This is a story written last year as a gift for the one and only TooOooney on DeviantArt. During the course of our chats, the idea of doing a story with our OCs came up a few times, and eventually the idea came to me to implement the story into my Sci-Fantasy setting a TooOoney-approved version of his character Vi (who has the most delicious…assets) interacting with a new interpretation of my Urban persona from some of my older works. And it made for a great worldbuilding exercise for my ever-expanding setting.
Story contains a fast-paced escape from some corpo goons, Vi in his natural state (in trouble and tightly bound) and Urban getting in way over his head. Though I’ve not gotten started on it yet, there’s plenty of room for a sequel, assuming the Emperor approves.
Enjoy!
Location: Miranan III, Vicori Virliana’s Estate, 65km outside of Shandania City
Time: 00:19 Galactic Standard
Urban opened the door, glanced around the garage, and found it empty but for the many expensive grav-cars parked within, just as he’d hoped. The party guests were still busy with the entertainment; nobody would be wasting time out here when there were slaves to play with. Adjusting his suit, Urban plucked the mirrored smart-glasses from his breast pocket and settled them over his eyes, starting toward the rows of vehicles. Though it was well after midnight, the dim garage lit up as though it were midday, and he noted the various grav-cars, wondered how many millions of credits the collected value of them were, then shook his head. No time for idle thoughts; he had somewhere else to be.
He pulled the starter stick from his pocket and pressed the button; a larger black sport-utility grav-car beeped and hummed as the engine came to life, the vehicle’s grav-coil spinning up. He could still hear his claws clicking on the concrete as he made his way to the vehicle, and gave it a quick once-over. The outer glass was mirrored, but thanks to the enhancement from the glasses, he could see that the vehicle was empty save for a large metallic case in the rear storage deck. His curiosity very nearly overcame him, but knowing he had little time, he pushed the urge away and got into the driver’s seat and inserted the starter stick into the dash, the red security lights blinking, then going green, the car rising from the floor as he settled himself into the seat.
He received a notification on his personal HUD from his data skimmer implant that he’d received several files from the comm in his pocket as he threw the SUG into drive and pressed the accelerator, rushing toward the exit. His ears twitched, and he glanced in the rearview mirror, swearing that he’d heard a squealing sound, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, just the rear seat and the top of that large case. Something with the grav-coil maybe, could have been out of alignment.
No status indicators ilt up indicating a problem, so Urban ignored the sound and continued on. He turned out of the garage and toward the front gates, rolling the window down and waving casually at the guard posted there. He got a wave in return from the huge, but bored-looking equinarian, and the large, fortress-like gates rumbled open, and he pressed his foot down on the accelerator again, hurrying on his way down the long approach and to the narrow mountain road that led to the estate. The grav-car wasn’t equipped for high altitude flight, unfortunately, and though there had been such cars at the estate, they were in the private garage of the estate owner, Vicori Virliana, and Urban didn’t have the time to bypass that much security.
He noted the GPS directions that appeared on the SUG’s dash screen, the onboard computer having linked to the comm in his pocket. He was pretty much locked into the course until he made it off the mountain road, but his destination was in the opposite direction once he hit the main highway. The grav-car slid quickly around a particularly sharp curve, his hands on the controls steady, though maybe he had taken it a little fast. The grav system squealed again, sounding almost nasally as he gunned the grav-coil coming out of the turn. Still no warnings.
Had the isolated mountain road been attached to the AD-Network, Urban would have set the auto-drive for a couple minutes and worked on hacking the vehicle’s computer and GPS, but as it was, he needed his full attention on the snake-like route that led away from the Virliana estate. Still, he should have at least ten minutes before someone-
The comm in his pocket buzzed and chirped, and the dash screen showed the incoming call details, flashing ‘BOSS LADY’ and displaying a rather angry-looking picture of a golden-haired elven woman with her own pair of smart-glasses upon her face. That was Karelessia, Vicori Virliana’s long-time personal assistant.
Shit. That didn’t take nearly as long as he’d hoped.
Urban pushed the accelerator harder and adjusted his grip on the controls, whipping the SUG around the next turn, skirting the edge of the narrow road, trying not to notice the thousands of feet separating the road from the valley floor below.
The comm kept ringing, but Urban ignored it. He had nothing to say to anyone associated with ‘the Emperor’; he’d not exactly been the most gracious host. The comm stopped a few moments later, then immediately started up again. As Urban tried to fish the device from his pocket, the call automatically engaged without him even hitting any buttons on the device.
“I don’t know who you are, but you’ve just made the worst mistake of your life. Stop that car right where you are, shut it down, and wait for my people to pick you up. We’ll have a civil discussion about the mess you’ve gotten yourself into.” Her voice was icy enough to make someone shiver.
Just as Urban’s fingers finally got hold of the comm, he had to jerk the controls hard, whipping the vehicle around another sharp turn, the grav-cushion slipping, causing him to slide dangerously close to the edge. That flimsy guard rail wouldn’t stop him at the speeds he was going. The grav-coil squealed again, sounding almost angry at the abuse it was getting.
The dash screen flashed red, and another pop-up appeared over the live call: ‘WARNING! Unauthorized access detected! Your vehicle is experiencing a cyberattack! Please stop immediately and shut down all network access!’ Worse, the onboard scanning systems detected three other vehicles that registered as friendlies coming out of the estate, speeding toward him. Urban was very certain they were anything but.
Shit, shit!
“Last chance to stop peaceably. You obviously have some impressive skills; perhaps we can come to an arrangement?”
There was no chance of that; an arrangement from someone like Karelessia likely meant several forceful injections of lead into the body, assuming she wasn’t into the whole torture thing, and Urban was in no mood for either. Thinking quickly as he slid around another wide curve, he dared a glance at the network connection indicators on the dash screen. The vehicle wasn’t connected to the main planetary network; the GPS indicator was on, but the data connections were down. The primary network indicator showed that everything was coming from the comm. Probably something Virliana did so that he and his people wouldn’t have to worry about security breaches over an open network; he no doubt had his own private networks established and ran his entire operation through it. Though he was completely above the law, why take the chance of someone playing with the emergency system and potentially shutting down his group’s vehicles via the law-enforcement and government only kill switch?
Urban hit the button on the driver’s door, the window slid down, a rush of cool mountain air spilling through the opening. “Nope! Ain’t gonna do it!” he shouted, intentionally deepening his voice and slurring the words in his best drunken dwarf accent as he slung the comm out the window, slamming the button to raise the window again.
“You can’t seriously think-” Karelessia’s voice cut off mid-sentence as the call dropped.
The dash screen flashed, then went to a basic map display beneath the additional information window: ‘Unauthorized access attempt thwarted. Congratulations! You are no longer suffering from a cyberattack! Please report this to local law enforcement as soon as possible.’ The popup lingered for a moment more, then another replaced it, stating: ‘Alert: You are no longer connected to a navigation network. Alert: you are no longer connected to an active data network. Exercise caution; vehicle computer systems are operating with limited functionality.’
