FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

First Run

The First Half

Storm gazed at the house, double-checking the address. Brandon Sparks was the owner and her target. She was standing out in the open on the front lawn, but it didn't matter. Light passed through her, completely unaffected by her body. She sent a message using her radio system."I've found his house, getting into position to make entry" She sighed, dropping the ruse of being official. "I hope he's better than the other two. Nothing like a happy medium in either of them."

The reply came instantly, silent as her original transmission was to outside observers."Yeah. You'd think they'd've searched the net to find't out. Saw som've the stuff th'firs' guy had on th'net. 'T'was real fright'nin'. 'E's s'posed t'be 'sponsible an' in charge?"

"Take the second guy as a polar opposite. Plenty responsible and great job history, but anti-everything. Anything that isn't completely normal would have definitely freaked him out more than my presence did. How did he even get selected? Max checked Brandon out on the internet, right?"

"Yeah. He sent the info, didn't'e?"

"He did. Brandon looks kinda cute in fact. Bit overweight, but no problems right out there on the web like the first one had. Hope I don't find anything scary like that inside either." She shuddered at the memory. "I wonder if his girlfriend knew he liked pictures of things being gutted and..."

"DON' remin' me!" the other end of the line snapped, but instantly calmed down. "Don't fret o'er it Storm. If he ain't no good, we'll find 'nother'un to try."

"Do you even think there are any others? I mean, the group they're recruiting from isn't exactly known for highly responsible individuals. They were almost begging all of us. We're really just also-rans."

"Ya'know... I 'eard 'e didn' need an' 'pproval fer'us. This'un needs'ta pass by th'feds."

Storm hoped this candidate would be suitable. The guy's character was appealing and he had no relationship to tie him down. She could get somebody besides Max to flirt with. Somebody who might actually respond. He had a roommate who was a decent artist as well, so there was plenty of character art on the internet. Sure he was cliche, but Storm had no right to complain, given her own results. She knew how fun big ears could be first-hand. That might give her an angle of attack.

She quickly investigated the outside of the house. Brandon worked from home at night and his roommate, Melissa, worked normal hours. She should be at work right now and he should still be asleep. A quick check found the front and back doors both locked and all of the ground-level windows secured. Further investigation revealed the most promising entry point to be the second story balcony. The sliding glass door was open, allowing the morning breeze to flow through the house.

Storm grinned to herself at the thought of somebody trying to explain a ladder propped against the balcony. Thankfully there was no such need for a ladder here. She crouched below the balcony and leaped. Anyone else might grab the bottom and haul themselves up, but Storm easily cleared the railing and landed with the silence of a cat on the balcony itself. These enhancements came in handy. She would miss them when the project was over.

Still invisible, she walked to the screen door. Nope, not as easy as she'd hoped. It was locked. She decided she could take the time to open it, hoping the repair worked easily enough this time. She used a claw to carefully cut the screen beside the handle, wincing at the noise of the popping strands. Once she had a big enough hole, she slipped her finger in and lifted the locking switch. Sliding the screen open, she stepped in and shut it, then relocked it. Inside, she placed a fingertip against the screen and allowed her nanites to saturate the area around the cut she had made. They weren't made to work on non-living things, so she had to concentrate harder to get them to repair the hole in the screen, but she finally managed to close the cut.

That was much easier than any tries she had made in the lab! She was glad she practiced. She listened closely, sniffing at the air and looking around the office."I'm inside now."

"G'luck."

Storm looked around the room more carefully. The art wasn't bad. Most of it wasn't of his character, but several custom commissions graced the walls. Those were informative. They gave Storm a much better feeling about this guy already. The computer was locked with a password. She would work on that later. For now, she roamed carefully around the house, looking but not touching anything as she checked the layout and contents.

Her eyes adjusted very swiftly and well to the darkness in the bedroom. Within seconds she was able to see as if it were relatively well-lit even though the room had blackout curtains obstructing most of the light for this day sleeper. She barely kept from whistling at the change in the art. Obviously this was the "private" stuff. Enough of it portrayed his personal character for Storm to gain a better appreciation for him. Looked normal enough for a science fiction fan though. Night and day difference from the first guy.

Motion from the bed caught her attention as he rolled over in his sleep. By the information she had, he'd be asleep for a few more hours then he'd run errands if he had any out of the house. He'd hopefully use the computer so she could watch him type his password. She could easily use her tracking and targeting enhancements to get that.

In the meantime, she would find a place to hunker down and wait or maybe do a touch of poking around. It would be best for her to leave the bedroom though. She didn't want to wake him accidentally. She sighed and headed out of the room, poking about the house more before finding a good spot to stay and wait invisibly."There's a nice feel about his place. Judging by what I've seen so far, this guy might work," she radioed silently.

"There ya go! Th' founder said he's the best o' the can'dates."

"Then why the heck did they have the other two?" Storm demanded.

"Ummm... compar'son mayb'? Th' feds al'ays wan' more'n one can'date... So... Mayb' John made sure th' one 'e wan's 's'da only good'un."

Storm smiled to herself. That sounded completely reasonable. Which meant it was a set up from the start, but hey, she could still have fun with this spying thing. Then just see how he reacted to the job offer if he was suitable.

She spent the next week observing him. He was far from perfect. A few arguments with his roommate. One cooking mishap from failed experimentation, otherwise his cooking was pretty good. He had some pudge on an otherwise nice frame, though he had a number of scars on the back of his body, including a very large one on his right thigh.

She got the password for his computer with ease and spent plenty of time combing through it. She also had some fun teasing him when he was working, to check his responses. Feather-light tickles at first, but later some firmer touches. He reacted to the random unexplained events of course, but not too badly. She kept it all discrete enough since she had built respect for him and quickly decided he would make a good member of the first run.

"I say he's good," was the simple statement of her final report. Others waiting just down the street immediately went into action.

* ** *

Brandon jumped the doorbell rang. He was fidgety recently, imagining touches and odd musky odors when he was working. He thought for a moment. No deliveries expected. It wasn't Girl Scout Cookie season. The doorbell rang again, followed by loud knocking. Brandon frowned. Whoever it was really wanted his attention. This fact was emphasized by another loud knock as he headed downstairs from his office.

The view through the peephole put his heart in his throat. Two men, one looking plain enough, but the other one looked like an FBI agent or something. Dark sunglasses, black suit, and even a little device in his ear. He didn't need his past coming back to haunt him here. He tried to think quickly, but was distracted as he thought he heard a quiet voice whisper "Oh, just open it, Brandon." His hand found the doorknob as he unlocked the deadbolt and he braced himself for whatever doom was about to befall him.

The plain-looking man acquired what looked like a genuine smile as the door opened. He hoped this was a good sign. "Hello, Mr. Sparks! I hope my escort here isn't too imposing. Nice place," the smiling man said. Jeans and a polo shirt and light jacket were definitely plain compared to the CIA impersonator beside him.

Brandon gazed at him guardedly as he leaned against the door. Mr. Sparks? Hmm. "And you are...?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Dr. Stevens. You can call me Frank. This is agent Dickens from the Secret Service or CIA or something" He leaned closer and stage-whispered, "Don't bother talking to him. He's snobbish and never says anything." The target of this jibe smiled tolerantly and chuckled under his breath. "I'm actually somewhat late. I wanted to see some of the town after stopping by. Ahh well, can't always be right on time," Frank muttered, tugging at his jacket.

"So what brings a visit from a snobbish Secret Service agent and a government doctor?"

Agent Dickens protested quietly but was cut off by the doctor, "I'm not government. I'm from the Jo-Rey Corporation. Our project is government funded and highly classified, so they sent this guy."

Brandon shook his head. "Never heard of it. What can I do for you then?"

"Not surprising. I come with a job offer from the project. Get to hand it to you in person, then stay here a week in case you accept. If you do, just give me a call. My hotel room phone number is on the card." He pushed a thick manila envelope with a business card from a local hotel clipped to it at Brandon. "The project is classified, so I can't really give too many details. You can call me if you have any questions. I'll answer any I'm allowed to. I suggest you read the contract in detail. It'll give you some information at least. Either way, feel free to call me any time of day or night. I do have to leave you with the paperwork only for now though."

The doctor smiled and turned his back as Brandon stared blankly at the envelope. "Oh!" Frank exclaimed. He glanced over his shoulder. "I've seen the kind of art you like. I can say the art is related to the project in a way. You were picked from several candidates because of your background and several other factors. I'd say that if you accept, you're likely to be happy with the results. Please keep in mind, you are required to keep the information secure." With that, he departed.

Brandon closed the door with a sigh, ripping the envelope open as he dropped onto the futon to read it. He began to look through the information and the contract. Relocation to a company facility. A huge list of company-provided items, including living space, meals, entertainment, training, medical, etc. He was surprised they didn't include clothing in the long and otherwise all-inclusive list. He flipped through the papers to continue. Hmm... Testing some sort of medical procedure. A release of liability in the event of injury or death.

The paperwork went to great lengths to point out that the procedure may have completely unknown side effects. It warned about some known ones, like an urge to sleep in a pile with other test subjects...? Safe in all testing so far with no negative physical side effects. Restricted from outside contact for a period of up to two years, possibly more. Stuff about testing and any and all changes made in the project may be reversed at the end of the testing period. Serious non-disclosure section.

He scratched his nose, trying to concentrate. He had that feeling of being watched again. Lessee... Decent benefits. Disgustingly high signing bonus and a salary that would make most people sign over their first born child. All in all, it really sounded like a complex scam or practical joke. He collected the paperwork and headed to the computer to check further.

A short bit of searching later, he whistled. It was looking almost impossible to be a scam. All the information on Jo-Rey Corp. checked out. The stuff on all the documents was valid too. Jo-Rey was a research and development company with massive government contracts in all fields, including biotech and medical research, so the medical part made sense.

He leaned back in his chair. It was enticing, and something new, but honestly, he wasn't sure. A bit weird really. He shook his head and began to gather the papers back together. There was that musky scent again. Somehow that caught his attention and piqued his curiosity more than any of the paperwork had. He paused in shuffling the papers to look around the room carefully. He almost thought he heard a tiny voice whisper, "You should do it. It'll be fun. You'll love it."

Brandon shrugged to himself. It was enticing and something new. Worst that could happen is he would die a horrible death over the course of years, right?

He pulled some of the papers out again. Just call the guy and be on a plane within a week to wherever with the clothes on his back and a new job and adventure. The company would take care of everything back home for him and even pay his of the mortgage as part of the deal. Melissa would just have to learn to live without him cooking.

Brandon dug out his phone and dialed from the card. "Dr. Stevens? This is Brandon Sparks. I'll go."

* * *

"THAT looks really weird. What the hell is up with that plane?" Brandon demanded, noting the tilted engines as they approached the private craft. Three days to clear up his personal life and he found himself at the airport. He was relatively sleepy, since he'd been awake all night as per his normal schedule and completely missed his sleeping time. He should have headed to bed in the morning, but all this stuff to do had kept him up. It would be fun to force-change his schedule, he thought with a distinct lack of actual joy.

"Vertical takeoff and landing and stealth and some other stuff, so yeah, pretty weird," Dr. Stevens agreed. "It really just gets weirder though, so don't worry."

They had been taken to a side section of the tarmac by a small cart to get to the strange-looking aircraft. The government agents had been left behind at the terminal. The two armed escorts that accompanied them now were apparently security directly from the Jo-Rey Corp. "Not even the best stuff the governments have can track this baby, which annoys them to no end sometimes. But it's ironclad in our contracts." He paused to answer his cell phone and simply listened to the other side briefly before hanging up. "Your signing bonus has been deposited into your bank account. You'll be able to use it whenever the bank clears the funds. Though I'll be honest, you won't have much opportunity to buy things for a while."

"You guys work fast. I only signed that contract a half hour ago. Hey... Wait... You didn't call anybody to tell them, how did they know to deposit that?"

"We have some extra resources," the doctor said simply.

"As long as I can nap on the flight. I'd normally be sleeping right now."

The doctor paused. "Napping may be difficult, but I'm sure you'll get to sleep well tonight."

"Bah... Schedule changes..." Brandon sighed.

The plane had its own cargo loading ramp that they entered through and also two side doors that remained closed. It was relatively squat to the ground, so a step truck was unnecessary. Brandon peered at the plane's engines for a moment. There did seem to be something odd about them, but it was just a feeling. Almost like a shiver down his spine, though not quite a bad feeling. Just... creepy.

Seating inside was interesting. Bench seats around the cargo area in the back, but the middle section had swiveling seats at control panels for sixteen people aside from the pilot and copilot seats in the open cockpit at the front of the craft. More space per seat than a passenger jet and each seat had access to various important-looking controls. The panels were powered down, but the whole setup seemed like each person seated in the craft could provide support to the system if they knew what they were doing. "Reminds me of X Men or something," Brandon observed as she took a seat. He thought he heard a quiet chuckle from just behind him. He paused to look back and swore his hand brushed against something soft, but there was nothing there. The doctor was in front of him and the two escorts were already seated in the rearmost seats.

Brandon stared at the air behind himself for a moment trying to figure out what he could have hit. There was a cough from the doctor. "Have a seat, Mr. Sparks. We need to get going." Brandon sighed and the closest seat, just behind the doctor, fastening the harness. He felt air move and glanced at the aisle again. Still nothing there.

"Where's the pilot?" Brandon asked, observing the empty seat. He jumped as the control panel lit up and instruments glowed as switches began to toggle themselves.

"Think of it as an automated system for now. It's the easiest way," the doctor advised him.

Brandon stared at the empty pilot's seat as the craft powered up and the engines began to whine. A husky female voice came from the general area, apparently from the computer or something. "Tower, juliet romeo alpha twelve requesting class three window of three-zero to five-zero seconds from 32F west."

There was return response across the radio and more communication that Brandon took some interest in before the plane lifted off straight up. It ascended what felt like a substantial amount before it began forward flight. More ascent by normal flight and several turns later had them heading out over the ocean in a southward direction.

"So where exactly are we going?" Brandon asked.

"A small island in the Pacific. You'll get more information about it in your future training and testing," the doctor replied.

Brandon fidgeted. "Taking a self-flying stealth plane to a tropical island base... Yeah, this is getting weirder." A strange sensation had been plaguing him since the moment the plane took off. It was only a few minutes into the flight. He hoped the odd feeling wouldn't continue. It stabilized a while back, leaving him feeling just moderately odd. Brandon normally wasn't prone to air sickness, so maybe it was just a lack of sleep. Definitely felt like nothing he had experienced before though. It was like static or something flowing through him from his seat.

"Just passed Mach 1," the female voice from the pilot's area said. "We'll be cruising at Mach 1.7 or so for most of the trip. We've been fully saturated since just after takeoff, Dr. Stevens."

"Thank you, Storm. It'll be nice to get back home."

"Storm? Sheesh, this is way too close to X Men," Brandon muttered.

"Different Storm," the voice from the cockpit said with a chuckle. "Brace yourself though. We're going active stealth soon."

"Active stealth? What, like radar jamming or something?"

"Er... Just brace yourself," the doctor murmured. "I'd suggest you close your eyes, but it wouldn't help."

"Physical thing?"

"Just see," the pilot's voice said. "Or don't see." Everything vanished.

The plane and all the people in it were suddenly not there. Brandon scrambled and grabbed the arms of the chair he was in, his heart racing and his breath deep in response to the fear.

"You okay?" the doctor asked.

"I... I... yeah..." Brandon murmured. He looked towards the doctor's voice, seeing nothing. He looked down at where he knew he was and still saw nothing. A few pokes at his own belly proved he was still there physically. "I'm fine... Almost crapped my pants, but I'm fine. Thanks for the warning..." he muttered. He spun around in his chair marveling at the mach cloud warping the air just behind the plane, but nothing else was visible at all, not even the occupants. A flicker of something caught his eye in front of him as he spun back forward. He peered closely and saw two dark spots in the air, like artifacts in his vision. He blinked a few times and watched them, but couldn't make out what they were. They moved and vanished.

"Try to relax. We've got several hours this way before we land," the doctor said. His voice was coming from where the dots had been. Speaking of the spots, they reappeared a moment later. The aircraft was taking a turn to a new heading as well.

"Really weird, but I think I can handle it. Pretty nifty I guess. Just seeing dark spots where you seem to be," Brandon responded.

"Those are my eyes."

"Your... eyes?"

"You're a smart man, Mr. Sparks, so I'll explain it. Think about this: You can see things because light passes through your pupils and hits your retinas. Right now, radiation like light and radar is passing through us uninterrupted. If it didn't hit your retinas and get absorbed, you'd be unable to see anything. So any light that specifically passed through our pupils and would be hitting our retinas is NOT passed through our bodies entirely. That way we can still see without an N-Link. It leaves the dark shadow of our pupils visible from behind though."

"Ooooh kay... Weird, but it makes sense. But if we had a live pilot, how could they fly the plane if the controls and readouts are invisible?"

The female voice from the cockpit giggled. "Only people with N-Links can fly it then. So it's just fine in this case."

"Wait..." Brandon peered in the direction of the cockpit. "Is that a computer or a live human pilot?"

There was the sense of barely-contained laughter from the voice. "Neither. You'll get to find out soon. Doctor, mind if I hit a higher speed and get us back quicker? I've been away for a lot longer than you."

"I'll leave that up to you, Storm."

"No swoopin' and divin' or an'thing damnit!" said another female voice from the front of the plane. Brandon had no idea who that was.

"Aww. You take away all the fun," Storm responded. "Let's see... Gimmee a moment to have a talk with the link..." There was a definite feeling of acceleration for a good amount of time. "Mach 7.7. That work for you doctor? We'll get there much faster."

There was silence for a moment before the doctor spoke. "Storm... we haven't tested anything close to this before. You know this is experimental..."

"The 'nites say everything's just fine, doc. I just asked for a higher speed and let them do the figuring on what's safe. They have no trouble keeping us together when they know what's going on to begin with."

"It's still experimental, Storm. How can you guarantee they're telling the truth?"

"I trust the damn things with every aspect of my body, mind, and maybe even soul for all I know. I hope I can also trust them with moving a chunk of machine through the air and keeping it intact."

"She's gotta poin' there," the second female voice observed.

"Okay, okay," the doctor conceded. "I just hope you have data collection on so we have a record of this."

"Of course. Do you think I'd miss something like that? Just relax, we'll be home quick now."

Brandon tried his best to relax. He closed his eyes, but true to the advice, it did no good. The light simply went right through his eyelids and he could see everything anyway. That was an interesting enough effect in and of itself though, so he just relaxed in the chair and tried to have fun with the seeming feeling of unassisted flight at high altitude and disgustingly high speed.

They went subsonic and took a sharp turn about fifteen minutes before they arrived. Brandon spotted a good number of decent-sized islands before they approached one directly. The island was just as advertised: A lush tropical island of old volcanic origin with no sign of anything on it whatsoever. Well, other than thousands of plants and animals.

Landing was into a large cave mouth with a massive overhang of stone. The moment they got deep enough in and past a huge set of blast doors, the idea of the island being untouched by technology went away completely. The hangar itself looked advanced enough. The plane became visible again just after it passed through the doors and it wasn't long before it settled to the ground. Brandon experienced a touch of claustrophobia at the sudden change in apparent space around himself.

"Welcome to Echo Island and Echo Base," Storm exclaimed cheerily.

"Hell of a trip," Brandon muttered.

"It gets better," the voice that was Storm murmured immediately beside his ear. He jerked his head up and swung his arm out in surprise, but saw and felt nothing.

Brandon found himself still searching for the source of the voice as they exited the plane, but soon he had to pay more attention to where he was going. The blast door was the only security portal they passed through, though Brandon noted that there were fittings in the hallways that struck him as potential places where secure doors or fire doors could close. Their trip took them past a few other people traveling the hallways, but for the most part, the place seemed almost deserted. The length of some of the side halls alone indicated this to be a relatively large space. Their security escorts stayed just behind for a while, but not too close, and obviously much more at ease now.

They soon stopped at a set of double doors at the end of a short hallway. There was the sound of voices from the other side. Dr. Stevens placed his hand on the door handle and looked at Brandon. "Last chance to back out if you want to. Through this door will be your first glimpse of what awaits you."

Brandon shook his head and smiled. "I'm in, no worries. So what's through the door? The control center? The core? The lab? Something super-high-tech?"

Dr. Stevens grinned. "The break room." He opened the door with a flourish and Brandon stepped through.

It was indeed a break room. Several doors led off to other locations. A counter with a sink, stove, and microwave ended at a large fridge. Numerous picnic table style tables with attached benches littered the room. A bulletin board with various notes pinned to it graced a wall. All in all, the room was relatively normal. Its occupants, on the other hand, were not.

The voices quickly resolved themselves into an argument between two females, with a male trying unsuccessfully to interject. The term "women" would not work here, since the arguers were not human. Well, human in shape to some degree, but beyond that, all animal. An angry-looking female white cat was close to a cat fight, pun intended, with what appeared to be a blunt-winged female bat. A male cheetah was trying to interject in a worried tone while avoiding the flailing clawed hand of the cat. A huge tiger sat at a nearby table, arms folded and face buried in them with his ears laid back as he tried to tune them out. Finally, a black cat sat at another table with a toolbox nearby and electronic parts scattered all over the place. It looked like a toaster, a laptop, and a TV had all blown up in front of him.

All were very much animal, but in the sense of werewolves. Human-like bodies and arms, though they had animal-shaped legs and heads, and all of their hands carried claws with varying degrees of sharpness. Ears perked or laid back atop heads, tails flicked or swayed, and fur covered the entirety of their bodies. Which was probably a good thing since they were otherwise, for the most part, completely unclothed. Only occasional touches of apparel graced their bodies, such as the cheetah wearing a waist pack and the tiger wearing a harness of some sort. The fur covered anything that would otherwise be considered inappropriate on a human.

Brandon stopped in his tracks and stared. Now, admittedly, this was PRECISELY what his art was about, and he did have a suspicion about the project from all the hints, but to come face to face with it was a bit more than he could digest.

"Hey!! They're back!" exclaimed a female voice to his right. He spun in that direction as the argument suddenly stopped and both of the guilty parties looked chagrined at being walked in on in such a state. Brandon put his hands up to defend himself from a rapidly approaching brown and cream colored creature, but she pulled to a halt just in front of him and pressed a still-warm pie into his hands. "I baked you a pie! It's apple. Hope you like it."

"Why'd he get a pie an' I got a cake when I got here?" demanded a somewhat-familiar voice. It was the second voice from the plane. Brandon took a step back as a female ferret suddenly appeared beside him, glaring at the chocolate point Siamese cat that had graced him with the pie. The ferret stood only chest high to him, maybe four foot six. Most of the rest who were standing were around normal human height, five eight to six feet or so, only the white cat being mid-height between the ferret and the rest at about five foot two.

The feline smiled cheerily. "Because you're such a tiny thing, I thought you could use some weight."

The ferret considered this for a moment, nose twitching. She looked pleadingly at the cat. "Can I 'ave a pie too?"

"Oh, sure! I'll make you one as soon as I get a chance. Lots to do now that he's here."

The doctor and the two security guards slipped out one of the other doors when he wasn't paying attention.

Brandon simply continued to stand in shock, trying to get his wits about himself. He felt a presence very close to him. He almost fell backwards as a canine face appeared just in front of his. A big-eared fox, her fur also white with the exception of gray tips, her nose less than an inch from his. Thankfully both he and the pie were spared the potential catastrophe as the ferret snagged the pie and the white fox grabbed his arm to stabilize him.

"So much to do and we haven't even introduced anybody," the white fox said. That voice was Storm. "I'm Storm," she confirmed. "The ferret is Slink. Our queen of pastry-baking is Hershey. The two combatants over there are Shade, the bat, and Nyia, the white cat. Spotty calls himself Dash, stripes is Tim, and Mr. Can't-Take-His-Nose-Out-Of-His-Work-For-Two-Seconds-To-Say-Hi over there with the black fur is Max." Each of the animal people waved or nodded as they were introduced, though Max just tossed a small screw from his table of parts at Storm, bouncing it off her ear.

Another black shape pushed in through one of the doors and rushed to Brandon. He was startled to see what looked like a small black panther, though a normal animal-shaped creature this time. The cat ran up, tail wagging furiously from side to side, and sniffed at him, then actually vocalized a feline equivalent of a bark as it sat down.

"Oh, and this is Spuds," Storm mentioned. "He's Max's dog."

