FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

If one looks hard enough, one can find whatever they want inside of a megacity. Elves liken it to a forest, where you have the birds in the trees enjoying the sunshine while those down below the roots of those same trees are treated to nothing but darkness and dirt. That was the same way with Apocrypha; those who enjoyed the top floors of the huge ultra-skyscrapers weren't even allowed to be rained on like the rest of the people in the city... and in this city it was almost always raining. Besides the rain was the darkness, so many huge buildings so close together without a care for what was beneath made sunlight streaming down to the actual street level as rare as a similar beam getting through a thick canopy of trees.

Most down below tend to make it work; the magitech air purifiers at least made sure that the only clouds they had to deal with were the grey ones that constantly threatened rain overhead. Elves, humans, furred-ones, forked-tongues, all sorts of creatures made their home in the darkness, because the darkness was all they would ever know. Some had even gone their entire lives thinking the only light came from the neon-signs and bulbs that adorned the inside of buildings... if they ever saw the real thing their eyes might burn out. But it was home, and it was life, including the black-furred creature who sat in the middle of his two-story shop with a pair of tweezers and a monoscope.

"Hey hybrid!" a voice shouted, causing the tiny implement to pop out of the grip of the metal and the one holding it to sigh loudly. "I know you probably haven't eaten yet so I picked you up something from the place nearby!"

"Which one?" he asked as he knelt down to attempt to locate the piece amongst all the others that were scattered about. "The burrito one or the ramen one? Also how many times have I told you to not call me hybrid?"

"Does it really matter?" the feminine voice asked as the inner door opened and a female lizardfolk came in with two bags. "And that's on both accounts by the way, plus I can't believe you prefer being called Nigel."

"As opposed to the alternative," he stated before letting out an exclamation of discovery, carefully picking up the tiny piece and moving once more to put it into the device he had been working on. "Now if you could please hold that forked tongue of yours for just a second..." the lizardfolk watched as he slowly lowered the piece into the device and then closed the entire mechanism case shut. "There, finished."

"That for your little side project?" the lizardfolk asked. "The planer thing?"

"Planer Harmonic Transducer Alisha," Nigel correct as he looked the item over.

"Hey, you're the artificer," Alisha replied as she grabbed one of the large cups out of the bag and began to open it. "I'm just the mechanic that rents out the garage behind your shop. You want to talk about hover rail systems and the electromagnetic coupling arrays then I guarantee I will talk circles around you."

"I'm sure you would," Nigel replied with a wry smile as he brushed back his purple hair once he had made sure everything was ready. "And no, this isn't that thing, it's a custom order that I had gotten a few days ago. They're supposed to be picking it up in an hour or so, I'm just glad I was able to make it for them. It was a rather tricky relay that I had to put into this watch and if didn't get it just right-"

"Yes yes, blah blah, artificer stuff," Alisha replied as she took her meal and headed towards the back door that led to her garage. "Eat that before it gets cold, I don't want to be wasting my credits on getting you food if you ignore it."

Nigel continued to look down at the watch, not even realizing that she had left until he looked up to ask her a question and was just in time to see the door slam shut. The hybrid sighed slightly and put the latest item he created on the countertop before opening up the bag and seeing that she had ordered one of his favorites from that particular spot, taking out the chopsticks and eating it while the store was quiet. Normally he waited until after he closed before he got something to eat but the lizardfolk probably would throttle him if he let the meal she got him go cold as she put it. Plus he was fortunate to be done early as he looked at the clock.

When he was about halfway finished however he heard the bell above the door ring, indicating someone had come inside. He grabbed the item and made his way out into the main shop area where he had all his custom items up for display. When he finally located the two that had come in he realized that it wasn't who he was looking for. Nevertheless he stayed out if they had any questions and as he did the door opened again and saw it was the one who made the order.

