Rescued: A Catgirl Harem Adventure (I Rescued A Catgirl Book 1) Read online

  The lead guard flinched slightly, lowering his Thunderbolt a fraction of an inch as he acknowledged the danger, but the guy flanking him growled, his shades flicking towards what should have been empty space behind me. Those were probably fully loaded augmented reality specs, connected to the security system, a fact confirmed to me when he shouted, “The deviant!”

  That surprised me too, as I glanced back to see Annie right there, running back towards me for some reason. I didn’t have time to process the why, because there was no restraint on Thug #2, his fingers curling around the taser’s trigger. A red targeting laser, straight from an action vid, lanced across the room, past my side to flash on Annie’s ribs.

  No. There was no way I was going to let her get blasted, not by one of these things, and the catastrophe that would follow the shot. Call it hysterical strength or the last act of a desperate man, but I put on a surge of speed that I didn’t know I had, throwing myself through the doorway and pushing Annie back into the hallway beyond. I could almost hear the click of the trigger as I kicked back in the same motion, hoping beyond hope that I’d hit the ‘door close’ command on the panel.

  Everything seemed to slow down in that crazy way things do when everything goes tits up. The crackle of the Thunderbolt’s explosive charge filled the air just as the toe of my left boot hit the door controls. A happy chime sounded off, the door wooshing closed just before the combat taser let out a thunderous boom. I didn’t see the bolt of electricity, of course, but all my hair still stood up on end as sparks played over the now-closed door shielding us, even as we fell to the floor of the hallway, me protectively on top of Annie.

  As the sound of a blossoming explosion roared, only slightly muffled by the steel door filled my ears, I held her close, pulling her against my chest as I rolled both of us into the corner. Between the heavy security door, my own body, and Annie’s amazing Wonder Kat physiology, she would live through this. Probably.

  “Sir,” she gasped, “you can’t do this! You—”

  “Call me Jake, and I can. I have to.” I grinned madly as I gazed into her blue eyes. “Just make a good life for yourself after this is—”

  She cut off my words with a kiss just as the door blew right out of its frame in a burst of flame that scorched my soul.

  4

  When my eyes cracked open, I wondered for the briefest moment if I was dead and this was some afterlife, but it hurt way too damned bad for that. Taking a deep breath, I tried to orient myself through the haze and process what was going on, and as I did, I felt the warmth of Annie’s soft body beneath me, then I heard her steady breathing. Thank any and all deities, we were both alive.

  …at least for the moment since we were buried under what felt like a thousand tons of rubble. I could tell by the dust lingering in the little air we had, my eyes adjusting surprisingly well to the very faint flickers of light that came through cracks and crevices.

  A twisted steel strut, probably part of the ceiling superstructure, had saved us from the cave-in by falling in such a way to create an air pocket just a smidge larger than us. My quick thinking to minimize our profile and put a shield between us and the blast had done the rest.

  My ears were adjusting as well, the thudding in my skull receding enough got me to hear shifting stones, settling debris, the distant crackle of flames, and, of course, our two heartbeats. Beyond that, there wasn’t a sign of life that I could hear, and certainly no signs of search and rescue teams.

  And my twitching nose could smell the acrid chemicals, the smoky flames, the chalky scent of the dust, all of it. Even the coppery odor of my own blood, sticky against my cut arm, and the sweet smell of Annie’s hair and fur, like chocolate cookies, reached my nostrils.

  I wanted to try and figure out why my sense were in hyperdrive, but there wasn’t time. The air in this pocket would go stale soon, and there was no way to tell how badly Annie was hurt nor could I wait for her to wake up and use her biodroid muscle to get us out of here. Worse, even if a rescue team found us, that would likely just land me in prison and Annie, well, in another Katsukami Reprogramming lab.

  But how the hell was I going to get us out? There was barely enough room for the two of us in the little coffin-like space, though I could at least feel the floor under my palms, arms still under Annie’s arms. A tentative push upwards brought my back up against smooth concrete, maybe a chunk of the wall or even part of the floor above us. Even a conservative estimate of the thing’s weight would be hundreds of pounds, probably more.

