Extinction Agenda, Part 3
#12 of Codename: Stinger
(...)
Part 3.
"I'm fine already, doc. Just stepped bad on my ankle, that's all." Christy was as happy as Alina was to actually be talking to other people again, but she had never liked doctors. Less so since her transformation. "Shouldn't you check bug butt over there?"
"Agent Stinger's metabolism allows her to make fast recoveries. Her superficial wounds have been tended to." After the doctor was done with her black eye, she already was feeling up the swollen part of Christy's ankle. The woman was acting very professional to be diagnosing a seven ft. tall triceratops.
"Had a hell of a time keeping a hill collapsing on us back there." Christy insisted before whimpering as the doctor fixed her foot at the correct angle and began applying lotion and bandages.
The doctor seemed monotonous as she did her work. "I've seen her heal cracked ribs in mere hours. What she needs is to rest. Now stop worrying about our agent, and don't even think about running with that on. Am I understood?"
"Y-yeah! Uh, actually my leg's feeling better already. Thanks."
"Your friend is waiting at the cafeteria with Agent Queen and Captain Rogers. By the way..."
Christy was ready to leave as she hopped off the bed, fighting the urge to wince at how clumsily she had landed on her healing paw. "W-what is it?"
The doctor threw Christy a large white coat; it would be enough to cover anything sensitive at least for the moment, "Put some clothes on."
Christy blushed a bit, quickly slipping into the patient coat. "Y-yeah." It had been so long since she had actually felt naked. The sight of the giant bee woman standing by the tall Alina reminded Christy the world could have a very random sense of humor. There her friend was, stretching an extra-extra large patient robe with her humongous chest and thickly feminine body. Alina was under the custody of an 11ft. tall insect while Captain Rogers attempted an interrogation in the midst of a hearty meal.
There hadn't been much progress with that. Jim had barely been able to get names amidst the plates coming and going. Alina was tearing into anything she was fed, as if it was her last supper. "Definitely hadn't seen this side of hers before..." Christy made a face as embarrassment filled her. The scent of slightly charred meat and steamed vegetables however were making her mouth water. "S-say, can there be some for me too? I haven't had anything in days..."
"Ah, Ms. Duval." Jim stood up and turned around to offer a hand to the yellow scaly. "Welcome to S.W.O.R.D.: Secret Worldwide Operations, Rescue and Discovery. I'm Captain James Rogers. Please take a seat; we'll have your food on the table in a few moments."
"Chrissy, ohmigod, you have to try this steak. It's the juiciest and tastiest ever!" At least, that's what Christy thought Alina had tried to say between desperate munches. Christy sat down beside her friend after shaking hands, but her eyes were trained on the man that greeted her. S.W.O.R.D.? She had never heard of them. They had that first letter down for sure.
"Ms. Maxwells tells me you twisted your ankle during a scuffle with one of my more hot-headed agents. I apologize for her brusqueness and any ill-meant commentary she might have made about your physical appearance."
Christy blinked. Jim gave her a friendly smile, "She does that. Now, I realize it's only been a few minutes since you arrived, but I would like to corroborate Ms. Maxwells' statements while we wait for your meal. If you don't mind."
"An interrogation?" Christy shifted her gaze between Rogers and Queen. She didn't feel like being pushed around while she was this hungry, but then again these people had fixed her leg and were offering food. The least she could do was to cooperate; if Stinger had been able to give her a black eye, she didn't want to try her hand with the mini-giantess staring her down in silence. They began.
"I see," Jim folded his arms and rested back against his seat. "I actually ran a background check on the Minerva Foundation while Stinger and Queen went to extract you two. There has been suspicious activity reported to the authorities and some of their inventory checks do not match. Questionable material intake and mismatched disposal. A secret metamorph project, however? It seems they were up to more than just chemical foul plays."
"Unn huhn..." Christy nodded as she gulped down half a steak in one bite and then downed half a gallon of root beer in one swig. She was on her third plate. "Ali, me and a friend in the local precinct followed some clues leading to theft of dinosaur fossils; next thing I know, I've three horns and Ali here pretty much lost her head to the clouds. We tried to be sneaky to stop them from stealing, since we needed proof. They were ruining our research, you see. I can't stand thieves!"
"Then you wouldn't like my other partner. She can't stand socializing, oww..." a tired Charlie dragged her feet to the table. "All you had to do was tell me all of that, y'know. Would've avoided that whole scuffle thing."
