Chapter 0 - Touching Herself

Well, this was ready faster than I was expecting. A sequel to 'Redundancy', with a bit more worldbuilding. Plus smut, of course.

Content: fff fingering, oral, slight S&M. Not sure whether to class this as masturbation or sex. Selfcest?

Zyria limped into her temporary room in the SID building and let herself fall backwards onto the narrow standard-issue bed, wincing as her calf hit the edge. She bent her leg, knee to her chest, then unwound the bandage from around her lower leg. The ragged wound, from her ankle nearly to her knee, didn't look much better than the night before, though at least it had stopped bleeding. She fumbled in her pocket. Now that the mission and preliminary debriefing were over, she could finally take some painkillers.

The SID medics who had examined her after the mission had refused her anything beyond a fresh bandage and the painkillers once they determined that the wound wasn't life-threatening. Zyria could see their point, really. There was little point to quick-heal treatment or even to stitches or something, since her Reintegration would be in only a few hours, once her other two selves arrived. With a sigh, she fluffed up her pillow, lay back, and closed her eyes. In would be nice to get a little rest before the Reintegration.

It seemed like she'd only closed her eyes for a few minutes when she heard the click of the doorlock and the bright lights from the hall lit up the room. She blinked in the light as the figure silhouetted in the doorway stepped inside.

"Hi," it said, in Zyria's own voice. It sounded different than it did from the inside of her head, but she had had plenty of opportunity to become familiar with the sound of her own voice.

"Hey," she replied. "Come on in."

The other woman moved closer and closed the door. Now that she was lit only by the dimmer lights in the room, Zyria could see her properly. From the subtle blue highlights in her hair and the minimal green tint to her skin, Zyria could tell that it was her mission partner, and not her original. She smiled, then hissed as the woman sat down on the bed and bumped her leg.

"Oh, sorry! Did you get injured?"

"Just a cut on my leg." Zyria shrugged, then scooted backward, leaning against the headboard but keeping her leg stretched out in front of her.

"Let me see," her other self said, reaching out and carefully peeling back Zyria's trouser leg. "Ow," she added, when the cut was revealed. "Not looking forward to feeling that!"

"It's not that bad," Zyria assured her. "I took some painkillers, and they're starting to work already." Changing the subject, she added, "Any idea when the basic model is going to get here?"

The other woman shrugged, then moved to sit next to Zyria. "Wilkes said she should be here soon. Maybe ten minutes."

Zyria leaned her shoulder against hers. "So, your part of the mission go OK?"

Her other self laughed. "I have no idea why we keep asking that when we'll be reintegrated anyway in a couple of hours, at most."

"I'm just impatient, I guess."

Another snort of laughter. "Well, you should already know it went mostly OK. You got the maps and the personal info, right?"

"I did. Thanks, by the way. You even managed to get some of his passwords for me."

"Turns out the guy wasn't very consistent about his paranoia. Massive security at his house in the wilderness, and he still wrote down his password on a sticky note."

"Typical. Any difficulties otherwise?"

"Nah, it was a pretty simple mission otherwise. Spent some time working as Irina's assistant to establish my identity and then when we were at the dear Doctor's house he kept leering at me, but it was all pretty easy, really. By the way, I found out what business the Blaidwicks are in. They've got a major interested in this world's franchise of Creative Genetics. That must be how the SID made contact with them."

Zyria nodded to herself. Creative Genetics was one of the three major companies that dealt in engineered animals; they'd recently made a big splash with a new line of guard-animals and pets. Many of the people in Bio-Engineering had worked at CG or one of their competitors before they joined the SID. Then that thought was pushed aside as she picked up on her other self's phrasing.

"Oh, Irina, is it?" Zyria teased, leaning her head on her other self's shoulder.

"After the first day, she insisted that I call her by her first name. She was flirting with me the whole time we were working together. Got pretty touchy-feely when we were alone. If I really had been working for her I could have complained about workplace sexual harassment. She even dropped hints that she and her husband weren't exclusive..."

"You go for it?" Zyria asked, nuzzling her neck. The other woman let out an 'Eep!' when Zyria's cold nose touched her skin.

