FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I changed into my Tripod form, and stood just so I could fit through the trapdoor. I looked slightly silly this way, but to combat this, I released the Martian smoke, a thick, black smoke than funnelled outwards as the trapdoor rose. The entire platform area above ground was covered in the smoke in a matter of seconds, and I couldn't see without thermal imaging.It was practically night by now, and the place was lit by many bright electric lights. Night fighting was apparently popular.

I brought all three feet outwards, stepping off the platform from all sides, and I must have got a foot outside the cloud, because there was a gasp. I switched thermal imaging, just as the cloud cleared. Behind me, I heard a voice.

"That's definitely not one of the creatures."

I turned to face him, my legs clunking against the rock, looking at him in interest. He was short, slightly over weight, and looking rather calm, but annoyed that I wasn't what he expected.

"Oi, that's definitely not an Earth creature." Alan shouted. I turned, and let go a concentrated burst of heat ray. The glass gave way above his head, and melted a hole about five centimetres wide through it and out the other side. Alan looked up at the hole.

"That thing,"he used the word well," just melted through three inch glass." I hunkered down, facing Sreesanth. She looked ready to faint.

Alan spoke.

"Sreesanth, use your electric power, take it down!"

"And how!" she shouted, throwing a bolt of electricity that crackled wildly towards me. The bolt harmlessly earthed into my metallic frame, and into the rock at my feet.I fired another burst of heat ray, making it look like I was aiming for the female canine while actually going for Alan. He expected it, and jumped as the ray cut through where his legs would have been.

"What the ^&*% is that thing?" Alan shouted. Jason smiled.

"I don't know, but I think I've just won."

I turned, and he ducked, just as I nailed a hole through his little glass box. Jason wiped his brow.

"On second thoughts, I'll just shut up."

I blasted a rock next to the immovable Sreesanth, and her legs took control, diving aside. The fragments of rock rained down as I fired on the rock she was hiding behind, and the electric creature moved back, I leaned back, and brought my heat ray as high as it could go.

I activated it, and brought it down, like a sword blow. Sreesanth dived out of the way, and the glass box split clean down the middle. I'd rather not recall what happened to Alan, it wasn't pretty. The glass box fell apart, and Alan fell to the ground, I presume dead.Then all hell broke loose.

Jason was calling up another of the creatures to fight me, Sreesanth was looking at me in awe, and six men with automatic weapons came rushing out. Before I could turn, they were firing at me.

The bullets bounced hard against me, and rebounded every which way. Sreesanth ducked behind a rock just as the ricochets whistled past her.Neither Jason or the light blue female that arrived on the platform were so lucky. All the men were armed with machine guns, and were aiming at what was in essence a round ball.

Two rounds hit the canine, and she fell with out a sound. Jason's cage was riddled, and as he hit the ground, one hit him. I turned, and saw the canine on the ground, bleeding from the shoulder, and I really lost it.

The Heat Ray spoke again, and all of them were knocked to the ground. I hadn't killed them, for one very good reason, they had another fate in store. I changed into my human bionic form. There was a gasp from the crowd, but I paid no heed.

"I summon the Overlord, Devlin Dreadwood!" I shouted, fist in the air, holding a scanner. There was an explosion of noise, and Devlin was right next to me. I charged at the men who were getting to their feet, while Devlin concentrated on checking the casualty. Sreesanth ran over, while I laid into the men.Devlin was speaking to Azure, the wounded one.

"Azure, stay with me." he said, his voice rumbled softly."We're going." he took her hand and Sreesanth's, and vanished. Another three men came out and joined the fist fight. Draco flame throwered the the glass wall between him and the action, and charged at them from behind.

"No one hits him but me!" he roared, changing into his draconic form. Into them he went, throwing punches that knocked them down. More soldiers arrived, and they also had guns. Draco didn't have his steel form, and they fired at him.

He changed, but the first round punched through the side of his neck, and he staggered, clutching his neck.

"Oh shit." Blake said, from several miles away. I stopped fighting, and folded my arms.

"What happened?" Devlin asked, holding Azure.

"One of them just hurt Draco." Billy whispered.

"Draco, get the hell out of there, Alduin's lost it!" Javid howled.

Damn right I had. As two of the men took me by the shoulders, Draco teleported, and I changed into my Raptor form. As they were holding me, I remained vertical, my nose pointed at the dark sky. I ignited both my special ion engines and my normal jets on boost, and vanished upwards on a blue flame.

"Salbar, Javid, activate your glasses, let them record." I said calmly.

"Don't do it, Alduin." Draco said.

"And close your eyes." I replied, equally soft.

"Alduin!" Devlin shouted.

