Chapter 8: Birthday R&R
#8 of Infected
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I was lying in a field with bees buzzing around and birds chirping in the distance, the sky painted a clear blue with the occasional wisp of a cloud as it passed by. I breathed in the scent of wildflowers and let it out slowly, wondering if life was really this good after I graduated and moved in with Axel. We'd been going out for a few months and he thought it'd be a good idea to move in together in his loft. Of course I thought it was a good idea, but now, I'm not so sure. I mean, I won't be able to see Jasper as much cause he's going off to an engineering school on Fichnia, but I'd get to spend more time with Axel and my other friends. I just don't know what to do.
"Hey Hazel, want some company?" I heard Jasper call out as he walked over to me. I sat up and waved him over with a smile as he sat down next to me. He grinned stupidly at me and gave me a friendly shove before lying on his back, his football jersey rippling slightly in the breeze. I shoved him back and stared up at the sky as a bee buzzed past my head.
"Ready for graduation, Jasper?" I asked distractedly, not really wanting to bring up our shortening time together but wondering what he thought of it. He sat up and wrapped his arms loosely around my waist as he let his chin rest against my shoulder, looking up at the sky to. "I guess so, but I'm worried about the after part of graduation. I won't get to see you as often as I do now and I'll miss you like crazy on Fichnia, but I guess we'll always get to see each other sooner or later. Besides, wouldn't want to stand in the way of your happiness with who you picked, now would I?" He said with a slight scowl in his voice when he mentioned Axel. I knew he didn't like Axel that much, but I loved him and he loved me back. There wasn't much I could do about that, but I still thought that Jasper could try to like him a little bit more. We sat there for a long while, the birds singing their songs to each other, and I enjoyed my time with Jasper. Nothing was going to ruin it for me and I nestled back into his arms and let the quiet rumbles of his breathing put me into a calmer state. "I'm going to miss you, Jasp. I know how much that scholarship means to you, and I hope you do great."
"I'm gonna miss you to, Hazey. More than you know, but I'll miss you just the same." He replied quietly as he rubbed his cheek against mine. I liked the way it felt and held his paws in mine; keeping him around me so I could keep him with me forever.
I woke up slowly, not wanting the dream to end. I kept my eyes closed and tried to bring back the memory so I could keep the dream going, but it slipped back to the edges of my conscious and eluded my grasp until I forced my eyes open. At first, everything was blurry from exhaustion, the room a muddy smudge on the glass. But after a few blinks, the room became sharper until I could recognize some of it: the gray, steel walls and ceiling, the dresser built into the east wall, and the door that led to a bathroom in the far eastern corner. I groaned sleepily and turned onto my side to try and get back to sleep, but sleep didn't want to come to my aid. I heard the door to my room open and covered my head in with the sheet at the unwelcome light, screwing my eyes shut to keep from being blinded by whoever had opened the door.
"Whatever it is, can't it wait? I'm tired and want to go back to sleep." I complained as I tried to do just that, but the light persisted. I heard the clicking of someone's bare claws touching the floor and felt a slight depression as that same someone climbed onto the bed with me. I pulled the cover from over my head and turned to see Michelle lying next to me with tears in her eyes. Of course I'm the one she comes to after having a nightmare. I thought bitterly as I turned all the way to see that she wasn't wearing anything at all. I gave her a confused look and sighed as I let her under the covers with me, getting a hug and a wet shoulder as she cried against me.
"What's wrong, Michelle?" I asked quietly as I tried to calm her down. She sniffed a couple of times and looked up at me with big, teary eyes as she told me, through a lot of panting, what was wrong. She'd dreamt of the raping that she had gone through thanks to the panther back on Nanuet and the only reason she came to me for comfort was that I was the only one she knew on the ship. I nodded my head sleepily and rubbed her back so that she would at least try and go to sleep again, but she was already dozing against my chest. I rolled my eyes and let out a quiet, exasperated sigh before closing my eyes, letting the memories flood over me again so I could go back to sleep peacefully. I felt her paw rub my back softly, in a more consoling way rather than a sensual way, and wondered if she were dreaming about a family member or something. The motion helped me fall asleep faster and I was out in seconds, holding her to me loosely so that she could leave if she wanted to. But, as luck would have it, the door opened again, closely followed by a snicker that sounded irritatingly familiar. I raised my head up from my pillow sleepily and saw Falco standing in the doorway with a camera in his feathery hands.
