Turek Ray Gun 1 (Patreon)

@ArcadeDragon requested a story about a lio researcher and his mysa test subject. You betcha! I can do that...

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Mai stared at the crazy contraption for a long while, her ears hanging in a frown. Whatever it was, it was covered in more wires, switches, and parallel glass discs than any gizmo she’d ever seen in her life—and considering the nature of her job, that was a lot of gizmos. The huge copper ball at the device’s “business” end looked pretty intimidating, but at least she wasn’t staring down a gun barrel. “Is it … gonna hurt?”

Karkachan shook his head. “It shouldn’t.”

“Shouldn’t?” she squeaked. Her eyes flashed back toward the captured ray gun. “You don’t know?”

“Not really,” the lio admitted. “You’ll be the first mysa test subject. So, I can’t exactly tell you what others experienced.”

“But you’ve tried it on animals and shit, right?” she gasped.

“Not me, personally,” said Karkachan. “But other scientists have.”

“Well, did it hurt them?” she demanded.

The lio picked his tablet back up and flipped through some heavily redacted notes. “It doesn’t appear to have. It says that the animals they tested it on showed ‘a stress response’.”

Mai held her ears stationary. “What does that mean?”

“It means they were stressed out, Mai,” he said. “They didn’t know what was happening, and they got frightened. Doesn’t say anything about pain.”

“And they would have written that down? If it caused them pain, those scientists would have written down, ‘Animals screamed in fucking agony when shot with the ray gun’?”

The lio set the tablet aside. He straightened his lab coat and folded his paws in his lap. Mai wasn’t good at reading lio expressions, but she’d been a test subject for Karkachan for nearly a year now and was getting adept at deciphering his body language, at least. He looked frustrated by her hesitance, but patient. Had their roles been reversed, he’d probably be frightened too, and he knew it. “Probably not with those words, Mai,” he said, “but yes, pain is an important thing to note. Had they observed any indication of pain, they would have written it down.”

The mysa looked skeptical. “Awful lot crossed out in that report of yours.”

“It’s a top-secret project,” he sighed. “That’s inevitable.”

“And what if they crossed out how much it fucking hurt?”

“They wouldn’t have.”

“But they could—”

“They wouldn’t have,” he reassured her. “But if you’re too frightened to be a test subject for this one, I understand. Just pass, and we’ll see if someone else wants it.”

“No!” she gasped. The money they had offered was good—beyond good, really. It could go a long way to helping her family get out of the crappy apartment they shared and into a new place that was a lot safer. “I want it … but what if it kills me?”

“I don’t think it will,” he said, “but in that highly unfortunate circumstance, then the contract will pay out in full, and your next of kin will get your life insurance payment.”

A long pause. She looked up, meeting his golden eyes with her purple ones. “Would you miss me?”

Karkachan tilted his head and reached out to her so that the tips of his fingers were behind her, and the end of his thumb stopped just beside her cheek. She leaned her head so her face rested against it and reached up to touch his thumb with both paws. “You know I’m forbidden from any sort of emotional attachment with my test subjects, but that being said … of course I would miss you, Mai.”

“All right, what the hell,” she sighed. “Zap me.”

The lio smiled and stepped back behind the turek gizmo. He pressed a few buttons and it whirred. It beeped. It even dinged once, but despite how Mai cowered and trembled, she felt no different than she had previously.

The mysa peeked from behind her arm. “Did it do anything?”

The lio tried pressing a few more buttons, but when he peeked from around it, he looked frustrated. “I don’t think it did. I can’t read turek. I have no idea if I’m using it right.”

She put her fists on her hips. “Do I still get paid?”

“Uh-huh,” grunted Karkachan as he fiddled with the device. “They might not give you the whole amount. If that happens, you should contest it. You still took the risk, and that’s what they’re paying you for.”

Mai frowned. She hated dealing with bureaucracy, and the lio government had more than its share. “Well, what should it have done?”

