FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Alrigh' let's think", started Fleek, "whirr's the best place tae start?"

"We are still processing through the staff," said Sa-shi-ha, "so far none of the caterers have raised suspicions or ever been members of an extremist group."

"I am still confused," asked James, "what is a terrorist exactly?"

"A person that commits harm or vandalism against another for a political or religious purpose," Shuffa nodded wisely, "truth be told, we do not know WHAT sort of organisation these Angels of Aurum are but their methods are certainly terroristic."

"And we still do not know what they want?"

"Not a single particle, but they have been actively harassing the Director for some time now over the course of several rotational periods. This is the first however of presumably many incidents that they have caused directly."

"I truly hope that master and Andrea are alright," muttered the lemming nibbling at his fingers, "I mean there is a small possibility that they weren't captured!"

"I have been trying to scan through the ECTM footage for any sightings of them, but the last I saw was them heading towards the communications room."

"And nothing after?"

"No. Someone planned this well, they knew the security here well enough, and any further cameras along the hall past communications did not record anyone suspicious."

"Musta been maintenance vents," mused Fleek-Gleek rubbing his beak, "they're all over the place an' it ties intae that robot we fought bein' modified ken?"

"Yes," Chanoch nodded, "the castle had secret tunnels, can move bodies without being seen."

"Castle?! Are you really a knight, pal?!"

"Yes."

"Hhhahahaha wow, ah thought you were just like cosplayin' or summat!"

"Let us look back at the comms room," said Sa-shi floating forwards, "if we can find any maintenance tunnels that shall give us a lead to follow."

Heading back to the scene of the incident, they walked past the sealed-off room which now had a set of holographic lines that became hard-light when any unauthorised people approached. A medical forensics team were inside carefully peeling off the entrails from the walls and consoles to collect, taking photographs to recreate the scene as a short hooded humanoid whose face remained trapped in a cowl came forwards to the group.

"Anything you discovered?" asked Sa-shi.

"Subsonic blast," sighed the forensic specialist, "three remnants of Zoq-Fot-Pik, their brains combusted out their-"

"Please," she put up her fronds with a gulp in her phloem vessel, "spare me the gory details, was there anything unusual?"

"Besides the tranquiliser dart over there," he leaned out the doorway pointing towards the corner, "nothing. We did however find some DNA that didn't belong to the deceased."

"Really?"

"It's human."

James felt his heart turn cold with fear as he shook with stuttered breaths.

"It's not enough to be considered fatal," said the hooded investigator, "so if the humans were here then they should be physically fine."

"That is good," said Sa-shi bowing, "could I ask that you analyse that sample as soon as possible, just so we have some clues about the humans' condition?"

"Normally we still have to clean up here but, considering this is now a 'missing persons' case this gets high priority."

"I agree," said Shuffa nodding, "it is tragic for what happened to Blon, Grue and Bleen but we must focus our efforts on finding the humans."

"I'll get back to the Exomicranch to analyse this," said the specialist, "the rest of my team can handle cleanup without me."

"Keep me up to date on your findings," said the supox turning to float down the hall, "thank you for your work Ulzmann."

Beyond the scene of the incident was a slow-turning hallway where it seemed to be perfectly pristine. Chanoch bent down with a piercing gaze to determine some small strands of cloth and a soft scuffmark, whilst Sa-shi scanned the same hall with her bracelet in a large beam of emerald light.

"Something was dragged along here. Two pairs of two, fabric made from Earth-based cotton and animal skins."

"That is them. They stop...here."

The reptile stood before a random section of the wall he peered closely over. His claws scraped along the wall carefully until he felt a slit catch against and try to pull it off.

"Found it."

"Wow." The supox leaned in with everyone behind. "I can never tell where they are for how well they hide them."

"Can you open this?"

"I-i...I do not have access, the maintenance service is a different route they are responsible for it."

"We have no authority in that sector," said Shuffa turning her eye round to both ends of the hall, "we shall have to flag down a technical engineer!"

"But we cannot tell them our mission," she stressed with a pointing leaf, "this is strictly clandestine, no one is to know so as to prevent the traitor from learning of our plans to deter us."

"Wait! I just remembered, did not one of the communication specialists have a pass into maintenance?"

"AH, you are right! But how do we get one without alerting them?"

"You leave that to me," she patted a pincer on the supox's shoulder and walked off back to the comms room, "I will just temporarily borrow one for security reasons, have to make certain that they are deactivated so as to prevent anyone else from using them, yes?"

"A-alright."

As they waited, Chanoch kept trying to pull the door open with his fingernails. James brought out his master's quill and gently rubbed along its plume with a tender sigh.

"Dinnae worry yerself," said Fleek patting his head, "we'll find yer pals, nae worries righ'?"

"Yes I...sorry."

"You have the best two guards in this place, we'll find these bastards afore it's even night-time on yer planet!"

"I hope so. I...I need master Durai and the planet needs doctor Dixon."

"We also need her too," said Sa-shi-ha, "I suspect that is why she was taken as a means to bind us."

"But...no one else knows about the 'wormhole' situation you said."

"Oh everyone's already figured it out, they're not stupid," she swatted a leaf dismissively, "I tried to play damage control as is my job but everyone saw the wormhole open up and now we're stuck in this other region of space. Too far to reach any other comm stations in the galaxy."

"But they do not know that SHE is the one able to reverse it?"

"Or she's just a hostage," noted Fleek, "she's one o' only two humans on this base, that makes her pretty interesting, make it a diplomatic incident if sumthin' were to happen tae here."

"I return!" cried Shuffa raising her pincer aloft with a keycard. "All in a rotational period, shall we progress our ongoing investigation?!"

"Please do mah darlin' dea-ea-ea-ear!" the yehat flapped his wings suddenly before clamping them against his chest. "F-fuckin' jitters all of a sudden ah should cut doon on mah coffee."

"I have that too," said Chanoch nodding grimly, "my hands shake from drinking too much."

They watched Shuffa approach the wall and produce the thin rectangle that belonged to the former technician Blon. The slat opened up with a hollow whirr as it revealed a maintenance shaft with a long sliver of fluorescent lights. They carefully crawled their way in to stand in a narrow passage just barely big enough for Chanoch that made him stoop to not hit his head on the ceiling. Cables ran the length of the entire wall as the supox scanned both directions along the dark thin corridor, trying to trace the fabric scuffles the humans left behind before heading down one path. The rest followed him with Chanoch at the back bending forwards and Fleek-Gleek clasping his wings round him like a cloak. The sounds of creatures walking past made strange thudding echoes through their skulls amidst deep trills and high-pitched mutterings above their heads. The maintenance shaft was deep and longer than they thought, bending in some directions with again the slow circular curve that all this station's architecture possessed. Sometimes there were crossroads but the supox kept them on track with her scanner.

"What do we do if we find them?" asked James.

"If we find your friends," said Sa-shi floating ahead, "we take them back to their quarters and keep them under guard for protection. If we find their kidnappers then we neutralise them."

