Chapter 12: Inversion

When the sun came up the next morning, she was still in my arms. I'm sure she had tried to wriggle free of my embrace during the night, but I'd held fast. My face was still buried in her hair, but it had done little to keep the dreams at bay, little to hide the inhuman eyes that I could still see watching me.

"Tommy?" She gave me a gentle elbow to the gut as she spoke, "I've heard of a lap dog, but this is a bit much, don't you think?"

"Shhh..." I spared one had to smooth down her hair. "Just go back to sleep."

"It's got to be ten o'clock, Tommy. What's going on?" She began kicking and squirming again, this time my grasp didn't last. She knew me too well, knew everyplace she could press to get loose. There was little I could do other than watch her sit up, just out of reach.

"Something's wrong, Tommy," She leveled a gaze at me, it made me wince and curl into a ball, "You've been acting even stranger than normal since we got here. What is it?"

There was no venom to her voice, no threat, but I still couldn't meet her stare. I closed my eyes, perhaps this would all go away if I just denied it long enough...

A moment later I felt a hand on my face, cupping smoothly around and behind my left ear, she lifted me into a gentle kiss.

"You can tell me, Tommy, I'm here..." Her voice trailed off as she snuggled in next to me. I didn't have to hold her this time.

"I can't... you're human."

Her hands almost dropped from me, nearly recoiling in horror at what I'd said, I could hear it in her voice, "That's it? After all we've been through, you can't tell me because I'm human?" The last word fell from her lips like a poison. "You can't do this to me, Tommy. You can't lock me out just because of what I am!" Her hands were suddenly on either side of my face, pulling me level to her, forcing my eyes open to see the pain that was etched in her expression. "I'm human, Tommy, and there's nothing either of us can do about it!" She nearly spat. "I didn't choose this, neither did my parents, or you, but I'm still human. Why is this so hard for people to understand, why can't you just treat me the same as anyone else?" The anger in her voice ebbed as she spoke. The fire was dead and cold by the time she'd come to the end. We were left with little more than a hollow question. I pulled her to my chest, now it was her that was close to tears.

"It's not that, Babe," I couldn't help but break a forlorn smile as she looked up at me. "It's not that you're human... I guess. It's just, well, genetics."

"What are you talking about, Wolfy?" She looked up at me, all the anger was gone from her face now, the only thing left was confusion.

For the first time, I stopped to think about her pet name for me, 'Wolfy'. It was fitting, wasn't it? That's what I was, a wolf. But I wasn't, not really.

"Babe, it's what's out there... who's out there," I paused for a moment as she looked at me questioningly, "Everywhere I've ever been, I've been a wolf, the only type of wolf. But not here." I began sputtering, reaching for words, "They're out there, Rebeca, wolves, real wolves."

"Before we came here, I always thought they were gone. Weren't all the original wolves wiped out by the Cataclysm?"

"No, Babe, not by the Cataclysm. By us. They couldn't stand against the new wolves, wolves that thought with a human mind... but they've survived here."

"Are they dangerous?" She shivered for just a moment, despite the warmth of my embrace. This was as much an unknown for her as for me.

"They shouldn't be... I've met them."

"Is that who you were howling with?"

"Yes."

She smiled. "It must be nice to meet some of your relatives."

"It's not quite like that," I sighed. How could she see it that way? There was so much more to it, it wasn't like just meeting a long lost cousin.

She'll never understand. She's just a human. Gah! This time it wasn't 'that voice', this time it seemed to come from my own mind, not from the dark places of my brain.

"Rebeca, it's not like that..." I pushed her back, my hand on the center of her chest. She looked down at my paw, where it lay between us, "I'm not... I'm not human, you know that. I'm just as much like them as I am like you... but I've never seen them before in my life. I have no meter-stick, no understanding that comes from anything other than my bones."

"What do they tell you, Tommy, your bones? What does your heart tell you?"

I couldn't say it, I couldn't tell her about the voice that whispered such things. "I don't know."

She laid a hand on my face again, so soft this time I could hardly feel it. Yet the warmth melted into me instantly.

"They do things to me, Babe, things I can't put words to." I tried to repeat what the voice had said, anything that it had whispered to me, but the words simply wouldn't form. They were things I couldn't repeat, like there were no words that could create the thoughts, the feelings, the knowledge that they had so perfectly encapsulated. Like words themselves were a foreign, alien creation.

All I could do was lay my head into her and whimper. Some kind of alpha I was.

I must have dozed off at some point. The next thing I knew Rebeca was gone from my embrace, but not far away. She stood a few strides over, with English, leaning on his truck.

"Have you ever heard of this before?" Her voice was low as she spoke to him.

