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The next morning I awaken with something warm and fuzzy on my chest. Soft breaths blow across my ear and I open my eyes. A wall of fur blocks my view beyond my abs. shifting my gaze to the right I see that Fox's head is next to mine, mouth slightly open, breathing slowly past my ear. Moving slightly I discover that once if her arms were under my body and the other was wrapped around my neck. Farther investigation show that she's indeed sprawled across my chest.

As I look around, she begins to stir and licks my cheek again. A quick smile flashes across my face before she lifts her head over mine and yawns loudly. She opens her eyes, looks down at me, and blinks at me a few times in surprise. A few witty comments run through my head but I settle on a simple smile and a “Good morning. Sleep well?” even though I can’t see it I can tell that she’s blushing profoundly as she unwraps her arms and moves off my chest.

She sits next to me tucking her legs next to her body and I choose to sit up letting my wrist and arms hang loosely off of my knees. I inquire “Hey Fox, can I ask you a few questions?” She murrs puzzled and then smiles “sure” I think about all the questions I had to ask and then pick a few that I really wanted to know, “Well first off, what’s with that sound you just made?” She sits there giving her answer, “well… I guess the best way to describe it, is that it shows how I fell about something, wheatear I’m happy, sad, intrigued, and other things depending on how it’s used.”

“Thanks” I say before asking my next question. “Ok question two what’s up with the whole licking thing?” this one was from last night and seemed to take her by surprise. Oh that… well… um…” she’s blushing profusely now, avoiding my gaze, sifting uneasily, wile picking her words and her answer carefully, “It… it shows… ah… appreciation! Ya… It shows appreciation and trust!” I arch an eyebrow to her starting to panic, guessing that it meant that and a little more.
“Ok” I reply simply to calm her down before I ask her my last question. “Do you think” I start and her ears perk up “that it would be possible for a human to learn to understand and/or speck the animal language?” I finish thinking of the scientific possibilities.
She looks at me knowing why I asked, “I guess so… I mean if one was smart enough, had an open mind, an extreme stick-to-it drive, and lots of time.” I chuckle “were do I sign up?” She chuckles too and then says “But now I have a few questions for you.”
“Fair enough” I respond “fire away” “How old are you?” then she quietly adds “you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
The truth was I hated this question just because it raised so many more, but I felt that I owed her my true age and not the one that I had told so many others. Sighing I tell her “well I stop keeping track a long time ago but I guess that I’m about a thousand years old.”
Of all the reactions I expected from that answer hers was the last one I ever thought about. Blushing she replies “You look good” this time I blush as I answer with a modest “thinks” and then “So what other questions do you have?”
“What for breakfast” she asks. This sudden shift in the conversation struck me as extremely funny and I bust out laughing. Still chortling I respond with, “Well what do you want?” before getting up to start it….
During breakfast (steak and eggs) we discuss many things. The projector, her, me, how and why my DNA bounded with hers so well, why and how I came to this valley, and many other things. Even through it’s only been a day and a night I feel extremely comfortable with this strange hybrid, indeed I had stopped thinking of her like that and merely thought of her as human. Soon after eating, we finish our improvement work on the projector. When we rum some numbers we discover that it needed to be placed in the middle of the lake because that’s were the center of the valley was. In order to fix the problem of “water and electronics don’t mix” and rather then mess with waterproofing, we simply built a platform for it to rest on.

After loading the projector and the M.A.D onto one of the larger hovercrafts that I use to get around the truly massive lab, we head out the platform to begin. After we hook it up the cold fusion reactor, we stand back as I type out the master program I say “well here we go…” and hit the enter key.
While the machine hums as it warms up I carefully monitor the power draw from the reactor and find it to be within the acceptable range that we had predicted. I risk a glance over a Fox, she’s standing next to me scribbling note onto a clipboard and I think “She looks very cute in my lab coat.” She looks up seeing me peeking at her and I snap my eyes back to my clipboard. When I look at her a few seconds with the corner of my eye she’s still looking at me. As we lock eyes, smiles creep across both of our faces, just then a beeping nose draws our attention back to the projector.
‘Initiating 3-D program in ten seconds…’ “I think its time to move” I say, quickly moving the hovercraft to the edge of the lake. I hand over some welder-like goggles to Fox and we both put ours on just as that count down finishes “3…2…1” A light brighter then the sun bursts out of the top and then splits into every color one could ever think of. Fox lets out a murr of amazement and I agree with a soft “wow.”
Slowly, then picking up speed the sides of the mountain begins to grow upwards from the top of the valley hills. Within minutes it half way done and most of the valley is in shadow. Soon only a thin shaft of ever shrinking light remains, then all is dark. In the darkness I feel a furry hand slip into mine and close; I hastate for a split second and then close mine too. A light weight is placed on my shoulder. Standing hand in hand in total I felt that it could go on forever like this but the computer voice booms out “…1 Program complete. Hologram mode activation.”

