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Adipose City Stories

By Psion

All Rights Reserved

Author's note: Someone once told me that the one thing an artist cannot really account for is the audience. When I originally wrote down the notes for Adipose City and the people who inhabit it, I really didn't plan for it to be much. When it came to giving this idea a name, I called it Cellulite just have something to call it. While it continued to develop organically, ideas crystallized in fits and starts, I still considered it nothing more then a friend of mine and I just screwing around. The fact that we/I tried to make it make some semblance of sense was irrelevant...

_ Anyway, to make a long story short and get on with what you're really here for, quite a few of you disagreed with me. This has both surprised and confused me, but perhaps it's for the best as I have seen what happens when people delude themselves with false pretenses. But enough of my authorial blathering, you're here because you want me to tell you a story..._

_ Adipose City, June 12th, 6 AM..._

Adipose City, a sprawling metropolis born out of the decay of the Boston-Washington urban corridor during the tumultuous Peak Oil crisis. Massive skyscrapers reached up to the heavens, each wreathed in a dizzying maze of traffic and inner city sprawl. Situated along several major transit routes; Adipose had joined a small brotherhood of cosmopolitan metropolises, true cross-section cities of the modern incorporated world, and presently the only one in North America to have that unique honor.

As the sun began to rise and signal the start of a new day factory laborers stopped to grab breakfast on their way to or from work, the graveyard shift grumpily lumbered one step closer to bed. Meanwhile white-collar workers sipped coffee while slowly going through the motions of waking themselves up. Club-goers slinked into bed after dancing the night away, some snuggling lovers and flings while others fell asleep alone hoping to get luckier next time. Scenes virtually indistinguishable from normal city life yet at the same time much has changed since the petroleum crash....

Ultimately what brought down the oil markets was simple; too much demand, not enough capacity to meet it. The Pre-Peak world exhausted all the readily available supplies of petroleum. What remained was almost completely out of reach with the technology of the time. The result was nearly catastrophic, nations crumbled almost overnight while other powers emerged in the resulting vacuum. In the end, the new corporate states managed to implement substitute sources of energy. With little left of the old governments, the corporations were free to crown themselves the kings of the new world.

Technology had advanced considerably as a result of the crisis and the search for an oil substitute. Understanding of agriculture expanded by leaps and bounds as the six major corporations researched replacements for petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, energy production became more efficient, and biotech achieved numerous amazing and sometimes frightening developments in medicine and genetic manipulation. All thanks to six fast-food conglomerates.

The rest was a stifling world where feuding companies frequently clashed over market share and intellectual property with teams of mercenaries and corporate retainers. But it was not a world without positives; the tireless research performed by "The Six" to ensure a steady of raw materials produced a society of epicurean plenty. Hunger was nonexistent and, as a result of living with such excessive abundance, individuals of great girth were the norm instead of the exception. This was a world of portly factory workers, waddling desk jockeys, and big-bellied club-goers; this was the world of Adipose City....

As the shifts changed all over the city, trouble brewed in the agricultural district at the north end. In order to help cut down on shipping costs the corporations constructed vertical farms within the city; massive greenhouses built like skyscrapers, climate-controlled to produce essential ingredients in bulk and occasionally the site of tragically poor security. As workers under the cartoon sombrero of Taco King filed in for another day of tending to crops of beans and genetically engineered wheat, the morning shift was canceled when an explosive device consumed the upper levels with a shower of fire and shrapnel. Plumes of smoke snaked skyward as emergency sirens echoed in the distance. Just another day in a world defined by corporate warfare.

The alarm blared with the popular thrash metal tune of the day, filling the small apartment with noise until a feline paw reached out from under the covers and turned it off. Groaning, the bed's occupant stirred and slowly sat up in bed. Brushing aside long locks of black hair, a young mackerel tabby anthromorph yawned and began making her way to the kitchen. Generous hips swayed liked a metronome and abundant breasts bounced freely as their owner went through the motions of making breakfast and preparing for the day.

Clad in a tank top and biker shorts stretched over her ample figure, the feline checked her emails. Groaning as she spied a message marked urgent in her inbox, the cat opened it and began reading...

To: Agent Bazooka Betty

_ From: Lt. Ford, Corporate Security Division, Burger World_

_ Subject: New Marching Orders_

_ Betty, pack your gear and report to our company offices in Adipose City by 0800 hours. A situation has developed and Captain Jenkins needs all hands on deck._

Bazooka Betty, feline animan and corporate agent for Burger World, sighed and quickly wolfed down her breakfast of eggs, sausage, and fluffy light pancakes. So much for having the day off... she thought to herself, the female gunman shook her head as she got her combat gear together, time to go to work.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, other individuals were contacted with similar messages. Company agents for all of the major corporations found themselves on standby while fixers alerted freelancers to a sudden demand for mercenaries. As word of the attack spread, rumors spread about who was responsible and when Taco King would retaliate. But the wheels were already in motion...

Queensland Confectionaries was an Australian megacorporation specializing in the production of pastries and other sweets. While they possessed few outlet chains of their own, the company maintained a number of supply contracts with the Big Six. Everything from the apple pies served at Burger World to the fortune cookies in a PanAsian buffet came from a Queensland bakery. This put the Aussies in a relatively neutral position, able to act as intermediaries between the other corporations. Intermediaries with some of the biggest, best paid, and most heavily armed retainers in the Post-Peak world.