"Javid wanted to see if it would work." I said, still ascending.

"Javid doesn't want you to massacre the population." the wolf replied.

"It's a quicker death then those canines would have gotten." I said quietly, and with that, opened the nuke from my bomb hold.

"You cannot claim you are in the right." Ryan argued.

"I never have been, but at least I am not in the wrong.Bomb gone." I released it, and it curved backwards on itself like a badminton shuttle, falling directly back down. I pulled up, flying level, and flying away, while interlinking with Javid's glasses. They could all see the small long red device falling, even in the darkness.

"You evil, cold hearted..." Takori began.

"They hurt my friends." I whispered, and Javid watched as the bomb disappeared below the stands.

There was a pause of half a second, and then a huge flash of light, blinding anyone looking at it. It was so intensely white that it was almost as bad as Salbar's diamond. Everything with in a hundred metres was set alight from the intense heat of that moment, and then the shockwave hit the town.

Everything was obliterated.Each house was reduced to it's molecular components, splinters of flaming wood were thrown high and far.As the glare faded, everyone out of range saw the trade mark mushroom cloud rise magnificently into the air, the base of the cloud about forty metres wide.The wood around was smacked back in the shock wave, and tremors of the blast shook Javid and Salbar in their lofty perch, but only gently.

Then the sound hit, an agonizingly loud boom that rattled the ear drums of the two in the tree. It was heard by me over my dual engines, and I was over five kilometres away at that point, slowing down to normal flight. All the canines looked in horror at the gigantic cloud of radioactive ash.

"What did he do?" Lucas spoke, in a tremor. Draco pulled out a micro speaker, so I could speak to the canines as well.

"Alduin," the dragon said," what have you done?"

"What I did, was make sure that none of those beside you have to worry about being enslaved, ever,ever again." I replied flatly.

"You bloody nuked the place from the map!" Ryan roared in outrage.

"Your point being?" I said pleasantly.Devlin was still incapable of speech.

"That was quite effective." Javid said, slowly.

"No comment on how effective it was." Blake replied, watching the mushroom expand slower.

"What were you thinking, giving him something like that!" Draco howled to Javid.

"It was an idea Covington put into motion, using it to destroy certain targets, and we made one to fit Alduin, because he was the ideal choice."

I banked around. Devlin wasn't saying anything, only Ryan, Draco and Takori were really angry at my use of a nuclear warhead. The others were in a state of shock, the power behind the explosion silencing them.

I arrived, and everyone regained their composure as I hovered into the small clearing.

Draco turned, looking daggers at my craft. All the canines looked at me in fear. Devlin now looked like he knew it had to be done, but not in the way it was. In fact, all but the three mentioned were looking like that, for I caught a glimpse of Salbar's reaction to the explosion. I changed into my bionic form, and stood, facing the combined group.

"I am your leader, and I say I am going home." I said quietly.

Silence. Just like at Dul'Ihanri, I had no joy in the aftermath. No clever lines, no smart alec comments, just a sense of this was it, the end. Draco lost his furious look, as did the other two, and everyone relaxed a bit more.

"I'll come with you." Devlin said,"I'll show the footage to Silverine, all of it."

He came over, and teleported both of us back to Central.

"That, was, the, most, Alduin, I have ever seen you be.You nuked an entire village because they shot at your friends." Devlin began.

"I don't want to hear it, Devlin. I lost my cool, because those idiots wounded Draco, Azure, and laughed at the suffering of those canines.How is Azure?"

"Simba's treating to her.You are right, I suppose what we did to those half orcs isn't any different, just it seems so much more nasty when it happens like that."

"Five hundred men from Dul'ihanri lost their lives in that battle, as well as Time and Doran being hurt." I said shortly," How many people of ours got hurt here?"

"Two." Devlin looked down as we walked. The glower that came to welcome us sensed there was something wrong, and merely hovered after us. The Hellfire knew I was right, we all knew I was right, but the way it happened was just not what we had expected. I had used conventional bombs all the time, and no one really cared too much, but a nuke wasn't just a normal bomb, and that's why I was guilty of myself, and why everyone didn't quite know what to say.

We entered the food store. Everyone looked up.

"Hey, Alduin!"Doran smiled at me, and then stopped as he saw my face. There was silence.

"What happened?" Silverine replied.Devlin stepped forwards.

"This, I can only show on our collective videos, I can't say it aloud."

Everyone watched as he set out a hologram projector, playing it from the meeting with the canid creatures, skipping the unimportant bits to the capture, the procession into town, under the arena, and then the fight. Then he stopped it just before we shifted.

"This is what happened, and why everyone's so solemn back there." the dragon said.