  Every rational instinct would be to stop struggling and wait, pray for rescue, no matter what that rescue meant. This would be too much even for Annie, not with the inherent limiters we designed into the Kats’ synthetic muscles. But I was hurting and desperate. Add in the stubbornness that had gotten me through college, loan sharks, and the last two soul-crushing years of internship, and I wanted to try some very irrational things.

  Besides, Annie was counting on me. I know, it sounded stupid. She was a biodroid, a synthetic person, and I barely knew her. But at the same time, she had put her faith in me, and I wasn’t going to let her down.

  So, I braced myself, shifting my legs so that my knees pressed against the floor. Sucking in a deep breath of stale air and closing my eyes, I pushed upward, not a little test shove like before, but with everything I had. Muscles strained as my back pressed flat against the slab above me, muscles I didn’t even know I had, and a shuddering sensation crept through me as I kept up the pressure. Sweat beaded on my forehead, my lungs burned, and the cut in my right arm reopened.

  And for a long moment, it was absolutely pointless. That slab above us was as immovable as the Rock of Gibraltar, and I was just wasting energy and precious oxygen even trying to do anything. Hell, my entire little rebellion here was pointless, wasn’t it? I had just doomed myself to join Annie in her fate.

  But fuck that. I swallowed that self-pitying garbage and kept pushing. A loud, grinding sound filled my ears, thankfully not coming from my bones, and the slab started to shift, just a hair at first. A dribble of dust, rocks, and safety glass rained down around my head spurring me to push harder, even though my arms and legs felt like they would collapse.

  That’s when things got really loud. More than just the slab started to move, chunks of the ceiling, twisted rebar, and bent metal fell and tumbled. The balance of the weight pressing down on us slid, and suddenly the section of concrete moved up and off, bringing both a wash of fresh air and a rush of heat over us. A final crash of stone on steel rang out as I fell back, sitting on my calves and trying to catch my breath. There was a massive stab of pain in my side, and it wasn’t just a stitch from overexertion. It was a bruised rib or two, maybe even a cracked one.

  Clutching my ribs, I tried to get my bearings. Orange-red flickers of burning wreckage behind me filled my vision as I settled my gaze on the slab that had trapped us. It now leaned at a crazy angle, pivoting on the support beam that had saved us. Even with that pivot point to shift the wreckage, I still shouldn’t have been able to move that stone, hysterical strength or not.

  I added it to the things to worry about later.

  Stone and steel surrounded us in mangled piles, forming a winding path of destruction that rose higher and higher. My eyes followed it up until I found, to my shock, that there wasn’t a ceiling above us. There wasn’t even a building left as far as I could see. Just a crater in the Katsukami Industrial Park and a smattering of stars twinkling in the sky above.

  As I looked down at myself and Annie, it was hard to see how bad I was really hurt, not with the coating of concrete dust and ash over the tattered Reprogramming jumpsuit, but as near as I could tell, Annie was relatively unharmed. Thinking about the burning sensation of her kiss, my hand drifted across her face, touching those perfect lips for a moment before moving on to check her pulse. As with her breathing, it was strong, well within her model’s parameters, and a quick check found a sizable knot on the back of her head.

  Sh
e and I both could do with some proper medical attention, but a hospital or a doc-in-a-box would bring the authorities and the same problems as before. No, I had a very good first aid kit at my apartment, and while I wasn’t a medical doctor, I had plenty of theoretical knowledge on the subject of the human and Wonder Kat bodies. It’d have to do. I just had to get us there.

  And I could. No doubts anymore, I told myself through the pounding headache. Doubts would get us killed … and we weren’t going to die. We were going to win.

  I pushed myself to my feet, unsteady for a moment before my balance returned. Despite the concussion, I felt surprisingly steady once I took a moment, sure-footed even in the rubble. Another painful breath, a sure sign of cracked ribs, and I bent down, scooping Annie up into a bridal carry. Though the rubble-strewn crater was three floors deep, it was a fairly shallow angle, with enough flat surfaces that I figured I could pick my way up even with my arms filled.

