyes filled with undisguised desire made him more determined than ever to win her heart.

Jin redoubled his efforts. He wanted to savor her taste, the small gasps and moans he elicited from her, everything about this moment he wanted to engrave forever in his soul. "If I'm dreaming." He said. "Don't wake me."

She laughed and the sound was like music to his ears. "Not before you're done anyway."

Leaving her lips behind he slowly worked his way up her body, coming achingly close to filling her.

They were so close together now that he could feel the warmth of her sex rubbing against his swollen shaft as he kissed her breasts. Biting them gently he pressed his fingers inside her, not wanting to leave her empty for more than a moment.

She moaned softly and said. "Time to wake up Jin."

The woman of his dreams faded away as he blinked in surprise. Realizing he had fallen asleep in the lab again he stretched himself and said. "Did you have to wake me?" He began rubbing the sleep from his eyes as his tail twitched back and forth sulkily. "It was just getting to the good part too."

* * *

"So, what were you dreaming about?" Aki asked Jin teasingly as they made their way through the lobby and into the parking lot. It was four in the morning and even the cleaning staff had already gone home. Without the people who worked there to soften it, the R.E.M. building seemed to Jin to be an imposing behemoth that dominated the skyline.

He took a deep breath. His mother would have discovered his feelings for the woman of his dreams eventually anyway. "Vella." He said her name in a sort of half daze. A dreamy expression on his face.

"The receptionist?" Aki took him by the arm and tousled his short blond hair playfully. "Oh Jin. She hardly knows you even exist. Why can't you dream about someone who'll make you a good wife? After all, I want to see some grandchildren someday."

"Mom, stop."

"What? I can't even show affection for my own son in public anymore?" Their was something in Jin's eyes that held an edge of warning. He had meant for her to stand still, nothing more. "Jin. What is it?"

Jin's ears twitched. It was the only sign he gave before he was suddenly spinning on his heel. The claws of his right hand lashing out in a blur that whistled as they split the air.

Aki held her breath as he stopped just as suddenly as he had started.

"Reel 'em in kitty." Said the man holding the tip of the stunstick against Jin's throat. "We're just here to talk."

Jin's words were just short of a being snarl. "So talk." He slipped a few claws loose on the fingers of his other hand. The stranger had said 'we.'

"Sheath those claws catboy." Said a man whose tone of voice would brook no argument. "And Darren. You stand down as well."

Both of them seemed to weigh something invisible in the other before simultaneously stepping back. Neither one of them took their eyes off of the other however.

A second man joined the first. Even in the darkness Jin could size him up as easily as if he had been standing in broad daylight. He was broad shouldered, built like a man who knew how to handle himself in armed or unarmed combat and most importantly of all. He was holding up a Newtopia City police badge.

"Dr. Ross, we're from the Cyber-Crimes division. We need to have a few words with you."

* * *

The Newtopia City police headquarters were located in the heart of the central sector. Built in an ever expanding circle Newtopia was divided into various sectors based on their radius. Thus making it impossible to become lost. At least, that was what the designer had hoped to achieve. Even a so called perfect city like Newtopia had ways of making people disappear, sometimes, even without a trace.

From his position on the bench Jin watched as the cop named Kyle and his partner Darren escorted his mother into an interrogation room. Darren had said it was a courtesy to his mother that they had allowed a walking carpet like him into the precinct at all. Jin had told him he was full of shit and to see what would happen if he tried to separate them. It had won him a smile from Kyle, and a grudging amount of respect from every other cop in the room.

Darren was grinning at him as he shut the door to the interrogation room behind them. Jin smiled back at him. If Darren had waited but a moment longer he would have seen Jin flipping him the bird as well. Not that it mattered to him whether he saw it or not. There was a simply a cockiness, an aura of superiority around him that Jin just didn't like. He rubs my fur the wrong way. He thought as he picked up a magazine and settled in for the long haul.

* * *

The interrogation room was exactly the same sterile white color as most of her lab. There was a single table and chair, a two way glass mirror on the opposite side of the room, and a television used to display video evidence. All in all, it was exactly what she had expected. What she hadn't expected however, was the D.Diver laying in the middle of the table.

