FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

There was fire everywhere. The inferno had already engulfed most of the rooms of the complex and threatened to collapse the roof on our heads with its strength. I looked around through slitted eyes and covered my face with my torn sleeve to filter the air I was breathing. Maxi ran over to me with an assault rifle in her hands and a dark glare on her eyes as she looked around at the building with me.

"Hazel we have to go!" I heard her shout over the roar of the flames; though the recent explosion that had rocked the floor we were on muffled her voice thanks to the fact that my ears hadn't stopped ringing yet. I couldn't bring myself to leave those still trapped in the burning building, but I had to think of my own life to protect. I turned around and was about to make my run with her when I heard a cry for help; a young, hoarse voice that made me dredge up the survival instinct deep inside of me and run off in the direction of the crying, despite the calls Maxi was shouting after me. I couldn't leave such a defenseless child behind to die when they could have a full life ahead of them. I sprinted towards the sound through the burning hall, the flames licking at my heels and the smoke stinging my eyes as I pulled the sleeve tighter around my muzzle to act as a better filter. I heard a loud crack to my left and slammed myself against the wall that was weakened by the fire, going straight through it and sailing into a pile of wet sheets.

"Why won't anyone help me?" The voice choked directly underneath me. I got up from off of the sheets and quickly threw them from over who was talking to see a small child clad only in a pair of scrub pants and curled into a trembling ball, his stomach wrapped in bandages and his left eye covered by a patch of cotton.

"Don't worry, little guy, I'm here to help you." I cooed reassuringly before scooping him into my arms carefully. I turned around and jumped back as the ceiling caved in onto the spot I had just been standing on, looking desperately for another place to escape through. Screw this... I thought as I brought up my hand and sent a shockwave of energy through the debris to send it flying into the wall ahead of me. I quickly sprinted out of the room and down the burning hallway back towards where I remember the entrance was when I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and was sent flying through a weak wall into an abandoned office, crashing into a desk and flipping over it into a chair that had somehow made it through the fire. I quickly got up to my feet and clutched the trembling child against my chest as I looked through the hole I'd made at the shadow that was stalking towards us.

"Hazey is a trapped little vixen. My, how the roles have reversed." A chilling voice spoke over the blaze as I looked around for an exit from the flames that were creeping into the room behind the shadow. I stopped short and stared wide-eyed at the shadow as the firelight glinted off their right arm, making my heart stop and my blood run cold. I backed away quickly from the shadow standing infront of me in the only exit I could see and spotted a window out of the corner of my eye. "That's right Hazey, run away from me. You always have and you were always to weak to stop me." The shadow giggled manically as I took off at a dead sprint towards the window before throwing myself through it and spinning quickly to grip my claws against the wall to stop me as I started sliding down the wall, the pain in my paw excruciating but not unbearable. When I was sure I could withstand the drop, I let go of the wall and plummeted the last few feet before landing in a deep crouch, making sure that the mouse in my arms wasn't hurt from the fall.

"Damnit Hazel, you need to stop doing that kind of shit. You're more useful alive than dead." Maxi swore as she jogged over to me. I stood up and handed her the mouse before looking back up at the window I'd jumped out of to see the shadow standing there with a smirk lighting up her features as she mouthed something to me.

"I'm coming for you Hazey. You and that dragon of yours, you both are going to die by my hands."

I woke up drenched in a cold sweat and turned to hold onto Felix as I always did after that dream plagued me, only to find that I was hugging empty air. I resigned to holding my stomach in an attempt to comfort myself, but found little comfort in my own embrace. I sighed into the sheets and let go of my stomach before sitting up to find that I couldn't hear Ken's snores from the foot of the bed. I threw the sheets from off of me and climbed out of the bed before looking out the window to see him and Jared sitting at the table with mugs in their hands and talking about something. I was about to join them when I felt my phone vibrate against my leg.

"Hello?"

"Hazel, where the hell are you?" Felix asked, making me cringe as I leaned against the wall.

"Would you calm down, Felix. I'm still at my friend's place. Why are you so angry this morning?" I asked. He sighed and I heard him apologize when there was a loud crash from downstairs. I looked out the window and saw Jared glaring at Ken for some reason. I told Felix I had to go and hung up on him before walking out of the bedroom and jumping down to the floor with ease.