"Nah, lass," I saw his ear twitch towards me as I shifted my weight. He knew I was awake, but he didn't comment on it, "I'd be a bad one to ask anyway, when was the last time you saw a lion here in the colonies?" He moved slightly, so Rebeca stood between him and I. He could see me plainly, but Rebeca's back was to me as I sat up.

"Is he going to be okay, English? I've never seen him act like this. I had to drag it out of him to find out what was wrong." Thankfully, she didn't mention my gaff about calling her 'human'. "I almost lost the two of you once, I don't want to take that chance again."

The lion furrowed his brow and made a determined show of huffing out a slow breath. "And we would do what, lass? Bind him hand and foot and drag 'em back to V-town to see a shrink? I think not."

She nearly slapped him for that remark. "Don't say that! You know that's not what I meant. Gods, English, if he has a break down on us out here... I don't know what we'd do."

He lay one of his massive paws on her shoulder, it nearly made the whole side of her body disappear. "I know, lass, and I'm sure he would too," He shot me a quick glance over her shoulder, one she was completely oblivious to, "But he came to you, did he not? He did tell you, and for that I think you should be honored - no matter what it took to get there."

"I just don't want to lose him, English." Her hands came up to lay on his arm that held her. Her voice rose slightly, sounding as if on the edge of tears, I had to claw back the impulse to run and hold her. "He's all I have left, almost everyone I know is dead. If not from the government, then from before..." She trailed off as her body began to shiver.

"I think we'll make it through this, don't you, mate?" He looked at me over her shoulder again, this time as I walked up behind Rebeca on silent feet. She jumped slightly as I reached out, but quickly melted into me as I wrapped my arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Tommy," Now she was the one clinging to me for dear life, "I just can't stand the thought of losing you... again."

I brushed the hair back from her perfect green eyes, human eyes. "I'll be here for you, Babe. Wherever 'here' is." I smiled, she smiled back.

I left Rebeca to ready herself for the day, she always made more of a production of it than English or I ever did. You'd think she'd have less to do without a fur coat to maintain, but it seemed the opposite.

"English, did I miss anything before I woke up?" We were sitting around the small fire in the center of camp.

"Nada, mate." He tossed a couple of branches to the flames.

"Did you... have you... ever heard a voice, felt something, someone in your mind? It's not you, but it is... it's like the other side of the coin, the part of you that's not human, the part that never will be."

"Heh, like I told the lass, you're asking the wrong fella. Lions we're extinct long from the world when I was born, mate. Though..." He snapped another branch, peering over his shoulder to steal a glance towards Rebeca in the distance, "It might not be too far from the point for me to say that I may just have an idea of who you're talking to."

"What? I thought you never-"

"That's right, mate. I've never met a true lion, never even seen one, nada. But I'm thinking the scent of your namesake may just have been the trigger you were waiting for to meet your biff."

"Biff? Okay, now I just know you're pissing with me." I threw a twig at him, he caught it mid-air, without ever looking up from the flames.

"Not this time, Tommy." A slight grin parted his lips, I could just make out the tips of his fangs. "You'll have to pardon the name, I've never learned what it's really called. That's just what I heard a kit somewhere call it once. Biff, seems like as good a name as any, eh?"

"Okay, wise man, what's a biff?"

"Search me." He made an overly theatrical shrug, grin growing wider. "I'm just surprised your Dad didn't tell you about it when he covered the birds and bees."

"Okay, spill it, cat face, or I'll have to go feral on your tail again. I won last time we scrapped, don't make me drag this from you."

This time he laughed out loud. "I give up," He raised his hands before himself in a sign of mock surrender, "But keep in mind that everything I know is second hand, my father wasn't exactly forthcoming with information either." The grin froze on his face the moment he mentioned his father.

"You got it fairly close to right, mate. It's the part of our minds that weren't just changed by the Cataclysm, but made whole cloth. It's the beast, Tommy, the animal, the namesake that we call ourselves without ever truly embracing. Though I'm getting the feeling that you've received more than a normal dose. You never hunted as a pup, right?"

I nodded. "What does that have to do-"

"Everything, mate." He held a single finger up to silence my protests. "Ever wonder why? What was it that every other wolf had that you didn't? I would just as rightly suspect you never found your biff, your self that isn't quite you."

"Great, wonderful, now you're trying to tell me I have an animal spirit?" I waved my hands melodramatically before my face. "Ohhh, look at me, I'm channeling the forces of nature!"

He cuffed me on the side of the head, none too lightly. "It's not like that, mate, and you know it." His grin had never disappeared. "But, if it makes you feel better, then so be it. We're not human, Tommy, simple as that. Everyone deals with it differently, though I've never heard of it described as a full voice..." He petered off as he spoke.

"So... English," I was halting as I asked the question, not sure how to phrase it, "What is it like for you?"

His grin widened again, though his eyes hardened at the same time. "That, mate, is something you don't ask in polite company." He shook his head with a laugh. "It's like asking your best friend about his sex life."

