Monster's Night - Part 3
a
MAU story
by
clancy688
Dan had fallen half asleep while waiting for the assault as suddenly distant pops jolted him awake. His eyes flew open and he looked over to the forest. Of course he couldn't see a thing, but the sound of gunfire spoke for itself.
His lips curled into a sinister smile. So they decided to attack, after all? he thought and went over towards the magic box. He put his hand on the display and concentrated, and within seconds, he was greeted by the sight of the terrifying Xenomorph. Without hesitation he stepped into the booth.
As he emerged again, the sudden influx of his new senses was as awe-inspiring as the first time he'd changed into a Xenomorph. Dan registered a muffled scream from the side of the room and gazed over towards the shackled girl which was conscious again, wide-eyed staring at his body. Hm... he thought, There should always be time for a little bit of fun...
Swiftly, he strode over to the girl on all four legs, positioning his smooth, eyeless head only inches away from her terrified face. Slowly, he parted his lips, revealing his salivating maw, his drool dripping on her body. He felt how the girls heartbeat picked up speed rapidly and he smelled her fear. Boy, how good that felt! Let's see if I can terrify her even more... Dan thought viciously and extended his inner jaw, letting it hiss evilly and rubbing it against the girl's cheek. His tongue-mouth tasted her tears now which were streaking down her face and he relished in the girl's fear for another moment until he retracted his jaws again. He gave her a final, loud hiss and then hurried out of the room.
One shouldn't eat the dessert before the main course... Dan reminded himself amused while scurrying into the forest. But then he stopped. Something wasn't right! He had expected to see chaos and rout, the enemy gang's members fleeing headless from the carnage his Raptors had wrought. Instead... the advancing humans which he could pick up with his heartbeat sense didn't seem to be in any inclination to panic. On the contrary, they were advancing orderly in a fashion which seemed way to organized for typical gang thugs and it was his Raptors which were fleeing in panic. What the hell...
Directly in front of him, the undergrowth parted and a dinosaur emerged, limping from a large bullet wound to its thigh. Furiously, Dan snarled at the creature. <You shall fight, dammit!> but of course his transformed man didn't understand him. Instead, he tried evade the interposing Xenomorph.
In that moment, something in Dan's mind snapped. Enraged, he let his tail flash out at the cowardly Raptor and with a startled hiss, the creature, suddenly missing its right leg, went to the ground in a spray of dirt and blood. Its fearful cries vanished into a deep gurgle as a second strike by Dan's tail slashed its throat and satisfied, he watched the Raptor's death struggle. Serves him right. he thought venomously. I didn't change him into a Raptor so that he could flee faster!
But the time he'd spent on killing the Raptor had brought its pursuers closer and he was already picking up muffled voices uttering commands. There were only two possible choices now, retreat or attack, and Dan hadn't changed into a Xenomorph to retreat! Therefore, he pushed his body forwards, sprinting through the dense growth on all four legs. His senses told him exactly where the six attackers were, and with a blood-curdling scream, he launched himself at the group.
The humans did only have time for a short, surprised shout, then he erupted into their midst, tail and talons flashing left and right. He felt his claws penetrating soft flesh and two men went down in a spray of blood, but he'd already landed on a third, pinning him down on the bottom. The man's eyes were going large as he took in the salivating monster sitting on him, but then Dan pushed his inner jaw forward, penetrating the man's skull like an eggshell. He retracted it immediately, his tongue's maw gripping bits and pieces of the man's brains and his victim below him went still.
But the other three men were already reacting. Two didn't have a clear line of fire, but the third one was bringing up his shotgun. With an angry snarl, Dan jabbed his tail's blade at his chest and the man flew backwards, crashing into the other two surviving gunmen. He wasn't dead, though, Dan's tail hadn't been able to penetrate his body armor. The entire fight had only taken a few seconds until now, and everything had been a blur, but now Dan had the time to take in his opponent's appearance and an icy shiver run down his back as he recognized them not as the criminal thugs he had awaited, but as a SWAT team.
