Chapter One

Story by Diamond Greyfell on SoFurry

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#1 of Crystal Lake

Crime Thriller following the citizens of the city of Crystal Lake, an Island City on the diverse planet of Terra.


Prologue

Terra, a bright spark in one of the distant arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The planet was warm, lush and vibrant, with all the tools needed for life to evolve there. There were mechanical cities that stretched for miles and miles across the surface of the planet which seemed to sparkle and twinkle at night like fire across the surface of the world.

Terra was populated by many different races that had evolved there, so many variations. Ones species was usually determined by one's appearance however unlike some other planets, not one species had risen in dominance over the others, so many different species of animal life had evolved sentience here.

Of one of the most famous cities on Terra was the aquapolis of Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake was placed in the middle of a gigantic lake, spreading out and consuming the small isle that used to be there. The city had grown huge over the centuries and huge metal wharfs and quays stuck out of the city, making it look like a gigantic star from orbit.

The city had been the major technological breakthrough of the Vulnira race, a variety of anthropomorphic foxes that had sprung up around northern hemisphere, by far the most widely travelled on all of Terra.

The Vulnira species had suffered brutal oppression and many eventual military successes for almost half a millenia against the neighbouring Dratari, a formidable draconian species originating from the nearby mountainous regions, almost driving them to extinction. However, ever culturally changing, the Vulnira people moved from a constitutional monarchy to a much more sympathetic democracy and had long since reconciled with their Dratari neighbours who had begun to flourish once more.

That was how the Vulnira were known on Terra, as the "peacemakers", the ones always willing to fight against tyranny although over time the great irony of a deep seated corruption and arrogance had arisen at the highest levels of Vulnira society

The three million citizens of Crystal Lake however were clueless about this, reassured in their hubris brought from their technology, some of the most advanced on Terra.

Vulnira technology was built by some of the most high profile companies on Terra, providing their technology to a global market. Having just perfected a new type of engine which ran efficient on bio-fuel, the Vulnira were in a position to make themselves a significant impact on an international stage.

Chapter One

Janus smoked his cigarette while watching a small house in the more impoverished parts of the Lower city.

He had promised his wife multiple times that he was going to give up the faint orange illuminated his faded citrine eyes but somehow, he always ended coming back to this.

"It's the stress of the job" he thought, narrowing his eyes as a light illuminated the window of the vulgar looking building.

The building, which had once obviously been a grand block of apartments in the lower city had seen much depression over the years. Bits of brickwork and metal were exposed on the exterior and the guttering from the flat roof was swinging in the wind.

This part of the city had not seen any economic investment in years. But then, why should it? Most of the successful people lived in the huge skyscapers that dominated the skyline of the island, or in the comfortable suburbs around some of the coast line.

Janus tapped the steering wheel of his car.

"Showtime" he thought.

He reached for the door and climbed out in the torrential rain which was bombarding the street in a sombre melody. In the distance he could hear the sounds of the lower city, sirens in the backgrounds, people shouting and babies crying. It assaulted his ears as a symphony of desperation and everything that he thought was wrong with the social mobility of this country.

He pulled up his jacket as he crossed the empty street, taking a chance to look at the small, run-down cinema behind him. It was still showing the latest films but had certainly seen better days as doors were marked, chipped and scratched in many places.

He approached the door of the abandoned apartment block, his small stature dwarfed by the size of the building, pulling out a piece of paper to check the address.

"What are you doing here!? Just get back in a car and drive away."

His heart was thumping in his chest as he reached to knock on the door, his brown fur that covered most of his body almost standing on end as he gave it a loud knock.

There was almost an immediate fumbling sound coming from behind the door. Janus froze for a moment, taking a deep breath to control his fear and the sudden urge to run that was so commonly associated with his species.

A slot in the door opened a pair of deep yellow feline eyes peered through the battered metal door.

"Yeah?" said the creature behind the door, with an acerbic tone.

Janus spoke softly and with a polite and formal accent most commonly associated with those within the Upper City.

"Excuse me..." he said, with slight trepidation to his voice. "I believe was giving this address for some "fun"?"

