Megaman X: Elysium Rising

Final Mission: Delete the Maverick Virus

Chapter 40: Pariah

By Genoscythe

AN: Dragon! Glad to see you're still onboard, man. I hope the rest of the story will be worth the ridiculous wait.

Tempest was very nearly bubbling with excitement as Tread Havoc and a pair of trash can-sized Reaverbots escorted him to the nearby maintenance hangar – perhaps, in a less disturbing reploid chassis, 'bubbling' would have been a more fitting verb, but Tempest's gnarled, insectile face and tattered black cloak fell short of the description. Between Tempest and Havoc, Stealth Claw and Pyre Mystic marched dutifully, never speaking or gesturing to one another. They weren't under suspicion yet, and they had to keep that advantage intact until the others were distracted.

"This is gonna be great!" Tempest cried. "As long as you don't put me in one of these oversized dreidels. Why the hell do you even have these?"

One of their Reaverbot escorts spun around to face him as it continued to hover forward.

"Look, it's smiling. Do me a favor and give me a body that can't smile."

"You will get what Eden assigns you," Havoc told him. "That's how Elysium runs. You will need to get used to it if you are to become part of the System."

"I'm a little worried, I'll be honest. You guys are acting like this new body won't be as murderific as I thought it would be."

"We never said it would be...murderific," the former Elysian said, spitting out the last Tempestism as if it tasted foul in his mouth. "It's not the body we're worried about so much as the mind we're putting inside it."

"Boss man seemed to think it was a good idea."

"Let me rephrase that, then. I'm worried about the mind we're putting inside a Kamarahan – which, you'll be happy to know, is the most powerful shell in our arsenal."

"That's not saying a whole lot," Tempest muttered, kicking one of their escorts and grimacing in dark delight as it tripped over one of its hover pods and crashed to the floor. It continued to roll back and forth until Havoc picked it back up as he walked past.

They arrived shortly at the Reaverbot hangar, and Tempest was the first to enter. From the hallway, Havoc could hear the appreciative whistle within.

"Wow. Remind me to send that Eden guy a gift basket of severed heads or something," he called, and as Havoc turned into the doorway, he saw that the criminal was already feeling along one of the Kamarahan's reploid-sized talons. Even in a four-legged crouch, it stood sixteen feet tall at the height of the ridged spinal blades on its back, which distracted Stealth Claw at first from the rows of beam cannons lining its flanks. Its head hung low – one giant, serrated mouth – but Claw could still see the gleam of a cycloptic red eye set inside the war machine's jaws, where a throat should have been. If the teeth, the claws, the serrated spine or the beam cannons couldn't get the job done, it was also equipped with a saurian tail that ended in a jagged spear.

"Really," Tempest began, genuinely shocked. "Thanks for lowering my expectations. This is awesome."

"Since you are so enthusiastic, you can go first," Havoc snapped, waving an armored fist at a gurney plugged in next to the Reaverbot by ropes of black cable. Claw looked around the room and saw two more Kamarahan shells, one blue and one red to differentiate from Tempest's black shell.

"Yes, please," Tempest said, mandibles chittering at record speeds. He circled the Reaverbot's paw and hopped onto the gurney, lowering his chitinous head beneath a brace containing a large refractor on the far end of the table. Their escorts hovered around him, tuning the machine with small manipulator arms that popped out of their chests. The red crystal over Tempest's head lit up, and the black cables filled with a crimson glow.

Stealth Claw hooked a padded finger through one of the EMP grenades strung around his waist, elbowing Mystic in the same motion. In the next instant, Tread Havoc was hit from behind by a baseball-sized object, and before he could turn around, every one of his primary systems shorted out in a blinding flash. Claw picked Mystic up by the ankles and slung her over his back, having been built with enough redundancies and backup programs to reboot immediately after the blast. Havoc and the Reaverbots were fully disoriented, and Tempest, as planned, was still being transferred into his new body.

Claw bolted out the door and ran down the hall as fast as his burden allowed, but to his surprise, Havoc barreled out after them. Half-blind, half-deaf, half-numb, he stumbled and tried to steady the artillery cannon on his shoulder with fingers that he couldn't feel.

