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Pepper VS Temptation - Part 9
🕑 Added 2020-10-06 20:24:14 +0000 UTC(Part 0) (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (------) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Ebook)
To save the day, Pepper's going to have to be patient, resist temptation, and collaborate with a secret admirer on Charlemagne's team.
Pepper VS Temptation - Part 9
~A Persephone and Tritonia Story~
(edited by Tiliquain and Secretskunk)
When we got to the doorway to the control room, the massive bulkhead door was wide open and I could see the whole team gathered for the briefing. Charlie was sitting at the head of the conference table, facing the projection screen at the back which was displaying Kirkii in all her glowing tentacular glory. Tritonia's cylindrical core was sitting at the far end of the conference table. Abrams and Tsubumi were sitting together and across from them was Gillon wearing a hideous bright orange cast on his right ankle. Septimus had two empty chairs next to him for Percy and me. Alphonse was at the bank of computer screens and multiple matte black computer towers that made up his sci-fi-movie-hacker-approved desk.
Everyone seemed on edge and were already talking about something as Percy and I entered. My heart was racing and I froze the moment Charlie saw me.
She immediately jumped out of her chair, causing it to roll backwards. "Trafalgar!" she yelled as she grabbed her sidearm and pointed it at me. Her horse ears were folded up against her head. She was in battle mode.
Abrams, Gillon, and Tsubumi all jumped out of their chairs and pointed their guns at me. Gillon staggered to his feet more than jumped due to his busted ankle.
I didn't know what "Trafalgar" meant, but I hoped it didn't mean "fill X person with bullets."
Septimus rolled his eyes. Everyone else, except Kirkii who had glowing exclamation points displayed on her tentacles, was looking at me with their jaws set. No one wanted to shoot me, but I couldn't help feeling panic in my chest over the very real possibility that my own friends were about to do it.
Gillon said, "Trafalgar, really?" squinting at me as he noticed I looked familiar.
"Persephone, step away from the intruder, slowly," Charlemagne said. Her eyes had no warmth in them. If I moved even an inch, I was sure she'd pull the trigger.
"For fuck's sake! Put the guns down. Can't you tell it's Pepper?" Percy said. "Same braid, same color of hair, and her most common workout outfit?"
"But how do you know it's actually her?" Charlie asked.
"Because I was just talking to her!" Percy said.
I didn't even put my hands up, I didn't want to move a muscle because I knew exactly how fine the line between aiming and shooting was. It had to be, or soldiers died in the field.
"Why is she in a lab coat?" Charlie asked, still holding her gun. "Septimus, can you confirm she's not one of your escaped specimens?"
"That was only that one time and we all thought it was dead!" Septimus glared at Charlie, but she was keeping her attention on me. He sighed before saying, "Yes, I can confirm it's Pepper. She visited me for...medical attention before coming here."
"I can also confirm that it's Pepper. Her hairline, hair color, eyes, and the bone structure of her eye sockets are all a perfect match," Tritonia said. "Plus, a real intruder wouldn't be here unarmed. Additionally, Pepper is emitting no energy readings that would indicate NPO activity."
Charlemagne blinked and then put her gun away before motioning for everyone else to do the same. After all the guns were holstered, they sat down and tried to relax.
"Finally!" Percy said, glaring at everyone in the room as she went over and took her seat. "What in the hell was that? Pointing a gun at her?"
I walked on shaky legs to the chair between her and Septimus and sat down.
"If you were in Trafalgar Square in December of 2018, you'd understand," Charlemagne said.
"What happened?" I asked, vaguely aware of that date, but I'd been deployed at the time. It was before I'd started getting involved in POSC missions.
"Ask one of us later. First I need to know what happened to you." Some of the warmth was back in Charlie's eyes, but I couldn't get her dead-eyed murderous stare out of my head. Before today, I would've thought it was impossible for her horsy muzzle to express such potent intent to kill.
