Max spent the night cuddled up with Swytch and Jackie and for once, there were no nightmares, just blessed darkness and restful slumber. It was peaceful enough that for once, Max wasn't the first person to wake, he wasn't even the second one to wake. If truth be told, Jackie had to come wake him up for breakfast to which Max almost told her to go away until she held a cup of the twin's nirvana under his nose. This managed to rouse him enough to be able to put on pajama bottoms and zombie walk into the kitchen for breakfast. Max slowly woke as he worked oatmeal with fresh fruit into himself helped along by copious quantities of the twin's coffee. He noticed then that Riot was eyeing the twins with something akin to mistrust.

"What's wrong, Riot?" he asked worriedly.

"These two were bumping around the house all night. I'll admit they were very quiet about it, but I still caught the occasional noise," shi accused irritatedly.

Max looked at the twins who actually managed to look slightly embarrassed. "We were doing patrols and since we don't have the area quite memorized yet, we had a few issues is all Sir," said Neeshan.

Riot blinked a couple of times. "Patrols? This is our house, not a secured facility," shi stated bluntly.

Teeshan shrugged and in his baritone voice stated, "Our job is to protect Max and his family, one can never be too careful," he said as Neeshan followed up with, "He HAS thwarted not only an H1 attack but an LNAW pirate attack on Station 241. You never know who that may have upset enough to want a little revenge Shir Riot," she said respectfully.

Riot opened hir mouth to object then stopped when Jynxy put a finger to hir muzzle. "If they feel better watching over everyone, then what harm does it do to let them?" hy asked.

Being as that shi had no real argument to that, Riot just shrugged and went back to eating breakfast. Once everyone was replete, and because it was the end of the work week, everyone took their breakfast beverages out to the back patio to relax and enjoy the cool morning. If Max had still been l00% human, he probably would have wanted a jacket or a robe, but his new fur was more than enough to insulate him against the crisp morning chill. Conversation was sparse as everyone enjoyed the morning with their own thoughts. Soon, the cubs were awake and attention shifted to getting them fed and brushed out. Riot even put the twins to work cub sitting, which the twins seemed to thoroughly enjoy actually. They would take turns watching the cubs while the other watched the family. The cubs seemed to love their new aunty and uncle and climbed all over them as they sat still with a curiously content look on their faces and a deep purr in their chests.

Jynxy looked at Neeshan as little Brightstreak climbed all over her like a furry tree while Arctyc attempted to put a couple of building blocks together. "You know, now that you're free, you can have kittens of your own," hy grinned slyly at the female feline.

This caused Neeshan's purr to suddenly stop as her eyes got a little wider at the idea, then the purring cranked back up a good bit louder than it had before. Jynxy chuckled to hymself and went about house chores for the day.

The day found Riot and Dreamspirit chatting together on a few occasions as the hyper colored chakat tried to break the other out of hir shell a bit. Shi never pushed, just worked hir claws around the edges to see where the boundaries lay.

Shortly after lunch there was a chime at the front door. Swytch went to open it and the whole band was on the porch with goofy grins on their face. There was a large round of hugs and Swytch invited everyone inside. Jackie squealed in delight running over to the group and almost managing a flying tackled as she hugged everyone. Max sank a little lower in the couch not really sure how this was going to play out. There were happy yells of excitement when everyone found out Jackie was pregnant and a few bewildered looks when they found out Max was the father. Hotlicks stepped forward asking, "Where is our token human anyway?"

Jackie got a mischievous look in her eyes and said, "Figure it out, you nosy chakat." Then she stepped back with an innocent look on her face.

Hotlicks looked a bit confused as shi looked around taking in the new faces of the twins, Dreamspirit and Max. Then shi stopped and zeroed back in on Max looking him in the eyes before hir eyebrows tried to take orbit around hir head. "MAX?!?" shi gasped.

