FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Lunch was perfect." Jack grinned as Corona and Taura snuggled him. "And dessert was even better."

Taura laughed and kissed him. "I'm glad you liked it as much as I did."

Corona reached across him to brush a lock of Taura's hair away from her eyes and stroke her cheek.

Jack smiled, let out a slow breath, and gazed up at the blue sky and clouds overhead. They lay there for several more minutes, staring upward, watching the clouds drift slowly overhead. Finally, Jack noticed the slight change in the sunlight and glanced to the left. Just beyond Taura's breasts, the sun had begun its descent toward the horizon.

Taura noted the direction of his gaze and turned to the left. "Huh. I didn't realize it was this late. The time seemed to just zip by."

"Well, y'know what they say." Corona giggled. "Time flies when you're having fun."

"That, it does." Jack glanced at Taura. "Did you want to start your driving lesson today, or wait till tomorrow?"

She glanced at her watch. "It's almost five o'clock. Probably should wait." She sat up and stretched.

"Guess we should head home." Corona leaned over to kiss Jack. "Or we could spend the night here."

"Sounds good to me," Taura said. "It's been quite a while since the last time we had a night away from all those cameras that didn't involve a stakeout or dodging bullets and rockets."

"Yeah." Jack sat up, leaned over to kiss Taura, and grinned. "We can call the house and tell 'em we've decided to spend the night in a motel so we can have some time to ourselves."

"Nice." Corona kissed Jack again, and rose to her feet. "If any media crews decide to track us down, there are enough motels in this city to keep 'em searching for at least a couple weeks."

"Exactly." He glanced around, found his briefs, and grabbed them.

Corona stretched and picked up the cooler while he and Taura dressed. She placed it at the edge of the roof, hopped over, grasped the edge, and lowered herself to the balcony. Taura passed the cooler to her and then she and Jack climbed down the ladder to join Corrie.

"I'll let everybody know we'll be out for the rest of the night," Corona said, heading for the stairs. "Just gotta grab my phone out of the car."

"Cool." Jack carried the cooler to the sink, took the empty bags and wrappers out, tossed them into the waste basket, and opened the valve on the bottom of the cooler. The melted ice began draining into the sink. He walked over to the couch and sat, and Taura joined him.

They cuddled while Corona's voice echoed indistinctly from the warehouse. Jack took a slow breath and smiled.

"I can definitely get used to this."

"Me, too."

Corona came back up the stairs, hurried over to the couch, and sat on Jack's other side.

"So," Jack said, "will everyone there be able to keep themselves occupied without us?"

"Well, Otto and Shakira are doing another video podcast, so it looks that way. Guess they're still trying to pretend everything's normal." Corona giggled. "Sounds like a good way to pass a little time."

Taura smiled, activated her pocket-supercomputer, and projected a holographic window in front of the couch. Less than a second passed before the device picked up the livestream. In the holofield appeared the feed from one of the cameras Otto and Shakira had set up to record their podcast. The two of them sat on the couch with their laptops, while Kim and Dale occupied the armchairs. Dale slumped to the right and stared at the two podcasters with bleary eyes.

"Ah, Dale." Taura shook her head. "Has there been _any_time in the last week that he hasn't been drunk or hungover?"

"Don't think so." Corona giggled and rolled her eyes.

Kim's tablet beeped a split-second after the stream's audio cut in, and she picked it up. Whatever was on the screen made her chuckle and roll her eyes.

"There's another thread on the show's forum with people complaining about all the profanity and sexual discussion."

Otto snorted. "Fuck those fucking fuckers."

Everyone except Dale burst out laughing again. Dale flinched, grimaced, and moaned, "Not so loud!"

"Just for them," Otto said, "maybe I should jerk off right here in front of the cameras."

Kim grinned, leaned forward, and stared at him. "I'm okay with that."

"Um, yeah, how about no?" Shakira shook her head, but Jack caught a glimpse of her grin before she suppressed it. "Ahem._Anyway. Tonight we're doing another 'Let's Play' just for the hell of it. That _Worms match we had when I was in the hospital was a real hoot, so we figured it'd be a good way to pass a few hours."