That's what I'd been, a threat. And Charlie had just treated me with the extreme prejudice only a veteran soldier could express. The others had seemed far more nervous than her. She'd probably seen things the rest of us could only imagine, but that didn't excuse her being so much more of a soldier than a scientist when a threat presented itself. There was no way I'd put Helja through what I'd just experienced. I couldn't put her life in Charlie's hands. My own hands were still shaking.
I said, "I'd rather not explain yet. It's complicated and would derail this briefing."
"This briefing is gonna have to start out as a debriefing because you're a damned canine hybrid," Charlie said. Her horse nostrils were flared and her jaw was set. I was gonna get on her bad side if I didn't offer an explanation.
"The NPO that escaped bit me and I started transforming," I said.
"The invisible NPO we can only barely take images of is an invisible werewolf?!" Alphonse said a bit too loud.
I blinked, having no idea what to say.
Percy was looking at me with a very flat expression I couldn't read. Charlie looked like she wanted to strangle me. Septimus was holding his head in his paws. Tsubumi and Alphonse were confused. Gillon's eyebrow was raised. Kirkii used her bioluminescence to display cyan and red question marks on her tentacles.
"If it bit you, why aren't you invisible?" Alphonse asked.
Before I could even try to answer his question, Charlie said, "Alphonse, bring up the images of the Spectral Thief."
"Spectral Thief, that's a cool name," Percy said.
"Thanks, Gillon and I came up with it," Alphonse said as he dragged an image over to the projector screen, obscuring Kirkii.
Some invisible was dragging three shield emitters down a corridor. There was some lens-like refraction going on in parts of the image. The boundaries of the refraction were long and tapered, like..."Tentacles?" I said aloud.
"Indeed," Gillon said.
Alphonse pulled up another image, this was of it stealing what looked like the end of a mechanical snake tail. And then a third image where it was getting away with a PIKL unit. Combining all the images, it appeared this thing had ten or more squid or octopus-like tentacles. For a moment, I considered changing my story, but I didn't know how to do that without making them even more suspicious.
"Wait, there's three instances already?" Charlie asked.
"The second two were reported right before you got here," Alphonse said.
"Until further notice, we're under full lockdown. Every bulkhead must be secured at all times, no unnecessary trips." Charlie looked at me, "And you're saying that this creature bit you?"
"Yep, it felt like a bite," I said. "Right before I destroyed the crystal generator thingy."
Percy was frowning, Charlie's horse ears were folded down and her lips were pressed together in a rather grumpy expression. Boom was thinking while Abrams was just confused. Gillon still had an eyebrow raised. I wondered whether it was going to get stuck up there on his forehead. Alphonse was fiddling with computer stuff. Kirkii was now in a small video feed up in the corner and had question marks on her tentacles again.
"And how did you manage that?" Charlemagne asked.
Persephone was watching me really closely as I said, "Since clothing was getting caught on the crystal branches, I got naked and then covered myself in vaseline to protect myself from their stun gun effect. Then I just walked through them."
"That's a brilliant solution," Boom said, holding back a laugh while everyone congratulated me.
Persephone looked tired. Charlie looked really annoyed. It was clear she didn't like my explanations, but I had no idea what she was thinking.
Charlie's expression remained flat as she said, "Well done, Pepper. Now let's go over what we know about the Spectral Thief thus far."
"It's a giant optically-camouflaged cephalopod-like organism that's stealing things in broad daylight," Alphonse said. "We think it may have smaller units that are about waist high that help scavenge stuff.ā
"It's bloody fast too, far exceeds someone sprinting," Gillon said.
Tsubumi held up her right arm, which had a nasty bruise on it. "Even if you do catch up to it, it can toss you like a rag doll."
"Even though there's a slight distortion to its optical camouflage, it's so visually confusing, it's impossible to track without multispectral imaging," Tritonia said.
Kirkii waved a couple tentacles to get our attention and the words, "So far it's stolen Tritonia's unfinished body, shield emitters, and a PIKL unit. I suspect it's building a weapons platform."