Designed to be as innocuous as possible the D.Diver was a headset that slipped over the ear with an optical drive that could be extended to cover the eyes. It ran on BTU's and had no need for an internal power source of any kind, thus allowing its design to be customized to its user's liking.

"Please." Said Kyle. "Put it on."

Aki slipped the D.Diver into place. A factory model she had to adjust it until it fit comfortably. "Why do I need to wear this?" She asked. She wasn't angry about it, simply curious.

"We've found that it inhibits a person's ability to lie effectively. Call it a poor man's polygraph."

"That doesn't exactly sound legal."

"It's still something of a gray area. Now. Do you know the whereabouts of a man named Carl Walker?"

"My laboratory assistant? I'm afraid he hasn't reported in for work for the last few days. I thought he was sick."

Darren stepped forward. "I have a question." Kyle simply looked at Darren but said nothing. "That young man out there referred to you as his mother. And though relationships between humans and hybrids aren't entirely uncommon, any children conceived between them certainly are. Would you care to explain to us your relation to him?"

Even if she had wanted to lie it wouldn't have worked. The surge of memories triggered the D.Diver, causing it to project a holographic image of a ruined alley into the air.

Drawn by the sound of someone sobbing softly the holographic Aki stumbled into the alley entirely by accident. She covered her mouth to keep from crying out as the sight that lay before her tore her heart asunder.

A striped kitten was shaking a hybrid woman. He was desperate to see any sign of motion, life, something. "Mother." He said. "Mother. Please . . . wake up." The kitten finally noticed her and said. "My mother, she won't wake up." Tears had lined his face, matting his fur. "Why won't she wake up?"

Aki knew she was dead just by looking at her. But she found she couldn't bring herself tell him that. So instead she spoke the lie that would set the wheels of fate in motion. "Your mother is . . . dreaming."

He looked at her with hope filled eyes. "Dreaming?" Their was such pain in his voice; tinged as it was with such bitter sorrow, that the single word he had spoken seemed the last bastion of hope, in a world that threatened to drown him within its cruel darkness.

"Yes. The last great dream of them all. I'm afraid that there's nothing that can wake her from her slumber."

He seemed to consider her words as he toyed with the glass bell he wore around his neck. Inscribed on its surface was a single solemn word. Jin. "Dreams . . . dreams make people happy right? So, whatever mother is dreaming about, she must be happy . . . right?"

She knelt down and comforted the trembling kitten as he cried. Stroking his hair softly she said. "I'm sure that she is."

Aki felt the ghost of tears long past threaten to betray her. "I didn't have the heart to tell him she was dead."

Darren circled the table, waving his hand around in the air. "So you just . . . adopted him."

"For all intents and purposes yes." Aki wasn't sure she liked the point he was trying to make. "Why? Is it a crime to adopt hybrids now?"

He ignored the question. "According to the official records you are unmarried, have no living relatives of any kind, and have been clinically diagnosed as being infertile."

She felt her face flush, to have her private life invaded in such a way. She slammed her hands against the desk. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"If anything it makes me wonder if you had any ulterior motives in adopting him. You were single, unwed, you must have been a very lonely woman. The idea of having someone to warm your bed at night must have been very, appealing. He is a companion class hybrid after all."

Aki rose to her feet, throwing the D.Diver down onto the table she said. "This interrogation is over."

Darren's was a self satisfied smile. "We're not done here."

She shook her head in disbelief. "We were done. The moment you questioned the integrity of the relationship between me and my son."

Aki slammed the door to the interrogation room as she left.

Darren shrugged. "Was it something I said?"

Kyle moved to follow her, but not before saying. "You're off the case."

* * *

"Dr. Ross," Said Kyle. "Please wait."

"I suppose your going to explain to me why he just happens to be an asshole in order to gain my trust."

"No. Darren really is an asshole." Kyle sighed. "But unfortunately he also had a point."

She spun on him, her brown eyes ablaze with barely contained fury. "Which is?"

"A possible motive for Carl Walker's disappearance."

Aki was incredulous. "You don't actually believe that Carl caught me having sex with Jin so I had him silenced do you?"

