FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Here ya go." Otto placed the cup in front of Shakira and sat on the opposite side of the small, glass-topped table. He'd spotted a media van parked nearby, but luckily this place had a half-dozen tables on the roof, and all but one were unoccupied. They'd picked one at the rear, which made them impossible to see from where the van was parked.

"Thanks." Shakira took a careful sip and turned her head to face the morning sunlight. She closed her eye and smiled.

Otto smiled as well, keeping his eyes on her and taking a moment to enjoy the sight. Even with the scars and the eyepatch, she was beautiful.

She finally opened her eyes and turned toward him. He looked away quickly and sipped his coffee.

"Starting to wake up?" He chuckled.

"Finally, yeah. The fresh air helps." She held up her coffee and added, "Between that, the Viso, and this, I should be semi-functional by sometime this afternoon. Or maybe bedtime."

"Yeah, same here." He almost yawned, but suppressed it and drank more of his coffee. "I had 'em put four extra shots of expresso in mine, just to be sure."

"Didn't sleep well either, did you?"

"Not at all, actually. It's the same ol' nightmares."

"Damn. I keep hoping that'd blow over."

"Me, too. It just gets worse, though." He shrugged. "Probably better than having disembodied whispering in your bedroom."

Shakira shivered. "My skin is still crawling. On the way here, I said I couldn't make any of it out, but that's not quite true. There was one bit that was pretty clear." She had another drink, put her cup down, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

"And?"

"It happened right after I changed into my nightshirt. I turned the light off, took one step toward the bed, and suddenly this little kid's voice was in my ear, whispering, 'We don't like the dark.'"

"Whoa!" Otto shuddered. "That's fucked-up!"

"No kidding. I turned the light back on and left it on. Then I just sat in the chair all night, playing around on my laptop. I only fell asleep because I couldn't keep my eye open any longer. Then I woke up an hour later and heard more indistinct whispering. Fell asleep again, woke up again, over and over." She sighed and stared into her coffee. "Like I said on the way here, it could be a side effect of the pain meds, or maybe drinking massive amounts of caffeine while taking the meds is causing something in my brain to misfire. I dunno. I'd prefer that to the alternative - which would be hallucinations."

"I know how you feel. With those nightmares feeling like memories - like things that actually happened - I can't stop wondering if I'm going nuts." He shrugged. "Still, everything else appears to be normal. As far as I can tell, anyway."

"Yeah, same here." Shakira stifled another yawn and raised her cup for another drink. "As much as a word like 'normal' can be applied to any of our lives at this point."

"Hah. Yeah." Otto managed to laugh softly. "Hey, maybe the house is haunted."

"Unlikely."

"Probably. But the house's previous owner died in her bedroom, remember."

"Oh, shit! I'd managed to forget about that. Thanks for putting it back into my head."

"Any time." He grinned. "Well, if it is a ghost, I hope it's like the one who gave Stantz the otherworldly blowjob in Ghostbusters."

Shakira burst out laughing. "It'll probably look more like the one that was eating all those hot dogs."

Otto nearly choked on his coffee.

Shakira aimed an evil grin at him. "And when he shoots his load, it's probably ectoplasm."

Otto slumped over the table and laughed until he had to gasp for breath. Finally, he sat up and took a few deep breaths.

"That was _not_right." He laughed again and drank more of his coffee.

"You're a bad influence on me." She grinned and finished hers.

"I'll take that as a compliment." He chuckled and turned to contemplate the blue sky and fluffy clouds. Several minutes passed before Shakira spoke.

"I need more mornings like this, actually. It's a lot better than having all those cameras pointed at us all the time, or having to listen to Dale's rude comments or witness him firehose-vomiting." She glanced into her empty cup. "Think I'll order another coffee, just to have an excuse to sit here a while longer. Want another for yourself?"

"Sure, I could go for another. Just a regular mocha, this time. Don't want to overload on caffeine."

"No problemo." She smiled and stood.

"Thanks." He kept his eyes on her magnificent ass as she walked to the stairs, then turned to let the sunshine spill over his face. He closed his eyes and smiled.

Beautiful.

