FSE

Furry search engine

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Ilaria slapped her twin brother hard against the back of his head as they walked through the freshly-cycled airlock. "Well you didn't have to ~tase~ the poor girl. It hurt just watching that thing shock her."

"What? The Major gave me an order." Iolvin ducked under a cross rib on the ceiling and then found a seat to rest his injured chest and back. "Besides, we don't know what the hell she is."

"Sis?" Ashe perked up with a smile and extended her cane, but Ari intercepted her so it wouldn't get in the way. "I hear big brother. So you were successful?"

"More or less. We had to fight a bit, but we found them."

Carbon carried the Arctic wolf's lookalike over her shoulder with surprising strength for a fur of her small stature. "That doesn't do it justice. 'Struggle', maybe." She eased the doppelganger across an empty row of seats and checked her vitals. "She's still out cold. And since I'm seeing it with my own eyes now... Where the hell did she come from?"

"The explosion. I don't know how else to say it." Yoyo looked through the airlock at Zoë, who was peeking her head into the crew bay cautiously. "Zoë, it's safe. Just sit next to me or something."

"S-Sorry, Iolvin."

"So she came from an explosion? Wow!" Ashe followed Yoyo's voice and sat down next to him. "Show me! She sounds pretty!"

Yoyo pointed down to the free seat on the other side of him and Zoë finally garnered enough courage to rush over and take it. "Ashe, this is Zoë. She's a human from the colony I was stuck at." Yoyo took the both girls' hands and joined them together. "Zoë, this is my... my ~sister~, Ashe. She's blind so be careful around her."

"Human? Never met one of those." Ashe shook her paw and then traced her other up Zoë's arm to her face. "Oh, she ~is~ pretty. Smooth, too."

With a nudge from her patron Zoë blurted out a rudimentary response. "H-Hi and... uh, thanks."

"Guys. Keep on track here." Carbon lifted the clone's wrist a bit and let it drop, confirming she wasn't feeling any external stimulus just yet. "You might have hit her too long with that taser, Yoyo."

Yoyo grumbled and nudged his chin to the others in the ship as Carbon let her guard down. "I only tapped her with it for a second, ~Major~ Optik."

"Oh... right, Mister Rivet. Maybe she was just already in shock." Carbon stood and went up behind the cockpit seats. "Lieutennant, back to base once the cargo's tied down."

Ashe stopped her paws roaming over Zoë's features and stood up. "Cargo? And another passenger? What exactly happened out there?"

Adrian finally stepped through the airlock hatch and studied the controls until he found the option to cycle it closed. "I tied down those barrels to the hull. One of them's cracked up though, so we should probably keep the bay closed for now. No telling how that stuff will react if it's loose."

"Thank you, Mister Rustfelt. Take a seat and we'll--"

"Wha...?"

Dee stepped over to the impersonator as she roused from her induced slumber. "Major, I think she's waking up."

"Pin her down before she comes to." Carbon flipped a few switches in his cockpit chair and then hopped out to handle the new situation. "~Now~, soldier! I gave an order!"

Ilaria went to help the smaller otter but instead found herself intercepting Ashe as she crossed the cabin out of curiosity. "No, Ashe. You of all people need to stay away from that girl. Getting near you could be her exact purpose."

"What? But I want to help." The wolf broke free of her sister's grasp only to once again become ensnared by the much larger fur's long reach. "Sis! Why can't I do something useful for once?!"

Carbon huffed out a sigh of frustration as he traded glances with Ilaria, confirming she had a handle on the wolf. "Right now you'd help out most by sitting back down, Ashe. This girl's probably dangerous."

"Danger...ous?" The copycat blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the low light of the ship, but once she realized she was surrounded she didn't put up a fight. "Where am I? Hey... Hey! You hit me with that... that thing!"

Yoyo held his paws up innocently. "Sorry. Just following orders."

"Orders?" The girl looked around the interior a bit and then dropped her head back onto the seat. "Possible hierarchy structure, heavy duty equipment, non-lethal attack systems... How could I not see it?" She rolled her head sideways and met gazes with Carbon. "This is the police, and you're in charge. Correct?"

"Sounds like someone I know alright." Ari forced Ashe back into her previous seat and then took the space next to her. "She acts the part. Gotta give her that."

"Act? What are you talk...ing... about...?" Suddenly the girl sat upright to stare intently at Ashe, only to have Dee jump forward and pin her against the wall... by her breasts, as it were. Yet the impostor ignored him completely spouting, "Who the ~hell~ is that? Why's she look like me?!"

"Screw that. Why's she ~sound~ like me?" Ashe once again broke free, this time making it clear across the cabin until she slammed into Adrian. "Who are you? And why... Why can I see you?"

The clone loosened up when she finally saw the blankness in the original's eyes. "Fuck me... You're blind." Seeing the girl was calming down Adrian sat down and freed his paws from her chest, only for the original Ashe to reach out for an inspection. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I need to know..." Ashe slid her paws all over, finally resting them on the impostor's cheeks. "You're... me?"

"I... don't know." The mirror image reached up and pulled the scanning paws into her own. "My name's Ashe, and I'm just a student. Just find my teacher, Professor Rustfelt. We have permission to excavate these ruins."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Carbon stepped in and gently put some distance between the two Ashes. "We'll get to that soon enough. Go back to the being able to see thing again."

"Well I don't know how else to explain it... but I can sense that she's..." The original Ashe took a moment to re-think her words as well as figure out her issue, her head roaming about and then snapping to the cargo bay. "That too. I see a sort of glowing blob when I look over there." She turned to face back at her clone and groaned in frustration. "She looks vaguely like a person though. I can't explain it."

"That's... unusual. Eve and I need to think about that. First thing's first though--you need to see the Doc when we get back." Carbon turned to stare down the second Ashe and get a feel for how honest she was being, with Evelyn feeding her the corresponding telemetry. "So you're a student and you were at some ruins? Tell me everything you know about them."

"They're class-four radioactive ruins from the Transcendent War. We were investigating a potential link to the Last War. Professor Rustfelt thought there might have been some humans that were killed there by the last of the Enlightened." The girl quirked her head at the strange looks she was receiving. "Wait, are you military? Is this some sort of cover-up or something? He's right, isn't he? Damn, the professor's cool..."

"Woah, now. We're not..." The Major huffed as Evelyn confirmed she was telling the truth by all appearances. "Huh. Well to be honest, I've lived longer than everyone here combined and I've never heard of any of that. Let's start with these Enlightened. Who are they?"

"Really? The Professor would be a better source..." The second Ashe furled her brow in disbelief, then took a deep breath as she explained anyway. "You mean to tell me you don't know about the evil aliens? They came and recruited radicals and humans, tried to make us nuke ourselves off the planet. Any of this ring a bell? It's basic high school stuff."

"Ashe... Oh, wait. We'll need new names for you two now..." Carbon pointed to the second Ashe and drooped her head at the ridiculous scenario. "You. Let's say I know about these aliens and I believe you. Tell me where they come from. Then tell me how you even know about they exist."

"They're from some planet called Yangurra. I sort of slacked off in my space sciences class though, so don't make me point it out." The sighted Ashe connected the dots slowly and started to rasp her claws on the seat nervously. "The whole world found out about them when the Science Kin came. They showed us how to combat their evil brethren and gifted us with our superior defenses."

"And both of these factions are Yangurrar?"

"Aha! You know their language! You do know all of this!"

Carbon shook her head, choosing to lower her voice rather than shout over the newcomer's raised one. "Yes and no. I'm partially related to them." She reached into her hair and plucked out a small flower hidden beneath. "They're plant people, and as far as I know they choose ~not~ to interfere with Earth's development. Some tried a few times and created the Egyptian and Roman empires by mistake. Then they sort of made a law against it..."

