Looking around the auditorium, one could see people from all walks of life. The only thing that stuck out as odd in my mind, was there were only humans here; not a single sign of fur could be seen anywhere. Now, being as that the morph species had been so prolific since the Gene Wars, one could hardly go anywhere without seeing at least one and the lack of any in this place pinged my internal radar just a bit. Working in the Star Corps, there were morph species everywhere. One couldn't turn a corner without seeing one. That never really struck me as weird even with my indoctrinated upbringing. Heck, Dream had been the first one, other than superiors, I had ever had words with.

This thought brought an instant bout of pain deep inside which I walled back up again. Mustn't feel this way I told myself. Friends only leave you behind and hurt you in the end. It's best to wander alone than risk that kind of pain again.

Robert walked me around and introduced me to a few people. Most everyone was quite friendly and I tried VERY hard not to be the introverted specimen that I was. It wasn't easy, but I think I fooled a couple of people at least.

Someone rang a small bell someplace and everyone started to find a seat. I took one in the very back by myself. (Does this really surprises anyone?) To my surprise Robert himself took the stage, looked around at the crowd, nodded to himself, and smiled out at everyone.

"Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming," he said and he seemed truly to mean it. "This is the eleventh meeting of the Humans First, central chapter, and it seems our ranks have grown!"

This made me twitch slightly in my chair. Humans First? Why did that name ring a bell? See, this is where not being interested in the outside world can get you in trouble. If it didn't directly affect my little corner of reality, then I wasn't interested. I didn't watch the news feeds nor did I read the bulletins that popped up on my reader at times. So, I leaned forward and listened.

Robert paced across the stage in thought and then looked up with a troubled expression on his face. "We are becoming an endangered species my friends," he said solemnly. "We once were the rulers of this world. We conquered disease, we built ships that took us to the stars, we settled on other planets! We grew and prospered and finally we stepped back and decided we would play God and created the various morph species," he said showing a grimace of pain and shame, and the people in the crowd seemed to grumble slightly. "Our own arrogance made us blind to what we were doing. We created the morphs for work in environments that we no longer thought we should have to work in. We created morphs for pleasure and play. We became decadent in our ways and this opened the door for sin."

Robert looked upwards towards the heavens and the lights of the auditorium glinted off the moisture in his eyes. "If not for the sins of our forefathers, the Gene Wars would never have happened. We would be so much further than where we are now. But sin is an ever-present Mistress. She whispers in our ears and guides our hands towards evil deeds," he said with righteous fervor looking out over the crowd, fire burning in his eyes. "Now the morphs out breed us. They out perform us; they take our jobs, our livelihoods. They become OUR masters in places like Star Fleet and the Star Corps. They climb the ladders of promotion and leave their makers behind. They look down on us with pity and contempt. How many here have been hurt by a morph? How many here have lost their jobs because of the morphs? How many here get passed over because a morph is "better" and usually promoted by another morph?" At this the grumbling in the crowd became a roar of noise.

The only part that struck me was the pain caused by another morph and my thoughts turned back to a friend; a friend who left me behind; a friend who outstripped me in rank and prestige and was responsible for me being a freak in my own right. No one knew about my heightened sense of smell. I had learned how to either ignore it, or not let it affect me as bad as it once had. It was still there though, something that would always make me an outcast from others. I had never had a problem with any of the morph species even though my upbringing had managed to keep me from truly being friends with any of them except for one. Even now I could almost scent the passion and resentment in the group around me and that scent seemed to carry me on an emotional high which threatened to sweep me away.

Robert looked out over the audience again before saying with heated fanaticism in his voice, "We are paying for the mistakes of those who came before us and if we don't do something about it, we will fade away into the past and be forgotten forever!" Here he paused and looked around the auditorium making eye contacts with as many individuals as he could.

"Do not mistake me in this my friends. This is a war of annihilation. It is either us, or them! This is a battle for Mankind! That word should have a significant meaning for all of us. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win that day, it will no longer just be ANY day, but a day the world and humans declared in one voice that we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today, we celebrate our rebirth!"

At that, the crowd lurched to their feet cheering and roaring in approval and an anger so deeply ingrained in humans as a species that I found myself on my feet as well cheering my approval with everyone else. I would never let another being hurt me again. I would never let someone who called me a friend rip my heart out and throw it to the floor ever again. Robert's speech had stoked the fires of the beliefs that I thought I had escaped when I left home. The deeply ingrained indoctrination that a town of bigots, supremacist, and religious zealots had beaten into me from birth came surging to the forefront and with it my own pain and hurt. It was time to do something about it all.

After Robert's speech, the crowd started to break up into individual groups as refreshments were passed around. People talked about their experiences with those of the furry persuasion and shared stories of how their lives had been sidetracked or ruined by them. The scents of the room were almost overwhelming. I had never really known what emotions could smell like until that night. There was a pervasive scent of what I can only describe as resentment and it hung on everyone like their own private cloak of protection from their own inadequacies. Robert made the rounds talking to everyone, shaking hands and sharing their anger and their pain. He listened in earnest and I think that is what made him as popular as he was; the fact that he truly listened to everyone's story and sympathized with them. Finally, he found me standing in a corner watching the ebb and flow of the crowds around me as I sipped on a drink.

