FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Hey!" The raptor's call to the treehouse alerted the three pint-sized occupants to peek out, seeing their former captive with a few new bitemarks and bruises on him. "I dealt with your dog problem, they won't be bothering you anymore." "Wow, really!?! What happened!?" "Well you're not gonna believe this...eh, maybe you will, they were being controlled by some alien disguised as a coyote, it mimicked their leader and they got all confused. Hopefully things'll calm down now." "HAH, I knew it!" The three eagerly leapt down off of the ladder at different heights, measuring their temporary spurts of bravery to hit the ground without hurting their knees as they stood before James. The leader was clearly the brown-jacketed pug-nosed lad with short black hair and squinting eyes. "I'm Tommy. This is Jack an' this is Roy." Jack was the tallest of the three, blonde-haired with a green hoodie and a lean face with a sloping nose. Roy was the shortest with a pudgy belly and rosy cheeks, wearing a plain white t-shirt and brown hair. Tommy jabbed his own chest with a thumb. "We handle this neighbourhood, protect the town from aliens and such." "Yeah? I'm James." He offered a handshake, his lethal-looking black claws intimidating enough to the boys that they decided not to trust him just yet, turning away with crossed arms simultaneously. "Sorry James, but you gotta do better than that to earn our trust fully." "Uhhhh kay." "But don' worry, we'll be uh...ambassadors, yeah thassit, ambassadors for ya! Lead ya around the place, make sure you don't get up to any funny stuff." "Fine by me, all I'm looking for is a way home." "Home?" "Yeah. See...well, not all us aliens come from the same planet, and I'm looking for a way to get out back home. Now I'm thinking, if those aliens were so interested in this planet then there MUST be something important right?" "Right!" "Sooooooo...maybe something can help me get home!" "Iiiiii dunno," said Jack, who only stood tall enough to gaze at James' upper chest. "How do we know yer not lookin' for something to help them?" "Because I just killed one of them back at the dogs' den. Believe me, anymore aliens that pop up will want my head, so I'm just as much a target as you guys are."

They nodded, despite Jack's suspicions due to being possibly older and therefore less trusting. But the raptor did not challenge it as Roy suggested: "You wanna look around the town a li'l?" "Roy!" argued Jack. "What?! He seems cool, we can hang out with him!" "Well even if he is, yer forgettin' something!" "Whassat?" "Uhhh he's not HUMAN. He can't just go wanderin' around in the streets, they'll take him away or shoot 'im!" "Pfft yeah right, the cops in this town are useless, they can't even cuff each other!" "Guys!" Tommy took control of the situation as he made his judgement, squinting up at James who did his best to appear dumbfounded instead of threatening. For a raptor, this was not particularly easy to do. "Okay James, maybe you can hang with us, BUT! You gotta do EVERYTHING we tell ya to do, got it? One slip-up, an' we leave ya out to dry for yer alien buddies to pick you up!" "Alright, it's your town after all so, home rules." "Exactly...hehe, you pick up fast." "Well we all studied your culture a lot. I can get pretty used to it, even speak like you." "Right...so uh, how much DO you know about us?" "Just on how you act and talk, I dunno much about the actual history. They got me to talk like this ever since I was young so I could blend in easier, that is until I got in TOO deep in your culture and didn't want to help them attack you." "Ooooooh you mean like one of those undercover cops that get in too deep?" asked Roy with wide-open eyes. "Yeah, exactly like that!" "Cool!" "So...uuuhhhmmmm....." And with that, they completely lost their train of thought. The three had absolutely no idea what to do, or how to even do anything such as guiding their visitor/refugee around their town without being caught. Tommy soon snapped his fingers with a spark.

