Rei let out a contented sigh as the Green Snake salon attendant gently massaged her calves, meticulously filing and buffing her claw-like nails into glistening ebony points. Even with their financial empire crumbling around them, there was no way she was going to let her signature feline looks go to seed.
Beside her, Luna purred softly in pleasure as another reptilian hybrid technician worked her deft, scaled hands across her sister's delicate feet. Despite their debt crisis, the twins had insisted on keeping their usual twice-weekly pampering appointment. Image was everything in their line of work—they couldn't afford to look anything less than impeccable, creditors be damned.
Rei stole a sidelong glance at the chrome chronometer affixed to the salon's curved, mossy wall. Just thirty more days until the dreaded repo droids showed up to strip them of their remaining assets, their hard-won career reduced to ashes. The familiar knot of anxiety twisted in the pit of her stomach.
She closed her eyes, trying to push the worry from her mind. Instead, her thoughts drifted back to the previous night's encounter with the ruggedly handsome—albeit somewhat unconventional—bounty hunter. Rally Hunter... even his name oozed a roguish charm that made her shiver with an unfamiliar tingle.
His feral, piercing gaze had fixated her from the moment he'd stepped out of the crowd, all coiled menace and lean, muscular danger. And the way he'd moved, with such fluid, predatory grace as he'd neutralized that hulking rhino thug...
Rei felt a flush of warmth bloom across her cheeks as she imagined running her fingers through the soft, thick fur of his powerful chest, exploring the wiry ropes of muscle rippling beneath that battered leather jacket. What would his calloused hands feel like caressing her lithe, feline body? How would his blazing eyes smolder as he—
"You're drooling, sis," Luna's teasing voice sliced through Rei's heated reverie like a vibro-dagger.
Rei's eyes snapped open to see her twin regarding her with a sly, knowing grin. "Still thinking about your hunky knight in dented armor, are you?"
Flustered, Rei shot Luna a scathing look as she snatched a plush towel and blotted furiously at the corner of her mouth. "I don't know what you're babbling about."
Luna laughed, rich and lilting. "Uh-huh, sure you don't. And my fur's not iridescent." She leaned in conspiratorially. "Seriously though, you really should have gotten that guy's contact code before he swaggered off into the night. Imagine the look on the 'Screamer's face when their dream 'cat showed up with a wolfen stud on her arm."
Rei opened her mouth for a biting retort, but her mind stuttered to a halt as a new idea blossomed, bright and tantalizing. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Luna in a sudden epiphany.
"That's it..." she breathed.
Luna frowned quizzically. "What's it?"
"The answer to our debt!" Rei exclaimed, gripping her sister's hand with almost painful intensity. "We need to become bounty hunters!"
Luna recoiled as if someone slapped her, her delicate features contorting in disbelief. "Bounty hunters? Are you completely michin? That's the most perilous, cut-throat job in the city!"
"Exactly!" Rei pressed on, her excitement building. "If we can just nab one big score, a huge bounty on some heavy hitter, it'll be enough to cover our debts and get the repo sluts off our tail for good!"
Her sister stared at her as if she'd grown a second head. "But... we don't know the first thing about being hunters! It's way too dangerous, we'd get our tails chewed off in a second!"
"No, think about it!" Rei leaned closer, fixing Luna with an intense, pleading gaze. "We only need one big reward, large enough to save our career. And who the hell would ever suspect a pair of cute little pop queens of being ferocious hunters stalking the criminal underworld? We'll have the element of surprise to-tail!"
Luna opened her mouth to protest further, but Rei cut her off with a soothing purr, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"C'mon, sis... it's not like we have any other choice. Do you really want to lose everything we've worked for our entire lives? Our music, our fans, our dream?" Her shining eyes bored into Luna's very soul. "This is our last chance to keep it all. Are you willing to take the risk with me?"
For a long, breathless moment, the sisters studied each other in silence, a multitude of unspoken thoughts and trepidations flickering between them. Finally, Luna sighed in resignation, returning Rei's gentle squeeze.
"You know I am," she murmured. "I'm with you to whatever end, no matter how crazy your schemes get."