The shutter immediately slammed shut and there was a long moment of silence where Janus feared that it may not open at all and he would be left standing out in the pouring rain, his hair and his fur getting drenched.

Finally, after a few seconds, the door whooshed open with force.

The glaring yellow eyes were replaced with the full body of a large buxom female feline, her fur jet black and her appearance showing that she was not original from the country of Vulnira but instead, from the far off region of Fesalis, a country far to the east, known for its exotic reputation.

Janus was drawn her large, plump breasts which complimented her rather full physique, suspended in a black leather brassiere which extended them from her chest in a lucious and seductive manner.

She flicked back her long, vibrant, clearly dyed scarlet hair and looked down at the Vulnira, who only came up to her chest in height, her long seemingly endless legs, both sleek and thick at the same time, leaning against the door as she talked in a peculiar foreign accent.

"Money?" she asked, as she pulled out a cigarette from the packet in her hand, her lips somewhat teased Janus with anticipation as he learnt down to light it.

"Oh... Um..." replied Janus, clearly not expecting to find a female dressed like this. Suggestive outfits such as what this black panther was wearing were clearly a violation of the strict religious and social conventions that dominated the entire Vulnira culture.

The female scoffed, flicking back her long scarlet hair again. "We get lot of a boys from Upper City here..." she said, her hand going to her mobile phone, which was a simple black screen that projected a holographic interface straight into her eye. Such devices were common, even amongst the poorest in society and were available on the mass market. However females could not own one with the supervision of their male mate.

These devices provided total privacy to the user, however males could still observe who their female mates were sending messages to at any time. Such was the order of Vulnira culture dating back to the time of the Great Prophet Athen, over three thousand years before.

"Yes... I have money..." replied Janus formally as he produced a familiar yellow banknote from his pocket, all crumpled and overused.

The panther looked up from the black screen, she had been scrolling through the messages on her mobile phone which to Janus, only looked like a black screen but she could actually see a whole interface inside her eye. The phone automatically scanned the retina of the creature the possessed it and transmitted a visual signal directly to an implant worn behind her small triangular ears on the top of her head.

She reached out with her large, clawed paws and snatched the note straight out of Janus's hand. "Thirty minutes... " she said, returning to look at her phone and waiting for Janus to hurry up and enter.

"But... I was told forty-five..." said Janus, somewhat scared to argue with her. She looked like she could eat him alive.

Not in the way that he would have wanted.

"New prices..." responded the feline without looking up at him. "Economy... y'know. Do you want or not?" she asked in her foreign accent.

"Yes..." replied Janus as he decided to enter the building. He walked slowly into a disgusting looking kitchen which had most certainly seen better days Dirty dishes lined the counter in the corner of the box-like room, with only a single small table and a rather intimidating looking male of the same species as the female.

He gave Janus a glare that made him uncomfortable as he entered the room.

"You want tight?" he asked, when Janus entered the room and looked around, noting the large shotgun which was laying on the table, obviously for anyone that tried to make trouble.

"Eh..." Janus raised his small vulpine ears, the black tips standing slightly on edge as he looked over at both panthers in the room, both of which glared at him. The male was the same colour as the female, though even more bigger, sat in a large pair of shorts and no shirt to show his impressive collection of muscles.

He rose to his feet, his stature towering over Janus in almost every way. "You look like faggot" he said in his broken accent, chuckling to himself. "You want boy?"

"I..." Janus was extremely intimidated.

"Get out of here... NOW!" the voice in his head getting louder and louder but he had already stepped past the threshold of no return.

"No!" responded Janus, somewhat louder then he had to, trying to make his apparent nervousness seem nonexistent.

"Good!" replied the panther, slapping his shoulder with considerable force that Janus was almost knocked off his feet. "I get you tight" he said, returning to his seat, shouting some unfamiliar words down the hall, an open door with bead like drapes which let to a darkened hallway.

He sat back in such a way that Janus could see his considerable bulge, barely contained within his pants. Fesalis were known for their somewhat obvious physical attributes compared to the Vulnira.