"Yes, so, Alduin and the guys busted everyone out, didn't they, that's what you're good at?" Silverine had no idea what was coming, neither did any of the others. I watched as Devlin pressed play, and stepped back to comfort me. His arm went around my shoulder as I stood near the door, and we watched the battle. Draco hadn't missed a moment of the duels, and it was sickening watching the fights between the two canines.

"That's horrible." Valmeero commented, looking forlorn, after Lucas fell, Sreesanth was crying as he was lowered.Then the arrival area went all cloudy, and after a few seconds, one large metallic leg came out.

"Alduin's here. This can only be interesting." Time commented acidly, as the cloud dispersed, displaying my armoured form.They still had no idea, but they could hear the comments.

Finally, the men came out,and the shooting began.

"The bastards!" Alecto scowled.

Then we and Draco watched as I lumbered into the five with my fists. As more came, he came to my side, but not before Draco broke out and lent a hand. Then Draco got shot, and everyone went quiet. He was looking mostly at me, and my face was a picture of emotion. Horror, shock, and then it glazed over.

We heard everyone speaking, and Draco vanished, as we followed Javid's zoomed in camera. He caught me ascend, and the arguments.Confusion abounded.

"What did Alduin have?" Brendan asked.

The black device fell, and Javid quickly zoomed out, and stayed very still, he had closed his eyes. I started crying, there was no way I couldn't after seeing it fall, and then there was almighty glare.

Everyone in the food store leaned back at it, and then as it died, saw the full brunt of a nuclear explosion.There was silence, broken only by the speechless comments from Blake, Billy, Takori and anyone within range. Most of them contained expletives. Devlin picked me up at this point, and held me in his arms, while I cried silently into his shoulder, one arm holding his other shoulder tightly. Everyone heard the argument raging, while Javid continued to watch the explosion expand, and zoomed in on the fragmented wreckage of the town.

Then the picture stopped, and I can only guess everyone was looking at me and Dev. I couldn't look at anything. Sure, with the Fuel Air bomb, or on Dul'ihanri, I had caused more casualties, but as I said, a nuke just makes it seem that much worse. Silverine spoke.

"I think," he began," that you two had better be getting back. You did in about two seconds what it would have taken a few hours, and it was unavoidable.I could see every face in that crowd, and they would have happily done the same to these canines, and then you yourself."

The Lupogriff was right, but I had no intention of doing anything at that point. Devlin spoke in Draconic to Silverine.

"I think he needs a few minutes in his quarters, on his own." and he turned and carried me back up the corridor.He spoke to me as he walked.

"Silverine's right, Alduin, you did what had to be done to save those creatures from a tortuous death." he said quietly,"I would have used my blaster, and it would have taken longer, but the end result would have been no different.When I knew Draco had been hurt, I wanted to go back there and do the same, he's my cousin, I could do no less."

I said nothing, but Devlin continued.

"Now, Master Alduin, we are going to sleep in our quarters tonight, and then tomorrow we can go and check back on how are friends are going, O.K.?"

"Yes, Devlin."I said, still cradled in his arms. This is why I love the Hellfire dragon, when you need him, he's there with intelligent advice and a strong, reassuring physique.

He carried me to my room, and handed me a glass of clear liquid as he lay me on my bed. I fell back, and took the glass from Devlin. I drunk it in one go, and immediately felt woozy, and before I knew what had happened, I was asleep.I didn't dream, I didn't think at all, it was endless, black sleep.

In a cold sweat, I awoke. The light was off, and Devlin was curled up on the end of my bed, on top of my legs. He growled in his sleep as I moved, and I regained my breath. O.K., be calm. I had nuked an entire town from the map, had gotten back here, shown our story to Silverine, Devlin carried me back, did he drug me? I could only presume so. Then he had stayed guard over me all night. Man was I grateful for that.

Dev woke a minute after I did, feeling me test my legs gently. He looked up, and smiled at me.

"All better now?" he asked. I looked confused.

"What on earth did you give me?"

"Standard sleeping vial. I thought you would have problems getting to sleep."

"I probably would have." I guessed."So now what?"

"We are going back there." he replied, and I was hoping this meant him and him alone. No such luck.

"Wait," I said, raising a hand,"the other villages and towns would have seen the pyrotechnic display I caused, what's happened there?"

"Nothing, we've had a constant surveillance on the place. So you can go tell any newcomers that the ones in the village tried to capture one of the canines, and that said canine blew up the entire town. That should make them worry."

"Will do. Except I need one thing. If they don't come, I will need to go find them, and I don't know the distances. To make me look more of a native, I'll need my car."

"Really, I didn't see any cars there."

