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Interrogation

The entire trip to the police station, I found myself trying to look out the small window at the back to see what was going on outside. I was feeling quite claustrophobic, and that wasn't really helping.

I didn't say a word to anyone, just sat there silently, contemplating my position and options:

On one hand, I could leave any time, disappear into the world, and nobody could do jack shit but the other furs, and I don't think any of them would want to do anything. I get the impression most would sympathize. Hell, there were times when I was still human that I wanted to just leave the world and never return.

On the other hand, I could be a good little kitty and do what I was asked to, comply, be peaceful, and gain the trust and admiration of the people.

Normally, I would have preferred to chose option A and be alone, since I do hate my old species. But now, it was like my body was naturally urging me to take the peaceful path. I was finding that I was more and more inclined to follow the route Runa would take, and less the one I would.

It was like Runa's mind was taking over and making the decisions. It seemed to be in accordance to the way I created him, and it was good that I was able to consciously identify the influence he had on me, but the fact that I still was influenced by him upset me.

What if I completely lost myself in my new form? Am I really the same person I was a month ago in a different body, or have I changed into something new? Perhaps I was a new person, but had the memories of myself.

The possible ramifications were unnerving.

Looking out the back window, I saw that the entire squad of cop cars were following us. No lights were on, but it still looked to me like they were transporting a dangerous criminal.

Reluctantly, I slumped down in the seat and looked around to the others in the back of the van. I sensed not an ounce of fear from any of them. They all knew they had more than enough power to break out if they needed to.

And if they didn't, Strype and I did.

I tell ya, having power can really alter your actions and feelings. If I was a human in this situation, I'd be panicked and worried about all the consequences of being taken to the police station for questioning, but now that I had all the power in the world, I held a smug sense of comfort. Like, even in the worst of situations, I would still come out on top. It was a fantastic feeling.

Nothing scared me anymore. The only thing that made me hesitant was wondering how people would react. Not because of what would happen to me, but what I may have to do if they tried anything. Tell me that's not concerned for others.

I felt the van come to a stop, and I heard the driver get out and come around to let us out. A few seconds later, the door swung open, two men with guns ready. "Well, come on." One of them urged.

Without saying a word, I quickly jumped down and got out of the way so that the others could get out. All of us filed out silently.

"Over there." The officer instructed as he pointed to the big metal door to the building. I didn't know we had big metal doors in London.

I smiled and walked to the door, I was exuding confidence as I strutted across the parking lot. Somehow I knew I was gonna get reprimanded for that.

Whack! "Don't be a douche." Strype said as he backhanded me.

I rubbed the back of my head as I sighed and was escorted in the door.

Down a series of hallways we went until we got to a big holding cell. We had a cell all to ourselves, the other cells had other inmates. Most of them looked harmless even to a human, but they were all staring at us.

"Boo!" I exlcaimed as I pretended to scare them

They still jumped back in surprise.

"Don't be like that Runa, I thought we were supposed to be showing them we're not to be feared." Frost scolded.

"I can't even have any fun?" I whined. "They keep staring at me."

"No! Bad Tiger!" Cooper growled.

We all sat down on the benches and waited. Welnis, Strype, Ether, and Cooper all on one bench, Myself and Frost on another.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"We wait until they come to interrogate us." Ether said. "I wanna see them play good cp bad cop!"

"This isn't a movie Ether." I said as I laughed. "They don't do that in the real world. You'd be surprised."

"What, are you a cop now?" Welnis scoffed.

My face went dull as I stared stonily at him. I didn't say a word.

"Well what if they try something?" Ether asked. "Can we do something to stop them? I mean, I can spray..." He got up and turned around, lifting his tail.

"NOO!" We all shrieked in unison.

"What? I wasn't actually gonna do it." He said as he laughed.

"No man, no need to do that. We all have very strong senses of smell, we don't need to smell your ass." Cooper said. "Don't be an idiot."

Just then, a man came to the door and unlocked it. "Alright, who wants to go first?" He asked.

Ether volunteered, so they took him out of the cell as he waved enthusiastically. We all just laughed.

"So, why are we here again?" I asked as I leaned back to the wall.

"To show them we're not dangerous." Frost said dully.

"No, I mean, why are we here? Why do they want to bring us in? What do they have to gain by persecuting everyone with fur and a tail just because one dude did something bad?"

Strype settled in his chair and looked at us all before starting. "Think about it this way, we all know humans are panicky and curious, like cats. Well, something happened globally that's got a lot of people confused and scared. Naturally, people would just stab and rape and kill anything that they didn't understand, but we furries weren't that big of a deal. So some people mutated, big deal.

"The problem is that guy in California. He showed that there was more to the story than people spontaneously growing fur. Now we've probably got the military, scientists, and just about every other government branch trying desperately to figure us out.

