FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Your apprentice?" Kay raised her eyebrow. Was he pulling one of his alien mind tricks?

"Indeed." Aha, he was confirming it! "I need some help, Kay. But before we go on, what do you think this floor is made of?" Illthian knocked his claw against the ground. It sounded like metal against metal.

Yet, as Kay looked down at the floor, her first guess was to say stainless steel. Yet, it seemed different. It was brighter and stronger than steel. Pressing her claw down hard, it felt like liquid. Not enough to coat her claw, but if something large were to fall on it, it may cause it to bounce. Only one metal could possibly do this, but there was no way it could even remotely make it bounce. This really was alien engineering.

"Thorium," Kay replied with uncertainly. Vormund was fading in and out of the ground, his tongue flicking out as if tasting it.

"Good. Most would have just said steel or something." Illthian turned around, motioning her to follow. Kay hesitated, but followed him.

"How did you make it so that Thorium is not radioactive?" Kay wondered. All of her alien thoughts vanished; she was now genially interested in what he had to say.

"We process it through a nuclear reactor. The way it works is that it absorbs all of the radiation from the Thorium and we use it for powering the reactor itself. In a way, it is absorbing what it burns. Don't ask how; I don't have time to go into the specifics at this moment."

"At this moment?"

"Well, you will learn one day."

Kay almost flailed with excitement. Still, she wanted to be wary around him. The metallic clacking of his claws was slowly driving her insane. As much as she wanted to tear open his flesh to see what was under there, she knew it was wrong. Hurting others would ruin her fun and make her be locked away in that jail place. She didn't like it. It smelled weird.

Yet, when they walked out of the room they were in and into the hallway, Kay's jaw dropped. Vormund came up beside her and even he looked surprised at what he saw out the window. In fact, the entire hall was a gigantic window, giving them a clear view of what was around them.

It looked like a stereotypical future city like out of one of those scrolls, but it seemed...well, more crystalline. It was night-time outside and the entire city glowed with different crystals; green pulsated along the corners of metal buildings, red lighting the streets like a glowing red river, and blue crystals lit up the walkway they were in, giving the feeling that she was underwater. It was so majestic.

Ignoring Illthian, Kay flew up and touched the blue crystal. It seemed to be attached to the top by elemental fusion. Elemental fusion was when elements bond together; it could be metal elements (Iron and Thorium) and regular elements (fire and ice). Although...this crystal was water/ice, yet it was bonded to the Thorium frame easily. Kay had half a mind to just take it and study it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure in armor approach and point something at her. However, Illthian whirled around at the same time and faced what she suspected to be a guard.

"I have this under control, Captain," Illthian said.

"Sir, she is tampering with public property. If it is damaged, it would cost at least a thousand to replace it!" The captain replied. Kay instantly took her claw away from the crystal. Although she wasn't exactly sure how gold worked here, a thousand seemed like a lot.

"And what is a thousand to me?" Illthian placed his claw on the captain's shoulder. "I understand you are trying to do your job, but she is under my watch and I will deal with it myself."

"If you say so, Mr. Vineheart." The guard bowed before walking away. Kay jumped down next to Illthian. Vor was still inspecting the crystal.

"Your last name is Vineheart?" Kay asked.

"Yes. I always tell dracidons to call me Illthian, but it is too formal. Oh well, what are you going to do?" Illthian shrugged, continuing his walk.

In her mind, Kay was wondering why they weren't just flying everywhere, but she supposed that Illthian had his reasons. Vormund caught up again and phased through someone. Kay giggled when she stiffened and felt around her, shivering. Whenever Vor did that to someone, they felt a cold tingling sensation. When Kay asked before, they described it like being touched by a ghost.

Glancing once more at Illthian, she had so many questions to ask him. Where exactly were they? Why was her family line supposedly extinct? Who was Zyrnoth? Yet, she was too timid to ask. Never before did she feel this way, but there was still that feeling of uncertainty around him. Maybe Vor would know?

Calling him over, she asked the questions. "I don't know," he answered, "But I suspect we are in the future. How far...I am not certain. We will find out soon enough."

"What about the others?"

"I'm sorry Kay, I am not sure."

Kay scowled, but nodded anyway. It was a futile set of questions to ask. She literally had no choice but to approach the alien overlord (she was still going to call him that). Swallowing, she tapped Illthian's side, too short to reach his shoulder. When he looked down, she asked the first question.

