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Cher and Vale zero in on Zack's location

By: Zmeydros AKA Lucien Quinn zmeydros (Twitter), Malfedrosti (Mal Twitter), zmeydros.tumblr.com

Special Agent Cher Evans sips her vanilla hazelnut roasted coffee as she walks away from some little java joint on the highway just south of the budget hotel she's staying in. She didn't even bother to read the sign after she saw the word "Coffee."

The warm acrid liquid tastes good with just a tad of vanilla syrup in it, well, if that's even what she asked for this time--she's too groggy to care and the coffee's still to hot to taste anything other than burnt tongue. Sometimes she gets hazelnut, sometimes she adds the sugar herself, and sometimes, when she's desperate, she drinks the cheap burnt-tasting black coffee at a gas station.

It doesn't matter where the caffeine comes from. She has jet lag way too often to rely on getting a good night's sleep, and she has to be alert and awake when she's on a case no matter the circumstances.

As she walks to her car, her eyes go from half-lidded to one-quarter lidded. The morning light is helping her feel more awake even though the coffee hasn't started to kick in yet.

She drives back to the hotel and parks in front. She sips her coffee carefully before getting out and pressing the lock button on her remote. The car beeps twice and she walks into the lobby of the hotel, crinkling her nose at the stale smell of coffee that caused her to seek her morning eye opener elsewhere.

Once she's on the elevator, she hits the button for the second floor and takes another couple sips before the door opens. The pain of the liquid being just below burning makes the roof of her mouth and her throat a bit sore.

After putting her card in the door lock and walking in, she takes off her polished black shoes and walks over to the desk where she sets down her coffee up and opens her laptop.

The two-year-old Lenovo Thinkpad's fan whirrs as it wakes itself up from hibernation. She enters her password and stares at the case notes she'd been working on last night. The words just sit there, not really getting processed by her brain. She needs more coffee.

She pops the cap off her coffee cup, hoping it cools quickly, and checks her phone while she waits. There's a message from Paula: "Where'd you go? Haven't seen you at the office and no one knows what you're working on."

Cher starts to text back, but she realizes it would be harder to coordinate that with her coffee drinking. She calls Paula.

After a couple rings, Paula says, "Oh! So you're alive."

"Hi," Cher says before testing the temperature of her coffee. It's almost cool enough to drink.

"I'm guessing you're working on a case? I don't remember you mentioning any sort of vacation."

"Yes, I'm trying to find two young men, but that's all I know and all I can say." Cher takes a couple gulps of coffee wincing at the fact that it's still too hot.

"Oh..." Paula pauses for a couple seconds. "Well, we should get lunch when you come back. I found this amazing Mexican place near here that I think you'd love."

"When's the last time you saw me take time for a proper lunch?" Cher reflects on Paula's lanky body and her huge smile. Paula wants to be everyone's best friend and Cher finds that creepy. Also, she finds herself staring a lot at Paula during awkward moments that the two of them have almost constantly.

"About four months ago on a Tuesday to get sushi at Byerly's when it's half off. I remember you getting the crunchy eel roll."

Cher frowns. Why put so much effort into remembering what someone had for lunch? Maybe she should see if she can get a peek at Paula's psych profile. "Oh, you have a good memory."

"So do you, but yours is only used for your cases."

In the several seconds of silence that pass, Cher drinks about half the cup of coffee. It burns, but she's been waiting long enough. This morning's starting off way too slow.

"Hello?" Paula says in a higher-pitched concerned voice.

"Sorry, I just don't have a lot to say. I'm still not done with my first cup of coffee." Cher takes another gulp.

"Oh, well, I better go anyway. I have more research to do on a gun running case."

"Oh, okay. Just one question. Does anyone know what I'm working on?"

"No, I asked around and no one on our team knows or the ones that know can't talk about it."

"I'm starting to wish I knew more." Cher drinks the last of her coffee. The fog in her mind is starting to lift as as if a caffeine-powered sun is shining down on it.

"Hopefully you'll find out soon so you can tell me over lunch when you get back. Talk to you later." Paula hangs up.

Not even a chance to try to tell Paula that she doesn't want another awkward lunch. She thinks again about Paula's lanky, lightly muscled body and then shakes her head. Why are such irrelevant things always passing through her mind?

She starts assaulting her keyboard as she tries to find some evidence of Zack and Glenn buying a car. Two hours later, there's no luck. The transaction probably happened in cash and if they even bothered to do the paperwork for the sale, they might not finalize it at the DMV within the next few days.