The Fesalis were one of the most recognisable cultures on Terra, they originated from the harsh climate of their home and had evolved from various nomadic tribes into the region in a continental superpower that dominated most of the globe.

"First door on left" replied the male Fesalis. "She gives good..."

Janus tried to ignore his crude attitude. He was concerned about what the female had said, that "many boys" had come here. He knew that people from the Upper City would regularly journey down to the Lower City for certain tasks but he was still surprised that others would do it.

A heavy haze of smoke lined the corridor as he passed the kitchen, walking down a small, dimly lit and dank corridor to find the correct door. In the distance he could hear the sounds of various different species all performing acts that were much better not thought about. The smoke choked him and made him feel like he was going to wretch on it, but he recognised the smell, various different narcotics that he had encountered during his life.

He found the grimy door, checking to see that the door guard had gone back to speaking to the female who was still standing at the door, smoking her cigarette and talking a language that he did not understand.

Turning the greasy handle, he entered the room.

Inside, the room had been converted from the living room of an old apartment block, to the seedy den which it was now. All the windows at the back of the room had been blacked out by heavy sheets, with a cheap double bed.

On the bed, laying with a sheet half covering her naked body was a slender female Corvidae, a voluptuous black raven who raised her head from the bed slightly when Janus had entered the room cautiously. She was long and slender, like the female panther that he had met out in the kitchen but she was almost completely naked, her small petite frame and breasts drooping down as she raised her head in a daze.

From the way that she was moving, Janus could clearly tell that she was intoxicated, possibly even drugged. She stared at him with a distant, almost longing stair before sitting up and wrapping herself in the bedsheet.

"How long have you got?" she asked, her beak was short and stubby as she stared at him with her sleepy yellow eyes.

Janus was unsure how to respond, his eyes narrowing all over her slim, feminine physique. Her beauty was captivating, from her jet black feathers around her body to her rather small head and seductive eyes, still entrancing, even in her current state.

"Tira LeBlanc?" asked Janus, checking behind him that the door was completely sealed. The raven's eyes went from a sultry glance that looked a million miles away, to a harsh bump back down to earth at the mention of her real name.

"W-Wha? How'd you know that?" she said, looking somewhat distressed and rather scared by the whole experience. "Did my father send you?"

Janus reached into the pocket of his long coat and produced a small card wallet, revealing his identification card as he paid careful attention to the door and was trying with renewed vigor not to blow his cover.

"I'm undercover for the Crystal Lake Police Department" he said, hoping that she would not immediately start screaming the place down. His paw travelling down to his concealed gun which was tucked into his belt behind him, just incase the two Fesalis from the kitchen decided to come down the hall and check in on him.

The Corvidae looked at him with a perplexed expression, her heavy eyes looking more and more glazed over as she spoke with hushed tone, sitting up to prepare an ominous grey powder that was laying on the table. "I won't go... " she said, looking to Janus who should have known better then to come here with no backup, especially with the tip off he had received.

Janus cast his mind back to a few days earlier. He had been working undercover as a trafficker of Corvidae refugees into Crystal Lake and other cities throughout Vulnira. The Corvidae were a fairly small nomadic tribe that lived peacefully in the far east, bordering with Fesalis territory.

A few weeks previous, the royal family of Corvidae had been assassinated in a bloody uprising which saw the current king, his wife and all nineteen of his children murdered by political extremists.

As a distant country, far from the conflict and free from the constant warfare associated with the eastern regions of Terra, Vulnira had watched with continual interest as the political extremists seized direct control over the government and requested the Fesalis to take control of the country. This confirmed the worst fears of many that Fesalis may have been assisting the rebels in order to expand their territory.

Many of the displaced people during the conflict had become homeless refugees, fleeing the country as the might of the Fesalis army crushed opposition to their occupation of Corvidae. Seeing an opportunity in the chaos, many of the Fesalis people had begun to traffic Corvidae people into other countries under the promise of a "better and safe environment", with many sold into slavery.

Janus had been investigating this rise of illegal Corvidae refugees into Crystal Lake when he had received a tip off from an informant.