"No habanero peppers, this time?" Corona giggled.

Otto and Shakira glanced up and grinned.

"Hey, Corona," Otto said.

"Hi there. And no, no habanero peppers! We've learned our lesson. I'll never even touch one of those horrifying things again." Shakira grimaced and tapped her laptop's keyboard. "Anyway, we haven't decided on a game yet. We're thinking of going retro again, but ... "

"Oh!" Corona grinned. "There was one we tried a few weeks ago that was a lot of fun. What was it?" She glanced at Jack. "Saints Row 3?"

"Saints Row: The Third." Jack smiled and rubbed his hands together. "That and Saints Row IV were on my list of all-time favorites when I was a kid."

"I barely remember it," Shakira said. "I think it was originally released the year I was born, or close to it."

Otto stared at his laptop screen and nodded. "Okay, found it. Getting the latest version."

"Me, too. As long as it's fun, I'm in."

"Mind if we join in?" Corona leaned forward.

"I was just about to ask if you wanted to."

"Yes!" She thrust her fist into the air.

Chuckling, Taura opened up three more windows, pushed two of them over to Jack and Corrie, and then added a hard-light keyboard and mouse for Jack and controllers for herself and Corona. Then she moved the main window above the three new ones.

A_bloop-bleep_ sound came from Shakira's laptop. She tapped the screen and smiled. "Incoming call from Jack's mom."

Jack's eyebrows snapped upward. Corona grinned.

"Hey, Neytiri! How ya doin'?"

"Whuh," Dale mumbled. "What the hell kinda name is that?"

Jack's mom laughed. "I was born around the time when there was a surge in the number of people naming their babies after sci-fi characters."

"My family always did have a weird thing about names," Jack said with a brief laugh.

Shakira shrugged. "'Jack Hammer' isn't so bad. At least you didn't end up with 'Jack Daniels.'"

"Hah. True."

"Okay." Otto grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Everybody download a character or create one, then we'll get started."

***

"Thanks." Ramirez took the cup from Montoya's outstretched hand, turned slowly to take another look around Skyview Park, and smiled. The picnic area was empty aside from her, Montoya, and Hiro. A few people walking their pets or taking a mid-afternoon jog or just enjoying the sunshine would probably pass by sooner or later, but for now the three of them had some measure of privacy.

Montoya smiled and handed another cup of coffee to Hiro before sitting across from Ramirez. He took a sip from his own cup and sighed.

"That coffee stand across the street makes some damn good brew. _Almost_worth the prices they charge." He chuckled.

Ramirez grinned, took a careful sip, winced, and set her cup aside to cool down a bit. She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and checked the app she'd set to scan for nearby microphones and other surveillance devices. Finding none, she slipped it back into her pocket and picked up her tablet. She'd spent the past few minutes skimming for info related to her investigation of the mysterious person who'd manipulated her and Hiro's minds recently, but hadn't turned up anything new.

As much as I hate this, it's starting to look like the only thing we can do is wait for this sick bastard to mentally molest someone else and then try to speak with the victims before someone intimidates them into silence like all the others I tried to question.

"Still no luck, huh?" Montoya hunched forward, braced his arms on the picnic table, and tapped his index finger against his cup.

"Same as always." Ramirez put the tablet down, raked her fingers through her hair, and sighed. "Now that we're in standby mode on that business with the cyber-zombies, I figured it'd be a great opportunity to resume our previous investigation, but there's nothing but dead ends."

"Well, try not to burn yourself out on it. If you just relax, maybe you'll think of something you missed before, or some new information will come to light." He nodded at Hiro and grinned. "For the moment you two can spend some quality time together."

"And we're back to that again." Ramirez let out a long, weary grunt. "I'm not rehashing all that shit with you again."

"Relax, I'm just messin' with you." Montoya winked. "Not that I don't think you'd make a cute couple."

"I don't understand why you find the thought of it so offensive," Hiro said softly. He almost glanced at her, but kept his eyes aimed at his mocha.