Urban grasped the controls tightly, whipping them back and forth as the vehicle started down a serpentine section of roadway, the grav-coil squealing with each sharp jerk in the opposite direction. He still hadn’t gotten a warning from the grav-coil system, so whatever was causing that noise couldn’t have been that bad, but it sure was annoying. He glanced back through the rearview mirror again, catching a brief glimpse of three large, dark shapes speeding down the winding road in the distance; they were running without lights just like him, and they were driving just as fast as he was.
He looked down at the case in the back; wondered what was inside it, and how much he could get out of it. He’d overheard a snippet of the conversation on his way out of the basement, when he’d initiated a ‘forceful borrowing’ of the suit he now wore from one of Virliana’s goons, getting the now-yeeted comm, key to the grav-car, and a pistol and shoulder holster rig along with it. Whatever was inside was valuable, something that could earn Karelessia a lot of money and set the corporate world on fire or some such; maybe Vicori Virliana would be very interested in buying back whatever his assistant had stolen away?
Urban’s lips curled back in a wide, feral grin as he came around the last turn and onto a straight stretch and slammed the accelerator with his foot, revving the grav-coil to its limit. If he played his cards right, he was going to make a killing off this operation. All the data he had skimmed throughout the night, plus whatever scheme the Emperor’s assistant had cooked up. All he had to do was get off planet and-
High-beams lit up on the rapidly approaching end of the straight stretch, Urban’s smart-glasses immediately darkening to compensate for the sudden flare. Two vehicles had stopped in the roadway, one in each lane, and several big and nasty looking goons were piling out, pistols and submachine guns drawn.
Grin turning into a wince, Urban reacted almost without thinking. He hit several buttons on the controls and manually re-balanced the grav-coil’s output, then pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor. The grav-coil whined in protest as Urban jerked the controls hard right, the SUG’s dash screen flashing multiple warnings. The vehicle slid up the rocky sidewall to his left moments before impact with the two vehicles blocking the road, at a near ninety-degree angle off the road.
The case in the back fell against the side of the cargo area, threatening to fall against the glass. A terrified squeal came from the case, sounding suspiciously like the grav-coil sounds he’d heard before.
Wait, what?!
The distraction was momentary, Urban drawing his attention back to fighting the controls. He caught a glimpse of the two goons on that side of their vehicle diving for cover, heard the sound of metal scraping on metal as his roof narrowly avoided a full-on collision with theirs, saw a flash of sparks, and then he passed them. Tapping the buttons again, Urban leveled out the grav-coil’s output and put the SUG back on the roadway.
The case in the rear fell flat onto the cargo deck, more angry sounds coming out of it. What the hell”?!
Bullets sprayed the rear of the vehicle, spider-webbing the rear glass, multiple bullets thunking against the rear hatch. Urban reflexively pushed himself down in the seat, pulling the controls to enter the next sharp turn, taking him out of their line of fire. The vehicle’s status display indicated multiple impacts, but no serious damage. Of course, someone like Vicori Virliana would have armored vehicles even for his goons.
Knowing that time was short, and that he still had a lot of ground to cover, Urban readjusted himself in the seat and pushed the accelerator as far as he dared, sliding wide and dangerously close to the edge of the road. He was almost to the highway, just a little further and he could pour on the speed. Hopefully there weren’t any other tracking devices in the vehicle, because he didn’t have time to deal with them. He just had to hope his pursuers were stuck on the road for a few minutes trying to get turned around, or better yet, that those three vehicles coming from the estate had collided with their buddies.
He didn’t count on that happening, though, unless the gods were watching and feeling amused, perhaps. He’d never been particularly observant or religious, so not likely. Urban pushed the fleeting thought aside, glancing back through the mirrors as he came around a wide curve; nobody directly behind him, but he saw the headlights go out further back, and caught some shadowy figures moving around, waving frantically, the blocking vehicles pulling aside. Not much time.
The road banked more noticeably downward, and Urban spotted the glow of fast-moving headlights on the main highway through the trees ahead. Another couple of minutes had him flying up the ramp and merging into the late-night traffic, sparser than he might have liked, but it did allow him to take off at a higher speed. For the moment he hadn’t spotted any of his pursuers, but he still had the nagging feeling that he was being tracked somehow.
Tapping his clawed finger on the controls, Urban wondered about his options. Would they risk bringing in the local police? Virliana probably owned them outright, so it would be simple enough to report a stolen vehicle and some sensitive data or whatever was in the case…but Karelessia probably wouldn’t risk it, especially if she was pulling this deal without the big guy knowing about it. Too many questions would be asked, too many people who didn’t need to know would be involved. Of course, some passing motorists could just report an SUG riddled with bullet holes to the cops, to.
He could just walk away. Take what data he’d skimmed inside the place and leave the SUG and the case beside the road. And miss whatever massive payout he could get. The curiosity of what was inside the case gnawed at him; what could be so valuable that it was going to shake up the corporate scene? He couldn’t just let that slip out of his fingers.
Growling, tail twitching between himself and the seat, Urban started looking along the sides of the highway. He was going to have to improvise a solution since he was light on gear and even lighter on time. A few kilometers from where he’d first gotten on the highway, he saw his opportunity. “Simple solutions…” he muttered, and whipped the SUG down the next exit ramp, the suddenness of the maneuver pushing him against the door. The squealing sound came from the case in the back again; what was in there? Was it a person?!
Urban pulled the SUG off the ramp and into a darkened service station, maneuvering by the automated fueling pumps and toward the back, and the garage he’d spotted from the highway. He pulled the SUG into one of the empty parking spaces, right next to a battered old grav-truck with the garage’s fading logo on the doors. He popped the rear hatch and threw the SUG into standby, getting out and jogging to the driver’s side of the truck. A quick strike from the butt of the pistol had him through the side window, and a couple of minutes later, he had hotwired the grav-coil, the ancient vehicle shuddering to life. At least it didn’t have a modern computer and judging by the data appearing on the dusty screen, the software hadn’t been updated in some time to remain compatible with the planetary data network.
Hoping it would hold together and having his doubts as the noxious exhaust fumes started spilling from the grav-coil compartment, Urban quickly went to the case in the back of the SUG. There he tugged at the case’s carrying handle, grunting as he pulled it out of the back, and promptly dropped it to the ground. He heard a grunt, and an angry cry from inside, and froze.
There was someone in there! And they were heavy!
Or maybe it was just the case that was heavy. Eyes darting over the thing, Urban saw that it was reinforced metal, with several plates arranged in an almost puzzle-box-like manner, with several buttons in addition to the number pad on one side. There was another smaller box recessed into the surface of the case that seemed to be circulating air through the interior. Tail thrashing, he was torn between trying to get inside it right then, but knew he couldn’t break the lock without his tools, and those weren’t anywhere close. Who was in there?
“No time, no time,” Urban said, grunting as he took hold of the case again and pulled it across the ground, then hefted it into the grav-truck’s cab atop the dirty floorboards. Another fifteen seconds and he had the doors shut and was pulling out, heading down the smaller road through a residential community, the old clunker rumbling and shaking violently whenever he even tried to gun the engine like he had with the SUG.
He took the scenic route for a good twenty minutes before exiting back onto the highway; by then the old grav-coil had warmed up enough to at least slightly surpass the speed limit, so he could almost keep up with traffic. No signs of pursuit yet. So far so good.