"I know, neither did I, but they had a road, and they had machine guns and electrical flood lights, they will have cars, however primitive."

So after a short side trip to our tech planet, we arrived in the centre of where the town had been. Blake was there, he had planted the scanner, and he spoke.

"Ryan's been doing several high level flights, apparently a large group of vehicles is forming further down the valley, they should be here in about half an hour. Where did you get to, Alduin, we expected you back after telling Silverine?"

"Alduin took a drink from a certain dragon." Devlin replied, picking up the scanner." Where is everyone else?"

"Over by that cluster of trees." Blake pointed, and I spotted Salbar wave in greeting from the top of his tree, although it was hard to spot him when he wasn't moving. I waved in return, and sat on the side pod of the Ariel Atom, drawing my three tennis balls from the front pocket of my bag. As the other two walked off, Draco spoke into my head set.

"You should know better than to accept a drink from a stranger." I smiled to myself.

"Devlin isn't a stranger, and his intentions were for the good."I replied, and I began to practise my juggling.

I actually switched to reading a book, because the convoy was taking so long to get up here. Finally, however, as I looked up, I was staring at the barrel of a very large tank, with about five men in it. Beside it was a car that looked about mid 1980's in age, except brand new.The tank stopped at about one hundred metres, and another tank came from behind it, followed by two Unimog vehicles.I was in my normal human look, not my bionic form, and soldiers began jumping out of the trucks, and they surrounded me and the car, while three man jeeps began to drive around the clearing and up towards the road we had walked down when captured.

A man in civilian clothes stepped out of the staff car, and wandered through the circle of soldiers. None of them had their guns pointed at me, yet, and I continued reading my book until the man spoke.

"Who are you, and what happened here?"

I looked up from my book." Ah, the cavalry's arrived, an eternity too late. Where were you yesterday evening?I've gone through hell and back since then."I did my best to sound reproachful but relieved.

"Why, what happened?"

"It was during the latest duel of the creatures, you know, we duel with, when one of them did something very strange. It was rising into the air, or something, and I was feared for my safety, so I rushed out of the arena as it began to pulse. Everyone seemed to think this was a new trick, but I got into my car, and began driving off. I got to the end of the town when there was this Earth shaking explosion behind me. I got to the safety of the trees, and got down to avoid the brunt of the explosion, and the next thing I saw was the entire place looked like this."

"Pulsing, you say?" the man seemed concerned.

"Yeah.There was this almighty light, and then this big mushroom cloud of power. I was not close enough, but it was colossal. It didn't just take out the arena, it took out the whole town."

"And what of the creatures themselves?"

"I have no idea." I apologised,"I wasn't there, and after the boom, it was completely level. They must not have survived the blast."

"But surely the one who caused it would survive, it would be used to doing it."

"Unless it was a suicide explosion, knowing it couldn't take any more of what was happening." I suggested. The man rubbed his razor stubble thoughtfully.

"Do you remember the colour of the one that did this?"

"Well, there's the strange thing, it changed colour each time it pulsed, and if drawing power from each class. Even white and black."

"What was it before it changed?"

"I can't help you there." I shook my head in resignation."I was looking at the one who had just defeated the one before.Her name was Sreesanth, and she was a beautiful golden colour."

"And it wiped out the entire town?"

"Not her, the other one." I shivered, looking at the desolation. The man looked around a few more times. The soldiers were wondering what power had been unleashed on the village.

"So you stayed here after the explosion?"

"I did.I knew someone would come to investigate after a blast that big, and then tell them what I saw." I nodded, managing to look very scared of last night's 'events'."My house, all my things, were destroyed. I have nothing here."

"Well, thank you for delivering your story of events." the man replied curtly," You may go."

"But, sir, we should interrogate him further..." one soldier protested, before the man turned on him.

"This guy has been this close to dying in a blast that wiped out a large village, sergeant. Who knows what that thing was capable of? He wouldn't lie if he was there. Do you think he did it?"

"Of course not, sir, but he's the only witness."

"He is, and I've recorded everything he said." the man replied, while I fidgeted nervously, looking left and right at the armed masses. The jeeps were still circling, and I could no longer see Salbar as I glanced over there, they had probably retreated deeper into the forest.I looked at my toes.

"May I go, sir?" I asked tentatively.

"You may.What is your name?"

"Jonathan Smith."I stuttered,"I used to live in the edge of town."

"Very good, Jonathan. If we need you, we will find you."

I doubt it. I thought, but stepped into my Atom. I fired up the engine, and the men moved aside as I drove slowly and quietly past the two tanks to the road down the hill. Only when I was out of the clearing did I let out a relieved sigh.

