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My sincere apologies for the excessive delay. Life and its extingencies intervened and I was desperately short of available writing time. As for the rest, this is a work of fiction. Characters are copyright Radical Gopher. No one under the age of 18 should be reading this as it contains adult themes, etc. No one depicted as engaging in adult or sexual activities is under the age of 18'

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PINS AND NEEDLES, PART IX

The rented floater glided to a stop and two figures stepped from the vehicle, causing it to raise several inches from the ground. The scene in front of them resembled a war zone. A fifteen-foot wide hole took up one entire corner of the building. Scorched brick and wood lay scattered about. That portion of the police station open to the outside was also heavily scorched. A large two-way mirror had once occupied one wall of the room. Now its jagged remains framed an open, rectangular hole.

Only one fire truck still sat nearby along with several moderately damaged police vehicles. Yellow tape temporarily restricted access to the area. The two figures glanced briefly at each other then walked around to the front of the station. They were met by the local police chief who soberly shook their hands in greeting.

"Sergeant... Detective.... I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but we didn't know you were coming until just a few hours ago."

"What happened here?" asked the massive human.

"The fire marshal thinks it was some kind of underground gas explosion."

"Gas?"

The chief nodded. "Back in the twentieth century, this area had a lot of homes with old style propane and septic tanks. When the sewer and gas lines were brought in most of those were dug up and sent in to disposal sites. Unfortunately, some were simply buried on the old properties, and none too carefully." He waved his hand in a sweeping gesture. "This use to belong to a farm that was sold and sub-divided about eighty-five years ago. Our station sits on part of what was once the main house."

The two looked at each other. "So..." asked the red-furred Zorr, "where's our suspect?"

* * * *

SIXTEEN HOURS EARLIER

Sapphire and Gwen stared upward at the massive black-scaled dragon. "For some reason, I thought he would be a lot... well, smaller," muttered the skunkette.

"He should be," the vixen replied. "But when it comes to curses there's no real way to predict how they will turn out."

The creature stood about twelve feet tall with wings that arched behind him another ten to twelve feet. Its head was decidedly draconian, with a long, tapering snout, heavily ridged eyebrows, frilled ears, horns, and solid-indigo eyes. It's scales varied in shade from coal-gray to midnight-black. The membranes of its bat-like wings and frilled ears were the same indigo color as its eyes. The body was more humanoid in form, with massive arms and thick, muscular legs. The feet were didigrade and tipped with long, wicked looking claws, similar to the claws that now extended from the monster's fingertips. A thick tail extended out from the base of its spine, adding at least seven more feet to its length.

The dragon turned its head, scanning the area around it. Its eyes focused on the skunkette and it growled threateningly. It stepped over the remains of the police station wall and moved in Gwen's direction.

"I think he recognizes you."

"Just what we need... a dragon with a grudge. This might be a good time to retreat, don't you think?" the dancer muttered as both she and Sapphire began backing quickly towards the nearby woods.

The monster's movements were slow, confused and disjointed, making it possible for the two women to keep ahead of it, that is until Gwen tripped and went sprawling backward over a log. Sapphire grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet. The beast lunged at the two of them, then abruptly stopped. It began swinging its arms and body, snapping its fearsome jaws at the air. In the pale moonlight the vixen could see the form of a tiny pseudo-dragon buzzing around the monster's skull.

"What's he doing?" Gwen asked.

"Trying to distract it so we have a chance to escape."

"And leave him here?" the skunkette replied. "No way!"

* * * *

SIXTEEN HOURS LATER...

The two detectives walked around the area immediately surrounding the police station. The property backed upon a small wooded area. Thick patches of wild grass dotted the unkempt landscape. The short, red furred investigator bent over and plucked a few stems, sniffing at it.

"Got something?" asked the taller human.

"I don't know." She dropped the grass and lifted her head, tilting it slightly to the side. "Can you smell it?"

"What?"

"I don't know. Something like... sulfur, but it's not sulfur."

He shook his head. "Sorry. I have to plead having too puny a proboscis to smell much of anything." He looked over at her. "Can you get a sense of direction?"

"Sorry, no. It just seems to be hanging in the air."

They continued looking around until them came upon a somewhat large patch of dead grass. The earth around it appeared to he heavily torn up, but there were no prints anywhere to be seen. They called the chief over and pointed it out to him.

"Yeah... we noticed it too. I've considered calling in a back hoe and digging it up, just to make sure we don't have another old propane tank under there waiting to go off."

"Why don't you?"

The chief shrugged. "It's not in our budget."

