Bio-electricity chapter 1
Preface
In six years the fledgling science of bioelectricity was cultivated by Doctor Frugal and me into a viable alternative to the current source of electricity used in the world today. An amazing discovery, Bioelectricity was the most promising alternative source of energy on the planet, but instead of embracing our child the scientific community scorned us and called Doctor Frugal a quack attempting to recreate a science fiction story in real life. That was when Frugal changed. Instead of becoming more determined to prove the use of bioelectricity as a source of power he instead began to research ways to use it as a weapon. As my fear for the plans Frugal had for his "child" grew I took careful note to keep my own unique discoveries secret from him. I devised a computer network that ran on bioelectricity alone and found a unique way to power this system. I discovered that by exposing animals to large amounts of bioelectric waves they could become electrically unstable and release small bursts of energy that seemed to crystallize on contact with a pure element. These crystals were rare and hard to come by, but the animals seemed to be able to produce them when they were exposed to large amounts of emotional stimuli. Oddly the crystals never seem to run out of electrical current. Like a battery that lasts forever. When I had amassed a small quantity of these crystals I discovered a way to run their electricity into a circuit and create a steady supply of electricity to a small terminal that was hooked into the master computer of our laboratory. It was through this computer that I tracked Frugal's progress on his own, much more sinister, project.
Chapter 1
It was like any other day at school until I spotted him. He must have been new because when you live in a small town you end up knowing everybody in your own grade. I even managed to talk to him a few times during Chemistry. I was afraid he would think I was a nerd, but I still whizzed through the lab with just enough time to talk for a few minutes after class, and with enough wit and cunning to score an A+ on the whole project. Alas I had made the stupid mistake of mentioning my father and his stupid job. "So your dad works for Decagon?" Andy had asked.
"Well yea..."
"Then maybe he knows me, I'm a cleaning guy there"
"Like a janitor?"
"Yea, kind of" Andy said.
I was suddenly embarrassed. I hadn't noticed until now how dirty Andy looked. His pants were filthy and stained with grease and oil. His hands were in a similar state and he even had a few stains on his face. I hadn't noticed till now because I had been too thick to put A. and B. together. Andy was poor. "I'm sorry" I said and looked away, "I didn't mean to insult you or anything"
"No it's ok, I know I don't look nice, but if you don't want to talk to me I understand"
"No! I mean I think you're nice. We could be friends right?"
"Ok" Andy said and gave me a cute look.
The rest of the class and day went by pretty quick and at lunch I made Andy promise to stop by for dinner. I wanted to ask my dad if he needed a lab assistant or something and see if Andy could get a small promotion.
"Hey honey!" My mom said as I walked in with Andy, his little brother, and my little brother all trailing behind me, "Who's this?" She asked and looked at Andy and his little brother.
"Oh, mom, this is Andy Burks and his brother Jimmy. I invited them over for dinner"
"Oh that's nice dear! I'll be sure to add some more steaks onto the grill!" My mother said and then bustled off into the kitchen.
Jimmy and my brother Luc went upstairs to play while Andy and I waited in the living room for my dad to get home. We waited and waited until my mother called us all for dinner and even then my dad didn't show up. "I'm worried about Lenard, he usually comes home by now, even when he's working late" Mother said after we had put dinner up.
"If we could all get over there we could check up on him" Andy suggested.
"But the doors are locked after seven when the guards leave the complex"
"I have the keys" Andy said and jingled a ring of keys similar to the one's my dad carried around.
"Great!" I said, "Let's all go check up on him, I'll bet he just forgot to come home because he's caught up in his work"
A few minutes later we all found ourselves in the empty lobby of the Decagon building. "I think you father's office is this way" My mom said and led us all down a long hallway to a set of labs.
"Weird... The door is electronically locked from this side of the door" Andy said when we reached my father's lab, "Give me a second to find the right key and... there". The door clicked and swung open to reveal my father typing furiously on his computer in the lab. "Dr. Rain?"
"Andy? Patricia!? Kids!? What are you all doing here!?"
"When you didn't come home from work we all got worried and..."
"There's no time!" My father said and interrupted my mother, "Dr. Frugal is moments away from activating his sinister device and after it's used nothing in the world can undo the damage! We must hurry!"
We all raced after dad as he flew down the hall toward a huge set of double doors at the end of another set of labs.
"Dr. Frugal!" Dad shouted as he burst through the doors into a huge open lab with machines in it that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.
"Dr. Rain! I see even locking you up doesn't keep you out of my hair! It seems though that you have come at an opportune time!"
"What you are planning could harm thousands of people and change the very face of humanity! Don't do this Dr. Frugal!"