"But that's not right. They helped us after we showed we could split the atom. My mom even said she met one once, so they definitely aren't keeping their distance."

The original Ashe's face fell pale at those last words. "Your mom...? ~Our~ mom? She's alive?!"

Evelyn poked Carbon in the arm a few times, eventually having to slap him hard enough that she forced him to throw off his own balance in psychosomatic response. "Hey, listen! Remember her personal file? All we really know about her are her parents, and the poor girl's mother didn't survive childbirth."

"Oh, shit.... No, just ~her~ mom, Ashe. Uh, the blind Ashe I mean..."

"This is starting to freak me out." The second Ashe flicked a bracelet on her wrist and some sort of holographic panel flickered into her paw. "I can call Professor Rustfelt, or my mom. Then can you let me go or something?"

Again Eve nudged her host for attention. "That thing's running on a fission battery, Carbon." As far as I've seen, they were the size of this whole ship. That thing's not from our world."

"I don't think she is, either." The anomaly gawked at the hybrid's seemingly random words, then furthermore at the lack of a data signal on her device. "I talk to myself. But it's true, I don't think you're from here. In our world, we never got any help from your Science Kin. We're still fighting the insurgent Yangurran forces on Earth. You just appeared during a battle at a human-occupied settlement."

"So she's from a tangent universe..." The original Ashe looked back to the cargo bay and then to Carbon's general direction. "Entropy! If there's two of me in the same universe, we've disrupted the natural entropy of our universes... Which means the imbalance of energy might make itself known. Maybe that's how I can see it?"

"And what? The æti in the back is from another world too?" Carbon looked over to the cargo bay and then grumbled as she thought about the scenario. "Wait, you've never been exposed to æti before now. Maybe all blind people are sensitive to it?"

Ilaria spoke up at the mention of the foreign word. "The stuff in those barrels? We made some of that at the university after Ashe and Sprite worked out some equation. We named it 'oxydium'." She pulled down the neck of her shirt and exposed the mechanism embedded deep in her sternum. "In fact, I'm running on the stuff right now. All of us are."

"Impossible," Carbon interrupted. "Æti can't be created, only found."

Iolvin forced his sister to cover up more properly and then added his own bit. "No, we're serious. Ashe smokes the stuff too; it calms her down somehow. Maybe that's how it's affecting her?"

"But I don't see your support devices." The original Ashe even spun around to confirm her observations. "Maybe it's because of how this oxydium formed?"

"Lets assume it caused the explosion that brought this new Ashe to us." Dee slumped against Yoyo and placed a paw on his own chest piece out of faint concern. "Was it somehow tainted in the process? Or maybe it swapped places with some oxydium from the other world? Ashe Two... uh..."

"Peepers," Iolvin joked.

"Sure, that works. What was in the area? What's the last thing you remember?"

The second Ashe put a paw to the bridge of her snout and rubbed slow circles. "We were cracking into a new chamber. For some reason all the air started sucking into the new room and Professor Rustfelt told everyone to evacuate..." She raised her head as she realized her mistake. "But I was too curious and I think I hit my head as I got sucked inside."

"Æti--sorry, 'oxydium'--can sometimes react violently when suddenly exposed to oxygen." The Major paused as she tried to put the two events together. "Maybe an impact caused it to release its stored energy all at once?"

"Synchronous explosions..." The original Ashe fell to her knees as the orbiter finally started moving upward without notice. "Perhaps with enough of the right kinds of energies... Maybe the two explosions created a volumetric singularity? A temporary rip in space, perhaps from displaced gravitational forces?"

"Whatever the cause, we now have two of you to deal with. Here..." Carbon helped the wolf to her hindpaws and led her back to her seat. "What I do know is that either you're all liars or you just saved this planet. When we get back, I need to know everything about how you supposedly created this oxydium."

Ilaria nodded as she strapped her sister into her safety belt. "I'll get Sprite and Prisma to help with that."

"No, I'll find them when I need to. You need to find your wife." The Major sat next to the new Ashe and peeked at her wrist device, spying a matching bracelet on her other arm as well. "Once we're all settled we're having a team meeting. Training camp is officially over early, and sorry to say it but that means not everyone passed."

"But Carbon...!"

"A deal's a deal, Specialist. We'll figure out the details, but your wife would be better off at home now."

Both Ilaria and Iolvin simultaneously sneered, "Not if I can help it."

"Auntie!"

Ilaria lost her balance as Prisma slammed into her at full speed for a hug, forcing her to use the android as a crutch to exit the dropship safely. "Hey, Prisma. Nice to see you too. Sorry we left without notice."

"Prisma saw the ship's electromagnetic signature as Auntie entered orbit and Prisma couldn't help but meet Auntie here." The android nodded as Carbon exited the vehicle and then practically tackled Adrian and Iolvin when they followed. "Uncles!"

"That girl's got some ~energy~ in her, huh?" The Major waited until everyone was on the landing platform before whistling for their attention. "Alright, listen up. One hour from now we're having a meeting in the mess hall. Ilaria, you need to find your wife. Guys, go grab the rest of the men. Lieutenant..."

Lilith shut the door to the orbiter and locked it down, but turned to face her superior officer with a stretched out, thoughtful pause. "Sir?"

"Hmm... We need to assess the young woman in the brig so we can decide how to move forward. I want to do that myself, but my air's running dry." Carbon checked her air supply, also secretly adjusting a crease in her clothing to better fit her slightly curvier ass. "Take her to a secure room and check her for more of those crude weapons she likes to craft. I should be able to join you shortly, but just in case you should start the interrogation."

"Yes, sir. And what about the two wolves?"

"Right..." Carbon gently offered her arm to Ashe Prime and started walking to the nearest elevator with her. "Come with me, Ashe. I want to run some tests on you and your mirror image, so might as well start at medical. And you..." She gave the second Ashe a long look before continuing her shout, a definite difference coming to mind with the new Ashe having one side of her head shaved. "Punk Rock. I don't want you to leave my sight for a while. Got it?"

"Sure, uh..."

"Major will do for now."

"Aww... That's not very cute at al--"

Suddenly Punk Rock Ashe was lifted off her hindpaws into a rearward hug. "Ashe! I missed you, beautiful!"

"Eep!" Punk rock spun around once she was set down, then suddenly melted into a pile of nervous goop. "P-P-Prof-fessor?!"

"No, it's just me Ashe. It's Ellie." The otter's joyous smile soon faded to a concerned frown when he spotted the obvious lack of hair on half of the Arctic wolf's noggin. "What happened to your beautiful hair?! Did you need stitches or something? How'd you get hurt?"

The Punk gawked for a few seconds until she finally mustered up the courage to correct the familiar stranger. "I'm not... I mean, my hair's always been like this. It's popular and all..." Now that she wasn't avoiding eye contact the otter noticed perhaps the most important distinction inside her brilliant, oceanic eyes. "I'm not the person you, uh..."

Elliot blinked a few times and shoved the impostor away in disbelief. "I don't understand... Where's--?"

Carbon waved her free paw high above her and reminded the second Ashe of her orders as the pair reached a downward stairwell. "This way, Punk Rock. Don't keep us waiting."

Ellie dashed ahead and beat Punk to the stairs. "Ashe! What's happening?!"

"I'll explain after we get to your lab." Ashe let go of Carbon and held out a hooked arm, which Ellie gladly took to guide her instead. "It's a lot to take in, but..."

The second Ashe jogged away, and soon so did everyone else with their new orders save for Prisma and Ilaria. "Well I have no clue where to start. Is Robby down in the barracks, all alone?"

"Nope! Prisma knows where Robyn went." The android tugged on Ari's shirt until she started moving further down the landing platform. She stopped at a hatch in the floor, where Sprite met the two. "Sister Sprite, open! Open! Auntie shouldn't take the long route with her abnormality."