"Well, we are about a thousand years into the future. Your future, anyway." Kay tilted her head. Her future? "Don't worry about it, Kay. I promise to reveal everything to you when I feel you are ready."

"I'm ready! I swear I am!" Kay bounced after him, trying to swell her eyes up to give him a cute stare.

"Intellectually, yes you are. However, I need to know if you can handle yourself physically."

"I took down your guards!" Kay reminded. Illthian's eyes seemed to dart to the ceiling before nodding slowly.

"Yes you did. I suppose that can be a pass for you, but that's not exactly what I meant."

Kay stopped. What else could he have meant by that? There was nothing really she could do unless he had a few obstacle courses in this place. Vormund coiled around her, his gaze on Illthian. The latter just realized that she had stopped and was now looking at her with concern and confusion.

Shaking her head, she started back up. After another five minutes of walking, they came across another jaw dropping sight. Kay was on the top floor of a large room with a gigantic generator in it. Multi-colored wires and cables connected to the blackmetal surface (Blackmetal was an extremely rare form of steel. It was rumored to be one of the strongest metals). At the base of the generator, personal worked on some weird boxes with screens on them. Every time their claws clicked a button, something would pop up.

Kay decided it was time for her to figure out how it worked. Not caring what Illthian was about to say, she flew down to one that was unoccupied. Instantly, a small writing came up:

PLEASE ENTER PASSWORD.

Pressing all the buttons, Kay saw it come up with an error symbol. Frowning, she tried it again. Error. Sighing, Kay just typed her own name in and pressed a button called 'enter'. Would it transport her into the strange device? She hoped it would. It would be super amazing and flailtastic (Kay just came up with the word).

Illthian landed behind her, chuckling. A few of the personal were looking at her with odd looks and began snickering when Illthian landed. It was almost as if they were expecting her to get into trouble. Trouble or not, she was going to make this thing work! When Illthian reached his claw around, she almost swiped at it.

"I'm trying to help you." Illthian stood over her and typed in a name. It read 'Jincea'. Just as she was about to ask who or what Jincea was, a whole world of wonder popped up in front of her face. She almost fell backwards from the screen that had appeared.

It wasn't that spectacular now that she took a double look, but it was still new. It was a giant symbol of what she guessed was the business name. Vineheart Industries....so he named it after himself? Effective, she supposed.

Not really caring about the information, she immediately touched where it said 'Search'. Without hesitation, she typed in her name again. This time, something came up. Kay raised an eyebrow where it even showed that she had a thing called a 'profile' at Vineheart Industries. Pressing it, she saw that there was even a picture of her. How they managed to pull that off, she would find out.

Most of her profile was blank, but before Kay could fully go and fill in her obsession with shiny objects, Illthian tapped her shoulder.

"Not now. I know I just logged you on, but I must allow my employees to work. I'll get you your own." He indicated to a frog that was looking rather impatient.

Shrugging, Kay turned and left. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the workers who were staring at her were still doing so, but with more confusion than before. Kay guessed it was because Illthian was spending personal time with her and it wasn't often. At least, it seemed that way.

Following Illthian again, she again went to Vor. "I wonder how many can see you. Do you think it was why they were staring at me?"

"It is a possibility, but none seem to possess the qualities to see me. Then again, this is the world of tomorrow." Vor glanced back at the frog. "I am quite fascinated by the technology here. I may phase through a few more things to investigate."

"I wish I could phase with you..." Kay pouted. Vor rubbed his head against hers.

"Maybe when we grow stronger."

Had they been alone, Kay would have hugged him. This world was so alien (Kay once again went to that subject) to her and she had no idea how dracidons would react to her being...herself. For the sake of others, she prayed that no shiny objects presented themselves.

Illthian guided her to a wall in the middle of a walkway. Twisting around as if he suddenly got paranoid, the alien dragon pressed the wall. Waves of light appeared over it before the part of the wall he touched completely vanished. Kay was tempted to shout magic and spin around. Instead, she followed him into the disappearing wall and found herself in another room.

It looked like an armory. Hanging from the ceiling and wall, various weapons and armor presented themselves as if expecting her. Kay had a funny feeling that he was going to give her something to protect herself, but didn't he realize she had Vor? He was enough protection, but at the same time...the armor itself fascinated her.

"Kay, I do need your assistance, but in order for you to truly assist me, I need you to conceal your identity." Instead of grabbing armor or a weapon, Illthian instead grabbed a small metal box.