That's a police assault! he thought numbly, Damn, were those two strangers really cops? But why didn't they wait so long until they attacked then? That doesn't make any sense...
But the three surviving men were already getting up again and he had to cut off his racing stream of thoughts. He could still have killed all of them, but it wouldn't matter in the end. If this was a police assault, everything changed. He'd probably be able to kill many of the attackers, but in the end, they would get him. I need to change back and run... he thought therefore, turning on his heels, And I need to do it as fast as possible, before the police has surrounded our hide.
With a giant leap he retreated from the battlefield, followed by shouts and bullets which only hit empty air. But the police was moving faster than he'd have liked, and two more groups were already interposing themselves between him and the building. He considered shortly if he should try to break through, but then rejected the thought for being too risky.
Cursing inwardly, he changed his course to go around the complex and enter from the other side. This would mean one hell of a detour, but there was nothing he could do now. And there were still over half a dozen gang members with guns perched in the building, after all. Hopefully, they were too stupid to do the smart thing, which would be surrendering, and instead decided to fire on the cops. From all he knew of his men, he didn't have to worry there.
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Until now, they had fourteen of them accounted for - four had been killed outright and six had been taken 'prisoner', seven including the one Michael had originally captured, only two of those unwounded. There were two more wounded, but their injuries were that grave that they probably wouldn't come through the next hour. Another two had escaped, and the four Raptors which were unaccounted for had probably turned tail as soon as they had realized what had happened to their fellows. For all intents and purposes, the Raptor opposition between them and their target had been annihilated.
In exchange for this victory, the SWAT teams had only suffered half a dozen casualties, most of these superficial flesh wounds. Their body armor had done wonders to stop the Raptor's sickle-claws. But now their luck seemed to have run out, given the Captain's pained expression. He spoke a few commands in the radio, waited for confirmation, went off the air and then started cursing wildly.
"Has something happened?" D asked Gyles and the Captain eyed him darkly.
"You could say so." he cursed. "One of my teams found the Xenomorph, or rather the Xenomorph found them."
"Casualties?" D asked immediately and Gyles nodded sadly.
"Three men down, one of them fatal, the other two in serious condition. Goddamn it!" he clenched his fist. "I knew the victim! Sergeant Tomaso, he had a wife and a three-year old daughter!"
Jesus, that's what I wanted to prevent. D thought, Fuck, fuck, FUCK! he closed his eyes tried to calm down his whirling emotions. Afterwards, there would be enough time for mourning and self-accusations. Right now, he had to concentrate on other things.
"And the Xenomorph?" he asked therefore. The Captain stared at him darkly, and for a moment D feared that the man would fly at him for his feigned indifference. But then the officer sighed.
"That's the silver lining, actually. Although it's strange as hell. Fact is, the Xenomorph erupted into my team like a cluster bomb and took three men down before they could react. According to them, there was absolutely no doubt that it could have taken out the rest as well, but instead it retreated. And it evaded all other teams as well. What do you make of this?"
D considered this information. "Maybe the kind of opposition startled him?" he asked, "Most of the Raptors which surrendered seemed taken aback by the fact that they were up against the police? But then again, what else would they be expecting?"
Gyles shrugged. "I have no idea." then he looked at the rising sun and snorted. "And I don't really care. If the beast is refusing battle, I won't complain. So now that there's probably only human opposition left, let's end this bug hunt by doing the one thing we are really good in - freeing hostages."
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A SWAT officer appeared at the uppermost exit of the fire escape staircase, signaling that this storey had been secured as well. Michael felt agent D next to him exhale a sigh of relief, and he'd have done the same if his Xenomorph body would have been physically capable of sighing. But since he was 'breathing' over the long, bony extensions on his back, it wasn't. Over the last ten minutes, the SWAT unit had assaulted the administrative building. Maybe half of the bikers who had barricaded themselves inside had decided to throw in the towel. The rest hadn't been as smart.
