Petrichor

3,362 words for you my dear readers.
Enjoy . . .

Chapter 6 – Flying high and laying low

Whenever I had read on the news about how Runners were chased down by security-forces and police alike I had always imagined it kinda flashy and mysterious. And yes, I admit those action novels that I sometimes read for fun when I really had nothing else to do, have done little good to shake that notion. Yet, now that I was in a situation very similar to those newsworthy high-speed chases or the rugged protagonist hiding in the shadows to escape the corrupt corpos, I could with definite certainty say that all of that had to be lies!

No matter how the more anarchistic newsletters and book authors might spin it, hiding from heavily armed and armoured mercenaries in the dead of night was not fun! Especially since my body plan had changed enough from its original human form so that the chilly 10°C felt downright freezing. Still, the freezing temperatures did go a small way to take my mind of the persisting threat of being shot. An errant thought shot through my mind. If this weird new way of feeling temperature truly was brought on by my transformation, this would most likely mean that I wasn't really warm-blooded anymore!

The soft, warm touch of a hand on my arm brought me back out of my panic and wonder induced inactivity. When I looked up, it was into the concerned face of Marie. While I couldn't be entirely certain, the way she held herself even in a tense situation like this one implied that she must have faced something similar before. And if I was honest I was incredibly glad that she was with me right now. For fuck's sake, I was a scientist, not a soldier! I wasn't used to all this excitement.

The most danger I had ever been in was when a Runner team had hit the lab I was working in. But even at that time there had been about ten centimetre of reinforced, laser and bullet prove glass between me and them. And well the runners . . . they hadn’t fared so well against the security forces. I had just been sitting inside the lab when they had run by and a few seconds later had run back dragging one of their companions behind. As far as I had always been concerned, stuff like that happened to other people and not me, so understandably agitated I was at the moment.

Marie, on the other hand, seemed to have nerves made of steel. The very moment she realized what situation we were in she had fallen into a kind of operating mode. Her expression became more focused and she had fallen silent. Soon enough she had already led the two of us around one of the squads sweeping the streets. I wasn't even sure how she knew that they were there. I had only realized how close they had come after the wind changed and their smell or well stench had wafted over to me. They had been an entire block away, with me only noticing them because of the distinct smell of what I now identified as adrenaline-induced apocrine gland sweat.

I was curious as to how all these new sensations didn’t overwhelm me. One should expect that if you were to suddenly gain a new sense it would feel like an assault on your brain, only for me it was like an incredibly natural thing. I looked over to Marie. ‘I wonder how I come across to other people, like a monster or a human?’

“Hey, Marie!” I whispered to her back a few meter in front of me. "Do you think I look like a monster?" I quickly followed behind her crouched figure; despite the clawed feet, my steps were surprisingly silent.

“Huh? Why do you ask that now?” She looked at me both confused and a little peeved.

In return, I only shrugged my shoulders. "I was thinking about the social implications my new . . . form might have."

“You do realize the danger we are in? So yes those guys will most likely shoot you the second they lay eyes upon you. Now stay quiet!” She turned back and carefully peeked her tablet around a corner.

“Okay we can move, the soldiers are far enough away. Quickly now!” Already she scurried across the crossroad.

I took one look at the street in front of me and gulped. I didn't want to be shot at! I might have natural armour now, but that did not mean I had any desire to test my resistance against rifle rounds! So instead of moving, I was just sitting on my haunches, digging my claws into the asphalt. There was no way in hell I would move across an open street with trigger happy people around! Marie was already halfway across the street when she noticed me not following behind her. With a face halfway between anger and irritation, she motioned me to follow her. My first and only reaction was for my eyes to grow wide from disbelief; I would certainly not do that! After realizing that I was still not moving, she dashed over to the other side and motioned to me even more frantically.

I didn’t really have a clue what she was trying to tell me, but I was pretty sure one of her hand motions had been a “Fuck you”. So incredibly rude! It was fully understandable that I did not want to cross the street; it was out in the open and very bright. Even if the soldiers didn't spot me some of the people living in the buildings might. While I couldn't smell them I could feel several faint disruptions in the air, it was a strange sensation, far weirder than them smell. If I had to try I would compare it with the feeling of knowing someone is behind you, like a sixth sense only far more accurate and intuitive. Before my thoughts could drift off too far I saw Marie typing something on her tablet. After a few seconds, she held it up and displayed a text-hologram in the air.

"*facepalm smiley* If you're scared then stay put. Make sure you're hidden away so no one finds you! I'll come back with my bike."

I looked at her in disbelief. Was she seriously just going to leave me here? And very much true to her words, that thrice-damned bitch did just that! One moment she was there and in the next, she had already disappeared behind one of the now-abandoned streets stalls. And even though I could still smell her, I had to admit that she was one sneaky as fuck person. It made me wonder how much of the company she had explored without anyone knowing. What she just had done would look for any normal person like a disappearing act. After a few seconds, she faded even from my electricity radar. Only her scent still lingered in the air . . . it smelled lovely. Fresh and enticing, it stirred up something deep inside me . . .