Like every other corporation, Queensland found it beneficial to have a branch office in Adipose City. Unlike the other company campuses, the Queensland building had space set aside for the other factions to rent for conducting negotiations and organizing inter-corporation missions. It was here Bazooka Betty was ultimately sent after receiving an hour long preliminarily briefing from her superiors... after a cross-town drive that left her spending almost another hour stuck in traffic. Good thing the meeting was supposed to be at eleven o'clock.

The feline grumbled as she quickly checked herself in her car's rearview mirror; yes, she looked ready to represent Burger World to the other corporations. Yes, she remembered to remove and hide her Boom Boom Betty assault rifle as well as her Fat Eagle handguns in her car. They'd still check her for weapons on the way in through the guest entrance, as a security operative for a visiting corporation it was standard procedure to make sure the Queensland enforcers were the only ones packing heat. Security would return her guns after she was done with the meeting, but it was a hassle she just didn't want to have to go through. She was supposed to be on vacation damn it, at home reading some nice ebooks or maybe calling one of her friends for a girls' night out.

Oh well, I can always reschedule I guess... she thought to herself as she made her way through the security checkpoint in the rear lobby. As she made her way up the elevator and into the conference room, Betty looked around to see who had also been sent to this meeting. A few minutes behind her, a handful of animen and humans worked their way through. The feline grimaced as she recognized the companies they worked for; the individuals present essentially represented all of the Six. There was really only one thing that could bring everyone together like this...

Giving the crowd another look, she realized that the majority of them were animen, humans altered with animal DNA. The process ultimately resulted in a being that was slightly faster or stronger and had an appearance that was almost always more animal then human. Given the amount of money corporate agents could spend on enhancing themselves, it was not uncommon to see most company troopers looking like a bunch of sports mascots. Indeed, the few agents that remained fully human were deeply respected. It took a lot of balls to stay unchanged and still keep up when your opposition was splicing itself up with DNA from mammals you probably never even heard of.

Such was the case with Captain Leroy Jenkins, Betty's boss in Burger World's security division. A stout, black-haired man with noticeable muscle underneath his pudgy, beer-bellied body, Jenkins was one of the few humans she knew who could walk into a room full of animen and look like he could take every single one of them. Much like he looked right now.

"Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Burger World I thank all of your patrons for getting you here so quickly. As you all can probably summarize, the fact we are all sitting here talking to one another instead of fighting means that something is going horribly wrong. By now you've heard the news, attacks on corporate agricultural facilities, reports of employees and customers becoming ill from tainted water supplies, all manner of sabotage weakening your corporation's hold on Adipose City. Except it's happening to everyone and the attackers have left the same taunting graffiti every time, 'time to turn back the clock.' I don't think I need to tell anyone who that is."

Leroy most certainly didn't, almost immediately there was grumbling and a few choice curses in at least three different languages. Everyone knew about the PhysEd Consortium. PEC, as it was also known as, was infamous for a stubbornly romantic view of a time when beauty was defined by a pill-pushing oligopoly that cultivated a society perfectly content to ridicule anyone different from the group mindset. Life was definitely better now; people were able to enjoy a good burger in peace. It wasn't perfect, but it was certainly an improvement on the old in the feline's mind. Not to mention that any group stupid enough to leave their personal catchphrase at the scene of a crime definitely wasn't life coach material.

Her supervisor waited a few minutes for the murmurs to die down before continuing. "Preliminary investigations as well as intelligence shared after the initial exchange of fisticuffs between corporate investigation teams have tracked PhysEd to two locations within the Subcity district. Two combat teams, one of agents and one of freelancers, will be deployed to the area. Your mission will be to investigate these sites, ascertain if either of them is a PEC facility, and destroy them if they are. Any questions so far?"

"Yeah, who died and put you in charge?" A massive human asked abruptly with a smirk. Betty turned her head in his direction and immediately groaned. Troy Dubblewyde, Italiana Code Wader and all around pain in the ass, was picked for this mission. Code Waders were computer experts who could do all sorts of incredible things with information technology. On the other side of the coin, they tended to live behind their computer rigs. Hence why Troy was nicknamed the "Great Italiana Meatball" by pretty much everyone who got a chance to know him.

"Ah yes, Mr. Dubblewyde. To answer your question, I happened to be the one who drew the short straw. Which means I get to experience your charming personality. Any other questions?" The captain replied expertly.

The feline stepped in before Troy could think of something else to ask. "Who is the rest of our team? Do we get any Street Sumos, Big Tools, or Druggists?"

The look on his face told Bazooka Betty that Leroy didn't expect her to be here. For a second he hesitated and checked his notes. "The Street Sumo is Burger World's Bazooka Betty, Big Tool is Soy from PanAsia, Druggist is Tifa Stoutheart of SALAD, and Taco King's Choques will be providing Road Hog support. I don't think I need to introduce anyone to the man who will be providing computer support, do I?"

None of the ladies said anything at first and Troy was mercifully quiet. Finally Soy, a portly she-panda with enormous hips and a long black ponytail, spoke up. "Who is on the other team?" She asked politely, her voice carried a pronounced Chinese accent.

"Four freelancers that have worked with Burger World or Taco King before. Maxwell, Thunder, Annabel, and Hummer."