As he explained to the half-elf how the item worked based on the specifications given to him he could hear that the other two in his shop were talking about something, but he didn't pay it any mind... at least until he heard a word that caused his ears to perk up. Though he continued to try and explain to the other customer he divided his attention as best he could to try and listen in on the conversation that was happening in his shop. It was apparently some new club that had opened up in the district, something that wasn't really cause for surprise as they came and went all the time, but that this one had some strange rules like in order to get in you needed to be in at least fifty percent latex and that once you got past the main door you had to wear a blindfold. There were a few others too but he couldn't understand them, either the customer he was helping asked him a question or their voices dipped too low to hear.

Nigel eventually finished the demo for the customer, who thanked him and paid him for his work before leaving, and when he looked around for the other two he saw that they had left as well. Not that he particularly needed them, he had heard through their discussions the name of the new club as well as its general location, and that was all he would need to do a search on the subject. But even though he was eager to see he knew that he had to at least wait until closing time, which by his watch was in a few hours. He thought about going back into his workshop and tinkering for a bit but he knew his mind was elsewhere and decided instead to make sure all the shelves were clean and the items he had created were displayed properly.

Finally, the hour rolled around and the furred one switched off his sign and locked the door, taking one last look at the dark, gloomy exterior outside of the shop before going back through his workshop and up the stairs to his apartment on the second floor. Almost immediately he went to his bedroom and closed the door behind him, looking back as though someone was going to see him before he reached under his bed and pulled out a locked case. Inside the scan-proof box was his runner gear, a kit for any decent hacker who wanted to do anything from steal an important piece of transaction data from a server farm to sabotage a convey to make sure that it didn't reach its destination in time.

Being an artificer was fine for the day to day and he loved his work, but when it came to the rush of finding those that required a little extra help when it came to finding justice and punishing the wicked nothing beat a remote hyperlink and memetic sensory input device to punch through firewall security. With his gear in hand he took his encrypted laptop from the case as well and looked up everything he could know about the club that the two were talking about. To his surprise there wasn't a big network footprint on the site, in fact it took more than a few tries in order to find the club that he was looking. Normally he could just punch in a location and get seven new club openings... why did this one want to stay in the shadows for?

The club, which was called The Gates of Emessu, looked like it was a little hole in the wall on 79th street, at least from what the pictures depicted. Of course Nigel knew to look beyond such a thing, some of the most nefarious places he had found were often just old houses that the others had taken refuge in because they were so non-descript. The other problem that he saw was the club building looked like it had no other doors, windows, or anything that would allow anyone access inside. Of course that wasn't a problem for him, the dog-fox thought as he put on his gear before climbing out of his window and landing in the darkness of the alley behind his house. With night having fallen the already dark streets of the city were now almost pitch black, the shadows from before now absolute portals of blackness as Nigel headed towards his destination.

While most other clubs had lines stretching out into the street this time of night, most looking to try their luck in the bars and nightclubs around the city to score whatever it was they were looking for, The Gates of Emessu only had one person in front of it. That one person, however, was an orc with enough cyberenchancements to probably qualify as a robot at that point. The only thing that probably wasn't gears and servos was his brain, which made him someone that shouldn't be crossed under any circumstance. The only thing worse then dealing with an angry orc is an angry orc that could throw you through a concrete wall.

For Nigel however his target wasn't to get into the door, it was the junction box that was usually on the other side of the building or on the roof. No matter what even the most secure building that wished to get on the network needed to have some sort of external access, and it was that point which he would sneak his way through. Generally junction accesses were well equipped on the digital side but he would much rather lose his computer to a piece of carefully embedded malware then get his spine severed by the big boy who was sitting outside. Some people attempted to guard their boxes with fences and security cameras as well, but generally that was also a bad idea because those wifi signals were just a point of entry into security rooms and fences only highlighted the location of where your box was.

This club had opted for neither of the usual security placements, leaving Nigel not only an open network node but also they had placed it in an area where he could get relative privacy. After a quick look to make sure that he hadn't been followed or anything of that nature he went to hard plastic container and cryo-froze the lock on it, then popped it open and started connecting his own tethers to the circuit board contained within. "Don't mind me," he said to himself as he stripped and clipped the wires to his own portable device. "I'm just a regular piece of data attempting to make my way into your system."

