FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Aaron Sweetgrass stood in the wreckage of the warehouse that he had just outgrown, his hooves punching deep prints into the ancient parking lot outside. The darkened street lamps had to be around ten or twelve feet high, and they didn't even reach his knee. He held his best friend, a rabbit named Sam, neatly in one immense hand. If he had to guess, he would venture that he's in the neighborhood of fifty feet tall. He was living the nightmare of some 50s movie monster, too big for the world that he used to know.

But that wasn't even his most pressing worry. The gigantic horse was being loomed over by an unfathomably huge lion around ten times his size, threatened with death if he didn't surrender. Aaron loomed over the remains of the warehouse and its adjacent parking lot, but this big cat filled with two paws that looked more than capable of crushing busses - and Aaron, if he didn't give up immediately.

The horse held up his free hand, tucking Sam in against the barrel of his chest. The rabbit was severely injured and unconscious. Aaron barely felt him breathing. "OK," he said, his voice rumbling the ground around him. "I give. Just please, please help my friend. He's very badly hurt."

"You should have thought of that before you tried to escape, Aaron." The lion sneered down, his voice thunder rolling through the earth. "I make no promises for your friend, except to say that he won't be hurt any further if you cooperate."

Aaron stepped back and shook his head. "I...I can't come with you if you won't promise to help Sam. He shouldn't even be in this mess."

The titan snarled, slamming down on one hand and knee to loom more closely. "You don't make demands, insect. I give the orders, you obey them. You got that?" His voice was a wall of sound that knocked Aaron backward, forcing him to partially crush one of those light posts at the edge of the parking lot. "Now surrender immediately, or both you and your friend are going to die."

A large red dot appeared on the side of the lion's muzzle, which rose hundreds of feet above him even though he was kneeling. The gigantic cat must have seen something from the corner of his eye, because he turned to look out towards the shore that was a mere several hundred yards away. Then his face and mane exploded in fire.

The tremendous boom nearly drowned out the deafening roar of the lion as he tipped backwards and crushed the remains of the warehouse. The ground visibly rippled from the shockwave of his impact, and Aaron felt it rise a foot or two under his hooves. The air was immediately filled with the scent of hot metal, some sort of accelerant, burned flesh and fur. The dust settled and the lion was still, great parts of his mane still on fire.

"Run towards my voice," shouted someone from a speaker either in the woods surrounding the warehouse or the rocky shores beyond it. "Hurry! You don't have much time."

Aaron didn't need to be told twice. He pressed Sam between his hand and his chest and crashed through the woods. At his size the trees felt packed together. He easily made a swath through the canopy, his massive bulk snapping thick branches and uprooting the smaller ones with a good shove. It felt like moving through a cornfield, the stalks surprisingly sturdy but ultimately no match for him. He had to stop and peek above the tops of the trees occasionally to make sure he was on the right track, and in just a few minutes he burst through the other side of the trees to loom over the beach.

A small ship sat in the water about a hundred yards away from shore. The top of it was fitted with what was clearly some kind of cannon; Aaron guessed that's what fired on the lion. On the deck, someone pointed a laser at him; it rested on the hand over his chest and hovered there. The voice said, "Swim towards the boat. You're too big to fit, but if you're a strong swimmer we can lead you somewhere safe."

The horse waded to the ship. The cannon on top was manned by a tall, thin hyena who waved as if he was flagging down a friend at a crowded picnic. The figure on deck turned out to be a chinchilla, her long tail, short ears and thick fur set glowing by the moonlight. She put down her megaphone and shouted up at him. "I'm glad we got to you in time. Come with us, and we'll explain everything."

Aaron looked down at the ship. He was standing in water well off-shore, and it only came up to his thigh. There was no way he would fit on the boat without sinking it. "Uh...where are we going, exactly?"

The chinchilla looked up at him, as if finally getting his meaning. "You'll have to swim, but follow us. We'll take you back to the mainland. Normally we'd blindfold you so you don't know the way, but these are special circumstances. Murphy there will make sure your friend's all right in the meantime. Let's go!"

Before Aaron could say anything else, she disappeared into the captain's area and started turning the boat around. It felt like forever before they were facing the right direction and ready to speed out of there. He looked back towards the shore, at the path he had carved through the trees. Then the beach, where his hoof prints were still deeply carved in the sand. Then up at the stars, with the moon waxing almost full. If he ignored the sound of the idling motor, it was almost quiet. He could use a moment like this, to feel the breeze and settle his heart. It felt like he hadn't had a moment's peace since...

"HEY!" The chinchilla blared from the megaphone startlingly loud. Aaron jumped, creating a small wave that made the boat sway. When he looked, she was glaring up at him impatiently. "We don't have time. You collect your thoughts when you're away from this island. We don't know when kitty's going to wake up, do we?"