Several moments passed in which I just sat there on the ground in a crouch with my tail swaying softly behind me, to an outsider it would have probably looked like a loyal pet waiting for their owner to return. I blinked once . . . twice. ‘What the heck was I just doing!? This is not the time or place for pet-play!’ I sighed deeply and facepalmed almost scratching out my eyes with the claws. Was I seriously this easily satisfied? Sometimes I really had to wonder if all the pent up stress and irritation in me came out in the weirdest of ways. I shook my head to get rid of these thoughts; right now I had more important things to do. Marie had been right about one thing; hiding would be the safest of options, after all, even pressed again the street corner there was no way that someone would miss my distinct figure. Not a lot of woman with tails and animal parts out there after all. Well, there were some. Plastic Surgery made a lot of things available in this day and age. If I remembered correctly there had been a very interesting Cat-Girl Sub in one of Kassy's porn-magazines.

All of a sudden I jerked back. Without me realizing two people had gotten dangerously close to where I was sitting. Apparently, it does not do to sit around on the street at night while the power is out! ‘I should have known that someone might come at some point! Damn it! Why did I have to think about such a thing right now? I certainly wasn't that one-track-minded before!' Fallen into a state of panic I hectically looked around. There had to be somewhere to hide from those people! I focused more closely on the feeling of the people. If my new senses were to be trusted they were currently coming down the stairs of the apartment complex I was hiding against. A quick once over of the street gave me little, this area had no stalls on it the street to small to allow for much of anything. Still, while the ground was bare except for a few transporters, there was another way I had not yet considered.

A glance up the facade of the building showed me that it had exactly what I had been looking for. Each of the apartments had a small balcony, barely big enough to facilitate a small table and a set of chairs. The closest one to me was filled to the brim with pots and plants, there were even small vines hanging from it. A quick check told me, that the apartment had a person resting in it, but their pulsing was far more subdued, maybe they were sleeping? No matter, at this moment I couldn't be a chooser. Now I only had to get up there somehow. I looked at my hand and feet. Maybe these claws might just be more useful than I had initially thought? The building's covering was made up of stone slab like looking plasterboards, while they looked pretty and were good insulating material, they usually were not considered to be all that structurally sound. A well place kick from a grown man could break or shatter them. Yet while I wasn’t sure if they could hold me, the slits in between were just big enough to slide the tips of my claws in.

Having made my decision I placed my hand gingerly on the first hold and pulled myself up. The plaster groaned and creaked but it did seem to hold, for now. ‘Maybe this will actually work out!?’ And indeed it did hold . . . at least for a moment. The very second I lifted my second leg from the ground, the creaking turned into cracking and while my grip didn't waver, all of a sudden I felt my body fall backwards. I must have been too surprised for a second, for when I realized what was happening my back was already almost horizontal to the ground. Yet in that very moment, I did something that I had not expected. As if it was the most natural thing to do, my tail lifted itself up and punched down against the air. The force was enough to catapult my body back up into a vertical position. Still, with my body in almost self-drive, I strained my legs and pushed against where I was holding on to the wall. In one second I was covering the three-meter distance in a single jump and in the next I was already hanging on to the balcony.

“What the Fuck!? Did I just . . .?” I looked down to confirm it. Indeed I had just now jumped up to the balcony from basically ground level. Around where I had dug my feet into the faced the plaster was broken and several large chunks had been ripped out.

“Holy shit . . . just how much power do these damn legs have?”

Disturbed by my own gained strength I had a hard time averting my eyes from the damage I had caused. After a few seconds in which the people from inside came dangerously close to the building's lobby, I finally had calmed down enough to lift myself up entirely. No longer had I to fear being discovered by normal people and subsequently be shot to death. Once I had climbed all the way on the balcony a heavy sigh escaped me.

There even was chair up here for me to sit on! Yet when I went to settle down into the comfy furniture I heard the now all too familiar cracking from underneath me. Before I could react and get up, the chair already collapsed in a heap of metal and plastic. I fell backwards clawing helplessly at the air when to top it all off, the back of my head crashed into glass door behind me with a dull “thunk”. Almost as if the world had decided to play a cruel joke on me today, in just the very same moment that my head smacked against the glass, the two people I had forgotten to keep tabs on exited the buildings front entrance, the bigger one of them immediately turning towards my position.

“Huh!? Is someone there? Show yourself!” The person was obviously male, at least if I could trust both his voice, he smelled different from the other one though.

“Hey, calm down big guy, maybe it is just your weird neighbour?” Oh, this one was female.