Enraged by their fellow officer's death, the SWAT members had unloaded nearly every flash grenade they had into the building and then stormed. It had been a short, thrilling and incredibly messy affair for the stubborn bikers, and only two had survived long enough to realize their mistake and surrender. But all of this didn't matter, because they'd done it.
Susan and me are only minutes away from getting our real bodies back! Michael rejoiced, And if we're really lucky, the police has also found Martin!
As if on cue, the Captain's radio came to life and he listened to what the assault team's leader was saying. The Captain's face lit up and smiling, he looked at his companions. By now, C, together with the six-armed girl, had joined them as well.
"They have found your friend. She's alive." he said smiling, "And it appears as if they've secured the device as well." Behind him, Susan threw her hands in the air, all six of them, and cried out in delight, but apparently, the leader hadn't been finished with his report. Another sentence garbled out of the radio, and just as the Captain's face had lit up before, it became dark now.
"And, um... he wants paramedics for her. And he's insisting on female ones..."
Susan, in her joy that Martin had been freed finally, didn't get the meaning of this. But Michael did. And almost involuntarily, he started hissing angrily, his mind clouding with rage until he suddenly felt a warm hand on his chitinous shoulder.
Agent D shook his head. "They will pay for what they have done,-" he said quietly, "-but now we need to turn you back. To turn all of you back. Time is running."
Michael wanted to nod, but then his head went up abruptly. Because he was feeling a known presence. And ignoring the agent's startled cry, he jumped forwards, towards the building. Because he was feeling the other Xenomorph creeping closer. It was already inside the building! And it would pay for what it had done to Martin.
There was only one place it would want to go to, and Michael leaped up the fire staircase, ignoring the police officer at the entrance, ignoring the officers securing the room, ignoring even the device inside the room. He didn't slow down while he darted through the room, but all of his concentration was focused upon Martin who was surrounded by several officers who tried to soothe her, but who were intent on keeping a considerable distance to her at the same time.
He took in her beaten, bruised shape, her torn clothing with all the merciless clarity his enhanced senses offered him, and then, in his thoughts there was only room left for the enemy.
"Hey, there's still possible opposition behind this do-" a SWAT officer who was securing the entrance to the hallway exclaimed startled, but Michael simply propelled himself through. His senses perceived only one human after this point, and he had barricaded himself in an office at the other side of the hall. No, the one which Michael was waiting for hurdled himself up the stairs right now.
<Hello, asshole.> he transmitted, using his strange communication ability he had discovered during his first fight with the other Xenomorph, <I've waited for you. Our last fight has been cut short, unfortunately.>
The Xenomorph which emerged at the staircase looked at him startled, then bared its teeth.
<Yeah?> he received, <If I remember correctly, you were running like hell and only escaped because you had a car and I didn't?>
<Then you also remember that I kicked your ass?> Michael sent back unperturbed and in response, the other Xenomorph snarled angrily.
<Let me through.> it replied instead, choosing to ignore the taunt. Michael only laughed, a choppy snarl produced by his maw.
<Why should I?> he asked back, <You've done enough evil with the box, I won't let you.>
Now the other Xenomorph went down to all fours, carting out its hissing inner jaw. Big streams of saliva streamed onto the carpet, forming a large puddle in front of its feet.
<Because I will let you live then.>
Michael laughed again and then went down on all four legs as well.
<This game can be played by two. Don't forget that you're not the only Xenomorph here.> he replied venomously and let his own inner jaw rattle out of his drooling maw. Right now, Michael didn't felt human at all. Instead, he felt all the power being a Xenomorph gave him, his talons and blades and teeth, and he would unleash that power upon this abomination which had violated his best friend. <You want to get to the transformation box? Then you'll have to go through me first, bastard!>
The two monsters examined each other, both hissing and snarling viciously, and then, as one they hurled themselves at each other.
