[b][u][center]Shapely Artifacts Part 4 For Faceless_Lord By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] The knowledge of magic wasn’t limited to Kin. Bit by bit, the puzzle pieces fell into place for Jun and Seshat as well, though more quickly for the studious sphinx than for the teetering tanuki. But by the end of the month, they were aware of what they were, and what they had been given. Of course, that didn’t mean that they were able to affect things so easily as they hoped. There were limits to their powers, and limits that were seemingly inviolable. For example, Kin could only affect living things with her powers, her tails hopeless against the various restraints that held her down, while Jun could only affect inanimate things. That had ended up being rather…interesting, until they figured out that her powers were focused greatly on her balls and drippings, and the company was able to contain it. Seshat, on the other hand, remained a mystery, and as a result, she was left in solitary confinement for longer than the others. The sphinx hung from her crane at all times when she was not indulging in some authorized exercise time, and she was not allowed to go without stimulation, either, with her tail raised and her rump filled again and again. The sphinx didn’t mind it as much as the company probably thought she did, but she did mind being forced to go into that without solving her puzzles. The company had taken some time to realize that she took exercise of the mind as seriously as she did exercise of the body, and when she threw a royal fit – and managed to cut through a few chains in the process – they indulged her with a series of puzzle books. Mostly sudoku, but with a few logic puzzle books to fill the collection out. She was reading one of them, making a mark with a finger claw on the page to answer it, when her door opened. The large-breasted, wide-hipped sphinx looked up to see a man with a graying beard, a leather jacket, and a series of different tools hanging from his belt step into the room. She cocked her head to the side, then shook her head. “Archaeologist, hmm?” “…Heh. You’re fast.” “I would hope to be,” she said, turning her head back to the book. “If I did not pick up on such obvious clues, I would be a very poor sphinx, indeed…though I will admit that such skills would have been more useful when I signed that contract than they are right now.” “Oh, I am sure. Heh. You’re more your body now, than anything else.” “And my mind,” Seshat said, turning the page in her book. “I believe that I can outthink just about anyone in this building now.” “Except me.” “No, you as well.” “Really? Then what –” “Judging by the bulge of condoms in your pocket, you have a wish to test out the property that you have been given. The company refuses to allow you to go bareback, just in case there is a magical residue that would affect and corrupt you. You have a sedative in your thigh pocket – just hint of medicinal smell gave that away – in case I don’t want to listen to reason and won’t allow you to fuck me. And you want to make sure that I don’t fight back when you tell me what my fate is to be.” She marked down the next three logic puzzle answers before she put the book aside, looking up at the human. His eyes were wide as he stared at her, his jaw agape. Seshat rolled her eyes. “Really, anyone could have figured that out. I just happened to see it faster.” “That is impossible…” “Considering that you were the one that brought all the artifacts here, I would imagine that you would have a better understanding of the difference between possible and impossible.” “What are you –” “Don’t play coy. I can [i]smell[/i] it on you.” The bearded man’s eyes went wide. Seshat was about to go on about how annoying he was being, but the expression, the surprise, clicked with something else that she had only been noodling around before. The sphinx slowly smiled. “Oh. You didn’t know.” Her smile turned to a chuckle. “You didn’t [i]know[/i] that I could seek out magic…did you?” “…” “Heh…I do hope that you aren’t going to be in trouble for me revealing that,” she said with a laconic smirk that said she hoped the complete opposite. “After all, if you were no longer viable as a means of bringing in what they needed, if they had something else that could do your job for you…” “It’s time for you to shut up.” The human stepped forward, pulling the syringe she’d seen out of his pocket and jamming it into her neck. Seshat didn’t fight it, allowing the sedative to take her into dreamland. After all, she had gotten what she wanted… And she’d seen his name. Hardiman. It was etched into the chest of his jacket, and that meant that she had a name to look up later…if she was ever able to get out of this. # Jun and Kin. Dexter and Greg, once, but now known by the names that they’d chosen after they’d been transformed. Neither of them had realized that the other had been through such a change, but when they were finally allowed to see each other between ‘training’ sessions, it was such a relief to both of them that Jun was actually sober and Kin was able to be less than ladylike. They both broke down for a moment, hugging each other as they were allowed into the same chamber. Kitsune and tanuki, historically, weren’t this close, but that didn’t matter to them. Even as their sheaths bounced against each other, even as the balls touched, neither