FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Artemis fell into the cube. In every direction dark matter appeared as far as the eyes could see. At first it felt as if she was falling but after a few seconds Artemis realized that she was actually floating, although upside down.

She couldn't tell. She couldn't feel which direction was up, down, straight or back. Everywhere looked the same, endless dark matter that looked like scattered ashes raging like a massive sandstorm. Artemis tried to find where she fell in but her entrance was blocked. The sounds of these raging ashes reminded her of a rainstorm she experienced while in the forest. Beautiful white sound but could potentially be dangerous.

"Hello," she asked with no response.

Artemis tried to walk but her she had nothing to stand on. Her confusion grew as she looked around.

"Zen, Zen where are you?" She called out. "Can you hear me? Zen?" She yelled.

The ocean of dark matter began to vibrate and its movements became random and rapid. Artemis covered her face, hoping to avoid a direct hit from out of nowhere. She peeked through her shoulders and in the midst of the dark matter ocean saw a small amount of it behaving strangely.

After her momentary fear subsided she marveled at the ashes, the swirling motion, the random transformations, it felt as if it was dancing. With the sound of ocean water and rapid winds the atmosphere felt strangely exciting but to Artemis she still felt a bit terrified. The ashes formed an unidentifiable face with little features.

The face stared at her but Artemis strangely felt no threat to her. The dark matter below her acted as a floor allowing her to finally feel like gravity returned to her. Before she could let out a response the world around her began to change colors, it went from dark particles of matter to purple and blue energy with stars. It was at that moment she marveled at what she saw, the same image she saw when she first looked into the cube, a replicated galaxy.

She couldn't believe the reality she was in. From a wave of dark ashes to being in space almost instantly, she was left speechless. She snapped back to reality when a large face appeared before her, the same unidentifiable face she saw before the space changed. Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted up. As she looked around to witness what was happening, she saw the room changing again, slowly turning into ash like before. She looked up and saw a portal of light which she believed was her way out. Her heart was relieved with joy but before she left she heard the words from a disembodied head.

"Take care of Zen," it whispered to her. She turned around but saw nothing and before she could call out, she found herself back in her apartment, on the couch, after witnessing a big bright flash.

"Artemis, you're back," Zen transferred to her.

Artemis was too stunned for words. Her breathing was heavy; some many things happened at once she didn't know what to talk about first.

"Zen," she asked still baffled. "Did I just-go into the cube?"

"Yes, for a few minutes, how was the inside," he asked curiously.

"A few minutes," she snapped quickly. Time seemed to stop in that place. No gravity, shape shifting scenery, a floating head, voices. She stood up from the couch and walked over to the cube. The inside was closed and the galaxy she once saw gone. She sighed under her breath but was happy to be back safe and sound. "Zen I think I'm almost done packing but I think we should leave tomorrow morning. We'll go around to the some shops for food and other small stuff tonight, get some sleep, then we'll head for the forest towards my parents house."

Zen smiled, happy to know his friend was okay, the hawk man was gone, he knew a little more about how his powers could work, Artemis appeared to like his cube, and he was fed. After her suitcase was packed she led Zen into some of the places she shops on a regular basis. It was a slow and peaceful late afternoon and the weather was beautiful. Artemis, on several occasions, had to pull Zen by the tails because he would stop to stare through the windows, food ails, and people's clothing. Artemis knew Zen was curious but the way he looked at everything gave her the impression that he was studying over observing. She didn't question why though. Zen's been through a major ordeal and it may not be over. She would have decided to leave tonight but going through at night would be even more foolish. She also didn't want to carry move than what was necessary, a tent for example would only slow down their progress.

That night while Artemis was sound asleep, Zen sat on the couch continuing to look through the Physic's book Artemis left him. He knew what some of the words said but didn't understand the concepts. Instead he only flipped through the pictures. He knew he should be asleep as they would leave at around 7am in 10 hours but he was far too curious on the pictures. He stared a lot at the book cover with the nucleus begin surrounded by rotating protons by several angles. As he recalled, that image reminded him of the technique he used against dark Zen when he was on the clouds.

Zen surrounded dark Zen in the center of his attack. He created 7 other clones of himself and surrounded dark Zen with one attacking from above, one below, one on each side, two diagonally on each side that rotated around him, and lastly from behind, while he attack from the front. From eight directions he let out an attack towards the center which matched that very same picture. Zen marveled at his coincidence and for an hour he flipped through multiple pages in 3 books. In time he dosed off.

The next morning Zen woke to an abrupt shaking of his shoulders. Artemis stood above the couch and Zen slowly began to recognize her.

"Zen wake up, now!" She yelled, trying to wake the fox faster. "Do you realize what you've done?"

