One by one, Code flicked through the shirts on the rack, glancing at the tags. They should have been sorted, but after extended exposure to the general public, they no longer were, and even a pair of pants had somehow found their way onto the rack of shirts. It was annoying, but it wasn't like the lizard was in a hurry anyway; contracts were thin in the current economy and all she had at the moment was a one-day-a-week part time job. While she still had savings, she had to stretch them, and other than judicious use of coupons, it also entailed checking thrift stores like the one she was in for second-hand clothes instead of buying them new.

She had a basket in her left hand with a few of the more promising options folded up in it, and, finally locating a shirt in her size, she took it off the rack to give it a once-over. Finding no evident damage on it, she added it to her basket, and started making her way towards the changing rooms. On the way she passed by the bargain bin, and the "Clearance – up to 80% off!" sign sticking out from the middle of it was a siren song she couldn't resist.

It seemed like most of the items were in there for a reason, though. While anything ripped or torn would be thrown out, there were still t-shirts with faded designs, shirts missing buttons, or far more often, clothes with such incredibly garish designs it was a wonder they had ever been bought by anyone in the first place – perhaps as a gag gift. There was a bit of everything in there, including socks and underclothes, and while the flat-chested lizard had no need for bras, as she was holding up a pair of slacks to check them for damage, something fell out of them.

She glanced down and saw that the item in question was a pair of panties. While there was still a colored tag attached to them indicating that the store had tagged them at some point, it didn't line up with any of the other colors on the hangers she'd seen so far, and there was no price tag on them either. They didn't even look that bad, still a pristine white in color with colorful purple and turquoise spirals on it, the colors of which vaguely reminded her of the designs on old-style paper cups. And more interestingly, the design of the waistband was one made to work with people who had thick tails like hers.

They were intriguing enough that she elected to toss them into her basket, and after finding the pants she had originally been inspecting to her liking as well, she headed off to the changing room to try on most of the things. They didn't let her take the panties in to try for hygiene reasons, but the rest of the clothes she had accumulated she got to try on and sort through, eventually emerging and placing the stuff she didn't want on the return rack outside of the changing rooms.

It was a pretty good haul, considering where she was shopping. She got in line and didn't have to wait too long before the lynx working the register got to her, checking the prices and reclaiming the colored tags off of each item as she rung them up, until she got to the panties.

"A purple tag?" the cashier wondered aloud, "Where did you get these?"

"They were in the clearance bin," Code answered. "Is there a problem?"

"No, just, I don't remember when we last used the purple tags," the cashier murmured in thought.

"Well, I found them inside another pair of pants..."

"Hm, maybe they got overlooked? There's no price tag on them though... when did we even get these?" She opened a drawer and pulled out some laminated sheet of paper, perhaps a price chart of some kind. "Well, does three dollars sound fair?"

"Sure," Code replied with a shrug. Seemed like a good deal to her. "Thank you."

The rest of the transaction went smoothly and Code was soon walking out with the bag of clothes, heading to the bus stop to ride back home. Maybe not the most exciting outing, but certainly productive...

---------------------

Another day, another rejection from a potential client, and more stretching her budget, this time at the dollar store. It was bland, low quality, and ugly, but the prices were right. Code was wearing some of the clothes from the thrift store today, after having put them through the wash: a blue button-up shirt made from a heavier material, and the spiral-patterned panties underneath one of her usual pairs of track pants. The panties were surprisingly comfortable; she had been worried that they might be too big or too small, but the fit was just right.

And it was just as well too with how long she had been stuck in line. Her arms resting on the handle of her shopping cart of snacks and cheap drinks, Code's thumb swiped over her phone's screen as she killed even more time with a game, though her battery wouldn't hold out forever. Yet forever was how long the checkout seemed to be taking – it was moving, but only just barely. Which was odd, since it was a quiet time of day, and despite how long she had been waiting there was nobody else in line behind her.

She glanced upwards and tried to see what was going on. Was some old geezer holding up the line paying in pennies or something? It didn't look like it, but the real problem was immediately obvious: only one register was open. The middle of the week during working hours wasn't exactly the busiest time of day for commerce, after all, but it was still annoying. More than that, the only cashier was a poodle who looked like she was in her late teens somewhere, probably just working it as a summer job.

Code felt a little sympathy, but also felt the results of having to wait so long in her lower abdomen; she hadn't been terribly bothered about having to piss while she was walking down the last aisle earlier, but her bladder was getting more and more insistent as time went on. And a lot of time had passed her by, with the orange juice from breakfast coming back to haunt her. At least she wasn't much of a coffee drinker, but she couldn't simply slip off and come back as there weren't any bathrooms for the customers to use.

More time went by and more customers were served, albeit slowly. Code's sympathy for the cashier steadily evaporated once she could hear her curt and brusque conversations with the other customers, and watched her roughly shove fragile bags of chips in with heavy bottles of juice. Every few items she would stop to curse at the cash register, and Code had to respect the patience of the customers ahead of her to not snap.

That only lasted until Code was next in line, behind a very unamused-looking vixen who wasn't having any of the cashier's sass. The third time the fox reminded the cashier not to put heavy items in the same bag as fragile things, the poodle snapped, "Bag them yourself, then!" It only got more heated from there, ending with the cashier slamming the register drawer shut after it popped open automatically when the customer swiped her card.

"You really need to work on your-" the vixen began, but the cashier turned away and flipped her the middle finger; deciding it wasn't worth the trouble, the customer simply left.

Frowning, Code approached, but as she did, the poodle looked up, glared at her, and then gave her the middle finger too. "I'm on BREAK," the cashier declared, slamming a 'closed' sign down on the belt. "Bitch!"

"Wh-" Code began; she hadn't even done anything. She watched in stunned silence as the cashier snatched up a bag from below the counter and stormed off to a nearby bench, leaving Code alone at the register. What was she supposed to do now? She shifted where she stood from the growing need to pee, looking around to see if there was a self-checkout lane, but sadly not.

Fortunately, someone else had noticed and a large skunk in the store's uniform came out from the back to come and take over. In the meantime, the poodle had sat down on the bench and pulled out both her phone and a lunchbox, yet the former was what took her attention as she held it in front of her face; listening in, Code could hear her talking into it. It was immediately obvious she was recording a video of herself complaining about her job, no doubt to post online later, and Code rolled her eyes.

"Hi, let me help you out," the skunk said as she took over at the register, tapping on the screen. Code obligingly put her stuff on the belt along with the coupons she had brought and waited, but the new cashier wasn't much faster – just far more polite.

With nothing better to do and her phone's battery perilously low, Code listened in on the poodle, who was still ranting away about how unfair it was that she was disciplined for being late and that she had to wear a uniform. But Code's brow furrowed when she heard, "...I'm literally shaking right now, there's this total bitch who's with my manager, and she's probably going to try and get me fired. I hope that Karen chokes on the chips she's buying."

Code's hands gripped the handle on her shopping cart tightly. She had done literally nothing to this entitled, whiny brat, and if anyone was going to get her fired, it was her own behavior. Her anger flared and she glared over at the poodle, who wasn't paying attention – if she had been, she might have realized she was being overheard. Crossing her legs, Code fought off another twinge in her bladder reminding her that she had to piss, which only made her more annoyed. She wanted to just piss in that brat's lunchbox!

Yet, the moment that thought crossed her mind, she suddenly felt a strange tingling sensation in her crotch, and not only that, she saw a glowing golden spiral draw itself out on top of the lunchbox she was glaring at. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she looked over at the manager; yet even though the skunk glanced over towards the poodle, she somehow didn't see the glowing spiral shape even though it looked bright enough to light the room.