"I don't." Ramirez sighed and rested her hand on his. "It's just that I have more than enough on my mind without having to worry about being nailed for statutory rape as well. But hey, if I were your age, or if you were over eighteen -"

"Sixteen," Montoya cut in with a mischievous grin. "The age of consent here is sixteen."

"Right. I keep forgetting. Okay, fine, if you were over sixteen or I were your age, I'd seriously consider it."

"Really?" The corners of Hiro's beak curved up slightly and his eyes glowed bright enough to be noticeable in broad daylight.

"Yeah, really. You're a nice kid. One of the nicest guys I've ever met, honestly." With a laugh, she reached over to nudge Montoya's shoulder. "Nicer than this prick."

Montoya burst into laughter.

"But yeah. If things were different, I could see us getting together." Ramirez patted Hiro's hand again.

"Physically, I'd say he's around sixteen. Maybe fifteen." Montoya grinned. "Just sayin'."

Ramirez rolled her eyes.

"Chronologically," Hiro said, "if you were my age, you'd be a baby."

"Yeah,that doesn't make this whole thing even creepier. Not at all."

Hiro shrugged. "I'm a marvel of modern technology. Born less than a month ago and already old enough to get a driver's license. Or at least a permit."

"I have to admit, kid," Montoya said, "I do envy you in a lot of ways. If I could've had an education just programmed into my head while I was growing, I could've bypassed school and saved myself a_lot_ of frustration."

"Girl troubles?" Ramirez chuckled and took another sip of her coffee.

"Nothing I couldn't take into my own hands." Montoya grinned and made a suggestive gesture with his hand. "Just problems with school in general. Never wanted to be there. It was more about conforming to everyone else than actually learning anything."

"Sounds familiar." Ramirez smirked, nodded, and took a longer drink now that her coffee had cooled enough. She glanced at Hiro and gave him a lopsided grin. "Hey, if you hang around until I hit menopause, I might suddenly throw caution to the wind. If I'm anything like most of the women in my family, I'll end up as horny as Otto, if not worse. Well, except my sister. For some reason, her sex drive cranked up to eleven at about the same age it happened to the boys in junior high, while mine never even warmed up until I hit my early thirties. No idea how she didn't end up with any kids." She shrugged and laughed. "Anyway. I just can't -"

Her phone beeped and she dug it out of her pocket. Probably more bad news. She glanced at the screen.

"Message from the boss?" Montoya put his coffee down and raised an eyebrow. "New developments on the zombie thing?"

"No. Text from one of Kim's friends. Myaku. Looks like she sent it to everyone on her contact list. Might not even realize she sent it to me." Ramirez tapped the message and cocked her head when it loaded. She'd been expecting a message to Kim and the rest of her friends about the reality show she was on, but there was just one line of text and a link. Ramirez snorted. "Check this out. 'ZOMG U have 2 see this' - followed by four exclamation marks. Y'know, I never understood 'ZOMG' even when I was Kim's age. And the 'U' - what's so hard about typing the word 'you'? And 'to' instead of the number two? And all those exclamation marks at the end - you only need one, you don't have to finger-fuck the keyboard."

Montoya burst out laughing.

Ramirez grinned, shrugged, and tapped the link. Her phone's browser opened up a page with a streaming video and a ton of advertisements. She stared at the screen and her jaw dropped. "That link was to a page on a porn site."

"Kids, these days." Montoya shrugged and took a sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, like you were any different."

"Never said I was." He grinned. "If you only knew how much 'alone time' I spent with pictures of Ahsoka Tano and Shaak Ti, way back then." He took another drink and smirked. "When I was a teenager, I figured they'd make the ultimate threesome."

"Nerd." Ramirez chuckled, finished her coffee, and sighed. "I'm probably better off not seeing this, but I should have some idea of what Myaku's been into when I rat her out to her parents."

She tapped the play icon and stared as the video began playing.

"Hope it's not a video Myaku made herself." Montoya grimaced.

"It's ... not. It's ... uh ..."

Montoya glanced up and cocked his head. "You okay? You look like something in your brain shorted out."