Rei beamed radiantly, pulling her twin into an exuberant embrace that caused the salon technicians to cluck in disapproving protest. But she didn't care—at last, they had a plan.
"Don't worry," she purred into Luna's ear with a sly wink. "How dangerous could it really be?"
*****
The towering neo-brutalist facade of the MCPD headquarters loomed over Rei and Luna as they approached, its harsh lines and imposing presence sending a shiver of trepidation down the pop diva's spines. This was it - the point of no return on their wild plan to become bounty hunters.
Luna shot Rei a sideways glance, her tail lashing nervously. "You sure about this, sis? We can still turn back before signing our lives away."
Rei met her sister's gaze steadily, her red eyes glinting with feline determination. "No backing out now. This is our only chance to wipe out our debts and keep our dreams alive." She reached out and gave Luna's hand a reassuring squeeze. "Besides, how hard can a little bounty hunter training really be? We'll knock it out of the park, just like our dance routines."
Luna didn't look convinced, but she nodded grimly and followed Rei through the precinct's main entrada.
The interior was a mind-numbing maze of drab corridors and bleak security checkpoints manned by dour looking officers from a dozen different species. They finally located the main reception desk, where a rather intimidating goat-hybrid lady sat regarding them with a Look of disdainful reproach.
"State your business," she bleated in a gruff baritone completely at odds with her delicate features.
Rei summoned her most winsome smile. "Good day, officer! We're here to sign up for the new bounty hunter training program, if you'd be so kind as to point us in the right direction?"
The caprine clerk's beady eyes flicked over them dismissively before she grunted and shoved a battered data slate and stylus across the counter. "Fill these out, turn them back in, then report to Briefing Room B14 to await the commissioner."
As they hurriedly filled in the required fields on the data slate, Luna leaned close and muttered under her breath, "We must look pretty ridiculous, a pair of pampered pop tarts aiming to become rough and tumble hunters."
"Speak for yourself," Rei countered with a cocky grin, signing the slate with a needlessly elaborate flourish. "I was born to stalk the mean streets dispensing justice."
Luna rolled her eyes but said nothing as they turned in the completed forms and followed the clerk's directions to the briefing room. They found themselves in a sterile grey chamber lined with rows of plastic benches, a few other would-be bounty hunter recruits already seated and chatting in hushed tones.
As Rei and Luna claimed a bench towards the front, the reinforced door slid open with a hiss to admit a striking feline figure. She stalked in on spike-heeled boots with an unmistakable aura of power and self-assurance, flicking her sleek russet tail languidly.
"Listen up, folks," she announced in a rich contralto that immediately commanded everyone's undivided attention. "My name is Commissioner Fiona Blossom, and I'll be overseeing your bounty hunter training and certification."
Rei couldn't help but drink in the woman's appearance - from her sharp, elegant features and piercing emerald eyes to the lush curves barely contained by her vibrant crimson business suit. Despite herself, she felt a slight pang of envy at the commissioner's commanding beauty and poise.
"Being a Licensed bounty hunter isn't just about chasing down lowlife scum for a quick payday," Blossom continued, slowly pacing before the rapt recruits. "It's about upholding justice beyond the thin line of the law. Being the solution when the system fails and innocent lives hang in the balance."
Her brilliant green eyes seemed to bore into each of them one by one. "The path you've chosen is tough - dangerous, demanding, with no room for weakness or hesitation. You'll be trained in everything from martial disciplines to weapon certifications, tactical operations to forensic investigations. At the end of the training cycle, those who successfully complete the course will be granted a civilian law enforcement commission, with all the authority - and accountability - that entails."
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She let that sobering reality sink in before sweeping them with another piercing look. "In other words, you'll be expected to catch your targets by any means necessary. Nothing is off the table - no rules except those you make for yourself." A feral smile played across her full lips. "The streets are your hunting ground, and every criminal is fair prey."
A charged silence hung over the room as Blossom's words lingered potently in the air. Beside Rei, she could sense Luna's apprehension practically radiating off her in waves. She reached over and gave her twin's trembling hand a reassuring squeeze, leaning close to murmur in her ear.
"Don't worry, I've got your back every step of the way. We're in this together, no matter what."
