FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Two weeks after my introduction to the circus with Draco, we were still all laughing at the magician's reaction when he saw us, and then doubly so at the screaming encore he got, we were informed of yet another trip. This place was unknown, so naturally I decided to ping it, even before Silverine asked for volunteers. I decided to leave my RPG in my bunk, my sword in my bunk and rifle over shoulder, and teleported on the stroke of 7:04 am by my watch on Saturday morning.

As usual, there was the feeling of discomfort during the teleportation, and my feet implanted themselves gently yet heavily in the middle of long grass. The grass was about a metre tall, and I instantly ducked down, scanning around for life signs.

And I got that immediately. One hundred metres away was a motorway, with hovering vehicles zipping back and forth at about 120 kilometres per hour.I say roughly. I zoomed in my glasses, and found they had no wheels, and possibly retractable undercarriage, like planes.Most of them were sleek, and all of them had drivers.

These creatures were much like the elves. Slim, lithe, delicate looking, but yet giving an impression of toughness. But these things were also cat like, they had whiskers and pointed ears on the top of their heads.They wore flowing clothes, which got caught in the wind for all those in convertibles or those with windows down. The noise of the hovering vehicles was that of a quiet jet engine.I also obtained a freeze picture of one of the creatures, and with magnification found the eyes were more pointed, almost a soft triangle shape.

I noticed a B. road that ran along side the field I was in, and it joined via an on ramp onto the motorway.I had seen no cars on this road, yet, and I spoke.

"O.K., all appears clear, also could we have a method of transport? I might as well test my Atom."

"I'm coming too." Silverine announced,"With Kodey and my hover car. Mine would fit in just so with these. Who wants to ride in my car?"

So Silverine, not using your S-class for once.But Javid, Draco and Kodey all voted to be passengers, while Giancarlo would ride with Simba, we hadn't found a party for Giancarlo to join yet.

Furthermore, all of them would be disguised, this was stealth mode again. After five minutes and a well placed scanner, we arrived in a ditch just over a ridge from the motorway. The hover car was full with four occupants who looked like the elves I had just seen. Giancarlo and Simba were the same in the Charger, and I jumped into the Atom. I disguised myself with a necklace, although these necklaces felt no different, wearing one or not. I also had my helmet on, which would make it much easier.Then I swung onto the B-road, indicated, and drove onto the motorway. The hover car and the Charger followed suit.

My Atom got a lot of attention, but this was not scared attention, this was wow, that looks cool. The roar of my car and Simba's was so out of sync with the hover vehicles.I was idling in second gear keeping at level pace with the other drivers, and as I turned I could see and elf in a hover car directly alongside, giving my car a once over. He put a hand to his head, as if talking to an imaginary phone, and I clicked on my interlink function. He held up 4 fingers, 2 fingers, 3 fingers, and I immediately tuned into that frequency.

"Can you hear me?" the soft voice asked.

"Very well, thank you. How's your day?" I asked cheerfully.

"Very well. I like the car." the elf smiled, and I nodded to him.

"It is nice, it's a car I put together with some friends."

"It's fairly vintage though, it touches the ground." the elf replied.

"Maybe so, but I like old cars." I decided not to mention the fact the car was in fact mostly brand new.

"So, can it keep up with the speed limit without being in top gear?" the elf asked.

"I have four more gears I could change up to." I replied curtly.

"Care for a race?"

"As long as we won't get busted for driving too fast." I laughed, and the elf laughed too.

"There are hardly any cops on this stretch."

"Change down." I shouted, and went into first, the roar of the engine becoming increasing high pitched, and then we both surged forwards. This thing's acceleration was better than the hover car the elf was driving, and as I shifted around some traffic flicked gear rapidly. The second stage kicked in as I went into fifth gear, and I heard the elf in my headset.

"Oh, wow. You don't see that often, what powers that thing?" I was now twenty metres ahead, and I slowed down to let him catch up before we retained our usual side by side driving.

"It's got an internal combustion engine as a primary power, with an added ion drive to super charge it, and then twin ion rockets either side of the main exhaust."

"Ion, I thought they were only used in space craft." the elf looked at my car with renewed respect.

"I have some friends who know how to work these things."

Silverine and Simba caught up, and Silverine spoke on our frequency.

"You two finished?" he asked politely.

"For the moment." the elf laughed." I am Tabaxi, what is your name?"

"I am Silverine, the gentleman you were racing is called Alduin. I am driving the hover car directly behind his Atom."

The elf looked back at the hover car, and then the Charger.

"You are blending old technology with new technology. I would like to meet the person who worked the ion drives with I.C.E."

