Shifting Consequences--Chapter 20: The Storm's Eye

Story by zmeydros on SoFurry

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#21 of Shifting Consequences

This is a bit of calm before the storm. Plot elements are going to start falling into place very soon!


Our lovers uncouple. Then Zack tests out his lightning while Vale tries to get some hacking done.

Shifting Consequences--Chapter 20: The Storm's Eye By Zmeydros (Lucien Quinn) zmeydros.tumblr.com avatar?user=67367&character=0&clevel=2 zmeydros (Twitter)Malfedrosti (Mal Twitter)

When Glenn starts to soften, he pulls his shaft out while kissing Vale's cheek.

Bella pulls off of Vale's shaft and says, "Deep throating when you have a blow hole feels like cheating."

"Well, if that's cheating, to hell with the rules," Vale says.

As they all laugh, Zack notices that his connection to Vale is a bit weaker. "Do you want to be freed from my knotty embrace?"

"Nope. It's like the first time I had caramelized bacon. It was so good that it took me about ten minutes to finish the first piece. I just sat there going 'Mmm!' with each nibble." Vale rubs her sides and then gives her round ass a squeeze.

Glenn nibbles on the side of one of her triangular ears and she murrs.

"I'm not caramelized bacon." Vale chuckles.

Bella licks from the base to the tip of Vale's cock. "No, you taste even better."

"Aaaaah!" Vale arches her back. The way this bends Zack's phallus inside her sends a tingle up her spine.

Glenn shuffles around to the side and licks Vale's retreating length the moment Bella moves her head away.

Vale freezes as she feels the silky texture of Glenn's tongue against her mostly virgin shaft. "Mmm. I wish I could get hard again, well, maybe not. I'd never get around to hacking for our greater good."

Bella gets off the bed. Blue light follows Bella's hands as she makes a spiral pattern. The spiral glows green as she crosses her arms. She does this while chanting. "Med Zens zens tridged marfor geld par pate dainededi PARM!" She throws her arms wide at the end and her pattern explodes into twisty curly purple strands that hit all of them.

"Aren't her spells pretty?" Zack looks up at Vale.

Vale is so captivated by the light show that she just sits there staring at Bella. "Magic is so pretty!"

"That was a sustain spell. Might be my favorite type of spell because of the fireworks they make and the fact that they keep me looking like this." Bella strikes a pose twisting to the side and bending one leg to tilt her hips.

"My favorite type too." Vale bounces on Zack getting a moan from him.

Glenn says, "That sustain spell was more showy than the one you did for just me and you."

"Yeah, twice the horsepower." Bella grins.

Vale bounces a bit. "I like the sound of that!"

"It was a pleasure meeting you." Bella gives Vale a kiss on the cheek.

"Big roger to that." Vale returns the kiss.

"Dibs on getting clean." Bella hops off the bed and dashes into the bathroom.

"I think you just named your penis." Zack smirks at vale.

Vale's ears move to face forward. They had been turned toward Bella. The sensation of them moving catches Vale by surprise. She's had so much else going on that she didn't notice how odd it felt to have such mobile ears. Each time they move, they brush against the fur on her head causing a slight tickling sensation. She folds them down, unfolds them, points them. Glen and Zack's laughter bring her out of her reverie. "Huh?"

"At first I was thinking that you were trying to think of a better name than 'Big Roger,' but then your ears started moving all over the place." Zack rubs Vale's thigh. "Nice to have so many new features to play with, isn't it?"

Vale nods. "It's a lot to take in, but I'm loving every little detail."

Glenn massages the base of Vale's tail and she finds herself pressing against his hand. "That's relaxing and arousing at the same time."

"Heh, I thought it would feel good." Glenn takes his paw away. "I should get washed up too." He licks the side of her muzzle before getting off the bed.

"Mmm, can you lick me again?"

With a grin, Glenn gives her another lick, which she turns into a kiss by using her tongue to play with his. Their tongues are well matched and they get a bit preoccupied trying to lick each other's tongue without getting licked back. They both start laughing. Then the when they start licking each other's muzzles at the same time.

"Okay, now you can go," Vale says.

"As you wish, sir." Glenn gives a bow and then walks into the bathroom.

The moment she's called 'sir' Vale looks down at her male body and feels her eyes get moist.

"You okay?" Zack says.