  Up I went, and I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t harder. That sure-footedness didn’t leave me, and for all the hardship I had endured, I moved with a quickness I didn’t remember having. I didn’t question it at all this time. Instead, I was thankful for the unexpected strength. As we went higher, closer to street level, more of the lights of San Francisco filled the night air, making me realize just how good my night vision had become.

  Strange new abilities aside, I was still hurt and badly, so by the time I crested to the top of the crater, Annie still safely in my arms, I felt like I could collapse all over again. Blood from my left leg was flowing freely from a laceration I hadn’t even seen before, and my right arm was almost numb from the aggravated cut in my bicep. Every breath came harder and harder, but I kept pushing, cresting a hill made by a bent support pillar to come out on the asphalt.

  That’s when I realized that yes, the entire building had collapsed from the explosion. I was actually standing in the middle of the street along the west side of the Katsukami building, the debris having splayed out to all sides. There were crumpled cars, shattered windows, and all manner of minor destruction all around the destroyed laboratory, with a line of holographic police tape, a yellow banner of light playing between emitters at even intervals around the wreckage. A scrolling banner read the usual, ‘POLICE LINE! DO NOT CROSS! EXERCISE CAUTION WITHIN 50 METERS!’

  How long had we been down there? At least a day. As if my stomach had been waiting for that thought, it growled, adding one more nagging need to all my aches and pains. Licking my dry lips, I buckled down, focusing on one thing and one thing only, getting home. I’d sort the rest out once I got some sleep.

  Things turned into something of a blur from there. It had to have been after curfew because we didn’t run into a single soul on the sidewalk as I shuffled toward my apartment. Lights and sounds buzzed past me as I kept going, one foot in front of the other, autocars that didn’t pay us one mind. If their passengers did, well, no one called the police or even bothered to stop and check on the bedraggled man carrying an unconscious woman.

  I guess I couldn’t blame them too much. Most people didn’t want trouble, especially not the kind of trouble I no doubt looked like. They just wanted to keep safe, keep their noses clean.

  Before Reprogramming, I had been just like them.

  And that thought spurred me on as fast as my wounds could let me. I cared. I cared a hell of a lot now, and so I had to get us home.

  Finally, after what seemed like hours but was probably no more than ten minutes, I staggered into the lobby of my apartment building, thankful the radio frequency chip in my keycard hadn’t gotten fried in the disaster. The doors had slid open for me without a hitch, and, adding to my small bits of good fortune, none of the usual late nighters were hanging around the place, though I did hear Mrs. Patrusky doing her linens in the adjacent laundry room.

  Hopefully, she wasn’t paying attention as I staggered towards the lifts. Somehow, I managed to contort myself so that I kept Annie held aloft as I pressed my dirty palm against the elevator controls. It took three tries before it got a successful scan through the dust and grime, but I didn’t care about the mess I left, not when the door finally opened. At least I managed to catch myself as I stumbled through the doors, turning a near fall into a quick two steps, my back planting against the far wall as the cab closed up.

  From there, things got really fuzzy. I remember the buzzing of my front door, getting Annie laid out on my roll-out bed, and fishing the first aid kit from out of my bathroom closet while only knocking over half the items on the shelf. It was only by force of will that I managed to hold on long enough to clean and bandage the Kat’s head wound. When I finished, I looked down at her, marveling at her beauty and wondering how anyone could be so crazy not to love the white splash in her lilac hair.

  With that thought, I realized that my cuts had stopped bleeding and, deciding to deal with the rest in the morning, crawled into bed, passing into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  5

  I woke to the soft chime of an alarm and the heavenly smell of brewing coffee. Thin shafts of sunlight played across the humble bedroom of my apartment as my eyes cracked open. Taking in a deep breath, savoring the delightful scent of the java and … was that bacon? My ears perked at the sound of the microwave whirring, and I figured I had a few moments before it was ready. Even as I remembered that I hadn’t set the AutoHome app to do any of this, I turned over onto my side to snuggle closer to Annie, curled up next to me and still snoozing.