"~Don't~ call it that. It's just my leg." Ari took a cautionary step backward as the hatch flipped open and an industrial elevator cage rose from below. "Oh. I guess that is a good shortcut though, if a bit rickety."

The android literally hopped onto the lift and let Sprite land on her shoulder. "It's safe, Auntie. It takes us right down to Robyn, too. Hmm?" Prisma looked to the girl on her shoulder and shook her head. "Nah, Auntie doesn't care about that. Auntie Ilaria wants to find Robyn first."

"Care about what?" Ari asked as she stepped onto the elevator and closed the safety gate.

"Sprite invented a better design for your artificial leg muscles." Prisma held out her own arm as an example, the android definitely sporting more mechanical components and less of her exposed, gooey self. "We'll wait until you're sleeping to perform the upgrades, if you can sleep without your leg."

"Sure, go ahead. But never mind that..." Ari took a better look at her friend and smiled as she noticed all sorts of complex additions, as well as a new piece of clothing. "So now I know what you two have been up to without us around. So who did what? And whose dress is that? It fits you great, hon."

Prisma pressed the 'Down' button until it clicked into place and then pinched the shoulder of her very simple, white A-line dress. "Prisma made this dress, though Sister Sprite made the material. Sprite also upgraded Prisma's shell so Prisma wouldn't have to work as hard to keep Prisma's form."

"Well that's nice. Next up, we should work on your language skills. The whole third-person thing is getting a bit confusing." As the three crossed into a large chamber beneath the landing platform, they fell into nearly-complete darkness. "Woah. Why's it so dark?"

"This bay is currently storing inactive projects. Major Optik's authorization is required to re-enable full power to the area."

"Strange. Wonder what kinds of projects are down here..."

Prisma nodded a few times with Sprite and then attempted to answer her creator. "Sprite hasn't focused on decrypting those files. They ~are~ filed under 'Aerospace Science' though, if that helps. Oh, we're almost there. Mind the bump."

Ilaria held onto the railing as advised, just in time for a heavy jerk of the carriage as it stopped. "Thanks, Prisma. So Robyn's down here? Figures with 'Aerospace' in the title." She spotted a solitary light near a door that dimly lit the surrounding area, then opened the gate and headed towards it. "She's in here?"

"Robyn is through there, then one-hundredFifteen meters to the right."

"Thanks again, girls. Why don't you help the boys round everyone else up for the Major? I'd appreciate it."

Prisma smiled and waved before riding the elevator back up. "Sure thing! Prisma will play with her uncles."

Ilaria snorted out a light chuckle at the android's overly-cheerful demeanor and then tapped a console to open the door. She stepped inside and the lights flickered on, thankfully giving the small hallway more than adequate light. She tapped another console and the door behind her closed, followed by a whoosh of air hissing into the room. Apparently this was actually an airlock, perhaps to keep the projects at pristine integrity. The other door opened and the lights on the other side clicked on as well. Sure enough there were only the choices of left and right, so Ari followed her directions and headed down the right pathway.

As Ari walked the lights seemed to follow her, as if on motion sensor circuits. "Fancy. Must be in ~all~ the good labs, hehe." After a few minutes and several large, sealed bulkheads passed the otter reached her destination, hearing a familiar voice talking to itself. "Pillowtail? That you?"

"Ottah?" Giggles and laughter echoed out from an open bulkhead, leading Ilaria to her favorite squirrel. "Over here, love! You've got to see what's between my legs right now!"

"Do I even want to ask...?" Ari stepped through the door and looked around, a scream of delight sending her eyes upward to find Robyn straddling some unknown and very large piece of machinery. "There you are. What the hell are you doing, Pillow?"

"If only you knew just how much power I'm sitting on now..." Robyn gave the durable tank a kick and acted as if she were riding a feral horse. "The placement is ~brilliant~!"

"If you say so, sweetie. Have you been drinking or something?" Ari stood beside the machine, only to be surprised as Robyn slid off and into her arms. "What's got you so excited? What is this place?"

"It's a real ~fusion reactor~! It's never been activated but still I've gone mad for it." The squirrel wiggled free and hopped down to her own hindpaws, not wanting to overburden her handicapped wife. "And the genius that designed this ship placed it right below the sweet spot. Just thinking about all of this almost makes me randy."

"Now we're talking. I missed you so damn much, Pillow..." Ari leaned down to give hew wife a kiss, but stopped short as a particular word floated through her mind. "Did you say 'ship'?"

Robyn connected her wife's kiss for her with a chuckle. "Yes, I did. We're on a beaut of a ship. Looks like a large science frigate from what I've discovered. I can't get to the other levels though so I'm not certain."

"There's more than one deck? Damn." Ari checked around the reactor room and then frowned as she found a pipe marked with a radiation warning placard. "Robyn, this place isn't hot is it? That can't be good for our baby."

"Oh, no. The other reactor is a fission system and feeds tritium to the fusion core, but all of that's not running so we're safe. It's all shielded in any case."

"You had me worried there." Ilaria played with Robyn's fluffy tail, petting it closer and closer to her rump. "Guess now all we need to worry about is catching up. After the hell I just came from, I need you. Badly."

"Our baby girl's been craving you as well, love." Robyn slipped free of her wife's motions and moved over to the door. "But I'm covered in soot and resin, Ottah. If the water supply's on the grid like the rest of the utilities... well, I know where the crew showers are..."

"Ooh..." Ilaria desperately wanted to clean the mission's dust and sand she'd collected out of her fur. "Sounds perfect. Lead the way, sexy."

Robyn practically pranced down the hallway until she stopped at another bulkhead, pausing to tap a few options into its adjacent control panel. "Aha! Water's on and it's hot too. Just need to set the showers aaand..."

The door slid open and Ilaria could already feel the steamy moisture pour out into the hallway. "Damn, that feels sublime right now."

"Just wait until ~I~ get to you, Ottah."

Ari nudged her wife into the changing area and pinned her against the far wall with a kiss. "Not if I get to you first."

Robyn ducked down to escape Ari's hold on her, knowing she couldn't comfortably lean forward any further with her height and handicap. "Not so fast, love. Out of those rags first. I'm serious about that shower."

"You never did like getting dirty too long." Ari smiled as she complied, dropping her pants and panties down to her shoes to start. "I guess the showers are around that corner?"

"Aye. Plenty of room to play too." The squirrel followed suit by pulling off her shirt and chucking it to the ground, soon to be followed by her bra. "So what did the Major pull you away for anyway?"

"Nope. Not talking shop right now. I'm still recovering from being shot... at..." Ari kicked off her shoes and her bottoms and then started on her shirt, pausing midway as she regretted her words. "You didn't hear that."

"Ilaria!" Robyn walked over and slapped her wife on the boob, not being able to reach her face but still wanting to vent her frustration. "Why were you being attacked? You didn't cause a scene, did you?"

"My tit..." Ari reached behind Robyn to unlatch the strap holding her pants up by her tail, then shoved her jeans to the floor. "I didn't have a choice. There was an accident or something and I had to help Yoyo. We tried to play it safe, I swear."

Robyn frowned and stepped out of her pants, then went for her panties next. "Just remember you've got a child on the way. I can forgive you for thinking about family, but she'll never forgive not having one of her mothers."

"You and that 'she' stuff. Ellie already said he's a boy, you know." Once the two of them were nude and ready to clean up Ilaria gave her wife a hug and pulled her into the showers. "And I'll never let our kid grow up that way. He'll always have both of our cheerful selves there for him. I promise."

"Well don't blame me for fretting over it all the same." Robyn threw out her paw to test the water temperature, only to shake her head as Ari jumped under a stream carefree. "Good thing you've got that insulating fur of yours, Ottah. That's bloody scalding."

