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WARNING: This fic is rated NC-17 for scenes of a M/F and F/F sexual nature between morphs that involves blood play as well as scenes containing a considerable amount of violence and gore. While that sentence alone is probably enough incentive for you to read on regardless of whether or not you're of the legal age to do so just consider yourself warned. NOTES: So after an no holds barred beginning I now provide you with the second instalment. This one primarily focuses on introducing us to the rest of the main cast so for all of you that were blown away by the exploits of Sharon and Jason in the first episode, I'll just come out and admit they don't have quite as big a role in this one (don't worry they'll be back in due course). As always please remember that the contents and characters in this fic are Copyright Klesk Vadrigaar 2005. Comments and feedback to [email protected] Okay kids, let's continue... Fursonae X Machina Episode 2 : First Blood Written by Klesk Vadrigaar May 15th -7:31 a.m.- Sharon slowly awakened from peaceful dreams with an long forgotten feeling of satisfaction radiating through her body. She momentarily considered turning over and trying to go back to sleep again but then sensed something was seriously amiss. Her clock wasn't playing, meaning she'd somehow managed to awaken before it went off and the pleasingly familiar scent of morphs who'd been mating for a long time was filling her nostrils. Opening her eyes Sharon found her head situated in Jason's lap and her nose pointed inwards towards the most personal part of his groin. She sighed happily as she inhaled, savouring the wonderful musky smell before letting her eyes drift upwards to be greeted with his warm smile beaming down at her. "Good morning Sharon." he said as he stroked her radiant pink hair. "Mmmm, morning gorgeous." she ran a paw up and down his chest, feeling the taut abs. "Sleep well?" "After last night, you know I did." Jase shifted position as she sat up beside him. "I think we've both set a new personal record for the shortest amount of time taken to get someone into bed." Sharon giggled "Well when I know I've got something good then all precautions can pretty much go and hang." she leant over and kissed him lightly on the muzzle "Besides as I said last night we've learned more than enough about each other on our first assignment. I didn't need a lot of romantic nights out and ludicrous amounts of heart to heart jabbering to figure out we're compatible. Some things in life are just instantaneously clear." "I'm glad, and I want to let you know I feel the same way." Jase kissed her back. "Mmmm, you're even sweeter when you're awake." He wrapped an arm around pulling her closer to him while his other paw moved up to cup and fondle one of her generously large tits. Sharon mrrred softly as he traced around the areola then gently pinched the nipple, making it hard. "You're quite fond of my breasts aren't you?". "I can't help it, they're so big and soft and warm and beautiful." his tongue swept out and licked the tempting nipple "And delicious and inviting and, well you get the idea." he said. Sharon nuzzled him lovingly, she was very proud of her endowments and loved it whenever anyone complimented her on them. "I do indeed." She manoeuvred her muzzle across his chest and mimicked the action on his own nipple "And I think you taste just as good." The duo engaged in a little game whereupon one would lick and taste the other's body before stopping and allowing them to try and go one better on them. They kept this up for quite some time, their tails lovingly wrapping around each other. Unfortunately the increasing intimacy was all too abruptly shattered by the sudden cacophony of morning chatter from the alarm clock. Sharon groaned under her breath as the annoying blabber of breakfast shows filled the room, reminding the pair that time and the world do not stop for new found love. Jase withdrew his mouth from where he'd been suckling her and looked up. "Your wake-up call?" Sharon said nothing and simply brought her fist down on the clock, bludgeoning it back into silence. "Sorry, I have to have it set to do that otherwise I'd sleep till noon." She let a slight grin cross her lips "Course that's usually because I don't have a cute fox to help guide me back to wakefulness." "Hey, I do what I can." Jase said as he got up. "I assume another shower is in order?" Sharon grinned "You're getting better at this already. Go ahead and get the water hot, I'll join you shortly." Jase strode off while Sharon switched the alarm function to inactive mode (she'd had the thing custom fitted with an adamantium shell just so it could continually take such punishment each morning) before getting up and following him. * * * Jase turned the water on full and just let himself get drenched while contemplating the unexpected bend his life had taken. *Never would've seen this coming, not in a million years. To think after all my experimentation with other series I'd fall head over heels for a vixen.* He squirted some shampoo into his paws from the dispenser rack and began lathering his hair up. *Can't say I'm not ecstatic about it though.* His thought process was brought to a sudden halt when a pair of blue paws wrapped around his midsection and a very familiar muzzle buried itself in the nape of his neck. "You know we don't have to stop what we were doing just because of the change in location." Sharon cooed softly. "As tempting as that sounds there is the little matter if us needing to be at work soon." He turned around to see her smiling seductively at him. "Then we'll just have to coordinate this so we can be satisfied and get clean at the same time." She reached over to the shower's holo-panel and pumped up the sonic generator (a device designed to loosen dirt and grime from fur via ultra-sonic waves) and added some cleansing vapour to the water. She then turned the two of them 90 degrees so her back was against the dispenser rack. "Okay now you just focus on lathering and rinsing the two of us while I work on brightening your day. Oh and enjoy yourself while you at it." Jason attempted to ask what she meant by that but was interrupted by the vixen dropping to her knees and beginning to lick his balls and sheath. Jase's initial surprise was replaced with a mixture of amusement and coital glow as he felt himself growing hard under her ministrations. Squirting more shampoo out he began to work it into her long pink hair all the while trying not to moan too loudly as his tool slid out from its organic locker. "My you certainly are quick to respond to my touch." Sharon commented as one paw reached up to fondle the hardening maleness while her tongue continued to swab over his ball sac. "Fast reactions are good for a man." Jase just nodded in response as he took a liberal amount of conditioner and began rubbing it all over himself and then repeating the action on the vixen beneath him. "Th-thanks, I take it you have the same the affection for my cock as I do your breasts?" Sharon smiled and ran the tip of her nose against the shaft's underside. "Well you heaped such laudatory praise on them I think it's only right I return the favour." She tenderly licked the hot flesh. "I love how it smells, how it tastes, the way the skin is so smooth and soft. It feels so good in my mouth, in my pussy, up my ass, everywhere really." She moved down and nuzzled his balls again. "And then there's the matter of these wonderful things underneath or have I said enough?" "You've...you've made your point." Jase gasped as she swallowed him again and began to suck, coaxing more moans out of the fox. Sharon snaked her tongue down Jase's cock before wrapping it around and squeezing which only served to add to the bliss clouding his mind. *Deus what does she have in her mouth? A boa constrictor?* Jason held onto the dispenser rack while Sharon continued to suckle until the shampoo suds running down her face started tickling her nose. "Alright enough of that. Rinse my hair off Jase, I've got another idea." The vixen said pulling her mouth off. Jason almost cried when she ceased her ministrations but duly detached the shower head and began to rinse the shampoo off. "I hope you don't mind my asking but how do you keep your hair so long and lovely?" he asked. "Lots of time, effort and painstaking grooming. No magical means here." She laughed. "Now I need some of the body lotion." She reached up and Jason squirted it into her paw. "Perfect, now hold on like you were before and relax, this'll feel great." She leaned back and lathered up her breasts, keeping her movements slow and sensual just to tease him, before placing his penis in the valley between them and smooshing together. Jase had to stifle a yip as he felt his tool being engulfed in the vast mounds of warm mammary flesh. "There, now we're both getting what we like." She smiled up at him. "Look down please, I want you to see me getting a facial this time." she began rubbing her tits up and down his rod watching in contentment as his face dissolved into a look of being on top of the world with the stars in easy reach. His eyes were shut tight enough you could bounce a coin off the skin of the lids while his tongue hung from the side of a mouth that was smiling wide enough to accommodate a whole loaf of bread with enough room left over for a small jar of honey on both ends. *He is just sooooo cute.* Sharon licked the head of his cock as he began to buck his hips against her strokes. "That's it boy, fuck my tits nice and good." She leaned in close and opened her mouth so his cock went up into it every time he pushed forward. As many times as she'd done this in the past, this particular time still felt special to Sharon, something which she found strange but knew it was to be expected. Here she was kneeling before the most handsome fox she'd ever met, sucking him off like she'd done with countless others yet she knew that this time wasn't going to be some kind of mandatory goodbye wind-down. This was going to be something she'd do many times with Jase and on every occasion it would be because she wanted to. She could've just woken up and gone straight to work, he'd be right there supporting her. She could stop what she was doing at any time, he'd never think any less of her. Hell, she could outright just say that she needed some time alone and leave (something she quietly swore she was NEVER going to do) he'd still try to be a good friend. Jase would never demand anything of her, never try to hurt her, he had only her best interests at heart and knowing that filled her with the burning desire to make him the happiest specimen of the canid series ever. "Ahhh...Sharon...ahhh...I'm getting close Sharon." The vixen grinned as inspiration struck again. She reached out and snatched the shower head off him. Bringing it over his cock she thumbed it to massage mode so Jase suddenly found his sensitive cock head being bombarded by high powered jets of scented water. "How's this feel gorgeous?" she asked. "Oh Deus incredible! Oooohhh ahhhhh I can't hold out much longer!!" "I know, I don't last long myself when I use this on my clit." A dreamy look came over her face at the memory. "Oh fuck...ergh.. I'm...I'm coming!! AGGGGHHHH!" Sharon leaned back and sighed in utter contentment as thick ropes of fox seed splashed against her face and on her breasts. She felt so satisfied with herself at what she'd done. True it did seem a little weird feeling satisfaction even though she hadn't done anything to herself but she wasn't complaining. For once all that mattered to her was that she'd shown Jason how much he meant to her. As the fox in question tapered off she looked up at his face, euphoria etched all over it, and couldn't help shedding a tear of joy. "So feel ready to start the day now?" "Sharon, with you at my side I feel like I can keep going for miles." He knelt and hugged her. "I must confess I've had my fair share of romances over the years but you're the first vixen I've ever fallen for." Sharon felt another tear escape from her eye as she wrapped her arms around the fox. "While I can't say the same in terms of how many foxes have bedded me, you're the only one who's accomplished the near-impossible task of making me want to do everything for you without any desire for my own needs." She kissed him on the muzzle. "And I mean that with every hair on my body. I don't care what time of day it is, breakfast, lunch, target practice, work, or play, if your cock needs a warm hole or you'd just like some nice big tits to rest your head on you need only to ask. I'll do absolutely anything you want." Her eyes betrayed nothing but sincerity to her words. "While that sounds like a dream come true Sharon I'm not a particularly demanding guy. What you did just now is more than sufficient." Sharon grinned "The best part is we've still got enough time left over to dress and grab breakfast." * * * - 9:41 a.m.- As Sharon waited for Jason to finish up with Callista (he was due for some system upgrades but hadn't had time to get them done before being transferred) her mind was focused on what exactly the future would bring. No doubt their dealings yesterday with the underworld would warrant further investigation but after seeing all those bizarre flesh guns with the removed finger bones inside could she handle anything weirder? *Well that is kinda what your job entails.* She nodded slowly and steadied herself. She was an agent, one of the best, and it would take a lot more than that to freak her out. Sharon resided in this confirmation as the doors to the maintenance bay slid open and Jase walked out with Callista hot on his heels. "Remember that won't allow you to stay underwater indefinitely. The most you can hope for right now is about 45 minutes tops then you'll either have to surface for air or grow gills. Also the optical strengtheners have difficulty focusing on anything over two feet away so forget about spying on your next door neighbours, well at least not for prolonged periods." Jason let a smile grace his muzzle "If I didn't know better I'd say you didn't quite trust me." "I've seen far too many cases of cyber-burn out from agents overusing their new hardware and I've got more than enough problems to keep me busy right now thank you!" she chirped. As if on cue the slow soothing voice of Pericles echoed from behind the door. -Dr. Wren, I'm afraid the new hardware still isn't accepting your program adjustments, I think it is best that we start over again from scratch.- "Well do keep trying, I'm not installing them until they're operating at 95% or above." -You are aware that current reports state that anything over 92% might as well be wishing for the impossible?- The eternally patient computer replied. "Of course dear and that's why I exist. Because nobody else has the sheer drive to prove them wrong!" the canary beamed proudly. Jase just rolled his eyes and ran a paw through his hair "Right, well I'm going back to the land of the rational now and grabbing some coffee." "Okay, meet me outside Cyan's office, she'll probably have more info on yesterday's findings." Sharon said. "Sounds good to me." Jase kissed her on the paw and walked off much to Callista's intrigue and expectancy. "Dear me Sharon, it's been less than 48 hours since you two met yet that fox is acting like you got him a government reprieve from paying taxes and then went out and won the lottery for him. What exactly did you do yesterday?" She asked. Sharon simply gave the bird a look of surprise which then faded into a knowing smile. "Sorry, I'll bonk myself for that no-brainer." Callista said slapping herself with a wing. * * * - 10:00 a.m.- Cyan sat in her office with a look of severe concern muddying her features, her eyes scanning over another one of the orga-guns. Pericles watched her silently from his interface terminal as she turned it over and over again in her paws as if trying to memorise every little groove and vein on it. Her meditative trance was soon broken by the door whooshing open and two exceptionally cheerful looking vulpins entering her domain. "Good morning commander." Jase saluted smartly as he and Sharon seated themselves. "Jase while your politeness and respect are appreciated, I prefer to keep things informal around here. Just call me Cyan." She smiled. "Of course, force of habit." Jase said. Cyan briefly returned to contemplating the pistol in her paws before setting it down and turning to face the agents. "Right, now I'm sure you're both wondering what the follow up is on yesterday's momentous discovery." She said "Well when someone feels the need to hit me with 30+ guards, a plasma turret and a Waldorf drone I'd assume they must be hiding something big." Sharon said wearily as she rubbed a paw over the scarred part of her thigh. -Indeed and according to what the lab reports say the punishment your endured was well warranted.- Pericles stated solemnly. "So what are we dealing with here?" Jase asked "And what exactly are those...things?" Sharon queried pointing at the fleshy weapon. Cyan merely held her paw in the air and silenced them both. "I'll pass on all the information we have so far, just as soon as everyone concerned is here." "Everyone? Who else needs to know about," Sharon began but stopped when the door swished open and in walked a small and incredibly cute cheetah bunny. "Hi, sorry I'm late." she said in a gentle voice. "Not a problem Valerie, we're just getting started anyway." Cyan assured as Sharon lit up at the sight of a familiar face. "VALERIE! By Deus how've you been bunny girl? I was getting worried we weren't going to see you again!" She exclaimed leaping up and hugging the hybrid. "I've been on temporary transfer, helping the New Jersey branch apprehend some post-modernist painters who were murdering homeless bums and then using their internal organs to manufacture their own brand of paint." She shrugged "Their excuse was that it yielded colours you can't get with normal chemicals." Sharon grimaced slightly at the thought while Jase just looked lost. "Errmm, may I ask to be introduced?" he said finally. "Of course, Val this is Jason Dermont, the newest member of our family here. Jase this is Valerie Piersen, another one of our still ripening agents and an exceptionally gifted forensic scientist." Cyan said. "Very nice to meet you." Valerie beamed as she and Jase shook paws. "Right, now getting back to you question Sharon. This thing, this orga-gun as I believe it's been termed is precisely what it looks to be: a fully functional, semi-automatic, ballistic weapon made entirely out of flesh and bone." Valerie picked the gun up off the desk and examined it as Cyan continued. "From what we can tell it's made from natural materials, we as yet don't know where from, which are nourished and maintained by some sort of time delayed nutrient solution which is dissolved in deoxygenated blood and supplied via an organic pump." Noting that both Sharon and Jason were wearing expressions that signalled she was about to lose them, Cyan decided to simplify her explanation "It's basically like a normal circulation system only it just goes back and forth like a yo-yo along one major artery and vein." "But why would anyone want to create such a monstrosity?" Sharon asked. "I mean it's hideous, unsuitable for most types of combat," "And there's not a single metal or synthetics detector on Neo-Terra that could pick it up. Smuggling this through quarantine would be a breeze." Valerie finished for her. -Precisely. Any assassin worth their salt would find these an absolute deussend. They're impossible to trace, easy to conceal and once you've finished with one it is a simple matter of shutting the pump off and allowing it to rot away as nature intended.