Ladies and germs, I give you #7! Much better than #2, but not as much fun as #3! ... Okay, so, I'm pushing it now. *shuts up* ___________________ Tiera was busily packing the few things she would need for the trip. Mainly folding uniforms and shoving them in a duffle. She had explained to Nathan that she was taking her uniforms, because there would be a lot of hostility towards a human, and she wanted to be armored if things got messy. Nathan, being the typical male, already had everything he needed in a duffle, and was sitting at the desk, working on the design for powered armor. He idly chuckled watching Tiera pack. Everything ground to a halt with the soft hiss of the door opening, immediately followed by a dark blur flying from the doorway, right in to Nathan, sending him tumbling off the chair. He found himself pinned to the floor, staring up at a panther. He tried to say something, but the shock wore off and he realized exactly where her knee was placed, so it only came out as a pain whimper. "Aww, Tiera finally got her pet human." Mayhem said with a grin. "Is he as much fun as you'd hoped, Tiera?" "Mayhem, get off him." Tiera growled. "What do you want here?" "You want me to get him off?" Mayhem said with a purr. "I thought that's what you did. Sst, you and your fetish sicken me. I'm here to kill the human, his very existence offends me." Tiera didn't even waste time with a verbal reply, instead she flung herself at Mayhem, tackling the feline and forcing her off Nathan. Then promptly went tumbling back across the room as the panther stood up, growling. "I'll get to you in a moment, human." Mayhem said with a fiendish smile, stalking over towards Tiera. The panther was larger, stronger and faster than the wolf, not to mention, she had claws. "Tell me wolf, was the human enjoyable for the short time you had it?" Tiera rose, growling. "I do not own him. And, unlike you, I don't spread my legs for anything that looks at me and has a penis." She slid in to a defensive stance. Nathan stood up against one wall, he couldn't help but smirk. Two women fighting over him. Less clothes, more jell-o. That's what this needs. Hmm, jell-o and fur. Too messy. Despite his wandering mind, he was looking around the apartment for any kind of weapon, knowing he couldn't pose a threat unarmed. Mayhem made the first move, which was a mistake. It was intended as claws to the face, but Tiera spotted the opening instinctively, catching Mayhem's arm mid-swipe, twisting around to slam an elbow in to Mayhem's neck, before flipping her over her shoulder and right in to the wall. Nathan stared for a moment. He had underestimated Tiera's capabilities in a fight. Mayhem shifted in mid air, her hands hitting the floor, her feet hitting the wall, reducing the force of the impact on her body, then as she fell forward she planted a solid two-footed kick right in Tiera's chest, sending the wolf tumbling to the ground. Mayhem took the advantage and leapt on the downed wolf, hand wrapping about her neck, claws digging in. Tiera struggled for a moment, unable to break the panther's grip. Then her eyes fluttered closed and her body went limp. For a moment, Nathan couldn't do anything but stand there, watching someone kill the only friend he had, and he was too scared to stop it. Mayhem's grip loosened once she was convinced Tiera had actually passed out. Another mistake, as soon as her grip was loose, Tiera brought her up between Mayhem's arms, knocking them away from her neck, then bringing her hands up, she caught Mayhem as her weight was coming down, slamming her thumbs in to the panther's armpits, and pulling her down. This earned a surprised and pained howl, which was cut of short by a loud cracking sound and the panther falling limp. Tiera pushed the panther off of her and stood up, rather unsteady. She rubbed her head and grumbled. "Fucking panther has a thick skull." Nathan moved to Tiera side to help steady her. ".. I'm sorry.." "Rf. For what? Not your fault she's got a hard head." Tiera grinned. "She came here, to your home, trying to kill me." Nathan said with a sigh. "And I couldn't even help you fight her." "What could you do? Unarmed against a panther, you're just meat." Tiera smiled. "Now, I need to call security before this pussy wakes up and wants to kill me, too." Tiera hit the com to call security in. But Nathan paid no attention to that, he dug his tool kit from his duffle and knelt next to the unconscious panther, casually opening her mechanical arm up and poking at things in it. After a moment, Tiera knelt next to him and watched him for a moment. "What are you doing?" "Making her arm malfunction." Nathan said with a grin. After about five minutes, several guards arrived, collected Mayhem, and statements as to what happened. * * * Terrance sat by Kit's bed. It had taken a lot of convincing to get the medics to let him in. In the end Tiera had managed it for him. He was just too attached to the small Fox to let it go. Then, he had always been prone to get emotionally attached to people extremely fast. Kit looked horrible. Almost entirely shaved, covered in fresh scars. Two black eyes, a couple of teeth knocked out. And that wasn't even considering the internal damage. Both legs broken in several places, multiple cracked ribs, fractured skull, one arm broken, the other shoulder dislocated, and a broken jaw. He had been fortunate enough to avoid any serious organ damage. Terrance had read the sheet a dozen times already. He knew it all. He also knew that medical technology had come a long way over the years, but it still took time to heal. He took Kit's hand, looking