"Damnit!" Charlie slapped the table, "We need to get Tritonia hooked up to the multispectral imaging rig and go hunting for this thing, pronto."
"Yes, agr--what the?" Gillon was looking at Tritonia's charger. It was five feet from where it was supposed to be.
As we watched, it rolled another foot and then stopped. There was a tentacle-shaped distortion wrapped around it.
"Hey!" Abrams yelled, getting out of his seat.
The charger started to move quickly toward the door.
Boom grabbed a chair and dashed at blinding speed toward the tentacled mass that was dragging the charger. She used her speed to smash the chair into the Spectral Thief. It dropped the charger and then grabbed her and threw her at the conference table.
As Boom flew through the air, we all rolled away from the table, not wanting to collide with her. She was moving slower through the air than she should have been. Even though my heart was racing, I could sense the space between beats. As I realized that her head was going to hit the table, I dove onto the table and faced up so her head landed on my six breasts instead of the tabletop.
It knocked the wind out of me and hurt like the dickens when her legs bashed into mine, but there were no cuts or broken bones after we came to rest.
The distraction of Boom flying through the air had been enough that the thief got away with Tritonia's charger.
Everyone was staring at me with dropped jaws again.
As I let go of Boom, I said, "You okay?"
"Yeah, thanks for the catch," she got off the table and sat back in her chair. "How did you do that?"
I had to take a couple more breaths to get my wind back, but then I hopped off the table and said, "It didn't seem that hard."
"That was roughly twice the speed of an olympic athlete," Tritonia said.
I bit my lip, having no idea what to say to that.
Kirkii's tentacles flashed to get our attention. "We need to check Pepper's tissue for structures similar to what we've seen in Tsubumi in addition to investigating her hybrid features."
"Agreed. We'll circle back to Pepper's situation at the end of the briefing," Charlie said, rolling her chair back up to the table. "Gillon, Boom, and Alphonse, your first priority is to create another charger for Tritonia. Plan for as little opening and closing of doors as you can and have PIKL units ready all times."
"Some parts of Tritonia's prototype body were left behind and I think we can cobble something together in a few hours. I'm excited, it's been a while since I've had to rely on my electrical engineering chops." Boom cracked her knuckles.
"Good. Abrams, you're on guard duty outside Gillon's lab while they work on a backup charger for Tritonia. Get a smattering of grenades to test on the Thief. If we can break pieces off of it to analyze, that would be ideal. For protection, I want you wearing the bomb suit," Charlie said.
Abrams said, "Yes ma'am."
"You four are team Alpha and you're dismissed." Charlie saluted them. "Best of luck."
They saluted back and then got up and left the room. Gillon shut secured the door behind him easily despite having a crutch under each arm.
Charlie said, "Pepper, you're under self-quarantine until further notice and you cannot go on any missions. You're to report to Septimus and Kirkii for a full battery of tests as soon as they're able to run them. We need to understand the nature of your metamorphosis and make sure you're not contagious or compromised in any way."
"Quarantine?" I glanced at Persephone, who was looking at the tabletop bleakly.
"Biting may be one of many vectors of transmission, we can't take any chances until we know what we're dealing with," Charlie said. "Septimus and Kirkii, start preparing a list of tests to run on Pepper ASAP."
My shoulders were getting tight, Charlie had never looked at me with such disdain. "But I still want to help, isn't there something I can do while I'm under quarantine?"
"I'm sorry, but everything I've seen invalidates your medical eval and you're off the team until you get a new one," Charlie said. "Persephone, please escort Officer Mint to the spare quarters across from yours and facilitate the transfer of necessary belongings so that she has a comfortable stay while under quarantine."
"Yes ma'am," Percy said as she got out of her chair and walked over to me. Then she grabbed my hand and led me out of the room.
On our walk back to the habitat, she was silent, so I started up a conversation I knew she'd like. "Wanna get in a quickie before I start my quarantine?"
"That's not how quarantines work," she said.