"Ah! S-Stinger, uh..." Christy dropped her fork and knife and bit her lower lips as she struggled to find the words she wanted to say, "Yeah I guess you're right. I'm not big on trusting anything metamorph related after what happened to Ali and me. It WAS my fault that we got kidnapped by Minerva to start with. I just didn't want Ali to be caught up in anymore shit because of me."
"Chrissy... it's okay," the chocolate brown scaled reptilian's snout gently nuzzled her smaller friend. "We had no way of knowing. Plus I know you get extra grumpy when you haven't had your breakfast, hee!" Christy blushed, trying to avert her gaze from a grinning Stinger. At least the triceratops knew there were no hard feelings.
"Stinger! What are you doing outside of the infirmary? Do you want me to call the nurse on...?" Queen worried, but then blinked as the black haired arachnid's tail was pulled by the infirmary's doctor and began dragging her away.
"I got her. Trying to slip out on me while I went to check on other patients, did you? Come, you still need rest on my orders."
Charlie whimpered. Even with all of her strength her body was exhausted from all of the exertion earlier. "Oww, oww! Don't pull! I'm fine already doc. Strong as an elephant!" she tried.
The doctor glared at the whining girl and sighed. "I seem to recall we have some elephant tranquilizer in the back room. Big syringe to administrate through your armor as well."
"I'llbegood. Take my nap now, thanks."
The group took a moment to laugh at the scorpion's antics before she disappeared back into the infirmary with the doctor. Jim turned back to Alina and Christy. "Now. I'm aware Queen told you all about our contract with the Minerva Foundation. We are men and women of our word..." both dinosaurs seemed to be taken aback, "...our division, however, strives to keep out-of-control metamorphs who are a threat to society in check. The details of our contract did not include victims of induced advanced metamorphosis; in other words, you two, ladies."
Alina let out a sigh of relief. Even Queen seemed to be relieved; she knew what being the victim of inhuman experiments was like first-hand. Christy was the first to speak as usual: "What now? Are we free to go?"
"Ms. Duval, you and Ms. Maxwells spent a week in hiding. Do you want to go back to those conditions?" Jim seemed firm with his question, but Christy for once didn't feel questioned at all.
"...point taken, we can't just waltz back into society like that. What do you suggest then, Captain?"
"The S.W.O.R.D. Metamorph Crime Division focuses on two specific goals, Ms. Duval. One of them, I've already said," he leaned forwards, intertwining fingers over his nose. "As for the second: Advanced metamorphosis is not a well-known field of biogenetics. Our scientists work hard day and night researching to find a reversal to the condition. A cure, if you will." Alina and Christy exchanged surprised looks.
"You mean you're trying to restore us to our normal human forms?" Alina's eyes were locked on Jim now, as if he was some sort of messiah preaching for salvation. "We can go back to normal?!"
"Not yet, Ms. Maxwells. Like I said, the metamorph condition is hazy at best, even with the available information and cross-references we've been able to acquire. There was a pioneer on the field but she..." Jim briefly looked over to the infirmary; the birth of Omega had actually been the start of Jim's division. It seemed so long ago now. "...Her work is gone."
"Bummer," Christy rested back against her chair with a frown, "But that doesn't really answer my question."
"Of course. Christina Duval, Alina Maxwells, I understand you two are researchers. I can offer you shelter and protection in exchange for your assistance. This would be work, of course. Our organization is no charity."
Alina seemed confused, "But we're paleontologists, we don't really know a lot about genetics or..."
Jim on the other hand was sure of himself. "Trust me when I say that any scientific knowledge is welcome to our research and development team."
Christy looked over to Alina. She seemed to be into the idea. Then again, as meek as she was, Alina was one to get hung up on the first shiny toaster someone showed her. Life had had a way to show Christy being easygoing with trust did not pay off as well as it could initially sound like. "Do you think we could take some time to ponder your offer, Captain?"
"Chrissy!" Alina seemed apprehensive. Her neck twisted and her big cute eyes were suddenly all the triceratops could see. "This is our best chance. We don't have to think about it!"
"We do," Christy stammered before standing up from her chair. "I don't mean to be rude," she gently pushed Alina's face away from her to look back at Jim, "It's just that it's a big responsibility. I want to be sure we can do it."
Jim nodded, arms folded. "Of course. There is no rush. You may take your time. But ah... If I may, I have another question."