  That’s what brought the idyllic moment back down to reality. Going to Reprogramming, trying to save Annie, the stupid security guards blowing the place up, our escape from a literal early grave. There was almost a moment of panic, but I caught it and smothered it. Panic wouldn’t do me any good, and besides, we were fine, at least for the moment.

  I had to figure out what happened. Who had set the alarm, started cooking, all that sort of thing? Slipping out of bed so as not to wake Annie, I tried to assess the situation the best my pre-coffee brain could.

  For a good minute, I stared a bit dumbly around the room, because it almost didn’t look like my apartment at all. Now, I’m not a slob by nature, but working long hours at Katsukami and the constant press of college before that had led to my home being, well, a bit messy. As I liked to think of it, the place was kept in a constant state of organized chaos, but that was a kindness. While I kept it decent, there were quite a few chores that had gone undone for a week or so, and I sure didn’t have time to dust and vacuum like I should. And folding clothes? That was insanity!

  But what I saw now was where a king of cleaning would live. The bookcase full of textbooks, biotech journals, and sci-fi books was dusted, cleaned, and organized, every spine an even distance from the lip of the shelf. The faux-wood floors were swept, mopped, and gleaming as good as new. My two clothes hampers, one for clean and one for dirty, were both empty, while my long-forgotten plastic dressers (rescues from Goodwill) were restocked.

  And that made me think about clothes in general, and that made me look down at myself … because I felt a hell of a lot cleaner than I should.

  Which I was. But a lot more had changed than just my clothes. Like my room, my body was something I now only barely recognized. While I hadn’t been a complete mess before, I knew too much about nutrition and how the body worked to really let myself go, I was no physical paragon.

  I never worked out enough. I had a passion for pizza and beer that couldn’t be beaten, and both school and work had been purely sedentary things. I had been soft around the middle, a bit too thin in the arms and legs. You know, the usual things a modern office lifestyle did to a person.

  Now, though? It was like I had been on an overnight diet and exercise regimen to rival the best Olympic athlete. Instead of softness, there were steely cords of muscle. Every bit of unnecessary fat had melted off of me, and I could count my abs. Hell, they were more shredded than grated cheese. My arms were chiseled, and while I hadn’t bulked-up like a neo-roid freak, I was l
ean, wiry, and fit.

  I didn’t have to think hard as to what happened to me, even if it was hard to believe. When I had wrestled Rolf to the ground, I dipped my cut arm into a witch’s brew of biodroid genetic material and chemicals. On a technical level, many of the ingredients to run the dissolution tubes were also used in the genetic modification process. It was possible, in theory, for the exact right combination of chemicals and DNA to have washed into my cut to set off a mutagenic process.

  Of course, the real problem was that the bonding process used to make the fully functional animal hybrid Wonder Kats had failed 99.9% of the time it had been attempted on any biological material with an XY chromosome, i.e., genetically male. But who was I to tempt fate by questioning it? My new body had gotten us out of the rubble, that much was for sure.

  While admiring the new me, I noticed a few more things. First, someone had attended to my injuries with a degree of professional skill that was enviable. Even though my ribs were only a faint ache, they had been properly taped up, and my cuts had been bandaged neatly. There was very little hint of bleed-through though as if the nasty gashes were already closing.

  Second, I wasn’t naked, a clean pair of boxers on me. Neither was Annie, now that I thought of it, curled up in a ball and wearing one of my T-shirts and pajama bottoms, all a bit too big on her except in the chest, of course. The light purple of her tail poked out above the waistband, making the pajamas ride so low that it left little to the imagination.

  I didn’t realize how much of a relief that was until I saw it. More than likely, it meant that I hadn’t done anything untoward that I didn’t remember. Not that I didn’t want to have sex with Annie, or any Wonder Kat for that matter. Even the most basic model oozed enough sex appeal to have anyone attracted to the female form ready for action from moment one. But I knew that if I even hinted around wanting to sleep with her, the genetic programming in Annie’s brain would make her comply with barely a second thought.