Chapter 25

Preparation/Hunter

Kyu and I walked back to the office in silence, neither one of us eager to discuss what had just been said. Regardless I was thankful for the opportunity to be able to sort out the details of the plan mentally. There would be a lot riding on this and I couldn't consider what could happen if we failed. The goal was clear. Save Kyu's old partner and cut off Faye's power supply.

Even without thinking about defeat there was still a certain weariness brought on by the idea of success. It was impossible to say what the aftermath would look like. While I was confident that some of the girls would be excited to see his return others might not share their same enthusiasm. When I found Audrey she had apparently become a human ball of angst that was only now starting to simmer down. Nikki had become significantly more protective of those closest to her. Would she really be okay if he wanted to waltz back into Tiffany's life? Or hers?

I shook my head and pushed the button to call the elevator down the lobby. Ultimately it would be up to them to deal with the results once we succeeded. Just as the elevator arrived I paused, turning to Kyu.

"Before we head up I need to know something. Are there any other girls that you set your old partner up with that we haven't met with yet?"

Kyu began to count to herself, mouthing the words as she held up a finger with each name.

"Hm… well unless there are more Momo's or Celeste's running around than you've only missed two. Jesse and Aiko."

I nodded, stepping into the elevator with her beside me.

"Alright. Who're they?"

"Aiko's this smoking hot asian teacher chick. You actually had a run-in with her waaay back when we were first setting things up."

As she spoke I felt like there was something in the back of my mind trying to force its way to the surface.

"Wait a second… is that Tiffany's professor?"

"That's the one."

"Huh… that works out pretty well."

Kyu cocked her head to the side as she awaited my explanation. With everything that had gone on I had completely forgotten to tell her about the conversation with Tiffany where she asked me to give her professor a job. I quickly filled her in on the details which prompted a sigh of relief from the fairy.

"God damn finally. We were due some good luck."
"No kidding. And what about Jesse?"

Kyu winced while rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah I was thinking we might wanna skip her. She might make things a little… complicated?"

It was hard to take her words seriously given everything we had gone through thus far. Even without considering that Kyu had me convincing a collection of girls three times out of my league into porn our lives were far from simple. Catgirls, demons, and aliens meant that any idea of normalcy had long since gone out the window. Whatever made Jesse 'complicated' would have to be pretty significant if it wanted to hold a candle to our normal routine.

"You're gonna have to be more specific than that."

"Well she's…"

Before Kyu could finish that thought the elevator doors slid open to reveal Nikki on one of the couches, a phone in one hand while her other causally petted the top of Momo's head. The catgirl was purring as we approached with both unaware of our entrance until I cleared my throat. Nikki whipped around, her phone flying out from her grip while Momo lazily sat up.

"Mmm…? Hi again!"

Momo's face immediately brightened as she saw Kyu and I standing there while Nikki sighed and got up to recover her phone.

"Jeez who told you to sneak in here like some weirdo?"

"I didn't realize taking the elevator up was 'sneaking'."

Nikki rolled her eyes while taking a spot on the opposite couch. I took a seat across from her, Momo still relaxing beside me while Kyu hovered nearby.

"Whatever. I take it you took care of your emergency?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"More or less. Thanks for handling breakfast by the way. Everything come out okay?"

Momo was the first to answer, bouncing up and down with her now signature excitable energy.

"It was sooooo good. As soon as we got back I got sleepy again and Nikki let me take a nap on her lap."

When I turned back to face Nikki I could see her cheeks had flushed red and her gaze was set on the window outside.

"Well you told me to take care of her. Not like any of this was in my job description."

"Last I checked you don't even have a job description. I wouldn't even know what kind of stuff to put on there."

Nikki smirked, looking at me as she leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed.

"And unless you wanna try and figure it out for yourself, you can just keep letting me do my job while you do yours."

I put my hands up in defeat.

"Yikes, point taken."

As nice as it would have been the conversation casual I knew that things needed to be kept moving. While Nikki's attention had returned to her phone I shot a look towards Kyu, signalling her to be aware of what would happen next.

"Changing the topic real quick, what are your thoughts on having a party?"

Nikki looked back up at me with her eyebrow raised, taking a moment to gauge my sincerity. Once she had confirmed that I was being serious there was a quick snort as she looked back toward her phone.

"Really? For what?"

"Does it matter? Business has been good lately and we have some new faces coming in. There's no shortage of things worth celebrating. I'm not talking about a blowout, just something for the employees to thank them for their hard work."

Nikki's attention remained on the screen but there was a noticeable shift in her attitude. Even though she would never admit it there was no hiding that she enjoyed working here far more than slaving away back at that cafe. On top of getting to use her admittedly impressive technical skills it also gave her the opportunity to socialize. She could usually be found hanging out with Tiffany before a show and had even become fast friends with Kyanna, even though most of the conversation stemmed from the bubbly latina. It seemed like even Momo had taken a liking to her in spite of them meeting only hours ago.