"Say cheese, Hazel." He smirked as he took a picture of me and Michelle in bed together. The flash caught me off guard and I was blinded for a second, but the bright light woke me up a lot faster than I thought it would've. I blinked to get the spots out of my eyes and scowled darkly at him as he retreated through my bedroom door, laughing his head off while waving the camera over his head. I huffed angrily through my teeth and looked down at Michelle's sleeping face before prying her arms off of me, folding them around her chest and pulling the covers over her shoulders to keep her warm in my absence. I leapt out of the bed and took off silently through my door, barely missing the door as it opened slowly to my approach. I slid into the hallway and covered my eyes at the bright light that greeted me. I saw Falco at the far end of the hall and took off after him, grinding my teeth against each other as I kept my eyes on the camera in his right wing. He ran down an adjacent hallway and I heard the hiss of a door close as I rounded the corner. I walked up to the door and waited for it to open before walking into the pitch-black room, looking around for different places that he'd hide from me in. I heard a rustle from behind a sofa and crept up to it before pouncing over it to catch him off guard. What I landed on was a jacket. I stood up, blushing slightly at the fact that I just jumped a jacket and turned to see if I'd missed something.
"SURPRISE!!!!!!!" I heard Bella cry as the lights were flung on, revealing a party decorated room with a massive cake on the table at the far end of the room. I recognized the room as the lounge Falco had put in a few months ago, but was thrown back by how much time they'd put into making this party for me. I saw Bella and Fox standing next to the cake with huge grins on their faces while Falco was laughing at my expression. I was lost for words and couldn't do anything but blush an even deeper shade of crimson that everyone could see. I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words to express how happy I felt at the moment, so I just stood there with my mouth open like an idiot. I heard the door open and saw Slippy holding Michelle's hand as he led her over to the couch infront of me, the leopard now clothed in a pair of pajamas that they'd given her. I shook myself out of my stupor and smiled at everyone as I made my way over to the giant, chocolate covered cake, the smell making my mouth water already. The cake had three levels to it, with spaces to separate them that reminded me of a wedding cake while my name and the words 'Happy Birthday' were written in silver frosting that stuck out against the dark chocolate icing. I spied chocolate chunks on its surface and wanted nothing more than to tear into it with my paws and shovel as much down my throat as possible, but I wanted to let everyone else share in it to.
"When did you guys find the time to do this?" I asked, gesturing to all of the decorations and the cake. I ran my finger along the top layer of the cake and licked off the ball of frosting, sighing in enjoyment as I finally got to taste my cake.
"It wasn't that hard, Hazel. You slept like a log for the past few days, so we just blazed through it. The cake, on the other hand, was a bit of a handful." Bella answered with a sheepish look on her face.
"That's putting it mildly. Seems fourth times the charm, huh Fox?" Falco asked with a laugh as he walked over and clapped a wing on my back. I cut a piece of cake from the bottom and shoved it in his beak, laughing at him as he sputtered to get some of the cake from choking him. I heard Fox laughing with me and gave him a bright smile as I grabbed another slice of cake. Before I could even take a bite, though, Falco threw a slice of cake in my face. I ducked at the last second, making it hit Slippy in the head, but I got hit from the side when Bella threw one at me to. Before long, the entire party devolved into a food fight, pieces of cake getting flung around at people while everyone took shelter at various places in the room. I ducked behind the bar with a huge plate of cake and kept lobbing chunks over it blindly, laughing along with everyone else when someone got hit. I saw Bella getting doubled up on by Falco and Slippy, so I started throwing cake at them to stop distract them so that she could make her escape before I got smacked in the face with a huge pile of cake. I went sprawling back onto the floor and sat up to see Michelle laughing at me while she started throwing more cake from behind the sofa. I wiped away most of the cake and continued the cake war with everyone until the walls were plastered with chocolate frosting and fudge filing.
