FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Back in the room where she’d first woken up, Lev dabbed carefully at the blood on her leg with a disinfecting wipe. Now that she understood that the Korps writing was backwards she could read the sign outside that read “exam room,” making it seem an appropriate place to tend to her wounds. The Brotherhood goons had shot up the room, but she’d still been able to find some medical supplies fairly easily, with minimal bullet holes. The gashes left by the knife had already scabbed over, but she didn’t want to take chances, she covered them with gauze and bandages. Once her leg was taken care of, she turned her attention to the mirror, but hesitated. What would she see? It had sounded like she’d been shot in the face, and one of her eyes was clearly damaged to some extent, but somehow she’d survived. Would there be holes in her skull? How much was left of her left eye? She knew she had to look, but she couldn’t work up the courage just yet.

Is something wrong? VR’s scarlet words reassured her, slightly.

My face, Lev replied. I know that I need to examine the damage, but…

Hold on, VR paused for a couple of seconds. Can you try now?

Lev slowly turned her good eye towards the mirror, and gasped. Her ears had been tattered and notched, metal studs protruded from the skin around her damaged eye, as for the eye itself: The pink iris was shattered, only a couple translucent fragments still clung to the ruined lens, no longer glowing. Where it had once been there was now only a gray metal ring, segments sliding against one another as the pupil expanded and contracted, one of the pink fragments jammed in the center. She carefully lifted a finger up to the metal eye, resisting the urge to blink. She touched a flake of pink plastic and gingerly lifted it away from the eye. The material of the lens flowed like melted gelatin into the hole left behind, sealing the tear. She repeated this process with the piece in her pupil, and her vision slowly began to clear up.

She then turned her attention to the metal stud embedded under her eye, a bullet maybe? Lev felt around the torn skin with a set of tweezers, probing for the edge of the metal piece. Instead, her grip slipped and one of the prongs slid under the skin of her cheek. Reflexively she pulled the tweezers back out, and wound up tearing a strip of skin off along her eye socket. Dropping the bloody tweezers she turned her attention back to the mirror, and saw a strip of bloody skin hanging from the side of the socket, a metal plate sitting where it had lain.

Lev took hold of the torn strip of her flesh with two fingers. LEV, STOP! VR pleaded, but she ignored them and yanked on the strip, feeling a small amount of stinging pain as more skin was ripped loose. At least use scissors!

Lev paused, what looked like a wire was exposed, running from her eye socket to her ear. She turned her gaze back to the medical supplies she’d salvaged and her eye caught on the exposed cables protruding from her right shoulder. As she picked up a pair of surgical scissors she asked VR a pointed question. VR, I’m asking you again, and I want an answer this time. What the fuck am I?!

I still don’t have enough information to make a solid statement…

But? Lev demanded.

All of the evidence I’ve seen thus far suggests some variety of cyborg, but I can’t tell your origin yet.

A cyborg? Lev thought. That meant a morph with machines replacing parts of their body, didn’t it? Or was it a robot made partially of meat?

Technically, it could refer to either one, VR interjected unprompted. But it’s usually used to refer to augmented organic beings while artificial entities with organic and inorganic parts are known as bioroids.

And you don’t know which of those I am? Lev snipped off the dangling piece of skin and picked up a tube of disinfectant gel with a hole in the middle where it had been clipped by a bullet. Probably not that sanitary now, but her head wounds had already stopped bleeding, just like her leg. She rubbed the gel over the metal plates that had been exposed under her skin, unlike her eye there was no sign of bullet damage, suggesting some sort of reinforced armor. Lev took a mental inventory of the metallic bits in her body; at least one prosthetic eye (probably two, assuming glowing eyes weren’t normal), armor under her skin, something that stopped bleeding quickly, and whatever those cables on her shoulder were…

My best guess would be musculo-skeletal reinforcement.

What? Lev inquired of VR’s seeming non sequitur.

The steel cables in your neck and shoulder, I noticed your gaze shifting to them again.