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"What the fuck is going on? Where the hell is Michael?" agent D screamed as he dashed into the room, Susan and C following close on his heels. Almost all of the SWAT officers had formed a defensive circle around the room's other opening, and the noises which came through it didn't sound human at all. Instead it sounded as if two packs of wild animals were tearing each other apart.
"Michael's fighting with the enemy Xenomorph!" a wide-eyed police man cried back, but he didn't took his eyes from the door. Or his finger from his rifle's trigger.
Cursing, D ran over to the huddle. "Then why the hell are you not helping him?" he asked, but in the same moment, he realized the reason.
"Because we don't have a clear line of fire, that's why!" the officer exclaimed, and stunned, D looked at the sight which was offered to him. The two Xenomorphs were hacking and slaying at each other with all they got, and since they were fighting in a small hallway, there was no way for the officers to shoot one of them without hitting the other.
Both creatures were already sporting multiple injuries and the whole hallway was plastered by green, acidic blood splashes which were slowly etching big holes in walls and floors. There was nothing human at all in the fight. These were two wild animals, tearing away at each other.
D shook his head. Then he looked back to C. "Susan!" he ordered the six-armed girl who had hurried towards her violated friend and now looked up with tears in her eyes, "You go to the device and change back NOW! Then you'll change Martin back and finally, you'll dial in Michael's normal form, clear?" the girl stared at him with big eyes. "IS THAT CLEAR?" he barked again, and frightened, the girl hurried over the transformation device.
Then, D looked at officer who seemed to be in charge. "And you're not taking your eyes off those two, you understand?"
"Whatever you say, Captain Obvious!" the man cried back frustrated. D decided to let the offence pass.
Damn it... he thought, We don't have time for this shit! How do I get Michael to abort this fight so that he can change-
"D!" his train of thought was abruptly aborted by C's loud cry. The younger agent pointed at the display and suddenly, D felt a big lump growing in his stomach.
"What is...?" the girl asked while pointing at the display, and D bumped her to the side, staring at the alien device. On it, there was Susan's real body projected. But there were also crazy-looking symbols flowing over the screen.
"Oh no..." D cursed. "We're too late."
"What? What do you mean?" Susan asked and D shook his head.
"This is what happens before the device stop's working. Before the last change, there are symbols displayed on the display... the last change..." suddenly, he was thoughtful. Before the last change... so there's exactly ONE change left. But then...
He looked at the raped girl in the corner of the room who was actually a transformed man and his face became like stone. Then he looked at the six-armed girl in front of him, clenching his teeth. If there was only one change left, it was painfully clear who would get it.
"Nobody touches the device." he said way more calmly then he felt. "We have only one change left. Michael will use that change."
"What?" Susan asked shocked. "But then Martin will stay a woman? And I will stay six-armed...?"
"There's no other choice." D said, regretting every word. "But we do have only one change left. Martin may be a woman, but fifty percent of the world's population is female. He'll, she'll deal with it. Somehow. You have six-arms, but that can be described by some kind of birth defect. But Michael? How will he live as a Xenomorph? Tell me?"
Susan's lower lip trembled, but finally, she nodded. "I guess you're right." she said, shoulders sagging. "I think then I should..." she reached for the display again and D slapped her arm away violently.
"NOBODY TOUCH IT, I SAID!" he barked, and Susan stared at him incomprehensibly.
"But... I just wanted to set up the box to change him into his original body!" she protested, but D shook his head.
"No. We can't risk it. We don't know if that's taking away the device's last change. He'll have to take his odds with what's already dialed in."
"But then he'll become me!" Susan exclaimed shocked and D nodded slowly.
"Yes. He'll become you. He'll have to live with it. It's in any case better than being a Xenomorph."
The agent turned and raced over to the door again. The two Xenomorphs were still fighting each other, oblivious to the drama which had unfolded next room, and D waited for the right moment.