I gave him a shove, he barely budged. "And since when were you ever 'polite company', English?" I raised a claw to my lips in mock thought. "And if I recall, you've never been too shy on regaling me with tails of your own, ahem, exploits." I shivered for a moment before laughing. "Dude, if I tried half the things you did, I'd die of a heart attack!"

"But you'd die a happy man, eh mate?" He laughed, staring out into the trees for a moment before continuing. "I guess I do owe you as much." He paused, huffing out a breath, accent faltering when he began to speak again, "I don't know how to describe it, Tommy... it's not something that you often put into words. It's like... it's like... a feeling of warmth, like a hand running down my pelt when I know I'm doing something right. It's like I can feel my Mother's hand still touching me, like I can feel my Father's gentle guidance leading me to the right moves... the right form." His voice faltered for a moment, resolving into little more than incoherent grunts, "Before... all before..." He looked over at me, forcing composure back onto his face. "It's something inside me, Tommy, more than instinct, but the same. Rewarding me with a good memory when I've done something right... landed a pounce, wrapped my jaws around someone..."

"So, I'm not going insane?"

He laid an arm across my shoulders, pulling the both of us to our feet as Rebeca approached. "No more than the rest of us, mate. No more than the rest of us." His accent had returned.

A little later in the day, I checked on the batteries. They were only showing a 50% charge so far. It looked like it would be a while before they were ready.

"So, Tommy, what are we going to do when they're ready, anyway?" Rebeca was beside me, tapping at another one of the behemoths that we'd dragged up.

"Honestly, Babe? I haven't a clue." I shrugged, sitting down on the grass beside them, making sure not to cast a shadow over the solar panels. "I'm not really much of a scratch with technology, and I've got a feeling that neither you nor English are either."

She sat down beside me. "Was Jon any good with this stuff? We could try calling him."

I scratched my chin with an idle claw, looking up at the blue sky above us, "Well... the battery on the radio is always an issue, but we might be able to hook it up to the solar panels... though, I think that something like this may just be beyond Jon's level... we need someone who actually has a clue about tech from before the Cataclysm hit."

"Good thing you've got the brains of the operation, mate." English's form loomed large over me as he dropped the bumblebee yellow radio into my lap with a thud. "You've got the perfect intelligence at your beck and call, 'mayor'. And its name is Ornthi."

"Ornthi?" I scratched a spot behind my ear. "You think he would have any experience with these things? He's never so much as left the Pass."

"Who better, mate? He is made of the stuff, after all. It can't hurt to call."

That it couldn't. I looked at the radio for a moment, heavy in my hands. It had been days and days since I'd last used it. Saving the charge on the battery had been a good excuse, but the real reason was V-town... I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was going on back home.

I sighed, and stabbed the call button before I could think any more of it.

"Jon? Max? Anyone there? It's Tommy. Over." For a moment, all I got back was static.

A few moments later the fabric of the white noise shifted, almost sounding to come to a crescendo, then it was gone. In its place was perfect silence, followed by Jon's crystal clear voice. It almost sounded like he was right beside me.

"Tommy? Tommy? Come in, I can hear you loud and clear. Where have you been?"

"It's been a bit of a time here, Jon. You wouldn't believe the things we had to go through to get to Edmonton."

"You're there now? Everyone's safe?" The relief in his voice was palpable.

"Yeah, Jon. We're good. What's your status?"

There was silence on the other end for a heartbeat, not even static came through, "I'm okay, Tommy. Everything is stable here at the Pass. Renfrew and Ornthi are okay."

I looked at the radio for a moment before I pressed the button again. "Jon, what's wrong? What's going on in V-town? Where's Max?"

"It's... well..." The dog's normal speech was starting to melt at the edges, stress distorting his voice, "It's not good."

English snatched the radio from my hand. "What's going on Bow-wow. Spill it." He gripped the radio so hard I almost thought he was going to crush it.

"The riots are getting worse. No one knows what's going on. At first it just seemed like people were fighting for a new government. Now, from what Max tells me, everything is out of control. The place is total chaos, the police aren't even going out onto the streets anymore."

I wrenched the radio from English. He didn't want to give it up, but I gave him no choice. "What about my parents, Jon? What about my parents, are they okay?" I could feel a cold sweat breaking out between my toes. The radio was shaking in my hands.

"It's hard to tell, Tommy. The police transmissions are only intermittent now, and not even Ornthi is able to clear out all the static. The last report I have is that they forcibly relocated the two of them to Police Headquarters. As far as I know, they're unharmed, and the police still have the support of the hunters."

"Can I talk to them, Jon, can you patch me through again?"

"Sorry, Tommy," I could almost hear a whimper in his voice. "No one is V-town is transmitting, there's no one to talk to."