How did you… Lev began to realize the answer even as she was mentally vocalizing the question. You can see through my eyes?

You didn’t realize that?

Lev suddenly became uncomfortably aware of how little clothing she was currently wearing. What had that deer, Headlight, said? “Fighting pussy out like a Korps slut.” She squeezed her eyes shut, noticing a rip in her left eyelid as she did. Stop it!

Why? I need full access to your sensory input to provide maximally effective assistance.

For one thing I’m practically naked, Lev objected. And I was fully naked earlier, how long have you been in my eyes?

Starting about 372 seconds after you woke up. VR responded. I also have access to the feed from your auditory and olfactory sensors and biomonitors implanted in your respiratory system, digestive tract, liver, and endocrine system.

Lev froze, feeling more exposed than ever, trying carefully not to send that thought to VR. Could she trust this mysterious individual who sent text messages to her eyes and could see, hear, and smell everything around and inside her body? They were the only person she had met so far that hadn’t tried to kill her, but she still had no idea who or what they were, were they even a person? Could their own claim of amnesia be a ruse? Can you just, maybe, leave me alone for half an hour?

As you wish, VR replied. Call me if you need me.

The text chat box where they’d communicated disappeared, along with the map in the corner of Lev’s vision. She stood up and began to look around the room for clothes. A glint of pink fabric caught her eye, but when she bent down to pick it up all she found was a pair of small triangles barely bigger than postage stamps, connected by three thin strings. As she turned them over in her hands she realized that they were meant to be her panties, was this some kind of joke? Just who were these “Korps” people? Headlight said they brainwashed people and made them into drones, was that just some kind of sex thing? Why weren’t there any pants or even a skirt there?

With a sigh, Lev slipped the “panties” on, deciding they were better than nothing. Maybe there were some pants in the armory, or if nothing else she could salvage the pants off one of the corpses.

Lev stepped outside and looked up to try and find the armory again, only to realize that she couldn’t read the signs anymore. She stared at the chisel symbols for at least a minute, but the translated letters failed to materialize. Did that mean VR had been translating them? How could she find the armory again without their help?

She took a deep breath and tried to remember which way she’d gone. Lev went down the corridor, past one side hallway, and then found herself at a door and a turn to the right. She looked around the floor, there were no bodies anywhere to be seen, but it seemed like it should be a large room on the other side of the door. At the very least, there was probably something that she could use in there.

Lev put her hand on the handle of the door and the pink square she’d seen on the armory door before appeared in her field of view. While she couldn’t read it anymore, the meaning was obvious and she waved her hand through it. The square turned green, but then a pink circle appeared above it, with more chisel symbols. Lev touched that as well, and when it turned green the locks holding the door shut clanked open.

The door began to slide open and Lev braced herself for whatever was on the other side. Before she could see anything the air leaked out, and Lev almost gagged on the stench that it carried. A sickly rotten scent, like a mix of excrement and decaying meat, had something died in there? Something inside the room made a rustling sound as it moved, dislodging several solid objects that clattered across the floor. One of the objects bounced into the light coming through the opening doorway and Lev glanced down at it. Her breath caught as the stained white object rolled to a stop and she recognized it, a skull.

Fear rising, Lev looked up to find the source of the noise and her eyes widened in fright and confusion. A tangle of limbs and heads swung and struck at each other, making indecipherable guttural noises. One of the heads turned a yellow, slitted eye on her, and let out a piercing shriek.

Lev did not wait to find out what that thing could do to her, she turned and ran back the way she came. Too late she realized that the door was still open as the clatter of bones and plopping of flesh on the floor came closer. She cursed herself for leaving the mace back at the armory, though she couldn’t say what good it might do against such a monster. She swung around a corner, into another unfamiliar hallway, she made another turn and the creature’s sounds faded into the background.

She was lost, hopefully that thing was lost too, but just running randomly through corridors it would catch up to her eventually. Unless she got some directions. Lev sighed in resignation, knowing what she had to do now to survive. VR, are you there?

