Phovos looked down at her own chest, then compared it to the busty look Kohra had pulled out of goodness knows where. He certainly looked like a female Temthan. Probably too much like a female Temthan. After a long, awkward sigh, Phovos glanced at Timik, who was sitting on the sofa staring at the floor.
“Wow… you really went all out on that, didn’t you?” Phovos finally spoke. She needed to ease the tension in the room.
Kohra pranced around, getting used to walking on his pointier feet. The last few months spent walking as a Rethan had made him used to being heavy, so taking a lighter form was rather pleasant. He stopped, leaped over to where Kayen was going through an image search on his phone, then bounced over to Phovos.
“Well I gotta get it right, right?”
“You look like a porn star…” Timik muttered. He was clearly uncomfortable.
“That’s all that comes up on these image searches!” Kayen exclaimed. “Nothing but massive Temthan breasts. All I did was search for “female Temthan”, not like we were actively looking for it.”
Kohra smiled. “I can turn down the breasts and buttocks, if you so desire.”
“Please do…” Timik was still muttering. “It’s hard enough being a single male Temthan as it is. It’s even harder being said Temthan and spending time with one of the most desirable Ksithans alive. It’s even harder when there’s a shapeshifting being running around the room in an oddly coloured version of someone that pretty much every Temthan has probably jerked off to.”
Kohra skidded to a halt. “Oh. Is that why there’s so many pictures of that particular Temthan?”
Timik nodded.
“All Temthans or just male ones?”
“Oh, everyone. Male and female.”
A smile sneaked across Kohra’s face. “Cool. That means I’ll be really distracting while Phovos does the sleuthing. Speaking of which, you come up with a plan yet?”
Phovos sighed, then nodded. “We’ll basically be going in blind. With Kayen’s telepathy keeping us linked, we should be able to communicate no problem, but evidence gathering is going to be hard. I don’t think we can get cameras or anything in there, but I’ve got a couple of micro-listeners we can at least try and sneak in, to use to listen in on everything that’s going on.”
“They might strip-search you though…” Timik grunted.
“What if you swallowed them?” Kayen suggested. “I mean, not me. My stomach acid is too strong.
“Make the listeners into earrings then!” Kohra suggested. “Or horn rings or whatever piercings you all normally use.”
Phovos glanced at Timik. “That could work, right?”
“I guess. A horn piercing, people won’t notice…” Timik paused. “But you, Phovos, you don’t look very… Temthany yet. I thought you could grow the more traditional Temthan armour plating?”
The Raptor tutted. “My adaptation powers are reactive.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning someone has to…” Phovos growled. “One of you will have to hit me in order to trigger the adaptation, so I grow armour.”
“So we have to do it when we get there?” Kayen asked. “Will it last a couple of hours? Because we don’t know how long you’ll be in there for and Timik and I will need time to break in and save you if things go bad.”
Phovos grunted. “Yes. Have you worked out-”
“Yep. Timik on the roof of the building next door, me in the cafe opposite.”
Kohra sat down next to Kayen, studying the map the Skyavok had laid out. “So the plan is, Phovos and I go in, listening devices on. Kayen monitors the listening devices from the cafe. Timik keeps an eye on security and traffic going in and out…”
“The question is, how long do we play along for?” Phovos asked. “Because we have no idea if they do the impregnations there and then.”
“Since I have no womb, I can keep on playing along as far as I can…” Kohra paused. “Well, I suppose we can come up with an excuse. Best friends doing everything together and all that. I’d rather not go as far as impregnation but we can play it by ear, then give the signal when we want out.”
“That works…” Kayen shrugged. “When you guys need rescuing, you let me know telepathically, and Timik will set off those smoke bombs Phovos bought, trigger the fire alarms and give everyone a chance to get out.”
“Worst case scenario,” Timik patted a large battering ram. “Worst comes to the worst, I break the doors down and rescue you both.”
Kohra clapped his hands together. “That sounds like a hell of a plan to me! Let’s do it!”