"Abigail would be the one to talk to, Tabaxi, unfortunately she's still at home, but perhaps later." the Lupogriff replied, and Tabaxi made eye contact with the disguised wolf hybrid, and waved, and the Lupogriff smiled and waved back.

Suddenly, there was a flash of sirens, and two hover cars with flashing lights and klaxons leapt the safety barrier and stormed after us.

"Is that thing registered?" Tabaxi asked me.

Oops.

I looked at the license plate in front, it was a collection of strange symbols. Doubtless they would be thinking the same thing about my license plate. Silverine hit a button on the hover car, and his license plate rearranged itself to the same symbols.

"Cheap." I shot at the Lupogriff, and then applied the brakes, sliding to the side of the road, breaking formation. Tabaxi likewise pulled over, but Silverine and company didn't. The Charger followed the hover car, and the two hover police cars came to a halt behind me. Four police elves stepped out in dark green, swish clothing. They appeared ill armed, but I knew this would not be the case.

The leading two came to a halt beside my seat, just as Tabaxi got out of his car. I looked up through my visor at the elf looking sternly at me.

"Licence and registration please." he said firmly, but in that same soft voice that Tabaxi had, just different intonation.

I pulled out my driver's licence, and handed it to the elf. The elf took it, flicked it open, and looked it. Unsurprisingly he started looking confused.

"Is this some kind of a joke, sir?"

"No, officer, that is my driving licence, I am qualified to drive this car."

"Qualified you may be, but what is this piece of card?" the officer tried to read the symbols. Tabaxi came to a halt beside the front wheels of my car.

"I told you, that's my driving licence."

"What language is it in?"

"You want an honest answer?"

A second rapped a hand next to the radiator grille, under which hid one of the MG34 machine guns. There were two rises in the car that folded in half to let the machine gun out.

"What is this thing, I've never seen anything like it?"

"It is an Ariel Atom, with dual ion rockets and I.C.E with a ion supercharger."

This got the glance of both policemen.

"Ion technology, in a car? Just who are you?"

This was a question I was finding increasingly difficult to answer with out telling the truth.

"My name is Alduin Raptormaster, I own this car."

"Take off the helmet, Alduin."

I did so, and they looked at one of themselves.

"Alduin, I don't even recognise these symbols. What's this triangle shaped one with the line going through it?"

"That's the letter A, although it's a capital letter because it's the first letter of a noun."

Tabaxi looked at the card, then at me. Double oops.

"This looks nothing like you." the elf looked at me critically. I'd fallen for it.

"O.K., then gentlemen. That is me, what you see here is a disguise, and can I have my licence back?"

The elf gave me the card, standing in front of the rear wheels.

"What are you?"

"I am an alien from a distant planet, and if you're prepared to show me to your police station, we can have a civil conversation there without disturbing the public."

There was a long pause, save for the passing of other motorists. Draco was laughing at my frankness, Tabaxi was curious, Silverine was being cattish about my reply, and the policemen were suddenly looking at me as if I was a bomb about to go off.

"We, I, um, really?"

What a brilliant questioning mind.I smiled,"Really, and I'll prove it for you. Take me to your police station, Tabaxi, do you mind coming?" there was a laugh from someone in my headset, doubtless over the 'Take me to your leader' parody.

"Not at all, Alduin. I'm intrigued, even if you do look like one of us."

"I swear I'm not." I refastened the helmet, and as Tabaxi skipped to his car, a police elf got in the passenger seat. He got himself strapped in after half a minute fumbling with the four point strap, and the other police elf went back to his car.

As engines started up, I revved for effect, and then floored it. The gravel was thrown everywhere behind me, and I accelerated quickly. The elf looked behind him.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you have directions?"

"Yes,but..."

"Tell me which way to go then."

I gained speed, and in the rear view mirror I could see Tabaxi's car and the two police cars in hot pursuit. I heard the police man talking into a microphone.

"I'm alright, he wants me to lead him to the station."

Then the second stage kicked in, and we were both thrown back as the car flew forwards.

"I could never tire of watching that." Tabaxi commented.

I dived back and forth through the traffic, the cop beside me holding on for grim life. With a flash I passed by the slow moving Charger and Silverine's hover car, and flashed towards a clover leaf intersection.

"Turn left here, and slow down a bit. I said slow down!" the cop shouted as the Atom went flying into the turnoff, as I hit the brakes. The car came around in a graceful drift, and I was looking past the terrified cop at Tabaxi briefly.

I waved, going completely sideways, and then flicked it back, flooring it back into second stage.

"Oh my..."Tabaxi was speechless.

