A Fox in the Works
             For All My Sins, I'll Have to Pay

                             By

                         Fox Cutter

    2: Odd

"Do you think we'll get anything from those two?" I asked,
rubbing my head as I settled down at the conference room
table. My head was still hurting a little bit. It wasn't
enough to be to annoying, but I still noticed it. Oriana was
already at the table, and the moment I sat down she placed a
paw on top of mine. I was still in my fox form, not quite
ready to shift out of it.

Natasha thought for a moment and nodded her head. "We'll get
something out of them, but not right away. I'm not that sure
they know anything. I think they were just there installing
the device," she said.

"They still shot at us," Samantha replied in annoyance.

"They aren't saints, just hired hands," Natasha replied.

I nodded and frowned a bit. Other than Samantha's group,
nothing interesting had happed. The only things interesting
at the other locations were more of the devices.

With a sigh I rubbed the bottom of my muzzle. "I wonder why
they were even there. With what happened last time, I would
think they would go to ground, not keep going."

"It must have been too important to leave," my wife
suggested.

"I suppose so," I said with a sigh, leaning back a bit in my
chair.

Oriana ran her fingers over the fur of my paw and twisted
her ears back slightly. "Can I see the file?" she asked.

Natasha gave her a glance and slipped the file over the
table to her. She opened it and started to quickly flip
through the pages, scanning over them.

"What are you looking for?"

She didn't reply, she just turned the file around and
started from the back, moving quickly through the pages.
With a smile she stopped and placed her paw on the page. "It
was something Jadith said. We went to those two addresses
because they were connected with the date. Look at this. The
location Samantha was at has a line here for today," she
said, turning the page around and tapping at it.

I took the folder from her and looked at the page. It was as
she said; a list of dates and the same addresses. The
majority of them were in the past with only a couple more in
the future. What I found interesting was that one of the
dates listed both the place Samantha had been and the house
where Jadith had been killed.

"You found something, didn't you?" my wife asked, leaning a
bit closer.

"I think I have. Look at this, the dates match up," I said,
pointing at the page. Oriana leaned closer to look at it
while I skimmed back over the page. I found a similar match
between the other two addresses and the house.

Natasha reached over and took the file from us, a smile
crossing her face as she saw what I saw. "There is a clear
connection between each location."

"They were installing one of these devices when we
encountered them. Wouldn't such a device need to be tested?"
Mallory asked.

She smiled a bit and nodded her head. "They would have to
activate them to get the address of the fold, otherwise why
hold one in place," Natasha mused a bit.

I nodded by head. "Right, but why do it from so close? They
could do it from anywhere, why stay in Corbin?"

"The Consortium monitors all off world fold connections,
even unlicensed folds. Staying inside the city would be a
short enough jump to keep them from being detected," the
gray-skinned woman said.

Oriana frowned a bit. "How would they know about it? I
imagine this would be top secret."

"It was initially developed by the HammerHeads," Natasha
admitted.

My wife let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair, her
ears pulling closer to the top of her head. "Of course it
was."

I rubbed my chin, my ears flicking back slightly. "I wonder
if this was another one of these devices, or maybe it was a
normal fold." I mussed, pointing to the location where
Jadith had been killed.

Natasha stood up and walked over to the terminal in the
wall. She spent a few moments typing into it and then turned
back around to look at us. "It is a registered fold."

"Can you pull the off world folds it connected to?" Samantha
asked.

She shook her head. "No, we can only record when and where a
fold is opened off world, not to the fold that it is
connecting to."

I thought about it for a few more moments. "But there is a
fold there. I wish Jadith had known about that, maybe she
could have used it to escape the explosion."

There was a moment of silence over the room before Mallory
slapped his tail on the floor. "We can always wish for such
things, but wishing for them would not make them true. If
such a thing was a trap then there was no foreknowledge
about the destruction, since it could not be avoided unless
they knew about it in advance."

Letting out a sigh, I nodded my head. "We can always hope,"
I said and dropped my muzzle down against my chest. If she
had been able to used the fold she would have gone somewhere
on Prid, probably right to the OZG. We would know about it
before we knew of the explosion.