one wanted to let go of the other. They hugged tightly until their breasts pushed against each other in just the right way to force them apart, but even then, they smiled. Jun was the first one to talk, rubbing her eyes. “Oh, my. You really developed into something else, didn’t you? What are you calling yourself now?” “Kin, actually.” “Oh, no kin of mine. Which is good, because I’m not into that.” Jun tapped her chin. “Well, not yet. Give me enough sake, and I might change my mind.” “I doubt that you’d go that far. You are more of the mind than the body, even now.” “I don’t know about [i]more[/i] of it…heh. But you’re right.” Jun smiled as she leaned back against the metal wall behind her, shifting side to side to get comfortable with her wide ass pressed against the cool material. It was a nice change from all the hard dicks that she’d been taking back there, and against her puffy lips. The fact that she wasn’t fucking all the time now was a nice change, too, since she was almost getting a bit bored of it. Not entirely, but enough to make her wonder what it would be like with something that wasn’t just fucking her face or her feet. It would be – Kin snapped her out of it with a flick of her tails, the tips cracking like a finger snapping. Jun blinked. “Sorry. I was distracted by some…very yummy thoughts.” “I could tell. You’re getting a little…drippy.” “Drippy?” The kitsune nodded down, and Jun followed the gesture. Her cock had come out of its sheath, and it was, well, dripping. Dripping a lot, as a matter of fact, smearing itself along the floor as it got worse and worse. Her balls were churning, too, probably adding to the mess, and making it look like an orgy had been going on in the room. Still, it didn’t bother her that much. If anything, she just stepped into the mess and let it soak into the bottoms of her feet. “How’ve you been, anyway? I barely heard you were still here, and now I find out that you’re a kitsune. How’s that working for you?” “I would imagine slightly better than being a tanuki is working out for you,” Kin said, standing rather regally on the other side of the room. “You seem to have…relaxed.” “I swear, my blood’s half-booze at the moment. It’s hard to stay down when I’m always wanting to party.” “That is most strange, indeed.” “And you are much more up yourself, heh. In a sexy way.” “I would thank you for the compliment, were it not delivered quite so crassly.” Despite the statement, she could tell that Kin did appreciate it. The kitsune smiled enough for it, and she wasn’t exactly completely soft at the moment, either. Her sheath was lipsticking just enough to show off the tip of a tapered cock, and Jun wondered how it would feel between her lips. Or in her ass. Or under her feet. She had been thinking a lot of sexual thoughts lately, mostly about the different things that she could do with cock, or how she could put her feet out there for more torture. She had never thought that bastinado and little electro-shocks could end up making her want to hurt her soles, but so it had. A new kink for a new body. It seemed fitting. “Anyway, anything new for you? I found out that I can do…a few things.” “As have I. There’s been many revelations over the last month.” “Heh. You know that they’re going to be giving us to a pervert, right?” “I have come to that understanding, as well.” “Who do you think he is?” “A rich child, in mind if not in body. He believes we are ‘hot’ and wants us for himself.” “I guess that he doesn’t have the worst judgment. I mean, we are pretty hot.” The tanuki smirked, reaching back and lifting her ass up, feeling the sheer weight and heft of it before letting it fall again. It bounced, lifting and lowering as if she were doing a standing twerk. The pull was a lovely feeling, making her all the more sensitive about her ass…and how empty it was, for that matter. “He’ll be a strange one if he wants us with these…” As the kitsune hefted her own sack, Jun sighed. It was…a bit strange, she had to admit, to have those reminders of masculinity between their legs. On the one hand, it was nice to remember what they used to be, but on the other, it was a reminder of everything that they had lost. It was a way of making them think about everything that they had once been without being allowed to forget about it, to move on. At least they were not the same shape. At least when they were allowed to touch their cocks, it wasn’t like feeling their old dicks all over again. They had never been this big, nor this shape. Nor this sensitive, for that matter. As she shifted from foot to foot, Jun was all too conscious of the way her balls swayed, the massive orbs swinging and sliding along her thighs, thrusting forward then pulling back. She could feel the tingle of her magic building up in the process, almost like the churning around in there was creating a magical chemical reaction. A soft moan left her lips – “Jun. Jun. Back to the moment.” She gasped, shaken out of it before it could go too far. She shook her head, patting her cheek a few times. “Sorry about that. It just feels good.” “I can imagine, dear. But you must focus.” “I guess…But focusing is haaaard.” “Pretend that it’s a card game.” A card game. That wasn’t too hard, she supposed. She had been building up strategies and ways forward for those things for a while, and it was still habit enough that she had been able to do it while