Chapter 3

David, along with Katherine and Tony rode the elevator up to the top floor of the building where the leader was said to be conducting the operation from. Tony had been telling the group about his experience.

“He was almost fully transformed into a fox, he told me to run. The next thing I knew some guy shot me. I have no idea what happened to him.” He said.

“We picked up a lot of animal life, don’t worry we’ll find him and find a way to at least make him humanoid again.” David said.

“Dana said there is a cure, she was the ferret,” Tony said.

“Then we will make sure to find it” David said, continuing he turned to Katherine;

“What about you Katherine?” he asked.

“I was playing soccer when it happened. The winds were incredible, the clouds lit up and we all started to feel strange. I starting growing fur, and eventually ended up like this. The rest of the people I was playing with became animals. I tried to run to get help and this ship landed and these guys came out and stunned me.” She said.

“I’m sorry,” David said.

“So am I. But we won’t have to be sorry for much longer. Once we stop the son of a bitch responsible for this. Perhaps instead of putting him in a chamber we could vaporise him, or throw him out the window, he is 84 stories up.” She said. David put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“If we kill him, were no better then they are. But if we threaten to do to him what he’s done here, we can force him to call his troops off” David said.

“I hope your right” Katherine responded. Taking off her long sleeved shirt, she put it on the ground, now only having a tank top as a top, and rather managed pants as pants.

“It’s getting hot in here.” She calmly said. David responded by removing his shirt, so he wasn’t wearing a top, Tony did the same.

“Much better” David said. The elevator beeped, indicating they were at their destination floor.

“It’s time,” David said. The doors opened and they walked out and into the top floor of the massive building, finding it oddly dark.

“David, my weapons offline” Katherine said. David and Tony checked their rifles.

“Mine too” Tony said.

“They must have a dampening field in place.” David said. Slowly the 3 walked down the hall towards the likely location of the leaders office. They encountered no resistance and it was eerily silent.

“I don’t like this, it looks like a trap.” Katherine said.

“I know, but what other choice do we have?” Tony said. David nodded his head.

They walked for several minutes, still encountering no resistance. Finally they found the doors to what was obviously the main office. They opened them.

“Not locked, how convenient” David said. The three of them walked into the large office, seeing no guards. At the end of the room was a single large desk, with someone sitting at it.

“This isn’t right! It’s too easy!” Katherine said. David and Tony nodded. When they reached the desk, the figure turned around the looked at them, the hatred in her eyes evident. She folded her arms on the desk.

“I’m afraid you’re right, I have been expecting you.” She said. Pressing a few buttons, she turned on the lights, which opened several compartments on the side of the office allowing several guards to step out.

“Our weapons still aren’t working” Katherine said.

“The dampening field” David said. The leader stood up and looked at them arrogantly.

“Do you really think I’d let you win that easily?” she asked. 12 guards, including the leaders two top colonels walked towards the 3 of them.

“4 to 1 odds, not exactly in our favour.” David said. The guards began to advance on the group.

“You could end this now by surrendering” the leader said.

“Over my dead body” David said.

“That can easily be arranged! Finish them off!” the leader said.

The guards ran at the 3 of them. The two top colonels and 2 other guards rushed David. David kicked the first guard in the stomach sending him flying back into the second guard, knocking both to the ground. The first top colonel kicked David in the stomach while the second one jumped behind him and held his arms back. The first one punched David in the head several times, until he feigned passing out.

Katherine used her powerful kangaroo legs to kicked one of her attackers right in the head, which instantly knocked him out. Using her hands, she did one thing kangaroo’s are known for and punched the second attacker in the face multiple times, rendering him unconscious.

Tony slashed one of his attackers across the chest and then used his muscle to pick him up and throw him into the other 3 guards, knowing all 4 down.

The colonel holding David laughed.

“That was easy,” he said. David opened his eyes.

“Yes it was!” David said as he took the colonel by surprise and threw him over his shoulder right into the colonel who’d been punching him. Both colonels immediately got back up and angrily walked towards David.

The guard that Tony slashed lay on the floor unconscious, but the other three he had thrown him into got up and ran towards him. Tony leaped towards the leaders desk and grabbed a statue that was sitting on it and used it to hit one of the guards in the head, knocking him out. He then slashed the other guard in the chest and as the guard cradled the wound, he gave him a fierce upper cut, knocking him out. The 4th guard, angrily ran at him and punched him in the face, it barley even phased him, and he backhanded the guard across his head, knocking him out.

The guard that David had hit in the stomach ran towards him while the colonels and other guard watched. David stepped to his side and tripped the guard, causing him to hit his head on the side of the desk rendering him unconscious. He turned to see a guard holding Katherine while another punched her in the stomach. He drop kicked the guard holding her, causing him to fall on the ground, he used the opportunity to jump on the fallen guard and punched him into unconsciousness while Katherine kicked the guard who been punching her several times before kicking him in the head to knock him out.

The two colonels ran at David and he used his razor like teeth to bite one of them on the shoulder, inflicting a nasty wound before punching the guy in the face as hard as he could to knock him out.

The remaining colonel grabbed David and hit him in the face twice with the back of his hands before punching him in the stomach, knocking him onto the ground in dazed state. As the colonel walked over to and stood over David to finish him off, Tony ran towards them and kicked the colonel hard, sending him flying back onto a chair, smashing it and knocking him out. Katherine jumped as high in the air as the office would permit, and delivered flying roundhouse kick right to the other guard’s face, sending him flying back and onto the ground into unconsciousness.

David, Katherine and Tony were bruised and exhausted from the fight, but they had won. Behind them, all 12 of their attacks lay on the ground unconscious. The leader turned around in her chair and clapped her hands.

“Very good.” She said.

“It’s time to put an end to this.” David said. The leader gave a mocking smile and folded her hands.