Samantha cleared her throat then spoke up. "Tests have to be
run by people, and this house seems to be the center of them
all. If they weren't in the house when Jadith and Sora
arrived and tripped the explosion they had to go somewhere.
The fold is the most likely way to leave the house."

"You've got a point," Oriana said.

I nodded, then pushed my chair back from the table and stood
up. "We should go back to the house and check out this fold.
If we get lucky, it will lead someplace useful."

Natasha smiled a bit. "You have a habit of getting that
lucky. Let's go," she said.

The seven of us filed out of the room and down towards the
fold. We were a bit more relaxed then on our last trip.
Samantha jumped forward, opening the fold with a twist of
her hand and a flick of her tail. We all walked through one
at the time.

Oriana leaned in a bit closer to me as we walked.

I slipped an arm around her back, pulling her closer to me.
"Maybe we should be a bit more careful. I'm not sure how I
could have handled it if you had been killed. I'm not sure
you and I should both be getting into this sort of
situation, at least until the children are adults."

She shook her head. "It's hard not to. With our lives, it
seems like we attract that sort of trouble."

Snickering softly I nodded my head. "Trouble does like to
shoot back, doesn't it? Once this whole thing with the
Neverending is over we should try hard to settle down. Just
sit back, run the shipyard and raise the children. Maybe add
one or two more."

My wife laughed softly and nodded her head. "We should try,
I don't think it will be as easy as that, but we can try.
Just remember, if we have any more kids, you get to be the
mommy." She said the last part while poking me in the belly.

"Don't be too eager, you get your own transformation as
well," I replied, then kissed her on the cheek.

She returned the kiss. "I can deal with it," she said in a
way that made me think she mostly meant it.

I smiled a bit and pulled away slightly. "I'm sure you can,
hon," I told her and gave her a soft grab on her ass. She
laughed and pushed me away, causing me to stumble slightly.
I returned her laugh and moved back to her. I loved that
woman.

We stopped on the sidewalk at the edge of the debris field.
I looked down into the hole, feeling my stomach twist at the
thought of what had happened here. I wanted to do more than
just stand here and poke around at the folds.

Reaching out with my powers, I touched the fold. It was in
the center of the crater, about a dozen feet above the
ground. I felt at it, frowning when I discovered that it was
cold... Not as cold as a natural could leave it, but cold
enough.

"I can't get anything from it," Samantha said with a sigh.

"Nor I; I don't think these people have any naturals on
staff," I mused, still probing at it. I could feel
something, but it wasn't very strong and I couldn't hold
onto it. I tried, but it kept just slipping out of my
fingers. "I can almost get something, but I'm not powerful
enough."

Samantha looked a bit surprised. "You can feel something
there? I can't feel a thing."

I nodded. "I may not have a lot of power, but my control is
off the charts. If I had your level of power I could
probably open a fold from a mile away. If I had Little Fox's
power I could open a mega-fold, maybe even from here," I
said, casting a glance up at the twin suns.

Natasha let out a low whistle. "Do you know how many
Naturals can do that?"

"Jadith and a few others. Enough to count on a single hand.
Little Fox hardly has any control; we're opposites in that
way."

The gray skinned women shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe we can
get him here? If you two can work together maybe you can
find a trace."

I shook my head. "Sorry, I can't easy contact him and even
if I did call it would be a few days before he could get
here."

"We can wait," she replied.

Oriana walked up and placed a paw on my back. "I don't think
just working together will help. You need to connect your
powers to someone who has enough power to trace this. Can
that even be done?"

"Yes, it can be done, though it does take some special
tools," Natasha said.

"What sort of tools?"

"A level twelve telepath," I said with minor distaste. I had
a few contacts with creatures of that level: the wyrm had
been one, the telepath who had separated Rhea and I had been
another.

"We have one on staff. I could call him in if you like,"
Natasha said.

I tried to hide my distaste for that idea, but the position
of my ears and tail gave it away. Luckily Oriana was the
only one who could read them that accurately. She placed a
paw on my shoulder and leaned in a bit. "Don't force this if
you're not comfortable with it," she whispered.

