A Fox in the Works Familiarity By Fox Cutter 04/15/2000: Milgrove walked around me, hir paws on hir hips as sie gave me a strong look. "Your shifting is getting better, Fox. As is your control," she said. I nodded from where I sat on the floor, my legs folded under my body. "It's getting to be almost easy," I told hir, then to emphasize it I shifted into my fox-morph form. It was almost effortless now. Just a thought in the right place and it was done. Sie gave me a smirk and plucked my glasses from my muzzle. "I can see that. You are getting very good. It's quite a change from the last few months. Congratulations; whatever you were doing on your trip seems to have paid off." I gave hir a shrug and tucked my bushy tail around my hips. Oria and I had spent a bit of time back on Earth with Brian and Kalindra. It was meant as a vacation but it ended up being a lot more interesting than planned. I ended up using my powers a lot, and it had given me confidence in them. "Have you been giving equal time to all of your forms?" sie asked me with a knowing smile. "It's been enough," I replied and adjusted my belt so that my pants wouldn't fall off once I stood back up. Milgrove nodded hir head and sat down across from me, hir paws resting against the fur of my legs. "So you're still not using your female form," sie said. I rolled my eyes, "I spent two months as a woman, I think that's more than enough time. Now I need to give everything else a chance." Sie shook her head, hir thick tail swaying behind hir back. "It's not as simple as that, and you know it, Fox. You need to be using all four of your forms regularly right now. That way they will all became second nature to you." "I do shift into that form occasionally, I just like spending time as a fox more. It's my one form that I have the least experience in, and I should use it to its fullest," I said, knowing that it was a somewhat weak explanation. Sie nodded hir head and gave me a smile. "Well that is an acceptable reason, at least for the moment. I believe you're right, you should spend more time in this form... say five days." I returned hir smile. "Is that a suggestion or an order?" I asked. "It's an instruction from a teacher to hir student. Call it homework," sie told me. With a chuckle I reached out and poked hir gently in the shoulder. "I think I can accept that. It will probably be the longest I've been a vulpine since I took Oria's potion," I said. Milgrove nodded hir head. "I suspected as much; you've spent most of your time as a human and full lioness. You have four bodies Fox! You have to use all four of them on a regular basis. I'm going to have to talk to Oriana, I think we can work it so you regularly spend time in each." I blanched a bit but nodded my head. I didn't want to use my lioness-morph body anymore, not unless I had to. There was a point where I had accepted being trapped in that form for the rest of my life, but now that was no longer an issue and I didn't want to go back. Some part of me said I should tell that to Doctor Starker, but another part of me suspected that he had already worked it out on his own, and was just waiting for me to admit it. The majority of me said that I shouldn't have been seeing him in the first place, and I damn well wasn't going to tell him anything. Milgrove reached out and ran her fingers over my pointed ears. "So, when are you going to grow the beard back?" sie asked. I blinked in surprise, and reached up to touch my chin. All I found was the fur on my muzzle, but I understood what sie meant. "In my human form? I'm not sure. I was suppose to once I got back from getting the last item, but that kind of got derailed. Once I got back to being human I just forgot about it. I may even stay without it," I said. Sie nodded and stood up, stretching hir legs out. "I think it looks better on you than the skin does--you should keep it." "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," I told her as I stood up as well, flicking out my tail to balance on my digitigrade feet. It felt odd every time I took that form, but I always got used to it. I was just glad I didn't have any shoes on. Sie grasped me on my shoulder and gave me a smile. "I wonder if you could learn new forms once you have enough control? I know your powers are limited, but it could still be something you might be able to do." I gave hir a shrug as we walked towards the kitchen, with Ravindar following a few steps behind us. "Who knows, control seems to be one of my strong points. I might be able to take new forms; we'll see in the future," I told hir. "If you need more power, I could always give you more of my blood. That should boost what you already have," sie suggested, half in jest. I shook my head and flicked my ears back slightly. "No, I think that's one fire that I don't want to be playing with. Anyway I'd rather keep the horns under the skin." Sie laughed and nodded