Knowing that it was hard to imagine she would turn down the opportunity to cut back a little. It was hard to tell if Kyu agreed with her confusion written all over her face. Afterward I would have to explain to her the exact contents of the plan but for now she would just have to trust me.

"I guess that doesn't sound so bad. You want me to ask Tiffany?"

I shook my head and stood up from the couch.

"I got that covered. How's tomorrow night sound?"

"Fine with me. Hey boss…"

I had already turned back to the elevator as she called out to me. Once I turned around I saw that her eyes were set on me with an odd sense of determination.

"Are you okay? I mean, you've been acting a little weird lately."

I did my best to put on a reassuring smile. Leave it to the resident geeky girl to play detective. But keeping her in the dark would ultimately be for her own good. At least until some progress could be made into the plan.

"Just been busy. I'll be fine once I blow off some steam."

Before heading back to the elevator I looked over to Momo who seemed oblivious to the conversation, casually cleaning the back of her hand with her tongue.

"Hey Momo, you wanna come with me? I'm heading out for a bit."

Her little ears perked up at the mention of her name and a moment later she had lept off the couch and landed nimbly by my side.

"Uh-huh! Are you gonna buy me more food?"

"We'll see."

When I looked up toward Nikki I could see that she had already begun to head in the direction of her desk where her computer sat ready for work.

"Nikki hold down the fort for me, would you? Call me if anything comes up."

"You got it."

Her voice didn't exactly carry much enthusiasm but I knew she at least meant it. With that I headed back toward the elevator with Momo at my side and Kyu floating behind. She waited until the doors slid shut to float in front of me, arms crossed and still wearing the puzzled look.

"Just a thought, it might be better to start planning the celebrations until after we save our guy from the crazy demon's sex dungeon?"

I shook my head, relieved to finally be able to share my plans.

"The party is how we're getting your partner out. As for how…"

We had already left the building and were out into the streets by the time I had finished filling in Kyu on the details of how things would go down. By the look on her face I could see that there wasn't a single thing about this that thrilled her but as we continued to walk she remained quiet, only managing to get out the odd word before clamming back up and resuming her thoughts. After a few minutes she let out a heavy sigh, floating to a stop.

"I'm like 99% sure that I don't need to tell you that what you just said is fucking crazy but ya know, safety first. That's fucking crazy."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"All of this is crazy. And if you have a better suggestion than I'm all ears."

Instead of a response all I got was another hefty sigh which was essentially its own answer and without any further complaint, meant that we were ready as could be expected to start the next phase of the plan.

We arrived at the boardwalks but, much to Momo's dismay, headed beneath the rides and games into the sewer entrance below. It was a tunnel that Audrey had shown us in what felt like an eternity ago when Kyu had been looking for who was behind all the strange graffiti tags showing up around the city. It led into the temporary base of Celeste, the alien bounty hunter who we had grown closer to since our first encounter ended with both Kyu and I shot full of a paralyzing drug.

"Eww… its gross down here."

Just as Momo finished her complaint a beam of light emerged from the end of the tunnel, prompting the catgirl to squeal while I hid my eyes from the intense glare.

"You have five seconds to announce yourself."

The voice was booming and would be endlessly intimidating if I didn't know that it came from a modifier that Celeste used to hide her identity. It was a clever trick and likely did the job when it came to scaring off anyone unfortunate to come exploring.

"It's me! I brought Kyu and another friend with me!"

The light shut off immediately and I turned to see Momo still cowering behind me.

"It's alright. She's a friend."

Momo looked at me with wide eyes that only seemed to grow less fearful as I held out my hand for her to hold. She accepted the gesture, walking carefully at my side while Kyu floated ahead. Once we reached the end Momo's nervous grip loosened as she gazed around the room in awe.

It wasn't something I had a chance to appreciate on our first visit but Celeste's workshop was something to behold. In the center laid her spaceship with some pieces of its outer shell exposed to reveal the complex inner workings beneath. Beside it stood her workshop complete with a set of standard construction equipment along with various alien tools of unknown purpose. It also held her collection of gadgets, some of her own creation along with professionally made gear.

Celeste remained standing by the arsenal as we made our way inside, laying down a dangerous looking rifle that likely would have reduced us to goo if we had failed to obey her commands. When she turned to face us I could see she was wearing her normal casual outfit, a tight white and blue dress that matched her own unique color scheme. She smiled at our approach, nodding to both Kyu and I.

"Greetings. Sorry for the hostility. I heard a voice I did not recognize."