"Oh, good morning Hazel... I see you found out about our little argument." Ken said as I looked over at the smashed coffee mug. I sighed irritably and sat down next to the squirrel before letting my head lay on the tabletop, not in the mood for fighting this early in the morning. Jared was about to say something when I held my hand up to stop him from talking and looked up at both of them with a semi-glare.

"Twelve days. Twelve days are all I have before I have to go back on the Nomad for who knows how long. Twelve days that I thought were going to be filled with fun, parties and time alone with Felix, but no. Now, on the second day that I'm here in the city, I meet up with a raccoon asking about a job and I have already killed someone. I hadn't even gotten into a fight yet until I met you, Jared. And now, I have a holo-disk in my pocket that's calling out to my curious side, but I won't watch it until I know what the hell I've gotten myself into. So, you have thirty seconds to start talking before I take that motorcycle and go back to my teammates with you as a permanent roommate for my friend." I said tiredly before letting my head fall onto the table again, still looking at Jared with a now piercing glare that made him squirm a little.

"If you must know, the company that sent me to hire you is in need of... an eradication squad for troublesome experiments and such." He said before looking away. I knew who exactly he was talking about before he had even finished, so I shook my head and got up from the table before walking over to the motorcycle.

"No. I will never work for Sunshade and I will never act as some company's maid. Go find yourself a new patsy, cause I'm done." I growled before putting a strong charge through the bike to start it up and opening the doors that led to the loading dock with a bolt of lightning from my hand. I revved the engine and drove off as quickly as possible, nearly hitting the door on my way out. I had only gone maybe thirty feet when an explosion rocked the ground directly infront of me, sending me flying off of the bike and forcing me spin so I would land on my feet.

"The Gallant Project is within sight. Proceed with extreme caution. I repeat, proceed with extreme caution." I heard someone call out of a loud speaker, striking me as odd because I didn't have the infection on my arm or within my body anymore. I watched as a few armored jeeps rolled to a stop infront of me from different areas of the dockyard and started to back away slowly when a contingent of well-armed soldiers piled out of them, all carrying pulse rifles and covered in Pyrex retrieval armor, their faces covered by combat helmets with phosphorescent yellowish gold visors. I slipped a combat knife from my pants pocket and sized up the odds against me with a small frown on my face that quickly turned to a grin as I noticed that a few of them were shivering, albeit minutely.

"What's the matter guys, afraid of a little vixen like me?" I asked innocently before letting electricity crackle at the blade of my knife and from the tips of my claws while fire licked at my feet, giving me an awe inspiring look. Before any of them could move, I dashed towards the nearest soldier and gave him a strong uppercut to the jaw before flipping the blade so that it faced backwards and slammed it into the chest of another, sending them both falling to the ground with audible thuds; one with a crater in his chest and the other with a broken neck. I dropped to my knees in a low crouch and pushed out a wave of flame in all directions around me, lighting the group on fire as I stood up. I knew the flames wouldn't do anything to the soldiers themselves, but I concentrated on destroying their weapons for the moment to leave them unarmed.

I continued to quickly run through the remaining few in the group before moving on to the next one. I used the jeep nearest me to vault off of and was met with the clicks and whirrs of priming pulse rifles, all trained on me as I flew through the air. I snickered a little and dropped onto an unfortunate soldier who hadn't gotten his weapon up in time before snapping his neck with a simple twist of my interlocked legs. I leaned back and used my momentum to send his body flying into the two directly behind me, unholstering his plasma pistol with a quick movement and shooting two others in between the eyes before I hit the ground. I landed on the flat of my palm and did a quick hand spin before returning to my feet, facing the last soldier with the pistol held up to his helmeted face.

"Please, don't kill me..." He whimpered before I lowered the pistol and made to turn around before slamming my elbow into his visor, smashing the plexiglass and sending him into the jeep with a loud thud. He slid down to the ground and I rooted through his pockets before fishing out a couple more clips of ammo and standing to get ready to meet the next wave of enemies when the jeep behind me exploded in a ball of flame and flipped towards me and the unconscious soldier. I growled in annoyance and grabbed his arm before diving out of the way, barely missing the crushing impact by a few inches. I dropped his arm and rolled to my feet quickly before spotting the thing that had blown up the jeep.

