Fallout 63: The Wasteland Bites part 2

(contains muscle growth, BE, monster TF, lots of tail)

Art by: b9tribeca

Part 1

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"Uh, yes...actually." Bren forced a nervous laugh gesturing to the exit. "The house I was in had a whole medical lab with tons of supplies in it. Do you think it will even help?"

Xilimyth shrugged a dismissive gesture that sent every bulging muscle from shoulder to elbow shifting. "It's better than waiting to see if I grow out of this dump. Watch your step, big cat."

The hulked cheetah lumbered with careful steps towards the door, prompting Bren to scramble out of her way. They were half expecting the moldy floorboards to give out from her weight any second, but even old world homes can be fairly sturdy. With what happened with the bathroom, she also knew the futility of being careful. Instead, Xilimyth grabbed either side of the doorway and flexed. Veins rose through the fur of her spotted biceps in a tense strain for several seconds.

CRRRSSHH!!

Plaster and wood lost the brief battle with Xilimyth's enormous strength. Both edges were easily expanded out by a whole meter for the cheetah to easily pass her bulk through. She glanced back to give Bren a smile, only to have a chunk of ceiling smash onto her head. It hardly registered as an impact but was still annoying to have tiny crumbs of rubble cascading into her puffy hair.

Xilimyth chose to ignore Bren's excessive giggling and head downstairs, trying to comb out as many white pebbles from her head as possible. The stairs were even more perilous than the floor. Each step sent a loud creak echoing through the empty house with Xilimyth's boulder breaths heaving in bated breath. She almost considered it a miracle when the boards managed to hold her up all the way to the base again.

Bren was hot on her thick tail making note that several steps were also permanently bent. He ushered Xilimyth into the more spacious kitchen where he had left a burlap sack full of goodies. Before the scavenging had been interrupted, the cougar had managed to hoard a caps fortune in medical supplies. Dozens of stimpaks and RadAway's filled up most of the sack, with a minor selection of every drug and painkiller in wasteland history to compliment them. And there were still several containers left to be searched back in the other house.

Money was also not their biggest priority at the moment. Xilimyth snatched up three bags of RadAway in each hand and carried them over to the fridge. They were simple radiation expunging medicines often stored in drip bags from the old world hospitals. Whoever designed such overly helpful packaging even equipped the tubes with auto-injecting needles. Even the stupidest raider just had to jab it in somewhere and let the feed do its thing.

Of course, a competent doctor might be able to cure over a hundred rads with a single bag. No such luck when it came to Xilimyth or Bren. They were not felines that spent significant amounts of time improving their medicinal skills. The cougar could barely blame his best friend when she propped the bags atop the old fridge and proceeded to stick one needle at a time into the bulges of her muscular biceps.

"You sure that's going to be enough?" Bren teased with an amused tail wag. He ignored Xilimyth's warning glare to sort through the rest of his salvaged goods. "We don't even know if washing out the bugs rads will cure you."

Xilimyth's breasts rippled from her lungs heaving a forlorn breath. The brown medicine flowed down their tubes to soon enter her body through the needle piercings. It filled her arms with an almost calming chill that spread through her body. "Even so, it'll at least stop me mutating. We don't need me growing into a bigger monster.

"Prrf!? Monster, nothing! Those wings and spikes look completely awesome on your spotted curves. I'm a bit jealous you can own a dragon look." Actually, Bren was jealous of his friends buffing upgrade, but why bring up pettiness over solid state abs? Placing out the hoards of preserved foods he found felt like a much better action. "You hungry? Whoever lived in these houses really loved their canned beans and instant noodle cups."

"Mmh!" Xilimyth's thickened tail could not help thunking against the bottom cupboard doors thanks to Bren's compliment. She had not considered the subtle draconic aspects of her change before and rather liked the feel of that. It was far better than mutating into a radroach or something icky. Giving both arms a hard flex, she purred, "All this exercise has left me really hungry for some carbs. You think it's a good idea to eat irradiated goods?"

"Not like we have any other option?" Bren scoffed, grinning up at her gun show with a slight blush. "Besides, with all that RadAway soaking into you, a minor exposure isn't going to last long inside you anyway."