The lio sighed and punched a big button to shut the ray gun down. “Not a hundred percent sure. I was just supposed to try it and report back,” he admitted. “Like you said, a lot of this has been redacted. But it says the particles should accumulate in your muscle tissue. Maybe you don’t have enough muscle for it to take effect?”

Mai made a muscle and poked at her bicep with an index finger. “Dunno what you’re talking about,” the little mysa squeaked. “Have you seen these guns? I bet they’re way bigger than those scrawny lil’ kitten arms you must have hidden under that lab coat.”

He peeked around the gun before turning his attention back to the controls. “Yup. Looks like powerful stuff there, Mai,” he chuckled. “Wouldn’t want to meet you in a dark alley.”

The mysa sighed and tapped her paw. “Well,” she sighed, “the least a gentleman could do is return the favor.”

“Hrm?” She saw a rounded, golden ear peeking in her direction from within Karkachan’s red mane, but he remained focused on the gun.

“I said,” she squeaked, “here I am, humiliating myself, flexing for you, all because I want to see your muscles… The least you could do would be to actually oblige me.”

When the lio peeked out this time, she could tell she had his complete attention. “What?”

She didn’t reply and Karkachan fumbled over his words. “Humili— You want— My muscles?”

Mai stared back at him for several long moments before nodding.

The lio sighed and stepped away from the gun. “That… That would be really inappropriate…”

Despite her miniscule size, her purple eyes seemed huge. “Please?” she whispered. “No one will ever know.”

Karkachan dithered for a very long time. “You wouldn’t tell?”

“I’d take it to my grave,” she promised.

“Not to any of your little mysa friends?” He winced at calling her friends small, but she didn’t react, didn’t appear to take offense. Karkachan was over two meters tall and the biggest mysa stood probably only thirty centimeters in height, so “little” wasn’t an exaggeration.

Mai shook her head but said nothing.

“Okay,” he whispered, “but just this once.”

The lio’s golden eyes darted this way and that, but they were alone. No one would enter the lab while the experiment was in session and all the cameras had been deactivated due to the project’s secrecy. Then he unbuttoned his lab coat, starting at the top and working to the bottom.

Mai took a seat on the edge of the counter and watched with rapt fascination as he pulled the white cloth from his broad shoulders. She stared at the muscles bulging beneath his short, tawny pelt, trying not to drool.

“Okay?” he asked. “Satisfied?”

“No!” she gasped. “Flex!”

“Oh, come off it, Mai!”

“Please?” she begged, drawing the sound out until she was completely out of breath. “Just once? Flex for me, please?”

“Fine, just this once, but you owe me, okay?”

“Absolutely!” the mysa squeaked. It seemed ridiculous that a mysa could ever actually grant any sort of favor to a lio, so making the promise seemed completely harmless.

Karkachan stepped a little closer. He made two mighty fists and flexed with them both, showing off his well-defined chest and abs. “Okay?”

Mai swooned. She fanned her open muzzle with a paw for a moment and then flopped back against the counter, pretending to faint. “I can die happy now,” she sighed.

“Mai!”

“I’m serious. So happy.” She grinned up at him. “I promise you… In my bed tonight, you’ll be with me. I’ll dream of no one else!”

The lio’s ears lit up in a blush and he growled slightly. “Could you just be serious—”

And then he stumbled, barely catching himself with a paw on the edge of the counter.

“Karkachan?” gasped Mai, sitting bolt upright. “Are you okay?”

“I feel…” he whispered. “I feel … really stressed out right now.”

A pause, and then as one, the two of them turned their heads toward the ray gun pointed their direction. Could it still be on? There hadn’t been any flashing lights or whatnot to indicate that it was active.

But when Mai turned back to the muscular researcher, he looked distinctly … smaller.

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CipxwfOCEC5SWRM0APC5V_4Mxrmfu7frghH5B4lNRng/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?