"I'm just thinking I might've gone crazy. I mean, just now." She held her phone out to him. "Am I really seeing this?"

He stared at the screen and his mouth fell open. Over the next few seconds, his face took on a variety of expressions ranging from startled to confused to amused and back to befuddlement.

"Um," he finally said. "Yep. That's a video of Otto and Shakira having sex. Looks like he's really plowing her, too." He picked up his coffee and shook his head. "That's some serious gusto, there."

"Okay, so I haven't just gone nuts. Shakira has, apparently." Ramirez shook her head. "Bad enough that she thought going there was a good idea, but recording it?"

"If this hasn't already spread all over the net, it will within the next few hours."

Ramirez glanced at Hiro. "See, this is why we can't." She shook her head. "That woman's going to jail."

***

"So, what're we doing?" Corona selected the Horny Little Devil character she'd used last time, and looked through the wardrobe options. "Story missions, activities, or ... ?"

"Several new game modes were added in the last major update." Shakira propped her feet on the coffee table and chuckled at something on her screen. "I see one Otto would go for."

The kid grinned. "Yep, just saw it on the list - Hard on Crime."

Corona giggled. "I'm definitely intrigued."

"Well, Otto, if anyone knows about hard-ons, it's you." Shakira shook her head and chuckled.

"Only my own." He smirked, tapped one more button, and picked up his coffee mug from the table. "I'm well-acquainted with it."

Corona glanced at Jack's screen and snickered. He'd found a character that resembled Otto, right down to the ... below-the-waist attributes. He'd removed all the clothes except a pair of boots.

"Speaking of which." Jack released an evil chuckle.

"For fuck's sake," Shakira muttered, and Otto held his hands up.

"I didn't make that one, I swear!" He touched his screen and grinned. "I've already found one I like."

Corona glanced over at Taura's screen and spotted the Jack avatar she'd made the last time they played this game. Corona smiled and glanced up at the main window in time to see Shakira flick a scowl at Otto.

"You're playing as me?"

"Why not? I like using characters I enjoy looking at." He smiled.

"At least put some clothes on her!"

"Okay. I'll give her some shoes."

"That's not good enough."

"Too late, I've already entered the game." He grinned and shrugged.

"Prick." Shakira shook her head.

"Speaking of pricks," Kim said, staring at the wall-mounted TV. It wasn't in the camera's range, but Corona assumed it was showing Kim and the others a view of the game environment. "That's huge!"

"I'm horrified to say, it's only a slight exaggeration." Shakira winced. "I mean ... never mind."

Dale stared at her. "How would you know that?"

"She's seen it." Kim grinned.

"Not intentionally!" Shakira facepalmed. "I wasn't even looking in his direction. He whipped it out and I caught a glimpse of it in a mirror above a sunglasses display. Jesus. You're gonna get me arrested."

Otto flicked a half-worried, half-annoyed glance at Kim, regained his composure, and aimed a saucy smile at Shakira. "It's a 'grower,' by the way."

Shakira froze solid and Kim burst into laughter again. Shakira twisted her face up and ran her hands through her dreadlocks. "We have to stop talking about this."

"Okay, okay." Otto laughed. "Your character ready yet?"

"Working on it."

"So," Taura said, "what exactly is this game mode?"

"Basically, you run around the city and take on criminal activity - gang operations, timed survival activities, missions you can accept from one of the options in your phone menu, stuff like that." Otto chuckled. "Of course, since the Third Street Saints are a gang, themselves, it amounts to you taking out your competition."

"Okay, finished." Shakira took a long breath and touched one last button on her screen.

Otto glanced at her laptop and nodded. "Nice. The boobs are a bit small, though."

"Kind of a personal fantasy of mine. It's not easy carrying these things around all day."

"I'd be happy to prop them up for you any time you want." Otto grinned.

"Uh, yeah, I'll put that on my to-don't list. Okay, are we ready to start?"

"Yep, we've all got our characters ready on our end." Corona gripped her hard-light controller and locked her eyes on her screen.