"This is something no human has ever dealt with before, and apparently we're fucking deadly. Of course they're gonna want to get as much info as they can, so they can gauge what to do with us or think about us. They're probably just trying to better understand us."

All of us were nodding in agreement when one of the men from the other cells came up to the bars. "Hey guys, um, what can you all do?" He asked.

I just looked at everyone nervously. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"That guy on TV that you're talking about. He was like, shooting fireballs or something, can you guys do that?"

"Not all of us have powers like that." Frost muttered.

"Yeah, what makes you think we can do stuff like that?" Cooper asked. "Don't you think we'd be out of here by now if we could?"

The dude just nodded and sat back down. Oddly enough, he didn't just want us to break him out or something. He wasn't desperate.

"So, do you think Batman has a contingency plan for something like this?" I asked Strype. It got a slight chuckle.

"I dunno man, I don't think Batman's ever had to deal with furries before."

I heard some footsteps, and a few moments later, I saw Ether come striding back to the cell with a cop escort. "Hey guys, I'm back!" He exclaimed.

Well duh.

The cop let him into the cell and motioned us, "So, who wants to go next?" He asked. Cheerfully.

Welnis shrugged and got up to go next, they went off to do their little interview.

A few minutes later, he returned, and Frost volunteered. When Frost came back I volunteered.

"Come with me." The escort said to me as he led me through halls and offices to the interrogation room. There was already a cop in the room waiting with what looked like a file. I sat across a table from him, and the escort left.

I shook my head. "Okay, before we start, I'd like to say that it seems to me like you're treating us all as criminals. Taking us by force, then interrogating us in your special rooms with one sided mirrors and all. I don't appreciate it."

"That's fine, we understand." the cop whispered as he took some paper out of his folder. And looked up at me. "But you have to understand what we're going through here. What happened, to you and your friends...it's miraculous, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I'd say so. A real gift, I'd say."

"You call it a gift? Some would call it a curse, being persecuted and hated and feared for being different. Wouldn't you just rather be like the rest of us, or is there something special about the way you are now?"

I grinned and paused a moment before answering. I saw his trick, he was trying to get me to admit some sort of superpowers. Clever detective, too bad we all agreed that we'd not talk about our powers. "Yeah, of course there's something special about us now. We're different, we're unique. Do you know what it feels like to smell with the nose of a dog? Do you know what it's like to hear with the ears of a cat or see with the eyes of a hawk? Everyone wants those things, and now we have them. What's not to like?"

He hummed and hawed a little bit before handing me photo of the renegade wolf. "So, what about him? What's so special about him? How was he able to do what he did?"

I looked at the picture a bit before putting it down. "I don't know. It looks like magic or something to me. Some crazy voodoo shit. What does it look like to you?"

"It looks like a menace. A terrorist."

"Yeah, I'd have to agree. He definitely has to be stopped."

He nodded in agreement. At least we were on the same page. "If you could do what he does, would you stop him?" He asked, another attempt to get me to admit something.

"Of course I'd want to help. You can't have people like that running around. Truthfully, I encourage vigilantism in situations like this, but there's nothing I can do to help. I'm just a tiger man."

"Hmph. 'just' a tiger man? So you can't do anything like that? Shoot fireballs from your hands..."

"...paws." I interjected. "I have paws now."

He glared at me. "Fine, can you shoot explosives from your paws?"

I put up a look of regret and shook my head. "Unfortunately not." I sighed.

He shuffled some more papers and got out another file. "Well, a couple days ago, there was a report at the hospital about a tiger man with your description who was in the hospital and miraculously healed another patient. What can you tell me about that?"

"Unfortuantely not much. My memory is a little fuzzy. I remember being in the hospital that day, but I don't remember leaving. It might have been me, but I don't think I can do anything particularly special."

"So you don't remember healing a patient?"

"No sir."

"Well that's hardly helpful. So, tell me a bit about yourself. Who are you? How did this happen?"

I took in a deep breath before trying to answer. "Okay, my name is Runa Merone. I live in a small town south of Woodstock. Um, I should be going back to college soon, and I am a furry."

"I can see you're a furry. So, how did this happen?"

"I don't know, honest. I've been asked this a few times now. I really don't know how to answer. Truthfully, I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up, I was like this."

"Anything in life led you to this? Any hints that you were gonna turn into an animal? Anything at all?"

I let loose a low growl. "I'm not an animal. I'm as much a human as a tiger, and since I'm still sentient, I expect all the same rights as I had before."

"What about the right to remain silent?" He said mockingly.

"Don't start." I warned. "I don't want to get involved in this, I just want to go on living my life in peace. I want people to know I'm a perfectly harmless person, and that I'm no different than they are."

The cop just shrugged his shoulders. "Well then Gordon, when we're done talking to all your friends, you can go. Simple as that. No spooky...."