"Fair point, prrfler!" Xilimyth giggled and reached for a can of beans. Without even waiting for Bren to offer a can opener, she grabbed both ends and twisted. The hunk of tin protested for a second before exploding in half. Large globs of saucy protein plopped around Xilimyth's feet, but she was content scarfing down what remained in her hands. "Hrrm? What?"

Bren collected his jaw from the floor, realizing he had been gawking at his friend's method of feasting. He played off her concerned gaze by fumbling for a box of macaroni. "Prrf! N-nothing! This is probably going to take some getting used to."

"Right!?" Xilimyth tossed aside the emptied can to literally crack open another. "I hope we can find a good tailor. Military fatigues are so cool and hard to get without us having to hike to California."

"I'd rather not go to California either. Prrf!" Bren managed to shovel in a few globs of highly preserved cheese noodles, still concerned that Xilimyth ate the second can of beans and started on a third. "Careful you don't get sick, tiny cat. Radiation is one thing, but those are centuries past their expiration date."

"BUURP!" was Xilimyth's highly articulate response. It was just nice to have something filling up her belly after all that muscle growth had drained her of calories. The quality and texture of food only came secondary. "And who are you calling a tiny cat? Hmm? You're looking pretty small down there. And with these guns, I feel like I could wrestle a yaoi gui."

Bren noted that was probably because the RadAway's had almost finished draining into her bicep swells. But then Xilimyth was too busy ruffling his shaggy brown hair to let him mention it. More so when she stepped back to strike another hard flex in admiration of her refrigerator reflection. He could not help chuckling when she tried a pose that showed off her curvy butt and boobs at the same time. Even a mutation could not make someone as bendable as the contorted figures in old world artwork.

Neither cat really took notice of the excessive perspiration pooling into the cracks of Xilimyth's muscles. Aside from a bit of lightheadedness, she felt absolutely fantastic. Being naked was a minor bit of concern, but it was also the wastelands warm season. Odds were very low either of them would find a pair of pants that could remotely cover her spotted butt. So much energy ran up and down her spine that the spiked cheetah tail could not stop throbbing, each harsh twitch slapped more cracks into the wooden kitchen cupboards at her knees.

The fidgeting grew steadily more severe to the point Bren began to worry again. All the drip bags fell off their perch to dangle from Xilimyth's arms as she shuffled around the kitchen. Their medicine had drained out into her bloodstream, clearing her of radiation poison maybe a bit too thoroughly. Leathery dragon wings beat in rapid little flaps until she seemed to be making a good impression of a helicopter.

"Wait a prrf?!" Bren's ears and tail shot up. His sudden realization also caused Xilimyth to halt in place. He ignored the big cheetahs curious mewing in his bolt for the window. Pulling back the curtain, Bren managed to spot something that had his stiff tail frizzing out its fur.

Xilimyth did not need to ask what put her friend on edge. Now that she had managed to stand still, her feline ears could also pick it up the rapid spinning of helicopter blades drawing louder and closer.

"Enclave?"

"Looks like vertibirds, but I can't be sure. I can't see the markings." Bren did an about-face, hand instinctively resting on his sidearm. Xilimyth moved to follow, almost bowling the cougar over when he stopped at the kitchen doorway to face her. "You should stay here, or better yet in the basement. I'm pretty sure both Brotherhood and Enclave will shoot you on sight looking like a fuzzy mutant."

"And what if they feel like messing with you?" Xilimyth scowled at the idea of letting Bren go into any situation without backup. It only now occurred to her to pull out the tubes stuck in her arms. Empty bags of RadAway fluttered to the floor around them. "Where is my gun, anyway?"

"Upstairs with the rest of your stuff," Bren huffed, nudging his head towards the bent and broken staircase. "Think you can get that bulky butt back up there silently?"

"Ugh…" Xilimyth opened her mouth to make another argument only to fold her ears back from a frantic clicking sound filling the room. Large amounts of dust and small rocks were being thrown against the houses. Sounded like someone in the helicopter decided this neighborhood was worth landing in. "I'm going to stay in the kitchen. If they do so much as pull a gun on you…"

"Oh, shush! It'll be fine." Bren patted Xilimyth's forearm, almost getting lost in its many ridged contours. It was more for his benefit than hers. When it came to factions, the wasteland was just a big rusty melting pot of jerks and murderers. The only thing that separated them was their logic behind each genocidal action.