"Way better than okay. I think I'll use male pronouns for myself from now on." Vale leans down and hugs Zack. Zack's knot starts to slip out as he hugs him. Zack's breasts provide a really nice cushion for Vale's toned pecs.

"Absolutely." Grabbing Vale's head gently, Zack pulls him into a kiss. Vale tries not to laugh when Zack's forked tongue constricts his into submission. When Zack lets his tongue go, Vale explores Zack's mouth, finding that the somewhat sharp teeth in front give way to flat, plant-grinding teeth in the back. An omnivorous dragon, no doubt.

About half a minute later, they break to catch their breaths. The moment they're ready, Vale starts kissing again. His muzzle, canine lips, nose and whiskers are giving him so many interesting sensations as they kiss. There's so much more mouth to play with. Whenever his whiskers get pressed, he presses back because pressure on them feels really soothing. They do get caught on Zack's scales, but not enough to bother him.

Zack's nipples start to harden against Vale's chest just before they break the kiss again. "Zack, do you prefer 'he' or 'she' or something else?"

Zack raises an eyebrow. "Umm, I don't know. I don't really care what someone calls me since I defy definition. I've been called 'he' by Bella and Glenn since they met me first in my original form."

"Well, what form would you pick most of the time if you had a choice?"

A bright blush appears on Zack's cheeks. "Hermaphrodite, as close to the middle as I can get."

"Then maybe we should call you 'shi.'" Vale says.

One of Zack's ears folds down when he hears Vale pronounce that strange pronoun. "Is that like 'she' with an 'i' at the end or something? It sounds odd."

"Yeah, 's-h-i'... it looks better than it sounds."

"Hmm, not sure I want to switch to that. I'm pretty used to being called 'he.'" Zack strokes Vale's arm.

Vale smiles. "Well, I look forward to being used to it."

Zack reaches down and plays with Vale's balls. "Well, you didn't need these to convince me to start calling you 'he,' but they will make a convincing statement to closed-minded people."

A deep sigh escapes Vale's lips as he fondles his pecs and loses himself in the sensation of his balls being groped. They feel so vulnerable that Zack's touch is extremely intimate and soothing. "Mmm! So much to look forward to."

"Indeed." Zack starts to move his hand away.

Vale grabs him by the wrist. "Did I tell you to stop?"

"No, sir!" Zack starts fondling Vale's balls again.

A content smile pulls lightly at the corners of Vale's lips. For what seems like hours, he just sits there letting Zack play with his nice heavy balls.

"I think it's time to undock," Zack says.

Vale gives Zack's mostly flaccid shaft a squeeze before nodding. "Yeah, thanks for waiting. I loved every moment of being tied."

"No problem. It felt great!"

When Vale lifts himself off of Zack, their combined fluids drain out onto Zack's lap. "I'm going to get in line for the shower."

Zack lies back into the pillow. "I'm going to just wait here."

As Vale lays next to Zack, he moves Zack's tail so that it is draped over his waist. "There's a thought."

Patting Vale's thigh with the end of his tail, Zack sighs happily before turning onto his side.

Vale cuddles Zack from behind feeling warm and fuzzy when the base of Zack's tail gets pushed against his sheath and balls. Then Vale closes his eyes and gets lost in the feeling of Zack's warm scales against his fur.

"Aww, you two are so cute!" Bella says a few minutes later.

Vale blushes while Zack giggles.

Bella walks around to the other side of the bed and gropes Vale's ass. "Absolutely gorgeous. I love the stripes, and the muscles."

"I'm glad I let you tap it." Vale puts his hand on top of Bella's.

Bella giggles. "I'm going to go work on some magic stuff."

"Nope. You're staying right here." Vale tugs on Bella's hand.

Bella falls forward onto Vale. "Ack! Why'd you do that? I just got clean."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get you messy." Vale lets go of Zack and sits up. "I'll clean it up."

"You better. There's some washcloths in the bathroom." Bella points as she speaks.

Vale leans in and starts licking Bella's breasts.

"Oh. Mmm!" Bella arches her back.

Vale smells Bella's slight arousal and grins before suckling at Bella's left nipple. Vale's eyes widen when a bit of milk comes out. It tastes really creamy and sweet. Bella pulls Vale's head away. "Let's save that for later when I'm ready go for another ride."