Luna managed a tight smile and a nod, her worries only partially assuaged. But Rei could feel the adrenaline surging through her own veins, that addictive thrill of putting everything on the line fueling her determination.
Commissioner Blossom clapped her hands together decisively. "Alright, rookies - your official training kicks off bright and early tomorrow at 0600 hours. Rest up while you can, because I promise you won't know the meaning of the word afterward."
Her smoldering gaze found Rei, holding her transfixed for a lingering second with the ghost of a challenging smirk.
"See you in the field."
*****
The pre-dawn chill sent a shiver down Rei's spine as she and Luna approached the imposing edifice of the MCPD training complex. Twin smog-shrouded moons still hung low over the dilapidated dockyard district, casting long shadows across the deserted streets and lending an aura of desolate menace to the run-down warehouses and abandoned loading bays.
Five other would-be bounty hunters milled around the entrance of the fortified structure, eyeing each other with a mixture of nervous anticipation and competitive bravado. A few offered Rei and Luna sidelong glances, quickly averting their gazes when they realized the twins had noticed. One ursine bruiser even snorted a derisive chuckle, muttering something about "pop tart posers" under his breath.
Before Rei could retort with a scalding remark of her own, the facility's reinforced entrance clanged open to admit a lean figure clad in urban camo fatigues festooned with tactical gear. Prominent lapine ears twitched above the razor-sharp features of a by-the-book police lifer as he regarded them all with an imperious scowl.
"Listen up, maggots!" he barked, his gravelly baritone carrying across the compound. "My name is Officer Henry - I'll be your instructor for the next 36 hours of hell. From this point forward, you are under my command without question or hesitation. You'll learn how to handle any weapon known to the criminal underworld with flawless precision. How to stalk your prey through the most inhospitable urban terrain. How to infiltrate secure locations and extract high value targets without being detected."
His cold, pitiless gaze lingered on Rei and Luna with undisguised disdain. "No room for weaklings or quitters here. If you even think you can't hack it, get your sorry carcass off my grounds right now."
A tense, challenging silence answered his words as the recruits traded sidelong looks, the gravity of the situation sinking in. Beside Rei, Luna swallowed hard - but the pop diva held Henry's flinty stare without flinching, her own blue eyes glinting with smoldering defiance.
The rabbit-hybrid instructor seemed to pick up on the subtle challenge, the corner of his mouth twisting into a contemptuous sneer as he regarded them contemptuously.
"Fine - have it your way, meat puppets. But don't come crying to me when you wash out bloody and broken. Now get your miserable hides inside and strap up - we start serving out hurt sundaes in five."
Gesturing curtly with his sidearm, Henry spun on his heel and vanished through the gaping entrance with a swish of his tactical cape. The other recruits immediately fell into a grim, obedient file and trudged in his wake, leaving Rei and Luna to bring up the rear.
"Well," Luna muttered under her breath, her tone heavy with doubt and second-thoughts. "Guess there's no turning back now."
Rei responded by reaching out and giving her sister's hand a firm, reassuring squeeze. "Just follow my lead," she purred, a lupine grin playing across her feline features. "I was prepared for this."
And with that, she strode forward into the yawning maw of the training facility, pulling Luna in her wake.
The labyrinthine corridors echoed with the percussive thunder of gunfire and the jarring wail of combat alarms, immersed in a dizzying blur of instruction and hands-on drilling.
Rei lost all track of time, the reps and scenarios blending together into a disorienting haze punctuated only by flashes of adrenaline-fueled hyper-focus - the fiery recoil of a pulse rifle against her shoulder...the sting of sweat in her eyes as she vaulted a razor-wire fence with preternatural agility...the tang of transdermal coagulant stemming the flow of blood from a gashed forearm as she slammed a fresh power cell home into her sidearm with grim determination.
Through it all, Officer Henry's venomous tongue lashed out like a scorpion's relentless stinger, sneering and taunting and pushing them to their ragged limits repeatedly. "What's the matter, kitty cats - too much for your pampered little paws to handle? Should've stuck to pawing at dance holos instead of trying to run with hunters!"
The grinding hours stretched into a brutal endurance marathon, their bodies pushed to the brink of collapse from the relentless pace. But with each fresh challenge surmounted, each new skill set mastered through sheer force of will, Rei felt a sense of feral empowerment blossoming within her lean, lithe frame.