"I got it! We get you some clothes!" "Huh?!" James, Jack and Roy all said this in unison. "Well, you're wearing some of our clothes already right?" "Oh uh...yeah..." He looked down at his green slacks, suddenly missing his favourite pair of blue jeans. "Well, it's a start, but we gotta cover up your uh...well, you look like a dinosaur." "Dinosaur?" He knew perfectly well what one was but he had to keep up an act. "Yeah, dinosaurs! They were these biiiiiiiig big lizards that lived millions of years ago, WAY before humans ever existed, lots of 'em!" "Tyrannosaurus Rex," began Roy with a boastful listing of species, "Brontosaurus, Velociraptor, Iguanadon, Diplodocus, Baryonyx, Pteranodon-" "OHHHHHH those!" The raptor nodded with mock realisation. "Yeah yeah we read up on those too, I remember now. Hehehe, actually it's kinda funny, this is what my species look like anyway." "Really!?!? Cuz you...well, you TOTALLY look like a velociraptor!" "Hahaha, seriously? Well, that's pretty cool huh? Shame they aren't still alive or else I'd blend in easier." "Heheh, yeah! But uh...I think Tommy's right, we gotta get you some new clothes to cover up some of it." "Well alright if you say so." "Tommy," asked Jack with disdain at the newcomer, "don't you have some of your brother's clothes around?" "OH!" the leader perked up with an idea. "Yeah I do! Uhhh...gimme about ten minutes, I can get 'em real quick! You guys keep an eye on 'im okay?!" "Okay!" With that, Tommy ran off towards the nearby town, leaving the raptor with his two friends who both stared at him. Roy became rather excited, almost giggling with absolute joy at the newcomer. Jack was wary, while James tried to initiate conversaion. "So uh...what you guys do for fun?" "Well-" "Roy." Jack cut off his youngest friend, who merely kept quiet and turned shyly away. The raptor crossed his arms surreptitiously. "...you don't trust me, do you uh..." "Jack." "Right, Jack." "No I don't." "Fair enough. Can't trust everyone you see." "Specially if they're not human." "Hey now don't be racist." "Can't be racist if yer not even a race." "Well...speciesist or whatever." "You're with a bunch of aliens who've been messing up our planet bad. I don't have to trust you, at all." "Awww come on Jack-" protested Roy. "No, he's too dangerous to trust!" "Listen, kid...if I really wanted to escape, I would have done it when your friend sent me into the forest. I could have NOT come back whether I helped those dogs or not. I could have just beaten you all up and ran off if I REALLY wanted to wreck your world." "Well...maybe you got somethin' else planned. I got my eye on you. Someone has to." James sighed with a shrug and sat down waiting. He understood Jack easily, that sort of attitude of not trusting others so quickly. It was one reason that allowed him to not be insulted by such disposition towards him. He shrugged again and said: "Alright then. Trusting strangers is a bad thing anyway, that's something kids should learn." "Exactly."

After what felt like 15 minutes later, Tommy returned with a bundle of clothes under his arm, smiling as he handed them to the raptor. "Here ya go!" "Huh?" "This'll give ya a bit of a disguise when walkin' around our town." Out of the bundle was a pair of jeans, a white T-shirt of some band, a thin black zip-up hoodie and a red baseball cap. Out of all the clothes he was offered, the jeans intrigued him the most. Threads worn down with age to the point of splitting tenderly, branded with the name Diesel, and clearly well-made in a stonewashed blue. He was fondly reminded of his own favourite pair of jeans that he had lost in his adventures. These weren't just a pair of jeans. They were THE pair of jeans. So much he began to idolise them with a wistful glint in his eyes, that he became reluctant to even take them. "You...sure I can take this?" "My older brother left a ton of clothes when he moved out, gonna be years before I can grow into 'em so go ahead, they're yours!" "Wow...th-thanks! Lemme go put these on." Honoured by such a gift, he went behind a tree but only enough so that they could not see his absolute nakedness, dispensing with his green slacks in order to slip on the worn jeans. A little dusty clearly, but not something he minded. He soon moved himself back into full view to put on the rest of his clothes. While he did not normally wear shirts, James was not averse to them, instead preferring the feel of a breeze on his chest as something that soothed him. But he had to admit it was nice to cover up more now and again, putting the hoodie on next over his arms before finally placing the cap on his head, which was then covered with the hood. To the boys, there wasn't enough skin to give any real idea that it was a raptor underneath them, unless they looked closely. The only problem however came with the fact that he was walking back to them barefoot, as well as the strange lump on his back that covered his scissor-scabbard. "Argh, forgot about the feet!" groaned Tommy. "Wait what?" "Yer feet, look at 'em!" "...OH! ...right, humans don't have claws, fuhhh-udge." "Hmmmm...do you ever like, wear socks or shoes?" "Nope, my feet are pretty sturdy enough to go barefeet all the time." "Well we're gonna have to find a way to cover 'em." "Now you wanna give him your shoes?!" said Jack with disbelief. "Next he's gonna need your house!" "I don't want a human's house," replied James with a slight mockery, "I got a good house back home!" "Well if it's so good why dontcha go back to it?!" "Uhhhh that's what I'm TRYING to do kid. Believe me, I don't wanna be here anymore than you want me here." Jack frowned as Roy stepped up to suggest an idea. "What if we just say they're like, really cool shoes that LOOK like dinosaur feet?" "...what?" asked Jack flatly. "You remember those shoes Tommy really wanted for Christmas a while back, but they were real expensive?" "Ohhhhh yeah...think that works Tommy?" "Uhhhhh..." Tommy pondered briefly before nodding softly. "...yanno I do remember that now...yeaaaah...I guess it could work! Awesome, yer all ready to hit the town!" "Uh figuratively speaking," added Jack as a warning. James just shrugged happily now that he was able to blend in, even if he did not believe the disguise was acceptable enough. But he wasn't going to chide them for their effort, slowly bracing his clothed arms. "Well uh...I think if there's nothing else-" "Well...you still look kinda weird with those scissors." "Huh?" "Yeah those huge scissors you had on yer back, I can still see 'em through the hoodie." "Awww dammit." "What's the deal with those things anyway?" asked Roy carefully. "They're...well, it's my weapon." "Wha? But I thought you guys had like blasters or rayguns."

