FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was Monday morning and Adam found himself on his way to world history class. It hadn't gotten any more interesting for him since the first day, but that was ok since he'd just spend the time working on some of his more pressing issues, like fixing that god awful name for G-force.

He showed up for class at the last minute as usual and sat down, readying himself for another boring lecture from Mr. Black. He teacher did try, but history was usually such a dry subject it was pretty much impossible to present it in a way that didn't sound like reading the morning newspaper. However today would quickly prove to be an exception.

"Alright everyone, we're going to delve into a somewhat unusual subject, but I assure you it has a great deal of relevance to this class. Today we're going to talk about so called super powers and what effect individuals with them have had in shaping world history."

Adam perked up, this might get interesting. He hadn't yet taken the time to look into this material himself.

Though Adam was attentive, many of his classmates actually snickered when they heard their teacher mention super powers.

"This isn't the first time I've gotten that kind of response. Before I continue, let's hear some of your thoughts on the matter."

Almost the entire class raised their hands.

"Sebastian?" Mr. Black said, pointing to about the middle of the class on Adam's left.

Adam turned a bit in his seat to see who he was pointing at. His gaze settled on a chubby white haired husky with splotches of grey mixed in. Wait, is that the same one from the beach yesterday? I really need to pay better attention. I had no idea he was even a student, much less in one of my classes.

"Everyone knows those aren't real. Though it'd be pretty awesome if they were, right guys?"

There was a general murmur of agreement throughout the room.

"Ah, I expected as much. You see the media doesn't like to talk about this sort of thing since it's not current events, and outside of this class most of you probably get all of your so called history from posts on your furbook pages, or that other social networking site if you happen to be human. But rest assured super powers are very real. Although in recent times they have virtually disappeared for reasons not well understood."

Mr. Black looked around and his gaze settled on Adam.

"Mr. Fennex, I'd be very interested to hear your opinion on the matter."

"I'm with Sebastian. They're a myth. Totally impossible," Adam answered quickly. Perhaps a bit too quickly.

"Hmm, I must admit I'm rather disappointed. You seemed like the kind of student to dig into these sorts of things on his own and not just adopt the view of everyone else. Well, so be it. Are there any of you who have a different opinion?"

A few hands went up, but not many. This wasn't surprising. Adam knew that no super powered people had been sighted for many years, and he also finally knew why. It was understandable if hardly anyone nowadays acknowledged their existence at all.

Mr. Black pointed to the back of the room, "Rufus?"

He's here?! He was supposed to be out for another week yet at least!

But sure enough Rufus had apparently been sitting in the back of the room this whole time, because Adam would have recognized the voice he heard next anywhere.

"Oh they're real alright. I've seen them myself. I was attacked by someone with powers just last week. What, you didn't think any of you normal people could have laid me up for a week, did you?"

"Really Mr. Scarlet? I find that claim rather dubious," Mr. Black said.

Adam looked back then. He didn't want to, but he needed as much information as he could get. Rufus was indeed sitting there surrounded by his usual gathering of wolves. Adam noticed Grey-fur in the seat right next to his, looking entirely too comfortable. What's the deal with him anyway?

"But it's true teach. I'm sure you all saw on the news about it. My house was completely destroyed."

"Oh really? And how exactly did that happen?"

"I was attacked by a giant fox!"

The entire class erupted into laughter, except the wolves of course. Adam cringed and spun back around to face front.

"Well Mr. Scarlet, the only Fox I've seen around lately is hardly what I would call gigantic. I'd appreciate it if you took this class more seriously."

"I'm not making it up!" He shouted.

But nobody was buying it, which was just fine by Adam. Mr. Black moved on then and launched into an exposition on various heroes and villains and their struggles over the years. Adam was too distracted to pay much attention, though he did pick out the name "Stasis," who was apparently a big time villain from the G-force era. Worth looking into later.

Once class was over Adam considered trying to get away quickly before Rufus could confront him, but he knew from experience that was unlikely. Instead he found Sebastian before he had a chance to leave.

"Hey, look I owe you an apology. I'm sorry."

The husky cocked his head to the side, "huh? What for? I'm the one who hit you."

"Well yeah I guess, but I'm just sorry ok? It'll make more sense one day"

Sebastian sighed, "you foxes are so weird," he replied before shaking his head as he walked off.

It's not like I can tell him it's my fault that he got flattened by a giant beach ball. I guess it's not a big deal anyway. He seems to be fine.

Adam stepped outside into the hall. As expected Rufus and his groupies were already waiting for him.

"Where did you think you were going fox?"

"Actually I was coming to find you. We should talk about what happened the other day. I didn't mean to...."

"You expect me to believe that you wrecked my house and put me in traction by accident?" Rufus said, cutting him off.