Sounds of engines dying out and clankings of other heavy machines helped push Xilimyth into relenting her concerns. She shuffled a reluctant about face to wedge her bulky frame back through the portal into the kitchen, shooting Bren one more worried glance before walking out of sight. Taking a rest propped against the counter sounded like a good idea anyway. All this tension was starting to make her muscles contract in off places, especially around her bean-filled stomach.

Hoping he could stand in a position that hid the stealth lacking cheetah, Bren took a deep breath and risked cracking open the door. Sure enough, a tilt-wing aircraft had plopped itself down in the central crossroads of the surrounding houses. Three humanoids covered in clunky, grinding armor were disembarking off its sides with big rifles and other strange devices in hand.

Power armor; a staple of United States war engineering. Why was it always the killing tools that survived a nuclear apocalypse and not the espresso machines? These ones looked modified in the lower back too, most likely for accommodating tail space. Bren risked edging the door open wider to nudge his head out. The sight of a familiar winged sword emblem on everyone's shoulder plates gave him a reason to relax if only a little. Enclave was nothing but human supremacists, but the Brotherhood of Steel at least accepted anthros into their ranks. The lesser of two evils was a preferred option in this situation.

"Sir! We got a live one!" A female voice cracked through the helmet filters of a suit that Bren realized was pointing at him.

It was obviously pointless, but Bren still reeled his head back behind the door with an angry, "Prrf!"

Heavy footsteps rapidly approached, making Bren switch off his pistol's safety. Sadly, any thought of being intimidating was smashed when his folded feline ears picked up a chorus of much bigger guns cocking.

"Alright, cowboy," declared an older, gruffer voice broken up by electric filter static. "Come out with your hands up and empty. We ain't in the mood for any bullshit."

"Neither are we," Bren grumbled under his breath. It took some effort to get his stiff fingers uncurled from the pistol handle before slowly nudging the door open to make his way outside.

Despite trying to look disarmingly cute and doe-eyed, a typical cat perk, Bren's simple entrance onto the doormat caused all three armored soldiers to tense up. His whiskers wiggled watching fingers tighten around tense triggers. Tail drew stiff with the cougar's leg muscles ready to dive at the slightest sudden movement.

"Stand down, men!" Before tensions could go any higher, one of them raised a hand in an open gesture. Their lackeys seemed to hesitate due to surprise at the order, but slowly lowered their assault rifles. "It's not a Chesh carrier."

One of the others turned their helmet to face Bren, tilting in that way confused animals do. The female's voice again hissed from its mouth filters. "How can you tell?"

"Because it's still a guy, dumb bitch. And even if he weren't, the poor bastard would have boobs sagging to his belly button."

Bren did not need to understand the conversation to hate every word of it. He had to steal all his nerves not to glance back through the door at the mention of big boobs. No doubt a particular large cheetah in the kitchen had also become very interested in the reasons leading to this encounter.

"Who are you, cougar?!"

The supposed leader's curt tone broke Bren out of his worrisome thoughts. He made the mistake of taking that as a sign to relax. No sooner had his arms lowered than all three of their guns lifted again. They ended up reaching a silent compromise when he rested both hands on the porch handrail.

"My name is Bren Derlin. Prrf! I'm just a wandering bounty hunter out for a milk run."

"Ugh! Another local." The third member of the Brotherhood trio spoke for the first time with an annoyed grumble. Bren's tail gave an irritated twitch since they sounded way too young to be playing in power armor.

"Wait, I think I've heard of you!" The female completely dropped her gun, excitement playing out of her helmet like a song. "Didn't you set a car factory on fire last month?"

"Well, I don't like to brag." Bren chuckled, only to be met with awkward silence. The bland plated helmets blocked any chance of reading these people's emotions. "Besides, it was the drugged up raiders that started it. Apparently, none of them understood how a chemical lab works."

"Doesn't stop many from trying."

"Cut the chatter!" The older man would have probably thrown spittle in their face were he not yelling through a visor. Whipping around to face the other guy he added, "Biggs! Scanner!"

"Sure, sir!"

Bren's ears flicked curiously as he watched the younger soldier fumble blindly around the sides of his armor while trying to keep a hold on his rifle. Power armor had a knack for making the warrior strong and sturdy like a tank, but they were also rendered just as nimble as one.