Soy declined to say anything about that but Betty could tell there was someone on that team she was friends with. Hopefully that wouldn't impair her judgment; BB was going to need everyone sharp if PEC was going to be her enemy on this mission. With no further questions, Jenkins continued to brief them on the locations and the estimated level of resistance. Once he finished reviewing the targets, the equipment they were allotted, and the bonuses they'd receive for captured tech, Jenkins adjourned the meeting. The team was going to spend the afternoon preparing for the mission and assemble again that evening. If fate was kind, this would all be over by midnight and her time off will be just be postponed to tomorrow. But then again... no, no sense dwelling on what could go wrong until it happened, in any case Captain Leroy looked like he wanted to have a word with her and the others were apparently eager to leave if the rate they squeezed out the doors was any indication. Hopefully the panda wouldn't get on the first elevator down.

Once the others had left the room, Bazooka Betty looked to her supervisor. "Sir?"

"Nothing important Betty, just trying to make sense of why you're here. I thought you had off today."

"So did I sir. Lieutenant Ford apparently thought differently sir. He sent me a message saying you needed me."

The human gritted his teeth and shook his head. "That boy... I told him I needed someone from security, it didn't have to be you but I suppose it's just as well. If anyone can make sure our company's interests are represented without jeopardizing the assignment, it's you. In any case I'm sorry but it will probably mean less paperwork if we just push your vacation back a day then to put another agent in your mission slot. So just go as ordered and I'll see about straightening out the mess Ford made of your schedule."

"Yes sir."

"Thank you Betty. That will be all." He replied, dismissing her. Betty took her cue and stood up to leave.

Exiting the room, the plump feline commando quickly found herself next to the thunder-thighed PanAsian operative. The other agents had mercifully gotten to the elevator first, forcing Betty and Soy into the last elevator down; perfect opportunity to ask what was bothering the portly panda.

Squeezed inside the elevator car with a female wide enough to take up almost half of it, the Street Sumo and admired the stylized aborigine art decorating the walls for a moment. Sighing, the tabby considered how to best ask Soy what was bothering her. Even if their companies didn't occasionally fight it out, this wasn't exactly something she asked someone she scarcely knew. Shaking her head, Betty decided to just ask the question outright.

"So, which one of the freelancers is your friend?"

"Excuse me?" The giant panda replied, clearly surprised by her tone.

"I noticed you looked slightly concerned when Jenkins named the members of the second team. Are you close with one of them?"

"I fail to see how that is your concern." Soy deflected suspiciously. Betty wasn't surprised; she was being rather ham-fisted in asking questions. Perhaps that was the reason why she was a Street Sumo in security instead of someone in corporate.

"Well, it is if we're going to be working together and you're worried about them instead of covering my fat butt." She defended with a chuckle. "Besides, I know Maxwell deserves his rep as the de facto Street Sumo and I have worked with both Thunder and Hummer in the past, the two of them are some surprisingly stout customers."

That was apparently the break the Burger World gunslinger needed. "This is not Thunder's first run?" The PanAsian techie asked curiously

"Well it might be his first big job but otherwise no, he's been a lancer for at least a year from what I've been told." Betty replied, hoping the ursine heavyweight would volunteer just a little more information.

Which Soy ultimately didn't, the panda was apparently savvy enough to know when to start shutting her mouth. Well... perhaps she wasn't as the feline quietly went over what could be inferred. She knew Thunder or at least thought she knew the human runner, and was either in or trying to get into the "more then friends" stage. And honestly, Betty wished her luck. Her impressions were that Thunder wasn't really a bad guy, a bit shy and reluctant to work what he had, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing either.

In any case, Soy was stubbornly unwilling to give up more personal information to a person who could very easily go back to being an enemy agent. Which was just as well, the elevator finally arrived at their floor anyway. Exiting the lobby and departing their separate ways, the two female agents left the building and disappeared into lunchtime traffic...

Lunch was a deluxe sumo-sized combo meal special at the local Burger World franchise on West and Main. A double-stacked cheeseburger with bacon, an extra large tub of fries, and a creamy 64 oz vanilla milkshake; this was the Big Tool's meal, relatively normal by Adipose City's standards, but then he wasn't particularly keen on eating anything extra heavy until after tonight's run was finished.

The large man had to admit he was a bit nervous, it sounded like a big job. Much bigger then the runs he did before for Taco King or Burger World, but the pay was also substantially better. And if it worked out, maybe he could finally quit that third job and go back to being just a repair guy who occasionally ran as a freelancer....

Finished with his burger and fries, Thunder turned to sipping on his milkshake and watching the world go by. It was the middle of the lunchtime rush so the place was crowded with people grabbing a quick bite to eat before running back to work. Customers lined up in front of the molded counter as underpaid attendants struggled to keep the queue moving. Diners sat on metal stools or squeezed into plastic booths, eating their meals on extruded tables. The walls were decorated with elaborate depictions of burgers, fries, and drinks painted in a red, white, and blue motif. Let there be no doubts that Burger World wasn't proud of its heritage....

Somewhere in his silent revelry, Soy slipped in and took a seat across from him. The male blushed as he found himself staring into those soft green eyes. Yet normally when he looked into them, he saw a playful desire. But this time was different; this time he saw concern....

"What's the matter honey?" He asked.

The panda took a moment before answering. "Work called, I have a project for tonight." She began, looking like she wasn't sure how to ask the question. "They told me you'd also be working on this project." Soy stated, looking at him a mix of hurt and worry.