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "I'm fine with it," she
said, showing that she never had experienced that before.

Looking out into the debris, I tried to grab onto the small
thread, hoping I could hold onto it, but it slipped away
again. It was a few days old and wouldn't last all that much
longer. I might have been able to trace it right after it
had been opened, but not now. I wondered if it would lead
anywhere other than the ripple that Oriana and Samantha had
found. It could just be a dead end, leading nowhere, then
again it could lead to the people who were testing the fold,
who set up the trap that killed Jadith.

That was really what it came down to, finding the people
that killed Jadith. If that meant allowing my mind to be
violated by a telepath then I would just have to grit my
teeth and accept it. There were bigger things than just my
own head at risk.

"Fine, call the telepath," I said.

Natasha pulled out a phone and started to make a call.

Letting out a long breath I pulled away from my wife and
walked over to Samantha. "Are you ready for this?" I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders and flicked her cloth tail.

"It's not like what you expect. Naturals are telepathically
null, to the point that we stand out because of it. It takes
a special kind of telepath to overcome that, that's what
level twelve means. Very few species have that ability, and
it's not easy on us. I've had them in my head before; it's
not easy."

Samantha gave me a short look and then smiled. "I can deal
with it, it can't be any worse than losing my arm," she
said. To emphasize her words she light up a cigarette and
took a long drag on it.

I shook my head. "It's still not what you'll expect. Just
brace yourself when the time comes."

"What do you think I'm doing?" she asked while motioning to
me with the lit end of her cigarette.

With a shrug of my shoulders I stepped away, allowing
Mallory to take my place. He pressed up to her, wrapping a
thick arm around her back and nuzzling his neck over the top
of her head. She responded by pressing close to him and
flicking her tail. Even I could read the fear in the
motions, but her boyfriend seemed to calm her.

I walked over to Oriana and snuggled up to her as well.
"This is going to be different," I said.

"That's one way to say it. You're going to be closer to her
than you've been with anyone other than Rhea," she said in
return.

I chuckled softly. "Jealous, love?"

She shook her head, her long hair fluttering over her
shoulders. "Not at all, but it might be interesting to be
that close to you."

"I'll be happy with just being non-morphic with you," I said
and gave her a kiss on the nose.

My wife laughed and shook her head. "You are silly."

"Of course," I said, then glanced back at Samantha and
Mallory, both of whom were looking at us.

The human woman smiled and looked up at her boyfriend. "I
might have to borrow that toy of yours," she said to us.

"Why? I don't think being a monkey would be all that fun," I
replied.

She shook her head. "Why not? I think it would be nice to go
jumping around in the trees."

"And you would have a real tail," Oriana added.

Samantha gave my wife a sharp look and flicked her cloth
tail. "Being a monkey is just as exotic as being a lion,
don't forget that," she paused then looked up at Mallory. "I
wonder what you would become?"

The alien laughed and shook his head. "I assure you that the
full grown form of my precursor species is just as large as
these buildings and far less intelligent"

Natasha, who had been eavesdropping on all of our
conversations, let out a low growl. "What exactly did you
evolve from?" she asked.

He flexed his jaw a bit in a smile. "Not everything
evolves."

Samantha looked up at him. "Then how did you end up
sentient?"

"A million years of servitude," he said in a tone that
suggested he was joking, but I was willing to believe that
he was not.

Natasha lifted her eyebrows and smiled her slightly
disturbing smile. "I think I should discuss this with you at
some point in the future."

"I think not," he replied.

She looked at him for a moment the shrugged her shoulders.
"Very well then," she said, then turned around and walked
back to the street, waiting for the telepath to arrive.

I thought about pressing the matter myself, but I felt he
made it clear that he didn't wish to speak about it. I put
it out of my mind and just pressed myself up to my wife.
Time passed in silence as he looked down over the hole in
the ground. Finally I just grunted and turned away, I didn't
want to be reminded about what had happened to my friend.

A few minutes later a young looking canine walked up the
street towards us. He picked his way though some of the
debris to stand with us. "Natasha, I'm sorry for the delay,"
he said.