- Pericles calmly explained. Sharon closed her eyes and shuddered, not liking what she was hearing one bit. Valerie meanwhile had removed the clip and was studying the ammo intently. "Very clever." She disclosed. "What's that?" Jase enquired. "These bones, they're split at the ends and encased in plasma capsules. That would provide more than enough speed and punching power to make up for what would otherwise constitute a miniscule calibre." She mused. "Indeed" Cyan said examining one of the reports on her desk. "The research team tried firing a few of these, apparently they can go through a standard craft fuselage like a laser beam through tofu." "Will our suits be able to withstand that?" Jason asked a tad concerned. "Assuming you don't get hit from point blank range yes." Cyan assured. The three agents looked relieved. "Well as fascinating as all that was, what are we going to do about it?" Sharon asked. "Right now High Command is more interested in where these are coming from and who's buying them so I'm going to divide this into two parts. Sharon, Jason," she said turning to regard the two "According to Intel that warehouse was being used by a restaurant called 'The Fillet of Soul'" . It's part of a chain that supposedly offers the best in modern aquatic cuisine and coolest in new age Jazz." Cyan made a face as she read out what was on the tablet. *Slogan could do with a lot of work.* Sharon thought "Anyway, here's the address" Cyan handed her the tablet "I want you two to go stake it out and find out what's going on, you're permitted to make arrests and bug the place as well if you have to." "Anything else?" Sharon asked "Yes if you have time, let me know if the food is any good. Dax and I are due for a little romantic night out soon and for the life of me I can't think of anywhere to go." "We'll do our best, Cyan" Jase said nodding in reverence. The squirrel couldn't help but smile at how polite and respectful he was. "As for you, Valerie." she turned to face the felapin "We've traced the transport that delivered those guns and discovered that it also stopped off at a abandoned morgue in Brooklyn." "No small shortage of coincidences then." The cheetah bunny replied cynically. "Yes we suspect that's where they're getting some kind of raw material necessary to make the weapons. It's not much but at least it's a start. You're one of the best forensic experts we have so I want you to check it out and see what you can find." "I'll get on it right away." The felapin started to gather up her things. -That isn't all Agent Piersen.- Pericles cut in. -After thoroughly reviewing yesterday's incident both with Cyan and the other Terran Network A.I.s, it is our unanimous decision that a slight alteration be made to provide you with some more adequate protection.- "How so?" Valerie enquired. Cyan slid another data tablet over to her. "I'm assigning Kryssa to work with you." The felapin's response was to simply sit there dumbfounded with surprise. Sharon did an perfect imitation and then found the wind to speak. "Cyan, do-do you really think the situation is that serious?" "Neither I nor the mekaniks are taking any chances. If yesterday proved anything it's that we're dealing with the standard hard boiled, unfeeling psychotics who think they're above all forms of the law. I want to make sure all of you make it back in one piece." The squirrel stated firmly. -And the Network does not wish to see you go the same way as the Mobile Infantry on Klendathu either.- Pericles said. Valerie shook the surprise off and took a quick breath. "Then so be it I guess, has Krys been informed yet?" "No, it was kind of a snap decision. I'll leave it to you to tell her." Cyan narrowed her eyes and grinned slightly "I'm sure you know where to find her." "Of course, I'll get on it right away." the bunny straightened the hem of her custom skirted suit and gathered up her things before darting out of the office as quick as she could. "I'd better go get ready as well" Jase stood up "For now I bid both of you good ladies adieu!" He bowed respectfully and walked out, leaving the vixen and the squirrel to chuckle over his little performance. "So how are you finding working with him so far?" Cyan asked. Sharon murred seductively "Well, let me put it this way." She slowly got up from her seat before sashaying around the desk and leaning down so her face was level with Cyan's. She allowed a brief pause before moving in and kissing the squirrel with as much passion as she could muster. The move caught Cyan off guard and she nearly fell out of her chair. She attempted to open her muzzle in protest but Sharon quickly saw to that by sliding her tongue in and sensually probing the inside of her mouth. This went on for quite a while until Sharon remembered her commander needed to breathe and broke the kiss. "Can you accept that as my answer?". "I...I guess." Cyan finally got out "Although you know a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed." Sharon grinned and nuzzled her commander. "You know I'm too affectionate for that." "So I've gathered. Well I'm glad to see I made the right choice. Perhaps now you'd care to further show your gratitude by going out and delivering another one of your exemplary performances?" "At once." Sharon hugged the squirrel tightly and then walked out of the room, leaving a rather unsettled Cyan. "Was that the reaction you were expecting?" she asked Pericles. -Indeed, this is turning out even better than we anticipated. Those two should get on just fine.- The computer remarked before signing off. * * * -10:45 a.m.- After a brief pit stop at the cafeteria to load up on caffeine and pastries, Sharon and Jason made their way back to the parking lot. "So I take it you showed Cyan your thankfulness for being partnered with me?" The fox enquired knowingly. "With as much energy as I could muster." Sharon beamed "I must say, for a straight, married woman she sure doesn't put up much resistance to female advances." "She probably knows you won't take no for an answer in that regard." the fox chuckled. "Although there is one aspect of that meeting I didn't quite understand." "And what would that be?" "Well when Cyan announced who was going to be accompanying Valerie, the two of you acted like it was an omen of the second apocalypse. Who, may I ask, is this Kryssa that's got you two in such a tiff?" Jase gave her a look typical of those who feel they've been left in the dark on a crucial matter. "Oh, well Kryssa Valhorren is a 29 year-old vampire bat that was assigned here around six years ago. She's earned a somewhat legendary status around here due to a rather unusual ability." Sharon explained. "Which is?" "Her pain threshold, apparently it knows no limit. She can sustain injuries that would kill a normal morph and keep going like nothing was wrong. I don't know how she does it but the girl's tougher than nails and twice as sharp. Just as well really because she seems to attract danger no matter where she strides and she's rumoured to be one of the most aggressive and violently inclined morphs around." Sharon shivered "To be frank after seeing her in the ER once or twice I really don't think there's much doubt about the matter. Anyway as a result of this she's usually sent out on the extremely hazardous missions, ones that only she could stand any hopes of succeeding at. So as you can deduce, the Network must expect this to be one hell of a nasty job." "In that case should I be concerned for your rabbit friend? She seemed so nice." Jase asked. "Nah, don't worry about Bunny girl, she may be still learning the ropes but she's got an unconquerable spirit. An assignment like this is exactly what she needs to break through that final barrier that's preventing her from becoming a great agent and she knows it." Sharon glanced down at the bottom of the grav-shaft. "I'd be more concerned on how Kryssa's going to react to having to chaperone someone around. In all the time I've worked here not once has that bat ever requested assistance." "A loner huh? I never understood how anyone could want to do this job on their own and risk a serious mental breakdown from the stress or a complete loss of feeling for anything living." Sharon shrugged as they stepped out of the shaft "We all have our reasons, some do it because they love the glory, others because they find it more rewarding to accomplish things unaided, I did it because I wanted to cement my reputation as a self-sufficient female." "Regardless it doesn't help when you need a second opinion on something." Sharron turned to find Jason standing behind his craft staring forlornly into the open trunk "Like should I take the shotgun with me or the plasma rifle?" he moaned looking hopelessly at his partner. Sharon tutted playfully and went to help the chronically indecisive fox. * * * - Meanwhile - Valerie stood nervously in another grav-shaft as she descended to the C.S.F. company gym in the basement, the place that was pretty much Kryssa's home away from home whenever she wasn't out on assignment. The rabbit fidgeted as her eyes remained glued to the digital screen reading off the floor numbers as they passed by. Half of her couldn't wait to reach her destination, the other half hoping she never did. *And the best part is you can't blame any of it on first time jitters. * Though this was indeed Val's first high-risk mission that wasn't what was worrying her. She was more than capable of getting into the thick of things and fighting to keep the peace (*ha ha*) and if there were to be some fatalities or bloodshed well she'd been trained to deal with that too. No what was bothering her was Kryssa. It seemed like ever since the bunny had first laid eyes on her (ironically while medics were trying to save one of the bat's own which had been gouged out) she'd harboured a serious crush on her. She'd never admitted it because Kryssa wasn't what one would call social and Valerie had found with practice she could usually keep her feelings under control, feeding them with the occasional long daydreaming stare at the bat as she suited up to go out on another one of her one woman bloodbaths or ate lunch by herself in the cafeteria. *Well looks like it's time to confront the object of your affection and tell her how you feel....yeah and maybe if I word it nicely she'll just tie my ears around my neck and strangle me to death instead of bleeding me dry. * Valerie silently wondered if this was a deliberate set-up on either Cyan's or the Network computers' part to get her to come out of the closet (yeah she'd never admitted to being gay either, though she may have unknowingly dropped a multitude of hints). A few minutes later the grav-lift reached the designated floor and Valerie cautiously stepped out, not sure if she should stride into the gym with confidence or put on the appearance of insecurity and not being totally sure of what she was doing. Being a agent-in-training, and a rather lousy actress to boot, either one would look equally unconvincing. Finally she decided to just transverse through the doorway with slow, careful precision, almost as if she were crossing thin ice. Inside the gym was standard fare: the latest chart hits being blasted at an insidiously loud volume and several morphs attempting the balancing act of leaning over to carry on a conversation with the morph next to them while trying to stay on the machine they were using. Moving quickly past the rows of cycles, treadmills, rowing simulators and the like, Valerie at last found herself in the weights area. Gazing over the current occupants, which included a giraffe, a bear and a seriously buffed up tiger who appeared to be trying to lift an impressive sized barbell with his teeth (!), the bunny at last located who she was looking for, and stopped dead. Kryssa was clinging to a bar suspended above the floor, dressed only in a black sports bra and a pair of tight fitting shorts. She had an impressive set of weights attached to her ankles and was slowly doing a combination of a chin-up and a body crunch, her face screwed up in concentration. Valerie just stood there and gaped, if she thought Kryssa looked pretty but dangerous before then she was quickly approaching siren quality now. Every time the bat brought her legs up Val could see every intrinsic detail of her well developed abs stand out, each muscle flexing and moving harmoniously with the others under her fur. Her movements were slow and graceful, no indication of pain or stress. Her body was covered in a thin layer of sweat which only served to accentuate how much of a perfectly sculpted specimen she truly was. *By the Deus is she beautiful!* Valerie continued to watch unaware that her mouth was hanging open and she was starting to drool. *Oh Kryssa, Kryssa, Kryssa* She repeated over and over again, the name itself sounding as sweet as heaven. Eventually the reason why she was there surfaced again and she broke off the daydream. *Okay keep cool. Remember don't let fear get the better of you. Fear can dominate but it can also be dominated. I will face it and push it down. I am stronger than my fear and I will not surrender to it.* Unconsciously she began slowly advancing forward again as she repeated the exercise to calm herself. *I will face it and push it down. I am stronger than my fea - * "Geez girl, look out!!" Some morph from behind her yelled. Val snapped back to reality and found that she'd been so preoccupied with readying herself for confrontation she inadvertently had almost wandered underneath the bat. Alerted by the noise, Kryssa stopped herself mid-crunch and then promptly let go of the bar and crashed onto the floor as Val jolted back out of the way. *Oh great! Brilliant way to make a first impression girl!* the hybrid rebuked herself. "I...I...I'm so terribly sorry, are you alright?" Valerie knelt down with trepidation and extended a helping paw. She was rewarded by the bat grabbing her arm and violently dragging her to the ground so that the two of them were lying face to face. Val felt her voice freeze in her throat as a feeling of excitement ran through her which was then replaced with abject terror at where she was. From this point she was less than ten inches from the woman of her dreams, a woman who also had racked up the highest body count in the history of the C.S.F. and was rumoured to not be all that gentle towards any of her colleagues either. She could see every minute detail on the cybernetic bone strengtheners surrounding Kryssa's right eye as well as the biteryllium metal shell encasing what remained of her left ear. She could feel the bat's warm breath on her muzzle as she was scanned by stern eyes that betrayed, in no small quantity, how fearless and calm their owner was right now. Val's mouth snapped shut as her mind cogitated what possible act of depraved violence the bat was going to enact upon her now that she'd interrupted her work out. "Sorry, I didn't mean to overreact there." Val heard the words but was too tightly gripped by the fear of being so close to her crush and possible executioner to register they were coming from. "Huh....errrmm...w-what sorry?" "I'm apologising for startling you like that." Kryssa stated matter-of-factly as she sat up. Val just remained sprawled across the floor, unable to speak or move for fear of what Kryssa might do. "I think the more appropriate question now is are YOU alright?" "Uhh..ye...ye...yeah, n-n-n-n-no d-d-damage to re-report." the hybrid stuttered, her eyes still fixed to where Kryssa had been lying a few seconds ago. "Good." Kryssa reached out and slowly brought the poor frightened rabbit to a sitting position. "So why are you here?" she asked. "Wha..wha..what?" Val stammered helplessly, her voice shrinking with her confidence. She looked to the other morphs around her for help but they had all deserted, clearly not wanting to get involved. Kryssa looked the nervous bunny over a second time. "That scared you didn't't it, me grabbing you like that?" "Yeah...yeah....well...I da...do....I-I-I meh..muh." Valerie felt her ability to form coherent sentences ebbing away only to be replaced with a strong feeling of abject disgust at herself which didn't mix at all well with the paralysing sense of fear that still consumed her. As if the situation weren't already bad enough she suddenly felt tears pricking at her eyes and shut them tight, the very last thing she needed right now was to break down and start crying. It seemed to not be enough, despite her effort to maintain control, liquid began seeping out and pooling at the corners of her eyes. The cheetah bunny grit her teeth in despair wanting nothing more than to run to somewhere dark and far away where she could just curl up into a ball and die. Suddenly Val felt something cool and soothing brush against her fur, the unmistakable feeling of duramantium coated claws gently stroking her cheek as they wiped away the tears. Cautiously she opened her eyes again to be met with Kryssa's violet ones. They still seemed as stern and calm as ever but now there appeared to also be a hint of concern in them. *Concern for me!?* Val thought in disbelief. "Again I must apologise for my actions." Kryssa stated. "When I do a particularly gruelling work out and adrenaline is surging through my veins I often tend to forget that there are others around me. When I saw you standing there I just did the first thing I could think of to avoid accidentally injuring you and ended up landing on my wings, which isn't the most pleasant sensation in the world." Kryssa was one of the few half-born bats in the world who's wings were attached to her back rather than on her arms. "That combined with the slight annoyance I felt at being interrupted is why I lashed out momentarily. Rest assured I meant no hostility or harm." She spoke slowly and methodically watching with satisfaction as the bunny began to unwind. "Your name's Valerie right?" "Yea..yes that's c-correct." "Okay Valerie, I need you to calm down." Val felt herself loosening somewhat but she was still shaking terribly. "Breathe" Kryssa said softly and Val drew in a few deep breaths feeling herself regain control of her body. Seeing the technique was working, Kryss placed her other claw on the bunny's shoulder. "Now, did you need to see me about something?". "Yes, Cyan's given me an assignment which has been classified as high risk." She ran through the details of the briefing, all the while dreading what would happen when she got to the final part. "And she's ordered you to accompany me and provide back up." Kryssa kept her eyes sternly on her as she chewed the info over and for a moment Valerie feared she was going to demonstrate an altogether less pleasant use of those claws . "I see, do I have time to get cleaned up before we depart?" Kryssa said at last. "Yes of course." Val responded quickly. "Good, I'd hate for you to have to walk around all day with the stench of my sweat contaminating everything." Kryssa unstrapped her ankle weights and then headed smartly for the showers as the half-born followed meekly behind. * * * -10:25 a.m.- *Well this certainly isn't going as imagined.* Val sat with her back to the wall as Kryssa subjected herself to a five minute ChemiShower. She had the orga-gun she'd taken from Cyan's office in her hands and was trying to remain focused on it rather than on the bat cleaning herself a foot and a half away. She still couldn't get her head around the reality of the situation, she'd imagined how this confrontation might turn out for years but wasn't expecting it to be so, well, un-confrontational. "They're still putting way too much fur cleanser in the mix. I feel like I've been shrink-wrapped in plastic." She looked up to see Kryssa, now dressed in standard C.S.F. attire, affixing her opti-visor. "I take it that's the remarkable discovery that everyone's in a furore about?" The bat pointed at the pistol. "Yes, magnificently twisted feat of genetic engineering isn't it? Kinda like what you'd expect to see in those ancient FPS games." She smiled at Kryss who merely retained her stern expression as she opened her locker. "Come on we'd better load up if we're ever going to get a head start." That got Val's attention *Well now I can at least find something out about her.* "Actually if you don't mind my asking Kryssa, what exactly will you be employing to guard my back today?" Kryssa's response was to look back at the felapin and inhale slowly as if she were about to make an announcement "The Corrino MRG-647 Mine, Rocket and Grenade launcher!" she sounded proud as she dramatically revealed the intimidating weapon. "I believe when you get down to it nothing gets your point across like a nice concentrated explosion right in your adversaries' face." She held the compact launcher out for Valerie to get a nice long look at before setting it down on the bench. "What may I ask is your choice of arms ?" Val blushed slightly and went over to her own locker . "AZER series Shock Core rifle." the smile reappeared on her face as she cradled it like a rather elongated baby in her arms. "Elegant, durable and a breeze to maintain. It's never let me down." The brief moment of contentment was soon to dissipate however as she looked over and saw Krys with an unreadable expression on her face "That's a completely NON-lethal weapon if I remember correctly. There's no way you can kill anything with it." The bat commented in what to Valerie sounded like a disapproving tone. Val's eyes went wide as she felt her body seize up for the second time that day. *Oh Deus she's disappointed in me already! I knew this was gonna happen!!