FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A Colorful Month

Part 9

For Taiko

By Draconicon

Nor managed to ditch the Marquis, though he knew that it was only temporary. He reached Choin's apartment, doing his best to avoid tripping over his own hooves - something that had happened five times between the station and the apartment building - and managed it through the stupidest, most cartoonish style of tiptoeing down the hallway imaginable. The sheer level of bad luck and clumsiness that he was cursed with had become something past a curse, and he almost wanted to cry from the extra care that he had to take now.

This is downright impossible. How would anyone be able to handle this?

There was no clear answer. He just knew that he was on the verge of shattering. The fact that the Marquis in Green could just take something from him without him having a chance of doing...well, anything about it was horrifying. If he had brought the magpie along, he had no idea what the asshole would do to Choin.

He was going to have to make this quick. If he stuck around, then the magpie might show up, and then he'd find out.

What was supposed to be a simple door-opening movement ended up punching the door right off its hinges. The living room, formerly made out of a simple square with the TV at the other end, adjusted out of nowhere into something that was shaped like a donut, with a dip in the middle and a ring of rises around the center. Choin yelped at the door banging off the outside of the donut, poking his head over the ring to see Nor standing in the doorway.

"What the hell - what happened? Are you okay?" the panda asked, climbing up and over the ring.

"I...no. No, I don't think so."

"What happened?"

"I'm...I found another one of them. Another...Council person."

"Nor, you're shaking."

He was, he realized. He was shaking like a leaf as he was pulled into the apartment. The mule looked over his shoulder, half-expecting to find the magpie waiting for him there, but so far, so good. No asshole in green. He still had time.

Shaking his head, Nor turned back to his boyfriend. Choin had already led him over the door, past the ring and onto the couch. He let himself be sat down, his skin shining, blue and red shimmering slightly from how much fear-sweat had already come pouring free. He looked down at his arms, then at the floor, and then slowly sank into his own hands.

"Oh god...Oh god, I don't know how much more I can take..."

"What's going on? Nor, please, just...just talk to me, Nor."

"I can't..."

"What do you mean, you can't? We're here. Nobody else is."

"Yeah, but for how long?"

"Is this a sex thing or a villain thing?"

"What - villain. Villain thing."

"You know I can take care of myself."

"Not against this. I can't take care of this, and that means..."

That meant that even if he did his best, there was no way for him to take care of Choin. If the magpie kept stealing stuff from him, then he might never be able to take care of his boyfriend, or the city, or anyone else out there. There would be nothing that he could do. His hero capability, his regeneration that kept him from being hurt from all the things that had happened to him, all the other stuff that he had gone through as a hero of Novus Ager, would be...they'd be gone. And he'd never be able to get them back, or anything close to them.

Consequences.

They had surely come home to roost now. He started rocking, and Choin had to hold him, the panda pulling him close. He squeezed his boyfriend tightly, huffing into his chest, barely keeping back the little tears that were trying to come out.

No, no, I'm not...I'm not going to cry. I don't cry. Not now. Not when he's needing me to be strong, not when I have to be strong.

"Choin?" he whispered.

"What?"

"You'll remember me...you'll remember me if the worst happens, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"If...if something like that woman in blue comes through...if another one comes and takes away...Nor...you'll remember me, right?"

"I'll always remember you. But you're not going anywhere. I'm not letting go."

Choin was serious, completely serious for once. He managed to blink his eyes clear and look up, only to see the panda offering him a smile. A shaky one, but a smile nonetheless.

Yet, it didn't reach his eyes. Choin was afraid, too. They were both aware, more than almost anyone else, of what had happened to Novus Ager over the last few weeks. They were dealing with all the consequences of knowing that, too. How fragile things actually were, how horrifying that they could be now that they had been opened up to a completely different group of people.

His boyfriend was handling it better than he was. Ashamed, Nor lowered his head again, taking a few deep breaths. It was half to calm himself, half to imprint himself with the smell that Choin had. That slightly musky, slightly warm, slightly bitter scent that was all through his fur. It was something...soothing.

Nor could feel himself cracking. Of all the villains that he had faced, all the situations that he'd gone through, this was the first time that he ever feared for his very existence. Deception had ripped the world out from under him and given him that moment of utter despair as he realized how little he could do to fight back, but Theft was doing something different. With Despair, Nor had known that he would remember, even if nobody else did. Theft...Theft was doing something else. He was taking things from him, taking what made him him. Whatever was valuable and made Nor Nor, Theft could take away.