Brandon stared at the black feline which was very distinctly not-a-dog and opened his mouth to observe such, but Storm didn't give him a chance. "Well, ex-dog, just like we are all ex-humans right now. I hear he was easier to deal with when he was a dog. He had a better idea of his claws then and he wasn't nearly as strong. He's been changed back and forth a few times, but they're leaving him for now. Anyway, welcome to the base!" She licked him across the lips before dropping to hands and feet and prancing on all fours to sit across the table from Max.

"Well... even with hints, this is a hell of a shock," Brandon muttered, reaccepting the pie from Slink. "So what's the deal? This still seems too much like an episode of some superhero show to be a test of cosmetic surgery."

"Astute observation, Mr. Sparks," voiced a newcomer. Brandon glanced at the other side of the room, wondering what animal was next, but this person was human. "Have a seat, have some cake... er..." he paused as he noted the contents of Brandon's hands. "...Pie?"

"We got fresh fruit, so I thought a pie would be nicer," Hershey explained.

"So that's where the apples went," the man murmured. "Anyway, have some pie and I'll give you some information." He gestured to an unoccupied table. Brandon took a seat in the middle of the bench on one side. The new man took a seat directly across from him, "I'm Dr. Jonathan Reynolds, by the way."

Brandon thought for a moment about that as the bat, Shade, sat beside him and Storm moved from Max's table to take a seat on his other side. Slink pushed her way to sit at the very end of the bench beside Storm, so the white fox was squished against Brandon by the result. He considered trying to move further, but Nyia squeezed in the other side of Shade, the original spat apparently completely forgotten. The bench that was made to seat four was suddenly very crowded. "That would make you the founder of the Jo-Rey Corporation," he finally figured out. "This must be an important event for you to visit this project with all the contracts the company has."

"I work on this project exclusively and full time," Jonathan said. "Everything else in the company is in capable hands, otherwise I wouldn't have hired those hands."

"'Cuz we got code names, we jus' call 'im th' founder," Slink observed.

"We constantly tease him about when he's going to go get changed too," Storm said as Dash took a seat on the opposite bench beside the man. Tim finally decided to leave his solitary table and join them, sitting opposite the man from Dash. The tiger was huge. Not fat and not overly muscular like an extreme body builder going for mass, just big-boned and obviously well-muscled. The pie was snagged by Hershey and a piece was extracted onto a plate for the mildly-squished human, presented complete with a fork.

"We've already been over that. As long as it's experimental, I won't be changing, no offense to any of you. I need my mind clear and I can't worry about taking tests. You've got Max anyway."

"'E's always got 'is nose stuck in the 'lectronics. E's no fun," Slink complained.

"He was also the first human test subject and he figured out how to get the nanites to bond with non-living equipment," Jonathan pointed out. "Everybody here owes a lot to his expertise."

Brandon was busily trying to figure out how to eat the pie without elbowing Storm in the arm. Storm noted his trouble and came up with an appropriate, though possibly overly familiar solution, putting her arm around his shoulder and resting her hand on his opposite arm. He wasn't certain if this was an improvement or not, since his new concern was avoiding elbowing her in the breast. Notably all of the animal people present were in apparently perfect shape, something he was not. The females all had relatively small breasts, so he didn't have too much to elbow, but his concern was still there.

"Anyway, it's time for me to give you some of the details," Jonathan said, "so I'll start at the beginning of the whole thing. Not sure if you've heard of Roswell, or Area 51, or any of the other UFO things from the past. Well, they were red herrings for the real cover ups that have been around since the 1800's. The US has been in contact with actual extraterrestrial aliens for well over a century, as have a few other countries, but on separate standing. We're not talking Men in Black or anything here. More like they try to help us not utterly destroy ourselves and eventually advance. Really not much we could do anyway if they decided we're a problem and wanted to demolish the planet.

"In 1992, they decided to pull out and leave us to our own devices for a while. They left us with a few items to fiddle with and told us to do whatever we could with them. They made it clear that they would be watching, but had no intent to actually make contact for a while. Most of the items they left were destroyed by the 'research' and 'testing' the government did. The only thing that was left was a large box that appeared to be a storage container of some sort. The only reason it was left was because nobody could get it open. Every method they used to try to figure out what was in it showed it to be empty. So they finally gave up on it and put it up for sale to the highest bidder amongst the few companies that had clearance to know about it. Jo-Rey bought it for a measly $300. No other companies even bothered to bid."

"That probably made the government unhappy, losing the revenue they expected," Brandon observed, trying to ignore the distinct difference between the conversation and the white vixen leaning against him.

"Well, it gets more interesting of course. Max figured out how to get it open. Sure enough, it was a storage container, but definitely not empty. It contained a clear fluid that did not react to gravity, but stayed in the container nonetheless. We had to treat it as potentially dangerous, since it was alien. That and the fact that it gave off low-powered bursts of various RF radiation indicated something was up. Years of trying to figure out what it was amounted to nothing until Max got fed up and poked it with his bare finger.

"To make a long story about that part short, lots of quarantine and panic later, we found out the fluid was nanites. At least that's what we call them. They are tiny extrusions of relatively large machines into this dimension from another. Dimension, or layer of space, or whatever other location their main mass is. They themselves are fully formed robots with the power of a massive system behind each one of them, but smaller than subatomic particles in our space. So they are basically made to interact with stuff at a subatomic level and were very specifically made to interact with living things."

Brandon frowned as he finished his slice of pie. "Sounds dangerous. How do you know they won't just destroy the world?"

Jonathan shrugged. "We don't. Honestly, they could, according to what we know about them. So given the choice to either hide our head in the sand or make use of it as best we could as we were told to do, we decided to make use of it. Can't run from it or contain it or neutralize it anyway. Testing was interesting. Please bear in mind that everything we know about them at all comes from testing and observation. They didn't come with any manual or instructions and they only communicated to Max the basics of the production chamber. The things are capable of some pretty amazing stuff. We're finding out new limits and capabilities on a regular basis. I could go over the details, but it would be lengthy. Suffice to say, such things as invisibility and full body modifications are obviously quite simple. We have found some of the limitations are apparently based on the programming behind the nanites. They just refuse to do some things."

Brandon tried to digest both food and information as Hershey pushed another piece of pie at him. He tried to decline it, but she pouted, so he accepted and poked at it a bit. It was good pie at least.

"Now it's not like the nanites just work by themselves. Other than the absorption Max experienced for their communication purposes, they require a special control chamber to operate in for major things. That's on the mainland. We'd have preferred to move it here when this site was completed, but the government was already fidgety enough about not knowing where the site is. They wouldn't let us take the production chamber here. Our initial testing all happened over there. Max's dog was a test subject in fact. This base was only built in the past few years. Max's discovery of how to integrate the nanites into non-living objects was what really allowed us to finish building this place safely.

"The testing went exceptionally well. In the control chamber, wounds could be healed very fast. Physical defects could be corrected and even genetic defects and otherwise incurable diseases were no problem. Modifications could be made and even genetics and species could be changed. Individual creatures could even be split into multiple other creatures without losing their original identity in any of the offspring." Jonathan paused. He had been eying the pie. "Er, can I have a piece of that, Hershey?"

"Absolutely not! It's for him."

Jonathan sighed and shrugged. "Anyway, under normal circumstances, the nanites do their work in the chamber, then leave the host. However they can be instructed to maintain a presence in the host. They form somewhat of a symbiotic relationship, though they gain nothing apparent from it, they communicate with the host and support the host. We were concerned at first that we might run out of nanites. It turns out they build more of themselves or something like that when their supply is diminished to maintain a relatively stable volume in the system. They even replenish themselves in a host.

"Jumping ahead in time, Max was the first test of converting a human to have animal attributes. He insisted on it. He was one of the scientists on the testing team. Still is technically. He doesn't have nanites left in him though. That's important to know. After testing for him went well, we began to recruit volunteers for a more focused set of tests. The whole idea of making changes that were extremely functional and created extreme enhancements based on animal attributes was our goal. That's how everybody else here got their fur coats. I'll let them explain their enhancements, though bear in mind that some level of each enhancement is present in all of them, just at a greatly reduced rate so we can focus on the main enhancement." He looked at Dash.

"Um, if it isn't obvious by the code name I chose and the critter I ended up as, my enhancement is speed," Dash said with a fidget. He looked somewhat nervous and shy. "I was, er, a track contender beforehand. Not the best. Um, now if I had to, I could beat race cars around the track instead of people. My current personal record is 219 MPH."

"Ended up as?" Brandon interjected. "You make it sound like you didn't expect to become a cheetah."

"Well, um, actually, I did," Dash replied, "but they didn't expect it. They only specifically programmed the chamber for the enhancements they wanted. Um, that included a full animal form and pump up the speed. Soooo... they expected me to become a generic animal of whatever mushed up sort. Turns out that when you go into the chamber, anything they didn't explicitly set is molded by your own, um... deeper thoughts and desires as the nanites work on you. Smart little things I suppose."

"Works for me. I like my white fur," Nyia muttered. This was a pure-white cat who exuded an attitude of being ready to kill something if somebody annoyed her. She was not albino, but close to it. "I was a martial artist before this. My enhancements were for reflexes and some senses to make me a better martial artist. I'm happy with the results. I can catch an arrow out of midair with no trouble while kicking anybody's ass and still have time to have tea."

"My whole thing is senses," Shade said, taking her turn. She looked like a flying fox style of bat, big ears and a pointed face. "I worked in forensics before this. It's funny. I went into the chamber thinking how great a bat's hearing must be and I came out as a bat. Kind of. I still don't know if I regret it, since the wing flaps under my arms get in the way sometimes and really don't do anything useful. Feels more fun to hug anybody though." She lifted her arm, showing off the vestigial flap of skin filling the space beneath her arm from her wrist to her side just above her waist. Her arm otherwise terminated in a human-style hand.

"I'm a weapons and equipment specialist, retired military as a human before, fuzzy now," Storm informed him. "A bit of sensory enhancement, but my main enhancement is literally like a computer targeting system in my head. I can use my spare nanites to examine any weapon within a few seconds of picking it up and know precisely how it will work. I also get to use my enhanced senses to have a better feel for environmental effects like wind. So I can shoot a full clip through the same hole at almost any distance."

"Spare nanites?" Brandon asked.

Jonathan answered, "Everybody in the run except Max has a large supply of spare nanites that are not actively attached to subatomic particles in their bodies. They even have the ability for the nanites to create more as needed. They come in useful for certain things and are actually necessary for a lot of stuff. Making any apparel or held items invisible is one of those things for example."

Brandon nodded and looked at Slink. She was a chocolate sable ferret by all appearances. "I'm the super-agile one. Start'd out a gymnast. Now I'd make th'other girls cry wit' m'bendin'. Bein' a ferret's pret' cool. Ain't much I can't squeeze inta 'r out'f."

Tim looked around as his turn came, but Hershey was behind the founder, so he was stuck as next in line. "I'm strong," he said simply. Brandon looked at the tiger for a moment. The creature didn't look stupid. His eyes were alert and he obviously paid attention to things.

"'E's also short-spok'n 'siderin' how smart 'e is," Slink observed. "He can bench press a tank, but 'e's a sweet kitty."

Hershey smiled, showing off sharp fangs that had an effect contrary to the intent of the smile. Chocolate point Siamese cat markings. Might be the origin of her code name. "I was a doctor before. Now I'm the medical cat. I was the first one changed too, about a year and a half ago. Except for Max anyway. I have a whole bunch of spare nanites that I can put into other things and heal them right up. It's pretty nice. For example, one of the scientists got this nasty bite from a spider outside on the island and it was turning all black and purple and full of puss that was all..."

"Don't EVEN go into that story!" Shade exclaimed. "You'll make us all sick!"

Hershey paused and noted that every single one of the other animals had their hands clasped over their ears. Even Max had interrupted his tinkering to stare at the Siamese cat in horror and hold his own ears down. She put her paws up and waved them. "Sorry, sorry... I won't tell that one anymore." Everybody slowly began to take their hands off their ears as she stopped talking.

"She 'eals stuff. Real good'n fast," Slink summarized.

"Okay, so why animals though? Why not fancier humans, or stuff like that?" Brandon asked.

Max finally spoke up from his table. "The nanites don't create things from nothing. They need a basis to work from. It was much easier to let them scan thousands of animals and interpolate attribute deltas from those than try to find humans with specialized attributes and set delta that way. Plus scanning too many humans would have made more people aware of the project. Can't make a super-strong human form without having a delta for how to go past the difference between a weak human and a strong human. Really, humans are just too limited. Even extreme humans can't meet the levels of capability that normal animals have." Something that he was working on suddenly popped and began to smoke, causing the black cat to curse under his breath and return to focusing on his work.

"Huh," Brandon muttered. "So I'm here to get some special enhancements too?" he asked. Jonathan nodded. "What specific thing am I getting enhanced?"

"Oh, not anything specific," Jonathan replied. "You get the final test of a balance of all the enhancements at an elevated level. Well rounded, so to speak. All of your enhancements will be stronger than what everybody else has except for their main enhancements. You'll be the final subject of the first run of this project. Then we do a bunch of testing and exploration to see if there is anything else we can do, and see how you all do. We call you all the run. Officially, you're the first run, but there are no others yet."

"There's some weird side effects though," Shade warned him. He looked at her curiously. "For example, we all like to groom now. Sometimes each other. I mean, like lick groom. We like to sleep in a huge pile together. If we're around each other, it's very hard not to. Just this need to sleep in contact with each other. Almost like an addiction. So I hope you can deal with that. You're stuck with it now that you've seen us. It really does kind of change your whole view on things in weird ways."

"Well, the contract did mention the sleeping together thing specifically," Brandon admitted.

"Good! I'll be sleeping with you then," Storm exclaimed. "We decided before we picked you up. Well, me the first night. More of us as we go."

"Er, wait... what?"

Dash flicked an ear. "Its the best way to get ready for it. One of the psychologists thought it up. It helped all of us who did it before we changed. You have enough confusion at first with the change itself, so you get to adjust to some other things before the procedure. Oh, we don't all sleep in one huge pile all the time. Sometimes two or three piles. Just not alone very much."

"We aren't sure if the side effect is a result of the animal shapes or of the nanites left in or the change process itself," Jonathan advised him. "Some of the lab animals that have been changed show similar behavior, others don't."

"No clothing allowed for you soon," Tim muttered.

"WHAT?!" Brandon demanded.

Dash laid his ears back, looking concerned, "Well, um, with fur, clothing causes too many problems. Fur loss, chafing, crunched fur...Um, you can see we don't wear anything, right? So you go nude for a while before the conversion also. It does really help. As soon as you have your fur and... and..." he glanced down at himself, looking confused.

"Sheath," Hershey supplied helpfully.

"Yeah, that thing," he muttered, looking embarrassed. "Well, as soon as you change, you aren't worried about being naked. After the time you spend naked as a human, you feel perfectly fine clothed in fur."

Hershey nodded emphatically. "I compared stories with them. I wish I'd gotten to do that too. I think it really would've helped."

A woman entered from the same direction as Jonathan had, bearing a thick folder which she handed to the founder wordlessly before leaving.

"Ah, here. I'm sorry I didn't have this ready. This has some information for you." Jonathan opened the folder and pulled out a map of the facility, displaying it on the table. It was decently large, but not so complex as to cause a person to get lost. "You're here," he said, pointing to the map. "For the next few days, you'll be escorted by a first run and possibly other people at all times. We have some baselines and pre-change tests to do, which take a week or two. I ask that you not go through any doors that are closed unless somebody escorts you through them." He stood up and extracted himself from the seat. "Storm and Slink will see you to your temporary room tonight. You'll be spending the rest of the afternoon and evening filling out information on the computer. Storm should be able to help you if you have any questions." He slipped the map back into the folder before handing it to Brandon.

"Come'n then," Slink said, getting up as well. Storm joined her, freeing Brandon from the relatively comfortable squished situation he was in. "Wit' all the typin', you'll be up most'f the night if we don't get start'd."

Brandon followed the white fox and the ferret down the hall out the original door they came in from. Not a long trip but through several doors before Storm caught Brandon's wrist at a side door. "This'a'way, Brandon. Night, Slink!" Slink nodded and headed back up the hallway.

The door opened to reveal a comfortable-looking but relatively utilitarian room containing queen-sized bed and a huge bowl chair as well as a desk with a computer and several office chairs near it. There was a book shelf with a number of titles he didn't recognize and a couch. There was an attached bathroom with a very large stall shower, but no door for the bathroom itself. The majority of the floor was carpeted, which added a nice feel to the room.

Storm shut the door and walked over to the computer, leaning over it and tapping in some information. "You can strip now or you can wait until later. The longest you can hang onto your clothes is until tonight. After that, no clothing. I'd personally recommend you strip at least to your underwear now so it isn't too much change when you sleep. Help you get used to being around me with nothing on."

Brandon was torn between a desire to just fling caution and clothing to the wind and an ordinary sense of embarrassment. He wasn't too old, but he wasn't in the best shape either. Long hair tied back in a pony tail reached his lower back and in the past he was considered cute by a number of people, but he did have a good bit of work-from-home pudge. He finally came to a compromise by removing his shirt and footwear but leaving his pants on when he went to the computer.

As he sat down and began to evaluate the content of the screen, something began to niggle at him. Storm hovered relatively close behind him, watching over his shoulder as he progressed. Her fur brushed against him very lightly on occasion and her slightly musky scent tickled pleasantly at his nose. It seemed strangely familiar.

Several hours later as he was still busily filling in forms and information, it finally struck him. He spun on Storm and peered at her. "You were in my house before I got the contract, weren't you? I remember your smell!"

She smiled slightly. "I was. I was the one who had to evaluate all of the potential candidates. I had to go through every nook and cranny of your place and observe you for some time."

He considered for a moment as more dawned on him. "So it was you touching me when I was working on the computer at home."

She nodded. "It's informative to see how people react to that sort of thing. One of the candidates freaked out badly. Not a good mindset for this sort of thing."

He had to concede that her reasoning made sense, so he shrugged and went back to filling out computerized forms and taking various tests. It was a lot of work and he was growing tired and stressed as time went on.

"You smell stressy," Storm suddenly observed from behind him. Her hands found his shoulders and kneaded softly as she leaned against his back, her tail flicking around to drape over his shoulder and down his front. It might have been a bit beyond the norm, but aside from the initial surprise, it had the intended effect of helping him relax. He paused after he finished another form and patted her tail curiously.

"Fox tails are normally rigid. Yours is swishy. Is that the way the nanites decided to make it, or the way you envisioned it?"

"I think a bit of both. All of us except Shade have swishy tails. Hers is just too short. I honestly don't think I'd be able to handle having a rigid tail. Weird enough having a tail at all." She sucked in a silent breath as he played with her tail curiously. She enjoyed it immensely, though she tried to hide it from him.

He let her tail free, much to her disappointment, and clicked through to the next form. The screen simply read, "Are you ready?" with the choices "Yes", "Maybe", and "No". "I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be," he murmured, and clicked yes. The screen flashed a message that indicated he was finished, then went blank.

"Great!" Storm exclaimed cheerily. "You're done. Now we need to shower and head to bed. You have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow."

"Oh. I guess I'll let you shower first then." He glanced furtively at the bathroom, wondering if there was a hidden door to close.

"What? Hardly. That's another side effect. We have to shampoo our fur all over and that's a hell of a lot easier with help. Especially my back. So you get to wash my back for me and I'll wash yours."

She noticed him looking leery of the idea and spun his chair around until he was facing her. She waved a hand in front of his face. "Storm to Brandon, helloooooo. What am I wearing right now? Not a lick of clothing. See this? This is a breast. Smaller than I had as a human, but still there." She placed a hand on his shoulder and lifted her leg directly up to the side, giving him a hell of a view just inches from his face. "See? All natural, no underwear. Just fur and parts." His face turned somewhat red from that as he was caught between embarrassment and intrigue. Further red as she spun her back to him and bent over double, tail straight up and head between the shanks of her legs, giving him another explicit view. "All exposed, all out there, and that's the way we work!"

She straightened up again and turned to face him, softening her tone and sounding more sympathetic. "Look, Brandon, you've got a few days at most to get prepared for this idea. After that, you'll be some sort of animal like us. You'll be sleeping in big pile with us because of an overwhelming urge to, and I mean a pile. I'll be blunt. You never know whether you'll wake up wrapped in somebody's tail, or wake up with your nose pressed into one of the girls' crotches or your face nestled between somebody's belly and their morning wood. It's shocking at first, but you get used to it quickly and it becomes normal."

She patted his shoulder, noting his red face and shocked stare. "Brandon, this whole preparation while you're a human is so you have less shock from it on top of your new animal phase. I was the third changed for the first run. They had half an idea of how to help me acclimate, but it was only minimal. I was asked to stay naked for two days beforehand. It did help, really. I felt relieved to have fur, but I still felt bare. They lengthened the pre-nudity to what you get now. It seems most effective."

Her ears laid back as she lowered her voice, "I wasn't prepared for the sleeping pile thing though. I thought it was just something Hershey and Dash did for whatever reason. Second morning of sleeping with them, I woke up with Dash's woody poking the side of my mouth. Nearly bit him in surprise. After that, every new recruit gets to sleep in a growing pile before the conversion." She grinned. "Less urge to bite things that surprise you. Even if you do, your teeth aren't as sharp." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "If I wake up to Dash humping between my ears again in his sleep, I might just bite him anyway."

Brandon swallowed, trying to control the red state of his face better. "I'll... erm... try to avoid humping between your ears in my sleep then," he muttered, unsure of what else to say.

She brightened. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm joking about the biting anyway." She grinned at him coquettishly. "You can hump between my ears anytime you like," she teased. This had the effect of returning the red to his face and she laughed merrily. "Come on, let's get that shower and get to sleep. Like I said, you have some long days ahead of you." She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. "Pants off time. Not as if I didn't see you naked at your own house anyway."

He still wasn't completely sure of this, but he managed to get his pants off anyway without putting too much more red in his face. The fact that she was a living, breathing example of the erotic artwork on his walls back home didn't help matters with some of his anatomy either. The shower was relaxing and for the most part uneventful. True to her word, she washed his back in exchange for him washing hers. It was interesting both to lather shampoo into her fur as well as have sharp claws barely touch his back on occasion when she was washing his. He caught himself staring at some of her frontal anatomy that was revealed by her soaked fur. Or rather, she caught him and gave him a soggy tail swat to the face, making him sputter.

After they were both cleaner, she got him to help squeeze her fur down, rubbing firmly to remove the excess water, before tossing him a towel and taking three for herself. "Dry off quickly. You should enjoy it while you still can do it. Then I'll want your help with a hair dryer. The sooner I'm dry, the sooner we can get to sleep comfortably." He was thankful he was exhausted, since the whole situation had his mind on doing something other than sleeping with her. That probably was a bad idea to even broach. He toweled himself off swiftly and helped her towel off before they both went at her fur with two hair dryers each.

Soon she was fluffy-dry and quite soft to the touch and seeing him into bed. She turned the lights off before crawling under the covers with him and literally flopping over him. Her belly crossed his and her legs went off to the side while her upper body curled up to press against his side. Her tail simply draped down between his legs as she tucked her nose against his throat. The flexibility of her body left very little weight on him directly, so it was surprisingly comfortable. He kept his arms still with great effort until she growled lightly and snagged one with her own hand to drape it over herself.

"I don't bite," she murmured. "Just hold me and be comfortable."

He fidgeted and tried to ignore his arousal from the position. With her tail draped across it, he hoped she didn't notice it. Not that he had been able to hide it earlier when they were showering. She licked his neck and giggled.

"I bet you're thinking, 'I hope she doesn't notice my boner'. Relax, Brandon. I can even smell it, so you can't hide it. Anyway, I doubt you'll have anything perverted on Dash. He's shy when he's awake, but keep your tail tucked when you're sleeping near him. He humps anything he touches. Tim and Max have had rude awakenings from him." She flicked her tail, teasing him. "If you didn't need your sleep, I'd be trying to seduce you in a heartbeat."

She laughed out loud at his jump of surprise. "No, that's not a side effect of the change. It's a side effect of being female and having desires that have gone unfulfilled for over a year. Well... a little bit because of the change."

"Against the rules?"

"Well, with the staff, yes. We can interact with each other however we feel like."

"What about Tim and Dash and Max, then? They just not interested?"

"Tim has a wife and kids waiting at home for him. An asleep Dash is interested, but awake he's far too shy. Like a phobia we think. He panics at the mere hint of anything like that."

"Well, then why not Max?"

