Yoji rushed towards the voices with his feet almost slipping on the polished floor tiles. He sped up, when he heard a shriek and the clatter of metal against metal, slithered around a corner and froze. A growl emerged from his throat, when he finally faced the scene he had only imagined before. There was no woman to protect, but a horrible monster with an overgrown head, a gross trunk and bulging eyes staring at him. It looked like a giant fly with a human body. He woofed at it in confusion. It reacted by pointing a pair of scissors at him and a muffled female voice asking:
"What? Another dog?"
Yoji blinked and suddenly realized that what he had taken for the misshaped head of Dr. Nishimura was really a kind of respirator mask. It was attached to a small flask she wore on her back. Of course, she protected herself from the gas. Like that she had been able to stay human.
"Who are you?" the doctor asked and stepped back until her back hit the edge of the desk behind her.
She still held the scissors out, pointing them from animal to animal that had literally cornered her. Her moves were quick but uncontrolled. Yoji even saw her hand shaking a bit and suddenly he knew, she was on the verge of panicking. He had to prevent this situation from going out of hand. This woman had to be calmed down before they could make any move. With determination he stepped forward and did something he never would have guessed he would do to charm a woman. But exceptional situations called for exceptional matters. And this woman was not only armed and intelligent, she also had a thing for dogs. He could smell them on her clothes and suspected it to be a remnant of the watch dogs they had fooled earlier. So Yoji swallowed his pride, took another step and...started waving his tail.
"We are not here to harm you," he said, keeping his voice soft and gentle. He tried to smile and saw her eyes widening behind the thick looking glasses of the mask. "We just came here to seek for your aid. Crawford," he pointed at the badger before turning his attention back to her, "informed us, that you might have a clue why we all woke up as animals this morning. We came here to ask you, if he is right."
"Of course he is," Schuldig snarled. "I..."
"Shut up," Yoji snapped. "I'm talking to the lady. You will have to wait until you get your turn to speak."
Schuldig stared at him in disbelieve.
'Let me handle this my way' Yoji thought and looked at the fox. If he was right, Schuldig would, perhaps, retreat and let him do the talking. He only hoped, Crawford would do the same, but the badger did not seem to think about intervening right now. Farfarello had set on his hind legs and studied the situation, not threatening to break into violent action either. Or maybe he was distracted by the big generator humming in the background, producing not only sound but a fuzzy blue light as well. Yoji suspected this to be the source of the field that surrounded the city. This was, he thought, a good sign. If she did not want the gas to spread any further, perhaps this meant she really would help them. He held on to that thought and concentrated on his body language. He had to seem trustable and friendly.
"I am sorry. We did not want to scare you. We really just came here to get some answer. Could you explain what happened to us?"
Dr. Nishimura looked at him and he could sense some more details from they way she smelled. There was a stench of sweat, the strong, dark aroma of coffee and something he could not quite place, that made his nose tingle. Maybe some substances from her laboratory. It seemed that she had been working a long time and surely suffered from sleep deprivation. It made the ground under his linguistic feet even more slippery, as with woman it often was not only about what you said, but also about how you said it. And this muzzle surely bereaved him of some of his most powerful weapons. He would have to be very careful not to say or do something wrong.
"I...," she began and stopped to frown at the badger. "You are Crawford? Like from Schwarz?"
This was not good. Yoji had to act, before the whole conversation went down the drain.
"Yes, he is, but he just came here to say, that he is sorry. And that he needs your help. He even brought us along, because he knew, that he was wrong and that you had every right in the world not to listen to him."
The badger shot him a look, but remained silent. So did the fox. Maybe Yoji would get a chance to do this right.
"I see," Dr. Nishimura said and let the scissors down just a little bit. "And you are?"
Yoji bowed his head. "My name is Yoji. Me and Ken, the shepherd dog, are members of a group called Weiß. We...protect people."
He heard Schuldig snort, but did not bother to look at the arrogant fox. This was difficult even without him interrupting Yoji's concentration every second sentence.
Dr. Nishimura looked at Ken and back to Yoji again. "You can hardly call two men...or dogs as it is, a group."
She really was smart. "Well, we have two other members. They stayed outside to distract your watch dogs. We did not want to hurt them, but we had to get here to see you. Please, don't be mad."
He waved his tail some more and put on a pleading look. Playing innocent, adorable puppy was more work that he thought it would be.
She looked at him once more, then turned around and pushed some buttons on her desk. A screen came to life and showed pictures of the garden. She switched cameras and the four watchdogs appeared on the screen. They had gathered around a tree and stared up at something hidden between the leaves.
"It seems, that your friends have found shelter on my maple tree."
"On a tree?" Ken burst out. "But that's impossible! Omi is a rabbit! How would he have climbed a tree?"
Dr. Nishimura shrugged. "I would investigate further, but you have disabled some of my cameras. I cannot show you more."