And there was nothing saying that Theft had to give it back. That memory, that reminder of the way that things were supposed to be, wouldn't matter if it was taken from him. Nothing would matter. And then...then the magpie could go around...

Don't forget me...please...don't forget me...

He squeezed Choin's arm as tightly as he could...and then he heard it. The soft tap-tap, tap-tap of the magpie's dancing approach, the warning warble that he was coming down the hall. Nor's eyes went wide, and he lunged from the couch, leaping away from it. Choin almost fell over, but followed him as the mule ran for the window.

"Wait, Nor, what are you doing?"

"Gotta get out. Gotta get out right now."

"But you just -"

"Gotta get out before he gets here."

"Nor, what did he do to you? Who is he?"

The mule stopped with his leg half-out the window, panting for breath like nothing else. He looked back slowly, shaking his head.

"He took...he took luck. And he's going to take the rest, too, if I'm still here."

"What do you mean, he took your luck? What is he?"

"Theft. A magpie. He - he's all in green, you'll know him if you see him. Just...just stay away from him. Please. Please, just stay the hell away from him."

"Nor -"

"I have to go."

And with that, the mule threw himself out of the apartment.

It wasn't a long fall, only two stories, but it was enough to hit the ground and bounce. He didn't take it as easily as he normally did, and there was no chance to turn it into a superhero landing. Nor hit the ground head-first, almost caving his head in, and rolled slowly. His powers were already putting him back together, leaving him shaking and groaning, his head spinning as he tried to tell up from down.

Have to...have to...move...

The magpie had stolen his luck, but it felt like so much more as he tried to drag himself up. His ability to move quickly, his trained muscles, his everything that made him effective on the streets as a super: they all felt like they were weakened, like they were fighting against something to be barely half-effective.

He managed to get a grip on some wrought-iron fence, and he dragged himself to his hooves. His head hurt. His head hurt so much, but he managed to keep dragging himself along, stumbling here and there. He almost fell on the fence and stabbed himself, but turned it into a fall onto the sidewalk.

Why...why isn't it...working...

He should have been fixed by now. He should be better. Why did he still hurt?

Tap-tap. Tap-tap.

"No...please..."

"Nor, Nor, Nor..."

The mule grunted, pushing himself up with one hand as he looked for the source of the sound. The magpie's talons came into view, crossing the street. The green-garbed bird stopped just out of reach, shaking his head.

"Really aren't much without your luck, are you?"

"Nnngh..."

"I imagine those powers aren't so good, either. All that security, all those safeguards? Have to be very lucky to let that information back out for regeneration on the right channel, don't you? Barely open for more than a second at a time. Never thought about how it worked. It just happened.

"Well, look at you now. All sprawled out and nowhere to go. Regenerating at a snail's pace compared to usual. My, my, my. Certainly not very heroic, are you?"

"Nnngh...why..." He groaned. "Why are you...doing this? None of the others..."

"Why? Heh, don't you feel it, Nor?"

The magpie knelt down beside him. The mule wished that he had the strength to reach out and punch him in the face, but his body refused to listen to him. Instead, he was forced to just stare straight ahead, gritting his teeth as he couldn't even lift himself up. Theft pointed at invisible spots in front of him, around his head.

"All those things that make you valuable, all those things that would sell...that courage, that determination, and oh that fear. That would make for a bomb to end all bombs on an empathic planet. Look at the way it's just swelling...I could sell that for millions."

"Nnngh...leave...leave me alone..."

He swung as his arm finally gained a little strength, only for the magpie to leap over it and avoid it. Nor tumbled to the ground, wincing as he was laid out. The magpie reached out -

Pluck.

And suddenly, what determination he had disappeared. He whimpered, lowering his head to the pavement, trying to find the courage to lift his head. He barely had the courage to stay there.

"Ah, determination. Quite the powerful thing for a hero. I bet that there's plenty of mundane people that would pay a great deal for a hero's willpower."

Before he could argue, the magpie darted in again, and again. Each time that the bird plucked something from his head, he felt something else go. His courage faded, and his heart felt like it was going to explode with fear. His memory of Nemean's various devices, taken. The various technologies that were littered across Novus Ager, kept in the vault of his memory, were lifted as if they were a simple purse at a woman's side. Every secret, every little bit of knowledge that the thief thought could be useful, was taken from him, and with it, everything that was making him, him.

"A little bit of that, a little bit of this," the magpie almost sang as he stepped over another weak attempt at a blow. "My, my, you are a little treasure trove, aren't you, Nor? Or should I say, Denith? Or...should I say..."