"He's worse than married or shy. He's Max," she pouted. He was about to ask when she continued, "He can't get his nose out of his projects long enough for something like that. He loves his projects over everything else. Sure, I can flirt with him, and sometimes even get a grunt in response, but unless he's showing off some cool new thing, he's got his nose buried in the next cool new thing." She snuggled closer to his side. "Anyway, relax and rest. You have long days ahead of you. That's probably the only reason you'll be safe from any of the girls unless they manage to get you to do something in your sleep. We'll try to keep the mad humper aimed away from you."

He could get used to this if he did die from embarrassment first. He hugged her warmly and relaxed. Thankfully, sleep came quickly in his exhaustion. Who knew what the next week would bring?

Brandon slept deeply, which was likely a good thing. He wasn't actually sure what time he had gone to sleep, but morning and the start of testing came all too quickly. Morning found the top of Storm's foot curled against his face as she clung to his right leg. A fur tickled his nose and he sneezed, which woke her up in an instant.

"Good morning!" she exclaimed, twisting about beneath the covers and righting herself. "You're awake bright and early compared to your normal schedule. I thought I'd have to wake you up, but you beat the alarm by two minutes. Not bad since you missed all of your sleep time the day you left and slept during the time you'd normally be working last night. Hmm... You'd normally be just getting to sleep right about now, wouldn't..." She stopped when she realized he had sneezed in his sleep and was still dozing. "Well, huh." She tilted her head and kissed him firmly, causing his eyes to blink open blearily for a moment before they shot open as he realized just what was kissing him.

"Whozawhatzafoxthehell?!" Brandon exclaimed, flailing in surprise. His arms were quickly pinned by the white fennec as she straddled his belly.

She peered down at him. "Morning! Remember where you are?"

He thought about it for a moment as he took deep breaths to calm himself down. Oh, right. "Jo-Rey corp base... echo?... some project... Tired... and straddled by a lovely vixen."

She shrugged the covers off and hopped off the bed. "And just in time to be waking up. Today and tomorrow you get a bunch of physical tests and diagnostics. Maybe another day depending on things. After that, it gets tiring."

He managed to drag himself out of bed and take care of morning items before heading to his pile of clothing. He bent over to retrieve his pants, but Storm was faster. His hand was blocked by a foot dropping onto his pants. "No clothing, remember?"

"Seriously?" he asked, looking wary.

"Quite. Do I have to carry you out? Come on!" She grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder into a fireman's carry, ignoring his protests as she strode out the door.

"Morning Storm," Hershey said just outside the door. "Oh... he tried to put on clothes?" Brandon squirmed in protest. He could see Storm's back quite well, but he hadn't expected to be caught in such a compromising position by anybody else.

"Yeah, went straight for them."

"Ya gonna carry 'im th'whole way?" Slink asked.

Brandon winced. Who else was here? He tried to see around Storm, but her tail flipped up and wrapped across his face. "You can set me down," he said, sputtering on tail fluff.

"I think I will carry him the whole way. Look at this cute butt! Don't you just love it? Anyway, let's go." At least three of them, Brandon didn't know if there was anybody else, took off with the human along like a sack of potatoes. He protested for part of the way, but finally gave up.

He wasn't sure exactly what route they took to get where they were going, though they did go through several doors. It wasn't long before they arrived in the medical section. The air turned much chillier and the area smelled sterile. He was finally deposited to his feet and gave Storm a glare before looking around. Hershey, Storm, and Slink were there, but he had also been deposited in front of a pair of human doctors in lab coats, one male and one female. He tried to edge behind Storm but she sidestepped and slipped behind him, giving him a push forwards. "Slink and I will leave you in their capable hands, Brandon."

Hershey put her hands on his shoulders and steadied him. "Take a deep breath and try to relax. By the time you get changed, you'll feel overdressed in fur." She held his shoulders while he worked to follow her advice. It was easier to be naked in front of the first run animals than in front of the humans.

When she decided that he didn't look too red in the face anymore, she took his hand and led him onwards to the testing. She was the one with the most contact with him, while the two human doctors were there for support and to direct things. He was put through the basics first, then subjected to more scans of various types than many hospitals did in a full day. Hershey and the two doctors poked, prodded, and tested just about everything. Blood was drawn and sent off for tests, and pretty much every type of fluid in his body was extracted in whatever ways necessary to be tested.

He was exhausted for the entire beginning of the day, but his normal sleep cycle kicked in and he was far too alert for his liking when Hershey announced the end of the day's work as Slink and Storm were walking in. Storm looked pissed for some reason. Worse, from her set, it soon was apparent that she was pissed at him. She stormed up to him as the human doctors coughed and made excuses to step aside.

"How could you?!" Storm demanded of him, glaring. He took a step back, but she stayed right in his face. "I was all nice last night and let you sleep instead of doing anything fun, and I flirted all nice, but you let Hershey get something from you before me!?"

He was more than utterly confused and a little afraid. "Who... What are you talking about?"

Hershey shook her head, "That was a spinal tap, hon. I don't think you want his brain fluids."

Storm considered and frowned. "I distinctly thought..."

Hershey put a finger to the fennec's lips. "I know what kind of bodily fluid you're after. That's tomorrow. I might as well teach you how to collect it."

Brandon grew redder in the face as the discussion continued. "Er, much as this is a very interesting conversation, are we done for the day? I'm supposed to be getting a good sleep for the night, but I don't know how well I can sleep. My schedule is still all screwed up. I'm starved too. Not much food all day."

"Yeah, I know," Storm admitted with a nod. "Well, you get me, Slink, and Hershey tonight for the pile. We'll be grabbing dinner, then heading to sleep."

"I hope I can get to sleep. I know I'm exhausted, but I'd normally be in the middle of being awake."

Storm smiled. "Hershey can help you with that. Let's go grab a bite to eat and get you some rest."

"not too much to eat though," Hershey warned. "You've got more medical tests tomorrow. But I promise you get a full meal tomorrow night if the tests go well."

Since he was not being lugged around on Storm's shoulder, he was able to get a better idea of the route this time. They went through the break room and headed to the cafeteria for food. Brandon was a little self-conscious again, since he was the only human not in clothing, but he was dragged over to a table with the other first runs and that helped. Half the table was taken up by Max and whatever he was working on, while Dash was discussing with Nyia how he might try to beat his speed record. The food was quite good and the discussion was at least interesting, so Brandon felt more comfortable.

When the four of them got to his room, Hershey went about working her magic. She had him lay sideways on the bed with his head on her lap while she held the sides of his head. He had an odd feeling for several minutes, similar to when he was in the plane, then suddenly his exhaustion caught up with him and he felt like it was definitely the perfect time to sleep. He muttered a question about what she had done and was informed that she had used her nanites to reset his sleep clock cycle internally. He would be able to keep normal hours while he was still a human.

He was almost too tired to stay awake as Hershey and Storm simply crowded around him and curled him up somewhat before all snuggling together around him. As soon as Slink turned off the lights and joined them, burrowing her head and shoulders beneath his arm, he fell quickly to sleep.

He woke the next morning feeling much better. Whatever Hershey had done had been highly effective. He was subjected to more medical tests and Hershey made good on her promise to teach Storm how to collect some of the samples. Brandon considered that he should have been more embarrassed, but for some reason he was less than he would have thought. He had an easier time with Storm and Hershey performing the collection than he would expect if a human was doing it. Hershey explained that it was because he still had a hard time getting over his shock and disbelief at this point, so it was easier for him to consider the run crew like a dream.

Testing ended earlier in the afternoon as several results came in and the human doctors involved decreed that they had all the data they needed. Brandon was informed that he could have a full meal now. They had him try to find the cafeteria himself, nudging him once at a wrong turn, and he made it without too much trouble. The earlier time had less people eating, and only the three girls were there from the run. Max had been back in the break room, his project expanded to cover a whole table. Nobody else from the run was present. Brandon ate with his escorts and was told that the rest of the first run would be back in the break room in a few minutes. So they headed back to wait for them so they could have a full discussion about things and socialize a bit.

Hershey headed off to get apples and some supplies to make the pie that had been promised to Slink while the ferret and the fennec took to a corner and started a conversation in low tones. Brandon was left to his own devices, so he wandered over to stand across the table from Max and peer at what the black cat was doing. He wasn't at all sure what the darn thing was.

Max had what appeared to be a glass box with complex electronics in the base. He had a complex looking kludge of electronics attached to the base as well, and he was fiddling with what looked like an unholy union between a PDA and a radio scanner. Brandon took a seat across the table, not noticing the backwards lay of the cat's ears in response to the currently-clumsy human getting so close to the complex project.

"What is it?" Brandon finally asked when Max offered no greeting. The cat simply continued to ignore him, ears still back. Brandon waited for a while, but when no answer was forthcoming, he decided to just peer at the project himself and see if he could make heads or tails of it.

Max continued to barely conceal agitation at Brandon's presence, but Brandon stayed silent and watchful and out of the way, so the cat tolerated it. Brandon watched as Max connected some more cables between the kludge of doom and the base. Brandon frowned at one thing he noticed, but he wasn't completely sure, so he simply continued to try to see what he was looking at and trace some things with his eyes. Obviously most of these parts had been claimed from other things, and some of them were well-worn.

Brandon felt a growing unease, both from the nearly-hostile silence of the black feline as well as the thing that was nagging him on the circuit board. Finally Max picked up a plugged-in power unit from the floor and went to attach it to the kludge of components. Brandon made better sense of things when the power was connected and his mouth dropped open.

Max reached to toggle the main power switch, but Brandon was faster, his hand reaching to cover the switch and prevent the clawed black hand from touching it. Max reacted instantly, hissing loudly and glaring at the human, his anger catching the attention of the three girls in the room. Brandon's wrist was caught in a painfully tight grip and claws dug into his skin as the girls rushed over to try to intervene.

"NEVER... touch my projects without permission..." Max hissed.

Brandon didn't flinch even under the painful grip, though he could feel his wrist bones scraping each other quite painfully. He gritted his teeth and pointed with his other hand. "That capacitor is mounted backwards. It would... blow if you turn this on and it's pointing right at you. That would be dangerous for you."

The cat's eyes flicked to where he was pointing. The capacitor was old and worn, the polarity indications almost gone, but the human was right. Max's jaw dropped and he released Brandon's wrist instantly, "Good lord, you're right! Damn, Brandon, I'm sorry!"

Hershey had Brandon's pained wrist now in a firm but not painful grip. Brandon felt the creeping sensation that he had felt in the plane and when she had worked on him the prior night. The discomfort quickly began to fade. "You SHOULD be sorry!" Hershey exclaimed, glaring at the black cat. "You almost broke his wrist in three places and you definitely did some damage to his joint tissue. You left him clawed up too!" Storm looked distinctly pissed at the black cat as well.

"Woah, woah," Brandon said, trying to soothe everybody. "I did just reach. Not my place to do that when he has no idea who I am. I should have communicated better. Everything's better, right? Hershey, you fixed my wrist. Max can fix his project. No permanent harm done. Much, much less trouble than it would have been if that capacitor had blown."

There was a tense moment as Storm seemed to not want to calm down, but she finally de-ruffled. "If you're okay..."

Brandon smiled as Hershey released his wrist, good as new. "I'm fine." He watched as Max desoldered the capacitor and flipped it faster than he would have thought possible. Slink snuck back to the corner and Storm joined her with a few more glances in Brandon's direction while Hershey went back to her back, also keeping a watchful eye on the black cat and the human.

Brandon turned back to see the cat flipping the power switch. There was a soft hum from the glass box while Max fiddled with his radio-PDA thingy before letting out a happy whoop. "It works!"

All three girls turned to look, but shook their heads and went back to what they were doing. Max was obviously depressed at this response. He sighed and pulled a small keypad out of the kludge, then stuck a jump drive on a connector that was hidden in the mess.

"What is it? What does it do?" Brandon asked quietly. The cat ignored him again, upset at the lack of reaction to his success. Brandon watched silently, wondering if he should feel hurt as well.

The glass box suddenly fogged up, then filled with a 3D map of the facility, crystal clear and slightly glowing. Brandon's jaw dropped. This looked like an actual hologram, and very high quality, but plain to the naked eye with no special viewing space or headgear. "That is really seriously awesome," he muttered.

Max's ear twitched and he glanced at the human. The black cat shook his head as his ears wilted to the side. "You don't have to humor..."

Brandon missed the whole statement as he rushed around the table to get a better look at it. It was a perfect, pristine 3D image inside the glass box. He could see it in 3D from any angle. "How...? That is really... Wow! How did you do that? People have been trying to do that for years. How much control do you have over it? Was it too hard to make?" The human was obviously in awe and this fact slowly began to sink in for the black cat.

"Er... it's generated by nanites. I probably don't need the glass box, but it just creates bounds for the program. Umm... It's... Wait... You're serious?" Max was at a loss. It was completely out of the ordinary for anybody to really be interested in his projects. The human must be teasing him

"Serious? About what?" Brandon asked, confused and still staring at the device in wonder. That alone spoke his genuine intent to the cat.

"Well, um, it's probably a bit too complicated to explain it all," Max said, still outside his normal parameters. "I just made it on a whim. I'll probably take it apart."

Brandon jumped up, "Take it apart? If you have full control over that, you should develop it further. That's a great visualization tool. I mean, just think about feeding it CT scan information for example. Or other medical imaging. Tactical stuff too. Modeling... Planning... there's so much that you could do with this. Heck, you could even make games for fun. If you could make it different sizes, smaller or bigger, it could have even more uses."

Max stared at Brandon open-mouthed. The cat finally perked his ears up and flipped the power off. "Well, I did have some ideas... I guess I could look into them. Um... I'm... Going to go get some sleep now though..."

This final statement caught the attention of all three girls and they all stared as Max walked out of the room with a bemused expression on his face. Brandon wasn't sure what to make of things as he watched the cat leave.

Nyia came through the same door a few seconds later, looking confused. "What's up with Max? He looked like somebody just petted him senseless. Purring up a storm and bouncing like a kitten."

Hershey stepped up beside the confused human and patted his back. "I think you just made that cat really happy, Brandon. If he actually goes to sleep, that'll be great. He needs it. We can get away with not sleeping for a long time, but it still affects us badly over time. I never was sure how he handled it, especially with no 'nites in him."

Dash headed in. "Max looked even happier than I'd expect him to be if somebody actually liked one of his projects. He get drugged him or something?" The cheetah paused to look at the glass box on the table.

Storm shook her head. "Brandon actually really did like his project. No idea what it is." She gave Brandon an odd look, as if he had somehow turned into something scary or strange.

Brandon held his hands up, "Hey, it's a nifty thing. He made a real 3D projector thingy. It makes a solid-looking 3D object inside the box. I think that's pretty neat."

"Act'ly that sounds pr'tty cool," Slink observed, wandering over to peer at the box. "D'ya think Max made somet'in' wort'while fer'a change?"

Storm's ears flicked back and forth as she considered. "I guess that does sound pretty interesting."

Brandon nodded. "I mentioned the idea of 3D imaging from medical scans. Hershey, would that be anything useful? A REAL 3D image, not just one on a screen?"

Hershey considered this as she took oven mitts off. "Actually, that would be very very useful. It would make diagnosing many things a lot easier."

Tim and Shade made an entrance, looking perplexed as everybody else had. "Max... asleep?" Tim said.

"Max just went to our room and went to sleep!" Shade exclaimed. "He hasn't slept in what, four weeks? And that was only a nap at the table."

"Brandon kept his project from blowing up on him and it's actually a useful project," Storm informed them.

Shade whistled. "Wow... What's the chance of both of those things happening at the same time? I thought that all his useful projects always blew up on him."

Storm shrugged. "I thought it was a way to try to make us feel sorry for him. He'd make up something about his project being useful if it blew up. He never said what he was working on until it was finished or blew up."

A small group of humans came into the break room. Brandon tried to shy away again, but he was taken by the arm and introduced to them. At least his embarrassment was declining, slowly but surely.

That night found him sleeping with Nyia, Dash, Hershey, and Storm. The prior two nights had everybody else crowding around him after he was comfortable, but he had to take a shower every night. The first runs did not normally, since they didn't sweat. Nyia, Hershey, and Dash were already snoozing when he got finished helping Storm dry off. Brandon stared at the haphazard pile of furred bodies with some trepidation.

"Just find a spot that looks comfortable. Flop on top of everybody if you like. Not too hard a flop though," Storm murmured.

Brandon wasn't brave enough to flop on top yet, so he settled for trying to curl himself against Nyia. Storm spooned against his back and wrapped her arms around him possessively. "Just to keep Dash from getting behind you accidentally," she whispered to him. Overall, it was comfortable enough and he even managed to avoid getting red in the face.

Brandon was vaguely aware of shifting during the night. He remembered that they tended to not stay still while sleeping, so he didn't worry. In the morning, all of the first runs woke as one, stirring and stretching enough to wake Brandon. He blinked groggy eyes to the muffled sounds of yawning and tried to figure out where he was again.

Somebody was still against his back. He thought it was probably Storm, but her arms were down around his belly and he felt her yawn against his lower back. His head was on a relatively firm furred surface while something else moderately heavy was on top of his head, making for the muffled issue since both his ears were covered. His hand came up to try to discern what his head was between as he tried to blink the sleep haze from his vision.

Somebody turned on the light and he blinked a few more times at whatever was out of focus too close to his face. His questing hand felt along the object atop his head. It felt like a leg? Too much for his brain to process successfully still. He squirmed as Storm extracted her arms from around him and sat up behind him, then squirmed further as whoever he was lying on and under stretched, squeezing his head. Then he almost leaped out of his skin as somebody sleepily licked the front of his thigh a few times.

His reaction woke everybody including himself up a bit faster. The object on top of his head finally lifted off him, allowing enough light and space for him to see clearly. The view stunned him. Nyia had gotten turned around to face him and his head was previously between her thighs, his nose less than an inch from her crotch.

"Sorry," he heard the white cat say. "I have a habit of licking when I wake up for some reason. You okay down there?"

Brandon rolled backwards off her thigh. He thought he should be embarrassed, but he wasn't so sure anymore.

"Ooooo..." Storm purred. "I wonder if that's because of the view he got or just normal, short-lived morning wood?"

"He had it before he woke," Hershey answered. "So likely just morning. Sorry."

That made his face red and his anatomy wilt in the spotlight quite swiftly. Storm laughed merrily, patting his chest comfortingly. "Sorry, we're a bit more open now. Most of us at least. Not sure why. Seems to be part of the change effects, or at least how it affects us." She leaned down to whisper conspiratorially. "Though if Nyia gets you like that more often, I bet she'd love it if you picked up a habit of licking when you wake up too. Several of us do it. They think it's for us to wet our noses." He somehow managed to keep from becoming redder. Strange how quickly a person could become desensitized to potentially embarrassing things.

That day was shooting range first and martial arts second. The shooting range made a liar out of the "no clothes" as they put him in protective clothing to avoid burns from casings. Storm was observing the whole time.

Brandon informed her he had never handled a gun before at all. He was given instruction on how to hold the various weapons and how to fire them safely, then aimed at the targets with strict supervision. He did halfway well... In that he actually did manage to hit the targets a few times. The whole area was monitored by exceptionally high speed video. Apparently they could literally trace the paths of the bullets he fired using that.

At the end of it all, he set down the rifle as Storm came to collect him. "Did I do horribly?" he asked her, concerned about the fact that he didn't hit the targets even more than half the time.

For an answer, she took an assault rifle off the table and took less than a second to aim at a distant target that was monitored by video camera. She squeezed off single rounds in rapid succession, standing almost as still as a statue even with the kick of the weapon. Finally she put the safety back on and set the rifle down, then pointed at the monitor.

Her shots had created an almost perfect heart shape on the target. Brandon boggled and she giggled, giving his cheek and ear an unexpected lick. "You'll get better at it with the change," she assured him. "You did better than expected. Shade is the only one who did better, but she had training before. Are you sure you've never handled a gun?"

He opened his mouth, but a look of pain came over his face for just an instant and he swallowed. "Never at all," he stated, looking away.

The trip to the other end of the facility for martial arts testing was escorted by two humans and Hershey. The cat stayed off to the side though while the humans chatted amiably with him. He was definitely feeling more comfortable as time went by and didn't feel too self-conscious about being nude as they walked. He was slowly getting more used to and figuring out the layout of the facility as well.

The combat center was an interesting place. Training gear like punching bags as well as a raised boxing ring and a martial arts area that was flush with the floor. Nyia was present, along with two humans. He wasn't at all familiar with martial arts. Hershey stayed this time.

A whole compliment of cameras and monitoring equipment was set up. Brandon was wired up with a belt that transmitted data and a number of dots were placed on his body. Some of them were sensors, wired carefully to the belt.

The whole process started with calibrating the sensors and equipment, which took long enough for Brandon to become slightly bored standing in the middle of the marked off area. The floor had a covering on it, but was only very barely padded. That caused him some concern. A fall would probably hurt. He was turned around as they calibrated more cameras when he noticed the rest of the first runs coming in and taking seats to watch.

When things were finally calibrated, Nyia approached him. "First important thing. Put your feet together and your arms straight up," she ordered. He followed her directions. No sooner had he done this than her foot swept out and knocked his feet out from under him while her hand quickly pushed the other way, knocking him into a fall to the side. He wasn't able to get his arms down fast enough and collided with the ground in short order.

What instantly caught his attention was the fact that even though the mat was very stiff when he walked on it, it was softer than a pillow when he fell, giving under his weight then slowly lifting back up to a firm surface. He picked himself up and stared at the floor wonderingly.

"The mat is reactive. You can't get hurt from a fall," Nyia said. "Now that that's done, expect to take a good number of falls."

She spoke the truth about that. After some VERY basic instruction, he was set up as a complete neophyte against the two human fighters. While the falls didn't hurt, his muscles were soon protesting the abuse. About the only thing he could take comfort in was that his unorthodox moves did allow him to land some blows and managed to finally catch the other guy off guard enough for Brandon put the man on the ground.

Nyia stepped up at that point and shooed the other two men off. She turned to face him as he panted from his exertions. "Try to hit me or knock me over. Try full strength hits. Trust me, you probably won't hit me. Even if you do give me a bruise, it's not an issue for us. I won't even be trying to hit you."

Brandon wasn't sure he liked this idea, but he went at it with what energy he had. Swing after swing was most often dodged and sometimes deflected. Kicks and even attempts to tackle just had her jumping or stepping out of the way. He could move around her anywhere he liked, she didn't even react to his closeness when he tried attacking or just barreling her down from right against her, but she sidestepped and deflected anyway.

"Come on you pansy! HIT me! You WIMP! You call yourself a man?!"

Her jibes and teasing were constant as he missed more and more but he grew angrier and angrier at the thing. He was at least able to do something to the other two guys and even had them breathing harder. It was like he was not even there to her. He swung with more vigor and tried new things as he desperately sought to land a blow or knock her over.

"You hit like a girl and you swing like a dumb machine! You're not even THINKING now you moron! You'll never get anywhere this way!"

That made him suddenly pause, breaking away from his stance. Use his brain...

"Giving up already?"

He walked around in front of her, standing quite close as he leaned to put his weight on his left leg, right leg extending just to the side of her to touch the ground lightly. Her eyes flicked down to take in his stance. "New and yet oh so old at the same time," she yawned. "You SHOULD just give up and save yourself the trouble."

He kept his face blank as he reached up very slowly with his left hand. The speed with which he was reaching caused her to follow his move, but not bother to dodge or block. She was obviously ready for him to try something, but showed no concern. His fingers found her cheek and curled lightly.

Her ears laid back. "That is NOT a hit. What the hell are you...?" Her words cut off as he began to scratch her cheek just like he would any normal cat. She went wide-eyed in shock for half a moment, then began to purr softly, her eyes half-closed. "Guess you are giving up. Wimp."

"Hardly," he muttered. He kicked at her shanks violently with his foot as he suddenly pushed hard down her neck with his hand. It was an all or nothing attempt. To his surprise, his foot actually connected and her legs went with it. Her eyes shot open and her body twisted to try to regain her balance, but it was too late. His kick had her feet constrained by his leg and her top half was already halfway down from his push.

Brandon felt a sense of giddy glee as he watched her topple and there was a collective gasp from the room as first her arm then her body hit the mat. Stunned silence for a moment before she leaped up and pushed him over backwards. Her ears were flat back and all her fur was standing on end as she scowled at him. "You could never do that in a real fight!" she hissed at him. "I'd be too busy kicking your ass to let you scratch my cheek!" She spun, displaying a tail that was poofed to at least three times its normal size, and ran across and out of the room.

