Nexus Effect

Ch.126

“*gulp, gulp, gulp* Pwah! Oo...that was a good climb.” Juneau said from her place sitting on a bench after chugging from her water bottle. Hunter was panting as hard as she was, their tongues out to vent their body heat. Curse their fluffy necks and other warmth-retaining bodily features in this tropical climate!

“I forgot how tiring hiking was when it was just for the sake of hiking. When you’re marching to fight demons and whatnot, you’re so full of adrenaline that the hike to the battle is barely noticable.” Hunter said from his seat next to her. It’d only been a day and Juneau was already noticeably taller and her bit of belly chub was gone, migrated to her bust and butt to reveal her rock-hard abs under her sports bra.

They were both lightly dressed, considering the heat and their respective cold-climate bodies. Shorts and light tops were their outfits today and Hunter felt a bit of his humility give way to pride at every girl they passed staring at him. “I wouldn’t know that. Hiking is part of my job, but when you’ve got a government-provided quad-jumper, it’s hard to find an occasion in the mountains to leave it behind.” Juneau fanned herself and Hunter shared her gratitude for this small gazebo the island’s ‘adventure’ resort put here for such a need.

“Well, at least our armor suits have a self-contained climate control. You need it when you’re fighting in the depths of Hell.” Hunter said as he chugged his own water, then checked the time. “Oh, time for your medicine June.”

“It’s noon already? Geez, I didn’t realize the hike would take that long.” Juneau held out her palm, accepting the tablet full of microsurgeons and other scientific and magical wonders that would turn Juneau into a towering curvy amazon. She casually popped it into her mouth and drank water to get it down. “Blech, tastes like one of those magnesium throat lozenges.”

“They can’t improve the flavor of the pills, which is why the liquid option is preferred.” Hunter had forgotten to replenish his miracle milk. He had so many opportunities, but he utterly forgot due to the friction between him and the others lately. At least his rations still had water.

“Either way, I’m already fit, but my bust is already so huge I’ll need a new uniform anyway. I might as well stick to it and require a full refitting for my uniform.” Juneau shrugged, sending her now bowling-ball sized boobs bouncing in her sports bra. She made every woman gawk at her size until they were distracted by the hunk next to her. A hunk she hoped would become her’s, even if he was already married.

This sentiment was actually shared by Hunter, who hadn’t connected to someone on this level in a long time. She’d helped him decide to rekindle the more romantic and personal level of his marriage to his wives. “You know...you don’t have to go back if you want to come with me.”

“I could, but I’d like time to say goodbye to friends, family and coworkers.” Juneau immediately replied and Hunter was slightly surprised at how quickly she had considered the idea of running off with him. “My parents are old and retired to their ski lodge, my brother is an ass I can barely stand, my coworkers are fine but they all have their own lives and families. I’m lonely Hunter. I’ll go with you anywhere, but I at least want to tell everyone I’m leaving first.”

“Thanks. Hm, it would seem the others are in similar straits as you.” Hunter noted since his siblings were giving out the treatment to their new lovers. “I guess you’ll all be coming home with us.”

“That’s good to hear, but how tough is your galaxy? I mean, with how jacked up your people are, it must be rough going.” Juneau questioned and while she wasn’t wrong, there was more to it.

“You should consider how tough the three galaxies where I’m from are. My people from Devorak are from staunch military traditions and warriors, Andromeda sought out this level of physical fitness in pursuit of prosperity and the Milky Way is on track to join in from necessity.” Hunter informed his lover to help blow her mind, but instead she was thinking of three anthropomorphic ‘galaxies’ with buff bods all flexing in some hilarious ‘gun show’ “You are silly.”

“Out!” Juneau demanded with an embarrassed yelp and a bright blush that made her cheek fur fluff up. “Stop watching my silly daydreams!” Juneau fretted, even playfully waving her hands in the air, dispelling her imaginary thought bubbles.

“Cute.” Hunter gave a throaty chuckle as he stopped teasing her.

“So, um...I know it may be too soon, but why don’t you speak aloud? After you dropped the disguise, at least for me, I noticed the slash on your throat is gone.” Juneau asked gently, rightly having assumed it was a sensitive subject.

“Ah, alright then. Sorry, I’ve been mute for several thousand years. I’m so used to using my telepathy to communicate.” Hunter spoke normally, it still felt surreal to be using his actual voice. “Uh, how would your folks react to me?”

