FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I was just finishing my meal, a Cub Burger and Cheeseburger Fries when I saw them. It looked like Mel had brought the whole gang, Simon was beside her, his dark eyes looking like they always did through the lenses of his glasses while I could tell that Helen was angry, at something, though I had a pretty good idea why.

Mel stuck out, even in the crowded mall, by being a hair over six feet tall and close to three hundred pounds of almost pure muscles, while the exact opposite was Simon, her current mate and our team's personal manager and driver. He was a rather cute little grey mouse morph who was barely five four and a hundred forty pounds soaking wet. In the middle of the two lovers stood Helen, looking pissed off as hell and radiating an aura of barely contained rage from every molecule of her compact and lethal form. She was around my old height of five seven and had outweighed me by a good thirty pounds.

I smiled to myself and waited for them to spot me. I could tell that all three were looking and surprisingly the first to recognize me was Simon but I softly put my finger to my lips and winked at the grey mouse before he turned to his mate.

It took Mel a few more moments to spot me, and when she did she started walking towards where Jack and I sat with a confident, purposeful stride, "You better start talking cub or you'll find that I have a very short temper." She said almost as soon as she reached the table.

"Relax and sit-down Mel," I told her before glancing at the other two, "I know that I look different from what I used to look like but right now is not the time for discussing differences." I said evenly. I already had decided to use my professional and rather detached businesslike manner for this meeting, we didn't really have the time for extended explanations, besides I was already beginning to feel a bit tired and strung out.

Mel slammed her hand on the table as she sat down, "First you have to prove to me that you are who you say you are."

I snapped my gaze up into her eyes, noticing the barely contained anger in those flinty golden orbs and found myself growling slightly, though to be fair she did frighten me a bit, "Cool down Claws." I said, reminding her of our private nickname that we'd taken to calling each other after our first time. "We don't really have a lot of time on our hands if we want to end up with the best result." I finished up reaching into the bag that I had slung from the back of my chair for my tablet.

"Scars?" She asked, softly her eyes going wide.

I nodded as I pulled the tablet out and set it on the table and fired it up. "Now I have been able to do basic recon, through the Nails own network of cameras and their schematics... I've already..."

"How is she?" Helen growled out through gritted fangs and I could see that in her own golden eyes that she barely was holding it together.

"Amanda is well, they've done nothing to damage her, yet." I softly told Helen "Though from what I saw in the footage from their internal security network she's done her best to hurt them and several of them are carrying some wounds from her teeth and claws."

Mel gave a soft chuckle, "Yep, you're Daren." She confirmed, "Only that crazy human would have the balls, and the skills to hack into the Nail's own systems without them knowing it. I guess now you can make their systems dance a bloody jig if you wanted to." She said with a glint in her eyes, and I could tell that she was already coming up with a plan, though we'd have to figure out the details.

For her part Helen also offered a grim smile, since I was aware that she was the one who'd taught her sister some of the techniques that I'd seen the cub using against those who'd approached her. "Good girl, 'Manda, do your best to make life for those scum who took you as painful as possible."

I called up a schematic of the Nailheads' base of operations. It was located in the shells of several interconnected warehouses in the industrial district by the airport. "This is where they have her, their main base of operations," I shook my head at why the Nails had chosen such an obviously clichéd base. "I know it doesn't look like much, but I can assure you that there is more to this damned place than meets the eye."

I could see Mel trying to make heads or tails of the schematic for a moment before she shook her head. "What on earth does all of this mean Dar?"

"As near as I can tell they've really been busy in there Mel, and they've converted those warehouses into a fortress of their own making." I said evenly before I brought up a three-dimensional model of the place before ignoring three of the structures and bringing up the one that I was interested in. "Now they have 'Manda located here," I highlighted a room high inside of the structure, "I guess the thinking is that to reach her you have to go through almost every Nail in the place and that would result in..." I knew I didn't really have to say much more.

"Yeah that wouldn't be good." Both Mel and Helen hissed though I could almost see the tears in Helen's eyes.

"We do have some advantages though," I stated softly, "Since I am already working with the authorities we will have something of a distraction going once we secure the room where Amanda is being held."

"What is the cost of that co-operation though?" Mel asked.

I looked into her eyes and those of Simon and Helen as well. "This sounds rough but we are going to have to turn ourselves in, but I think that it is time for us to stop running, stop hiding in the shadows."

"That's easy for you to say," Simon spat out, "You already have an out, while we..."