"Okay, I call a truce before we all kill ourselves with cake. Agreed?" I called out from behind the bar, covered in cake. I heard a smattering of agreements and stood up, only to find everyone aiming cake at me. I quickly ducked back behind the counter and laughed when cake started raining down on me, covering me from head to toe in at least five different chocolates. I jumped back onto my feet and held my hands out infront of me, surrendering with a grin as I licked most of the chocolate from off of my lips.
"Okay, this time I'm serious. I don't want to walk around as the cake monster all day, so, I'm going to take a shower and then I'm coming back to give all of you a hug for making this a great birthday for me. Thanks guys." I said with a grin as I walked slowly towards the door, keeping my back to no one incase they wanted to get one more shot at me before I was gone. I heard the door open behind me and I crept through it before ducking underneath another shot from Falco. I glared playfully at him before walking off in the direction of my room, leaving a trail of my birthday cake behind me with each step. I made it to my room and immediately made for the bathroom, stripping off my clothes and throwing them onto the floor before stepping into the large bathroom. I let the door close behind me before walking over to the bathtub and turning on the taps till the tub was filled with warm water. I pulled some scented soaps and body scrubs from underneath the sink and poured them in until the entire bathroom smelled of strappleberry. I threw the spent bottles into the trash and eased myself into the water with a relieved sigh, sitting down on the bottom while my legs were stretched to the other end. I stayed in the tub and relaxed, letting the water do its work and take the cake out of my fur gradually, the massaging jets in the bottom and back of the tub gently pulsing in intervals that worked best with my body. I sunk lower into the water and enjoyed the time to let my mind drift, relishing in my birthday and the feel of the water as it caressed my limbs. I heard the slight hiss of my bedroom door opening, but ignored it as something that didn't bother me and continued my bath.
It felt like a few years had passed when I got out of the tub, dripping wet from all over my body, but I felt a lot better from my long bath. I pulled a towel from one of the cupboards and dried myself off as I walked out of the steamy bathroom, letting the warm air follow me out into the cold bedroom. I heard something crunch underneath my foot and looked down to see a trail of rose petals that led from the bathroom to the bedroom door. I stared at them confusedly and grabbed a fresh shirt and some sweatpants from the dresser before following the trail out into the hall. I pulled on my clothes and followed the trail cautiously, wondering if this was another trick by Falco and kept my guard up incase it was. The trail continued for another three minutes before it halted abruptly infront of Fox's room, making me wonder what he was thinking. I waited for the door to slide open and walked into his room when I was greeted with a sight that made my mouth open in a slight O of surprise. There were candles lit on every surface imaginable; the bedside table, the dresser, the desk he had in the corner, everywhere, giving the room an orange glow. I followed the trail of rose petals with my eyes and saw that they ended on top of his bed, scattered evenly across the sheets while a note sat in the middle of the pattern of roses. I slowly made my way to the bed and picked up the note with a nervous paw, not knowing if I should feel thrilled or apprehensive about this.
Happy Birthday, Hazel. Hope you like your present. - Bella
I looked up from the card and turned to see Bella standing in the doorway, staring expectantly at me while I just stared back in surprise as I noticed she wasn't wearing anything. "Ummm... I don't know what to say." I said, looking from Bella's supple breasts to her smiling face with a stunned look freezing my face in the way it was. She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist while the tip of her nose touched mine.