Still feeling a tingling in her loins, Code glanced down and saw an identical symbol over her crotch. It moved with her when she shifted her hips from her desperation, and she could just about make out a very faint, wavy golden line connecting the two of them. Then she remembered that she had seen spirals just like that on the panties she was wearing...

"Are you all right?" the manager asked, taking Code by surprise. Startled, she accidentally let out a squirt of piss from her straining bladder, and she quickly tried to calm back down.

"Yes, I was just lost in thought," Code answered. She watched the skunk slowly take a bottle of frozen orange juice and leisurely turn it over above the barcode reader, giving Code the opportunity to check the stain...

...except there wasn't one. Her pants were still completely dry. Blinking, she reached down as subtly as she could and put a hand into her pocket, feeling over her crotch. No dampness at all...

Her eyes flicked between the glowing symbols that seemingly only she could see, and the pieces fit together. The poodle had apparently finished her recording but was now typing out messages furiously on her phone instead, her lunch box still unopened. It was the perfect opportunity...

Taking a breath, Code uncrossed her legs, relaxed her muscles, and this time started to pee deliberately while still standing by the register. There was no wetness in her crotch or down her legs as she might have expected from such a position, and her clothes masked the hissing sound of her piss leaving her. She did her best to keep her breathing steady and not to groan from the intense relief she felt of unleashing her pent-up bladder, but it felt oh so good to let it all out. And, as if in response, she could see the glowing symbols pulsating slightly, only confirming what was happening: all of her piss was being sent to the lunchbox instead.

A little shiver ran through her all the way to the tip of her tail. Was this real? Yet she definitely felt herself pissing without feeling her pants getting wet, and the pressure in her bladder was all but gone. Both the relief from that and the satisfaction of putting the brat in her place made it very hard for Code to keep her expression straight. She was almost disappointed when she finally ran dry, even though it took a surprisingly long time – she must have had to go even more than she thought. Not wanting to waste a drop, Code casually tensed her muscles while leaning on the shopping cart to send a final couple of squirts through the portal connection, and at last, felt satisfied.

The moment that feeling of satisfaction ran through her, both the symbols and the tingling in her crotch disappeared. Curiously, she began to idly wonder how it worked as she took out her debit card and waited for the opportunity to pay. It obviously was something about the panties... she would have to experiment more.

Finally, with the last item scanned and bagged, thankfully sensibly, the skunk tapped the card reader. "Whenever you're ready."

"Thank you," Code replied as she paid, quickly transferring the plastic bags back into her cart. Just as the manager was handing her the receipt, there was a sudden commotion from over by the bench.

"Eugh! What the fuck?" the poodle shouted. The manager's attention was immediately drawn to her, and Code took the opportunity to start leaving as nonchalantly as she could, pushing her shopping cart.

"What's-"

"Someone pissed in my lunchbox! I bet it was Kevin! "

"Kevin's not even working today-"

"No, it must have been him! He hates me!"

Code muttered "Can't imagine why," under her breath and pushed her cart out through the automatic doors, leaving the scene behind.

--------------------

After returning home, Code immediately poured herself a drink and sipped from it while putting the groceries away; for the entire trip back she had been thinking about the panties, wondering how they might work and how she could experiment with them. Of course, to do so she would have to refill, hence the drink: she didn't expect she would be simply able to pour a glass of water down her pants.

She tried some carefully-worded internet searching, but found nothing more than fictional pictures and stories that were of no help to her. And though she could find images of panties with similar designs to the ones she was wearing, there were no exact matches. As far as she was concerned, they were completely unique – and they were hers, now. It wasn't as though she could return them to the original owner... or creator.

But their loss was her gain, and she settled in to play video games for a while, waiting until she felt the need to pee to start experimenting. Opening the portals was simple enough: she merely needed to think a strong enough desire to piss in something. A quick casual thought wasn't enough; she had to focus her will on opening the portal. The portal always faced downwards, and was placed at the top of whatever she targeted; if she moved the object, the portal moved to remain on the inside top of it. She could walk around too without disrupting the portal, but she had to maintain line of sight to the target or the portal would disappear.

She tried to look at the inside of her panties, but the moment she pulled the fabric away from her slit, the portal immediately disappeared. While the portal was active, though, the symbols on the panties glowed slightly, and then faded once the portal was dispelled. She had to sate her curiosity with a clear empty plastic bottle, watching as her stream poured out of seemingly nothing and into the bottom of the container, gradually filling it up. As before, the moment she was completely empty, the portals closed themselves, and when she slid the panties down to inspect herself, there wasn't a single drop left behind.

With renewed confidence in the panties, she settled back in for more gaming until she started getting hungry. She didn't really feel like cooking, though, so she headed into the kitchen to inspect the collection of coupons she had stashed in a drawer, looking for any that were going to expire soon. While none were particularly immediate, there was one for a nearby pizza place offering a special for a pizza, side and drink, and she knew you really couldn't go wrong with pizza. Plus it was a nice night out, so she pulled out her phone and placed a pick-up order to save on the delivery fee, giving the coupon number as well before leisurely heading out for a walk.

Following the directions on her phone, she eventually came to a small strip of various restaurants, some much nicer than others. Unfortunately the pizza place was firmly in the 'less nice' category, with one of the lights on its sign burnt out and most of the windows covered over by flyers and ads so old they had been yellowed. She pushed open the door and stepped inside, her hope restored by the smell of pizza, able to see into the kitchen through a serving window separating the front and the back of the pizzeria. She stood by the register for a few minutes before a disheveled-looking fox came out from the kitchen, wearing a t-shirt that had once had the pizzeria's logo on it before it had faded to a nearly unrecognizable state, and a pair of black pants with pizza sauce on one leg.

"Hi," Code greeted him, "I have an order for pickup. Number 17."

"Oh!" the fox replied with an accent, "Yes, yes, it will be ready soon." He ducked back into the kitchen immediately thereafter, and Code took a seat to wait.

And wait. And wait. A delivery driver came and got a stack of boxes, but no other customers showed up on foot, an ominous sign. Finally the fox came out from the back with a pizza box and a bottle of lemonade on top of it, placing it on the counter next to the register. "Number 17!" he called out.

Code got up immediately, putting her phone in her pocket. She'd originally planned to take the pizza home first, but she was very hungry now, and was considering just going to a nearby park to eat it instead. "Thanks," she began, but caught an unusual odor from the box, and slipped a finger under the end to lift up the lid. Her eyes narrowed: she most certainly had not ordered a pizza with shrimp on it. Not that she disliked shrimp, but on a pizza? With... some kind of leafy vegetable? Not only that, but the crust was burnt, too.

"This isn't my order," she told the fox, who was about to ring it up at the register. "And where are my wings?"

"Hm?"

She took out the coupon and waved it for emphasis. "One large pizza, plus a drink, plus a side," she read off of it. "The lemonade is correct, but I ordered a meat lover's pizza, and my side is missing. Is this someone else's order?"

"I, ah, oh!" the fox lamented, "I must have given yours to the driver! Sorry, sorry, I will make a new one for you!" He snatched up the pizza box, leaving Code with just the lemonade bottle, and disappeared back into the kitchen before she could say anything. She saw him walk by the serving window, talking to himself in another language, and then he disappeared out of her sight.

With a sigh, she took her seat again, but left the lemonade alone; after drinking so much earlier for her experiment, it wasn't surprising that she had to pee again already. She didn't want to make it worse, so she took out her phone and waited.

And waited. The same delivery driver came and went again, and finally the fox returned once more with another box. "Here you are! One large pepperoni pizza!"

Code inwardly sighed; it was still the wrong pizza, but she didn't want to wait for a third one to be made, and pepperoni was good enough for her growling stomach. "And my wings?" she asked, lifting the lid again. The pizza's crust was a little burnt, but the rest of it seemed fine enough, if a bit greasy.