"We nearly got up to stuff before we were called over to the briefing..." I stopped and tugged on her hand so she turned to face me. "Percy, I know it's safe. Charlemagne's just overreacting."
"How can you know it's safe?" Her ears fell as she looked at me in confusion and a bit of awe, like she couldn't believe what I was saying.
"I can't explain it out here, let's just go back to the room and talk for a while," I said. I was going to tell her everything!
"You know what happens when we're both horny and we try to have a conversation. This isn't a game, Pepper. You have superhuman speed and reflexes like Boom and we don't even know why."
"I do," I said. "And I'll tell you when we get back to our room."
"Why can't you tell me right out here?" she asked.
"Someone might hear and I only want to tell you."
Charlie walked into the main entrance as I was speaking. Since Percy and I had stopped near the Librarian's terminal, Charlie was looking at us curiously, with her ears standing straight up.
She let go of my hand. "Did you lie at the briefing, lie to Charlie's face? My face?"
I felt like vomiting from having to suddenly start lying again. Charlie had the worst timing! "No, no I didn't, but can we please just go back to our room so we can talk more?"
"No, you're under quarantine, the only room you're going to is the spare quarters and that's an order," Charlie said. "You're to have minimal contact with the rest of the crew until further notice."
"I understand." I frowned and looked at my paw-like feet.
Percy led me to the spare quarters and opened the door and I sneezed as some dust got stirred up by the door opening.
"Gesundheit," Percy said.
"Thanks, could you bring me a handkerchief along with the first load of stuff?" I asked.
"Yes, just hang out in here and I'll be right back."
"I'm gonna leave the door open to air it out while you get stuff."
"Sure, be right back," she said.
As Percy brought my stuff, she included a couple pairs of boxers and a couple other things she thought might feel more comfortable now that I had a bulge. Even though I could tell she cared, she was treating me more like her cousin or something than her lover. I kept trying to get her to smile or laugh, but it only seemed to make her more distant.
After she set down the last load, I tried to kiss her goodbye, but she took my hands in hers instead and looked into my eyes. I started tearing up, knowing what was coming.
Looking utterly exhausted, Percy said, "I'm sorry, but while you're in quarantine, until we figure some of this out, I need a break."
"No, please don't do this now," I said. "If you just stay, I'll explain everything."
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that right now. I need some time." Her eyes got wet, but she turned away and walked toward the door before I saw her cry.
"Percy, wait!" I called after her. Now I was starting to cry. "Just let me explain!"
Percy closed and secured the door behind her.
At first, I wanted to run after her, but then I realized I wasn't sure why she'd left. Was she protecting me because she'd be expected to report whatever I said to Charlie? Did she realize she wouldn't believe me no matter what I said? Had she seen through all my lies and was now completely done with me?
Just thinking about the last one got me to dive onto my bed, grab a pillow, and start bawling my eyes out. At every turn, I'd made the worst choice, and now I was paying for it. And even worse, I knew I'd do it again. Maybe Percy knew that too. Maybe that's why she'd walked out. Maybe, deep down, I was a terrible person.
* * * * *
Tears kept flowing until I'd soaked my pillowcase and my vocal cords were sore. Then I was on my back, staring up at the underside of the bunk above me. I felt empty. I felt angry. And I'd never felt more alone.
But that was just the start of that absolutely bonkers evening. Ten minutes later, my intense hunger was back and I put two frozen pizzas in the oven. Then I pulled off my dirty workout clothes and took a shower. As I was drying off outside the shower, I saw my body in the full-length mirror on the back of the shower door.
I looked incomplete. My ears, snout, cock, and tail weren't long enough. And, if my cock was like two inches longer, I'd be able to suck on it. The fur near my knees and wrists was a bit more sparse than elsewhere, and I was jealous of Helja, Percy, and Charlie's balls. Mine weren't much larger than kumquats and felt good, but I'd been expecting more given how big Helja's were. It was odd, but I wanted to feel more weight down there.