"All you have to say is thank you. I told you I'd pay you back sometime." She whispered before pressing her lips softly against mine, unfreezing my face slowly as her tongue moved over mine and rubbed the insides of my mouth. I responded excitedly and wrapped my arms around her while my tongue entered her mouth, running along the contours of her inner cheeks and wrestled her tongue in mine. I rubbed my hand through her azure fur and gave her butt cheek a slight grasp while I pulled her closer to me, not wanting to end the kiss prematurely. I leaned back onto the bed and let her lay on top of me while we untangled our tongues from one another. Bella pulled her muzzle from mine and smiled mischievously at me while she wormed one of her paws into my pants, her fingers rubbing against my fur until she made it to my lower lips. She squeezed my clit in between two of her fingers and nuzzled the space in between my breasts before pulling up my shirt with her free paw, giving my nipples a quick lick once she could get at them. I squirmed underneath her touch and gasped when she slowly slid her fingers into my slit, my warm folds enveloping them greedily while my heart started pumping in my chest.
"Thank... you... Bella... nggh... this feels... incredible." I said in between moans as she started running her claws along the inside of my pussy, sending shivers of pleasure up my spine. She looked up from my breasts and nodded with a smile before going back to suckling on my nipples, making me groan again. I could feel my climax peaking thanks to her obvious skill with her fingers and ground my pelvis into her questing touch, making my already sensitive depths scream happily with pleasure. I moaned loudly and came all over Bella's hand, my cum covering my inner thighs and the insides of my sweatpants. I felt her push her hand farther into my cunt and I threw my head back with a muffled scream as she rubbed her fingers over my G-spot, making me cum again with a little less strength but almost double the pleasure my body was feeling. She laughed around my breast and pulled her paw from out of my pants before letting go of my chest completely, mouth and all.
"I see you liked that, Hazel." Bella commented with a smile as she looked at my panting face. I nodded once and the room went spinning for a few seconds, making me want to vomit. She ran her cum soaked paw up my stomach and rubbed my breasts a little before bringing it to her mouth so she could lick her fingers clean. I took in a shuddering breath and felt sick for some reason, the cake from earlier starting to come back up. I lurched off of the bed and made for the bathroom, my face green beneath my black fur. I cupped my paw infront of my mouth and knelt infront of the toilet before vomiting noisily into it, my stomach churning to get everything out. I heard Bella come into the bathroom after me, but I couldn't lift my head from the rim to look at her.
"Hazel, is everything all right?" Bella asked worriedly, her voice sounding farther away than right next to me. I shook my head and the motion brought on another wave of nausea that made me vomit. I reached up to flush the toilet to get the smell out from infront of me, but my arm didn't want to listen to what my brain was telling it to do. "Wait here, I'll get Slippy to come check on you. Just don't try and move." Bella said as her pawsteps receded back into Fox's room then back into the hall, leaving me alone with my upset stomach. I lifted my head carefully out of the toilet and lay down on the floor, curling into a ball to keep from moving too much. The cold feel of my infected limb against my cheek calmed down my stomach for the moment and I wondered why I was feeling this bad now, even though I'd never gotten sick in my entire life. I heard the sound of feet coming into Fox's room and a smattering of voices, but I felt tired and wanted to go to sleep. I closed my eyes with a sigh and let exhaustion take over, my mind disconnecting from my body and floating away to my pain free bubble.
"Hazel... wake up Hazel..." A voice called out to me from a distance. I struggled to get my heavy eyelids open and when I did, I found myself in the Great Fox's medical ward. I heard the beep of a heart monitor and saw the worried faces of my friends sitting in various places around the room. I looked a little to my right and saw Slippy standing there with a machine hooked up to my arm, a grim look on his face while sweat dewed on his forehead. I sent an errant charge through my body so it would wake up and listened to the heart monitor go insane thanks to the excess energy from my body. Everyone in the room looked over at my bed and I waved sheepishly as the beeping started to slow back down to a normal rate.
"Hi guys, how's it going?" I said shyly.
Before anyone could say anything, Slippy unhooked the machine and cleared his throat to get my attention. I looked at him and my sheepishness turned into anxiety when I saw the look on his face. "What's wrong, Slippy? Why are you looking at me like I'm the living dead?" He shook his head and for the first time, I actually saw tears in his eyes.