"Nope, I don't expect you to believe it. But it's still the truth."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter anyway. I'm gonna bring you down to size real soon. You just wait."

"I'm only four foot six. That's kinda redundant, don't you think?"

Rufus bared he fangs, "you know what I meant fox! We'll pick this up....after school. Come on guys. Let's get out of here."

Adam watched Rufus and the rest of the wolves stalk off. He noticed not one of them looked back. They seemed much more confident facing him that they had over the last week. Something had changed, Adam was sure of it.

He went through the motions of his class work, but his thoughts were completely focused on Rufus. When he finally got into last period he cornered the professor.

"We need to talk. I think Rufus is planning something. He's back, and when he confronted me in the hall just now he didn't seem at all afraid of me."

"We'll deal with this after class. I've been making some preparations just in case," Vern replied.

The bell rang and the other students began piling in. Adam was amazed at how calm the professor was as he went about teaching his class like normal. He must be used to this. He hasn't kept his identity a secret this long without being careful.

After class was over and the other students had all left, the professor walked over to Adam, "alright, first thing you need to do is go get Barry. Meet me back here as soon as possible. I've got something for the two of you."

"On it," Adam answered as he hurried to go find his friend.

He caught up with him back at the dorm, already dressed in that ridiculous looking blue hawaiian shirt of his.

"What's the hurry? I was on my way out to..."

"Yeah, I know where you were going, but right now we've got a problem. You should probably change clothes. Things might be about to get rough. Rufus is back, and he's up to something."

Barry didn't even look at him as he said, "yeah, I'm not surprised. I'm sure you can handle him after yesterday right? You don't really need me anymore."

"What? We're a team. Of course I need you big guy."

"Why? You can just get as big as you need to now that you've gotten used to it."

"Look, just because I can do it if I have to doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to enjoy it as much as you do. Think about it. You did pretty good last time I shrunk you. Want to try that again?"

Barry turned his attention to Adam, "uhm, no. Ok I see your point."

"Yeah and you're way better at being big than I am anyway. Besides, you didn't really think I was going to hog all the action for myself, did you? Now come on. The professor wants to see us right away."

Barry grinned as he changed into a much less colorful grey tank top, "let's do it."

**********

They were back in the lab within a few minutes. The professor called them over to a workbench right away.

"Alright, can either of you two tell me what the most important thing is for any team to function properly?"

"Uhmmm...getting enough sleep," Adam offered.

Vern looked over at Barry.

"Food!"

The professor shook his head, "well those are important on an individual level, but I'm afraid neither was the answer I was looking for. Actually what both of you are going to need most is..."

He held up a pair of sleek looking ear pieces, "communication."

"I guess that makes sense," Adam said.

"Of course it does. The two of you are going to spend a lot of time at vastly different sizes from one other. With these, you can still talk without a lot of yelling or straining your ears respectively. And best of all, they're noise cancelling!"

"Seems like you spent a lot of time on these. Thanks professor."

"Don't mention it. Now, try them on."

Adam took his and slipped it on over his ear. The fit was quite good. It didn't seem likely that it was going to fall off no matter what he did.

"You too Barry."

"Do I have to?"

"Only if you want to be big..."

Barry grabbed the earpiece from the professor's outstretched hand and slammed it onto his head.

"Excellent. It seems Adam was right. You do respond well to the proper incentives. Now, press the little button on the side there to turn yours on Adam."

"Alright professor, done."

Barry clicked his on too and immediately tried it out, "HEY, IS THIS THING..."

"Agghhhh!" Adam yelled, clutching his ear.

"Oh, sorry. You might need to adjust the volume down a bit. It's right next to the on button."

"WHAT?"

Rather than bother repeating himself, Vern reached over and lowered the volume on Adam's earpiece.

"What about yours Barry? Volume ok?"

"Yeah, it's just perfect."

The professor smiled, "good. I can't imagine why I messed up the other one so badly. Maybe I was just distracted after thinking about what he said he was going to do to my poor car yesterday. I'm just really sentimental about it is all."

"I heard that professor..." Adam began.

"I guess I should have set the volume higher after all."

"You're going to be in enough trouble as it is already Vern. Don't make it harder on yourself. "

"Is that a threat?"

"SORRY, CAN'T HEAR YOU! EARS STILL RINGING!"

"I see. Well at any rate you two better get going and see what Rufus is up to."

**********

They had no sooner left the lab then the professor came running after them. "I just got a call. He's downtown, and from the sound of things he's on a rampage."

"A rampage? Is he..." Adam began.

"Yeah. Apparently he's huge and totally trashing everything in sight. This is bad. We've got to get down there right away."