She starts working on the map of the series of events relevant to this case again.

All she has are the bare facts. A hallucinogen attack at the school. Bella, Zack's classmate, disappeared. Zack was brought in for questioning as a victim of the attack. During his interview, his skin transformed into green scales and some lizard-like features emerged.

The police station called the feds for help. They were ordered to hold Zack so he could be questioned by the FBI. Glenn prepared Zack for a night in jail. Glenn went and took out over six thousand dollars from his credit union, closing one of his accounts after work. Glenn broke Zack out of jail using intimate knowledge of the police station and weaknesses in its infrastructure. The jail bars are reported to have been bent, but not enough for a person of Zack's build to fit through.

The door to the cell was unlocked with the key--probably provided by Glenn. The two young men drove away in Glenn's grandpa's truck and stayed the rest of the night in an unknown location. Glenn's truck was found by a farmer. She was called in to pick up the case at this point. No useful evidence was found in the truck or around the truck. Cher even looked through it herself, finding it clean except for a couple liquid stains that the lab reported as dried bodily fluids.

She found the nearest gas station and talked to the clerk and looked at the surveillance tapes, finding a male and female that could not be Glenn and Zack. The female was too short to be Zack in disguise and the male had muscle mass and height that neither Glenn nor Zack possessed.

She writes down a note: "Or maybe people were wrong about Glenn and he has far more muscle than Zack? There weren't many recent pictures of him. Maybe he put on boots with tall heels or something? That still doesn't explain the woman that was with him and it's a bit of a stretch to believe he could change his appearance that much, even if he was an expert in movie makeup or something."

She goes over the details of the case, adding sections for what she's found out over the last day. The odd couple had Samantha the attendant call a cab and they waited until it picked them up.

Then Cher looked for car sales that matched the time and place and that could have been paid for with the cash that Glenn withdrew from his bank account. All the ID's checked out, Glenn and Zack's social networks did not extend to people in this area that would have purchased the car for them, and it is extremely unlikely either of them has a fake ID.

She was hoping they made the mistake of making a documented sale, but there is no such luck and she doesn't like the other options for trying to find these men. An aerial search, checking bus stations and other forms of transit that they probably wouldn't use. They probably bought a car in cash and didn't file the paperwork afterwards. She may have to wait until more leads come up or just get more agents involved so they can question every gas station, bus station, etc.

She calls the gas station where the two odd people showed up. "Hello?"

"Hi. How can I help you?" Samantha says.

"This is Special Agent Cher Evans. Were there other attendants working there during the day prior to the incident you told me about or the day after?"

"No, I was working open till close all three days."

"Did you witness any suspicious activity outside? People waiting for something, etc?"

"Nope, all I saw was what I showed you. Sorry I can't be more h--" Samantha trails off.

"Still there?"

"Sorry, got a customer."

"No problem. Thanks and have a good day." Cher feels her phone buzz and looks at the screen. She's got a text from Mallory?

Samantha takes a couple seconds to respond and Cher can hear her calling out the price of whatever the customer is buying. "I'll call if I think of anything."

"That would be great. Bye."

"Bye." Samantha hangs up.

Cher sighs when she reads Mallory's message.

Mallory: "I want an update ASAP."

Cher hits the menu button and then taps the call option.

Mallory clears her throat. "H-hello?"

"You just sent a text, I figured you were free."

"I am free, was just swallowing down some Chipotle."

Tapping her foot on the cheap ugly carpet with a concentric pattern of brown and green squares on it, Cher takes a deep breath. "Aren't you too busy with upper level stuff to be asking me about this investigation? Where's Urschel?"

"The director said that this case is above Bob's clearance level."

"Above Urschel's clearance level?" Cher raises her unoccupied hand and shrugs her shoulders in disbelief.

Mallory's voice comes out much louder. "Look, you're the best at finding fugitives and I'm the best at dealing with red tape without getting burned. Just give me an update so I can finish my lunch."

Cher moves the phone away from her ear. "Fine. The gas station near where I found the abandoned truck was a dead end and finding the car they would have bought was a dead end. I'm about to start checking bus stations and to request the rest of the team gets involved."

"Are you sure the gas station was a dead end?"

"Yeah, the people on the tape didn't match the description. Didn't Urschel bring you up to speed?" Cher puts her hand on her forehead.

Mallory teeters on the line between sounding condescending and sounding supportive. "Did you look at all the tape from that gas station in that time frame? Did you ask if anyone was waiting outside? Other clerks that might have been there at the time?"