It didn't take long. The two beasts slashed and punched at each other and then parted, the enemy Xenomorph landing on the other side of the floor, Michael, still recognizable by his red scarf, on D's side of the room. He was already making himself ready for the next assault, when D shouted with all his might.
"MICHAEL! THERE'S ONLY ONE CHANGE LEFT! THAT'S FOR YOU, COME BACK NOW!"
Both Xenomorphs froze as they heard the message, and Michael turned and dashed back through the hallway. With a desperate snarl, the other Xenomorph hurled itself after him, but Michael had too much of a head start.
"Keep Aim! Keep Aim!" the police officer commanded his men and then, Michael jumped, basically flying over the human barricade. The other Xenomorph realized the danger in the last second and frantically threw itself to the side right into an office.
"FIRE!" the officer bellowed even as Michael's dark body was passing over him, and all the guns which were trained on the door erupted in furious thunder, the police men unloading everything they got into the hallway.
"Keep it down, keep it down, don't let it get a millimeter out of this office!" D screamed and motioned Michael towards the device. "Get in and press the knob, you know the drill!"
He jumped to the side as the massive creature crashed into the booth and the door disappeared. A moment later, a confused girl stumbled out of the device.
"What the... why am I...?" she blurted out and stared at her breasts, but C was already grabbing her and pulling her out of the room towards the fire staircase. D raced to the other edge of the room and scooped up Martin. The raped girl cried out in shock, punching and tearing at his face, but he didn't care.
"Everybody out, EVERYBODY OUT!" he screamed instead, an order which the SWAT leader was only too willing to give.
"You heard him!" the man cried. "Get out, get out! And I want EVERY flash bang you still have in this hallway, you get me?"
Under a cacophony of detonating shock grenades and automatic fire, the entire team, the agents and Michael, Susan and Martin retreated down the staircase in a desperate rout, leaving a smoking hell behind.
Half a minute later, the Xenomorph limped slowly into the room, scanning for threats. Its assaulted biological sensor suite was still stunned by all those flash grenades, but it only cared for its immediate vicinity right now. The beast slumped towards the transformation booth and put its claw on the display. Nothing happened.
Back down at the bottom, the escaped humans turned around as the Xenomorph's inhuman, despaired snarl pierced marrow and bone. D closed his eyes. He didn't like it when people became stuck in strange bodies thanks to the device, no matter what evil they had used it for. And being changed into a Xenomorph for the rest of your life was a fate he wouldn't even wish upon his worst enemy.
I'm sorry. he thought, and he really meant it. But you brought this upon yourself. Now you have to live with the consequences.
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Numbly, Dan strode through the ruin of the building. He was stuck. Cursed to be a Xenomorph for the rest of his life. To be a hideous monster, an evil creature. He had loved the power, had loved to be feared, but he hadn't wanted to become one for life. And now it had happened.
Gradually, madness crept in his mind. This was not fair! Why should he suffer for the mistakes of others? Dan found himself standing in front of a locked door. Pathetic. A mighty stroke by his tail and it was gone. Slowly, he paced through, eyeless stare focused on the anxious person who had huddled itself behind the giant desk.
"D-Dan?" the giant man asked the Xenomorph which was coming closer, a handgun gripped tightly in his fist. "I-Is that you? What the hell's going on? Why is the police out there?"
Dan didn't answer. Fearfully, Alex raised his gun. A short flick by his tail and the hand gripping the gun went flying. Crying in pain and fear, Alex clutched his blood-spurting stump and tumbled back. Two more flicks by his tail severed his tendons and the giant biker slumped down.
"Dan! What...! Why...? Please! Don't do this!" Alex was crying now, tears streaking over his face.
How odd... Dan thought while he opened his salivating maw, slowly extending his hissing inner jaw, I've never realized how pitiful Alex really is. Well... all the more to enjoy this.
Sobbing, Alex stared saucer-eyed at the monster's tongue which crept closer and closer to his face.
