FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The wolf tumbled helplessly through the air, no longer knowing which way was up. The impact had caught her off guard, but in hindsight, she should have known that would happen, she'd been doing this long enough. Always look around corners first, she silently scolded herself. By the time she hit the ground again, landing hard on her back and temporarily knocking the wind out of her, her previously unseen assailant had melted out of the shadows once more and was advancing upon her quickly. There was no time to lose.

With a powerful thrust of her hind legs, her body soared a short distance feet-first through the air. Her bare, gray-furred back arching gracefully as she completed her rotation and landed solidly, quickly bringing her mottled gray rifle to bear. She put a keen blue eye to the sight, and let him have it. The gun shook in her paws as it spat out round after round of plasma-coated slugs in a brilliant firework show that lit up the ruined streets. Her attacker, a hulking black shape that bore some resemblance to a bear, roared as the bullets bit into its tarred flesh and redoubled its pace, brushing aside crushed cars like crumbs. The canine warrior pulled a round object from a pouch on her alloy power suit with her left paw, pressed the round green button, and threw it at the monster. Unfortunately, one of the now-flying cars intercepted the grenade in midair, and after the bright flash of greenish-white energy, it hung there as if frozen in time and space (which it was). The black thing kept coming.

The gray wolf in power armor's thumbed rifle's release and expertly and quickly loaded her last clip. Aiming for its bobbing head, she held down the trigger, spraying its face (and most of the street beyond) with the streaming fire. The bear thing roared, and scooping a large chunk of its own tar body in its claws, hurled it at the wolf. She quickly jumped up, but the tar ball hit her foot.

Shit_, she thought, knowing full well what this meant. It meant she didn't have long to live._

When she hit the ground with a sticky-sounding plop_, she could not move her feet. As much as she struggled against the thick ooze, her legs did not budge. She looked up in horror at the beast approaching with a sickeningly wide grin on its drooping face. She emptied the last of her clip into him, and quickly switched to her pistol, a quaint name for a weapon so bulky. She pumped shot after useless shot into the beast. It now towered over her and roared in victory, knowing it had won._

The tarred bear put its sticky paws on either side of its helpless victim, immobilizing it forever. It licked its sloppy lips and leaned over the screaming wolf, and with one giant chomp, tore her head off messily and tossed it aside, a terrified expression still frozen on her face. Its black body melted over her as it made her biomass one with its own, beginning to digest it immediately. The last strike team member was dead.

"TREVOR!" a voice yelled from faraway. "QUIT YELLING, I'M ON THE PHONE!"

"Sorry, mom," Trevor replied sheepishly, finally taking his eyes off the grotesque, familiar scene. Guess I was really getting into the game again. He hated those tar monsters, whatever they truly were. He had only killed one once, and that was with the help of three other players. But on her own, his character didn't stand a chance.

He swished his tail in agitation as he readjusted his headset and clicked the 'Continue' button. He didn't know how many times his poor avatar, 4lphaW0lf, had met the same fate. Sure, there were worse endings that could befall a hero or heroine in Snatched Silence 2, but after 20 hours of play logged online, he thought he would be seeing those less and less. Instead, he seemed to have hit a mental wall that kept him from figuring the wretched thing out. He knew there was a strategy associated with taking down each terrifying creature in the game, but he could not see what this one could possibly be.

And he certainly didn't want to stoop to using online guides or walkthroughs, whatever-gaming-gods-there-may-be forbid.

Blasting away with machine gun fire seemed to work well for most smaller enemies, but it whittled down the health bar of anything larger than a player painfully slowly. And in the Snatched Silence series, a wasted second could mean the difference between life and death. The enemies were often too smart to be fooled by lobbing a stasis grenade, and incendiary grenades only turned your opponent into a flaming monstrosity. Weaponry other than the stock rifle and pistol were hard to locate while on the run from a horde of baddies, and upgrading them between firefights was notoriously expensive. 5000 credits, enough to bump the standard plasma rifle up to Tier Two, was easy enough to come by, if you could take down enemies like the tar bears solo. But with a team online, the spoils were split among every member who helped kill the enemy, proportional to the percentage of damage they dealt to the beast. While it was a fair system, he had to admit, it prevented noobs like Trevor from ever being able to buy better weaponry. Unless a player payed real money. But who actually DOES that??