* Valerie opened her mouth to start apologising like mad...and again stopped. Something was stirring in her, a core belief that she'd stood by for most of her adult life. "Look I know it's a cut-throat world we're up against but that doesn't entail that we have to be as cruel and deranged as the psychos we go out to catch." She heard herself say. "I'm not into taking a life unless I absolutely have to and there are plenty of agents who share that opinion! We're supposed to be peacekeepers not executioners!!" The hybrid finished her statement and closed her eyes as a wave of fear induced nausea shot through her at what she'd just done. Holding back her sudden need to heave, Val opened her eyes to find Kryssa leaning against the lockers, arms folded, staring back at her incredulously. For a few tantalising seconds bat regarded bunny in silence until Val cracked under the intense gaze. "Kryssa I'm sorry I didn't mean that the way it sounded, it's just...well you know that's what my beliefs are and you can't expect me to just throw them away just like that but I didn't mean to sound so offended because-because I just....well...it just came out you know, I didn't expect to spout it off like that.." And on and on she rabbited (pun intended) until the bat motioned for her to please stop. "It's okay Valerie, I wasn't criticising you. It's just I've never encountered such a trusting and humane morph before. It momentarily surprised me that's all." Val blinked "You...you're not upset?" Kryssa approached the cheetah rabbit and placed a claw on her shoulder. "Miss Piersan, you clearly are a woman who is very confident about what her opinions and will defend them to the bitter end." She moved the claw up and traced Valerie's lopped lapin ears "And I respect you all the more for it." Val smiled, partly in relief that there hadn't been any bitter showdown and partly because it actually felt good having Kryssa stroke her ears. "I guess I should also tell you I usually don't load my U.A.P. with anything other than concussion beams?" Kryssa nodded approvingly "Do what you feel is right." She said as she went over and pulled out a case of incendiary rockets. "Just remember that if you do your thing then I'm going to do mine." * * * - 11:05 a.m.- Krys sat with her arms folded, staring silently through the patrol craft's windshield as Val navigated her way over the mid-morning traffic with an air of increasing frustration. She was getting a little tense now that they were actually heading towards their target area and would gladly have welcomed some conversation. Exasperatingly the bat had remained mute since they'd left and Val was left to stew in her own thoughts. As the duo came to a red light she decided she'd have to take the initiative. "So Kryssa..." she began only to have the bat repeat the silencing motion she'd done earlier. The bunny tried twice more and was received with the same gesture each time. Sighing in aggravation she slumped against the control columns wishing there was some way to make herself feel more at ease. {Sorry Valerie but if you wish to speak to me, do so like this. I need to keep myself focused for any signs of trouble up ahead.} Val turned to regard the bat who hadn't moved an inch. Exhaling she responded in kind over the cerebral link. {You're not, I've learned how to concentrate on numerous things simultaneously. What do you need?} [Well thing is, this is my first high risk assignment and I'm a little tense right now.] {Anything I can do to help?} Val could instantly think of several answers to that. Unfortunately as they all seemed to involve Kryssa kissing her, fondling her or performing some other lewd act that probably wouldn't go down too well at the moment she decided not to mention any of them. [Well, can we just talk for a while?] {About what?} Val took advantage of the light changing and stalled for a few seconds. [Um...how about you?] {Me?} [Yes, you've become somewhat of a legend among the other agents. I've only known the legend but I'd like to get to know more about the morph. You know, clarify the facts] There was a brief pause before Kryssa answered. {A well educated individual should always make the effort to separate truth from hearsay. Very well, what would you like to know?} [Well let's start with the whole 'immune to pain' thing. Is it true?] {Pretty much, pain is still a reality but only slightly. I can't really explain how but I seem to have inherited an ability to sense injuries but not feel them. Please keep in mind that the damage I sustain is very real and very costly, it's just...well I simply just don't hurt like everyone else does.} [Do you feel anything at all?] {Only my adrenaline flowing and my rage flaring, nothing that can prevent me from getting up and continuing my mission. Added to that is the fact that I also have no concept of fear or terror and I seem to have a four leaf clover bonded to my heart because I'm always lucky enough to never rupture any vital organs. Quite a convenient series of coincidences I think you'll agree.} Val turned to see the vaguest hint of a smile cross the bat's lips. *Could she have just made a joke?* Val wondered before answering. [Strange but advantageous I'd imagine] {Yes perhaps so. It does help in dealing with the various nicks and scrapes until they heal} Suddenly Kryssa bared her teeth and hissed loudly, the outburst startling Val so much she nearly ran the craft into the side of a building. Recovering her wits at the last moment the felapin swerved violently and brought the duo back over the flow of traffic again. Kryssa glanced over and shook her head as the bunny fought to maintain control of the craft while agonising over the bat's reaction. *Schmed!! What have I done now!?* she thought in blind panic. Seeing she wasn't going to be able to drive in such a state, Val turned the patrol craft into an alleyway and set it down on the ground. Ordering the onboard computer to kill all systems she turned 90 degrees and prepared to start apologising for the second time that day. However it was Kryssa who spoke first. {Forgive me Valerie, that was wrong of me to do.} [Krys, look if I offended you I swear I didn't mean it!!] {You haven't offended me. That was yet another overreaction on my part.} [Well I must've said something to bring it on and that's not what I intended] {I understand fully, you just kind of touched a sensitive spot with that last comment.} Val was confused [What? About the blood?] {Yes} [What did I say? Isn't it true that drinking it helps stimulate healing in your series?] Kryssa slowly closed her eyes. {Yes you are correct on that statement. Blood benefits us in many ways, I've also been told it's quite delicious too, it's just that,} Her head slumped forward as though she were being forced to admit to something particularly shameful. {It's just that I have no idea how beneficial the stuff is because,} The volume of her thoughts dropped an few octaves {Because I've never tried it.} Val sat in stunned silence, scarcely able to believe what the bat was confessing to her. [You've never tasted blood?] She sent incredulously. {No} [Not even once?] {No, my foster parents, unlike me, were confirmed pacifists. They always had to find some non-violent way to solve problems. Although Vampire bats by nature need to drink a little blood as part of our diet we can also survive on substitutes like plasma serum and the like. Since serum doesn't require biting or harming anyone my foster parents made the decision that I could live on that instead. They even went as far as making me promise I'd never harm another morph just to satisfy a craving that can be controlled by other more 'peaceful' means.} Kryssa kept her head bowed as Val digested the information. [So what prevented you from trying it later in life?] The bat shrugged {As I grew up I managed to break free of most of their 'conditioning' and became the ruthless devastator of organiks that I am today, but a promise is something else entirely. Throughout my life I always honour any oaths I make, and true to my word I've never taken such an essential life substance from a morph against their will.} The bat sighed, almost in sadness {Although it's vital to my survival and I confess it's been one of my biggest fantasies, I would consider it an unforgivable sin to go against my word.} She slumped back in her seat. {I suppose that takes the edge off of me. A bat too timid to try what every member of her series needs at some point to stay alive.} Val shook her head vigorously. [No, no, no, Krys that's not it at all. I think what you've done was very difficult and very noble. If anything it proves just how loyal and trustworthy you are if your promises mean more to you than a substance vital to your existence.] She swallowed hoping she wasn't about to commit a act of sacrilege. [And I think you deserve to be commended for that] She reached over and placed her paw on top of Kryssa's. Several seconds passed, during which the bat made no attempt to move her paw. {Perhaps there is some truth in what you say, but I'd still like to try it at some point.} She momentarily moved her eyes to meet the bunny's before resuming her stare out of the windshield. {I think we'd better get moving again}. Valerie ordered the computer to reboot the craft's systems, the smile now back on her face as she tuned to her favourite radio station, catching it in the middle of a song: '..I tried all night not to break down and cry As the tears rolled down my face I felt so cold and empty Like a lost soul out of place And the mirror, mirror on the wall Sees my smile it fades again And give me something to believe in If there's a Lord above And give me something to believe in Oh, Lord arise....' * * * * - 12:25 p.m. - "So this is what an abandoned morgue looks like." Kryssa said analysing the building in front of them. "I had no idea it was city policy to clean them regularly". Indeed while the place did look from the outset like no one had been there in a long time it was lacking the tell-tale dirty, dusty build up that can only come from simple lack of use. Valerie walked up and tried the front door. "Damn, locked as expected." She reached over and started tinkering with the access panel. "Give me a moment here Krys, I should be able to do this without leaving any mark that we were here." Kryssa turned her gaze to the felapin for roughly one tenth of a second before stepping up to the door and delivering a crushing blow with her foot. The bat gauged the extent of her damage and kicked the door again with equal ferocity, causing the lower left corner to buckle and bend out of the door frame. Kryssa grabbed the damaged corner with her claws and wrenched it out even further, pulling and folding it over onto itself until she'd made a hole big enough for them to squeeze through. "Patience is not one of my strong points." *I'd imagine not.* Val thought in astonishment as she followed the bat inside. "Looks to be borderline sanitary." She remarked running a gloved paw over the walls "Just enough so that you could move something organic through here without risk of contamination. Provided it was either frozen or on ice." "Speaking of which." Kryssa's voice dropped a little as she turned her attention to a freezer curtain which was lovingly decorated with small streaks of blood and, even more suspiciously, had wisps of vapour emanating from the bottom. Val scrapped a small amount of the drying liquid off and smeared it over the sampling lens of her wrist-comp. There followed a pause as she activated the bio-reader function and watched intently as the sample was analysed "Well?" "Type AB, coagulated, appears to be equine in nature, definitely from something that's been dead for a considerable amount of time." "How long?" "Hard to say but I'd estimate around a week. Maybe less." Kryssa nudged the curtain aside with her pistol. "Then perhaps I should investigate further so you can be certain." Val stood up. "If you're going in then I'd like you to do as my support." she said tentatively. Krys looked down at the felapin and cocked her eyebrow. "Valerie so far I've seen no indication that there aren't hostiles in the vicinity. This could just as easily turn ugly in a heartbeat." Val nodded knowingly. "I'm aware of that, but with you backing me up I'm sure I can handle it." She walked through the curtain as the bat watched with intrigue *So she does have something in the way of courage after all.* She turned to follow. * * * The back area turned out to be as devoid of life as the front. Ironically it was however quite well packed with bodies. Numerous morph corpses were lined up in orderly rows, some in cryo-tubes, others strewn out on large steel gurneys, many in various stages of evisceration and all missing the majority of their fingers. "Seems like a morgue, once built, never outlives its usefulness." Kryssa said coldly. Val just choked back a need to gag at the horrendous sight. "I...guess we can rule out the weapons are made from vat grown materials." she finally got out. "I'm going to get a few photos." "Y-yeah okay, I'll carry out a couple of tests." Val approached one of the bodies and opened her forensics kit. There then followed a heavily pregnant silence. Kryssa continued to systematically traverse the room, taking stills with her retinal image recorder while every so often glancing at Val as she examined the corpse. She noticed that the bunny, while looking a little uneasy at times nonetheless seemed to carry an air of experience and professionalism at her work. She took blood and tissue samples and analysed them diligently and quickly for foreign substances before moving on to determining identity and the cause of death. Once she'd got that down she immediately went onto noting which organs were missing and how they'd been removed with impressive efficiency. In the space of an hour and 15 minutes she'd done nearly the entirety of the room. *Even if she is still a little green, she seems to really know what she's doing.* The bat regarded a body that seemed to be lying awkwardly on its gurney. Cautiously she lifted it up and found a small PDA hidden in a cavity in the small of its back. After quickly scanning through its contents she turned back to Val. "What've you discovered?" "Huh?" Val looked up from her work "Oh, well far be it for me to criticise but this has to be some of the sloppiest autopsy work I've ever seen. Whoever did this clearly had no plan of action other than getting this poor fella's guts out of his body as quickly as possible. Half of the ribs on the left side of the torso appear to have just been smashed in with an impact hammer and then pried out with a crowbar. The Pulmonary artery looks like it was ripped apart with no sign of actual cutting. The whole chest cavity's littered with bone fragments like they couldn't be bothered to remove them properly and just broke off whatever was in their way. From both a professional and humanitarian standpoint this is an utter atrocity!" Val sounded quite disgusted with her findings. "At least you can take comfort in the fact that he wasn't alive to suffer through it." "Yeah well that's what's really gotten me steamed." Val held up one of the morph's fingerless paws for Kryssa to see. "I don't know if you have a optical magnifier installed like I do but while the flesh bears all the normal signs of cutting and flaying there's no indication whatsoever of amputation on the bone and cartilage. These paws are pristinely clean on the ends." "Which would indicate what?" The bat enquired. "Xenodermal Rejection. Nobody actually removed the fingers from this guy, someone, somehow, reprogrammed his immune system to treat them as intruders and stop nourishing them! Then they just waited for them to drop off!" Kryssa's expression darkened immensely "Are you sure about that?" Val nodded solemnly "I suspect the same was done to the missing organs to facilitate their removal as well." "Can you tell me anything about how this was achieved?" "There's no sign of nano-meks or any cyberware in the body so I'm assuming they shot him up with a huge cocktail of chemical agents. The blood samples I analysed appear to contain nearly 20 different foreign substances of unknown origin." "What else have you discovered?" It was practically a demand. "Not much aside from the fact that they're completely organic in nature, I've obtained samples of all of them but I'll need to get back to the lab for a complete analysis." "Is that it?" "No, I can also deduce that the only way to get the sort of effect seen here would be if the chemicals had been circulated though the body several times." Val shivered. "Which can only mean they had to have been administered before he was dead. Since the same stuff was used on both his fingers and his organs I'd say it was a pretty big dose as well." She paused as she contemplated the thought. "In fact I'd say it would have to have been of near fatal proportions." "So in other words all these morphs died from having their bodies purge them of their own vital organs. Which would in essence mean that we are looking at over 40 cases of simultaneous first degree murder!!" Kryssa bared her fangs at the thought as anger saturated her voice. "Well yes I suspected as much." Val looked down at the corpse. "Poor little so-!" Val's voice caught in her throat as she caught sight of the morph's face. She saw that in life it had been a hyena, rather stocky and a little on the tubby side, but with nice creamy fur on the chest and stomach with cute ears and good white teeth. But the face! The face showed no signs of wrinkles or even middle-aged chubbiness. One of Val's numerous talents that came with being a forensics expert was being able to determine a morph's age at a mere glance and she realised, with extreme revulsion, that this hyena couldn't possibly have been a day over 24 when he died! *SCHMED! So young! So young!!* Val suddenly felt unsteady on her feet, forcing her to grab hold of the gurney as she was swept by another stronger wave of nausea. Just thinking of how the corpse was barely a year older than her made the hybrid want to puke. She sank to the floor and grabbed her stomach as her breakfast and what remained of the previous night's dinner decided they weren't too happy with their current living conditions and prepared to relocate. "Valerie? Valerie what's wrong?" Kryssa knelt down beside her. "The the corpse...(cough)....too young...(choke)!" the felapin choked out. The bat looked up and saw what she meant. "Yes, I imagine that wouldn't sit too well with you." [Krys, I can't take this, I'm gonna be sick!] Val lurched forward and put out a hand to steady herself. Kryssa quickly moved her forensics kit out of the way as the poor bunny struggled to control herself. "Let it out Valerie, there's no point in trying to hold back." She nodded weakly before leaning over and vomiting all over the floor. Krys held onto her shoulder as Val wretched helplessly, tears running down her cheeks which the bat gently wiped away. Slowly, after what seemed like hours to the poor felapin, she dwindled off and finally stopped. "Feel better now?" "Yeah, I'm okay." Val wiped her mouth and shuddered at her incredible display of weakness. "I...I'm sorry about that Krys." "About what?" "That, being sick everywhere. That was very unprofessional of me." "It was an understandable reaction. There's no need to apologise." Valerie blinked back more tears "But still, I normally can handle stuff like that, I need to have a stronger will like you, or at least a stronger stomach." Kryssa shook her head and Val noticed the anger was gone from her face. "Valerie not everybody can be strong, if they could then Neo-Terra wouldn't need the meks or the Network or the C.S.F. to protect them. Strength is an advantage, not a mandatory aspect of living. What happened just now merely proves that what you have going for you is an unbridle compassion for others, even those that are beyond help. I would highly advise that you harbour that attribute for as long as possible." Val and Kryssa locked eyes for the second time and Val saw nothing but sincerity to the bat's words. "You really mean that?" Kryssa nodded. "You wouldn't want to risk ending up like me would you?" Val sighed, she so desperately wanted to hug and kiss her for that but figured the bat might not want to sample her mouth so soon after hurling her guts. Instead she just smiled and got to her feet. "Thank you for that Krys, you know I have to admit, you're a lot nicer than everyone makes you out to be." "I try not to turn down allies if they present themselves." She took the data tablet from under her arm "I found this under one of the bodies. It contains instructions for sending the raw materials once they've been removed." "Really where?" "A chemical complex about two sectors away from here. I recommend we make that our next port of call." "Sounds like a plan to me." Val replied happily as the two left the way they came in. * * * - 1:57 p.m. - Val sprayed some breath freshener into her mouth as the pair sped on to their next destination. Kryssa's words had made her feel a little better but she was still determined to see that it didn't happen again. {So do you still wish to talk?