"Okay, then." Shakira rubbed her hands together and then placed them on her keyboard and mouse. "Let's go."

***

"Where are we?" Taura moved the virtual "camera" above and behind her character to take a look around. The environment was a typical city street with normal traffic and pedestrians, and the background looked like an industrial area. Many of the buildings were large and blocky and had lots of huge pipes attached to them, and a couple dozen narrow chimneys rising into the sky and belching smoke.

It looked a lot like certain parts of the Norrington district, where this warehouse home-away-from-home was located. The main difference was, the factories and other businesses had closed down long ago, and the only large-scale operation around here was the waste management plant.

Jack checked the map. "We're on Arapice Island, home of the city's chemical waste disposal plant. Charming."

"Seems like a safe enough place to play around." Corona giggled. "So, what're we doing?"

"Well, let's see." Otto pulled up a list of crime-busting activities and it appeared on everyone's screen. "How about we start with the first one on the list? Somewhere around the airport, there's a team of crooked cops that need to be taken out."

"I like it already." Jack grinned. "Does this list their crimes?"

"Yeah, if you go under each name, you'll find a list of charges."

Taura accessed the file and selected the first name on the list. "Well, this one's been charged with accepting bribes, assault, shooting handcuffed people in the back of his patrol car, and was finally suspended after a pedestrian with a phone camera caught him masturbating in front of an elementary school."

"Holy shit," Neytiri blurted.

Shakira laughed. "Okay, yeah, let's go get these guys."

Otto sent an invitation to everyone else to join the operation. When they accepted it, a flashing blue line appeared on everyone's mini-maps, directing them to the activity's location.

"Now, we need vehicles." Shakira turned and jogged toward a parked car.

Otto stepped into the oncoming lane and bolted straight toward an approaching car. His character leaped into the air, crashed feet-first through the windshield, knocked the driver out onto the pavement, and landed behind the wheel.

Corona snickered and tried the same move, but didn't hit the right button at the right time. The car plowed into her and sent her cartwheeling into the air. She squealed as her character hit the pavement and bounced, then she giggled. "Oops!"

Taura ran around for a few seconds and then noticed a street sweeper passing by. "Oh, this looks interesting." She pulled the driver out, climbed in, and tried to turn it around to head off to the destination.

The sweeper immediately turned ninety degrees to the left and drove straight into a building.

"Eep!" She backed up and tried again, more slowly this time. The vehicle made another sharp turn to the left and mowed down nine pedestrians. "Oh, shit!"

Jack glanced at her, burst out laughing, and rotated his character until she entered his view.

She tried to correct her course and the street sweeper veered sharply to the right and ran over four more pedestrians on the sidewalk. "Arrrrrrrrgh!"

Jack slumped over and howled with laughter.

Taura steered the sweeper back onto the street and plowed into three more pedestrians as they ran away, screaming in terror. "Ah, no! Nononononono!"

In the main window, the view shifted to a feed from Otto's computer. He'd turned his stolen car around to keep her in sight. Her sweeper zipped from the left side of his screen to the right and smashed through a chain-link fence.

Shakira bellowed out a laugh of her own.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Taura drove into another solid wall and stopped. She covered her face with her hands, but couldn't stop laughing, herself. "So, uh ... I've got an empty passenger seat. Anyone want a lift?"

That set off another round of laughter. Finally, Jack managed to gasp, "N ... no!"

Otto regained control of himself long enough to say, "I guess that's what the driving lessons are for, Taura."

"I swear I won't drive your car like this!" Taura stared wide-eyed at Jack.

"Relax, honey. Driving a real car is completely different from pushing buttons on a game controller. You'll do fine."

Taura sighed and exited the vehicle. "I'll try another one."

"Now I'm curious. I'll give the street sweeper a shot and see how it goes." Jack ran his character over to the vehicle and climbed in.

Taura jogged back to the street and looked around for another car. She spotted a sporty-looking one and bolted toward it. Her character opened the door and yanked the driver out. The guy recovered before she could get into the car, cocked his fist back, and punched her in the back of the head.