There was an awkward pause. "I, ah, o-one moment please!" the fox told her, then bustled back into the kitchen. Code shook her head in dismay, then saw him walking past the serving window again. As before, he was muttering something in another language to himself, a short phrase over and over, and Code frowned before taking out her phone, sitting back at the table with her pizza and drink. It only took a quick online search to confirm it was an insult, and most certainly directed at her, since it was one specifically directed at women.

Officially out of patience, Code got back up and leaned on the counter by the register so that she could see in through the serving window. The kitchen beyond it had multiple ovens at the back, a big central ingredient storage area surrounded by counters, fridges and mini-fridges at the sides, and a door at the back that likely led to a freezer and store-room. There were only a couple of cooks in the back that she could see, so much of the kitchen was going unused. All the better for her to get away with what she had planned...

Her eyes settled on one of the mini-fridges, and with a moment of focus she was able to create a portal to it, a golden spiral appearing just above the top of it, with a pale thread-like line connecting it to a similar symbol above her crotch. The tingling sensation in her loins manifested again, perhaps an indicator that the portals were active. She didn't know what was inside of the mini-fridge, but she was beyond caring, and she spread her legs apart slightly as she relaxed and opened the floodgates.

She could feel the relief and let out a small sigh, which was easily masked by the noise from the kitchen. Despite not being able to see into the mini-fridge, she could certainly imagine the results, and suppressed a smirk as she thought of what in there might be getting hosed down with lizard piss, even giving an extra clench to push it out harder. She got so wrapped up in the moment that she only registered one of the staff approaching the fridge just as he was reaching out for the handle, and she quickly cut off her stream just as he pulled the door open. The portals remained, and she shivered, but successfully stopped the flow without any trouble at all. Not only that, but she didn't even feel the tingling she normally would for stopping her stream early.

As piss spilled out from the bottom of the fridge and onto the floor, Code got a brief glimpse into the inside: mostly some drinks, as well as a few packages of ingredients, now all soaked. The cook recoiled and quickly shut the door, calling out to his boss that something in the fridge had leaked; he evidently hadn't taken too close of a look at exactly what the fluid in question was. While he was distracted, Code started to look for another spot, only to hear the fox call back "Just a minute!" and then opened the kitchen door, holding a small cardboard box in one hand.

"Here you are," he told her, putting the box on the counter. "One box of onion rings."

Code inhaled, resisting the urge to remind him that she had ordered wings. "Thank you," she told him, pulling out her wallet without moving from her spot by the counter, handing him the coupon and money. The moment he closed the register he disappeared back into the kitchen without a word, and Code looked back in through the serving window. It had been surprisingly easy to stop pissing, and she wondered if it was some other property of the panties as she opened up the box to pretend to inspect it while she looked for another target...

The ingredient stash in the middle was made up of several stainless steel trays, each with a lid, all lined up in rows. One of the cooks lifted a lid up and she saw grated parmesan cheese inside and smirked to herself, waiting for him to replace the lid before moving the portal over to it with a thought. Glancing down into the box of onion rings, she was about to take one out when she saw that they were very overcooked and blackened in several spots. Even more annoyed than before, she glared directly at the targeted ingredient container and let loose once more with everything left in her bladder.

She could still feel it gushing out of her even though it immediately disappeared into the portal, sent to its destination in the tray of cheese. She could just imagine it splashing in there, soaking and clumping up the cheese into a useless blob, and with how hard she was pissing it was probably making a big divot in the middle of the cheese as well, getting deep down in there to really ruin the entire tray's worth. Fishing out one of the less-burnt onion rings and munching on it as she pretended to check something on her phone, her smoldering anger lasted until she noticed that she was still going reasonably strong, even though she had been sure she was nearly empty when she cut off her stream in the mini-fridge. Did the panties give her some extra capacity? She mulled that over, but soon after felt her stream waning, and she made sure to push out every last drop, clenching until she felt the tingling sensation go away and saw the portal markers disappear.

Steeling herself for a very mediocre meal, she gathered up the food and left the pizzeria to go find somewhere she could sit down and eat it, her tail swaying back and forth in satisfaction.

--------------------

The bus came to a stop and Code got off through the back doors along with a few others, walking the rest of the way to the theater. It was more of a budget cinema, really, but being on a budget, and having a coupon as well, it was a more viable option for some entertainment. The sign out front was only missing a couple of lights, and several movies on offer were smash hits – from at least a year ago. The others she had never heard of, but the offerings on the sign matched the schedule she'd found online, and she was only there for one.

It was busier than she had expected, and she was stuck in line behind two very large families that seemed to know each other: one group of bears and a family of bovines, both of which had children running around causing a ruckus. Code did her best to ignore them and was glad that she had plenty of time before the movie began, as the families took an inordinately long time to decide on a movie, and then took an absurdly long time to actually pay for it. The next two people ahead of Code went by much faster, and she soon had her ticket to one of the blockbusters from two years ago.

With that taken care of, she headed off to get some popcorn from the concession stands, avoiding the line where the two families from before were in the process of trying to wrangle together orders. The concessions were more than just free-standing stands here, with a proper kitchen area and serving counters, including a popcorn machine at the back, and a big machine endlessly stirring slushies near the front. After a brief wait in line she got to the counter, where a tigress wearing an apron over her uniform gave her a firm look. "What's your order, lizard?" the cashier asked bluntly, almost snarling out the last word.

Code tried to keep patient; she would be annoyed at dealing with customers like the big families too. "Large popcorn with extra butter, please," she replied, holding her coupon out. "And I have one of these."

The tiger woman snatched the coupon out of Code's hand, almost scratching her, and glared at it. "It's expired, cold-blood."

Now she was just being rude for no reason; Code knew for a fact that the coupon wasn't expired, and held her hand out for it. "No, the date on it is-" she began.

The tigress, however, simply kept eye contact as she ripped the coupon in half, and then threw it into a trashcan on her side of the counter. "Don't bother me with your trash. Butter costs extra. $15."

Even at the inflated prices of concession stands, that was an absurd markup, and Code narrowed her eyes. "The sign says-"

"The sign says we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, reptile," the tiger snarled. "So pay up or get lost."

"Fine," Code conceded, turning away and adding a "Fuck you, too" under her breath. She wasn't about to wait for an eternity behind the families, so she simply went to a vending machine and got something large to drink from there instead. She considered simply leaving, but she'd already paid for the ticket; and besides, if she hung around she'd be able to get some payback on the way out. She'd been setting aside the portal panties and only wearing them on her excursions since buying them, usually to save herself trips to public bathrooms, but situations like this certainly merited their use as well. However, she had already gone to the toilet before leaving the house, so she didn't need to go now... but by the end of the movie? That was much more plausible.

Fortunately, the usher at the door to the theater room lacked the animosity of the concession stand worker, simply checking Code's ticket before waving her inside. She had only missed some of the 20-odd minutes of trailers that preceded movies these days, and headed for her seat. It was a pretty good one too, in the middle of the theater right in front of the central aisle, which meant no tall people in front of her to block her sight. The chairs weren't the best, and one of the overhead lights didn't seem to want to turn off all the way, but that was perhaps to be expected from a low-budget theater.

Something seemed off, though, and after a minute of trailers she finally figured out that the sound quality wasn't quite right. It was almost like the left and right audio channels weren't quite in sync, close enough to sound normal most of the time, but giving a slight, annoying echo whenever someone stopped speaking. Ultimately, that didn't matter, as dread began to fall over her when she heard a racket from behind her; a glance over her shoulder confirmed that had had the great misfortune to pick the same movie as the two families from before. While they were several rows back from her, it did very little to mitigate all of the noise as the parents tried to wrangle the children into their seats.

