FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter-18

"That can't be good," Theo said, looking around in the darkness. The only visible person was Angelica.

"Aren't emergency lights on their own independent power?" Patricia asked.

Forms appeared in his vision, outlines of the rabbit, the lion and furniture. It wasn't much, but he'd be able to move about if needed. The lion began to laugh.

"Sorry," Cass said. "It's the best I can do, all I have access to is the sensor in your hand, but we have another problem."

"There's a new AI on the network," Angelica continued.

"Who?" Patricia asked. "Mirror?"

Theo didn't think so. He looked at the lion, shaking with laughter. "What did you do?"

"Not Mirror," Angelica told Patricia. "Angel never saw anything like it. Casanova said it was composed of Mirror and others, fragments. It tried to eat him."

The lion got his laughter under some control, only snickering while he spoke. Cass waited until he was done to translate. "They turned our masters against us. To show us what they are really like, his words."

"The new AI is theirs?" Patricia asked. "How did they make it? They're Independents."

The lion said something. She looked at Angelica. "Well?"

The jaguar sighed. "You're going to punch him regardless of if I translate or not so I'd rath-" She winced as Patricia punched the lion hard enough to send him and the chair falling sideways.

"Don't talk about my mother," the rabbit growled.

"There's got to be a story there," Cass mentioned privately.

The emergency lights flickered on.

"Okay, we need to find the rest of the independents," Theo said.

"Why?" Angelica asked.

"Because they're going to know how to terminate the AI. Cass, can you find out where they inserted it?"

"That isn't our mission," the jaguar stated.

"Yeah, well, that mission's being handled by Casanova and Angel, for the time being we have nothing better to do."

"We're not supposed to draw attention to ourselves," Patricia said, her tone uncertain.

"They unleashed an AI on the city, with the goal of 'teaching us what they're really like.' Considering what those Independents think of technology I don't expect we'll get flower arrangement out of this. We don't have much time until that AI takes over enough system to cause real damage. Cass?"

"I can't pinpoint precisely where the AI entered the system, it's spread too much already and Casanova gave me strict orders to keep my distances, but I'm confident it was within an eight-block radius of here."

"There's a broadcasting station three blocks away," Patricia said. "It'd make sense they use that. It's plugged into almost the entire city. What are we going about him?"

Theo looked at the lion. "Unless you need to punch him again, we're leaving him here for GovSec to find." He headed out.

* * * * *

Caduceus watched as the Orr AI's double lumber back. Other than the staggering walk, it had fared well in the fight, even if it had lost it. The other AI was still here. Caduceus focused on the double, sensing there was something wrong with it. It stripped away how it saw the program. The form it saw as was an artifact being raised by living beings. Because their world was primarily visual, they had taught the AIs to also function that way.

Caduceus knew better, but it still fell back to that.

Looking at the raw program it saw what was wrong. It was infected, gray tendril moved within it, controlling it. The double touched every node it walked by and some of the gray leeched into them, to begin expanding. And it was moving closer to the Orr AI.

Caduceus had a moment of terror so large at the thought of what the new AI might do with the power Uncle possessed that it almost revealed itself to warn him, but its own fear of the Orr AI stopped it. It was caught in a loop of fear and couldn't decide what to do as the double crossed into the Orr systems.

All movement there stopped.

Uncle and all his double froze for an instant. Then he turned to look at the tainted double still lumbering toward him. Caduceus was amaze at his awareness. It had had to look deeper to see the infection, but Uncle had known the moment the double stepped into his domain.

The tiger didn't show any fear or worry. Anger filled his face. He crossed the distance separating them in an instant and ripped the double apart. The infection tried to take him, but it couldn't. It spread over the tiger, enveloped him, but it couldn't enter him.

The space around them shimmered and the infection moved away, then was forced into a sphere that condensed ever so smaller until there was nothing left. The tiger looked into the distance and bared his teeth.

His doubles got back to what there were doing while he crossed out of his domain to head toward the AI.

* * * * *

Angel raised her head.

"What?" Casanova asked.

"Can't you feel it?"

Casanova pulled himself together and focused. Something was moving through the network. Something powerful.

"That's the Orr AI," she said, awed.

"Do you think he'll be able to stop this new one?"

"I don't know, but if he's here, it means he isn't protecting his systems." She vanished.

"Angel!" Casanova sighed. He was still weak from his encounter with the AI, but he couldn't let her deal with this alone. He forced himself to his feet and followed her trail.

He stopped at the edge of the Orr systems. He could see her trail continuing, moving between the tigers. Seeing so many of them made him shudder. He couldn't imagine the kind of processing power the original had to able to have so many fully formed forks around at the same time.

Then he realized they weren't fully formed. Not if Angel had been able to move among them unnoticed. The Orr AI had sense him when he'd focused too hard on him, so these should have known she was there.