"Whoa!"Okay, I didn't expect that. Must be a new update to the programming. Taura hit the melee button and her character poked the other guy in the eyes and then punched him in the crotch. He doubled over and collapsed. A _Testicular Manslaughter_notification flashed in the upper-right corner of her screen. She chuckled and entered the car. "Okay, finally got myself some - "

"Whoaaaaaa!" Jack howled as the street sweeper swerved in front of a car and hit it head-on. He tried to steer it to the right and it ran up onto the sidewalk and knocked six pedestrians out of its path. He steered back to the left and the sweeper curved into the oncoming lane. A speeding car slammed into his grille and the force of the impact torpedoed both passengers through the windshield and over the top of his sweeper. "Holy shit!"

The sweeper veered to the right and then left, moving in a serpentine path as he continued failing to get it back into the correct lane.

"Just go in a straight line!"

Corona couldn't stop giggling.

Taura approached the sweeper but kept to a safe distance, resulting in the vehicle swerving back and forth in front of her. She burst into laughter again, but managed to choke out, "At least now I know it's the vehicle and not the driver!"

"Let's see if I can get this thing across the bridge," Jack muttered before cracking up again.

One of the cars in the oncoming lane turned directly in front of him and stopped. Jack yelped and veered around it. The sweeper turned too far and headed straight for the rail running along the bridge. The pedestrians screamed and scattered like startled pigeons. He turned to the right and only ran over three of them this time.

Corona pointed at his screen and tried to speak, but was laughing too hard.

"Fuck me!" Jack bellowed.

Shakira slumped over and laughed until she could barely breathe. Then she snorted. She laughed even harder, and snorted again.

Taura caught her breath long enough to glance at the main window. On it, Otto turned to stare at Shakira's jiggling breasts. On Taura's screen, far ahead of the rest of the group, Otto's car veered off the road and smashed into an oncoming garbage truck. His car impacted at a high enough speed to launch it into the air and flip it end over end.

Then it crashed down on top of a police car.

Shakira pointed at Otto's screen and continued snorting as the police car's siren and lights came on.

Otto's car rolled to a stop upside-down and he crawled out. At the same moment, the cop got out of his car and started shooting at Otto.

Otto let out a strangled, incoherent cry and bolted. As his Shakira-avatar ran through the pedestrians, one of the computer-controlled NPCs stopped, stared at "her" boobs, and said, "I'll be in my bunk!"

Corona slumped over again and shook with breathless laughter.

Another car slammed into her character and bounced her into the oncoming lane, knocking her health down by nearly fifty percent. She plopped down directly in front of a freight truck and ended up under its wheels before she could pick herself up.

"Gah!" She mashed the sprint button, but her Horny Little Devil was still picking trying to get back on her feet.

Another car charged headlong into her and rocketed her into the air. Her health bar dropped to zero and her screen turned dark red.

"Aww!" She sighed and waited a few seconds, but nothing else happened. She frowned and jabbed at several of her buttons. "Okay, why am I not respawning?"

Her window shifted to a cinematic view of the game environment. She stared at it and slouched.

"Awwww. Looks like I'm out for the rest of this round. I'm spectating now."

"Huh. I didn't know it would do that." Shakira took a deep breath, then immediately dissolved into another laughing fit. "S ... sorry!"

In the main window, Kim glanced at her phone, picked it up, and stared at the screen.

Corona shrugged. "Oh, well. While I wait for the next round, I'll pass the time by trying the handcuff thing again. Jack, mind if I go grab a set out of your coat pocket?"

"Nah, go right ahead."

Kim muttered something and walked out of the room while tapping her phone's screen.

"Oh," Otto said as Corona got up and headed for the stairs, "handcuffs again?"

"She's still trying to do the Houdini thing," Jack said.

Otto opened his mouth, but then his laptop beeped. He tapped a button and chuckled.

"Just got a message from the chat room: 'You all win the internets.'"

***

"Need a little extra motivation?" Jack said with a grin.

The lockpick slipped from Corona's talons and clinked onto the floor. She half-sighed, half-snarled, and leaned over to pick it up. She tucked her feet under herself and resumed her so-far-fruitless efforts.

