Finn arrived somewhere near noon as the fox-woman was cooking up a lunch of pork stew. Billy had left him a couple of messages explaining what was going on, so he was hardly surprised to see the strange woman. Just as Billy had said, she was pretty. And dangerous. Striding up, he offered the lady of the house a bow. "Hello," said he. "I'm Finn." Smoothly, Billy explained, "this is my father..." Katsumi nodded and motioned for him to come to the table.
Settling himself, Finn said, "good afternoon. I'm told you're responsible for the safety of the village." Face cold, Katsumi replied, "I am..." Folding his hands on the table before him, the big man said, "perhaps you could tell me what's been happening..." It was full-on 'new-Finn' today. Billy himself was honestly a little queasy about that. He knew that underneath it all, this was still his dad. At the same time, the big, blue dufus was gone, and Billy missed that man. He missed the folksy man who treated women like grand mysteries and managed to find the good in any bad situation. New Finn sometimes seemed cold and distant.
Still New Finn was very much the hero Ooo needed. Billy shut his mouth, opened his mind, and listened as his father kept the touchy fox-woman calm even as he pried little details out of her. This conflict with Shrimp Boy had simmered for years with neither side pressing very hard. Katsumi had allowed minor extortion over the village's croplands and Chow had kept his men out of the village proper. There had been peace until recently. Lost in her pain, the witch had hardly stopped to think through the significance of that.
"Before we confined him in hell, the Lich set many things in motion," said Finn. "He had a following among the class of masterless bandits. Those men neither knew nor understood his true goal..." Katsumi goggled in horror and stammered, "y-you think Chow's still carrying out some twisted scheme for the Lich?!" The news shocked her to her core. In soothing tones, Finn reminded her, "they no longer have his backing. He's imprisoned where no force on Ooo can reach him. We can shut Shrimp Boy down. Just need a little help from you."
Katsumi got up and went to the edge of the porch. For a long, long time she stood staring into the village. Billy had some idea what she was thinking of. He'd thought it. This was her piece of the world. She was dedicated to its survival. At the same time, the doom set in motion by the Lich respected no boundaries. "What do you need," she murmured? At first neither man heard her. Turning to face them, she said it a little louder, "what do I need to do?"
Calm as anything Finn told her, "for this to work, you need to die." The fox-woman frowned at him. Billy took up the thread. "Yeah, dad," he said. "That's brilliant. He'll totally buy into it if I bring him a big, bushy fox-tail!" Her face went hot, and unconsciously she folded her tails behind her. Realizing that she'd misunderstood Bill amended, "I've seen foxes around here. All we need is a tail from one of them..."
Back in the Candy Kingdom, Cherry Mertens walked in on Drew's patient to find that she was doing just as Drew had said. She was playing Card Wars. Sort of. As the crime-lord watched in puzzlement, pieces moved on the board of their own volition. Some of those markers looked like people she knew, and they struggled against people she had never seen before. It was an amazing sight made all the more amazing because Maja was fast asleep in her chair. When Drew would have spoken, Cherry put a finger to her lips, shushing her. She wanted to see this.
Together the pair watched from the door as that strange game played itself out. At a couple of key points in Maja's game, Drew thought she saw Billy or Finn. It was clear they were dealing with some of the locals in the Kingdom of Truth, but other than a brief glimpse of Princess Sakura, Drew recognized no-one else. Cherry watched with far more focus, suggesting she did know some of the players. Both women found the strange fox-woman very interesting. Finally the game petered out, and soft sounds of snoring from Maja suggested a deeper sleep.
Cherry nudged the doctor out into the hall and shut the door. "Ok," she said, "what does that mean, and how many times has it happened?" Drew flushed, telling the fallen attorney that her hunch was true. With a soft sigh, Drew admitted, "I think it happens every time he leaves town..." She couldn't be sure because she'd only seen it twice before. Cherry's dark eyes burned into hers, and Drew admitted, "I didn't want to upset things..." "She's possibly seeing the future, Drew," Cherry reminded the doctor. "At very least, she's seeing things where Finn is. That's very dangerous..." The doctor glanced away. With a sigh, Cherry said, "we'll talk in the morning. Get sleep..."