Thunder didn't need to really figure out what she was implying. "Yeah, I guess I should go cancel our dinner plans then? At least I might still see you tonight then?" He smiled meekly.

Soy wasn't buying it. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"The same reason why you didn't first tell me what you did on our first date. It wasn't particularly important."

"But it is. What if we ended up... competing? Why do you do it?"

"Because... I have to." He replied, not exactly the best answer but the portly man wasn't ready yet. Still too soon to introduce his girlfriend to her...

Soy shook her head, mouth formed into a soft pout. "Come on Thunder, please tell me." She pleaded, gently rubbing his fat calves with her foot while staring at him with those big expressive eyes.

The human Big Tool sighed, man it was difficult saying no to her. "Alright, if everything goes well tonight, I'll show why I need to work like I do. But right now, we both need to get ready." He replied with one final sip of his milk shake before standing up and leaving.

Soy blushed slightly as she watched him walk away. As a male, Thunder was fairly effeminate. A fact enhanced by the hormone treatments he took to center his weight below his waist. Fleshy calves lead up to thunderous hips and a broad, jutting bottom that would have exploded out of his jeans if they weren't made of an Expandex-denim weave. Above the waist his weight tapered off into a slightly plump figure with a modest potbelly. "Booty boys" like him were not without some prejudice, experimenting with gender identity still encountered stiff resistance in the Post-Peak world.

Yet for the panda, in the end all that meant was that it was as much fun watching Thunder walk away from her as it was for anyone watching her waddle off. It was like watching two beach balls bouncing to a silent drum as her boy toy made his way out the door. Unfortunately, he was right about one thing though. They both had a bit of work ahead of them to make sure tonight went as smoothly as possible....

Entrance to Subcity, Same day, 9 PM...

Night had fallen upon the city, the crisp evening air punctuated by the pungent aroma of burning methane. The second shift was almost done and the city's collection of dance halls and strip clubs had just opened up. The tunnel entrances connecting Subcity to the rest of Adipose City were devoid of this activity.

Initially started as a method to provide cheap housing to the city's growing population, the underground arcology that would become Subcity was ultimately abandoned before it could be finished. PEC raided the construction site constantly, the building occurring much too close to one of their hidden labs, and their increased presence caused many citizens to emigrate out of the city. As a result the city with no choice but to cut their losses and leave an incomplete maze of residences, offices, and small factories open for squatters to move in, the perfect place for someone who wanted to stay out of sight to set up.

Choques was quiet as she concentrated on navigating the Valkyrie APC through the tunnels, the lumbering armored vehicle rolling closer to their target. Bazooka Betty imagined that elsewhere the vixen animan Hummer had the band of freelancers crammed in her Titan pickup. Checking her magazines for the umpteenth time, making sure the banana mags for her Boom Boom Betty assault rifle were packed with the 12mm bullets the oversized descendent of the M16 spat at a rate some had considered overkill. But considering the amount of armor PEC agents liked to wear on top of their over-muscled figures, overkill was pretty much the only way to go.

Looking at the others, she resisted the urge to shake her head or sigh. Virtually all the other agents present were fans of handguns. From Soy's automatic pistol to Choques' dual heavy revolvers and Tifa's large caliber handgun, all of them favored the pistol except for Betty. The combat expert wondered if any of them had enough stopping power to take down a charging PEC weapons specialist. Then again, it could have been worse, Troy was providing overwatch from his little bunker in the bowels of Italiana's branch office. Which was certainly preferable to having him here in person. Not so much for the fact he was a pompous ass but because he apparently didn't even know how to fire a handgun. Ah well, thank heavens for small favors. Maybe if they're lucky the bases won't be heavily guarded....

"That's a lot of guys!" Hummer shouted over the roar of gunfire as she threw her vehicle into reverse and drove the team of freelancers out of the artificial cavern at speed. Bullets whizzed past and ricocheted off the truck's metal skin as Maxwell fired his minigun from the back of the Titan. The matted black Meatgrinder belched a spray of fully automatic lead back at their foes, projectiles finding their mark in some PEC security grunts while driving others behind cover.

"Who forgot to tell us that the fitness freaks hid a whole chemical factory down here?" Annabel asked after firing off a round from her Fat Eagle handgun.

"Welcome to life as a freelancer; if you aren't being used as cannon fodder for the company goons, you're doing a job too menial for them." Max replied as he reached for another belt.

The tomboyish vixen gripped the wheel, tuning out distractions as she coaxed the pickup into a sharp turn. Behind her a PEC Speed Freak raced after them, the oversized engine on the feline animan's motorcycle roared as the crotch-rocket effortlessly made the turn before pulling up beside them. Thunder hesitated only long enough to open the window before he shot out the bike's front tire with his McStubby combat shotgun.

Thrown out of balance, the PhysEd wheelman spun out of control and collided with the tunnel wall. The human techie doubted he scored a kill; Consortium agents were often heavily armored. Their pursuer definitely won't be walking away without medical assistance but the male calico kitty would unfortunately live to fight another day. Unfortunately for Thunder at least...

On the plus side, Hummer's skill behind the wheel shone through once again, allowing the group to escape deeper underground without further incident. The oversized pickup truck that the vixen loved so dearly was going to need some bodywork when this was over but when he got the chance to get out and look it over, everything else was fine. Now if only they could figure out how to complete their objective and get paid without getting killed....