"Yes, yes, and yes. The only thing that matches the time and circumstances are the two people that are a dead end. Walking to another gas station from where they dropped off the truck would be a very long trek unless they hitchhiked or called a cab, but they ditched their phones, so calling a cab is out--" Cher starts staring at the ground.

A few seconds later Mallory says, "Cher?"

"Give me a moment."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes! Please be quiet for a moment."

"Sorry." The sound of chewing comes from Mallory's end.

Mallory's smacking is nearly enough reason for Cher to throw the phone, but she rests the hand holding the phone on her thigh instead. Someone waiting outside the gas station? Glenn and Zack are smart. They might pull something off like...

She brings the phone back up to her ear. "What if one of them got a very good disguise and went into the gas station with a woman they paid to accompany them?"

Mallory talks with her mouth partially full. "I'd go see where the cab they called dropped the two dead ends off. That's probably the only way to be sure."

Cher tries to keep her frustration at having to listen to eating sounds out of her voice. "I'll look into it, but I still think I'm going to end up needing backup help me go through the bus station security footage. Have them ready."

"Will do, but you get extra points for every agent you don't involve in this. We need to keep all the information about this case under tight control. I'll call ba--"

"Wait, I'll update you when I have news. Please don't ask for one again."

"If you hadn't talked to me, you wouldn't have come up with that possible lead."

"Or I would have come up with it faster."

"Urgh! Fine! I'll leave you alone, but I'm going to put your smugness in my report if you send more of it my way." Mallory hangs up.

Thank God that call is over. How Mallory has more clout than Urschel is a complete mystery to her. Urschel is a better leader through and through. By the end of this case, she might want a transfer out of Mallory's sticky undeserved web of influence.

* * * * *

Walking into the room, Zack trembles with desire. The fragrance of his lovers' exploits is thick in the air. His self gratification took the edge off, but Bella, the voluptuous herm orca seductress, and Glenn, the beefy well-hung racoon hotty, are just cuddling in the nude on the couch. They smell good, they look good and he's decided to try to hold his libido back just because he thinks he should show some restraint. What happens if this current exercise in restraint just makes him more out of control later? Maybe this isn't one of his greatest plans.

They both turn and smile at him as he sets down the bags he got from Target. "Hey, Zack."

"Hi, I take it you cast a sustain spell on Glenn?" Zack smiles.

Bella grins. "Yep. I think he stayed in this form longer than he would have even without the spell, though. The wings of your blue and red form probably extended the amount of time Glenn could be anthro."

Looking back, Glenn smirks holding his thumb and index finger a half-inch apart. "I'm about this close to just stayin' in this form for the rest of my life and saying to hell with the consequences."

"Hopefully sometime soon we'll be safe enough to figure out a way we can just stay in our sexy forms all the time." Staring off into the distance, Zack ponders how to realize their dream. "I think we'll have to go to Canada if we want any sort of freedom. If I let the Canadian government study my fluids, they might grant us amnesty."

Glenn's ears perk up. "That... is actually a really good idea. Canada isn't militaristic and seems to be a lot more mild-mannered than the US is currently."

"Ever seen the movie Canadian Bacon?" Bella says with a smirk. "I don't think it would be nearly that amusing if the US actually started a war with Canada over you. I would still laugh because I've watched that movie one too many times."

A giggle comes from Zack as he walks toward the couch. "Why don't we purposefully go to a con in the US and then one in Canada and spread my ability? Then both countries will be too worried about the anthro plague to worry about each other or me. I think this is a better plan because we could just get new identities as some of the many people that can transform."

"Zack, I think that could be perceived as an act of terrorism by both countries and if they started treating it like a plague, you'd be patient zero. They'd probably start rounding up anyone that can transform while they were looking for you." Glenn's demeanor darkens with concern.

"Shit... They probably would quarantine them from the rest of the population." With a tilt of his head, Zack thinks hard enough to furrow his brow. "So, maybe we'd need to spread it to people that want to change much more subtly. I bet we could find even some people well respected by the public that want to transform."

"Or we could start a company that sells some of your product," Bella points at Zack's groin. "as products."

Leaning down, Zack licks ##Bella's finger,## getting a moan from her. "Possibly, but think about it. Unless we get a significant number of people in power to see for themselves that this is not a plague, we will never be able to walk down a city street in our anthro forms. If we find a way to return people to normal if they don't want to be able to transform, I would feel better about all this."