"Hahahahahaha, I care more than you do! Letting man sit in his gleaming cities of filth run by world polluting electricity! I will change the world in one fell swoop, and you're too late to stop me! But you're not too late to help me one last time. I saved this beam for last, just in case you managed to get in. It seemed most appropriate for you seeing as you've always nipped at my heels! Oh! And forgive me if things get a little... shall we say... hairy! Ahahahahahahahahah" The doctor cackled as he turned on machine beside us and a bright light like the sun on a hot day beamed down on us.
"No!" Dad shouted and held his arms up to block the light, but he knew it would do no good. This was a bioelectric beam its effects on humans were both unknown and unpredictable. "Elizabeth! Your compact! Toss it to Andy so he can redirect the beam at Dr. Frugal! That will force him to turn this contraption off!"
I felt so sleepy, and dad's voice seemed so far away, but I did what he said. I pulled my compact out of my purse and tossed it to Andy. "Catch" I said as I threw the compact at him.
...
I caught the compact and watched as Mrs. Rain and Eli collapsed. "Go Andy!" Jimmy and Luc shouted as they caught Mr. Rain as he collapsed, "Use the mirror!"
I wanted to redirect the beam at the laughing Doctor Frugal who was above the platform the beam was set up on. I fought sleep with every step until I reached the source of the light. By now I was absorbing the most of the energy into myself and my shadow protected the others. All I had to do was get three steps closer and then open the compact.
"Well, if it isn't the dirty little janitor! You're hogging the ray my boy! How about we up the power supply so you'll collapse and stop absorbing all the energy eh" Dr. Frugal said as he turned the intensity of the beam up just as I reached the source.
"I think I'll have the last laugh Doctor!" I said as I opened the compact and directed the entire blast of the beam right into the doctor's eyes.
"NO!" Frugal screamed as he shielded his face to no avail and then shut off the beam.
"Hahaha" I laughed as I felt the last of my mind slip into slumber.
...
They had all collapsed. Even if it had cost me my humanity, I had defeated Dr. Rain, and now I was free to use my experiment in peace. I only had one beam left to recalibrate and that only took a moment. It was the most satisfying thing in the world when I pushed the button of my gift to mankind and watched as the full moon came alive with the reflected waves of bioelectricity. The moon would burn like a torch in the sky for three days as my experiment washed the world with bioelectric radiation.
Chapter 2
I awoke in what took me a while to recognize as one of the labs in what was left of the Decagon complex. Plants had grown from the floor of the lab up into the roof, like some kind of bizarre wall. I wondered how I could see in the dark green light that filtered through the roof of leaves and vines above me, but a moment later I discovered that something was quite different about me. My hands, or really my paws now, were covered in the same warm coat of fur that spread over my entire body. I stroked the soft light brown fur and took in the rest of the changes in myself. I had a long elegant bushy tail and a snout full of small, but sharp teeth great for slicing up meat. My ears were pointed and could perceive distant sounds of dripping and perhaps a waterfall. I realized all at once that I was some kind of human-wolf girl now and that this was probably how I was stuck from now on. It took a while to figure out how to walk, but after some practice I learned that I could walk on all fours and just on my legs quite easily. I was, fortunately still clothed, though my jeans were ripped to allow more movement with my unique back legs. "Elizabeth? My mother's voice called down into my green cave. Elizabeth? Are you down there?"
"Mom? I called back, Mom, I can't get out! The walls are too high!"
"One moment dear! I'll get Andy for you!"
"What use is that? I wondered, but then I found out why it would be useful. Suddenly there was someone else in the room with me. At first all I could feel was fear, fear, fear, but then I somehow recognized his smell. I whined softly and approached the monster standing on two tree trunks in the middle of the room. He was huge like a grown man is huge to a child, and I was the child. Andy dropped down on all fours and nuzzled me reassuringly. "Safe" he growled and then wrapped his arms around me and stood.
In one leap we were out of the hole and a floor above where I had come to rest while I changed. The giant wolf man that was now Andy put me down on the concrete and supported me while I regained my balance. "What's going on?" I said and looked at the she-wolf standing beside me and Andy.
"Elizabeth! My father said as another monstrous wolf-man padded up to me on all fours and gave me a great big hug, Awe all just woke up a few hours ago too. It seems you ended up in that chamber all alone for some reason"
"I meant to ask what's up with the changes in us all?"
"Oh, ugh... I guess that would be the effect of the bio-electric blast Dr. Frugal used on us" Dad said and shrugged his massive furry shoulders.
"Elizabeth!" Another giant wolf said and scooped me up in a hug; "I thought you'd never wake up!" The annoying large and familiar wolf said.
"Luc! Put me down!" I growled and managed to wriggle out of his tree sized arms.
Luc didn't get more than a moment to be unoccupied though because another wolf about his size crashed into him and the two became a blur of fang fur and claws as they wrestled about and mock fought. "Amazingly I believe they are fighting for dominance" my monster dad said to Andy.