Suggesting that Tira LeBlanc was actually Princess Tira Et Corvidae, the last surviving member of the Corvidae royal family who were all believed to have been murdered. Janus had well admitted that the story could have been absolute bogus but he decided to investigate it...

... without asking for backup.

"Is my father still alive?" asked Tira, looking over at Janus, without looking up, busy preparing some kind of drug which was on the bedside table. "I did not get a chance to see him before they moved me..."

Janus shook his head and tried to look as compassionate as he could while also keeping an open ear for any movement coming down the hallway.

"I...I don't know..." replied Janus truthfully. "My informant discovered you when he was visiting another girl here."

Tira pushed her beak into a line of powder that she had created out of an old savings card for a local supermarket and took a large long snort as she inhaled the product, pausing for just a second to enjoy the high before looking directly at Janus, her eyes even more distant than before now.

"Helps me cope..." she said, looking over at Janus as her eyes began to glimmer slightly in the dim light of the room, tears of regret for what she had allowed herself to become. "You have no idea... to go from being a Princess to... this..." she cried.

Janus rushed over to her and put a comforting paw on her shoulder while still making sure that the area was secure. He needed to find some way to get her to calm down so that she did not blow his cover.

There was a slight creak in the distance from the chairs in the kitchen and the sound of clanking metal as another guest had arrived.

"I've come to get you out of here..." he said, realising how stupid he must have sounded and how equally stupid he must have been to come into the lion's den without any sort of support or backup. He dropped down to her level, crouching down to be eye level with the softly weeping raven in front of him. "You gotta trust me and do exactly what I say..." he said gently, giving her the best warm and reassuring smile that he could.

There was sudden clunking down coming from the other end of the hall, which caused both of them to jump slightly. Janus reached round for his firearm, pulling it from behind him and releasing the safety, the black metal shimmering in the dimly pink light of the room. He understood that there was not really another way out of this.

Tira pushed out a claw, placing it lightly on the top of his gun as she broke herself from her despair for a brief second of drug fueled lucidity. Both Janus and her knew that a gunshot would attract unwanted attention and the two Fesalis that Janus had seen early could not be the only ones in the brothel of this size. "No..." she said softly, her natural Corvidae accent coming through more clearly now.

Janus lowered the gun as the handle on the door began to turn and before he had a moment to react, Tira had brought out her petite black breasts and pushed them into Janus's face.

He felt a surge of hormones as he stared at her naked black feathered breasts, with Tira shaking them slightly to indicate what she wanted him to do.

"Of course!"

They needed to make it look as if he was engaged in a sexual encounter with her. Janus reached up with his paws to slowly caress the small but plump pair of breasts in front him. His natural reflexes making this situation very easy for him as he began to feel movement within his sheath buried deep within his trousers.

Her slowly ran his paws over her small and perky breasts, flicking the nipples slightly as she could not help but let out a little moan in satisfaction and a small stifled exhale as he slowly caressed her.

The door creaked open and the male Fesalis from earlier stood in the doorway, watching them for a second with a perverted interest. Janus supposed that he really wanted to see if Janus was actually gay or not.

Janus opened his muzzle and gently used his tongue to lip over her nipples on the end of her breasts which caused Tira to moan in such a way that Janus could not tell if she was acting or was genuinely sexually excited by all this attention.

"Twenty minutes..." responded the male in the doorway. "Want more... pay extra" he called out to Janus before chuckling and closing the door behind him.

After the door was shut, Janus immediately broke contact with Tira as she leaned back on the bed, leaning back in a sigh of relief although as she leaned back, he could see the slightest glint of moisture from between her legs.

"She had definitely been enjoying it!"

"How do we get out of here?" asked Tira, looking over at Janus with a perplexed expression as she immediately reached for a packet of cigarettes which also lay on the bedside table.

"I'm working on that" said Janus, he smiled at her reassuringly, raising his gun which he had been holding all this time but had made sure that the Fesalis had not seen it while he had been faking foreplay with Tira

In reality, he did not have a clue...