I stared at the speaker for a moment before continuing. "It's okay, Jon. It's not your fault. I want you to pass a message along as soon as you can."

"Will do, Tommy. What is it?"

"Tell my parents that we're okay, and we're be coming back. We're in Edmonton, and we have one thing to do before we leave. We'll be home as soon as we can."

"I promise, Tommy. They'll get the message, Mr. Taggert." The clip returned to his voice. With a mission at hand, he was a constable in the police force again.

"One more thing, Jon."

"What is it... Tommy?"

"I have some questions for Ornthi, I need him to help me repair a computer."

"Huh..." He paused for a moment, I could hear him pulling something heavy across the floor on his end. "This could take a while. I don't think they ever expected the computer to talk on the radio..."

"Connection established." Otnthi's flat voice came from the speaker a few minutes later, sounding exactly the same as it had back at the pass. "Are you there, Mr. Taggert?"

"I'm here, Ornthi. We've got some questions for you."

"One moment please, Mr. Taggert," I heard something whir in the background, "I require voice print identification before I can make the services of this complex available. Please state your name for verification."

I could feel a growl growing under by breath, but I clawed it back down and tried to sound calm. "Ornthi, it's me, Tommy Taggert. We spoke some weeks ago back at Kicking Horse Pass. Jon will vouch for me."

There was a pause for a moment, three short beeps came through the radio, then, "That will not be required, sir. Your identity has been confirmed. What can I do for you?"

I sighed. This guy just didn't understand the concept of flexibility. "I need help with a computer we've found here in Edmonton."

I took the next hour or so explaining what little we knew about the systems here, the batteries, and the layout. He asked me a lot of questions I didn't have answers to, some I couldn't even understand. What is an 'Operating System' anyway? And who was 'Linux'?

I tried to take the radio down with me into the room we'd found underground, but the signal broke up long before I could get there - I guess even Ornthi's system had a limit on its power.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have any records on what projects were being preformed at the University of Alberta. It is registered as a research institution in my database, so it is possible that you have found a unique installation."

"But do we know what they were doing?"

"The only way we could gage something like that would be to attempt to recreate the conditions of the experiment. I do not suggest such actions, sir. It would place you in possible danger."

I rolled my eyes at the radio. "I'm not leaving here until I know what's going on, so lets get this done with. What do I do?"

There was a pause at the other end, I could hear a pained expression, even through the emotionless voice. "If you insist, sir. Please make sure all the batteries are charged and connected to the system, it seems likely that the previous test was a failure due to there being insufficient power. The next thing I would recommend is that we scale the test parameters back from ten percent to one..."

Ornthi's instructions went on for at least an hour, I had to get both English and Rebeca jotting notes just to keep up to the pace he was talking; thankfully, Rebeca's neat handwriting was enough to make up for English's nearly illegible scrawls. The instructions included everything from how to handle the batteries - apparently surplus from the Canadian Forces - to the wiring, and even how to operate the computer itself.

I felt a bit stupid to be honest, Ornthi's voice became pained when I had to ask him what a keyboard was. And when he started talking about a mouse my stomach grumbled.

He must have covered everything short of how to put one foot in front of the other by the time we were done. He kept talking about 'Health and Safety', I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hunt down wild animals for a living. I think he would have blown a circuit board if I did.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Tommy?" Jon's voice was breaking in over the radio, pushing Ornthi's endless chatter to the side, "I can be up there in little over a week if you need me-"

"Jon, chill." I rolled my eyes as I spoke. "It's a bunch of old odds and ends left over from before the Cataclysm. What could go wrong? Worst case is they short circuit and toss off a few sparks. We're twenty meters underground, nothing is going to happen."

I'd forgotten how heavy those blasted batteries were when we'd carried them up. The trip down should have been ten times easer, but my spine was still kinked up from yesterday. I'm a hunter, I'm used to long periods of boredom interspersed with short stabs of sheer terror as I break into a chase - kind of like life in general, now that I think abut it - not hours of back breaking labor all end to end.

English whistled some overly cheery tune all the while. I would have hit him if I had a hand free.

We were down to the last of the batteries, and my arms felt like water. I had to call a rest when we were only about half way down. We set the huge trunk like thing on the hard concrete floor. It was just the two of us, Rebeca was above ground somewhere, trying to find a way to patch the radio into one of the batteries we had left, its charge was running low.

The darkness around us was complete when we switched off our lights to take a breather, no sense in wasting battery power. "English," I looked over towards his vague direction in the darkness, not that I could see him, "What do you think we'll find when we get back?"

I could hear him shift slightly, small rocks crunching beneath his weight. "I don't rightly know, mate. The place was in shambles when we left, and I don't care to imagine how bad it must be now for the cops to have packed it in." I heard him spit, the sound echoed down the empty hallway. "The world's right gone in a hand basket, mate. Some times I wonder if we're the only sane ones..." The pause drew out in the darkness. "Though, if we're sane and everyone else is crazy, wouldn't that make us the odd ones out?"