A sigh. "You know I didn't. It's not a good idea to get involved with people on a mission. Shame, really, she's pretty hot. All proper and professional, but then she had those teeth and sharp nails to make her just a little dangerous."

Zyria nipped at the nape of her other self's neck with her own sharp teeth.. "I noticed the teeth, yeah. I liked them." She smiled as she shivered. She did like a little danger.

"Well, since I couldn't play with her, we're going to have to make the most of the opportunity now that you have teeth and claws." She took Zyria's hand in hers, flexing the fingers and running her fingers over the tips of Zyria's. "If our original shows up sometime soon. Anyway, your end of the mission go OK? You got wounded. Get caught or something?"

"No, nothing like that," Zyria said, flexing muscles she had only just gotten used to having and revealing her claws. "Your maps and passwords got me inside, no trouble. But on the way out, I had to avoid a security drone and took a different route out. Caught myself on the fence in the rush. Didn't even feel it until I was halfway to the extraction point. Off course, as soon as I noticed, it started hurting like a bitch and then I had to walk on it another five miles."

"But you got the data?"

"As much as I could grab. All kinds of genetics and grafting experiments, I think. On animals, of course, but I'm guessing it's applicable to people, too."

"So, the Directorate wants this data for our own use?"

"Probably. It didn't look like something that would be usable on existing people. I mean, something like this," she ran her claws over the skin of the other woman's arm, feeling the skin under her lips break out in goosebumps, "is only really possible for us because of the Device. You can't get proper neurological integration in adults."

"Well, let's hope it gives us more options for enhancements. I'm always interested in what the people in Bio-Engineering can give us. For missions."

This was one of the things -- in addition to the opportunity to try out all kinds of different bodies -- that Zyria liked about working for the SID: talking to herself and figuring things out together. The ability to work with someone who thought like you did but who could still have an independent train of thought.

"And for afterwards, of course."

She winced at the sudden light when the door opened again, revealing another silhouette like the figure already in bed beside her.

"Started without me, have you?" it said, then giggled as the woman next to Zyria reached out and pulled their third self into the room. She managed to kick the door closed just before she was pulled onto the bed, landing across her duplicates' stomachs with an 'Oof!'.

Zyria managed to refrain from crying out as their original bumped her leg while she wiggled around on the bed, finally inserting herself between her two duplicates.

"So," she said, flinging an arm around each of their shoulders, "I guess you've already had the post-mission talk?"

"Yep," Zyria said, pressing herself into her side, "and the conclusion we came to was that we like teeth and claws and a little bit of danger."

Since the newcomer was, like the herself and her other duplicate, wearing only a pair of SID-issue grey boxer shorts and a t-shirt top, she put action to words by drawing a claw down her stomach, leaving behind a barely visible white line.

"I can - Ah - agree with that," the newcomer said, shivering as the woman on the other side shifted and began pulling her top over her head. "Anything else?"

"Nothing urgent," Zyria mumbled, before licking a long path up the newly-revealed torso.

"Ooh! Rough tongue!"

"And it's longer, too," Zyria added, happily, then applied it to a rapidly-hardening nipple.

"I've got to try that, then," the woman on the other side said, taking the other nipple into her mouth.

The both of them spent some time re-exploring the already-familiar tits of their original, licking them all over and massaging them in the way that Zyria had long ago figured out she liked. Now, though, Zyria had some new tools at her disposal. As she squeezed the breast on her side, she slid her claws just barely out of their sheaths, gently pricking the skin. The way the object of her ministrations' breathing became increasingly ragged meant that her efforts were having exactly the effect she was expecting. When she pulled back slightly and took the nipple between her sharp teeth, the arm around her shoulder tightened, pulling her fully against her original's heaving chest.

Her hand trailed down, running along her stomach until she reached the waistband of the boxers. A moment's hesitation, then she moved further, pressing against the outside of the boxers until she reached her other self's fabric-covered slit. She extended a finger and, claw still extended, began rubbing small circles over the clit, the claw making soft scratching noises on the fabric. When she felt the first indications of a wet spot developing, she pressed harder.