her head. "Oh, I think you would look distinguished with them. Maybe if they were big dragon horns that arched over your forehead..." sie said, hir own hair fluttering as a pair of thick horns rose into the air. I let out a soft laugh and shook my head again. "I'm not sure that is quite my style, but I'll admit it would be fun to try. I do sometimes wish I could change into anything I wanted, just like you, but the cost is just to much," I said with a thin smile. "It is at that," Milgrove replied with a short nod. Now that I had the time for it, I started to putter around the kitchen to make myself some tea. I offered some to Milgrove, but sie turned me down. Once I was happy with it I sat down at the kitchen table and put my feet up. Milgrove sat across from me, brushing hir hair out around her new horns. "Ken has been calling me," sie said. "He wants to do a little testing on my blood to see what other effects there may be. He said something about prolonging your changes." I nodded. "Yes, I forgot about most of that. He and Pope are looking to find a way to keep me in one form without getting soul sick." Sie thought about it for a second then nodded hir head. "Well there are some ways, but I'm not sure they would work for you... and really it would only be useful in your lioness forms. I'll talk to them about it next time he calls." "I don't know if it's something that will work, or even if it's something I want anymore," I said over the rim of my teacup, holding it gently to my lips. Milgrove nodded and folded hir paws on the tabletop, hir thick squirrel tail bouncing behind hir. "You have something planned, don't you?" sie asked. I shrugged. "It's something that Oria and I have talked about, but I don't know how I feel about it anymore," I admitted, my ears sinking a bit into my hair. "All right, I'll stop prying into it," sie said. With a smile I finished the rest of my tea and set the cup aside. "I appreciate that; if anything comes of it I'll let you know. Heck it would be hard to hide it." Sie nodded again, returning my smile. "Where is Oriana? I haven't seen her all day." "She's out with Samantha. Apparently Sam got into some sort of trouble with the police a few weeks back and Oria's helping her wrap everything up," I explained, my tail flicking against the legs of my chair. "Sounds boring," sie commented. I shrugged my shoulder and played with my teacup. "I suspect it is, though Samantha believes otherwise. Honestly I doubt anything interesting will come of it." * * * I sat in the waiting room, one leg folded over the other and tucked under my skirt. I was kicking my toes and feeling just a bit nervous to be sitting in a police station. My nerves were lessened a bit when Samantha came into the room, her hands clenched tight into fists, her tail held out straight behind her. "What's wrong, are they going to press charges?" I asked as I stood up. The young women shook her head. "No Oriana, I'm free to go. It's just that Stanz has gone missing. Apparently he found a way to remove his tracking bracelet and jumped off the planet," she said with a huff. A small frown played over my muzzle. The bracelets were supposedly irremovable without the right equipment, and would set off alarms if broken. "Did they tell you anything else?" I asked. "Nothing, and I had to fight to get that out of them," she said. She turned and headed for the door. I followed right after her with Santhera only a few feet further behind me. Samantha looked around as she walked to the side of the road, her mouth set in a tight line, her tail starting to twist about in agitation. After a moment's thought she turned to me and asked: "Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" I flicked my tail and twisted my ears forward. "Nothing that I can't put off. Why, what do you have in mind?" I asked, giving her a knowing smile. She returned the smile and then glanced back at the police station. "The cops made me pay for a license to do private investigation before they would let me go. I think I should be putting it to use." "What kind of use?" I asked her as she waved down a taxi. A smirk crossed her face, "I'm going to start by looking up some information, and Elena is the best choice for that. Having you along will help grease the wheels a little bit," she said. I nodded my head as we all climbed into the car. "I'm sure having my pocket book to draw on would also be helpful. So what information are you looking for?" "Aikl Lakeleaf, he's the man I killed. I want to find out who he was and what his connection to Stanz was," she said, and then gave the address of a known fold to the driver. We took off down the street and I looked closely at my friend. She had settled down into the seat, her arms crossed over her body, a small smile on her face. Her cloth tail was flicking gently at her side. "So what are you hoping to find?" I asked. Samantha smiled. "I'm