Always Lev, the text box reopened. Did you change your mind already?

I need your map and whatever you did to translate the signs! Lev replied without bothering to explain.

The map of the base reappeared in the corner of Lev’s vision and the wedges on the nearest sign were overlaid with Latin letters. Anywhere in particular you’re looking for?

The armory! No sooner had Lev said that, than she remembered that the door to that particular room had been busted wide open. There might be weapons in there, but no cover. And someplace I can hide!

What, are we under attack again? Before Lev could explain what had happened, VR continued. Whoa! What is that thing?

You can see it?

Occasionally, a lot of the cameras on this floor got busted up by those cops. VR paused for a moment before adding; and I stopped watching when you said you wanted privacy. Where did it come from?

Lev tried to remember the symbols on the sign outside of the room that had held the chimeric creature. It was one of the rooms here, I don’t know which one. I can’t even read the signs without your help.

Well, it’s nice to be appreciated like that. A path appeared on the map leading Lev to the armory, but an angry red dot was approaching the same destination, and far closer than she was. It might not be a good idea to go to the armory first, there’s a bathroom around the next left that you can hide in.

Lev looked up and saw a sign with a stick figure person sitting on a toilet and an arrow pointing left. She shrugged, a little surprised that there was someplace here clearly labeled, though given what she’d seen of the Korps so far the blunt symbology seemed in character. She followed the sign’s direction to a door with the same toilet symbol on it, a green square floating above the door read “available.” Lev slapped the icon to open it and dashed through as the door was still sliding open. She then spun around and watched the door automatically close behind her and produce a new prompt: “Private or open?” A little confused, Lev touched the “private” icon and saw a new set of icons: “Door lock, noise cancellation,” and “Faraday cage”. She tapped the first one and a checkmark appeared next to the icon as the door made a “click” sound. Curious, she also tapped the noise cancellation icon and the background noises from the halls outside died instantly. Her finger strayed towards the third icon.

Wait, don’t touch that!

Lev pulled her finger back. Why? What does it do?

It blocks all electromagnetic signals going in and out. VR explained. I won’t be able to tell you when it’s safe to come out.

She stared at the Faraday cage icon, it sounded tempting, but she would indeed need to talk to VR. Maybe later, when she wasn’t in mortal danger. Lev instead turned away from the door and surveyed the room. There was a sink and mirror next to the door, with a hand dryer and paper towel dispenser attached to the wall. Further in was a urinal that stretched from a drain set in the floor to halfway to the four-meter high ceiling. Lev blinked as she tried to consider who might use something like that. VR, is this a men’s room?

What do you mean by “men’s room?”

Nevermind, Lev turned her attention away from the urinal to the toilet. Even with her amnesia, she had a vague idea of what a commode looked like, and it had the basic features of a bowl, seat, and flush handle, and then some. The bowl and seat appeared to be set on tracks going up and down, and there were armrests covered with buttons, plus cupholders. Mounted on the wall next to the apparatus was what appeared to be a vending machine with several buttons that displayed cartoonish logos. She quickly scanned the buttons, finding condoms, tampons, disposable cock rings, pills ranging from acetaminophen to sildenafil, and finally, toilet paper.

For a moment, she thought that the Korps must be the type to make personnel pay for toilet paper, but then she realized that there was no visible coin slot, bill feeder, or other means of paying. VR spoke up as she was scanning the machine, there's no wireless inputs that I could detect. It might be basic dumb electronics. Experimentally, Lev pushed the button for toilet paper, and white paper began to spool out of the slot, stopping when she lifted her finger from the button. She then pushed several more buttons at random, the products on the labels dropped out of the slot at the bottom next to the paper.

The… creature has reached the armory, it seems interested in the corpses you left behind.

Lev perked back up and turned away from the toiletry dispenser. What do you mean by “interested?” she asked cautiously.

They appear to be ripping one of the corpses apart, the different heads seem to be fighting one another over chunks of meat. Oh, the reptile head is trying to swallow the whole thing.