***

"Anything new?" Jack took his usual chair at the briefing room table. Corona and Taura sat on either side of him. Rocky, Ralphie, Shadow, and Machiko had already been seated when they walked in.

Boiler ducked as she squeezed through the doorway and found a seat at the end of the table opposite Machiko. The others greeted her with smiles, except Jack; he merely nodded, but was still too weirded-out by her claim of being his, Corrie's, and Taura's daughter who'd time-traveled from the future. It had to be bullshit. Being in the same room with someone as huge and muscular as Boiler, who also didn't exactly appear to have an overabundance of sanity, was just another load of stress tossed onto a whole nerve-wracking pile.

"Not a whole lot, yet," Machiko said once Boiler had lowered herself carefully onto the chair. "The Feds are still questioning Winslow. They said they'd let us know when they're finished. Seems they want us to run interference when they're ready to transport him."

"Which means we get to be decoys again." Jack slouched, thumped his head on the back of his chair, and thrust his fist upward. "Fuckin'yay!"

"Well, we handled it last time." Machiko raised a brow ridge at him. "We can handle it again."

"It's important enough." Taura sighed. "This whole business Winslow got mixed up in is completely screwed-up. It's got to be stopped."

_Can't argue with that._Jack nodded and slipped his hand into hers.

Machiko kept her steely gaze on him for a few more seconds before turning to meet everyone else's eyes.

"For now, we're still on standby, as far as this business with Argus Defense Systems is concerned. Though I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear that the families of the mercenaries we took out are trying to file criminal charges against us."

"Those guys shouldn't have tried to kill us, then." Boiler shrugged. "Fuck 'em. They got what they deserved."

Jack chuckled. She may be nuts, but she's right this time.

"They won't get anywhere for that very reason. We were engaged in an official operation, and they fired the first shots. And we've got video logs and sensor data from Jamie and Adam to back us up." Machiko smiled slightly. "They'll probably try to file a civil suit against us, but our legal department should be able to deflect that without too much trouble."

"Good. I wouldn't take kindly to us being punished for defending ourselves and the witness."

"Exactly. This is one of the things that makes me glad that we agreed to form this corporation. If we'd remained strictly a law-enforcement operation, we probably would've been overrun." Machiko glanced at a tablet resting on the table in front of her. "Speaking of the big battle with ADS, Jack, you might want to run your car over to Lefty's shop so she can replace the windows and fix all the bullet holes."

"I'll do that as soon as possible," Jack said. "We might have a few things to get done first." He flicked a quick grin at Corrie and Taura. "Driving lessons, for one thing."

Machiko laughed softly. "Well, we won't keep you from it, then. Just a quick mention of the other matter you handled - Casey Smith led us to a bunch of his fellow mooks and most of 'em are spilling the beans. Looks like we can put a nice little bow on that one."

"Glad to hear it." Corona giggled. "I have to admit, it was kinda fun."

"And not being shot at was definitely a nice change of pace," Taura said with a lopsided grin.

"I'm sure it was. Well, there's nothing else at the moment, so I'll let you go about your business. But keep your phones on. When I get the call about moving Winslow, you'll be the first to know."

"We'll be ready." Jack and the girls stood, said their goodbyes, and headed for the door. Jack strode past Boiler before she could say anything he might find unsettling. He'd almost reached the elevator before the girls caught up with him.

"Boiler," Machiko said, "would you stick around for a few minutes?"

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"Well, that meeting sure didn't amount to much." Jack stepped into the elevator before the conversation continued, stuck his hands into his pockets, and leaned against the wall.

"At least it got us out of the house and away from those cameras." Corona pushed the button for the ground floor and took a moment to stretch.

Taura took off her coat, folded it neatly, and tucked it under her left arm.

The doors opened and they crossed the lobby and headed for the car. Jack unlocked the doors and Corona crawled into the back. Taura placed her coat on top of the cooler and climbed into the passenger seat.

"So, where to now?" Jack turned to the girls and smiled.

Corona glanced at her watch. "It's too early for lunch, so maybe we can try those driving lessons we've been talking about?"

That should be interesting. "Sure. Let's find a big, open space so we won't have anything getting in the way. We can start there, and move on to the streets when you get the hang of it."