"Behind us!" Claw yelled, and Mystic let go of his neck long enough to fling her hand out and fill the corridor with searing waves of flame. Havoc had to let go of his cannon to protect his face from the heat wave, and by the time it subsided, the two reploids were gone. It was a shame, too. He was fairly certain they would have helped him defeat Sigma and overthrow Eden if he had gotten the chance to ask them.

Havoc... a rumbling, groggy voice reverberated from within the Reaverbot hangar. I'm ready. Point me in the direction of the Egyptian whore.

Endymion sat perched atop a catwalk in what appeared to be an endless manufacturing plant for the Elysians' guard robots. A web of similar catwalks criss-crossed the abyssal space below him, and next to them, conveyor belts laden with Reaverbot parts trundled past. It seemed like no work was being done on the parts, but they passed through hollow columns filled with blue light at regular intervals. Whatever the Elysians were doing to their army, it was beyond Endymion's comprehension.

It was just as well, because the only thing on his mind was how, for the first time in his relatively brief lifespan, he was completely, utterly alone. He had been betrayed by the Maverick Hunters, he was now considered a threat to the Elysians, and he wouldn't join the Mavericks if they were the last reploids on Earth. Outcast, simply because he was dedicated to his job.

He was a Maverick Hunter. He was designed to do one thing exceedingly well: retire Mavericks. He had nothing else. X and Selene didn't understand that, and how could they? They had each other, they had lovers, friends, talents, hobbies. To Endymion, they were all the same thing – his love, his talent, his hobby all resided in hunting down renegade reploids. And they wanted to imprison him for it.

Endymion knew that Mystic was a Maverick, and if the others were as dedicated as him, then they would have seen it as their duty to retire her. They were not good Hunters. Endymion didn't understand why she was different to them, or why his pursuit of her was anything less than exemplary work.

The cat was another matter. That was personal, a concept that Endymion never thought he would encounter in his entire professional career. He never thought he would find a Maverick that could escape him, either. With a wound, no less. He moved, for the first time in over half an hour, to feel along the scars scribbled down his face. It was an insult, made all the worse by the fact that, without Mystic's intervention, he would have retired Stealth Claw during their first duel, and none of this would have happened.

Endymion was going to rectify the situation. He was a good Hunter. So good, in fact, that he planted a tracking bug on Mystic while he was interrogating her about Claw's whereabouts, and he could see in his mind's eye that she was heading straight for the manufacturing plant, and would be passing under his vantage point within five minutes.

He was a Maverick Hunter. Mystic was a Maverick. He would do his duty, but first, he would get her to help him with a small personal matter.

"What are we gonna do?"

"We're getting out of here, blondie."

"Where are we gonna go?"

"Home, baby."

"How?"

Stealth Claw stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned toward Mystic. Gently but firmly, he placed his paws on either side of her face, so that she appeared to be wearing slate-gray earmuffs. "I don't know," he said. "But I'm done with this war. I want to run away with you like I should have done the moment we met."

"What if it's too late for that?" Mystic asked, burying her hands in the paws cradling her face.

"Then you can blame me for everything."

She turned her head to the side and kissed the palm of his paw. "Stupid kitty," she murmured, mashing her nose into the rough padding on his hand. Claw's stern expression broke down, and he pulled her headfirst into a desperate hug.

"We'll keep moving until we hit the edge of this place," he said, trying to focus on business to keep from being overwhelmed by the strange mix of emotions brewing in his thoughts. Fear, despair, and incandescent love all vied for domination, and the struggle was becoming unbearable. "It has to end somewhere."

"I have bad news," Mystic mumbled, trying to speak through the crushing force of his embrace.

"This shitty excuse for a Promised Land doesn't end?" he asked, baring his teeth in a feline grin.

"No, not that. The silver Hunter is here."

"Endymion..." Claw hissed, baring his teeth in a similar but far more menacing expression. "Surprise, surprise."

"He found me once already. He would have killed me, except..."

"Except what?"

"X saved me," she said, apologetically.

"That guy's doing a really good job of making me feel inadequate," Claw muttered. "How many times has he saved your life? And how many times have you saved mine?"

"Don't say that," she sighed, pulling back to look him in the slitted eyes. "We've got bigger things to worry about than your little rivalry with X – which, I should just state for the record, is totally unnecessary and kind of annoying."

"Ouch."

"Before Endymion tried to kill me, he was asking about you. He's obsessed. I've got this weird feeling like he's stalking us, or something."