Alina's snout slumped down on the table, her neck hanging from her shoulders; she seemed silently bummed out. Christy blinked a bit, "What's up?"
"Back in your tale, you mentioned a third person among your group, right before you were captured by the foundation. Do you think you could elaborate?"
"Oh, sure." Christy was invited to take a seat again, and she did. "Only Ali and I were captured, in fact, because we ditched our contact at a café." As she related, Alina's head began to perk up again. "I'd asked him to investigate about disappearing fossils or thefts. He came up with some leads on a similar case, but the detective for that case went missing right after getting close to the foundation. We found out while that mad scientist was turning us, he'd somehow convinced the detective to become a test subject. I just don't understand how someone could be convinced to let someone do this to you," she ran a claw on her body for emphasis.
"Do you recall the scientist's name by any chance?" Jim inquired. Christy's face contorted into an angry frown. She remembered.
"Igor Standing-off!" the triceratops yelled.
"Actually, that's Standinoff," Alina corrected, "And his name was Ivan, not Igor."
"Yeah well, close enough. He was all freaky and sounded Transylvanian."
"I see. I'm starting to see the picture." Jim slipped out a piece of paper from his pocket, Christy thought it looked like a printed photograph. "Is this the man you're talking about?" both girls hurried to nod. "That's what I thought. This man has been a scourge among geneticists. He's known for holding no regard for human ethics in his experiments. Had disappeared after the Masters Xteria paper came out. We're lucky you two are alive as it is."
Christy raised an eyebrow, "That quack doctor's famous?"
"More like Infamous if you want to be precise," Queen added.
"Oh, I thought you just were the quiet bouncer here." Christy snickered. Alina bopped her on the head.
"Still," Jim continued, "I'm concerned about your other friend. You said they found out about the disappeared detective, and from the sound of it, they were the last person to know of your whereabouts."
"It's a He. Why is this important anyway?" Christy hurried to ask.
"The New Jersey pharmacy was destroyed during your transformation, was it not? I read the article, they didn't manage to cover it up, but they blamed it on flammable chemical leaking. Fortunately there was not a single victim."
"Uh huh?"
"Are you aware of your friend's whereabouts? If he was captured at any time between your capture and the laboratory's destruction, we might have another case on our hands."
"Wait. Captain, what are you saying?!" Alina was so outraged she looked at Christy for support. Christy's eyes were as paralyzed as her lips.
Jim's cheeks puffed out as he let out a small sigh and he rested his hands down, trying to sound as gentle as possible. "Your story mentioned one missing detective in the area of New Jersey, ladies. My intel suggests there are two, and the last one was not one day after your alleged capture."
"Chrissy, oh my god!" Alina brought her hands to her mouth in sheer horror. Queen seemed confused so she dared to ask.
"Alright, enough drama you all. What are you on about, Captain Rogers? There's something I'm missing here!"
Jim didn't look at Queen. He kept his eyes on both reptilians. "For clarification's sake: What's your friend's name, ladies?"
"M-M... Milton..." Christy babbled on the verge of tears. She gripped the table in anguish. That idiot! Had he actually followed them? Why didn't he go to the precinct instead, bring the entire air force with him?! Why did he have to go to stop Alina and her alone? "Milton Miles!" she shouted, grabbing by her horns. It didn't matter how things had happened. In her rush, in her carelessness, she had not only ruined her and Alina's life. She had gotten her other friend abducted by those crazy scientists too. "Oh my god, it's my fault!"
Queen immediately regretted having asked for clarification. She folded an arm under her bust and covered her eyes with the other, trying to fight the sense empathy currently tying her stomach into a knot. Jim was the only composed person at the table. "Ms. Duval, it's hardly the time to blame yourself. This was the information I needed in order to fit the puzzle together."
"Captain?" Queen looked down at the smaller man who stood up.
"Y-you're going to rescue Milton?" Alina asked hopeful. Jim shook his head.
"Our priority is to find enough compromising information that links Minerva to irregular metamorph experiments. As it stands, the foundation can deny any and all involvements in your story. In other words, as much as I'd like to shut all their operations down and jail them for their transgressions, metamorphs are an undisclosed secret to the actual public. If we must seize their bases, we must first round up every possible link in order to completely blow any defense their lawyers might conjure away."
"What?!" Christy slammed her balled fists on the table, cracking it a little. "You just told me my friend was forced, or is gonna be forced, into that crazy bastard's experiments and now you want to play detective?!"
