FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

CONTENT WARNING: discussion of abuse, strong emotions, T

The padlock clicked itself open, turned and jumped off the latch, landing to the side. The latch swung off the hasp, the knob turned and the door opened.

“Quit showin' off, Vector," Blindspot muttered.

The bunny chuckled. He stepped out onto the roof, then immediately stepped back into Blindspot's tummy, hands over his eyes.

“Aaah!" he cried. “Don't don't! Don't! Wait!"

“What is it?"

“Too bright! Rose, can you make our visors darker?"

“Hey," Tap cried, “who turned out the light?"

“Your visors are now as dark as they can get," Rose replied. “I'm afraid it won't be enough."

“Go on, Vector," Blindspot said. “Go into the light, Tap."

(“That was ominous," the otter girl replied.)

The three Korps agents stepped out onto the roof, squinting against the light from the building across the street. A giant, stylized St Andrew's cross blazed back at them, now blinking, now strobing, now burning steadily, always demanding attention. The roof was flooded with painfully bright, white light. So was the street in front of the cross and on either side. So, they knew, were the offices and apartments in the building whose roof they were standing on.

“What is that stupid muskox trying to do?" Blindspot exclaimed. “Replace the sun?"

“His plan is obvious," Rose replied. “Get free publicity for his product by being obnoxious."

“Naw, this is way beyond obnoxious! This is... uh..."

“Despicable," said Tap.

“Arrogant," said Vector.

“It's just plain rude!" Blindspot exclaimed. “So, what're we gonna do about it?"

“I can't do anything from here," said the bunny. “It's out of my range, I'd need to be near the stupid thing, or its power source, or something. Rose, why are we here instead of there?"

“You are getting a first hand look at the problem."

“I can hardly see anything!"

“That's the problem."

“Tap, how 'bout you?"

“It's out of my range too... I mean, usually... but... all this energy, just streaming over me... I think... Blindspot, let me try something."

The badger nodded. “We got time."

The otter girl stepped up to the edge of the roof, then thought better of it and stepped back a body length. She set the tip of her long, thick tail down on the roof and spread her legs to steady herself. Softly at first, hardly noticeable in the dazzling glare of the cross, her eyes began to glow.

“Tap," said Vector, “can you absorb light? I've never seen you do that before."

“I can absorb AC," she replied. “That's just light with a really long wavelength. I think... I can!" Tap grinned broadly, showing her sharp lutrine teeth, and started giggling. “I can, I can!"

Her eyes glowed brighter and brighter as she giggled. The strobing light from the cross began to visibly curve away from the street, the building and towards Tap. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flicked, Tap turned black, like an otter-shaped hole in space, with only her glowing eyes and teeth showing. The light from the cross became a spotlight shining directly at Tap and nowhere else, visible only by the street dust that scattered it on its way. Tap laughed louder. She began to radiate impossible waves of black.

“She's absorbing too much energy," Blindspot told Vector. “It could hurt her. Tap, c'mon!"

Tap turned a terrible, toothy grin to her leader. Her laughter became an evil witch's cackle as she raised her hands towards the cross. A funnel of red reached across the street, touched the cross and spread all over it. The LEDs shone even brighter as the structure they were on began to glow dull red. One LED exploded with a report like a gun shot. Then another and another, then the entire array, one after another, like a machine gun. Soon the cross was dark, except for its own dull red glow.

Tap became visible again as their RCGs became lighter. She was still surrounded by a bright halo of red. She grinned at Blindspot and Vector.

“Watch this!" she cried. “I figured out how to do it just last week! Sorry Rose, I need my eyes bare for this."

She slid her visor up on her forehead, giggling furiously. Her eyes glowed brighter. Then twin ghost beams shot from her face, aimed right for the centre of the cross. It glowed brighter and brighter as the red halo around Tap eased back into her. The black paint on the cross caught fire. Something turned to steam as it touched the white-hot metal.

“Laser eyes!" Vector exclaimed. “Oh em eff gee, that's incredible!"

“Look closer," Blindspot replied, “the beams are comin' from somethin' just in front of her eyes. How's she doin' that?"

“I dunno. How do you make people not notice you? How do I move things with my mind? It might as well be magic."

The cross, weakened by the heat from Tap's laser vision, folded in half, seeming to bow to the otter. Tap, her stored energy finally exhausted, collapsed onto the roof, giggling madly and writhing cutely.

“Rose," said Blindspot, “We need a pick up. We're done here."

“Your Condor is inbound. Memo to Tap from Karen, you had too much fun doing that. Good work. End of memo."

Tap laughed maniacally at Karen's approval and wiggled on the roof even harder. Vector pointed up towards the approaching helicopter, but the badger had already seen it. He picked Tap up and slung her over his shoulder. He lead them towards where their ride was landing. Vector brought up the rear. Tap looked back at him, still giggling.

“You're scary!" said the bunny.

“Blindguard alert!" Rose said. “Incoming!"

Blindspot set Tap down as a streak of blue dropped from the sky beside their Condor and resolved into a peregrine falcon girl in a tattered, blue-on-white company tee-shirt and cut-off jeans pushed down on her hips. She landed in a Hero pose, half-kneeling, arms spread to her sides. Tap and Vector cuddled with Blindspot, but the bird looked straight at them as she stood, re-arranged her clothes more modestly, and then raised her wings slowly beside her head.