"Well, what did you think?" he asked curiously.

I had never noticed it before, I had been trying very hard to ignore my new senses, but Robert smelled of... How can one describe it? He seemed to ooze trust and an intensity that seemed to draw people to him. He smelled like he genuinely cared about the answer, but there was also something else. An undertone of... The best description I could even equate it to, was slightly overripe fruit. Almost on the verge of rot and yet at the pinnacle of sweetness, but that isn't what drew me though, it was the honest question in his eyes and the fire that burned behind them.

"I'm willing to bet you never failed a public speaking exam in your life," I quipped.

Robert burst out into a genuine laugh and shook his head. "Actually, I never was very good at this until I found a cause worth speaking for. Honestly though, I'd like to hear your thoughts."

That made me think for a minute or two. No one had ever really asked me my opinion on things nor what I thought about them, except maybe Dream. That made the ache inside flare back up and I quickly smothered it. I pondered his question for a moment more while flashes of memories from my childhood rippled through my mind like rapidly turning pages of an old-fashioned paper book. "It reminds me a lot of where and how I was raised actually," I said as I tried to elaborate on that more by telling Robert about where I was from and the things I was taught. This seemed to excite him somewhat and he asked me more detailed questions for which I reluctantly gave him the answers to. I had never been proud of where I was from. It got easier to talk to him as we continued and I told him some of my stories of the Star Corps and how I never made promotions and how I had been hurt by a morph that had left me behind in their climb up the ladder of rank. He nodded at each salient point and when I had finally talked myself dry again, he clapped me on the shoulder.

"We have these meetings every week. We are planning for a rally in a couple of months and I'd like you to help. We need to make our points heard, make the government see the error of its ways and how humans are becoming second class citizens on their own planet. I want you to help me organize it. We will take our word to the streets and make them see!" he said, all of this and as he built to his crescendo, the fire in his eyes blazed forth burning brighter than ever before; and I was drawn to it like a starving moth to a flame. Too bad the moth never realizes it will always get burned.

The next few weeks were a blur of activity. There was work of course, and now there were people at work with whom I could talk and share my views and beliefs with, even if they were ones I would have normally run away from to begin with. Each week, our meetings would happen like clockwork and Robert's speeches only got more eloquent as time went by. They would stoke a fire in our minds and hearts over and over again, keeping the fires burning so as not to let them go out. It was a high like I had never experienced before, the scents of the "pack", for that was what they truly were, became a drug I couldn't live without. For once in my life I belonged to something and it felt good. We planned our protest with the utmost of care as we decided on routes to get to the city center. We made signs and banners. We practiced slogans and chants and there was a smaller group that was always at Robert's side, talking and planning as well. No one knew what they were always talking about but they were as thick as thieves and when anyone ever got close to the group, the discussions would quickly end. They were a rough looking bunch but they were always at Robert's side and were given the name Robert's Guard by the rest of the group. We really couldn't blame Robert for having a troop of bodyguards, the words he spoke that set our hearts on fire, also set fire to others in a different way. There were more than a few death threats against him and he wasn't ashamed to show them to us to prove his righteousness and our cause. At night, I would go back to my small apartment with a sense of satisfaction at the things I had accomplished during the day. It was a week before the rally when things started to get weird though.

I started have dreams, or maybe they were nightmares, I'm not sure how to classify them really. I kept seeing my younger self sitting at a desk while my father would ramble on about sin and how the morphs should be serving us instead of taking our livelihoods away. The child me would pay close attention and then get distracted like all small children do when they get bored. That was when my father would strike me across the face. "Pay attention child!" he would roar at me. "You will NOT repeat the sins of our forefathers!" and that was when I would wake up, my pillow wet with a mixture of tears and sweat. After a few nights of this, during one particularly vivid dream, I heard the sound of crying behind me. I turned around and tried to follow the sound of the crying. Peering into the darkness I saw a shape that slowly coalesced into the form of a purple chakat with black rosettes. Shi had tears streaking hir muzzle. "Dreamspirit?" I asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Shi never replied, only watched my younger self and cried. Night after night I listened to the ranting, I listened to the blows land across my younger self's face, and I heard the sound of a chakat crying. Finally, one night, I just couldn't take it anymore. I watched as my father's hand descend towards my face and I cried out, "STOP!" and everything paused. Again, I cried out to the darkness, "NO MORE! NEVER AGAIN!" That was when the wall appeared, circling around me and my younger self. The walls started to rise higher and higher into the air and finally my younger self was safe. Everything started moving again but everything was silent. The wall blocked the ranting, it stopped the blows and it hid the tears and the sobs behind walls of silence. Some nights the sounds would get louder and beat against the walls of my defenses like the waves of the ocean against the breakers. I would then build the walls higher and thicker until the noises stopped. Even when the noises were gone, the sibilant whispers of ranting, and the heartbreaking sounds of crying could be heard; and the walls got higher.