"Or exterminate them if they...resist," said Shuffa with a deep sigh, "blaggards such as people-thieves have...no place upon this station."

They moved onwards, turning through halls of claustrophobic length as they seemingly took an entire circular sweep through the Tecturanch. James felt the darkness bearing down upon him and started to shake with rapid breaths cloying in his heart.

"Are you hurt?" asked Chanoch behind him.

"N-no I just...just...h-h-hhhhh, hnnnngh-"

"You are frightened of the dark?"

"N-no...no just...this must have been what it was like for my...n-never mind."

"I am here if you need me."

"Thank you."

He felt the large scaled hand squeeze his shoulder as they moved further in, another forty minutes of silence upon the service route as cables turned thicker and panels glibly warned them in some alien language for dangerous options. Eventually they reached the end of the trail and Sa-shi looked upwards to a hatch she clicked open. They found themselves at the tram station, much to their surprise as the trail continued a few inches more to the platform.

"Damn," she sighed forlornly looking down the track. "They could be anywhere now."

"Then we go anywhere too," said Chanoch, "where does that lead?"

"Well we have the Exomicranch, and beyond that the Nananch."

"Two bodies are hard to transport, they cannot go far."

"Indeed," nodded Shuffa, "they would have been noticed rather predictably, unless they managed to put them in containers of some sort, but even then to plan it with the arrival of transportation would be a clumsy shot at best!"

"Either way let's git oan," said Fleek, "maybe sumbody's seen 'em pass through."

They called for the tram and stepped on with Sa-shi in front, husband and wife on one side with James and Chanoch on the other. Lights shuddered past the windows as Shuffa slumped against Fleek, her eye closing as he cuddled her close with a wing wrapped round her body. The land outside zoomed past in a haze of purple hills as James could see the shape of a looming colossus stomp through the wastes of the expansive asteroid, a magna-loader carrying what appeared to be the wing of an entire ship in its hands.

"Incredible...how big do you think that is?"

"Hundred metres," muttered Chanoch turning his head halfway.

"That sounds...quite the goliath."

"They are impressive," said Sa-shi-ha without turning, "magna-loaders have been around since this station was first installed upon this asteroid."

"How did you come to this place?" James asked sitting back down in his seat.

"Well...I...followed someone else, let met just say that."

"Oh?"

She said nothing further, pursing her mandibles neatly as James took that as a cue before he looked across the row to see Shuffa breathing softly.

"Is she alright?"

"She's fine," the yehat curled his fingers round his wife, "just get a wee bit tired sumtimes, she'll be righ' as rain soon enough."

"I truly hope our friends are alright."

"Ah betcha they are."

"Yes but..." said James with a sigh, "I was...I was wanting to apologise to them, I do not want to leave things on this."

"Whutcha mean, you had a fight with 'em or summat?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm...makes ya think dunnit?" The yehat sat up slightly pulling Shuffa close to his chest. "Always let those you love ken how much you appreciate them. Cuz one day they're gone, it may never happen but it always might."

"I know. I want to tell them I am sorry."

"But are you daein' that fer their sake, or fer yourself?"

"What do you mean?" asked the lemming leaning forwards.

"You shouldnae wanna make amends just cuz you feel bad, you wanna make amends because you care aboot yer friends."

"Well of course I care about them!"

"And if they're good friends o' yers then they should ken that you care aboot 'em enough that you dinnae haftae."

"Well, that is the thing," said James rubbing his hands tightly, "I worry that one of them does not because I do not know her well."

"Ahhhh. Well..." Fleek-Gleek spread his legs to sit back. "We'll find 'em, you have mah word."

"Thank you sir Fleek-Gleek."

"Hahaha, sir?! Wow...naebody's ever called me a sir, so you dae magic an' he's a knight, fer real?"

"Yes," said Chanoch looking puzzled at him.

"Never thought ah'd see real magic in mah life that wuznae just fancy tricks haha."

The tram soon reached its next stop in the form of a pink-swept platform, reminiscent of cherry blossoms that dappled the walls in a soothing friendly fashion. Shuffa yawned and stretched her stalk before shuffling out the tram with her husband in tow, the group making their way into a much larger laboratory than they had previously seen with open vistas where various halls went outwards like a spider's legs from the central plaza. Birds, cyclop-mutants and hooded monks all worked away in sequestered glass-fabric rooms where strange patterns were evolving within tubes. Rose patterns permeated the place with an oddly soothing candour, despite the clinical ambience of what the newcomers realised to be living creatures swirling around within their containers. Reports were noted, filed down and processed as the strange sounds of bubbling waters and organic coagulation gave Chanoch flashbacks to the alchemy lab years ago, minus the smell which was surprisingly absent in such an active place.

"What exactly is this place for?"

"The Exomicranch," said Sa-shi-ha crossing the plaza, "is our primary biological centre opposite the Pharmanch where we study microcellular organisms. Mostly for mining and terraforming purposes so as to both easily extract minerals from harsh environments, but also engineering them to create habitable planets."

"Create planets?" murmured Chanoch peering inside a bubbly froth. "These tiny creatures can make entire worlds?"

"Not exactly, the microbes can pump gases into the air that allow a species to breathe and survive on it. Your species for example require oxygen, whilst mine require carbon dioxide."

"You breathe in what I breathe out. Symbiosis."

"Indeed!" She clapped her leaves together. "You are a biologist?"

"No, alchemy." He rubbed his eyelid stepping back from the hard fibreglass. "But I understand the basics of life."

"OH, professor HOX!"

Seeing the familiar garb of the immunologist, Sa-shi waved at him frantically as he stood inside a lab with his back turned to them. Fiddling with a control panel in front of three tubes, the VUX slapped one of his bird-faced assistants with a wily tentacle.

"NO NO NO, YOU IMBECILE I SAID LESS ALKALINE, ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN MY EXPERIMENT!?"

"I do not wish to argue," said the fat-beaked bird, "but I CAN hear the cells and their wishes were to be MORE alkalid!"

"I do not care what THEY want, I am their master and I know what is best for them above their wretched monocytosic existence!"

"I highly recommend that we-"

"ENOUGH!" He brandished his curled tentacle like a fist. "Put in the alkaline solution, NOW!"

The knock of the window behind him made him turn with astonishment to see the supox and her crew.

"WH-what are you lot doing here, YOU TWO! You cannot be here, no visitors!"

"They are with me," stressed the supox patting the glass, "are you alright?! You rushed off rather quickly during the dance, did you hear what happened?!"

"No and I do not care, I am busy mitigating some precautions for an experiment!"

"Well thas fine wi' us," said Fleek leaning over her shoulder, "you mind answerin' a few questions doc?"

"It's PROFESSOR, and I do mind when I am working to save lives."

"This is important!" cried James with a hand on the glass. "My friends have gone missing and we require assistance, someone's life could be in danger!"

"Missing?!" blustered HOX. "Who?!"

"The humans!"

"...oh." He turned back round towards his console. "I wondered why they were not here with you. Very well but I cannot give my full attention to you, ask away."