"Can do. Just a couple spots left." Vale experiments with moving, twisting, and bending his canine tongue as he laps up the rest of the mess on Bella's chest. His tongue is very flexible and all the sensations from it moving are distracting. He ends up rubbing it against itself as he twists it around. Licking his own tongue feels really odd.

Bella grabs Vale's head. "I think you got it all. Keep going and I'll start confusing you with my neighbor's dog."

Pulling his head away, Vale laughs.

Zack scratches behind Vale's ears. "Good doggie."

Vale's eyes close. It feels marvelous. All the tension in his body starts to recede. Bella laughs before walking out of the room. Vale can hear her footsteps and heart beat getting softer. A couple minutes later, Glenn's voice causes Vale to open her eyes and turn her head.

"Shower's all yours," Glenn says as he looks at Zack. Vale feels Zack motion for Glenn to come closer and when Glenn does, they both start slowly scratching behind Vale's ears.

A deep sigh of contentment puffs out of Vale's canine lips as he struggles to stay sitting up. It like he's lounging in a hot tub that's at the perfect temperature. A warm soothing wave of relaxation spreads to every corner of his being.

When the petting stops, Vale opens his eyes slowly. Glenn and Zack chuckle. Glenn says, "That was cool."

"Yeah, you looked so relaxed. Must be nice to have a suspend button."

Vale grins at both of them. "I'll find your buttons one of these days."

Glenn puts his paw up to his mouth. "Oooh! Is that a promise or a threat."

"Both." Vale grins as she gets off the bed.

Zack giggles and Glenn laughs as Vale walks into the bathroom.

The water-coming-from-everywhere shower is so much fun to play with that Vale almost forgets that he came in here to get clean. Eventually he settles on three different shower heads: one from above and two from the sides all pulsing softly. The lathering and washing process goes by with him getting lost in the sensations caused by his anthro male-herm zebra wolf hybrid body.

His hands rubbing suds into the fur on his chest. The base of his tail as he rinses it off smoothing all the fur down. The relief he feels from washing the caked cum off of his ball sac. The proud nub of his clitoris as it rubs against his balls, hands, and thighs while he moves through the cleansing process.

Cleaning his ears proves difficult and he ends up shaking his head a few times to get water out of them. By the time he's done, he's run his hands over every muscle and crevice of his new body. He's never felt this masculine, this alive. It still seems surreal--too good to be true. Such a perfect body. Such a perfect day.

When he's done with the shower he gets on all fours and shakes himself off. It feels really odd, but natural at the same time. It takes some trial and error to figure out the best way to use the towel to dry his fur and his somewhat floofy tail doesn't dry well at all. At least he got it so it's not dripping.

Zack dashes into the shower the moment Vale walks out. Vale walks over to his laptop, swaying a bit on his paws. When he reaches down to grab his laptop out of his bag, he completely misjudges his center of gravity and falls onto his side, hitting the edge of a table leg with the top of his head. "OW!"

Bella and Glenn look away from a nature show parody youtube video they're watching on Glenn's laptop and say, "You okay?"

Vale rubs the bump on his head for a moment. "Yeah, just getting used to being so tall and sexy."

They chuckle and go back to watching the video.

Now he's experienced his first bit of actual pain in this body. At least he's passed another milestone. He gets up and grabs the bag before carrying it over to the desk next to one of the large overbearing windows. The curtains are drawn, so the room is a bit dreary even though it's a sunny afternoon.

Normally Vale doesn't care if a room is dark, but something about this hotel room makes him think of vampires, and sunlight seems like a natural thing to yearn for to dispel that eerie sensation.

The moment Vale starts messing with the curtains, Glenn says, "Whoa, what are you doin'? We're not exactly inconspicuous right now."

"There's probably one of those translucent privacy curtains under the light blocking ones."

Bella hits the space bar to stop the video. "What if there isn't and someone sees furry striped arms messing with the curtains?"

Vale's ears fold down and she widens her eyes in disbelief. "They could just think it's a fursuiter. Why are you two ganging up on me?"

"We're just worried. We really don't want to have to go on the run before we're ready." Glenn sits back and sighs. "I'm sorry."

"I'll be careful. I'll open one from the side and see if I'm right before I do anything else." Vale stands to the side and opens the curtain. The privacy curtain is there, so he opens the other curtain.