Trevor disconnected from the server he was on, it being filled with players less experienced than even him, and started his own, hoping desperately someone above level 2 would join.

He leaned back in his desk chair as he waited. He had only started seriously gaming in his freshman year of high school. This was a serious crutch he knew he would have to live with for the rest of his gaming life. As any gamer knows, it takes years of honing one's reflexes and paw-eye coordination, as well as metagame strategy, to cultivate the skill required to not be a hindrance to a team in an online environment. And while Trevor had been reading or watching Saturday morning cartoons up through middle school, his friends were already years in training themselves to be soldiers, assassins, crime fighters, and saviors of the universe.

Because of this, anytime he was at a friend's house to play games, his character was always the first one to die. He was dubbed the "Token Black Fur" or "Redshirt" of his small group of friends, despite him having short, steel-gray fur like his avatar. His real-life eyes were amber, but he had always loved the look of blue eyes. He could perfectly imagining himself diving into those crystal pools of emotion and truth...

He shook his head. There I go fantasizing again... He grabbed another pawful of cheese crackers from the box that was always on his desk to help him focus on the task at hand, careful not to get any crumbs on his favorite faded graphic tee or his black jeans. With his other paw on the mouse, he confirmed his plebeian loadout for the mission: the stock rifle and pistol, as well as two stasis grenades and two incendiary grenades. An underpowered sniper rifle and a slow-firing shotgun were also available for use; he never had any luck with these. The rest of the weapons had to be found in-game, scattered about the post-apocalyptic ruins of the city. He clicked uselessly on the greyed-out "Armor Select" option, knowing full well he hadn't unlocked nor earned any new pieces of armor. His character, 4lphaW0lf, stood on the screen with a scowl on her face, as if she knew she was being controlled by some clueless higher power.

He sat back as he stared patiently at the scrolling "Waiting for Players" message at the bottom of the screen. Trevor didn't know why he usually picked female characters in games like this. Maybe because big hulking space commandos in over-sized armor weren't really him. A slim-cut figure with minimal armor was more like what he would like to be. Unfortunately, there was never a male option for such dress...

Trevor was gay. He'd known since seventh grade, when he started to notice signs of affection towards one of his good friends, a fox named Jared. But telling him was so far the worst mistake of Trevor's life. In typical middle-school-er fashion, Jared yelled his disgust and stood up and announced as loudly as possible, "Trevor is totally gay!!" Right in the middle of the cafeteria. As quick as he was, Trevor was not able to escape in time to avoid the jeers and chunks of food that came flying at him from every angle. He had spent the rest of the day crying in a lonely bathroom stall, and a good portion of the remainder of his middle school career crying to the principal about furs picking on him. He never talked to Jared again.

With high school came the long-awaited increase in average maturity level of the students, as well a multitude of furs who weren't there for that dreadful incident. Trevor only had to alert the principal once or twice to acts of discrimination so far, and by now he didn't cry anymore. He was growing up to be an intellectual, shy, yet strong (internally; certainly not physically) wolf. It also helped that he quickly grew taller than most of his bullies, who soon had to crane their necks to get a good look at their victim. Now, in his senior year, he brushed off the occasional "homo" or "fag" with ease, though he still didn't talk openly about his true nature. Partially because of this, he had been regrettably single throughout high school. His only memories of the three homecoming dances so far were of hanging by the water cooler, nodding his head in time with the music everyone else was having a great time swaying, dancing, or grinding to, despite the principal's best efforts to break up such occurrences.

"TREVOR!" a harsh voice yelled, making him jump. He put his headset on the desk and swiveled his chair around to see a slender, well-groomed, rusty-brown wolf grinning around the edge of his door to his room/game den. "Mom wants you to know dinner is in ten minutes, and said to start thinking about exiting out," she told him in her more natural voice.