"That's exactly it, Hazel. In all rights, you should in fact be dead. We don't know how you came up from having no pulse for over twenty minutes, but here you are, alive and well. I don't know what to make of it, but it has something to do with this arm. I've never seen something like it in all my years of being a part of Star Fox, but whatever it is, it's killing you." He took a deep breath and let the words settle in my head before continuing. "It feeds off of you, like a symbiotic parasite would feed off its host, but this metallic like shell it incased your arm in seems to have the properties of an infection that has been prematurely stopped. Does it ever hurt when you move your arm, Hazel?" Slippy asked, wiping the tears from his eyes. I was too numb to understand what he was asking because my mind had stopped working at the its killing you part of the conversation. It took a minute for me to even remember how to breathe right before I could answer his question.
"Only once, and that was after I had woken up with my arm the way it is now." I answered quietly, trying not to remember the horrible sadness that had closely followed my discovery. Slippy nodded and picked up an energy scalpel from off of the surgical tray and took a tiny chip off of my forearm before letting it fall into a waiting examination dish. Before he could get the lid on, the chip in my arm healed itself and the piece in the dish seemed to lose its sheen. He put the lid on and sighed before moving out of the way to let everyone else come in to my bedside, but I grabbed his jacket sleeve to keep him there. "How long, Slippy? At least tell me t so I don't have to go insane wondering if I'll die tomorrow."
He looked back at me and shook his head. "I wish I could, Hazel. I really wish I could..." He trailed off as I let go. He walked out of the room and I thought I could see his shoulders trembling from the effort it took to keep from braking down infront of everyone. I sat there and looked at everyone in the eyes before burying my face in my paws, my hair falling over my face like a curtain. I let the tears pool in the palms of my paws and I didn't know what to do about the sorrow I was feeling now. I heard someone crying as well, and I recognized the sobbing as Michelle's. I looked up from my paws and saw the sad looks in everyone's eyes, but I found that I couldn't bring myself to look into either Bella's or Fox's eyes. I stared at the sheets and watched a spark of electricity hop across the pool of tears in my paw before fizzling out in midair like a miniature super nova. I closed my paw into a loose fist and looked back up at everyone with a calm look on my face, keeping my anguish bottled up so that I could unleash it on someone who wanted to piss me off.
"If it's alright with you guys, could you at least try and look happy. It's still my birthday and I don't want my impending demise to ruin your good time. Hey Falco, remember what you told me the last time we met, that you could beat me down in a fight?" I asked the moping bird with a fake smile on my face. He nodded half-heartedly and looked up to see me clenching my fist at him. "Why don't you put your money where your beak is and prove it to me?"
"Don't you think you should take it easy, Hazel? I mean, we don't know what that thing will do to you if you over exert yourself and besides, I wouldn't want to hurt you or anything." Falco answered with sullen look while his eyes were bright to see me actually asking him for a fight. I shook my head and unplugged the wires from my body before climbing nimbly out of bed, my tail swishing excitedly behind me. "Oh, I wouldn't worry to much about that happening."
The sparring range, I later found out, had only been recently outfitted with a holographic projection system that allowed three-dimensional images to be projected out onto a massive scale, giving the combatants a wide variety of areas to fight in. I walked out into the middle of the arena and sat down cross-legged with my eyes closed to concentrate on my breathing, ignoring Falco's self pep talk as he punched at imaginary enemies around him.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Hazel? Your heart might not be up to a fight yet and none of us want to see you die again." Fox cautioned. I looked at him with one eye and gave him a bright smile while I pushed every other emotion to the back of my head, letting a shower of sparks vent from my body and pulsate in time with my heartbeat in the air around me. They dissipated in a matter of seconds and left my limbs nimble with the shock.
"I don't think this'll put to much a strain on my heart, Fox. Besides, Falco runs his mouth a lot and he is a good shot, but his paw-to-paw fighting might not be where mine is." I reassured him as I took a deep breath and got up out of my stance to face Falco. He gave me a smug smile and raised his fists up in a boxer's stance and hopped from foot to foot while he kept his eyes on me. I rolled my eyes at him and let my arms rest easily at my side, staring warmly at him as if he were talking to me about the weather. Fox sighed and went over to the wall to punch in a randomized location for us to fight in, giving me a last worried look before walking back over to us. There was a bright flash of light and I had to blink a few times to get the spots out of my eyes before I noticed that we were standing in a martial arts dojo, complete with wooden crossbeams and a stand for spectators.