Somewhere in the back of the feline's mind, Betty knew that tonight was going far too smoothly. The target they were told to raid turned out to be a small storage facility, lightly guarded and barely staffed. Security was overpowered in a matter of minutes and the laborers either successfully escaped or proving that they were really good at playing hide and seek, either way she wasn't going to catch any of them.

Inside the warehouse proper were rows of stacked drums filled with a chemical she did not recognize. On reflex she took filled a small vial to give the lab specialists something to play with and her teammates did the same once they thought no one else was looking. Tomorrow they might all go back to being rivals, no one wanted to be the one who had to explain to their supervisors why their company was left behind in the race to reverse-engineer PEC technology. The one left out of understanding their enemy was the one ground to dust beneath PhysEd's boot heel.

Then she checked in with the freelancer team. Thanks to the IT infrastructure installed as part of the initial construction, the tunnels didn't cause as much havoc with their communications as one would think. Unfortunately when she discovered what the other squad had found she wished they did. A fully operational chemical factory staffed by nearly a hundred PEC goons and protected by what sounded like an entire team of enemy agents, how the hell did that get classified as a "suspected" installation? Sighing, she acknowledged their message and turned to address the rest of her team.

"Alright ladies, hope you didn't break a sweat dealing with these steroid-chugging chumps. Other team's been having tons of fun without us. Turns out they got sent to the real target down here." Betty announced, noticing Soy's worried glance and Tifa Stoutheart's unsettling interest in something else. The SALAD equine had captured one of the surviving PEC security guards, a burly human male of indeterminate ethnicity, and was eagerly eyeing him up.

"Leave him Stoutheart, you'll have plenty of Consortium thugs to play with after we help the others."

"Hmmmm, I always wondered how much stomach capacity one of these muscle heads had left after all their injections and exercises. I wonder if he will do as well as that one rabbit animan I tested last week..." The drafthorse mused softly, appearing to have not heard a word BB said.

"Tifaaaaaaa... we still have a job to do. Work first, play later."

"Fine." The doctor growled, tossing her prey into the back of the armored carrier. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Betty nodded and motioned for the others to get back onto the Valkyrie while she set the charges. Being underground, specific explosives had to be used to avoid collapsing the upper city in on itself. Hence why the Burger World armorer issued the feline a Firecracker XL incendiary bomb. Once ignited, the Firecracker would explode in a massive fireball that would engulf the entire warehouse in a blazing inferno. The concrete walls would be fine but the contents of the storage space were as good as ruined. The only thing PEC's recovery teams would salvage was a pile of scrap steel.

Walking back towards the APC with a broad, swaggering gait, the feline smiled and depressed the button on the remote detonator in her hand. Behind her the Firecracker detonated with a spectacular blaze. As the heat wave washed over her like a furnace, she could only think of one thing, I could really go for some marshmallows right about now....

Hummer had just climbed back behind the wheel of her truck when the freelancers spotted a Valkyrie APC drive past. Six fat all-terrain tires squealed as the armored corporate transport raced towards the factory entrance like a giant silver beetle. Small arms fire bounced harmlessly off its metal skin as the driver attacked back with her mount's onboard weaponry. The vixen just shook her head and started the engine, racing after the other team with her cargo of freelancers shooting through open windows.

The agents had just dismounted as the Road Hog pulled up beside them and grabbed her UZI-3, far be it from her to let the PEC goons get away with shooting up her ride. With a brief battle cry, Hummer hopped out of her beloved truck and joined the fray with a hail of lead...

The fighting was fierce; PhysEd security grunts attacked with heavy Taser cannons, massive electricity-belching weapons designed for crowd control, and street sumo favorites like the Meatgrinder. Yet none of them seemed to have the Consortium's most feared weapon, something Betty was silently grateful for as the attackers had to split up, until the portly cyberpunks finally fought their way into the production floor. Standing by supervisor terminals adjacent to a whirling maze of automated chemical processing equipment, a trio of PEC elites opened fire on Betty and her two cohorts as soon as they cleared the front offices and entered the factory proper. Soy and the Street Sumo managed to dive for cover in but Choques took a hit before she could get to safety.

As soon as the amber colored slime hit the Taco King mouse square in the face, BB felt her stomach start to turn. She knew what PEC weapon used that kind of projectile; she had seen what it did to people. And no matter how many times she saw it happen, it mentally turned her inside out every time. On reflex she grabbed the incorporated Road Hog and yanked her out of harm's way, careful to avoid getting any of the goop on herself before turning to the task of returning fire. Channeling all of her mental strength, the feline willed herself to focus on taking down the muscle-bound wolf with the sleek chemical sprayer that looked like a metallic child's toy. Unfortunately Soy was not as prepared as she was and turned back to check on their ally. The look of sheer terror forming on the panda's face was all it took for Betty to start imagining what was going on behind her.

Choques was a fairly big girl, a bit on the short side of things but certainly wide enough, built bottom-heavy like Soy. Yet as the cocktail of Lipogun drugs soaked through her skin and mixed with her bloodstream, her fat deposits would melt into a greasy liquid with the consistency of cooking oil before seeping out her pores. While extremely gross, on paper it admittedly didn't sound so bad. Except there was no "off switch," the reaction was going to continue until there was insufficient . Meaning the mouse was slowly melting down from "large and in charge" to plump, chubby, slender, before finally getting down to... Taco King and Burger World had been locked in a territorial skirmish for control of the North American continent for as long as Betty could remember. Yet at the moment, what happened to her rival caused something to snap inside of the feline. With a fierce shriek, she threw a flash grenade around the door, stood up, and charged into the supervisor's alcove while her foes were still blinded.