"It's alright, come with me," she replied, motioning for
Samantha and myself to join her. We pulled away from our
respective lovers and moved together with the canine and
Natasha.

The gray woman smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Blackwood, this is Fox and Samantha. We would like you to
link them together."

Blackwood glanced at us, then back at his boss, a smile on
his face. "Linking two naturals, that is rare. I should be
able to repress the power multiplication, but there is still
a risk."

I glanced at Samantha who just shrugged her shoulders. "I'm
game."

"My abilities are fairly low, everything should be
controllable, but you should abort if things risk going out
of control," I replied.

He nodded his head. "I will be able to do so."

Letting out a deep breath I flicked my ears back and moved
just a little bit closer. Without much thought I reached out
and took Samantha's hand in mine and we knitted our fingers
together.

Blackwood reached up and placed a hand on the side of my
head, his other hand pressing against Samantha's head. There
was a moment of silence then I felt a shot of cold as his
fingers pressed into my mind, and with a flash the world
twisted to white.

* * *

I hate the feeling of someone else in my mind, poking and
prodding with their mental fingers all over the places I
didn't want them to be. About the least intrusive person who
had ever snuck into my brain wasn't even a person, but a
wyrm, and that was more about having a conversation of a
sort than it was about deep contact. The most intrusive was
when Rhea and I were split in twain. My whole mind had been
duplicated, then each side edited to only be one of us. It
had been an interesting experience.

The world swirled white around me, slowly reforming into a
green field, but not real grass. It was more like painted
grass, or something out of a video game. The edges were
jagged and I could see a few trees in the distance that
looked like photos instead actual tress.

My feet found solid ground, and I turned to look around the
field. I wasn't alone, Samantha was standing a few feet away
from me, and her head was tilted back and looking up at the
sun above us. Only it wasn't exactly her. Her face was
slightly distorted with a small muzzle, her nose flattened
out and her eyes just slightly further apart. Her ears were
pointed a bit and poked out of her hair, flicking slightly
as she took in the world. At the same time her tail, now
real, though without any fur, flicked in excitement.

"Samantha?" I asked.

"Is this world yours or mine?" she asked, turning her head
down to look at me, her teeth pointed under her lips.

I looked around the place, clicking my tongue slightly. "I
wish I could say. Things were a lot more real looking the
last time I was here, but then again I was in my own mind."

She nodded a bit, her ears twisting to the side. Bending
down she pulled free a clump of pixilated grass and let it
scatter to the ground. "It's very retro, whatever it is,"
she said.

"It's sort of pretty I suppose," I said, reaching out to
place a hand on her shoulder. The contact between us was
very warm and very real, more real than anything else in the
whole little telepathic world. I squeezed her shoulder a
bit. She looked up at me, purring softly, then suddenly
turned and wrapped her arms around me.

Without thinking I reached down to hold her, my hand
touching at the base of her tail. The touch of it was odd,
the lack of fur made it feel very different than I had
expected. I held it there for a few moments before I
realized that wasn't the only thing wrong. There was a large
mass between me and her.

We pulled away from each other. Samantha reached out to grab
the base of her tail while I looked down at myself. I was
female, and not just normally female but very much so. I
pulled at the hem of my shirt, looking down at my breasts.
They were huge! At least double what I normally was as a
female, and I was human.

I let go of my shirt and ran my hands over my body. I was
curvy, even if I still had my excess weight around the
belly. I wouldn't stop traffic, but everyone would be
watching me.

"Why is my tail real?" Samantha asked in an annoyed tone.

I shrugged, adjusting my clothing to better fit my new form
and wishing for a bra. It might have been a touch of cartoon
physics, but now that I knew about my new breasts I could
feel their weight on my body. "The same reason I'm a woman.
It must be some sort of view into our souls," I said.

She let out a long growl and tucked her tail around her
body. "You weren't supposed to see this," she snapped.

"Why? I knew your tail was real, at least as far as your
mind was concerned," I said to her reaching out to place a
hand on her shoulder.