"First to three falls wins. No low blows and no 'special' abilities. Are the rules understood by both parties?" Fox asked. We both nodded in turn and he signaled for the fight start. I stood my ground as Falco ran towards me and ducked underneath his first punch, barely avoiding it by a slight margin. I blocked his leg as it came out of nowhere and was pushed back slightly by the force behind his kick. I straightened up and lashed out at him with my claws, barely catching his cheek before wheeling my leg back and catching him in the stomach. He grabbed my leg and pulled hard, forcing me to wobble slightly to regain my balance before I could bring my paws up in defense from a barrage of punches directed at me. Falco hammered into my arms until they felt like jelly and sent me sprawling with a heavy roundhouse kick. I hit the ground hard and used the momentum to flip back onto my feet. I shook my head to clear it of the stars and got back into my stance before rushing Falco, taking him by surprise with a series of crippling blows to his arms and legs. I ended my flurry with a straight punch to the chest that knocked him to the ground and spit out a tooth he'd knocked out of my jaw.
"You wanna keep going, Falco? I wouldn't want to embarrass you or anything." I chided playfully as he got back onto his feet. He rolled his arms to get the feel back in them and shook his head with a grin. I nodded and raised my paws in a defensive stance as he ran towards me, his feet thudding against the ground as he leveled a punch towards me. I blocked it and read his next move on his face, so I flipped him onto his back and held my knee over his windpipe while pulling his arm the other way. He tapped my knee in a sign of submission and I let him up only to get an uppercut to the chin and an elbow to the sternum. I fell to the floor and lay there stunned, my eyes glazed over while stars danced infront of my face. I vaguely heard Fox asking if I were all right and Falco gloating slightly, although there was a hint of worry in his voice. I sat up and jumped to my feet lithely, struggling to keep my footing while I put my paws back up to fight again.
"Hazel, stop. You don't have anything to prove by trying to kill yourself in a fight. Just qui-" I cut Fox off with a withering glare that made him take a few steps away from me and glanced back at Falco, who was standing with a restrained look in his eyes. "Come on, Falco, fight me." I nearly yelled at him, a hysterical edge in my voice as I stared him down. I felt power rushing through me as I stared him down, making everything look as if it were covered in a red haze. I launched myself at him and knocked him off his feet with a single blow to the jaw before grabbing his foot and slamming him to the ground with enough force to make the image quiver. He kicked off my paw and lashed out at me with punches that would've taken my head off he'd hit me with any, but I dodged behind him and kicked him in the back. He went sprawling to the ground and I pulled his arms back behind him while my foot pushed down on his back. I heard his bones starting to crack underneath my grip and I laughed at the sound, relishing in it.
"Fight back, Falco. Come on... I thought you were better than me." I said with a crazed look in my eye. "Okay Hazel, I'm not better than you alright? Now let me go. I want to keep my arms." He joked desperately, his voice strained against the pain I was inflicting on him. I ignored him and pulled back harder, his arms almost out of their sockets. That was when I heard the sobbing. I looked around for the sound and saw Michelle sitting next to Bella with her eyes wide with terror at what I had turned into. The red haze over my eyes disappeared instantly and I was aware of everything I had been doing. I let go of Falco's arms and watched him fall face first onto the ground. He groaned in pain and rolled onto his back to look at me with borderline fear on his face. I looked down at my paws and saw them trembling with power, the power to kill and the power to destroy. I sank to my knees and kept staring at my paws, my mind trying to wrap its way around what I had just done.
"I'm... a monster." I whispered brokenly. The words echoed in my head and resonated deeply in my soul. I'm a monster.
Starfox is the trademarked product of Nintendo while Hazel, Bella, Faith, Alexander, Michelle and all the other anthros in this story are mine. No O.C. ripping and no idea lynching.