Trevor smiled. "Thanks, Ali." She left as quickly as she came, probably to continue talking with her legion of friends (as many at once as possible) over the phone or online.

He donned his headset once more and turned back around to the infernal "Waiting for Players" screen. His sister knew he was gay, and was his most trusted friend in the world. They hadn't been all that close in childhood, but they finally started bonding soon after the Jared Incident. She was always there for him when he needed someone to vent to or cry to or get fashion advice from. Alice had just started high school this year, and was already well on her way to getting to know everyone there by name and the dirt associated with them.

His mom also knew he was gay--she had gotten a report over the phone from the principal about what happened that fateful day in middle school. But they never talked about it much. Trevor had tried to bring it up once or twice, but she always changed the subject quickly. Perhaps she didn't like to think about it, or was still in denial; it was anybody's guess. Not that she wasn't a good mother. Quite the opposite. She was a very caring wolf, and did whatever it took to keep everybody in the house happy.

But that was easier said than done. His dad, the steel-gray wolf Trevor had received his looks from, was surly at best when he got home from his accounting job. He was a canine of few words, and what words he did say were infallible (or so he liked to think). He was a tried-and-true conservative who read the political news with disdain every morning with his black coffee. His dad never found out about what truly happened that day in middle school--when he got home from work to see Trevor still crying to his mom, he was told Trevor had been bullied at school that day. Which was true. Just not completely. Probably for the best; Trevor's dad felt that being bullied once in a while built character. He was that kind of parent. Lord only knows what his reaction would be if he found out his son was gay--Trevor shuddered just thinking about it. He and Trevor never had a real "father-son relationship," and Trevor didn't regret that fact most days.

A beeping sound tore him away from the dark cloud of thoughts surrounding his father, and he looked at the screen. Someone had just joined his team.

"Werecat129, eh? Let's see those stats, shall we..." Trevor clicked on his guest's username. His eyes widened. "LEVEL TWENTY??" he said aloud. Do they even go that high? He had only raised 4lphaW0lf to level four, and didn't expect he'd ever see her reach level ten. But with the help of such an experienced player...

Trevor hit the "Ready!" button on the bottom right, putting a green check mark beside his avatar's name in the strike team roster. A few seconds passed, and a green check appeared next to Werecat129, starting the five second countdown.

I may not be much help in the mission, but if he can hold off the enemies long enough for me to find some better weapons... The countdown hit zero, and the screen went black...

...4lphaW0lf stood alone in the middle of what used to be a busy four-way intersection, when the city had seen better days. Now, it was strewn with rubble from fallen buildings and the burned husks of cars. The powerful female warrior unslung her plasma rifle and looked around, ears perking up to catch the slightest of sounds. She picked up the distinct cough of a pistol firing three times, and saw plasma streak towards the low-hanging clouds just a few blocks to the north and east. Not seeing any enemies around, she unholstered her own pistol and fired three shots into the air in response. Carefully threading her way through the wreckage, she made her way toward her mysterious comrade, Werecat129.

Trevor knew that signaling in such a way could attract enemies to your location, but in a city as large as this one, your best chance for survival was getting to your teammates as quickly as possible. If only they spawned a little closer...

...The lone wolf hopped from car-top to car-top, knowing it was faster than weaving around them. She forfeited silence for speed a_s _she kept a wary eye out for anything that moved in the shadows. Except for the paper.

"Why is there ALWAYS paper blowing around randomly in games like this??"

She traveled three blocks north without hearing anything. Jumping from a truck to the top of a city bus, she looked around, trying to calculate how much further her teammate would be. "If I've gone three blocks, and he's gone three blocks, we should be pretty close by now..." Feeling it worth the risk, she took out her pistol again, and was about to fire off another three shots when she heard a sudden flurry of gunfire from just around the next corner. An unnatural screech followed shortly, echoing throughout the streets for many blocks. The wolf knew all nearby enemies would be drawn to the sound immediately. She jumped down from the bus and took off at a run towards the carnage.