Once he had gotten successfully connected, he found the usual firmware security devices and other obstacles, using the programs that he had gotten to deal with them to open holes in the protocols and slide right in. As he did he made sure to continue to keep a digital breadcrumb trail so he could find them again, a little riskier of a maneuver but so far he hadn't seen anything that stood out as advanced. In fact after just a few layers of security he found himself able to access the cameras, and when he got a look inside what he saw on the screen caused his eyes to widen. All manner of creatures, furred ones and elves and humans and even a few darkbloods, were all wearing varying degrees of skintight latex that looked like it was poured on them.

Nigel bit his lip as he couldn't help ogling the scantily clad females walking around, seeing their assets so proudly on display like that. He was supposed to be checking this club out, he thought to himself as he shook his head, and just as he was about to shift to another camera he saw something that caused him pause. This time it wasn't the latex-clad creature he had been watching but something that she was wearing on her wrist. Normally it would look to most like some sort of jewelry but thanks to his artificer's eye he noticed the runes that had been engraved on them that meant it was a magical object.

Unfortunately before he could figure out what sort of school of magic it belonged to the woman turned her body to engage in conversation with others, Nigel lingering on her rear before quickly moving on. As he scrolled through the various camera images he didn't see anything particularly nefarious, which is what he thought there might be when those two mentioned special rules, but it just seemed like a normal club. A rather popular one at that too as he noticed more people than before in the main area. This was starting to feel like a bust, but just in case he decided to try and get into the club's database and see if he could sneak a peek at the client list or the owner.

Just as he started to run his tracing program on the network to find the lead computer or server he began to see something on his client-side window. He had left it open in case any hidden programs were attempting to find out who was in their system, and as he watched it he noticed that data was starting to be manipulated... but it wasn't from the club. But since he was at the junction box and there was no one else that was impossible, unless they were hacking in from the servers themselves. When he attempted to find if the server room was on the camera feed he didn't see anything, and yet the longer he stayed there the stronger the data manipulation was getting.

Nigel suddenly let out a hiss when he realized that they weren't just hacking in at the same time as his computer, they were using his signal to piggyback into the program itself! He immediately force closed all the connections and put his leads back into the computer module he was using. Whoever was attempting to follow his lead would have noticed that they could no longer use him to do anything, which meant he had to run very quickly. Luckily the were plenty of places to hide as he hopped out from underneath the building and into the nearest alley as he began to feel the first drops of rain hitting his head.

The hybrid artificer double backed twice before finally heading home, stopping at the nearby burrito place just so he could linger and make sure that no one was following him before he got home and closed the door. That was too close... and he had been foolish for not remembering that he was himself a node to an opportunistic hacker. He reminded himself that he would have to put on better shielding for his signal to try and keep that from happening again as he got up to his bedroom once more and flopped down on the covers. Though it was late the images of what he had seen on his computer still haunted his mind... and after a few minutes of debating he decided to go indulge for a while.

He went over to his closet and opened the door, then reached past his racks of clothing and opened a secret compartment behind him. For a few seconds he felt through the various types of clothing before he found what he wanted, pulling out the pair of latex briefs and sliding them on after getting naked. As the smooth material went up his thighs and cupped around his hips he let out a small gasp of pleasure, feeling them cling to his body while he moved around in them. Back in the day a furred one like him couldn't enjoy the sensation that was rubber or latex clothing, but thanks to nanofilament technology he was able to pull on and take off any of the pieces in his secret closet without having his fur getting bunched up.

Though it wasn't exactly the most shameful thing in the world Nigel didn't want anyone to know about his secret fetish, often just wearing them whenever he had a particularly good day and wanted to enjoy himself. This time however seeing all those others in such shiny outfits just made him need to put something on, like it had flipped a switch in his mind. It wasn't like anyone was going to see him anyway, he thought to himself as he walked around a little more before turning off his light and going to bed. Little did he know as his window went dark someone that had been standing outside of his window suddenly dashed off...