Two of the agents went down quickly, faster then Betty could process who they were or what they looked like. But the lupine Big Gun, PEC's answer to Street Sumos, he was going to be etched in the feline's brain for a long time. Built like an enormous body builder, the wolf animan swung at her as his sight started to recover. Unfortunately for him, Street Sumo was not just some cheeky moniker. While she never really was much for wrestling, the plump cat girl still had a respectable bit of muscle beneath her blubber. Enough that she managed to dodge his attack and land a furious blow to his family jewels with the butt of her gun. A dense polymer crotch plate took some of the energy out of her swing but not enough to keep her opponent from dropping his rifle and reflexively clutching his covered member in pain.

It was exactly the opening she wanted; allowing her to take a step back, level her rifle at his head, and... nothing. Between providing suppressive fire and taking down the other two fitness freaks, she had emptied her magazine. Automatically the gun ejected the spent mag and waited for her to trade it for her last one. Except... that was the last one.

Both combatants dived for the fallen lipogun, Betty a hair closer then her opponent, and grappled over it. Still running on adrenaline and rage, the plump commando head butted her opponent and tore the sleek metallic rifle away from him. Standing back up, she cocked the weapon and pointed it at the wolf. He merely laughed. "Oh come on, there's not an ounce of fat on me!" The muscle-bound cyber-warrior laughed, long ginger locks bobbing freely as he mocked her.

Her rage subsided to the point where she could think clearly again, the feline smiled and laughed with him. "You're right! How silly of me, here!" She replied, throwing the gun back at him.

Turns out he was as stupid as she thought he was. As soon as the weapon was airborne, he focused his attention on catching it. The Big Gun didn't notice the Fat Eagles in her hands until she was firing at him. Despite being clad in the clamshell-style ballistic cuirasses PEC agents favored, several of her rounds found their mark. Blood spurted across the computer screens as her bullets left exit wounds in at least one shoulder.

In too much pain to fight back, her foe collapsed to his knees and let himself be held at gun point, the barrel of her left Fat Eagle rested against his forehead as she radioed the others. The other teams had done well, the rest of the compound had been taken and there were no additional casualties. A few other Lipoguns had turned up but none of them had been fired, hell most of her teammates didn't even realize what they were until she told them. All that was left was to report her status and do damage control.

"I have control of the main control room. Tifa... get over here now. Choques has been lipoed and needs help." She ordered, motioning for Soy to watch over their prisoner while she quickly yet carefully grabbed the mouse and pushed her into an emergency shower. The sludge was washed off in time but most of the damage was already done; the rodent wheelwoman had gone from being thickly curvaceous to dangerously emaciated.

The equine grumbled in reply, apparently she had almost managed to corner a factory grunt. However her attitude quickly changed when Betty told her she had a Big Gun taken prisoner. Within an instant the SALAD agent was there and helping stabilize Choques so she'd survive the trip home. The prisoner was an easier fix, regenerative drugs mixed with a strong sedative to prepare him for transport to Stoutheart's laboratory. The look of sheer terror on his face before he rendered unconscious was priceless. With security finally taken care of and the workers driven off, all they had left to do was link up the factory's computer networks with the outside world, download any data it contained, and sabotage as much equipment as they could before reinforcements showed up. Maybe tomorrow Betty could get back to her vacation; maybe then she could find some way to forget that her Taco King rival had a month or two of recovery ahead of her....

In hindsight Thunder should have known the companies would have found a way to short change him. The sizable payday he had been promised was a lump sum to be split four ways. Even after ammo costs, it was still a decent share. It just wasn't as big as he had hoped. Hummer offered to pay him to fix the bullet holes out of her truck, which would help but not as much as he wished. Guess he was stuck working that third job for a few more months.

After thinking about how he wanted to go about it, the well-hipped male wrote up a lengthy email to Soy marked both urgent and private. Since she used a company email account for most of her communications, he deliberately withheld details. She was a wonderful girl, definitely deserved to know about his hospitalized sister, but still a bit too trusting of her patrons for his comfort. So he gave her a somewhat abridged version of his story. How his sister was hospitalized with a long-term illness and there wasn't an insurance plan that would cover the treatment she needed to be normal so he ended up doing repair work, running freelance, and... that third job he met Soy at just to pay the bills.

Sighing to himself and shaking his head, he sent the email and checked his schedule. Yeah, he was on for a shift at the club tomorrow night. And with half of his coworkers calling in sick or otherwise jumping ship to work someplace else, it was going to be very miserable working there for the next few weeks. Maybe he should rethink Soy's constant offers to join PanAsia and work with her. After all, it's not like being a corporate whore took that much more of a piss on his dignity then what he was already doing....

It took some arguing after her debriefing, Lieutenant Ford had indeed screwed up her vacation schedule, but Bazooka Betty managed to get the time off she was originally promised. Finally, she was able to go to bed and wake up tomorrow knowing she didn't have to come in for work. Back home in her apartment, Betty barely finished putting her gear away before she stripped down to her underwear and crawled under the covers. Closing her eyes, she slowly fell into a troubled and restless sleep...