At this moment in time Zen was just happy he slept in peace and this time in the same place instead of the bottom of the ocean, another lab, pyramid or something. He stared at Artemis as he stretched.

"Zen did you read my books all night?" She said in any angry tone.

"N-noo"_Zen yawned, rubbing his eyes. "I only looked through the pictures, I read a little but didn't understand it."_

"What were you thinking about, I came out of my room and all I could see was stars. Literally my whole room was like in space or something. Of course it disappeared when you woke up but did you dream you were in space or something?"

"Probably? I can't remember but I slept well." He said calmly as usual.

"Zen you-" she cut off trying to control how angry she was. Zen could sense her anger building and felt he was shrinking into the couch believing he did something wrong again. "While you were sleeping," she continued, almost yelling. "You were emitting dark energy everywhere. I woke up from my bed and looked at my radar that was apparently beeping like crazy and it showed right outside my room. I open my door and suddenly I'm in space. I had to fly...swim...whatever to the couch to wake you up. But never mind that we have to go now, I don't want anyone else coming to my room asking about strange lights or something."

When she finished, Zen was a macro. He held his head down apologetically but Artemis didn't respond. She was in a mixed between angry for how much attention Zen could have attracted, upset because now she basically yelled at him, and a bit tickled by how Zen took it, shrinking down and curling into a ball.

"Arrragh!" She yelled, after finding no other way to let everything out. "Turn into something, anything a... a Dalmatian! Turn into a Dalmatian and let's just go!"

Zen began to grow and change but before he could complete his transformation, he was yanked off the couch and towards the door. Artemis pulled Zen's arm in one hand and her suitcase in the other. Zen alone probably attracted too much attention and she didn't want to study the cube at the moment for fear that it would begin to radiate something. They started off running but as they got down the stairs, to the sidewalk and began walking towards the forest, she calmed down.

The day passed by mostly peaceful after that. They traveled the woods for hours and soon it became late afternoon. Artemis had packed plenty of food for them but Zen, after eating one type of food, could duplicate it as much as he pleased which made Artemis question why she bothered packing a suitcase in the first place if he could either carry or create whatever they needed. By the time she realized that they were hours away from civilization.

As they walked through the forest Zen continued to watch everything from the sun movements to the shadows of trees and animals that moved, the feral squirrels jumping along the branches, deer, and other feral creatures. Artemis looked straight ahead and guided them as they walked. When she turned to check on Zen she gave him a quizzical stare as to why he had the body of a Dalmatian and the head of a squirrel.

"Do you want to be a squirrel now Zen?" She asked.

Zen snapped out of his studying trance. "No-no just curious," he said, transforming his head back to a Dalmatian.

Artemis shook her head and turned around to continue walking. She too began to take in the beauty of the forest around her. However, something smelled in the air and she abruptly stopped. Artemis smelled the calm air running through the paths of the trees. Something was different, out of place. In the distance she heard a twig crack and immediately jumped into the bushes, turning around to spot the stranger. She saw nothing but remained on alert. Without a doubt she knew that someone was following them. Zen looked at Artemis' concentration but did not disturb her. Instead he wanted to try something.

Zen looked in the general direction where Artemis stared and focused. He concentrated on what he wanted to happen. Small ashes appeared around his eyes and when he opened them he could see more than the trees and grass. He could see the heat signatures of 4 men hiding. Two were in the trees apparently and the other two were in bushes hidden behind tress a few feet away. Zen stopped for a moment admiring how Artemis could feel other people watching them at such a long distance. Immediately Zen's focus was broken as Artemis shock him, questioning why his eyes were dead black.

Before Zen could transfer a message, a big wooden spear appears wedged between them, inches away from each other's face. There was no longer need for a message as Artemis grabbed Zen's arm and began to run. Zen trailed behind her, trying to match her pace since she didn't let go of his arm. The 4 men dashed after them, one of them removing the spear lodged in the tree as they moved. Zen began to match Artemis speed but the men were gaining on them. Despite Artemis' maneuvering around trees, hills, slopes, and branches, the men following them did not drop pace. Zen looked behind him for a second and imagined a trap to set up. Doing so however, caused him to lose his focus and he reverted back to his fox self over being a Dalmatian.

As they ran, Zen had enough seconds to touch two trees crossing their paths. He sent a small amount of dark matter inside the tree up to the branches. The branches of two trees began to creek and crack but it didn't bother the men chasing them. When two got close enough the branches on the trees flew down, both ensnaring their bodies and forcing them to drop their weapons. However, when the two foot soldiers caught up to them they either jumped or slid over the trap, continuing the chase.