"Listen to him Simon, there is some truth to what he's saying," Mel growled, "Things are getting worse for us and there is less space for us to do what we do. Now more than ever we're being pushed towards doing things that are touching on the truly evil."

Simon looked up to Mel and I could see, by the twitching in his ears that he wasn't sure that he'd heard her correctly. "Oh, come on Mel, you surely don't believe that. Hell, in the past six months we've had it better than we've ever had it before."

Melinda sighed and shook her head, "Simon that's because the Mob has been giving us more and more jobs which are drawing us closer to them as time goes by. Daren and I never intended for things to get to this point."

I saw the surprise in Jack's eyes as she mentioned me, though it was the truth since Melinda and I had founded the Shadows four yeas ago as a way to make some more money while retaining independence from the Mob and from the street gangs. "Mel is right Simon; our intention was never to be a tool for the Mob or the other street gangs. Prior to that we found that we were doing increasing amounts of work for them, with none of the benefits due to the fact that neither of us was eligible to gain full membership."

Simon for his part looked at me, then at his mate, and I could see the realization in his eyes that, as always, there was more going on. "So, you are suggesting that we, what? Give up?" He finally asked.

Mel gave him a gentle hug, "Simon, dear heart, we always knew that this day would come eventually. That we would have to either let those base impulses take hold, or to call it quits and give ourselves over to the law, though I didn't know that this kind of thing would happen."

While Simon was struggling with that concept Helen reached over and gently pulled the hat off of my head and then began to softly scratch that base of one of my ears. I wasn't sure if she was really doing in intentionally, or simply as a way to distract her mind from the danger that her younger sister was currently facing.

I took a moment to softly look at Helen and could see that for some reason what she was doing was soothing to her. "You going to be okay Hel?" I asked softly.

She nodded her head, "Yeah, and I kind of already knew that this was going to be our last hurrah. After all, even if we survive and weren't pinned down by the law we'd have to get out of town." She stated softly "That isn't really something I wanted to inflict on Amanda, but..." She started softly and I knew that she needed something, or somebody to hug. Though I'd always love Mel I also had a soft spot for Helen and we'd shared more than our fair share of private moments.

I quickly moved from my seat to Helen's lap and as soon as I was comfortably in place she hugged me tightly and for the first time in a long time I felt her shaking softly as she began to relax her control of her emotions.

Mel looked at me and smiled slightly, "Thanks Dar, she's been holding in that fear and terror since Amanda was snatched the other day."

I nodded and I could feel Helen's tears on my shoulder as she cried. "I could sense it Mel, and it hurts when I see her looking so... lost and confused. She wants to hurt somebody but knows that she can't because it would cause her sister to come to harm."

Mel nodded as she rubbed her mate's ears. "Yeah, even I could see that Dar, but you know that to me she's always been akin to a cub, not an equal while you on the other hand share a deeper bond that is more reciprocal, kind of like how I am with Simon."

At that point I was starting to think that Jack was about to have a mental melt-down since he was learning more than he'd ever like to know about how the dynamic of our little group worked.

"Come on let's be nice to Jack and get on with coming up with a way to get 'Manda out of there in one piece." I stated before yawning again.

"You're tired Daren?" Mel asked softly.

"Kind of," I answered, "I've been on the go since about seven in the morning and it's starting to catch up to me... tomorrow is going to be even worse if we attempt this tonight."

Mel nodded and then gently reached over and pulled me out of Helen's lap and into her own before she reached down and adjusted my tablet to allow it to make notes. "Now I've set it to record, you get some rest kitten," She ordered me while softly rubbing my chest and tummy softly."

"Mel there are a lot of details to work through," I objected, trying to get her to stop while leaning forwards rotate the image on the tablet so that we could work on it.

"No Daren, I would rather you be fully alert and ready when you have to brief the police on their part in this mission, and that means that a certain little kitten needs his afternoon nap." She ordered softly while pulling me back against her muscular chest.

I glanced over at Jack and noticed that he was nodding to me, "Daren you're tired, you need to rest," He said softly, "If you trust your friends let them take care of the details, they know what they're doing."

I gave a small sigh, then a soft growling purr as Mel rubbed my chest and tummy softly.

"Relax cub, I've got you," Mel said softly in a wistful tone as she held me against her own chest and I could almost swear that she was doing this for her own good as well as mine. I knew that one of her biggest regrets in life so far was that she'd never had a chance to have a cub. That was one reason why she was so protective of Amanda and now she had me relaxing in her arms.

Within a few minutes I couldn't help it as I felt myself falling asleep, and this time I didn't resist my need to get a little rest.