I growled to interrupt him. "My name is Runa." I corrected him.

"Oh, my mistake. Don't worry, we won't be sending you to any testing labs Runa, this is Canada, any tests will voluntary, but we do encourage you to offer some help any way you can. But that's all for now, back to the cell you go, I'll have the escort take you back and get your next friend."

I got up and looked down at him. I was a little angry that he knew my name, but I didn't want to probe into his mind or get too angry, so I let it slip. Bastard knew who I was and let me think he was ignorant. I should have picked up on that. Before I left I leaned down to the cop, and in the least menacing voice I could muster in that position, I asked, "What about my husky friend? The one they tranqued? What did they do with him?"

"He's fine. They had to take him somewhere that they could hold him for resisting arrest. He'll be fine though."

"He better be." I warned, then left the room.

I quickly paced back to the cell and the escort had to rush to keep up.

I sat back down as Cooper got up to go next.

"So, what did they ask you?" Strype asked.

I just shrugged as I sat down heavily. "Probably the same things they asked everyone else. How did this happen? Who are you? What's up with that dude in California. Plus, they asked me about the hospital." I explained. I was kinda annoyed still. Something wasn't right.

"What did you say?" Frost asked.

"I essentially told them I had no idea what they were talking about. Then I asked about Cole."

"What did they say about Cole?" Welnis asked. He was snuggling up to Ether.

"Apparently they put him in his own cell, because he was under resisting arrest charges." I explained.

Just as Ether went to say something, I heard something, a high pitched frequency in the deepest depths of my ears. I gritted my teeth and cringed as I closed my eyes. I opened them to see Strype trying to talk to me. His lips were moving, but I didn't hear a thing.

The frequency dissipated, but I still couldn't hear anything. "I can't hear you!" I shouted as I pointed to my ears. I didn't hear myself, but I did what I could to show them with body movements what was wrong.

All of them got up to see what was wrong with me. Ether and Welnis had a paw on each shoulder, they were talking to me, judging by their lips, it looked like they were asking if I was alright, but I couldn't hear the words. I did an exaggerated shrugging motion and said to them, "I can't hear you man, nothing!"

Just as they backed off a bit to talk amongst one another, I felt this massive wave of pain in my head, like a hundred times a migraine headache! I gritted my teeth as I fell to my knees, holding my head. My face was twisted in a look of anguish as I let out a loud growl of pain. I couldn't hear it, but I could feel it rumbling in my throat.

I could feel everyone touching me, trying to comfort me, but it was no use. Another wave of intense pain surged through me which resulted in me letting out another loud roar as I quickly stood up and pushed my friends off me. I was cradling my head in my arms and was moving around wildly trying to do anything to get the pain out of my head.

It was agonizing, wave after wave surged through me, causing me to twist and contort. I tried bashing my head off bars, electrocuting myself with zap after zap of energy, but it did nothing, good or bad. The pain still pulsed through me.

Just then, powerful hands grabbed me and held me tight. I opened my eyes to see it was Strype, yelling in my face. I still couldn't hear anything. I just shook my head in futility and held myself as another wave of pain went over me, this one so intense that my instinct took over, and with a quick blast of energy, I flung Strype across the room and into the wall, the force was enough to literally push him through the wall and outside to the parking lot, where he fell onto one of the cruisers.

Everyone stayed away from me now, nobody wanted to be telekinetically pushed through a wall, and who was to blame them?

But what was I to do? The pain was unbearable, despite my healing magics. They did nothing either!

I fell to my knees, head in my paws, unable to hold myself up, the pain was so intense. I gritted my teeth and fell forward onto all fours, but something felt different. Between the waves of pain, I was able to open my eyes and see that my paws were no longer paws, they looked more like talons.

I was in too much pain to really take note of it at the time, so I closed my eyes again and fell on my side, spasming on the ground. I clenched my fists tight and tried to assume the fetal position, but nothing felt right, my head was all the way down to my crotch, and my arms seemed too big for my body.

And I felt a tug on my cloak, and after a few seconds the pressure was relieved as I felt it fall to ground beside me.

In a fit of anger and pain, I slammed my fist down into the concrete floor, and I mean into it, it felt like I was punching styrofoam.

I opened my eyes amidst all the pain and saw that my paw....er, claw, was buried in the concrete, cracks were spider-webbing out from the hole and to the rest of the room. There were papers and pieces of debris swirling all around me, and all my friends had left through the hole I pushed Strype through.

The one figure that I saw was that of Strype, a large, burly tiger in the midst of all the swirling, right as Lethias and Ember landed just outside the building in the parking lot, staring at me in disbelief.

I looked up at Strype with pleading eyes as I saw him lip what I thought was, "I'm sorry." as he quickly brought two hands down on my head with what looked like all his might, knocking me unconscious.