"C-Chrissy..." Alina bit her lower lip, unaware of what to say to calm her friend. She tried to hold her down so she wouldn't rampage.
"Ms. Duval, they might be crooks and think they are above the law, but we unfortunately are not." Jim shook his head, "You have my word that I'll have my top personnel researching any and all pieces of evidence to shut the foundation down."
"It's not enough! What about Milton? We have to rescue him now, send your army! You've got an army, right?!" Christy tried, her fangs gritting together.
"Even if I wanted to, Ms. Duval, there's no guarantee that Mr. Miles is anywhere near New Jersey right now. You must give us more time." Jim maintained his firm stare, showing that no manner of threatening expressions was going to make him budge. Christy looked about to break Alina hugged her friend tightly.
"Queen, please escort Ms. Duval and Ms. Maxwells to their quarters. I have calls to make if we want to make any progress."
"Sir." Queen didn't like how things had developed, but she had learned in her short time working for S.W.O.R.D. that the Captain's plans were as meticulous as his deductions. Even if they didn't like it, they had to bear with it for the time being. Looking down at the two smaller dinosaurs, the red-head honey bee tried to give them both her best reassuring smile, "It'll be okay. Come, Stinger isn't the only one that needs rest. You've been through a lot."
After-hours...
It took Alina quite some time to get Christy to sleep. It was all a ruse on her friend's part. Both were tired, but Christy couldn't turn in for the night yet. Not after what she had learned right smack in the middle of her first proper dinner in weeks. With Alina sound asleep cuddling her body, Christy had to be ingenious about it. A couple of their pillows in place after carefully slipping out did the trick. "Rogers might have the intel, he might have good intentions, but I can't wait. Any second I wait, Milton's gonna be turned into a monster like me!" she thought, biting her lip as she quietly snuck out of her room. She looked around; there was nobody left or right. "They said they were going to find Milton's whereabouts, maybe if I can get a computer..."
"ROOM SERVICE!" a mane of long black hair suddenly covered Christy's vision. Christy jumped back against the door to her quarters as Charlie's eyes stared at her.
She had forgotten the scorpion's powers to stick to surfaces. "Stinger?! Weren't you in the infirmary?"
The arachnid had her arms folded, standing upside down as she addressed Christy, "I got better. Now, were you guys the ones that ordered meddling scorpion girl?"
"Not now, bug butt," Christy groaned, "I'm uh... I'm looking for the bathroom."
"Bzzt. Wrong answer. Every guest quarter has a fully equipped bathroom. Could get better shampoo though. Still, complaints can only be filed from seven to five."
"Nngh... What do you want?!"
"I'm taking over Queen's guard duty, since my sleep schedule got kinda messed up. You understand that, right?" Charlie shrugged, stretching a bit. "Now, what were you looking for?"
"What makes you think I was looking for anything?"
Charlie narrowed her black eyes and walked forwards so Christy and she were face to face. "Educate me."
"...look, if you're not budging I guess I'll go back to sleep."
"C'mon three-horns. You and freckles just made it in here. You don't wanna give your guards the wrong idea about you, right? At least find a way to defend your point bet-" an angry claw grabbed Charlie by her arm, which pulled her snout to forehead.
"Listen to me, wall-crawler, I'm not big on temper. And I don't know if you heard what happened, but I've every right to feel pissed off enough to pay you back for the black eye right now!" she snarled. Charlie didn't budge.
"I heard. And I want to help."
"You have no idea what- wait, you what?" Christy blinked. She hadn't expected that statement.
"Queen told me all about it. You have a friend you have no hopes in rescuing on your own, and S.W.O.R.D. isn't exactly gonna go there guns blazing to rescue him. Am I right so far?" Christy nodded. "I'm not big on bureaucracy either, but I had an argument with two of my bosses yesterday so... Let me know about the extra details I couldn't get from my royal friend and I'll see what I can do by myself."
"I don't get it. What's in it for you?"
"I've already told you this before." Charlie bounced herself off the ceiling after freeing herself and stood there, tail proudly lifted and arched, arms folded. "We're on the same boat, three-horns."
"...you realize this means we'll infiltrate the foundation and they'll probably try to capture us, right?"
"We? Us? Sounds like a fine party, but no thank you. I work better on my own," Charlie pointed at herself, making Christy grunt.
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to stay here while you go to the foundation."