Samantha snorted and pulled away from my touch. It was
probably a good idea, as I could feel the urge to hold her
again starting to rise the moment contact was made. "You can
see it now, you can see what it made me," she said, her ears
laying back in annoyance.

"What happened? What caused this?" I asked her.

She glared up at me, her anger glowing red in her eyes.

I sighed and shook my head. "I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting
this to happen. This is the first time I've ever tried
this."

The half feline giggled a bit and looked me over. "I guessed
not, otherwise you would have been ready for your
enhancements. I suspected you liked them big, Fox, but I had
_no_ idea!"

A blush rushed over my cheeks as I turned away, wrapping my
arms over my chest. "I'm not that much of a letch; I think
it's just this place," I said, looking around the field.

"I think your chest is telling me otherwise." She walked up
and poked me right in the nipple. I wanted to protest but
the contact with her sent a jolt through my body.

I took a step back. "Let's be careful with the touching. It
seems a bit overwhelming here," I said.

"I suppose so," she replied, then leaned her head back,
sniffing at the air around us. "We should find the fold."

I nodded and took a few steps away from her, looking around
the field. I could feel the fold in the distance, maybe the
middle of the field, but it was hard to tell. Samantha must
have felt it as well, as she spun on her heels and started
to run towards it.

Following her turned out to be a lot harder than I had
expected. I got maybe half a dozen steps before my
unrestrained breasts made me drop back to a low jog. I
simply couldn't keep up with my friend like that, so I just
watched her run across the fake grass. She didn't get far
before she fell down onto all fours, her hair and tail
fluttering behind her as she picked up more speed. I could
see her body reshaping under her clothing and skin as she
ran.

She wasn't the only one who was changing. My body was
growing as I neared the fold myself, the clothing becoming
tight over my chest and around my hips. Before long I was
being squeezed in a number of uncomfortable ways and I was
worried that I wouldn't stay in my clothing much longer.

It took me around ten minutes to reach the fold. By the time
I had reached it, I had a chest that was better associated
with a porn star than anything normal. I couldn't see the
group from around my chest, and I could only see the tips of
my feet at full stride. My hips and ass had kept pace with
the growth and I doubted I could fit through a door. I was
more of a parody of a woman than the real thing.

Samantha hadn't fared any better, she was sitting on her
haunches, licking one paw. Her body was not much more than a
cat in human skin. Her muzzle was long and narrow with sharp
teeth. She looked up at me with her large slited eyes and
let out a soft mewing.

"Samantha?" I asked. I was surprised to hear my voice, it
was high pitched and breathy.

She lowered her ears and looked at me, her eyes narrowing
slightly. "You look silly," she said, her voice a
combination of normal speak and a purr.

"I could say the same about you," I told her, looking up at
where the fold was. The air seemed to twist around it,
flickering like heat was rising off of it, but the air was
cool.

The feline stood up on all fours and looked over herself,
her face falling a bit as she struggled to stand upright,
but failed. "Fox, what is going on?"

"I wish I knew," I replied.

She shook out her head, which flowed down the rest of her
body all the way to the tip of her furless tail. "It wasn't
like this before; it was never like this."

I nodded to her, looking back up at the fold. "This is just
in our minds. It's not real, it will never be real. We just
need to do our job and get out of here and we'll both be
back to normal."

She nodded her head, walking around me in a tight circle,
but not quite touching me. "You had better be right. I don't
want to be trapped like this again."

"You're not the only one," I said, biting my lip slightly. I
sat down on the fake grass and closed my eyes, reaching out
to feel the fold. It was just the same as before, and I
could just feel the trace of the last connection, hanging
just out of my grasp.

I reached out for it, trying to grab onto it, to do what I
couldn't do before, but it continue to be just out of my
grasp. I strained, putting everything I could, but I just
couldn't get my hands onto it.

"Can you feel the fold?"

She nodded her head. "Of course I can, but I can't find
anything. I just can't see what you see."

Licking my lips I looked down at her. "Then it's time we
started working together," I said, and reached down for the
top of her head.