Max bashfully lifted a paw and waved at hir as shi slowly padded over eying him all over. Shi even sniffed the air towards him noticing his selfsame scent just a touch different. "Max... What happened???" shi asked stunned. Shi came all the way up to him looking down at him since he was sitting. He looked very nervous and unsure of himself and hir empathy could pick up the worry and fear that he would no longer be accepted. "Silly human..." shi murmured and fell on him in a huge hug. "I'd never forget those eyes, or that heart, no matter what the wrapper looked like," shi purred as Max let out a happy sigh and hugged the chakat back. "Wooo, he has SOFT fur," shi exclaimed and the rest of the band hurried over to join in the furry group hug.

Max was once again obliged to share the entire story of what happened on Starbase 241, which he did to the gasps and shocked expressions of everyone present. Once the story was complete, the whole band was still all piled together around Max cuddled together in a friendly fashion enjoying the story, but then the questions started. Max answered everyone to the best of his abilities and once everyone's curiosity had been sated, Rosaline asked worriedly, "Can Max still sing???"

Well, this led to an impromptu jam session of the band, who decided it would be great to keep the name 'Token Human'. They spent the evening playing and singing old songs and having a good time to the delight of everyone else. It just so happened that Jackie received a call asking if the band was available for a last-minute gig at one of the venues downtown. She looked curiously at Max before telling the proprietor that they would be there. She looked up at the band who were all having various animated conversations and cleared her throat. "Everyone. We have just been requested to fill an emergency venue tonight. The previous band's lead came down with a virus so they can't make it. The proprietor has asked if we could step in and take over. I told hir yes, so we have a little over two hours to get our stuff together and get set up. We need to meet at the 'Low Breau Pub' in two, so get gone, get ready, and get there!" she exclaimed happily. The band quickly scattered leaving a worried Max on the couch looking up at his mate.

"I don't know about this, Jackie," he said with a worried expression. "They are expecting Maximilian and instead they are going to get Maxymylyan," he said emphasizing the skunktaur flair that was normally put into a name.

Swytch blinked at the slight change in the name. "Does that mean I can call you Maxy?" hy joked. "Max, hon, they are not going to care. Only humans put such emphasis on the exterior. Morphs have learned that it's the heart that matters, and that hasn't changed. Now go get a shower, and put on something eye catching. Oh, I know! The leather pants and matching boots we got you at 241, and maybe the emerald and blue silk shirt as well. Go get it done and I'll do something with your hair," hy said brightly.

Max knew defeat when he heard it and, muttering to himself, went to clean up.

Jackie looked at Swytch and said, "Thanks, I figured he needed to get out of the house and get back out into the world a bit before he completely turns into a hermit here in the house. The best way for that is for him to do something he loves and that's singing."

Swytch nodded in agreement. "Exactly what I was thinking as well," hy said.

Max stepped out of the shower and into the warm air dryer and stood there as warm drafts of air circulated round his body shifting and drying the fur. Of course his tail took quite a bit longer to dry with the fur being so long and thick. Eventually everything was dry and Max walked into the bedroom to a pair of grinning mates waiting for him. "What?" he asked suspiciously.

Jackie motioned to the bed where they had laid out a set of clothing for him. Jackie was already dolled up in hir stage clothes. She wore tight fitting black leather pants, a white blouse covered by a scarlet and black corset. Her auburn hair was artfully up and to one side covering one eye teasingly. Max looked her up and down and grinning, winked at her. "Looking good, sexy," he said causing her to bounce on the balls of her feet in happiness as Swytch looked on with a grin. Swytch was wearing hys sky blue leather top that so well accentuated hys eyes. Hys hair was up as well and made an artful cascade down one shoulder and the antique silver cross glittered between hys cleavage... "I have to be the luckiest male on the planet to have snared you two, you know that?" he said as he started getting dressed.

"Oh, we know," said Jackie and Swytch together with a laugh. "Besides, someone has to keep you out of trouble; you do a horrible job of it by yourself," Jackie said with a grin.