"I'll get this to work if it takes all night!" She stuck her tongue out and focused on the cuffs again.

"Maybe if Taura and I have sex in front of you, it'll get you moving a little faster." Jack grinned, turned back to his screen, and whacked one of the bad guys with a baseball bat. In the background, Otto's avatar landed a solid blow to another enemy's head with a huge, floppy, purple dildo.

Corona giggled. "Well, if you do that, I'll just start masturbating. Handcuffs won't stop me."

"Oh," Otto said, "how I wish you were on camera."

"Hey," Jack laughed, "keep your eyes off my girlfriends and on Shakira."

"Oh, piss off." Shakira rolled her eye, but laughed anyway.

"Well," Otto said with a sheepish grin, "the last time I kept my eyes on Shakira, I totaled my car and had a cop shoot me."

After everyone finished laughing, they played on in silence for a few minutes. Corona kept working on her left handcuff, but finally sighed and placed the lockpick back in its kit.

"Seriously," she grumbled, "what the hell? I've looked this up online and seen tutorial videos, but none of those techniques work on these."

"Giving up?" Jack nudged her shoulder.

"Nah. Just taking a break." The tip of her tail twitched. She raked her talons through her hair and sighed.

"Hmm." Taura fired a quick grin at her before facing her screen again. "Maybe we should try the tickle torture."

"I'm up for it if you are." Jack aimed a lascivious grin at Corona.

"Oh." Corona chuckled. "Give me a little more time, at least. Say, half an hour?"

"You really think it'll take you that long?" Jack winked at her.

"You've seen my track record, babe. I dunno, maybe if I get some lockpicks that aren't too small for my big-ass hands."

"We might ask that cyberware dealer we know," Taura said. "He probably has something that'll work."

"Another thing you might try," Shakira added, "is check out the locking mechanism. It might be different from handcuffs designed for humans."

"Ah, good idea. I'll look into that."

Taura chuckled, tapped a control, and another keyboard and mouse appeared. She pushed them over to Corona. "Here you go."

"Ah, thank you." Grinning, Corona began her search.

"Whoa," Jack blurted, and she glanced up at her screen just in time to catch a SWAT tank launching off a hill and landing on top of Otto's character.

"Aw, shit!" Otto snickered. "I got flattened. I'm dead."

Shakira laughed, whipped out her rocket launcher, and blew the SWAT tank off the road. "Gotcha, bitch!"

A beatific grin spread across Otto's face. "I've got the _biggest_boner right now."

Shakira_almost_ glanced at the front of his pants, but caught herself in the nick of time. She faced her screen and narrowed her eye.

Corona burst out laughing again.

"By the way." Jack tossed her another grin. "The clock's been ticking."

"Ahhh!" Corona focused on her search. "Uh-oh!"

***

Otto sat with his legs propped on the coffee table, crossed at the ankles, and his computer resting on his lap, and watched the others finish off another gang operation. Sitting on the armchair across from him, Dale stared at the TV with a glazed-over expression.

A burst of laughing and giggling came from the speakers on his laptop. Otto stared at it and then glanced up at Shakira just as she turned to look at him.

"What the hell was that?"

"The giggle sounded like Corona," Shakira said.

More laughing followed, and then Corona squealed and giggled again.

Otto glanced down at his view of the avatars on his screen, and found Jack's and Taura's characters standing still.

"Looks like they're away from their controllers." He grinned. "Shoot one of 'em in the ass and see if anything happens."

"No, I'm not gonna do that." Shakira chuckled. "As tempting as it might be."

Otto listened to the laughing for a few more seconds. "Hey, guys, what kind of kinky shit is going on over there?"

"Nothing," Corona laughed. "Nothing at all. Wait - no, not the feet!Heeehehehehehe!"

Otto shifted his laptop to the side and adjusted the front of his pants. "Oh, really?"

"If they start humping," Shakira muttered, "I hope you cut their audio. They don't need the whole world hearing that."

"Yeah, there are some lines even I won't cross. Not many, but ... "

"Yeah," Neytiri said, "I really don't need to hear this."