The whole mountain vanishes and the valley is once more bathed in sunlight. I glance over at Fox and realize that she’s standing closer then I thought, her head resting on my shoulder, eyes closed. I clear my throat quietly, and she opens her eyes, lifting her head up. I flash a smile at her then, all-most unwillingly, let go of her hand and she releases mine. Clearing my throat again and blushing slightly I say, “Only two more things too do now…” I hand over a walky-talky and headphones before dropping her off on the edge of the lake.

I take that hovercraft up to the edge of the valley and radio Fox “all right I’m proceeding out of the valley” I move forward, feeling a slight bump as I pass through the mountain projection. I keep moving in till I’m about five feet away and then turn around. Were there was only my valley before, there was now a mountain rising above me. I carefully advance on it and reach out slowly with my hand. It hits solid rock; I knock on it a few times muttering “perfect” and then radio Fox again “Fox it’s working flawlessly. Proceeding with step two.”

I hit the altitude throttles and with the engine humming begin to rocket to about thirty angels while strapping on an oxygen mask and turning on my heated jumpsuit. I set the autopilot and turn my char around to face the M.A.D. It looks something like a Van de Graaff generator, with a 5x5x5’ box on the bottom and a silver sphere standing on a pole, but what it did on the other hand was nothing like its counterpart. Knowing that my onboard oxygen supply would only last for a few moments, I work feverishly to fire it.

While working on the human mind, I happened to stumble upon the fact that all of the world’s population had what I call a “master brainwave” This brain wave was the most dominant the top of ones thought. It controlled all the other waves hence my term for it and with slight manipulation, simple things could be implanted, for example a mountain were a valley was. ‘Mind control’ most people would call it, I preferred ‘mind alteration’ Let it be known that I hate to mess with peoples mind, too many variables that could go wrong, but I’ve been forced to do it once and now I was going to do it again.

The only other time that I’ve had to use my Mind Alteration Device (M.A.D) was when I lost control of one of my experimental light-speed spacecraft somewhere over New Mexico. I managed to eject but unfortunately the plane plowed into a farmer’s field and the bugger reported to the Army. They took it to an airbase in Nevada, studied it, and then started to announce it to the world. I had no chose and I used the M.A.D, thus Area 51 was born around the year 1947.

The M.A.D is reaching its maximum charge and electuary is cracking around the orb. I radio Fox to warn her to place her blocking headphones on before I do the same, and then I press the discharge button.
Think of a calm lake and a rock is dropped into it. It breaks the surface and the resulting waves radiate outwards in ever-increasing circles. That is what happens when I fire the M.A.D. Those invisible waves would circle the world, distorting the ‘master brainwave,’ implanting the fact that my mountain has always been there, mapmakers would add it to the maps, pilots would avoid it, and some daredevils would climb it.

A beeping in my headset warns me that I only have 1 more minute of breathable oxygen left. My “shit” is muffled by my air mask as I spin around and cut the throttles. The humming of the engine stops and I begin to freefall. Around 25 angels I’ve reached terminal velocity. A light and siren flashes to life on my console indicating that I’m out of air. I reach back and pull a small emergency tank out of a storage bin, strapping the ten minuets of air to my leg, and then I do something that would have anyone else packing there pants. I reach down, unbuckle my seatbelt, and push off.
Spreading my arms, I slow my decent and the hovercraft quickly drops below me. I pull of a few tricks and flips, than turn myself face first towards the ground, close my eyes, and enjoy the feeling of weightlessness and the sound of air roaring past. Believe it or not this was my way of having fun, clearing my head, and relaxing all at the same time. It was here at 15 angels, falling at terminal velocity, eyes closed, that I decided to adopt her, make her my ‘daughter’ so-to-speak; I was adding Fox into my family.

About 6 angels I open my eyes and am greeted with the sight of the mountain rushing up to meet me. I press a button my watch and the hovercraft comes alongside me. Once more slowing myself, I maneuver over the top of it, perform a 180-degree flip floating gently back into my seat.
I keep the throttles chopped as I rebuckle my seatbelt preferring to stay in a freefall. I flick open my watch face revealing a holographic computer interface. Pressing a few buttons a signal is transmitted to the rock below me; it becomes mercury like just before I blow through it and it changes back to solid rock when I’m gone.

20 feet before I would crash into the lake I ram the throttles to their firewalls and the engine partially screams as it slows my descent coming to a complete stop two feet above the lake, I retract the throttles, then hover back to were Fox was standing. As soon as I land she hysterically says “What Happened? Did something fail? I saw you start falling and then you jumped out…” Her voice was reaching a very high pitch with panic. I am very relaxed and calm after my fall, so I hop out and lightly take her by her shoulders. Her eyes widen as I tell her why I did that. “You… you… you’ll never catch me doing that!” She stammers. Laughing gently I plant a soft kiss on her check and say “Everything’s fine. Your projector is working wonderfully. Come on now we need a shower” and then I lead her to it.

Story Copyright 2006 “The White Wolf” all rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or distribution prohibited under penalty of law.
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