"Did you...see," Shuffa leaned against the window with a gasping shake, "anyone suspicious the past few hours?"

"No more suspicious than our new visitors. By that I mean I have not seen hide nor tendril of the humans."

"Miss Sa-shi noted you...had to leave the party early, may we ask why?"

"No you may not, it is classified research and not in any way relevant to your missing friends."

"I see. How is...hooo, how is your tranquiliser sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"That." She pointed towards his waist as he turned round showing his belt. "Just noticed your tranquiliser and asking if...hhhhh...it is, all topped-up to maximum capacity."

"Why do you ask such a pointed thing?" he squinted his eye luridly at her.

"Because a recent incident in the Tecturanch means we have to be quite auspicious for any dangers, and I would not want our most prized immunologist being caught with his stalk wilting, it would be a tragedy if we lost you from sloppiness!"

"I can tell you now I have never been sloppy, that is the job of a pkunk and not ME."

He lifted up his tranquiliser gun, a small silver pistol with a clip of yellow bars completely filled.

"I am more than capable of handling any buffoons who dare try to impede my life's work."

"Glad to hear," said Shuffa nodding politely.

"If you DO require some assistance, you can take my impromptu assistant instead once he is finished with this."

"What are you making exactly?" asked James.

"I am devising a phagocyte that will prevent frostbite by devouring frozen particles to then excrete them in an unfrozen state."

"That is good," murmured Chanoch nodding wisely. "My grandfather lost a foot from frostbite."

"Indeed," noted HOX turning his head for a second to stare at him, "no matter what part of the galaxy you originate from there are still climates far too cold to conquer, that and some places damaged by climate change necessitate more means to withstand such severe environs."

"What is...climate change?"

"Polluting an atmosphere to such an effect that it causes a drastic imbalance of extreme temperatures that in turn can cause more violent weather patterns. There."

He gently turned the dial up to turn one of the tubes blue and the second purple.

"That should do it for now, at least for the experimental part, the rest I can handle by myself."

"Wonderful!" the supox clapped in a small ovation. "Another rousing success from our greatest professor."

"Hmhmhmhm, thank you my lady." He took a gentle bow. "If I can perfect this then we can mix it into cold-seasonal jabs as a prerogative to protect the elderly."

"Absolutely! Just as Chanoch mentioned his own elderly relative which perfectly proves the need for such a deterrent."

"More than a deterrent miss Sa-shi, it is a CURATIVE so that none shall ever succumb to frostbite again!"

"You save lives," Chanoch noted with his thumb on chin, "that is what's important."

"But of course, Twikky you are relieved by the way."

"Thank YOU professor!"

The bird assistant gave a salute and tripped his way out of the lab to stand at the same height as James. With glorious red coat wrapped round his diminutive body, his hands had at least one finger on each that curled to an insanely long length like an anteater's tongue, with a head that resembled a colourless toucan. His voice was perfectly Seussian, ever in a constant state of cheerisome theatrical as if about to reveal your card for the first time.

"WELCOME to the Exomicranch dear visitors, how may I help you this glorious quadrant?!"

"We are here to investigate," explained Shuffa leaning on her rifle against the ground, "we have reason to suspect that a suspicious...guh, package has made its transgression through here, have you seen anything suspicious?"

"I see MANY things madame, but you would have to specify what it is you are looking for!"

"A nondescript crate of some sort, we do not actually know what sort or designation it contains, but we have obtained a veritable source for something of foul intent-"

"WAIT! I am SENSING something!"

The short bird slipped a finger towards James and curled his long fingertip around his head. The lemming stood rooted to the spot as he felt a small tingling across the cerebellum as the beast nodded.

"I understand your situation, perhaps it would be prudent if we were to retire to someplace with less wandering ears hmmm?!"

"I agree," said the plant-secretary, "please lead on."

Professor HOX watched the toucan wobble away with a shake of his head as he kept watch on his new experiment. The bird's feet plopped and sucked upon the spacious white floor, thin webbed toes with fat splotching toes like a frog as they made their way across the centre hall. All around them various experiments took place in a bewildering variety of conditions, such as superheated rooms that roasted the insides of hardy cells or frigid ice boxes from which no heat could ever pass or escape from. Other experiments involved deeply suffocating pressure chambers from which they could not even see into due to the fibreglass not even able to withstand such intense force. The cafeteria, whilst in a different location to previous domes, was an exact replica that slightly threw off the visitors as they walked past amidst the throng of plants, birds and tentacle-folk.

"So may I ask," began James, "what are you exactly, my apologies but my friend and I are new here an-"

"IIIIiiii am a PKUNK!" cried the avian with longfinger in the sky. "A species that can delve into the spiritual links of others, but by no means of a psychic fortitude as others may long suspect."

"Spiritual link?"

"We can sense the calls of distress, which make us PERfectly reasonable to delve into the field of exo-micro-biology, as a means to hear the cries and soothing murrs of the infant cellular organisms, to best judge their performance!"

"You hear voices of the heart," noted Chanoch nodding.

"YES indeed! Some of us may be considered psychic, but most of us do tend to be rather ordinary everyday unambiguous run-of-the-nest empaths. AH, here we are."

The pkunk led them through one sliding door into a rather cramped-looking room cluttered with shelves and a distinct smell of hard bleach that permeated the place. It was just barely room enough for all of them as they filed in like sardines into a rectangular space, squeezing between ragged-looking poles and cluttered bottles of plastic.

"This a fuckin' supply closet?!" squawked Fleek.

"INDEED!" cried the other bird. "This is the safest place where we can discuss matters of sensitivity! Firstly, my name is Twikky, a formal introduction must ALWAYS come after the third stanza!"

"I-it is-NNNGH, a p-pleasure to meet you!" gasped James stuffed against Jarogniew's leg. "But, i-is this really the most secure place to talk of private matters?"

"Ohhh yes indeed, there are no vents and it is FAR too unimportant for any snooping interlopers to broach! We have our fair share of esponage from other companies trying all SORTS of means to underwing us! But regardless, you are here to find your missing friends, correct?!"

"Y-yes, that is right!" whimpered the lemming straining against the wall.

"I cannot tell WHERE or when even that your friends have gone to, just that I know that you suspect they have been kidnapped by unseen forces responsible for murdering THREE!"

"Exactly," said Sa-shi trying to float up to a spacious corner,"we require access to your surveillance room, so we can see who came from the tram in the space of the past three hours."

"Not a problem, I will gladly assist you!"

"You are security?" asked Chanoch crunching his back against a shelf.

"Not as such, In fact, I tell a little lie, for I did sense your distress and I am ACTUALLY one of the surveillance officers! How convenient you must think, but it is all part of a plan!"

"What plan?"

"The plan of your upcoming-OOPS!" The pkunk clasped his fingers cheekily over his beak. "I almost spoiled the surprise!"

"You know what happened?"

"Not enough to tell you who or what is in charge, but enough to tell you tha-NO! No, surely you would like to discover that for yourself, but for now let me take you on a journey to my secret place, now FOLLOW ME EVERYONE!"