I slammed the car around, flicking it neatly into reverse, and the car did an about turn, until I was facing the way I had come. I looked in the rear view mirrors, no, nothing much behind me. I took both hands off the wheel, waving cheerfully to Tabaxi.

"I bet those things can't do this!" I smiled widely.

"I can't believe you are doing it." the half elf replied.

The reverse speed was one hundred, and the police pulled level with me, while I was still going the wrong way, backwards.One elf was smiling, the other two were looking slightly worried at their companion.

"So what is it, and why does it work like that?"

"It weighs half a ton, has a million horse powers in it, and it takes a skilled person to drive one like this."

"So what else can it do?"

I flicked a button, and my machine guns were revealed, both the Vulcan on the front and the two MG34's on the side.

"It's armed, for a start." I replied, making them disappear,"And it still can do this."

I flicked it around, and then hit the nitrous button. The car reared as the nitro powered it forwards, flame spitting out of the back of the main exhaust, and then the rocket engines flamed as we hit second stage. Tabaxi's car and the two police cars went backwards in my mirror. The cop beside me managed a plaintive miaowing sound, he was terrified.

"Don't panic, mate, just tell me directions. How much further?"

"The town is eight miles." he managed.

"Well, we'll let your friends catch up, and then we can have a nice little chat.Isn't that all just wonderful?"

"Are you enjoying this?"

"Entirely." I laughed, as Tabaxi pulled level.

"O.K., that thing has serious power behind it. What do you mean it's armed though, what are those things?"

"Three machine guns, firing rounds...., oh never mind, you probably don't have guns." I went back on my tracks.

"Guns?" the cop beside me sounded curious.

"Weapons, ring a bell?"

"Those are weapons?"

They fire little objects at high speed.I'll show you later." I commented, and Tabaxi very quickly backed behind my car.

"I'm not going near you if you have military tech in that car."

"It's more than military, it's from an entirely different galaxy altogether."

"Really?" Tabaxi sounded interested again."You mean further than our space crafts?"

"Depends, how far have you gone?"

"Our ships have made deep space recons, the longest was two months, and they went about twenty two light years away. We are yet to find that much terrestrial life on the planets we saw though."

Silverine spoke in my headset.

"They are pretty advanced compared to most races, they have discovered sub light engines to travel across the void.And they seem as curious as us." I nodded to myself and spoke to Tabaxi.

"Well, we have a device that can throw us anywhere in the universe with in about, a minute, although we too have ships, the hyper light speed ones (like Ryan Viper's civilization has), take maybe a couple of hours to do that."

"Can I see this device?"

"Certainly, but not right now." I replied.

"It is how you got here though, correct?"

"Indeed, Tabaxi, now where do I go?"

"Next left, there's a turn off."

"And don't do what ever you did last time this time!" the cop beside me added for emphasis. I laughed.While they were very soft spoken, and their voices were light and ethereal like the glowers, although not quite as light, and certainly not with the harmonics the glower's had, they were quite liable to emotion getting the better of them.

I took some pity on my poor passenger, and slowed down to a mere 150 kilometres an hour, which was third gear cruising. We took the turnoff, and instantly found ourselves heading towards a large metropolis.Already we were passing through the outskirts, and this motorway stop being four lane and became dual carriage. Tabaxi kept along side as I gently drove. The buildings got taller and taller, and the place became more and more dense as road sprung off in every direction. I started paying attention to the other motorists, doing what they were doing, for while there were traffic lights, they were not red, yellow, green. In fact I couldn't see them at all, they were in the murky borders of the spectrum that the human eye couldn't distinguish, but the half elf half feline sitting next to me could.

I boringly kept pace with the traffic around me. The cars around me were filled with drivers, and practically all of them were looking at this helmeted person in the vintage car. Traffic was slow, so I spoke with Tabaxi.

"Sublight engines, hover vehicles, and you still have traffic jams?"

"It's congested, that's all. This is just a bad day."

We spent five minute moving painfully through the crowded streets.I stopped at another ultra violet light, and watched as the free moving main road going across flashed with cars. No congestion on that road. Suddenly a hover vehicle flashed past, a black one with a blacked out hood. Three police hover cars chased it, sirens wailing and lights flashing. I floored it.

"O.K., Tabaxi, follow me, here's a demonstration of Centralite power." I laughed, as the gap between me and the police cars diminished slowly, until I hit second stage. Tabaxi and the other two police cars followed me, but I flashed past the other three.

"O.K., this is clear, my name is Alduin and I am officially in charge. Where's a weak spot on that thing?"

"The hover boosters are remarkably fragile, but ramming is out of the question, you could end up crashing into a building at this speed." Tabaxi replied, as I gained on the runner. It turned hard round the corner, and the Atom drifted with a plume of white smoke following it.