Bella puts on a nice smile. "Sorry we overreacted."

Vale shrugs. "No big deal. I didn't think about the fact that I'm a big anthro zebra wolf."

"I had to remind myself yesterday when I almost walked into the hallway to get ice lookin' like this." Glenn swishes his tail.

"I guess this is going to be new to me for quite a while."

Bella says, "Yeah, I don't think Zack feels like it's normal yet either."

Vale pulls out his laptop and puts it on the desk. "I'm going to see if I can figure out whether the FBI has any clue where we are and possibly give them a false lead."

One of Glenn's ears folds down--it's adorable--and asks, "You can get into the FBI?"

"Not just me, I have lots of friends. Friends that can bounce my traffic through proxy servers, tunnel through firewalls, and make a lot of bread crumbs that lead nowhere. My best work was in compression and encryption. I have tiny worm segments that can unpack themselves and combine with each other to do some very nifty stuff."

Glenn's ears perk up. "Wow, I know how to take advantage of human stupidity, but not much else. You're way out of my league."

"If I have enough time, I can breach a firewall in different ways over time and put little segments of my worms on the other system. They look like normal breaches from many different sources until my segments find each other and start giving me access to the target system." Vale opens his laptop and then plugs in the power adapter.

"You don't have much time, though."

Cracking his knuckles, Vale says, "It's going to be a bit more brute force this time, so I'll have to focus on getting my tracks covered."

Bella raises her hands. "I can set up wireless routers, but that whole conversation went over my head."

Glenn pats Bella on the shoulder. "Well, you can use magic, so I think you're even."

"True." Bella shrugs.

If Glenn and Bella said anything else, Vale didn't hear them. Computer code is all his mind has space for right now. He contacts some of his buddies and eventually gets three of them that want to play. He spends the next few minutes denying RP requests. Then he starts working on the elements of code that he'll need to crack the FBI's network.

When Zack walks into the room, he looks at Vale and quickly decides not to disturb him. That must be how Zack looks when he's doing history homework or trying to solve cold fusion. Instead, Zack sits between Glenn and Bella.

They both snuggle up next to him. Bella says, "Glenn was telling me that you shot lightning out of your hands."

"Yeah, I kinda set a tree on fire." Zack holds out his left index and middle fingers before making a spark jump between them.

"That's never going to get old." Glenn leans in.

Zack makes more sparks.

"Ok, let's see if how much control you have." Bella moves her hands in an intricate, but jagged pattern. Bright blue light trails from her fingertips. "Sheil drazet dam scur drazet stad shret sizant." The blue trails give a few irregular flashes before disappearing.

"What was that?" Zack says as Glenn just sits there blinking.

"I've created a shield that absorbs electrical energy." As she speaks, Zack sees little sparks flash across her skin.

"It looks like it's already absorbed some."

"It's just a bit of chaos, charges being created and destroyed. If I left this on too long, the whole room would smell like ozone."

Glenn raises and eyebrow. "Is the couch safe?"

"Yeah, for now. None of the sparks have much oomph, but you do have a point." Bella gets off the couch and walks over to the kitchen. "Zack, think this marble floor is a good enough insulator? If you hit me with too much too fast, we might get some stray voltage."

Zack gets off of the couch and starts walking over. "I think you should just stand near the sink. Plumbing is usually grounded very well."

Glenn turns around on the couch leaning his chest against the back of it. "Be careful you two. If sparks hit an outlet, you could cause a lot of damage."

"We will." Zack turns to face Bella who is now standing in front of the sink. He walks up and extends his left hand so that it's only a foot from her. "Ready?"

"Just enough to bridge the gap, okay?" Bella holds out her right hand so that the distance between their outstretched fingers is only four inches.

"Yep." As Zack focuses on generating an electric potential, he feels a tingling across the scales on his left arm and down his back. Then suddenly a bundle of sparks jump from his index and middle fingers to Bella's. He stops when he sees some small sparks jump from Bella to the sink.

Bella's eyes are wide. "That was intense! How much more can you do?"

Zack shrugs. "I made a pole heat up and paint bubble... I set a tree on fire."

"Mal must really like you."

Zack nods. "Yeah, probably, but it's just a source of chaos if I can't control it."