“C-can we talk about that later?” Juneau suddenly deflected, horrified exaggerated images of a towering middle-aged husky shaking his head in disappointment and kicking her out of her
home as a tiny female husky wept in a corner flashed in her mind. “We will talk about it later, just...not now. Please?”

“Sorry. Is there anything else you want to know?” Hunter changed the subject to distract her from such negativity.

“Yeah...is the ‘living biomachine’ thing your natural born state, or is that also something new like the wings?” Juneau asked curiously as they started hiking again. He enjoyed that she liked to lead, because it gave him such a pleasant close look at her already nice and rapidly improving ass.

“It’s something new like our celestial wings. It was what saved my sibling and I.” Hunter answered but didn’t want to elaborate further.

“So...uh...I bet the wings and halo have a pretty tight restriction on them, but do you think I might turn into a robot-person if we get intimate?” Juneau’s imagination got silly again, like her getting boinked by him, amusingly enough, then turning into a spaceship and flying away with him. As silly as it was, it was also adorably romantic, but that does raise a concern...

“I...uh...oh. I was...but she was synthetic to begin with…” Hunter thought back to Lupus, who turned into a cybertronian much more slowly than a conversion from Nora, but it was still after having sex with him. She was in so much pain though...but she was synthetic to start with. “I honestly don’t know, but considering I know a cybertronian who screws organics frequently and doesn’t turn them into other cybertronians, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Whew. Kinda disappointed, but one body alteration at a time. Now, stop just staring at my ass and push me up, this one’s a bit high for me.” Juneau wagged her tail and wiggled her butt at him as she grabbed the next ledge, which was almost chin-height for her.

“Yes ma’am~.” Hunter grabbed that jean-clad booty and gave her a boost up.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Did you sleep well?” Was what Celestia opened up with when Oikonny took the initiative to call her back after he’d slept a full 12 hours after the last time and checked the clock to see it was mid-morning in Corneria City, which was the capital of Corneria, because of course they had no ability to name it something more original.

“Yes, quite. I’ll be glib with you Celestia: I’d just finished an impromptu full-scale planetary war with the mutants my Uncle accidentally created beneath the waves of Venom’s caustic oceans and managed a five hour power nap before being awoken by someone, then you. I was rather cross and I apologize for any disrespect I may have displayed.” Oikonny didn’t like the restrictions the Cornerian government had on its people, but he respected the mare for her ability to run the nation for over a thousand years with help from her similarly ageless sister.

“It is quite alright. I get rather snippy myself if I don’t get rest for days on end. That said, is there a purpose for your call to my desk?” Celestia politely asked and Oikonny looked out the window down at Venom.

“Yes. Since we’ve opened dialogue, I was hoping for a peaceful resolution to our feud.” Oikonny didn’t like the idea of parlaying with the forces that had oppressed and suppressed his people, but right now Corneria genuinely held all the cards militarily.

“Truly? That is wonderful! I’ve been hoping for you to be willing to speak to me for years!” Celestia declared happily and Oikonny sighed.

“I couldn’t give in until I had Venom. My people needed their home back. Anything less than that and I wouldn’t have had the ability to bargain for our independence. However, I know you aren’t the president at this time. It’s likely I’ll need to speak to President Pepper, but I know you’re reasonable enough to accept my attempt at diplomacy.” Oikonny replied and Celestia hummed.

“True enough. I’ll arrange a comm conference with him for you. I’ll call back with a time for the conference later today. I hope you continue on this path towards peace, Oikonny.” Celestia cheerfully said before they both hung up.

“Well, this is a predicament.” A strange reptile with bug wings said as it landed on Oikonny’s head. “Hello, I’m Aliata, a Fairy of the great goddess Wiatr! Out of all the planets in this system’s people, I like you the most! You actually want freedom of choice which is what my mistress’s church is all about! Can we team up? All I want is a temple to my Mistress and we’ll give you things!”

“First: Get off my head.” Oikonny coldly demanded and the strange creature quickly did so, flying out of arm’s reach. “Second: There is no institutionalized religion in the Lylat System. Third: I refuse to do such things unless you can provide proof of your so-called Goddess’s power.”

“That’s why I exist!” Aliata chirped cheerfully and did a pirouette. “I can grant you four wishes! They need to be related to Sex, Fertility or Commerce though. I can’t grant them otherwise.”

“How very...pagan. Very well, a test then. That planet below, do you see it? A caustic ball of acidic oceans, burning air and unbearable heat. Can you do something about it?” Oikonny questioned the mysterious creature, who gasped at his question.