"Sounds like fun. Not far from here, there's a department store that went out of business. The parking lot is enormous, and it should be mostly empty."

"That'll do." Jack waited for a break in the traffic and punched it before the driver coming up behind him could speed up. "Okay, I think I know the place. The one in the Newmark Shopping Center, right?"

"Yep, that's the one."

Jack smiled and cruised along with the traffic until they reached their destination. He made a left turn at the shopping center into a vast, empty parking lot with a huge building at the far end. The light-brown building had closed a few years ago and no one had bought up the property yet. The company that had owned it had once been one of the richest corporations in the world, but had finally started to go under after decades of taking advantage of its employees, forcing each one to do the amount of work that had previously been done by a half-dozen without compensating them for the extra workload, pushing some to the point of mental and physical collapse. Jack remembered the articles he'd read about it at the time - some of the workers had hung on out of fear of being unable to find a new job, but there was only so far you could push people, and they had begun putting in their notices or flat-out walking off the job in the middle of a shift.

Jack had been in that position himself, until a few weeks ago. He'd hated his previous job, but had clung to it because at least it was a source of income that didn't involve doing things that could land him in jail. Once he'd finally worked up the nerve to put in his two-week notice, it had been like an enormous weight had lifted from his chest and he could breathe again, despite his uncertainty about the future.

_All things considered, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made._He'd done it for the chance to work freelance jobs with Corona, and while things hadn't worked out how they'd planned, he was still working with her and Taura, and he was honestly better off for it.

He picked a spot to park, set the brake, and turned the engine off.

"Okay, ladies, who goes first?"

Both of them glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Guess I will," Corona said.

"Okay." Jack pulled the key out of the ignition and everyone got out. He handed the keys to Corona and deadpanned, "Once you get the hang of it, you can try driving while handcuffed."

"Oh, fuck you." She giggled and swatted him with her wing. "I'm still gonna learn how to get out of those things."

"Without breaking them, preferably." Jack grinned.

She stuck her tongue out at him, squeezed into the driver's seat, scooted it back until her legs were in a somewhat reasonable position, pulled her tail in and closed the door.

Jack chuckled and hurried around to take the shotgun seat. Taura took the spot behind him and rested her hands on the back of his seat.

"Buckle up, everybody." Jack grinned as he fastened his seatbelt.

"Oh, come on, that time I drove the car couldn't have been that_bad!" Corrie whapped his shoulder. "Hell, as I recall, you weren't even _conscious at the time."

"I was," Taura muttered. "It was pretty bad."

"Sounds like both of you are looking to spend the night on the couch." Corrie grinned at them.

"I'm sure we'll find a way to pass the time." Taura made a kissy face at Jack.

Corona laughed and fastened her seatbelt. She inserted the key, took a slow breath, and started to turn it.

"Push the clutch in first," Jack said.

"Oh, right." Corona pushed it down, started the engine, and took another deep breath. She eased the gear shift into first and released the clutch.

Jack held his hand up. "Wait - "

The car slammed forward and stalled.

"Oh,shit!" She slapped her hand to her forehead. "I forgot - you have to do it slowly."

"Yep. It's okay, honey. Just try it again."

Corona started the engine and Taura gripped the back of Jack's seat a little harder. Corona stepped on the gas and eased up on the clutch, and the car lurched forward but didn't stall. It continued forward in a jerky fashion until it got up to speed. Corona released the breath she'd been holding.

The engine's pitch rose and Jack pointed at the gear shift.

"Okay, now you need to shift up to second. Push in the clutch, shift, and release it."

Corona moved her slightly trembly right hand from the steering wheel to the gear shift. She took a breath, flexed her talons, and stepped on the clutch. The engine revved while she pulled the gear shift into second and eased up on the clutch. The car lurched again, but not as badly as a moment ago. Jack grinned and patted her hand.

"There, you're getting it already."

She grinned and moved her hand back to the steering wheel.

"Okay, you'll be fine in second gear as long as you're in the parking lot, since you have to drive fairly slow in those."

"Okay." Corona took a few more deep breaths. "Driving vehicles in the_Grand Theft Auto_ and Saints Row games is a lot easier."