Brandon sat dazed, wondering if he had royally screwed up somehow. He looked around the room to see all of the first run animals as well as all of the humans who were monitoring things staring at him in shock. She said to think, so he had thought and done what he needed to do in the situation. "Did I...?" he started to ask worriedly.

"WOW! You just OWNED her! 'Leet headshot for the win!!" Shade exclaimed suddenly, cutting him off. All of the first runs were around him in an instant, Shade literally dragging him off the ground to hug him excitedly. She was right before. The hug was greatly enhanced by her vestigial wings.

"But now she's gonna hate me," Brandon muttered.

"Naaah," Slink said in a low voice. "She's jus' savin' face wit' th'humans. Ya jus' did som'tin' no'un 'ere 'as e're done! E'en 'fore she changed. You should 'ear 'er on th'radio. She's bitchin' up a storm but w'know she's fakin' it. Fin'ly some'un smart 'nough to take 'er down a notch. You really impressed 'er."

Brandon stretched his sore muscles, trying to figure out what had just happened. He impressed her? Huh. One thing caught his attention and he found himself staring at Slink closely. "Radio? You don't look like you have any radio on."

"Oh, it's in our 'eads. Th' 'nites do it all nice'n stuff. Jus' t'ink what ya wanna send an' we can 'ear it. An' it can't be picked up by an'body else yet. 'Spretty cool."

The lead announced enough testing had been done. Brandon was subjected to sticky things being pulled off him, some leaving slimy stuff from the sensor pads, while the first runs conversed excitedly but quietly with a few of the humans. Nyia finally came back in when the process was almost complete. She wasn't ruffled anymore, but the slant of her ears was showing her displeasure. She stalked up to him as the last sensor was removed.

"Okay, just to make it clear..." She started, but paused, sniffing at him. "Whew, that goo from the sensors stinks. Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You have plenty of time before dinner." She grabbed him by the arm and bustled him out the door before anybody could say a word. He didn't even catch the somewhat sour look from Storm.

He was back in his room in short order and dragged to the bathroom where the shower was set up quickly. Nyia's fur was much finer than Storm's, so her skin showed much more clearly through it when she was wet, but Brandon didn't get to admire this for too long. He was dragged into the shower and pushed under the water to splutter in response as she got soap and began to scrub him down thoroughly. He inquired, but she wasn't interested in fully washing herself, just getting him to not smell like sensor pad gel. He'd just have to help her dry off.

"You have a nice frame under the pudge and you have a good brain in your head. You'll probably look decent as an animal," she mentioned as she scrubbed at his back. Then she suddenly paused at scrubbing.

"I hope so. I do have a character that I kind of consider my personal character, so I might end up looking like that for all I know," he admitted.

"How'd you get all these scars on your back? I've never seen anything like this. You've got them from your neck to your ankles."

"Bad accident," he said simply, unwilling to comment more on it.

She shrugged and was silent as she continued washing him, not shying away from any part of his anatomy at all, even though it caused some of it to react a bit. Then he was rinsed and dried and instructed in tips for drying her faster.

"We still have time before dinner," she announced. "I'll give you a rub down so you won't be as sore. You'll be sore enough in the days to come anyway. On your belly on the bed."

He considered, but he realized that he hadn't had a good massage in ages, so he obeyed and flopped on the middle of the bed. She was quickly straddling his hips and her fingers found his shoulders to begin kneading. She was very strong, but she never hurt him. It definitely felt very good. Soon she was done with his whole back and working on his buttocks. Then she had him spread his legs so she could work on them, even though her touch up higher along the inside of his thighs was very much teasing in a way. Thankfully he was on his belly, so she couldn't see his reaction. He was in bliss when she finished.

"Okay, flip over," she commanded.

"Er... What?" If he flipped over, she WOULD see his reaction.

"What? You have muscles on your front too, you dolt. If I only take care of your back, your front will still be sore. Now FLIP!"

She caught him by the arm and hip and rolled him over easily despite his mild protests. His face turned a bit red at being exposed, but she ignored it for the most part as she straddled his belly and dragged his arm up to work on. He ended up with her tail teasing him directly, but she seemed unconcerned, so he finally relaxed as she worked on his other arm and then began to massage his collar.

He was aware of a change in her attitude as she began to rub his chest. Her touches were caressing. Though they still helped him feel better, they definitely enticed other thoughts. He squirmed, enjoying himself possibly too much.

She smiled down at him, showing off sharp feline teeth in an interestingly fetching way, then suddenly dropped to lay against him. She was small enough that even though she straddled his belly, her head still rested in the crook of his neck. "You are an interesting man," she murmured. "You taught me something new today. I'm sure Storm warned you about one of the extra side effects. I can smell you, Brandon... You like me..."

Brandon swallowed, caught up in the event though he wasn't sure of the path it was taking. She lifted herself off him slightly, her arms to either side of him as she gazed at him intently. She leaned down and licked softly across his chin and jaw, enticing a shiver of pleasure from him before she rubbed her cheek against his. "We do have enough time before dinner if you're interested in something more than just a rub down..." she purred, her tail sweeping in a way that made its intent obvious as it brushed him.

Brandon was tempted. Very sorely tempted indeed. She wore away at his resistance further by nibbling and licking softly at his throat. He cautiously slipped an arm around her, causing her to purr more. This was almost like a dream come true, but it felt too fast when it was real and not just a thought. Should he? He squirmed more and she lifted herself and smiled at him again as she slid back just an inch closer, the question heavy in her gaze.

"We have enough time before dinner? Then... I guess... OOF!" His acceptance was interrupted as she suddenly sat straight up, looking at the door. Without a word she pulled on his side and flipped him onto his belly again, then dropped onto his lower back and began rubbing his middle back.

"Hey, the founder wants to talk to Brandon before dinner. In the break room in about five minutes," Storm said as she came through the door. She paused and tilted her head as she observed the position of the two occupants of the room, then sniffed the air curiously. Her eyes narrowed a little, but she continued, "I've got to let Max know, so I'll see you there. Hope you got a good massage, Brandon." She spun and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Nyia dropped against Brandon's back with a sigh. "Well, there goes the time before dinner." Brandon wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relived. It was all very fast. Maybe too fast.

The white cat climbed off his back and sat on the edge of the bed, bent over double with her back to him. He sat up and crawled to the edge himself, glancing at her and realizing in shock that she was licking her own crotch. "Er..." he stammered.

She paused and looked at him. "I'm just cleaning up, don't read too much into it. No time to take a shower after all." True to her word, it only took a dozen or so licks before she was satisfied. She insisted on licking his belly where she had been straddling him, despite the fact it made him cringe with ticklishness. Then she was bustling him out the door.

Hershey met them in the hallway, halfway to the break room. She stopped Nyia and pulled the white cat barely to the side. Brandon thought they were going to have a conversation, but the siamese simply stared at the other cat, no words exchanged. The gamut of expressions that passed between them gave testimony to a silent conversation occurring though. Hershey was being quite stern, while Nyia went from looking relatively upset to looking angry for a moment to looking ashamed. They apparently finished the conversation on an up note at least, looking agreeable with each other before they resumed escorting Brandon to the break room.

"Come on, we're late," Hershey urged.

Despite the events leading to it, the meeting was relatively uneventful. John... er... the founder... was checking on how Brandon was doing from Brandon's point of view as well as getting information about him from all of the first run. A few other people were observing the discussion and taking notes. It was more of an informal meeting though. Brandon was amazed that just these few days already had him relatively comfortable with sitting there naked and chatting.

When the meeting was finished, Brandon had a call of nature to attend to before dinner. Shade and Dash ended up on escort duty. Brandon was actually glad of this.

"Hey, Dash, I know you don't have to escort me into the restroom, but I have some questions about the changes related to guys. Could you come in anyway?" Something about Dash had been nagging at him and he had wanted a chance to get the cheetah alone and ask.

Brandon took care of his business first, then turned to Dash, who looked somewhat uncomfortable. "Well... Um... we have that..." the cheetah began, but Brandon interrupted him.

"Don't worry, I actually wanted to ask you about something else, but I needed an excuse to get you alone. You don't have normal cheetah markings. It bugged me for long enough that I realized what's up. Does the name Charston mean anything to you?"

Dash jumped and looked distinctly surprised. "Er, yes... That was my character before I got changed."

Brandon became confused. "Do you match your character? I mean, what with the girls trying to flirt with you and everything, but Charston was distinctly gay."

The cheetah's hand found Brandon's mouth in an instant. "I... I am..." he murmured in a low voice. "I don't like sex really. Um, old problems with my parents and other people because I'm gay. I dunno... after some of the stuff I was put through, I dunno if I can ever not freak out. Like, I like guys, um, and how they look and being around them, but cuddling at the most for me. I really don't care much for females. But you can't tell anybody!" Dash was close to panicking now. "I don't know how anybody would react or if I'd get kicked off the project! Please don't tell anybody!" The feline was literally on his shanks and clinging to Brandon's leg.

Brandon wasn't sure what to make of the whole situation. "Shhh, it's okay. That's why I wanted to get you alone to ask you. Don't worry, I'm not gonna tell anybody." He patted the cat's head and tried to disengage his leg from the strong grip.

Dash slowly calmed down and realized what he had been doing. He jumped up and wrung his fingers, not sure of what to say.

"It must be tough too," Brandon said soothingly. "The girls said they got a libido boost from the change. I guess even if you don't want sex, it's good to have somebody around."

Dash nodded and sighed. "Tim is a hunk of a hunk. I'd so love to cuddle with him or anything at all, but he's straight and married and has kids. There's no way I could approach him, er, even if I didn't mind anybody knowing. Max is... um... Max. He's... um... he scares me." The cheetah blinked and looked at Brandon. "You wouldn't happen to be...?"

Brandon shook his head. "Straight for the most part, sorry, but I have lots of friends who are gay or bi, so I'm okay with it. I guess maybe I could try to cuddle when I'm changed, but I don't know for sure."

Dash chuckled, "No offense, but you're not my type. Big, muscular guys like Tim for me. I might take you up on the cuddling anyway, just because I'd have nobody else." His ears wilted.

Brandon smiled, "Hey, cheer up. We've got a cool project we're on. That's gotta be worth something, right?" The cheetah perked and nodded. Brandon looked at the door. "We'd better get going to dinner before Shade gets impatient."

They were indeed accosted by the bat as they left the restroom. "What took you so long?" she demanded.

"I needed to know if having a sheath would cause any problems in the bathroom," Brandon said. "I guess I really need to wait until I have one to find out the details though. I'm sorry for keeping us from dinner." He put on a cute-looking worried face. "You don't suck blood, do you?"

Shade blinked in surprise, then suddenly looked fierce and leaped at him. Brandon was startled by her strength as she grabbed him and dragged him to her, enveloping him in her wing flaps. Her jaw found his throat and her teeth closed against it, making him stiffen in shock. Then she began licking his throat furiously and quite ticklingly until he gave up and laughed. "Suck blood?!" she demanded, laughing. "Oh, you're a gem, Brandon. I might suck other things if I like a person well enough, but not blood. Come on, let's get food."

They made a quick trip to the cafeteria and Brandon discovered that he was not going to have the full protection of the first runs this time. They were spread out at various tables chatting with other people from the faculty. Brandon got some food and tried to decide where to sit. He thought at first of joining Storm, but she was engaged in an avid conversation with a pair of people in lab coats who didn't look too thrilled with the conversation. Then he noticed the huge tiger sitting all alone at a table. That struck him as silly. He hadn't spent much time with Tim yet, so he headed over.

"Mind if I join you?"

The tiger didn't answer but gestured to the seats. Brandon took a chair and began eating.

"How're things going for you? I haven't gotten a good chance to meet you, so I thought I'd say hi."

Tim merely shrugged and poked at his food. Brandon noticed that very little of it had been eaten and it had been sitting long enough for some of the top to become dry.

"Hey... Everything okay for you?" Brandon asked, suddenly concerned. "If something's wrong, shouldn't somebody know about it?"

Tim sighed. "They know. Just stressed. Upset stomach."

"Stressed? Why?"

"Wife and kids."

Brandon tilted his head. "Something wrong with them?"

"I'm here. They're not."

Brandon felt like his ears would wilt if he had ears that could. "Oh, I'm sorry. I know there's not much that can be done about that either, if you're under as much of a confidentiality agreement as me." He sighed softly and ate some more in silence, worried as the tiger continued to look hungrily at the food but not eat it. "Have you tried anything to de-stress? At least take care of that."

Tim shook his head. "I lift. Not working anymore."

"Lift? Oh, you mean like weights. Ahh." Brandon chewed thoughtfully. "Well, petting animals is supposed to help. That's why pets are good for people. Maybe they'd let you get a pet?"

Tim shook his head again. "No pets allowed. Only Spuds. Couldn't pet him. Too hyper."

Brandon considered. "What about any of the other folks in the run? I mean, animals of any size should work fine, even if they're people animals I'd think."

Tim frowned. "Encourage the girls? Bad idea. I love my wife."

Brandon suddenly had an inspiration that almost made him gasp out loud, but he worked hard to hide his excitement. "Well, what about Dash then? Since it's just platonic petting, he shouldn't be a threat to your love for her."

Tim flicked an ear. "True, but silly. Couldn't ask him. He'd laugh."

Brandon smiled. "It's my idea. I'll take the fall for it and ask him for you, okay?"

Tim lifted an eyebrow. "If you want."

Brandon left his seat immediately and went over to where Dash was just finishing eating, sitting with a group of humans but not involved in the conversation. "Hey, Dash, do you have a moment? Can I borrow you for help with a problem?"

Dash looked at him worriedly. "Um, not a big problem I hope..."

Brandon smiled. "It's one that I think only you can help fix." He took the cheetah by the arm and led him halfway across the cafeteria to a more clear area.

'What's up?"

"Officially, Tim is stressed. The project knows about it I guess, but he can't get over missing his wife and kids. He used to lift weights, but that doesn't work anymore. I discussed it with him and decided that he should try petting something with fur to help him get rid of the stress. Unfortunately, they don't allow pets here."

"Er, okay, but, um, what does this have to do with me? I'm, um, not gonna sneak a pet in for him."

Brandon shook his head and grinned. "I wouldn't ask you to do something against the rules. I was going to ask you to BE his pet, so to speak. Just relax and let him pet your back. You have fur after all."

Dash opened his mouth and closed it again several times, quite dumbfounded. "Uh, what about the girls? Wouldn't they, like, be better for him?"

"He doesn't want to feel unfaithful to his wife or encourage them to try to make him unfaithful. With you, it would just be platonic since you wouldn't try to flirt with him." Brandon grinned and nudged the cat with his elbow lightly. "Come on. It would probably help Tim a whole bunch. You wouldn't really mind having him pet you and stroke your back for long periods of time, would you?" He winked.

Dash's eyes widened and he moved closer. "You're serious? Like, um, not teasing me..." He looked worried.

Brandon smiled warmly, "I'm not teasing you. I'm completely serious. I figure it's something that'll help both of you. You're finished eating. Come on." He took the cheetah's wrist and led him over to the tiger. "Tim, I think Dash is okay with the idea of you petting him to help you calm down." He didn't miss the fact that Tim looked relieved and hopeful and Dash was trying to hide the fact that he was extremely giddy with joy at the idea.

Tim smiled at Dash, "Thank you." He looked at Brandon. "How to do this?"

Brandon waggled his head. "Dash should just get comfortable somewhere that you can reach him and then you just stroke the back of his head and neck and back, or scratch around his ears or whatever else, just like he's a big kitty."

Dash pulled out a chair and dropped to his haunches facing the back of it. He crossed his arms against the backrest and looked back at Tim. "Um, I guess now's a good time."

Tim reached tentatively and looked at Brandon for approval before running his hand down Dash's back. Dash relaxed happily in an instant. This encouraged the tiger, so more petting soon followed. It wasn't long before Dash was purring decently and Tim actually looked quite pleased with the entire process as well. "It helps," the tiger purred. He jumped as he heard his own voice. "I purr? How nice." He smiled happily and continued to pet the cheetah.

Brandon looked quite pleased as he sat back down to his own meal. "Don't mind me, then. It looks like you two have it set up well. I think you'll both benefit from this." He swallowed his food quickly before leaving the two felines with their newfound pastime. Looking around, he noted Shade peering at him from across the room. She beckoned him over and stood to meet him halfway as he approached. This time he was taken by the arm and led aside.

"You know my main enhancement is senses, right?" she asked him.

Brandon nodded, "Yes, you told me the first day."

"I realized I need to let you know what that means. That means that I could hear you two in the bathroom very easily and I could also track your conversations here with no trouble."

Brandon felt his panic rising. He had promised Dash that it would stay a secret. He didn't want any trouble for anybody. Shade suddenly threw her arms around him and hugged him close, catching him off guard. She released him after a moment and smiled at him. "You're doing decently with people so you have my vote as a good guy. It'll be nice to have you leading the team. Just be cute... or else."

He was speechless. The leading the team bit passed by him entirely because of the last part. "Be cute?"

She nodded. "You're probably gonna be the only chance us girls have to flirt or spend time with anybody on this project. It'd be nice if you look good after you change. No phobias and no being stingy or not sharing. It's against our own personal rules for -every- guy on the project to have an issue."

Brandon looked askance at her. "So you're just trying to get into my pants..."

She held her hands up and shook her head. "Oh, no, not at all." She grinned mischievously and slunk behind him in an alluring manner. "Anyway... What pants?" Her hand reached around him and groped him, emphasizing the point that there was nothing to block such an action. Here in public! Even his growing comfort with being nude didn't keep his face from turning red at this point, much to her amusement.

"Come on," she said, taking his hand. "We're all finished eating. You're being moved to a different temporary room tonight and we'll all be sleeping together, you included. There's just not enough room on the bed for all of us. The rest of the testing'll make you sore and bored too. Maybe insane... Ooo... that would be bad though. Running, strength testing, computer tests, sensory tests... At least you got everybody interested in you though. You'll have plenty of offers for back rubs if you get too sore. Oh, just don't go too much further with anybody but Storm at first. She's got her sights on getting you first and it's best to keep her happy, even if Nyia thinks otherwise."

Brandon blinked. "Storm... first...? Wait, what? First or only, and why Storm, and who said I was gonna do anything with anybody?"

"First, then it's free for all. Unless you end up with a problem like Tim or Dash or Max, you'll be the only available guy here. With the transformations playing havoc with our libido, we need €"somebody- we can have fun with. We figured long ago that we have to share everything else pretty much and have no trouble. If we get a decent guy, it shouldn't be a problem to share him too... as long as the proper order is maintained. As for not doing anything with anybody... well, that would be sad for us, and probably for you too... But given your reaction to Nyia's pushy move, I don't think that'll be the case." The bat gave him a knowing look, making him flush red again. "Just keep in mind who has first dibs. Now come on. I'm shocked to think it, but all of us actually want to see what Max's glass box thing does now that he's willing to show it off to everybody. This'll be your last comfortable day until you change, so we figured you should enjoy it."

Brandon allowed himself to be taken out as all the other first runs joined them in leaving. It seemed as if things were going decently. From the sounds of it, he just had to make it through the next week or so without getting too sore or bored or insane. Then it was back to the mainland and time for the change.

All the hints Brandon was given about the next week making him sore were... well... sorely understated. Thankfully he was able to at least get rubdowns from willing females on most nights. Of course, one of the tests ended up being how quickly his muscles would recover on their own, so he didn't get any backrubs for several days after that grueling situation.

The change of rooms was informative. From a bed to a huge mattress that was obviously made as a specialty item for the project. If the room itself wasn't so large, the bed for everybody would have taken up most if not all of it.

The sleeping pile was an oddity as well. All nine of them together and even Spuds made Brandon afraid that he would wake to a severe tangle of limbs and tails. No matter how tangled anybody got though, they ended up extracting themselves easily in the morning.

The most taxing test near the end was sleep deprivation. With somebody from the run team on hand to make sure he stayed awake at all times, he spent five days wired to various monitors and sensors. Each of them had a different method of keeping him awake. Hershey just shook him if she thought he was dozing. Tim insisted that Brandon read a book out loud. Any lapse in the reading resulted in a menacing growl that startled him awake in a heartbeat. At the end of that, he was allowed a good bit of sleep to recover before the big day.

At least the whole pre-testing process allowed him plenty of time to find his way around the facility and learn the faces of the people who worked there. The facility actually had three planes that were not only capable of stealth, but apparently also advanced enough to fly themselves home safely without anyone controlling them. He hadn't seen yet, but apparently there were also two smaller boats and a cargo ship as well as a submarine equipped with stealth capability. Well, technically he had been SHOWN, but still hadn't seen, since all he got to see were holes in the surface of the water in a large, sea-filled cave.

He was comfortable enough after all the testing and was somewhat shocked when he was woken by a bathrobe being tossed at him on the day he was to be changed. "Hold on to that," Hershey advised him. "Everybody at the facility here is fine, the government folk on the mainland have some issues with nude people." Brandon was surprised when he realized that he had carried the robe over his arm all the way to the hangar without putting it on. He even noted that despite the dozens of people in the hangar who were boarding the three planes, he still didn't have an urge to clothe himself.

Storm was in charge of flying the plane that he and most of the other first runs were aboard. Nyia had the second plane and Tim was piloting the third plane. All of the rest of the run were aboard the plane with him, along with the founder and several of the key scientists. Brandon was surprised to see Dr. Stevens for the first time in several weeks, however he did not have a chance to speak to the man as he was escorted to the seat directly behind Storm. Slink took the co-pilot's seat again in his craft, while the rest of the run occupied other mid-section seats and the human passengers filled the remaining mid-section seats and the benches in the back cargo area.

Shortly after belting in, the engines were started, however they stayed stationary with Storm just relaxing in her chair. Brandon felt the same odd feeling that he remembered from the flight here, but soon the sensation stabilized. "We're fully saturated," Storm announced, then glanced to her left. "Nyia and Tim are reporting full saturation also. We're good to go." Brandon smirked as he realized what a difference it was to see her there instead of just hearing her voice.

The craft and everything in it vanished suddenly. Brandon had only experienced this once before, so it was still oddly disturbing in a way. He glanced to the side just in time to see the other two aircraft vanish as the bay door for the underground hangar slid ponderously open. He heard the engines rev up to a higher level and felt and saw the change as the floor beneath lifted smoothly away, then they were moving out the doors and out through the cavern like a disembodied camera from a video game. He didn't know if he would ever be able to get used to the effect.

The flight itself was likely the most boring thing that he had experienced in the past few weeks since starting on the project. There was nothing he could do to read or see anything but the eventual mach cloud behind the plane and the open expanse of the ocean. He tried watching the other two craft's mach clouds flying in close proximity, but even that only occupied him for a very short time. Thankfully he was soon distracted by folks starting up discussions with their invisible cohorts. Slink was always interesting to listen to. He noticed they were approaching land just before all three craft took a sharp turn and became visible again.

The rest of the flight was more the normal boredom of a long flight, but at least Brandon could see everybody around him now. The relief from the back of the plane was palpable though. Discussion became less clipped and stressed when people could see who they were speaking to. Soon enough they were descending and slowing, and thereafter landing. Storm alerted everybody to the toasty weather outside as she powered down the engines and people began to get up.

Brandon was near the front of the plane, so he was one of the last ones in line to exit. Storm nudged him and pointed to the bathrobe, which he threw on and tied in the front, feeling odd after the two weeks of nudity. As he reached the door at the back, he was glad for the bathrobe. The heat and sun would have been harsh on his skin otherwise. Thankfully high walls around the plane shaded the ground so he didn't have to worry about his feet being burned. A quick walk across the landing pad surface and they entered a door that brought the relief of air conditioning.

Brandon was surprised to note that the immediate direction after the door was down the stairs. "An underground facility?"

Storm was closest, so she answered, "No. We landed on the roof. The other two planes landed on the pads around the building. We're going from the roof to the fifth floor."

The stairs exited into a crossed hallway and people peeled off in every different direction. The first runs and the founder stuck around and Brandon was greeted by that man as he exited the stairwell. "Welcome to the Chamber Base. The military provides exterior security and we provide internal security. This base runs on a skeleton crew and security most of the time. We bring our own crew with us when we come for major operations like yours. It'll take a few hours to get everything set up, so we'll head to the cafeteria for now. Feel free to look around the general area once we get there. You're still restricted from various places by locked doors, so you can't really get lost."