"Not for a second. But the way that Jin fights, he would protect you without a moments hesitation."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "So you think."

He cut her off. "I don't know what to think. Something about this case just feels wrong to me and I can't quite put my finger on what it is." He smoothed back his short brown hair, revealing a man that was more tired than he pretended to be. "Look, I've been a cop for a lot of years and if there's one thing I've learned its to trust my instincts. And I've gotta say. My instinct's have been doing back flips the moment your name landed on my desk."

"Trust Mr. Miller. Trust."

Kyle looked around to make sure no one was watching. Signaling for her to follow he led her to his desk. Cyber-Crimes was a fairly recent division and certainly lacked for funding. "We've been tracking a criminal who calls himself the Red King." He pulled a file from the stack on his desk and flipped through it. "Funny thing about him is. He never lets anyone see his face."

Aki spread a few of them out to get a better look. The man in the pictures was wearing white gloves, a dark green pressed pinstripe suit and a matching bowler hat. But not one of them showed his face.

"He's been trafficking in black market technology for years now. Until recently his modus operandai has always been to commit corporate espionage first and then sell the secrets he steals to the highest bidder. A few days ago he took his actions to a new level." Kyle pulled a picture from the file. "Do you recognize this man?"

"That's . . . that's Carl."

"He's in some kind of a coma over at the Sister's of mercy general hospital. Nothing they've tried has worked to wake him. I think the Red King may have used a modified D.Diver to steal information from his unconscious mind."

"That's. . ."

"I'm hoping that you're going to tell me that its completely impossible. And that my theory is nothing more than a crackpot idea dreamed up by someone who's watched one to many science fiction movies."

"I'd like to say it is. But frankly. It's well within the realm of possibility. A properly modified D.Diver could be used to implant any number of hypnotic suggestions into someone's mind. But every D.Diver that leaves the production line is designed with built in fail-safes that prevent exactly that kind of tampering."

"Nothing is ever fool proof." Said Kyle. "Nature will always build a better fool."

As a scientist Aki knew she had to remain objective and accept any any possibility, no matter how improbable, until effectively proven otherwise. But as a human being, she vehemently wanted to deny that such a thing could ever be done. The fate of the free world depended on it. Eventually, the scientist inside her won out. "Even so, modifying a D.Diver in just such a way would require a highly specialized degree of knowledge."

"Which our friend the Red King has in spades. Look. What I need from you is to give me access to all the information regarding the D.Divers. How they work, how they can be modified."

"I? What about Darren?"

"I kicked him off the case. My superiors won't like it, but someone with that level of prejudice will only serve to hinder our investigations. They'll have him pushing papers around until he cools off." Kyle waved it away as if it were unimportant. "But more important than all of that. What can he use that thing to do?"

Aki glossed over the technical details and gave him the shorthand version. "The D.Diver can allow people to record, download, even share their dreams with others. That's the commercial application anyway. Originally it was designed to allow therapists to reach patients with mental instabilities that couldn't be treated through conventional means. By entering their minds a trained therapist could allow them to overcome deep seated neuroses and help them solve long held psychological problems."

Kyle looked thoughtful. "You put a lot of faith in such a little toy."

"It was . . . my father's final invention." She looked at him, willing him to understand. "Don't you see? He designed it to help people. And now you're telling me some madman is twisting his dream into a nightmare in order to profit from the suffering of others. I won't let him get away with it. I won't let my father's legacy be tarnished like this!"

"Then you'll help me catch him?"

"I'll do better than that. I'll put the entire resources of my company at your disposal."

* * *

After a quick call from Kyle to the Sister's of mercy and a short ambulance ride later Carl was safely resting in Aki's lab. Even hooked up to a monitoring station the D.Diver could find only weak signals emanating from Carl's mind. He was on the verge of becoming completely indistinguishable from something you'd find in the local produce aisle.

"Nothing." Said Kyle. "No alpha waves, no beta waves, but you're still sure he's dreaming?"

"Yes."

"Then we could do what the Red King did and send someone in to find him right?" He had been looking over the notes left by Aki's father and come to a conclusion, the only way to fight the Red King was on his own terms.