It took almost an hour, but at last Urban guided the old clunker down the overgrown road, coming out of a stretch of trees in front of the burnt remains of an old farmhouse. He circled wide of these and continued by a similarly torched barn and to the rear of the abandoned property and the hills that lay there. Hoping that some lucky explorer hadn’t found what he’d left there almost two months ago, Urban navigated through more trees until he came out at a small clearing and the wide opening of a cave. The grav-truck’s headlights, dim as they were, shone inside,through the brush that had been piled up to partially hide the entrance, and thankfully revealed the camouflaged outline of his interceptor.
Urban turned the grav-truck around and backed up toward the entrance and pushed through the brush, and shut the thing down. The old coil cut off suddenly, rather than slowly discharging, and the truck landed on the cavern floor with a violent thump, eliciting another angry series of cries from the case in what sounded like muffled elvish, which continued as Urban hauled the case out of the truck and toward his ship.
Tugging the camo cloth from the small ship, Urban keyed in the entry code and fired up the ship’s systems, bringing the computer online as the power core came up. The grav-coil began to spin up, followed by the TK drive. The little ship was mostly engine, built for speed and maneuverability. Urban was just about to exit the cockpit when the ship’s sensors flashed a warning, detecting at least five other ships coming toward them in a delta formation. “Tracker confirmed,” he said aloud to himself.
He looked at the case below him again, wondering how he could fit it inside the cargo area of the tiny ship. His eyes turned to the screen again, making a quick calculation. The incoming signals were moving relatively slow, but definitely heading his way. Grav-craft, then, nothing equipped for space flight. Hoping there wasn’t a ground team coming, though that would explain the slower speed, Urban flipped a switch, arming the deterrents he had buried outside on the trail leading to the cave. But…the interceptor hadn’t been online for weeks, so its TK-drive was cold, meaning he couldn’t break through the planet’s gravity for at least another ten minutes. He had maybe half that before the ships reached him. And the cargo area below the cockpit was about two-thirds the size of the case.
Could he hack the case’s security in less than five minutes? He had a toolkit in the cargo area… “Damn it,” he muttered, momentarily cursing his own curiosity before tapping a button to link his personal HUD to the sensor readouts before hopping down and popping the seals on the cargo area, retrieving his hacking kit.
Urban hurried over to the case and quickly checked for anti-tamper features, then found a few panels he could access. He had his probes and wires clipped to the device in a few more moments and started trying for an electronic bypass; maybe he wouldn’t have to hack the lock system at all. Teeth gritted, he readjusted the probes, checking for energy pathways. The case’s locking system didn’t look like much on the outside but was definitely more complex on the inside.
The ETA on the incoming fliers kept falling; almost before he realized it, he was down to three minutes. “Shit!” Urban spat, having gotten nowhere with the bypass attempt. The lock was overly complex, no doubt to prevent exactly what he was trying to do. He pulled another device from his kit and slammed the cable into the data access port and watched as data started flowing over the screen. Gritting his teeth, Urban started running through his list of codebreaking programs, hoping he’d get lucky. He didn’t count on it, though; the case was locked with some of Virliana’s proprietary software, so unless they had actually used something open source as a base, it would probably take a more dedicated hacking attempt to get through.
Two and a half minutes…the sensors updated their readouts, showing a vectored render of the incoming hostiles. Definitely small grav-craft, probably carrying no more than five people each, but armed with miniguns and missiles. Karelessia wasn’t fucking around. The craft started to spread out, forming a wider delta pattern.
A muffled boom sounded in the distance, somewhere in the direction of the farmhouse. “Damn damn damn,” Urban spat, ears laying back, tail swishing angrily. There was at least one ground based- Another explosion rippled from the farmhouse area. At least two ground-based vehicles… They’d be more cautious now. The HUD updated the ETA of the grav-craft as they picked up speed, ninety seconds.
Just then, the hacking tool beeped rapidly, flashed several times, then the locking bolts on the case started to disengage and panels started to slide. “Thank you whichever deity might have been responsible for that,” Urban muttered, staring in surprise as the case opened up. He would definitely owe them a bit of praise, if he ever found out who was responsible for it, anyway. Maybe it was just good luck.
The lid slid aside with a hiss, and inside the padded interior of the case, Urban saw a shape wrapped in black leather straps, what he realized was actually a very tightly bound humanoid, curled into a ball, the straps secured with some fairly heavy-duty electronic locks. The pale skin was covered in sweat, its hands stuffed in pink bondage mittens and crossed behind its back, its head hidden within a similarly colored discipline hood with a gag and blindfold harness over it, the only parts visible being their lips around the thick ball gag and some sweaty reddish hair that protruded around the neck of the hood, along with some indistinct, padded lumps that hid their ears. Urban noted the impressively large hips and shapely posterior which looked even bigger given the way the straps squeezed their flesh, and how tight that little pink thong was around their hips. The general body type screamed elf aside from the unique hips and backside,, but there was something familiar about this person, something tickling at the back of Urban’s brain…
The bound figure’s angry squeal and violent shaking snapped Urban back to the moment, a line of drool sliding from the ball gag and over their hooded chin. The time in Urban’s HUD hit sixty seconds. “Time to go!” he said, stuffing his tools in their pouch and slinging it over shoulder. He grabbed the straps that held the figure in a ball, grunting as he hefted the bound form and headed toward the ship. Not only was the ball-bound figure resisting, squirming and angrily trying to speak around the gag, but they were a bit heavier than their size would have indicated. Maybe all that weight hadn’t just been from the case after all; or maybe Urban just needed to hit the gym; he had just spent a few weeks in-
There was a loud ‘BRRRR’ sound from the skies outside, and bullets shredded through the trees outside, kicking up a cloud of dust as they tore into the ground outside the cave entrance and tracked across the front of the opening, ripping through the old clunker and leaving it a shredded, twisted, smoking mess.
Urban grunted again, hefting the ball-bound elf over the edge of the cockpit and dropping them inside. The elf thudded onto the floor panel with a very displeased squeal. Urban slapped the cargo area shut and hopped inside. The cockpit was tight already, and the addition of another body meant it was even tighter.
Thirty seconds.
Growling, Urban tore the suit jacket off and tossed it aside, then grabbed the straps, adjusting the elf’s position so that Urban could get his feet on the aetheric rudder pedals. The elf’s face settled against Urban’s crotch, his legs going along either side of the elf’s head. Urban sealed the cockpit, the canopy sliding into place and locking down as he revved the grav-coil and lifted off the cave floor. The elf’s squealing was incessant now, and they were rocking back and forth, trying to free themselves.
“Would you stop that! I’m trying to get us out of here!” Urban spat, wincing as the elf’s face bumped roughly into his crotch, making him wince at the added pressure and sudden, sharp pinch he felt on his cock and balls in addition to the already painful pressure that had been present for some time now. “Damn it, wish I could’ve found a key for that fucking thing on my way out…” Urban said through gritted teeth as he strapped himself into the seat. He grasped the controls and shoved the throttle forward.