"Hauld oan," Fleek-Gleek pushed himself out the closet with a gasping wince, "I'll catch up wi' ye lot, ah haftae find a bathroom."

"I will come with you," said Shuffa putting a pincer on his wing, "just to find someplace to alleviate my exhaustion, would that be inconvenient?"

"Of course not," said Sa-shi bowing, "we will be at the security room if you need us."

"And AWAYYY WE GO!"

With jocular whoop Twikky left the broom closet to guide his new party towards the surveillance room, whilst Shuffa gently led her husband to the facilities with wings clutching his stomach. The closer they came to it, the more silver things became until the halls resembled the interior of a gun's barrel with glistening steel and twisting swirls that kept a constant curve to everything. Fewer people passed them the closer they reached the security room, a small secluded square with a wall of screens upon one green backlit surface that bent outwards like a giant leaf. A supox was currently monitoring the station as it waved a leave at the arriving group.

"HERE is our surveillance information station!"

"It is small," muttered Chanoch, "I like this, only essentials."

"Indeed, we only have our monitors and communications to reach guards with, nothing else! Fuu-fah could you possibly give me camera 4-B to my station?"

The plant nodded and tapped into the light-graphed keyboard before placing a leaf on one of the screens and flicking it towards a separate monitor. Twikky sat down and opened up a view of the tram, showing Sa-shi-ha and her group leaving with a straggling Shuffa in tow.

"Now you tell me you were looking for some sort of suspicious container yes?!"

"Exactly," said Sa-shi leaning over his shoulder, "it should be somewhere around two-to-three hours ago."

"NooooTED!"

Twikky wound back the footage showing a sped-up scene of creatures coming and going, random strangers chatting to each other in hyperspeed before parting in a blur of patterns as time reeled viciously with a set of numbers that James and Chanoch could not recognise in a corner.

"How does this place have a medicinal use?" asked James keeping his eye on the viewer. "Did this come about naturally?"

"NOTHING comes naturally!" cried Twikky with finger raised to the ceiling. "Not every creature is the same, science demands diversity, the Nananch and Exomicranch were designed EXACTLY beside each other to build biomechanical solutions!"

"What for?" asked Chanoch.

"Repairing internal organs without the need of open surgery, or rebuilding prosthetic limbs through the use of nanomachines!"

"Nanomachines?"

"NANOMACHINES!" squealed Twikky. "And furthermore-"

"WAIT, STOP!" Sa-shi moved in closer pointing at the tram. "Go forwards a bit, I think I saw it!"

Slowing down the feed, the pkunk carefully curled one long finger round a dial to zoom in on what appeared to be two long crates moved out of a cargo-delivering tram together.

"Is that...them?!" gasped James.

"I am not sure...but the time is right, was there any other cargo at that time?"

"Nope, not a fwissle!" squeaked the toucan. "Allow me to illuminate!"

He blew up the image of the crates showing some alien scripture on the side that puzzled them.

"Well, what a queer descript this is, or lack thereof!"

"What is it?" asked James leaning over.

"They are addressed to professor HOX, but they have no serial designation on them like the usual! Almost as if they had been erased!"

"Who delivered the crates?" asked the supox.

"LET me seeeeeee," he ficked the video further forwards, "AH, behold!"

Sure enough someone came to accept the cargo that had been delivered. Much to their surprise it was the good professor himself signing a form in a datapad that was part of the tram's routine system.

"But...that...that cannot be."

"Darts." Chanoch felt a light click in his head. "There was a dart where they were last seen."

"You are right!" James clicked his fingers. "Shuffa noted that HOX had a tranquiliser gun-"

"S-so does everyone!" cried the supox throwing her leaves up. "What if he did not know, he never checked the contents nor open the crates!"

"Are you suggesting someone sent two unregistered packages to professor HOX and he decides NOT to investigate them?"

"M-maybe! I just do not think we should jump to conclusions!"

"She is right," said Jarogniew crossing his arms, "HOX has no motive. No need to kidnap or kill."

"Unless he is one of the Angels of Aurum," muttered James.

"Absolutely NOT!" Sa-shi flew at their face with brazen glint. "I know him, he would not do this, he would never be part of any terrorist group!"

"So how do you explain this?"

"ALLOW ME to defuse the situation travellers!" Twikky threw his fingers up between them to creep under James' snout. "I can read through the frames of the ECTM recording and PERHAPS decipher where the cargo went!"

"Really?"

"Whoever has to sign for the cargo still has to specify where it shall be placed, even if it does NOT say on the original package!"

"Good!" The supox clapped her fronds. "With that we can exonerate him and I will prove to you he is not some malevolent beast-"

"ALERT. ALERT. CONTAMINATION, LOCKDOWN INITIATED."

"Wh-WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"

"UH-OHHHHH we have a leakyyyyy!" the bird gave a stupid smirk. "Fuu-fah, report please!"

The monitor revealed a map where half of a complex was gleaming red, flashing a warning that lit up the room in a neon crimson that frightened James and Sa-shi.

"U-u-um, what is that?"

"An outbreak in the lower labs! One of the experiments has gone out of control and escaped!"

"How dangerous is it?!"

"Well it is um...it had to be contained in the first place, so I would say QUITE dangerous!"

"We fight it then." The lizardman braced his rifle. "Protect the people."

"Are you sure?!" gasped the supox. "We have security, they can handle it!"

"We fight. James, come with me."

"Yes, of course we have to help, if that creature manages to escape it could jeopardise everyone!"

"Go find Shuffa and Fleek," said Chanoch to Sa-shi making his leave, "tell them where we have gone and if they can join us."

"Yes, right, I will do that. Will you be alright Twikky?"

"I will do my work here!" said the pkunk with a proud salute. "Just leave that to me and I shall soon track down your friends in transit!"

The bird waved them off as they all ran to their separate objectives. James and Jarogniew headed towards the main entrance to the lower laboratories, guards came piling in to soldier up with rifles ready and waiting before a giant rectangular door of seamless shale.

"ALRIGHT GANG!" barked a rhinoceros guard. "We got ourselves an escaped experiment, not sentient so don't be afraid to pump it fulla 'tons!"

"YES SIR!"

"We follow five-two-six, Ecfu team spread out to labs one-to-eight, Jhikar team go nine-to-sixteen."

"Can we help?!" cried James rushing up to them.

"Not unless you got a gun, dweebenheimer."

"I have one," said Chanoch patting his rifle, "we were authorised by the Director."

"Ehhh?!" The hornless rhino loomed in to see their bracelets. "Sky pass huh? Got the Director's stink all over it fer sure, you guys came in with Sa-shi right?"

"Yes, she went to find more guards."

"Hm, alright if you're with her then that's as good an authorisation I can get but, what about shortstop here?"

"I can fend for myself," the lemming lifted his umbrella to shoot a warming flame, "THIS is my gun."

"Hah...alright, but you follow our orders, you might be the Director's new pets but you do what we say, got it?!"

"Yes sir," said both lemming and lizard bracing their weapons.