They took another set of stairs down four flights and ended up on the ground floor. The cafeteria was a nice large place with windows looking out over a cactus garden outside. Brandon noted the extremely tall set of multiple fences that stood starting about an eighth of a mile away. There was a parking structure and many support buildings visible from the window, so obviously some people drove here. Brandon was shown how to get food, which was provided for free and not too bad overall, but then was left to his own devices. He wandered out a door that didn't look like it was secured and took a look around.

He passed a few security guards at various checkpoints, but none of them did more than glance at him. He also saw some of the folks he knew from Echo Base in passing, but they were usually heading in and out of doors that were obviously secured. He finally made his way to a door that afforded him egress to a covered patio garden area. Semi-arid plants grew here and a fountain provided a small stream that meandered through the entire setting. Tables and lone benches spotted the region and the sun got in quite well through the glass ceiling and walls, but the environment was still climate controlled and comfortable.

Brandon's attention was drawn by a sharp, scolding yap from his right and he glanced to see a tiny canine being somewhat grumpy at his encroach into the garden. He recognized it after a moment as a desert fox of some sort and couldn't help but grin. Ironic in a way. The little fox apparently was satisfied with him not being a threat and resumed sitting and staring at him warily, so Brandon retreated to a table to sit and watch the fox in return. He wasn't sure how long they just stared at each other before the fox's ears twitched and it promptly ducked into a hole in the ground that was apparently its den.

"Mr. Sparks, I have another paper I need you to sign."

Brandon jumped and glanced at the man who was approaching. The newcomer was wearing a stuffy suit and seemed nervous. Brandon didn't recognize him from the Echo Base crew at all. Something about the man made Brandon not like him almost instantly as well. "Sign here," the man demanded, slapping a thick sheaf of papers onto the table in front of Brandon and thrusting a pen into his hand before pointing at the bottom of the page. Brandon frowned at the tiny and copious print on the page, leaning closer to try to read it. "Come on, I don't have all day!" the man snapped.

Brandon didn't like this at all. "I read everything in detail before I sign it," he said coldly, reaching for the contract...

...only to have the pen suddenly snatched from his hand by an unseen force and the papers fly through the air just past his face to smack the annoying man in the chest. "We told you not to try anything like this, Mr. Mason," Storm growled from thin air beside him. She became visible in an instant, ears laid back and her lips almost curled into a snarl with her nose inches from the man's face as her hand fell possessively on Brandon's shoulder. She seemed to be taking the utmost control not to be violent with the man and his attitude showed that he knew it. He barely gathered his composure and tried to look menacing at her in return.

"It's just a standard contract extension, nothing to concern you... um..."

"Storm. Nothing standard about it, I can read it quite quickly, thank you. You have no direct authority over this and you can -not- get Brandon to sign authority over to you. The funding contract is set, Mr. Mason. Don't go fishing outside your pond. Now SCAT!" She literally barked the last word. The man jumped and stalked off in a huff, looking quite annoyed.

Brandon took a pained breath after the exchange. He had never seen any of the first run actually truly angry before and he realized with a wince that he never wanted to be on the receiving side of that anger. "Storm..."

"Don't ever sign anything unless you read it in detail first. Mr. Mason and his boss have been trying to get more access since we started. They are QUITE annoying."

"Storm..."

She noticed the distress in his voice and looked at him, ears flicking forward. "What?" she asked, worried.

"Please... take your claws... out of my shoulder..." he whimpered. She had been squeezing his shoulder so hard in her anger that her claws were sunk through the bath robe and a good bit into his flesh. Small spots of blood were already gracing the white robe.

"Wha...? Oh shit! I'm sorry!" Her fingers were off his shoulder in an instant, eliciting a yelp of pain from him as the claws came out. She soon had the bathrobe pulled off his shoulder and was examining the four puncture wounds near his collarbone. "I'm not as good as Hershey, but this'll help." He winced as she touched near the wounds but after some tingling, he felt the discomfort begin to fade.

"You need to be more careful!" Hershey exclaimed as she ran in through the door on all four limbs, skidding to a halt beside them and glaring at Storm. "Move, hon. I've got it."

Storm nodded and took her hand off Brandon's shoulder. Then Hershey's hand was on his shoulder and the pain went away in a few seconds as the holes closed themselves.

"Sorry, Brandon..." Storm muttered sullenly as she fiddled with the pierced bathrobe. Brandon rolled his shoulder as Hershey took her hand away.

"Blood shows up too well on the white..." he began, then blinked as he noted that the blood spots were gone. "...Errr...?"

Storm looked up guiltily, "I got rid of them! Good as new. You'll forgive me I hope. I just can't stand that man."

Brandon shook his head. "No problem. I think you scared the shit out of him though."

Hershey shook her head, "No, she just scared the piss out of him. Don't step in it Brandon."

"Er... Wha?"

She pointed at the wet spot on the ground. Brandon blinked back his surprise and couldn't help but chuckle. "Guess it all depends on what mood she's in when she appears."

Storm smiled wryly. "I almost scared the piss out of you too, Brandon."

"Hey, no way! I was fine!"

"You almost dropped your pie."

Brandon huffed. She had him there. "Fine. You're scary."

"WHAT?!" She grabbed him playfully and flipped him over her shoulder again despite loud protests. "I'll show you scary!"

"I, um, don't want to interrupt, but, er, they're ready," Dash said from the doorway.

Storm dropped Brandon back on his feet. "Awww, but he does have such a cute butt," she complained. Dash looked distinctively uncomfortable and fidgeted, but refrained from comment.

A number of oversized hallways and secured doors later, including a short hallway that he was advised was actually a doorframe, Brandon stood in a huge room looking at the production chamber itself. The chamber was a large dome that really didn't look too interesting on the outside. Bolted-together sections all the way around, though the lock system on the door looked relatively complex. A number of two-foot diameter portholes graced the outside with cameras pointing through them, however there was otherwise little in the way of equipment apparent on the chamber itself. It was notable though that Brandon guessed they could likely fit around four or five elephants into the thing. All of the controls were on the other side of what was apparently very thick glass.

The door into the chamber was open as they entered and a pair of men in lab coats were exiting carrying a small cage. They took the cage to the black cat standing nearby. "The shayla is fine, sir."

"Good," Max answered. "Give it the full check and we're good to go." He noticed the recently-entered group. "Brandon! Come take a look at this!"

Brandon glanced at the passing cage as he approached the cat. It was odd to see Max in a lab coat, though the front was open and he was bare beneath it. He frowned in confusion. "Pink... mouse...?"

Max nodded. "The suits say we need to test it each time before any full production change on anything that would take a higher effort to replace. Honestly we have a lot of pink mice around now."

"But why did he call it a shayla?"

Max looked at him with a straight face. "What else should we call a cute, pink mouse?"

Brandon was about to answer when he realized the origin and his words caught in his throat as he groaned. "Okay, okay, that makes sense."

"Regardless, come take a look at this!" Max seemed pretty excited. Brandon caught the look that passed between the other three as Max led him off to the far side of the chamber. "Look! I'll bet ya don't know what that is!" He pointed proudly at a soda-can-sized object stuck to the outside of the chamber in a horrendously kludged up fitting that obviously used to have something at least a meter square set into it. In fact, said square object was actually lying on the floor nearby and was indeed a bit over a meter cubed.

Brandon pursed his lips and stared at the can, trying to make sense of it. Several seconds of mulling it over later, he shook his head. "You win the bet."

"It's the new nanite containment!" Max exclaimed proudly. "I completely extracted them from the original box and got them put into that little container so it doesn't look nearly as bad as having a box sticking off the outside."

Brandon stared at the duct tape and pieces of hastily-bent metal that closed off the hole left by the removal of the box, but he decided to avoid comment on that. "I take it it wasn't too easy?"

Max pshawed. "Easy? It wasn't supposed to be possible, but I did it!" He gesticulated wildly, almost backhanding Brandon. "That was the only thing that was bugging me about my original work designing and building the chamber. That box sticking off the outside. Now it's going to be much better as soon as I get time to finish it nicely."

Brandon thought about this a bit more. If he took Max's word for it, and based on everything else he had heard and seen about the black cat, Max was an extraordinary individual. Brandon was somewhat interested in stuff in general but he was nowhere near the tinkerer Max was. Max's work could turn up some nice things. "You really do some impressive stuff." He didn't completely miss the huge grin that spread across the cat's face before it was hidden.

"Max! Got some new documents," a man shouted across the room. It was Dr. Stevens, in a lab coat now though. He pressed a folder into the cat's hands.

"Rescue tests?" Max asked, looking puzzled after reading the papers.

Dr. Stevens nodded. "I guess that's another practical use of the technology if it works."

Max frowned. "Having smarter animals is good, but I don't like the idea of having them be too smart in some situations. Could you imagine Spuds being too smart? He's chaotic enough already. I don't think you can really tell the underlying personality behind animals as well. Make them too smart and you never know what could pop up. I'll write a response to this later."

"You approve of the gist though?"

"Yeah. Go ahead and approve work on the specialty sets."

Dr. Stevens took the folder of paperwork and departed swiftly, leaving Brandon simply musing at the event. Smarter rescue animals? That could be a good thing. Seeing the difference between the Max he had seen getting overly-excited about duct-taped together odds and end and this very official version of Max was odd. Obviously this cat had more to him than folks thought.

"Well, are you ready?" Max asked the Brandon. "John just got here and he has the specs program I accidentally left in my office, so we're ready to go."

Brandon broke out of his reverie and blinked a few times. He took a deep breath. "I'll admit I'm a little scared..."

"HA!!! I win!" came Nyia's voice from nearby.

"I'd've thought we'd be winnin'... so close," Slink grumbled.

Max spun and scowled at the open air. "I thought we said no more betting on the new people! I know you two didn't like it when you were bet on. Now be nice!" Silence met his scolding, causing him to sigh. "Later today..." he muttered. "Later today I get an interface and I don't know if it will make things better or worse. Come on, Brandon."

Brandon was led by the cat to the entrance to the chamber. Max just pointed in. "What, I just go in?" Brandon asked, looking at the bare interior of the chamber.

"Yep. Leave the robe out here though. Make yourself comfortable. Sit, stand, lie down, whatever you're happy with. The floor is padded and not cold." The cat held a hand out to accept the bath robe as Brandon shrugged it off, feeling only a moment of question at being nude again.

Brandon decided the pre-nudity definitely helped as he stepped into the chamber after shaking off the squeamish feeling. The floor was indeed padded and only moderately cool to the touch, so he sat crosslegged in the center of the domed chamber as the door was slid shut. He sat for what felt like quite a while, but may have only been a few minutes before a low hum began to reverberate through the chamber. Unsure what to do, he looked around and noticed a fine mist growing from the wall that contained the nanite can. He had to admit to himself that he was more than just a LITTLE scared, but this was safe, right? Everybody else on the team had done it. The pink mouse was fine... albeit pink.

As the mist grew, he noted the strange way it behaved. It grew more like a crystal through the chamber, not having fuzzy edges or dispersing at all in the air currents. As it came closer, he realized with half a shock that it was more like a fine webwork than a mist. He felt like he was being drawn closer to the spider's lair. Right... Calm down. Was it growing faster? How long had it been so far? Only a few seconds... but his nerves made it feel longer.

He tried not to flinch as the web reached his right knee. He got the strangest feeling... well... not really. He felt nothing really other than his knee being immobilized when he tried to shift his position. The slight pressure he put against or away from the web resulted in no motion being possible. It didn't feel warm, or cold... it halfway felt like it gave just a tiny bit, but it really didn't. The rate at which it grew over his body was alarming in itself. He realized that all this time, it HAD been growing very quickly. It took only seven seconds to reach him. About as much time further before it completely filled the room. He was completely immobile and ready to panic as he realized he couldn't even move to breathe or look around with his eyes.

The misty haze filled his vision and he had a sensation of lifting off the ground. He was about to panic internally when the haze grew thick, then suddenly vanished, dropping him a few inches to the floor with a soft whump. He still couldn't move. He could feel them... Inside him... The whole room's worth had flowed into him. He could move again. He took a startled breath, though it hadn't been held too long. Then the whole world went black.

The blackout was odd though. He didn't go unconscious. There was some time where he was unable to see but he was still aware. It was as if parts of his body were being disconnected from him, one bit at a time before they returned. His vision came back while he couldn't feel his legs at all. Everything was blurry for a while though it cleared quickly.

Max's voice came through a speaker. "You may want to close your eyes when you get completely numb. The appearance of the change can be disturbing." It was barely in time, since the numb feeling came only seconds later. Brandon thought about closing his eyes but he realized he was far too curious. Just what did turning into an animal look like?

Then he got to watch his legs suddenly turn into a mass that resembled boiling spaghetti sauce and change in shape rapidly. Maybe he should close his eyes after all. The effect ran up his body. Right... Yes, this was definitely disturbing. It didn't hurt, but he didn't like the way it looked at all. The skin finally returned on his newly-shaped feet and legs, moving upwards along his body. A short fuzz covered it that grew to full length tan fur even as he watched.

He finally gave up and closed his eyes when his head began to change. He couldn't stomach the idea of keeping them open with the effect so close to them. The brief view of his mouth and nose boiling out into a muzzle was almost too much. He kept his eyes closed until the numbness went away and he could move again.

A deep breath helped him calm down before he realized he felt decidedly odd. His legs felt as if he were wearing huge clown shoes, though that feeling was fading. His first attempt to glance down at his legs found his new muzzle in the way of his view so he was forced to tilt his chin down instead. He was fully digitigrade now.

The fine fur coat he sported was tan in color on the outer surface of his legs and arms, fading to a lighter cream on his belly and between his legs. It made him feel warm, but not overly hot. Actually quite cozy. It didn't feel anything at all like anybody else's fur against his skin, since it grew from him. It was more like the old feel of the hair on his head.

He caught himself inspecting the tiny stripes on some of the individual furs on his shanks before he realized just how much better his vision was. All of his senses in fact. Ears twisted atop his head as he focused on Storm's voice outside the chamber, asking how much longer it would take. He could smell the lingering scent in the air of his old human form and even of the mouse that was in the chamber just before him. As he had just noticed, he could see the nearly-microscopic detail of each fur on his body.

"What was your old roommate's name from just before the project?" Max asked over the speaker.

"Er, Melissa," Brandon answered, feeling his new mouth forming the words in a much more complex way through his muzzle. He heard Storm outside the chamber sounding happy that he still had his memories.

There was silence for a short while, though Brandon could easily hear the footsteps outside the chamber. The door hissed as it unsealed before sliding slowly opened. Brandon thought there should be some sort of mist effect or something, for dramatic value, but other than the much more obvious noises and smells surrounding him now, the opening was uneventful. Three humans entered with Hershey just behind them and Storm and two human guards taking up places at the door. It didn't escape Brandon's notice that all three by the door were armed with complex-looking weapons. Could he possibly be dangerous? He didn't feel like he would be.

Hershey and the two doctors busied themselves checking him over, poking and prodding him in many places, listening to his breathing and heart, taking his pulse, and many other things. They had him lie on the floor for a short time as they checked him over, made some notes on clipboards, and finally the two humans left.

"Are you ready to try standing up?" Hershey asked him.

"I think I am," Brandon said, still looking himself over. He found it interesting that he was in perfect shape now. As a human he'd had the bit of belly that came from working on the computer all night. Now that entire spare tire was completely missing from his midsection. He wondered how he was going to stand successfully with his legs in a completely different shaped though. Would it be just like standing on his toes? All he could do is hope that it was easy enough.

Hershey squatted down and slipped her arms under his armpits. He moved his legs around trying to decide how best to work on the standing up part, however Hershey just pulled him up and set him on his feet as soon as he straightened them out. Her arms stabilized him for moment, but only barely. He had a brief feeling of vertigo, before his legs seemed to just work properly, regardless of the fact that he thought he might have a hard time dealing with their new shape. Hershey took her hands away, stepping back and looking at him for a moment before she decided that he was stable enough on his feet.

"You'll get used to your new body very quickly. The nanites help you adjust to it. It's not a perfect process, however it does work well enough."

Brandon felt repeated sensations of vertigo as the nanites worked to help him adjust to his new body. He was slowly becoming more mentally aware of the various differences. The ears atop his head; the muzzle on his face; the difference in the shape of his legs... it was all a set of new sensations that overwhelmed him at first but quickly began to grow natural. At least about a natural as could be considered given the fact that he was a human who was now a fox full of nanites. "Am I going to keep being dizzy like this?" he asked, worried as another bout of vertigo made him teeter.

"That only lasts a few days, but it gets better as you go," Hershey responded, catching his elbow as she saw him sway.

Max pushed his way past the guards at the door, stepping into the chamber and looking over the new fox. "You don't look half bad," the black cat said.

"I told you he'd look great," Storm said from the door.

Max shrugged. "Artwork isn't always the best indicator, but in this case it worked out to be pretty accurate."

"Seriously, do you think I would've chosen him if I didn't have a good feeling about him?" Storm demanded. She considered for a moment, "Although I do admit that you didn't give me very good choices for the other two. Can we stand down now?"

Max nodded and sighed. "Yeah, stand down. Never liked that whole bit anyway."

Both the human guards and Storm looked relieved to put up their weapons. The two humans left and Storm simply slung her weapon over her shoulder. "So how do you feel, foxy guy?"

Brandon scratched behind his ear... well, where his old human ear was, so he missed... and considered. "It's... overwhelming honestly." He spent some time feeling over his own body between short bouts of dizziness which were thankfully not as frequent now. "Doesn't feel anything like I expected, but not too bad overall. I dread the answer, but, what next?"

"Next you start thinking about your new name," Storm told him with a grin. "Feeling overdressed yet?"

He would blush if the fur wasn't in the way, but she did speak the truth. His new canine anatomy kept him from dangling down below and the fur was a warm covering over his entire body. After the weeks spent naked, he did feel strangely overdressed even though he still had no clothing on. "Yes. Now how am I supposed to ever enjoy undressing for bed?"

"You'll get used to it."

"Much as I'd love to let you all socialize in here, we have more chamber jobs to do, so shoo," Max said, pointing towards the door. "Take him to post-chamber medical."

"Do I get to carry him any more?" Storm asked.

"Do whatever, just shoo!"

"Great!" Storm exclaimed. Before Brandon could object, he was picked up like a sack of potatoes again and thrown over her shoulder. The difference was that now her shoulder against his gut wasn't at all uncomfortable and his reduced weight made him feel a lot more stable.

"I can walk, I'm not that dizzy," he offered in protest.

"What, and miss getting shown off by me? Never!" She trotted out of the chamber with a resigned desert fox over her shoulder. Based on the retreating view behind, with Hershey following with a small grin, they didn't travel far from the chamber room before they met the others.

"Oh, you stop doin' that to'im!" Slink decreed.

"But isn't he just so cute?" Storm asked.

"We can only see the back end of him," Nyia replied dryly.

Storm finally relented and set the new fox down. Brandon took a moment to catch his balance again before turning to face everybody. Well, everybody was currently just Nyia, Slink, and Tim.

"What izzit?" Slink asked.

"Yeah... coyote? Brown dog?" Nyia inquired, poking Brandon lightly in the arm.

"He's a desert fox," Storm snapped. "Like the one in the garden here."

"'As 'e gott'n 'imself a name yet?"

Storm shrugged. "He hasn't said."

"He has time," Tim murmured. "Don't rush him."

Hershey tapped her fingers impatiently against her arm. "He has time for his name, but he's overdue at medical. Come on." She took him by the arm and led him around the group with no chance for him to protest. Storm shrugged at the others and quickly caught up to walk on the other side.

"You'll get a basic check up to make sure you're in condition to return to Echo," Hershey was explaining to him, "Then a small battery of capability tests before we go back and the hard work starts."

"Hard work?"

"She means hard work for her and the other test administrators. You get a lot of sitting around doing nothing," Storm observed.

"Forgetting already? He's the last in the run. He gets his tests, then -all- of us get to start working hard. We've got so many tests to run through that I couldn't even fit them in the filing cabinets." Hershey sighed. "He gets the worst of it though."

Brandon's shoulders slumped. "Halfway makes me wish I had known that little bit to begin with."

"We all should have realized that much pay doesn't come without a bunch of hard work," Storm agreed sagely.

"Come on," Hershey said. "We get him checked out, back to Echo, then we get to start the fun stuff. At least we get some down time before the hard stuff starts."

"Fun stuff?"

"Data share, interlink training..." Storm said. Then she grinned and sidled up to him, her tail curling across his in an alluring manner, "...linking."

"Linking?"

Hershey stopped them at the closed door. "Later. First important training starts now though." She pushed the door open with relative ease and stepped through, beckoning for him to follow. He stepped in after her, stopping in surprise when she spun on him and put her hand against his chest. He took a step back, wondering what was up as she glanced over his shoulder... then yelped in shock as the door closed on his tail. He found himself steadied by Hershey as Storm pushed the door open. It hadn't latched and it wasn't too heavy, but it was still an unpleasant surprise to have his tail suddenly pinned between the hard corners of the door and is frame.

"Good. You didn't try to jump forward and pull it out. That would work fine with this door, but if the door opened away from you, pulling would work to close it further and damage your tail pretty badly," Hershey patted him to soothe him.

"You did that on purpose though! Why'd you have to squish my tail at all?! Especially when I'm just getting used to it?"

"We found out from the start that the only way to learn to protect your tail is to have a traumatic encounter. You don't learn fire is hot until you get burned. This is the most forgiving door we have. Better to have a small bruise that heals in a few seconds than to have a dislocated or broken tail. You're already carrying your tail differently," Hershey observed.

Brandon gave that some thought and sullenly agreed she had a point. After that startle he got, he was much more aware of where his tail was. "Okay, what's next then?"

"CT, MRI, and PET scans, a bit of a physical check over, some X-Rays, ultrasounds..." Hershey started, but Storm interrupted.

"We're gonna make you glow."

Hershey shook her head, "No, glow training is later."

Storm frowned. "It's a joke. Glow? Too much radiation?"

Hershey considered this for a moment, then smiled gingerly. "Sorry, you know I don't get those."

Brandon suddenly realized something and spun on Storm, looking at her measuringly. "Did you grow taller or did I get shorter?" She was definitely taller compared to him now. Previously he was a few inches taller than her, now her eyes were only slightly below his.

"Your new leg shape gives you a different apparent height," Hershey answered. "Stand up as tall as you can. Stretch your legs out further."

Brandon glanced at her before looking down at his legs and trying this. He compared his height to Storm and found her to be the same relative height he remembered. She grinned and stretched her legs out and he realized with a shock that she was the same height as him this way. "Wait, how...?"

"On human legs, you rest on your heels with your knees locked. No matter how much you try to stretch your legs, you can't really change your height without going on tiptoes," Hershey explained. "Now you have digitigrade legs. Your legs are always bent at the knees and shanks, lowering your stance by a few inches. You look shorter. But think about trying to walk with your legs bent halfway as a human. It would get pretty tiring. Trying to walk with your legs completely bent would be even worse." Hershey bent her legs and dropped until her rear was just a few inches from the ground. She took a few steps with extreme ease. "This leg shape makes it just like an animal crouching, and can move and let you walk just like that. See?"

Storm took part in the demonstrations also, dropping to her haunches and then onto her belly, carrying herself on her arms and legs with her belly less than an inch from the floor. "Try to do this as a human and you'd be in trouble. Why do you think the military has people crawling through mud under barbed wire and going slowly on knees and elbows? They just can't do this very well at all."

Hershey stood back up. "Now, come on. We've got to get these tests done and they do take a while."

Brandon had a new appreciation for the idea already. It would be interesting to see what came up as the tests went on.

****

"Can you make any sense of it?" Mr. Mason asked, peering over another's shoulder at the laptop.

"None at all. We've just got to get it back to headquarters. Let them figure out what it means." He frowned as he closed the file and pulled the small external drive off the laptop. He hadn't been able to copy the whole file before the assistant had shown up looking for the missing drive. He hoped this was enough for his people to work with.

He shut down the laptop and tucked the USB drive into his coat pocket while Mason loaded the laptop into its carrying case. Strangest excuse for source code he'd ever seen. Blocking Susan? Gleam? Well, from the mind of an insane man, or insane black cat, one should expect insane things.

The other thing that was nagging at him was a something from a few years ago. Brandon not only looked somewhat familiar, but the name tickled his memories also. With so many stealth projects though, he couldn't get his suspicions to congeal into anything solid.

A quick trip from his office to the waiting official vehicle and he was gone from the facility in short order.

****

Brandon was surprised to see Max walk into the medical section and begin to undergo the same tests that he had been subjected to for a few hours now. He finally asked Hershey about it.