The movie began shortly thereafter and, after a great deal of shushing amidst the families, quiet was finally restored for about five seconds until one of the youngest kids began reading off the text on the screen until he was shushed. It didn't get much better from there; Code tried her best to focus on the movie and ignore the families, but it was an arduous task with how frequent and loud their disruptions were. Everything from kids kicking seats or hitting each other and shouting, to loudly slurping their empty drink cups, to loudly asking questions about the movie, to the periodic "Mom, I have to pee" that was followed by a lot of shuffling, creaking of chairs, and further general noise.

Following the movie's plot was a struggle and Code started to wish it had subtitles, and she wasn't the only one – as her patience wore thin she began turning her head and shooting death glares at the families. Yet even though she noticed several other theater patrons doing the same, nobody in the families seemed to care, and nobody wanted to try and directly confront them given how incredibly large and imposing the men in each family were. That included the theater staff, as Code could see two of them hovering around near the exits, looking nervous more than anything else, as neither one of them wanted to be the ones to confront the families.

As the movie wore on and Code felt the need for a piss of her own starting to build, she kept seated and focused her attention on the screen. However annoying the families were, she was far angrier about the concession vendor – and there was also the problem of potentially having to keep her eyes on the family, even if she could even spot something of theirs to mess up. Her drink had long since been drained and the movie went on longer than she had expected, making her need worse over time. Crossing her legs and trying to keep her squirming to a minimum, Code toughed out the end of the movie – what of it she could hear over the seemingly endless racket behind her, anyway – and didn't even bother to stick around to see if there was an after-credits scene once the credits began to roll.

She made her way out from the theater as best she could, but the lights weren't terribly good while they were on either, and as she passed the family she tripped on a big backpack sticking out into the aisle. She managed to grab one of the chairs to brace herself, and looked back with a glare: it definitely belonged to that same family.

"Are you all right?" a different guest asked her.

With an opportunity coming to mind, Code turned, but kept leaning on the chair. "I think I twisted my ankle," she replied, lifting one leg and rubbing her ankle a bit. "I'll be fine in a minute though, thank you."

With that excuse secured, she waited for the other guest to walk away, then turned her focus to the backpack. Her immense irritation at the family made it easy for her to stare at the bag and, responding to her desire to mess it up, she saw the swirling yellow symbol appear over it indicating there was a portal inside. Her bladder was uncomfortably full, so it was quite easy for her to let loose, making a show of rubbing her ankle as she did to give a plausible explanation for why she wasn't leaving as other guests walked past. The family, of course, was having just as much of an adventure getting their kids out of their seats as they did getting them in in the first place, so they weren't going anywhere any time soon...

She could feel her piss gushing out of her, but there was no visible effect, and she didn't know what was inside the backpack she was soaking. After several seconds of heavily pissing into it, though, her eyes caught sight of the fabric of the backpack darkening on the side closest to her, and she suppressed the urge to grin as she continued pissing hard. Movement caught her eye and she saw the bear mother picking up another backpack and putting it on, and she cut off her stream for the first backpack, shifting the portal to her new target.

Once the portal was created she relaxed and resumed pissing, lowering her foot and pretending to gently try her weight on it as she hosed down whatever was inside of the backpack with her urine. She pushed with her muscles and forced out more of it until she saw a single droplet fall from the bottom of the backpack, and then cut off her stream again – she didn't have much left, and she wasn't going to let the concession vendor get away unscathed.

Most of the people in the theater had already left so Code walked out and back into the lobby, looking for her next target. The tigress was still at the concession stand, and what was more, she was snarling at a younger gecko girl in her late teens. Code didn't catch what was said, but the girl looked incredibly hurt by it, and backed away, running off in distress.

Anger boiled in Code and she made her way towards the doors, taking out her phone and finding a good vantage point where she could stand without getting in the way. Leaning on a big sign near the doors, Code pretended to scroll on her phone as she turned her gaze to the concession stand, looking for what to ruin...

The big popcorn machine caught her eye, but it would be risky. The top half of it was for storing popcorn with four glass sides, so the internals were visible – but it was at the very back of the kitchen, and right now, it was almost completely full of popcorn, nearly reaching the bottom of the pot that the kernels were cooked in. Keeping the machine in the corner of her vision, Code thought hard about pissing into it, and sure enough the portals opened up onto it, the swirl appearing at the very top of the machine. As soon as they were there, Code relaxed again, her anger rising again as she saw the gecko from before being comforted by her friends off to one side.

An absolute torrent of piss gushed from Code's urethra and through the portals, surprising her – wasn't she nearly empty? And yet nothing happened that she could see in the machine, at first. She initially chalked it up to the distance, but then she noticed a slight rippling of the glass at the back and realized that the portal was targeting the top part of the machine, where the motor and heater were located. She couldn't help but grin to herself momentarily and then quickly pretended she was amused by something on her phone, as she continued to piss as hard as she could.

She couldn't see the internals of the machine, but she could certainly see her piss pouring down the back glass, finding some gap in the sides to flow through. It soaked into the popcorn and she was quite sure the results would be obvious, perhaps landing them in a lawsuit or two, and she kept pissing hard. A thought came to her mind as she realized she was still going strong, and thought back to her previous times with the panties. Her experiments at home hadn't done anything unusual, but whenever she'd gone on for longer than expected, it had been times when she'd been furious at something. Did being angry give her extra-?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang from the popcorn machine, and an ugly black smoke began to pour out of it. It caught the attention of people nearby who began to panic even before the fire alarms started blaring a few moments later. Fortunately, the only fire suppression systems that went off were the ones in the kitchen, and Code reveled in the infuriated roar from the tigress as she was soaked in flame-retardant foam, fleeing for the back door to the kitchen with the other staff members there.

The rest of the theater began to evacuate and Code cut off her stream once more to step outside with everyone else, doing her best to act surprised as the staff urged everyone out in an orderly fashion. Mildly annoyed at not being able to finish, Code turned back and kept close to the building, near the huge plate glass windows at the front. They offered her a perfect vantage point back into the kitchen, where the foam was still spraying, and with a little subtle moving around she found a spot where she could see the now-abandoned cash register.

Once she had a portal placed on it, she relaxed once more to empty all that remained in her bladder into the register. She wasn't sure if it was getting into the internals, the cash drawer, or both – but she didn't care. She sighed softly to herself, the sound lost amidst the noise of the fire alarms and the people leaving the theater, and made sure to push out every last drop she had left; the moment she did, the portals vanished on their own.

Turning and leaving the chaotic scene, Code glanced back only when she heard an enraged snarling and saw the foam-covered tigress at one side of the building. She couldn't help but smirk at the sight, realizing she'd gotten something far more satisfying than a bucket of popcorn in the end...

--------------------

Code's continuing endeavor to min-max her coupon usage took her to a different grocery store the next time her fridge was getting empty, especially with how heavy some of the coupon discounts were for this one. A lot of it was of the 'buy one thing, get another for cheap' variety most likely indicating they were trying to clear some of their stock, but there were plenty of straight discounts as well, certainly more than enough to justify taking a trip to acquire whatever she could manage.

The building itself was on the older side, perhaps converted from some other space at some point in the past: none of the front doors were automatic and instead were simply propped open all the time to allow people to come and go freely. Code took a basket from the stack near the door, wearing an empty backpack to bring her haul back in, along with just a t-shirt and shorts since the weather was quite warm, and the portal panties on underneath as had become her habit for any excursion.

The first section in the store was the produce area, and Code began to roam to see what was on offer and what might match her collection of coupons. The selection on display was almost depressing, however: wilted and discolored leafy vegetables, mushy-looking berries, tomatoes that squished worryingly when touched, bananas already going brown, and plenty worse. The concerning number of flies buzzing around the produce certainly wasn't helping matters any, and while the prices were low, it was very much a case of getting what you pay for. Without finding anything she'd consider edible, Code decided to continue on – at least they couldn't mess up packaged and canned goods, right?