On the far side of the world, the subjects of Maja's strange dream wrapped up their fox-hunt. Finn had trapped the critter not far from the village, and Billy had done the job of removing its tail. Moving on, they met with the village headman, fleshed out the details of the plan, and got the village involved in putting things in motion. As Katsumi watched, the strangers fortified the quaint village where she'd spent the last thousand years.
She wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. Her neat little existence had just been upended, and honestly she was having trouble processing all of this. The world hadn't ended the night she trapped herself here, but she hadn't wanted to know what had happened outside the village. She was ashamed of the part she'd played in the world's downfall and unsure what to do now.
If that wasn't enough, she now knew Talia was alive. Her old rival had survived the bombs. Talia was a witch–like her. How many others were there? It was a shocking coincidence to have two such creatures hiding out in plain sight. And this pair actually knew Talia! It was another astounding coincidence. She was starting to think maybe whatever cosmic powers ran the universe were trying to tell her something. Was the world headed for another massive shock? The very idea left her terrified. For a woman tired of immortality, she was having real trouble accepting death.
As the day drew to a close, Bill climbed into a car with his bloody fox tail and headed back to Fengdu. Finn gathered up their gear, took the fox-woman by the arm, and headed up the mountain above the village. It was another of the jarring differences of the moment. It had been over eight-hundred years since anyone dared touch her like that. Even the bravest villager kow-towed to 'Miss Imai'. Touch her without permission? Never! These men possessed a shocking confidence that left her wondering just who the hell they were.
They both appeared human, but the last humans she knew died centuries back. It helped not at all that all she could seem to think of when she looked at either was how good they'd look with just a speedo on. Yep, she thought, you shouldn't have tossed that vibrator. Even without batteries, it was better than the nothing you've got now. She was frazzled and worried and more than a little horny.
The pair arrived at a beautiful scenic overlook. She knew the place. The local kids came up here to make out just like their parents and grandparents had. "Sorry if this is all a shock," said Finn. Katsumi shrugged, trying to sound more nonchalant than she felt. He remarked, "you know a lot about Shrimp Boy." "He was born in this village," she admitted. "He couldn't follow my rules. I made him leave when he was fourteen. He's hated me for years. Mostly we ignored each other until recently..." Nodding, Finn opined, "explains the thing with the liquor..." Blushing, she said, "the villagers used to leave offerings of food to secure favors. It's... a tradition..."
The stranger nodded. Instead of prying into things and asking questions that she hated answering, he kept the peace. She was at once grateful for not having to explain once again the traditions that bound her existence and, at the same time, she was disturbed by a man who showed none of the native curiosity she expected of a man. It was especially not helping that she knew that he'd met Talia. They had an arrangement. Her own curiosity was eating her up, and she couldn't indulge it because, well, that would have damaged her own position. There was power in mystery. She had power because he didn't know her. Trouble was, she was staring to see that cut both ways.
With the sun sinking into the west over the mountains and the sky fading to crimson, they sat and waited. Nothing got said. Finn was focused on business and his strange host was disturbed, bordering on distraught. As the daylight faded, the air grew chill, and Katsumi found herself shivering. She'd forgotten her jacket. Almost as if he'd done it a thousand times, the stranger slipped his jacket over her shoulders. When she looked at him, he merely said, "that's a girl's place in life. Sexy clothes aren't comfortable. A dude's job is to give the girl his jacket." A tale as old as time. He had a shocking serenity. She felt like she'd somehow lost hers.
The night dragged on, and the fox-woman found herself eaten up by curiosity. The questions danced on the tip of her tongue. Who was he? Was he as human as he appeared? Was he a survivor like her? His son had supernatural powers. So many questions danced on the tip of her tongue. Unfortunately, as the moon made its debut, the opportunities to ask those questions got cut drastically short.
It began as a soft, muted rumble. It quickly grew louder. As Katsumi and her strange ally watched, thousands of torches came bobbing up the road from Fengdu. It appeared Shrimp Boy was in a hurry. It was time to get busy. Rising, Katsumi handed back the jacket. The time for being girly was done. Sliding his arms into the jacket, Finn said, "I'd very much like it if you'd follow my play. I... saw the Lich cause a lot of death..." "...and you'd not add to the pile," Katsumi burbled. "Alright. Lead on..."