All that aside, I was fucking hot, like I'd never looked at myself before now and felt this good. I hefted my middle pair of breasts and bit my lip. Even with how bad I felt about things between me, Charlie, and Percy, I didn't regret becoming a hybrid one bit. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
But I couldn't share it with anyone...I frowned as I looked through the clothes Percy had lent me. She'd given me such pretty pairs of boxer briefs. Wearing them kinda felt like a rite of passage to the dick-having crowd even though it was still embarrassing. Gender was such a weird thing.
As I tried to put on a pink and grey pair, my prick came out of its sheath and before I managed to get any further dressed, I shot my load all over my dirty workout clothes. The way my tongue was hanging out of my mouth was silly afterwards, but I didn't care. Getting off again had been a nice distraction and there was something so satisfying about making a mess. The delicious smell of my cum got me leaning down for a sniff and then my tongue started lapping it up while my tail wagged at how delicious I was. I stopped a dozen seconds later, with my tongue still part way out of my mouth, feeling self conscious. I wasn't quite ready to be the world's biggest cum slut.
After washing off my prick, I got dressed in a pair of jeans that were a bit too big and a maroon long-sleeve-T that clung to my tits. I ate the meat lovers pizza while I watched PBS Spacetime and was so hungry afterwards that I put a big helping of Gillon's latest batch of pesto veggie pasta in the microwave and wolfed it down. Then my phone chimed to announce I had an calendar invite from Septimus. After confirming I'd be there at nine AM to start my tests, I lazily watched videos about building electric guitars until I conked out.
I dreamed about being the naked hermaphroditic werewolf lead guitarist for an 80's glam rock band. But instead of the fun parts of being in a glam rock band, I spent the entire dream chasing our shark hybrid rhythm guitarist. None of us knew why she kept running away or how our giant squid drummer survived such long periods out of water.
Even though the dream hadn't been sexy at all, I woke up with a boner and had to jack off to get it to go down. Blushing and feeling like I'd lost my mind, I braced my back against the wall so I could aim my cock at my mouth and catch every last drop of my payload. I was so embarrassed with myself afterwards that I hid under the covers of my bed while biting my lip and trying not to think about it. I was hopeless. Not only did I daydream about doing it again, I also got a tingle in my sheath at the idea of someone watching me do it.
Breakfast, a bit of washing up, and rubbing another one out so I could get into my clothes properly was what it took to get me out the door. It was like I was in heat or something. My prick was this new attachment for my ADHD to poke at and I didn't know how to tell my brain "no."
When I got to Septimus's lab, Kirkii was up on the big screen above Septimus's desk. The first thing Septimus did when I got there was hand me a cup and say, "Before we start poking you with needles, we should get a semen sample."
I blushed, holding the cup. "Kirkii, can I have a moment alone with Septimus?"
Kirkii's tentacles displayed, "No problem."
Septimus killed the audio and then said, "If we show that your semen sample is clean, I think Charlie's more likely to look the other way if you become sexually active again."
Grabbing the cup, I said, "I see dick is high on your agenda."
Septimus blushed and didn't say anything for a few seconds, then he said, "Charlie's been watching me very closely and I don't think we'll be able to spend time alone together until every aspect of your physiology gets medical clearance. She wants to see me slip up and it's possible she smelled you on me at the briefing. I showered thoroughly before, but it can be very hard to remove pheromones from fur and yours are quite strong."
"Damn, I was hoping we could get in some quickies after exams. I can't do anything with Percy because she's giving me the cold shoulder. I think she knows I've been lying," I said.
"That's unfortunate. Let's just try to get through these tests as quickly as possible," he said.
"Okay, I'll be right back," I dashed over to the restroom attached to the lab.
It should've been hard to get off in the bathroom stall, but it wasn't. My body didn't seem to have the same limits it used to. I was a bit proud at how much was in the cup when I handed it to Septimus.
His ears were blushing heavily as he took it.
After putting that sample away, he had me get on an exam table and he took a swab of my pussy.
After that was done, he took detailed pictures of my body while Kirkii took notes about my anatomy. Kirkii helped keep things professional enough that I didn't get too excited.