The body under her jerked, and there was a shriek and a thump from the other side of the bed. Zyria looked up from licking her original's breasts in time to see the third member of their trio's head pop up over the edge of the bed from where she'd been dumped on the floor, giggling. She scrabbled back onto the bed and knelt next to the panting body of their original. Looking Zyria in the eye, she commented, "I think it's about time for the next step," and leaned forward, putting their hands onto their original's shoulders and pressing her into the mattress.

She shot another glance at Zyria before leaning down and pressing her mouth against the original's in a crushing kiss. It went on for several moments while Zyria admired the view. Then, moving her head so that she could see Zyria, she raised an eyebrow at her. Zyria knew what she meant and, careful not to bump her leg, shuffled toward the foot of the bed.

"I'm getting impatient," she commented, to set the tone, then reached out and took the waistband of the damp panties in both hands. With little effort, the fabric shredded in her sharp claws, and in a moment she had pulled the remains of the panties away, revealing her other self's glistening cunt. The outside was, like her entire skin, still green, but when Zyria reached out and spread her slit with two fingers, careful to just barely prick the skin with her fingers, the insides were the familiar pink. She rather liked the contrast, which was one of the reasons she had chosen this color and then taken care to keep it completely hairless.

Zyria leaned forward, spreading the slit wider and admiring the way the inner lips stuck together briefly with their wetness. The scent of arousal, which had been gradually becoming more and more noticeable to her enhanced sense of smell, washed over her as she breathed deeply. There was a moan from the head end of the bed and, as she glanced up, the figure under her hands struggled. The third member of their trio was still holding their original in place and covering her mouth with hers, and the thought passed through Zyria's mind that their original didn't have the increased ability to hold her breath that her duplicate did.

Smiling, Zyria leaned forward and reached out with her tongue. Just as it touched the spread slit before her, her duplicate ended the kiss, and her original took a deep, shuddering breath. From the copious wetness under her tongue, Zyria was sure -- like she had expected -- that it had nog been an unwelcome experience. Zyria lapped at her original's cunt, savoring the way it tasted on her engineered taste buds. When her thighs began to close around Zyria's head, she put her hands to them, claws out, daring her other self to move them closer. They stopped moving, trembling under her hands as she kept licking, her long tongue moving along the depths of her cunt, from top to bottom and back again.

Her original's moans rose in volume and were muffled again when her other duplicate kissed her deeply again. It took only a few minutes of Zyria's attentions before the moans became too loud to muffle and her original's struggles nearly bucked her duplicate off as she came, cum gushing from her slit, covering Zyria's mouth and the sheets under her in wetness. Zyria withdrew, but kept lapping gently at the outside of her original's dripping pussy, cleaning up the cum and drawing a series of twitches from her as she came down from her peak.

When she finally relaxed and lay back, Zyria stopped her movement, licked her lips clean and carefully sat up. Her third self had released their original and was now sitting up as well, a bi smile on her face as she watched the heaving chest of the figure beside her.

"You turn, I think," she said. "Come on, get over here and lie back."

Zyria waited a minute for her original to regain her wits, then took her place on the bed, moving carefully so as not to bump her leg. The original Zyria moved aside to give her room and stood next to the bed, eyes flicking between Zyria and the other duplicate. Before Zyria could lie down, she was intercepted by two pairs of hands and efficiently stripped of her clothing. The other two women shared a look, then simultaneously gave voice to the thought that Zyria had also been thinking.

"Those stripes look nice. I'm going to have to rethink my look."

Zyria lay back and stretched, showing off while the other two looked her over.

"I'm going to take a closer look, her original said, as she clambered back onto the bed and knelt over Zyria's uninjured leg. She bent down, stroking her fingers over the darker stripes on Zyria's stomach. As she trailed her finger down from Zyria's bellybutton, she leaned back until she sat down on Zyria's leg, leaving a spot of wetness. Zyria watched the expression of concentration falter as she shivered and shifted position, rubbing her pussy on Zyria's leg.

Zyria's view was blocked when her third self climbed onto the bed as well, straddling Zyria's waist and leaning down until their chests touched, her counterparts' hard nipples rubbing along Zyria's own. Zyria hadn't even noticed that her counterpart's top had disappeared.