There were a lot of them. It seemed to Katsumi that her former neighbor had been scouring the land to scrounge up every bandit and low-life he could find. "A lot of these men are hungry," said Finn. "They have families to feed. He's taking advantage of them." Katsumi grunted something impolite. "I have to do better," he said as he stepped off. She wasn't sure if he meant that for her ears or someone else's. Momentarily there were more important things on her mind. Shrimp Boy had just gotten out of a car, carrying a heavy sword festooned with a fox tail. The fox-woman saw red. Just like that. She'd save this wretch's ancestor from becoming radioactive ash, and he wanted to cut off her tails for decorations.
Stepping out of the woods before the bandit-lord, Finn announced, "hey..." The startled gangster stared at him a moment. Finn said, "the Mother of Thieves duped you, man. She was working with the Lich to end the world. There's no reason to do this anymore..." Frowning, Shrimp Boy demanded, "who are you?" "I'm called Finn the Human," said the King of Ooo. "Maybe you've heard of me?" Many of those faces had. With Jake's help, Finn had slaughtered a tribe of giants rampaging across Sakura's kingdom when he was fifteen. Several men edged back from him. "He's one man," howled Chow Cheung!
"Maybe," opined Billy as he came around the crowd to stand beside his father. The family resemblance was obvious. Shrimp Boy stared down at his prize, and it was clear that he now realized he'd been duped. "I'll kill you all," he growled! Before he could give a single order, Katsumi stepped out of the woods right in front of him. In front of the terrified soldiers of his army, the guardian of Shiyan village grabbed him by the collar, pressed her blood-red lips to his, and deployed the deadliest of her powers.
He never screamed. Indeed, there was a look of utter bliss on his face. At the same time, he began to slowly petrify before their very eyes. She was draining the life from him. In just moments, the Gangster-Lord of Fengdu had been turned into a very life-like stone statue. Almost negligently, the guardian toppled the statue on its side, causing it to shatter. A reddish mist seeped up out of the broken remnants. As the strange mist blew away on the wind, the bandit army disintegrated. Men were now climbing over each other to escape.
"Neat trick," Finn opined. "Bleh," spat Katsumi! "Phah! Not really. You have to share their every disgusting thought! Yuck!" There had been some really gross ones in there about her! Kicking aside a chunk of the late Chow Cheung, the fox-woman glared at the pair of heros. Billy, however, had already moved on. Completely unflappable, he turned to his father and opined, "Not bad, dad. You didn't even need to get your hands dirty."
Finn was just happy to have gotten this rogue army shut down with only minor loss of life. "That's it," burbled the fox-woman? Both men gave her identical puzzled looks. "Y-you plan on doing nothing else," she demanded? Guessing at what she was saying, Finn told her, "this valley is yours. I will issue a proclamation ceding control of it to you, Your Highness." "Wh-who are you to do that," she demanded? With a sweet smile, Finn replied, "merely King of all I survey." Slapping her on the shoulder, he turned to go. "See you around," said Billy, as he gave her a jaunty salute. The two men went strolling back towards the village where their driver was waiting.
The sun was high in the sky the following day when the Mertens boys came rolling up to the docks. Both men had enjoyed a delightful–and restful–night. Flush with cash from a surprisingly easy few days toting the strangers around, their driver was singing. He'd admonished them twice to come back soon. They could put his kids through school or pay off his house! Pulling up to the end of the pier where the Lamprey-Folk submarine sat, the driver all but bounced out of his seat and rushed to retrieve their bags.
Finn and Billy took their time, even stretching a little before heading up the dock to the sub. As they climbed the gangplank, Billy caught sight of the captain sunning herself up at the bow in a string bikini that left little of her to the imagination. Tearing his eyes away from the sight of that big ass and those knobs, Bill told his dad, "I think I'm'a go call the girls..." The coward. They had discussed this. The trick to dodging princess entanglements was to hang together and not get separated. After all, no princess really wanted to be known as a ho, even if they actually were.