"Neither is rebuilding your police station," the vixen observed drily

"Point taken."

* * * *

SIXTEEN HOURS EARLIER

Above them the small dragon was desperately attempting to keep out of the way of the monster's teeth. The creature took a wild swing at him, then a bite. Both missed. Victor dove under its enormous jaws, pulled into a climbing turn and flicked his tail against the creature's right eye. It roared in pain, snapping blindly at its tormentor. The pseudo dragon dove for the ground and passed between the monster's legs before climbing to a position above and behind him. He dove, this time cracking the larger beast on the back of his head with his tail. It wheeled to the left, and Victor circled counter-clockwise, staying in its blind spot.

Gwen glanced in the direction of the heavily damaged police station and saw a police officer rise to his feet. Disoriented, he was holding his head in his hands and didn't immediately see the dragon. The skunkette stopped, focused, and rewove the sleep spell, aiming it at the station as before. The officer stiffened, then collapsed like a rag doll. Sapphire abruptly grabbed the dancer by the arm and yanked her aside as the monster's foot landed where she had been standing.

"Nice spell casting," the djin commented, "but you might want to keep your eyes open next time."

"Thanks," replied Gwen. "Think it might work on our big friend there?"

The vixen shook her head. "The bigger a dragon is, the more resistant he is to simple spells."

"Well... If we can't use sorcery directly on him, how about using it on something else?"

Sapphire smiled wickedly. "I like the way you think." She waved her hand in a blue arc and the grass suddenly lengthened and wrapped itself around the dragon's feet. The monster staggered, tried to take a step and fell forward into a very satisfying, and painful belly flop. The earth shook, nearly throwing both women to the ground.

The dragon roared in frustration. More grass shot upward, further ensnaring the monster. Blue magic rippled through the air as the vixen wove her hands back and forth, smiling with satisfaction at the result.

Perhaps it was the simplicity of the spell, or its relative ease in casting that was deceptive. Whatever the problem, the vixen suddenly found herself overtaxed. The smile abruptly vanished as a wave of nausea and pain washed across her. Sapphire clutched at her stomach and dropped to her knees. She gulped at the night air, fighting the urge to throw-up. The grass entangling the dragon turned brown and withered in seconds. It took little effort for the monster to shred it and again rise to its feet.

Gwen knelt next to the vixen, ready to drag her out of the way if need be. Above her the monster turned on the two women, then stopped as it again began biting and clawing at the air around it. Victor dove at the creature's face, slamming his barbed tail against its snout. It roared and snapped once more at the air. The skunkette watched in horror as teeth like spears closed about the pseudo-dragon, trapping it within the monster's maw.

Finding himself on the verge of being swallowed, Victor uncorked the potion he'd been carrying and hurled it toward the back of the dragon's throat. Its throat muscles contracted instinctively and the potion disappeared. The Zorr would have been swallowed with it if he had not dug his claws into the dragon's giant tongue. Its sulfurous breath burned his lungs as he looked desperately for a way to get it to open its mouth.

"NOOOO!" screamed Gwen. She stood, planting both her feet and reached into herself tapping into her manna reserve. Operating on the purest instinct she cast a summoning spell, aiming it not at the monster before her, but at her trapped love. Green magic flared around her and tore through her. Her scream of fear became one of pain and she folded in on herself, dropping unconscious to the ground.

The world suddenly became silent, save for the pitiful retching of the vixen. The spasm passed and Sapphire weakly looked around her. The skunkette was curled up in the grass next to her, moaning softly. She touched the dancer's fur and there was a soft jolt of green static. The djin recognized the aftermath of wild magic. Examining Gwen, she shook her head. It appeared that the skunkette and Victor were the victims of a typical apprentice mistake. Passion had replaced control in the spell, resulting in some very interesting, but not fatal consequences. She smiled ruefully. Considering the circumstances she found it hard to blame the girl.

Another soft moan drew her attention to a spot several yards away. Standing, the blue-furred vixen walked over to the human now laying where once a dragon had been. She sighed in relief. Victor had managed to administer the potion before the first twenty-four hours had passed, preventing the curse from locking into the host. She smiled. Black rose pollen was such a useful item. Too bad it tended to have unpredictable side effects.

Reaching down, she picked up the now three inch tall human and looked around. The human opened his eyes, saw the giantess holding him, screamed once and promptly fainted. Sapphire sighed. For an avowed racist, he certainly didn't impress her as being overly dangerous. Spotting an old, dirt encrusted coffee can, the vixen plopped the Human Leaguer inside then sealed the top, after first punching a few air holes with her claws. Forty-eight hours from now he'd be good as new, or bad as ever, depending on your point of view.