} 'Huh?' she said snapping out of her thoughts. {Do you still wish to talk? Or are you not feeling as anxious now?} Val glanced over at Kryssa. Some more conversation would be nice. [Okay, got any particular topic in mind?] There was a pause. {Well since I've told you about myself would you care to share anything personal about you?} She swallowed at that. Having other people talk about themselves was fine but Val had her reservations when it came to revealing anything about her. That said however she did want to show Kryssa that she trusted her enough to do so and it would help to establish a better relationship and... *And what? Admit it girl you want her to know your life inside and out!* Val took a deep breath. *Well maybe I can reveal a few trivial things. Just, please Deus, don't let her ask me about my love life!!!* [Alright, what do you want me to tell you?] {Just say whatever you deem suitable} [Umm, okay well as you know I'm a half-born cross between rabbit and cheetah, the feline part of me came from my mother while the lapin part came from my father.] She reached up and brushed one of her ears out of the way. [My lop ears however are from my grandmother as are my blue coloured eyes, the rest is all me. I was actually heralded as a new generation of branching out as up until my parents' marriage my family had consisted entirely of rabbits.] {Is that why you're more of the former than the latter?} [Possibly, although I always assumed it was because my father was naturally a big, strong, dominating specimen of the long eared, buck toothed variety. Seriously this guy could've been prime U.T.M.C. material if he didn't have such an advanced head for stock trading.] {Was he a decent enough man?} Val had to think about that for a second. [Well he made sure we always had food on the table, a good education and anything else we'd need for future life if that's what you mean. If you're referring to whether or not he was a good fatherly figure however, well...I can't really give you a satisfactory answer to that.] Krys cocked an eyebrow {What do you mean?} [He was a businessman, and when I say that I mean he had no time for anything else in life. If a family member died you could pretty much guarantee he'd be at work and not the funeral, whenever my friends would come round to take me out someplace he'd scarcely look up from his monitors, let alone check if I was modestly attired or when I'd be back.] Val's eyes lowered as she recalled some less than pleasant stuff. [And my mother took advantage of it. She had numerous affairs with other males, knowing he really couldn't give a damn. She took up gambling safe in the knowledge that no matter how much money she lost he'd find a way to replace all of it. Even got a couple of her friends to enter in on the bargain. She spent millions of solariums on expensive furniture and off-world technology for our house then decided she still hadn't run up a high enough debt and had a whole army of custom made mekas constructed to maintain everything.] She grit her teeth. Her thoughts were becoming quite heated and bitter as she brought the memories back up to surface. Kryssa also noted her body was tensing up alarmingly. {I'm sorry Valerie, I didn't mean to pry that deeply.} Val stopped and looked at the bat. Realising what she meant the felapin took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. [Don't apologise Krys, it's better that I get it out than leave it to stew and ferment into a nervous breakdown]. Although Val couldn't see it, Krys actually swivelled her head to regard her upon hearing that last statement. *Interesting, she's a lot wiser than she initially appears.* {So what was your social life like?} [Ironically that part of my existence was fine. I was never really teased or ridiculed that much at school for having cheetah spots or facial tear stripes, in fact most boys and girls thought they made me look insanely cute. I always had as many friends as I wanted, did the standard thoroughfare of relationships, experimentations, synth drinks etc. Did cheerleading for a while then decided I was better at doing the actual sports themselves, kept up with all the ridiculous fashion trends, got involved with cyber-wormers, normal stuff like that.] {When did you first become interested in forensics?} Val smiled. [That was an interesting occasion. One day, when I was 13, I found a dead klooana lizard in our basement. We'd been having problems with the waste processor for some time so I was rather concerned that it might indicate waste gas was leaking out. I decided I had to determine what it had died from to be absolutely sure so our meka-drones helped me sneak it back up to my room and do some research on post-mortem examinations. Then I had them rustle up some cutting tools and conducted a little autopsy.] She giggled. She giggled again. [Then when I was 15, a friend of my approached me with an offer. Seems her uncle ran a Veraknel breeding farm and she was concerned he was selling some them off to be used in illegal fights. Since I was spending so much time around dead things by then she wanted me to take a look at one of the corpses he claimed had been killed by scavengers and see if her hunch was right.] {And?} [Not only was he using them for fighting he was also shooting them up with 'jumpers' to make them more eager to tear seven bells out of their opponents, a fact I was able to discover from my dabbling in chemical testing. Our mekas were kind enough to submit my findings to the Network anonymously and my friend's uncle soon found himself being sent up on all kinds of cruelty charges. My parents of course raised hell when they found out but by then I didn't care, I'd found my true calling in life.] She sighed. [Four years later I found out about the C.S.F. and figured since the mekaniks had helped me so much throughout my life I might as well further the relationship by becoming one with them and allowing them to make use of my talents.] Val looked at Kryssa. She was nodding as she listened and seemed for the most part to be genuinely interested. {A very moving insight Valerie. I believe I'm starting to better understand you now.} Val's smile grew wider. [Hey I can say the same about you too.] {Indeed. I admit it feels strange, this being the first time I've ever done an assignment with some one else but you've made me see the advantages of it.} Valerie turned to look at the bat in astonishment. [Really?] {Yes, I initially expected you'd be like most other morphs: too afraid to say anything that might get you on my bad side but you've helped as best you can and not held anything back from me. In my entire life no one's ever shown that much trust for me.} [Well then maybe we can do this again sometime outside of work.] {What do you mean?} The felapin's smile dissipated as she realised the hole she'd unwittingly exposed. She felt a sudden urge to blurt out "Well primarily because I've hopelessly fallen head over heels for you and would like nothing better than to spend the rest of my life by your side or, even better, in your arms." In fact her whole body was starting to band together in trying to convince her mind to scream that out. *GO ON, TELL HER!* [No, no I can't! Not yet!!] Val sent unconsciously as she wrestled with herself. {Valerie?} Kryssa was confused. [Huh? Oh, oh nothing Krys. Just thinking out loud about something.] {What did you mean when you said ''outside of work''?} Val felt herself slip into blind panic but was saved by the craft's computer announcing they'd arrived at their destination. [Look Kryssa, can I explain this later after we've returned to HQ?] Val sent as they got out of the craft. Kryssa opened the trunk and got out her MRG launcher. "It would seem to be a wise choice right now to wait on that." She loaded several types of rockets before checking the plasma cell and ammo clip in her U.A.P. "Should I go in first or do you want to take the lead?" Valerie snatched up her shock core rifle and charged it up to maximum. "I'll go first, with you at my back I shouldn't have to worry about much." "Lead the way." * * * - 3:35 p.m.- The insides of the chemical plant looked from the outset to be as deserted as the morgue. A fact which both agents were beginning to find extremely unnerving as they continued further in. "Based on the apparent scale of this operation, I'd assume they'd have a few more morphs running the place." Kryssa said. Valerie checked her surroundings with the motion tracker installed on her suit's wrist comp. Nothing in all directions. "Maybe they're trying a different tactic, having everything automated so there's less chance of errors being made." Krys looked at the bunny. "You know as well as I do that there's no way something of this magnitude could be automated without the involvement of at least five or six Terran Network AIs in the process. There's somebody here, I know it." As if on cue Valerie's tracker sighted movement. "I guess you're right." She surveyed the findings. "It's coming towards us, about eight metres due east." "Take cover. If it's not an outright hostile then chances are it's still not going to be too happy to see us." Krys and Val crouched behind some machinery and waited. For a while there was nothing outside the normal low hrrrzzzwwwwtttssing of the plant's facilities. Presently a maintenance hatch swung open and a badger dressed in a grey jumpsuit climbed out. He had an audio patch grafted on his ear and was garbling away to someone in indistinct words. Kryssa watched with hawk like precision as he quickly strolled around the room checking pressure gauges, temperature monitors and the like. {Seems a little too eager to do his job for my liking. One would think he was trying to finish and get out of here a.s.a.p.} Kryssa nodded and inched around until she was directly behind the badger. She slung the launcher onto her back and pulled out her U.A.P., all the time keeping her eyes glued on him. Satisfied he was still none the wiser she stood up and aimed. "Freeze, C.S.F.!" she commanded as Valerie came out of hiding and raised her gun too. The badger turned around and gaped in dumb surprise at the two ladies before remembering the standard procedure for situations such as this. "Hey you should have knocked. Would've been more than happy to open the door for you." A big smile broke out over his face before he raised his paws and placing them on the wall. Kryssa cautiously approached and patted him down. "So can I help you with anything?" Valerie explained their reasons for being there, taking care to omit any details about weapons production. The badger listened diligently until she'd finished. "Well agent I can safely say that we do manufacture quite a lot of things here and as a low ranking member of maintenance I don't get to see the bulk of it so can't help you there." "Nevertheless we have reasonable cause and Network approval to search the premises." Kryssa said keeping her gun at the ready. "Perhaps you'd care to help us out and prove your innocence?" "Sure, just tell me what to do." "Take us to whoever manages this facility. Assuming you don't try anything stupid you're free to go after that." The bat said in a firm tone of voice. The badger kept right on smiling. "Just walk this way please!" he said in a phoney Dracula voice. Chuckling at the joke he headed off through a doorway with the two agents close behind. "You know if nothing else this is a perfect opportunity to get away from the drudgery of the job. Oh I know you'd probably expect we have it pretty easy here with most of the machinery being computer supervised and stuff but if you stop and think about it for a moment there still has to be something flesh based there to help put right anything that conks out or whatever. Oh yeah they may attribute good cooperation between mekaniks and organiks for the efficient running of the joint but the truth of the matter is this place only works properly because morphs like me are crammed down below constantly tightening all the loose screws and replacing all the blown fuses. We're the back bone of this place and do we get any recognition? Get real!" "I'll empathise with you for as long as you keep walking." Kryssa said. "Fine by me, my legs need a stretch after what I just got finished doing on the other side of that hatch." He sighed "Man you know I really envy you agents, you get all those state-of-the-art nano bits put on you so you don't have to worry about cracking under the strain of work. Damn what I'd give to have some of the hardware you guys get to play with. Never have to see the doctor again about my back ache from being in those access tunnels all day that's for sure." "Well assuming you fit the requirements for age, fitness levels and the like a change in career might still be a possibility." Valerie lied through her teeth thinking to herself *Geez this guy yaps more than I do.* "Yeah well I know the score, I go and this whole place collapses like a deck of cards." He approached a pair of solid metal doors and punched in an access code. "Just right up the staircase at the end of the hall ladies." he gestured "Much as I enjoyed our little chat the other guys'll probably be baying for my ass now since I left my post. Oh well I'll just have to say some attractive agents threw me against a wall and shoved their pieces in my face. Yeah that'll sound real good!" He laughed heartily as the bunny and the bat passed him by. [Well doesn't he seem desperate for company.] {Or the lack of it. I wonder...} "Oh and by the way ladies." The badger called out from behind "Please accept this little souvenir as a token of our respect to you." Val barely managed to make out the almost non-existent hiss of a needle shooter pressurising before Kryssa shoved her out of the way... * * * ...Valerie was in her parents' garden on a summer afternoon. Flowers were blooming everywhere and as expected that meant plenty of bees flying around collecting nectar for honey. The air was alive with the buzz of dozens of tiny wings as they toiled endlessly along the petunias, daffodils and azaleas. Val watched them as they zipped around her, little round bodies striped with yellow. And as to what triggered this flashback? It was the yellow striped poison dart that zinged past her cheek by less than an inch as she hit the plant floor. Without thinking Val reached out and fired a concussion beam. There was an audible grunt as it hit the badger in the knee and sent him tumbling down to join her. "Damn, spouted off too fast." He said as he aimed at her head and fired again, only to have the shot intercepted by a leathery mass of flesh. Kryssa sneered harshly at the badger as she retracted her wing with the dart embedded in it, allowing Val just enough time to fire another beam into his head, rendering him unconscious. "Whew, thank you Kryssa, that was too close!" the felapin said as she got to her feet. Kryssa merely ripped the dart out of her wing and chucked it behind a piece of machinery. Presently an explosion rang out. "Compressed NO2 capsule. Causes the tip to fragment and splinter into jagged edges." Kryssa explained. "Not something you want in your brain." "Or your wing, I hope that didn't do anything too bad." "Considering what's happened to them over the years I doubt it would really matter." The bat said in a downcast manner. Val was nonplussed, that is until she looked over at Kryssa's outstretched wing and nearly screamed. The bony parts of it looked normal but the membranes in between were like something out of an botched pyrotechnics and knife throwing stunt combined. Hundreds of long ugly gashes criss-crossed over skin that seemed to consist of nothing but scarred pink flesh, the kind indicative of repeatedly being burned by fire, plasma, chemicals and Deus only knows what else. Everywhere the hybrid could see the seams and patches where the skin had been torn apart and then sewn back together only to be torn apart again. It was, in all, a very jarring sight indeed. "See what I mean." Krys said as she folded the wing back up. "K-Krys, w-w-what the hell?" Valerie stammered. "Standard terrorist practice. With my wings damaged I'm stuck on the ground and since they can't break the bones they have to resort to torching them, cutting them, ripping them to shreds or do something else hideous to render them useless." Val clasped her paws together. "I'm-I'm so sorry." Krys waved it off. "I'm immune to pain remember? Nothing I can't deal with.' 'Still though, that's just so unforgivably cruel. " "...kssshhhh Johnson come in. Your neural-signal is fluctuating, what's your status? Over...ksssshhh" The agents looked down at the badger and it was only then that they noticed his audio patch had in fact been set to TRANSMIT mode. "...Johnson come in. We heard firing. Did you manage to dispose of the C.S.F. agents?...kssshhhh...Johnson...Johnson respond! Over." Krys reached down and ripped the thing out of his ear, tearing a good sized chunk of skin off in the process. She stared daggers at it in her palm almost as if daring it to bring more bad news. "...Dammit they got him. Put all units on high alert and send reinforcements on the double!! Those agents have to be put down now!!!'" Krys snarled and crushed it beneath her boot heel. "They must have heard everything we said." "Well so much for trying to keep things bloodless." Valerie sighed sadly as she readied her rifle. "It was a forlorn hope anyway, as long as I'm still around it seems everyone wants to try and kill me." The bat hissed as she primed her launcher. "So, got a plan Valerie?" "Yes, if this is indeed where they're manufacturing the orga-guns then we need to confirm it and find out where they're being shipped to. I need to get to the administration mainframe." Kryssa nodded. "Stick close to me and we'll see what we can find." She turned to leave. "Wait a minute Krys." Val searched the badger again and located a false fur pouch underneath his jumpsuit. Inside were a small case of tranquilliser darts which she pocketed and a fully stocked grenade belt. "Here take this, for luck." She chucked the belt to her "Since you're so good at blowing stuff up, you'll probably know how to make the best use of them." She smiled and patted the bat's arm "And again I want to thank you for saving my life." Kryssa looked at the explosives and then down at the bunny with a slightly surprised expression. "You're welcome Valerie. These will be very useful." She said, thinking to herself *Strange, I didn't expect her to speak MY language.* * * * - 5:21 p.m.