Lev tried to picture the scene that VR was describing, and realized that she needed more information. She had barely gotten a look at the thing and as disgusting as it had looked, she would need a better look at it if she had any hope of defeating it. Show me.

I really don’t think that would be a good idea. VR objected.

Just show me, Lev commanded.

If you say so. An overhead view of the hallway outside the armory over-rode the vision in Lev’s left eye. A creature that she could best describe as a lumpy ball of mismatched limbs stood over the dismembered remains of one of the dogs she’d been forced to kill earlier, blood seeping out over the floor tile. Tawny feline paws batted at shaggy cloven hooves, a scaled head stretched around the helmet of the corpse while a maned lion’s head gripped the corpse’s torso in its jaws. As the other two heads fought over the corpse a goat’s head with curled horns chewed on a piece of blood-stained armor plating. The scaled head lost its grip on the corpse and its head popped out without a helmet, skin torn by hooked teeth. A melon-shaped bulge traveled down the reptile’s narrow neck to the asymmetric body of the creature, mismatched fur and scales stretching around its ceramic meal.

“What the Hell is that thing?” Lev exclaimed out loud.

I have no idea, VR replied. I would guess some sort of bioengineered chimera.

Lev wished for the gruesome vision to leave her sight, and moments later it vanished, leaving her with stereoscopic vision of the bathroom again. I need to get the mace back, tell me when it leaves the area.

Can do.

—

Lev waited in her soundproofed refuge for half an hour, waiting for word that it was safe to go and retrieve her weapon. She considered taking advantage of the amenities in the room, but the thought of VR watching, when she couldn’t afford to be private from them, made her hesitate.

Okay, the coast is clear, VR eventually stated. Lev breathed a sigh of relief and started to open the door. They’re headed back to what I presume is their lair, I suggest rushing in and grabbing whatever you need quickly. Before they decide to come back for seconds.

Can you see the mace? Lev asked as the bathroom door slid open.

Yes, it appears to be approximately four meters inside the door, lying on the floor partially under a shelving unit. As soon as the door finished opening Lev raced off down the hallway, following VR’s directions to the letter. And keeping a close eye on the monster’s location on the map. She rounded the last turn, looked, and skidded to a halt as she saw what the creature had left behind.

The bodies were gone, leaving only a puddle of reddish-brown liquid that stank of death and decay, and a few scattered pieces of ceramic armor. It ate everything?

I’m afraid so, I guess it was really hungry. Lev gingerly tried to step around the puddle, but there was a meter-wide pool of gore stretching across the doorway, and she was forced to let her foot squelch into the viscera. Sorry, guess you won’t be able to loot their pants.

Lev paused in her tracks. I don’t remember telling you that?

I could tell you were looking for some sort of lower body covering, VR attempted to explain. Now I don’t have a full inventory of the armory, but they might have something you can wear.

Lev tried to wipe the blood off her boots, only succeeding in leaving long red streaks on the concrete. She scanned the armory for clothing, her gaze settling for a moment on a rack of gloves and masks. As she examined the rack more carefully she found a pair of heavy work gloves that fit her, these could be useful. To her dismay there were no pants, however there were a bunch of tight-fitting purple jumpsuits on the shelf behind them, all emblazoned with the Korps double-helix. Those look like they’d barely cover anything, and I’m not sure it would be a good idea to wear Korps insignia so openly.

That might depend on whether you’re facing the Brotherhood or the Korps. Though it seems like the Brotherhood has already decided that you’re with the Korps.

I still don’t want to declare allegiance to anyone until I know who I am. Who if anyone took my memories. Lev passed the jumpsuits by. Her foot kicked something under one of the shelves as she continued looking for clothes.

Her search was interrupted by VR shouting out an alarm. The creature is coming back! You have to MOVE FAST!

Where’s the mace? Lev looked around frantically for the weapon.

It should be somewhere in your immediate vicinity. Most likely on the floor.