"Let's go!" Barry exclaimed and the three of them hurried outside and into the professor's car.

Vern turned the key in the ignition and the vehicle failed to start.

"If we're supposed to be super heroes or something, we're going to need a better vehicle," Adam offered.

"Well if you've got a couple million dollars just lying around I'll see what I can come up with. Until then," The professor grunted as he turned the key a final time and the engine started, "we've got to make due with what we have."

They sped away from the campus and went looking for Rufus. He wasn't very hard to find. A steady stream of vehicles raced away from his location. They simply needed to drive the opposite direction of them and within minutes they had him in sight.

"Whoa, he really is huge. He must be at least a hundred feet tall," Adam remarked.

The professor stopped the car a couple blocks away from him and the three of them got out.

Adam looked around at the scene before him. It was hard to miss the line of crushed vehicles on his right, as if Rufus had made a point of stepping on every single car on that side of the street. A few of them had car alarms that still tried to blare weakly.

Just as bad, the traffic lights had been torn down in every intersection he had run through.

The worst though was the damage done to many of the buildings themselves. Looking around at the debris lining the street, it seemed as if Rufus had used light poles, cars and anything else that could possibly serve as a weapon to batter every structure he could.

What is he doing anyway? Has he simply gone insane with power and decided to destroy everything he can?

They heard Rufus speak then. "FOX! I'm here! Come and get me!"

"Hey little buddy. I think he's calling you out," Barry said.

"Yeah, but you know what they say. Mess with the fox, get the bear."

"That's a new one on me. You sure that's a real expression?"

"Nope, I just totally made it up. You ready big guy for the main event?"

"Yup. Let's do it!"

"Alright. I'll just make you about 150 feet tall and..."

"Huh? No, just make me the same size. I'd be much too slow at that height, and besides, what would be the fun in beating him just because I was way bigger anyway?"

Adam shrugged, "well it's your decision. Are you sure about this?"

Barry walked to the middle of the street, looking around to double check that there would be enough space for him at his new size, "I'm sure. Hit me."

ZAPPP

Barry grew, and Adam was relieved to see the height was just perfect. No sooner had he finished then his friend took off down the road after Rufus, who currently had his back to them.

Adam followed behind as fast as he was able. He had to dodge around power lines, a couple of trucks that had been flipped onto their roofs and even a few massive potholes. Barry's steps also vibrated the ground forcefully enough that it was difficult to stay upright, but even with all of that he managed to keep up well enough. Rufus must have felt them too though because he turned around at the last moment and managed to block Barry's first punch.

He retaliated with one of his own which Barry ducked under before ramming his head into Rufus' midsection and driving him back into the nearest building.

Immediately Adam saw bits of the facade break lose and fall towards street level. A particularly large section was going to fall right on top of an innocent bystander. Adam zapped it down to the size of a pebble before it could hit him.

The person he saved looked over and shouted something before running off. Adam was sure he had been seen using his powers, but there had been no choice.

I'm probably going to have to do that a lot before this is over with.

Just then a news helicopter showed up.

Great, now we're on live television.

As Barry stepped back from his charge, Rufus hit him right in the face with a footpaw and Barry lost his balance, falling backwards and landing hard on the asphalt faceup. Then Rufus jumped through the air and tried to come down on him with his claws.

"Watch out!" Adam yelled into his earpiece.

At the last moment Barry raised his arms and caught both of Rufus' wrists with his paws, placing a footpaw into Rufus' chest and flipping him over to land behind him.

They both sprang up relatively quickly and faced each other for a moment.

"I should have known the fox wouldn't have the guts to show up when it's a fair fight."

"You'll need to bulk up a lot more before he'll bother with you. See, you're just a small time..."

"Shut it bear. I'm more then big enough to take you out."

Adam had been listening to the two of them when he noticed a couple of suspicious looking vans pull up at the nearest intersection.

"Hey Barry, looks like a few of his goons showed up down here. Be careful."

If his friend had heard him he gave no sign. His attention was still firmly on Rufus.

Adam decided to try something and raised a paw in Rufus' direction.

ZAPP

He had been trying to shrink him and was shocked when nothing happened. Neither Rufus nor Barry seemed to notice anything at all as they continued like nothing had happened. Maybe my powers won't work on someone who has them too?

"Well what are you waiting for then? You scared or something? Bring it!"

Rather than respond Rufus lunged at him. But he was clearly not accustomed to moving at this size and Barry was ready for it besides. He spun out of the way easily. As he did he caught Rufus' outstretched arm with his own. Completing the spin, Barry ended up behind his opponent where he pinned the first arm behind his back while placing his other arm under Rufus' right shoulder which he was able to quickly lock in place by putting his right paw on the back of Rufus' neck.