"He got interface nanites today," Hershey informed him as she strapped him onto the CT table. "He's still not fully enhanced like us, but he has the nanites in his head to do communication and work with any interface-based stuff. It'll help him on the projects he uses the nanites in apparently. Something about the secondary programming being difficult with devices."

She checked over the IV system that Brandon was hooked to. "Okay, this is the last thing for now."

What a pain though. He had a spot shaved bare for the IV. Already a mar on his new coat.

"This may make your mouth taste like lobster," Hershey said as she pressed a button on the IV system then walked away behind the shielded glass to the control panel. The CT machine revved up and began to spin. Brandon frowned at the odd feeling throughout his whole body, spreading from his arm to quickly cover all of him.

"Breathe in and hold," the machine instructed him. He pulled a breath in and held it as the machine began to slide the table he was on through the center of the machine. As he did so, he focused on the odd feeling and tried to will it to go away. It was a few short seconds before the feeling was completely gone, leaving him wondering what it was about as the machine completed its slide of the table and told him to breathe.

Hershey came out as the table slid back from the machine and examined the IV in his arm with a frown. "That was odd, but we're not going to worry about it right now. It may be a new result." She pulled the tape off his arm, extracting the IV as she did so and placing a small gauze pad over the puncture. She held it there for only a moment before removing it and examining it. "At least healing is working properly."

"What's odd?"

She shrugged. "The contrast didn't work properly, or the machine has a problem, or you've found a new skill. We'll check it more at Echo, since it's just a basic test here."

"New skill?"

The siamese nodded. "We still don't know everything that we can and can't do, but we're finding out more all the time. Max says there's artificial limits built into the nanites too. Things they should be able to do but they just won't do. Sometimes he figures out ways to make them do it anyway, like getting them to work with non-living things. Some things they do we're not sure how they do it or why. Anyway, do you think you know what your name will be?"

Brandon shrugged and grinned. "I dunno. I think I'll take the name Rune. It's simple and clean and with such a major change, it reminds me of a story I read once."

"Rune sounds like a nice name. Storm, Shade, Rune... It all works." Hershey suddenly jumped. "Oh, crap! I almost forgot! Part of the change... Brandon, you'll be sleeping a lot for the next week or so as the nanites integrate into your mind. Some of the things for this time you won't..." He didn't quite remember the last of the conversation. Or the next week.

* * *

Storm crossed the room to the sleeping fox. "Brandon?" An ear twitched, but there was no response otherwise. She shook her head with a small grin and leaned down near his ear. "Rune?" she whispered.

"Who, whu...?" The reply was filled with sleep, but it was a response.

"Rune, it's time for dinner."

The sandy vulpine groaned and rolled onto his front, burying his head under the pillow. Storm frowned, picked up another pillow from nearby, wound up, and gave him a solid WHOMP across the rump with it. That had the desired effect as he leaped up in a heartbeat, ears back and breath coming quick as he crouched as if ready to run or attack something. "What the hell?!"

"Dinner time," Storm repeated. "Then we see if you need to sleep more."

"Izzit safe?" Slink asked from the doorway. Rune blinked at the rest of the team peering through the open door.

"He didn't bite me," Storm replied with a shrug.

Rune frowned in worry. "I bit somebody?"

"E's worse'n an'body atta 'memberin'," Slink observed as everybody walked in.

"No he isn't," Nyia snapped, pointing at the black cat lying nearby, holding some electronic device close like a stuffed animal. "At least Max doesn't bite though. MAX!!!"

The cat woke up and stretched, then looked at the item he was holding in confusion. "What the hell is this? Did I make it? What does it do?"

"Don't poke it until you know for sure," Nyia advised him.

"Probably a good idea," the black cat agreed.

"He did have a lot more changes made," Hershey told Slink as the desert fox stood up carefully. "Really it seems to be about normal, so nobody's worried." She peered at the new fox that once was a human named Brandon. "Okay, what's your name?"

"Rune. Well, now it is at least. I think. Yes... I remember that. I decided on Rune." He looked confused as he mulled this over to be sure he was correct. "Wait. That was... where are we anyway? I remember being at the production facility on the mainland." He looked around.

"We're back on the island," Storm said, tossing the pillow onto the bed. "It's been twelve days since you were changed and you've only bitten Tim."

"Twice!" Slink exclaimed.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry!" Rune told the tiger.

"I healed," Tim murmured.

"He had to hold you down several times," Hershey explained. "You panicked a few times at the start of your adjustment period. You've been suffering from the side effects longer than anybody else did."

Rune glanced at Max, who was still examining the device thoughtfully. "Well, I guess I shouldn't be too worried about not remembering things yet, since Max still doesn't either."

The black cat's ear twitched and he glanced up. "What? Oh, no, I'm always like this when I wake up. Part of my normal sleep patterns. Takes me a while to get into gear when I wake up. I recovered from the production chamber over a week ago. Don't worry. You had broader changes made and there've been no problems." He peered again at the device he was holding. "Oh, right!" he exclaimed, and rushed out of the room, clutching the item to himself.

"Don't'ya worry," Slink told the downtrodden looking fox. "Ya didn' fall 'sleep 'gain yet. 'Sa good t'ing."

"Let's go get dinner and see if he stays awake through it," Storm suggested.

"It would be funny if he fell asleep into his food," Nyia mused.

"I fell asleep in my food??!" Rune lamented.

"No, she's just teasing," Storm smiled. "But you definitely haven't been awake much. Never even got this far before. You might be done adjusting." She glanced at Hershey. "Can I try linking him?"

Hershey's ear flicked. "You'll get a huge headache if he's not ready. Sure you want that?"

"I'll take my chances."

"Wait... linking me?" Rune asked, puzzled.

"'S'ow we radio an' share info," Slink told him. Sadly, this didn't ease his confusion.

"The nanites interface with our minds and our whole bodies," Storm explained. "The adjustment period is them learning how we work and also helping us know how we work. Without that, basic stuff like eating would be a lot more difficult. They put information they have access to directly into your brain. They also can emit radiation, like light or radio. You'll be learning to control that. But basically, they can read your mind, intent, and will.

"Since they can emit radio, we can translate things directly from our thoughts into radio. But that would be too easy to pick up on, and too easy to intercept. So Max worked to get the whole linking thing working." She tapped her head lightly. "Remember how we told you the nanites are, like, really big machines behind the scenes? They can communicate with each other back there and let us do certain things out here. Like access their database of information, for example."

Rune nodded, though it was still weird-sounding. Storm held out her hand to him. "So, for radio, we constantly change frequencies really fast and randomly. Can't be detected easily that way. To make it more secure, the actual frequency info is sent through the knowledge pool in the background, so we can always track each others' frequencies. To do this, we need to link, which means you just touch the person and literally just will a link with them. Both people do it at the same time and it works."

"Easier to follow when you explain it than when Max explains it," Dash said.

"We'd be waiting another ten minutes for him to finish explaining it," Nyia muttered.

"So I just touch your hand and think that I want to link to you? If it works, we can talk in our heads and if it doesn't, you get a headache? How do I end up knowing how to do this?" Rune asked.

"It's pre-programmed into the nanites from the chamber. Some of us had to go back once Max figured it out. Not the longest range and takes a bit to get used to, but it works," Storm said.

Rune shrugged and took her hand in his. If she was willing to risk a headache, he wouldn't deny her the opportunity. Right. Just think that he wants to link to...

"HA! You're finished adjusting!" Storm exclaimed in his head. He jerked his hand back and jumped. That was just €"weird-. It was similar to hearing her, but he knew he wasn't actually hearing her. It was being radioed to him and inserted by the nanites directly into the audio centers of his mind. "Now we can have our 48-hour ritual sex to finish off the process," she sent.

"WHAT?!" Rune demanded, his ears laying back in shock. Everybody else jumped at his outburst but Storm grinned and began to laugh. Rune frowned. "You incorrigible tease!"

Hershey tilted her head. "I take it that worked. Looks like he'll get dinner then!"

"Well, this is good! You're finally finished with your whole change. Oooo, look at this... I thought it was neat when I first saw it," Storm grinned at him, then blinked invisible. Rune peered at where she was because he could still see her... kind of. She was off-color and what he saw was like she was literally glowing softly all over, but he could still see everything else through her. She became visible again, leaving him staring.

"Kinda weird th' first time'ya see't, i'n'it?" Slink said, nudging his hip with her elbow.

"I've let Max know. He'll tell Dr Stevens and the rest of the human team," Hershey said. "We can grab dinner and probably get a good sleep tonight, but then we'll probably be starting work tomorrow."

"One more thing," Storm murmured. "Rune, do you know where you are in the facility and the way to the mess from here?"

Rune frowned. "No idea."

Storm grinned for a moment. "Now, think about it again, and you'll see."

Rune looked confused, but thought... and realized that suddenly he did know exactly what room he was in, how to get to the cafeteria from where he was, and even the rest of the parts of the base that he hadn't been in before. It wasn't perfect knowledge, as there were some places he couldn't remember, so to speak, but it was substantially more than he knew before. "How...?"

"We share knowledge too," Storm said. "It's not foolproof. You still need to know what you are trying to think of somehow. Since you're linked to me, I can share my knowledge of the base with you through the nanites' back end. I control what you can and can't get from me. It doesn't just pop into your head though, you need to actively think about it and the nanites know you are searching for stuff you don't know, so they provide it if they can."

"I'd call it information," Nyia murmured. "Knowledge means knowing how to use it. It's really just raw information. Knowing facts about something and being able to use it are two different things." She stared up at the taller white vixen. "I can share my information on martial arts with you, but knowing that information doesn't make you a martial artist until you can apply it. Until then, you'll still get your ass kicked."

"It's still useful," Storm retorted, glaring at the cat. "Don't nitpick words."

Rune watched this interaction curiously. What was up between those two? Shade had been arguing with Nyia when he first met them all, but that was quickly forgotten at the time. The rivalry between the white cat and the white fox seemed to be much deeper seated. Dash looked uncomfortable also. He looked like he wanted to intervene, but between these two it didn't seem like a good idea.

Rune thought about the idea that the nanites just read his thoughts and will. With a quick inspiration to ease the tension, he tried to think himself invisible. The effects were quite interesting to say the least.

The whole world took on a somewhat more defined appearance, which was strange since he already had disgustingly-good vision in his enhanced form already. A glance at his nose showed him looking to himself about the same as Storm had looked to him before. A soft glow from his otherwise transparent body.

Everyone else looked surprised, looking around, but Storm looked positively delighted. "Yeah, you can do that too now!" she exclaimed. She could apparently see where he was just fine, just like he could see her when she went invisible, but everybody else was left in the dark, so to speak. Nyia was glaring at Storm jealously though.

"How much of this whole thing is just willing to do something?" Rune asked.

"Most of it," Hershey replied, focusing on where his voice came from though she obviously couldn't see him. "Now that everybody's changed, we'll get to start figuring out everything we can do. We just try it and see if it works."

"Can we walk through things like they aren't there?" Rune asked.

Everyone looked surprised again. There was no response for a while as they all looked thoughtful, then a sudden whomp before Rune appeared again, stumbling back from the door. He peered at the door, rubbing his nose.

"Nope," he said, disgruntled. The rest of the team looked amused. He honestly hadn't thought he could either, but his test had the desired effect of killing the tension between the two females. Storm was confused and Nyia looked about ready to laugh and neither of them was paying attention to the other any more. He sighed dramatically. "Let's go get dinner."

Everybody ended up with food from the cafeteria and took up seats, though all spread about. Rune felt stared-at by some of the humans in the room. Obviously, being a completely new sight to them, he was of interest. He didn't feel naked anymore at all, though he still wore absolutely no clothes, but it was still unnerving. He ended up taking a seat in the corner until he could get his nerves to defrazz. Tim ended up joining him.

Rune strangely wasn't hungry at all, but dinner was good enough. He was picking at his food after eating very little. As he watched the rest of the team conversing at various tables, he realized with a shock that none of them had ever actually eaten very much for all the time he had been there on the project. Even Tim had only consumed a few bites amidst the book he was reading.

"Why aren't I hungry?" Rune finally asked.

The tiger looked up at him for a moment before a small grin lifted the corner of his mouth. "We only eat to replace what we lose. Water vapor in our breath and urine for example. We're self-contained with the nanites."

Rune was almost speechless. This was the most he had ever heard the tiger say at once.

The other side of Tim's mouth curled up. "You look like your world just shattered. You thought I can't talk well, didn't you? Brief words are not a sign of stupidity, my friend. Many people in bars made that mistake."

Rune grinned slightly in response. "Trust me, I've seen your mind at work since I got here. Look how often you flip the pages on your book. Somebody with less mind wouldn't read well, right? Especially not a book that thick." He thought about something odd. "How long can you hold your breath, Tim?" He took in the look the tiger gave him. "No, sorry, it's a serious question. I just thought of something."

"Two minutes?"

"Huh. Thanks." He went back to poking at his food, now having a better understanding of why he wasn't eating any more, and the tiger went back to reading. But for now, he poked at his food with his breath held.

After a number of minutes, he let the air escape and frowned. With an inspiration, he got up and headed a few tables over to where Storm was sitting with Shade and Hershey. He got the vixen's attention.

"Storm, you had military training, right? So, like, gas chamber and everything in basic?" he asked her. She nodded. "So probably you and Nyia have the best breath control. I mean, military takes rigorous training and martial arts takes that same kind of training."

Storm looked confused. "Well, I guess that makes sense."

Rune nodded. "Though you're out of practice a bit, I'd think, since you've been doing mostly gun stuff. Huh. I guess I should go ask Nyia instead." He spun and started to walk away but Storm caught his wrist.

"What is it? I can help you with anything you need to know. I have good breath control. I need to, otherwise it would make my shooting be off target." Both Shade and Hershey looked confused, though Shade looked concerned that Nyia had been brought up.

"I heard my name," Nyia said, sounding somewhat perturbed as she approached the table, Slink and Dash close behind. Dash looked ready to try to intervene if another argument broke out.

"Oh, I was actually going to ask you something, Nyia. I figured you and Storm probably have the best breath control, because of your training. I mean, in martial arts, you don't want to run out of breath. Storm has military experience, so I figure there's breathing exercises involved in shooting too. I'm honestly not sure who's better to ask though."

"Better to ask me," Nyia agreed.

"Hardly!" Storm exclaimed. "Fighting is just a lot of heavy breathing. Shooting requires precise aim. A small wrong breath and you'll completely miss at 100 meters."

"Woah," Rune said. "Not trying to offend either of you. I don't want this to turn into who can hold their breath the longest."

"Good," Nyia muttered, "because she couldn't hold it for even half as long. I come from a higher altitude home so I have much better lungs."

"Oh really?" Storm demanded, releasing Rune's wrist and standing up, staring down at the shorter white cat. "I've been through much more rigorous training than you. Not just mock fights for competition, I had my own life on the line!"

"You think that's mock?" Nyia retorted. "Fine! If you want to prove it, then prove it!" She finished by obviously taking a deep breath and holding it. Storm was quite up to the challenge and took her own breath to hold immediately.

"Hey! Um, I don't think you need to do this," Dash said worriedly, not sure of how to react when the fight didn't involve yelling.

Rune stepped around to pat Dash on the shoulder. "Don't worry. They can't really hurt themselves and this may help with the question anyway."

They all watched as the two women stared at each other, both daring the other to let go of their breath first. Seconds ticked by and not a word was spoken by anybody. Seconds turned into minutes. A number of humans came and left with curious glances at the silent group. Minutes started growing too long and at this point, everybody watching was starting to grow fidgety.

Rune had been sneaking surreptitious glances at the wall clock and was actually very impressed. Even with everybody fidgeting, nobody had yet said a word, nor had they noticed that a good eight minutes had passed already. This was far longer than anybody could normally hold their breath.

"Um...?" Dash started, but Nyia suddenly glared at him and he shut his mouth.

Storm looked annoyed."Hell no! I'm not going to let you beat me," she radioed. Rune could only hear Storm's response because he was linked with her and not anybody else yet.

Rune peered at the clock again and thought of something else. He noted the second it was passing and made another request of the nanites. Sure enough, when he had the urge to glance at the clock again, it was precisely a minute later.

Rune made another request and settled into watching as the fidgeting of everybody else began to degrade into boredom. His internal alarm went off and he grinned at seeing the precise passing of five minutes and twenty-seven seconds further.

"Hershey, even though we're changed, we all have to breathe, right?" Rune asked.

"Well, yes, of course..." Hershey responded, looking suddenly concerned.

"Maybe we don't," Rune observed. "That's something new, right. This is great! Thank both of you for your help!" He grabbed both Nyia and Storm in his arms and dragged them against himself with enough force to make both of their breaths come out in surprised wooshes.

"Hey, no fair!"

"You made her breathe out first!"

Despite these protests, he hugged them both and grinned when he released them, even though they were both glaring at him now. "Both of you obviously could go a lot longer. I think we don't have to breathe at all though, so really it's not a good contest. Both of you could hold your breath forever maybe. What's the use in trying that?"

They both began to argue at him at once. He leaned over and gave Storm an impromptu kiss. This was an odd enough thing to do with fox lips now, but he just had to try it. Nyia began to huff, but before she could get too far into her disgruntlement, he kissed her as well. This shut both of them up in short order.

"Wai'... They 'old their breath an' they getta kiss?" Slink demanded. She got a determined look on her face and took in a deep breath.

Rune rolled his eyes and grabbed her up for a similar quick kiss, which placated her well enough. "Anybody else?" he asked, spinning to face the rest of them. He jumped when he felt something grab his tail and lift it slightly.

"Yep, I agree. He does have a cuter butt as a fox," Storm said.

He spun again but had no idea who had nabbed his tail. "Who's talking about me on radio now?" he demanded.

"Not telling," Storm said, folding her arms. "Not after you tricked us like that."

"It was an important test," Rune said defensively.

"Your butt's still cute," Storm retorted.

"Touche. I get my own room and stuff now, according to the info you shared with me, so I'm going to go look it over and make it more personal."

"Need any help?" Storm asked cheerily.

"Nope. I think I need a bit of time to myself really." He smiled and turned to leave the cafeteria, heading out swiftly before anybody could have second thoughts to stop him. It really was a big change and he needed some time with just himself to get adjusted.

He found his way with no trouble thanks to the link. The door was unmarked and in a hallway with no other doors. At least now he knew this wasn't unusual. Many parts of the facility were built based on small natural tunnels and softer ground, leaving the more solid infrastructure untouched. At least everybody else's rooms were just down nearby hallways, so he wasn't too isolated. The communal room was also very close.

Opening the door, he found himself in a moderate apartment. A large bed again, as well as a bowl bed, similar to his room on the first night he was here. The difference was that this place looked more comfortable. The desk had actually quite a bit of computer equipment, at least four monitors as well. There was a kitchenette, a bookshelf with a very small assortment of books on one shelf, and a bathroom that actually had a door. An entertainment system had more video game consoles than he recognized and a big TV to enjoy them on.

He looked at the bare walls and mostly-empty bookshelves. Yes, it would take some work to make the place comfortable, assuming he was to be here for the next few years. Apparently he'd end up spending most of his nights in the communal sleeping room.

"Any luck getting comfortable?" Storm asked him by radio. This was odd, but even more odd was that he saw her when she did.

"What are you doing in my room?" he demanded, walking towards where he had seen her glow. Odd that he didn't see it now. He found nothing, frowning at the front wall and glaring around the room. There was a knock at the door and he went over to answer it, surprised to see Storm standing there.

"Did you miss my radio call?" she asked. "Are you having any luck getting comfortable?"

"Wait... How? I just saw your glow in my room..." He looked at her accusingly, but still confused.

She shook her head. "I was in the hallway outside. The glow you see is radio, which goes through the walls."

"Oh..."

"Your room's nice. A bit bare, like all ours started out. Different layout. Your bathroom's at the back, ours are on the sides," she said, looking around. She grinned at him. "So how's the pants fit?"

"Comfortable, but... Hey, wait..." He looked down at himself, wondering when he ended up with pants. He saw none whatsoever. He looked at her, confused all the more. "I don't have any pants on, do I?"

"Nope! All out there, just like your first night, but it doesn't feel like it, does it?"

"No, really it doesn't. I had to double-check even. Definitely feels different though."

She moved beside him and slipped an arm around his waist. "Got any time for me to help you get comfortable?"

He peered at her curiously. With his new form, his nose told him so much more about the current situation than her words did. "I haven't even figured out my own body," he said quietly.

"I could always help you with some of that," she purred, leaning closer and rubbing his hip. The natural reaction he was having felt even odder in this form.

"Well, I suppose, if we have time..." he began, but there was another knock at the door. Storm jumped and moved away from him, looking more disappointed than he felt as he went to answer it.

The black cat standing outside the door with two humans looked far too busy. All three of them had boxes. "Hi, Rune! We have some files we need you to look through at least a little tonight. We want to get things up to date as quickly as possible, so you'll be starting work running," the cat said.

Max walked over with the two humans and deposited the boxes on the desk. "All of the information is computerized also, but I know that paper is sometimes better." He walked back to the new fox and held out his hand. "Go ahead and link with me too."

Rune took his hand and willed the link, feeling it engage. He didn't notice the look Storm had.

Max smiled."Thank you," he radioed. Rune found it odd that the only glow he saw from this transmission was from Max's head and down his neck and arms. Nothing from his chest down glowed at all.

The two humans exited the room and Max headed to the door, pausing and sniffing. He sighed. "Sorry, Storm. I really need him to look over the paperwork. Leave him be tonight. Rune, you're welcome to sleep in here if you like, but the communal bed is always open to you. You can work either way you like. It's going to be a test in the future whether you have the same urge to sleep with everybody too. You're not on any sleeping schedule for this week though, so stay up or sleep as you feel comfortable." He walked out, closing the door behind him.

Storm's face was a cross between disappointment and an obvious urge to bite something. "Okay," she huffed. "Well, if you've got work to do and I'm under orders to leave you alone, I'll deal." She stalked to the door. "Get the work done fast!" she pleaded before heading out.

Rune felt more alone than he had in a while. This was an odd development. He started pulling thick folders from the boxes of paperwork. Why was he getting this information again?

"Hey, Max?"

"...chroma seven looped three times, fant code set in... er, what?" Max responded, obviously in the middle of something.

"Why do I have all this again? I thought I was just here for testing like everybody else. Did they all have to go through each others' files?"

"...Susan block at level 72... No, Rune, you're hired on to be the team lead. You facilitate communication between the team and help to set up tests and discoveries. We hired you specifically for that because of your excellent history in coordinating things and leading teams through unusual situations."

"What?!" Rune demanded. "That was not part of the contract! I did my last job being in charge of anything years ago and I don't intend to return to it. Too much room for..." He growled and threw the folder he was holding onto the desk. "Change me back and take me home if you need to. I'm classifying this as a breach of contractually assigned work responsibility if you want to push it. Trust me, I read everything before I sign it."

There was silence for a short while, then Max responded,"You're right. It was a misprint in the contract. The job description information didn't get updated even though the pay did. Can we re-present the correct contract? I'll have to discuss with John, but I think he can arrange a pay increase anyway."

"No. I don't care how much you pay. This is stuff that can endanger lives. I refuse to be in charge of any part of it."

"Please, Brandon..."

"Rune!" he interrupted. "My name is rune now. You made it clear everybody gets code names for their own protection and to detach from their normal lives. I expect that detachment to be maintained. I will not bring any part of my prior life into this. Especially not any leadership."

"I see. I'll forward the information to Dr. Stevens and John. You can ignore the boxes we dropped off."

Sure enough, Jonathan showed up in just a few minutes with a small group to retrieve the boxes of information. Jonathan didn't say a word to the fox. The man looked frazzled enough to almost make Rune reconsider. This was a man who ran a multi-billion-dollar company. Why should this change in operation plans have such an effect on him?

Rune sat at the computer and sighed. He would normally be up for the rest of the night in his prior job. Now he had nothing assigned to do. He poked at the computer half-heartedly for a few minutes before a knock came from the door. He answered it to find the rest of the team there, peering at him in concern.

"We heard you demoted yourself," Storm murmured.

Rune snorted. "Word spreads quickly it seems."

"Ha! See?" Nyia said, spinning on Storm. "I told you they should have let me scout the candidates. Your guy flaked."

"Hey, it wasn't her fault," Shade interjected, frowning at the white cat.

"You stay out of this," Nyia spat.

"W-Wait, don't fight..." Dash tried to start, but all three females spun on him and he shut up quickly.