<Hello Alex.> Dan said in his Xenomorph voice. Alex wouldn't be able to understand it, which was a pity, but he didn't actually care. <Thanks to you, I'm stuck in this shape. Therefore I thought that I should give a first-hand impression of my new body.>
And with that, he let the Xenomorph take over.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*Epilogue*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
D knocked at the sturdy looking house's door. It was sitting in the forest, a few miles away from the nearest town, and this was exactly the reason why the agency had purchased it in the first place. Its residents should have all the peace they needed to cope with their situation.
The door opened and D smiled at the young, attractive girl which was standing in the doorway.
"Hello, Michelle." he said, mustering her. "I see that you're adapting quite well. You look stunning in that dress, if you allow me the remark."
The girl, who had been a young man named Michael nearly a year ago, blushed. "Well, fifty percent of the world's population is female, so I'll manage, too." she mumbled. Then she looked at D's companions. "Hi, C." she said and eyed the incredibly attractive woman standing next to him. "And...?"
"I'm Trisha." the woman smiled, "C's wife."
"Ah!" Michelle beamed at her and then shook her hands, "I'm please to meet you! Your husband has saved my life!"
Trisha twinkled. "Yes, he does that now and then." she said with just a whiff of mystery, "He's saved mine as well."
Now Michelle looked at her in speculation, but then decided not to pursue the matter. "Susan!" she called instead loudly into the house, "It's the agents, come down!"
A muffled voice answered and then the four people could hear someone trampling down the stairs.
"So..." Michelle inquired, eyeing D, "Is this an official visit, or is this simply a friendly get-together?"
D smiled. "It's both, actually. C and me, we really wanted to see how you're doing, but it's also a routine check-up. Hi, Susan!" he greeted the six-armed girl who had appeared next to Michelle now and introduced her to Trish as well.
"So there's only one missing..." he mused, "How's Martina doing?"
Michelle and Susan looked at each other uncomfortably, and then Michelle sighed. "She's doing better, but that's a purely relative term, of course. She's still very skittish around males and she still has nightmares. Not surprisingly, considering what she's experienced. Right now, she's at her favorite spot on the veranda, but I'm not sure how she'll react to visitors..."
She didn't add the qualifier 'male', but nonetheless D and C understood what she was actually saying. C sighed.
"Actually," he said, "That's why I brought Trisha with me. Let's just say there are some things both of them have... experienced." his face looked almost enraged now and Trisha was staring at an imaginative point somewhere behind the two girls. "I thought maybe the two of them could... talk? Maybe this would help her, what do you think?"
Susan and Michelle looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure," Susan said, "It's worth a try."
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Fifteen minutes later, Susan, Michelle and the two agents were sitting in the house's comfortable living room, sipping their coffee. Trisha and Martina were both outside, and frankly, they wanted to give both of them privacy.
"So I've decided to resume my college courses." Susan said now. D raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" he asked, looking at her six-armed appearance, "I would have thought that there are other, easier ways to make a living with your assets."
Susan snorted annoyed. "Don't tell me. It's actually quite funny. I changed into this body because I wanted to have six arms, to be the center of attention. But now that I have them... can you imagine how often I get invitations by strip clubs or, even worse, porn companies? It's totally annoying. Don't understand me wrong, I still like my six arms-" she hugged herself with all her limbs to drive the point home "-but I don't want to become some kind of circus freak."
C nodded satisfied. "I'm delighted to hear this. Many who get stuck with such... dramatic changes like you tend to end up in the erotic business, despite all the support we're giving. I'm really happy that both of you managed to resume your normal lives."
"Oh please!" Susan laughed, "'Dramatic changes' - I'm a dramatic change? What's with those Raptors, then? THAT'S dramatic, I reckon." she shook her head, "Being stuck as an animal for my whole life? Brrr..."
D smiled. "Well, they are adapting quite good as well."