"We do," replied James as he cautiously embellished, "but I'm not trained in those sorts of weapons. We have a section of us trained in melee weapons and hand-to-hand combat. I was trained for three years by-" "Uhhh three years on your planet or three Earth years?" asked Roy. "Earth years, I'll keep it simple. I was trained for three years by a master swordsman, then I did service on one of our ships before I mutinied and came here." He smiled inside, relishing his weaving of half-truths, especially to those mostly enraptured young lads. Roy especially, being the youngest. "Woooow..." "You ever killed anyone?" asked Tommy bluntly. "Oh yeah," said James, "quite a few, all kinds of species too. Some looked like felines, some like crocodiles, all kinds." "Any humans?" ".....no." That was his only lie. "And I don't plan on killing any of your kind." "Good! So uh...OH I know, we'll get you a backpack to cover yer back! You can look like a tourist or somethin'!" "Heh, whatever works for you but I don't wanna make you run all the way home for it like with these clothes." "Well...we can go near my house when we're showin' you around." "Sure!" "Great," said Jack with snark, "now he'll know where you live, you gonna hide him in your closet next?" "Hehehe we can feed him chocolate if we have to!" "Hey now I DO like chocolate," said the raptor. His comment made the boys giggle at some private joke, himself only smirking as Tommy proclaimed: "Alright James! Let's get you outta here and show you our town! We can find a spot for ya to hide from the other aliens if we can." "Awesome, I really appreciate it guys." "No worries! Be pretty awesome to have an alien for a pal, 'specially one that looks like a dinosaur, they're awesome! So...welcome to Onett!" Smiling at being appreciated, James let himself be dragged along into town for the first time. The town of Onett was a rather small podunk settlement with the most basic of amenities such as a library slightly further from the town, a hospital, a town hall and a police station. Few people were actually out at this time of day due to working hours, as well as the fact that it was summer holidays for the kids, which the boys explained with much excitement. The sun was shining strong enough to support their claim. They tried to explain as best as they could at the different facets of human society. While James already understood all of this, he allowed them to do so, giving them their self-appointed title of ambassadors which they took with utmost dilligence. Tommy was the most coherent, thoughtful in how to explain the idea of the police to an alien.

Jack was cold and blunt but he showed some moments of warming up when he explained the hospital and the town hall, concise and to the point. Roy, who was certainly now proven to be the youngest, rambled back and forth about how a library worked, until he had veered away from books to talk about movies, including some of his favourites. James didn't mind, he was already intrigued by how clean the town was and how he could recognise a lot of the technology from his own world, such as televisions and computers. They didn't go into the library, but he saw more books than he had ever seen in his entire life through the windows. Rows upon rows of binded paper with the most intriguing titles he could just about make out. He was certainly surprised, but he didn't explain why, going for the simpler explanation that on his homeworld they had electronic text instead of paper. Synthetic paper existed back home, but he had never had a chance to read much. They kept away from the clinic and police station, despite Roy being adamant that the police in this town were utterly useless, which made the raptor smirk in a small sign of empathy. There were also various stores which the boys did their best to explain their purpose. Selling TVs, medicine and toys which were both at the drugstore oddly, bread or just newspapers. But one store in particular stood out amongst them. Even in the daytime it glittered with inviting neon lights, small but garish enough to catch one's eye, beseeching passersby with all sorts of potential games within. Even James knew what it was purely from the name alone on the sign. "Oooh what's that?" "Oh! That's an arcade!" Roy was excited, finally something he could explain without looking stupid. "An...arcade?" "Yeah, you go in there an' you play videogames, it's real fun! Lotsa people play 'em!" "Games huh?" "You wanna check it out?!" "Sure, show me, let's see what you humans do for fun." With a rolling of eyes from Jack, the four walked inside, admittedly happy to be in a place that they were completely and utterly welcome within. They even greeted the owner who sat behind a cashier grill. The owner looked quizzically at their new friend but paid little attention, since surely an adult would never be dressed so ridiculously.