The poor boy eventually got a hold of some smaller device hanging off his hip. A few more awkward gun juggling and button presses later had its glossy end pointed to Bren. Cougar ears could just barely pick up the faint humming of what was most likely a scan of his person.

"Got it!" The armored boy declared, only to do a double take when reading the machines results. His helmet lifted to look at Bren, then back down at his machine. "This can't be right, sir. I'm getting super strong FEV readings, and this guy is as flat as Sam over there."

"Oh, sure, make fun of the woman you share a bunk with. Really smart of you, kid."

Their commanding officer ignored Sam's sarcastic ramblings as he took the scanning device from Biggs. A few more buttons were pressed that had the machine beeping up a storm. Whatever its screen displayed seemed to have the older man's undivided attention for a long time. Eventually, some form of thought must have passed through that helmet to make it look up towards Bren with its reflective eye cover. Bren forced a smile, trying to keep a relaxed posture, but that was impossible when he realized the man was looking past him.

"Anyone else in the house with you, sir?" The officer passed the device back off to Biggs. Spring-loaded steal boots scrunched the patio steps as he moved up onto the platform inches from Bren. Yet they continued to face the opened doorway, no longer caring for the cougar in the way. "You're name is starting to ring a bell with me too. Don't you usually travel with a ditzy cheetah gal? She run into something that might be making them a little sick?"

"Prrf! Chill out, sir. It's just me here. All my friends are waiting back home for some grub, and I'm considering taking one of these dusty beds for the night."

"Reconsider," the officer said venomously. "But I must say, you've used an awful lot of RadAway for one scrawny person."

"Scrawny?" Bren's tail curled with his scowl but turning to follow the officers gaze made his heart drop. The six crumpled bags of empty medicine still laid in open view between the living room and kitchen doorway. "I...you see…"

"Ah, shut it!" Before Bren could even fumble an excuse, the officer bowled him aside with super armor strength. The cougar was sent sprawling across the porch while the officer used the barrel of his gun to edge the front door fully open. "Sam keep the wasteland trash in check. Biggs, we're doing a sweep."

"Wait, you can't just…!"

CRACK!

Bren's second mistake was thinking he had the freedom to stand back up. About halfway on his feet was when Sam had gotten close enough to bash the butt of her gun into him. This time he went down seeing a rainbow of colors while the warmth of fresh blood trickled out the side of his skull. There was a reason Bren had never been fond of self-proclaimed soldiers.

"If you're smart you'll stay down there. If your stupid girlfriend is infected with FEV, then the general is going to have a lot of questions for both of…"

CRRRRKKK!! SCHOOOM!!

Years from this moment Initiate Samantha would transcribe it for Brotherhood of Steal record keepers as one of the worst mistakes of her career. Before any of her squad could begin to enter the house, it's front window exploded in a shower of wooden frame and glass. All of it was harmless to the thick plating of power armor. It was the giant, muscular arms of yellow and black spotted fur that emerged from this newly made hole that terrified her. Large hands tipped with shimmering sickle claws clenched onto both her shoulders and hauled all eight-hundred pounds of her ass inside the house without any sign of effort.

A moment later, Sam found herself being hurled through the houses side wall in a second explosion of wooden debris. Momentum had her power armor bouncing several yards in an uncontrollable tumble. Even inside her heavy equipment, it was a while before she finally slid to a stop. By then there were several long trenches dug through the dead grass of a backyard, and she was too nauseated to consider getting up anytime soon.

"Wha...aah!?"

Bigg's could not even pose the question before the cause of that series of events pushed its way out the broken window. He staggered back gun raised but unable to keep his barrel from constantly shaking off alignment with Xilimyth's looming form.

Xilimyth could not have cared less about the two armored jerks trying to appraise her appearance. Feeling fresh air run through her muscular curves and fluttering wings felt so divine after being cooped in dusty houses all day. But then she looked past the swell of her jiggling breasts to Bren and gasped, dropping into an alarmed squat. "Oh my gosh, prrfler! I told you these bastards were going to be...well...bastards! Are you okay? That looks like a concussion."

"J-just a scratch, tiny cat," Bren mumbled, more out of embarrassment for how close Xilimyth was getting with her naked body. The melee strike had cut a nice gash along the side of his head but thankfully had not caved his forehead in. "It's nothing a stimpak won't cure. Are...are you okay?"