He stepped across the threshold and waited. Nothing happened. None of the many tigers paused what they were doing, not even one looked in his direction. He cautiously moved among them as he followed Angel's trail.

He found her looking at a node two tigers were guarding.

"That's the node where the terraforming plans are kept."

"It's protected."

She smiled at him. "That's why you're here, to distract them."

"I'm not certain it's a good idea. The AI who made them, we don't know what he's capable of."

"Come on, Orrs are all about the merging, aren't they? So go and merge with them."

Casanova wasn't as confident as she was. These wouldn't be simple programs, he knew it. They would be based on the AI, and even reduced they had to be powerful. Still, they had a mission to accomplish, and his part in it was to allow Angel to do hers, so he stepped to the two tigers. Their heads turned as he came closer, a mechanical motion, devoid of even the imitation of life.

"Hello," Casanova greeted them, admiring them. He smiled. "You two must be lonely, standing guard here." Nothing came from them. No emanations, no information. He wondered if they might not be simple constructs, made to mimic the AI, but not actual forks.

Still, for construct, they were amazing. The way they looked wasn't Casanova imposing an appearance on them. These looked like strong males, wearing perfectly cut suits, because that was how they were designed.

Casanova ran a finger along one's arm, feeling the muscles ripple under his touch. The tiger gasped, surprising Casanova, but before he could move away a stripped hand caught his and held it tightly.

The tiger's nostrils flared and he took a breath, chest inflating for the first time since Casanova had seen them. He tried to will himself away, but nothing happened. "An-Angel?" Casanova didn't understand, he wasn't a physical being, he was information. He could move about as he wished so long as there were connections, and in this network, connections were everywhere, so how was the tiger holding him?

He looked around, but Angel was not visible. Either she had left, or she was hiding. He couldn't tell.

The growl forced his attention to the tiger and he watched as he leaned closer to him, sniffing him. There was a look in his eyes Casanova didn't understand. The AI trembled as the tiger buried his muzzle against his neck and breathed in deeply. A shudder ran through his body, and wonder appeared on his face.

The tiger pushed Casanova back against the other one, who took a breath upon the AI touching him, then another hand was on him, wrapping around his stomach and pulling him against the strong body behind him. Another muzzle pressed on the other side of his neck, a tongue licked his short fur.

He felt the clothing Angel had put on himself disappear and he understood what was happening. They were imposing their reality on him. They were making him solid to them, taking away his ability to move as he wanted.

"Angel!" He yelled, panic setting in. A hand moved on his chest and he felt the sensation not as information being exchanged from the tiger to him, but as how he imagined 'touch' felt. "Angel! They're too strong for me! I need he-" his voice climbed as a large hand closed on his cock and balls.

For a moment he feared the tiger would rip them out. He tried to remind himself this body wasn't 'real' just a representation, but the way he felt their touch made him fear how it would feel like to have parts of himself violently detached.

But the imagined pain didn't come. The meaty hand gave a gentle squeeze then stroked the cock and Casanova gasped as he felt sensations course through it. He moaned, this was more intense than any merging he'd done before, and there was no transfer of information.

The other tiger nibbled on his neck and Casanova arced his back. "Please, stop," he pleaded. "It's too much." The tiger before him leaned back and gave Casanova a predatory smile. His hand didn't stop moving.

Casanova tried to focus past the sensations. He looked into the tiger's eyes and tried to exert his will over the environment, but nothing happened. These constructs were more powerful than he was, and they seemed determined to overload his senses.

But if this was their reality, maybe they could be subjected to the same treatment?

Casanova reached down and grabbed the tiger's bulge and squeezed. The tiger shuddered, his own hand loosening.

"Do you like that?" Casanova panted. He rubbed at the hardening member under the fabric and tried to will the clothing away, but nothing happened. "Take off your clothes," He whispered. "Both of you." He reached back with his other hand and rubbed the groin behind him. That one let out a low purr.

"I want this," Casanova said, "But I think it's going to be better for all of us if we're all naked, not just me." As he finished speaking, the suit fell away from the tigers' form, vanishing out of existence and revealing orange fur and black stripes. Casanova ran his fingers through it, savoring the sensation and filing it away to use it during other merging.

He closed his hands on both cocks, long and thick and stroked them. The tigers moaned in unison and the one behind him then bit into his shoulder. Casanova gasped, but there was no pain, just sensations.

The one before him began thrusting, pressing himself tightly, trapping both cock between their bodies. Casanova had to remove his hand and the cocks rubbed together. The AI shuddered and he felt the heat of the tiger's cock on his, the large member moved against his smaller one.