not sure. Stanz was clean, expertly clean in fact. Since Aikl wasn't working in the OPD, I'm hoping he wasn't as tidy. I know he had a Prid ID, so at least he should have an address on file." I nodded and relaxed in my seat while the car continued to drive. It was only a few minutes until we came to the fold. We left the taxi and jumped through the fold, coming out on the streets of Praxis. We walked together down the street, heading directly to the polished building where Elena kept her business. We were waved through the door and quickly found ourselves at the entrance of the data center. Eliza met us at the door, a curious look on her thick muzzle. "Hello, Oriana. I'm surprised to see you here without Fox." "I'm the escort today. Samantha needs some information. I'll be covering the full cost, so give her everything," I said as we walked into the room. The mare nodded and walked us to a terminal in the back. "I can work that today, anything you pay for is high priority. So what can I get you today?" she asked, sitting down and cracking her knuckles. "Aikl Lakeleaf, human. I want everything you can find about him," Samantha said. Eliza smiled and got to work, her fingers rushing over the keyboard. I took a few steps back and stood with Santhera, out of the way of the pair of women. "Is there anyplace around here we can get something to eat?" I asked my bodyguard. The tigress thought about it for a few moments then nodded her head. "There's a small noodle place a few blocks away. It's a little bland, but it's filling," she said. I nodded and flicked my tail back. "Filling sounds good right now," I told her and motioned for her to lead the way. We only got a few steps before Eliza called out. "Oriana, can you come look at this?" I wasn't pressed for time so I turned back around and walked to the terminal. "What is it?" She frowned and brushed her hair back. "I think this is one of yours," she said and motioned to the screen. Bending down I looked at the display. It was a picture of a human, and one that I was familiar with. Marn called him Mr. Red. I called him the son of a bitch who paid to get me into the Guild in the first place. My teeth ground together, my ears lying flat as my tail started to flicking in agitation. "Is that Aikl?" I asked, a growl in the back of my throat. "Yes it is," Samantha replied. I turned and gave her a dark look. "And you are sure that he's dead? That there isn't any doubt about it?" I asked. She nodded, pulling back a bit from me, seemingly surprised by my intensity. "Thank you, you've saved me the trouble of doing it myself," I said as I started to relax, but only slightly. The younger women gave me a smile and nodded her head. "So this man was an issue for you as well?" she asked. I gave her a thin smile and nodded my head. "That's one way to put it," I told her, then frowned deeply, my ears buried in my hair. "That means this investigation you are working on ties into some of the things that Fox has been looking into. This might just be bigger than you think it is." She frowned, her cloth tail twisting in agitation. "How big are we talking about?" "HammerHeads big," I replied, saying the word with some distaste. It caused Eliza to tense up, but Samantha just looked on in confusion. "If this has something to do with them, I'm going to put a couple of other people on it," Eliza said, picking up a phone and rapidly dialing. Samantha turned to look at me, a deep frown crossing her face. "You two are scared about these people. What are they, same kind of terrorist group?" I frowned and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her aside. "They were once a branch of the old Council. A few years ago they tried to stage a coup, but we managed to stop them. Some of the members went to ground. Aikl is either one of them, or working with them," I explained. Samantha nodded, her tail swaying in annoyance. "So who do we take this to?" "Jadith should get a copy of this, as well as everything you found while doing your investigation. You might have gotten involved with something bigger than you expected," I explained. She nodded again, her arms folding tightly behind her back and her tail moving rapidly behind her body. "I'll do anything I can to help," she said. "I'm glad," I replied and turned back to look at Eliza, glancing at the data flowing over her screen. "Have you found anything interesting?" The mare nodded her head. "Quite a bit actually, he's not very well covered. There's dangling data all over the place--it will take time to piece it all together. I've already had someone run though the old HammerHead personnel database, no match to his name but we're looking for faces." "The same database that you couldn't find Mr. Black in?