The best part of the whole day was what I had for lunch. Gillon brought me a heap of noodles with scallops in white wine sauce on top of it. When I found out he'd made enough for another gigantic helping, I gave him a kiss on the cheek before making it disappear.
After I was done eating, Kirkii's tentacles displayed a message that made me grimace, "Now comes the painful part. We need multiple tissue samples."
There were long needles and very sharp objects involved. I was almost glad that taking bone marrow, cerebrospinal fluid, samples from my muscles, and chunks of skin out of me were painful because it greatly reduced the amount of awkwardness between me and Septimus. I say almost glad because it really fucking hurt! And I'd been an idiot in telling them to keep going every time they'd offered to save some of the painful tests for another day. The thing was, I wanted to get that clean medical eval ASAP. Anything to bring things back to normal.
As the last test was being run, the bone marrow sample, I realized nothing could ever put things back to normal. That all this pain was for naught. I became so sullen that they were trying to cheer me up. No matter how much they told me things were temporary, I had trouble believing it.
The look of exhaustion and utter defeat on Percy's face before she left was etched in my mind. And I couldn't stop thinking about how all the warmth in Charlie's eyes vanished over the course of that briefing.
It was over, both of them had given up on me.
I cried again when I got back to my room, everywhere I'd been stabbed ached and the painkillers weren't enough. All the tests the next day were related to my physical health and, due to the fact it still felt like someone had jabbed a knife in my spine and hip, they sent me home early with stronger pain meds. The pain meds didn't work, like, at all. I somehow still had my appetite and ate more mozzarella sticks in one sitting than anyone should. I was likely making up for all the energy my body expended while transforming, but if this comfort food kick lasted too much longer, I knew I'd have to put a pin in it.
After lying awake for two hours when I was trying to go to bed, I started thinking about Charlie while somehow also sporting a boner. All this pain and I was getting boners like a goddamn teenager. Fucking Charlie, if she'd been more supportive and less by the book about my alien question, I wouldn't have lied. She was also the one that wanted a full battery of tests and put me in quarantine so I couldn't calm my dick down. This was all her fault!
And Percy, if she'd just stuck around for five minutes, I could've told her the truth and I wouldn't be springing boners with no one to stick them in. Septimus really couldn't risk it, but Percy? She was across the fucking hallway and wouldn't give me the time of day.
I needed to talk to someone, I needed someone's shoulder to cry on, someone to fuck, someone to just cuddle me and the only person I could conceivably see right now was Helja. Getting out of bed, I didn't bother to put on any clothes. My fur kept me warm enough and if anyone saw me, it was all over anyway. Even if the only thing she did for me was help some with the pain, maybe by healing me a bit, I'd be way better off.
Hobbling toward my door due to all my sore spots, I opened it quietly and closed it behind me. Even though I was a troublemaker, I'd never risked nudity in a public space and almost turned back. The reason I didn't was that being nude when I had fur to protect me felt really natural and feeling the air currents of the room on my whole body was awesome.
I didn't see, smell, or hear anyone on my way to Helja's door, so I opened it and went inside.
END OF PART 9
Iād like to acknowledge my $20 patrons, Arkona Kothe, Navajo Demar, UBA, and Warialinth for helping make all this possible. Thank you! Thanks to all my other patrons as well. Every one of you rocks!
(Part 0) (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (------) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Ebook)
Comments
Zmeydros
Her parents deserve the water bucket above the door prank on every door they open for a year. Then they might understand how their daughter feels having that name. Hehe. Punk band dream wasn't something I planned. It just kinda happened. Glad it was fun.^_^
Reid
Great chapter! It was only a matter of time that those lies of hers would catch up with her. I love that Pepper's last name is Mint š And emotional weight aside, the punk band dream versions of Pepper, Percy and Kirkii is an amazing visual š
OnionThyme
It would seem the lies are catching up with Pepper, and she will be experiencing the consequences for a while..