completely dumb and drunk before. She wasn’t nearly that far gone now, so she should be able to think of that. Well, what was their opponent? Wielding a deck of power and perversion, yes, and with some powerful cards to play. Magic and status control cards, like Isolation and Stimulation. However, the enemy’s deck had already played their biggest cards, like Transformation, so they were mostly on a waiting game, trying to draw cards that they hadn’t shown yet. What was their deck? Jun tried to think it through, but it was rather hard when every thought reminded her of the different perversions that they had been enjoying. [i]Well, magic, for one,[/i] she thought, looking down at her balls. [i]Magic and transformation. We can warp the things around us. And that means that we have a weaker deck, but one with more versatility…[/i] Hmmm, now that was a thought. That was a thought, indeed. “You have something?” Kin asked. “Heheh, you know, I just might.” “I would hope so. I can see what is happening here, but figuring out how to move forward…” “Don’t worry. I can figure that part out. I’ve always been good at thinking this stuff through.” She could already see a few strategies for handling the company. They had been very weak to the stimulation strategies that the company had been using to keep them under control, keep them docile, but the more that they were exposed to the stimulation cards, the less effective they were. Now that they were themselves, now that they knew what they could do… Well, reflection was an option. So was working against the minor cards, the employee ‘monsters’, that the enemy had. A few changes of heart could start swinging the numbers to their sides… But that still meant that they had to deal with the massive resources that the company had to throw at them, let alone the different strategies that hadn’t been drawn and put on the board yet. [i]I need a bit more –[/i] Snikt. Kitsune and tanuki turned to the sliding door on the side of left. A human stepped through, one in a too-casual attire. He wore a t-shirt that had a bimbo woman on it on her knees, and a pair of jeans that were intentionally too tight. Neither Jun or Kin were fooled by the bulge that was on display down there, either. It was too big for a human by far, and there was no way that he was getting that without doing a lot of packing down there. It was kinda pathetic when one got right down to it. The kid – well, he was an adult, but the shirt and the way that he held himself made him look like a kid, and a party kid at that – stepped closer, walking right up to the tanuki and grabbing Jun by the left boob. She bit her lip as her sensitive nipple was tweaked, her breast lifted up. “Heh, my dad did a great job with you two. Fuck, you look like the hottest sluts on the market.” “We’re not for sale,” Kin said. “Fuck no, you’re not. You’re free, for me.” “I believe that we have different ideas of value and exchange rates, then.” “Heh, guess my dad didn’t tell you. He’s going to be giving you to me. Slaves. For life.” Kin and Jun shared a look. Much as they enjoyed the stimulation that they were given in their separate cells, the idea of sharing themselves with this…thing…was not a pleasant idea or concept. Neither of them were at all turned on by it. If anything, their cocks were shrinking back into their sheaths at the mere idea of it. They couldn’t exactly tell him that, though. They needed to find some other way forward, something else that they could say or do to try and slither out of this arrangement. However, that was a wee bit hard to do when the human was grabbing Jun by the balls, jiggling them around and swinging them about. It was just short of actually stinging, but it was definitely on the verge of CBT. “Heh, looks like these are just a bit big. Maybe I should have dad give you a few injections, shrink them away with hormones or something.” “I doubt that modern medicine will have much of an effect on ancient magic,” Kin said. “Why don’t you shut up, woman? I’m here for sex, not for that.” “And what about the third artifact?” Kin’s question made the young man stop his molestation, turning to glare at her. Jun was just thankful for the stimulation to stop, considering that her balls were already heavy enough, and considering the fact that it was turning her sack into a pair of live grenades. The more that they moved, the more magic seemed to be generated down there, and she needed somewhere for it to go, fast. She leaned against the wall again, letting the magic bleed out the bottom of her sack. It turned the metal panel into something more…interesting. A little chair that folded out of the wall, something that allowed her to sit down. She might have pushed it further, creating a door, but she knew from past experience that the walls were too thick for her to affect to that degree. Besides, it would leave her exhausted, and she didn’t want to be helpless in front of this asshole. And he was definitely an asshole, from the way that he was poking Kin right in the chest and shouting at her. “You shut up about that…thing. Dad told me that the sphinx was an ugly piece of shit. And compared to you two, she is.” “Heh, are looks all that matter to you, frat boy?” Jun asked. The human whipped around, glaring at her, but she didn’t stop. “Oh, sure, keep glaring at me. I’ve dealt with more thugs like you than I can count. There’s plenty of them around the college. But you think that you can just dismiss her on looks?” “What are you talking about?” “Your dad wanted all three of us, I bet.” “…” The silence told her enough to work with. After all, nobody wanted to give up something that they could hold onto. Nobody wanted to lose useful tools, and with the magic that both she and Kin had, that meant that the company had needed to do a lot of bargaining. [i]You can’t just throw cards away, though. Not in these games. That means that he had to give this guy something, and he threw us at him because he didn’t want to give him all of the cards. Why didn’t he want to give away the sphinx?