I would have laughed, but the weight of the world pressing down above me didn't seem to make it funny.

"Come on, English. Let's get this thing out of here." I snapped my light back on and hoisted one end of the load with a grunt.

"Careful, mate!" His voice came moments before I felt some loose grit slip under my toes. I only had an instant to get my fingers out from under the edges of the battery before it came crashing to the ground with the sound of twisting metal.

My head came down to hit the hard casing. Despite the darkness, I could see stars.

"Mate!" I could feel the air gusting as English rushed to get his bulk around the battery in the narrow corridor. "Move! Move!"

"What?" I looked up at him groggily. What was he so worried about? The battery had already fallen to break on the floor. It was okay, neither of us had been under it.

I looked down to where he was pointing, something was leaking from the housing. That was odd. I wonder why they would have water inside a battery? It looked like water, anyway. I would have just as soon expected these things were filled with lead.

I was still shaking my head clear as the stuff dribbled towards me. It only took a single drop to make me pay more attention to it.

Yip! Hot, hot, hot! I leapt back, pulling my hand away in pain as I felt that stuff burn into my fingers.

"Get over here, Tommy." I felt English's paw engulf my shoulder as he pulled me away. "Show me your hand. Now!" He wrenched it forward with a single yank.

I wasn't sure what he was going to do for a moment, not amputation I hope! Much to my relief, he pulled a canteen from his belt and began pouring water over my wounded fingers, careful not to let any of the flow splash onto us.

"Keep moving, mate, that puddle's growing." We retreated further down the hall as he continued to wash my wound. "Next time you'll have to listen to me, that acid is nasty stuff."

I held my hand out before me. Even with regeneration, it wasn't looking much better. "You're not kidding."

I could see light glint off his teeth as he grinned. "Well, mate, I guess that's the last of those things we'll be getting down here. We'll have to find a new way up to get Lass."

Behind us, the acid bubbled as it began to eat away at the concrete of the floor.

It took us another forty-five minutes to find another, third, way up to the surface. The sun was getting lower in the sky now, but I still wanted to get this over and done with. Who knows, perhaps we could fire up that computer tonight and leave tomorrow morning.

At long last the three of us were down in the room again. Now that all the batteries were hooked up the place sounded like city hall on a busy day. Aisle after aisle of flat gray boxes hummed, it sounded like the voice of a crowd heard at a distance. Like the lazy drone of honey bees on a warm summer's afternoon. Speaking of warm, it was getting hot in here. All those boxes were putting out a load of heat, the normally cool room was starting to feel like a sauna.

"Okay, are we ready?" I was standing by the still blinking screen, looking down the corridor to where Rebeca's nimble hands were making the last of the connections. It was a good thing she was with us, neither mine nor English's thick fingers seemed to be able to do much with the fine connections that we needed to make down here. Even the keyboard that sat before me took ages to use, I could only press one painstakingly difficult button at a time. Even then half my effort was spent in using the 'backspace' key - that was a miracle that I'm more than happy Ornthi told me about.

"Almost, Wolfy." I could just make out her voice over the whir of the fans. A moment later she was beside me.

"English? We good?" I called out in the other direction, a moment later I saw his silhouette hove towards us through the shadows.

"As ready as we'll ever be, mate." He gave me a thumbs up.

"Alright, here we go."

The final line on the screen before me now read:

[email protected]:/usr/bin/AlconFactor#./runFullFactor 1%_

I'd had to type the last bit in myself. I looked down at the enter key before me. That one button was larger than most of the others, so I hit it with some flourish.

"Now!"

The key clicked down as I spoke, and a few new lines sprung up on the screen... and that was about it. All around us I could hear the pitch of the fans change slightly, and the room got yet a bit warmer.

"Uh, mate, was something supposed to happen?" English leaned on my shoulder, pushing me half way to the ground as he laughed. "That was a bit anti-climatic, wasn't it?"

"What were you expecting, the end of the world?" I pushed him off.

I looked at the screen again, a small counter at the bottom read:

Estimated time to completion - 00:15:42

"Come on," I looked back at them as I walked away, "Let's get out of this room while we wait. I feel like I'm shedding enough to go bald."

"So, mate, how do you want to get back to V-town?" We were sitting in the dark again, this time in the stairwell. Just down the hall from the heavy, sticky air of the computers.

"Search me, English. I thought you and your baby would be able to handle that."

I heard him grunt in the blackness. "That I would like, but I doubt she can float. There's no way we'd ever be able to get her past the worlds out here and back on the road. I want to keep her, oh gods do I want to keep her, but there's just no way."