"I dunno, my video-game driving skills have always been worth pigeon shit." Jack shrugged. "As soon as we can, we'll have to get you and Taura cars with automatic transmissions. The manual one is kind of a pain, but it's what I'm used to. If I tried to drive an automatic, I'd probably start searching for the gear shift and panic when I couldn't find it."

Corona grinned and shifted slightly in her seat. "One thing I'd like in a car is a seat that has a slot for my tail, so I don't have to practically sit on it."

"Good point. We'll have to find a car that has that as an option. Or have the seats customized." Jack pointed ahead. "We're gonna be coming up on the fence in a minute, so try making some turns."

"Uh, sure." Corona turned the wheel slightly, taking the car into a gentle arch to the right until it was heading toward the empty building. She turned again, a tighter one this time.

Taura moaned softly. "Too fast. Too fast. Too fast."

Corrie slowed and the car began to shudder. "Uh, what the hell's happening?"

"It's about to stall," Jack said. "Either give it a little gas or push in the clutch."

She stepped on the clutch and the engine smoothed out. The car coasted through the rest of the turn and into a straight path.

"Now, we're still moving fast enough, so keep it in second and ease up on the clutch."

She complied, and the engine began stuttering again.

"Give it a little more gas."

Corona pushed the pedal down and the car surged forward. Taura moaned again.

Jack grinned. "Not bad at all."

After cruising along for a few seconds, Corona giggled. "I'm driving!"

"Yes, you are." Jack smiled and nodded. "Now, let's try some starting and stopping, slowing down and speeding up, and more turning." He grinned. "And once you get that down, you can try driving on the streets, surrounded by actual traffic."

Corona flicked a wide-eyed glance at him and Taura let out another moan.

"Uh, yeah." Corrie faced forward and gulped. "Sure."

***

"Car," Taura mumbled, staring with wide eyes at the sedan up ahead. It grew rapidly in the windshield as Corona surged toward it. "Car. Car.Car."

"I see it, I see it!" Corona stepped on the brakes and shifted down to second. The traffic light turned red and the vehicles in front of her lined up and stopped. She pushed a little harder on the brakes and the car slowed until its engine began to stutter. She shifted down to first and continued dropping speed, easing up behind the car in front of her and coming to a stop. Once the car was motionless, she slumped over the steering wheel and let a long breath rush out.

"You're doing fine." Jack smiled and patted her shoulder.

"I don't know." Corona took her hands off the wheel for a few seconds to flex her talons. "I've been white-knuckling it for the last hour."

"So have I," Taura muttered.

Corona flicked a narrow-eyed glance at her in the rearview mirror. "If you think this is nerve-wracking, wait till you take the wheel."

"I've been dreading it for a while." Taura chuckled.

"You'll do fine." Jack reached over his shoulder to pat Taura's left hand.

The traffic light turned green. Corona let out a soft squeak, pushed the clutch in, and shoved the gear shift into first. The cars ahead of her began rolling forward and she pushed the gas in and eased up on the clutch. The car started moving, much more smoothly than it had at first.

Jack gave her a thumbs-up. "See, you've pretty much got it."

"That doesn't stop me from being nervous."

"That's normal. When I started learning how to drive, it was several months before I got over being nervous."

"Great. That gives me several months of fear to look forward to." Corrie chuckled and shifted up.

"It should get easier once we can get you an automatic. No clutch or shifting to worry about."

"That'll be a relief." Corona kicked it up to third and cruised along with the traffic. She glanced into the mirror and gnashed her teeth at the sight of a line of vehicles behind her, the first of which was a huge truck that was mere inches from touching her rear bumper. "Why do people keep tailgating a car like this?"

"Because they're stupid assholes and the speed limit is never fast enough for 'em." Jack shrugged. "Try to ignore them. You're still learning, so keep it slow and steady like you've been doing. If the idiots want to go faster, they can switch lanes and pass us."

"Yeah, I'm definitely staying in the right-hand lane for now."

"What if you need to make a left turn?" A very slight smile tugged at the corner of Taura's mouth.

"I'll make a right turn, either go around the block or find a driveway or something to turn around in, and then go straight through the intersection." Corona smirked at Taura's reflection in the mirror. "I'm not even trying to switch lanes unless there are no other cars in sight, until I'm sure I know what I'm doing."

