The invasion happened overnight (as far as the Americas were concerned, at least).  The portals opened, circles of blue light no bigger than a porthole, in bedrooms and offices and stores and streets around the world, and then they closed again, just as the sensors were starting to detect them.

There were witnesses, of course; even in places where it was midnight, not everyone was sleeping, and in places where it was daylight, the portals opened in very public places.  All of them told the same story:

Creatures had stepped through the portal (or “shimmied through” or “wiggled through” or “popped out of,” depending on the witness), grabbed a nearby person, and dragged them into the portal.

All of the people taken were between eighteen and thirty — except the ten percent that weren’t.  All of them were in good health — except the seven percent that definitely weren’t.  All were men — except the 15% that were women.  In terms of other demographics, they were so varied that even generalizations couldn’t be made.

And they are all gone without a trace.  A few of the witnesses were pulled in as suspects, before the big governments released what little data they’d managed to gather.  A few were institutionalized, some of their own volition, some because the stories they were telling were just too strange.  People — aliens, whatever — did not just “pop out” of thin air.   They did not actually abduct people, certainly not three-quarters of a million people, and certainly not all at once.  And they absolutely did not have humanoid features superimposed with feline, canine, or vulpine features… nor were they lizard-people.

It was all too ridiculous to be believed.  But for 746 thousand people, it had suddenly become reality.

🌟

Toph woke up, which is how he realized he’d been asleep.  Unconscious, he supposed.  There had been the seventh can of Mt. Dew, and then there had been the weird light where the TV was supposed to be, and then… then, oh, man, Aspen and Libby and the rest were never, ever going to believe him.  No way.  Fox-girls did not just step out of nowhere.  They definitely did not step out of nowhere and grab you, dragging you through the room and hauling you into their tiny portal.

(He would never admit how easily she’d pulled him along.  He would take that to his grave, even if Libby was likely to guess. After all, super cute girl!  And, well, super strong girl.)

The next bit, that had to be his imagination.  He hadn’t gotten pulled through a tunnel that felt disturbingly like a, uh, like the inside of a girl.  That wasn’t real.  The blueness of the light hadn’t felt like menthol gel against his nose, no.  Someone must have drugged his Mt. Dew.  Or maybe seven cans of Mt. Dew in a half hour counted as a drug on their own.

Either way, that would explain how he was waking up now when he didn’t remember falling asleep.

Topher opened his eyes, which was generally the next step after waking up.  He looked around – this definitely wasn’t his room.  It was too clean, for one.  And too, uh,  lacy.  There was lace and ruffles everywhere.  It was like being inside a girl’s panty drawer which, considering what he’d come through…

Topher blushed and tried to find someplace to look that didn’t make him feel like he was doing something wrong just by existing.

“Oh, pleasantness, you have awaked.  Beginning to consider, I was, you might forever sleep.”

“…What?”  Topher sat up.  He didn’t recognize the voice.  That wasn’t good.

…tried to sit up.  Tried being absolutely the operative word, because there was no sitting happening, no up, barely any moving.

“Moving try not, concerned for attempts of jogging-distance, ah, kyuu, running-far?  Concerned for attempted of running-far this kyuuuu me was.”

Topher repeated that to himself, lips moving.  ”…You were worried I would sleep forever, and you tied me down because you were worried I might run away.  At the same time?”

There was a pause.  Topher looked around, left, right, ceiling.  Still couldn’t see anyone, and even the light fixture had too much lace.  It looked like someone had covered it in panties.

“Yes, worried, both.  Yes.  Kyuuuhhh, uh.  One, the other and then?”

“Your English is very strange. If I was going to hazard a guess, I’d have to say you weren’t from around here. Uh.  no, that’s not right, I’m not from around here, am I?  You’re not from around wherever – are you the girl with the fox ears that pulled me through the giant vagina?”

Lovely, Topher.  That’s why you get all the girls.

If he could have put his hands over his face, he would have, but his hands were strapped down, too.

That would probably have worried him, if he didn’t have a thousand other things queuing up to worry him first.

“I am, this is, kyuuu.  We are not where you were from, and my translator, your language, confusing, it is.  Confused.  I am trying, however.  I wish you not to worry, and not to run.”

“I gotta say, being kidnapped by a fox-girl and strapped down in a – in a – um, wherever I am, it’s not the most soothing of things.  Well, if I could see you, maybe?  Maybe that would be slightly less distressing.”

“We thought, kyu, the council of the deep space thought that perhaps… tch.”  She fell silent, but walked into Topher’s view.

She was probably short, he thought, except the tall foxlike ears.  Her face was close enough to human to be adorable, and her wide eyes made him want to hug her.

Of course, she’d strapped him down.  That made him less interested in the hugging and more in the running.

“…Your media signals, sometimes there were people who like us were.  But we did not find any in scans, although your world has many strange creatures that your media does not portray.”

“Yeah.  there’s a lot of secrets on my world.  Kinda glad to find out super-hot fox-girls weren’t one of the secrets.”

“Super-hot, this is, you are… but I am not of your species.”

“I am, that is…” he cleared his throat.  ”Why’d you bring me here, hey?  That’s probably the question I oughta be asking.  And why me?”

“We selected at random of the population, one fraction of fraction of percentage, and of those the most superior we took.”

“Most… I think you missed.”  He pulled against the restraints.  They were holding him very firmly to… something, something soft, by wrists and ankles and waist and, he thought, throat…. yup, there was definitely something holding him down around his throat.  ”So, uh.  Tell me this isn’t about experiments.  I’m not sure I could cope with it being about experiments.  I mean, come on, you obviously missed the goal when you were looking for the ‘superior’ specimens, if you want to cut someone open, you can go get someone else and put me back.”

“Putting back is not a thing that we can happen.  The gates opened and now they are sealed.”  She ran a … paw?  No, that was mostly a hand.  Most definitely a hand, even it if did have claws…. down his chest.  ”We are not to be cutting you open.  There are no violent experiments.  You are… because we need what you can provide.”

“You need, uh.” That hand was sneaking lower.  Topher looked at the girl, because he couldn’t watch her hand, not tied down like this.  ”You need, uh.”  Her ears were raked back and she was frowning, he thought.  Well, if she was a human, she’d be frowning. “Um.  A carpenter?”

“We need what you can provide,” she repeated.  This time, the placement of her hand left no doubt what she was talking about.

Topher gulped quietly.  ”Am I going to survive this?”

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