"ALRIGHT MOVE OUT! Big guy, follow Jhikar team, dweebenheim, follow Ecfu team and do NOT shoot unless ordered to!"

The head soldier slammed a button with his fist as the warning light came on, the group piling in to a blistering white airlock where several open pods stood waiting with a quiet hum. One by one the guards removed their weapons and lined up before they were scanned all over for potential contaminants, cleaned with a thorough gaseous spritz, and finally coated into a fast-forming synthetic coccoon that wrapped round their bodies and was topped by a mask for breathing through.

"What IS this?" gasped James.

"Nano-suit!" cried the guard in charge. "Scans yer body, cleans it, then puts on a sterile suit that's woven from nanomachines to protect ya against disease!"

"Nanomachines?"

"Yeah, what are you deaf?!"

"No just...I understand." He leaned over towards Chanoch with a murmur. "I really don't understand and I need to ask someone how those actually work."

"Does not matter," said the reptile, "if it works then it works."

He stepped first into the unit as it scanned him completely, sterilising his scales and suiting him up into a blue nanofibre weave that felt oddly comfortable like silk. Once he was covered with a fitting gas-mask accenting his long snout and headspikes, James stepped up and was given the same treatment with an air-filtration unit clacked into place where his nostrils ended.

"Brace yerselves!" said the chief rhino. "Dunno what to expect, the other labs are locked down so nuthin' else should be comin', but keep watch and hold yer fire, READY?!"

"YES SIR!"

"ENGAGE!"

The door at the other end opened to reveal the quarantine labs before them, a silvery-blue hallway with several branching paths marred by the red blearing light rotating above their heads with the constant dull scream of an auto-PA system. Guns at the ready gleamed beneath fluorescent lights as the squadron moved into two groups, with James and Chanoch moving to their separate groups into different set of labs where eight rooms presented themselves behind large doors requiring a special access. Within each was a bubbling myriad of devices from swirling tubes to twisting coniferous shapes, moebian strips formed from some strange glass substitute that managed to withstand the hardest of pressures.

"Lab one is clear," said the leader of Ecfu team, "proceed to next."

Klein bottles frothed with six different shades of green amidst other spectrums of an infrared-based experiment, lasers pinging off the walls of the second lab in order to refract sonic waves at a certain hyperfrequency that dulled the subject's senses. Or at least it would have normally, but the experiment within Lab 2 had somehow breached its perimeters and was now actively crawling towards the group as a permeable rouge slime of sentient cells. Whipping out a long tentacle it tried to smack one of the guns out of the guards' hands before two of them took aim with laser rifles and fired at its base, the burning shock doing surprisingly nothing to deter it as its closed holes anew round its fresh scorches. James however took action in front with a frigid blast of ice-cold water, paralysing the organism to become a turgid mass crumpling to the floor.

"Not bad," said a VUX soldier, "haven't seen an elem-burster in a while."

"What are these things?" asked James.

"Exo-organisms, harvested from nebula clusters, they thrive in space eating dust but we took them here to study up on 'em, figure out what their deal was."

"I see. Are they dangerous?"

"If they get close enough they start eating off your skin, hence why we got the synthetic suits," he slapped a tentacle to his chest, "this stuff tastes like poison to these guys, now let's move up."

They followed on towards the third lab as James kept close to the team leader with his own "gun" in tow ready to fire elements at a moment's notice. The next room was safe, its specimen docile beneath an electromagnetic particle beam that kept its cellular activity inert for the time being, but the fourth laboratory was not so calm in the form of a bizarre electrical storm that seemed to take form by itself. Crackling sparks rippled through the air like a serpent formed from lightning, swirling and striking against the walls in a frantic attempt to escape as the soldiers fired across its "body" to overload its power with laser-blasts. The electroform did not take to their attempts kindly and bolted for the exit, shrieking through two soldiers that felt horrendous black burns rake across their synthetic suits in a hot flash as James defended himself with his brolly. Building up dust into his fist, he hurled a chunk of earthen granite to trap it against the wall and expose it to being peppered with nullifying laser shots to dispel its electro-current, before one of the guards swiftly rushed over with a vacuum-shaped rifle to suck up the organisms and return them for safekeeping.

Chanoch meanwhile stayed with Jhikar team as they headed towards Lab 9, opening it up to see its own experiment thankfully inert. Lab 10 and 11 would prove the same in the form of some small heated slug-like creatures crawling around within a containment field, scuttling along the walls of their confinement to leave sizzling trails behind in their wake. Lab 12 however proved difficult when a fire had broken loose to become ambulatory, swirling and coalescing from a million micro-organisms to become one furious flame that seethed with roaring frenzy. Two soldiers stood first in the door to revert their lasers to a deep cold burn, gunning down the fire with razor-sharp sub-zero shots that forced it to cool down before it lunged with a roaring crackle, forcing one of them back before Jarogniew pushed against with his sword blocking the flame with the flat of his blade. In its moment of startlement the organic flame reeled back for Chanoch to come harder upon it with a hammerstrike of his sword, crushing it beneath the flat to snuff out the firey beast before it was vacuumed up into a sealed container.

"Good work!" said the rhino-faced superior. "Didn't expect a melee fighter but I'll take what I can get."

"That fire moved like a beast," said Chanoch.

"Micro-organisms are weird fuckin' things, just keep up the work and follow our lead, move out!"

Onwards they went to Lab 13 to discover a more putrid beast, a random conglomerate of cells that had taken shape into some sort of wretched mudbeast. Earthen and slovenly, it was slow but resisted both hot and cold laser blasts, and any of the icy shots seemed to never gain any purchase to spread frost across the surface. One soldier got slammed in the gut by a thick fistful of mud that hardened enough to throw them backwards, but Chanoch sidestepped from the lunging reach of its "arm" to chop it completely off and separate it from the globular body. The reptile rushed forwards to suddenly cleave his blade down the middle of the biomass, forcing them apart as the soldiers followed suit to freeze-shot the smaller pieces more efficiently, before the experiment was contained in half a dozen lumps of ice. Moving onwards they cleared the rest of the labs involving a sand-based organism that tried to sleekly escape past their legs, a giant coral-based fiend that could only be stopped by sucking the moisture free from its body, and lastly a similar creature to that of the sand-beast but more dirt-based with thousands of little pebbles that shotgunned hard against their suits, not damaging but certainly painful like rubber bullets before they too were frozen in place. Soon they reached Lab 16, which was surprisingly larger than the previous ones as Jarogniew stepped in first using his bulk as a shield for the rest of the group. The final laboratory was a wide circular room with a large empty vat of water big enough to hold an orca, with some random pieces of metal floating inside it.

"Stay sharp," said the guard behind him, "this one's bigger than the rest of 'em."

"Hmm."

He walked closer with rifle up scanning the environment. A few desks here and there, some monitors gauging the health and temperament of some unknown entity, but nothing so out of place to warrant attention. The other guards kept watch on the corridor outside in case any of the other experiments turned rebellious, soon meeting Ecfu team that gave their report.

"Anything?"

"Nah, usual microbes, managed to bag 'em an' keep 'em safe."