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders. "The same, I'm sorry to say; not everyone they employed had full records. They ran quite a bit of black-ops work, which would explain why he wasn't there," she replied. "You're also going to want to run Richard Stanz," Samantha said. "They were together when I killed Aikl, so they must be connected." Eliza nodded and typed faster, watching as more data scrolled over the screen. "Your Stanz friend is coming up clean on the first pass, he's going to be interesting to track down," she said with a smile. I nodded. "Keep us posted on that," I said. "Of course," she said, picking up her phone as it started to ring. She listened to it for a few moments then placed it back in the cradle. "We've got something, looks like Aikl was dumb enough to use his real name," she said a new image of the man appearing on the screen, this time with information indicating him as a special operative for the HammerHeads. "He must have gotten sloppy with me," Samantha commented, a smile on her face. The mare nodded and punched a few other buttons. "It looks like his address is the real thing," she commented. Reaching out, I picked up the phone and glanced down at Eliza. Without taking her eyes from the screen she moved one hand over and pressed a few buttons so I had an outside line. I rapidly punched in the numbers of Jadith's personal phone. It rang for a few seconds and then was picked up. "Who is this, and how did you get this number?" Jadith asked from the other side of the line. "It's Oriana, I need to pull some rank with you," I said. There was a small laugh before the elf replied: "You don't exactly have any rank, but I'll see what I can do for you." I nodded my head. "We've found a HammerHead; he's dead but we have his address. He was in contact with a person working in the OPD, and it looks like Mr. Black as well," I told her. There was a small pause as she thought. "I'll get a team there as soon as I can," she said. I read the address to her off the screen, and then added. "The police have probably already been there, so you'll also want to talk to them. They thought he a was thug, not an special agent, so they may not have found what you'll be looking for." "I'll keep that in mind. I'll be home later tonight and will tell you anything that we find," she said. "We should have more for you then," I said and put down the phone. Samantha stood at my side, her arms crossed over her chest. "What do you think is really going on?" she asked. I let out a sigh and flicked my ears back. "I don't know, but they couldn't have been up to much good if they were poking around the Planetary Defense systems. You might have just uncovered a major conspiracy," I said. The human smiled, a large grin spreading over her face. "Sounds like fun," she said, her tail flicking happily. * * * "Have you heard anything from Jadith?" I asked Oriana as I sat down at my desk. I winced slightly and readjusted my tail to fit through the hole in the back of the chair. It was meant for a thinner tail and it bound up on the thicker one I currently had. "Nothing yet," my wife replied as she walked around to stand beside my chair. "I hope she can find something at Lakeleaf's apartment." I nodded. "So this man," I said the word with a bit of distaste, "is the one who paid Marn to force you into the Guild. It's good that he's dead." "It's too bad. I think I would have enjoyed killing him," she said. Turning my head back I looked her in the eyes. "I don't think anyone would argue with you about that. You know, I wonder how long he waited to get you into the Guild, or did he stage-manage the whole thing?" Oria's ears tilted back as she thought about that. "No, I don't think it was all a setup. He would have needed to know exactly what I would do. I suspect he took advantage of a situation he found. I wonder why he wanted me in the Guild. I wonder why the HammerHeads wanted me in the Guild." I was going to correct her about the assumption that the HammerHeads were directly involved, but the logic of it did make sense. Aikl was connected to Keller, who had been seen with Clark, and it seemed all three were part of the HammerHeads. "I wonder how much he knew about the Guild. He paid to get you in it, but did he know what would happen?" I asked my wife. She thought about it for a moment then flicked her ears back. "I don't know, it's possible that he could have." I nodded and looked down over the papers and PADDs on my desk. "I think he had to have known that the situation you were in could be pushed to get you into the Guild. Otherwise he was very lucky in picking his timing for it. If he knew what was going on, he had to have knowledge about how the Guild worked." "Then he would have to have been a member at some time," Oria said, finishing my thought. "I'll call the Guild and have them look into their records. If he was a member, they will find him." I smiled, then reached up and gently touched the back of her neck with my paw. "We have a lot more resources this time, hon. We'll take care of them before