I waved off her apology and pointed over toward Momo who was still enamored by her surroundings.

"That would have been Momo. She's the one you saw hanging out in the hotel district late at night."

Celeste reviewed my words for a moment with her expression quickly brightening once she realized what that meant.

"I see! Does that mean you were able to find my previous mate?"

I rubbed the back of my head, trying to think of the easiest way to break the news as Momo wandered back next to me.

"What's a 'mate'?"

"Well little one, a mate is when two individuals of similar anatomy engage in inter-"

Celeste stopped her explanation part way as she noticed my head shaking back and forth while Kyu placed her hands over Momo's head to block her ears.

"Um… I'll explain that to you later Momo. Right now there's something else I need to talk about with Celeste."

Kyu took the hint that it would be best to keep Momo distracted for the time being, taking her by the hand and pointing to Celete's ship.

"Hey, you wanna see what the inside of a bitchin' space ship looks like?"

Without waiting for a response Kyu began to float towards the ship with Momo reluctantly in tow. Even knowing that Momo was already 'experienced' it felt odd exposing her to things that might ruin some of that charming innocence.

"Judging from your hesitation I take it the news is not good."

"Well… you could say that."

It took a few minutes to recap the situation for her. Thankfully Celeste was a quick learner and seemed able to understand the details as quickly as I could provide them.

"That is… bad. As enjoyable as sex is with humans I can not imagine it would be very pleasant for that to be one's only function. We must help him."

"And I have a plan for that. That's why I'm here actually."

Celeste raised an eyebrow and leaned back against her workbench. For an alien plenty of her mannerisms were strangely human but her features meant that it was impossible to forget her off world origin. But lucky for us it would be that very trait that would make this plan viable.

"How can I be of assistance?"

"Like I said Faye's hive is protected against a magical barrier. That means beings like Momo and Kyu are completely blocked off from entering but when we first met you mentioned you were resistant to magic."

Celeste nodded her head.

"That is correct. Although I am not entirely immune. If this succubus is as powerful as you and that Goddess say then it is unlikely I will be able to defeat her in battle"

"You're not going to fight her. Kyu and I are going to lead her out from her base. While she's gone security will be significantly lighter. Still too tight for a human like me to penetrate but…"

"Not for Tendriciden trained in unconventional combat and advanced stealth tactics. I see."

I smiled, feeling a significant amount of relief at hearing her words. While it was true that I trusted Celeste her connection to our planet was shaky at best. There was no guarantee that she would be willing to risk her life for a cause she barely had a stake in. Seeing the look of determination on her face was just the confidence boost necessary to ensure that this could all really work out.

"I still see one issue with this plan. How will you and Kyu lead her out from her base?"

"Well… I'm actually gonna need your help with that part too. Do you still have that alien we fought together back at my office?"

The question seemed to surprise her. She placed a hand on her hip while the other pointed back over to the ship.

"Of course. The Sireanen remains within its cell. Why?"

I winced, having silently hoped that she would understand my intentions without needing them sound aloud.

The alien had been Celetes's prey for a few months before it set its sights on her and Nikki . The creature apparently fed off the sexual energy of females, using a powerful pheromone to force them into a dazed state while its tentacles went to work on their exposed bodies. Nikki had already succumbed to its influence by the time I arrived but possessed no memory of the encounter afterward, writing it off as a strange dream.

"That chemical it used to subdue you and my friend… would it be possible for me to have some of it?"

Celeste stared at me with obvious disbelief, blinking at me as if she were waiting for me to say I was joking.

"That 'chemical' is a highly valuable and potent aphrodisiac. A single vial of it could earn millions on the black market."

"So what you're saying is it can be done?"

Celeste rubbed her eyes with her tone shifting to something resembling a school teacher scolding a student.

"Of course but the process is not as simple as you might believe. Sireanens only produce their pheromones when they are in the process of intercourse wherein it would take hours to generate enough worth utilizing. Afterward it would need to be collected and then the substance isolated. Only once it was cleared of any foreign bodies would it then produce the intended effect."

I did my best to follow along but she lost me at the lesson on alien chemistry. Still this would be vital to the success of the plan which meant that it wasn't something we could just replace.

"Do you have the equipment with you? To collect and analyze the substance or whatever?"

"I… yes. But that fails to help us with the first step. Most creatures can only stand less than an hour of sex with a Sireanen. This process normally requires teams of females working one after another. And while I mean no offense, humans are far from being the sturdiest creatures in this regard."

I shrugged my shoulders just as Kyu and Momo began their return from inside the spacecraft, Kyu arriving first with the catgirl close behind.

"So… everything looking good?"

I opened my mouth to update her on our problem before feeling an idea flash inside my mind.

"Kyu... I got a proposition for you."