The interceptor’s engines roared, the small craft shooting out of the cave like a bullet from a gun barrel; the elf’s squealing was even louder than the engines. Urban was pushed back into his seat, and the elf’s face pushed even harder into his crotch. Urban saw the grav-craft then, much too close to bring their missiles into play, but that didn’t stop them from trying to spray his ship with bullets. Urban kept his ship low, just over the trees, weaving back and forth as bullets filled the air mere centimeters away. He saw smoke rising from the direction of the farmhouse, and saw some familiar-looking SUGs, two of which were now on fire, some of the goons, too.
Then they were gone, the interceptor streaking over the landscape. The grav-craft were in hot pursuit, spraying tracers in his direction as they tried to pin him down. Would they use their missiles? Surely they wanted the elf alive?
Urban jerked at the controls, sending the ship into a tight spiral to break no less than three attempts for a missile lock. The elf between his legs screamed into the ball gag.
Urban weaved low over the trees, coming out over a road a moment later, then shot underneath a highway overpass. Bullets tore up the asphalt behind him, sawing through a cargo container that was being hauled by a large grav-truck. He checked the TK-drive, saw that it still hadn’t reached enough power to break into orbit.
With another tone indicating someone was trying to lock onto him with missiles, Urban poured more power into the thrusters and shot toward some kind of industrial park, multiple flame-spewing exhaust stacks and large containers illuminated by the orange glow of multiple night-time lights. Though he weaved wildly, one of the grav-craft managed to get a lock on him, and in the next instant there was a shrill warning as they fired the missile.
Urban squeezed his thighs around the elf’s head as he worked the pedals, doing his best to ignore the angry protests. He pushed the control sticks forward and dove into the industrial park, weaving through the large, rounded chemical containers. The missile struck one of them, but instead of the explosion he’d expected to see in the rearview display, he saw a burst of electrical energy playing over the surface of the tank. “Ohhhh…crap,” he muttered. They wanted the elf alive, but still, if one of those EMPs struck the interceptor, the chances Urban could safely land the ship without power were pretty low. Though a near-miss would still mess up his power systems, maybe forcing him to land in a more controlled manner.
Urban adjusted his speed, moving a bit slower, but weaved back and forth between the containers and exhaust stacks, a meter or less from impact at any given moment. Bullets ripped through a container in front of him. Urban pulled up sharply as the chemicals ignited and the container exploded. He grunted as the elf’s face impacted his crotch as the g-forces pushed them both towards the rear of the ship. The interceptor rocked in the blast wave of the explosion, but Urban forced it downward again, diving behind the raging inferno. He saw other tanks impacted by the shrapnel, spewing chemicals into the nearby flames.
Gritting his teeth, Urban pushed the throttle forward again, tensing his legs around the elven head that threatened to crush his balls. As more containers started exploding behind him and his own sensors were momentarily overloaded by the input, he hoped the grav-craft chasing them were likewise affected. With another blast rocking the interceptor, Urban spotted a possible escape route.
He whipped the ship into a tight, sudden downward turn, spinning as he narrowly avoided colliding with the ground. He leveled out a moment later, streaking down a drainage canal only centimeters above the ground as fire consumed everything above and behind him. He thumbed the safeties on his own ship’s guns, a pair of light pulse cannons, and then pulled the triggers, blowing a hole through the bars blocking the way.
The small ship shot into the narrow tunnel, fire following close behind, lighting up everything in brilliant blue and orange hues. A few seconds more and the fires started to die off, and for the moment, nobody was shooting at them. His sensors recovered a few moments later, still showing the five grav-craft, but they were moving away from the mess they’d created. He slowed the ship, blowing out his breath. The tunnel continued for another two kilometers or so, according to the readouts, which gave him a few seconds to-
The elf snarled between Urban’s legs, raised his head, and headbutted Urban right in his crotch.
“Ooof!” Urban groaned, vision blurring momentarily. The ship drifted, and he corrected immediately; if he impacted the walls down here and lost control, he’d never recover before they-
The elf headbutted Urban again, harder this time.
This time, in addition to the pain from the impact, the device Urban had been unable to remove earlier pinched his balls and twisted painfully, and he cried out from the pain, leaning forward, unable to breathe. The ship rocked and jerked as one of the stabilizers scraped the roof of the tunnel, and he fought to correct their flight path before they went out of control.
“W-would you stop that?!” Urban wheezed, blinking away tears that clouded his vision. “I’m trying not to get us killed, okay? I’ll get you free as soon as we’re clear of the assholes shooting at us!”
The bound elf said something in an angry tone, but thankfully didn’t strike again.
Urban winced as he adjusted himself against the seat, taking a moment to rub his sore package. He could see the light of the exit ahead. He looked at his displays. The TK-drive had almost reached the minimum power needed to break the atmosphere. He tapped at the console, pulled up some coordinates for the hyperspace jump. He let the computer churn on those. Hopefully they’d not had enough time to get a ship in orbit to intercept them.
“It might get bumpy again, but hopefully won’t be for long. I’m making a break for orbit. Another few minutes to clear gravity, then we’ll be in hyperspace and I can try to get you free.”
The elf said something else, but by then, Urban had squeezed the triggers, clearing the opening on the far end of the tunnel. He ramped the engines up and shot out of the hole, brackish water spraying as the ship shot along the channel. Sure enough, the grav-craft immediately changed course to follow them. Urban pushed the throttle as far as he could, redlining the engines. He pulled up and out of the channel, streaking beneath a highway overpass and then angled them on an upward trajectory.
The ship’s missile lock warnings sounded. As their altitude climbed, the tone went solid, and five missiles streaked toward them. The interceptor vibrated violently as the engines pushed them higher.
“So…if you’re particularly religious, now might be a good time to pray,” Urban said, gulping as he mentally compared distances between the missiles and them breaking orbit. Already his ship was slowing down as gravity fought him, the craft shaking more violently. The TK-drive…just a few more seconds…did they have enough time?
The missiles drew closer. Their ascent had slowed as the engines began to overheat, the sharp angle he’d put them on too much. “Come on…come on!” In a matter of seconds they would stall, and the missiles would strike; then they’d be falling for a few terrible seconds before impacting the ground in a fairly insignificant explosion compared to the ones from earlier.
The TK-drive surpassed the threshold, and the activation button went green. The missiles were almost touching the ship on the sensor readout. Urban slapped the TK-drive’s button and heard the higher-pitched hum from behind them. The ship’s flight smoothed out immediately as the drive engaged, enveloping the ship in its field. Their speed began to climb higher and higher, and the missiles fell behind, the grav-craft having no hope of following them. In a few more seconds the interceptor cleared the last layer of atmosphere and they were in orbit, and he cut the thrusters, watching as their temperatures started to drop.
Blowing out a sigh, Urban relaxed in his seat as he scanned the space immediately around them, seeing plenty of ships, but none that looked to be on an intercept course. The ship’s computer connected with the local navigation satellites and began final calculations on the course he’d plotted earlier.
The TK-drive continued to build power, and by the time they cleared Miranan’s last lingering gravitic pull, the computer had finished the course calculations, and Urban engaged the fully charged TK-drive, stars elongating as they neared the speed of light before the ship entered the multi-colored swirl of hyperspace.
Urban released the controls now that they were locked on course; the first jump would last about ten minutes, then he’d make a few micro-jumps before setting course to his other, bigger ship, once he felt sure that nobody would be able to follow them. He looked down between his legs at the bound elf. “I hope you’re worth it…” he muttered, then more loudly said, “Okay, I’m going to try to get you out of those restraints now.”