"That is Art!" I shouted, up shifting and closing in.

"You driving style is very wild, Alduin." Tabaxi replied.

"Poetry in motion, my dear friend. Now, could someone link me onto their wave length, if they have one."

"We've been trying to, but no one's answering." a policeman replied.

"I'm good at this sort of thing, just click me on."

There was a click, and I smiled behind my helmet.

"Unidentified hover car, this is Alduin Raptormaster speaking. If you don't want to be blown up, respond."

There was a click."Police cars don't come with weapons, so stop bluffing."

"And do you think I'm a police car?" I said, closing up on the rear bumper.

"That thing doesn't have weapons either."

"Oh really?" I smiled, and laughed. With a flick of a switch all three machine guns came out of their hiding places, the Vulcan in front actually was where the old boot was. The MG34 machine guns rose vertically, and then slipped to horizontal.

"I'll give you five seconds to stop, then I start firing."

The hover car increased it's speed, but I kept track, looking on my watch.

I gave them six, I'm more than fair.

The chatter of the guns was deafening loud over the roar of the engines. The muzzle flash was continuous from all three, and I had to hold her steady as I aimed for the hover car's left rear jet.

The entire corner was blasted away, sparks flying from the scoring rounds as they smashed through the metal, effectively blowing the jet off. Smoke poured from the open wound of the hover car, and I gently teased the car a different direction to repeat the performance on the right jet.I heard gasps of amazement across my headset.

After two seconds, the entire rear of the car fell onto the ground with a crash and a fireworks display of sparks. I had to pull out from behind it to avoid the metal shards, and it stopped dramatically. I was going reasonably slow, so pulled off a nifty handbrake turn, guns aimed at the front of the car. I dropped my disguise, and stepped out of the car, drawing my rifle. The policeman beside me got out, weak kneed. Tabaxi and the five police cars came to a halt behind the car.

Then I removed my helmet, and those on my wave length gasped. The helmet was placed in the car, and I loaded the rifle. I hefted it, aiming at the wind screen.

"Are you entirely sure I have no weapons?"

There was a muffled curse from the car, and Tabaxi got out of his car. The half elf creature walked over to me, looking wondrously at my complexion.

"So like, and yet so unlike."

I lowered my rifle, and removed the camera glasses, setting them on my shirt pocket. Tabaxi gently lifted his hands, and stood in front of me. His hands caressed my cheeks.

"You are incredible." he whispered to me.

I shouldered my rifle." Thank you Tabaxi. I'll give you a bit of advice, on my race we consider this an attempt at intimacy, so unless you wish to make love with me, or make out, please stop it." he looked at me in the same amazed look, and then kissed me.

O.K., that wasn't the answer I was expecting. After ten seconds he broke off.

"Like that?"

I smiled warmly, suppressing a laugh."Yes, now shall we get these guys out of their car?"

No one was approaching the smoking car, and no one was getting out of it. I gave my rifle to Tabaxi, who held it with reverence, walked up to the side of the car, and knocked on the window.

"Licence and registration please." I said politely. There was a chuckle from the cop who had asked me this when he pulled me over.

The black out windows did not move. I sighed, and changed into bionic form.

"In which case...." I leaned back, and then delivered a solid thump into the inch thick glass. It cracked all the way across it's frame, a veritable spider's web of cracks.But it did not break.

"Next one goes through, and it will hurt you." I rubbed my hands, leaning behind the door.

The door opened, and a tattooed half elf stepped out, surveying me with loathing. I leaned on the car.

"When's the last time this had a warrant, I doubt it's very safe, minus those two rear thrusters?" I asked politely.

"Only because you blew them off the car." the guy scowled.

"I did, but I gave you advance warning. I warned you, you didn't listen, that's your fault."

The elf scowled at me, and then charged. His hand came around in an unstoppable punch, and while he knocked me backwards, almost broke his hand in the process. Surely a sensible person would have thought better of punching steel alloy with his bare hands. I staggered, stood upright, and then leaned on the car again, while the half elf grabbed his hand in pain.

"Do it again, I will retaliate." I said matter of factly. I put my glasses back on, and X-rayed the car.

There were two more occupants, one hiding in the back, where the foot rests were, and the driver, who was holding the driving wheel.Doubtless he was still in shock. I turned to Tabaxi, who was still standing by my car where he had left me.

"Tabaxi, I have a bag in my car, it's got several circular devices in it. Could you pass me one?"