The magpie's fingers rested at a different point, one right in front of Nor's forehead. The mule was on the verge of sobbing, and this time, he could feel something different about the touch. It was pulling on something much more integrated with him than the rest of the things taken. The courage, the determination, the knowledge, all of those might eventually come back. But this...this felt like something far worse.

He felt it pulling, and felt like something was ripping inside, seams and threads coming loose the harder that the magpie pulled. Theft leaned down, whispering to him.

"I suppose that Novus Ager must have a Nor, but I doubt that you'll ever pull yourself together enough to actually be him again. So, I'll see how much Novus Ager will ransom me for your identity. Don't worry. You'll live. Now, let me have this last little bit of value..."

No, not that...anything...

Yet, the strain came again, and he screamed. There was something at the edge of consciousness, something like the Hard Memory trying to restore him, but there were so many things gone, so many things altered and shifted around in there. He screamed at the top of his lungs, heard other people calling for him, heard the sound of a door banging open.

Then, it happened. Something went pop, and he collapsed. The city altered.

He was in a park.

He was in a fountain.

He was on a statue.

He was -

He was -

He was -

Nowhere.

No-one.

Nothing.

Gone.

Choin saw the magpie in green, but more importantly, he saw Nor. He saw Denith. He saw his boyfriend screaming in pain. The panda ran out the front door of the apartment, and he was just a finger-tip away from touching his partner -

And then he was gone. Taken across the city? Disposed of? There was no knowing. He froze, his hand just a half-breadth over the spot where the mule had been, and he slowly stumbled down to his hands and knees. There was no magpie to question, nothing but the empty sidewalk that should not have hurt this much.

He couldn't get up, he realized. Not because something was holding him down, but because something had gone so wrong. Something, someone, had taken his boyfriend from him.

"Choin."

The panda turned slowly at the unfamiliar voice. A mouse in a red suit stood behind him, a cane with a purple gem on top barely in view. The mouse's mask shimmered at the eyes as he approached, and the rodent shook his head.

"Do you remember?" the mouse asked.

"Do I remember what?"

"Do you remember that?" the mouse asked, pointing at the spot where Nor had been.

"No. I remember him. Who are you?"

"Someone that might be able to help you make this right."

"What happened? Where's Nor?"

"Wherever he is, he isn't Nor anymore. But you remember. That's the important thing. You saw it? You remember what you saw?"

"I will never forget."

"Good. Keep holding onto that."

"Who are you?"

"The person that can get Nor back for you. That's all you need to know before the rest of them get here." The mouse looked towards the sky. "Which will probably be within an hour. Come on."

Choin wasn't normally one to listen to strangers like that, but after seeing his boyfriend go up in almost literal smoke, he was willing to listen to someone that seemed to know what he was doing. The panda took the mouse's gloved hand, walked back into the apartment building -

And then blinked as he stood inside a rather spectacular, if bizarrely gray, hallway. He blinked, looking left, right, and then backwards. The street that they'd just left behind wasn't there, and they instead looked out onto open space.

"...Where are we?" Choin asked, his voice shaking.

"You know, I haven't the foggiest."

"Liar."

"Hardly. The Czar doesn't like his exact location tracked. It's quite frustrating, really."

"So, what, we got here by invitation?"

"Loophole, actually. The door worked this way once, and the door back will work the same. Then we'll have to find another one." The mouse leaned on his cane, shaking his head. "At least we're the first ones here."

"I thought you said that they were coming? Who's they, anyway?"

"That's something that you'll have to take a minute to figure out. But my colleague, the Duchess in Blue, was one of them."

"...oh, fuck."

The Persian had been bad enough. He didn't even want to think about what the others were like. This mouse? He had just taken them who knew where - certainly not the mouse - and now they were trapped here? Or was it -

Choin groaned, covering his forehead with one hand. He was getting a headache, and he honestly didn't know whether that was ever going away. On the plus side, at least he was not as scared for Nor while his head was hurting.

"Just...what do you mean, they're coming?"

"Oh, they're all going to Novus Ager. The Czar will be the last one there, but some might come here to arrive in his company. I'm hoping to avoid that."

"Why? Who's this 'Czar' guy?"

"He's the one that runs the show."

So, there was someone else that was even more powerful than all the other people that he had seen running around, that Nor had been dealing with? That did not make him feel any better about the situation. As a matter of fact, it made him feel worse.