"Heh. Easy come, easy go." I ducked just in time. I could feel his fist swinging through the air above my head. A few stray hairs fell from his pelt, they made me sneeze.

"Give it up, you two," Rebeca was sitting in my lap, safe from the cold concrete beneath us. "If you're going to fight, then leave me out of it."

"Fight, us?" English almost sounded hurt. "Never. I just have to give the alpha here a hard time every so often. Otherwise he might not realize he needs to work to maintain that vaulted position."

The word 'alpha' still stung in my ears a little, but I kept from stiffening too much.

"Anyone got the time?" I lifted Rebeca gently off my lap as I spoke. "That thing should be done right about now."

A few moments later our lights were switched back on, and we were closing in on the computer room. The hum was louder now. Even a good ten strides from the door it felt like we were walking into a furnace. I could almost see the heat in the air.

For a moment I thought it was just a trick of the light, but the world around us seemed to... vibrate. I tried to put it out of my mind, but with every passing second it became more noticeable.

"Tommy, do you see that?" Rebeca's hand grasped my elbow.

I had to debate whether to pull her close to me or push her back as I began to run towards the door. In the end, the latter of the two won. Only because the vibrations were getting worse.

The world seemed to spin around me, nothing but the most basic of shapes any longer visible. Walls, floor, ceiling... door. I rocketed through, neither English nor Rebeca were in sight now. All around me I could see the computers in their racks, red warning lights peppering them. The low hum that had come from their bodies before now risen to a screaming wail that grew in pitch with every step I took.

The control screen was on the far side of the room. I sprinted down the aisle as fast as I could, but it seemed to telescope out before me.

The whole of the world was vibrating by the time I made it, and me with it. I lay one hand on the housing, next to the screen. I could barely make out the fur of my very arm. Looking at the screen though, it was crystal clear.

Estimated time to completion - 00:00:02

Estimated time to completion - 00:00:01

Ornthi had never said anything about stopping the program, I hadn't the slightest what to do. I reached for the keyboard, but never made it. Before me I could see my hands almost appearing to fuzz away. I swear, I could see the flesh beneath the bones.

Then there was nothing but a blinding flash behind my eyes. My nose hit the concrete floor with a crunch, and I knew no more.

I awoke, it couldn't have been that much later, my flashlight was still running. Oh gods, what happened to me? I feel like I've been run over by a steam roller with an overweight goblin at the wheel.

I tried to take a breath as I pulled myself up from being spreadeagled on the floor, but it didn't work. My nose was still broken, so all I got was a snort of blood - and a stab of pain.

Gah! I clenched my hands to my face. Oi, that had hurt.

Wait.

Where was my mussel?

My eyes shot open. Even in the dim light I could tell something was wrong - I couldn't see my nose.

Okay, it's not something I think about on an average day, but a guy like me can always see his nose - stuck out on the end of my mussel as it is. It's just there... all the time. It's not that I ever really noticed that it was there before, but it's sudden fugitive disappearance left me going almost cross-eyed.

I pried one hand from my still throbbing face to steady myself. It didn't work. One good look at the hairless arm and I ended up laying on the floor again.

Scrambling, I reached vainly for my flashlight. I had to see what was going on.

I wasn't me.

Well, perhaps that's not quite the right thing to say. I still have that scar on my hip from last year, and all my bits and pieces - including those - were where they were supposed to be, but I wasn't me anymore.

It took a moment to click in... I was human.

And sitting buck naked on a really hard concrete floor.

"Rebeca!" Even my voice sounded different as I cried her name. I scrambled out of the room as quickly as my alien, clawless feet could carry me.

I only made it the distance of a few gasping breaths before stumbling over a body on the floor. I wouldn't have thought twice about it if a hand hadn't shot out to wrap around my ankle like a steel trap.

An instant later I was being drawn back, kicking and screaming. I hardly had time to get a breath out when a hand shuttered across my face, cutting my yowl off mid note.

The face that looked down at me could have been drawn from one of my more perverse nightmares. It was a human, his eyes were alight with a maniacal terror that set my blood frozen to ice in my veins.

His skin was a color that I don't think I've ever seen in a human before - that of a cup of tea after three creams. And flawless. A huge bushel of brown-blond hair hung off his head, covering half his face and working its way down a good portion of his chest.

Not a word was whispered as I felt his hand close around my throat, through a look of surprise slid onto his face when he opened his mouth but nothing came forth.

"English." The single word just barely escaped my mouth, but it stopped him like I'd applied an electric current to his jollies.

I watched his eyes flick to his hands before he let me go, recoiling in horror as he surveyed himself much like I had.

A few sounds came from him now, though none I could make out. I wasn't sure if he was simply being incoherent, or speaking in some tongue that I didn't know.