"Even more reason for Mal to give it to you. I doubt he'd let you kill people with it, though." Bella holds out her hand, but closer to her chest. "Try a bit further."

There's an eight inch gap between their fingers this time. When he lets the electricity fly, he feels tingling all the way across his back.

The sound of the arcs jumping between their fingers startles Glenn and Vale turns to look at them. "What the hell? Are you secretly Emperor Palpatine?"

Zack stops the electricity and chuckles. "Maybe? No, I'm too sexy and nice."

Glenn says, "What? Palpatine isn't sexy?"

Bella looks like she just tasted some rotten asparagus. "Eeeeew!"

Zack, Glenn and Vale laugh.

Bella smiles. "It's my fault for thinking about him naked."

Vale says. "Do it again!"

Bella tilts her head. "Think about Palpatine naked?"

Zack and Glenn laugh.

Vale chuckles and shakes his head. "No, not that. The lightning."

Zack points his left hand at Bella.

A giggle-chitter comes from Bella. "Oh, that's a lot less twisted." She gets in position.

When Zack lets the sparks fly, Vale gets out of his chair and stands next to Glenn.

Bella motions for Zack to back up and he moves a couple steps back before letting arcs fly again. The smell of ozone starts to permeate the room as two-foot-long arcs travel from Zack to Bella. Zack feels a sharp throbbing sensation all the way down to his toes as he does this. When a lot of electricity starts jumping to the sink, Zack stops. His head is a bit sweaty from the effort of controlling his output.

Vale grins. "Well, I feel a lot safer now. There's nothing like having a guy who can shoot lightning from his hands on your side."

Glenn blinks. "Yeah, as long as we're not dealing with snipers or automatic weapons."

"I'll have to use some magic to back us up in that case." Bella turns on the faucet and moves her hands in wide arcs. "Shrea dela dela shrae sim sim essa essa. Ben dela ben shara shem." The electrical energy follows her hands, getting smaller and more compact as water from the faucet starts ignoring gravity and follows her motions. The water hardens into a ball of ice and the zaps from the electrical energy disappear.

"Whoa, what did you just do?" Glenn asks.

"I used the electrical energy to make ice. I'm not sure it makes sense, but, it's magic, right? Magic that channels Mal's influence."

Zack points at the a bit-bigger-than-softball-sized chunk of ice. "It takes a lot of energy to freeze water, well, if you're using a freezer."

"Yeah, taking energy from one thing and putting it into another is one of the most powerful and efficient ways to use magic." Bella puts the ice ball in the sink.

"I want to see more, but I have to get back to trying to crack the FBI." Vale turns toward her computer.

Zack, Bella and Glenn sit on the couch together cuddling.

* * * * *

Vale's hands fly over the keyboard as he starts putting it all together. He's got a network of proxies, special illegal routers, and tunnels all linked and working. A bit over an hour later, he's compiled the code he needs, and now he's ready to break in.

The hole in the FBI's security that he finds ends up being a bug caused by the latest update in the FBI's firewall software. Once he's past that, he has to brute force a couple passwords. For twenty long minutes, Vale works hard to avoid detection to get to the information he wants. The problem is that he can't find a mention of Zack's case anywhere.

Then he finds someone mentioning a news article about Zack, but that person doesn't seem to know anything about the FBI's involvement. He spends another fifteen minutes trying to get access to someone with a higher security clearance, but nothing works. He leaves the right pieces of his malicious code in different nooks and crannies on a few different computers before shutting down all his intrusion software and closing his laptop.

"Well?" Glenn says.

"I couldn't find any--" Vale clears his throat feeling a bit panicked. He'd forgotten what his new deeper voice sounded like. "--thing. So, I left some of my code behind to see if a more subtle approach can get me into a system with a higher security clearance." Vale shrugs. "Their system is very good against brute force attacks. A lot better than they were last year."

"Well, did you find anything that might help?" Zack asks.

"No!" Vale takes a deep breath. "Sorry, I'm frustrated."

Glenn walks over and gives Vale a hug. "Thanks for trying. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

"I wish I was that sure." Vale hugs Glenn. "I just want to be useful to all of you."

He gives Vale a squeeze. "I think we'd just keep you just for the great sex."

Zack nods. "What he said."

Bella trills. "Or to just make sexy poses for us all day."

Zack nods again. "What she said."

All of them start laughing.