Artemis began to panic a bit. She was not a fighter by heart and from her observation, neither was Zen. Although she used her best skills to get away from the men it failed. Upon several seconds of running Artemis ran into a dead end. She paused when she ran into the bottom of a cliff. Up top was about 30 feet high, it couldn't be jumped and they'd needed to go back the way they came before they could go up and around. Stunned by her bad luck she didn't know an arrow was aiming for her head. Zen however thought of something and created a stone wall to block the arrows path. The wall came into existence and was big enough the shield both of them. When arrow made contact and hit the ground the wall disappeared. However, it left Zen temporarily blind and one of them managed to get to close for a strike.

One of the men was a possum wielding two daggers. The other was a possum wielding a long bow and was hurriedly trying to reload his arrow. The possum wielding daggers rushed towards Zen trying to aim for a shot at the gut. Zen's body felt as if it moved on his own and he jumped back with the dagger just inches away from his fur. The enemy recoiled and began his barrage of attacks solely focused on Zen. Artemis turned her attention to the possum that finished reloading his arrows, aiming straight for Zen. Artemis dashed to him, delivering a tai chi kick upwards with her right hoof. She missed but it threw him off balance, causing him to aim at Artemis but the tip of the arrow just barely missed her side before hitting the ground. Artemis tried another kick but missed as the man jumped back trying to reload another arrow.

Zen didn't know what to think in order for an attack. The man continued slicing forward, trying to aim for vital points to the body. Zen could only dodge, proving he couldn't think fast enough than the possum could strike. Suddenly an idea came to mind as Zen retreated to the wall avoiding attacks. In that same instant the possum grew tired of chasing the fox and jumped up to do a final blow. To Zen's advantage, the man was momentarily immobile in the air. Zen though hard and before the possum descended to stick his daggers in Zen's head, a giant black hand dropped down from the sky and pinned the possum. The sudden struck caused to possum to yelp as he hit the ground and moan as he tried to recover the wind knocked out of his lungs. The fist hand, made of ashes, opened its hand and all its fingers pinned the possum, completely trapping him under his palm. Zen had to focus his mental strength to keep the possum down however, which proved more difficult than he expected.

The bow wielding possum saw the sudden hit his partner took and felt the ground vibrate on impact which gave him a sudden urge to retreat. Artemis felt the same began remained focus. With the man distracted she did a quick hook and a powerful kick to the jaw of the possum. The possum in response almost fell over but was only dazed and acted like the pain in his jaw was too serious. When Artemis moved in move, the possum dropped his bow and pulled out a secret dagger from his side. He let out a cry on his attack which drew Zen's attention. Instantly a black cage morphed under the possum. As the bars of the cage shot upwards it knocked the dagger out his hand and sealed the possum inside. Artemis stopped to witness this then gave a glimpse at Zen who held his left hand on his head and his right hand sticking out in her direction. The strain of holding two people down mentally caused his telepathy to disconnect from Artemis.

The possum in the cage grunted as he tried pulling and striking the bars. However, the cage that ensnared him began to shrink and the possum lost his footing. The cage now paralyzed him and was small enough to be a suite case. Artemis sensed this opportunity to interrogate the man.

"You're trapped now," she said. "Tell me who sent you and why you're after us."

"It's not you we want woman," growled the possum, still struggling to move. "It's that fox we want."

"What?" Artemis asked confused. She leaned in closer, trying to look intimidating. "What are you talking about, why are you after him?"

At first the possum didn't answer but he felt the cage begin to shrink and crush him.

"Money!" He yelled, hoping the grip would loosen if he confessed. "We were hired by some hawk guy to kill the fox disguised as a Dalmatian but he didn't tell us he could do all this, all right? He said the pay would be great if we managed to kill him. He told us not to aim for you if we could avoid it."

Artemis thought to herself and realized what he meant but feared if it was true.

"Wait was the hawk....guy..." She trailed off. In the middle of her face, a small back feather gently floated to the ground. Her mind flashed back to the first time she saw that same feather. Back at her apartment she remembered him. She gasped.

"RICHTER!" She concluded and looked to the skies trying to find him.

At that moment the cage disappeared and the possum ran away. Artemis almost rushed after him but immediately looked around to Zen. Zen was still holding his ground but from two fronts. Behind Zen was the possum pinned by the Black Hand and in front of Zen's face was a sword being blocked by two more swords created by Zen. He was pinned. Richter Pathwave held the sword in place trying to push it in deeper to Zen's face. The pressure and concentration Zen had to perform was too much and a big blast of ashes scattered everywhere, sending the possum to the wall and Richter back a few steps. Zen bent down on one knee trying to catch his breath. The second possum escaped.