[/i] “Bet you that your dad is yucking it up in the background. Yeah, you got a couple of hotties. But he gets to keep the sphinx, doesn’t he?” “No…he gave the sphinx away to the guy that…” “That what?” Jun asked, chuckled. “The guy that he likes better?” “…” “Why would he give the ugly one to the one that he likes better? Why would he give the hotties to the person he doesn’t like?” “…You think that she…” “Hey, you never know.” “…” Jun could almost see the steam coming out of the human’s ears, fury that was raw and hot trying to take over. It was rather pleasant in its own way. Taking control like this, forcing someone else to be angry and upset, taking the metaphorical rug and yanking it out from under their feet: it was all enjoyable. Eventually, the human sputtered to a stop and stomped out of the room, leaving the pair of them behind. Jun shook her head, chuckling under her breath. “What did you know?” Kin whispered. “Hell if I know. I just wanted to mess with him. But looks like I stirred up the hornet’s nest on their side of things.” Who knew what had happened to the Suit? She remembered the business guy going in, and she’d heard from some of the guards that a sphinx had been made, and one that was a little more closely guarded than she and Kin were. The fact that the big guy had bartered to keep the sphinx off to the side, combined with the additional guards, meant that the company was playing with a different strategy. They wanted to keep all three of them, but could keep neither. But rather than allowing all three of them to go to one person, they were trying to keep them all separate. [i]Either there’s some sort of mega-power-boost when we all get together, or the company doesn’t want one person to have all of our abilities at the same time. I can transform stuff, and Kin probably can, too. That means we can work as individual or team agents, if we have to…and the sphinx…[/i] She wracked her brain, trying to figure out what it would be that would make the sphinx so valuable, but other than solving puzzles, nothing clicked. But there had to be something… Particularly if they were going to try and win this game. “Have you thought of anything, dear?” “Yeah…” Jun shook her head. “Kick the table and run.” “…Run?” “We can’t win the game with what we got. All we can do is try and get away until we can make a better deck.” “And how do we do that?” “You know, I think I might have just done that…” After all, she had never seen a human that angry before. Someone was going to get shouted at, and for once, she didn’t think it would be her. # Seshat was in her cell when it began. It was after dark, the security patrols had begun, and she was just starting to get comfortable in her chains when she heard the first punch land. It was a faint sound, little more than a thud, but it was clear enough to one with ears to hear. She cocked her head to the side as she heard several more begin, and a small smile crossed her face. “Finally.” She had known that there would be conflict ever since she had thrown Hardiman for a loop. He would want to run with her before the word got out to the rest of the company of what she could do. That would cause problems with the company owner and probably with those that supported him, which meant that they would fight to try and keep her. And if a fight was going on, that meant that there would be a massive distraction. The chains had long-since ceased to be a problem. The binding restraints were merely another puzzle to be resolved, and she had figured out where the locks were, where the weak points held, and where the manipulatable bits of tension were. All she had to do was twist this way and that – Crack. Three chains snapped at once, and she was able to flick a wing over to a freed hand. She pulled a feather free, and dug the tip into the last of the locks. Two, three, four twitches, and the lock came open. The sphinx landed on all fours, stretching out her wings and her legs for a moment before moving toward the door. It was closed, yes, but she had seen where the pad was to open and close it. She had faked a sensitivity to the sedatives, acting as if she had fallen asleep a number of times while it was still taking effect, and had seen where the security guards put their hands. After that, it was merely puzzling out what number meant what from the sound. 