Max slid on the specially designed black leather pants made for the furred. He twisted around and looped the back area around his tail fastening it around his waist giving his tail plenty of free movement room. He then slid into the tribal patterned blue and green silk shirt Swytch had bought him on the station. He did a little twirl for the ladies to their appreciative whistles and bowed as his hair cascaded into his face. Jackie motioned for him to sit down and started working on his hair. She pulled it all back into a simple braid but also braided into it two ribbons, one of blue and one of green. Max looked in the mirror and flicked his ears at the sight. His eyes went to the hole in his ear he had never gotten healed since there were many other more hurt people there. "I should really do something about the hole in my ear one of these days," he observed.

"OH! I know!" Jackie said before scampering over to her jewelry box. She rummaged for a minute and came back over taking Max's ear in her hands she worked for a minute and then stood back. In Max's ear was a green sparkle.

Max squinted at his ear and blinked. "Is that an earring?" he asked. At Jackie's nod, he leaned forward looking at it. "It's almost the same color as my eyes," he noted.

Jackie nodded again. "I've had those forever. It looks good on you," she grinned.

Max stood back and took in the whole picture. He felt a little ridiculous but looking at the ladies behind him staring at him, he got the feeling he may be the only one who thought so. He couldn't read Jackie's mind but Swytch's mind was definitely examining his leather clad butt quite intensely. With a grin, he flicked his tail at Swytch's nose causing hym to blink and look up. Max smirked at hym in the mirror which caused hys ears to pink a bit then hy broke out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Jackie asked.

Swytch waved absently as hy chortled. "Sorry, Max caught me staring at his butt."

"Well, it does look quite nice in leather, doesn't it?" Jackie said evilly, which caused Max's ears to turn red as well.

"OK, if you two sexpots can get your minds out of the gutter, we should probably head to the pub, don't you think?" he said trying to take the conversation away from his butt.

The ladies smirked at each other and headed out of the bedroom with Max following in their wake. They loaded up in the PTV, along with the twins who were dressed in their formal traditional robes, and set their destination in the autonav and let the vehicle do the work. It didn't take very long to reach their destination. The parking lot was fairly well packed and a very anxious smoke grey chakat met them at the side entrance wringing hir hands.

"Finally! I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it or not!" shi exclaimed giving Jackie a hug of greeting. "Where is your lead singer? Could he not make it?" shi asked, looking in the PTV.

"Actually, he's right here, say hi Max," Jackie smirked.

Max stepped forward a bit self-consciously and waved. "Hello."

The proprietor blinked at Max. "You're Maximilian Pilumnus? I thought you were human," shi stated.

Max made a face and sighed. "It's a long story, but what you see in front of you is who I am now," he said more than a touch self-consciously.

"Now that, sounds like an interesting story, perhaps you'll share it afterwords?" shi inquired, hir tail twitching. Nothing captured a chakat's attention like a good story.

"If you'd like. Of course, if you were hiring the band for the novelty of a human singer, then I'm sorry to disappoint you," he said solemnly.

The chakat made a pffft noise and gave Max a chakat style hug saying, "It's not the outside, but the inside that matters, friend."

Max hugged back with a sigh. "Thank you, this is still new to me as well so I'm a tad self-conscious," he stated.

Shi made a shooing away motion with hir hand in dismissal. "I can understand that. Where are my manners, my name is Mist, child of Windrunner and Brightsmile. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Jackie grabbed Max's arm. "Come on, we have to finish setting up and do sound checks!" she said urgently.

Max waved at Mist as he was hauled inside. When he got on stage, there were several wolf whistles from a couple of the band members. "Nice pants!" someone said. Max just grinned and shook his head as he helped set up the sound equipment. The band went through setup and then sound checks as the bar got noisier with people waiting for something to dance to. Max looked around at the crowd and took a deep breath. He looked back at the band who were all in place watching him and he scowled. "When did I become defacto leader of this group?" he growled.