Lev glanced down, seeing no sign of the weapon, her stomach sinking as she realized what that object she had kicked was. The bottom shelves were all solid steel, she couldn’t see which one the mace could have slipped under. She got down on hands and knees to investigate under the shelves, glad she’d grabbed the gloves earlier. The first shelf she checked had nothing but dust bunnies underneath.

Lev, it’s almost here, hurry UP!

The second shelf she found a set of cracked pink plastic goggles, but no mace. Off in the distance she heard the cacophony of mismatched appendages hitting the floor tiles.

It’s outside, you don’t have time to run anymore. Just get a weapon, any weapon!

The third shelf she searched, Lev finally found her mace. It lay at the back of the shelving unit, almost exactly between it and the shelf on the next aisle. Lev reached for the handle of the mace, feeling the skin of her arm scrape against the edge of the shelf. Past the mace she could see out into the hallway, where she spied a lion’s paw and a pair of hooves.

Lev flattened herself to the floor, her fingers just barely brushed against the end of the mace’s handle. She heard a warped gurgling bray as the creature flopped and flipped towards the end of the aisle, motivating her to stretch out further. Her shoulder popped as Lev finally managed to wrap one finger around the handle of her weapon and slowly begin to inch the heavy thing out from under the shelf. She got her thumb around the handle, then the middle finger, the mace making a loud scraping sound as she pulled it towards her.

A choked roar sounded from the end of the aisle in front of Lev, she looked up momentarily to spy the grotesque chimera, its goat head stretching towards her with horns lowered. The rat yanked her mace hard, heedless of the shelf scraping against her skin or the grinding of mace against the floor. The monster charged, jumping and stumbling as its mismatched legs tangled with one another. Lev scrambled to get her legs back under her as she pulled the mace loose and held it in front of her. She failed to brace herself in time before the chimera ran straight into her.

At the last second Lev pressed the button on the mace’s handle and swung it upward into the monster’s approaching goat head. The mace’s head glowed fuchsia as it impacted the chimera’s lower jaw, the force of the impact throwing the monster into the air as her swing went over her head. Lev fell onto her back and the creature came with her, landing just behind her. The rat pressed the mace into the goat head as she flipped herself over and jumped to her feet. Finally able to brace herself properly she lifted the mace up for a full swing, and found that the goat's head clung to the mace’s head. She swung back down, embedding the mace further in the creature’s jaw but even caught between solid metal and concrete the head continued to let out gurgling brays and blink its slitted eyes. Lev lifted the mace again, goat’s head following, and pressed the button again.

The pink glow about the mace’s head faded and the chimera’s goat head fell to the floor, weakly gurgling. The monster tried to get its limbs under itself as the snake and the lion pulled it one way and the other, each trying to face her. The snake, with its longer and more flexible neck, reared back to strike Lev, and she just barely managed to jump back in time. She tried to whack the snake head with her mace but it was too quick and darted back before she could hit it.

Lev faced down the monster fighting with itself, trying to think of a strategy quickly. The mace’s powered effect seemed to be some sort of attractive force, gravity perhaps? If she struck at the lion’s head the snake would get her, she could get the snake if she goaded it into striking again, but she’d have to catch it somehow. As the snake’s side of the body swung closer to Lev she found her foot stepping towards it.

The snake lashed out, Lev did not flinch back this time but swung her mace into its attack, pressing the activation button as she swung. The pink glow seemed to draw the snake’s head back from her flesh, instead the back of the head clung to the mace’s head, mouth wide open and fangs bared as it hissed in impotent fury. Lev yanked on the snake with all her might, and it tore free of the monster’s body, the flailing stump of its neck spraying blood all over her.

The lion, now in uncontested control of the chimera, turned to face Lev. Snarling and glaring it crouched, claws extended, and sprang! Lev held her gravity mace out in front of her, but the chimera’s momentum was too great for the tiny weapon to stop it. Its claws and hooves raked across Lev’s skin as its jaws closed around the haft of the mace. Lev fell backwards onto the floor, trying to push the monster off of her even as she bled from a dozen small wounds. Was this the end for her?