The elf nodded eagerly, and their head raised. Urban’s hands went to the straps of the harness, which, thankfully, weren’t locked like the heavy-duty straps that kept the elf bound in a ball. The harness straps popped loose, and in a few moments, Urban tugged at the big ball in the elf’s mouth, wiggling it, then jerking it more firmly to finally pop it free of the elf’s full lips. The blindfold came away with the harness, revealing a pair of narrowed, amber eyes.
There was a tickle in Urban’s brain then. Who was this? They seemed really familiar…
His fingers went to the back of the hood and worked at the laces, tugging them free and loosening the discipline hood. The elf started bouncing excitedly as Urban peeled the sweaty hood away, then shook their head, freeing their long reddish hair and sending sweat all over. “It’s about time! Even for a kidnapper, that was incredibly rude!” said the elf, long ears flexing as he glared up at Urban.
Urban gulped, blinking back behind his mirrored shades, feeling a sudden cold fear grow in his gut. His mouth dropped open. He recognized the elf immediately. This was Vicori Virliana’s son!
“I’m fucked!” Urban thought as the elf shifted between his legs and shook his bound arms.
“You can remove the rest of these now. Why haven’t you taken these off? What are you waiting for?” asked Vi, looking up as suspicion and sudden realization flashed across his face. “And why are you keeping me between your legs? You’re a pervert, aren’t you? You kidnapped me for your sick sex games!”
“W-wait, what?!” Urban stammered, coming back to the moment. “I did not!”
“You did! Why else am I on my knees between your legs?! This is no way to treat royalty!”
“I-what-you-” Urban shook his head and growled, his own eyes narrowing. “You’re there because this is a tiny ass ship, and I don’t have a passenger seat! And we were getting shot at by your dad’s goon squad! I didn’t exactly have time to find a bigger ship!”
“Well, you did kidnap me, so…”
“I did not! I wasn’t the one who put you in that case! You were already kidnapped when I stole that vehicle and drove out of your estate! I didn’t even know you were in there!”
Vi’s lips pouted in a rather petulant way as he seemed to consider those points. The suspicion returned to his eyes. “So what were you doing there then? Were you one of those nasty business people my father invited to that sick party of his?”
“If I was invited, I wouldn’t have had to have stolen a car to leave, would I?” Urban’s tail strained against the seat, trying to swish at his annoyance. “It was your dad’s assistant who kidnapped you. Karelessia? Remember her? I heard part of a conversation she was having with that ferakatian goon on my way out.” Of course, he didn’t mention that he’d snuck up on said goon and had a very brief tussle, knocking him out before stealing his stuff, which had led him to the SUG he’d driven off the estate.
Vi’s lips twisted into a more pouty expression, eyes still narrowed with suspicion, though the wheels finally seemed to be turning. “Not that I believe you…but maybe…maybe that would explain why Karelessia was so insistent that I change outfits tonight and got fussy about it and suggested this thong; I don’t usually wear this kind of thing, just so you know; I’m a guy so don’t be getting any perverted kitty ideas. And maybe that explains why she was looking at me from all different angles and snapping pictures with her comm. She started doing that a few weeks back, said it was some kind of app for measuring you for new clothes or something. I was kind of wondering when those outfits would show up… But that still doesn’t explain how I ended up in that box! Hmmm…I know I didn’t have that much to drink tonight; I’m not a drunkard so don’t even think that. I was in my room, looking through my clothes and-”
Urban rolled his eyes. How dense could this guy be? “She drugged you. Karelessia probably slipped something into the last drink you had before she started snapping photos of you. They mentioned a buyer in that conversation, so she sold you to someone. That’s what the pictures were for, to show off the goods.”
Vi raised his head and reared back as much as he could in the tight leather straps. “I am not ‘goods’, kitty! I am Vi Virliana, son of-”
“I know who you are, so please don’t go into the details,” Urban said quickly, not needing a run down of his family’s lineage just now; he’d seen plenty of interviews with the Virlianas in which both father and son delighted in telling about the many generations of royalty they came from. “And would you stop calling me that? My name is Urban. And it’s pretty clear your dad’s assistant sold you out, probably so someone could ransom you off and she could worm her way into getting your father to hand over a huge chunk of his wealth to her.”
Vi’s lips twisted into a frown. “That’s very convenient for you, perverted kitty. I still think you were involved somehow. You weren’t on the guest list, so why were you even at the party? Wait…I know! You were going to kidnap me too, but Karelessia beat you to it! So then you stole me from her so you could keep me for yourself! It’s awfully convenient that your ship is just big enough that I’m forced to be on my knees, between your legs! And you’re keeping me tied up and in this vulnerable position! You’re a sick, twisted, perverted-”
“Oh, for the love of the gods!” Urban shouted, hands going not for the pistol that rested on his shoulder rig, but the toolkit that he’d slung over his shoulder when they’d made their frantic escape. He snatched an electronic lockpick from the tools inside and leaned forward. Vi wiggled back as much as he could in the confined space, then kept trying to pull away. “Come here! Damn it, I’m trying to free you, okay? You want out of that stuff, right? Hold still!”
“Pervert! You’re trying to use my innocent, royal body for your sick sex games!” Vi said, still struggling.
Urban growled, his ears laid back. He slapped the release for the seatbelts, shrugged out of them, and then clamped his thighs around Vi’s head as he adjusted himself in the seat, head bumping the canopy as he did. As the elf squealed in protest, Urban leaned forward and jammed the lockpick into the tiny slot on the first of the locks, managing to hold it steady long enough for the ten or so seconds the device needed to break the lock, which popped open with a metallic ping, dropping to the floor. “See, I’m freeing you, alright? Just calm down!”
Vi’s struggles lessened, though he still squirmed around enough to make the unlocking process a lot more difficult than it had to be; the number of locks Karelessia’s people had used on the restraints made it even more of a hassle, but after maybe five minutes, all the locks had been disengaged, and the strap harness was undone, the mittens as well, letting Vi stretch out for the first time in quite a while, though there wasn’t exactly much room for that.
That task done, Urban blew out his breath, shoving the toolkit into a little nook next to the seat and settled back into the chair, spreading his legs as wide as he could to allow Vi as much space as could be managed. He pulled the smart-glasses from his eyes, rubbing at them. Soon as he got back to his other ship, he was going to hack a comm relay and get a message to Virliana and get this mess sorted out and return his son ASAP.
“How much longer are we going to be in hyperspace? I’m sore, I need to stretch. It smells funny in here. Can you speed this thing up?” By now, Vi had managed to twist himself around so that he was facing away from Urban, leaning forward to peer through the canopy.
Urban groaned. Royalty… “We’re almost ready to drop out of hyperspace now, but I’ve got the ship programmed for another dozen micro-jumps to hide our trail from anyone who might be chasing us. Then it’s a final jump to where I’ve got my other ship hidden, maybe thirty minutes, maybe longer depending on stellar conditions in the area.”
“That long? I thought you said this thing was fast.”
The interceptor was fast, that’s what it was meant to do; it was basically all engine. “It is; I parked my other ship a long way out, okay? I didn’t want anyone finding it. Look, we’ve got to revert to normal space in about thirty seconds, so can you scoot back a little?”