Finally, after an eternity of torturous drilling, Henry gestured them towards a set of heavily armored doors guarded by a menacing security grid.
"Last test, newbies," he growled, somehow still sounding as fresh and rested as at the start despite his own visible fatigue. "Infiltrate the VR suite and neutralize the hostile targets inside. No retreats, no resets. You get ventilated, you flunk."
His beady gaze settled on Rei and Luna like a pair of laser sights. "Last chance to tap out, pop fluffs. Nobody will think less of a pair of C-listers knowing when they're outclassed."
Rei glared at him.
"Not a chance, floppy," she growled. "Watch us as we eat your words.”
As the armored door slid open with a pneumatic hiss of escaping vapor, Luna fell into lockstep at Rei's side, her own gun leveled and ready. She masked her expression of flint-eyed determination with her sister.
"Let's get feral, Kitten," she purred, all traces of doubt replaced by the same blazing sense of purpose that now burned in Rei's heart.
Officer Henry watched them disappear into the shadowy VR suite, a thin smile finally cracking his jaded veneer as he moved to the control console.
"That's what I like to see. Now let's see if the kitties have earned their claws…”
*****
Rei's every sense thrummed with heightened perception as she and Luna slipped through the dimly lit corridors of the VR training suite. The air carried the metallic tinge of ozone and residual weapon's discharge, punctuated by distant echoes of sporadic gunfire and the occasional muffled shout.
Pushing all distractions from her mind, the pop diva-turned-bounty huntress focused solely on her breathing - slow, controlled exhalations perfectly in sync with the predatory gait of her footfalls. Every coiled muscle in her lithe form moved with the liquid, economical grace of a born predator stalking its prey.
At her side, Luna mirrored Rei's intense focus with the same disciplined calm they'd honed through years of live performances and high-stakes media gauntlets. Only the slight dilation of her pupils and the measured sweep of her aimed gun betrayed the electrifying tension simmering just beneath the surface.
Reaching an intersection, Rei held up a fist, signaling a halt as she performed a methodical threat assessment sweep of the new vector. Her hypersensitive feline senses probed the umbral stillness for any subtle tripwires or thermal signatures - the only sound the subtle hiss of her breath in letting oxygen to her augmented cardiopulmonary system.
Nothing. She flashed a hand signal for Luna to follow and they ghosted onwards down the vacant hallway, weapons at the ready.
Abruptly, a deafening klaxon howled through the corridors, bathing them in a disorienting strobe of piercing crimson emergency lighting. Rei's hackles instantly bristled as her combat precedence protocols surged to the fore, processing a dizzying array of incoming tactical data.
"Contact! Twelve o'clock high - two heavies with automatic rifles on the next deck!" she barked tersely into her comm.
Without missing a beat, Luna snap-pivoted and unleashed a blistering volley up through the narrow access way, her blaster's coherent pulses ricocheting in a hellish fusillade of vaporized ferrocrete.
Rei pressed in tight, raking the passage with a swinging arc of suppression fire from her own pulse rifle. Even as towering silhouettes materialized through the roiling smoke and debris, resolving into the hazy forms of armored hostiles, she was already gaining her next firing solution with cybernetic precision.
One figure crumpled from a barrage of Luna's pinpoint head shots, sparking circuits erupting from its shredded cranium plate. But the other lurched forward with a guttural roar, raking the confined space with its heavy rotary cannon.
Glowing molten slugs detonated all around the sisters in a blizzard of explosive impacts, one grazing Rei's shoulder to leave a smoking trench of smoldering synth flesh. Hissing out a breath, she snap-trapped around the corner as a fresh power cell slammed home into her carbine's breech.
"Can you fry it?" she shouted over the cacophonous din, catching Luna's eye and motioning towards the hostile with a quick jerk of her muzzle.
"Got it, sis!" her twin shouted back, rocking out of cover long enough to launch a trio of sizzling ion pulses that played across the heavy's armored carapace. Arcane energies cascaded over its form in shimmering arcs of electric malfunction, causing its movement mechanisms to stutter and convulse.