Something heavy hit her in the back. Caught off-guard, she stumbled, tripped over the loose rubble, and landed hard on the ground with an oomph!She cursed. Always look before you leap, she told herself. The wolf elbowed her attacker off her exposed back, sending it reeling with an alien hiss. She scrambled to get up as quickly as possible, and pointed her rifle at the armored bug the size of an overinflated basketball. Aiming at its unprotected underbelly, she pulled the trigger, piercing its exoskeleton with molten-hot rounds and creating tiny fountains of bug juice. Half a dozen shots later, and the alloy-covered insect was no more. One kill for me,4lphaW0lf thought with a smile.

But she knew this was only the beginning. Those bugs never traveled alone. Looking back at the bus, she saw at least a dozen more of the alien insects inside. They had probably been feasting on the bones of its long-dead passengers, but now they all looked at her hungrily with their black, foot-long eye stalks.

She froze, knowing that they were attracted to movement. If she started shooting now, they would scatter and come at her from all directions at once (she had learned that the hard way). But how to take them all out at once?

Something about the bus looked different that the rest of the vehicles. Peering closely, she saw that it showed no burn marks, although it had been thoroughly rusted through and had all its windows broken at one point or another. With a gas tank as big as a bus', the whole thing surely would have caught fire if it had detonated. So if the gas tank is intact..., she thought, an idea forming in her head as she pulled out a round incendiary grenade as slowly as possible...

"TREVOR! DINNER IN FIVE MINUTES!"

"OKAY, MOM!"

...4lphaW0lf held the grenade as if to throw it, but stopped. If I throw it now, she thought, they'll scatter before it detonates. Which meant it had to detonate as soon as it got inside. Meaning...

She looked around, still hearing gunfire from the next street over. She had just one try to get this right. If I mess this up, he's on his own.

The wolf hit the angry-looking red button.

And waited.

She counted in her head: 1, 2, 3--_no, too fast._ 3... 4... What if I'm behind now?

She dared to hold onto the ticking time bomb for another fraction of a second, and hurled it at the bus. The grenade sailed through the window, startling the the alien bugs. The round object made a metallic tink as it bounced off the floor. The insects spread their wings to flee.

A white flash of light shot from the bus, temporarily blinding the wolf, already diving for cover. Right as the shockwave of the first detonation hit her, the blast punched its way through to the gas tank. The bus ripped itself apart in a brilliant explosion of light and heat that singed 4lphaW0lf's fur, despite the wrecked car between them. The vacant street's echoing properties amplified the sound of the blast, which hit her like a wall and nearly knocked her to the ground. When the tremors and the sound finally subsided, she dared to peek around the corner to admire her handiwork.

An unrecognizable, mangled pile of smoking metal and an angry burn mark on the groundwere the only signs that a vehicle once rested there. She saw a few smoldering chunks of the bugs' shells strewn here and there--the majority of them had likely been vaporized instantly in the blast. She laughed out loud. She didn't know if she'd ever killed this many enemies in one life.

A deep growl from behind interrupted her euphoria. 4lphaW0lf cursed under her breath, already knowing what it was that made the sound before she even turned around.

Two tar bears now advanced upon her, waving their sticky, black arms menacingly. She held up her rifle, already starting to accept her fate. The bears were blocking her only route to salvation, her teammate. She knew she could outpace the cruel things, but what was the use if she simply ran into another horde of enemies? Because of the bus explosion, enemies were likely closing in from all sides by now. And the roof of the bus would have made a fine place for a last stand... if it was still intact. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

And if she couldn't take out these tar bears, she might as well die trying.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up fully from her place of cover, and stepped toward the oncoming sludge heaps. And another step as she sighted down her rifle's length at the one on the left. She slowly walked toward it and held down the trigger. The gun spat out its bright barrage of plasma, ineffective as ever. The tar bear staggered a step and roared. It scooped up a hunk of its own flesh and hurled it at her.