“N-not on that scale! Not even my Goddess can do that all at once. I could create a pool that would purify water, but it would only work for the region I create it in. I could also bless seeds to grow in such an environment or other such things.” Aliata muttered as she considered how she would be able to help such a poorly-chosen planet to colonize. “I could also do much simpler things so long as they fit into those three Aspects I mentioned.”

“Hmph, very well then. I Wish for something to transpire that would give my people a boost to our economic situation without undue death, disease or dismemberment. Is that vague enough for you to fill in the gaps?” Oikonny asked with those provisions. He’d read books like ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ and several tales of genies tricking their masters into fates worse than death.

“Well, yeah, you could be more specific, but here.” Aliata said as she floated to the window and soon a mountain exploded, the side crumbling to reveal mounds and veins of rare metals used in ship crafting. There was also a purple white plasma that seemed to flow from the mountain into a valley like lava. “Huh, I was not expecting a new form of Argent. You might want to be careful studying that. Oh, I didn’t put that stuff there, it was already under the rocks, I just pressurized the faults in the mountain to slough 3,574 tons of earth off of it.”

“Well...that was impressive. I’ll order my scrappers to build drilling and other mining equipment post-haste. I’ll be holding on to those other three wishes if that is fine?” Oikonny brought up his tacpad and began rapidly typing out orders to move in on the sudden mineral riches that Aliata had exposed. They’d known that Venom was rich with resources beneath all the corrosion, it was just a hassle to both find and then harvest it due to said corrosion. Ironically, it was because of said corrosion that there was so much valuable ore and minerals saturating the planet.

“No problem! I can hang around as long as you want.” Aliata chirped and settled on his shoulder. “This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship!”

“Please don’t shout in my ear.” Oikonny politely requested.

“Sorry. Still not used to people with ears on the sides of their heads.”

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“Good work, Discord. Without your aid, I fear Star Fox would have suffered casualties from your descriptions of how many Aparoids assaulted Fortuna.” President Pepper appraised after he finished reading Discord’s habitually chaotic and disorganized report. He’d been dealing with the chimeric man for the majority of his service, so he’d learned to work around his eccentricities.

“It was fun, yet not-fun. Those Aparoids are a personification of Order the likes of which make Tia’s loosely authoritarian rule look like a five-year-old’s birthday party. That said, I’ll be staying here. Those things have FTL warp gate technology centuries ahead of Beltino’s pet project in orbit.” Discord grimly intoned, reminding Pepper of that part in the report.

“Yes. It would be best to maintain a defensive stance in response to the Aparoid invasion. We do not know where they are coming from, so until then we must be ready to react.” President Pepper huffed in distaste. He’d had enough war. As soon as this one was over, he was retiring.

“At least you don’t have to keep a force at Venom with those upstarts taking it back after warning us about all of this. Don’t worry though, I sense way less Chaos is involved in the near future thanks to that move. I may not like it very much, but hopefully it means less war. War is a predictable Chaos and I’ve grown sick of it too.” Discord snapped his fingers and popped like a confetti balloon, leaving said paper pieces littering his office.

Before he could call for a janitor, his phone rang, so he picked it up. “Mister President, I would like to schedule a diplomatic conference call between you and Oikonny. He called me to open negotiations regarding the situation earlier this morning, so I waited until my husband was gone.” Celestia informed him and Pepper hummed in consideration.

“I have an opening this afternoon immediately after lunch. Let him know that is when I can speak with him today. If he is unavailable, I have most of tomorrow unscheduled right now.” Pepper told his temporary secretary, because as soon as this was over, she was President again.

“I’ll let him know. Don’t forget to take your heart medication with lunch.” Celestia hung up after that motherly reminder and Pepper grumbled about not being so old he forgot his medication.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“-Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego~?!” I sang as I floated about the Great Fox as an adorable cuttleship. I only vaguely remembered where we were headed. Katina? Something about losing contact with one of the outposts and none of the local defense forces there can find anything amiss. So it’s up to team Star Fox with help from Team Shepard to find the truth!

Also because apparently Slippy has bullshit good sensors or something and President Pepper trusts we can find what the standard military sensor suites are missing. I don’t know...where was I? Oh right. “Ahem. From Northern California-!”

“Sis!” Yola chirped and I squeed before spinning around in the air to catch my twin and entangle our tendies in a tackle-hug. “Found you~! Penny wants your help on the bridge.”