Xilimyth tried to smile as she stroked Bren's hair, but shifting through her spine made the whole cheetah's body shudder. A queer look of sickness crossed her face with jaw slightly hanging open. "I...I don't feel so good actually. That RadAway doesn't agree with those beans."

"I knew it!" The officer shouted in his helmet, reminding the cats of his presence. "You dumb, stupid cats used all that RadAway on her, didn't you? Fucking hell!"

What might have been a whimper seeped out of Biggs' helmet. "Didn't the general say specifically not to use that stuff on infected FEV subjects? Like the radiation is what suppresses this strands mutation."

"Well, I'm happy you pay attention to something at the base, Biggs. And yes, we're all in deep shit. That bimbo's going to end up growing out of control before we ever get her back."

"S-so what do we do?"

"Shoot the bitch, of course!!" The officer followed up the blunt order by bringing his rifle up to bare. Unfortunately, he had forgotten the subject he so casually wanted to be murdered had only been yards away. By the time he brought his attention back around to Xilimyth, the only thing in his helmets field of vision was a pair of white and black striped breasts the size of ballista shells. "...oh."

Xilimyth's whiskers shook with an angry snort. One hand moved in a spotted blur to yank the officer's rifle from his grasp. Veins bubbled up along her thickened arm muscles in a hard squeeze. The metal squeaked and bent in her fingers until the weapon resembled a nonfunctional u-shape.

She casually released the broken rifle, letting it clatter to the ground where her tail gave it a mighty whack clear across the to the next house. While positively intimidating, she immediately hated herself for how the action sent sparks of pain along her spine. Her tail itself was writhing in small spasms with its muscles bulging along its length, almost looking like her flesh was boiling. A few hard head shakes helped the cheetah focus enough to glare at the equally large robot armor.

"Now that I have your attention," Xilimyth spoke through the near-constant growling in her throat. The feline purring felt almost involuntary with how her body kept twitching with sparks of energy. "You even aim another gun at me or the prrfler I'll be using you for a lot more housing demolition. Now, why don't you all get back in your toy chopper and we can just…?"

BWOOMP!

Xilimyth had to admit it was impressive the officer gathered enough wits back to throw a punch. Problem was that he did not expect such a sound when his steel enforced fist smacked into the pillowy mound of the cheetah's boob. The impact sure stung like hell, but Xilimyth felt so little force he might as well have been wearing foam.

WHAM!

The favor was gladly returned with a good hook right into the officers metal covered face.

"YEEEEOW!!"

Another action Xilimyth regretted as she stomped around the wooden porch nursing her throbbing knuckles. Even swollen with epic muscles and mutated strength did not make hitting solid steel with your bare skin a good idea. Granted her punch had sent the hunk of power armor staggering a few steps with a big inward dent on it's cracked visor. Pain just had a way of not making it feel as rewarding an exchange. Giving each finger joint a kiss felt a little better, even if everything was tender and swollen.

"N-nya? B-Breeeeeen!?" Xilimyth whined after realizing that swelling was not her imagination. She held up the wounded hand, looking slack-jawed at how each finger popped out longer, thicker, coiling out their claws with sharpening growth spurts. The rest of her arm followed suit, muscles bulking up in a wave that flowed through her limb. Veins grew thicker as they throbbed to provide all the developing tissue with vital nutrients. She was just glad to have already been strong, or the disproportions might have sent her tumbling atop of her still downed cougar friend. "Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!"

A hard shifting in Xilimyth's chest jerked her attention downwards. She already guessed what was happening even before seeing that her tits resumed inflating like creamy striped balloons. The rapidly shifting weight sent her stumbling across the porch before getting a hold of the wooden railing with her uneven sized hands. Breaths escaped through the cracks of her teeth in saliva spraying bursts. Every expansion of her lungs for more air only seemed to help surge her mammaries into a whole new unit of bra measurements. They hung with an encumbrance to far surpass a rocket launcher Bren once found on their treasure hunts. A stray gust of cold wind across her puffing areolas sent a hard shiver through the rest of her body. So much rapid growth in a short time was making her skin super sensitive, not helped by the sweat exuding to make her fur damp and clump together.

CRACK!!

