FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Early one morning, a badger by the name of Rick Riche, popped open a can of Red Bull as he settled into his post at work. He was a cashier at a store that he and his friend had bought. They had grew up buying comics from the store, but when they came back from college and found out the owner was retiring, so they pooled their money and took it off their hands. Since they bought out the store, it's become more then just a comic store, just something less of a nerd's paradise. Comics, video games, role-playing board games, trading cards, novels, the whole nine yards.

It was a good fit for Rick. When he was only four, his parents died in a car crash, so he and his older sister Liz were left in the care of their aunt and uncle. Growing up, Rick didn't have alot of friends. So he found refuge in comics; after all, they had it tough at times, and then BAM! They were bitten by something radioactive, or found a crashed spaceship and then got respected by everyone worth being respected by. Rick always dreamed of being a superhero, but since nothing happend, he went to design school to learn to draw comics. It was here he met his best friend and part-owner of the comic shop, a ring tailed lemur named Seth Vassel. Turns out that they lived in the same town, but really didn't run into each other until they became dorm mates.

"You know man, you shouldn't drink so much of that stuff. It'll stunt your growth, joked Seth, who was 5'10" well Rick was 5'5".

He pulled off his jacket, rolling his eyes and said "Oh, ha-ha. Very funny."

"Geez, you're in a bad mood." commented Seth. "What's up?"

"Well, this really cute vixen moved next door to me, but I don't know what to say to ask her out." answered Rick.

"What does she look like?" asked Seth. Rick pulled out his phone and showed his friend the picture he had taken of her as she stepped out of the door of her house. Seth liked what he saw: red fox with more curves then a racetrack. C-cups on her chest, bouncy rear, fluffy brush tail, long luxurious red hair, bright green eyes, and a wardrobe that left what little remained to the imagination. "Whoa. So this is what they mean by the girl next door." Seth told his friend.

"Yeah, but I don't know how to ask her out." moaned Rick.

"Well, you could just go up and ask her out." suggested Seth. "I'm sure that creepier guys then you ask her out, with asking her beening some of their better moves."

"Whatever you say. Unless some girl in heat who likes her men short wonders in here, that's the best I can do."

After that, there first customer of the day entered, and got right to work. They always tried to keep talk about their personal lives when off the clock. Last thing they needed was for some holier than thou parents to have a reason to shut them down just because they were talking about the hot lioness that Seth had shacked up with the night before. It was bad enough the way female heros were drawn half the time. From 11:00 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon, it was the same old beat: the same crop of gamers, comic book fanatics, future comic artists in search of muses, collectors, parents (both in finger-on-the-pulse and couldn't-tell-Spiderman-from-Batman flavors), childern at heart, and the ones who just get off on catwoman. By about 5:30, the last of the herd had left the store, trying to get home quick because a big storm was brewing. Seth and Rick closed the store as fast as they could.

"You want me to drive you home?" asked Seth. Rick didn't have a car of his own yet. Between gas and his rent, he would have to give it some time first. He had car pooled to work with Seth that day, in fact.

"Sure," answered Rick, opening his umbrella, "You just get the car from out back. I'll wait here." Seth ran out back to where he parked his car so it was out of the way of the customer parking spaces. The clouds soon burst out in heavy rain, leaving Rick without an umbrella. "How could this get any worse?" Rick thought to himself. He was soon answered by a crash in the sky. Soon, a bright blue bolt of lightning was shooting a billion volts of electricity through his body! As quick as it had happened, it was over. Rick could smell his fur smoking. He began to stumble into the alley, but he could feel his muscles start to lock up, his heart skipping beats, his breathing slowing down. He soon collapsed down in the alley. Before blacking out, the last thing Rick saw was Seth, shocked and dialing 911 on his phone.....

...

When Rick woke up, the first thing he heard was a doctor's voice saying "He's waking up! I don't believe it!" As his vision started to clear up, he could see Seth and his sister next to his bed. Rick could see he was in the hospital. Last time he was here, he got his tonsils taken out. Suddenly, he got ambushed by his sister giving him a hug.

"Oh, thank god you're alright! I was worried you were going to meet mom and dad for a minute there!" Liz sobbed.

"Thanks sis." weezed Rick, "But if you keep hugging me, I'm going to pass out agian."

Liz apologised and stopped hugging him. Rick could see that her hair was a mess, all in knots and tangled. He figured she must have been up for a while.

Rick turned over to Seth, and asked "What the hell happened?"

Seth paused for a few minutes before answering. "You were hit by lightning. You were in a coma for two days. You're lucky to be alive. How do you feel?"