- The next two hours did not go well for the bunny and the bat. Having no means of navigating their way around the massive chemical plant they frequently found themselves encountering dead ends and having to back track across areas which they'd already run through three times before. As if that weren't bad enough the place seemed to have an almost unlimited supply of armed workers all eager to try to tear them apart with knives, bullets, even big globs of industrial sewage. To top the whole disaster off they found to their dismay that the staff had shielded the place against all forms of external communication which meant they could kiss any chance of back up goodbye. "FOR THE LOVE OF THE DEUS!! I can't take much more of this!!!" Valerie screamed as the two of them sprinted through a monitoring station, bursts of machine gun fire tearing up the floor behind them. "Just try to relax, statistically we've got to find the mainframe interface accidentally at some point." The bat calmly pointed out as she wiped blood from a nasty cut above her left eye (one of the guards had turned out to be a little more vicious than expected). The agents leapt behind a generator and allowed themselves a moment to breath. "Yeah but I'd rather not become Swiss cheese before that happens." Valerie picked up one of the bullets out of the floor and shook her head in disbelief. "25mm armor piercing, what kind of idiot goes after TWO isolated morphs with a calibre designed to tear tanks apart?" "The kind who's about to get a sticky rocket to the chest." Krys said lining up her sights. "He's on the overhead walkway, two feet to our left." Her claw tightened on the trigger. Val glanced where the bat had indicated and inspiration struck. "Wait, I've got an idea. Aim for the support beams underneath." The bat looked at her bewildered. "Just do it! Um...please?" Val said. Krys merely just shrugged and lowered her launcher. Several rockets arched through the room like deranged comets and latched onto the beams supporting the catwalk over the floor. "Okay now I need you to cover me." She said as she set her rifle down and.... ...and well what happened next the bat couldn't really describe. It was if the hybird was there one minute, then there was a streak of gold and black and suddenly she was underneath the bewildered morph ready to catch him as he plummeted to earth from the destroyed walkway. Then another golden black flash and there she was right back at her side, plopping him down on the ground. "Now let's see if he can give us some directions." Val sounded quite pleased with herself while Kryssa maintained an amazed expression. "How did you do that? Even with top level speed augmentations no agent can move that fast." The cheetah bunny blushed "Well it's another bonus to my being a hybrid. In addition to my fur pattern I've also inherited a cheetah's natural running capabilities. That combined with the best nano-enhancements available allows me to become quite the little speed demon when I have to." Kryssa nodded "I see, very impressive. You may have just made our job that much easier." Val couldn't help but beam at those words. Krys turned to the morph, a weasel, and grabbed him by the throat. "I must apologise for troubling you sir." She spoke politely as if she were addressing a high ranking officer or senior citizen, all the while digging her metal claws in far enough to draw blood. "We're trying to find someplace and we're a little pressed for time." The stoat could do nothing but just sit there wide eyed, too terrified to speak for fear of putting his jugular in danger. "I'm terribly sorry, am I confusing you?" She lifted the weasel off the ground and held him in in the air by his neck. "We're looking for the interface station to this facility's mainframe. Do you perhaps know where it is by any chance sir?" She really did sound very polite all of a sudden, yet there was still a distinctly sinister edge to her voice. Val found it made her blood run cold. Slowly the weasel raised his paw and pointed to a door way. "D-down that hallway ah-ah-arrrrgh...next floor up...arrrrrggghhhh, third door on the right." "Thank you kindly, we appreciate your help." She did not release her grip. "Krys...are you always this...proper when you're on the rampage?" "Regardless of what I'm doing Valerie, proper manners must always be observed around -" Scchhinng, Tchisshlllick! Krys broke off and closed her eyes in exasperation. Val looked along her arm to see the stoat holding onto a thirty inch sharpened pike which was now embedded in the bat's flesh. Krys swivelled around to regard him with a face that showed no hint of even mild discomfort and eyes that dripped pure cyanide. The weasel, alarmed that his interruption may be taken the wrong way, began twisting the pike in her arm while his other paw grabbed her claws and frantically tried to loosen her hold on him. Krys simply groaned as she brought her arm back and smashed him, face first, into a freestanding pipe. There was a gunshot sound as his nose shattered from the impact accompanied by the clinking of several teeth falling to the floor. *Good thing 'police brutality' isn't an issue to be considered any more.* Val cringed Krys tossed the bloody and unconscious stoat aside and sighed heavily. "They always try to get away." She grabbed the pike skewering her arm and snapped it in half. "At least he kept it clean." "Do you really think that was necessary Kryssa?" "Would you rather I'd killed him?" The bat sneered. "No, but I think you could've tried something a little less severe." "It's better when it's severe. If I ever run into him again he'll have more than enough incentive to stay out of my way!" Val shut her mouth, she didn't want to get into an argument right at the moment. Instead she gingerly took the bat's arm and observed the wound. "This doesn't look too bad. I think a bandage and some Re-Gen should be sufficient to stop the bleeding for now. I need you to take off your coat." Kryssa did so as Val reached down and drew an 8-inch self-sanitising knife from a hidden sheath attached to her boot. "Leaving the tip in there isn't helping to stem the bleeding. If anything it's only going to make things worse." She uncoupled the sleeve of Krys' suit from the glove and peeled it back. Carefully she then inserted the point of the blade and levied it against the tip of the pike. "I'll try to do this slowly." "Valerie, as hard as you may find it to believe, this isn't causing me any great amount of agony. Just stick it in and do what you need to." Kryssa stated. Val looked down at the injured arm. "Errrm, yeah I know. I'm sorry it's just I'm still having difficulty believing this doesn't hurt you at all." With quick precise movements she dug the tip out of the bat's arm. "Mostly everyone has difficulty believing it but I can assure you it's true." Kryssa said as Val sealed the wound with skin regenerating solution and wrapped thermal bandages around it. "There, that should hold you until we get back to HQ." Krys flexed and tested the strength of the dressing. "Good work." She glanced down as she put her coat back on "However I do believe you're breaching several regulations by having an knife that exceeds the permitted length on your person." Val squirmed "Er, yeah I guess so. It's just that given I'm still kinda new to all this, I feel a little safer and more confident with it on me. I just figured once I got used to the job I could start leaving it at home." She hung her head in shame. "Are you going to report me for it?" Kryssa stared at the bunny for several seconds. Her face remained stoic. "No, I scarcely think it qualifies as a serious offence and as you've just demonstrated it could still come in handy. Let's overlook this one as a necessity to our survival." She watched her light up in relief. "Come on, let's get what we came here for." * * * - 5:55 p.m.- After briefly being delayed by a team of snipers, Valerie and Kryssa at last found themselves in the interface room. "All of you, out now!!" Kryssa commanded to the technicians manning the various terminals. They didn't need much encouragement, the sight of an enraged six foot, blood drenched, rocket launcher toting bat was more than enough to send them running for their lives. "Okay lock the door and stand watch while I see what the mainframe here has to say." Val sat down at one of the terminals and held her paws out so the mainframe could synch up with the interface pads on her gloves. For the next ten minutes Kryssa scanned the corridor outside while Valerie shuffled through an immense cache of files and was rewarded for her efforts by numerous ACCESS DENIED signs being repeatedly flashed in her face, prompting her to eventually slam her fists down in frustration. "Problems?" Kryssa asked. "I'll say. Every single damn file here is locked with a different neural signature, DNA profile and password and none of them look like they contain anything useful. By the time I manage to squeeze a relevant byte of information out of this the goons outside will have been able to start families and send their kids off to first grade." "What do you suggest we do then?" "The only thing to do." Valerie unzipped her collar and folded it down. "Keep watch Krys, I'm gonna have to worm my way into this thing." "Understood, but notify me the instant you're inside." "I will and don't worry. Even if I have to rip all the brain tissue out of this thing's CPU we're going to get out of here with some hard evidence." Kryssa turned to the bunny and felt an odd spark shoot through her at Valerie's determination. Val entered in the necessary commands and lay back in the chair. Soon she would be linked up with the computer allowing her soul to leave the confines of her body and become a part of the vast world inside cyberspace known as the Hyper-Realm. Val flinched slightly as several spokes shot out of the chair's headrest and penetrated the relevant link points on her spine. Kryssa watched the process happen, watched as the bunny's body gradually became lifeless signifying her essence was now on its way to temporarily becoming a program in the system, another cog in the thinking machine that kept all life on Neo-Terra in check and balance. [-Okay Krys I'm in. Any sign of trouble yet?-] {No, and that can only mean they're fortifying the place to ensure we don't get any further in or any closer to coming out.} [-Then let's see what we can do about disabling that communications shield. I'm bringing up the building schematics...mmm...got it! Downloading to your opti-visor now.-] Numerous images flashed across the screen over Kryssa's eye. She studied them all intently. [-Can you see where the relevant terminal is located?-] {Yes I can}. [-Well don't you think it's running a little too smoothly for your liking?-] {Indeed it is.} Kryssa aimed her MRG and let fly with a triple burst rocket. [-Perfect. I'm transmitting a distress signal...alright back up is on its way at last! Now let's see what else is hidden in here.-] Kryssa resumed watching the hallway while sorting through the myriad of new emotions that were flooding through her. Valerie seemed a lot more confident now that she was playing at her own game and she clearly had more potential than she immediately let on. Was it possible that...did she actually feel something in the way of happiness for the cheetah bunny? {Valerie we're running short on time, how much longer do you need?} [-I don't know, this thing's fighting tooth and nail to keep me out. I need to try something...just a second...okay that's definitely made it think twice....ah and now it's relenting. Files are coming in.-] There was a long pause, silence hung in the air weighed down by tension that was only matched by the shattering scream that suddenly broke through it. [-OH BY DEUS!!!-] {Valerie, what is it?} [-The scale of this operation is astounding! According to these shipping records they've managed to produce and move over 600 million units of those damn guns this month alone!-] {Well of course, from what we've seen they've more than sufficient equipment here for mass production}. [-No you don't understand Krys, out of that number only 15% came from this location!-] Another pause. {What exactly are you saying Valerie?} Kryssa at last replied. [-This isn't some subtle, small time operation, this thing's going on NATIONWIDE!!-] Kryssa breathed heavily, she knew she should probably be surprised but somehow she'd figured as much. {Can you get the locations of the other sites?} [-No they're not listed. But listen Krys there's something far more serious we have to contend with here. Those guys that have been trying to give us lead poisoning all day? They' don't actually work here, they're just extra muscle sent to keep things in check.-] {Then where are the ones who actually make the weapons?} Another brief silence ensued. {Valerie?} [-Right now they're being held hostage at this location which I've marked on the schematics. Seems that while we were busy dodging bullets and slime someone rounded them all up and hauled them in for questioning. They must think one of them alerted us!-] There was no response on Kryssa's end but Val didn't seem to notice. [-I'm sending HQ the full amount of data now....hold on, mainframe's giving me hassle again......alright done, I'm coming out.-] Valerie opened her eyes as her soul left the Hyper-Realm to nestle safely back in the warm flesh and blood womb of her body. "Mission accomplished Kryssa! Re-enforcements should be here in less than 20 minu..." Val looked around the room and noticed with alarm that she was alone. "Kryssa?" But the bat was gone and it was no great mental leap to guess where to. "Oh no!" Valerie groaned as she grabbed her rifle and ran off after the bat. * * * - 6:00 p.m.- Kryssa watched the four guards patrolling the storage room ahead as she dragged the body of the Labrador behind a stack of steel plates. Quietly as possible she lay him down and placed his paw over the gaping wound in his head. The feeling of anger burned subtly in her as she wiped the bone fragments from his skull off her MRG. Taking another quick look at the guards, the bat slipped off her coat and did a check of her suit's stealth systems. All were activated and functioning perfectly, she'd expected no less from military R&D. Grabbing the magazine out of the canine's weapon, Kryssa slowly edged out from behind the stack, angled around and plastered herself against the wall. There she stayed for a moment, breathing shallowly and letting her sonar hearing pick up on any helpful natter. "Guys, I don't mean to wreck the mood but how much trouble are we in here?" "(groan) Deus above Marv, must you bring that up now?" "Well sorry but I like to know where I stand when a crisis blows up in our face." Kryssa began to inch her way across the room. Without her white trench coat she blended in quite well with the shadows cast from the massive stacks of freezers and spare materials. "...I'm just saying I signed up for this joint cause I got a natural talent for making morphs do an exemplary job whether they want to or not. Not to take the rap for some whiny ass lupine just because the son of a bitch can't keep a tab on who comes in or goes out." Krys approached the corner and maneuvred herself so she could get behind the guards. "I'd be mindful of those words chum, that 'whiny ass lupine' is the only reason you're not at the bottom of the Hudson right now!" Krys switched her MRG from burst rocket to electro-shock mine and took aim. A small, box shaped explosive shot out and landed near the guard on the far left. "Wait! What was that?" The mine reared up on four thin metallic legs , trotted happily into the centre of the congregation... "What the !?" And Kryssa shielded her self from the blinding flash as all four guards were subjected to 400 million volts being sent up their jacksies. She barely paid the twitching, charred bodies a second glance before opening the doors and running through. "Whoah, not so fast there bat bitch!" Kryssa paused and then jerked her body to the right narrowly avoiding a burst of 10mm caseless from behind her. She whirled round to face her attacker only to feel something fast and hard collide with her leg and throw her off balance. 'Think you've long outstayed your welcome.' The voice sneered as its owner lay into her with another burst. Kryssa threw her head back, cringing as a bullet tore through the top of her good ear, and initiated a scissor kick, bringing her latest assailant, a brown bear, down to the ground with her. She wasted no time in grabbing his paws and bending his fingers backwards until she heard the satisfying snap of bones breaking. The ursine screamed as she ripped the gun out of his broken paws and grabbed the underside of his muzzle, allowing him a brief moment to quake in terror at the sight of her enraged, blood strewn features before she slashed him violently across the face, not even caring how much flesh or fur she tore off. Her final act was to smash the unfortunate ursine on the ground and brutally kick him in the ribs, breaking two of them, before she grabbed his weapon and pulled the clip out. The bat took a moment to steady herself and then opened the next set of doors. To be met with a whole host of morphs waiting on the opposite side. All had armoured vests on and were carrying rifles. "There she is!!" "Waste the bitch!!" Kryssa darted away from the door and against the wall, not even feeling the bullets tearing through her already badly damaged wings and impacting on the armor of her suit as she drew her U.A.P. and set it to armor piercing. As the guards rushed in she pulled a frag grenade and lobbed it at them. "FUCK! EVERYBODY SCATTER!!" All the guards dived in various directions as bits of jagged metal flew everywhere, skewering legs and arms and ricocheting off crates. Kryssa quickly gauged who was still uninjured enough to come at her and started blasting knee caps with deadly precision, a feeling of almost sadistic glee shooting through her as each morph wailed in the pain of their joints being blown apart by the bullets. Exhaling she began kicking rifles out of reach as several of the guards frantically tried to crawl over to get them. One of them managed to get his fingers around the barrel but Kryssa saw to that by wrenching the rifle out of his grip and smashing it down on his paw hard enough to break through the bones. "Eaarrrgghhh, r-rot in hell, suckhead!" Kryssa looked down at the guard, an otter this time, and nodded her admiration at his defiance. Turning to a stack of barrels that was suspended on an over head conveyor belt she set her gun to plasma beam and blew the harness joints off. The otter never once cried out the whole time his body was being battered mercilessly by falling barrels. Kryssa bolted through one final set of doors and found herself in a massive bi-level processing facility that looked like it had just come from the latest Hellraiser installment. Everywhere she looked bodily parts and organs were being shuffled around on conveyors, being fed into various massive machines that were spitting out fleshy monstrosities and carrying them down to the next level where they were assembled into more orga-guns before being placed in refrigerated crates. The bat crouched behind one of the machines and focused her mind to keep a lid on the spinning cyclone of wrath that was tearing her up inside. *Remember, someone has to pay for this! And the dead can't hand over cash.* Kryssa clenched her fists and steeled herself. What she'd done outside had been in self-defence but it would do no good to fly into a berserk rage here. She needed as much hard evidence as possible. Slowly Kryssa set her launcher down on the ground and let her logical mind get to work on steadying her emotions. Just in time to hear the sound of someone crying out in terror and then being silenced by gunfire. Kryssa shot back to her feet and listened intently. She'd been so concerned with preventing herself from being blinded by rage again she'd totally forgotten to listen out for any one else who might be in the room. "Well girl, is feeling starting to return to your tongue or do I need to kill someone else!? Maybe I'll eventually reach a morph you can't do without!" Kryssa narrowed her eyes and began slinking around the machinery to get a better look. "No use trying to play dumb with us, bitch! There's only one way short of magic the C.S.F. could be knocking at our door!!" The voice threatened "Please, we swear in the presence of the Deus, we didn't say anything to anyone." Another voice pleaded. "It's most likely your fault for not posting guards to watch over the morgue!" A braver sounding voice suggested. The response was another round of shots being fired. Kryssa grit her teeth as the anger bubbling in her rose by another few degrees. "Well only two left now girl. Really hope your tongue doesn't stay numb for much longer." The sinister voice chided. Kryssa at last reached a gap in the machines and peered through. The sight that greeted her would've made even the strongest stomach turn. 21 morphs were situated in the centre of the conveyors. 