All he received were several cheeky grins in reply which caused him to snort. "Alright let's start out with something up tempo to get them on the dance floor. How about 'Under Pressure'? Bring it down 2 octaves so I can actually hit the bloody notes," he grinned and the band nodded setting things for the song. Max turned to look back at the audience and stepping forward, bowed to them all. "Hello and welcome everyone to the Low Breau Pub! We will be your entertainment tonight. For those of you have haven't heard of us, we are 'Token Human'. So, let's see if we can get your tails out of those chairs and on the dance floor, shall we?" Max turned and gave a count off and started to sing.

Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you

No man ask for

Under pressure

That brings a building down

Splits a family in two

Puts people on streets

Um ba ba be

Um ba ba be

De day da

Ee day da - that's okay

It's the terror of knowing

What the world is about

Watching some good friends

Screaming

'Let me out'

Pray tomorrow gets me higher

Pressure on people people on streets

Day day de mm hm

Da da da ba ba

Okay

Chipping around - kick my brains around the floor

These are the days it never rains but it pours

Ee do ba be

Ee da ba ba ba

Um bo bo

Be lap

People on streets

ee da de da de

People on streets

ee da de da de da de da

It's the terror of knowing

What this world is about

Watching some good friends

Screaming

'Let me out'

Pray tomorrow - gets me higher

Higher

High

Pressure on people people on streets

Turned away from it all like a blind man

Sat on a fence but it don't work

Keep coming up with love

But it's so slashed and torn

Why - why - why?

Love love love love love

Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking

Can't we give ourselves one more chance

Why can't we give love that one more chance

Why can't we give love give love give love give love

Give love give love give love give love give love

Because love's such an old fashioned word

And love dares you to care for

The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night

And loves (People on streets) dares you to change our way of

Caring about ourselves

This is our last dance

This is our last dance

This is ourselves

Under pressure

Under pressure

Pressure

((Under Pressure -- Queen Cover))

The crowd loved it and were crowding the dance floor before the first three words were out of his muzzle. They kept the music going for quite a while before they took their first break to catch their breath.

"Thank you, everyone! We will be back after a short break, don't forget to hug your waitresses!"

And with that Max strode to the back of the stage where everyone was panting and throwing back drinks to rehydrate. After a couple of minutes of relaxing Max's shoulders hunched as he heard an unmistakable voice.

"I see you got rid of the stinking human, about time!" said a voice.

Max turned to see the hyena morph that had been hounding him since he arrived on the Skunktaur Archipelago. Max could sense several band members standing angrily but Max twitched a hand behind him motioning them to stay out of it. "Actually, we didn't. I'm still right here, just had a little bit of work done is all," he smirked.

The hyena morph's jaw ALMOST hit the floor before the anger returned to its eyes. "Oh, so think you can just blend in and continue to live happily ever after human scum? It doesn't matter what you change your outside to be, you still human trash on the inside," the hyena growled.

"And you're still a racist, bigoted, mangy, mongrel on the inside as well as the outside," Max said with aplomb. After everything that happened on 241, this morph no longer even intimidated him, although he did have to motion the twins back.

Max's taunt received the expected reply as the hyena lunged at him. All Max did was take a small step to the side and watched as the hyena landed flat on its face. "You really should learn some tolerance for your fellow beings," Max said. "I don't know who hurt you enough to cause this much rage, but it wasn't me." By this time, a small crowd had gathered around the stage watching the altercation. Max looked out at the sea of morphs watching and said, "I used to be human and now I'm not. Does anyone else have any problems with that?" he asked tiredly. When no one but the hyena's group said anything, Max looked back down at the hyena morph. "Let it go, please? I just want to live a nice quiet life with my mates and raise a family." The last words must have triggered an old hurt in the hyena morph because it sprung to its feet and lunged at Max again growling in anger.