Despite, or maybe because of, Xilimyth's monstrous mutation in progress, the officer felt a perfect opportunity to try clubbing the cheetah across the back with a lawn chair. What slight gashes that managed to cause in the cheetah's wings and skin quickly healed as those parts of her body pulsed and began growing in small surges as well. It also had the effect of completely shattering the wooden furniture in a rain of cracked wood chips.

"Ah…"

Xilimyth whipped a gaze of tense fury at the officer, unaware of how psychotic the moist clumps of hair across her face looked. In what was almost a dismissive strike, her enlarged hand struck the officers chest and sent him flying through the front wall of the house. Several more crashes were heard along with a series of panicked cursing, but she just hoped the ass would not be back.

Bren had been lucky enough to regain his own senses just in time to see the suit of metal vanish through thin layers of plywood and glass. He was even fortunate to be in a position to see Xilimyth's backside give a hard shudder and puff out several times thicker, hanging directly above his face. Beyond those glutes, her breasts continued to sway with loud sloshing sounds as they spilled over and under the banister supporting Xilimyth.

"Hrrggh! Rwwarg! Gah! Aaah!"

While the rest of Xilimyth's body cracked or bubbled in uneven growths trying to catch up to her bloating breasts, her tail really caught Bren's attention. This was mostly because it threatened to club him into the next settlement with each violent lash it made mere inches from his body. He quickly scooted away until the far end of the porch rail halted the cougar's retreat. The snake-like cheetah limb continued to pop and bend in cringy Z-patterns, but it did not appear to be bubbling with just muscle. The very skin of its long form was expanding out, stiffening it's movements the more it began to resemble a sausage.

Actually, a mass of meat inside a thin covering became a frighteningly accurate analogy for the mutation Bren was witnessing. Before long Xilimyth's tail had puffed up thicker than her legs, which themselves blossomed with enough muscle to become denser than the rail supports. He could not shake the image of his best friend having what looked like an overinflated balloon attached to her butt.

In such a swollen state, the poor thing looked like it could no longer bend at all. Bumps began pushing through the fuzzy skin from spinal muscles continuing to thrash about underneath. No wait that could not have been right unless Xilimyth's spine had suddenly become dislocated. The way her flesh bubbled over with increasing intensity started to look like more than one thing was thrashing about inside. With each push the skin itself stretched out further, thinning out until tears in the fur began to form.

SHRRTT!!

ker-FOOOOFM!

Bren was so happy there was no shower of cheetah flesh and blood when Xilimyth's tail finally exploded. Instead, there was an overwhelming rush of extensively thick fur spilling out across the porch. For several seconds he was left staring in shock at the yellow spotted mess until a low growl from Xilimyth sparked her new mass into motion.

"What the Prrf!?" Bren swallowed hard as the bush of fur rose up to slowly split itself apart. One lengthy appendage after another peeled back to stretch out it's newly formed muscles. Tails, he realized once all nine had found some level of independence. Xilimyth's butt had just blossomed a whole cluster of densely furred cheetah tails. Each one twitched about in uncoordinated patterns looking like a ball of angry snakes. "X-Xili? Are you still in there!?"

Xilimyth herself had been rendered catatonic trying to take the multiple sets of nerves suddenly connected to her brain. Every so often her body would give a spastic twitch as it continued swelling out in sporadic growth. As the bulges of muscle and sinew under her spots began to get more symmetrical, Bren noticed that the cheetah stood only inches shy of banging her head through the porch roof.

Even the eight-foot power armor Biggs wore had to look up to see anything besides a pair of tits huge enough to smash his helmet flat. Such mammaries were still the biggest part of Xilimyth, but the rest of her had buffed up thick and proportionately supportive of them now.

Bren would have loved to believe the young soldier still felt confident in that gear, but a constant high-pitch squeal through the mouth filters suggested otherwise. He was not one to judge under the circumstances either.

SNNRRK!?

Xilimyth's wings jerked an impressive wingspan that ended up shattering a window. Her pink nose flared in a bestial snort before she opened her mouth in a very loud yawn. Eyes blinked a few times like she had just woken from a deep slumber and then slowly began to take in her surroundings again. "Bren? What the...o-oh!"

The hulking cheetah shot her friend a questioning gaze, immediately noticing he and the ground, in general, seemed further away than last time. Her gaze shifted downward only to lose her breath at the firm mountains of white fur and black stripes jutting out of her hardened pecs. A few minutes blacking out and suddenly seeing her feet was a lost luxury.