"That's pretty much how I handled it when I started driving." Jack grinned and shook his head. "I just realized, that was only seven years ago. Somehow, it feels twice as long."

"Well, I've only been alive for about seven months, so seven _years_really does seem like a long time."

"Thanks. Now I feel old." Jack laughed and winked at her.

"Aw, don't feel that way. I understand human life spans - you're not old at all." Corona shrugged and flicked on the right-turn signal as she approached the next intersection, deciding to see if she could get away from the majority of the traffic for a while. "Taura and I are kind of an odd case, anyway. Physically, I'm probably somewhere around fourteen or fifteen, and Taura's probably around seventeen or eighteen by now, but chronologically she's about two years old."

"I'm gonna start feeling like I'm a pedophile if this conversation keeps going in the direction it's going." Jack chuckled, but an uneasy look crossed his face.

"That's another human thing I don't get. We're in love and we want to be together, so why not?"

"Well, it's like we've discussed before. I can understand why there are laws about this, but in rare cases, it does kind of get in the way."

"Like with Otto and Shakira." Corrie pulled up to the stop sign and hit the brakes.

"Yeah, them, too. If she hadn't been telling him no all along in their videos and podcasts, she might already be in serious trouble."

"Well, I wouldn't judge 'em if they actually hooked up." Corona shrugged again and turned down the side-street. "I bet there's a part of her that kinda wants to. She sure does spend a lot of time hanging around with him."

"Yeah." Jack shrugged. "Well, if it ever happens, then good for Otto. He's certainly put a ton of time and effort into wooing her."

"Yep." Corona slowed for another stop sign, rubbed her hands again, and sighed. "Think I've had enough driving for one day. Wanna give it a try, Taura, or would you like to have lunch first?"

"Lunch sounds good, actually. I'm a little hungry, but mostly I'm trying to put off the driving lessons." She laughed softly.

"Okay. I'll drive us to someplace where we can have our picnic, and then Jack can drive us back to that parking lot so you can get started."

"Sounds like a plan." Jack smiled. "Where should we go for lunch?"

Corona smiled. "I think I have the perfect spot in mind."

***

Whew!_Corona sighed as she made one last right turn. _Almost there.

"Well, this looks familiar." Jack grinned as Corona stopped in front of the rusty, corrugated-metal gate in front of their warehouse home-away-from-home.

"I thought it might." She took a slow look around, smiled, and pulled a set of keys out of her vest pocket. He laughed, took them, and opened the door.

"I'll unlock the gate."

She watched him hop out and jog over to the gate's lock. He slid the gate aside and she eased the car through. She waited for him to close the gate and open the warehouse door, then she rolled the car inside and parked beside the stairs leading to the loft. She turned the engine off, set the parking brake, and leaned back with a long sigh.

"Made it," she mumbled, and closed her eyes.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Taura chuckled and clapped her on the shoulder.

"Could've been worse, but it was ... tense." Corona sighed again, opened the door, and hopped out. Her legs wobbled and she leaned against the side of the car. "I feel like every nerve in my body is buzzing like a vibrator."

Taura laughed and scooted toward the back door.

Footsteps came up behind Corona and she turned to find Jack approaching. He smiled, tossed the keys into the air, and caught them.

"What's this I hear about a vibrator?" He slipped his arms around her waist.

"Ha. Well, you can see how nervous I am." She raised her right hand and tried to hold it steady, but couldn't stop its slight trembling.

"You'll get used to it." He hugged her and turned to Taura as she slid out the back of the car, reached in to pick up the cooler, and closed the door. "Where's a good spot for lunch? The balcony?"

"That, or the roof, now that we've got a table and chairs up there." Corona smiled, took off her vest, tossed it onto the passenger seat, and pulled the key out of the ignition. "Oops, almost forgot about these." She handed the keys to Jack and gave him a peck on the lips.

He grinned and slid his hands slowly over her bare chest while she took her shorts off and dropped them on top of the vest.

"There." She took a deep breath and stretched. "Much better."

"Sure is." Jack made a show of looking her over and grinned.