"The water? Because I'm looking at something even hotter." Ari found a nearby control panel in the wall and fidgeted with the temperature, bringing it down a pawful of degrees. "There, should be perfect."

"Hmm... ohmmm..." In mere seconds the water changed to her liking, drawing Robyn into the enveloping warmth. "Damn, I needed this. Those showers in the barracks are plain bullocks. Only thing we need now are massager nozzles."

"Oh, I can help with that." Ilaria pulled Robyn against the wall and crouched down, nuzzling her wife's thigh with her snout. "You like the fast or the slow setting, hon?"

"Fast. By gods, fast."

Ilaria sneaked out a silly smile as she fought a laugh, then kissed her way up to Robyn's love button. She gently lapped at that bundle of nerves until Robyn's paws came down to encourage her further. Ari nudged her wide nose into her wife's folds and playfully tried to press it as deeply as possible, but her bulbous snout wasn't doing her any favors. Instead she tilted her head upward and loosed her tongue deep into Robyn's petals, swirling it all about.

Robyn squeaked and gripped down on Ari's ears as a shudder ran up her whole body, but moments later she pulled her wife away from giving such a wonderful effort. "As much as I fancy a good muff fluffin', our baby's insisting on her meal, Ottah."

Ilaria slowly rose to her hindpaws, her other paws slipping up her wife's body until she towered above her. "Well I'd be happy to oblige." She focused her paws on her Pillow's large pillows, groping and kneading softly on the smaller fur until she slipped out another squeak. "I'll just owe you a more thorough inspection down there another day. But for now... I've been dying to feel that tight pussy of yours around me, hon."

"I'm only so tight because you're so bloody huge, love." Robyn ran her paws up and down her wife's length as it pressed up against her, going high enough it would rest between the squirrel's ample breasts if she didn't have a baby bump in the way. "Speaking of which... How are we gonna tackle this? There a bench or something...?"

Ari made use of Robyn's lighter frame to bridge the difference in their heights, quickly lifting the squirrel up and holding her against the shower wall by her legs. "No time for that. I need you ~now~, Pillow."

Robby did the honors since Ari's paws were full, almost painfully angling her wife's cock until it pressed its head into her slick entrance. "Ooh, I love when you're impatient. Rut me as hard as you want, love. Just remember,--"

"No going too deep. I know." Ari rocked her hips forward until her manhood softly tapped against Robyn's innermost barrier, therein using her body's newfound proximity to help pin her wife to the wall. "It's a shame though. You know how much I hate wasting good meat."

"That 'good meat' of yours still has half to go, Ottah. It hurts on a ~good~ day." Robyn threw her arms and legs around her lover and rolled her hips in circles. "Not that it ever hurts in a ~bad~ way though. Just gotta think of the little one, love."

Ilaria smiled and then pressed her muzzle forward for a deep kiss. "I won't screw this up. I already love our child as much as you, Robyn. Well, maybe not ~this~ much..."

Robyn gasped as Ari started roughly bucking her hips, a slight limp the only thing keeping her from delivering absolute bliss. "We'll see about that, brother fucker." She shifted her weight slightly off of her wife's bad leg expecting a slight fix, only to receive an even faster pummeling in her quivering snatch. "Ah! Fuck, love... That flip your switch?"

Ari groaned as she continued her assault for a few more seconds, only to return to her previous pace with a very evident blush under her fur. "Uh... sort of."

"Really, now?" Robyn teasingly nibbled at her wife's neck, enticing her to bring back the harder motions. Then in a stroke of genius she strained to nibble one of Ari's tiny ears, seductively whispering, "Maybe we'll have to see how our girl feels about it..."

Ari nearly started to pile her whole package balls deep at that. Instead she pulled herself nearly all the way free of Robyn's sweltering confines and extended her strong thrusts to encompass the whole safe margin of her length. "Damn, I love you. Fuck, that just..."

Robyn knew her wife well enough to read the sudden swelling of her girth. "Don't fret about me, love. Cum for me." She once again swapped to her seductive tone after a tug at Ari's ear. "Cum for your baby girl."

Ilaria squeaked and grunted as she doubled her efforts, taking time to grind her tip against Robyn's swollen cervix at the end of every thrust. After only a couple dozen hard repetitions she found her limit, stopping all motion except for the strong pulsing of her cock inside her best friend. Ari pumped an endless torrent of tangerine-tinted jizz deep into Robyn's cunt, quickly filling the empty space in her now-glowing womb. After only the fourth thick jet of cream the excess started blasting out onto the shower floor, as well as finding its way deep into both girls' fur on their thighs and tails.

With absolutely labored breathing, Ilaria rested her head atop her wife's and just took a minute of silence to calm her lungs. Then she noticed a light gasp, one that didn't come from below. "You hear that, Pillow?"

Robyn perked up her ears and then shook her head, giving her wife a passionate kiss in satisfaction. "Probably just the ship, love. Oh! Wait!" She placed a paw on her glowing belly, then forced one of Ilaria's as well. "She's moving! Our little girl's moving!"

"Looks like she enjoyed the snack." Ari smiled and nuzzled her wife's cheek, but perked her head up as she heard another odd gasp. "Okay, that's not the ship. Who's there?!"

Robyn gasped as Ari exited her and left her feeling empty. "What? It's just the ship, Ottah." She placed a paw over her drooling pussy to hold her child's treat in place as Ari left placed her down onto her own hindpaws. "The ship just makes strange noises since she's docked."

Ilaria shook her head and tapped the shower console, killing the water to all of the spigots in the room. This caused the intruder to panic with an 'eep', giving away his position. "Got you, asshole."

Ari trudged towards a low divider wall between the baths and showers, only to find a cowering--and quite naked--bunny hiding behind it. "Don't hurt me! Please, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to--!"

"Carmine? What the fuck, man?" Ari calmed down now that she realized it wasn't one of the cruder men on the team, even offering a paw to help the little guy to his hindpaws. "Saw everything, huh? Just don't go gossiping about it."

"What? No, I'd never..." The bunny boy pulled himself upright, but upon making eye contact with Ari's raging manhood he spun to face the other direction. "S-Sorry. I didn't expect anyone else to be here."

"Huh? I can see Robyn's interest, but what are ~you~ doing here?"

"Uh... I..." Car tried to face Ari again as he explained himself, but his eyes never quite made the trip. "I was taking a shower. I can't really..." The hare finally built up the nerve to look in Ari's direction while avoiding looking down, but Robyn's bare body further back backpedaled his progress. "I can't use the one in our barracks with Lilly there, and the guys would just make fun of me..."

"Well I do notice the way you hide when we're changing."

Robyn walked over and tried to cheer the nervous wreck out of his slump. "I just see ya' as a bloke, Car. Actually forgot you had different junk in your trunk."

"Really?" Carmine finally looked towards the girls, though still with his eyes up high out of respect. "Well maybe our shower would be alright. Not that it matters right now, anyway..."

"Hmm?"

Car started to blush as he ducked his eyes away again, his paws dropping to cover his crotch as his thighs rubbed together. "I don't trust myself in the barracks when I'm... uh... in heat..."

Ari quirked her head to the side at that comment, the reality of Carmine's words taking a second to register. "You go into heat?"

"It makes sense to me, love." Robyn hugged her wife from behind, sneaking a light grope of her chest playfully. "You put a bun in my oven, yeah?"

"Damn straight I did." Ari chuckled as she wrapped her arms around her wife's. "So what? You sneak out here so nobody catches your scent? Smart, actually."

"Thanks, I guess..." Car loosened up a little as the girls made the setting feel a bit more friendly and safe, but took a few slow steps back all of a sudden as he stared at Ari's still-hard cock. "You want to fuck me too! Fuck, is nowhere safe now?!"