No sooner had his son dipped out on him than his would-be girlfriend was on her way up the deck, carrying her towel instead of wrapping herself in it. Finn sighed. It was a long, twelve-hour trip back to Sakura's place. Sheila's suit barely had two cloth triangles to cover her nips, and it was clear she shaved more than her legs from the size of the triangle covering her girl-bits. Finn tried not to groan and did his best to look her in the eye. It helped not at all that Nadia's nano-bugs had boosted his testosterone. He had the hormones of a teen, and while that helped him keep his muscles and gave him energy, it came with problems. He was fucking horny, and the evening spent with Talia's pal the fox-woman had helped that not at all. And now this.
The ship set sail not long after Finn was below decks. Sheila wasted little time hanging around. Finn settled his gear in his quarters while he hoped and prayed his old chum would leave the flirting alone tonight. Unfortunately, four hours after they sailed, one of the sailors came to his door with a message. Sheila had asked her two guests to dine with her tonight. With a sigh, Finn pulled his jacket back on and headed out into the passageway outside. "This way, sir," said the sailor.
The King of Ooo put on a smile as he followed the sailor down the passageway to the dining hall. The sounds of people having supper coming up the hallway gave him a little bit of comfort. The crew was eating. Surely Lamprey Princess wouldn't try anything in front of the entire crew? He was a little dismayed when his escort led him past the ship's main dining room. "Uh," he interrupted. The sailor told him, "Her Highness is dining in her quarters, sire." It took an act of will not to roll his eyes. Still, he wasn't planning on screwing anybody tonight, even if he was wound up and horny as fuck.
When they arrived at the Captain's cabin, the sailor held the door for Finn, shutting it after him when he'd gone inside. Just as promised, there was a feast laid out on the small table with delicacies and delights from all over Ooo. Sheila had spoiled him before when he was on her submarine, and honestly he hadn't been eating all that well lately. Still, the fact that there was no Bill here gave the lie to the sailor's suggestion that she had invited both of them. Yup. More of the same.
"Hey," he greeted her. "G'day, Finn," she replied. It was another sexy, skin-bearing dress. This one covered her big knobs with a pair of straps in black satin that went up and over her neck, leaving her shoulders and back bare to show off the tan she'd been working on while he and Bill were on the mainland. Taking the seat opposite her, Finn opened with, "how was your day?" "Better'n yours, love," she replied. He wasn't so sure. He'd gotten a lot done. "Really," she burbled? "You'll have to tell me about it." Leaning her head on her hand, the lady gave him a smile. When Finn might have proceeded to do just that, she instead moved to lay out dinner.
She was pulling out all the stops. She had ice-cream and cold beer along with sausage sandwiches and meatballs in red-sauce. And on top of all of that, she had Golden Honey and buns to slather it on. Of course Finn had to draw the line at that. The stuff hit him hard, and he knew that if he got high, he'd be doing whatever she wanted. Turning down the Honey–politely–he dug in, ravenously tearing his way through a couple of the sandwiches and the meatballs and noodles, finding the bread strangely sweet and the noodles delicious.
Setting down his fork, he found himself feeling oddly happy, even bubbly. It was a good thing he'd turned down the Honey. Sheila picked up the jar of Honey and asked, "you sure you won't have any?" She put a dab on her finger and tried to feed it to him. Giggling in happiness, Finn did his best to dodge that finger. Yeah, it was good that he wasn't having any! Sheila rose at those words. Coming around the table, she slipped into his lap, saying, "funny thing, Finn... I put honey all through that bread, the noodles, and the sauce too. Did you enjoy the meal?"
Finn's jaw came open. Grinning her toothy grin, Sheila leaned down to kiss him. It had been a bit of a hang-up for him–those teeth, and her rough, raspy tongue. With the strange narcotic honey in his gut, Finn sighed softly when she drew back. "Oooh," said the fish-girl. "That feels... impressive." His face flushed, and he felt like his head had been stuffed with cotton. He could feel the effects of the honey as it really started to hit him. It wasn't full on like he'd eaten it raw on something, so there was that, but he'd eaten a lot of bread and noodles and licked his fork clean of the sauce. He was messed up, and he was just lucid enough to know it. When Sheila kissed him for the third time, he found himself with his hands on that big, round ass of hers, squeezing and caressing it. Either she wasn't wearing panties, or she was wearing a pair that was as skimpy as her bathing suit from earlier.