Of the 18 Raptors, only nine had survived. Seven had been captured during the assault, six had been killed by the SWAT teams and another by the Xenomorph, for whatever reasons. Of the remaining four, two had been killed days later and two had been taken captive. The agency had taken hold of all nine of them and, after quite a bit of discussion about what the hell they were supposed to do with honest to God dinosaurs, they had relocated them to an uninhabited island in the pacific where they could live undisturbed.
"In fact,-" he continued juicily, "-they are adapting that well that they even have established a small colony. They have already produced offspring!"
D and C grinned as Michelle sputtered the coffee she had been drinking back into her coffee pot. "Offspring?" she blurted out astonished, "How is THAT possible? Have there been female bikers?"
C laughed. "No, all transformed bikers had been male. But apparently, they had been designed as Jurassic Park Velociraptors, not as real historical Velociraptors."
Susan stared at them with a blank face. "I still don't get it." she admitted.
"I don't blame you." D twinkled. "Anyway, we don't really know how the device is changing people, but it's changing them with incredible detail. For example, your Xenomorph body, Michelle. You thought 'Xenomorph' and you emerged as a real Xenomorph, down to the tiniest detail. Details you probably didn't even know about. Then how did the device know about those?"
From Michelle's face, D could see that she had never really thought about this. "It's the same with changes into celebrities, actually. When people want to change into, let's say, Megan Fox, they emerge as a Megan Fox twin. But where does all the information come from which allows the device to shape a body which is a Megan Fox twin? Frankly, we don't know, but there must be some way the device can tap into our world and retrieve all the necessary information practically instantaneously. But to come back to our Raptors:"
D coughed slightly and then continued. "The man who created the change thought of Jurassic Park raptors. And there are two peculiarities about Jurassic Park Raptors. First, according to the novel and the film, they are all female. They are genetically engineered this way by the fictional company which made them."
"Oh my!" Michelle exclaimed gleefully, "All those scary bikers got basically changed into women and they didn't realize? Wow, that's hilarious!"
"Yeah, that it is." D acknowledged. "But there's still the second peculiarity: They were designed that way to prevent breeding. No males, no breeding. But in the fictional story, amphibious DNA was used to patch holes in the recovered Raptor DNA. The DNA they took for this feat came from amphibians which have the ability to change sexes when there is a shortage of males or females. And the Jurassic Park Raptors inherited the same ability. That is how, in the novel and the film, the Raptors still managed to reproduce."
"Does that mean...?" Susan asked wide-eyed and D chuckled.
"Yes. This happened to three of our nine Raptors as well. They suddenly changed into male Raptors. And given the fact that they don't have cable TV or internet on their island..." he twinkled and all four of them broke out into loud laughter.
"Oh boy..." Michelle gasped after she had caught herself, "Didn't the females, um, object?"
"That's actually the interesting part." C chimed in. "They didn't. In fact, all of them appear to be quite happy. They are hunting, caring for their young... they are still intelligent and sentient and from time to time we're sending psychologists to give them someone to speak to, but they are quite satisfied with the current state of things. Our docs postulate that this may be due to the fact that they already had a more or less 'predatory' mindset when they had still been humans. Which had been one of the reasons why they ended as a biker gang's muscle. So the change into real predators only made them what they couldn't be as humans."
Amazed, Michelle nodded in understanding. Although she couldn't quite grasp this concept. She had been a predator for several hours, and while it had been a real rush, she had been quite glad when she had become a human again. Even if that had meant that she had changed sex. Speaking of which...
"And what's with the... other predator?" she asked and D's face darkened.
"Actually, I have to visit him as well. And it's not a visit I'm looking forward to..."
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D entered the underground prison. It had been a cold war bunker before and had been specifically tailored to hold one single prisoner. He nodded courtly to the two soldiers who were guarding the vault's door. Both were equipped with AA-12 automatic shotguns, and their drum magazines contained explosive rounds. If the prisoner managed to escape, nothing below this caliber would be able to stop him.