"What about you two?" I asked dad and Andy
"We already came to an agreement" my father said and instead of responding Andy walked over to me and wrapped an arm protectively around me. Instinct told me exactly what I needed to know. Andy was the alpha. "On another topic though I have managed to restore power to a small amount of my electronic equipment", "I've been doing what research I can while we've been awake, and I've discovered some unique aspects of the transformation we and our world have gone through" my father droned. "It seems the world has been saturated with bio-electric radiation and has become a place of wild energies and perverse mutations. I had never speculated that bio-electricity would have this sort of effect of the world"
"What's up with the plants?"
"Like I said mutation; the animals and plants have mutated genetically to match the world around them perfectly. We too are genetically altered. It seems we are a race of man unto ourselves; a race of wolf humans"
"So we're stuck like this?"
"Afraid so my dear" my father said sadly, "but in the long run this is better than being human. Our bio-electric enhancement has allowed us the genetic adaptation we need to survive in our environment. For example we males are most suited to killing large predators and hunting in packs with you females to guide us. We have better capabilities to track due to our hyperactive sense of smell, but you females have much better eyesight and hearing. These differences make our species more adaptable. I have also discovered we are all capable of miraculous feats of recovery due to injury. These two things aside we males are also capable of feats of strength beyond any humans capacity"
As if to prove the fact my big little brother and Luc crashed through a nearby wall jumped up a huge tree trunk of thick vines and began jumping up towards the distant roof. Andy was moving huge slabs of concrete out of the door way and mother was ripping vines off what looked like the remains of the machine that had started this mess. "I found it dear!" she said and pulled something big and shiny out of the machine.
"Delightful" my father yipped and in one bounding jump landed beside m mother and began inspecting the large crystal. "This Bio-Crystal is still charged too! It looks like a perfect fit for my modified lap-top!" dad said happily and bounded over to a pile of machinery.
As he piddled with the machine mother approached and put something that looked like sewn leather in my hands. "I've already made one for you father and the boys. This is for Andy"
Until now I hadn't noticed that everyone was mostly naked. For some reason modesty just wasn't the first thing on my mind. Mother helped me put the big leather thing on Andy and I was surprised to find that it was a saddle. "Want a Ride?" Andy asked and grinned evilly.
Mother showed me how to mount and how to press myself against Andy's back as to prevent hindering his movements. The truck sized wolf-man didn't seem to notice my weight and when he leapt into the air and did what the boys had done only moments before I got a good idea of how strong and fast the males really were. Outside was nothing like I remembered. Where once a town had stood now a vast and huge jungle of not too friendly looking plants seethed with strange movement that made them almost look alive. In fact the plants must have been alive because I saw them almost reaching toward the sun and moving around the shadows of the fluffy white clouds that floated over head. It was bizarre and yet almost normal at the same time. After all, if I could be a six foot wolf girl riding her 14 foot truck sized boyfriend wolf-man than why couldn't the trees move?
Andy moved so quietly that I didn't realize it when he suddenly pounced on something large and began ripping at its body with his all too efficient meat slicing tools. He even passed a few chunks of meat to me and to my surprise the warm bloody meat was actually quite appetizing. I ate it with a little difficulty but I knew I was more wolf than human so why should raw meat faze me?
"Go back inside now?" Andy asked and began to head back towards the hole in the Decagon building's roof. Andy carried the rest of his kill with him and dad and mom thanked him when he dropped it on the floor.
"If what my computers is saying is right than we have been asleep for a good 20 years or so" Father said once we were all back in the big building and night was starting to spread its shadows about the now gray colored building interior. It seemed we could see nearly perfectly in the dark, but we lost all color perception without brighter light to reflect it. Everything had a dull gray cast to it and dark objects seemed to fade into nothing while brighter objects shined with faint reflected lights and an occasional dull red or yellow. "It seems that earth's satellite system was unaffected by Dr. Frugal's attempt to destroy technology and some larger cities have managed to stay afloat in the wake of the disaster. According to the new world map we are in dragon territory and if we desire to leave we must travel either towards Dallas or possibly Saint Louis"
I sensed the hesitation in dad's voice when he mentioned Saint Louis. "Why not Saint Louis" I asked.
"Well according to the N.W.W. or the New World Web there are various factions in control of what was once the United States. One faction, the Coalition of K9 Kind, is currently under attack by the dragons. Saint Louis is outside dragon territory, but is controlled by the New World Order, a group of feline races. I believe we would be more welcome in Dallas due to the fact that we would be the first wolves to go there" Father said and sighed.
"Then we go to Dallas" Andy said and curled around me protectively, "but for now we sleep"
Nobody disagreed with that and soon we were all snuggled into a big furry ball of muscle. I found it quite comfortable snuggled in Andy's thick downy chest fur. His arms and body made a natural barrier against the cold night air and I quickly fell asleep.