“Do you really expect me to just surrender and call of my troops?” she asked.

“Not exactly” David said. Tony walked behind her and used a neck pinch to knock her out.

“Good job guys. I suggest we take her and her two colonels down to the ground floor chambers. It seems she needs some convincing” David said.

***

On the ground floor, Mike was anxiously waiting. Suddenly the sounds of people walking towards the area could be heard. Mike stood up and readied his weapons. His smiled when he saw David, Katherine and Tony each carrying an unconscious person walking towards them.

“Let’s get them into the chambers” David said. When David put the leader into one of them, Mike ran over and hugged him.

“Your okay. I was really worried,” he said. David returned the hug.

“It was looking bad for a minute there, but things just got a whole lot better” David said.

“Better then you think. While you were gone I got a hail from the Fantaila, Starfleet arrived here early. They’ve landed troops. We should have the colony back soon.” Mike said.

“Perhaps sooner then you think” David said as he activated the chambers, which woke up the leader and her two colonels. David walked over to the leader while Mike operated the controls for the chamber.

“We’ve landed troops. I suggest you surrender and call your people off” David said.

“Or what?” the leader said.

“I believe warthog would be a good setting to use,” David said.

“Setting it now” Mike, said.

“You wouldn’t dare!” The leader said.

“How much time until they’ve powered up to begin their transformation?” David asked.

“30 seconds” mike responded. The leader slammed the side of the chamber and picked up the communicator that they had left on her.

“What’s it going to be? Do we end this now, or do you spend the rest of your life as a hog?” David said. The leader slumped down, and pulled out her communicator and hailed all of her troops, instructing them to stand down. Mike and David’s communicators went off and they were informed that the terrorists all over the colony were surrendering.

“Good call” David said as Mike deactivated the machine.

***

Mike, David, Katherine and Tony sat in the sickbay of the Fantaila being treated for various injuries. The Captain of the ship, the man that had recruited them walked in and smiled.

“Good work guys. You saved a lot of lives today.” He said.

“Sir, were sorry about losing the ship and about how you were exposed.” David said.

“It’s not your fault, they would have detected us anyway. If anything your making them think you were shot down allowed us to hide for longer,” The captain said.

“So what is the status of the colony?” Mike asked.

“Our troops are fine, the particles in the atmosphere dissipated enough for them to safely transport down. We are organising rescue efforts. And there’s a couple people here who want to see you.” The Captain said. The door to sickbay opened and the racoon kid they had saved along with Samantha ran into the sickbay and towards Mike and David, each taking turns hugging them.

“How are your parents doing?” Mike asked both kids. Both smiled and said they were going to be fine. The Captain walked over to them.

“Katherine was right there is indeed a partial cure. It seems they had a cure in their database just in case their own people were transformed. We are preparing to dispense it via the atmosphere, this time it can be done without doing damaging the colony further. We were able to dispense it via injection to several colonists and it worked.” The captain said. Both Sammy and Samantha’s parents walked in, having been restored to humanoid forms. They each walked over to David and Mike and thanked them.

“It’s was our pleasure” David and Mike responded.

“So, what is going to become of the leader of these terrorists?" ”Sammy's mother asked.

“She will most likely spend the rest of her in prison, as for her followers, it’s hard to say. They will most likely be evaluated on a case by case basis” The captain said.

“How are we going to prevent something like this from happening again?” David asked.

“We are researching that now, but we have reason to believe that the weapon has been destroyed, but until we can confirm it, we’ve put all colonies an alert and sent ships” the captain said.

“How long will it take to fix everything?” Sammy asked.

“Were not sure, were still accessing the damage but we will fix everything.” The Captain said. Turning his attention to Mike and David, he asked the doctor if they could be released. The doctor said yes, but he wanted to see them tomorrow to make sure they were okay.

“I’d like to see you two in my office in 30 minutes then” The Captain said.

30 minutes later David and Mike stood in the Captains office. He started by shaking both of their hands and asking them to sit down.

“First I would like to congratulate both of you for an excellent job. You saved that colony.” He said.

“What about the ship? People have seen it? I thought you said you were a covert organisation?” David asked.

“Don’t worry my friends, we are fine.” The captain said.

“So what happens now?” David asked.

“Well, now you have to make a choice. You both did an excellent job down there! Think you might be interested in going full time?” he asked. David and Mike looked at him in shock.

“The job is yours if you want it,” he said. Mike and David looked at each other and were able to come to a conclusion.

“Thank you sir, but after all this action, I think were ready to settle down for a while. But perhaps some day.” David said. The Captain turned to Mike.

“I’m going to have to agree with David, I think we could use some quiet time.” Mike said.

“Very well, we leave orbit tomorrow morning. Until then, feel free to go back to the surface.

***

On the surface, David and Mike basked in the sunshine with Samantha and Sammy at their sides. The two kids again thanked them.

“You know you guys could come live here” Sammy said. David and Mike thought of the idea.

“It might be fun,” Mike said.

“Just might be” David responded. Tony walked into the backyard with Steven beside him, (Steven having been located and restored to humanoid form). The fox walked up to both Mike and David and hugged them.

“Thanks guys, if it wasn’t for you, I might have been stuck as an animal forever” he said.

“Just glad we could help.

“I have another way I can thank you, I know 2 women, and they forms they became, might interest you” Steven said.

Two women walked into the back yard, two otter woman women to be exact. The first one cuddled up to David and the second one up to Mike.

“We heard you guys saved us all,” they said. David blushed.

“Well, we did have a lot of help” he said. Mike giggled and blushed.

“Maybe staying here is a very nice idea after all,” he said with a huge grin on his face. As one of the female otters scratched the fur on David’s chest, he smiled.

“I’d have to say I’m in agreement”.