“My legs are stiff! I need to stretch them out!” Vi said in a whiny tone, turning to look back at Urban, lips pouting.
“The only way that’s going to happen is if you get in my lap, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to do that.” Urban put his hands on the controls and caught the look Vi was giving him. “Look, it’s not a pervert thing, okay? I couldn’t do anything like that if I wanted to right now, thanks to your father’s entertainer dress code. Now brace yourself.”
“Entertainer? You mean the…slaves?” Vi asked, lips curling in disgust as he steadied himself.
Urban hit the button to drop them out of hyperspace as the tone sounded. Moments later, a normal starfield appeared, and he reoriented the ship for its next jump, which would last all of thirty seconds, as would the following eleven. “Yeah, that’s what I mean. That’s probably why there’s a funk in the cockpit; I’ve not had a chance to clean up.”
He double-checked the power level on the TK-drive, then confirmed the next course, and activated it, sending them back to hyperspace. “I wasn’t captured or anything; I was there willingly.”
Vi’s ears raised in surprise. “What?! Why would you do something like that? It’s horrible what father does at those parties…”
“I was…data skimming,” Urban replied slowly. At Vi’s uncomprehending look, he explained further, tapping his temple. “I’ve got a special brain implant that passively copies data that is transmitted through wireless connections when I’m close to personal comm devices. I don’t know what I picked up because I’ll have to decrypt it all later, but if there’s anything good, I’ll sell the data for a good profit.”
“Ohhhh…” Vi said, rocking as the ship reverted to realspace, banked sharply,then went back into hyperspace for the next jump. His eyes suddenly lit up. “So you’re…a spy!”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Urban replied. It probably wouldn’t matter to be level with Vi after everything they’d just gone through. “I do a little bit of everything if I get paid enough, but spying is one of the things I’m really good at because I take risks few others do.”
“Like…getting yourself enslaved to get into the party?”
Urban shrugged. “I know the slave trader; not the first time I’ve done something like that. Actually learned the trick from one of my competitors. I expected the obedience training, have dealt with that plenty of times; you’d be surprised how many big corporate types are involved in the slave trade…or not. But I didn’t expect your father’s extra little control measure, and haven’t had a chance to break the lock yet.” Male or female, the elder Virliana had not only kept his slaves in the collars and chains provided by the slave trader (Urban’s having been modified with quick release mechanisms, as had the other handful of spies that had pulled the same stunt), but had placed all of the slaves in chastity devices, and in his case, that was a painfully small cock cage. He’d made a show of zapping each slave with the built-in shock function, just to make sure they knew that misbehavior wouldn’t be tolerated. When he’d made his escape during the ‘after-party’ in which the guests picked their favorite slaves to play with, he’d not had time to locate a key for the device, and thankfully it hadn’t been set to zap any of the slaves should they breach the perimeter of the estate.
“I see…” Vi said as the interceptor once again entered normal space and prepared for the next jump, his amber eyes looking momentarily at Urban’s crotch before turning away. “I really can’t stand my father’s ways. It’s terrible that he does that to people, and he absolutely refuses to listen to me about finding other entertainment…but at least I can stretch my legs knowing that I’m safe from any of your perverted intentions on my innocent body!”
“What?” Urban asked as he reverted to normal space again. Vi pushed himself back and landed on Urban’s lap. Urban grimaced as Vi’s butt wiggled on his lap, pressing down against the cock cage. “Wha-hey! I wasn’t serious about the lap thing!”
“Just keep your hands to yourself, pervert kitty; I need to stretch my legs!” Vi said, doing just that, sighing as he raised them and pressed his toes against the cockpit canopy.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Urban asked with a groan, leaning to the side so that he could see the ship’s displays around Vi. The elf had a shapely body for sure, and was very attractive, but Urban’s intentions couldn’t have been further from what seemed to be in Vi’s mind at that moment.
“Because it’s what you are,” Vi replied, shifting on Urban’s lap as he lowered his legs and pressed them toward the aetheric rudder pedals, stretching his arms forward. “You’d have to be if you admit to playing a slave multiple times just to spy on people.”
“Look, if you want to get a shot at the big money, you have to take big chances, okay?” Urban sent the ship into hyperspace again, wincing as Vi shifted again, not only causing the cage to pinch at his balls, but making his cock swell inside the tiny cage. Urban might have been a different species, but he was still a male, and wasn’t immune to such things by any stretch of the imagination. “You’ve had your stretch, so go ahead and get off me now.”
Vi shook his head. “No, I won’t get back on the floor. That’s even worse than being here. Remember, though, no touching! Is there anything to eat? I’m hungry!”
Urban growled again. Maybe he should just skip the rest of the short jumps and get on with the longer one… “There’s a box with some basic rations inside the storage area on the floor.”
Not having to be told again, Vi leaned over, pressing his impressive rear more firmly against Urban’s lap as he went for the food, wiggling as he fiddled with the panel well into the next jump before he finally got it open and plucked one of the meal bars out, though the look on his face when he finally peeled it open said that he was not impressed, and even seemed hesitant to try the bar.
As Vi tried to get at the rations, Urban couldn’t stop himself from glancing down at the elf’s impressively wide hips and backside; he must have gotten those features from his mother, because his father certainly didn’t have them. Grimacing, Urban tried to concentrate on the ship. All that wiggling around Vi had done had gotten Urban very painfully aroused, and staring at the elf’s backside wasn’t making things less painful. Maybe he’d remove the damn cock cage first thing instead of calling up Vi’s father once they were on his other ship…
The rest of the trip was a frustrating experience for Urban to say the least. With each jump, Vi would raise up and twist about, trying to look around as much as he could while they were in normal space, and all it did was keep Urban aroused and in pain. He was also frustrated by having to constantly try to peer around the elf at the ship displays; Vi seemed to have an uncanny knack to move in exactly the perfect spot to block Urban’s view at the exact perfect time.
After what seemed at least three or four times as long as it actually took, Urban brought the interceptor out of hyperspace for the last time, near to an old asteroid mining operation that had been defunct for over a century. He looked around Vi as the elf leaned forward to get a closer look, seeming genuinely excited to see something different, confirming that there were no other ships immediately within scanning range. Keeping alert for any sudden power signatures, Urban guided the interceptor through the mess of broken machinery and floating asteroids, wincing as Vi shifted around on his lap much more energetically.
The cock cage was definitely coming off first thing.
Urban guided the interceptor into one of the remaining mining structures embedded upon one of the larger asteroids, flipping on the forward lights. Only a miniscule power signature showed on the scanners now, just as it should have been. Relief flooded through him when he spotted his ship, a darkly-painted light transport, looking just as he’d left it. He keyed the comm on the interceptor and sent out a signal to the bigger ship, causing the power signature to start to increase as the startup sequence initiated and life support systems came back from their absolutely minimum levels, just to make sure nothing froze up aboard the ship, more or less.