As you can maybe tell, my psychological state wasn't the best during all of this. If I were a priest I'd tell you that I had angels and demons battling for my soul while I slept. If I were a shrink, I'd tell you that my conscious and subconscious were having it out once and for all; but I am neither of those things. At that time, I was a lonely, hurting person who had been thrown a life preserver. How was I supposed to know that there was a hole in it? When you're drowning, you don't care. You'll reach out for anything to save you.

Finally, it was the day of the rally. We had several PTVs (Personal Transportation Vehicles) and we loaded them up with signs and banners as well as a few duffel bags of equipment and we all loaded up to head to the city center. (No, I'm not going to tell you which city center. As I said before, I'm not proud of my past. If you're smart you can figure it all out on your own.) Robert had chosen a Star Corps and Star Fleet recruitment building to hold our protest. We parked in the underground parking facility of the recruitment building and carried our supplies up to street level. Once the signs and banners were handed out, and under the eyes of curious onlookers, the rally started in earnest. Robert stood up front on the steps to the recruitment center making speeches; we all held our signs and banners demanding change. We demanded our rights and liberties back and all the while a crowd of angry morphs were ringing us.

Now freedom of speech is still a thing, but that counts for both sides in an argument. So as Robert's speeches inflamed us, it also inflamed the opposition. I remember looking at Robert and seeing... something... an almost ecstatic glee on his face as the morph's started to get more and more vocal and angry. Slogans turned into slurs and heated words of hate were traded on both sides. One crowd started to push against the other, and the other pushed back. I'm not sure which side threw the first punch, but before I knew what was going on, the protest had turned into a brawl.

Over the commotion of the fighting I could hear sirens in the distance and I spun in place in the middle of the crowd looking for a way out. I spotted Robert again standing on the steps of the building, something like religious fervor in his eyes as he cried out, "Do not let them silence our message my friends! FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!" he almost screamed in righteous ecstasy. I was starting to panic by now. This wasn't what I signed up for at all! Then I felt a cold weight being placed in my hand. I looked down and found myself holding a hunting knife and when I looked back up, Robert's guards were handing out other weapons to everyone else. This is when I really started to panic, I mean REALLY panic. This was supposed to be a peaceful protest! We just wanted to be heard. That's when it happened. The sound of an old fashioned chemical propellant firearm echoed from building to building and everyone stopped.

A grey wolf morph was standing with a hand to his abdomen as red life blood darkened the fur around it. Slowly, like a deflating balloon, the wolf morph sunk to the ground, never to move again. That was when the brawl turned into a massacre. Morphs attacked with tooth and claw, humans were fighting back with bats and knives. I ran for it, or at least I tried too. I managed to struggle through the crowd and made it to the ramp leading back down to the parking garage. I was going to escape this madness! Just as I hit the entrance to the garage the ground shook. I smelled something first, something hot and dangerous and then I was lifted and thrown back up the ramp and out into the street with the sounds of screaming metal, breaking glass, and the crumbling of silicrete following me through the air. I vaguely remember hitting the road and bouncing before darkness claimed me.

When I came to, I felt like I had been run over by a train. Something was on top of me holding me down and I slowly rolled it off me and I sat up blearily. Looking around I could see the battered, the bleeding, the dying, and the dead. The sounds of howls of anguish and the crying of the wounded begging for help barely registered in my ringing ears, the scent of death all around me making me ill. Looking over at the weight that had been holding me down earlier, I saw thick, white fur, now dark and smudged with ash and blood. Her torn business suit stained from the pool of blood forming below her. Her fluffy white tail was large and limp at her side, stained and unmoving. The skunk morph's eyes were glazed in death, the hilt of a hunting knife, the one that had been in my hand, buried between her modest breasts. Everything in my head stopped as I looked down at my hands, also stained with blood. I had taken a life... I'd killed someone... Something inside me broke. I'm not sure how long I sat there screaming in the depths of my own mind before someone shook my shoulder. I looked up to see one of Robert's guards yelling at me to follow him and to do it now. When I didn't move, the guard picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and raced off as I once against faced the darkness.

The walls that surrounded me in my mind had cracked from the bottom to the top. From the crack, I could hear the whispering again, this time the words had changed. "Murderer... Killer... Hater... MURDERER!!!" they screamed at me. It had been an accident! I don't remember anything after the blast. I don't even remember seeing the skunk morph during the rally. The voices started to get louder as the crack widened. The sounds of crying, heartbroken sobs of someone who has lost something important, echoing all around me. I swayed in my circle of protection and made the walls higher, forcing more of my will into the cracks that had formed, filling them in, making the walls thicker until the voices finally stopped and finally all I heard was static.

I woke up in a dimly lit area. I was on an old camping cot and everything was quiet. I sat up gingerly; I was still sore but nowhere near as bad as I had been.

"Ah, you're awake," a mellifluous voice said.