"Good thing we're in the universe's largest underground maze," he said. "He's not gonna find us in here."

"I told you, he already found me once. I think he can do it again."

"Well, just in case he does..." Claw purred, letting go of her with one arm and unsheathing the jagged blades within. "We'll give him the old one-two. Slash and burn."

"I'm scared of him," Mystic said. He retracted his claws.

"That was supposed to make you feel more confident," he pointed out.

"It didn't work, doofus." She slapped him on the ear and ducked under his arms. Walking backwards down the corridor, she motioned for him to follow her. "Unless you want to stand around and wait for him to find us, we should kinda keep going."

After descending a wide spiral staircase, the couple emerged from the labyrinth of corridors into a gigantic room that stretched off into darkness below and on either side of them. The walkway they crept across ran parallel to a conveyor belt transporting a constant stream of hollow-eyed Reaverbot heads.

"This is not a fun room," Claw noted. "Let's pick up the pace, yeah?"

"Want to carry me again?" Mystic asked, but before she could close her mouth, a gout of blood burst from it, dotting Claw's fur with oily red beads. For a moment, he couldn't believe what he had just seen. Then, Mystic fell forward and he had to start believing fast in order to catch her. As soon as he touched her skin, something struck him in the face and sent him sprawling down the walkway. Mystic slumped to the floor, trembling and bleeding out of a deep gash in her back.

Claw flipped himself upright, locking in his blades with the same motion. It had to be Endymion, but he was cloaked, and in the factory's low lighting, he found it impossible to pinpoint the source of the attack.

"You bastard," he choked, unable for once to formulate a more long-winded taunt. "You complete bastard."

"I'm a Maverick Hunter. She was a Maverick. It's my duty," a voice chanted, somewhere in the vicinity of the Reaverbot assembly line. Claw was surprised that Endymion's professional attitude had deteriorated so far since they had last met. He now had a rough idea of the Hunter's location.

"If she dies..." Claw began.

"She'll die," Endymion interrupted. "Then what?"

"Then I'll do the same for you," the Maverick finished.

"It was my duty," the voice repeated, then the cloaking field melted away to reveal smooth, aerodynamic armor and a ruined face. "But this is personal."

Selene felt sick, although she could not explain why. Without realizing it, she had begun to fall behind Axl and Malakai, who were absorbed in bickering over the details of the Elysian's story. Axl, of course, didn't trust Malakai or his supposed 'brain surgery,' while Malakai continually reminded the young reploid that his newfound lack of restraint gave him the ability to noogie far more vigorously and painfully than he could before.

"Your head will bleed," Malakai warned. "I wasn't allowed to hurt you before, but now it's all fair game."

"I just don't buy it. If it was so easy for you to remove the control chip in your brain, why didn't you do it a long time ago?"

"What makes you think it was easy, Short Bus? Back on Terra, it wasn't worth the risk, because I was still pretty much myself. I expected Delta to lose anyway, so I just went along with it. Then he gave me that tune-up after we came here, and...you know what? I don't need to explain myself to you."

"Yes you do. We need to trust each other if we want to survive."

"I have a feeling you won't trust me no matter what I do, Short Bus."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Why? It fits you in all kinds of ways."

They stopped when they heard a heavy thud behind them, and Axl was horrified to see Selene on her knees, staring into the floor.

"Selene? Are you okay?" he asked, rushing to her side. Malakai snorted.

"Axl..." she gasped, and he noticed that she was swaying unsteadily. "I'm getting dizzy..."

Axl turned to Malakai. "What's happening to her?"

Malakai snorted again. "Excuse me? Am I a doctor?"

"You're one of them. Is this some kind of Elysian weapon?"

"No. Jeez, you are paranoid. She's probably glitching."

"Thanks for the help," Axl said. He grabbed Selene by the shoulders, and she leaned into the crook of his arm.

"I feel..." she groaned. "Dead."

"Well, then pick up her corpse and let's move," Malakai told Axl. "We're near the West end of the Reaverbot plant. There should be a teleporter on the other side that'll get us close to the command center."

"Genoscythe never told us about any teleporters," Axl said, picking up Selene and steadying her against his side.

"That's 'cause they were deactivated during the split. Since we're all one big happy family again, Eden should have switched them back on."

"You keep saying should."

"I make no promises, Short Bus."