That was all the opening Rei needed. In a blink, she was airborne, her lithe frame tucking into a singeing series of rotations as she sailed through the hazy fire-zone. Her landing carried her in a shoulder roll that transitioned seamlessly into a spring at the hapless heavy's armored back.
Moving with blurred, almost supernatural reflexes, Rei twisted in mid-leap to contort her sinuous form into a missile of concentrated force. Her boots detonated against the target's chassis with the force of a small thermobaric detonation, powering through its crippled gyros and sending it crashing with an earth-shaking impact.
Before it could so much as reactivate primary motive systems, Rei had pivoted on its sparking form, straddling its broad back as her taloned fingers lashed out in a blindingly fast series of brutal strikes. One surgically accurate overhead blow snapped its armored carapace open like a crushed eggshell to expose the vital processing core beneath. The next ended it with savage finality.
Silence fell heavy over the smoke-choked passage as Rei flowed back to her feet in one fluid, boneless movement, nonchalantly brushing away a few errant sparks. Her blazing amber gaze found Luna, and the sisters exchanged matching predatory grins of feral delight.
"Still think this gig is too dangerous for a couple of pop queens?" Rei purred, cocking an eyebrow as she gave her carbine's power cell a contemptuous spin on her finger before snapping it home once more.
"Are you kidding?" Luna retorted, wiping a trickle of sweat from her brow as she reloaded her scorched gun. "After moves like that, I think the only thing that needs to watch out is the whole damn underworld!"
Rei flashed her a wickedly confident grin, high on the thrill of their first true taste of bone-crunching bounty action. This fateful moment was merely the opening volley in their meteoric rise to become the most infamous hunter duo the city had ever seen.
"That's just the warm-up act, little sister. Wait till the big show…”
*****
"Not bad for a couple of little girls, eh?"
The gruff yet unmistakably impressed voice preceded Officer Henry's grizzled form as he strode through the automated bulkhead sealing the training suite environs.
"I've certainly seen cleaner after-action sites from some of my elite operatives," he continued, toeing a still-smoldering chunk of debris with his boot. "But style points were definitely awarded for bringing the ruckus in classic Moreau City fashion."
Circling the twins with an appraising look, he gave a curt nod of approval. "You two wildcat sisters showed incredible fire-forging technique out there - especially you, Rei. I've never witnessed kineticist channeled into a singularity impact strike quite like that kill move you pulled."
Despite her lingering aches and burns, Rei felt her chest swell with quiet pride at the seasoned hunter's praise. Plenty of so-called "elite" operatives liked to boast of their skills, but earning Henry's hard-won respect meant more to her than any empty bluster.
Favoring him with a breathless yet satisfied grin, she straightened her spine and somehow mustered the energy for a prim, imperial dip of her head. "Thank you, sir. Luna and I played a lot of video games during our spare time. I guessed that's what made us totally good.”
The rabbit officer laughed. “Interesting, but never take yourselves too seriously, no matter how much havoc you end up causing." Glancing between the two battered yet indomitably smug sisters, his smile took on a more proud, paternal edge. "That's what'll keep you two sharp as you climb the bounty hunter ranks."
Turning on his heel, he made a dismissive gesture toward the exit. "But enough post-game banter - you've both earned a hot shower and full metabolic cycle to recover. Commissioner Blossom will send you a report soon. It shouldn't take long since only a few trainees arrived. Take care.”
The twins nodded and turned their heels to the front door. Rei could feel the thrum of anticipation already building anew. Being evaluated by Commissioner Blossom was far more than just an honor - it was a crucial first step toward establishing their reputations as a force to be reckoned with to pay off their debt.
The challenge would be arduous, fraught with more trials and risks than could be simulated. But after what she'd just endured and overcome in blistering reality, Rei could feel that wild, unfettered part of her growing ever sharper and more ravenous to be unleashed upon the underworld at large.
As the reinforced door cycled open to a view of the warehouses under the neon skyline, she turned to share one last predatory grin with Luna. The fires of their ceremonial forge-testing still burned hot between them - an undying blaze that would propel them into destiny as supernatural paragons of skill and ferocity.
"Don't worry, sister. I've got a feeling the commissioner will like our results.”