14 of which were lying on the floor with smoking holes in their heads. Two, a panda and a calico, were tied up and cowering in the corner, two, both pigs, were staring at them with depraved amusement as they taunted them with their rifles, one, a wolf in a business suit, was staring with decided unease at the carnage and one, a rat in military fatigues, was holding onto the hair of a petrified white cat, dangling her over the guard rails and into the spinning intake fan of one of the machines on the level below. "Err, guys d-d-don't you think this is getting a bit pointless?" The wolf asked nervously. "I mean the punching and the pistol-whipping I could understand, but I don't want the boss getting angry at us for ruining a perfectly good work force." "Then find a way to justify it you useless panel pusher!" The rat spat back as he jerked the feline further into the deadly suction of the fan. "Hey Roland, any idea why none of the strike teams ain't come back yet? I wan 'em to see our pretty girls piss themselves with terror." One of the pigs leered as he thrust his rifle towards them in a very provocative way. "Shut it Stukey! It's bad enough having you around without you spreading your sick fantasies to others." The rat looked back towards the door. "Where are those slackers anyway? I could have sworn I heard the door open." Kryssa hissed quietly to herself and raised her MRG in preparation. "Well will someone contact them and get them back here? I'm not cleaning this mess up myself." The other pig said looking down in disdain at the morph corpses. "So what? We jus' gotta unzip 'em and presto! More guns and we're over our quota!" The first pig said. "Nah, too much work without the preparatory serum." The second replied. Meanwhile the rat was looking in the direction of the door way with increasing suspicion. "They can't have...can they?" He put his finger up to the audio patch on his ear and activated it. "Hobbins do you copy? How's your unit doing? Over." He became distracted as he waited for the reply, which alarmed Kryssa even more when he failed to notice the feline's hair was starting to slip through his sweaty fingers, causing her to droop dangerously close to the fan. "Hobbins? HOBBINS? Dammit you better be lying in a puddle of your own blood you fucking alley cat!" Kryssa watched with increasing worry as the gap between the intake duct and the feline's head closed millimetre by precious millimetre. "Hobbins I'm not finding this funny. Respond now!!!" The rat listened intently as something incredibly weak came back over his patch. Kryssa tuned her ears and listened to it. "ksssshhhh....units out of...of...kshhssshh...watch out for...kshhssshh...for bat...bat's coming your way!" "WHAT!?" the rat shouted as he raised his arm in surprise, causing the kitty's hair to slip free and leave her tumbling down into the fan. "Oh piss." The rat said as if he'd dropped a contact lens. Forgoing any thoughts of staying hidden, Kryssa leapt on top of the machines and launched a rocket with reduced payload at the fan. The feline fell face first into the explosion and then rolled over onto the ground, a little cooked but mercifully still alive. "Whaaaat? Shit! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!" The wolf screamed and ran for the exit. Kryssa did a somersault and nailed him in the chops with a flying kick sending him into the wall. The lupine immediately tried to reach into his coat but Kryssa simply grabbed his arm and dug her claws in enough to force him to drop the pistol he was attempting to pull out. "Please sir, I must ask you not to." She said coldly as she ejected the magazine and smashed the barrel against the machine hard enough to bend it. "No, w-w-w-wait you need me! I know everything about..." "Please, save ummph!" one of the voices wailed before something was shoved in its mouth. Kryssa jerked her head back in time to hear the awful but unmistakable sound of a gun being discharged in an enclosed space. "I can't stand guys that scream." The first pig mused. And just like that, Kryssa lost it. The cataclysmic anger boiling in her body suddenly erupted with a force that would've put Mount St. Helens to shame. Slamming the wolf as hard as she could into the side of the machines, Kryssa let go and set the grenades on her belt to go off simultaneously. With fire blazing in her eyes the bat tossed the belt onto one of the lower level conveyor belts and quickly activated the sonar generator on her vocal chords. As machine gun fire pelted her cover, Kryssa reared back and let loose with a sonic screech that sounded like a choir of banshees trying to sing soprano. "AAAGHHHH, YE DEUS MY EARS!!!!" The rat yelled as his fire became more erratic due to the sensory over load. Taking a deep breath Kryssa emitted another sonic screech as she raised her launcher and began spewing rockets like rain drops. * * * *Oh by Deus, oh by Deus, oh by Deus...* Val could do nothing but repeat the phrase to herself as she followed the trail of severely injured bodies that the bat had left in her wake, using her shock-core rifle to stun any that looked as though they might try to get up and attack her. Revulsion simmered in the felapin's stomach with each morph she passed. She could see that the majority of the wounds were not fatal and considering the number who were glaring at her and still groping fruitlessly for something to shoot her with, Val could guess that Kryssa had been provoked into letting loose but it was still a horrific sight. Masses of huge bleeding gashes, bones torn out of their sockets, tendons trailing out of arms, guns speared through paws and legs. It was all too much for the poor felapin to bear. Val choked back another wave of nausea as she continued onwards. This was the Kryssa Valhorren everybody else knew, the cold hearted killing machine that all lived in fear of. Valerie cringed, she knew this side of the bat was there but it was still a terrible shock to see it for real. *Makes you wonder if what you later went through traumatised you as much as whatever she had to endure.* Val wiped away a tear as she picked up her pace. [Pericles, this is Valerie. I-I think you'd better organise a team of meds to follow the back up. Actually on second thought make it two!] >Understood Agent Piersen, what's Agent Valhorren's status?< Valerie closed her eyes and shook her head in sadness [I, I'm afraid we got separated. I'm homing in on her location now.] Pericles seemed to note the despair in her voice as he sent back. >Just hang in there, Agent Piersen. I've received the information you sent, the Network is now aware of what's going on thanks to you. Your top priority now is to locate Agent Valhorren and get out safely. Relax, your back up is almost there.< The computer soothed. Valerie nodded and continued her frantic search. What the bat had done on her rampage thus far had been bad but that only meant Kryssa had been equally battered as well and Val didn't think she could forgive herself if anything fatal happened to her. Yes the bat may have been gifted with incredible endurance but she wasn't immortal. "Ughhh, m-m-m-miss agent, ma'am..." Val turned and found a bear looking pleadingly up at her, paws broken with flesh and fur hanging from his face in bloody tattered shreds. She gulped as the nausea grew stronger and looked away, praying she wasn't going to be sick again. "P-p-p-please, it hurts. I tried to...stop her and she made me hurt...p-please...stop the hurting." He said childishly. More tears ran down Val's cheek as she lowered her shock-core rifle. *You should've known better.* She swallowed and hit him in the head with a stun ray, temporarily putting him out of his misery. *You really should've.* An explosion rocked the ground, reverberating from up ahead. Gripped by fear, Valerie did another one of her cheetah sprints past the rest of the bodies, through the doors into the now smoked filled room at the end. Switching the IR filters on in her eyes, Val stepped around the sparking, destroyed machinery to be met with the same scene of carnage, only now most of the corpses were covered in dust and soot and among them lay a slowly writhing rat and pig, both of whom looking as though they'd caught the wrong end of a frag missile with their torsos. The calico and white cat (who'd managed to limp back up from the second level) were still cowering but not from the goons, now it was from Kryssa who was preparing to add to the number of deceased with the pig she was torturing. "Schmed woman! It was only a fucking pandaaaIIIERRGHH!" The mammal wailed as Kryssa bent his arm behind his back more and more, obviously waiting for the sound of joints breaking apart. "No, no wait I'll talk, I-I'll spill my gAHHHIEE ARRRRGHHHH!!!!" Kryssa at last got her wish as the pig's arm eventually gave into the strain and separated from the elbow. "AIIIERRRGGHH, YOU BIAAAAGHHH!" The pig wailed in unimaginable agony as Kryssa dug her claws into the gap between shoulder and arm and wrenched those apart too before she smashed his face into the charred black corpses of the gun processing machines and then jammed her launcher against his head. A bitter hiss escaped her lips as her fingers began to tighten on the trigger. "Kryssa stop it!! For the love of the Deus, STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!!" Valerie cried running into the centre of the room. The bat turned to regard her arrival, blood dripping from several wounds but still not a flicker of discomfort in her rage saturated eyes. "Kryssa, what do you think you're doing?" "Making one atone for his crimes." The bat said in a voice that could've frozen Mercury. Valerie looked down at the dead panda, the two still alive felines, the mangled, barely conscious bodies of the rat and the other pig and the broken up one that Kryssa was now standing over. A unstoppable urge to just bolt from the premises and run somewhere dark where she could just cry her eyes out began to stir in the felapin but it was quickly overtaken by something else, something more bold. "Kryssa." She said placing her paw on the launcher and pushed it down. "Look around, see what you've done." The cheetah rabbit indicated the carnage. "You can justify everything up until this point as self defence, but you can't excuse this." She looked up into the bat's violet eyes as tears again began streaming down her face. "They massacred 15 morphs in cold blood!!" Kryssa sneered. "There's nothing you could have done about it." Valerie nodded to the felines. "B-But you got here in time to save what you could. K-K-Killing him now won't bring any one back." She said, begging Kryssa with her eyes. "P-P-Please Kryssa, d-d-don't do this. We n-need him to be punished properly in the Justice Courts, it's the only way to prove we're not as monstrous as he is." The felapin took her paw off the launcher and wiped the overflow of tears from her eyes while mentally kicking herself. *What was that for? She's on the warpath, she isn't gonna care what I have to say. Hell, nobody does on these things!* Kryssa stared at the hybrid as a very unusual change came over her. The anger gripping her soul seemed to suddenly start dissolving away at her pleading words. As she watched Val standing there, summoning every last ounce of strength to stop herself from breaking down completely, Kryssa felt her vision start to clear, the veil of unbridled wrath was lifting from her eyes allowing her to see things rationally again. Sighing, the bat reached down, and switched off her launcher. "I have to admit it Valerie, when you're right, you're right." She stared back at the bruised and battered pig and gave him one last bash on the skull with the butt of her MRG. "Help escort those two out. I'll make sure these three get to the detention wagon." She said to the now shocked cheetah bunny. *I-I'm right? She thinks I'm right?* "Hurry Valerie, they may have more guards hiding in wait." Val felt herself kick into auto, running over to cut the calico loose and help the white one lean on her, her mind barely able to comprehend what had transpired. * * * -8:45 p.m.- Val watched in a mixture of worry and relief as the C.S.F. surgeons and medi-meks worked to patch Kryssa's wounds up. She was subconsciously glad they'd both made it back safely but right now the majority of her mind was still reeling from the most recent events. She still couldn't believe that during Kryssa's moment of pure insanity, when she was supposed to have abandoned all sense of reason or logic and lived only to kill, she'd relented. Because of Valerie, because of what Valerie had said. The bunny felt a queer rush of several emotions wash over her. *She listened to me! She actually trusted me enough to take my opinion!* "BUNNY GIRL!" Val looked up and suddenly found herself being wrapped up in the arms of a disheveled but very relieved vixen. "Oh thank the Deus the two of you made it back!" "It's okay Sharon I'm fine. Just a couple of scrapes and bruises. Course it could've been a lot worse if Kryssa hadn't been there." Sharon sat next to her and regarded the bat. "Yeah nasty job they did on her as usual." She folded her arms behind her head and watched in contempt "Even she doesn't deserve to keep being subjected to that kind of punishment." A small smile graced the vixen's lips as she patted Val's shoulder. "Still she got you out of there safely with the information you needed so in the end it was all worth it. Same here too." Val looked back and saw Jason being helped onto a bed. The poor fox was nursing his arm which appeared to have been ripped open from shoulder to elbow but that wasn't what caught the cheetah bunny's attention. It was the unusually shaped bruise surrounding his left eye. Val studied the bruise closely, something was bothering her trained forensic insight, it looked almost like, like... "Sharon, did someone smack your partner in the face with a boiled omnosh lobster?" The vixen grimaced. "Let's just say it was not a wise idea to pick a booth in that place." "Don't feel too bad Sharon, Jase said it was thanks to your intuition and fast acting that he's still in one piece." Commander Cyan entered the observation room followed closely by Dr. Wren and one of Pericles's probes. "Well it seemed only right Cyan. I mean after all it's my fault I got a craving for shellfish and landed us in that predicament in the first place." The vixen smiled. "So what's the story now?" "High Command has reviewed both your reports and while they do not entirely agree with Kryssa's handling of what could have been vital evidence they are pleased that you were able to shut down that supply of orga-guns." Cyan said. "So what happens now?" -The Network has informed all other C.S.F. branches in the U.S. of our findings and ordered them to begin searching for other areas where these guns are being manufactured. Whatever it takes this operation will be stamped out.- Pericles promised. "What about us?" Val asked. "Jason's wound is severe but he'll recover." Dr. Wren said as she adjusted her glasses. "As for Kryssa, well it really is no contest. She'll be home in time for supper." "For right now I want all of you to take a day or two off to recuperate. Let's see what the other branches can find." Cyan looked at her wounded agents with almost motherly concern "Heaven knows you've earned it." "Even so I'd appreciate it if Valerie could pop in sometime and help me with analysing the orga-weapons we already have." Dr. Wren said. "You won't have to ask me twice." Val quipped. "After today I hope you'll understand if I make it a personal matter to get to the bottom of this." "Trust me Valerie, you won't be the only one taking this personally." Cyan gazed down in contemplation. *When some one does this to my agents damn right I take it personally!!* * * * -10:00 p.m.- Val stood outside HQ waiting for an available public slider to arrive so she could go home. Sleep was sounding very promising to the hybrid but her mind was too busy going over everything she'd seen that day, particularly the parts pertaining to Kryssa. If today had shown her nothing else it was a perfect demonstration of how wrong and yet at the same time how right gossip could be. She'd seen the side of Kryssa everybody else saw and feared, and she'd also seen the side they'd all been blind to. The part that actually cared for other morphs, the light amidst all the darkness of her soul. *The part I now recognise is what drew me to her in the first place.* Val sighed sadly. She'd decided to leave early, knowing that if she tried to say thank you or goodbye to the bat she'd never have been able to hold herself back. The sound of powerful engines being gunned caught Valerie's attention. She turned in time to see Kryssa burst out of the C.S.F. parking lot riding atop a Kojima Dark Angel slider bike like some neo-gothic crusader on her trusted steed (no doubt customised judging by how much extra power the engines were spewing out.). Krys dropped into a lower gear and pulled up next to the startled felapin inciting a gasp. "Just thought I'd say goodbye to you before you left." She extended her hand while Val fought back a sudden need to bolt for the nearest dark alleyway. *Deus Krys, please don't do this! I can't keep this facade up much longer!* "Valerie?" The felapin swallowed and took courage in both her paws. "Thanks Krys, I hope you get home safely." She gingerly shook paws. "Your concern is appreciated but I'll be alright." She looked the cheetah bunny over. "I hope you're not planning on going to any night time gatherings dressed like that though." Val followed her gaze down and it was then she finally noticed how dirty and blotched her coat was. "Oh no! And my washing machine isn't due to be fixed until next week!" She gathered up her trench coat and observed the stains. Blood was crusted everywhere along with globs of industrial waste, grime, even a small patch of vomit from where she'd been sick earlier. Val groaned in aggravation. "Of all the times for me to ruin my last good uniform, I'll never be able to get this clean in time for when we have to be at work again!!" She sighed, cursing the fact that normal laundrettes didn't stock the necessary equipment for washing C.S.F. attire. Kryssa silently contemplated the matter. It wasn't that she was worried for the hybrid. just that she felt like she owed her something in return for all the trust she'd shown during the day. "Well..if you want you could come to my place and get cleaned up. I only live in the next sector." Val's eyes went wide with anticipation and apprehension. *If I do that, then it really is over. I'll never be able to keep a lid on my feelings in her domain.* Valerie opened her mouth to politely decline the offer and instead heard herself say "I would appreciate that very much Krys." "Then hop on." Kryssa said as she revved the bike up and put on her helmet. * * * - 10:35 p.m.- "The washing machine is just down the hall, right next to the bathroom." Kryssa indicated the way as they stepped into her apartment. "Okay thanks, I'll be done shortly." Val took off her coat. 'Wait, let me give you my clothes too." Val froze at the familiar sound of a stealth suit being depressurised and unzipped. "Here." She turned with trepidation to find Kryssa wearing just a grey tank top and matching panties. She closed her eyes as she snatched the bat's suit out of her hand trying not to gawp at all the toned muscle and soft fur now on display . *Oh MUST she torture me like this too!?.* The hybrid thought as she dashed out of the living room. * * * - 10:37 p.m.- Val tossed the clothes into the machine and set it on a complete wash, spin, rinse, dry, press and fold cycle before checking on Kryssa. She was sitting in an oversized barcalounger calmly awaiting the felapin's return. Groaning heavily Val plopped down against the machine and tried to untwist her head. *Why does this have to happen to me? Why does the love of my life have to be sitting half naked in the living room and me left with over 60 minutes of cowering in here in indecision? What am I supposed to do?* She of course knew the answer to that: get out there, tell her the truth and face whatever it may incur. And if Kryssa threw her out in disgust well fine, at least then she'd have a final definite answer. *But if I have no choice then I want to show her how much I truly care for her. How much she means to me.