The two continued to argue all the way to the Reaverbot factory, but as soon as they stepped onto the walkway, Selene shrieked and pitched forward. Axl tried to steady her, but she recovered on her own and walked dazedly toward the center of the bridge. Malakai and Axl exchanged glances, then followed her. Selene abruptly stopped, turned, walked to the edge of the bridge, and stared down at a catwalk below. By the time Axl reached her, she was wracked with sobs, and after mimicking her gaze, he found out why.

"Oh my god..." he said. Malakai, peeking over Axl's shoulder, saw the tableau and recoiled.

"Wow," he breathed. "That wasn't the Elysians."

"I know what it was," Axl said, clutching Selene's hand. The petite Hunter merely wept.

Claw jabbed at Endymion's defenses, hoping to catch one of his single blades between his claws, but the Hunter was too agile. He twisted and danced out of reach every time Claw struck, until he sidestepped instead and cracked his elbow against the Maverick's jaw. The distraction allowed Endymion a chance to stab Claw in the chest, but he underestimated the thickness of the Maverick's black armor, and the cat recovered immediately.

Claw slashed wildly, shearing ribbons of neosteel from Endymion's shoulders and chest plate. Grabbing his wrists, he pulled the silver reploid in and thrust his armored forehead into Endymion's nose. The synthetic cartilage crumpled, and viscous blood ran from his flattened nose into the scarred troughs dug in his face. He dashed away, crouching in a fighting stance as the fresh blood flowing down his scars made the cuts appear to be new again.

"Let us go," Stealth Claw pleaded. "We want to get out of this war."

"Mavericks don't get second chances," Endymion replied. "Don't tell me you think you can talk your way out of this, after what we've been through."

"I was hoping, yeah. It's not too late."

"It's far too late," Endymion growled, trying to wipe the blood from his face.

"So I've heard," Claw said. "But I don't think it's true."

"One way or another, we're finishing this fight." The silver Hunter flicked his blades, and Mystic's blood spattered across the bridge. Claw was reminded of his beloved, who was struggling to push herself back onto her feet. The emotion cocktail shaking up in his brain ever since their conversation in the hallway finally coalesced into righteous fury. His vision turned a hazy red, and he felt his body making movements on its own. The Maverick Virus pushed him into the passenger's seat, and for once, he didn't mind. If the virus would help him defeat Endymion and save Mystic, he would gladly give his body up to it.

"Hmph. You've just proven my point, Maverick," Endymion spat, and Stealth Claw pounced with a feral growl, moving faster than he had ever done before. In two leaps, he was burying his claws into Endymion's chest. The Hunter hadn't expected his sudden increase in speed, and he could only manage an awkward retaliatory stab that caught in his opponent's metal ribs. Claw ripped his blades out, simultaneously kicking Endymion back onto the conveyor belt. The mad Hunter flipped and landed gracefully on the moving platform, but Claw was already on him again.

Endymion had recalibrated for the Maverick's amplified speed, and he flung out his right gauntlet. The blade plunged into Claw's neck, shearing servos and pistons in half but missing his all-important neuralnet hardline. Claw jerked his head back, dislodging himself from the blade, and swiped it away with his own gauntlet.

Without hesitating, Endymion skipped behind a Reaverbot head and kicked it at his opponent. Claw ducked under it and rushed down the conveyor belt, but Endymion was waiting for him, and he swung a right hook that sheared off the Maverick's left ear. Claw had difficulty turning his head, so he merely continued on and plowed into the Hunter shoulder-first. Their momentum carried them into another Reaverbot head, and they both ended up rolling across the conveyor belt into one of the mysterious pillars.

Claw shoved Endymion into the wall, positioning him for the killing blow. However, the blue energy crackling inside the column was interfering with his processor, and his reaction time was too slow. Endymion shifted out of the way as his claws buried in the wall, but instead of attempting another strike with his blades, the silver Hunter's chest plate blossomed open to uncover a short-range beam cannon. The interference was making it difficult to see, but from the ring of small, blinding dots around the interior of his chest armor, the cannon appeared to be scatter-shot. Even if Claw had the reflexes to jump out of the way, he was still trapped in the tight manufacturing pillar, and he would have to be practically behind the Maverick Hunter to avoid the blast. There was nothing he could do.