Then, just as her strength was about to give out, the chimera spasmed and began to back away. Lev took the opportunity to get her legs between herself and the beast and shove it off of her, switching the gravity off so it wouldn’t stick to her mace. The creature slumped to the ground, twitching and spasming.

Lev jumped back to her feet and cautiously approached the chimera, amid the foam spewing from the lion’s head she spotted a narrow scaly body attached to a tawny-furred cheek. The severed snake’s head had bitten the lion out of reflex.

Good thing it never bit me, Lev thought. She slammed her mace down on the lion’s head one last time, putting it out of its misery.

You might still want to find another first aid kit anyways, VR quipped. I’m pretty sure you have some sort of implant that speeds up healing, but they scratched you up really badly.

Lev looked herself over, dozens of gashes were all over her upper body, she swore she could see glints of subdermal armor through the wider ones. She felt a slight pain in one of her hands that had been bitten by the lion’s head, but the glove over it showed no signs of a break Okay, first aid kit, pants, anything else I should look for?

Actually, if you wouldn’t mind grabbing those goggles you spotted under that shelf, could you please?

Lev took a step towards the shelf where she’d seen the broken goggles and squatted down next to them. She reached with the mace towards where she remembered seeing them, and turned on the gravity. After she heard a series of clicking sounds she withdrew it, and saw the goggles clinging to the head of the mace. Might be useful to getting things off high shelves too. Lev plucked the pink lenses off the mace and looked at the back side of them.

I’m picking up a wireless signal from them, I’ll try to gain access. Lev put on the goggles, a series of lights and bits of data flickered on the lenses, though the broken side made it difficult to tell what was being shown to her. She took them off and simply held them near her face while VR tried to access them through her implants. I got it! Most of the data is corrupted, but there’s a video file I managed to salvage.

A video? Lev inquired.

Sure, I’ll play it on your implants. Before Lev could say anything else Lev’s vision was replaced with a scene in a large room adorned similarly to the other rooms in the installation. The camera’s gaze was focused on a large cage in the center of the room, in which a certain creature she’d become very familiar with recently paced clumsily on its varied limbs.

“So, that’s the “chimera” they were talking about?” a high but still masculine-sounding voice stated as the person carrying the camera, presumably the goggles themselves, slowly stepped towards the creature.

That was the best term the recovery team could apply to it, a feminine voice, very calm and soothing in tone, answered. A transcription of her dialogue appeared in the camera’s view. Dr. Sineweaver’s files only referred to them as “Subject 261.”

“Damn, Rose, and they think that was a person.” The cameraperson approached the cage, holding out a pair of gray-furred hands in front of themself.

Three people possibly. And they want you to figure out if they’re still people, Jimmy.

“Okay,” the camera stopped two meters from the cage, prompting a territorial snarl from the monster’s lion head. “Hmm, I’m picking up some feelings of fear, anger, confusion. No higher thoughts though, not at this range.”

Should I report that they’re not sapient then?

“Hold on a second,” Jimmy, Lev presumed, stepped a bit closer. The chimera responded by pressing its nearest face into the bars of its cage.

Jimmy, I really advise against getting any closer to this thing. It mauled three drones during capture.

“You know that my telepathy has a limited range right?” Jimmy came within a meter of the cage, holding his hands out placatingly. “It’s okay buddy, I’m trying to help you here.”

The chimera swiped out with a goat’s leg, the hoof leaving a spiderweb pattern on the camera lens. “Ow! Right in the RCGs too!” With a terrible wrenching sound the cage’s bars began to part way to the creature’s mismatched limbs. The image warped and distorted as black-clad figures raced towards the cage to either side of the camera, Jimmy’s voice starting to crackle. “By the Overlord! If that’s how you wanna play, then fine!”

The playback ended, and Lev saw the armory and the dead chimera before her again. That’s all I could recover. Wonder who this Dr. Sineweaver is?

Lev blinked several times, making sure she could see the real world again. I don’t know, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that again without asking.