Aaron thought about saying something, but then decided against it. Tempers were running high, and she had a point. They should get out of there, as soon as possible.

So he swam. Horses weren't very strong swimmers - their bodies were dense and their bones were heavy, so they tended to sink more easily than most species. It took him more power than most to keep himself aloft and moving forward, but he had that to spare. It almost felt easy kicking through the water, and his hands and hooves swept great waves through the wake of the boat he followed.

The boat moved at a fairly decent clip once it got going. Murphy rode on the top, at the gunner's station, and turned the light towards the giant horse so it was a bit easier to see. That was, at least until the chinchilla banged on the roof of her compartment and told him to shut out that light.

Aaron had no way of knowing how long it took for them to reach the mainland; he would have guessed an hour or more. In that entire time, he never tired. His chest heaved, and he knew he had exerted himself, but there wasn't a sense of fatigue. He felt like he could go for several hours more. But the sooner he got to his destination, the sooner Sam could get proper medical attention, the sooner he could find a way to contact Kord. Once he knew the wolf was safe, he could get some rest. He just wanted this night to be over.

The boat made its way towards a few dark docks that looked far removed from the city. Aaron could see the shine of the street lights reflected on the cloud cover, so he knew civilization was nearby but he had no idea how far it was. As he looked up, the boat made a sharp right turn towards a sheer cliff face; if it wasn't for Murphy turning on his targeting laser for a moment, the horse would have missed them entirely. He circled back awkwardly and followed, feeling rocks scraping harmlessly against his tough hide. He had to admit a small twinge of satisfaction as he felt one crumble under one kick of his hoof.

The boat navigated the rocks with a speed that suggested the chinchilla had made this run several times before. Aaron found himself kicking and thumping against the rocks more often, to the point where he was more twisting than swimming when they swept into the cave. It was invisible in the face of the cliff, especially in the dark; the boat traveled in a few hundred feet before slowing to a stop and turning on its lights. The opening above the water was small enough that Aaron had to hunker down below the surface, holding his breath as he swam through. When he came up, his ears brushed stalagmites on the roof of it and the boat looked even smaller somehow.

"OK," the chinchilla said as the boat nudged the rocky shore. "This last part you're going to have to crawl through. I hope you're not claustrophobic. If you are, get over it in a hurry."

Murphy gave Aaron a helpless shrug as he disembarked. The horse shared a smile with the hyena. Then they made their way through a small passage that would have been easy to miss had they not walked right up to it.

The ceiling quickly curved downward so that Aaron had to hunch, then get down on all fours. Even then, the contours of the cave shrunk to the point that his shoulders and back were pinched by them and he barely had room to inch his way forward. He kept his eyes on Murphy and the gruff savior that had been belting orders since they'd met, his massive hands thumping behind them. He felt bits of the cave shudder against him, bits of stone and dirt rubbing into his thick pelt. He didn't even want to think about how grimy he would be after this. He could only hope there was a bath of some sort waiting for him.

The rocky, slimy walls of the cave suddenly gave way to an immense cavern, broad enough to drive two tanks into, high enough for a two-story building. Aaron still wasn't able to get to his feet, but at least it felt like he could breathe again. Standing on either side of an immense door were two guards in generic black uniforms, each holding what looked to be a very serious gun. They perked at the arrival of Murphy and the chinchilla, then looked up as the horse loomed over the two of them.

"Welcome back, Chloe," Aaron heard one of them say. He was a wolf, tall enough for his species but noticeably smaller than Kord. "Who's the skyscraper?"

"He's a rescue." Chloe answered quickly, using the word like he wouldn't understand what it meant. "We're bringing him in for his first debriefing."

"He was on a mission?"

"He doesn't know it yet."

"Ouch. The whole enchilada." The wolf looked up at him and saluted. "Well, good luck to you, son."

"Thanks." Aaron's voice rumbled in the tiny space.

The other guard, an otter who was freakishly tall, looked over at his partner. "Are you sure he's rated for the elevator?"

Chloe turned to look at him. "You got another way of getting him into the base?"

The wolf patted the otter on the shoulder. "This is obviously a special case. Let 'em through, and we'll get maintenance to check the car when they're done. All right guys, you're clear. Go on."

Chloe walked in first, followed by Murphy. They both flattened themselves against either side of the car for Aaron to squeeze his way in. The horse was honestly not sure he would fit; there was ample space in the car, but the doors weren't wide enough for his shoulders. He would have to crawl in at an angle, then squirm the rest of his body into the crowded space. It would be an awkward few minutes, but the best thing to would be to simply muscle right past them.

So that's what he did. He felt the elevator car bounce and shudder around him as he made his way in, and both Chloe and Murphy were pushed further against the walls of the car.