"Why didn't you want the job?" Storm asked Rune worriedly.

Rune winced. "I don't want to discuss it," he snapped and closed the door before anybody could offer any objections.

Walking back to the bed, he felt that maybe he had been a bit harsh to them. He didn't want to deal with it anymore though. They'd get over it. About the only thing left to do when there was nothing else to do and you didn't want to think about anything was to sleep.

* * *

His sleep was restless, haunted by memories of his past and odd desires. He woke in the morning grasping the bunched up blanket. What time was it? He thought for a moment. 7:14 AM. That was it. Well, he knew the exact second in fact. Hmm. Okay, so the nanites gave him good time sense. He wondered if the rest of them knew about this already. They probably did. At least he didn't feel tired, even though he hadn't slept well.

There was a beep from his computer, followed by a repeated dinging. He investigated and discovered an instant message waiting, alerting him that everybody was due in the meeting room in 45 minutes. Not too long. At least he didn't need to dress up for it.

He sniffed at himself. A musky scent, but no unpleasant odor. He remembered, most furred animals didn't sweat. Well, as long as he didn't stink to himself, he shouldn't stink to anybody else, right? Unfortunately, his brain demanded otherwise and he soon found himself in the shower.

The first thing he discovered was that showering was definitely harder with a full permanent fur coat. After the first drop of water, he was dedicated to doing a proper job, but it was much more work than he expected.

He knew that time was running dangerously short when he finally decreed that he had all the soap out of his fur. He turned off the water and stepped out to realize that he was soaked from head to toe with only a few minutes left before he had to be to the meeting room. He quickly grabbed a towel and attacked his body, but quickly discovered how futile this was.

"Rune? Are you up? We've got a meeting in just a few minutes," Storm called from the door. She had let herself in.

He winced as he swapped to a third towel to try to get himself dry.

Storm poked her head into the bathroom and blinked. "What are you DOING?!" she demanded. He was about to explain when he found himself suddenly assaulted by another towel held by the white vixen. "We're not going to have enough time to dry you," she growled, tossing a towel each to Hershey and Shade when they showed up together. Rune made a few weak protests as the three of them rubbed him down thoroughly before he was dragged out with damp and messy-looking fur.

Upon leaving his room, the three girls dropped to all fours and ran off in the direction of the meeting room. He tried to run after them on his legs only but quickly fell behind from lack of speed.

Storm glanced over her shoulder. "Run on all fours, you ditz!" she shouted back to him. "We're going to be late!" Rune frowned and had nothing he could do except try it.

The whole four-footed process lasted all of three steps before he tumbled face first against an unforgiving tile floor, leaving a smear of blood where his nose met and skin broke. He rolled over, somewhat dazed as Storm and Hershey helped him up, Storm looking abashed at the error she had caused and apologizing to him profusely. His nose stung and his shoulder was bruised, which was not the most pleasant thing for him either.

"Don't worry, you'll be healed in a few seconds," Hershey sent after examining him briefly, before she shot a look at the hallway. "Stay on your feet only until you learn how to manage all four feet. Or hands and feet. Whatever."

This slowdown saw all four of them opening the door to the meeting room two and a half minutes late. Everybody else was already there and the meeting room was populated by enough important-looking human employees that Rune felt much more self-conscious about his damp and disarrayed fur as well as their lateness than may be necessary.

"As we can see, Rune has learned that showering alone is no small task," the founder, Jonathan, announced. Several people in lab coats took notes, making Rune feel even worse. "Regardless, let's get down to business."

Rune took one of the free seats. The whole team was sitting together, though the available seats were spread amongst the group. Hershey ended up to one side of him and Tim was to the other.

"We have found ourselves minus a team lead due to an unfortunate paperwork error," the founder announced. Rune found it easier to think of him by that title, with all the code names around. "We need to decide who on the team will be filling this role."

"Why don't'ch'ya jus' 'ire 'nother person?" Slink asked.

"We're limited to nine by oversight mandate," the man replied with a sigh. "We'd have to let one of you go to do that. Given the investment already made, we disapprove of this idea. As such, I'd like to find out from all of you on the team who you think would work well in the position."

"I think Storm would do a good job," Shade offered.

"I'd do a better job than her," Nyia muttered.

"Okay, Storm and Nyia. Who else?" the founder asked.

"Um... Maybe Tim," Dash said.

"No," Tim said forcefully. He blinked as his teammates looked at him, startled. "No offense," he said more lightly. "Need somebody qualified."

"We don't want anybody who doesn't want to do this. It would affect their performance," the founder said. "Anybody else?"

"Why not just have Max take over?" Hershey asked after a moment.

The black cat looked pained. "I have enough work just coding everything."

"So it's between Nyia and Storm, then," the founder said, looking at Dr Stevens.

"Neither of them have any official leadership experience," the doctor said with a sigh. "They are both equally qualified on paper."

The founder considered. "Then we shall put them each through a basic competency battery. Dr. Stevens, I'll leave it to you to design a test set that can be duplicated on any given day."

"I'll have it ready by 11."

"Good. Storm, you start your test at noon today. Nyia, yours will be tomorrow at noon. I'd like the rest of you to keep alert for an announcement of a meeting location at 11:30. All of your input is critical to this process." With that, the founder stood from the table and walked out swiftly, followed by a few people who were only slightly slower.

Dr. Stevens shrugged and gathered up his notepad. "Rune, you're due in main medical for a few tests. You'll be linking to everybody on the team when we meet for the testing today if all goes well."

The tests were relatively complex, with all sorts of odd devices that Rune couldn't make much sense of combined with standard stuff like a treadmill and CT scan. They were very interested in the revelation that the animal team could possibly hold their breath indefinitely. Some tests confirmed that his blood oxygen level dropped to a certain point, but remained stable after that.

They also had no prior information about the time sense. They did a few preliminary tests on that and insisted on a larger battery of related testing later. They did confirm that when he concentrated on it, he had a precise sense of time with terrific accuracy.

They also called Shade in for similar testing on the time sense. Doing a blind test, her first results were relatively normal for any person. Once they alerted her to the fact that she might have better time sense and she focused on the idea, her results were identical to Rune's.

Rune was brought up to date, so to speak, on the island facility. He had all the shared information from Storm, but he had to think about it to find it properly the first time before it was more on the top of his mind. It was like having access to a huge, easily-searchable database of information directly in his head, but it didn't help unless you knew what to look for.

As he began to pull up tidbits of information, he became more impressed. The island was actually decent-sized, covering a half dozen square miles overall. Old volcanic in nature, it had a huge cave network. Many of the caves were beneath sea level and filled with water now.

There were a number of species of animals on the island as well as thousands of different types of plants. Even some larger animals were present, though not in abundance. The facility itself took quite a few years to build due to its complexity and the need for secrecy. All above-ground parts of the facility were well-hidden from aerial observation and difficult enough to find even while on the ground.

The last hour or so saw him learning to walk and run on all four appendages. Nothing taxing yet, just a long treadmill, however he got used to basic movements and gaits and felt more capable of a full run in more space. It was odd to be putting all the pressure he was just on the top of his palm and his fingers though. He wouldn't have expected them to support him properly, but they did.

Evaluations on the pressure-sensitive treadmill showed that he, like the others, suffered from finger splay at higher speeds. This didn't help them, but their fingers were not designed like animals precisely. They were able to curl their fingers and bend them back fully, engaging their claws against the ground, but their fingers were much longer than animals. He briefly tried using his knuckles like an ape, but discovered this to not work properly at all.

The tests were over with about a half hour for him to work on brushing his own fur before the scheduled meeting time. It was an annoying process after his fur had been left damp, but he managed to get it straightened out for the most part. True, no shedding. Must be a result of the nanites.

"Rune, you on your way?" Storm sent. He was in fact on his way, practicing his mobility on all fours on a normal floor. It would take quite a bit of getting used to. There was a sound up the hall of claws on the floor, somebody else nearby.

"I am. Working on running on all fours. It's harder than it looks."

"It is," Storm said from right behind him. He stumbled and stood up, spinning on her. "Aww," she pouted. "You still have a nice tail."

He noticed that the clicks of claws he heard earlier were actually coming from her. He turned his head up the hall and confirmed the sound was no longer there. "Why was I hearing your claws in front of me?" he asked her suspiciously.

"Because you had your ears turned forward," she said, standing up and poking the tip of one of his ears. "You'll learn about that soon too. Some animal stuff is automatic, but some of it needs to get past your human brain wiring. Now come on. We shouldn't be late again." She dropped to all fours and headed off again at a slower pace than she was capable of so he could keep up.

Rune dropped to his arms and legs to run behind her, trying to figure out his ears. He found that if he focused, he was aware of them. He remembered now that they laid back when he was embarrassed in the first meeting. He tried something and felt his right ear turn. That would probably be something to practice in the...

He blinked as he realized just what his view was. Okay, that HAD to be intentionally more revealing than normal. If not, running could be extremely distracting. Her tail suddenly swiped across his face, making him sputter, and she giggled.

"Got ya!" she teased. Yup. It was intentional. Much less distracting now that she was running normally. They arrived at the meeting room and stood up just outside.

"Don't worry, I'm military, I'll get the lead job no problem," she assured him.

He thought about this for a moment as they walked into the room. The lead position was not in control of discipline or promotions in this case, since other than the lead acting as coordination, they were all of equal level.

He had the sudden realization that they were not in any way discouraged from interpersonal relationships. It was part of the database information he had access to. It was simply part of the testing, seeing how the change affected their normal interactions.

Dash, Hershey, and a few humans arrived and the meeting started right on time.

"We've made this whole process very simple," Dr Stevens said, setting a folder on the table. "A list of tasks to be accomplished as quickly and correctly as possible. Some of these are just test items and some are live tasks. Please keep in mind that the live tasks are part of our normal every day operations. They are not critical operations, but should be done correctly to avoid problems.

"This is a lead position test. You are not responsible to do everything yourself, you simply need to make certain everything gets done. You can use any resources, people, or available information to accomplish your task. You will be rated on how swiftly and accurately everything is done."

He set down a waist pack and unzipped it, extracting a PDA, a small notepad, and a pen. "This will be necessary for your test. It will be used for two-way communication and some tasks." He sat back, finished.

The founder nodded. "We'll start the test for Storm at noon. Nyia will take the same test tomorrow. I understand that Nyia may get some pre-planning done, but Storm has more leadership training in her background than Nyia, so it should even out."

He looked over at Rune. "You look quite a lot more comfortable when you're not wet, Rune. Your test results this morning came back all good, so you'll be linking with the rest of the team now. Congratulations."

Rune felt like he should be blushing, but he was aware of his ears lying back as everybody applauded lightly. Everybody else on the team got up and lined up beside Rune. One by one, they passed by him and made contact with him. A hand on his shoulder, a rub on his head, or a quick hug, each with exchanged permission to link.

Rune wasn't really hit with the full implications of this graduation until his official hazing. Transmissions from everybody else on the team whooping and shouting congratulations to him over the links all at once were almost overwhelming. The flash from a camera catching his moment of shock broke him out of it as everybody started laughing.

"That was the most impressive look yet," the founder commented with a chuckle as Rune laid his ears back in embarrassment again. "It will also be the best one we get. The team for this project is complete!"

The applause this time was much louder, though the rest of the team refrained from whooping over the internal radio this time.

"Don' worry. You'll get used'ta tunin' on'y the people ya wanna hear when'ya need'ta," Slink sent to him.

"We'll see about having a party set up in a few days. I think we all need it," the founder announced. "In the meantime, we have a few minutes before the test starts today. Does anybody have any news items?"

"Yes, actually, Rune has already discovered two new features of the nanites," one of the doctors seated around the table announced. "He's discovered that they maintain blood oxygen levels even without a fresh source of oxygen. The team can hold their breath as long as they like with no adverse effects. We've only done a limited duration test so far. We'll do some extended tests later.

"He's also found that the nanites allow exceptional time sense. This will also need some extended tests," the doctor finished.

Shade suddenly snorted as she tried to hold in a laugh. "You all should have seen how he tested it at dinner last night. He... um... 'tricked' Storm and Nyia into holding their breaths as a contest."

Both of the white-furred team members chuckled. "Okay, you got us, but the consolation prize was worth it," Storm said with a grin. Nyia nodded, though she looked upset to be agreeing with Storm.

"Tricked you?" Dr Stevens asked.

"Yeah, he tricked us," Nyia said, "but it wasn't anything bad. Anyway, we got him back by not letting him know who pointed out he has a cute butt." She stuck her tongue out at Rune and grinned.

Rune took his own moment to consider being embarrassed again. Too much focus on his rear end. The fact that he could distinctly see the words "cute butt" on one of the notepads written on by a female doctor didn't help.

"Well, quite interesting indeed," the founder said with a small cough. "It looks like it's time to start the test, then."

"The PDA is set to ring an alarm at the start time," Dr Stevens observed, pushing the PDA across the table to Storm. "You can take the PDA and open the folder only after the alarm rings."

Rune thought about it for a moment and began tapping the table with a clawtip slowly. A few taps and he set his palm flat on the table just as the alarm rang. Yes, he could keep track of time well. Excellent.

Storm picked up the PDA and pressed a button to silence it, then opened the folder and rifled through the papers inside very swiftly. "That's a lot of stuff to do," she said with a huff.

"Then you'd best get to it," Dr Stevens murmured. "The rest of you can follow or do whatever you like with the day. Just remember, she's the team lead for this test, so please treat her as such."

Storm took a deep breath and shook her head briefly, eliciting a snicker from Nyia. Storm glared at the white cat and set her face. "No problem. This'll be done quick." She was about to drop to all fours but realized the PDA was in her hand, so she ran out on two feet.

* * *

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"OW!!!"

"Sorry. I've had field medicine training, but the fur makes it all harder. Hershey, I'm doing this right, aren't I?"

The siamese cat shook her head as she watched the white fox try to draw blood from Max a fifth time. The black cat was decidedly nonplussed.

"Why don't you let me do that, dear?" Hershey said softly.

"No, it's okay, I've got it," Storm decreed, changing the way she was holding the needle and feeling Max's arm. "Oh, I know. He's an animal now, so we need to take blood from the jugular vein..."

* * *

"Where's your PDA?" Dash asked conversationally, running alongside Storm.

"I left it in my room," Storm replied. "I can't run across the island carrying it. I'll be back in a jiffy, it'll be okay."

Dash shrugged and gained speed, leaving Storm behind in an instant.

"Showoff!" she sent teasingly as he looped around and came up from behind her again, passing her like she was standing still. "Thanks for keeping me company though."

* * *

"I'm done!" she announced as she trotted into Dr Stevens' office, setting the folder and PDA on his desk.

"Four hours, 23 minutes," the man stated, looking at the clock.

"How'd I do?"

The man peered at her. "That depends on how Nyia does."

The following day brought Nyia's testing. She looked smug. "Almost four and a half hours? I should be able to beat that easily."

Storm simply smiled. "Some of the stuff isn't easy, kitty. Good luck."

The alarm on the PDA rang and Nyia picked it up and silenced the alarm. She opened the folder and looked over the lists of tasks, then suddenly laughed. "Oh, silly vixen! You went running out across the island to collect the weather station data by yourself. Part of being a lead is having other people help you do things." She took a sheet of paper out of the folder. "Shade, you know how to drive a forklift. Come with me, we have some stuff to move in the warehouse."

* * *

"Are you sure you're doing that right? I mean, don't you need to shave his arm first or something?" Nyia demanded, glaring at the other two cats.

Hershey looked up from Max's arm and sighed. "There's no good reason to make his arm bare, dear." That had to have been at least the twentieth complaint from the white cat so far. At least Nyia wasn't chasing Max away by trying to stick a needle in his neck.

* * *

"Why'm'I doin' this survey 'gain?" Slink asked.

"You're the best at squeezing into tight places. You can get into this cave system easier than anybody else, so you won't be spending time trying to squeeze through like Storm did. Just get in there and take a measurement of the water level," Nyia said with a huff.

* * *

"I'm done! See? Three hours. Much faster than Storm," Nyia announced as she entered Dr Stevens' office.

"Done? You haven't turned in any of the reports due today at all," Dr Stevens told her. "Go check your PDA. You have a lot left to do."

"Storm left it in her room when she was going somewhere. I thought it'd be okay to leave it too," Nyia grumbled, heading back out.

* * *

"Okay, NOW I'm done!" Nyia said as she rushed in later.

"Four hours, fifteen minutes," Dr Stevens announced as he checked the time.

"Hah! I knew I'd do better than her!"

The man stared at her. "Quality of the work is also important. You moved several items to the wrong locations in the warehouse. I'll be weighing that in the results. Let the team know we'll have a meeting tomorrow. Also let Rune know I need him please."

He sighed as she left, shaking his head when she was out of the room. He looked over the various results of the tests. Neither had done well at all.

"You wanted to see me?"

The fox was standing in the doorway.

"Yes, Rune, come in please. I have a favor to ask of you. Both Storm and Nyia took the test. I'm going to be frank. Both of them did miserably."

Rune looked cautious. "What does this have to do with me?"

"I'd like you to take the same test tomorrow to make sure I didn't make an error in designing it. Then I'd like your feedback on which of the two might be able to fill the position based on your inside view of the test and your experience. That's all I ask."

Rune's look turned cold and he opened his mouth, but the doctor held up a hand to forestall him. "Testing is part of your job description by contract, Rune, as is giving feedback on results from yourself and others on the team."

Rune sighed and nodded and left the office without a word.

* * *

"This should be interesting," Shade murmured as they all sat watching the tawny fennec.

Rune reached for the PDA and touched it the moment the alarm went off. Picking it up, the first thing he noticed was that the alarm was not a reminder alarm, but rather an email arriving. He activated that and read it, his ear flicking. A few more button presses and he spent at least five minutes navigating on the PDA while everybody stared at him intently.

Only after getting the information he wanted did he pick up the folder and open it. He began to read the first sheet before he suddenly realized that simply looking at the page for a second or even possibly less had gotten it scanned by the nanites and he already knew everything it said. He flipped through the sheets of paper, reading them as well, and made a few notes on the PDA.

"Shouldn't'e be doin' some'tin'?" Slink whispered worriedly to Shade.

"I am doing something," Rune replied quietly. He took one of the sheets of paper out of the folder and crossed some parts of it out with the pen before handing it to Tim. "Tim, go ahead and take care of this please. Based on the inventory data, you won't even need a forklift. Radio me if you have any questions or problems, and let me know when you're done."

He looked across the table at Hershey. "We need a blood draw from Max, but work with him on this one. We need a normal draw, but also a small draw from his leg if you can arrange that. We need to find out if any of the nanites are migrating through his blood stream to the rest of his body."

Hershey nodded and started to head out with Max, but Nyia looked upset. "I thought the tests were identical. I didn't hear anything about that," the white cat complained.

"Did you read the email that rang the alarm to start the test?"

Both Nyia and Storm looked surprised and laid their ears back in embarrassment. Rune nodded to himself and sighed as he looked at Shade thoughtfully. "Shade, do you actually have echolocation?"

Shade joined the other two in looking surprised, though for a different reason. "Um, yes. Actually, I do."

"Good. Would you and Slink come with me please? I have an idea on something."

Rune picked up the waist pack and strapped it on, placing the PDA and notepad and pen in it. Both Storm and Nyia looked quite surprised when he did this and dropped to all fours to run out with Slink and Shade... and the PDA in his possession.

The idea itself ended up with Shade using her echolocation to read the water level in the cave. Slink was simply there as backup in case it didn't work as expected. Twenty-five minutes more found Rune in the warehouse confirming that everything was moved to the correct locations just after signing off on the tests run on Max's blood draws. Then off to his room to finalize some reports.

Ten minutes later,"Dash? Would you grab the module from the weather station on the other side of the island please? You're the fastest one here, so I know it'll get back efficiently. You know where that is, right?"

"Er, yes, I know where it is. Um... I'll be right back, then."

Rune walked into Dr Stevens' office, looking at the PDA in confusion. "Are you sure this was right? It's only taken about an hour to get all this done. Dash is on his way back with the weather station module right now and that's the last task. If the weather station module wasn't rolled over at one, I would have sent him to grab it a while ago and everything would be done by now. I thought Nyia and Storm both took over four hours."

"They did. That's why I'm concerned. The tasks are expected to take about two hours. Both of them took more than twice as long and had a lot of oversights and errors. Obviously you took half as long as expected and were even held back only by a forced delay," the doctor said. "Hopefully you can see why it's a difficult decision on which of them to choose for the position, especially when you're so qualified. Are you sure you won't reconsider?"

Rune's face set. "Absolutely not. I'll look over your results and help..."

"HELP! OH GOD, HELP!"

The transmission was from Dash.

"Trip on something Dash?"

"Didn't beat your best time?"

"Stub your toe, kitty?"

Everybody else was joking, but Rune could hear the genuine panic and pain in Dash's transmission. He was already running from the room, leaving the human doctor looking after him. He wasn't sure how he did it, but he managed to effectively force his nanites to broadcast more loudly,"EVERYBODY, BE QUIET! Dash, what's happening, are you hurt? Tell us what's wrong."

"I'm... stuck... hurt bad..." came Dash's reply. "Tree fell on me. I'm in a tidal cave, branch through my shoulder. Hurts... a lot... dizzy..."

Rune winced. Impaled through the shoulder would leave the cheetah losing a lot of blood very quickly. Depending on the cave, he might be in danger of rising water too. There was complete silence on the radio as he ran through the hallways.

"WHAT?!"

"Holy shit! Somebody get some help or something! What do we do?"

Rune frowned."Do we have a rescue team on the island or anybody trained in rescue?" There was no answer from anybody at all. Rune shook his head in exasperation. He sent Dash out to retrieve the data for the leadership test. He'd take care of his team, even if it is only his team temporarily.

He looked around himself as he ran towards the exit to the island above."Hershey, alert the medical bay and have doctors on standby. Max, let the founder know we have an emergency and bring Dr Stevens up to date, I left him without any explanation. Everybody else, get your tails out there ASAP. This is VERY bad. I want everybody to keep your transmissions on but silent, so I can see where you are.

"Hershey, meet us as soon as you have everybody ready. We will need your medical abilities. Dash, keep your transmission on as best you can buddy. We'll get you out of there. Stay with us."

He exploded from the door and took off along the path outside. He could see Dash's radio glow in the distance. Not too far away thankfully. He was already just a little bit used to turning his ears and was paying close attention to everything as he ran, his mind working quickly.

Shortly he pulled up short by a large sinkhole. A large tree fell near the trail and the impact collapsed the ground into the tidal cave below. He peered through the still-dusty air into the hole below, hearing the telltale whoosh of tidal water below. The top of the tree was down in the hole with the base of the trunk still hanging out the edge. He frowned as he heard a different sound though. Small sounds and scrabbling, a few hisses.

Moving around the edge towards the tree trunk, he spotted the... spotted... cause of the extra commotion. Two young kittens, probably a litter from the large cats that inhabited the island. They were making little cries and trying to climb up the debris. Unfortunately, their actions were pulling more debris down on Dash, who was severely bloodied and didn't look to be in good condition. Too much clambering and they might dump themselves into the wet cave below if they didn't end up causing the whole mess to collapse further.

The situation was already looking worse. The tree was continuing to slide down slowly. This was not-good. He glanced up the path as everybody else came running.

"Tim! Get over here and grab this tree trunk! See if you can hold it stable, it's going to slide down and fall in if we don't get it." He motioned the tiger over and pointed to the trunk.

"I'll go down and get Dash," Storm declared, starting down the edge. Her feet on the debris dislodged more and sent it tumbling down the slope, pelting Dash and the kittens below and almost knocking one of the cats off.

"WOAH!" Rune exclaimed, grabbing Storm and yanking her back up. "You'll send it all crashing down on him! We need a few things. Storm, you're good with stuff. We need a bunch of strong rope. Damn, glad this was close to the base. Go grab that please Storm. Fast as you can, this is getting bad."

Tim had already grabbed the tree trunk and was keeping it from sliding further. Thankfully the tiger didn't need to put much effort into it. Rune continued to look around, waiting on the rope, and sniffed. Something smelled... There was something else nearby.

"Nyia... I smell a cat. I think it's the mother of the two kittens. Do you see..."

He didn't get to finish before the enraged mother cat decided that Tim was the most likely source of the threat to her kittens and also the least able to defend himself and leaped in his direction from the underbrush.

"Nyia! Get that cat!" Rune shouted. The white cat launched herself at the offending feline, leaping over the hole to collide in midair just inches before claws and teeth hit the tiger.