This time the wolf was ready. She sidestepped the mucky blast as it exploded across the door of the car behind her, sealing it shut forever. Calmly dropping her clip and popping in a fresh one, she continued firing, hitting everywhere on its body. It raised a dripping paw to shield itself from the barrage, but it kept coming.

By now, the one on the right was getting uncomfortably close. She backed up as close to the car as she could without getting stuck to the glob of goo, and pulled out a stasis grenade, hoping to buy some time. She held a claw over the green button, and waited for it to get a bit closer.

"TREVOR! DINNERTIME!"

The moment it took Trevor to plead for more time was just long enough of a distraction for the tar bear on the screen to hurl another tar ball at 4lphaW0lf. By the time Trevor heard the sickening smack, it was already too late. His character had been hit in the chest, and was pinned to the car behind her.

4lphaW0lf tried claw herself out, but her arms, also pinned by the sludge, couldn't reach the sticky mass. She struggled against it uselessly as the two tar beasts drew close enough for her to gag on their burning pitch stench. Each creature sported the familiar dripping smile and hungry look in their eyes as stood over her and reached out...

A savage cry made the two beasts pause and turn around. A stasis grenade caught one in the face, and an incendiary grenade landed between them a second later. The familiar green flash exploded outward, blanketing everything within three meters, stopping just short of 4lphaW0lf. The incendiary grenade lit up the street just as the look of surprise was frozen onto the tar bears' faces. Their flesh burned as they stood there helplessly, unable to put out the vicious fire that covered their entire bodies.

4lphaW0lf could feel the intense heat on her face as the fire slowly spread across the ground, inching closer and closer. She struggled against the tar again but it held her firmly to the car, leaving her only to watch in terror as the flames started licking at her foot paws.

"Here, let me help you," a deep voice said. 4lphaW0lf looked up to see a large figure in power armor silhouetted against the roaring fire. He bent down and started clawing away at the tar that held her in place. After a few seconds, his work was complete, and he offered her a large, striped paw up.

She took it instantly, and with a firm tug she found herself face-to-face with the most handsome creature she had ever seen. His golden brown fur alternated with soot-black stripes across his face, with pearl-white fur on his chin and tips of his ears. His power armor wasn't the typical, overly-cumbersome, tank-on-legs design, but rather a sensible, form-fitting set that accentuated the natural brawn of the tiger. His muscles stood out against his limbs, but weren't overly big. His long tail swished side to side anxiously as he stood there, still gripping his clearly-superior rifle.

And then there were the eyes. Those beautiful, clear blue eyes--

The world went dark...

"MOM!!" Trevor yelled, pushing his headphones down around his neck.

"I told you it's dinnertime," she said sternly, her claw still on the power button of Trevor's laptop. "You need to plan when to exit better next time."

Trevor muttered unintelligibly as his mother left the room. She was right, of course, but that gave her no right to barge into his room unannounced and interrupt his game. He sighed as he closed the lid of his computer and took off his headphones. He had been doing so well, too...

But who WAS that guy? he asked himself. That mysterious tiger with the sexy voice... He had successfully immobilized those tar bears and reduced them to half their health by effect of the incendiary grenade, which was more damage than Trevor had ever been able to deal by himself. Not to mention the hordes of enemies he undoubtedly slaughtered before he came to save 4lphaW0lf.

He wondered what the real Werecat129 was like. Was he also a tiger, like how Trevor's character was a wolf? His rumbling voice definitely seemed to point in the feline direction. Trevor had a strong attraction to big cats, but he tried not to get his hopes up. It was doubtful that Werecat was anywhere near as physically appealing as his character--most hardcore gamers are fat virgins who live in their mothers' basements, right?

Trevor knew that as the hosting player, disconnecting from the game like he did kicks all other players off the server as well. He hated to seem that rude to Werecat129, especially right after he saved Trevor's ass, but it couldn't be avoided. Parents will be parents, and in their household, their word is the law.

He just hoped Werecat129 would be online after dinner...