58375. That was the code, and after tapping it out with her claws, the door opened. She was free. Looking outside, she saw three security guards beating the crap out of four more, all wearing the same company uniform. One group was defending her door, the other was trying to get to it. [i]Time to make my departure,[/i] she thought, lowering her head and slinking around the corner. She had rounded three corners when she caught a new scent. More magic, similar to what she had smelled on Hardiman, but lacking the smell that had been left behind by the chestplate that she wore. Seshat twisted her head, flaring her nostrils to pull in more of the scent. [i]Tanuki…and kitsune…[/i] Three different creatures from time too far back to remember. They had all come from the things that the archaeologist had found… And they should not be parted. There was a strange feeling attached to that realization, but she knew that it was the truth. Things would not go well if they were detached from each other. The rescue mission had just expanded. # Kin leaned back in her cell, taking three deep breaths as she forced herself to squat down a bit further. The heating pads against her feet swelled to a height that she had never felt before, almost like they were cooking her soles. The steam hissed off of her pads, super-heated away, and only the strange resistance that a kitsune had to flames and heat kept it from being an injuring heat. Still, the passage of steam between her toes was nothing to sneeze at, and she wiggled them in desperation to keep the ventilation going rather than trapping the steam there. The dildo continued to pound her rump, making it bounce and shake. Kin shook her head at that, too. So unladylike. [i]If they put me on the gloryholes instead of Jun…[/i] Her magic was weak, but she was convinced she could do [i]something[/i] if she had contact with a living being. Just one little touch, and she could have someone on their side instead of against them. Of course, the company was smart enough not to allow her to gain any retainers. Retainers. It still felt strange to think of them that way, to have the word changed in her own mind. Kin knew that she had been a human, a human named Greg with an attachment to sports, but these days… These days, it felt so strange to consider it in the same way. It was like she had become something different. Still the same, with her attachment to Jun, but with a difference in how she could see and define things. Retainers. She supposed that they were similar to the ‘fans’ that one would have had after sports games and events, but the idea that they would be so capricious as that… No, retainers was better, even if it was an older word. She would be able to rule them, with her body if not with her tails… Unfortunately, as she had already stated, the company had already taken steps to limit what she could do. No living tissue contact since the first time. No chance of someone being affected by the magic that she was always trying to experiment with. They were very, very exact about that. But if she could get out of her cell… HISS! The hot pads against her soles suddenly burned again, and she hissed in discomfort as they seared her soles with something almost too hot to bear. Her shaft stood up from the discomfort, though, so something obviously enjoyed it. [i]This can all be laid at the feet of that…boy.[/i] She could not think of that shiny-faced annoyance as a man. He was a [i]boy,[/i] an immature human that did not know how to handle anything, let alone the things that he wanted. She would have torn him apart if she hadn’t known security was waiting for her to try anything aggressive. [i]If I see him again…for hurting Jun like that…[/i] Sure, there hadn’t been any real injury, but seeing the tanuki getting jostled about, seeing the discomfort on her face… If it hadn’t been for their desperate situation, that [i]BOY[/i] would have been on the floor, her foot on his face breaking his nose. As it stood, all she could do was fantasize about it, and she fantasized about it a lot. She had many plans for what she’d do to him if she found him while she wasn’t restrained, while he wasn’t backed up by dozens of bully-boys. When that happened – Beep. “Sorry, wrong code,” Jun’s familiar voice said outside the door. “Try 23413.” “Why?” “It feels logical.” Snikt. The door opened, revealing Jun and the sphinx that she’d been hearing about. The latter stayed in the hallway, keeping an eye out, while the tanuki rushed into the room. As Jun leaned down, slapping her balls against the various restraints and transforming them into something harmless, less grasping, Kin shook her head. “What’s going on?” “Heh, call it a jailbreak.” “I would ask how, but I believe the phrase is, ‘Do not look a gift horse in the mouth.’” “Short story? She figured out how to get out. There’s a riot going on, something about the three of us, so it’s as good a time as any to get the fuck out of here.” “You will have no arguments from me.” # The three of them escaped the company building, and found themselves in a warehouse somewhere in the center of the city. Barbed wire fences didn’t matter to winged sphinxes and big-balled tanukis, and security guards, guns or not, were no trouble for a two-tailed kitsune, so long as they weren’t in big groups. A little touch, a little tease, and the three ladies were free. They ran down the streets into the alleys, knowing that the alarm would be going off shortly. The company would not want to let them go, particularly into a world that was still full of humans. There was no time for them to talk, no time for them to plan. However, they didn’t need to. Somehow, on some level, they all knew that they needed to stay together, and so, they did. [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]