Bella shrugs. "But can't people just will themselves back into their original form and stay that way? An antidote might not be needed."

Glenn leans forward. "What about a serial killer that gets our ability and just goes around killing people and transforming into a new shape every time to stay anonymous?"

"Okay, maybe we do need an antidote." Bella shivers. "Wow, that gives me the creeps."

"Sorry, years of bein' a cop gets one to think about the dark side of human nature." Glenn huffs and droops his shoulders.

Bella pats Glenn on the back. "It's fine, Glenn. Someone has to slap the rose-colored glasses off every once in a while."

Glenn smirks. "True."

Stroking his chin with the back side of his index finger while thinking, Zack gets distracted by how smooth his skin is. So this is what it's like not to have facial hair or scales.

"Earth to Zack, are you still with us?" Glenn snaps his fingers.

"Oh, I was thinking about what you said. I think there should be a way to--"

"There is," Bella says.

"What?" Both of them look at her.

She thumps her fluke against the couch. "Yeah, but it's a magic spell and I doubt more than a few people other than me know how to do it, so it's not that useful for law enforcement. Especially since I don't think the government would adjust very well to having to use occult methods."

"That still doesn't stop someone from misusing our powers." Zack sits on the other side of Bella.

A giant bowl of giant blue vegetables appears floating between all of them. "Zack, don't be a lawful mutanee or manatee. Let me worry about people misusing my gift. That's part of my job."

All three of them look up at Mal with raised eyebrows.

"What? Do I look like a giant bowl of giant blue vegetables or something?"

They laugh hard at Mal's comment.

Eventually, Zack speaks. "Do we all feel safe leaving it in his hands?"

"I do; Mal's job is to cause absurdity, not strings of unsolved murders or other fucked-up scenarios. His fellow gods would step in and clean up any mess he left unattended. Then they'd fire him." Bella stares at the vegetables.

Glenn delivers a thumbs-up. "I'm happy not worrying about psychopaths with magical powers."

The vegetable bowl does a flip. "Good. And now, in the hour of our unnecessary plantigrade cabin, I want to introduce all of you to the newest member of your team."

Zack almost falls over. "WHAT?"

Bella's eyes widen while Glenn furrows his brow.

"Don't be alarmed, I'm an incredible judge of character. She's greatly looking forward to relinquishing her human form. She has skills that will help you immensely in your plans and she should get along with all of you famously. Zack, all you have to do to thank me is allow her to relieve your pent up fuselage."

Poking at the giant bowl, Bella frowns. "Look, Mal, I know you very well and I don't think we should trust you simply because you say so. You're an awesome deity, but you have a penchant for causing situations just to amuse yourself."

"I'm quite aware of this. If this good intention causes strife for any of you, I will grant all of you one major favor," the bowl sways grandly.

"Oh, we should accept his offer. A major favor could save our lives." Bella brightens.

Zack nods. "Those are terms I can accept, then."

"If she is as cool as you say she is, I have no problem, but if she's trouble, I'll be the first one to call in the favor and suggest we be more skeptical next time." Glenn points at the bowl accusingly.

"Rightfully so. She should arrive in less than seven minutes; she will be the next person to knock at your door and she is a short Vietnamese woman. I look forward to seeing your drained patronage of lustful hope." The vegetables disappear one by one and then the bowl goes "pop" as it goes out of existence.

They chuckle at Mal's parting words. Then Zack throws off his clothes and puts on a bathrobe so he can change into his original human form. The shift happens quickly enough that he gets shin splints from getting taller. With a smirk, he adds a plump pussy behind his balls. After wavering a bit from the change in center of gravity, he's ready.

"Ooh! Come here sexy." Bella waves him over.

A smile spreads across Glenn's muzzle. "Nice to see the old you again."

Zack tries to reply, but Bella starts kissing him passionately. Her powerful orca tongue has its way with his as his cheeks flush with arousal. When she breaks the kiss, she says, "This is the body I fell in lust with."

"Fell in lust?" Zack smirks.

"Yeah, while I was away I figured out that my sexual attraction to you was one of the main reasons I was so obsessed with you. I used to dream about having sex with you while we transformed into furries."

"Heh, at least now I know that I would have liked that very much." Zack gives her a big hug. "Now you two go in the bedroom so I can surprise our guest when she gets here."

Glenn wraps his furry arms around both of them. "I'm actually feeling kinda sentimental about the fact that we're about to make the gal who steps through that door's dreams come true." He lets them go and walks with Bella into the bedroom.