Inside the vault, he walked towards a small office where a white coat greeted him. The doctor was in his fifties, with bald head and D shook his hand.
"Hello, Dr. Kersey." he said. "How's he doing today?"
The psychologist sighed. "He's not showing any signs of improvement. In fact, he's become even more feral. We're sure that he's suffering of some kind of mental disorder, either an incompatibility of his human mind with his altered body, although this would be a first for a device-changed human, or his mind has always been on the edge and this simply pushed him over it. Either way," he smiled sadly, "We obviously can't treat him because we can't approach him without endangering our lives."
D nodded in understanding. Privately, he thought that the prisoner deserved death. He had clearly murdered several people, and one of these victims had been a police officer, that alone would earn him the death sentence. Unfortunately, there were laws to uphold. The agency couldn't go around murdering prisoners, so for justice to be done, he had to be sentenced by a proper court. But to be tried, he had to be mentally sane, and that he most definitely wasn't.
After the assault, they had found him in one of the upper storey's offices, sitting atop an eviscerated carcass. The body had been that gruesomely maimed that only DNA testing had revealed it to be Alex Morgan, the biker gang's head. The Xenomorph had not resisted detention, but even so, transporting him had been a nightmare in itself. After they'd stored him away in this cell, though, his mental state had deteriorated rapidly.
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Aimlessly, the warrior strode through its cell. It knew each angle, each corner. Why hadn't it resisted when the prey had confined it to this space? It didn't know. This didn't make any sense. It had been prey, not more. There had been no reason not to kill it. And even less, to comply. Why had the warrior reacted that irrationally? Again, it didn't know.
It's visual receptors perceived a movement and its head swiveled towards the opening in its cage. There was one of the prey which had taken it captive. The warrior's inner jaw twitched in anticipation. Slowly it opened its salivating maw.
A croaking voice sounded, apparently the prey's. The warrior didn't understand its meaning, didn't want to understand it's meaning. It was prey, after all. What could it have to say, really? Beg for it's life?
The warrior crouched and jumped forwards, talons outstretched and inner jaw carted out. Like every time, the invisible barrier between itself and the prey didn't budge and the warrior snarled in frustration as it was stopped only inches from its target.
Furiously, it clawed at the invisible wand, screeching and splattering it with its saliva. This was not fair! This was not how the world was supposed to work! It was the hunter, and the prey was the prey. So why couldn't it reach its prey? Why? WHY?
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Sighing, D let go of the talk button and eyed the furious animal which tried to claw itself through the armored glass. And there was no doubt that this was an animal. He had talked to the Raptors. They looked like animals and they lived like animals, but they were still intelligent, sentient people you could talk to. This one, though... there was no sign of humanity left. D just hadn't wanted to believe the fact, that's why he had visited today. Instead, he had been brutally confronted by reality. It was hopeless.
No, he decided, He has fully descended into madness. And his mind will never become human again, I just can't see it happen. So he'll stay down here for the rest of his life... however long that will be for a Xenomorph.
D shivered at the thought. He couldn't imagine a worse fate. Being confined in a monstrous body was bad enough... but being confined in an animalistic mind, condemned to be a caged beast until the end of your life? The thought utterly terrified him.
He shed a last glance at the drooling beast which had been a human named Dan Sloane once. Nobody deserves such a fate. Not even him. D thought appalled and then he turned, fleeing the living nightmare behind the glass.
No, he decided, He has fully descended into madness. And his mind will never become human again, I just can't see it happen. So he'll stay down here for the rest of his life... however long that will be for a Xenomorph.
D shivered at the thought. He couldn't imagine a worse fate. Being confined in a monstrous body was bad enough... but being confined in an animalistic mind, condemned to be a caged beast until the end of your life? The thought utterly terrified him.
He shed a last glance at the drooling beast which had been a human named Dan Sloane once. Nobody deserves such a fate. Not even him. D thought appalled and then he turned, fleeing the living nightmare behind the glass.