they cause too much trouble," I told her. She nodded, then bent down and kissed me full on the lips. We stayed together for a short time before she pulled away. "I know, Fox, we always do," she said with a smile. There was a moment's pause, but it was broken by a knock on the door. Oria pulled away slightly as I called out for whomever it was to come inside. Jadith hurried into the room, a bundle of documents in her arms and a smile on her face. "Fox, Oriana," she said as she came to my desk and set her load down. I looked over the elf, and returned her smile. "Have you found anything?" I asked her. She nodded, and sat down in the guest chair. "Some things, yes. It's going to take time to piece it together but we have something. There was a computer hidden in Lakeleaf's home. I'm not surprised the police missed it. It had quite a lot of data on it, and most of it is encoded. It will take time to crack it, but some of the data was in plain text." "So what did you find so far?" Oriana asked. Jadith pushed the papers around and nodded when she found what she wanted. "Bank account records, communication files. Messages from people whom we think are Richard Stanz and Morten Keller." I nodded. "That's good, it confirms the connection from Marn's notes." The elf nodded and shuffled her papers again. "What annoys me is that this is the first my people have ever heard of Stanz. You would think that someone working in the OPD that vanished after being involved in a criminal act would cross my desk," she said with a huff. "You might have to talk to some people," I said with a slight frown. "Do you know if they are investigating this at all?" "We are now, but I can't tell if anyone else is," she said, adding. "I will find out." Oriana reached down and placed a paw on my shoulder. "I should go fetch Samantha, she should be a part of this conversation," she said. I nodded. "Yes, she should be," I said. My wife stepped away and walked towards the door, she was about to open it when someone on the other side knocked. "That must be her," I said with a laugh. Oria smiled and opened the door. She was about to say something, but the words seemed to fall from her, her tail touched the ground as ears dropping into her hair. "Rebecca," she finally said and took a step aside. The black pantheress that had once been my friend stepped into the room and looked at the three of us. "Fox?" she asked, her ears tilting to the side. "Jadith, you should leave now. We'll talk more soon," I said, not taking my eyes from the figure in the door. The elf looked between Rebecca, and me, and then nodded. She gathered her papers and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her. "So Rebecca, is it time for me to go?" I asked. She walked to stand in front of the desk. Oria moved quickly to my side, reaching down to take my paw in hers. "Why are you a fox, Fox?" Rebecca asked. I shook my head. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with," I said coldly. She nodded and sat herself down in the chair, tugging gently at her shirt. "To answer your question, I'm not here to collect you. That time will come in the near future, but not just yet." "Then why are you here?" Oria asked. Rebecca folded her paws in her lap and said: "I have come to tell you exactly what you will be doing for the Neverending." "Well, don't keep it to yourself," I said after a few moments. She let out a small sigh and nodded. "In another universe there is a planet, well away from any fold. As we speak there are two fleets of starships converging on it. They will meet each other before the year is out. The battle between them will destroy the planet." I frowned. "You can't just destroy a planet, you know that. They could burn the surface, but not destroy it." She shook her head. "This battle will do so, it's an inevitable given the fleets. One fleet is made up of Berserkers." "Oh hell," I said, clenching my paws around Oria's fingers. "I didn't think things that like would actually exist." "Sadly they do," Rebecca replied. "The other fleet is even more unique. They are magical, every ship and piece of technology is based on magic. They have been sent to destroy the Berserkers." I frowned a bit. "So a fleet of robots versus a fleet of magical ships. I suppose it would be something they couldn't easily counter. They have to fight within orbit of this planet don't they? The magical ships will have to stay that close to have enough power to be effective." The pantheress nodded her head, her ears flicking back. "You understand, then. The berserkers are not dumb, they will work out the planet's important and work to destroy it. They have the power to glass the surface, and when that doesn't work, crack the core with enough force to overcome the planet's own gravity." "So you want me to work with this fleet, to help them?" I asked. She nodded her head. "Yes, but it's not as simple as that. The