The half human pulled back a bit and tilted her head,
looking at me with one eye. Slowly she nodded and tried to
relax, but her ears lay flat in her hair. I reached down and
placed my hand on top of her head, feeling the rush of the
contact between us. I wanted to embrace her, to hold her to
me, to hold onto the only real thing in this world.

Next to us the fold pulsed with power I had never felt
before. I could feel it like a weight on my shoulders. I
could also feel the fold we had taken to reach the destroyed
house. I could even feel a ripple in the air high above us,
moving like a streamer through the atmosphere.

I reached out to the fold, feeling it twist around my touch.
I closed my eyes, focusing on it. I could feel the thread of
the trace again, just under the trip of my fingers. I
reached out for it but it pulled away, teasing me, staying
just out of my reach. I went for it again, but it danced
free.

Growling softly I gathered up all the power and lunged for
the thread. It tried to twist away but I was able to catch
it between the tips of my fingers. It wasn't a sure thing.
It tried to pull away from me again, wiggling and twisting
as I tightened my grip. Once I had it firmly in my hands I
pulled it back towards me and finally I knew where it lead.

I opened my eyes and looked down at Samantha. "I know where
it leads," I said.

"So do I," she replied, giving me a smile that I had only
seen before on Rhea.

Pulling my hand away from her, I gave it a shake, feeling
the tingle from the contact. "Now we just have to wake up,"
I said. As I spoke the words they seemed to reverberate
around us. For a moment I could feel the touch of
Blackwood's mental fingers in my mind. I pulled at them,
twisting away, feeling them separate from my mind.

The world started to swim around the pair of us then fade
back to white. A moment later my real eyes opened and I
found myself looking into the eyes of my wife.

I smiled at her and fell forward, wrapping my arms around
her and kissing her nose. "I have it, love," I said.

"We have it," Samantha said from my side. I turned to look
at her, pleased to see that she was still her normal self. I
double checked myself. I was once again male, and still a
fox.

Blackwood came over to me, a concerned look on his face.
"Are you okay? There were some issues with the connection. I
was worried about the pair of you," he said to me.

"What sort of issues?" I asked.

He ran his paws over his head, looking tired. His fur was
stained with sweat, as was his clothing. "'Sympathetic
resonance'. Your common traits were reflecting and enhancing
each other, increasing them tenfold."

"More like fifty," Samantha said.

"Fifty sounds about right," I replied with a chuckle.
"Everything is back to normal now."

The canine looked a bit annoyed at my proclamation but
didn't seem up to saying anything else. Natasha walked over
to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You had better
get some sleep. I'll have the bonus in your account by
morning."

"Thank you," he replied, then turned and started back
towards the fold. He seemed to regain some of his composure
as he walked away, but he still looked the worse for wear.

Samantha pulled away from us and started towards the fold.
"I think it's time we found where this leads," she said, and
then frowned.

Mallory was by her side in a moment. "Is everything
alright?"

She shook her head, her tail flicking slightly. "I can't
open the fold. Damn it, I can't open the fold!"

I frowned at this and reached out for the fold myself. I
tried to open it as well but nothing happened. I could feel
it, but I just couldn't control it. It was like I was trying
to make it open to a fold that didn't exist, but I wasn't.
That had a different feeling to it, but this was nothing.

"I can't either. That's never happened before," I said in
disbelief.

"We're out of power. I haven't had this happen in years,"
Samantha said, her annoyance growing.

I looked at her in surprise. "I can run out of power?"

"Of course you can," she said. At the same time my wife also
answered with: "Didn't you know?"

Shaking my head I looked at Oria. "No, I didn't know. I've
never had this happen before."

She surprised me with a giggle and wrapped her arms around
me. "Something about Naturals that you don't know? I never
thought I would see it happen."

I wrapped my arms around the body of my sexy wife and gave
Samantha a glance. "How long will it take before we can open
a fold?"

"A day or two," she replied.

Smiling a bit I nuzzled my wife's cheek. "Then we can wait a
few more days and spend the time to get properly prepared.
Wherever this fold leads, if anywhere at all, we're going to
give the people on the other side a big surprise."

-----

This story (AFiW #511B) is copyright 2007 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.