"Message delivered, do you think they bought it?" I asked over my head set.

"It was a very accurate description of a total lie of last night's events, I think they did." Javid replied, chuckling.

"And what was that about checking me out?" Sreesanth added, to a speaker.

"I'm sorry, Sreesanth, I was making stuff up on the spot. I found you very attractive, but I had to find some way of explaining why I didn't see the one that blew the entire place up."

"Don't worry, Sreesanth." Draco comforted, "Alduin's just making a pass at you."

Behind me, two jeeps were following the Atom at a safe distance. I sighed.

"Looks like they want me back." I pulled to the side of the road, and the two jeeps went flying past.

"Or maybe not." Devlin laughed."We teleported to our base camp, so if you've got the time, you can teleport back here."

There was a bang beside me, and I turned to face the teleporting arrival.

"ALEX!!!!" I shouted, leaping out of my car, and diving on the grinning youth.

For Alex it was, his smiling, ever pleasant face, that crop of bright hair, the casual clothes, and the pendant. It was Alex, given up for dead, and he was here.

"What!?" Devlin said in my headset, interlinking with me."Am I hearing right?"

"The trouble maker's back!" Draco stood in delight. Silverine spoke in my head set.

"He turned up five minutes after you, and good luck getting an answer out of him." the Lupogriff said wryly in my ear. There was another bang, and Brendan appeared beside us, diving full length at the pair of us.

"You're not getting out of my sight again." the dragon was crying. Alex went down heavily under the dragon, and I extricated myself before I was crushed between the twin brothers' embrace.

I took hold of one of the roll arms on my car.

"Let's get off the main road before we get spotted." I said loudly, and all three of us teleported back to our base camp.

Alex arrived, and disappeared under a wave of Hunted, all wanting to touch him again. Sreesanth came striding over to me, looking very displeased.I was leaning against my car.

"You made a pass at me."

What a weird five minutes. The canines had no idea what we were going through, and reality came crashing back down for me as I straightened my shirt.

"Er hem, yes, I did. I find you and your kind exceptionally beautiful, and would like to have it off with you especially. Is that alright with you, or am I going to have to be clouted?"

Sreesanth stopped, looking at me. My tendency to unsettle people when I tried was unbroken, she mouthed something while hastily trying to assemble a statement. Lucas and Will smiled at my carefully blank face.

"I guess he wasn't lying then."

"Don't think I'm straight, Lucas." I looked at him, and his eyes rose.

"Well, most of you aren't." he managed.

"Trust me, if I had really wanted to, I could have said I found you intensely attractive, which was why I wasn't looking the right way at the time. The only thing is the general would have backed away at someone who was admitting he was gay. Now who's volunteering?"

"Remarkably straight forward, isn't he?" Will leaned against a tree.

"I try, Will." I turned back to where Blake was asking Alex where he had been.

"I am not telling anyone. Firstly, you wouldn't believe me, second, I am allowed my own secrets."

"On the other hand, you've been gone for three months, some people might not take no for an answer."

"The glowers know, end of story." Alex finished, and thus rebuked, we sat down and discussed our next plan of action.

As it turned out, no one really knew what to do. None of us really wanted to get involved with the humans anymore, and we had found out lots about the canines with their abilities. I sat back in my car.

"I'm doing laps at the track, if anyone wants me."

"What about the story?"

"The glowers know the bits that concern me, and besides I'm sure Draco is just eager to spend more time with them." The dragon in question looked to complain, but I had touched my teleporter.

I arrived in the pit lane, with Abigail having left a scanner there.She was under her LP-650 with some kind of intricate device. Simba arrived after me, and moved over to his Charger. Billy was cleaning his paws, it looked like he had been giving his Ascari a tune up too. A sleek black car with no wheels was sitting further down the lane, and I looked at it.

"Who has that?"

"Silverine. It's ion powered, and hovers above the ground at about five centimetres when the engines on. There are four retractable stilts that keep it off the ground when it's not going." the lioness said from under her car.

"What's the performance like compared to ours?"

"Turns like a bat, sod all drag, decent top speed, would certainly beat most of us, I'm just not sure about you or Valmeero."

The Lupogriff appeared beside me.

"We could always race to find out?" he said, rubbing his hands together as though he had just cleaned them.

"No thanks, you introduce what I call Draco's rule." I replied straightly. Silverine laughed.

So with a single bead from one of Sreesanth's necklace's to remember the planet by in my drawer, and a memory of an explosion of such magnitude it destroyed an entire village, Javid had gone to see Covington to show him the results, I went to bed that night.It had to be done, I knew it, for they would have fought until either of us were dead. I slept.