The most basic stuff like baking supplies or seasonings seemed usable enough, and with heavy discounts at that – though once Code took a longer look and thought about it more, she realized the base prices seemed rather exorbitant. Frowning, she reached out to the price label on a shelf of cooking oil and poked at it; it was one of the types where thin paper cards were simply slid in and out behind a plastic cover, and she was able to push the cards out from it. For there was more than one, and she carefully gripped with her thumb and forefinger to separate them without taking them out from the label holder fully. Sure enough, the one in the back had a different and much lower price on it than the 'marked down' one in the front; they'd done the old trick of doubling the price and then 'discounting' it to half of what it was to make it look like there was a huge sale on offer.

Sliding the price cards back into place, Code kept her phone handy to check and see which prices were and weren't reasonable as she kept looking for anything to salvage the trip with. It didn't get any better, though, with dented tins being the least of her concerns. Some items that looked fine at a glance were well past their sell-by dates, whenever those dates were printed in discreet locations hard to spot from a cursory glance. One package of cookies even looked fine at first until Code noticed it was dated to the previous year, and she glared at the package before stuffing it back onto the shelf in disgust.

After having come all the way out to the store she really didn't want to leave empty-handed, and thought about where to go next. She didn't trust the milk or eggs, but perhaps they'd at least have some decent cheese in the dairy section. Unfortunately there the problem was much more straightforward: they appeared to be sold out, so perhaps she wasn't the only one who'd had that same idea. Perhaps the deli counter would have some cheese, though, and fresher stuff too if they were going through it that quickly...

She felt a little more hopeful when she got to the deli counter: not only did it seem much better-kept than the rest of the store, but she was sure she had plenty of coupons for it too. The row of glass-fronted cabinets was long and full of meats and cheeses of various types, and appeared only moderately smudged by fingerprints, an impressive feat considering how many children Code had seen while wandering around. A few staff behind the counter were milling around, and as Code was leaning in for a close look at the ham – she wanted to give it a VERY thorough inspection considering the state of the rest of the store – one of them came over to her. A hyena woman wearing an apron over her uniform and a white hair net, she stood opposite Code and then crouched down a bit so her face would be visible through the glass.

"Hey there, cutie," she greeted Code, "Can I help you with anything?"

It was a bit of a forward greeting, but it beat the service she got the last time she went grocery shopping. "I'm just checking the meat," Code answered, "I'll let you know when I've picked something out, thanks."

"No trouble, no trouble," the hyena replied, folding her arms and leaning on the glass. "Take as long as you want to check out my meat."

Code nodded, then blinked, catching on to the double entendre a moment later. The hyena's tone had started off friendly, but seemed almost teasing at the end. Was it intentional? Code let it pass and stepped to one side to take a look at another cut of meat.

"Anything you're in the mood for?" the hyena asked a moment later. "I could make some recommendations."

"Sandwich meat," Code answered simply.

Quietly, but not so quietly that Code couldn't hear her, the hyena murmured, "Oh, I'd love to make a sandwich with you, cutie..."

"What?" Code asked incredulously, lifting her head.

"What?" the hyena replied casually, feigning ignorance even as Code gave her the stink-eye. For a moment she was quiet and then she leaned forward, pointing to one of the meats on offer. "I'd recommend this one right here," she told Code, who looked over at it. "Great value, and you look like a lady that can appreciate a nice, thick, heavy piece of meat..."

Code narrowed her eyes and folded her arms, but her glare did little to dissuade the deli counter worker. "We've got some juicy sausages too, I bet I can find a big one that'll fit into your buns-"

"Joyce!" barked a voice from behind Code, and she let out a sigh of relief. Finally, someone to rein in the situation. She turned her head and saw a male hyena approaching, wearing a similar uniform without an apron and with a 'manager' tag on his shirt. "What have I told you about hitting on the customers?"

The hyena behind the counter, apparently Joyce, let out a sigh. "Take their order first," she recited, rolling her eyes.

"That's right," the other hyena agreed, "Take their money first so they don't wander off, and THEN you can chat with them."

Code's brow furrowed again; at least one of the two of them was missing the point, possibly deliberately. Before she could cut in, Joyce pointed at Code and remarked, "Come on though, are you telling me you wouldn't want her between you and me when we head home tonight?"

No wonder they were on such good terms if they were in a relationship. "Oh yeah, definitely," Joyce's evident boyfriend agreed, "I'm just saying, you need to take their order first before you try and set something up, you know?"

Frustrated, Code gave up and left, ignoring Joyce's call of "Come back! You've got such a nice ass!" as she simmered with anger. This place was a write-off, and she made her way back to the entrance to leave, tossing her empty basket haphazardly onto the stack of them by the doors.

But just as she was about to go, she heard a hissing sound and turned her head to look for the source. Each of the refrigerated sections held produce like wrinkly bell peppers, unhealthy-looking cucumbers and off-color legumes, among other poor selections. One set of them had some automated system spraying water in a fine mist onto some lettuce that was too yellowed to appreciate the hydration, and an idea began to come to Code's mind as she noticed that other displays weren't spraying their own produce... at least not yet.

Turning around and getting out of the way of another customer coming in, Code wandered over to the section that hadn't turned on its mist sprays, and checked to make sure the produce in it was still dry. The nozzles at the top of the fridge section were obvious, and they had little black plastic piping running between them. It was easy to follow to one side of the fridge, and then it disappeared into the back of the display case.

But perhaps as a consequence of the space being converted from something else, all of the fridges were free-standing, and it was trivial for Code to walk to a spot where she could see the back of the fridge, which was open. Many of its pipes were exposed, including the thin black pipe running down to a large tank at the bottom of it, about a gallon or so large. Now that she could see the source, Code quickly glanced around to make sure nobody was paying her too much attention, and then pretended to look at a poster advertising various deals while she kept the fluid tank in her sight.

One determined thought from her, and the portal between her panties and the tank was open, a swirling golden symbol over the black plastic tank indicating she was good to go. Spreading her legs apart slightly, she relaxed her muscles and started pissing hard, feeling the urine leaving her and seeing the faint golden thread connecting the two spirals pulse faintly. She could just barely hear a splashing sound if she focused hard on it, but it was difficult to make out over the background noise of the people in the store and the hum of the refrigerator units that were part of the produce displays. Still, it only made her smirk before she hid it behind a hand as she tried to look thoughtful; the louder it splashed, the emptier the reserve tank was, which meant more of her piss would be making up the resulting mixture...

She kept going until she heard a series of beeps coming from the cabinets warning people near them that they were about to spray. Cutting off her stream, Code turned and walked away from them, hearing the hissing of the misters activating, putting on her best poker face as she pretended to read the signs stating the contents of each aisle. When she heard shouting from a few aisles away, she looked back and pretended to act shocked, but kept walking regardless to head for the opposite side of the store... as much as she wanted to see the chaos unfold.

The far end of the store turned out to be the pre-packaged meat section. Unlike the deli meats, these seemed far more neglected, and most certainly overpriced even without taking into account that some of the meat appeared discolored as though it had been freezer burned. The packaging appeared very shoddy on top of that, and she could even see gaps in the plastic wrap at the edges of a few of them. Wandering along the meat aisle, she found the section with the most expensive – or at least, most overpriced – cuts for sale, and stared at the single most pricey one she had found before willing a portal onto it.