Aki merely shook her head. "Their conscious minds wouldn't be able to make the distinction between so called normal reality and the dreamscape. Anyone we sent would simply end up being assimilated into the dream's world."

"Then what can we do? If anyone we send to extract Carl is going to wind up asleep forever we'll have to risk waking him some other way."

Jin had been listening the entire time and found he had come up with the perfect solution. "You can send me." He said.

Aki turned to her son. "Are you sure about that Jin? Making a choice like this so suddenly."

His voice was filled with calm assurance when he said. "I'm sure."

She looked at her son and saw the boy he was fade away, only to be replaced by the man that he had become. "Then you have my unconditional support."

Jin positively glowed with pride. The trust being placed in him was extraordinary and he resolved not to let her down.

"Him!" Mardos began blustering. "Dr. Ross, surely you aren't serious about sending a hybrid. This an extremely delicate matter. When the shareholders realize what is going on." Mardos' words trailed off. He had forced himself into the lab, demanding to be present at what was financially, a situation that threatened to bankrupt the company when the public got wind of it. In his mind if there was any hope of salvaging the situation it was by spinning the proper P.R. and nothing more.

"Jin is a perfectly logical choice. Not only does his mind exist outside the collective consciousness we call human." She smiled as she drove her point home. "His dreams would be a completely foreign element and thus impossible to assimilate."

"How do we make it happen?" Asked Kyle, not wanting to waste another moment.

"A minor modification to the D.Diver would make his brain waves compatible with ours. After that, its merely a matter of sending him in."

Kyle held up a finger. Tapping the badge on his chest he deactivated his comm. "Looks like we're going to have to make it fast. I just got an updated report from the precinct. Two of the doctors over at the Sister's of mercy have just fallen into similar comas. Both of them were using D.Divers just before they collapsed."

Mardos paled visibly. "If we don't solve this soon, we're going to have an epidemic of unconscious people on our hands."

Jin exhaled a slow steady breath. "Then let's get started."

* * *

"Be careful Jin." Said Aki. "As a foreign element in the dream his subconscious mind will unconsciously try to reject your presence."

Jin slipped the modified D.Diver into place. "So . . . his mind is going to attack me?"

"More or less yes. You'll need to watch out for any repressed memories, negative thoughts, or inherent mental defenses. Other than that, it should be just like any of your other runs through the simulator."

"Greaaaaat. When they said a man is his own worst enemy I never thought they would have meant it literally."

Kyle stood next to Aki with his finger on the kill switch. It was his job to monitor Jin's vital signs and if he showed any sign of being in life threatening danger, to pull him out. "Are you sure your ready for this kid? You can still turn back you know."

Jin closed his eyes as he leaned back on the bed that had been set up next to Carl's. "Am I ready . . . to go where no man has gone before? To explore uncharted universes and plunge into the very depths of the psyche?" He looked at them and his gaze was as pure and blue as an uncharted sky. "Hell no! Pull that switch were doing this thing anyway."

Nodding Aki flipped the switch. And the world dissolved into nothing.

It was a sensation that could only be described as falling. Whatever went for wind in that in between place rushed through the open space, filling the air with the sound of endless motion. Embracing the sensation Jin leaned into it headlong. He was in free fall, but he knew that by diving into it, he would land safely.

In the waking world his body was lying on a hospital bed. But in the dreaming he found himself standing on a dusty road surrounded by countless movie theaters. Each of them playing a different show.

"Can anyone hear me? Hello! Anyone?" There was no response. Jin looked up at a sky with constellations all its own. Well, I've fallen down the rabbit hole. The question is, where did I land?

* * *

"We've just lost Jin's signal!" Said Aki.

"Well can you get it back?"

"I'm not sure, this is a completely untested procedure, we had no idea what to expect." She slammed her fists against the monitor. "We should have anticipated something like this!"

"And he went in there anyway." Kyle shook his head. Even the kill switch wasn't working. All they could do now was watch, as he wandered through the dreamworld alone. "Kid. You're a braver man than I am. When you get back, I think we should share a drink together."