The thing was huge; with eight spider-legs carrying it while a long, slowly flailing tail tipped with what looked to be a beam cannon embedded in the tail waved about lazily behind it. There were eight sensory orbs on its front that were all centered on me at the moment and two heavy caliber, possibly anti-vehicular machine cannons adorned its claw-like arms. The whole mech was colored black and there was the symbol for Sunshade on it helm, making me roll my eyes and growl in anger as I stood up. I noticed the missile launcher sticking out just above its right arm socket as it aimed down at me with a whir.

"MUST CAPTURE GALLANT PROJECT AT ALL COSTS." It droned out as a tracer dot splashed itself on my chest before moving up to my forehead, making me snicker and put the pistol into my pocket to replace it with my second knife. I waited for it to take a step forward before rushing it quickly, zigzagging through the hail of bullets directed at me and making it underneath the mech to slice my knives up into its underbelly, getting a shower of sparks as my reward as they sliced through the toughened metal platting. I continued to slice through the mech and its joints on the underside when the tail lowered to the ground and slammed into my side, sending me flying out from under it and hitting a shipping container hard, leaving a dent in it as I sank into it slightly.

Well, at least it isn't that weak. I thought with a wry grin before pulling myself out of the dent and landing on the ground in a light crouch as the mech stomped over to me. I jumped back up onto the container to get a slight height advantage on the mech before leaping onto the top, spinning to dodge the bullets whizzing by my head as I slid a little on the slick, angled surface of the mech's head. I let some energy run through the blades to lengthen them to three feet each and stabbed down into the CPU to send sparks flying all around me, the mech swaying and stumbling around as it tried to compensate for losing its ‘brain'. I let a mixture of electricity and flame build in my hands before slamming them into the armor, the strength of the hit buckling the armor and frying the inner components while melting anything of use inside it. I pulled my hands away and wrenched my knives from its head before dropping down onto the ground, using a slight burst of energy to stop me from breaking anything on the fall, the mech falling into a smoking heap. I walked a few steps and felt a sharp pain in my stomach, closely followed by a searing sensation in my outer extremities. I turned to face whoever it was that had hit me and felt a crushing blow hit my back, sending me sprawling and forcing me to do a handspring to keep from falling face first. I spun around and landed on my feet to face the attacker, feeling anger welling up in me while energy crackled up and down my arms.

The person who had attacked me was a man that looked a little over my age, with stubble growing on his chin and brown hair that was spiked up slightly. He was wearing normal civilian clothes like I was, a pair of baggy cargo shorts and a slightly loose muscle shirt, but the only discernable difference was that he was wearing a set of holo-tags with the Sunshade symbol on them.

"So they've resorted to sending single people after me now? Well, saves me time and energy if you ask me." I smirked as I put my knives back into my pockets and put my hands up in my fighting stance, seeing no need to use weapons. The man didn't show any sign of emotion and did the same, his stance tailored to more of a grappler's fighting style, so I knew what to expect. He rushed at me and I dodged nimbly to the side before whipping my heel around to catch him on the back of the head, but was met with empty air. I felt him wrap his arms around my waist and smashed my elbow into his face before getting free of his grip and spinning around to slam my fist into his face, only to meet his waiting hand. He closed his fingers around my fist and lifted me by the front of my shirt before throwing me bodily over his shoulder, sending me into the ground with a muted thud and a gasp of breath. I quickly rolled away from him and got onto my feet before shaking the pins-and-needles sensation I had gotten from his grip out of my hand, grinning all the while as I turned to face him.

"Why do you fight?" He asked suddenly, catching me off guard with the question and his slight Russian accent. I kept quiet and got back into my stance, altering it a little to compensate for his incredible speed and rushed him before feinting right as I was within three steps of him. He shifted his weight onto his right foot to grab me and I changed direction at the last minute to give him a crushing straight to his chest, sending him skidding back slightly before he recovered. I was on him in a second and followed up with a heavy uppercut, but was grabbed from behind again and this time I hadn't had enough time to stop him from throwing me over his shoulder onto my hands. I was about to spring back up when he kicked me hard in the small of my back and sent me sprawling to the ground hard, sending the breath rushing from my stomach as I tried to get up. He waited patiently in his grappler's stance for me to get ready to fight again and I tried to figure out why he hadn't tried to finish me off when I was lying on the ground. I got up steadily onto my feet and stared him down, his soft blue eyes seemingly uncaring as they stared back into mine.