"English, take it easy," I reached out to touch his shoulder. "It's me, Tommy." He looked at me, eyes growing wide.

"Whoa." Yep, that pretty much summed it up.

A moment later I had him on his feet and we were both dragging each other down the hallway. Towards where I'd last seen Rebeca.

Gods, what about Rebeca? She'd been human at the start of this. I found myself praying that whatever happened to us had passed her by. I'm not much of one for the gods, but right now they seemed to be the only power worth deferring to. Anything that could do this to us was way, way, way beyond the level of what I could deal with rationally.

"Rebeca!" I shouted it down the hallway. For a moment nothing but my own distorted voice echoed back.

"Tommy?" Gods, yes. I could hear her. Her voice sounded rough and weak, but with these ears everything save the sound of breath rasping in my chest was dim and muffled. "Tommy, where are you? My flashlight's broke."

"We're right here, Babe. We'll be there in a moment."

Soon after we rounded the door from the room, our dim beams of light falling to the corridor beyond. Then I heard her scream.

I nearly broke into a run before I realized she was but a step before me, and it wasn't us she was screaming at.

Rebeca was a cat.

Just as I had been a wolf, and English a lion, Rebeca was now a cat.

To be honest, it put her old prosthetic ears to shame.

I almost doubled over laughing as I knelt down, taking her soft fur up against my skin. I was behind her, arms wrapped around before she even had the presence of mind to notice I was there.

"Babe, take a deep breath." I squeezed tight, feeling her fur shift beneath me. I wasn't sure it was her I was really talking to, both English and I seemed to be just as off balance.

"Tommy..." Her voice was suddenly breathless, "Tommy... what's happened, what's happened to me?"

"Same thing that happened to us, Babe." She looked down to my arms. I could feel her stiffen.

"I think we need to get out of here, mate." English spat, it was as if he couldn't stand the taste of the words in his mouth.

The climb to the surface was long and cold. Much to Rebeca's disagreement, we made her give us her clothes, no matter how ill fitting they might be. She didn't need them anymore, she had a brand new fur coat - heck, it probably still had warranty - we, on the other hand, were shivering in the darkness. I was bitterly disappointed that I couldn't fit into her boots, both mine and English's feet were cut and bleeding by the time we made it above ground.

I was never so happy to see the light, what little was left. The sun was starting to fade red on the horizon, no more than a few minutes of day left.

I stepped boldly into the evening, hoping beyond anything rational that the light would banish this demon that had come to my body. Other than feeling the warmth on my exposed skin, nothing changed.

I turned and helped Rebeca forward. Now that I could get a good look at her, I couldn't help but want to pull her as close as she'd let me. I don't know how to describe it. If she was perfect before, then she was at least as good now.

She wasn't the cat she had made herself out to be, even my blunted and broken senses could tell that much. A fiery red-orange coat covered her from nose to toe. And, oddly enough, she was digatride now - just as I had been. It took me a moment to realize that she hadn't had any difficulties walking, or I for that matter. I tried to think back to my body before, but drew nothing more than a vague familiar feeling. It was a walk, a walk was a walk, I couldn't remember anything more.

English was pulling lids off the containers that stood around our adopted campsite. "Mate, do you have any clue about the human clothing sizes?"

"Huh?" I walked up behind him after sitting Rebeca beside the dead fire pit.

"Or better yet, the slightest idea how shoe sizes work? They seem to be different than everything else."

I rolled my eyes. "I hadn't even warn a suit until I met you. What do you think?"

"Touché, lend a hand anyway." He began throwing fistfuls of clothing over his shoulder. I had to race to keep them from falling to the muddy ground, everything from white socks to the most gods awful hot pink leotards.

"Hand's off, Elton." I heard Rebeca's voice from the other side of the pile of clothing in my arms. "You'll either cloak yourself in twenty pounds of wool, or end up dressing like a blind gay man."

"I resent that comment." I could hear the huff in his voice as the weight was lifted from my hands. "I'm a cat. I have an inborn sense of style."

She snorted in return, it came across as nothing short of creepy for such a familiar sound to come through a feline nose. "Was a cat." All three of us shuttered at that comment. "And anyway," She turned back to the container, "Your belt is the only thing I've ever seen you wear that wasn't made by Smith."

He grumbled and headed back towards the cold fire pit. I followed.

It took me a few moments to be able to sit on the logs, it makes a difference when you don't have an underside coated in fur to add some padding.

"Tommy?" English's voice was low as he pulled out a flint and steel to try and get the fire started. "What's going on?"

"Huh?" I moved up beside him, busying myself trying to get some kindling ready. "You think I have any clue?"

"Gods, mate, you better. I'm scared out of my pelt here," He paused for a moment before a faint smile touched his lips. "Literally. You've got to tell me everything's going to be okay. Tell me you know what's going on. I need to hear it." A hint of panic was creeping in at the edge of his voice.