A half-laugh, half-shriek came from the speakers.

"Seriously, guys, what in the hell are you doing?" Otto grinned.

"They're trying to spread my legs!" Corona snickered.

"Oh, they are, are they?"

The only answer was another burst of laughter from all three, followed by the thumps of at least two bodies hitting the floor.

"Yeah," Jack shouted, "pin her down!"

"Seriously?" Shakira stared directly into one of the wall-mounted cameras and shook her head.

"Lift her tail! I'm gonna try under there."

"What?"

Corona squealed and laughed again, followed by the sound of her wings flapping. "Hold on! That's not fair! I'm ... I still have the cuffs on!" She giggled yet again. "Come on, I can only push one of you back at a time!"

"That's why we're both going after you at once," Taura said before launching into a laughing fit.

"Okay," Jack said, "ready - Taura, stick your finger right there!"

Shakira's jaw dropped and she leaned back and let her arms fall to her sides.

"Aaaaaand I'm pulling the ripcord," Neytiri said. "I'm muting the audio. Message me when it's over, okay?"

"Sure thing," Shakira said.

Another incoming-message beep came from Otto's laptop. He brought the text box up on the screen, read the newest comment, and cracked up.

"The show's chat room is having a field day with this. Someone going by the name 'Captain Potatofucker' just typed, 'Hnnnnnngh!'"

Shakira barked out another laugh and had to lean over and brace her elbow on the arm of the couch. Something on her screen caught her attention and she gasped.

Otto glanced up at the TV as her car caught on fire while racing toward a bridge. Shakira swerved off the road and jabbed her finger at the bail-out button. The car ramped off hill and launched into the air, passing the bridge and angling toward the river.

Shakira screeched as her fembot character leaped out of the car and dropped. The car exploded a second before it plunged into the river. Her avatar splashed down at the same time, and she burst out laughing again.

"Better not stick around too long," Otto said. "That river's probably full of syringes, beer cans, used rubbers, and a rotting body here and there."

"Eww." Shakira snorted and swam for the nearest shore.

"Oh!" Corona let out a long giggle. "Taura, I had no idea you were so naughty!"

"That sounds like a good place to draw the line." Otto dropped their volume level to zero. He chuckled, placed the laptop on the coffee table, and stood. "Okay, that's it. If you'll excuse me, I need to go belt one out."

A belching sound came from his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the text message on the screen. Huh. Kim wants to talk to us in private. He glanced at Shakira and found her arching an eyebrow at her phone. She shrugged and sat her laptop aside.

"If everyone will excuse me for a moment, I just need to see what this is about." She waved the phone before standing and slipping it into her pocket.

"Yeah. Me, too." Otto headed into the kitchen, up the stairs, and stopped at Kim's door. He knocked. "It's Otto. You wanted to talk to -"

The door opened and Kim motioned for him to enter. She glanced into the hallway as he stepped past, waved again, and Otto turned around as Shakira came in. Kim closed the door and stared at them, shaking her head slowly.

"What?" Otto frowned at her. "What's going on?"

"I always did have a certain vibe about you two, but I didn't think you'd actually do it."

"Do what?" What're you talking about?" He glanced at Shakira and found her staring wide-eyed at Kim and covering her mouth with her hands. What the hell - oh. Oh, no. Kim knows_. How did she find out?_

Still, he pretended to be in the dark.

"Kim, what's going on?"

She tapped her phone's screen and held it up in front of him and Shakira. And on the screen was a video of him and Shakira in that motel room they'd awakened in, humping away like rabbits.

Shakira backed up against the wall and trembled. "No," she moaned, her voice muffled by her hands.

"That son of a bitch," Otto whispered. His heart pounded. The bastard who mind-screwed us and made us have sex - he recorded it. He recorded us - and then he posted it online!

"I had no idea you were so kinky." Kim glanced at Otto and grinned. "Well, I kind of figured you were, but not Shakira."

Otto held up his hands and winced at how lame his next words sounded even as they left his mouth.

"It's not what you think!"