"Why do I need my identity hidden?" Kay peered at the box with interest. Vor slithered over to it and started to phase into it.

"Because, I have many enemies and they would seek any chance to hold those I care about hostage. Especially Crime-lords. If they find out who you really are and that you work for me, they will either kill you or do...other...horrible things. This is why I am giving you extra protection."

"How will a box protect me?" Kay reached out and touched it.

Instantly, the box expanded as a layer of metal started to cover her entire body, forming to her shape. The feeling...it was as if someone shoved her into a freezer and started tickling her. She couldn't help but giggle slightly at the sensation. Soon, the metal rolled over her entire body and her vision went black. Just before she was about to panic, she suddenly could see again.

However, everything was behind a visor. A small bar that had a '100%' on it came first before a radar popped in the top right corner of her vision. It would pulse, sending out sensors to detect heat signatures. At least, that's what she thought. A nagging doubt formed in the back of her head, as Illthian was not appearing on the radar.

On the left side of the screen, a small text reading 'Ice mode activated' appeared before disappearing. When it did, the armor itself covered in a thin layer of ice and crystals formed on her shoulders, crystals, and legs. The tail blade had extended with ice, becoming thick and jagged.

Taking a step forward, she gasped. The armor....it didn't slow her in the slightest. If anything, she felt like she had more energy. Energy to roll around on the floor for about an hour, fly to space, come back, and do it again seven more times. It would have been more flailtastic than working on that machine earlier.

"Vex," Illthian randomly announced. "Your code name will be Vex."

"...Are you calling me annoying?" Kay frowned. At that time, she noticed that two tubes connected to her bottom jaw from the chest plate. No doubt they were there to help her breathe if carbon monoxide was in the air or she had to go under water. Perhaps it was actually a filter, as there was no oxygen tank.

"Well, to the crime lords and whatnot, yes you will be annoying. You will also be inflicting pain on their empire. With your aid, I intend to bring them down."

"Why do you care, though?" Vormund piped up.

"I have all this wealth, rotting as I never use it. I figured I may as well put it to good use and design armor such as that and give others a reason to fight. However, I personally cannot be seen fighting others, as it will damage my reputation. Don't ask how, the media will find ways."

"Then...how will you fight?" Kay tilted her head. Would he be one of those dracidons who sat back and gave orders?

"I, like you, have a secret identity." Illthian waved a claw over his chest and purple-black armor started to form on him. It was quite similar to hers, but as it fully came onto his body, purple veins formed through the plates and a crueler look appeared on his muzzle. Kay took a step back.

After his 'transformation', Illthian now had blades on his wings blades jutting from the armor. The plant on his shoulder was covered in armor and had a small red dot on the mouth of the plant. Kay presumed that something would fire from it.

"As a warning, I would like to point out that in my armored form; it has the side effect of altering my personality." Illthian's voice was darker and more mechanized, "If I have a short temper or start being all around aggressive, it is the armor. Don't take it too much to heart."

Kay nodded as Vor went into the armor. Oddly, she saw that an unknown presence had entered the armor. It formed a scan and revealed that a bond had been made between the armor and the presence. No negative impacts on the armor, additional defense and offense capabilities...something she wasn't surprised about. Vor was just as strong as her, so it was like adding another her into the armor.

"I honestly did not expect for me to do that." Vor's voice said within the armor, "I guess I can bond with some things other than you. Maybe the properties recognized me, as we should share the same genetic code..."

"Call me Razorwing whenever we go out in public." Illthian told her as if he didn't hear Vor. "I didn't adopt the name; criminals and whatnot gave it to me thanks to my bladed wings. Is that clear, Vex?"

Kay nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. Illthian smiled a bit before flying up to another one of those screens and hitting a few keys. A portal appeared. The only reason why she knew it was a portal was because on the other side, an overview of the city could be seen. It was on the opposite side, but she doubted Illthian would lead her into a random location.

Swallowing, Kay dove in with Illthian.

--

Elsewhere in the city, something awoke. It was shaped like a bipedal dragon, yet it seemed completely...different. It wore blue and black armor. Instead of opening the eyes, it instead opened up its mouth; a bright blue glow came from it. Looking up, the dragon formed a demented grin when it saw Kay and Illthian fly over.

"Found you..." it said in a twisted voice as its head shook uncontrollably. Spreading massive wings that looked like eyes were stitched on, the dragon took off after them.