The arcade was abuzz with electronic sounds and bleeps that permeated the very air, rows of cabinet machines lined up against each other back to back in a double row, a few kids hunched over the controls feverishly tapping and bashing at buttons with the strange rhythm of an imaginary battle. Only two kinds of games seemed to be in this arcade, according to James. Ones where a ship flew through space blasting at other pixellated ships, and ones where people repeatedly beat up each other. The three boys happily explained them. "These are videogames!" squawked Tommy. "They're really fun games that ya play on machines here, or consoles at home-" "Yeah," squeaked Roy, "like the SNES an' the Genesis!" "You wanna play one!?!?" James had heard of videogames in his time, but they were far more advanced than these. Some he knew were VR, others being just good old 3D screens. He never could afford to play them, and never had the chance to try one, so he was quite giddy at the idea of his first videogame. Picking one called Galaga, he waggled the joystick and tapped the buttons, testing them out. "Uhhhh okay how do you play this?" "You gotta put quarters in first!" said Roy in admonishment, backed up by Jack. "Yeah, you need to pay so you can play." "Well pardon me for not being from around here, you wanna help me with that?" Roy shoved a shiny silver coin into the machine and the game started with a happy little electro-jingle. Seeing the small ship on screen flying across the screen vertically, James soon faced off against some strange bug-like enemies as the boy guided him. "Okay you gotta shoot with that button, and ya move the joystick to move around." Following their instructions he made his first attempt, blasting little lasers from his small white ship at the bottom of the screen, to the strange pixellated bugs at the top. With every button-tapping hit, they exploded thusly into a tiny battle between high pitched BEW BEW-BEW-BEW and low pitched BOW BOW-BOW sounds. Playing something so frantic and active soon became irresistable to the raptor, pressing forwards a little closer. Eyes darting around the screen, mouth slightly open now and again in unconscious acts of focus, dodging and blasting, shooting and moving. He hadn't experienced anything like it before, and the kids around him seemed to be amazed at how well he did. His natural reflexes and improved hand-eye coordination having been trained over the past few years aided him immensely. It took him 4 stages to get hit and lose a life, almost thinking he'd lost until he realised he had two more. Keeping his head in the game as he stormed through stage after stage, his eyes roved maddeningly all over the screen. With every new minute of game time, the three boys turned more and more awestruck at their extraterrestrial guest, even when he lost his second life. "W-watch out, yer on yer last life!" said Tommy helpfully.

Half the time James barely breathed as he tensed up, claws clacking with the joystick as he did his best to stay alive, dodging lasers left and right, firing back in a virtual assault. His teeth were hidden underneath his hoodie and cap, as he grinned feverishly with each new evasive enemy finally killed. "Yes!" Sadly it was to be shortlived, when an unlucky hit blew him up on his last life and it was game over. "Awwww!" The kids however were much more supportive. "OHHH! Wow, that was cool!" crowed Roy. "Yeah!" said Jack, who was genuinely impressed. "You got to like, stage 10! This your first time for real?" "Yep, don't have anything like this in my world, never played anything like it too." "No videogames at all on your home planet?" "Nope, never played any like I said." The three kids began to gather around and talk discreetly amongst themselves with an idea. The raptor could barely hear them before they turned back to him, as Tommy asked: "Uhhh...can you give us a minute?" "Sure, I'll uh...just sit here." Sitting down on a stool in the darkened shadow of the arcade entrance, he let the boys have their private moment, trying to eavesdrop. "You're crazy," began Jack to Tommy. "No, listen, you saw how he was!" "Okay. You're crazy AND stupid." "Come on Jack, it's a great idea!" "No way, there's just NO WAY he's gonna do this." "How we even gonna get him in Tommy?" "Leave that to me Roy. But look, we'd have a secret weapon, nobody can mess with us if he's on our side." "......just-" "Come oooooon Jack." "No, if we even tried, we'd be banned from the place, an' what'd happen to him!?" "Bet Ness would do it." "You're not him though are ya!?" "Come on Jack, we can totally do this, we built that treehouse and we got that ball back from that huge dog without a scratch!" "Roy this is totally different!" "Come on...trust me, we can do this." ".......if this fails, I wasn't part of it, okay?" "Alright." With a somewhat-satisfactory agreement, they headed over to James where Tommy asked:

"Hey uhhh...you uh...got any plans in two weeks?" "Ahhh nope, just hiding...why?" "Well...there's this big competition at the arcade they're gonna run, and we kinda need a fourth player to qualify...since yer real good at videogames, how about a li'l training and winning the contest for us?" "Wha-...seriously?" "Yep. You even get some of the prize money, we'll still hide ya an' everything too!" "Well...I hate to break it to you, but I don't think it's for non-humans." "We got an idea about that. But we really wanna get it, and you gotta help us!" "If ya don't, we'll call the cops!" said Roy nervously before Jack donked him on the head. "Hey hey hey, I didn't say no, you don't have to threaten me with them, I'll think about it...if you tell me your plan." With that, the kids gathered around him, speaking discreetly. The plan they had was, admittedly, ludicrous, and he somewhat agreed with Jack that such a plan was not only rather crazy and stupid, but also that the risk involved was very high. Especially, again agreeing with Jack, that they had barely even known James long enough to trust him. Nevertheless, Tommy was adamant, but he wanted to make sure with a small test. "We gotta see if you're good at any other games as well, that way we got an advantage if you are!" "Alright...how about that game, it looks kinda different." "OOH, that just came out, they updated Street Fighter II, now it's Super Street Fighter II Turbo!" "Hah, long name for a game. whatcha do?" "Lemme get a quarter." Tommy put one into the slot and an electronic bra-a-a-a played. He was soon presented with eight characters. "Oh...uhhhh I gotta pick one right?" "Yeah, now yer new to this so you should pick Ryu or Ken." He moved the joystick around seeing either of them. "...they kinda look the same." "They are, but one's American and one's Japanese, one's better with fireballs and the other's better with uppercuts." "...I'll pick this guy." He chose Ken, the same sound of inserting a coin confirming it as a small barely shaped version of the globe appeared above the fighters. A tiny plane moved to, according to the game "JAPAN", where he faced off against a rather large sumo wrestler in what appeared to be a sauna.

Round 1 began as James started to push buttons, getting a feel for the game with Ken attacking randomly at first. "Uhhh, how do I fight this guy?" "Just punch him an' kick him!" said Roy with encouragement before adding, "OH, and ya gotta do an uppercut!" "How do I do that?" "Move the joystick right, then down and back up to the right while punching." After a few unsuccessful attempts and getting hit as a result, he managed to pull off a glorious looking burning uppercut accompanied with what sounded like "HOR YOU KIN" which made him laugh. "Ahahahaaha, what?!? What the hell did he say?!" "I dunno, but ya got his uppercut now!" "It's called a Shoryuken Roy," said Jack, "duuuh...." "Hahaha, I like this! Come on fat man, try me again!" Now that he had a good feel for the moves, James started to knock out Shoryukens by the dozen, continuously spamming whenever the opponent got too close until the sumo wrestler started to slam out his hands with a dozen palm strikes all at once. With further advice from the boys, he soon pulled off a Hadouken, a glorious fireball that wrecked his opponent, making him gleeful to the point of skipping. "YEAH! Suck that fireball!" "Not bad," said Tommy confidently, "but how far can ya go on one quarter?" "Well let's find out, bring on the next one!" Despite his surprisingly quick proficiency, it could not last forever when, after fighting a Chinese woman, a Russian wrestler, and an American soldier with the strangest tall flat-top blonde hair, he reached his fifth opponent. A masked Spanish ninja, who completely slaughtered him with high-flying strike attacks, while mocking him with a synthesized yodelling. "OH WHAT THE-who is this guy!?!" "Ohhhhh yeah that guy's Vega," said Tommy with disdainful handwave, "he's crazy, don' worry about it." "Man I was doing so well! Stupid Spanish ninja, why is he yodelling!? That's not Spanish!" "Hahaha I dunno, but hey, first time and you got halfway there! ...with a li'l bit of training we could totally get you into the tournament." "IF this plan works," said Jack, not even trying to hide his contempt of the plan. "It'll work I know it!" clamoured Tommy, "I saw it in a movie!" "Hope that wasn't ET." "No no he's too tall." "I AM pretty tall," replied James to Tommy, "how are you even gonna fool anyone else?" "All we gotta do is read up on a few books, an' yer all set. It'll be like studyin' for you, about us!" "Uhhh okay, but I'm not here on a mission, I don't need to learn anything about you guys." "Well anyways, when you wanna start?" "Start? ...uh...well, I got nowhere to go guys, I'm pretty much up for anything that'll keep me busy." "Cool! Let's get something to eat an' come back here!" And so they left the arcade, the tantalising pixels and synthetic sounds fading from James' eyes, but not his memories. He didn't even really stop to think why he was so eager to help three kids when a local videogame tournament. But he did know that he was in another world, and still a little uncertain of where to go, moreso with his new powers. If anything, at least he'd feel like getting some good karma back with some more innocent adventures than the ones he'd had before. It felt good to have a more pleasant change of scenery.