"I'm good. My head feels like Bane used me as a battering ram."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Liz wispered to Seth. "Bad thing." he answered. Liz was never good when it came to comic books.

Rick rolled his eyes a bit. Then he sniffed the air, and he could smell food. Good food in fact. "What smells so good?" he asked.

"It's the food I brought. I figured if you woke up, you wouldn't want to be stuck with hospital food." said Seth, handing Rick a burger.

"And been doing this for two days?" asked Rick, thinking about what Seth had told him.

"Well, we ate what you didn't." Seth added, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's alright." Rick told him before taking a big bite of his burger.

...

A couple of days later, Rick was back at work. The doctors were surprised that he recovered so quick. As far as they could tell, the only thing they could find that was wrong with him was that he had a high level of electrolytes. They even did a spot about him on the local news. But since then, the heat had died down. One or two people went up and asked him if he was alright and he gave them a simple "Yes." Although, to be honest, this wasn't all true. He kept getting a static shock everytime he touched something metal. He didn't say anything because he thought it was nothing, something that always happened to the lucky few who survived lightning strikes. It was toward the end of the day a few weeks after the lightning and the store was empty. Seth and Rick were starting to wonder if they should close down early. And then, he walked in. He was a skinny horse, skinniest that either of them had ever seen. It looked like his limbs would fall off at any moment. His mane was blond and unkempt. He was shaking like crazy and kept snorting. He was dressed in ripped jeans and a trench coat, and had a crazy look in his eyes.

"I think he tried to sell me a watch once." Seth whispered jokingly into Rick's ear. Rick held back a laugh, before locking up when the horse walked toward's him.

He spoke in a sickly voice, pausing to snort agian. "Hey.......buddy. How much is all the stuff you......have here?"

"Umm....well," responded Seth, covering up how unnerved by someone who looked liked that asking that sort of question, "I've never really counted, but I guess a couple of thousand dollars."

The horse grinned, reveiling yellow, rotten teeth. "Good......I'll just...take it then." He said, before pulling a large shotgun from his coat! "Hands up!" Seth and Rick complied, not wanting to get hurt. The horse then pulled out a large bag and started shoving everything he could find into the bag, muttering "I'll sell this, and this and this and.......this." Well he wasn't looking, Seth hit the silent alarm, but Rick knew he would be gone by the time the police showed up.

"I got to stop him." Rick whispered to his friend. "What?!" Seth whispered back, "You'll get killed! You've already been hit by lightning, don't test your luck."

"Seth, some of that stuff can't be replaced, it will cost us a fortune." Before Seth could stop him, Rick was right behind the robber. Rick tapped the robber on the shoulder. "H-h-hey, you can't-t-t-t do t-t-that." he stammered.

The horse turned around menacingly and asked "Or what?" Rick, not knowing what else to do, threw a haymaker punch. But, when he hit the horse, there was a huge flash of light. He could hear the lightbulbs light up and burst, hear electricity buzz, and feel his hand grow warm. In seconds, the horse had flown through the front door. He was knocked out cold. Rick stared at his hand. He could see blue sparks coming off of his paw.

"What...what happened, man?" asked Seth.

"I don't know...." answered a wide-eyed Rick.

...

Later, at Rick's house, after talking about what had happend to the police (Seth pulled something out of his ass about how the guy tripped), the two were trying the figure out what happened at the store. Seth was on his phone, using the superpower app he had downloaded. "OK, here we go. Electrokinesis: the abillty to control electrical energy. I guess when that bolt of lightning hit you, your body must have ratained some of it."

"Great!" shouted Rick, "that really helps me now! Really helps me from shooting the stuff out of my finger tips!" A bolt then shot out of his hand, destorying a light bulb in one of his lamps.

"OK, calm down, before you cause a blackout." said Seth, trying to calm his friend down. "You know, there is an upside to this."

"What is the upside Seth!?!?!?" snarled Rick, "That I can hang outside someone's porch and kill bugs?!?!?"

"No," began Seth, "but, you are always talking about who you would make an awesome superhero, and now you're like a real life Cole MacGrath!"

Rick's eyes lit up (no pun intended). "Your right," he agreed, "I am like Cole MacGrath now. Only my best friend could actually run without feeling chest pains."

"That's the spirit!" shouted Seth, holding up a hand, "You ready for this?"

"Oh yeah!" Rick shouted back, high-fiving his firend. Seth quickly pulled his hand back, having gotten a nasty shock from Rick.

"First, we got to work on that." noted Seth. Rick nodded and said "Yeah, probably should."

To be continued...................