"English..." I could barely bring myself to say it, "I think we just recreated the Cataclysm."

"What!?" He looked like he was about to reach out and strangle me when Rebeca called my name from across the campsite. Saved by the bell.

A few moments later I was safely out of English's reach, though he did throw me a dirty glance every now and then.

"Tommy?" Rebeca reached out gingerly to take my hand. "It is you... isn't it?"

"Do you think I would ever leave you to take this on alone, Babe?"

"Tommy, I've got to know it you..."

Taking a step towards her, I was shorter now, and she'd gained a few inches, so we were truly face to face for the first time. I reached out and gently grasped one of the cat ears that stood out atop her head, they were real now. "This time, Babe, I'll be able to nibble on whatever I want without fear of them coming off."

She wrapped her arms around me, so tight I could feel my ribs creak. "What's happened, Tommy? What happened to us?"

"Well, for one thing, Babe," I tried to let my tongue hang out in a lecherous grin, but I didn't have the hardware for it anymore, "I think I just got one of my kinkier fantasies granted." I was only able to hold the expression for a moment before she reached out to slap me. Thankfully, she stopped in the middle of the windup.

"Okay, Wolfy, I'm going to get you for that one." She paused, planting a single finger on the center of my chest. "Let's hope this is reversible. Otherwise I'm going to have to come up with a new nickname for you."

I took her hand, pulling her close. I could just hear myself shutter as I spoke, "Let's hope that's the least of our problems, Babe."

A few minutes later, she had me dressed from head to toe. The clothing actually fit. Mostly. It's surprising how much easer it is to wear this stuff when you don't have a fur coat under it all. She'd found a thin leather jacket in there somewhere, black. Combined with a plain white tee shirt and a pair of fresh bluejeans, I looked like an overly skinny new recruit for a biker gang. The only things that broke the image were a pair of white high-top sneakers.

Gods, those shoes were going to drive me nuts. When I went bare foot it was a non issue, I didn't even think about walking, but with the monstrosities wrapped so tightly around my feet I couldn't ignore it.

I need Rebeca to help me get back to the campfire, I just couldn't find my sense of balance. Everything was off, now that I was forced to think about it. I had to stand too straight, walk to upright, not even the stub of a tail to offset my posture. Every time I thought about my wayward limb I felt a stab of cold through my heart that was worse than even the loss of my pelt.

She left me there, staring at the flames. I could feel their warmth the bare skin of my face more vividly that anything I could ever remember. Off in the distance behind me, through my muffled ears, I could hear the two of them talking, trading notes. From a former king of cats to a new inductee, they were covering everything from grooming fur to how to trim a beard.

What were we to do now? Were we stuck like this? It's not like I could walk back down there and ask the computer...

A moment later I'd found the radio. "Hello? Jon, Ornthi, come in? Anyone?" I could feel my voice begin to rise. All I needed now was for the radio to die on me.

"Hello? Who is this? This is a restricted channel, disconnect immediately." Jon's voice came back, crystal clear.

"Jon, it's Tommy."

"Tommy?" He sounded confused for a moment. I could hear him mumbling something in the background, before speaking again. "Poor try, fraudster. You don't even sound close."

What? "Jon, stop pissing around, it's me. We've got a real problem here."

I heard a click on the line, then Ornthi's voice cut in, "You do not match the recorded voice prints. You are not Mr. Tommy Taggert. You will disconnect from this line immediately."

"Jon, Ornthi, come on, it's me!" What was wrong with them? I heard another click as Ornthi disconnected, he wouldn't even talk to me anymore. I'd better make this good, Jon would be signing off too in a moment. "Jon, It's me, and I can prove it."

He didn't say anything, so I continued, speaking quickly, "I remember when we first met you back at police headquarters, you were working the front desk. I never did understand why you were the one English picked. Was it dumb luck that you were partnered with us, or some grand conspiracy? Gods, Jon. None of us knew who you were when we met you, we all just saw you as another police dog. My eyes almost dropped out of my skull when you went undercover with us. And you were there, Jon, you were there when I murdered Vanderhoom and threw his body to the waves."

There was nothing but silence on the speaker when I finished. Had he hung up on me? We were right and truly buggered now.

"Who is Commissioner Sayer?" His voice came over the radio, hard chipped tones so sharp that I thought he was going to bite his tongue off. It sounded as though he was forcing the words out.

"He's your uncle," I paused for a moment, closing my eyes, "And he's the son of a bitch who threw us to Vanderhoom. And the one who thinks I can save V-town."

Silence returned to the line. I counted the seconds in my head. I got up to forty-two before he spoke again. "You're not Mr. Taggert, but I will accept that he has provided you with privileged information to authenticate yourself to me."

Thank the gods.

"What can I do for you... sir."