"Maybe I used a little too much RadAway?"

"Prrf! Nah! It's been great for your complexion." Bren grappled with the railing to get back on his feet. A gentle tug from one of Xilimyth's hands, which wrapped around his entire forearm, helped a lot in balancing on shaking knees. "Thanks, tiny cat."

"You're still bleeding."

"I'll be fine. Besides, you should be more worried about the tails."

"Tails?" Come to think of it, Xilimyth did notice something else unfamiliar fluttering against the sensitive pelt of her rear. It took a bit of twisting with so much bulk before she got a good enough look at the bundle of tails waving about to yowl in alarm. "Holy cheese! I'm not one to complain about more fluff...but...what the actual fluff mutation is this!?"

"Maybe you were a kitsune in a past life?" Bren tried to joke, only to get a stary wide-eyed gasp of glee from Xilimyth. "Maybe also try shapeshifting first before we jump to conclusions."

Xilimyth nodded vigorously and squeezed her eyes shut with intense concentration. The spotted wings and tails thrashed about excitedly for several seconds, but Bren saw little else happen.

"No good?"

"Nope," Xilimyth grumbled as she gave a deep sigh. The many ripped muscles relaxing at once was enough to make its own faint groaning for all to hear. Her lips rose back up into a little smirk at that. "I guess I'll just have to settle for being boringly huge and fluffier than ten cougars combined, eh?"

"Such a terrible fate you must endure." Bren shared a chuckle with her. No sooner did they stop than the sounds of clanking metal footsteps perked both their ears.

"What's that noise?" Xilimyth's head whipped back and forth, nose twitching rapidly to catch a fresh scent to the irradiated air.

"Heads up, Sargent dimbulb and the cranky old woman are back."

"Hey! Biggs resembles that," Sam said while hobbling around to the front of the house. Bren did not get the chance to reach for his pistol before her rifle scope barred down on his chest. "Please give me a reason to shot you and that monster bitch after that cute stunt she pulled. I really want one."

"No, it's not her," Xilimyth muttered apparently to herself. Those glowing, violet eyes of hers were focused past Biggs to the open street. No one else seemed to here the manhole cover jostling about. "B-Bren I think we got trouble coming in."

"Fucking understatement of the century!" The officer broke even more wall smashing through the hole Xilimyth had previously put him through. His gun may have been a crumpled ball on the floor, but that did not ease his anger any. "Biggs, change your damn diaper and get to work. You too, Sam! Shoot these sacks of meat, and we'll explain something to the general later."

Bren whipped for his pistol the same time both armored soldiers raised their rifles. At least he could take out the officer before him, and Xilimyth's amazingly round backside got riddled with bullets.

CRRRSH!!

Turned out no one would have a chance to get a shot off, not on each other anyway. The manhole cover erupted in an enormous geyser of water that had everyone whirling to face the same spot Xilimyth was already fixated on. Ignoring the large metal disc that landed through the roof of another house, they say the exposed sewer entrance crack and then crumble in on itself. From inside the expanded hole erupted two gangly hands even bigger than Xilimyth's attached to long, gangly arms. The dagger long claws on each finger sliced through the pavement to gain a proper grip for pulling out the hunched lizard-like body of a horned monster.

"Is...is that a deathclaw?" Xilimyth gulped, folding wings around her chest as a makeshift cloak for protection.

"That's a prrfing deathclaw!" Bren nearly shouted in affirmation. His tail rose up straight and puffed out in alarm as he shuffled behind Xilimyth. "It's a broodmother too. We might be a bit in trouble here."

"Broodmother?" Xilimyth blinked, staring the salivating creature up and down before looking back down to Bren. "How can you tell?"

"Prrf! Well, the most important thing is that it's even bigger than you. Also, there's a lot of subtle hints in how the thing…"

CRUNCH!!

"They do have incredible leaping power, that's for sure." Xilimyth piped in. All nine of her tails fuzzed out with Bren's after seeing the deathclaw make a twenty-foot jump that tackled Biggs to the ground.