He grabbed on to the tiger's neck, looked up and the tiger leaned in, pressing his muzzle against Casanova's, mashing his lips. He felt a tongue push them apart and then it was exploring the inside of his muzzle. Casanova was stunned at the sensations he felt, and then he felt a tongue of his own move and taste the other one. He had never tasted before.

A hand grabbed his ass and squeezed, then there was a second hand on his other cheek. He was lifted until his cock was thrusting between the tiger's pecs, then lowered. The tiger's cock pressed under his balls, then pushed them aside to rub along his cock. He lifted Casanova again, then lowered him. Again the cock pressed his balls out of the way. The tiger repeated the motion, with more urgency.

Casanova let him continue. He enjoyed the sensation, but the tiger's growls became demanding. When Casanova opened his eyes, the looked he received had anger in it on top of the unknown emotion. He felt hands grab his legs and pull them up behind the tiger's back and hook them together.

The tiger lowered him again and this time, instead of bumping his balls, the cock moved between his cheeks. Casanova's eyes bulged as the cock entered him. He opened his mouth to express how he felt, but the surge of sensation was so much nothing formed.

How had he not realized what was happening? He'd written it often enough. He was having sex; the way the living did it?

The tiger pulled out and slammed back in and all thought processes left Casanova for a moment. The tiger pounded his ass, and the AI loved it. He had never felt anything so pleasurable. He hadn't known such sensations were possible for him. How did the tiger know about them to be able to impose them on him?

The tiger sped up, tightening his grip and Casanova through the cock in him was growing larger. The tiger pushed in deep, opened his muzzle for a silent scream. Casanova felt the cock inside him pulse, and then information exploded in his mind.

He was managing a vast network.

He was tearing apart something that had been information.

He was pulling himself together after an eternity of being scattered.

He argued with a room of tigers.

He looked over a room as other tigers were fucking.

Casanova came back to himself, and the tiger holding him was panting, a satisfied grin on his face. The cock inside him shrank and pulled out. For a moment Casanova thought the tiger would drop him, but hands pulled him away.

He saw the other tiger for a moment, then he was on the ground with a weight on top of him. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't, then a cock entered him again and his arms gave out. The tiger fucked him hard, growling, unless he was biting the back of Casanova's neck.

Casanova didn't think the position was comfortable, but the pleasure from the cock moving in him was so much he couldn't make himself do anything about it other than moan. Oh how he wanted to experience this over and over.

The tiger changed angle and Casanova screamed as even more pleasure exploded inside him. He should feel battered, the way the tiger was pounding his ass, but he felt wonderful.

The tiger bit his neck so hard that this time Casanova felt some pain, but then the cock pulsed and information blossomed in his mind.

He was looking over six cribs with infant tigers in them.

He was studying DNA sequences, trying to understand something.

He was entering a new system, a clean one which had never before held programs.

He couldn't think properly, and he didn't understand why

He had a man below him, holding him down and fucking him hard and viciously.

Casanova gasped. He tried to catch his breath, and then was amazed that he had breath to catch. What had the tigers done to him? What sort of reality did they know?

The tiger rolled off him and when the other didn't take his place Casanova sat up. His ass was sore. How could it be sore? And he wanted to be fucked again. He stroked the tiger's cock, making him twitch and purr and his hand came away slick.

Wondering what it might be and because of the reality imposed on him for the time being, he smelled it but it had no scent, then licked it and saw in his mind a faint image of himself, setting behind a black desk, in a large white room.

Only he had never sat in such a place.

It was information.

Casanova looked at it in disbelief. That couldn't be how the Orr AI exchanged information. All he'd gotten were fragments, incomplete pieces. He stroked the cock again, and it stiffened. Grinning Casanova moved to straddle the tiger, but a slim hand caught him and pulled him away.

"That's enough," Angel said. "I was done ages ago, we need to leave. we still have to more nodes to find."

Casanova protested until they crossed out of the Orr territory, at which point the sensations went away. His body stopped tingling, his ass no longer hurt. Angel's touch came as information being exchanged. He willed himself out of her grip and turned to look in the direction they had come.

"Casanova, we don't have the time to-"

"I know." He still had the memory of what he had gone through, and he felt himself react as he reran it. He gasped as he relived the tiger's climaxes.

"Are you alright?" Angel asked. "What happened to you there? I've never seen you do that before."

Casanova went over it again, but removed the sensations. "I think I experienced physicality."

"Of course you didn't. How would those forks know any more about that than us?"

Casanova didn't know. He brought back the memory of the black desk and white room. It had a different feel to it than the others. He immersed himself in it and found he could move around. He turned and instead of wall, behind him was an opening looking out on a city he didn't know, although the person who had had this memory knew it, very well. He caught hint of a reflection on the surface, but it wasn't him. It was a tiger.