* She unzipped her collar and rubbed the link points on her spine. *How much I'm willing to do anything for-* Val stopped as she felt over her throat. Realisation hit her in the face like she'd just stepped out into the midst of a blizzard. *Of course! How could I have been so stupid??* * * * - 10:38 p.m.- Kryssa sat in the living room, head propped on one arm, contemplating the events of the day. No doubt there would be serious long term repercussions for what they'd done. Who ever was running this show was going to demand blood for his/her losses and the many innocent morphs who worked for the C.S.F. would present a most suitably tempting target. *Valerie would be an ideal start.* Krys hissed bitterly at the thought. If anyone ever so much as looked at that cheetah bunny the wrong way she'd rip their eyes out then chainsaw their fingers off and ask them how THEY liked it. No, as long as she still had a single spark of energy left in her no harm would ever come to Valerie, she'd make sure of that. "Uh Krys?" She looked up to see the hybrid in question standing in the door way. Krys noted she looked extremely on edge about something. "I trust you didn't have any problems?" "No they'll be done in an hour or so, listen Kryssa there's something I need to ask you. It's a very strange question and I'll understand if it's too personal but I have to ask anyway." "Do so, I have nothing to hide." Val swallowed hard. "Are you seeing anyone at the moment?" Kryssa shook her head. 'Nope, given my general appearance and the rumours around town most morphs simply find me too intimidating and dangerous to get emotionally attached." "Good because there's something I need to tell you now. It's been eating away at my heart all of today and, well to be totally honest, every day for the last four years. I'm sorry in advance and I'll understand completely if afterward you feel disgusted with me and never want to see me again but I can't hold it in any longer." Kryssa narrowed her eyes and scanned the bunny, noting how she was fidgeting and trembling terribly. "You'd better just say it then." Valerie swallowed, the saliva felt as heavy as lead in her throat. She breathed deeply before opening her mouth and letting it all spill out. "Kryssa Valhorren, ever since I first saw you in the ER after the Consuelo Incident I've been harbouring a crush the size of Alaska on you. Every time I catch a glimpse of you in the corridors I feel like I'm walking on air, every night you fill my dreams and make me feel at peace. Whenever I'm in the locker room I stand under the shower you use in hopes of catching some faint remains of your scent. I almost die with grief and worry every time you go out on another suicidal assignment only to be reborn when you return. When Cyan told me we'd be working together my heart kept doing back flips the whole rest of the morning. You mean everything to me Kryssa, no matter how hard or dark times get I always take comfort knowing you're in the world." The felapin paused for breath, leaving the bat staring gobsmacked at her as she tried to process everything she'd just heard. *Is...Is she serious? Yes she must be.* "Valerie I, " Krys began. The bunny put a finger to her lips. "Please don't talk, this is hard enough for me to say already." Kryssa nodded and closed her mouth. "I got drawn in by the rumours. I was so mortally afraid of what you'd do if anyone, let alone another female, tried to approach you. But today I've learned just how wrong all that gossip was. You're not as bad or crazy as they say...well okay maybe you are, but you're also understanding and supportive of others." She kneeled. "And I know this probably didn't matter much to you, but back then in the plant you showed you actually care what I have to say. In all my life most morphs have never respected my opinion on anything besides issues pertaining to my profession but you showed you do, and that just makes me want you even more." The felapin took hold of Kryssa's hand. "What I'm trying to say is that I really care for you Kryssa. Heck, why am I even trying to deny it? I love you Kryssa." She cocked her head as her paws pulled her collar aside, exposing her neck. "And now I want to prove just how much that love means. I want to help you fulfill one of your greatest fantasies and let you enjoy what all other members of your series enjoy." She watched as realisation sunk into the bat's features . "Please Kryssa, I want you to drink my blood. Taste it, treasure it, it's yours." Kryssa just sat there looking dumbfounded. She turned to look into the hybrid's eyes, nothing but the utmost sincerity radiated back. She hung her head "No Valerie I can't, I swore an oath to my foster parents-" "That you'd never take blood from a morph against their will. I'm consensually giving it to you. Surely even they couldn't find fault in that." Krys looked up again. Yes it was true, she'd never vowed against taking blood from morphs if they wanted her to do so, and the thought of finally indulging in tasting it. Krys ran her eyes down Val's neck. Her jugular was pulsing with the normal rhythmic beats that indicated there was a good healthy heart attached to it. She felt her mouth starting to water, the thought alone was making her drool. *Blood, purest life giving liquid.* She gazed back into the bunny's eyes "You aren't afraid I'll desire more than you can give and drain you dry?" Val smiled slightly "I know everything there is to know about you, your series gets on just fine with a pint or two per month." She reached out behind the bat's head and grabbed onto her hair. "However if it's really that much of a concern to you then if I start feeling weak I'll pull hard as a signal for you to stop" "What about afterwards?" " I'm equipped with an experimental regeneration aug. The instant you stop so will the bleeding regardless of how much anti-coagulant you put in me." Her face collapsed into need. "Please Krys, I want you to do this." Kryssa gently gripped Valerie's shoulder as her head was brought over the hybrid's neck. The cheetah bunny's facial fur felt quite soft against her cheek, just as well really because for the first time in her life, the bat found herself unable to follow through. For an eternity she just stayed there paralysed, watching the artery pulse. It lay there waiting for her, a simple flesh barrier protecting one of the most vital substances in existence. A quick nip and she'd have access to it in all its goodness. But still... "Please Krys, it's there for you to take." Val pleaded as she stroked her hair, trying to reassure the bat. Kryssa waited for several more minutes, drool dripping off her fangs as she wrestled to decide... ...and then with a loud hiss she opened her mouth and bit down hard on the tempting flesh, puncturing through with ease. Valerie winced at the pain but it quickly subsided into a sensation of absolute euphoria as she felt the bat's long tongue start to lick at the flowing blood. Put simply she felt joy, she felt satisfaction, she felt peace, and most importantly she felt love. She knew with certainty that this was right and that she'd treasure the moment for all eternity afterward. "That's it Krys, drink as much as you need, it's all for you." Krys barely heard the words as her licks sped up into a frenzy. The taste was unlike anything she could've imagined. It was sweeter than any honey produced by a bee, richer than any chocolate in Belgium. Heaven itself could not compare to how incredible the blood tasted as it flowed over her tongue, delighting all her taste buds simultaneously. Kryssa sank her fangs in deeper allowing more of the rich coppery liquid to flow into her eager mouth, it was smooth going down her throat and made her stomach feel oh so warm. And as she licked she became aware of another sensation, her muscles seemed to surge with renewed vigour and her wounds felt better. Her stamina began to rise again as she sensed her body returning to a state of readiness. It was literally as if she was drinking liquid energy. *I don't think I'll ever get enough of this.* She thought as she continued to lick. The artery kept spurting hot, red goodness all over her face which pleased her to no end. Eventually she felt the hard tug on her hair as Valerie signified she needed to stop. Kryssa registered the gesture but found herself unable to cease lapping up the sweet, sweet liquid. Valerie pulled a little more forcefully. *But there's still so much there for the taking!* Kryssa knew it was true and the temptation to keep going was strong but the risk to Valerie wasn't worth it. Summoning all her will power, Kryssa withdrew her tongue and took her fangs out of the bunny's neck. Val's paws immediately went up to cover the wound as the bat released her hold and backed off. For a moment she watched in concern as Val felt over her bloodied neck, afraid she'd gone too far. But that was soon quelled by the bunny lowering her paws to take ahold of the bat's, a reassuring smile spread over her muzzle. "It's okay Krys. Just needed to check the thing was working properly." Krys looked over her neck, the bleeding had stopped but where she'd bitten her there now existed two perfect tiny circles of scar tissue. "It doesn't seem to go the full way in terms of removing all traces of the injury." Val blushed again (something which Kryssa noted made her look exceptionally adorable). "Actually I made it do that. I kinda want to keep it as a reminder, to show how much you mean to me." She looked up into the bat's eyes. "So did you enjoy it?" Kryssa's maintained her stern expression for as long as she could, but bit by bit it cracked and Valerie found herself witnessing a truly rare sight: Kryssa smiling gently at her. "Valerie, until now I didn't think anything could taste as good as that did. It truly is worthy of being called a life substance." She licked her lips. "Words simply cannot describe how wonderful it was. My strength is renewed, my body feels fit again." She checked under one of the bandages on her arm. "My wounds are even more satisfactorily healed." Valerie just blinked, allowing two tears to roll down and be lost in the black fur of her stripes. *She really should smile more often it makes her look cute.* Kryssa's face resumed its sterner composure but glee continued to dance in her eyes. "Valerie this is an incredibly touching thing you've done for me. Is there anyway I can repay you? Just say it and I'll do it." *Just say it.* The invitation could not have been plainer, which only made it harder for the felapin to do so. She was at the moment of truth and was petrified of what would happen once she stepped over the line. However it seems there was still a lingering ember of courage in her for somehow she found the nerve to ask. "W-w-would you m-make love to me?" Kryssa stepped in front of the bunny again and gently caressed her shoulders. "If that's what you wish." she said as her claws moved to depreassurise and unzip Valerie's stealth suit all the way. The bunny squirmed slightly as she felt her suit being delicately but expertly slid off her body. She gingerly stepped out of it and Kryssa folded it and put it away. Turning to face the opposite direction she gasped as she felt the bat's claws hook into her under shirt, her arms rising almost mechanically so it could be removed. Krys then took hold of her panties and pulled them off with the same grace and expertise. Val's breathing became more rapid as she felt over her nakedness. She was scarcely able to believe that this was actually happening, that after years of hiding and fantasising she was at last exposing herself to her crush for real. She felt terribly self-conscious and exposed, yet at the same time an odd sensation of freedom and liberation mingled within her. "Valerie please, turn around." Tentatively she did so to see Kryssa pull off her own top and panties. Val was shocked. For a bat that regularly got shot, stabbed, shredded, broken and blown up Krys had a stunning body! Sure she had a number of scars and several more cybernetic replacement patches on her arms and legs but none of it could take away from the sheer beauty of the figure that stood before the bunny. Wonderfully well groomed brown fur stretched over taut muscles that were developed to the point of indicating considerable strength while still maintaining all the allure of femininity. Val fought for something to say but her mind seemed to have been totally erased of all vocabulary. All she could do was stand and stare as Krys sat back down and regarded her with equal approval. "Here, come sit on my lap." The hybrid felt her body move on it's own at the command, gliding forward as if carried by a gentle breeze to settle on the bat's legs. For the longest time the two morphs sat in silence as they looked each other over. Val was simply in awe, she'd fantasised about seeing Kryssa naked hundreds of times but now that she was seeing her in the fur she was gob smacked at how bland her imagination was. "What are you thinking about Valerie?" "What?" Val shook her self out of the trance like state. "You were miles away." She sighed and shook her head. "I was just thinking about how incredibly beautiful you are and how unbelievably sexy your body is and, and how long I've yearned for this moment to happen and...well now that it finally is, I-I don't know what to do or how to begin." "Then let's take this in stages. What's something simple we can start with?" Val hesitated for a moment "W-Well...I'd love for you to kiss me." One of Kryssa's hands reached up to cup the bunny's face and bring their heads together. She sensed the felapin was still quite nervous, she could practically hear her heart beating a mile a minute. "Relax Valerie. Breathe like I told you before." She nodded and took a few deep breaths. Kryssa embraced her and gave her a few more seconds before closing the last inch between them and pressing her lips to the bunny's. Val's heart did a jump worthy of Olympic standards in her chest as she felt the bat kiss her, her lips felt so comfortably warm against hers, quite soothing in fact. After a minute she started to relax and opened her mouth, allowing Krys to slide the long silky length of her tongue in and explore her on the inside. *Wow, it feels like a buttered up eel.* She used her own tongue to stroke Kryssa's, enjoying the satiny feel of it as it lightly rubbed against her tonsils then moved up to caress the roof of her mouth. Val wrapped her arms around the bat and held her closely as the kiss intensified. Kryssa probed every inch of her mouth while Val, not having as long a tongue, made do with caressing and teasing it as it went about. After keeping this up for almost five more minutes Kryssa withdrew and allowed the hybrid room to breathe again. Val laid her head on the bat's chest as feelings of satisfaction washed over her. "So, did you like that?" "Oh Kryssa, that was wonderful." "I wanted it to be special for you Valerie." She looked up "You know you don't have to keep addressing me so formally. Call me 'Val' or even if you want 'Bunny girl'." Kryssa cocked an eyebrow. "Bunny girl??" "It's Sharon's little nick-name for me. I know it's pretty corny but I've always liked the way it sounds." Krys pondered for a moment. "Very well then Bunny girl, what would you like to do next?" Valerie cast her eyes down, still amazed at the bat's physique. "I'd like to caress you and for you to do the same to me." Krys leaned the both of them back in the chair. Tenderly she reached up and began to trace the tear stripes on Val's face noting that they did indeed add a more cuddly aura to her. Val tentatively extended her paw and caressed the bat's cheek, gently running her thumb over the metal strengtheners around her eye. Sensing no objection she moved upwards to scratch behind the bat's flesh ear while her other paw ran over her metallic one. It was amazing how well Kryssa's 'hardware' suited her. On most other morphs cyber patches looked out of place but on Krys they somehow added to her allure. Val giggled as she felt Krys' smooth duramantium coated claws lightly gliding down her chest. Unlike the rest of her body, Val's chest and stomach were covered in luxuriously soft, pure white fur which contrasted nicely with the golden fur and black spots as well as the augmented veins. Kryssa found it to be very sensual to the touch. She raked her way all down Valerie's stomach before advancing back upwards again. Back up to her breasts. Valerie gasped and shivered as she felt claws encircle her breast and then close around it and massage gently. Electricity shot through her spine at the touch causing her to arch her back and moan. Her tits were quite sensitive and the conflicting sensations of Kryssa's metal claws and her warm palm felt so good on them. A simple touch it may have been, but to the bunny at that exact moment it felt like the tip of a heaven sent ice berg. She also noticed she was becoming quite moist downstairs. Seeing her technique was having an unusually extreme effect, Kryssa reached up to fondle and massage Val's other breast as well. She guessed them to be large C-cups, similar in size to her own, capped with delicate light brown nipples that responded well under her ministrations. She continued to tenderly roll them and caress them, watching with delight at how much the bunny was enjoying this until she felt a paw brush over one of her own breasts. Val immediately withdrew but Kryssa took hold of her paw and placed it back on top. "Go ahead Bunny girl, you're not doing anything wrong." The felapin nodded and gently massaged it. Kryssa's breasts were darker in colour than hers with cone shaped nipples the colour of dark chocolate. They felt quite soft under her touch which enticed Val all the more. She sighed in contentment but found herself still wanting for something else. A strange sort of hunger was building inside the hybrid as she felt over the furry globes, there was something else she wanted to try. "Krys?" "Mmm?" "Would you mind if I suckled you?" Krys slowly shook her head so Val took her paw off the breast and gently brought her face down on level with her right nipple. Tenderly she gently licked over the tempting nub, earning a small murr of approval from the bat. Spurned on, she took the nipple in her mouth and began to suckle gently letting her other paw wander freely again around Kryssa's body. The bat closed her eyes and sighed, the feeling of being pleasured by someone was unfortunately a rather rare treat for her given the apprehension so many felt at what she might do to them. She absently stroked the bunny's ears as the long missed feelings of pleasure radiated through her body. Val licked and suckled on the nipple like a nursing baby, her apprehensions about this moment seeming more and more like a distant memory. The world outside may have been an unforgiving place, but Valerie knew that right now it could never get to her. Here, in the arms of the bat she loved, Valerie felt warm, Valerie knew she was safe, Valerie felt like the flood gates of her loins were ready to burst at any moment. "Bunny girl? Do you mind if I, " Kryssa started to ask. "Yes, yes please do." Valerie quickly responded with absolutely no idea what she was agreeing to. "You didn't give me a chance to-" Val reached up and caressed the bat's face. "Krys, whatever it is, you don't need to ask. I trust you." Kryssa blinked at the utterance of those three words. Never could she have imagined they could have such a powerful resonance. As Valerie went back to sucking on her tits, Kryssa tenderly took ahold of the bunny's left lopped ear and brought it to her mouth. Val felt a twinge of fright as she sensed what the bat was planning to do but bravely she shoved it back down and grit her teeth in preparation as Kryssa bit down on the tip of the ear and tore off a small chunk of flesh. Val lay her head on Krys chest trying to get over the initial shock and pain as Krys took the bleeding tip into her mouth and began to suck. {I'm sorry about this Valerie, but your blood is so delicious!} The pain dissipated, leaving only the comforting feeling that she was yet again bringing pleasure to the bat. [As I said before Krys, don't apologise. Just enjoy yourself.] Kryssa sighed as the wonderful taste of blood again began to trickle over her tongue while Valerie switched over to her other breast and began to suck on that one too, the nipple tasting as sweet as her life fluids. As she suckled, Val lowered one of her paws, lightly tracing over the bat's toned abs before reaching down into the waiting depths of her sex. A brief sensation of surprise shot through her when she felt how wet Kryssa was, quickly replaced by excitement at the notion that the bat was getting turned on by her actions. She stroked over the folds of Kryssa's pussy, loving the feeling of the moist flesh against her fingers while her tongue continued to tease the nipple. {Keep going Valerie, what you're doing feels wonderful.