* * *

Jin wandered through the dreamworld as if in a daze. A single clock tower dominated the skyline. Everything else, no matter how far he went or in which direction, was nothing but endless movie theaters, each one a different representation of architecture and design. There were broadway theaters, grand majestics with spotlights that lit up the sky, even penny theaters that required you to turn a crank.

He wandered past them all, one thought above all others foremost in his mind. This is so not like the simulator.

"Well, well, well." Said a man wearing a bowler hat. With cane in hand he stepped out of a theater. "What have we here. An intruder of sorts." Stopping only to wipe a bit of dust from the pinstripes of his suit he offered to shake Jin's hand. "Welcome, to my world."

Jin could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Your world!"

The man pulled back his hand, and pointing to the sky he said. "Indeed, you are quite right. However, I do believe some introductions are in order." He removed his teashade sunglasses and gave an elegant bow. "I. Am the Red King."

Jin stumbled backwards. The sightless gaze coming from his featureless face was beyond unnerving; for even without eyes there was nothing but pure malevolence in his stare.

"Forgive me. It would seem that my appearance unsettles you." He affixed the teashades to his face once more. "But your name sir. You have not given it. Such is not the conduct of a proper gentleman."

"Jin." He said as he materialized a sword. The katana was perfectly balanced and fit as if it had been forged for his hand alone. He supposed it had been, drawn as it was from his own subconscious mind.

"Ah. A duel." The Red King tapped his cane on the ground twice and transformed it into a foil. "En Garde then!"

The sounds of swords clashing filled the air with its sweet symphony, as moving back and forth in an intricate dance they performed a rapid exchange of strikes. Each testing the defense of the other, watching for any sign of weakness, searching for a way to strike a vital point.

Jin knew immediately that he was outmatched. This was not some game in a simulator where the opponents skill could be adjusted at will. This was a real flesh and blood duel. And he found himself fighting against a master.

A thought arose in his mind. When you can't win by playing fair. Cheat. Blocking the Red King's sword arm with his own wrist Jin scored the first point.

The Red King glared at him as a thin line of blood trickled down his face. "You sir. Did not fight fair."

It had been a dangerous gamble, one that could have cost Jin more than just his life. "This isn't some game." He said. "It's a fight to the finish." Saluting with his sword he signaled the start of the next round. "Only the winner gets to set the rules."

"Ah." The Red King wiped away the blood with his handkerchief. "You are quite right." The clock tower rang out, marking the start of the thirteenth hour. Noting the sound he drew forth his own pocket watch and said. "But I'm afraid I must be going now. Train to catch you see."

Shadows surged forth from dark corners, wrapping around the Red King like a lover's tender embrace, concealing him within their umbra.

"Wait!" Jin called out after him, trying grab hold of something, anything, before the Red King drifted away completely into shadows. All he managed to grasp however, was his handkerchief.

Jin crushed it in his hand to the accompaniment of mocking laughter. "Damn you."

Refusing to simply let him escape Jin knew that searching the theaters one by one would take to long. Looking at the production title's, one by one he began reading them aloud. "Secrets of the black powder, City beyond the sky, Hachi no Keiro." None of them seemed to have anything to do with trains.

And there it was, not far away. The man with no face. "Perfect."

* * *

Passing by the box office without bothering to purchase a ticket Jin came to a stop as the splendor of the theater overwhelmed him. It was an amazing place, with trailing velvet curtains and ivy covered walls it stole his breath away. But without anyone to fill the seats it felt strangely hollow. It was almost as if the theater itself mourned the loss of its patrons by pervading the very air with its sorrow. On screen an old projector played out a single scene in an endless loop. A train passing into a tunnel.

The Red King stood on the stage. Seeing Jin he said. "You are unhesitatingly persistent. I find it to be annoying in the extreme." Pressing his hand to the silver screen the surface rippled like waves across still waters. Jin watched in awe as, taking hold of his bowler hat he stepped through it and into the movie beyond. The Red King tipped his hat to him from atop the train as it began fading into the distance. "Farewell my feline foe." He said. "I do so hope we don't meet again."

"Clever bastard." Wasting no time Jin ran down the aisle and with a flying leap burst onto the silver screen himself.