“Okay!” I giggled and wrestled free of my sister’s tentacles before I flew with speed towards the stairwell with Yola close behind. “Can’t catch me~!” I taunted my sibling and dodged her attempts to grab me, at least until I got to the bridge and squealed in laughter when she tackled me again, hugging me tightly with her tendies. “Ah~! She has me~! Help!”

“Nom! I’mma eat you! Nom!” Yola pretended to bite me and I laughed like a ninny, at least until Penny grabbed us both and yanked us apart.

“Girls. Please turn back into rational and mature if lewd women this very moment.” Penny demanded and I shared a whine with my sister before complying, pouting at my wife alongside Yola, before I sighed with my eyes clenched.

“It was like I was a little girl again. Everything was so simple and I didn’t have any big worries. I didn’t even have perverse thoughts. That was nice, but why did you guys let Yola and I stay that way for...how long?” I asked Peppy, who...whoa. He was jacked! Peppy looked like one of those gym rats, cut like an athletic marble statue under his traditional if much looser lab coat.

“It’s only been a few days since we left Fortuna. Sorry if our space travel is so much slower. We can’t upgrade our engines or other systems without being in a drydock and unlike EDI, the Great Fox can’t just shrink down to fit in someone’s pocket.” Peppy snorted in good humor and EDI, who was an astromech droid at the moment, chirped and warbled...even though she can speak normally. She must be getting into the role for fun or something. “You can say that again.”

“Did you understand that?” Yola asked in bewilderment.

“No, he’s just playing along.” EDI giggled and spun her head around.

“Anyway...what is it? You decided to bring us back from being the ship’s adorable little mascots for something, right?” I questioned everyone and Fox was the one who nodded.

“You have some foreknowledge of what is going on here, right? Any insight into what to do before we get to Katina?” Fox asked and I hummed as I thought back on my memories of Star Fox Assault, the best game in the series in my opinion due to it essentially being SF64+. Even if it didn’t have nearly as much variety what with it being a set story only 10 missions long. LONG missions, but still. Too short. “Are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. Just reminiscing. I’m a lot older than I look, so I might get lost in nostalgia now and then.” I’m not old, just experienced! Like Lara Croft by the end of the 2013 reboot, only not as horrifically traumatized and turned into a cold-blooded killer. “So, the outpost is out of commission and the military can’t see anything out of order. It’s been overtaken by the Aparoids and spoofing everything since they have converted all of the resources and personnel on site.”

“Damn! We can’t just blast it to bits though, we gotta investigate even if that’s true.” Falco grumbled and Sunset-whoa! She is way bigger than our Sunset! She’s like Urta and Penny, but with more muscle! “Hey. Eyes above her collar unless you’re gonna do somethin’ about them wanderin’ eyes.”

“Hey, if she wants to look, let her. I don’t stop you looking at other girls.” Sunset winked at me and Falco huffed.

“That’s different. She’s eyein’ ya like a piece of meat. At least Penny and Urta had the decency to to do a once-over and stop.” Falco glared and I turned my gaze to him. He looked much like canon to the point of being nearly indistinguishable, if perhaps a bit broader in the shoulders.

“Pardon sis. She’s a hopeless pervert, even before Urta and the Empire got involved. The only reason she didn’t jump Marrow right away was because she was still adjusting to being synthetic at the time.” Yola apologized on my behalf and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Don’t apologize for me, because I’m not going to apologize for looking. Anyway, yeah. While it would be easier to just blast the base, we don’t have any intact Aparoid samples from the Fortuna attack I bet.” I looked around and everyone shook their heads. “How? There were hundreds of those giant moth monsters.”

“They self-destructed when they were too damaged to be useful in combat, likely for the very purpose of keeping us in the dark. Sure, there’s plenty of scrap for Cornerian R&D to tear apart, but none of the Aparoid Cores survived.” Slippy reported in disappointment and I mewled in defeat.

“Then it looks like we get to go in on the ground, expose the truth, fight for our lives and hopefully capture an Aparoid Core without it getting destroyed.” I sighed in resignation.

“Katina is a pretty world too, more landlocked than it’s sister planet Corneria and arid as a result, but it’s still got a moisture-rich atmosphere for it to be a good agriculture planet since what landmass on Corneria there is tends to be either massive metropolitan sprawls or cities inside the mountains.”

“...Say what? That wasn’t just an old blurb? Corneria has cities inside mountains?” Good gosh, the Cornerian dog-folk are dwarves! Onward to Erebor!