He brought the interceptor low and spun it around to face away from the bigger ship, relying on his instruments to guide him beneath the ship to the docking area. With only centimeters to spare, Urban eased the interceptor upward into the custom-designed docking port, letting the magnetized clamps grab the smaller vessel and pull them upward. An armored panel slid into place below them as the ship continued to rise, finally coming up inside the transport’s cargo bay, the bay lights flickering on as the interceptor came to a rest. Confirming that the atmosphere outside was back at normal levels, Urban popped the canopy open, cool, recycled ship air flooding in. “Home sweet home,” he said.
Vi scrambled off Urban’s lap, vaulting over the side of the interceptor to land gracefully upon the deck plates before he started hopping from foot to foot, turning back to Urban, looking suddenly very impatient. “I need to use the bathroom!”
Urban pointed down one of the corridors leading from the cargo bay. “Head right at the first junction and then it’s the second door on the left.” Urban watched Vi run off ih that direction, his eyes drifting to the elf’s shapely posterior as he ran off. Shaking his head, Urban was reminded of the painful little device between his legs, and resolved to get that taken care of just as soon as they were away from the old mining facility on the way to making the call to deliver Vi back home.
Once in the cockpit, Urban rapidly keyed up the various subsystems and powered up the transport’s TK-drive, gave a quick rundown of his pre-flight checklist, and confirmed everything was in order. He could run through the list in a couple minutes, but he took his time now since the ship had sat there for quite a while. Finally, he keyed the ship’s intercom. “I’m taking off now, might wanna sit down.” Getting no reply, Urban unlocked the docking clamps and lifted off from the old mining station, guided the ship through the opening, and started out of the hazardous flight zone, keeping an eye on the sensor readouts for signs of any unexpected ships.
Just shy of ten minutes later, the transport was safely in hyperspace, and Urban found himself in his workshop, stripped of what remained of the goon’s suit, with a cable plugged into the data jack of his implant, downloading everything he’d collected into the dedicated data core he used for such things, while he balanced on a stool with his legs raised, feet resting on the edge of the workbench, fiddling with the lock on the damned cock cage. At first he’d thought it was a simple mechanical lock; that’s what it had seemed like when the atrocious pink cage had been forced on him a few weeks back at the start of Virliana’s obedience training, just a locking bolt that had clicked into place. It had a uniquely shaped keyway, but that shouldn’t have made much difference, maybe an extra few seconds to pick it.
However, upon closer inspection, there were some oddities about this lock. For one, he couldn’t tension it at all, no matter how much pressure he applied. Second, the three rows of very tiny pins wouldn’t even jiggle, like they were seized up completely as well. Thirdly, the more he’d shaken and jiggled the device, the tighter it had gotten, to the point that it was actually rather painful now.
Growling, tail swishing, Urban snatched up another tool, an electric lock picking gun, and swapped out the head to a memory-metal key impressioner. He stuck it in the lock, gave it a second, then pulled it out, noting the various peaks and valleys on the tri-edged key impression, and stuck it back in the hole, then pulled the gun’s trigger, causing it to whir and click violently in the seized lock, sending wild, painfully stimulating vibrations through his caged manhood.
“EWWWW! Pervert kitty is playing with himself!”
Having momentarily forgotten about his guest, Urban flinched at the sudden startled outburst. Before he could explain himself, the cock cage sent a painful jolt right into his manhood, and into the tool, because it suddenly shot sparks. Urban yelped, dropping the tool as he fell backward off the stool and landed on the deck. “Owww…” he groaned, wincing and rubbing himself to ease the pain. He was suddenly very worried about having just melted the tool’s head into the lock, but thankfully, when he looked at the tool on the floor, the head was blackened, but still intact.
Vi sauntered over toward him, leaning over him. “If you’re trying to get that off, normal tools won’t work.”
Urban narrowed his eyes at Vi, then noticed what the elf was wearing: a loose sweater and jogging pants, which weren’t quite so loose around his hips, along with a pair of sneakers. “Did you go through my clothes?!” And his long red hair was damp…had he been taking a shower this whole time?!
That earned a disapproving frown from Vi. “Did you want me walking around in that thong the whole time? Why do you have so many girls’ clothes, anyway? You really are a perverted kitty.”
Growling again, Urban sat up, snatching the still-warm lock pick gun from the floor, and tossed it on the bench as he got back to his feet. He checked the data transfer from his implant, and was relieved to find that the electrical jolt hadn’t interfered with the flow. “I’ve had to go into a lot of weird places, okay? I’m one of those ‘lucky’ ferakatian guys who looks good in female clothes, so sometimes I play the part. A lot of places in the galaxy still don’t consider a woman nearly as threatening as a man, and a surprising number of people don’t know that ferakatian females are much larger than the males. It just…boils down to a lot of sexual stuff in the end. It’s a very lewd galaxy out there.”
“Gross! I do not want to hear about your kinky butt stuff!” Vi said, scooting away.
“Kinky butt stuff?! That’s not-” Urban snarled, tail thrashing with annoyance as he snatched up another tool from the bench, this time a big powered drill. He fitted a large, diamond dusted bit and gave the trigger a squeeze to lock it in place. He’d just have to drill the whole damn core out.
“That’s not going to work either.”
Urban blew out his breath and slammed the drill onto the bench, turning his heated gaze to Vi. “Care to explain?” he asked through clenched teeth.
Vi held up a finger and started ticking off his points. “That’s a mythril cage, so you’d need something just as hard to get through it. It’s also enchanted, so you’d need an enchanted mythril bit to even have a chance. Then there’s the zappy punishment thing that daddy likes so much; it only gets worse the more you try to get out of it. Oh, and it gets tighter the more you try, too, so there’s that.”
Urban stared flatly at Vi for a few moments as he leaned heavily on the edge of the workbench. “I thought you said you weren’t into the same things as your father?”
Looking somewhat offended, Vi crossed his arms and raised his chin petulantly. “I’m not a pervert like you or him! I read the billing receipts and saw exactly what father had commissioned from that arcanist. Only the finest for the royal Virliana family, after all! The only way out of that is to have the key, or get it disenchanted by an arcanist.”
Growling, Urban’s claws raked into the surface of the workbench. “Do you have any idea how expensive an arcanist is? It’d take everything I make from this job to cover something like that!” Just thinking of how much Virliana had spent on magical chastity gear was absolutely mind boggling; the dozens of slaves he’d purchased were a drop in the bucket by comparison.
“Of course I do; I saw the receipts,” Vi replied. “Not that they were listed as such, but you know. You could just ask my father for the key of course…although…it’s hard to say what Karelessia has told him about what happened. There’s no way he doesn’t know about it after you blew up that gas processing station.”
“I didn’t blow that up! The goons his secretary sent after me did!”
“You didn’t have to fly into it, did you?”
Urban let out a low growl again, and his tail continued to swish. “It was either that or you’d probably still be in that case on your way to whoever Karelessia sold you to.”
Vi brought a hand to his face, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “True…though you’re quite the pervert, I do have a great idea that could work out for both of us!”
Getting the sense that he was starting to see depths to Vi that he hadn’t thought possible based on everything he’d witnessed in their interactions before, Urban raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”
“We should go on an adventure!” Vi said excitedly, clapping his hands together, eyes sparkling with excitement. “You seem like you know a lot about the galaxy, and I’ve not seen very much of it because father won’t let me off-world very often. And you did say you would do anything for money, right? It sure looks like it with that wardrobe… but I could pay you and you could be my bodyguard and take me around and see all kinds of stuff! Maybe I could even be of assistance on one of your more dangerous kinds of jobs, like flying in to save you at the last minute and being the hero? I think I’d be good at that. And then we could-”
“W-wait, cool your jets a minute! How exactly are you going to pay for all this?”