The next day Nigel once more got up and did his usual routine, putting the latex briefs away for him to clean later before putting on his usual clothes and heading downstairs to open his shop. As he turned on the light he saw that there was already a car parked on the street, which meant that either him or his neighbor were about to get some early morning business. He soon found that it was going to be him as a few minutes later the chime for his door went off and he saw someone walk in and go straight to his counter. At first it was hard to tell who it was but when they got to be right in front of him the person pulled off their fedora and undid the collar of her raincoat to reveal the lovely elven woman underneath.

"Are you Nigel Sintiel?" she asked, the hybrid unable to do much more then nod as he was stuck by her fair features. "My name is Natalya Pettrenavosa, I'm a private investigator. I need to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind."

Pettrenavosa... the name sounded familiar to Nigel before he remembered that she was responsible for taking down an entire network of illegal sim factories that were turning people's brains into mush after only a few uses. She was considered one of the best detectives in the city and often didn't let people see her face, which made him wonder why she was so cavalier in doing so with him. "I... I guess," he said before his brain finally rebooted and he remembered general conversation. "I mean of course I would, although could I ask what this is about Mrs. Pettrenavosa?"

"I think it would be better if we talked in my office," she replied as she brushed her hair back. "I have a car waiting for us if you don't mind, and I'll make sure that your time is adequately compensated."

Nigel was at a loss for what to do... while he would like to think that this was just a coincidence his mind went back to the illegal hack he had performed at the club and the mysterious signal that piggybacked on his connection. If for some reason she had been looking for him all she needed to do was find the computer that was hidden underneath his bed, which she could probably find in two heartbeats without even trying. But if he refused then he may look guilty too... something the black-furred creature wasn't keen on being with her on his scent. In the end he decided to err on the side of caution and agreed to go to her office, closing up the shop and following her to the car outside.

An hour later Nigel was sitting in a rather nice office, the detective ushering him over to one of the seats that sat around an ornate glass table. The entire ride the hybrid felt his stomach doing flips as the elf didn't say a word to him nearly the entire time, even on the elevator ride up. Even seeing some semblance of sunshine outside of her windows, though the sun itself was covered by grey clouds that were once creating rain, he couldn't help but feel like something dark was coming. All he could do at that point was sit there as Natalya went over and poured two drinks and set one in front of him.

"Is this..." Nigel said as he sniffed the liquid before taking a drink, feeling the sting of alcohol against his tongue. "How did you know that I enjoyed vodka?"

"I know a lot about you Mr. Sintel," she said. "I've been researching you on behalf of a client ever since you came onto my radar last night. You are an artificer and own the shop that you sell out of, though in reality you inherited it from your Uncle as well as enough to pay the property taxes on it for the rest of your life. You also volunteer your time once a month at a homeless shelter and you have a fondness for latex that for some reason you don't want anyone to know about."

Had the glass not already been on the table it would have slipped out of Nigel's hands and fell to the floor as he looked at her dumbfounded. "But... how..." he said, trying to put words together into coherent sentences after being dropped a bombshell like that. "How did you learn all of that about me in one night?!"

"I'm very good at my job," Natalya said with a small grin on her lips. "I also had a little help in this particular case by my actual client, of whom I'm going to introduce you too. And since we already know so much about one another why don't we go ahead and drop the formalities Nigel, you can call me Natalya."

Nigel hardly heard what the elf had said as she went over to the office door and opened it, talking to someone on the other side. While he didn't consider himself a particularly private person he wasn't totally open about his life, and yet he just had it all splayed out in front of him like he had a published. His mind was still racing with questions even as another furred one came into the room and sat down in the chair next to his. It wasn't until the elf introduced the cheetah as a reporter named Simon Ghelment, though once again being told to just call him Simon, that he managed to snap out of it as Nigel suddenly found his hand being shaken.

"Simon is actually the reason that you're here right now," Natalya stated as Nigel realized he needed to keep up with the present that was happening in the moment. "So I'll leave it to him now to tell you what's going on while I catch up on my case files."