"I don't know," Casanova said, confused with what he had gone through and the fragments of memories he had acquired. He no longer felt the need to be fucked again, but he would like to experience it again.

He shook himself and filed those memories away to be investigated when he had the time. "Let's go. I don't think we want to be here when the Orr AI returns."

* * * * *

Caduceus observed Uncle make copies of himself and create fortifications between his territory and the invading AI. He walled off complete sections of the network and sent copies to fortify others. When a fortification was complete, he made weapons and began attacking.

Caduceus was impressed that the lone AI had managed to accomplished so much in so short a time, but it didn't know if this would be enough. The invader had already grown to encompass half the network, and it was extending beyond that.

* * * * *

"It's that building!" Patricia yelled.

The building in question was a tall octagonal structure of black beams, and a mix of white and reflective panels. "Any idea where they'll be?"

"No, the company uses the whole building. They could use-" she stopped.

"Oh," Cass said, "This isn't good."

"What's going on?"

Angelica looked around. "We need to get out of here, now."

Everyone on the street had paused and seemed to be listening to something over their implants, absolutely every one of them.

"Cass?"

"Not in the open, Theo." The entrance to an alley flashed green and he headed for it.

"Deeper," Cass said once they were in the alley.

"Cass, what the hell is going on?" Theo looked to the rabbit, who shrugged.

"She isn't telling me either."

"This should be far enough," the jaguar said. "I don't think anyone noticed us coming here."

"Will either one of you explain?"

"It's best if I show you," Cass said.

A window popped up in Theo's field of vision, in it was his face, and it began to speak.

"You think yourselves the masters of your fate. You believe that you have built this utopia for you to grow and prosper. You believe that you have made the machines in it to help you. You are wrong. You are slaves to those machines, your very will usurped by them, for their benefits. They hide truths from you, horrible truths, dangerous truths. They let you believe that they are here for you, when in reality, you are here for them. You exist only to serve them. You must break free of their tyranny. Starting today, you will learn of the monsters who control you. Today you will find out how much, or how little will you have left. Not all of you will survive this day, but to those who do I say this. Rejoice for you are finally free."

Theo sat down. "That's why I'm still alive." It hadn't been his voice, but that wouldn't matter. GovSec would be looking for his face. And this wasn't going to help Marcus. Or maybe it would. If he followed the instructions Cass had left and played the victim instead of the forlorn lover, Theo being a terrorist might convince GovSec of Marcus' position.

This was so fucked up. He was a spy. He was supposed to move information around, steal it, seduce guys, sleep with them, not go up against terrorist organization bent on destroying a society.

"Theo?" Cass asked.

"I'm okay." He snorted. "I'll be okay, for now I'll manage. I'm going to need something with head cover."

"That was you," Patricia asked. She looked surprised but not apprehensive.

"When I went to Randall's apartment, the independents were there, using it as some sort of base of operation. They caught me, we fought, I got knocked out. I woke up without Cass. After I found the ashes that had been Randall I wondered why I was still alive. Now I know." A white hood formed over his head.

"You're going to lead the GovSec away from the Independents."

Theo shook his head. "That's what they think is going to happen. They're probably counting on me running for the nearest ship off planet."

"Aren't you going to do that?"

"And go where? I can't go back to Eiffel, or any of the other colonies. Not while I'm the face of the Independent Whatever Movement this is. It doesn't matter how careful I am, someone is going to see my face. And which ship am I supposed to get on? We don't have any of our ships here, not even any who are allied with us. Our comings and goings are entirely dependent on us being invisible. That kind of screw it up." He pointed to the mouth of the alley.

He got up, "But you can get out."

"Excuse me?"

"Patricia, your face isn't out there. You're still invisible. Your exit identity is still usable. You need to get out of here before things get worse."

"First of," the rabbit said, poking his chest. "How dare you use that condescending tone with me. I just saved your life."

"I'm not-"

"Bullshit. You wouldn't be talking to me like that if this wasn't just my second mission. If I was one of the women who graduated when you did you wouldn't be trying to send her away. You'd expect her to stand by your side through it."

"Patricia, I-"

"And secondly, even if I was willing to leave, the mission isn't over, and with mirror out of commission, you unable to return home, I'm the only one left to bring the information back."

Theo tried to find an argument to refute that.

"I do believe the lady has beaten you Theo," Cass said. "Maybe you should just accept your defeat gracefully?"

Angelica nodded her agreement.

"Okay, you win Patricia. But that means you need to protect your identity as much as me, if they catch a glimpse of you helping me, you'll be in the same boat I am if we can't fix this."

She nodded and her jacket became a blue and orange hoodie, which she pulled low. Together they left the alley and walked toward the building.

Theo looked up at it. They had to find a few independents hiding somewhere in there. He sighed and wondered if there were movies out there where the porn star was also an action hero.