Fortunately the packaging, however shoddy, was good enough for the panties to target. And this time she even got to watch as she spread her legs subtly and let loose with her bladder, a golden stream appearing from seemingly nowhere inside of the packaging and splashing onto the meat. It drenched both the steak and the foam tray it was wrapped with; the tray itself was waterproof so her piss ended up pooling at the bottom of the tray in a manner that would be obvious to anyone who looked at it. Her eyes flicked around to look for another target as she kept soaking the steak, and spotted a very overpriced cut of what claimed to be venison. It would be perfect, and she wanted to piss on it next-

To her surprise, the portal's destination shifted immediately, and suddenly her urine was drenching the venison chop instead of the steak. Panic flashed across her as she worried she might have spilled some in her pants, but she shifted on her feet and was easily able to feel that she was still dry. Relaxing, she picked out another package of discolored meat and silently wished to soak it, too, and the portal immediately moved as was her whim.

She leaned in close as if pretending to inspect one of the bottom rows, and really put the newfound ability of the panties to work. All of the most overpriced packages she could see got doused in rapid succession as she moved the portal between them, each one only requiring a brief yet focused thought from her. Her golden fluid left the meat glistening and pooled up in the packaging, but before she could run completely dry she stopped her stream once more and began to head back towards the entrance.

Her intention was to go to the deli counter to give the hyenas a little payback, but she saw the male manager from before at one of the registers. Suppressing a smirk, she got an idea, and stood right near the self-checkout lane in a spot where she could see all of the other checkouts – or at least, their registers. Starting with the one furthest away, she opened a portal to it and started pissing into it, quickly hosing down each one for just a brief time. She didn't know if she was spraying their internals or the money within, but she didn't really care, and just barely managed to give the closest register some of her piss before she ran dry and the portals closed. With that mission accomplished, she stepped past the self-checkout line and-

"Hold it," a security member near the checkouts told her, holding up one hand. He was a male husky, giving her a stern look.

Code grew worried. Was there any way he could tell what she'd done? To her side she heard someone ask "What the-... why is the money wet?" and she knew she had to hurry.

The security guard pointed to her backpack and told her, "Let me see what's inside." She breathed an inner sigh of relief; it was just loss prevention.

She took off her backpack and held it upside-down, shaking it for emphasis. "I don't have anything in here," she told him. Remembering the dairy section, she told him, "I was looking for some cheese but you're all out."

"Oh," he said, accepting her excuse. "Sorry to hear that. We restock fairly-"

"What the hell?!" one of the cashiers blurted out. Both Code and the guard glanced over, and the guard quickly left to see what the fuss was about; Code took the opportunity to stride out from the store, putting her backpack back on as she made her escape from the further chaos that was about to unfold.

--------------------

Code's head was practically spinning as she tried to focus, but the deluge of word salad coming from the other side of the manager's desk was so meaningless and vacuous that if she made any attempt at all to understand it, it made her head hurt. While she had at least scored an interview, this definitely wasn't the company for her: on top of being a financial company that she wasn't particularly excited to work for, the pay and benefits were lackluster. Furthermore, the work wasn't just uninteresting, it was practically unethical, with the thing they were building offering nothing interesting to the user but serving to harvest vast amounts of personal information from those foolish enough to use it. On top of that, her potential coworkers had the collective intelligence of a bag of rocks, made up for by a complete and total blind faith in the nonsensical product they were trying to build.

The first time they had tried to 'correct' her, she expected it was just some part of the interviewing process, and they wanted to see her justify her decisions and explain her reasoning. It soon became clear that it wasn't a high-level interview ploy, but rather there was a much simpler explanation: they were idiots who had no idea how or why anything worked. It certainly explained why they 'urgently' needed an 'expert' to help with their 'critical' project that was struggling to raise more investor money. She needed a job, yes, but not badly enough to sign on to something this awful.

The interview was almost over, or at least, supposed to be. The manager, a Dalmatian in a dark brown suit, had brought her back to his office for a 'debrief' that was entering its 20th consecutive minute of him talking. "...and our stakeholders will be able to continually synthesize high-quality 'outside the box' thinking, using our cloud-based solutions provider powered by generative AI..."

Code went back to tuning out the onslaught of buzzwords, lest she get brain damage, and instead tried to pretend she was listening by reaching for her water glass. There wasn't much left in it, and she drained the rest, setting it back down and giving a nod as she tried to think about something else. Anything else. Dinner, perhaps, or the best route back home, or the growing need to piss after drinking water throughout all of the interviews.

Of course, she had some interesting ways to take care of that last one...

"...which will allow the market leaders to empower their users to in turn leverage scalable technologies for..."

Shifting slightly in her seat, Code spread her legs a little. It was a pity the manager's office was so lightly furnished, as it didn't offer her a lot of choice, but the desk between them had drawers, and when she silently wished she could piss inside of it, she saw a swirling yellow spiral appear over the top of the left side of the desk's surface. Leaning forward and pretending to be interested in the incessant stream of garbage issuing forth from the manager's mouth, she relaxed her muscles and let loose with her bladder into his drawer.

She stopped again immediately when it made a hollow wooden sound inside of the drawer, clenching her abdominal muscles hard to cut off her stream. There was no way he hadn't heard that, right? Yet the manager kept going on, lost in his own little world of meaningless corporate jargon, and after enduring what must have been the thirtieth occurrence of the phrase 'use cases', relaxed her muscles to release again, as gently as she could.

She managed to let out her urine in a gentle flow that was teleported into the desk, and while it did patter on the wooden interior of the evidently empty drawer, it was quiet enough to go unnoticed past the manager's vacuous speech. For several seconds she sat, satisfied as she peed into his desk, right up until she saw a golden droplet fall to the carpet. Apparently the desk's drawers weren't very waterproof, and she quickly glanced around with just her eyes to look for somewhere to retarget it to. His briefcase was lying nearby, and she shifted the portal mid-stream, relaxing further to piss at full strength instead of holding back as she soaked whatever was inside of the briefcase...

"...should yield a complete ROI within three years," the manager finished, and Code only really noticed the sudden quiet when he stopped talking. "Any questions?"

"No, I think that was pretty clear," Code lied, not wanting this to go on any longer than necessary.

"Excellent!" the manager told her, and held out a hand. Code took a brief moment to stop remotely pissing into his briefcase before taking his hand and shaking it. "Well then, I'll be in touch."

Code secretly hoped he wouldn't, and simply nodded, then allowed him to escort her out from his office and into the front lobby of the building. It was a reasonably modern and fancy lobby with big glass walls and ceilings, designed to look appealing to any potential customers, employees, or investors. A big seating area took up the center of the ground floor, and staircases led up to the second-floor balconies that overlooked the lobby area. A reception desk stood near the entrance and the back of the room was almost entirely glass that showed the company's server room.

The manager turned back after she left the employee-only area. As much as she wanted to leave, she also wanted to finish what she had started. Wandering over towards the seating area, she saw a vending machine up against one wall and walked over, pretending to inspect it as she instead thought of showering its insides in urine. At first the portal targeted the main area with the snacks, but they were all packaged up, and she had a better idea in mind anyway: thinking more of the machine's circuits and machinery, she saw the golden spiral on top of the machine move to the side and smirked to herself as she relaxed her bladder.

Standing directly next to the machine, she could hear the splash of her piss echoing inside of it, but there wasn't anyone else around – the only other person in the lobby was the receptionist at the far end of the room, who was barely paying attention. Pushing a little harder with her muscles, Code sprayed down the insides of the vending machine a little longer until she suddenly heard its fans shut off and heard an electrical short inside of it, its display abruptly going dark. Satisfied, she turned away, saving what she had left for one last target...

The huge glass wall at the back gave her a perfect view into the server room, by design. Posters stuck to the glass proudly declared what each section of servers was for, usually something related to financial stuff, advertising numbers of transactions or money that were almost certainly exaggerated. Taking out her phone, Code held it to the side of her head as she looked in through the window, pretending to make a call while in reality searching for a target...