"Thank you for coming to meet with us," Simon stated with a smile on his face. "I apologize if I frightened you yesterday, I was the one that was piggybacking off of your signal at the club last night. It was my intention to actually go in and use the junction box myself to see what was going on but you beat me to the punch. I was just going to try after you but then I saw that your decryption algorithms were far superior to mine so I thought I would just attempt to sneak in behind you... of course you know how well that worked."

"So you're investigating The Gates of Emessu too?" Nigel stated. "Why? I mean I didn't do a complete analysis of their data but it just seems like kind of a kinky club with apparently a peculiar set of rules."

The cheetah just shook his head and said that he had been investigating the club weeks before it had even opened after receiving a tip that something might be going down there. Like Nigel when he initially looked into it he thought the same thing, but the tip had come from a reputable source that was very magically inclined, so he decided to take a deeper dive into it in order to see if there was some sort of irregularity. It took several layers of digging before he began to see the irregularities, taking out a tablet and showing him how most of the architectural blueprints and the actual invoices of materials ordered matched up perfectly... almost too perfectly.

As an artificer Nigel knew why that would be suspicious. In any sort of construction it would be suspicious to order and use the exact amount of materials that you needed for a job. There was going to be errors either in the actual construction or the estimation of material, and since it looked like there might by some sort of mystical element to this that rule went double. Sometimes you could just look at an enchantment wrong and it failed on you, and if you were going to do something on a building you might have to work out the kinks several times before you have runes that worked for what you needed. From the papers given to him it also appeared that they never filed anything with the Mage Investigation Unit, which meant if they were doing something magical it was off the books and probably illegal.

"There's one other thing," Simon said as he reached back into his back and pulled something out that was wrapped in cloth. "All the patrons of that club are required to wear this in order to get inside. I was going to have a mage look at it but Natalya said that you're an artificer so you might be able to tell me what it was."

As Nigel uncovered the item he saw that it was a rather large ring, made of a bronze-like metal and etched in runes. It reminded him of the bracelet he saw the one woman at the club was wearing but on a much smaller scale. "Psychomancy..." he said, able to identify it now that he was able to see it up close. "Very hard magic to use for enchantment, and often times not worth is because as soon as the mind rebels against psychomancy it breaks it."

"I found that on someone the club had thrown out a few days ago near the opening," the cheetah explained. "They had bashed his head in and left him out there to die. As soon as I saw how bad of shape he was in I tried to call the paramedics but... he didn't make it, and while I was waiting I saw that on him and thought it might be useful."

"This guy must have been a giant," Nigel said as he held up the ring and easily put his finger around it. "You pulled this off his finger?"

"It wasn't on one of his fingers," Simon said, the hybrid stopping dead with his eyes widening slightly. "I saw it pressed against the latex that surrounded his-"

Nigel immediately dropped the ring and said he got it, the elf chiming in to be careful to not break her table as he went over and washed his hands. "So you're saying that something is going on in this club and you want to break the story on what's going on?" he summarized as he toweled off his hands. "All based on some forged records and a strange enchanted item with no enchantment?"

"I know it's not exactly the best of leads to go on," the cheetah replied as he stood up. "But I can feel it deep down that there's something going on, something that they have already killed for and will probably do so again! Now I see that pendant of Aten around your neck, so will you join me and help bring whomever is responsible for this man's death be brought to justice? Or will you turn a blind eye like so many others have done before and let this man's murderer go free to do who knows what else?"

Nigel was at a loss for what to say, feeling the conviction of the reporter stir something inside him. He did want to see those who were responsible for the wrongs of the city to get what was coming to them for their misdeeds. As he looked into the eyes of the other furred one he found his head nodding, as though his body was deciding what he was going to do for him. A few seconds later he jumped when a stack of papers was dropped in front of him and a pen was waved in front of his face.

"Standard NDA and forfeiture of right to sue me or my agency for anything up to and including death of an accidental or intentional nature," she explained quickly as the pen was put into his hand. "You'll be getting ten percent of what Simon is paying me in exchange for your aid in solving this case to be paid upon the completion of the task. This agency will also make sure to supply you with anything you may need... though I have the feeling when it comes to the dress code of this club I think you're going to be covered."