"Same we're just checking the last lab now."

"Pardon me!" Something blustered through the crowd pushing past the guards. "Sorry, excuse me, please!"

Pushing into the larger lab was Shuffa with mag-cannon in tow, slapping her stalk a little with a buzzed look in her suit-protected pupil.

"How goes the hunt?" she asked him. "Fought many micro-organic beasts?"

"Yes," said Chanoch, "this is the last lab."

"Well hopefully then-"

THUNK.

"WHAT THE?!" The door slammed shut behind them as she rushed towards it. "What happened?!"

"Chanoch, are you alright!?" cried James.

"I am fine," he said, "try to open the door."

"I cannot find any lock on it!"

"The security musta kicked back in!" said the guard of Jhikar team.

"What?!" Shuffa banged on the window. "N-NO IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO WITH-...no, never mind we can survive this, we are two competent soldiers yes?"

"Yes..."

He heard something crack behind him. The vat of water started to break with thickened lines of creasing white, fracturing like ice across a lake before it finally shattered into a dozen shards of plate glass as Shuffa and Chanoch braced themselves expecting a flood. But the water did not move, instead it remained strangely composite like blue jelly. Then it started to grow, spreading out arms of fluid viscosity that glorbed and slushed noisily with sharp blades of steel on each end like razor claws. Its "body" became a flat urn-shape sitting on the base of the vat, whilst the last metallic piece loomed above them on a long giraffe neck resembling the head of a silver moth, large green eyes set within a stone-grey helmet.

"Wh-what IS that?!" cried the spathi aiming her gun.

"Water djinn," muttered Jarogniew aiming in turn.

"Alright, let us just be calm, and try to find, a way out of this before it decides to attack."

"Can we talk to it?"

"It is a collective of a million microbes, if you want to try then be my GUEST LOOK OUT!"

She ducked fast with him as the creature swung its arm like a rubber bat, scraping the walls hard with its claws as James pounded harder on the door from the outside.

"CHANOCH! S-SOMEONE FIND A KEY!"

"CALL SA-SHI-HA!" shouted the rhino-soldier. "I DON'T WANNA HAVE TO CLEAN UP ANY GUTS TODAY SO HELP ME GODS!"

Whilst a group ran off to try and find help, the two trapped within the lab did their best to dodge and fire at the entity before them with its huge sweeping arms that almost looked elastic. Chanoch fired a small spread of bullets that simply stopped within the thick fluid, before the creature lifted its arm and propelled them back violently in a blast of hailfire that he barely dodged with two bullets clanging off his armoured back as Shuffa strafed to fire an ion-mag shot that passed through the fluid almost effortlessly leaving nothing but crackling sparks that but did nothing to harm its actual form. She swung her stalk underneath its giant swoops as Chanoch tried instead to shoot for the metallic head, but the watery organism shielded itself easily with one arm to stop the bullets and refire them back, forcing Jarogniew to block fast with his sword before his face in several pings.

"KEEP HIM BUSY!" shouted Shuffa. "I WILL AIM FOR HIS HEAD!"

The knight waited for her to get into position as he made careful shots to keep it occupied on him, firing off occasionally at the head so it would protect itself. Shuffa went behind the alien beast and fired her cannon straight for the back of its head, a volatile shock that blasted in a white flame to shorten out its processors briefly. The water suddenly drooped, slumping and pooling outwards into a grand puddle at the speed of treacle that wrapped round their bodies as Chanoch tried to push through towards the head. But the organism soon recovered before he even reached halfway and suddenly sucked Jarogniew into itself, choking him within its suffocating thickness as he clenched his mouth and felt his cheeks bulging out.

"HOLD ON, DO NOT MOVE!"

Shuffa took aim towards him and at first he was shocked to think why she would do such a thing. But the mag-cannon shot punched through the alien and pounded Jarogniew's chest hard with enough solid force that he went flying out of the creature's internal fluid to land hard on his feet. Coughing back his breath, the soldier checked himself and tried shooting at the silver head whilst the entity turned towards Shuffa to attack with giant claws shrieking down from above to slice her in half before she dodged in a single step. Bullets pinged against the back of the water-beast's head, enough to annoy it as it swung its arm round behind itself with a gooey whip-like force as Jarogniew ducked onto his belly to avoid being decapitated. Eventually the alien started spinning its limbs into one rippling spiral around itself, never quite managing to hit the full 360 degrees due to its stationary body, but managing almost 220 that kept both the shooters on their toes and foot.

Failing to slash at either of them, the biobeast soon focused on Shuffa by forming both its arms into one drill-shape that viciously went screaming deep towards her as she frantically rushed to the wall and scaled up it at around 400 times the speed of a regular snail, dodging and swerving her large abalone foot around the wall to soon reach the ceiling as an effort to make it more difficult for the strange micro-rebellion to attack both its enemies. Both soldiers alternated between each other, distracting the water-beast whilst the other shot at its head with Shuffa being more effective with her electro-shots tearing through the entity's CPU. But the more damaged it became the more erratic and unpredictable it was as it started to twist its arms into violent non-euclidean angles that would deceive them on where to dodge, desperately lunging its claws towards both of them with savage uncoordinated strikes. At one point the fluid-monster lunged too far and instead of gouging Shuffa with its razor steel it simply swatted her hard with a semi-solid arm that sent her falling to the floor. Chanoch dove to grab her as they fell together, clutching the spathi hard into a dodgeroll as she smiled with relief at him.

"Th-thank you, LOOK OUT!"

Her eye swivelled round behind her to see the water-fiend twist its arms into a drill to come down upon their heads. Chanoch threw her aside and pulled his sword against to crush his blade hard against the flensing claws that creaked against both edges of his sword, twisting against his grip to try and wrench the blade from his fingers as he pushed back with a snarling thick. His arms shook with furious strength as the monstrous claws scraped closer towards his face, clasping the hilt of his sword as he squinted his eyes beneath the mask of his suit. Shuffa however had the perfect shot, firing a hard white electroball towards its head to blindside it sharply and send rippling spasms of weakened conduits through its intrinsic symbiotic self.

"RRRRRAAAAAARGH!"

Throwing the claws off his sword with a hard swing, he spun fast on one foot before cracking down hard against both of its "hands". The force of his cleave was like a guillotine in chopping off the claws from first one then the other, leaving it now defanged but still a threat with sparking fists of blunt fury that suddenly punched Chanoch into the wall as Shuffa tried to shoot again, only to suffer a backhand swing that slammed her away. Groaning from the impact, she saw the sparking fists and the soldier readily aiming to fire again as an idea struck her.

"CHANOCH, SHOOT ITS LIMB!"

"WHAT?!"

"SHOOT THE LIMB CLOSEST TO ME, NEAR ITS HAND, I HAVE AN IDEA!"

He nodded and took aim, firing a burst of bullets into the watery arm before the spathi followed suit with her mag-burst shot. The bullets reacted violently to the electro-ball and created the effect of a shrapnel grenade, blasting the water apart and completely severing its hand from its body as the hunk of toothless steel clunked upon the floor. The biomass reacted viciously, pounding the floor with a horrendous quake that made Jarogniew stagger, but Shuffa having only a large single foot hurried over to his side to help steady him against the rumbling force.