The whole room had the feeling of something dreary, something empty, something faded. The gray stone that rose over them and chilled the floor lacked any color, and while there were shapes and details along the way, they seemed to be almost submerged in the gray, lost to it rather than standing out from it. He tried to find something, anything that might distract him from the horror of the situation, but nothing could be seen that did.

He wandered away from the mouse to an empty fireplace, looking inside. There were ashes in there, and as he leaned down, he saw that the ashes still had some substance to them. He picked them up, looking them over.

They looked like...photos, of all things. Running his finger along the still-solid edge, he managed to make out a few details. People, places that he had never seen, but looking like a team that had been assembled for something. The more he looked at it, the more that he realized that the photo had more color than the entirety of the vast chamber.

Choin rested his fingers against it, pressing firmly on it. A little gold emanated from his hand, and it managed to find something in the ash that allowed him to recreate the picture. Not easily, not well, and not for long, but enough to see that there were a collection of heroes on the image, heroes that were almost too familiar for words.

And one that had a drastic similarity to Nor, though with a more purple-ish color. He cocked his head to the side as he stared at the image, seeing them standing on something that was almost a reverse-image of the Novus Ager docks.

What is this?

Thump.

Choin stood up at the sudden sound of a door opening and closing, whipping around as the gold picture faded. His eyes were drawn to doors that were already fading into the gray, and to the man that had emerged from them.

The Czar, as he imagined this stranger must have been, was an amiable-looking grizzly bear, one that was wrapped in a suit so dull and ashen that it almost looked like it had crawled out of the fire place with the rest of the goods that he had seen down there. The bear himself had a few gray furs along his forehead and down his muzzle, making him look like the beginnings of a gray-muzzle himself. His eyes carried a few wrinkles, too, wrinkles that grew thicker when he looked around and saw the red-suited mouse waiting for him.

"MiR, you know that this is breaking the rules."

"I'm the Loophole, remember?" the mouse asked, chuckling. "I am the exception to the rules."

"Not to all of them."

Yet, despite that, the bear was smiling. The ursine figure turned, then cocked his head to the side at Choin's presence.

"And who is this?"

"A witness to a great deal of problems."

"A witness? We haven't even finished our current case."

"Well, that's good, because he has something to say for that, too."

"I'm surprised. I thought you had already dragged as many of your witnesses out of their holes as you could."

"I found another one."

"Found, or made, MiR?"

"Forgery's not my business."

"Nor is kindness," the bear said, shaking his head as he walked across the room. "Your name is...?"

"Choin," the panda said. "What was that photo? It looked like Nor."

"Photo?" The bear blinked. "You were able to reassemble that?"

"...Yes?"

"Well now...that is irksome, but I suppose that is my own fault. Step away from the fire, then."

After glancing at the mouse and seeing him nod, Choin did as he was told. The bear walked over to the mantlepiece that covered the ashes, and then pressed a hidden button. The fires flared up from below, consuming the ashes yet further. He watched for a moment, then leaned over.

"What's he doing?"

"I would imagine further clearing evidence," the mouse muttered.

"He's on their side?!" Choin hissed.

"No, no, not that kind of clearing evidence. The whole thing is over, so he's clearing it all away. Whatever conspiracy, whatever plan, whatever organization was meant to continue on either side is done. It's his way to get rid of all the mementos."

Choin didn't understand, but he went silent. If he was to be a witness to something, then he would be the best witness that he could be. Whatever had happened to Nor, he wasn't about to let it go unpunished.

Finally, the fires went back down, and the gray hue of the room returned. The bear turned to them, folding his hands at his waist.

"Now, you have something to tell me."

"Yes. Something that reveals that some of our numbers have been a little more sympathetic with LiL than we actually thought."

"Hmm...now that is information."

"Choin?" the mouse asked. "Tell him what you saw."

The mule stumbled through the alleys of the waterfront, panting under his breath as he did. Everything felt wrong, everything felt off, but he knew that there was something out there that would be able to make him feel better again. What it was, he didn't know, but he knew that if he could just get there -

No, get to them. To a person. A person that had helped him before. That was what he needed to find.

The mule kept stumbling forward, hooves feeling off, feeling not quite right. Didn't he have...no, there were no memories, but there was a feeling, a feeling of three, not this feeling of five. Or something...

Something...

It was gone. Gone and good riddance, replaced by this feeling of warping, shifting, crawling beneath his skin. His. That much, at least, had stayed the same. So much had disappeared, so much taken from him, but that much had remained. He was a him, and he had a thing for that.