The server racks themselves didn't really offer a valid target, but as it turned out, she could be much more direct. If she focused on one of the cases of the servers, she could open the portal to it, and after shifting into a good position to see the entire rack of servers – supposedly used for 'critical internal operations' according to the poster – she started at the topmost one and, with the portal in place, relaxed her muscles.

At the same time as she began to talk out loud to pretend she was on the phone, her piss was gushing into the top server on the rack. Its lights flickered and then cut out; the moment they did, she moved the portal down to the next one in line and continued without stopping her stream for a moment, moving down the whole rack. Some of the servers died immediately, others took a little longer, but they all succumbed fairly quickly to the torrent of lizard urine being blasted inside of them. After reaching the bottom of the rack, Code turned subtly and targeted the rack opposite, starting at the bottom and going up, drenching each server in order.

The second one from the bottom was particularly stubborn and piss was leaking out of the sides by the time it failed, and she just barely made it to the topmost one before her stream started waning. That server was still going after her stream stopped, but she pushed out the last few squirts to completely empty herself, the portals disappearing afterwards. She watched for a few more seconds, and then finally the lights on the server suddenly turned off, and she smirked a little before walking away, continuing her pretend phonecall.

She had a feeling they'd have more important things to worry about than trying to invite her back...

--------------------

The bus came to a stop and Code stepped off from the rear doors. The stop was already at the corner of the mini mall that she was visiting today, not because she had coupons for it, but because there was a big International Women's Day sale going on at its stores, since all of the ones in this particular strip were owned and run by women.

She wasn't the only one with that idea in mind either, as there were plenty of crowds – all women, naturally – milling around both inside and outside of the mini-mall, which had repurposed the parking spots closest to the front doors to set up stalls with additional merchandise, drinks, and snacks. It was a bright and very sunny day out, so Code was wearing just a white t-shirt and some khaki cargo shorts, with her portal panties on underneath.

Banners were hung across the front of each store along with some additional signs in the windows to advertise the event, as well as all the sales on offer. The first store in the set, Clothing Complex, was offering 'Up to 90% off!' and that was certainly too good not to check out – even if, chances were, there were probably only a handful of items actually discounted that much and the rest were likely somewhere in the middle.

The air conditioning in the store was probably a nice reprieve for most customers, but it was turned up a little too high for the cold-blooded lizard's liking. Not enough to put her at any risk, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. She would be fine for long enough to check out the store, though, so she twisted and winded her way through the crowds inside, taking a look at the racks along the way as she passed.

The selection was quite good, as were the prices – but much of it didn't fit her. Being flat-chested, Code had no need for bras, and every pair of pants she found wasn't made to accommodate a tail the size of hers. She could at least try on the shirts, so she picked out a few before heading towards the changing rooms, where a collie was handling things, giving out tags and taking back returned clothes. She urged on the woman ahead of Code with a pleasant smile, but her expression soured when Code approached, though she tried to mask it by taking a sip from a water bottle.

Not letting it get to her, Code held up the basket she was carrying with the shirts inside. "Four items, please," she requested.

"You'll have to wait, the rooms are full," the collie told her bluntly.

"All right. While I'm waiting, do you know where I can find pants with larger tail-holes?"

The collie gave her an unamused stare. "We don't have any. We don't cater to reptiles here."

Code had noticed, with how much the AC was cranked up. "Surely some mammals-"

"We don't. Cater. To reptiles," the collie repeated, slower and enunciating each word as if talking to a child. "If I were you, I would leave before SOMEONE tells security you were trying to shoplift..."

Code could take a hint. "Fine," she conceded, putting the basket of clothes on the desk in front of the collie. Doing so let her get a good look at the woman's water bottle, and she was sufficiently angry at dealing with yet another speciesist that her intense desire to piss inside of it immediately made a portal appear on it. Turning and walking away, Code put just enough distance between her and the collie for the woman to turn her attention to someone else instead, but not so much that she couldn't still see the bottle with the golden spiral above it that was only visible to her. With a rack of jackets giving her some cover, Code pretended to rifle through the rack while in reality focusing on releasing her bladder.

This one would be quick; she pissed hard and heavy into the panties, teleporting her fluid into the water bottle. She didn't know how full or how empty it was, but it wouldn't take that long to 'flavor' the contents. She sprayed for about ten seconds, then, seeing the customer the collie had been talking to taking a tag and starting to turn, Code clenched her muscles to stop pissing. The collie raised the water bottle to her mouth, and Code delayed just long enough to see the woman's eyes widen and then hear her cough and splutter before the lizard made her exit, walking back out from the store.

She wouldn't let one bad incident spoil her outing, so she moved on to the next store in line: Shoe City, which unsurprisingly specialized in footwear. Her trainers were holding together but could use replacing, and her slippers at home were starting to get worn out, so it would be a good opportunity to take care of two problems at once. The store was much more temperate, its air conditioning set to something reasonable, and the presence of a fat-tailed gecko behind the register told her she wouldn't have to worry about any discrimination in this particular store.

The shop was slightly less busy than the previous one, yet still required Code to maneuver around between other customers who weren't paying attention to their surroundings. Reaching the racks of running shoes, Code began to browse, occasionally taking a pair off the shelf to inspect the size. She was undisturbed for a little while other than having other customers pass her by, until she heard someone clear their throat behind her.

"Oh, sorry, am I in your way?" Code asked, turning her head.

"Er, no," the woman behind her replied. It was a member of staff wearing a fairly simple uniform of a white button-up shirt and a pair of slacks, not unlike what Code usually wore to work, but the staff member had a name tag pinned to her breast pocket indicating she was the manager. She was a short and somewhat stocky bear, and looked rather unimpressed. "Sir, this is a women's event, I have to ask you to leave."

Code blinked in confusion. "But I AM a woman," she protested, sighing inwardly and gesturing to her own chest. "Just because I don't have breasts doesn't mean I'm not a woman."

The bear looked Code up and down thoughtfully, then exclaimed, "Oh! Like Cara!" and pointed towards the gecko at the register.

Relief surged through Code; at least she wouldn't have to explain the similarity herself. "Yes, like her."

"Sorry, sorry," the bear replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Let me help you find what you need. Can I take your shoe size?"

It couldn't hurt to get a reminder, so Code put down the trainers she was holding and took a seat on the little stool in the center of the aisle. The bear pulled over one of the devices for measuring shoe sizes with one hand, and pulled off Code's right shoe with the other. "No socks?" the manager asked.

"Not with these talons," Code explained. "I'd rip holes in them before the day is over."

"They're quite impressive," the bear remarked, and it took Code a moment to process how... odd that remark was. It wasn't as bad as what came after, though: the bear lifted up Code's foot and stared at it before finally setting it down on the measuring device, lining her heel up with the back of it. Code suppressed a shudder; the last thing she needed was someone being creepy about her-

"Size thirteen," the bear read off. "Well, thirteen and a half, to leave space for these lovely talons of yours..."

Code pulled her foot away from the bear who was reaching out for it, and quickly stuck it back into her shoe. "Okay, that's quite enough of that," she muttered. Before the bear could get to her feet, Code had sprung to hers, and made her way from the store abruptly. It really wasn't her day.

But at least the third store, Munch Maniac, was just a store with cheap bulk snacks and candy. Surely nothing could go wrong there, right? That was Code's hope as she went looking for something to take home – chocolates would have been nice, but there wasn't much hope of getting them back intact in this weather. Not that they were likely to be faring well in the first place, as unlike the last two stores, this one didn't seem to have any AC running at all, and the interior of the store was sweltering. That probably meant that any hard candies or gummies were going to have melted too, so she went straight for the potato chips. At least those wouldn't be sensitive to the heat.