Waking up the next morning, Betty shook her head. She spent the entire night having nightmares about last night's mission. In her dreams, teammates were melting into piles of disgusting sludge while a buff wolf stood laughing. No matter what they did they couldn't scrap the slime off fast enough. So much for a restful vacation... goddamn did the feline hate the PhysEd Consortium; hopefully the weapons they recovered will help the corporations figure out those damn lipoguns.

Groaning and staggering out of bed, the feline went through the motions of getting washed and dressed before sitting down for breakfast and checking her email once again. Thankfully, this time there wasn't an urgent message telling her that her time off had been postponed once again. Most of her messages were junk or bulletins about the annual company picnic coming up in a couple weeks, but there were a few coworkers asking about last night's mission; all curiosity seekers, not anyone who had any obligation to hear her report. She was just about to delete the whole batch when one titled "Night Out?" caught her eye. Identifying the sender, the feline smiled a toothy grin and opened it.

To: Agent Bazooka Betty

_ From: Agent Daisy Dukes_

_ Hey sugs, heard about what happened last night and thought you might want to go out on the town and unwind a bit. Have work today but it's the usual grind, nothing as dramatic as what we usually do, should be done sometime this afternoon. Write me back if you want to go._

_ Love,_

_ Dee Dee._

Betty thought about it before composing a message back. Yes she was interested in going out tonight and would love to do it with Dee Dee. While the two of them weren't a couple, they were definitely close. While the happy-go-lucky vulpine femboy did occasionally clash with her, in a sense he was also the perfect foil for her; always able to help her lighten up after a miserable assignment. And if she was having nightmares about last night then perhaps another misadventure that ended in some wild party was just what she needed. In any case, she had a couple hours to catch up on lost sleep before she had to straighten things out and get ready for whatever the fox animan had planned.

That evening, as the cat woman got dressed in club clothes, Daisy knocked at her door. "Hon? It's Dee Dee, you ready?"

Opening the door, Betty smiled and greeted her coworker before letting him in. Standing at roughly average height, the effeminate red fox turned slightly sideways to squeeze his big hips through the doorframe. Clad in a mesh shirt and elastic rubber shorts, Dee was definitely not shy about his feminine side or his enormous thunder thighs.

"So are you ready?" He asked again, a devilish grin on his face.

"Yep, what's the plan?"

"Well, first we're going to get a bite to eat... or two at Chick-e-ton. Then afterwards maybe catch a performance at Club Derrière?"

"Food's nice but the strip club? Really?"

"Don't knock it until you tried it sweetie. Who knows, you might see something you like there." The fox winked. "Besides, a girl who asked about you said she'd like to meet us there. Said she was a friend of yours from last night."

"Who?"

"Some Chinese panda; sweet girl with a big ass, she's actually a regular performer at Derrière. Usually puts on a nice show too." He replied nonchalantly.

That immediately sounded like Soy to Betty, but why would a well-paid corporate agent be moonlighting as a stripper? Granted, if they had any regulations against working part-time in scandalous professions, PanAsia probably didn't have the presence to enforce them in Adipose City like Burger World could. That certainly intrigued her enough to consider going despite her initial misgivings.

"Alright, do we need to tell her we'll meet her there?"

"Probably not, she said if you heard she was there you'd probably want to show up."

"Alright then, lead on girlfriend. You know I can't resist a fat pair of chicken legs." She smiled slyly back at her partner in the evening's frivolities.

Dinner was uneventful, decadent by pre-peak standards but otherwise perfectly unremarkable. Chick-e-ton was having a special on their Mega-Chunk buckets, large cardboard tubs of chicken breasts, legs, and wings. All expertly deboned and beautifully deep-fried in a crispy batter. After downing two buckets apiece, Betty and Daisy left to meet Soy.

While she had heard of it, the Burger World commando had never actually been to the club before. And while it the atrium décor was as unassumingly sparse as she expected, there were things she didn't see coming. The coat checker and weapon inspection was predictable; she didn't realize the buildings had a ban on recording devices, something else the coat checker was not at all shy about asking her. Which she didn't have anything of the sorts, but she couldn't help but think of why they would need such a rule... and a couple of the conclusions didn't particularly sit well with her.

Soy met them in line while they were waiting in the outer atrium. From the look on her face the panda wasn't used to being on this side of the stage. After looking to see that they couldn't be overheard, the feline looked the ursine techie over. "Interesting side job you have here, yet you don't strike me as needing the money."

Their friend blushed. "I... like dancing. I like the attention. Do you understand?" She murmured softly

Betty did understand; Soy had a minor exhibitionism fetish. Which was... actually somewhat pedestrian considering some of the other things the feline has seen people do in Adipose. Meanwhile, a table on the club floor had emptied so the trio was lead in by an enormous human bouncer. Inside... well with a name like Derrière the theme was stupidly obvious. Scantly clad women, both human and animen, with a variety of hourglass and thunder-thigh figures danced on poles or served drinks and snacks to patrons. An automated sound system tucked away in a dark corner played a raunchy sound track that included, naturally, Sir Mixalot's "Baby Got Back."

"Remind me again why you thought Soy wasn't the only reason why I'd come here?" Betty whispered into her coworker's ear.