As he stumbled forward through the alleys, almost falling into the streets more than once, something started to give him strength. The mule didn't know what it was, but there was a purpose out here, a purpose that he could still fulfill. There was someone, more than one someones? Something like that, waiting for him, wanting him. If he could just remember...if he could remember anything...

The mule stumbled, the light of a car speeding by shooting past him and the car itself almost catching him. The only thing that kept that from happening was a feeling of...

A feeling of shifting.

A feeling of changing.

Him? The city? He didn't know, but something changed. His head rolled, his arms felt off, but then they changed again - or were they just imagined? Everything felt off. Everything felt confusing, and weird, and...

And not right...

And not him...

And yet...him at the same time...

As he struggled to get back to his feet, someone walked over. Presence, scent, touch familiar. Smooth skin, smooth face. He looked up slowly, black and white appearing in front of him, someone that he didn't know, and did know. Someone that made him feel good. Someone that made him feel right.

Someone...

That...

Protected...

Shore Guardian? The name popped into his head from a distance, and he was picked up to be looked at. His head rolled forward, then back, then forward again. He fixed the orca with a stare...

Then shook his head.

"Not...not...him..."

"What? What's wrong?"

"You're not...him..."

"Something's wrong with you. You need -"

"Not...Him!"

He shoved the orca, and it tumbled backwards. As soon as it hit the other side of the street, it collapsed into something else, a puddle of goo, a bit of seawater, something that wasn't a person. The mule stumbled forward with it, falling into the parking lot.

"...Well, that was unexpected."

Another voice. A familiar voice. A not-good voice. The mule looked up to see a Great Dane approaching him, someone that made his chest feel tight, wrong. He had a name, a vague feeling.

"LiL..."

"You remember that much? That Hard Memory of yours truly is a wonder. Theft has taken more from you than he's taken from almost anyone else in living memory." The Dane shook his head. "It seems that it's a good thing that I decided to take some final steps here."

"Nnngh...where..."

"It doesn't matter where you are, or who you are. What matters now..." He saw the Dane's face twist, as if he was tasting a word that he hated and loved at the same time, one he would not say. "What matters now is that you stay here..."

"Not...my...place. I need...him..."

"He'll be back. Eventually." The Dane smiled. "If you can even remember me saying this, that is. Soon, you'll be so absorbed with everything else here that I doubt you'll remember anything at all."

The mule gritted his teeth as the Dane gripped him by the elbow. He was still so weak, so uncomfortable, so not himself that it was impossible for him to completely shake off the effects of whatever had happened to him. He couldn't even shake off the arm on his, nor could he resist being led along somewhere.

"You see, you've been slowly learning quite a bit about consequences. You've been seeing what the rest of the world goes through. You see what it means to pay something when you lose, instead of just going on with your life. Most of us can't just let go and keep going; most of us have to leave something behind.

"But not you. Your life is a fantasy. Well, that fantasy becomes something else tonight."

They'd reached the building that Nor had been trying to get to. The doors opened, and inside, club music thudded in the air. Rubber-dressed sluts and leather-wearing doms walked across the room. Dancers swayed their asses on the stage, swinging them for the crowd, and some few even added a little more.

The Dane turned him around, looking him right in the eye. The mule slumped forward, even as the music started energizing him. The Great Dane whispered to him.

"I am the lord of fake things. I can make a copy of anything. I could fake any life I wanted. But you live with enough fakes, you start to appreciate what's real. Well, tonight, you're getting a taste of a real loss. When they find you, who knows what you'll be by then? Who knows what you'll become? But it won't be something you can just forget. This? This will stay with you for the rest of your life...and not before time."

Before the mule could respond, the Dane threw him into the building. He stumbled, bouncing off of different patrons before finally coming to a halt. A bull grabbed him by the arm, pulling him further in, and he felt cocks throbbing near him. Other men, big men, strong men, lustful men. They grabbed him, groped him, and something that had been waking up ever since he had first been able to move finally came free.

A smile crossed the mule's face, and his own cock started rising up as he went down to his knees. He started fondling the shafts of those around him, gripping just under the head. He looked up at the men that they were attached to, and his eyes glinted blue and red.

"Mmmm, how can I serve you, sirs?" he whispered, kissing one cock after another. "Tell me what you need..."

The End

Summary: Nor reaches his breaking point.

Tags: M/M, Great Dane, Mule, Nor, Mouse, Bear, Various Species, Panda, Superpowers, Sex Club, Superhero, Supervillain, Humiliation, Pain, Break, Mindbreak, Series, Novus Ager,