"Oops," her counterpart said, without a trace of regret, as she squashed her breasts into Zyria's smaller ones until their noses were almost touching, distracting Zyria from the feel of her original's fingers, which were now trailing along her hip and down her upper leg. The woman on top her went on, "It seems I forgot to take my pants of. A little help?" She looked innocently into Zyria's eyes, then leaned down and took Zyria's bottom lip between her teeth.

Zyria craned her neck until she could properly kiss her duplicate, then reached down and grabbed her ass with both hands before extending her claws and shredding the woman's shorts. She skimmed across the other woman's ass afterwards, grazing her with her claws, before methodically cutting apart the remains of the underwear, leaving her now completely exposed. Her other self moaned at the feeling, and Zyria captured her mouth with her own, smothering the moan.

Their tongues wrestled for dominance until Zyria smacked the other woman's ass and, at her squeal, caught her tongue between sharp teeth. Her lips quirked in a smile as the squeal turned into a moan when Zyria spread her ass apart with both hand, extending her claws just enough to prick the skin.

Then it was time for Zyria to moan as her original self paused her grinding on Zyria's leg and trailed her fingers back up Zyria's thigh, going directly for her clit and circling it with a finger. Zyria let her head fall back and had a momentary glimpse of the pleasure-glazed look in her duplicate's eyes before she followed Zyria down and recaptured her mouth, kissing her deeply.

From the sounds her duplicate was breathing into Zyria's mouth, she was sure that their original was now attending to both their pussies. The circling finger sped up, rubbing Zyria hard until she was wet enough. Then, another finger joined it, spreading Zyria wide for a moment before plunging into her sopping cunt.

As often happened at this point, Zyria had the thought that she was thankful that she so often had the opportunity to have sex with someone who knew exactly what she like. Then that thought dissolved as the fingers pumped into her rapidly, drawing more moans from her as she tried to keep up the kiss with the woman lying on top of her, who was having similar difficulties.

Their original self wasted no time in repaying the efforts that her duplicates had spent on her behalf a few minutes earlier, thrusting the fingers of each hand hard into each of the dripping cunts on display in front of her. Zyria, desperate for every bit of stimulation that she could get, tightened her grip on her duplicate's ass, pulling her down onto Zyria until their mounds slammed into each other, sending a jolt of pleasure through Zyria's body.

Her duplicate got the idea immediately and began wriggling, rubbing their crotches together as their original rode Zyria's leg while she finger-fucked the both of them. Zyria tried to catalogue all the ways in which her enhanced body's responses were different from what she was used to, but quickly lost herself in the pleasure she was sharing with her other selves.

She and her duplicate panted into each others' mouths, nipped at each others' lips and pressed themselves together while their original redoubled her efforts, pumping into their cunts faster and faster, wet sounds and moans filling the small room.

Within minutes, the woman on top of Zyria shuddered while her breathing hitched, then collapsed onto Zyria, breaking the kiss. Zyria whined at the loss of stimulation as her duplicate stopped grinding into her, then grasped her ass more firmly and rubbed her clit more frantically on the other woman's body. Her leg twitched as her orgasm approached, the small twinge of pain from the wound lost in the pleasure coursing through her body.

Her original, recognizing the signs, crooked the fingers buried in Zyria's cunt until they hit just the right spot on her inner wall. It was the last straw, and Zyria was pushed over the edge, moaning into her duplicate's ear as she came, cum gushing from her pussy and onto her original's hand.

She relaxed onto the mattress, gently kneading her duplicate's ass as she came down from her orgasm. A few minutes later, she was aware of their original shuddering as she ground herself to another orgasm on Zyria's leg, then crawled forward and pressed herself into her duplicates, slinging an arm over the two women and pulling them close.

They lay there, panting together, for some time until there was a beep from the floor.

"Ah," the original said, slowly. "That'll be my comm. Thirty more minutes until the Reintegration."

Zyria's duplicate groaned as she rolled off her, and Zyria herself took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of sex that filled the room.

"So, how do we like this body?" she asked the other two.

"Two thumbs up," her duplicate mumbled. "We had a taste last week, of course, but I can say approve now that we've put you through your paces."

"I can't wait to know what it feels like to have those teeth and claws," their original said.

"It's fun, but from your reactions it's having them used on you that's the best part," Zyria opined.

"Well, we won't need to wonder much longer. Come on, there have to be some more clothes in here. Let's get dressed and get to the lab."