Neverending believes this world to be important to the future of the multi-verse. I will not go into how that could be. It's nothing I pretend to understand. To this end it wants the planet whole and alive, as well as the population. You will be sent to this planet in order to prepare for this fight." I nodded. "So, you want me to take my own fleet to this world?" "The magical fleet would not trust you if you arrive in a normal ship, and the planet is over a year from the nearest Mega-Fold. You would not get there in time. The Neverending has a way to get you safely to the world, but it can only hold yourself and what you can carry." "So I have to get to this world, and try to defend it, then hook up with the Magical Fleet before the battle starts?" I asked. Rebecca nodded. "That will be the plan, but you can not use any overt technology--the Magical Fleet will reject you if you do. Your preparations will have to be magical in nature." I gave her a wary smile. "This sounds like something that would be better for Brian, not me. In case you forgot I cannot do magic," I said. "I haven't forgotten Fox, but what if you had a computer that could do magic?" I thought about it for a moment. "Well maybe, but where would I get something like that?" She gave me a smile and flicked her ears forward. "You already have one," she said. I frowned, thinking about what she said, but it didn't make any sense to me. "She's right," Oriana said from above my shoulder. "Think about what we picked up from Graison's list. The zero point power system, the magical impulse generator, the super computer. Put everything together and you can build a computer that can do magic." A frown crossed my face as I glared at Rebecca. "You were working with Graison?" I snapped, my hackles starting to rise as my ears were buried into my hair. She lifted her paws up and shook her head. "No, no. We had nothing to do with him, and I would never have allowed that to happen. Luck was with us with that list; we were able to insure that you were selected to acquire the items we needed. It was the easiest way we could get them." I nodded and relaxed a bit, my ears lifting as I glared at her. "Be that as it may, a computer that can do magic would still be rejected." "No, they will perceive it as a magical device. They don't seem to have ever considered mixing the science and magic. They will not know what you posses," she replied. I nodded. "I still don't know magic." "You will not be doing it alone, we have arranged for a mage to be there with you. One that will help you with what you need to do." Oriana spoke up. "Why does Fox have to do it at all. Surely the Neverending has enough power to stop the fleet itself." My former friend frowned and shook her head. "It's not as simple as that. The majority of the Neverending's power is confined to its own world. In the rest of the multi-verse it can only move pawns." "Like me," I said with a snort. "Like us," she replied. I let out a sigh and nodded my head. "Do you have anything else to tell us?" "The world does not have humans, and your aide will not trust them. It's best if you can use this form on the world. You will be there for a few months at least, so you must be prepared to spent a great deal of time not being human." I snorted. "I'm familiar with that already," I told her. "Good, then I think it's time that I should go," she said as she stood up from her chair, her tail flicking wildly behind her. "Very well," I said, and stood up and escorted her to the office door. I opened it up and looked out at my bodyguard. "Ravindar, escort her out of the house," I said, and then pulled the door closed once she was clear. I turned around, resting my back against the door as I looked to my wife. She came over to me and placed her paws on my shoulders. "You think you can do what they want?" she asked. "It's a possibility. I'll have a fleet behind me, so at least I'll have the firepower. Berserkers are hard to stop, that's the point. I think I have the same chance of success as of failure. I'll make sure I can escape safely if it comes to that," I told her. She nodded and kissed the tip of my muzzle. "I'll work on how to make the items into a working computer. It shouldn't be that hard, everything is basically made to work together." I chuckled and returned her kiss. "That's my wife, the computer hardware expert," I said. "Well I needed to know something to justify my access to the multi-verse," she said and wrapped her arms around me. I pulled her close to me, feeling her warm body against mine. "The Neverending and the HammerHeads. What a great a combination to have come up simultaneously. At least we can take care of the local problems first," I said with a chuckle. She nodded and nuzzled gently at my neck. "At least we can do that," she said. ----- This story (AFiW #506) is copyright 2006 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.