Walking back to the skunkette, Sapphire helped the girl to her feet and led her back to Victor's car. Fortunately, no magic was needed to get home. All they needed was to pile in and set the drive system to automatic. On the way the vixen did a much more through examination of Gwen. Careful not to overtax herself again, the djin gently passed her hands up and down the young woman's body. She nodded in satisfaction. She wouldn't need to cast any spells to correct this problem. Nature would handle things in due course.

* * * *

SIXTEEN HOURS LATER

The two detectives finished talking with the police chief, then climbed back into their rented floater and headed into town.

The giant human looked across at his red-furred partner. "So, what now fuzz-ball?"

"Well, I was thinking we'd stop at a local restaurant for lunch, then call in and tell the captain we lost our suspect."

"WE lost him? Whatever gave you that idea?" the human grumbled

"Well," the vixen explained, "if we tell the captain that the local gendarmes lost him, he'll just tell us to catch the next flight home. If we say we lost him, he'll give us seventy-two hours to find him again, or else."

"So why should we subject ourselves to his considerable ire?"

The vixen looked up, a grin on her face. "When was the last time we had a three day vacation?"

The human raised one eyebrow in thought. "Not since before that puppet caper, I think." He glanced over at his partner. "How to we avoid getting our asses handed to us when we get back home?"

"Easy... We file the paperwork the locals give us and tell him he didn't hear us right when we reported in the first time. He's so bogged down in the annual inventory report right now he'll let it go without further comment."

"I'll say this for you fuzz-ball, if you weren't already a cop, you'd make a hell-of-a con-man."

"If I were a man," she corrected him.

"So what's to do after lunch?"

"There's someone I want to drop in on, if he's in."

"Surprise visit?"

"Why not? Last time he was in our neck of the woods, he pulled one on me."

The large detective chuckled. "As they say... Payback's a bitch."

The vixen gave him a toothy grin in reply.

* * * *

Gwen groaned, shifting herself in bed trying to relieve the cramp in her back and get more comfortable. "God! How do women put up with this kind of thing?"

Sapphire set a small tray down next to the bed and brushed the skunkette's sweat soaked hair away from her forehead. "Well, with the vast majority of them, it's a much more gradual process. Their bodies have time to get use to the changes they experience. You, on the other hand, had to go botch a summoning spell." She passed Gwen a glass of water which the girl quickly drank. Not many women have had the pleasure of developing an instant case of pregnancy."

"Yeah... I was really stupid about it. I didn't think. I just reacted to seeing that thing eat Victor."

"Be thankful it wasn't worse. Had he been a full sized Zorr and not a pseudo dragon, he would have ripped you apart from inside... Providing you didn't blow him up first,"

The dancer rubbed her extremely swollen stomach. "I wonder what he's feeling in there right now?"

"Not much of anything," Sapphire replied. "I put him into a deep sleep so he won't wake up and think the dragon swallowed him."

Gwen felt Victor stir in her womb and she giggled. "That tickles!" She looked up at the djin. "It's kind of funny... I wanted to feel Victor inside me. Now, I get my wish." The two women laughed at the rye joke.

"Don't worry. You'll get your chance, once we get him out of there."

"And how do you propose to do that?" the skunkette asked.

"The old fashioned way... natural childbirth." Gwen opened her mouth to reply, but Sapphire gently pressed a finger to the girl's lips. "Don't worry. I've done this kind of thing a number of times over the centuries."

"What? Given birth to baby dragons?"

The vixen chuckled. "No... Midwifery. In fact, I've been feeding you a special herb tea that will not only help induce labor, but will relax you enough to make the process relatively painless."

"I'll believe that when it happens."

The doorbell rang and Sapphire quickly rose from the bed. "You stay here while I'll see who it is. We'll talk more when I get back." The vixen left the guest room and headed for the front door.

"If it's Dr. Aryan again, black her other eye for me, would you?" the skunkette called after her.

The vixen padded towards the front door, flicking her hands so her robe changed to a simple pair of white silk trousers, slippers and a high-collared, silk tunic.

Sapphire opened the door and found herself confronted by two individuals. The first was a short, red-furred vixen dressed in a simple woman's business suit. The second was an enormous human wearing jeans, a football jersey and a tweed coat. The vixen held out her hand to Sapphire and smiled.

"Hello! We've never met. I'm Pepper Fields and this is my partner, Saul Blackthorn. Is my cousin Victor at home?"

To be continued...