Ari looked down herself, swapping places with Robyn as a makeshift solution to her visible excitement. "Nah, I'm just... well, dying to knot someone. I'd usually do that with my wife here but--"

"But you're too big with the baby. I sort of... overheard that."

"Well sorry about that. My shit just doesn't go down that fast when I don't squeeze that knot." Ilaria shook her head with a laugh at the current scenario. "Guess we're ~both~ shit outta luck. Both need a good screw and don't have the means."

"I wouldn't say that, Ottah." Robyn gave the bunny a bit of a looking-over before moving herself out of her wife's way. "You've both got the matching set, right? And Car here's an upright bloke, so I can't complain none."

"Woah..." Carmine squeezed his thighs together again as his needs started to flare up and affect his judgment. "It'd solve my problem and all, but..."

"And I don't want to take advantage." Ilaria once again stepped to hide behind her wife. "We both know how a heat can screw with your head. Don't want the little guy regretting it later."

"But it's just friends helping friends, yeah?" The squirrel once again stepped out of the way, this time sitting down on the divider so she couldn't be used as a visual shield any further. "So just help each other out and think nothing more of it. Not like you've got to marry him afterward. Besides, this is just like you and your brother. Right?"

Ari frowned at that statement, but eased up when that information didn't seem to disgust Car in the least. If anything, it appeared to get him hotter. "I guess... Yeah, maybe you've got a point. Yoyo started that to help with my heat too."

"He did?" Car ducked his head into his shoulders and shyly moved his paws to his sides, revealing he was drenched from more than just a shower. "So you can really screw someone and leave it at that?"

"Sure. I mean I love my brother and all, but not in ~that~ way. It's just..." Ari moved closer to the hare and rested her paws on his shoulders. "It's mutual problem-solving. I needed a cock, and at the time everyone thought I was a full-blown girl. He helped keep my secret."

"Well can you try to keep this a secret?"

Ari smiled as the little guy came around to the idea. "Absolutely."

The hare looked down at the intimidating size of his potential partner and sighed in deep thought. "Alright then." He looked behind himself and shimmied over to one of the massage tubs recessed into the floor, which happened to be filled with hot water from the showers. "But you need to take it slow. I've... never..."

"I went just as long as a virgin, hon. No need to be embarrassed." Ari got the hint and slipped into the tub, the water jets kicking into high gear when she sat down. "Ooh, nice... Ah, right. I know how you feel, Car. I was in your shoes only a few months ago." She tried to adjust her position a little, snorting in disbelief when her artificial leg slipped due to a lack of friction with the smooth basin. "That's why I'm letting you take the lead; you can go at your own pace on top, right?"

"Yeah, I figured the water would help a bit." Carmine dipped his toes into the water, then stepped all the way in to his waist to straddle the otter. "Anything I should know? I'm only book-trained on this stuff."

"Same here. Parents never knew who I really was for most of my life." Ari gripped the base of her dick and pointed it towards Car's virgin nethers for him. "It's apparently different for everyone, but--"

"It might hurt a snap, but at your age... probably no worse than a needle prick." Robyn sat on the edge of the tub and let her feet kick in the water as she intently watched below the surface. "Then it's just bliss, mate. Until she tries to get deep enough to knot you, anyway."

Carmine tensed up, starting to rethink his decision. "What do you mean? Can one of those actually be ~too~ big? I thought they all just... fit."

"They do, just some are more snug than others. Your bits are a lot more versatile than you think." Almost as payback for the negative vibe she's stirred up, Ari rubbed on her wife's enlarged belly to draw attention to her larger portion. "How do you think that comes out? You'll be fine... even ~if~ I have to go as deep as the kid to fit..."

For some reason, the thought of feeling what it was like to give birth only set the hare back on his original path. "I don't think I'll mind. So what do I...?"

"Damn, you might be a virgin but that's on a new level." Ari smiled and placed her spare paw on Car's hip, gingerly guiding him downward. "Just get it inside and you'll figure it out. Just don't forget gravity's working against you, hon." She gripped her rock hard knot and lightly moaned. "Oh, and it might end things early if you decide to take my knot. Fair warning."

"Wait, shouldn't we use a condom or something?"

Robyn giggled as she rubbed her glowing belly softly. "This was a fluke. A happy one, mind you, but an odd chance all the same. My Ottah's damn close to shooting blanks, mate. No worries."

With a stern look of deep contemplation Carmine suddenly dropped his body, impaling himself entirely in one fast motion. Then he immediately shot back up and off with bulging eyes as he not only tore his very-intact hymen but nearly speared open his womb. "F-Fuck! Gods damnit!"

"Shit, Car! You alright?" Ari reached for the bunny's warm folds and gave then a soft, circular massage with her webbed fingers. "Shit, that took some balls. But please, don't hurt yourself on your first time. You'll never forget that."

"Ah... Damn..." Car moved his own paw to Ari's and stopped her, then lined up for another try. "Well I thought doing it fast would be best but--"

"Gravity worked against you?"

The hare burst out into laughter, soon forgetting the dull pain deep in his passage. "Right. Remind me to ~listen~ to your advice from now on." With a bit of hesitation he eventually lowered his ass again, this time taking his time as his orchid devoured the otter's large manhood. "Ah... That's... not so bad now."

"Heh, feels great on my end no matter what you do." Ari rolled her paws around the bunny's backside, cupping his ass in encouragement. "Why don't you start moving and see how it feels for you?"

Carmine gave it a shot, lifting himself nearly off of Ilaria's spire before slowly sinking back down to the halfway mark with a delighted hiss. "Holy shit... What have I been missing?"

"Best meat an' veg in the world, that's what." Robyn leaned over and gave her wife a wet kiss. "Makes me want round two just thinking about it."

"If Car here doesn't drain me first. Damn you've got a fine pussy, dude." Ari moved one of her paws to grasp at the base of the hare's stubby cotton-ball tail and tug against his motions. "I must still be sensitive from fucking Pillow here--"

"You aren't?!" Robyn gave Ari another quick smooch on the cheek and sat up straight with a bit of light laughter. "Ottah's gonna pop early, mate. And don't blame it on me, ya' raunchy bird." She gave Car a soft slap on the back, knocking some sense into him so he'd move a little faster. "She must've wanted this so much her head did your job for you, Car."

"Really? But I wanted us to cum together." Carmine threw back his head and closed his eyes as he rocked Ari's tip into his cervix, finding to his surprise that it actually felt quite nice. "Well if only one of us if getting off, she should at least do it how she wants..."

"You really don't have to--"

Ilaria shut her muzzle as Carmine slowly let gravity take over. With a slow, deliberate pop the otter found herself breaching the hare's innermost sanctum. Carmine huffed and puffed as he rocked back and forth, his nether lips kissing and tickling Ari's knot. Her cock swelled and throbbed from the extreme pressure, a pleasantly familiar sensation which for the last month or so had nearly faded from Ari's memory. Then with a gasp from above, that hard bulb of flesh started working inside Carmine.

"Fuck! I'm gonna--"

"Do it. I'm all yours right now." His breath ragged from a mix of light pain and pleasure, Car hopped with all his weight and snapped that knot into place. "Cum all you want, Ari. Cum for me."

Ari winced her eyes shut as her cock jumped and pulsed, her cream already working its way upward. "Fu~uck! Cumming!"

The otter's tail flailed beneath the water and she thrust her hips upward, each motion accenting a heavy blast of jizz into the hare. Ari squeaked and mewled as she ground into her partner, unloading weeks worth of desire directly into Car's womb. Just about the time Carmine's belly started swelling from the sheer volume of spunk corked inside him, he started lurching in the throes of orgasm as well. With each surge of cum came another strong mini-climax, each building atop the last until the bunny couldn't hold himself upright. Robyn mercifully moved to keep the guy from falling over as all his limbs flopped loose like cooked pasta.