over the Fox's unconscious form. There were a lot of new scars, but a large number of old ones too. A lot of claw marks, some were hardly even visible. Terrance gently kissed Kit's cheek, wondering what kind of life the fox had. Kit stirred, trying to open his eyes. One was swollen completely shut, the other could barely open. "Mrg? Am I dead.... No. too much pain to be dead." Terrance smiled, wagging his tail. "Yer awake!" He said happily, "You're not dead, no. Came close though." "Mrf? Who...?" Kit said. "Er. Yeah, Terrance. Hi. What happened anyways? I feel like a moon fell on me." "Your boss tried to kill you." Terrance explained. "You'd have died if a minotaur hadn't found you. He tried to kill your boss, too. But Tiera didn't let him." Kit paused, thinking. "... Aw. I lived. That means I'm getting transferred." "That's why I'm here." Terrance said. "I know it's sudden, and we barely know each other. But I couldn't stand the thought of you being sent to Phobos. I got permission from the boss, you can come down to the surface and live with me. "Just have to tender a resignation with PDD, I can get you anything you need packed up. The transport leaves in a few hours though." "Will they let me fly like this?" Kit asked. "Already got everything taken care of." Terrance nodded. "You were out for two days. .. So, what do you say?" Kit managed a grin. "You or Phobos? .. Tough choice. Think I have to go with you though." Terrance nodded, tail wagging again. "Anything you need before you leave?" "Mrf. Not really." Kit shook his head. "PDD owns everything but my fur, which they decided to take from me." "It'll grow back, don't worry." * * * The port was nothing like Nathan expected. Although, his expectations were influenced by science fiction movies. Instead of a scene from Star Trek, he found himself looking at closer to a naval port from Earth. Everything neat and orderly. Most of the people he saw were wearing the same kind of uniform Tiera wore. The ships were almost all the same, and extremely dull. That's when it hit him. Military installation. He also noticed one odd thing. Almost every single person was wearing a weapon. The odd part though is he saw more swords and spears than firearms. "Tiera, odd question." "Yes, female minotaurs do need to be milked on a regular basis." Tiera answered, almost too quickly. "Huh?" Nathan stared at her like she had just turned neon orange. "Oh, I just thought you had seen the female minotaur getting off that boat." Tiera grinned, "I asked Aerix once. He blushed and refused to answer me." "Tiera, you are an odd one." Nathan said, shaking his head. "I was going to ask why everyone is carrying a close combat weapon?" "Because those are the cheapest and easiest to use in a space station." Tiera said. "In the early days after the war, there was a large amount of piracy. Supplies became priceless. Before that, there had been little call for weapons in space. Gunpowder weapons were out of the question, and due to the lacking gravity, most projectile weapons were less favored. "So early on, we used melee weapons. Some favored blades, but a lot favored hammers. Hit someone right, their magboots release and they go flying. "In more recent times we built betters weapons for our environment, but many still favor the archaic ones. Myself, I carry and train with knives and a bolt rifle." "Bolt rifle?" Nathan asked. "Think pneumatic crossbow." Tiera said. "Essentially, compressed air propels a solid metal bolt about 300 feet per second, the bolts are capable of ripping right through single and double layer Kinetic Impact Armor and still maintaining lethal force." "... So it's like a paintball gun that fires miniature spears?" Nathan said with a grin. "You could say that." Tiera nodded. "Some early ranged weapons were modified paintball guns. When the Lunar Colony was built, lunar surface Paintball was a big hit with the wealthy." "Well, lookey what we gots here." Nathan and Tiera found their path blocked by two male wolves with black fur. Nathan couldn't tell one from the other, and doubted many could. "We was wonderin' when you'd be bringing that thing out in public." "Daryl, Darrel." Tiera growled at them. Nathan couldn't help but smirk. "... Where's Larry?" This earned him an extremely odd look from all three involved. "Never mind." "He talks funny." Daryl said. "Sure do." Darrel said. "What do you two primitives want?" Tiera asked, irked. "Yer pet there." Daryl said. "We got leash-laws ‘round here." "Yip, leash-laws." Darrel agreed. "He gots ta be on a leash. Punishment be a sound-a thrashin'." "Yep, a thrashin'." Daryl nodded. "The only thrashing occurring here.." Tiera said with a growl. "Will be dealt to you two goons if you don't stop calling him my pet, and move the fuck out of our way." "She said that ‘fuck' word." Darrel giggled. "She sure did." Daryl nodded. "You know what the punishment fer vulgarities bes?" "Bein' fucked?" Darrel asked. "Yes indeed." Daryl said. "But that is kinda more of a reward. But aw, who cares." "There's going to be no fucking here." Tiera growled again. "It's two against one." Darrel said. "One and a half." Daryl corrected. "Her pet'll defend her. But, the law is wit' us on this'n." "Yip! Law's wit' us." Darrel nodded. Daryl started to say something, but found himself cut off by a fist to his jaw. He glared at Tiera and grinned. "See that Darrel, she struck us first." Darrel nodded. "Ahuh." Nathan sighed, dropping the two duffle bags he was carrying. He took a deep breath, examining the two wolves. They obviously weren't very bright, they were wearing their uniforms, which Tiera