A pulse of white light flared out of the side of the column, heralding a storm of debris and a limp feline body that tumbled across the bridge. Stealth Claw eventually stopped with one arm hanging over the edge of the walkway, but he didn't have the strength to get to his feet. His armor was obliterated, and most of the unarmored parts of his body had the fur fused together into a mottled plastic tangle. Of all the emergency notices scrolling down the side of his vision, the one that superseded all others read:

Direct Flash Beam Damage to Right Lower Abdominal Quadrant

Right Heat Sink Inoperative

Residual Flash Beam Damage to Reactor Core

Epidermal Liquidation at 64%

Residual Flash Beam Damage to Cloaking Generator

Cloaking Generator Inoperative

Residual Flash Beam Damage to Left Hip Actuator

Residual Flash Beam Damage to Right Hip Actuator

And so on. Claw could feel the gaping hole in his side, and he could feel with just as much certainty the damage his legs had sustained. He managed to flop onto his side, but this merely afforded him with a view of Endymion pulling himself out of the wreckage of the manufacturing column. The energen crystal in his helmet was blinking wildly – his flash beam cannon had drained him, and judging by his unsteady gait, he had almost nothing left. It was still more than what Claw had, and the grip of the Maverick virus faded with the realization that he had failed. He would be retired, just like the rest of his friends, followed soon by Mystic if she hadn't succumbed to her wounds already.

Endymion stumbled across the bridge toward him, blades extended, leaving pointed bootprints in the trail of blood that Claw had left behind. He stopped after only covering half the distance, and his head whipped around desperately, as if seeking some invisible enemy. At first, Claw didn't know what had spooked the reploid, but then he saw it. Ripples in the air, like a giant elemental fist, were shrinking and closing in on the silver Maverick Hunter. Claw could feel their heat from where he lay.

The heat waves suddenly rushed together and enveloped Endymion. What started as invisible currents of energy erupted into a solar fireball that seemed to sprout from the silver Hunter himself, spewing tongues of flame that, instead of escaping and dissipating, curved back in on their source to sear him anew. Endymion screamed, and the symphony of agony in his voice was almost as shocking to Claw as the moment when Mystic was struck down right in front of him.

The molten figure staggering inside the miniature sun collapsed to his knees, and the flames began to lessen. Still unable to move his neck, Claw rolled in the other direction until he could see that his beloved was on her feet, several yards away from where the two combatants had ended up. She dropped her extended arms, shaking with fury and exhaustion.

Claw looked back at Endymion, whose synthetic skin had been scorched from his face and hands. A glassy-eyed metal skeleton stared out at the cat from within a blackened helmet. His scream had trailed off and become merely a series of ragged gasps.

"Lie down," Claw said. "It's too late for you."

To the Maverick's astonishment, Endymion rose to his feet again. He raised his gauntlet, aiming it at Claw's head. Then, Mystic brought her hands back together and a firestorm exploded out of the holes in the Hunter's armor. He howled again, and his chest plate burst open as the intense heat overloaded his flash beam cannon. Molten metal poured out of Endymion's wailing mouth, and he began to choke on his own liquidating insides.

"It's over," Claw told him gently. "You're done."

With a great deal of resistance, Endymion finally pitched sideways and landed face down, still burning and leaking smoldering neosteel. Despite the massive hole in his gut, on top of all the other little emergency notifications that continued to scroll off to the edge of his vision, Claw was appalled at himself and Mystic for what they'd done. Endymion was right. They were Mavericks. They chose the path that led them to this moment, and they were responsible for dragging him down with them.

As Claw ruminated, he failed to notice that Mystic had crouched next to him, but her arms around his half-severed neck brought him back to reality.

"Believe it or not, that's painful," he told her, but if she heard him, she gave no signs of relinquishing her hold on him. "Are you okay?"

"Why don't you take a guess, doofus," she replied, choking once on a sob.

"Okay, we'll play it like that. Are you still bleeding?"

"My body auto-cauterized," she said. "He nicked my reactor, but it's sealed now."

"I had no idea you could do something like that..."

"Yeah, well, we find out all kinds of things about ourselves when we see that our lovers are about to be stabbed to death."

"Or when we think they already have been," Claw added.

"Or that," Mystic said tersely.

"We can't stay here," Claw said, glancing involuntarily at the twisted, cooling husk that had soldered itself to the bridge floor. "I'm in bad shape, blondie. Like, not-sure-if-I-can-walk bad."