"Well someone had more fun than he though." The squirrel stood behind the limp hare using his armpits as anchors. "Must be a beaut, yeah? Might powerful for a first time."

"Huh...?"

"Wha...?"

Robyn tested the former virgin, allowing him to hunch forward once he proved he had control over his muscles again. "Just about knocked yourselves out, the set of ya' both. Miles away." She slid to sit next to her wife, pulling her exhausted head up for her and planting a passionate kiss on her lips. "I'm proud of ya', Ottah. And happy you got your wish, too."

"Oh... Mmm, sorry, Pillow." Ari tried to sit up, but found her still-pulsing cock in disagreement with that plan. "Don't think I've cum like that in forever."

"No shit." Robyn rubbed her baby bump, then ran a paw around the even larger swell in Carmine's tummy. "As nice as that was, don't break the bloke."

Ari checked the juncture between her and Car and found the water cloudy orange. "Don't think that's physically possible, hon." She reached down and felt a small but powerful stream of high pressure sneaking around her knot, eliciting a prideful smile. "Might want to get out the water, if you don't want another shower."

"Guh!" Carmine shot up straight, apparently having passed out from raw pleasure. "Gods... What the fuck was ~that~?"

Robyn gave the bunny a slow rub on his back as he shuddered in aftershocks of bliss. "First real orgasm too, maybe?"

"Heeee... First time sating a heat." Ilaria wrapped her arms around Carmine and clumsily lifted him out of the murky water, sitting on the edge next to her wife with Car in her lap. "Feels damn good, even if it's not gonna take. Not sure if that'll solve your heat or not, but it should help for a day or two at least."

"And if I get horny again..." The hare blushed, even after having already flushed his face with blood by hitting his peak. "Well... would you maybe be willing to, uh...?"

"Any time, handsome." Ari slid back some so her legs wouldn't get too sticky with their excess fluids in the tub water, only to find a curious Robyn ducking her head behind the hare's ass for a better look. "I take it Robyn might want to have a good view though, if you can handle it."

"Are you kidding?" Robby put her paw under her wife's knot, scooping up extra-thick cum as it spattered and shot around the fleshy stopper. "If you cream him up this well again I'd hate to miss it. This shit's bloody thick, love. I think Car here got the better deal of the two of us."

"I told you I've been wanting this." Ari ducked her head down around Car's back, feigning a bit of nuzzling as she hid her face. "I sort of forgot to control my volume and all."

"You were barely conscious, Ottah. I can't blame you for that."

Carmine finally started to calm down, his mind thinking more practically now that his needs were met. "So... How's this work now? Do we have to do something? Or just wait it out?"

"Wait, sadly."

"How long do you usually--?"

"A while." Robyn greedily drank down about a cup of mixed juices from her cupped paws before finishing her thought. "My Ottah here usually takes something like forty minutes for that thing to go down. And you're tight like me, so I don't think there's an early exit in the works."

"Oh, well... I still need a bath, if you think we can do that like this."

"I can get the hard to reach spots for you," Robyn offered.

"Shit. Shit! Fucking shit!" The other two turned to the sudden bout of Tourette's spilling carelessly from Ilaria's mouth, baffled by the display. "Shit. We have just about," Ari started explaining, requiring a pause to form her nanite glasses and read the time from their display, "twenty-eight minutes until the major wanted us to meet in the mess hall."

"Did it sound important?" Carmine shrugged and reached for a bottle of shampoo. "I'm sure he won't mind us being a bit late. He's actually not that hard a leader."

"No, it's an emergency meeting. Fuck, we're so screwed."

Robyn slid closer and hugged her life-mate. "It can't be too awful. He knows we need to rut every day so he'll understand."

"No, not this time. We need to make a perfect impression of you, Robyn." Ari sighed as she fret over the vague uncertainty of the Major's words. "He wants to send you home, Pillow. Say goodbye to being close. To the sex. To me being able to protect you from those fuckers after us."

"And bye to my new frigate." Robyn kissed her wife's neck tenderly, calming her down. "We just need to make him a deal he can't turn down, and we have time to think of one. But first, you really should help Car here take a bath. Might work against us if everyone's fur is matted with jizz-water."

"...Good point."

"Looks like we more or less rounded them all up." Iolvin checked around the mess for his twin sister and frowned, focusing on her in his mind to form a link. «Lulu? Where you guys at?»

«Fuck. Is the Major waiting on us?»

«Nah, sh-uh... ~he's~ not here yet.»

Yoyo could actually feel his sister's relief as she sent her next message. «Great! I thought he'd be there right on time. We're on our way now.»

Iolvin checked on the rest of the room, his squad mates getting restless. «Doesn't look like a normal thing. I think you lucked out, so hurry your asses up before he shows up, sis.»

«Just around the corner, I sw--» The rest of that sentence echoed through a doorway as Ilaria apparently was shouting her thoughts. "--ear! Gods... hah... We're here..."

"'Bout damn time," Vorak commented before Yoyo could say it himself.

Ari hobbled through the bulkhead and offered a paw to help her wife out of politeness even if the four-inch gap didn't require it. "Let's find you somewhere to rest, Pillow. A sprint like that can't be good for the baby."

"Probably not." Elliot walked in the door and helped his Ashe through before finishing his point. "I can't be sure with the odd rate the kid's developing, but I'd guess it's equivalent to the final trimester about now. We should probably run another swatch of tests just to see how things are going."

"Consider it a final order then." Carbon walked through as well, this time donning a cheap, clear medical breathing mask that only covered her muzzle. "Sorry about the tardiness, guys. Turns out my mask needed repairs so I had to get someone on that."

In an oddly calm and kind voice Ademeus saluted and spoke for the room. "Won't blame you, sir. Your health comes first."

"At ease, Mister Mottledft. As of now, we're throwing tradition out the window. That stuff won't save this planet; we will." The Major found a seat in front of everyone and slumped into it, crossing her legs. "So looks like... Wait, where's Mister Graziano? He wasn't in the barracks, guys?"

"No. We couldn't find him." Yoyo shrugged his shoulders and stated what he was pondering the whole way down to the mess hall. "All I can assume is he went to town for some reason. We looked all over and couldn't find him."

"I gave standing orders not to leave the base, and he's got a perfect track record..."

Ilaria sheepishly raised her paw like a schoolgirl in trouble. "Sir? We were with him, but he was... taking a shower. He should have been right behind us..."

"Oh, one of ~those~ showers." Carbon sighed at the two girls, quirking an eyebrow as he noticed they were damp. "I guess he forgot to lock the area too. That place is off limits, ladies."

"What?" Robyn tried to stand up in protest but was held down painfully by her tail, complements of her wife. "Ouch! Ottah..."

"We'll get to that soon enough, Pillow. Don't spill the plan too--"

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" Carmine literally swung around the bulkhead, spraying a mine mist of water from his wet fur in the process. "I was stuck in the shower and--"

"We already went over that, Mister Graziano. Just take a... seat..." The Major's nose winked a few times as she analyzed the hare's strong scent, her eyes slowly moving down to a wet spot in his pants and then over to the two girls. "Right. We need to talk in my quarters after this, Mister Graziano."

"Y-Yes, sir..."

"Alright then. I've been needing to get everyone on the same page for a while now, and I don't have the time to do it naturally. Yesterday our enemy made a move, so we need to get this show on the road." Carbon took another look around the room, then decided to start with the hare since the room's focus was on him. "Newbies, listen up. The reason everyone is here is because each of you has a special talent, one that's possibly related to involvement with the enemy's tech. Mister Gr--" She decided for the sake of camaraderie to switch to first names. "--Carmine's gift is that he can read minds, for instance."

Carmine sat up straight and tried to ignore the slight wetness soaking his panties. "I, uh... It's more like emotions. I can tell how you feel about stuff, and maybe a bit more if I'm lucky."