I always carried grenades, they were so much fun, but Abigail was against explosive grenades, so she gave me tear gas ones, or smoke. By chance, Tabaxi tossed me one with T.G. written on it, and I stepped past the scowling half feline, pulling the pin and tossing the grenade into the back seat.

I immediately stepped several paces back, tear gas did effect me. In fact, possibly more than several paces, oh what the hell, I ran for Tabaxi. The car didn't explode, but all the windows blew out, as a dark grey mist enveloped the car. I regained my dignity next to Tabaxi as the one outside sunk to the ground, coughing and crying, and the other two desperately tried to get out of the cars. The police advanced, but they stopped when I raised a hand at them.

"A special device, this. It makes those effected disorientated, their sight is blurred, and they can't stop coughing. Makes it a lot easier to make arrests."

"Your skin is now steel?" Tabaxi was paying more attention to my folded steel arms than the mist dissipating into the air. As it vanished completely, the police came forwards and arrested the three.

"A long story, but it happened on another planet I was visiting, these huge robots inserted some of their DNA into me.It has it's good bits, though, because I can do this."

I changed into my VTO Raptor, and Tabaxi bent down, immensely interested.

"You look so sexy in that form."

"It's a aerial craft from my planet, Tabaxi." I changed back, and sat down on the side of my Atom. I leaned back and pressed a button, and all three machine guns retreated into their hiding places.

"So why are you here?" the elf hybrid asked.

"My job is one of exploration, I found out about the local inhabitants, their technology and culture, and the surrounding world. My friends are under the same mission."

"That sounds absolutely awesome for a job." the elf enthused, his cat ears flicking. Oh, the back of his pants were twitching, I presume he had a tail as well.

"It has it's good points. Well paid, fun, except when the locals want to kill you."

"We wouldn't do that." Tabaxi shook his head.

"I know you wouldn't, but you have to look at it from my perspective. I don't look like you, I speak a completely different language when I don't have my translator, and I am a little scary as a person. A group looking at me could quickly turn into a mob with the intention of getting rid of me. I am speaking from experience."

Silverine's hover car pulled up, the Charger directly behind it. The Lupogriff got out of the car, beaming widely. He was still in disguise.

"I take it you removed your disguise because..."

"I removed it because, end of argument." I replied cheekily."Besides, this lot already know."

"Granted, but why the antics with the hover car?"

"I was testing previously unused Centralite technology," I argued, and then dropped to casual voice," Even Abigail hadn't fired those guns in anger, on the move."

"They work well." the Lupogriff nodded.

"So what does Silverine really look like?" Tabaxi asked.

"Silverine is our chief scout, he's the lunatic who runs this organization. As to what he looks like, unnerving is the first word that springs to mind."

"O.K., you're only whetting my interest. Can I see?"

The Lupogriff laughed, and removed his disguise. All eight feet of the hulking wolf was revealed in an instant, and Tabaxi backed away a step or two. The police elves looked up, and they were dumb founded.

Draco got out of the car, disguise off, and sat on the bonnet. Kodey dropped his and vacated, as did Javid. Tabaxi looked in wonderment, as did half the people looking. A reindeer, a wolf, a dragon and Silverine had just appeared.

One of the criminal elves took this moment to run half blinded away from the police, cutting between me and Silverine's car. Draco let go with a quarrel of fire directly in front of him, and as everyone from the planet reared back, Tabaxi grabbed my arm in fear.

"It's a dragon, it breathes fire, end of story." I said bluntly, feeling my circulation drop from the elf's grip.

The criminal decided to stop running, as Draco got off the car. He was only wearing his trousers, and his tail swished back and forth as he advanced. The elf staggered back, despite being blurred by tear gas he didn't want to meet the distorted figure in front of him. The police were shifting, moving casually away from the dragon as he came towards the wrecked car.

"I think he wants to be arrested now, Draco, very good timing though." I commented dryly.

"Timing!" Tabaxi echoed," It, it, dear lord, how?" he was unable to find what he wanted to say about Draco's fire.

After all this diversion was fixed up, we headed back to the police station, which was only three blocks away from when the chase started. The five police cars drove around the three of us, like outriders in a convoy, or like the President's bodyguard, and before long we came to a driveway that went underneath a tall building. I scraped the bottom of the Atom's under-tray on the curb as we went in, and then we drove down several levels to a car park. We got out of our cars, and followed the police officers (which numbered about ten) and Tabaxi. No one seemed to mind among the officers about the civilian's presence.

Although I do think they minded to us. We came to a set of elevators, and not one guard went in the same lift as us, leaving Tabaxi to go in ours. Even he was creeped, standing next to me, Silverine and Javid. We went up eight or nine floors, and then the lift dinged, and the doors opened.