"Why do I fight? I fight because I have to protect those I care about." I said before rushing at him again, feeling the toll of the sustained fighting starting to get to me.

I tried on numerous occasions to end the fight, but every time I was about to deal a finishing blow, he came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. I couldn't see a pattern to his method of fighting no matter how hard I concentrated on him. By the time I was panting from both pain and exhaustion, we had been fighting for nearly an hour.

I spit out some blood from his last strike to my stomach and heard engines coming towards us. I tried to bring my hands up in defense, but they were feeling numb from blocking his hard shots to my body. The jeeps drove up to where the others were parked and this time, only a few soldiers came out, but they were armed to the teeth with plasma rifles and heavy duty armor that would stop everything short of a tank and were flanking a fur in a dark business suit with their rifles poised in my direction. She looked over at me with a certain disdain and walked over to the grappler before putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I'll take it over from here, Jackson."

"Yes Madame Director." He muttered before relaxing and moving off to the jeep to wait for her, hopping up on to the hood with a single, graceful movement. The wolfess turned her attention to me and I glared back, desperately sending shocks of electricity through my body to wake it up.

"So we finally have a chance to meet, Hazel or should I call you Gallant Project?" She said smugly, making me growl and take a heavy step towards her. The soldiers trained their guns on my head but the wolfess shook her head and they stood down.

"Stop calling me that. And I told your little errand boy back there I'm not interested in becoming your company's maid, so you can just leave." I glowered before straightening my back and hearing it crack loudly, glad that my powers had finally started working again. She sighed and shook her head in a somewhat sorrowful fashion, reminding me of something, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen the motion before.

"That is such a shame, Hazel. We might've been able to do so many good things for this universe, but I cannot force you to do what we want." She said before walking back over to the jeep she had gotten out of. "Incapacitate her. I want her alive to bring back to Dr. Graves for him to-" She was cut off when one of the soldiers yelled in pain and was thrown bodily out to land at my feet, his torso facing onto the ground while his legs were crumpled against his waist.

"How about giving her a second opinion?" A chilling voice rang out from atop the jeep, closely followed by a deep, rumbling laugh that was somewhat familiar. I looked up with the rest of them and felt my blood run cold when I caught the eye of the girl from my nightmares and my past. Her new host was a beautiful woman with long, flowing black hair and eyes the color of liquid sapphire while she was wearing a loose fitting jacket and a pair of jean shorts that hugged to her hips nicely but were rather lengthy and baggy, hanging just above the midway point of her shins.

She grinned down at me and I looked over at the guy standing next to her who I realized was Axel, though he looked a lot different than when we had been dating. He had what seemed to be a mixture of traits of both a lynx and a liger; his fur having changed from a pure black to a black and silver mixture not unlike my own and his eyes had become a frightening frost blue instead of the warm violet colored they had been when we were dating.

"How nice of you to join us, TP-555 and HP-666." The wolfess growled as they dropped down to the ground and walked over to me, making me take a step back hesitantly before charging my hands with electricity to protect myself from the fight I knew was going to happen.

"We have names, Hannah, or are you still fuming over the fact that you can't have Xale as a pet? Or a lover?" She asked insultingly as she draped her infected arm around his shoulders affectionately, making me wince as memories of the hell that my mind had been when I was dealing with the parasite in my body came to the forefront of my mind. I was even more surprised when she had called him Xale, but those thoughts were pushed off to the side as I watched another one of the mechs blow down a stack of shipping containers. I was about to slip the knives out again when Xale laughed and disappeared from view before reappearing onto the mech's head. He opened his maw wide and I could see black energy brimming from his mouth as he brought his head down before blowing a huge hole in it to the ground with a concentrated burst of energy.