"Well I must say," spoke Richter, swinging his sword back into an offensive stance, looking at Artemis. "You are a very bad liar."

Artemis ran a bit closer but Richter refocused on Zen. With his wings spread out he flew towards him, extending his swords to pierce Zen through the chest. Zen regained his breath and stood up. He moved his hands across his face and the ashes surrounding him responded effectively. It crisscrossed Zen's body making another shield which forced Richter, upon impact, to fly back as to not break his swords. Artemis took that opportunity to deliver a flying tai chi kick but to no avail. While she was air born, Richter pushed both swords into the ground and ducked. Now under Artemis, he grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground, causing her to slip and flip over before coming to a halt in the dirt.

"You really should have taken my offer Artemis," he scolded, standing up and removing his swords from the earth. "I knew that fox was in your apartment but I didn't want to make a scene in a public area. Next time get rid of the omelet and fur off the couch."

Artemis coughed but didn't respond to him, knowing he was right but refused to admit it. She grabbed her chest and stood up, still a bit shaken from the hard hit to the ground. Zen was still winded from having to block many attacks after running through the forest.

"I thought you said you weren't that type of fighter who does these things," she responded.

"Ah, yes," he confessed. "Well that...I lied. Guess that makes us even then." He looks at Zen readied to strike. "Well enough of that, I need to take care of this fox now, please don't interfere Artemis. I have neither business nor orders to take you out and personally I don't feel up to it, no point to it anyway."

Artemis was mixed with relieved and felt insulted.

"Stop!" she shouted. "Why are you so eager to kill him?"

He lunged forward, striking Zen furiously like a fencer, one step forward and no steps back. Zen blocked with recreated swords from the ashes again but this time the impact made the swords break and Zen flew back a few feet.

"Isn't it obvious?" Questioned Richter to Artemis, still focusing on Zen. "A child containing enough quantum dark matter to cause two weeks' worth of thunderstorms to happen nonstop, with the ability to create anything out of nothing just from thinking..." He cut off for a moment and dashed again at Zen, this time crossing his blades for an attack. As Zen blocks off the attacks, Richter continues his onslaught while speaking to Artemis. "Do you even comprehend how much of a threat this child could pose on the world? Especially seeing how inexperienced and unstable he is."

Richter moves in forward and punched Zen in the stomach. As Zen bent down from the pain, Richter delivered a following kick, sending Zen to tumble and roll backwards before hitting a nearby boulder on the ground.

"The explosion at the lab is proof. He sent everyone into a massive state of mental shock, making all their bodily functions stop for just enough for him to escape. He simply walked out like it was nothing into the forest."

Artemis ran towards him and tried for another kick but he saw it coming. Swiftly he moved aside, grabbed her again, and used her strength against her, letting him lift her up, spin, and throw her to the ground again; this time with more force. Zen slowly got up and walked to the other side of Richter.

Richter readied his swords again aiming in front of him where the fox faced and behind him where Artemis managed to stand.

"Thank you again for mentioning the dark matter radar you had. It was instrumental in tracking him down."

Artemis gasped as the thought of their pervious conversation revealed that. She cursed under her breath.

"For the sake of this world a creature like him must be killed. Since he has refused to die and be studied I will take him out myself." He said, looking at Artemis, still leaving no openings for an attack by Zen.

"You yourself agreed with Dr. Hord that this fox could be dangerous, yet you still protect him. I can only assume that during that blast he may have altered your thinking. No matter, I'll get rid of him. I warn you though Artemis," giving her a dark look. "I will not hesitate to go for you if you continue to help him."

Artemis was about to speak but the eyes of Zen left her frozen. She did not see anger in Zen's eyes, or sadness because those facts were true. What left Artemis struck with silence was that out of everything she put Zen through: experimenting, dissecting, cursing, and actually trying to kill him when she was a wolf, Zen's eyes were wide with gratitude.

Richter looked at her eyes and saw her stunned silence, a bit confused and taken aback by it. He turned to Zen and was dumbstruck to see he thought up a catapult right under him. It took him a moment to regain his own thoughts then he refocused on attacking Zen.

"Be safe," he transferred to Artemis' thoughts.

Artemis ran forward about to shout but the catapult sent Zen into the sky and to the tip of the top of the cliff. He spread, and waved his arms around furiously, trying not to fall backwards off the cliff and regained his balance. Without looking back he ran.

Richter growled a bit then flew upwards. Before leaving he looked at Artemis from atop the cliff. "Farewell Artemis, hopefully we won't have to meet again. I'd hate to soil my swords with a talented Lupincdeer." He looks back and followed Zen through the rest of the forest, leaving the deer alone.