"That's why he's our team shrink and morale officer. So newbies, if you need someone to talk to about stuff, Car here's your man. Just don't lie to him though; he's a walking polygraph. Now... Adem, you're next. Tell 'em about yourself. You, uh... You ~are~ yourself, right?"

"Yes, sir." The liger stood up even though the atmosphere was casual now. "I've got a hearty body. Hard to kill me, 'cause I heal real quick."

"That's not all, bub," Vorak pushed.

"Yeah..." Ademeus specifically snapped his head to Ilaria, an apologetic look stalling his words. "I have another side to me I can't always control. He makes me do things I'm... really sorry I ever did."

Again the drake jumped into the conversation. "But he kicks enough ass when need be, so I can't complain."

Ari huffed at the reptile. "Let the guy talk, will ya'?"

"No... That's about all there is to it..."

Carbon nudged his head to the drake next. "Then you're next, Vorak. You too, Lilly. Your situation's linked so..."

As her brother grunted Lilith took the lead, being better at conversation anyway. "We were born in a lab, and from the same basic genomes."

Yoyo smiled at the revelation. "Oh, you're twins as well?"

"Sort of. We grew up in different wombs so not technically..."

Vorak decided to voice his opinion. "Nah, we're siblings all the same. That's all that matters."

Lilly almost smiled at the rare kind words coming from her brother's mouth. "Yeah, we're still family. There's differences though. He was designed to be strong and not feel pain, and I was designed to be fast and... to always follow and protect Vorak. But yeah, we're some kind of genetic soldiers."

"The only ones that worked out." Carbon smiled and nodded to Lilly in thanks for taking the initiative. All the others had too many flaws and the men were too prone to insanity. Lilly was designed to keep her brother in check though, so they never suffered that fate."

"Thankfully, yeah," the fairer drake mumbled.

"So then, what about that new girl? Come to a conclusion, Lilly?"

"I can't be sure, but with Car's reports I have a solid idea." Lilith smiled to the hare in thanks and then reported her findings. "This Viola girl seems to share a second personality like Adem does. He calls himself Siamun, and he has the ability to take full control of her body at will." She looked over to the girl, handcuffed to a rail nearby. "Poor thing doesn't like it, but the other consciousness does have some usable skills. He's very adept at using knives in particular, as you might have guessed already."

Carbon looked to the girl as she grunted and tried to get loose, then turned to Carmine. "And what are your guesses on the personality, Car? Adem's is based on his subconscious, but this girl's is different."

"Well, I keep thinking it's a manifestation of her dislike of her parents' work in archeology, but you say she possesses unique skills? At her age, that's unlikely she'd be versed in weaponry." Carmine rubbed his chin in thought. "She might be useful, but if I can't find the source of this personality I can't deem her safe."

"I'm not some kind of object, you know." Siamun made himself known through the African wild dog's body, still fighting against his restraints. "And is this how you treat royalty these days? How dare you disrespect the son of a god!"

Lilly rolled her eyes and offered, "Sir, want me to gag her while we--?"

"No, it's fine." Carmine held up a paw to his forehead as he stared at the odd girl. "She's telling the truth, apparently. Siamun, where exactly do you think you're from, please?"

"I like your tone. Very well. I inhabited this child after about three millennia of rest."

"Thank you. And do you know ~how~ you managed to do that?"

The wild dog scrunched her face as she thought about the question. "The details elude me. My goddess granted me her power and promised that should I die I would rise again, so long as my body went through the proper rituals. I will need more genetic material to remember the exact process, however."

Carbon perked up his head at that last line. "Genetic material? Did your goddess have a name?"

"Amun, the goddess of the sky."

Ari shook her head at that and spoke up. "God, not goddess. That's one of the Egyptian gods, right?"

Carmine shook his head and again confirmed the personality's words. "No, apparently she was a goddess to Siamun."

Carbon whispered something to her side and then was about to speak when Punk Rock Ashe walked in the room from wherever she was hiding in the hallway and spoke for her. "There's plenty of evidence Amun and Amunet weren't husband and wife, but actually the same person. Egyptian tales say Amun created himself and could change as fast as the wind itself."

Half the room gasped and even stood defensively when they saw the clone, but Carbon held up a paw. "It's fine, guys. That was coming later but now's as good as ever. First, I think Punk Rock here is right. Our enemy may have the ability to change their bodies... even their genders." Carbon took a moment of silence to gauge the room, finding it tense but workable. "Second, this here is a version of Ashe from another universe than ours. We're still working out the details, but she isn't a threat."

"How the fuck does that even happen?!" Vorak walked over to inspect the girl and grunted in her face. "How did she get into ~our~ universe?"

"It was an accident caused by the enemy forces. Like I said, we're investigating." Carbon used his paw to push Vorak back from the girl. "Just so you know, she isn't blind like our Ashe. Now can we get back to the introductions?"

Vorak checked the Arctic wolf's eyes and nodded, relenting back to his seat. "Sure thing, sir."

"Okay. Siamun... Viola..." Carbon shook his head out of frustration. "I'll just call you Viola in general. If you agree to be polite and you stop trying to make knives and stab us, I'll consider letting you live outside that prison cell. We'll place you there for this last night until we work out the details though. Is that acceptable?"

"...For this girl, perhaps. We will accept this offer, furry one."

"I hope you know, you're a fur now too. You're not your old human self anymore, Siamun." Carbon nudged over to the rest of the gang, all of them having found seats next to each other out of habit. "Now my take is that none of you know why you're here. Let's fix that. You remember that machine in your lab I took back from you?"

Ari nodded and confirmed the answer for everyone. "That nanite foundry? Yeah, how could we not?"

Carbon nodded as well and faced the others. "The glowing three over here somehow got those 'nanites' in their blood. I can't explain how, but they created an artificial intelligence in the process. I hate to admit it, but that was a potential use for the machine." Carbon looked back to the gang, finding them just as confused and interested as the rest of the team. "I think somehow you got some of my genetic coding involved in all of that. Those 'nanites' are genetically tied to me, as is everything the machine creates. That means you may have gained some of my own unique qualities, as well as some new ones since your version of those fii in your blood, as I call them, can work ~outside~ your bodies."

"Interesting." Ellie leaned forward in his seat as his curiosity got the better of him. "So you have the same machines in your blood too? How'd you get yours, that machine?"

"They're organic, and I was born with them. The fii in these three's blood are just mechanical imitations based on mine." Carbon turned back to the whole room and made a general announcement. "In fact, I should have told all of you this earlier. In some small way, all of your unique abilities come from me. I used to be a point of research many years ago, and that research is starting to catch up with us now. Thankfully those programs are all canceled thanks to the Reclamation War destroying their funding."

"That... explains why we're all here at least." Carmine stood up and paced around his seat, partly because of the new information but also because he didn't care to sit in a puddle of liquid Ilaria any further. "I don't think I need to say that he's telling the truth?"

"I've never lied to you guys. I never plan to." Carbon stood as well, standing tall and saluting the room to show his respect. "I know what you guys can do, so I trust in your abilities. You have my utmost respect. That's why I'm dissolving our formal structure in favor of a more team-based approach. Your ranks mean nothing, and you represent your worth with your actions now."

The Ichor siblings couldn't have reacted any more different, Vorak grumbling and stomping the ground while Lilith practically cheered in relief. "You mean that sir? I don't have to outrank my brother?"

Vorak snapped his head to his sister with a look of pure rage searing the gap. "What?! ~You~ outrank ~me~?!"

Carbon stomped over and clamped her paw into the juncture of the drake's clavicle and neck, shutting down his arm as he tried to slug his own sister. "She doesn't anymore." She looked to the now-terrified sister and huffed out a sigh. "Don't focus on that. We all have jobs to do. Right, guys?"