And they certainly had plenty of them – huge, party bags of chips of numerous flavors, some less appetizing than others, but at least they were priced accordingly – not that anyone seemed to be particularly interested in the heavily marked-down bags of shrimp or squid-flavored chips. They did have some more normal flavors too, but on closer inspection of the bag Code noticed that they had an expiry date from some time in spring – of the previous year. Frowning, she checked some of the other bags, and found that they weren't a whole lot better.

Her temper was starting to flare, and she took a deep breath, putting the chips back on the shelf before leaving. It wasn't worth making a scene over. At least the fourth store in the mini mall was actually an arcade, 'The Fun Tunnel', a name that would have had her making bawdy jokes if someone else had been with her. Alas, she had to keep them to herself, using a machine near the door to exchange a couple of dollar bills for some quarters. Maybe she could finally catch a break; she could see a couple of staff members around keeping the place clean, and all of the machines were on and seemed to be working just fine. There were a few other customers around, but not so many that she wouldn't have a decent choice of games to play.

Approaching one of the unoccupied light-gun cabinets, Code put in a quarter and started a game. She was a little rusty, and ended up embarrassingly getting a game over just a couple of levels in. Determined to give it another shot, she let the timer count down and then put in a couple more quarters, figuring that would just be a warm-up. And it did go a little better this time – though still with some hiccups, her health bar getting perilously low as she tried to shoot zombies fast enough to avoid taking hits, still getting used to having to shoot away from the cabinet itself to reload, often missing her first shot afterwards.

"Wow, you're really bad," Code heard from behind her. She didn't look back and ignored whoever it was.

"Yeah, like, totally," a second voice joined in.

"Kinda cringe, really."

"Total skill issue."

Code glanced back with a glare the next time she had to reload. A mixed group of girls – some canine, some vulpine, and one deer – were standing behind her and heckling. Returning her attention to the game, Code cleared the current wave and took a deep breath as the character in-game automatically moved to the next section.

"We want to play next," one of them said.

"Yeah, I bet we'll do way better."

"You can play when I'm done," Code replied flatly, trying to keep focus. She got past the next few enemies, but then a sudden quick one jumping out from a side door got her, and the game over countdown came up. She sighed quietly and let the numbers count down, but suddenly one of the girls reached past her and hit the button on the cabinet to continue, using up Code's other credit.

Code shot them a glare, but they all acted innocently. Gritting her teeth, she tried to take out her anger on the game, blasting away at the various undead monsters and trying to ignore the hecklers behind her. Any time she missed a shot, one of them called out "Missed again!" in a mocking voice, and they gave a jeering "Oooooh" any time she took a hit. The distractions only made her perform worse, and she only got through another stage and a half before getting another game over.

"Cool, our turn now," the biggest of the group said, shoving Code aside. She dropped the light gun in surprise and it dangled in front of the cabinet from its cable until the wolf girl grabbed it, and one of the foxes shoved her again to take up the second player spot. Seething, Code turned to leave, but then one of them called out "Hey, lizard lady!"

She turned, not because she wanted to talk to them but because she wanted to tell them off, only to get hit in the face by something cold and wet. Shaking her head, she realized one of them had thrown their drink at her, and now her whole front was soaking wet; the entire group was laughing at her, jeering and pointing, and her already burning anger only intensified further. She was absolutely livid; between the bigoted or perverted staff, shoddy merchandise, and awful customers, she was absolutely bursting with rage.

And that wasn't the only thing she was full of.

As the girls laughed at her, Code focused on the arcade machine and opened a portal between it and her panties, and unleashed her bladder with surprising ease, showering the insides of the machine with a torrent of urine. It took barely a few moments before there was suddenly a loud bang and a flash, and the screen went dark, making the girls cry out in surprise. It also immediately caught the attention of a nearby staff member who ran over, yelling at the girls about not having drinks at the machines, and Code slipped away in the chaos, though her front was still wet.

Stepping out from the arcade, still furious beyond words, she began retracing her steps, walking past the big plate-glass windows at the front of each store. Outside of Munch Maniac, she could see the fridges along one wall and took out her anger on them since there was nobody in front of them to see it. Starting at the closest one, Code's intense desire to ruin the place put a portal down immediately, and she hosed down the inside with a hard and heavy stream of urine that she could tell was incredibly powerful, both from feeling it leaving her and from seeing it splash around inside all over the bottles and cans, soaking the cardboard boxes containing some of them. She moved the portal along, spraying the inside of every fridge she could see, and only after showering the interior of the last one in urine did she move on to the next store.

Shoe City she didn't want to step into lest she have to deal with the staff again, but she could easily see one of the aisles full of boxes of shoes. Once more she started at the top, blasting urine through the portal and into the first closed box she could see. To any observers it looked like she was just peering in through the window, but she was actually moving the destination portal rapidly from box to box, spraying every last set of shoes she could target. Cheap shoes, expensive shoes, running shoes, formal shoes – she didn't care; every box she could see that had its lid on was summarily doused in piss, her still-burning anger fueling the panties' ability to let her pee for much longer than normal.

Clothing Complex was the last stop, and despite how much she had already sprayed in the previous stores, she felt she still had plenty more. But where could she even go? She needed a container, but the racks and shelves of clothes wouldn't work. Looking in through the window as casually as she could to try and not attract attention, she just didn't feel like the cash register would be enough. She wanted to shower the entire place...

An idea came to her, and her eyes looked upwards. Yes, there were sprinkler heads in the ceiling. She tried to target them, but they still didn't count, though she wasn't deterred for long. Making her way past the store and away from the crowds, she went down the alley and behind the building instead. The back was much less glamorous, with exposed bricks, dumpsters, graffiti, and some bags of trash lying around. The back door to Clothing Complex had been left open by someone, but between Munch Maniac's and Shoe City's back entrances was what she was really after.

Attached to the wall was a big, white, cylindrical metal tank that had pipes with valves leading in and out – the reservoir for the building's fire suppression system. Within moments of spotting it she had a portal open to it. With nobody around, she let out a groan this time as she spread her legs apart and pissed through the portal into the tank, still going at full blast, pissing more powerfully than she ever had before. All of it went into the reserve tank, and Code kept her mind on the aggravation, perversion and humiliation she had endured to try and make her stream – though it felt more like a pressure spray – last as long as she could make it.

She had no idea how much water was already in the tank, nor how fast she was filling it, but eventually she heard it creak ominously, and only then did she bring her stream to an end – though with how hard she was pissing, it took a few clenches to fully stop. As fun as it would have been to break it, she had a better idea in mind. Starting a fire would only douse the area under one sprinkler, but if the pressure inside of the reserve tank was really that high...

Approaching the tank, she looked at the pipes with valves on them. One came up through the ground and had an arrow on it pointing towards the tank, while another led out of the tank and into the building. Grabbing onto the valve with both hands, she gritted her teeth and turned it, though it took all of her strength to get it moving. After the first little movement loosened the valve, it became a little easier, and she turned it further and further-

The sound of spraying water, mostly drowned out by screams from within the stores, told her when she could stop. Resisting the urge to cackle madly, she instead fled the area by going along behind the next set of stores to avoid suspicion; only then did she return to the sidewalk and walk back to see the chaos she had unleashed.

Already the stores had emptied out into the street, with customers and staff alike soaking wet. Code was particularly glad to see the collie from Clothing Complex utterly drenched, her fur plastered against her body, and the bear manager from Shoe City was also dripping heavily. The whole group of girls at The Fun Tunnel were bemoaning how soaked they were, while still being chewed out by the staff who had come out with them. With her anger gone and now replaced by catharsis, knowing that the stores' interiors would be soaked as well, Code turned away and made her way back to the bus stop to head on home.