Mystic tugged on the big cat, forcing him to stand. The best he could do was lean on her.

"We'll make it," she said, and they took an experimental step. Claw survived, though it was clear that he wouldn't be breaking any more speed records for awhile.

"Unfortunately, I'm not as confident as I was earlier today," he muttered, as they hobbled toward the opposite end of the bridge.

"We'll make it," Mystic repeated. "Me and Endymion were wrong. It's not too late for us."

"You're just saying that to make me keep walking, babe."

"It's working, isn't it?"

Axl's protests fell on deaf ears as Selene hopped from their catwalk down to the bridge below, where Endymion's blasted skeleton had melted into the floor. Swathes of dried blood coated the walkway, and the nearby conveyor belt had been shut down to keep from dumping Reaverbot heads into the smoking crater where a maintenance pod once stood.

By the time Axl hovered to Selene's side, she had stopped crying. He was impressed with her fortitude – the sight of Endymion's corpse was even more gruesome up close than it was from above. He felt a desperate need to say something consoling, but it was more for himself than for Selene.

"He's better off now," Axl said. "Something was eating him his whole life."

"Axl..." Selene began, shaking her head. "Just don't say anything right now."

"Sorry," he said. "I was just trying to – "

"You don't understand what he was to me," she snapped. "He was a part of me. It's a feeling I can't describe, and now it's gone."

Axl decided his time would be better spent fighting the lump in his throat than saying anything else that he might later regret.

"I don't even know how to honor something like that," she continued absent-mindedly. "It would be like...saying my own funeral rites."

"I can help make up your mind for you," Malakai called from the walkway above them. "Leave his extra-crispy ass on the ground and get the hell away from that broken conveyor belt, 'cause you can bet Eden knows about it. This must've happened about five or ten minutes ago, it's a miracle we haven't been caught already."

"Don't you have any sense of respect?" Axl shouted. "For anything?"

"I'll leave the respect to you kids," Malakai replied. "Someone's got to take care of the common sense, and I don't think I could handle both at once."

"Screw you!"

"Axl!" Selene said. Axl's mouth clamped shut. "He's right. He's disgusting, but right."

"Thank you," Malakai said.

"We're almost back to the command center, right, Malakai?"

"You can bet your deep-fried brother we are."

"Then let's..." she stopped for a moment to glare venomously at the Elysian. "Let's go. There's no point wasting time here."

Malakai joined them on the lower bridge, and they crossed the rest of the distance without so much as a single word spoken. They tensed when they reached the other side, and two claw-armed Reaverbots stood on either side of the doorway.

"I knew it was too good to be true," Malakai grunted, readying his beam rifle.

Hello, Malakai, the Reaverbot said, in a voice that sounded remarkably like Alia's. Selene, Axl, we're so glad you're safe.

"Alia?" Axl murmured.

Yes, the lanky machine confirmed. We have a lot to explain. These Reaverbots will escort you back to the command center. At that, they both turned around and began filing through the doorway.

"Hot damn," Malakai said. "She's figuring out how Mother units work. This'll be easier than I thought."

"What will?" Axl asked, with a suspicious edge to his tone.

"Didn't I make it clear to you before, Short Bus? I have a plan."

"No, and stop calling me that."

A solitary maintenance Reaverbot scuttled up to the debris blocking Manufacturing Plant Access Path 133, and determined the wreckage to be a shell for sentient machine life. It clambered up the shell's melted sides, slipping on the smoothed edges and sweeping fins of the machine's armor. It reached the helmet and did a cursory scan for data storage devices. The scan came up negative. All processing and backup devices were burnt beyond recognition, and no useful data existed for a personality rebuild.

The Reaverbot sent a signal to its comrades, and soon, the shell was swarming with tiny machines that picked and chipped away parts until all that remained was a blackened outline, and when the cleaning Reaverbots made their rounds, not even that was left behind.

End of Chapter 40

AN: I apologize for the support-character-heavy chapter, but I want to tie up as many loose ends as I can while I still have the itch to write Megaman fanfiction. Besides, this chapter has been in my head for over four years, and it feels really, really satisfying to finally have it out there on the internet. Also, I may not be a furry, and in almost all cases I find the whole furry thing kind of disturbing, but I really enjoy writing Mystic and Claw together. Maybe there's a little furry inside us all?