She giggled, nuzzled him, and headed for the stairs.

He slipped his arm around Taura's waist and they followed her.

Corona passed through the opening in the floor, glanced around, walked to the balcony door, and opened it. "I really started to like this place last time we were here, and it's even better now that it's been fixed up a bit. We should keep doing the show and maybe a few side gigs whenever we can, and start saving up as much money as possible. It'd be wonderful if we could buy this place someday, and actually live here."

"I think I'd like that." Jack stood beside her, gazed out over the city, and smiled. "It's quiet and out of the way. It really did start to grow on me when we stayed here."

"Me, too." Taura smiled and looked the balcony over. "Not enough room for the picnic here, so I'm voting for the roof."

"Me, too!" Corona giggled, leaped, grasped the edge of the roof and pulled herself over.

"There's a ladder now, y'know." Jack laughed.

Corona shrugged and giggled again. She leaned over the waist-high wall and held her hands out to Taura. "Pass the cooler."

Taura chuckled and handed it up to her. She placed it beside her as Taura put her hands on Jack's waist and boosted him up. Corrie grasped his hands and pulled him up to the roof. He burst out laughing.

"Whee!"

Corona grinned and helped Taura up to the roof. Taura tugged something out of the compartment on the end of the cooler. She unfolded it and smiled.

"Picnic blanket. We could just use the table, or spread this out on the roof."

"Those chairs might not hold our weight. And it'd be more like a real picnic if we just sit on the roof."

"Okay." Taura spread it out on the roof and placed the cooler at one edge.

Corona hugged her before sitting cross-legged on the blanket.

"This is the first time I've put together a picnic lunch, so apologies in advance if I missed something." Taura shrugged and grinned.

"I'm sure you did just fine." Jack sat and propped himself up on his left arm.

Taura opened the cooler. She began taking stuff out and placing it on the blanket.

"Let's see what we've got, here." Corona rubbed her hands together and leaned over to sort through the plastic-wrapped food. "Submarine sandwiches, chips, fruit bowls, cottage cheese and pineapple, and ice cream cups." She grinned and picked one of them up. "Vanilla with chocolate swirls. My favorite!"

"I wasn't that hungry before, but now I am." Jack smiled and gave Taura a kiss. "This is perfect."

She smiled and looked away. "Well, um, thank you."

Corona put the ice cream back into the cooler and scooped some of the ice around it. She opened a bag of chips, unwrapped one of the sandwiches, and sniffed it. "Oh, that smells wonderful!"

Jack unwrapped another and lifted the end of the bun. "Those are some_thick_ tomato slices. Nice!"

Taura chuckled. "I think we all like big portions, so ... ."

"I certainly do." Corona grinned and lifted the sandwich. "Shall we dig in?"

"Sure." Jack took a bite, chewed, and smiled.

Corona looked around slowly as she chewed, taking in the area around them and smiling as the midday sunlight warmed her back and wings.

"I definitely miss this place," Jack said. "Hope we can spend more time here."

Taura nodded and reached into the cooler for a bottle of water.

"I was just thinking." Corona swept a hand around. "We can't be seen from the ground unless we're right at the edge of the roof, and we're too far away from other buildings for anyone to see us without binoculars or whatever. And the edge raises up enough to hide us unless we stand up. So we could probably have sex right here and nobody would even know."

"We can save that for dessert." Jack grinned.

"Oh. You're actually not objecting to doing it outside? You really _are_making progress!" Corona giggled and nudged his shoulder.

"Well, given what I've tried already, after being stubborn for so long, and having it actually work out perfectly, I probably _should_loosen up a bit." Jack shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah, it's always good to try new things. Well, within reason, of course." Corona chuckled. "Speaking of which, I assume you've still got a pair of cuffs in your pocket?"

"Several." Jack laughed and shook his head. "Still gonna keep trying the Houdini thing, are you?"

"I_will_ figure it out." She gnawed off another huge piece of her sandwich. "Sooner or later."

"Okay, then. I reserve the right to tickle you without letup until you get out of the cuffs, though."

"Well, I guess it's only fair for you to have a little payback." Corona opened a water bottle took a sip. "But once I do escape, watch out!"