Only the chinchilla protested though, squeaking and pushing back when Aaron nearly flattened her against his forearm. He rumbled "Sorry" again and again, until at last he was crammed in to the elevator car. It bounced and creaked under his weight, and he had to pull his hoof back a little more before the door would close. But there were no alarms, and when Chloe navigated around his hoof to press a few buttons it vibrated and hummed its way downward.

Aaron waited a moment, then opened his mouth to speak. He was curled in on himself, his body pinched into the space by its own muscle, and vastly aware of his outsized frame. But he was safe. Feeling embarrassed was far more preferable over feeling like you were going to die. He wanted to at least thank the strangers for getting him out of that awful situation.

Chloe held up her paw and shook her head. "It's going to take us a couple of minutes to get where we're going. You have that time to ask any questions you can think of. After that, things are going to get really busy for you, and most of the people you're going to talk to only have enough clearance to do their jobs and talk about what you already know. So ask what you want to ask now, and the rest will be filled in later after you're processed."

Aaron felt his hackles rise. Processing? Clearance? What sort of place was this, anyway? He felt frustration rising within him; he didn't ask for any of this to be brought to his doorstep, and yet here it was. He was pulled into some crazy scheme to grow an army of giant monsters for taking over the world, and now...he was a fifty-foot tall horse who had been naked and dirty for the past two hours. He just wanted to know that his loved ones were safe; he wanted a shower; he wanted to sleep. But a few answers would just have to do.

"Where is Sam? Is he all right?"

Murphy spoke up nearly behind him and to his left. "He's fine, man. He's pretty banged up, but he'll pull through. Aidin and Quiet'll take him from the boat and put him down in our medical wing so you don't have to worry about that. He's in good hands."

Aaron felt a wave of relief wash over him, then a surprising wave of affection at Murphy's reassuring smile. He slumped against the wall of the elevator, then stopped immediately when he felt it buckling behind his shoulders. "Thank you. Really."

"Don't mention it." The hyena grinned again. "So...what is the place? Who are you?"

"We're a government organization operating in secret to monitor and manage the abilities of mutants in our population." Chloe spoke as if she had given the same answer hundreds of times before. She almost sounded bored saying it.

"Wait, mutants?" Aaron tried not to shift in the elevator. He felt the car bulge around him every time he moved.

"Yes, mutants. About twenty years ago people started showing up with rather extraordinary powers. Nothing like shooting laser beams out of their eyes or bending metal with their mind, but the ability to put on muscle and size quite well, people who can heal quite rapidly, never age, are immune to most diseases. Recently, some of you have been popping up with the ability to enhance or nullify the ability of other mutants." Chloe turned to face him now, looking at him directly for the first time since they met.

"So you're saying that this...lizard turned me into some sort of mutant?" Aaron's mind reeled. This was some sort of portal he was stepping through; the world had shown itself to be much, much stranger than he had imagined.

Chloe simply rolled her eyes. "No. You've always BEEN a mutant. Didn't you think it odd that both you and your boyfriend were able to put on so much muscle so easily? Both of you are in the 95th percentile when it comes to muscle mass."

Aaron shrugged, suddenly feeling embarrassed. "I just assumed we were blessed with good genetics."

That earned a wry grin from Chloe. "Well, you're not wrong. But it's more than that. The fact that the both of you were so large and found it so easy to get larger meant that the pair of you likely have mutant genes. You never would have known it; you'd have just kept getting bigger and bigger, maybe living a long, gay life without ever figuring it out. That is, until you were forcibly recruited by Dr. Bose and his gang."

"The tiger. My...doctor?"

Chloe nodded. "One in the same. We've been tracking him for quite some time, but we weren't able to get a lot of information. Until they overplayed their hand." She grinned.

"I'm guessing that has something to do with me."

"It does. Usually Dr. Bose pulls from the dregs of society - homeless people who don't have families that would miss them, runaways, criminals. This is the first time he's gone after someone who...well, who's on the grid. It's not like him. We think he's moving on to some other phase of his plan." Chloe squirmed against Aaron's hoof as she tried to make more room for herself in the elevator. It looked like the stop was coming up.

"What plan is this, exactly?" Aaron felt his heart racing just a little more. He had no idea what to expect at this point. He could only hope that it was something he could handle.

"That's what we're here to find out." Chloe said. The elevator dinged, and the door opened. She gestured impatiently for him to get out.

He had to squirm out hooves first, barely able to see the vast room that looked like it could fit an entire stadium inside it. It was filled to the brim with furs, the scent of mingled species hitting his nose despite the rigorous application of neutralizers. His mind swam as he slowly ground his way out of the elevator, trying to make sure it didn't break under his weight.

The horse snorted as he gingerly slipped one massive arm out of the car, then rose to his full height. He had no idea what sort of world he was stepping into, but he knew that it was nothing like his old one. What's worse, he couldn't step back from this point.