"Yeah! Great job Barry. He's not going anywhere now!"

"You going to come quietly, or do I get to introduce your face to the ground a couple dozen times first?"

Rufus struggled, but Barry's grip was clearly unbreakable.

"This isn't over you stupid bear. You haven't heard the last of me!"

And then Rufus did something completely unexpected. He shrank himself back to normal size, causing Barry to suddenly lose his balance. At the same time Adam noticed that men in black suits had taken up positions around the two vans he had seen earlier. A couple of them had something on their shoulders.

"Barry look out!"

Barry had his back to them and didn't see when the rockets were fired at him. There was no way he'd be able to move in time.

Adam did the only thing he could think of and raised his paw.

ZAPP

Barry shrunk quickly and avoided the rockets, which continued on and hit a building at the far end of the street.

"Whoa, good thinking there buddy," then he noticed Rufus running towards the vans. "Hey, I'm not done with you yet! Get back here you coward!"

"Wait Barry. This was too easy. Something isn't right here."

His suspicions were confirmed when the professor pulled up, "Get in! We've got to get back to the lab!"

Barry and Adam hopped in and they raced back to the campus.

"What's wrong Vern?"

"The silent alarm has been tripped. I think I'm being robbed!"

**********

By the time the team made it back to the lab the thieves were long gone. They knew they had been there though because the door had been torn right off of it's hinges and lay in the floor right where it had been left.

"I need to check something," The professor said before rushing into the lab.

Barry and Adam followed behind him slowly and the first thing they noticed was everything seemed to be just as they had left it. Then why bother to break in at all?

The professor met them in the center of the room and had a ready explanation. "They've stolen the exotic matter. That stuff is incredibly dangerous, as you well know Adam. I should have been more careful."

"What would they want it for anyway?" Adam asked.

"There's no way to be sure, but it can't be good. That stuff has many uses, more than a few of which I'm sure I don't even know about. We've got to get it back before they can carry out whatever their plans are."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I called in some backup earlier. He should be here any minute."

"Who?"

Adam heard a familiar voice behind him, though he couldn't place it for the life of him.

"Damnit Vern, what have you done to the lab!"

It couldn't be...

He spun around and saw his father standing there. Unlike himself, his dad stood at a relatively normal 5 foot 10 inches in height. Though he had the same bright orange fur with white highlights as Adam did. "Dad?"

"Hello son. I know you're probably really mad at me for..."

Adam raced over and jumped into his father's arms, hugging him tight.

"It's ok dad. I understand you didn't have a choice. I'm just glad you're finally back."

"So am I son. So am I," he replied, returning the embrace. This went on for some time before the professor cut in.

"Ahem, I hate to interrupt Jack, but we've got a big problem here. They've made off with the exotic matter. Can you tell me anything at all about why they would want it?"

"Actually I can. That punk Rufus can only use his powers if he has a supply of the stuff. The syndicate has been feeding it to him like candy in exchange for doing their dirty work but they had nearly run out of their own stock. We'd better get it back fast before things get really out of control."

"How do you know all of this dad?"

"Easy. I've been undercover spying on them for the last year or so."

"Really? That sounds dangerous."

"It was, but we had to know what they were up to. There's more, but we'll get to that later."

"So what do we do now? Going up against the syndicate won't be easy," Adam said.

"No it won't, which is why I'm here. I'm going to train you son."

"I appreciate the help dad, but I'd like to think I'm doing pretty good already. I can make stuff the right size and even stand being big if I have to."

"Vern, what have you been teaching my son?"

"The basics obviously. Don't forget I had this bear over here to deal with too."

"Now wait just a minute. I wasn't that bad, was I?" Barry interjected.

"Oh I don't know, why don't we ask the wall over there with the huge claw marks in it?"

Barry sighed, "sorry about that. But I'm over all that now."

"Yes you are. Great work today with Rufus by the way."

Barry grinned, but Adam cut in before he could say anything, "wait dad, what am I missing here?"

"There's a lot more you need to learn about your powers before you're truly ready for action, and I'm going to help you with all of that."

"I can't wait! We've got this field a couple hours drive out of the city we've been using and..."

Vern interrupted him, "I'm afraid that won't do this time. It's already been decided. We're getting the band back together, and for that we need a base."

"You mean?"

"Yes, our old G-force base is still there. It'll take some time to get it fully operational, but we'll manage."

"Really? That's great! When do we leave?"

"Right away. After today any attempt at secrecy would be pointless. Half the city saw Barry fighting Rufus. I'm sure he's been recognized. We need to move immediately before anyone shows up to start asking questions."

As the professor lead them all out of the lab, Adam could scarcely contain himself. I get to go to their secret base? And my superhero dad is going to train me? This is so awesome!