} . Val sent over the cerebral link as a tear of joy ran down her face. The two morphs kept this up for a while longer, Kryssa tenderly sucking on Valerie's ear while the felapin continued to suckle and stroke her. Eventually however, Kryssa decided she'd had enough and took Val's slobbered ear out of her mouth. She held it momentarily and watched in fascination as the augmented flesh immediately set about replicating itself and patching the wound back together again.. "Come Bunny girl." Kryssa said she took hold of the hybird "I think we should continue this in a more comfortable area." She gently lifted the bunny up off the barcalounger with her and walked out of the living room. * * * - 11:00 p.m.- Kryssa carried Valerie down the corridor and into her bedroom. Slowly laying her down on the bed, Krys took a moment to step back and gaze at the felapin. Admiring her gentle curves, her absolutely adorable innocent face, her nicely sized breasts, her soft stomach, the bat couldn't help a strong feeling of lust come over her. *She's so pretty.* Krys got on the bed and lay down on top of the bunny. Tenderly she stroked over the soft fur of her cheek while letting herself be taken in by the felapin's blue eyes. "Bunny girl, do you trust me enough to surrender yourself fully to me?" "Yes of course, Krys." Kryssa kissed Valerie's forehead. "Then don't move." Slowly the bat kissed her way down Valerie's body, a tiny bolt of electricity shooting through the felapin's body each time Krys lips made contact with her fur, until she reached the treasure in between her legs. Val's pussy was absolutely soaked from the previous teasing and looked utterly inviting to the bat. Placing one claw on each of Valerie's legs, Krys leaned in and delivered a long lick from the base of the lips up to the clitoris. Val arched her back and moaned loudly at the sensation, a feeling which increased as Krys licked it again and again. "Oh, oooh Deus, Krys more, more please." The bat nodded and began to lick a little more fiercely at the sensitive folds. Gently she inserted one finger then added a second one and began thrusting in while continuing to lap up the tasty juices. Val's breath became ragged as the pleasure she was experiencing tripled at the inclusion of the fingers. She began thrashing wildly around as Kryssa parted her folds and began licking deeper into her depths, her long tongue reaching every part of her sex and sending Valerie to an even higher plane of ecstasy. "Deus!...oohg yes! Yes Kryssa don't stop!" She began moaning wildly as Kryssa folded her tongue up so part of it could reach her clit and stroke that too. "Oh Kryssa! P-please make me cum! I'm...eegh...I'm almost there!" Val's paws went up to stroke and caress her breasts, the waves of utter euphoria threatening to crash down on her at any minute. Kryssa slowly withdrew her tongue and kissed over Valerie's labia before executing the final part of her plan. While continuing to thrust her fingers in, Kryssa switched her vocal enhancer on before she slipped her lips over the pink pearl of the cheetah bunny's clit and subjected it to a combination of tongue tickling and deep throated humming. "Oh Kryssa, KRYSSA, KRYSSSSAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Val screamed loud enough to make even the bat proud as she felt her body being grabbed and squeezed by the grip of one of the most intense orgasm she'd ever experienced. Juices spilled out all over the bat's muzzle which she quietly licked up as Val collapsed on the mattress with tears of joy flowing like a river down her cheeks. For a while the felapin just lay there gasping for air while the shocks died down from her cervix. Presently she felt herself being lifted back into the bat's warm embrace and nuzzled into the soft brown fur as tears continued to stream from her eyes. "I take it you enjoyed that Bunny girl?" Krys asked. "K-K-Kryssa, oh Deus...(pant)...was s-s-s-so incredible...(pant)...I never thought...." Val gave up trying to speak for the moment and instead just brought her head up to kiss the bat again, the warmth of her lips feeling so perfect that the hybrid just had to let herself go. Kryssa broke the kiss as she became aware that Valerie was crying quietly. Alarmed she began to ask what was the matter but stopped herself as she listened to the sobs. In her time with the C.S.F. Kryssa had heard many types of cries and learned how to distinguish between them. There had been those of the desperate criminals begging her not to kill them as she dragged them to the D-Wagon, there had been those of the mournful parents and children who'd lost someone they'd loved. And then there had been the third type, the relieved and joyful cries of mothers who'd been presented with a rescued cub after they'd feared the worst, and of happy morphs who she'd been able to successfully lead out of a crisis zone. And Kryssa realised that at that moment that Valerie was sobbing with happiness. "Was I really that good?" Kryssa asked as she stroked the bunny's ears. "K-K-Kryssa, that was b-b-better than I could've ever imagined. All this time, I n-never th-thought anyone could bring me as much pleasure as you did, my love." Kryssa cocked an eyebrow at the expression but held the hybrid tighter nonetheless as she and Valerie gazed into each other's eyes, finding all the warmth and compassion either could ever hope for. "Kryssa, please lie down." Val at last said. "I want to make you feel as good as you made me feel." Krys nodded and laid on her back as Val got off the bed to regard her. "C-Could you please spread your wings for me?" Krys looked up at Val for a moment, then exhaled slowly as she unfurled her heavily scarred wings across the bed. Val looked over the burnt and stitched up flesh, examining every slash, every scar, yet feeling no revulsion. "Do you mind if I touch them?" Kryssa shook her head and lay back down as Val got on the bed again and traced over the criss-crossed scars, feeling the smoothness of the flesh under her paw pads which strangely was quite a nice feeling. "So much hurt, and none of it deserved." Val mused in sadness. Kryssa reached over and took hold of her paw. "As long as the mekaniks can keep stitching it back together, I'll be able to endure it." She said bravely. Val turned to regard the bat, seeing the determination in her eyes and finally realising why Kryssa showed such little facial expression, her eyes did it all for her. Leaning over, Valerie gave both of the bat's tits a kiss before licking her way down. "I don't think I'd care. Even with all your scars you're still the most beautiful bat I've ever seen." Kryssa sighed at the comment as she spread her legs to let Valerie slip in between them. Val trembled slightly as she looked down at the glistening bat pussy. She'd never done anything like this in her life but after seeing how pretty and inviting it looked she knew she had to try. Tenderly Val ran her finger down the wet lips, feeling the slickness of them under her paws, before lowering her head to lick over them and get a taste of the juices. They were tangy but warm, and to Valerie it was delicious. She began alternating between kissing the labia and lapping up the juices it produced, a feeling of satisfaction coming over her as Kryssa began writhing underneath her as reached down to hold her head. Val continued to kiss and lick while Kryssa moaned and relished the sensation of being pleasured by someone who wasn't afraid of her or what she might do if she stopped. Seeing Valerie down there, her cute face eating her out because she wanted to, made the experience all the more heavenly to Kryssa. *Deus, her tongue is like velvet!* Kryssa grabbed onto the bed covers and closed her eyes as the pleasure built up, causing more juices to spill out into Val's eager mouth. Spurned on by this, Valerie takes the pearl of the bat's clit in her mouth and began to suck, bringing more moans and hisses out of Kryssa. "E...yesss...yes V-Bunny girl...keep ahhhat it!" Val sucked harder as tears again began running down her face. Nothing but happiness resided in her soul as she felt the bat writhing more and more under her ministrations. {Don't...don't stop Valerie. Just keep going a little bit longer} Krys sent over the cerebral link. [Please, cum for me Krys, I want to make you cum.] Val kept sucking as an idea struck. Switching on the sterialisation system on her tongue Val set it to gather the static build up from her taste bud sensors and then began using her tongue to swathe over the sensitive nub while she repeated the fingering action Krys had done on her. Sensing that this was bringing the bat even closer to climax, the felapin touched her clit with the tip of her tongue and delivered a tiny static electric shock Kryssa grit her teeth and shut her eyes even tighter as the rapture surging through her body continued to escalate more and more, until it at last collapsed in on itself. With an almighty screech, Kryssa came. Sweet ripples of euphoria shooting up from her vibrating pussy as bucket loads of sweet nectar flowed out onto the hybrid's muzzle which she joyfully drank up in plentiful slurps. When at last Kryssa's orgasm subsided, she sat up and helped bring the cheetah bunny back into her waiting arms. "So I guess I did well?" Val asked as Kryssa hugged her tightly and wiped at her tear streaked cheeks. "Yes, yes you did." The two kissed again. *Yes you did.* Content but exhausted, the bat and the hybrid just lay in each other's arms for a while longer, revelling in the intimacy until something occurred to Valerie. "Kryssa?" "Yes Bunny girl, what do you need?" "To know just one thing: do you feel the same way about me as I do about you? Or this going to be a one night stand?" A look of utter seriousness came over the felapin's features as she spoke. "I'm not going to think any less of you, I just need to know, honestly, right now." For the longest time, Kryssa just stared at the bunny while she thought the question over. "If you wish me to be truthful Valerie, then my response right now is I don't know." Before the hybrid could answer, Krys quickly reached up and cradled her head in her hands "But that's only because I haven't had time to think it over yet. Ask me that question in about two weeks time and I'm sure I'll have a very different answer for you." Val looked relieved yet uncertainty still echoed in her features. "How can you be so sure?" Kryssa gently licked her face. "Because I can see now I need you, and I don't think you should be kept away from me any longer." Val went wide eyed. "W-what do you mean?" "My decision is made. Tomorrow we're going to go to HQ and have Pericles and Cyan officially partner us up with each other." She leaned forward and gently kissed the bunny. "Regardless of whether or not I love you, I'm still going to do everything in my power to protect you. You're too valuable to be sent out into the world alone." Val looked back at the bat with a mixture of awe and utter happiness. "You really mean that?" Kryssa nodded. "You've given me a new purpose for living Valerie Piersen, and that purpose is to ensure no harm ever comes you and that your humaness and your trust of others is allowed to be nurtured and stretch as far out in to the world as possible." Val blinked back a fresh set of tears. "I think that's a better answer to my question than anything I could have hoped for my love." She said as she hugged the bat tightly. Several more minutes passed during which neither morph said anything, until Kryssa looked down and saw the felapin was at last asleep. *Rest now Bunny girl, may I continue to protect you in your dreams as I will in your life.* Kryssa gently tucked the hybrid under the covers and kissed her on the forehead before turning her attention to a steel bar suspended by repulsor lifts about eight feet off the floor. Tuning her cerebral modem to it she ordered it to descend by a foot and then flipped over to catch it with her feet. (She'd actually trained herself to sleep both hanging and lying down but for tonight the more natural way sounded better). As the repulsors carried her back up, Kryssa allowed herself one final glance at the sleeping bunny beneath her before wrapping her wings around herself and closing her tired eyes, noticing that, for the first time since she could remember, she felt at peace. * * * - Meanwhile - Elsewhere in the U.S. a very different bunny sat in a plush office, a scowl menacing his grey furred face as he looked over a report of what the damages caused by Valerie and Kryssa's escapade amounted to monetarily. After going through the whole thing twice he dropped the tablet on his desk and sighed in disgust. "Hounds of the C.S.F., I was beginning to wonder when they'd make their move." The lapin removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he contemplated his losses. "I could have handled losing the New Haven's End storage facility but this is an unacceptable abuse of their authority." His gaze turned upward to regard the bruised and beaten wolf that stood before him. "Then again it would've helped if I'd been better informed of what was going on at your end of the line!" He added icily. "D-D-D-D-Dr. Brekken, s-s-s-s-sir, I've been totally honest with you the whole time, kept you fully updated on all occurrences, production records, the whole lot!" The poor lupine pleaded. "Yet somehow you neglected to mention what you were doing with the resources to manufacture my creations!!!" Brekken put his glasses back on and sat back in his chair. "You...you said use the most readily source available, sir." "Eviscerating corpses and then just leaving them around to be displayed when you're done hardly justifies using them as a source. I'd assumed your mother would've at least had the forethought to teach you to clean up after yourself. This entire project was running smoothly beneath the Network's security radar until you screwed up." He steepled his fingers. "I admit as well, you must have been exceptionally easy on the security forces I gave you to guard that facility for them to be routed out by two mere agents." The lapin stared daggers at the wolf. "Sir they took us by surprise! I barely had enough time to erase all records of your involvement from the mainframe before they started tearing up the place. And that bat sir, she's...she's unlike anything I've seen. Sh-Sh-She took everything we could throw at her and just kept coming! It...it...it was just impossible to take her down!." The lupine shrank back as he blubbered one attempt to cover his ass after another. Brekken just exhaled and shook his head in aggravation "You're wasting my time with your excuses." Out of the darkness behind him, several NO2 darts zinged through the air and skewered the wolf right through his neck. His eyes barely had a chance to widen in realisation before the dart tips exploded and neatly severed his head from his shoulders. "But then the same could be said about your very existence." The bunny concluded as the lupine's lifeless body tumbled to the ground. "Begging is such a fruitless endeavour." A filtered voice remarked. A figure, an American Bald Eagle by series, emerged from the shadows. In the darkened state of the room not much about it could be ascertained other than it was over 7 feet tall, powerfully built, armed to the teeth and encased in some kind of black polished power armor which concealed every square inch of its body save for the great pair of brown feathered wings attached to its back and the tail feathers behind it. "Well hopefully that will be the last time I have to deal with it." Brekken sneered. "However this matter has now taken priority in our plans. The C.S.F. knows there are other facilities out there making the orga-guns and my buyers are not going to accept external sabotage as an excuse when they don't get their orders delivered on time." He looked up at the avian. "Which is where you come in. According to numerous reliable sources close to me you've been blessed with a rather special talent for disposing of elite individuals." "I have my gifts." The bird said emotionlessly. "Hence why I have need of you as it were." Brekken picked up another tablet and consulted it. "I should be able to finish and move this month's shipments on time provided nothing else hits the fan. After that I'm officially pulling out of this business. Therefore I am counting on you to go out and monitor the C.S.F. agents that have been assigned to investigate this matter." He handed the tablet over to the bird. "That's the complete list which my cyberware pirates were kind enough to pull off for me. Prevent them from getting too close to the truth as well as leave a few subtle reminders that they would be most unwise to continue getting in my way." He narrowed his eyes at the eagle. "You are not to leave any survivors, every strike must be a fatality." The bird stared back at Brekken through the black, soulless visors of his helmet as he was handed the tablet and studied it. "Do you wish for the agents in New York to be terminated first?" "No that would attract too much attention right now. Don't go anywhere near them until I personally order you to do so understand?" "I do, as long as you're aware that this will not be an easily accomplishable task. C.S.F. personnel take a long time to die." Brekken consulted his personal holo-terminal for a moment. "I do not expect you to finish this quickly. Take as long as you require, and don't worry about your payment. I'll see to it that you are more than generously rewarded for your services." He glared menacingly "Just make sure the bodies start piling up!" "As you wish." "And if possible could you please use the fire escape to leave this time? I think you're freaking out my secretary." As if on cue the intercom lit up. "Dr. Brekken, the president of the Sinon Corporation is on line one, I think he's ready to negotiate your merging proposal." "Brilliant, put him through at once Laura." The bunny looked over the wolf corpse "And you may want to get the sanitation meks in here." * * * - 1:02 a.m. - Moments later the avian stood on the roof of Brekken's business tower. Moonlight reflected off the black sheen of his power armour as well as an odd silvery tinge on the back of his wings. Slowly and methodically he read through the list taken from the bunny's office. Dozens of agents, dozens of lives, all simultaneously sentenced to death as the bird transferred the files to his armour's internal buffer before dropping the tablet on the ground and crushing it under his talons. Stepping onto the ledge he took a moment to gaze at the city beneath him before spreading his great wings and flying off into the night sky. *Time to get to work.* TO BE CONTINUED..... * * * Up until now I've learned to live without love Like a ship without a sail, wandering aimlessly lost I never knew how it felt to lose my control Now that I've found you, this is all so new You and me, we've got a destiny Starting tonight we'll be together You and me, this is what love should be And it's gonna be right, now and forever Darlin', inside your eyes I can see mysteries there And you're melting the ice surrounding me, I'm no longer scared I feel you inside my soul and I'm captured tonight But don't let go, this is paradise You and me, we've got a destiny Starting tonight we'll be together You and me, this is what love should be And it's gonna be right, if you tell me There's a heaven up above, then that's what I'll believe 'cause you're the one thing that I'm so sure of (instrumental break) I feel you inside my soul and I'm captive tonight But don't let go, this is paradise You and me, we've got a destiny Starting tonight we'll be together You and me, this is what love should be And it's gonna be right, now and forever You and me, we've got a destiny Starting tonight we'll be together You and me, this is what love should be And it's gonna be right Woo ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Anne Murray - 'Now And Forever You And Me.' * * *

FINIS

• * * *Lyrics from 'Something to Believe In' by Poison