Vi rolled his eyes. “I’m not exactly poor, you know. And I have money that my father doesn’t know about from my own investments. What? You didn’t think I just sat around my room being a super-popular and super-out-of-reach personality all day, did you?”
“Well…”
Scoffing, Vi turned his head aside and raised his chin again, hands going to his hips. “Fine, you just call up my father, and I’ll tell him you were the one who kidnapped me and I’ll go along with whatever lies Karelessia told him. See if he gives you that key then!”
Urban raised his hands. “Hey, hey, hold up, I didn’t mean anything by that! I’m open to other options, but there’s a lot of dangers here. It’s not going to take them that long to realize some of their slaves are missing; there were other spies at the party that came in the same way I did, by the way. So that’s going to give them something to go, and they will have scanner data from my interceptor. It’s rigged for stealth to some extent, like not broadcasting an IFF, but they could eventually pin it down that I use that kind of ship. Then there’s the secret corporate bounties that only go out to the very best hunters in the galaxy. Another one of the spies who made me could offer me up if they thought they could get some money out of it. And then there’s-”
“But danger is part of adventure! You’ll just have to teach me to be sneaky as we go. I could be like a spy apprentice! That sounds really exciting!”
Urban groaned, rubbing his temple. “It’s not as glamorous as the movies make it out to be…”
“I know who the arcanist is who made those things,” Vi said. “It’s always easier to undo something magical like that if you made it, and probably cheaper, too.”
Urban stared at Vi, his expression somewhere between neutral and a scowl. “You’re more devious than I gave you credit for.”
“I am going to inherit my father’s business empire someday. It’s not like I haven’t spent years learning about that kind of thing. So, what do you say?”
“Prove you’ve got the money first.”
“Get me somewhere with a proper interface and I’ll do just that,” Vi said, rather smugly. “In the meantime, I’ll write up the contract for your services.”
Gaping, Urban did a double take. “Wait, what? A contract? Seriously?”
Vi raised his finger again. “Never do any kind of business without a proper contract! That’s one of the first things you learn. That’ll just ensure that you won’t be doing anything naughty in our arrangement, you pervy kitty.”
“Would you stop calling me that?!” Urban snapped, growling.
“I’ll think about it,” Vi replied, “whenever you’re not standing naked in front of me like some kind of pervert. Is there a tablet around here I can use?”
Growling, ears laid back, Urban tugged the data cable out of his implant; the download had finished a while ago. He snatched an unused tablet from a drawer on the bench and stalked toward Vi, handing it over without slowing as he headed toward his room. “It’ll be a few hours before we reach the next system. I’d better see plenty of credits in your coffers!”
“Also, I’m hungry again. Where’s the kitchen? You’re not being a very good host by not offering to fix me something to eat.”
Snarling, Urban slammed his fist against the nearest bulkhead. There was no way he could deal with that arrogant elf much longer! “Find it yourself!”
“Meanie,” Vi muttered just before Urban rounded the corner and any follow up was drowned out by the hum and clatter of the ship’s systems.
Time: Approximately Ten Hours Later
Location: Zamao Inc. refueling station #4739, Sentinel Prime sector
“See? I told you I had plenty of money. And that’s just one of my accounts,” Vi said, quite pleased with himself as he stepped aside, showing the screen of the tablet to Urban. The two were in the lounge of Urban’s transport, which was currently being refueled.
Urban snatched the tablet, eyes narrowed suspiciously, but immediately widened them, whistling. Holy shit! That was a lot of zeros… “And your father and Karelessia don’t know about these accounts?”
“Of course not! I have to have some secrets,” Vi replied, snatching the tablet back, tapping quickly on the screen. “Now, if you would just sign here, I’ll transfer your initial payment over and we can get going on that adventure!”
In the hours it had taken to reach the refueling station, Urban had, after throwing on some clothes, returned to his computer and busied himself with data decryption, grabbing a few hours of sleep once he’d set the automated processes up. Anything his tools didn’t break, he’d have to try manual decryption methods. Information gathered from events like that was usually no good to sell if it was already on the market from someone else, so time was definitely a factor. Thankfully Vi had been mostly keeping to himself during that time.
Urban took the tablet and saw the digital signature area, but then scrolled up to the start to read over the details…and kept scrolling…and kept scrolling… “What the-? How long is this contract?!” It had to be a hundred pages!
“Long enough to cover anything that I thought of that could come up during our adventure. I just kept coming up with things that I could see someone like you doing to try and wiggle out of our agreement, so I wanted to make absolutely sure that it was very complete.”
Growling, Urban narrowed his eyes at the elf. “What do you mean, someone like me?”
“A crafty spy, a greedy mercenary…a pervy kitty,” Vi said, shrugging. “It’s simple business really. I’m offering a proper rate for your time, with the option for additional benefits, and I even gave you a bonus for saving me from whatever Karelessia had in mind. Feel free to read over it if you like.”
Urban did just that. Or tried to. After the first few pages of legalese, his eyes started glazing over. It was even worse than normal, having been written in that exacting way that elves preferred. So much of it seemed to be reiterating the same points, like it had been copied and pasted, but then changed just enough to make it slightly different. Hardcore computer code he could handle, but this stuff… “Ugh…how can you write all that crap?”
“Just a perk of being me; I’m really amazing at most things,” Vi replied. His smug tone and matching smirk upon his face made it difficult to tell if he was trying to be funny or if he actually believed that.
Urban thought back to the credits he’d just seen in that account, did some quick calculations in his head, trying to determine odds on when and what kind of trouble would be coming from Vi’s father or his assistant. Was it really worth it?
The constant pressure on his manhood made Urban squirm in the seat. Was it worth tolerating Vi for a little while if it meant he could enjoy himself again without it costing him every credit he had? The sooner he could get that damn cage off, the better.
Sighing, Urban scrolled back down the overly long contract, then quickly signed it. It’d take him days to read through that mind-numbing mess. Most of it probably wouldn’t ever be brought up anyway.
Vi took the tablet and did the same, locked in the signatures, and tapped at the screen a few times before shooting a wide grin at Urban. He stuffed the device into the pocket of the hoodie he wore, then extended his hand. “Great! Now we can start our adventures in earnest!”
Urban took the offered hand, giving it a firm shake. For what it was worth, he was in it for the long haul now.
How bad could it be?
And there you have it! I would like to think this was a fun mix of action and light kink that worked out pretty well. I had fun writing it, certainly. There was another version of the story that started well before this one did; in fact, this one’s starting point was more the midpoint of the original, which had more of a focus on Urban during the big party and less focus on Vi. I felt it was dragging on far too long, though, so decided to speed things up quite a bit and jump right into the action.
Hope you all enjoyed this one!
Check out TooOoney’s work over on DeviantArt!
Until next time everyone, Urban out!
Hit me over on DeviantArt, or on my Discord server! I’m usually always around, and would love to hear what you have to say!
