Rare Critters
From Guest at AO3:
There should be chapter where the twins are animals but they can be turned into human. They still have animal ears and tails through. Rare human trafficking basically. Team bartowski save both twins
This was the less glamorous part of being a spy, Chuck thought as he walked down the rows of cages.
"You can pick one," the man said, "this one is a lovely lady with orange hair and green eyes," he pointed to a hissing tabby cat. "This one is a feisty one with golden hair and blue eyes, we call her 'Princess'." Chuck thought that 'Princess' looked like an ordinary, although angry and hissing, white and fluffy cat.
He couldn't believe that these animals were supposed to be human.
"I'm looking for a man," Chuck quickly burst out, feeling his cheeks flush. He wasn't really into men, his own wife outside in the van but, they were following a lead.
Verbanski had placed them on this track, after hearing about a missing person in New York. She found a picture of the missing person and discovered he looked just like Bryce which spurred her to look into his disappearance.
It was linked to this group; who claimed to give people a 'transformation experience'. At first, they thought it was a cult but no, it was a human trafficking ring. They sold people who they called 'Critter Chunks' or 'CCs'.
Humans who weren't quite human. They could transform into animals and, even while human, possessed animal features.
Chuck still thought they were a crazy cult. But, the government had been keeping CCs secret from the rest of the world for years.
It was one big conspiracy.
"Here we are," the man said, stopping outside a door. "You're payment has been processed and we'll allow you thirty minutes with him to decide whether you want to keep him."
"Does he have dark hair and blue eyes?" Chuck asked.
The man nodded.
"If you don't like this one, there are others."
Chuck bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. The man opened the door.
The room was small and Chuck could hold his arms out and touch both sides of the wall. There was a dog lying on a mat, which weakly raised its head to look at him.
"Oh for the-" the man came in and poked it with a long electric rod.
The dog gave a sharp bark of pain and, suddenly, a dark haired kid was lying there and glaring up at them with blue eyes.
Chuck's mouth opened and shut, his mind unable to come up with what to say.
"Well?" the man asked, perhaps sensing his hesitation.
"He's a little young," Chuck commented. He thought, disappointed, that this wasn't Bryce.
The man seemed to think about this for a moment.
"I have a set you might like?" he suggested.
Internally, Chuck sighed. A set wasn't what he came for. But, Casey had warned him to agree to any suggestions and not make the guide suspicious.
"Alright."
The set were two little black cats with large blue eyes. Chuck thought that he might have been tempted to take them home, if they were real cats and this wasn't a mission.
The man poked one of them, the cat yowling and transforming.
Chuck drew in a sharp breath. Dark wavy hair, piercing blue eyes and a set jaw that was dark with stubble.
Bryce.
"You like?" the man questioned. Chuck nodded. "Remember, thirty minutes. And watch him, he and that brother of his are tricky ones." And he was gone.
Bryce looked up at Chuck; wearing dark shades and with his hair sleeked back, and growled. He moved in front of the other cat and bared his teeth.
"Bryce?" Chuck questioned, backing up towards the door. "What did they do to you?" He took of his shades and Bryce blinked, his fuzzy, large, catlike ears going flat.
"Chuck?" he questioned, his tail curling into something like a question mark.
Chuck slid to the ground; it finally sinking in. Bryce had non-human ears and a tail!
The other cat meowed and transformed, Neal appearing behind Bryce and looking at Chuck with hope in his eyes.
"Are you here to get us out?" he asked.
"Danny?" Chuck questioned. He had forgotten about Bryce's twin.
"It's Neal now," Neal said. He self-consciously tugged the dirty and damaged sweatpants he was wearing up as his tail curled around his feet.
"What- I'm confused." Despite being here to find Bryce, Chuck didn't believe in this CCs stuff. But, he was seeing it with his own eyes. "You didn't have those in Stanford."
Bryce's ears twitched and his tail drooped.
"You're not wired?" Neal asked and Chuck shook his head.
"Couldn't risk it." There were scanning devises everywhere and visitors were subjected to random checks. But, there was a tracker in his pocket that was only to be activated when he found Bryce. He had already pushed the button. Now he just had to wait.
Bryce and Neal shared looks. Then, Neal spoke again.
"There are experimental drugs that allowed us to suppress our," he hesitated on the word before speaking, "condition. But, they only work for a certain number of years."
"I had to fake my death the second time because the drug was starting to lose effectiveness," Bryce explained.
"I was lucky," Neal sighed, "a friend found a way to make the drug last longer so no one found out until these people took me. Peter probably thinks I ran."
"Peter Burke in New York?" Chuck questioned.
"Yes, wait, no. He should be in DC," Neal said.
"There's a Peter Burke in New York though," Chuck said, "he's agent, Diana Berrigan, contacted Verbanski about what I'm guessing was your disappearance. They're looking really hard for you."
"Oh no," Neal whined, placing his head in his hands and curling up into a sitting ball. "He gave up that DC job for me."
"Maybe Beckman can get it back for him," Chuck suggested.
"We need to get out of here first," Bryce pointed out, "what's the plan?"
Almost on cue, shots rang out from the other side of the door. There were yells of 'Federal agents!' and 'Freeze!'
"That's the plan," Chuck said smugly, "Beckman gave us a team, since the CIA has been after these guys for a while, and even Verbanski lent as a team."
Bryce gave an impressed whistle.
"You've really grown as a spy, Charles," he praised.
Chuck felt warm with the praise. He had never thought that he would hear Bryce say that, since he thought the other agent was dead.
"Chuck?" Sarah called, "it's all clear."
"Ready?" Chuck asked before opening the door.
"If you don't do it, I will," Neal said, baring his teeth in anticipation. Bryce nudged him in the side.
"It's not Chuck's fault you're here, be nice," he warned, his tail flicking towards his twin.
Neal's ears twitched and his tail flicked out to hit Bryce's leg.
"Opening the door now," Chuck said, hoping to halt whatever fight was growing between the two. He turned away to check outside before opening it all the way and, when he turned back, he was looking at two cats.
"Seriously?" he questioned and their mews sounded like laughter.