I was awed by his strength and felt weak when I compared myself to him. I was about join in when I was met with the man's face directly infront of me and his arms wrapped securely around my waist before being launched over him and seeing the ground rush up to meet me. I braced to hit the ground and felt my skull collide hard with it, stars exploding in my eyes as he let me go to fall onto my back with a solid thud. He was about to pick me up again, but he was thrown as if by some giant hand and I felt my grips on reality start to go as I slowly slipped unconscious. I shook the lethargy from my body gently and sent a semi-powerful shock through me to get rid of the blinding headache before getting up to my feet.

"Well, it goes to show that not all projects are perfect." I heard one of the soldiers say from behind me as he tried to hit me with the stock of his rifle. I grinned and sidestepped his strike before grabbing his arm as it passed and snapping it at the elbow. I let him go and gave him a flaming uppercut before giving him a rising crescent kick to the chin, the electricity crackling through my feet sending enough energy through his armor to cause his helmet to crack loudly and the padding to pop audibly in places as the filaments were blown. I landed on my hands and sprung up quickly to land on my feet, a dark sort of smile on my lips while a black aura surrounded me.

"If you want me to show you what a Rapturian can do, then you'll learn to regret being curious!" I growled as I rushed towards the jeep, my hands alight with fire as I grabbed the first soldier to try and protect Hannah by the helmet. I raised him up a little and slammed him into the ground before standing with a dark fire in my eyes. The soldiers stood infront of Hannah to protect her from me and I laughed at their efforts.

"Very nice. Michael wasn't lying when he said the Gallant Project was powerful, but I think it quails in comparison to both the strengths of the Demise and Hyperion Projects." She said in my direction, making the fur on the nape of my neck bristle with anger and the aura darken a little.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!" I roared angrily, slamming my hand into the ground and sending a shockwave throughout the surrounding area; causing cracks to form around me and split the ground under their feet. I charged at them from the crouch I was in and quickly snapped the necks of the first two soldiers before aiming my attacks at Hannah, though my hand never made it farther than an inch from her nose. I turned my head and saw that the man was holding my wrist.

"No one threatens the Director." He muttered before throwing me easily from her into the other jeep, shattering the glass and making it rock gently from the hit. I dropped to the ground and snarled angrily at him before rushing him, only to get grabbed by the throat and slammed into the ground hard. "Surrender to my will, Hazel." He murmured as I struggled against his grip, lashing out at him and sending random bursts of energy from my flailing hands into anything near me. He pressed harder against my throat and I found it hard to breathe, black spots starting to speckle my vision the more I struggled.

"Awww, come on Jackson, don't you want to play anymore?" I heard her ask playfully as she kicked him off of me and sent him sliding along the ground with a burst of what I could only assume was psionic energy from her palm. I took in large gulps of breath and tried to stand, but Xale was already there to help me up.

"Can't keep yourself out of trouble, Hazel?" He said with a chuckle, making me turn and glare at him. I shook my head and turned back to find that Hannah was gone, as were the three remaining soldiers protecting her. I looked around for them and found one of the jeeps driving off down the docks, leaving me to sigh angrily and punch the jeep left behind in irritation, leaving a sizeable dent in it.

"Hope we can play again soon Jackson... HAZEL! HOW'VE YOU BEEN?" I heard her ask from nowhere as she hugged me tightly, leaving me to gasp for breath after a little bit. She let go and smiled brightly at me while I glared in confusion at her.

"Well, I doubt either of you are going to leave now that you're here, so I guess I'll have to bring you with me when I meet up with the others. But before I do that, I have one question: Why?" I asked, looking from the forebodingly oppressive frost blue eyes of Xale to the warm inviting liquid sapphire of his companion.

"Because, silly, we want to destroy Sunshade for using us in this manner. I had an epiphany in their R&D department and now I'm all for helping you out however I can. Michael has to pay." She said with a delighted grin as she punched the same jeep and sent it sliding back a few feet before spreading the fingers of her infected hand to look at the metal like substance covering her arm.

"Yeah... that's it. Seeing as this is the first time either of us have met, I'm Xale." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and smiled in my direction. I smiled back, though I didn't know why I was and heard her giggle slightly before remembering that she was there with us.

"You two have a lot of catching up to do, but before you get too comfy, I'll have to tell you that Xale is mine." She said with a slightly possessive air about her as she wrapped an arm around his waist. I rolled my eyes and moved away from them both before pulling my phone out and was about to throw the trashed thing when it floated out of my hand and slowly fit back together. It dropped into my palm and I nodded my thanks to her before calling Maxi.