He had to grab onto a railing just to keep from falling off. The sudden shift in inertia, gravity, and motion all threatened to make him lose his grip. He hadn't expected such a sudden and disorienting shift in perspective, but then, he was forced to remind himself. This is still a dream after all.

* * *

So you would follow me even here. Thought the Red King as he clapped his hands, applauding Jin's bravery. Out loud he said. "Such courageous actions as yours bear rewarding. Very well." The Red King stretched out his hands, indicating all that lay within the dreamworld and beyond it. "The D.Diver. A revolutionary device is it not? It transcends the boundaries of what we think and feel. Even what we accept as truth is opened to interpretation, when all the limits of space and time have been stripped away."

"Who cares about any of that." Said Jin as he rose unsteadily to his feet. "Dreams are the last sanctuary we have from the from the horrors of the waking world. The final freedom that all of us can grasp. I won't allow you to defile the sanctity of this dream any longer!"

The Red King cocked his head back and laughed. The sound was merciless and without pity. "The sanctity of dreams? That is why you would try to stop me? Oh, that is beyond rich!" He hissed. "Such naïve foolishness as yours will be the death of you boy!" He tapped his cane twice and turned it into a sword. "Very well. Allow me to make your end a swift one." Gone was the foil he had held before. In his hand was an epee, a sword meant to deliver a final decisive thrust. "Pray you do not suffer in this world for very long."

Blocking the sword rushing towards him Jin shouted. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel!"

Heartbeats later they burst forth from the tunnel and into the stars beyond. The track, seemingly held suspended in midair, was made of solid moonlight. Even the wheels of the train sent ripples spreading outwards through the substance of the dream. Disturbing the stars in the night.

Smiling the Red King made his sword vanish with a thought. "I have all that I need. So I will leave this battlefield to you, along with the prize you so desperately sought."

Jin watched in horror as the Red King began to collapse like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Without even thinking about what he was doing Jin was already in motion.

Running to catch him he just barely managed to grab the Red King's hand before he fell from the train and into the endless darkness below.

Jin grit his teeth as he struggled to hold onto the dead weight. With agonizing slowness he managed to walk backwards until both of them were safely situated on the train once more.

"Bastard." Said Jin with feeling. "You're not getting away from me that easily."

Touching the Red King's face tentatively the no face crumbled away like clay breaking apart in his hands. Hidden beneath the mask. Was Carl.

Carl struggled just to lift his hand. "Be . . . be . . ."

"Behind me?" Carl nodded that it was so and Jin turned to look at what he had been pointing at.

The Red King had left behind a note to mark his passing. Written in the air as if by an invisible hand it said:

Do not fear the dreaming . . . fear the waking.

Hefting Carl like a sack of grain Jin began stumbling forwards. Even running as fast as he could merely served to keep them in place. "Forget about that for now." Sparing a glance to look behind them he said. "This train is starting to run out of track. And I don't wanna know what's going to happen to us when it does."

* * *

Aki shouted in triumph. "We've got a signal. It's Jin's. And he has Carl!"

"Well get them out of there." Said Kyle.

"I'm already on it."

Carl surged up in bed. His mouth gasping like a fish he looked ready to scream until his lungs burst.

"Someone help him!" Said Kyle to the nurses that had been brought in. After they had lost the signal they weren't taking anymore chances. If an emergency extraction was needed they had been prepared to do it. No matter the price.

Aki monitored his vital signs as the nurses gave him a sedative. Lying back down he said. "You're not going to believe me, but I just had the worst dream."

* * *

Jin looked up at Kyle as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "The Red King managed to get away. I'm sorry."

Kyle clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be. Even if you had managed to capture him, we don't have the facilities to hold someone's consciousness captive anyway."

"Not yet, but we will."

"Jin." Said Kyle. "What exactly are you implying?"

Jin moved to look out a window, where just outside a new day was beginning to dawn. "That he's going to come back. And the next time, he's going to have friends with him."

* * *

In the year 2092 a powerful criminal syndicate headed by a man calling himself the Red King rose to prominence in the underworld. Six months later. A special police organization known as the D.Divers was established to combat him.