Snockered as he was, he knew he shouldn't be touching her this way, but Sheila was relentless. Stroking her ass gave way to her putting his hands on her big tits. And when he got to the point where he was caressing her big rack on his own, she progressed to unfastening the catch at the back of her neck, letting her dress fall down so he was skin-on-skin with those heavy globes. Shortly after, he was licking and nipping at the thick tips. Still, he resisted, and that was when she turned up the heat, dabbing the sticky honey on her nips.
"Oooh," she moaned, as he slurped up more of the intoxicating syrup from her hot body. "C'mon," she urged him. "Babe," he moaned. "I..." She knew what he was going to say. Teasing his face with the tip of a finger, Sheila said, "a little sugar. No strings, Finn..." The big man laughed. He'd heard that one before. Grinning her toothy grin, she held up a condom in a packet, saying, "protection from surprises..." That gave the big man pause. Maybe it was the honey she'd dosed him with, but he found himself thinking that he hadn't had a lot of luck dodging these encounters anyway. If they took precautions against making babies, this should be ok.
Picking her up, he carried Sheila over to the bed. Laying her down, the big man got to grips with those big knobs. If he was stirred up, she was just as stirred up. As he caressed her big rack, licking and sucking on her knobs and teasing them with his lips and teeth, she moaned and squirmed on the bed. Her face was red, and her eyes were shut. The King began tugging and pulling on the soft material of her dress, pulling it down off her broad hips to expose the skimpiest pair of hot-pink panties he'd ever seen. It was almost like she wasn't wearing anything at all.
Sheila helped him out by raising that amazing ass of hers. Broad in the beam like Simone, Betty, and Nadia, Sheila took 'ass' to a whole new level. It had been one of the crazy dichotomies of their relationship. The fish-girl was at once smokin' hot, but off-putting in a weird way. When he bent and sniffed at her snatch, he was reminded of her odd, fishy smell. Wasted as he was, a lot of him didn't care. He was horny, and he wanted to fuck her. He wanted to finally bang Sheila. Untying the skimpy strings holding those panties on, the big man went down on her, teasing and tormenting her hot gash.
Sheila's hips jumped, practically smacking him in the face. Her legs wrapped themselves tight around his neck, as if she would never let him get away. Her sharp nails clawed at the bed, as she gulped down lungfuls of air, while her fantasy-boy made her scream. She was shivering when he finally came up for air.
The busty girl lay there gasping for air, and even her gills were trying to suck in oxygen. A corner of his mind wanted to say 'weird', but his pecker was in charge today. While he'd been working her over, he'd slipped the rubber on. Now he covered her lips with his own, in spite of the razor-sharp teeth in her mouth, and that sharp, raspy tongue. He pressed his fat knob against her and pushed. The fish-girl squealed loud enough to clear a little of the fog from his mind. Somebody could hear that! At the same time, she enfolded him in those long, strong legs, pulling him into her, telling him he wasn't getting away.
Her hands clawed at his back, as the King of Ooo railed the shit out of her. Wailing and squealing, she went off again and again, while her nasty, sharp–and somewhat venomous–talons scratched up his back. The big man found himself pinning her arms over her head to stop her. It was as bad as Simone and Betty had ever done it to him with the unpleasant bonus of the irritating poison on her nails. He'd have some pretty nasty welts in the morning. At the same time, he was shocked at how good this felt. It was raw and nasty, and she was going crazy. And he wasn't far behind her. Her big, beautiful knobs jiggled and wobbled with every jab of the stick, sometimes even slapping their owner in the face. And when she really blasted off, her back would arch, and she'd squeeze him with those legs hard enough to hurt. Finally, the big man lost the battle to hold out, and he gave her both barrels.
Collapsing on top of her, he lay there a moment, while he got his breath. Sheila lay there beneath him in a shattered heap, sucking down air like a landed-fish. Rolling on his back, he pulled her on top of him. The honey in him was telling him to go again. The nasty, horny customer the drug unleashed wanted him to go again while he had the chance. The rest of him was succumbing to sleep rather quickly. With a groan, Finn flopped over on his back. He had enough presence of mind to hug Sheila before he was out like a light.
Lemons, of course. :)