"Ready?!"

"Yes."

"AIM! FIRE!"

He shot close to its hand when it raised up above, seeing the bullets stop and float before Shuffa took her chance. Another burst of pale lightning crackled above their heads as the arm exploded in a tremendous flume, sending its hand off against the wall before only its head remained staring down upon them with primal malevolence. They both nodded to each other as Jarogniew emptied half of his clip into its neck below the helmet and Shuffa fired her rifle-cannon with a last orbular bolt that would rip its head off from its body and send it flying against the ceiling. Crunching hard it soon fell back to earth, straight into the slowly-oozing ocean of slime that, without a core unit was quite literally mindless.

"Hm." The knight stepped over to the door nodding to Shuffa. "Your gun is good."

"Ion-Mag cannon," she patted hers gently, "tears through cyborgs, robots and shields but harmless to anything organic besides a numbing shock."

"Non-lethal. I like that."

"Well I have to have some restraint unlike my husband with his blade hmhmhm!"

"Are you alright?!" cried James' voice beyond the door.

"ALL IS WELL! Just get us out quickly before blubberguts over there decides to reform a second wind."

"Is the experiment disabled?!" Sa-shi cried joining the chorus. "Alright I am accessing the controls."

The door soon opened as the two walked their way out, feeling it close locked behind them as the guards gave thumbs and tentacles up at their battle hard-won. Sa-shi-ha was also wearing a protective suit covering her sleek verdant body.

"Yer pretty damn good big guy!"

"Yes."

"Specially fer an antique like yers, I thought nobody used metal projectiles anymore in guns."

"It worked exceptionally," Shuffa wrapped an arm round the lizard's waist, "with our cerebrums put together it seems like there is nothing that can deter us!"

"Hm, yes." He nodded approving. "Where is Fleek?"

"Still in the restroom," said the supox, "he said he would meet us at the airlock, let me just confer with the security here."

After gathering all the info she needed with her bracelet constantly scanning a myriad of codes upon a small screen, they headed back through the quarantine labs with the guards making one last sweep through the place for any potential stragglers left to seal and contain. Sa-shi kept reading through the lines of code, tapping occasionally into a miniature keyboard formed from a hardlight surface.

"Any clues as for this incident?" Shuffa asked.

"No," muttered the plant, "I cannot determine the source it came from, it seems they used at least three proxy servers but even then everyone uses the network."

"What are you doing exactly?" asked James walking by.

"I am trying to decipher how the containment breach happened, it seemed to be rather sudden and from what the staff tell me, it appears that there was a hacking attempt from some outside source."

"Hacking?" asked Chanoch. "With an axe?"

"No," the supox flipped her screen round to show them incomprehensible coding, "someone accessed the quarantine labs and disabled the autolocks, I resealed them after you dealt with the F.A.T.E."

"Fate?"

"Fluid Anti-Terrorist Entity, that experiment you were fighting. But the only reason to do this would be to cause general chaos, there is nothing beneficial to releasing the subjects here."

The guards joined them in the airlock as they stood into the pods and felt their sterilised suits melt with a sucking sound straight into the walls, recycling the fabric for future use as the group of investigators soon met Fleek standing outside.

"Sorry 'boot that!" the yehat waved to them. "Stomach's all fucked tae shite sumtimes."

"It is fine dear," Shuffa cooed and patted his belly, "you feel alright now?"

"Aye nae worries lass, SO whut wuz the lockdoon aboot?"

"Someone hacked in illegally, tried to shut us in but mister Chanoch and I pulled through with ease!"

"Perhaps the Angels of Aurum are behind this," said James rubbing his snout, "if they wanted revenge upon this station, then chaos would be the best means as a form of intimidation."

"Well that cannot be HOX then!" said Sa-shi closing her bracelet with a happy clap. "He has no skill whatsoever in hacking or programming, he is purely a biologist."

"Then let us consider our suspect anew," said Shuffa inching forwards, "it has to be someone strong enough to move bodies, someone with technical expertise and someone who has access to maintenance."

"There are like thoosands o' beasts oan this station," said Fleek with clanking legs beside her, "could be any of 'em we havenae met."

"We know that HOX received an unregistered package, so let us start there. He may be utterly oblivious to its contents but if we find the room that it was placed from our good friend Twikky, we shall have a starting lead!"

"Agreed," said Sa-shi seeing the door ahead, "I am sure he was not aware of its contents, he is a rather driven scientist always honed on the next discovery."

"So a single-minded individual then?"

"He would let nothing distract him from the next great pursuit, but he always cares about saving lives not for the glory but to PROVE he can defy the worst things of the universe by-O-OHHHH!"

She recoiled in horror as the door to the security room opened to reveal a scene of chaos. Twikky laid slumped against his chair facing towards them, a bloodied throat with thick yellow blood dripping out down his chest with eyes trapped in shock, along with his supox friend whose eye had been stabbed ruthlessly to pull a little of the brain even out through its head.

"H-h-hhhohhh...Vlik preserve us-GH-GHH-GHRRRRHRKH!"

The plant-secretary rushed out the room feeling her stomach-equivalent turn gruesome with knots as she retched a watery substance from her mandibled lips. James cringed and stepped back with a growing fright as Chanoch bent over the pkunk's body.

"Little blade," he carefully lifted the beak to expose the neck, "dug in deep, carved it open."

"Aye is pretty small," muttered Fleek looking over him, "sum kinda knife?"

"Scalpel. Too small for knife, throat was ripped out this way," the lizardman mimicked a digging motion with his fist.

"Hmmmm...that means any o' the staff coulda done it then."

"But why?!" cried James shuffling back to the door. "What was the point of this?!"

"To cover their tracks." Shuffa pointed a pincer towards the main console. "Sa-shi can you check this monitor for us?"

"N-no, please," she whimpered outside the room, "I cannot, I do not want to see this."

"Chanoch could you just move our departed friend away for a moment?"

He gently moved the pkunk in his chair towards a corner where his body blocked it, whilst the yehat spread his wings to hide the dead supox behind him as Sa-shi came back into the room to look at the monitor.

"Wait...something is...the recording!" She frantically tapped across the lightboard searching through every file. "The recording is gone!"

"What?!"

"Someone deleted it, or took it, i-it's not here!"

"Okay NOW it's a fuckin' conspiracy," said Fleek throwing his wings up, "whut we daein' now?!"

"...HOX, we have to tell him, he could be next!"

"W-WAIT, SA-SHI WAIT!"

She rushed out of the room quickly making her way across the plaza as the rest of the group followed. Shuffa contacted security as they hurried after Sa-shi-ha, radioing them about the surveillance room as the supox fled from room to room frantically looking for HOX as they crisscrossed through the plaza. Racing back and forth, they soon caught up with Sa-shi as she stopped to ask a researcher:

"E-excuse me have you seen professor HOX?"