had mentioned being armor. Above the neck was vulnerable though. He calmly slid in to a defensive stance, this time he wasn't going to let fear immobilize him. He did wish he had a nice assault rifle though. Tiera cracked her knuckles, a dark grin coming over her face. "Yeah boys, that means if you win, rights are yours. Not like you will, never have before." A pair of knives slid out of her sleeves as she took an aggressive stance. The brothers stupid eyed the two of them for a moment, neither produced any weapons, although Nathan could tell both already had their ‘swords' unsheathed. The two began to make a move, but found their actions hindered, each of them had a massive brown hand gripping one of their shoulders. "What do we have here?" Aerix asked, his voice calm, but a much darker tone than normal. The brothers stupid both paled. "S.. She st-started it.. sir.." Daryl squeaked. "Ahuh!" Darrel blurted in agreement. "Yeah, sure. I'm finishing it." Aerix growled. "You boys got two choices. One: Walk away calmly. Two: Fly away screaming like little girls after I make you even more useless to women than you already are." The two paled even further. "ONE!" both shouted in unison. Aerix nodded and pushed them to the side with a grunt. "You always cause trouble Tiera." Tiera grinned. "I've kicked their asses every time since the one time in basic training, why interfere again?" "'cause, if you start a brawl here, everyone is gonna join in." Aerix said. "Besides, felt good to know I still command the fear I did back then." "Fear? Feh!" Tiera poked him in the gut. "You are just a big teddy bear. Cuddly and lovable." ".. Don't let it get out." Aerix laughed. Nathan shook his head. "I missed something." "Nothing major." Tiera said with a smile. "Aerix was always looking out for me in basic, especially after the Dimwit Twins there tried that the first time." Nathan nodded. "Ah. And.. What did you mean ‘if you win, the rights are yours'?" "According to our laws," Tiera said. "If the initiator of a fight loses, then the winner has every right to do with the loser whatever he/she sees fit." "In that particular case," Aerix explained. "They would have been fully within their legal bounds to rape Tiera, if they beat her." "Not like they would have." Tiera grinned. Nathan looked at Aerix, then Tiera, then back to Aerix. "That's....." "Barbaric?" Aerix finished. "Yeah, it is. It's legally okay, but morally sickening." Tiera grinned. "Hey Aerix, did you see the cow that came off the transport from Europa? Maybe she'd like to ‘start a fight'?" Aerix blushed, turning a dark purple. ".. Tiera.. Go check your baggage." Tiera giggled, grabbing the two duffels Nathan dropped and bounded towards the baggage check. "Aerix, I'm curious.." Nathan began once Tiera was out of ear shot. "If you ask me anything relating to cows, I'm going to deck you." Aerix growled, casting an eye towards Tiera. "No, nothing like that." Nathan chuckled. "It's just you seem a lot older, and definitely more mature than Tiera is. How is it you two were going through basic at the same time?" "We weren't." Aerix said. "I was the close combat instructor while she was there. I think her mother had something to do with me getting transferred." "Hey mother?" Nathan asked. "Yeah." Aerix nodded. "Our military is quite corrupt. With proper amounts of money, one can make anything happen. Starting posts are supposedly random, but Tiera's mother paid them off to put her in a non-combat post, and make sure she never got assigned an Earth Surface mission. "As soon as she got her post, I was transferred here. Tiera had told her mother a lot about me, apparently her mother was either arranging someone to protect her, or trying to play matchmaker. "Tiera's a sweet girl. But you're right, I am significantly older than her. Older than you, too. I'll be 42 in January. Still well in my prime though." "Wouldn't have thought you'd be that old." Nathan said, looking the minotaur over. "And no offense, but I really see a bit of a .. compatibility issue between you two." "You're saying I'm too big for her?" Aerix asked. "Yeah, you're right. That's the story of my life." "Sorry." Nathan said, and then snickered a bit "Bet there's no feelings of inadequacy in the locker room though?" Aerix laughed "No, none at all. Now, all the stares do get uncomfortable." "I can imagine." Nathan nodded. "Say.. How old is Tiera, anyways?" "Ask her yourself." Aerix grinned. Nathan nodded and waited for Tiera to return, it was only a few more minutes. "Let's go boys, we got a boat to catch." "Hey Tiera, how old are you?" Nathan asked, heading towards the ‘boat', which the craft did have the look of a sea vessel to some extent, although Nathan would have said a submarine more than a boat. Tiera giggled. "Old enough to know better, but still too damn young to care." Nathan shook his head. "Women." Aerix put a hand on Nathan's shoulder, chuckling. "She has that effect on most males. And a lot of females." The interior of the ship wasn't as cramped as Nathan had expected, the cabin her shared with Tiera, while not overly large, had more than enough space for both of them to lie down. It was drab though, and cold. Colder than the space station was. Tiera leaned against one wall of the cabin. "When we break off from the station, we lose gravity. Be prepared to hit a wall." She grinned. "Which wall?" Nathan asked. "No clue." ____________________ So concludes #7, so whoever correctly guesses Tiera's age gets, this wonderful prize! [] .. A box? A BOX! But what's inside? That's a surprise. Chapter 8 is going to be very violent. I look forward to it.