The fox femboy giggled playfully. "Sure you ain't a lesbian hon? Keep looking."

At second glance, the other Burger World animan saw what he meant. Here and there, effeminate "booty boys" were also waiting tables or working the dance poles, Club Derrière did not discriminate. If she was willing to pay like the boys, the feline could get a nice, mouth-watering pair of drumsticks just like the boys. Lost in her own little world, she didn't notice the pair of chicken legs that waddled up to take her drink order until he came back with a serving tray of peanuts and liquor balanced on his prodigious backside. When she finally came back to reality, she was shocked to discover a familiar face owned that particular rump roast....

Betty was momentarily taken aback when she saw Thunder in Club Derrière, the effeminate male wearing nothing but a speedo, elbow length gloves, and knee-high go boots all dyed a soft powder blue. "So... you two met while moonlighting." The feline began softly; feeling slightly aroused at the sight of the femboy "thunder goddess" despite a strong, sneaking suspicion that Soy would break her arms if the hourglass queen did more then ogle.

Meanwhile the male began to look terrified, quickly serving Betty and her party before turning to waddle away. The feline jumped up and hugged him from behind; the panda would just have to be cross with her. "Thunder cutie, surely you know a girl can't just have her snacks without a show. What're your rates?" Bazooka purred softly into his ear, slipping a generous tip into the hem of his speedo before gently running a paw across his expansive backside.

The male dancer blushed. "No, no... no rates. I'm on the block." He gushed and promptly vanished. The feline gun girl looked at Soy quizzically, half expecting the panda to slap her then answer her unformed question. Instead the PanAsian techie had her face in her palm and softly uttered a few Chinese curse words.

"I take Thunder's in something he didn't want the rest of us to know about."

"Why didn't you refuse to come to work today? Why did you let yourself get caught in that stupid little scheme? I would have helped you with the money..."

"Ummm, Soy sugah? We can't help you if you don't tell us what's going on." Daisy interjected.

The she-bear shook her head. "A lot of the staff has been sick for the last couple days. You already know why, we put a stop to it last night. But the club has had to make due in the mean time; amateur hour has been greatly extended and the club boss decided to arrange this daily auction called the Meat Block. In about... five minutes the dancers will be lined up and open for bidding. Bids start at about what it would usually cost to be 'accompanied' until closing but most of the restrictions on what you can do to them are lifted. And since it is Thursday night..." The panda briefly scanned the crowd as she explained, her gaze finally falling on a trio of well-dressed rat animen, two females and a male, all clad in the style of expertly tailored suits Italiana's upper management favored. "The Fettuccini siblings, right on schedule." She scowled.

"Is that bad?" Betty asked.

"Very bad. All three of them like to be... rough with their toys. And lately they've wanted Thunder."

"Well hon, sounds like there's only one way this can end happily." The vulpine femboy smirked and cast a naughty gaze towards his coworker.

Betty smiled in turn. "Indeed, after Ford yoinked me to work on my day off, the bastard's definitely gonna sign for my 'entertainment' expenses." She snickered and entered their party into the auction.

The bidding began in earnest, the Fettuccinis put down the opening bid for Thunder. The feline commando waited a moment, noticing that she appeared to be the only one interested in bidding against the rodents. Whether that was because no one was interested in the human or afraid of the Italiana executives, she couldn't tell. The cat waited carefully, and then entered her own bid. Glancing over at her opponents, the three Italians were surprised to another bid and looked around to see who was challenging them. While subtly was not her strong suit, Betty knew enough about blending in to look disinterested as the first couple bids were sent back and forth.

Eventually the rats gave up and left in disgust. Walking right past their opponents, none of them so much as looked at the three reclining agents or the screen displaying the feline's bid. BB resisted the urge to snort until her foes were safely out of sight. She was going to have to keep that in mind, three Italiana accounting execs had a thing for feminine males.

With no one else competing with her, Thunder was set back to Betty's corner. The fat tabby smiled coyly as the human returned and wordlessly took his place behind the dancing pole. As both of her heavy-hipped cohorts crowded against her to get a better view of the moonlighting techie, the corporate gunslinger motioned for him to get started. Facing his back to them, the human gingerly gripped the pole and slowly twirled before falling into a spirited dance swaying his enormous rump like a metronome. After several minutes of watching him bounce, shake, and provocatively thrust both his ass and crotch in their direction, she realized she was right yesterday; the freelancer really did underutilize what he had.

By now Soy and Daisy Dukes had squished up to the point where they were practically on Betty's lap yet the feline hardly noticed. She remained enraptured by the performance in front of her, watching silently as her friends vocally cheered Thunder on. And then the daily amateur hour rolled around... With the biggest shit-eating grin the tabby ever saw on his face, the vulpine femboy stripped down to a g-string and swaggered up to Thunder's pedestal, booty boy butt jiggling like it was made of gelatin.

"Mind if I join in sugs?" Daisy asked playfully as he tentatively put a bare foot onto the stage. Thunder merely moved to one side and motioned for the other femmie to join him.

What the fox lacked for grace he made up for with pure passion, eventually causing his dance partner to pick things up as the two gradually came together in a sensual rhythm. Soy and Betty watched, the panda smiling as she watched her lover dance while the Burger World gunslinger let herself be mesmerized by the performance in front of her. She had to admit, Daisy was right when he said this would do her a world of good....