"Why bother? We're going to have to undress anyway. I say let's give our coworkers a show!" Zyria suggested, jokingly.

***

A short time later, Zyria clambered -- naked -- back into the tube she'd emerged from the week before. She shivered as, with a hum of machinery, the strip of neural induction pads uncurled and attached itself to her spine and the sensor cap dropped onto her head. Next to her, her duplicate took up the same position in her own tube while, in the center of the room, their original was strapped into the chair under the supervision of a technician.

Zyria had a fleeting moment of disappointment -- one that she would never share with any of the scientists and technicians who worked with the device, because she had some pride -- that Reintegration wouldn't need the elaborate procedure that the Imprinting had required, before banishing the feeling. She'd just had an amazing sex/masturbation session. She didn't need more right this moment.

There was a hiss as the glass front of the tube closed, then a muffled countdown from the technician by Zyria's original.

"Integration in ten... Nine... Eight... Sensors aligned... Six... Five... Induction!"

An electric feeling ran down Zyria's spine as the induction pads activated, followed by a jolt of pleasure that tingled down to her fingers and toes, rising quickly in intensity.

"Three... Two... One... Activation!"

The feeling filled Zyria's entire body, pushing aside all other sensations for a split second before she lost consciousness.

***

Zyria woke up with a confused muddle of thoughts and memories filling her head. The feeling was familiar, and she lay back and let it wash over her, making no attempt to make sense of her thoughts until they had settled a little.

Her hands clenched lightly and she felt the padding of the chair under her fingertips. The feeling of what it was like to have claws bubbled up in her mind for a moment before it was pushed aside by the current feeling of her normal nails tapping the armrests.

The confusion settled and she opened her eyes. For one-third of her mind, the colors she saw were suddenly unusually intense.

Carefully, feeling three different sets of memories and thoughts file themselves away in her mind, she stepped out of the chair.

"Readings look OK?" she asked the technician, who was bent over the console next to her.

"Everything looks fine. Integration successful and synaptic activity is returning to normal."

"Good."

Zyria stretched and flexed, re-familiarizing herself with her body after two-thirds of her mind had gotten used to a different one.

"Briefing is at nine A.M. tomorrow morning, ma'am," the technician told her, then went on, an expression of curiosity and envy on her face, "Do you have any comments right now on the shells you used?"

Zyria smiled to herself. The ability to Imprint into an engineered body and Integrate successfully afterwards was rare, and many of the scientists and techs who worked with the machinery were envious of the few agents who were able to undergo the process.

"One of them was standard, so nothing new there." She searched her memories, trying to filter out only the ones that had come from the more-modified body. "The feline one worked well. The claws, especially, were useful during the mission. I wouldn't say no to using that design again. Though if Bio-Engineering could fix the caffeine issue, I'd be grateful."

"Right you are, Ma'am," the tech replied, making a note on a tablet and looking up with a smile. "Says here that there's a design on file for you that's much more obviously enhanced. Looks like a full-on cat woman."

Zyria smiled at that. "Well, then I'll have something to look forward to, if I can get a mission some time where that would be useful." One of the perks of the job was getting to try all kinds of different bodies.

The tech nodded, then looked down again. "Do you want to see the shells before they're recycled?"

Zyria grimaced. The Reintegration process which transferred the other bodies' minds back into their original left the duplicates mindless and, within minutes, lifeless shells. Some agents, for reasons Zyria couldn't understand, insisted on seeing the empty bodies before they were recycled. Zyria just thought it was creepy. Most of the techs knew her opinion, but this one looked new.

"No, thanks," she replied, trying to sound polite. The tech looked down for a moment, then handed Zyria a tablet.

"Sorry, Ma'am, I'm new at the I&I Lab. Your schedule for tomorrow, Ma'am. Good night."

"Good night." Zyria hesitated for a moment. The tech was an attractive young woman of maybe twenty-two. No sense in blaming her for not knowing about Zyria's quirks. "And until next time."

Now, a good night's sleep, she thought, as she made her way to her assigned room. Memories of earlier rose in her mind. Having claws or having them used on her? Both were good, she decided, and the matter could use some reminiscing in bed, before she went to sleep.