"Yes I just saw him heading to the tram."

The VUX scientist was hot-footing it to the tram in as fast a walk as he could before slamming his tentacle on the call button. Rocking on his feet he he clapped his tentacles behind his back and wiggled the tendrils nervously round each other like strips of pasta.

"PROFESSOR HOX!"

"D-dammit," he snarled rapidly punching the button.

"Professor HOX, wait, wait I have to speak to you-AAAH!"

He turned and fired with his tranquiliser at the group behind him, forcing them to duck behind partitions in the hall.

"GET BACK!"

"Wh-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"GET BACK DAMN YOU!"

"Mister HOX do not make this difficult!" Shuffa warned clutching her mag-cannon close. "We only wish to speak with you we are not here to accost you!"

"I am sorry but I cannot be delayed from my task!"

"We understand but there is no need to start shooting!"

"Do NOT tell me what to do!"

"HOX, please stop this!" The supox waved a leaf in panic towards him. "I just want to help, s-something terrible has happened and I fear you might be in danger!"

"The only one in danger is the one who will defy me now GET, BACK!"

The professor fired a warning shot near Shuffa as she backed down, seeing the dart ping off the wall and clatter harmlessly to the ground. Chanoch looked down towards it before he stood up to unsheathe his sword.

"Ch-chanoch get down!" cried James

"I WILL NOT ASK AGAIN!" barked the immunologist. "BACK, AWAY, NOW!"

Chanoch started walking towards him with sword menacingly held in his grip. Professor HOX fired once at his face but the knight blocked the skin-piercing dart with his sword as it clinked off harmlessly. He fired again but it simply pinged off his armour instead, the armed doctor shaking in his grip as he fired again and again with the reptile unflinching in his walk towards him until the tranquiliser gun clicked itself empty. HOX threw a desperate slap that the soldier grabbed with one arm and pulled him hard towards the floor, before planting his sword inches above the large single eye.

"Do not. Move."

"Gh-ghrrrk, y-you...wh-what, h-how DARE YOU!"

"I will not ask again." He waited for his group to gather round him. "Sit down."

"F-fine...you damn imbecile you want my job you will have to take it from me!"

He pulled himself away and stood up against one of the pillars along the platform. Slowly coming up alongside him was Sa-shi gently placing a frond on his arm.

"What has happened to you HOX? You would...you would never think I was trying to hurt you would you?!"

"No, no of course not I just, I have business to attend to and-"

"Is someone chasing you, h-have you been threatened?"

"Nothing of the sort thank YOU," he brushed her leaf off of him, "I have business to attend to of a most urgent matter and I cannot be delayed."

"Well issa good thing yer tram's nae here in't it?" said Fleek-Gleek leaning against the other side of the pillar. "You got time to explain a few things."

"What sort of things do I have to explain?!"

"Weeellllll such things like, did ye ever receive two large packages a few hours back?"

"Well, I, I receive packages all the time yes as part of my occupation."

"Ah meant specifically two packages that didnae have any designation oan them that YOU signed fer and then had relocated to a different room."

"H-how do you know about that?!" he blustered almost headbutting Fleek. "ARE YOU SPYING ON ME?!"

"Don't take that fuckin' tone with me, ah haftae do this as part o' mah job you fuckin' wally."

"And I have FAR more important things to do than to just whiffle on unimportant questions!"

"Not now ya don't so best answer the fuckin' question!"

"And if I don't?!" He slipped his tentacles behind him to puff his chest out smugly. "Do you have any actual evidence I committed any wrongdoing?"

"Whuddaya mean?!"

"I am saying that if you have nothing to charge me for-"

"Ah never said ya did any wrangdoing-"

"But you are ASKING me questions of which I have no precedence to answer." He patted Fleek's jaw with a patronising smirk from his eyebrow. "Unless you are able to tell me what has happened."

"Your assistant was murdered," said James crossing his arms, "in the surveillance room."

"Wh-...what?"

"Can you account for your movements the past hour?"

"D-did you say...my assistant, Twikky?!" sputtered HOX.

"Yes now can you account for your movements recently?!"

"Of course not! Everyone was running around frightened like ninnies whilst I actually did my job and stayed in my laboratory I-i jus-...why would...anyone hurt Twikky he was...was..."

The VUX leaned back against the pillar as the sound of a tram came hurtling close.

"He was not...he...not important enough to even merit that, who would gain ANYTHING from hurting him?!"

"I am so sorry," said Sa-shi moving close to him, "do you...need a moment?"

"Yes I just...I just...listen, I know I cannot tell you everything, but if...you are investigating a potential murder-"

"It definitely was."

"Then I invite you all to come join me in the nanomachine branch and perhaps we can solve this together. Naturally my superior intellect will help you solve this case much more swiftly for if someone is killing off my assistants then I cannot help but think I could be next."

"But, HOX why can you not tell us about why you were-"

"Please, not yet. We are not safe here I think."

He swept out his tentacle towards the tram gliding into the station to open its doors for them. He walked in first as they followed after to sit themselves down with HOX and Sa-shi sitting up front.

"So you all jus' gonnae ignore he fired a fuckin' gun at us?!"

"A tranquiliser," noted HOX, "now stop whining."

"Ahm not WHINING, you aimed a fuckin' weapon at us!"

"When you are in a job as illustrious as mine, one must always prepare themselves for some opportunist who might want to make my retirement more premature than expected."

"Are you fuckin' serious, who'd even wan' yer fuckin' job!?"

"MY occupation as perhaps the finest immunologist of this quadrant is very highly sought-after and if you had the merit to finish your degree in academics you would understand why."

"AH STUDIED ZERO-G ENGINEERIN' YOU COCKSNUFFIN' FUCKEYED EXCUSE OF A-"

"ENOUGH FLEEK!" Shuffa grabbed him hard with a frantic gasp. "Please...I am not in the mood for this, let's just focus on our mission."

"Yeah righ', whutever, fuckin' shite bastard thinks he's sae important anyone would bother shivvin' him one-"

"I heard that," snarled the professor turning his head halfway, "do not make me file a disciplinary report on you."

"Hmph."

"I have to agree with sir Fleek though," said James with hands on his knees, "you knew who we were so why even fire at us?"

"I have only known you and your friend for one day, I did not become the highest intellect of this station by holding hands and singing songs, plus the fact that you have told me my assistant was murdered means that I am well in my right to be paranoid about all I meet."

"Even me?" asked the supox next to him.

"Well...th-that, I am not sure, but one cannot be TOO careful you understand."

"I...I do."

The group rolled their eyes as the tram took off, whilst Sa-shi slumped against her seat with a wistful sigh staring off towards the endless tunnel that opened up before them. Her leaves shook as her mind rattled between shock and confusion trying to focus on one single thing at a time whilst HOX pressed a tentacle to his long insectoid snout in the same state unbeknownst. His eye glimmered with the lights passing by in a furious blur as his other limb tried to reach out and almost touch Sa-shi's waist, before recoiling back in a sudden twitch and wrapping round his body instead.