Neither felt the urge to do anything dangerous as the officer stomped down the steps to ram his own metal body against the monster. While the deathclaw reeled back that only caused it to start slashing at this new opponents metal coverings in a frenzy. The anthro underneath responded to the attacks with a roar of defiance and his own flurry of punches.

"You know, I don't like these guys, but he really earns his pay."

"I don't think they get paid. Prrf." Bren glanced at Sam, who was stumbling to keep her rifle aimed at the deathclaw waiting for a good shot. "Not to be the cruel one, but now seems like a great time to haul tail out of this dodge."

"Yeah, I'm not fighting that thing meow." Xilimyth's long legs skipped over all three steps moving off the porch with her new looming height. Despite her size, all other parties concerned were too busy meleeing each other to notice the cats slinking around behind the house. "I know a place we can hide out for a while, assuming it's still standing."

Bren shot a hesitant glance back, slumping in defeat. Xilimyth could not blame him. Having to leave behind most of their weapons and supplies was not a favorable decision. Being forced to grapple with a mutated monster just happened to be slightly worse.

"How the prrf do you suggest we get there?"

"You know how to fly a vertibird, right?"

"What? Oh, prrf!" Bren followed Xilimyth's finger point to the aircraft their would-be captors had parked less than a hundred yards away. "I've only read a moldy old manual. There's no one around that'd let me actually fly one."

"Well, I'm not fitting in a pilot's chair with all this butt fluff. Come on!"

Bren was pretty sure it was more than the extra tails preventing Xilimyth's bulk from squeezing into a chair. Still, he followed in the cheetah's literal shadow across the street where he clambered into the empty cockpit. Of course, those dumbasses left the keys in it. They probably assumed there was nothing out here but radroaches to hijack it.

Then again, a feline-radroach hybrid piloting a chopper would have only been the third weirdest thing Bren saw today.

The whole ship suddenly rocked with violent squeaks from its wheel supports, nearly flinging Bren back out of the pilot's chair. Xilimyth managed to wiggle her way into the deck where her extra fluffy butt encompassed all three of the tail seats. Due to her height, however, she also had to hunch forward so far she was pressing her boobs into the steel floor and all the forward facing chairs. Those innocent, violet eyes stared through the window pane at Bren's annoyed scowl in confusion.

"What?"

"Prrf! Nothing, just try to keep your wings in...uh…" Bren had just turned the keys that caused all three rotor engines to hum to life when an idea echoed across the front of his thoughts. "Hey, wait a sec! You have wings!"

"...so?"

"So!? Why don't you just fly us both out of here?"

It was Xilimyth's turn to give an annoyed scoff as she shifted to look over the leathery limbs coming out of her shoulders. No matter how she tried to fold them, the tips still hung loosely out either side of the vehicle.

"Oh, sure! Because I totally know how to use wings I just grew an hour ago and haven't practiced with yet. Just imagine how well that will go when you crash into the ground with this mega-chee on top of you."

"I…" Bren stammered but ultimately gave up. Not only was the logic sound, but it was also probably one of the most sensible things he had ever heard Xilimyth say. Not wanting to anger a giant curvey cat of bulging muscle further he focused attention on revving the engines until the blades spun with a nearly invisible roar. "Hold onto something and hope we're not exceeding the maximum carry weight."

"Are you calling me fat!?"

A glance in the rearview mirror could not help Bren figure out if his friend's expressionless stare was a joke. Giving a nervous laugh, he pushed all engines to their safest levels and gently pulled back on the flight stick. Everything creaked or groaned, half from gravity and half from Xilimyth grasping onto balance rails to stay in the vehicle. Just as the cougar worried something might blow, there came a hard shift, and the wheels slowly hovered off the ground.

If the three brotherhood jerks noticed their ride taking off without them, there was little they could do about it. From her steadily rising vantage point, Xilimyth could see one of them already had most of their power armor clawed off in mass chunks. Another was quickly losing its fight to keep the thing at bay with a rusty gardening rake.

"So where the prrf are we going!?" Bren shouted to be heard through the glass and engine noises.

"Just head straight to Seattle," Xilimyth replied. Having a bunch of extra throat muscles accidentally made her a bit louder than said engines. "I'll give you specifics once I can see some familiar landmarks."

Bren nodded and slowly tilted the control stick to one side. Soon the circle of houses and their suspicious, feline-bug infested labs were nothing but a distant memory in the starry night landscape.