"Hazel, you need something?" Dante answered, leading me to believe they had slept together the night before.

"Yeah, is Maxi fine enough to make some decisions or she still asleep?" I asked, listening intently to try and hear any sounds of sleep in the background. There was a slight rustling of bed sheets and I heard a hushed argument between the two of them before Maxi got on.

"What is it, Hazel? What are you calling me for this early in the morning? Weren't you the one to ask for this vacation and when do you ever wake up before nine?" She asked irritatedly, making me picture her with bloodshot eyes and a hangover that hurt like hell.

"Well... remember Michael and all of the stuff he did to the people in that base you sent me to?"

"Yeah... don't tell me he came after you?" She asked alarmed.

"No, nothing like that but it turns out that he works for Sunshade and a couple of old friends from a while back showed up for some quality time." I answered before looking back at Xale and his friend.

"Oh... is one of those friends who I think it is?" She asked back.

"Yeah, so they want to meet you and they say that they want to take down Sunshade as well. So, where do you want me to meet you at?" I asked before walking over to the dock edge and looking out over the harbor.

"I guess you can bring them back to the hotel, but if this is what I think this is, then we're going to have to cut our vacation short. See when you get here, Hazel." She said before hanging up. I closed the phone and slipped it into my pocket before walking back over to them to find that they were sitting in the vacated jeep and whispering to each other.

"Well, what did they say?" Xale asked. I opened up the jeep's passenger door and slid over to the driver's seat before hitting the engine start button.

"She said she wants to meet you at the hotel we were staying." I said before driving off to the warehouse to tell Ken goodbye. I got out of the idling jeep and walked through the open loading dock door to find both him and Jared gone. I walked up to the stairs that led to the bedrooms and took the steps two at a time to find that the door to the room Jared had slept in was locked. I brought my foot up and gave it a swift kick to break it down before being met with the barrel of a concussion rifle. I ducked under it as it fired and tackled Ken to the ground, flicking his forehead hard as I straddled his hips and glared down at him.

"Sorry bout that Hazel. Didn't know you were there." He said with a grimace as I got off of him and stomped on his chest lightly before helping him up. I looked around for Jared and guessed that he had fled when the others got here.

"You have anywhere else to stay, Ken? I don't want you getting killed because you know me or captured for the same reason." I told him as I walked out of his room to let him pack.

"Yeah, I got a few hidey holes to hold up in if need be, but I'd be too worried about you getting into all sorts of trouble without me there. Wherever you go, I go. Remember, we made a pact after college that if we ever met up again, we'd stick together and watch each other's backs. Besides, I bet you might be in need of my ‘services' on this team you're a part of." He called down as I dropped to the floor and walked over to the table to wait.

"You do know what you're getting yourself into right?" I called back, remembering the things Amber had told me plus all of the media attention Sunshade and its former incarnation had gotten for botched experiments and all types of horrible tests on living subjects.

"Yeah, I knew when I heard Sunshade was involved. Even so, I'm still sticking by you no matter what." He said as he came out dressed in a black jacket and some faded blue jeans with a duffle bag on his shoulder and his concussion rifle in hand. I grinned up at him and shook my head before walking off to his car.

"Fine then, if you know what's in store for you, then I won't stop you from tagging along. Just follow me to the hotel and don't ask questions until you meet my boss." I told him as I sat on the hood of his car, a matte black Carson Annihilator Phoenix with a single white stripe running along its length. He walked over and tossed his bag into the backseat before sitting next to me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

"This boss of yours... they anybody I know?" He asked, making me smile.

"Maybe... maybe not. She might remember you, though. Does the name Maxi ring any bells?" I asked back, my smile brightening as he laughed and shook his head in disbelief. He climbed off his car and gave me a hug before getting into his car and turning on the engine with a roar. I jumped off of the car's hood and smiled back before running off to get into the jeep, a grin on my face brighter than I'd had on all day.

The next chapter of FaU is going to talk about the reason why Xale and his ‘friend' had to leave the company. I think it needs to be stated as a full chapter and not just a few long paragraphs to set up some of the events later on in the story. Hope you enjoy it.