The Ickors both donned their heads and answered, "Yes, sir."

"No more of that either." The hybrid looked directly to Yoyo and nodded. "Call me Carbon, or Major if you have to. I'm only loosely your leader now. No more titles."

"Sure thing, Maj--um..." Carmine shrugged as he fell into routine. "Guess I'm just used to you being the Major."

Vorak shook away the Major's paw and pointed to the lone human in the corner of the room. "And what do we call that thing?"

"Her name is Zoë. She's from the settlement we just visited and she's going to be around Iolvin at all times." Carbon walked over to the girl and pat her paw on her head. "She's used to being nude, so please respect that. If you need anything from her, you ask Iolvin first. She listens to him and ~only~ him." Then she looked towards Vorak and Ademeus specifically. "And if I even get the slightest hint that she's been disrespected or... violated, I'll personally give you an instant sex change with a bayonet. Treat her as a friend of mine. We clear?"

Whatever snippy remarks would have shot out were silenced with the Major's promise. Zoë just looked to her patron and received an approving nod when she went to speak. "Th-Thank you, Fibre. Nice to meet the rest of you, too."

"They'll come around to you soon enough." Carbon ran his paw down the human's twin braids with a disapproving tisk of his tongue. "Hey Iolvin, visit my place sometime tomorrow. We need to chat about Zoë, plus it'd be nice to re-braid each other's sloppy hair."

"Sure thing, Carbon. I'll be up first thing in the morning." The otter offered for Zoë to sit next to him, but she shook her head and continued to stand. "Suit yourself, Zoë. Oh and call me Yoyo, will ya' ~Fibre~?"

"Uh... Right..." Carbon shook her head in defeat as her lax atmosphere backfired and confirmed the embarrassing name for her. "Oh, we'll have to talk alright. So, any other questions? Guys?"

"This all you called us here for, Major?" Adem sat back and used another chair as a kickstand for his legs. "I mean, there's a lot to think about and all but it could have wait."

Carbon shook her head and went back to the center of the room. "Not exactly. Now that the unit's changing, you can go back to your old quarters. New guys, that means sub-decks four and five. Use your ID cards to claim a room and make sure to change the nameplates to reflect that. Yoyo, try the fifth deck near the central elevators. I think there's a larger room that might fit three."

"Will do, Fibre."

"Now I have to trim the fat as well. No offense..." Fibre walked over to the gang and looked to Ellie. "You're doing a great job, Doc. You're here to stay. Maybe join Yoyo in the morning when those D.N.A. tests are done on the Ashes, by the way."

Ellie nodded as he hugged Ashe's arm. "I'll check them in the morning. They might take a a full day to bake though."

"Understood. Thanks." Carbon then turned to Robyn, only to find Ilaria holding her tightly and quite defensively. "Uh, Robyn... I thought about this and I think you should head back to Wildebrooke. We'll work out something with the Doc regarding your child and his 'nutritional needs'. You aren't a critical part of the team and being here only puts you in undue danger."

"No."

"Excuse me, Ilaria?"

Ari stared down the Major and wrapped her arms around her wife even tighter. "I said she isn't going anywhere. You said she's worthless and you don't even know what she can do."

"She had a few weeks of training to prove herself, Ilaria."

"In combat training. She's an engineer, Carbon. Certainly you could use an engineer."

The hybrid started to shake his head, but Robyn broke free of her wife's suffocating hold and spoke her mind. "How about that beautiful ship? You don't want to see her fly?" The Major quirked his head, but otherwise didn't respond too well. "And what about that fusion reactor? Even if you just want to weaponize it, you'll need me to make it happen."

That did the trick, Carbon's eyes widening at the topic. "You actually think you can get that Firefly working? It took some of the brightest minds in the world to even conceive that thing, and they never got it running."

"That's because their design was flawed. You can't start a reaction that energetic with just a fission drive. You need large capacitors to give it a sudden jolt, and you'd have to feed them more juice. At least four times as much." Robyn sighed as she tried to think of a solution off the top of her head. "If this elevator produces enough power, we might be able to tap into the grid somehow. It would take some modifications to make the reactor compliant, and we'll have to check the math..."

"...Huh." Carbon looked over to Evelyn as she explained the viability of the newly proposed system. "Okay then. That sounds... interesting. I'll give you three days and any resources you require to run a successful test. If you can get the reactor up and running I'll consider keeping you around to manage it."

"I get to finish the ship, too. It's my personal dream, Carbon."

The Major rolled his eyes a moment as he contemplated the potential cost of such a request. "It'll keep you off the battlefield, I guess. I think I can fund that if push comes to shove, but you'll have to draft up your plans into a proposal first. I might let you stay and work on it, but I'm only paying if I know it'll fly one day. We could use a larger ship. You'd have to make a very appealing plan though."

Lilly spoke up, her curiosity as a trained pilot piquing her interest. "How big are we talking here? I mean, it would be nice to carry the whole squad in a single ship."

Carbon literally spouted info right as Eve fed it to her. "Three-hundredFourty meters long and displacing thirty-twoThousand tons equivalent of water."

Both Lilly and Robyn jumped at the information, though in Robyn's case she was almost squealing with joy. "We could fit the dropship into the loading bay of that beaut, I'd wager. That makes it a mobile command base, Carbon. You can't tell me that wouldn't help our mission."

"No, I can't. But I do have to be realistic about things." Fibre sighed as she added up the pros and cons. "Alright, deal. Give me a reactor and I'll give you a pet project. The reactor comes first though. That's vital."

"Hmm?" Ilaria noticed how hard Carbon was stressing out over the fusion reactor and popped a question. "What's the big deal with the thing? It drives the ship, right? What else could you use that reactor for?"

"That nanite foundry. We need all that oxydium we brought back just to switch it on properly." Carbon reached out and tapped Ari's chestpiece with a clink of her dull claws. "Those fii need a lot of power to do their jobs, and right now I have a long list of work for them with no power."

"And the fusion core would output more than ten cities would need..." Robby smiled and gave the Major's side a playful slap. "I'll hook you up, mate. You'll have your power in a jiffy, just you see."

"Good to hear the enthusiasm, Robyn." Carbon tapped her on the shoulder in approval and went back to her seat. "Okay. I'd recommend a room near Yoyo then if you want a larger bed. Find one and--"

"I've already found a room, mate." Robyn pressed her paws together in apology for interrupting Carbon, or perhaps in pleading as well. "There's a perfect room in the middle of the ship, and I'd love to be so close to my work..."

Carbon drooped her head in her paws and groaned at the last of the squirrel's demands. "Eve, remind me how to switch on the power to that place." She took a moment to read over a detailed thirty-stage list of instructions, most of the steps requiring administrator access only she had. "Find a room for tonight. I'm too tired to get that dry dock operational right now. And even then you'll owe me one, ladies."

Robyn stood up immediately, pulling on her wife's paws in excitement. "You got it, mate! Thank you kindly, Carbon!"

"That all, Carbon?" Ilaria slowly stood, taking a few nods and a dismissive waving paw as a positive. "You just made my wife's day. Thanks, and have a good evening."

Iolvin snickered at the hyperactive squirrel leading her wife out the room. "You know you just condemned her to a night of fidgety hell, right?"

Carbon stood and waved to the room as he left, pausing in the doorway to respond to Yoyo's remark. "Gotta give it to your sister. She's got a hell of a constitution being with that..."

"Hot mess?" Adrian chuckled as he stood to leave as well. "Well that's another trait that runs in their family, I guess."

"As well as I know their mother, I'm afraid I'd have to agree."

Yoyo stood to join Dee in leaving, but held fast and frowned at the conversation. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Carbon snickered as she left the room. "She's great in the sack, but I bet your dad's got his paws full outside it."

"Wait, ~what~?!"