"Neutralize her and keep her away, but don't hurt her," Rune said.

"Why me?!" Nyia demanded, deflecting claws and putting the momma cat into a choke hold, quickly getting her under control.

Rune looked over at where she had already succeeded in removing the upset mother cat from being a problem. The cat was struggling and hissing but making no headway against the highly-skilled martial artist. "Because you're the absolute best for the job. You just pinned her in five seconds flat and don't have a scratch on you." Nyia seemed placated enough by this decree.

"Shade, I need your echolocation skill. Tell me everything you can about this cave. We need to get Hershey to Dash to stabilize him before we can do anything with the tree, so we'll need a good way in. This sinkhole isn't stable enough to let Hershey down in without collapsing everything on Dash."

Shade nodded and started chirping at the hole from various angles just as Storm returned with the rope, Max just behind her. Rune grabbed the rope and ran around the hole, tying one end to a nearby tree and tossing the other over to Storm who caught it without forewarning. He ran back around and looped it several times around another tree trunk before tying it off.

"Slink, you're the lightest and most nimble. I need you to get out to the center of the rope and tie this extra length of rope around the center, then climb down it. Try to get those two kittens to be still. Rub the mom cat first so you smell like her," Rune announced. "You might be able to carry them out if you are careful. Dash! You holding on there?" Dash nodded up at them, though the pain in his expression was obvious. Slink nodded and took the length of rope, climbing out the stretched rope.

"Rune, there's a small opening just down this hill that gets into the cave and it has dry walkway all the way to the ledge near Dash," Shade announced, pointing down at the ledge that the cheetah was on. "Below that it's all sharp and wet. If anybody falls, it's probably bad." She looked worried. "Only thing is that Slink is the only one who could fit in the opening, Hershey definitely couldn't."

Rune considered. "Max, do we have access to sledgehammers, shovels, or anything to widen the opening? Gah... that might be too slow though. We also need something to cut that tree near Dash."

Max looked distracted, but looked at Rune. "We have sledgehammers and shovels and we have chainsaws too."

Rune nodded. "We'll need all of those. Damn, this would be quicker if we could get some controlled demo charges."

Max considered. "We used charges and plastic explosives to expand some of the caves. We have a lot of that left stored in the armory."

"Even better. We need one chainsaw, at least two shovels, and a good selection of the explosives as well as a proper way to set them off safely." Rune nodded again. "Max, you go grab the saw and shovels. Storm, go get the explosives and whatever you need to make them work. You'll have to set and detonate them. I want you to work with Shade spotting the structure to get that hole wide enough to get Hershey in and Max out."

Both Max and Storm ran off to acquire those items as Slink climbed back up the rope with a squirming bundle of fluff. "Hey, great, take that kitten at least straight away from the hole and Nyia. Set it down in the bushes and get the other one if you can." Slink ran off with the kitten and returned to climb back down the rope and get the other. "You doing okay, Tim?"

Tim grinned slightly. "I'm fine. No claw marks." He glanced at the still-annoyed mother cat. Several humans had shown up with a stretcher by this point, but were waiting well out of the way for now. Hershey was at the edge of the hole calling down to Dash and asking him questions about his condition.

Storm returned next with a backpack full of munitions and headed down the slope with Shade as Slink extracted the second kitten and took it in the same direction. Rune looked at Nyia. "Let her go but watch her. If she's smart, she'll get her kittens out of here and leave. If she goes after anybody, discourage her from it and herd her toward the kittens."

Nyia nodded and released the wild feline, leaping away. The cat spun on her and tried to swipe with claws, but they were deflected easily by the white cat. There was a moment of a standoff as the upset mother considered going after Nyia again, but the mewl of her kitten got her attention and she rushed off in that direction instead.

"Rune, Dash isn't doing well, we need to get that branch out of him," Hershey announced.

"Storm! How long on getting that opened up?"

There was the loud report of explosives going off down the hill."We might have it with this," came the reply. A moment later, "It's clear!"

Max arrived with a chainsaw at this point. He was delayed by the need to carry it with his hands. Several humans came running shortly thereafter with powerful branch cutters and various hand saws as well. Rune grabbed the chainsaw and a pair of cutters and gestured to Hershey. "Come on!"

Rune scrambled down the slope towards the settling cloud of dust, Hershey not far behind. The hole was large, but no jagged areas, and he was able to walk in and along the edge without much trouble. He followed the winding ledge until he reached Dash. Unfortunately, there was only room for one person adjacent to the injured cheetah.

Frowning, he grabbed onto the rope and kicked off the ledge, swinging over to the other side of the tree and barely catching his footing there on the ledge. His ears laid back as he glanced at the sharp rocks below. "Hershey, stabilize Dash as much as you can. I'm going to cut off the top of the tree below him to reduce the weight first." Hershey moved up and put her hands on Dash's shoulder where the branch had impaled him completely.

Rune slung the chainsaw and cutters over a spare branch and tied the rope around his waist quickly so he had both hands to work with. A pull on the starting rope and the chainsaw roared to life, echoing loudly in the cave, and made short work chewing through the trunk of the tree. Tim was ready thankfully and the tree moved up only barely as the heavy top crashed down into the cave below.

Rune examined the branch that had impaled Dash. Too large for the cutters, but there was a good six inches of space between the cheetah and the trunk."Tim, I need you to hold the tree absolutely as still as you can." He reached up and patted Dash's good shoulder. "Dash... Close your eyes, fold your ears back, and don't move."

Revving up the chainsaw, he began to apply it very carefully to the branch. He had to go extremely slowly or the vibrations would only hurt Dash much worse. He could see Dash wincing in pain at even the light pressure from what he was doing."Hershey, hold Dash so he doesn't fall when this comes loose."

"I've got him."

Rune frowned as the tree began to drop lower and a shower of stones pelted him."Tim?"

"The ground is breaking up beneath my feet!"

Rune frowned. The branch was almost cut through, but the rain of stones from above was getting worse and he could hear the crunching even past the growl of the chainsaw. He examined everything with desperate swiftness. There! The branch was partway into that crevasse on the other side of Dash.

"Tim! Throw the tree to your right and get out of danger!" He winced as a very large chunk of rock hit him in the head, making him woozy. "NOW!"

"You're to the right! It will hit you! I can throw it past Hershey. She's in a clear space."

"NO! To the RIGHT! DO IT!"

The tiger squelched his misgivings and did as ordered. Rune braced for the impact of the tree, dropping the chainsaw into the cave below and grabbing the rope. He was not hit as hard by the throw as by the branches whipping past him as the tree dropped into the darkness. The throw had the intended effect. The branch had been wedged in the crevasse in such a way that if it had been moved left, it would just slide out, but moved right held it tight and snapped it off at the cut, eliciting a yowl of pain from Dash but otherwise freeing the feline to slump into Hershey's arms.

He had a very strong hold on the rope, greatly increased by his enhanced strength, but the branches were too much, not to mention he was still dizzy from the knock to the head. His hand slipped and he fell just before the base of the tree went past, vanishing into the dark pit. Everybody above who saw this gasped just before the rope went taught. They knew the report that the terrain down there was treacherous and full of sharp spears of stone.

"I'm okay, take care of Dash," was Rune's transmission a moment later, allowing everybody to breathe a sigh of relief. Hershey had already gotten the branch out of the cheetah and carried him out of the cave to lay flat and work on healing him fully with her nanites supplementing his own capabilities.

"What's Dash's condition?" Rune enquired after a short while. He had waited until the top of the sinkhole had cleared of people before climbing out and making his way back along the ledge.

"He's shaken but almost completely recovered," Hershey replied. "Healing anybody on the team is really easy with both sets of nanites working together. The human team is still insisting on taking him back on a stretcher and checking him over in medical. The founder and Dr Stevens are here too. They're debriefing everybody on what happened. I'm heading back with Dash to finish taking care of him before we arrive."

"You okay down there?" Storm sent, peeking over the edge of the hole. Rune waved up at her from the ledge before vanishing into the shadows further along the ledge. She scampered down to the hole she had made to meet him as he exited, though she had a bit to wait. Finally he emerged from the hole.

"You scared everybody when you fell," she accused him. "Why didn't you let Tim throw the tree the other way?"

"The crack the branch was wedged in was shaped so that the branch would break if he threw it right, but just slide out and take Dash with it if he threw it left or just let it drop," Rune said softly. "It was the only way to keep Dash safe." He paused and twisted his body to examine the back of his right thigh with his fingertips.

"That could have killed you though! Shade said the rocks down there are like a forest of spears. You're lucky the rope caught you before you hit any!"

"Many," Rune corrected her, pulling bloodied fingers away from his thigh as he extracted a three inch razor-sharp tip of a stone that broke off there and tossed it on the ground. "I don't think I feel any more rocks still stuck in me. The rope just stopped me before they went in too far." He turned carefully. A good dozen or more puncture wounds graced his whole back from his shoulders down to his knees and a few cuts on his shanks.

"Holy shit, you're all cut up! You look like you took grenade shrapnel at long range back there. We've got to get Hershey to fix you up too."

"Don't call her back. I don't have any serious injuries. Ow... Stings like hell though. She needs to make sure Dash is okay. I'll be closed up and fine in about a minute according to my nanites." He sighed. "Looks like shrapnel, eh? How ironic," he muttered under his breath.

Storm looked at him warily, but he seemed to be speaking the truth enough. Many of the blood spots were already actually vanishing as the nanites cleared everything up. "Why didn't you tell us you hit the rocks?"

"It was more important that Dash get taken care of. He had a life-threatening injury. I just got cut up and stabbed a bit."

"A bit?! That's a lot more than a bit," she said as she picked up the piece of stone he extracted from his thigh earlier. She tapped the tip of it with a claw, looking over his back again. "If you didn't have nanites in you now, you'd be as scarred up as you were before you were changed. Well, except your leg, you're clear now. Not a spot of blood on you. I didn't know the nanites could get rid of the blood stains."

"Neither did I. I just asked them to and they did. I'm a fast learner."

They climbed up the slope to meet everybody else. There was a lot of chatter going on, but everybody fell silent as Rune approached. Rune looked around as he remembered something. He scanned the nearby bushes and spotted what he was looking for. Without a word to anybody, he dropped to all fours and ran over to the object, picking it up and tucking it into his waist pack before taking off at a full run minus a small limp in his right leg. He ignored a call of question from behind him.

It wasn't four minutes before he returned to the scene to find more people there and a lot of folks looking at the hole in the ground. Rune walked over to where the hole was and tapped Dr Stevens on the shoulder. "I just finished delivering the module, so the tasks are complete. Now I just need to find out why Dash got hit by the tree when there is no way he should have been hit." The fox looked upset.

"He reported back that he just wasn't able to dodge out of the way fast enough when it fell," Dr Stevens said.

Rune frowned. "So why was he under it when the path he was on is twenty feet away from where it fell?" he asked, pointing at the path nearby. Dr Stevens looked surprised at this new bit of information.

"Dash... Why were you under the tree when it fell? The path is nowhere near where it fell," Rune sent, voicing his question out loud at the same time for the benefit of the humans. He paced around the area, staring at the ground as he did, finally dropping to all fours for a short time.

"Er, what? Oh... um... I was... taking a short cut."

"He says he was taking a short cut. He's lying to me, which I don't like," Rune growled."Dash. I have one very basic rule. Don't lie to me when I am your supervisor. A team is based on absolute trust. You were under my supervision when this happened. I want the full truth. You went BACK to this area from further up the path. You dropped the module in the bushes closer to the base."

The whole team was looking at him in shock for calling Dash a liar. He frowned. "Shade, you used to investigate things. Look for yourself, tell me I'm wrong."

"Wait a minute, Dash, don't say anything," Shade sent angrily before beginning her own search of the area. She paced around a bit, sniffing at the ground and looking at everything before standing up and looking shaken. "You're... You're right. He stopped very suddenly right there and dropped the module in the bushes, then came back up to here at high speed for some reason." She winced. "Dash... He's right. What did you do?"

"I... The tree was falling... I saw the kittens... I thought I could save them. I wasn't fast enough. I... I'm sorry."

Rune forwarded the information to the humans so they would know why everybody on the team had gasped. Then he smiled slightly."Dash, don't be sorry for trying to save lives. Don't be sorry for getting hit. Just be sorry for lying directly to me or anybody else on the team, and don't ever do it again." He looked around. "Everybody okay after this? No other casualties?"

Storm looked distressed and Nyia looked annoyed. "Dr. Stevens told us about some stuff," Storm finally said. "You finished the test faster than it was supposed to be finished. You did obvious smart things, like the taking the waist pack. I never even thought of that. You even did... well... bonus work. You saved Dash and those two kittens, and you did kind of a good job on that too."

"KIND OF A GOOD JOB?!" Nyia demanded, exploding at Storm. "Without him, we'd be missing a cheetah! Not a person here had any idea what to do. Not you, not me, not anybody else here at the base. He got us here, he made us work, he made everything work, and we saved Dash. You say he did KIND of a good job? Neither of us are fit to lead compared to him."

Dr Stevens shook his head. "She has a point, Rune. Without your guidance, we would have had a serious tragedy today."

"I won't work under anybody but Rune," Nyia said, setting herself and getting a determined look on her face.

Storm sighed. "I hate to agree with you, but I do. Rune as lead, period."

Everybody else on the team nodded agreement, staring at the desert fox. Shade sent the update to Hershey and Dash. Both of them sent back their approval of the decision.

"Rune... you saved my life. If you weren't on the project, I wouldn't be anymore either. You, um, made a good point about trust too. Um... Thank you."

"No," Rune said, looking pained to say it though. He looked away from everybody, shielding his face. "No. I can't deal with it again." His hand found the back of his leg where he had been stabbed by the stone and he winced strongly, even though the wound was quite healed by now. He shook his head and ran off again without a word.

"Rune?" It was Storm, but Rune could smell everybody else behind her, even Dr Stevens and the founder.

"Knocking would be polite," he muttered, muffled by the pillow he had his face buried in. He felt several people sit on the bed beside him.

"Rune, what happened? I was the one who was scouting you. I know everything in your past from the records pull and I don't remember anything that was that bad," Storm said.

"You know nothing," Rune said miserably.

Storm touched his shoulder. "Even Dr Stevens says there's nothing in your files that..."

Rune shook her hand off violently and sat up, glaring. "I'm serious when I say you know nothing," he growled. He looked around at the team, realizing how concerned they all looked for him.

His eyes dropped and he took a deep breath before he looked at Dr Stevens. "Everybody on this project including the folks who are staying human, are under non-disclosures?" The man nodded. Rune considered for a while before his ears wilted. "We need to take a trip then if you want to know. I don't care who on the team comes, but I don't want any support crew except Dr Stevens." He looked at the founder. "Well, and you if you want to come."

Everybody looked confused as Dr Stevens and Jonathon looked at each other. John finally nodded. "To where?" Dr Stevens asked.

"My home first, then Denver."

"We do need to bring company security with us, Rune."

"Fine."

"You won't be able to do things yourself either. Remember, you can't be seen by anybody."

Rune blinked invisible for a moment. "I don't think that will be a problem."

"Then we will leave in the morning. In light of today's events, everybody take the rest of the day off." Dr Stevens and the founder turned and left.

Rune pulled his legs up to his chest and crossed his arms over them. He dropped his face into his arms, feeling miserable.

"Rune, I don't know what's going on, but we all support you," Shade murmured. He felt more bodies coming to rest on the bed.

"Y'did a good job," Slink said.

"You need something special," Hershey said with a grin.

Rune wasn't given a chance to make much protest as he was suddenly scooped up by the tiger and carried from the smaller normal bed to the huge bowl bed in his room. He was deposited gently before he was suddenly surrounded by warm bodies. He tried to get his bearings, but even with his eyes open, everything was a blur.

"The change makes us crave contact, probably you do too," Storm whispered in his ear. "If you get uncomfortable, let us know. Otherwise, let's all rest. We've had a hard day."

"You saved me, but you got everybody to work together just the right way to do it. We're all behind you," Dash said.

Rune relaxed as things settled down. This was comforting, albeit in a strange and unfamiliar way, but he was happy to get used to it quickly. He was mentally exhausted. "Thank you for your support. But Dash, please don't get too close behind me. I've already been warned about that."

Chuckles and giggles came from everybody in the pile. Rune grinned as Dash reached over to tweak his ear. He did feel comfortable. This did help. Even without a paycheck, just this experience made it all worth while. He hoped they would still feel the same when they knew the truth.

The next morning found everybody up bright and early and assembling in the hangar. Rune made sure certain supplies were brought as well: a laptop and a good bit of cash from his own paycheck as well as his house and car keys.

The flight back was an interesting one. They were in stealth before leaving the base of course, but now Rune had his own N-Link because of the nanites. He could 'see' the whole plane around him, or ignore it if he chose, and he could interact with the data terminal adjacent to his seat without even touching it.

After a bit of delay from the airport after going out of stealth, they set down and the whole first run team turned invisible. Rune found it interesting how he was aware of the waist pack and the backpack he was wearing as if they were almost a part of his body. His nanites were extended into it to grant stealth, so he got the feedback from them as well.

Max almost ended up with smoking fur. He was testing a portable invisibility device. True to form, one of his connections was made badly and he gave himself a bit of an electric jolt. In the end, he took out the battery and used his own N-Link to communicate with the nanites stored in the device instead of relying on the electronics. Seeing the black cat go invisible was an interesting change.

This stop was brief. Rune had to pick up some items from his home. He took a chance to practice something new as well. Max, Dr Stevens, and two security members drove in a rented car while Storm and Rune got to run alongside. It was Rune's first chance to really stretch his new legs aside from a treadmill and it was quite exhilarating.

The surface streets gave him opportunity to get used to running on all fours more, but the ability to keep up with freeway traffic without even feeling strained was surreal. Rune kept to the shoulder of the freeway but Storm showed off far too much, weaving in and out of traffic, invisible to the unsuspecting drivers making their ways along the road.

Rune enjoyed the wind through his fur and before long was making increasingly longer forays into the traffic lanes to see what all the excitement was about. It turned out it was just more practical. Less debris to step on.

Catching a quick break on the tailgate of a semi trailer was an interesting thing to do though. They couldn't help themselves. It was just too perfect an opportunity. The bad pun resulting from it had Max doubled over laughing in the car, much to the confusion of the human occupants.

"They're sitting on the tail of that truck just ahead," Max explained when they asked.

"So why's that so funny?"

"They're making the name of the trucking company all too appropriate," Max replied. The company was Fox Transportation.

The trip ended with the car parking a few streets down while Rune and Storm continued to his old house.

"You don't need to get anything big, do you?" Storm enquired as they approached his home.

"No, just a few things from my safe," Rune replied, stopping to look at his house from the front driveway. "Well, here I am about to break into my own house, so to speak. Did you feel this way when you were investigating me?"

"I already had a lot more practice with the nanites than you. You've only been changed a few days. It would have been a lot easier if I had keys though."

In the back door and he quickly had his safe open and was stuffing the objects into his backpack. A laptop, a few folders of paper, a DVD folder with a good number of DVDs in it, and a lock box key. The backpack went onto his back again and quickly became invisible as his nanites flowed into it. They slipped out the door, locked it, and headed back to the plane with no incidents.

A few short hours later found them at Denver International Airport and off to a large bank downtown. Dr. Stevens was the carrier this time, since Rune couldn't go in to get his own deposit box. The doctor was given the key and the lock box number and that was all that could be done.

Of course, Rune and Storm both followed him into the bank. Storm had practice dodging people in controlled situations before, but Rune got his first practice live. He had a number of close calls and several accidental contacts with folks, but no major issues. He got better as he went, learning how to listen all around himself and be aware of his environment. The lock box itself contained another heavy secured box which Dr. Stevens brought back to the car.

Back to the plane once again, but this time for a place for everybody to sit. "You want to know why I don't want to lead anything," Rune said. "Here's your answer. This information is under no circumstances to pass beyond anybody here. Technically I shouldn't have it either." He opened the lock box that had been picked up from the bank as everybody crowded around to see.

The contents were odd. Newspaper clippings, DVDs, and magazine clippings. They were all from a number of years back. The assassination of a very important international political figure at a public meeting.

"I remember that," Storm said. "That was a huge mess. Almost started a war. Did start riots in a lot of countries. If the guy who did it hadn't died doing it, things would've been worse."

"Mark Morrison," Rune said with a nod.

"Biggest bad guy in a long time," Hershey murmured.

"He was in charge of security for the event. Brilliant way to get inside the defenses he was in charge of," Nyia spat. "He was touted as one of the greatest small team leaders and coordinators of his time before he turned like that. All that good stuff he did, just to get into position to murder his whole team and assassinate both father and son."

"They had to show footage of him getting killed by the blast from his own bombs to convince people to drop it. Even then, they were demanding pieces of him," Storm said.

Rune was busily booting up the laptop and going through the DVDs that were in the locked box. Soon he had one popped in and pulled up a video from it. "You've all seen this footage from the news."

They peered at the laptop as a security video showed a man getting hit from behind by a bomb blast, picking up the assault rifle that had been knocked out of his hands, and taking two shots off-screen. A second blast just behind him made it obvious that he was not going to survive it before the camera died as well.

"If that first bomb had killed him, the shots never would have been fired," Shade observed with a sigh. "First shot killed the prime minister, second shot killed the last person alive on his team, the prime minister's son."

Rune already had another DVD in the computer and was accessing a file on it with a long password. "Sadly, the single shot he actually took was just a second too late," he murmured. The second video began to play. A high definition version of the same scene from a different security camera and a much longer clip.

In this scene, the same man was obvious, ducking behind a table with the rifle as bullets tore through the table near him. The person who was doing the shooting was also in plain view in this camera. Several bodies of guards already littered the ground and several more went down as this second man fired on them, now ignoring the man behind the table.

"Wait... who's that guy? Mark's behind the table, but that guy's shooting everybody. Mark was the one who shot all his security team though," Storm said.

"He obviously wasn't," Rune murmured quietly.

The camera was a very nice wide view and now the second man's attention went to the podium where the prime minister was crawling across the stage. His gun leveled and he took aim across the panicking audience. The man spun as Mark got him covered. The video was silent, but Mark had his gun aimed at the shooter, not the assassinated man.

The shooter made a motion at his belt and the explosion occurred behind Mark, throwing him forward and knocking the gun from his grip. His back was the same mess shown in the other video, just in much greater detail in this video. The shooter leveled his gun at the target again just as Mark got his own rifle back.

Two shots were indeed fired in rapid succession. The first one left the muzzle of the gun that was held by the second man and sliced through the target on the stage. As history would record, through both lungs and clipped the top of his heart, killing him swiftly. The shot fired from Mark's gun was in the same general direction, just after the assassin's bullet found its target, however it was meant for the assassin himself. One shot fired and the killer's neck bloomed in a spray of blood as the bullet severed his spine and went out through his throat.

There was no second explosion. Mark simply collapsed, his entire back bloodied by the blast. "Mark laid there for two hours before anybody realized he was still alive," Rune murmured. "His team member had planted the bombs, shot down the rest of his team, and performed the assassination of his own father. This camera and dozens of others showed the whole truth just like this."

Rune choked with tears in his eyes. "The family couldn't allow this truth to be seen. Their son, now dead, killing his own father in cold blood? It was unacceptable to them. One camera had a close enough view that they could doctor the images. Play a few frames twice. Add an extra explosion for that camera to see, even though the numerous explosions that followed were elsewhere.

"Mark became the scapegoat. He felt he should be dead like the rest of his team. The doctored videos made it so. His last task in his old life was to end his old life. From his hospital bed, he went through the footage and spent days his time recovering from the blast and choreographing his own transformation into an infamous assassin. Press releases, official inquiries, and even the infamous video, all faked up. Some minor facial reconstruction at the end of his medical stay and his old identity erased, a new life history made for him. The family avoided embarrassment and a war was averted."

Rune took a deep breath. "The world would know him as the most infamous killer of the century so far. He would know himself as a failure to his work and his team. With a new life... and this failure haunting him forever more... he swore to never lead again. No lives would be lost because of his misjudgments ever again."

Everybody was staring at him in shock. "How did you get this footage?" Shade demanded. Rune hung his head, eyes closing as a tear hit the floor.

It was Nyia who figured it out though. "The scars on your back. You..." She paused in shock. "You're Mark Morrison."

Recommended Next Steps

If you enjoyed the story, you're encouraged to comment below, fave the story, and vote on it.

Click here to send the author a tip

More StoriesNext Story

Head here to subscribe to me on Patreon