Interesting, those peoples smell was different in the same way that Marie's had differed from the teenagers earlier. Did this mean I could smell someone's biological sex? I had never thought that would be possible, but then again males and females had a rather distinct chemical cocktail running through their veins. So, in theory, the smell of their body could be distinctly different for animals capable of perceiving it in a way that humans could not. That only left the question as to why I was capable of smelling such a thing. Normally evolution doesn’t leave you with such specific abilities for no reason. Maybe it had to do with communicating over long distances like bears do it? Without me realizing my mouth pulled into a perverted smile, just maybe this great sense of smell was to find a mate.

‘Hah~ . . . mate . . . Kassy . . . my mate . . . yesssss.’ It was almost as if something in me was awoken by this thought. ‘Kassandra will be so happy once I return. I hope she likes my new form . . .Ah. . .the fuck am I thinking about?’ Already just thinking about it made my body grow hotter. She could pet me from the top of my head down to the tip of my tail . . . and after that, she could fuck me like crazy! My breathing grew frantic and turned more and more into panting as imagined it. ‘This is not right . . . or is it?’ My mate banging me in my Fuckhole with a big fucking cock! I frowned at the last bit. Kassy didn’t have a penis . . . Well, she didn't have one at the moment. But I could fix that! I was a smart Drake! I even had a doctor title! What kind of doctor would I be if I couldn’t fit my mate with her own well deserved glorious dick!? ‘Fuck yeah . . . Kassy ... Cock ... breed!’ My fingers began pushing in and out of my tight little cum-dumpster, playing with my already swollen clit. It would be so wonderful! Breeding ... making a bunch of cute little eggs ... how adorable my hatchlings must look. Just when I was about to bury my hand inside my snatch, the glass door behind me opened and I fell over. Laying flat on my back I laid there confused, one hand tightly closed around a breast and the other deep in my wet hole. I looked up and stared right into a seemingly genderless face, contorted by parts bewilderment and parts straight up disgust. Their mouth opened a little wider as they took in my entire form.

“What the god damned shit are you doing there!?” In a far quieter voice the man . . . woman? The person added. “Please don’t eat me.”

As soon as the person in the apartment had shouted out in disbelief, another voice answered from the street.

“Hey, Nim that you up there?” It seemed to be the big looking guy.

Before the person looming over me, who I assumed had to be Nim, could answer I pushed myself off the ground and clasped one hand around their throat and the other on their mouth. Only now I realized that his person was clad from head to toe in blankets.

“Do. Not. Speak. Of. Me.”

I glared into their beautiful big brown eyes; they almost reminded me of a doe in the way they looked at me so deeply scared for their life. Something was off about this person. Well, aside from their obviously weird way of dressing themselves. The thing was I just couldn't put my finger on it. Out of interest, I flicked out my tongue for a quick scent test. ‘Hmm . . . this one smells odd. Different from the other humans? No . . . something else . . .’ Yet while I was pondering this from outside sounded another yell.

"Nim, come on! Is that you or did someone break-in?" The . . . I guess it was a girl, shook her head, almost as if she didn't want to speak to the people outside. Yet once more the woman downstairs chimed in.

"What the heck, Jon! I thought your neighbour's name was Nathaniel? Why do you call them like that!?” She kinda sounded jealous.

“Well, she asked me to do so . . . Also isn’t it cute? I think it is fitting for such a tiny and small person!” The way he talked about it, was certainly in disparity to his large frame and rough look.

“The shit? What does tha-...”

'Oh, for fuck's sake! I have no time for a lover quarrel.’ Utterly annoyed by the humans mating habits, I removed my hands from the weird person called Nim and pushed them or her or whatever into view of the street. She stumbled forward her feet getting caught on the blankets for a second before she timidly addressed the two below.

“Ah~ . . . Hey, there Jon . . . and Larisa. Ehm, there is indeed only me up here!” ‘Holy fucking shit!? What is with that inhumanly cute and innocent voice?’ It just made me want to hurt her! Even with me being a Sub I wouldn’t mind having a go at that prime piece of Bottom . . .

It took me all my effort to wipe the sleazy grin that had unwillingly formed from my face and compose myself. If I once more gave in to those more than pronounced urges I would probably pounce the poor girl right here and now . . . especially if what the woman on the street had said was true. ‘Cock . . . No, damn it! Stupid fucked up brain!’ All of a sudden my attention was brought back into reality when I heard a voice I hadn't noticed before speaking.

“Citizen! What are you doing outside? You heard the Captain, you are to remain inside while we sweep the area! Move it! Now!” Harsh and grating the voice barked his orders.

My eyes grew wide in fear when I heard them. And even more when a flick of my tongue told me of their smell. Oil, metal and adrenaline.

‘Oh come on! You have to be kidding me, right? I hope I don’t get shot!’

Petrichor

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