"You're nutso if you think I'm gonna bring you along with your bent ankle. I don't want any dead weight in the mission!"
"Why you...!" the females glared at each other, but eventually Christy grunted again and closed her eyes in defeat. "You're right. Please help me." Charlie added no more to Christy's succinct and quiet whimper for aid. The scorpion was determined to help any victim of injustice. Christy began to tell Charlie all of what she had told Captain Rogers. They conversed for a while until finally Charlie had formulated her plan.
"If they need to search for evidence, they'll try for the nearest hub first. They'll probably try to get a mole inside, a work of finesse and espionage. I know for a fact it'll take time because my pal Shade is busy on another important mission right now."
"Who's that?" Christy asked out of curiosity.
"Moody bitch that can turn invisible. Doesn't matter," Charlie waved her hand dismissively as she thought. "We don't have time for that. Look, you've given me enough to go on for now. I'll have to switch with Queen in about three hours. You go to sleep, and leave the rest in my cute little pincers."
"What? That's it? You don't need my help at all?"
"What? You mean you can lug all that junk-in-da-trunk around this place and not get immediately detected and thrown back inside with balloon tits XL?" Charlie raised an eyebrow while pointing at Christy's wide hips. The sarcasm put a red tint on the triceratops' face. "Look, three-horns, leave this up to me. I'll be back with news of your boyfriend tomorrow. Anything after that and your pizza's free!"
The next morning...
"Oooh, Gary! What'cha doing?" Charlie asked as she dangled from the ceiling, using one of the sticky segments of her tail for leverage. "Triangulating and stuff, right?"
"Ah! Agent Stinger, please don't do that." Gary was usually cooped inside his work station. He was one of the early shift code monkeys working the computers and managed oN-time solutions. "Yeah, actually. Pulled an all-nighter working until now to find the most likely Minerva pharmacy in New Jersey's surroundings, since, well, the one at NJ kind of blew up."
"That's soooo interesting. Y'know, Jim's actually very antsy about that. Wants the results to begin his operation as soon as possible. What'cha got for me, huh?" Charlie smiled beneath her mask as she landed behind Gary and leaned over his back, pressing her voluminous chest against it.
Gary gulped a bit. She had known Stinger for a while now; knew her actual name outside the code they were required to use, but he had never really mustered the courage to actually buddy with her yet. "Ahh! Actually, see, I'm almost done with it. It seems like their next hub of importance might be found in one of the coasts of New York."
"No way! Really?" Charlie widened her eyes as she played her best surprise expression and leaned forwards even more, heaving the weight of her hefty rack on his head. "Wow Gary, I always knew you were a very smart guy."
"Y-yeah! If my calculations are right, we should have it in about an hour... A-Agent Stinger?"
"Mmm, and smart guys turn me on sooooo muuuuch," Charlie giggled as she sat on the flustered Gary and hugged his neck, his cheeks pushed up by her plump boobage as she stared him down. "You can be faster than that, can't you?"
The wag of her tail was hypnotizing Gary, her body was so soft in spite of how tough it looked. He was about to melt in her grip. Maybe this was his chance after all! "H-hour? I meant any second now! I'll get the data for Captain Rogers and impress you, Ch-Ch... Richards!" Charlie was content with her handiwork as she quickly began unable to tell how many keystrokes per minute the code monkey was making.
The printer hummed to life and produced Charlie's target. Soon enough her fingers could feel the paper with the coordinates she had been looking for. "I'm soooo impressed, teehee. I'll be taking these now," she willed her mask off to peck Gary on his forehead before she stuck to a wall. "Remind me to buy you lunch, Gary." With a wink, Charlie crawled out of the room as suddenly as she had entered.
Gary blinked a bit but was left smiling to himself something awkward. He had the strangest feeling of déjà vu...
Anderson, Captain Rogers' assistant, soon entered the room. "Turner, you're relaxing. I assume your triangulation was successful?"
"Yep!" a proud Gary stretched his limbs.
"Good. Print me a copy so I can give them to the Captain." Anderson leaned by the wall and continued to reassign priorities in his touch-pad scheduler.
Gary was still grinning, "It's okay vice-captain Anderson! Agent Stinger's on her way with them. Didn't you get the memo?"
"She what?" Anderson's eyes jumped to Gary as if he had suddenly shouted an obscene word in public. "The Captain just got to his office, he couldn't have... Oh not again. Turner!"
Gary's grin suddenly vanished. "...shit."
To Be Continued...