“Team Blindguard," she said.

“She can see us!" Vector whispered.

“I'm not shieldin' us," Blindspot replied, “She must've been watching us for a while, no sense hiding now. Anyway, she's got her hands up.

“Bluebird," he went on. “Where's that hypersonic-proof dress of yours that never gets messed-up?"

“They took it back. And all my gadgets. And my bank account and my credit rating..."

“They fired you? (Vector, go frisk her.)"

Vector walked up to Bluebird. He stopped just inside a body length away. He slowly looked her up and down. A feather here and there shifted on its own as he did.

“I no longer fit the corporate image," she said as she let herself be searched.

“But they built their corporate image around you!" Tap exclaimed. “Didn't your dress belong to you? You had it at least a year before they hired you, didn't you?"

Bluebird shuddered and looked away. “They took it anyway," she said. “And then they told my landlord that I'm no longer employed. I had to be all kiss-ass with the superintendent to make him let me stay to the end of the month. And the last thing the chief personnel officer told me before he had me put out the door was I should be grateful to him for making me get a new job right away..."

Bluebird covered her face with her wings, shuddering and sobbing.

“She has a chip in her palm," Vector reported, “her credit chip I guess. There's another between her shoulder blades, but it feels like its been burned. Besides those, she's clean. Sorry for touching your cloaca Ms, I had to."

“I've had worse lately," she sniffled.

“They did burn my chip!" Bluebird went on. “Without anaesthetic or anything, just zapped it with a microwave thing, right on top of my spine!" She moaned, recalling the pain. “Then I couldn't even use my palm chip to buy a bag of jerky."

“Did ya look for work right away?" Blindspot asked.

“I went back to the Employment Division."

“Employment Division?" Vector asked.

“Where else?" she sniffled.

“Of the Bradley Group," Rose explained. “They watch all private listings."

“Oh," Vector replied. “Sorry, we're Canadian," he added. “What happened? Did they have anything for you?"

“They tried to push me into the Illstar Squadron."

“Illstar!" Blindspot exclaimed. “I've heard of them. They're, uh..."

“Illstar is an elite team of assassins," Rose explained.

“Assassins!" Blindspot exclaimed.

“I'm not a killer!" Bluebird cried. “I've always avoid hurting folks whenever I can! I couldn't be... that! I told them no. They claimed there were no other positions open, but I don't believe them. I don't know what to believe anymore!"

Vector hugged the bird and let her weep on his shoulder.

“How could they take your bank account?" Tap said. “That was your salary!"

Bluebird just sobbed.

“Corporations like St Andrews treat their employees as inventory for accounting purposes,' Rose answered for her. “That's probably why she has an RFID chip between her shoulders. That way they can treat employee salaries as allowances for the upkeep of their property. When they dispose of that property by firing an employee, the allowance remains theirs and they can take it back. They can also write salaries off their taxes as business expenses."

“But she's friends with... with the..."

“The muskox?" Blindspot interrupted. “He's a registered psychopath. I guess she didn't know that when they hired her." (Bluebird shook her head.) “Rose?"

“I can't be entirely sure until she's wearing RCGs, but voice stress analysis shows that she's sincere. Her story checks out in my opinion. There's no record with St Andrews of her being fired, but there's no record of her having been hired in the first place, or of any other contact with her since the beginning of the company. They've all been erased because I know they were there before. She has no bank account that I can find, but it was a chequing account and luckily she wrote a couple of cheques, there are still images. The account belongs to St Andrews LLC now, as she said, but the cheques are still in her name in the bank's record. Her credit rating is beginner. Corporations like St Anfrews have the influence to make credit agencies do that. The cheques had her address, you'd better let her know that it's listed as available for immediate occupancy."

Blindspot told her. Bluebird wailed.

“I don't have a lot!" she whimpered. “What I do have is precious... They're just going to throw it away!" She held Vector tighter and sobbed pathetically. “I've been fighting for the wrong side!" she screeched. “Please help me!"

“She's down!" Tap growled. “The Korps does not punch down!"

“Rose?" Blindspot asked.

“Karen says bring her in. You can stop at her apartment on the way, a team has been dispatched to scan it before you arrive."

Blindspot grinned. “Get in the Condor," he told Tap, “I'll bring 'er aboard." He went and hugged the stricken falcon and petted Vector's long ears approvingly. “Congrats, Bluebird," he said, “yer a villain. Welcome to The Korps!"

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This story and all the characters in it are copyright © 2023 by D'Otter, except as follows.

ROSE, Karen and The Korps universe belong to Karen King (@kraken) and are used by general permission.

Illstar is the property of Foxmates and is mentioned by permission.

My own characters are available for use by other writers in the Korps Extended Universe, (and Kraken if she likes.) Just please ask first. Character sheets are available.

This is a work of fan fiction based on the works of Karen King. It should not be taken as canonical to those works, (unless she says otherwise.)

Any similarity between any person, company or property depicted in this work of fiction and any real-life person or company, living, dead or defunct, or their property is strictly coincidental.