Ken jumped up and headed for the door. "I'm going out there. I have to help them. I will not let your stupid dogs harm my friend."
"Stupid dogs?" Nishimura's voice suddenly went cold. "Stupid dogs? Now look at you. You are a dog yourself and you still have your nose high in the air looking down on the creatures assumed to be man's best friend. And I assure you that those dogs are much more loyal than any human I have come across in my whole life." She shot Crawford a look. "You are so supercilious. It really serves your right to get an impression of the life that animals are forced to lead by us humans. We treat them with no respect, like inanimate objects that only exist to keep us warm or fed or entertained. Here, I'll show you how we so-called top of the evolution treat other species."
She hit another button and a wide screen on the wall went to life. It showed horrible picture of injured or dead animals. Pent-up hens and ducks, cows and pigs beaten to death, one cow even while giving birth. Animals caught in traps, cages and fences, bleeding, suffering, helpless. Yoji lowered his head.
"I see what you mean. I have seen horrible things done to men, woman and even children by some of their own kind. But this is nothing compared to the wide-spread horror we inflict on our animal friends."
He stepped a little closer and tried to look her in the eyes. "However, as much as I share your anger and the desire to bring those dark beasts to justice, it cannot be right to turn every human in Tokyo into an animal. People suffer because of what you have done. You must end this."
Dr. Nishimura was still staring at the picture on the screen. "I can't. They have to comprehend their wrongdoing to the full extent. They have to feel what those poor creatures feel. Because animals feel pain, too. They love and grieve and care about each other."
"And they eat each other."
Everyone turned around to look at Ken. Determination stood on the shepherd dog's face. He bared his teeth and growled at the doctor.
"People loose their human consciousnesses if they stay animal too long. I have seen them on the streets an no-one cared about your haughty lecture. All their cared about was food and sleep and other basic needs. There is not enough food out there for everyone of them. So, if you don't turn everyone back soon, they will start hunting and killing each other. Just like normal animals would do. You will be responsible for thousands of dead animals torn apart by other victims of your diabolic experiment. Their blood will be on your hands and your hands only."
Dr. Nishimura had set down while Ken was speaking. She had shrank back into her seat and was now looking at the floor, unaware of what was going on around her.
"So that's what happened," she muttered. "When I went out earlier, I was besieged by a group of animals. I thought they wanted to take revenge on me, but they just came for my help. Because I am the last human being they can turn to."
"Yes! Yes, you are!" Yoji nodded. "And all those animals out there need your help. You have to turn them back into humans or they will get hurt. And what if the forces outside the city find a way to break your shield? Maybe the whole planet will turn into animals and their will be countless deaths. You have to reverse the effect of the gas or all those animals will die."
The doctor rose her head and he thought he saw her eyes swimming behind the mask. "I tried, but...the smog surrounding the city reacted with my formula. It was meant to be only temporary and everyone should have been turned back to normal after 12 hours. I don't know what happened. I tried to get a sample of the evolved formula from the surrounding air, but the concentration is much to low. And now you come and tell me, that the transformation is even stronger than I wanted it to be. I did not want everyone to loose their personality, just their shape. Something must have gone very wrong. But what? And how?"
Crawford cleared his throat. "Maybe it would help if you study us? Take samples and investigate the effect in a live being?"
Schuldig seemed to want to speak up, but remained silent, when Crawford shook his head slightly.
Dr. Nishimura stood up and paced the lab talking more or less to herself. "Maybe it would be possible to isolate the strengthening factor in vivo." She stopped mid-path kneading her left thumb with her other hand. "I will need blood, hair, urine, everything you can give me. Maybe an X-ray or a CT will be required. I have to find the cause of this development and reverse the effect to create an antidote. And we will have to do it quick, before those poor creatures turn against each other."
"Speaking of which, what about our friends?" Ken asked. "Your dogs are still threatening their lives."
Dr. Nishimura frowned. "I will get them. I need their blood as well. Maybe one of them holds the clue to this whole situation."
She went to the exit of the lab, her white coat flapping behind her. "Don't touch anything, I will just call Cassandra and the others back in. I don't think guarding the estate is still necessary. When I get back, we will start the analysis."
When her steps climbed the stairs, Schuldig turned to Crawford.
"Blood samples?" he said in a low voice. "You think this is wise? What if she discovers something about our talents? I don't want to end up as her guinea pig."
Crawford did not look worried in the slightest. "She will not need our blood. One of the Weiß will give her all the information she needs."
The fox cocked his ears and rolled his eyes at the feeling. "So you knew this before? What about telling me?"
The badger smirked at him. "You tend to mess up things when I tell you too much about the future. But don't get miffed. You will get your chance to have some fun. I have seen something else, that has not revealed itself up to now. We will have to wait."
Schuldig bared his teeth and sneezed. "You're such a cocky bastard sometimes."
Crawford's smirk widened. "That's why we both match each other so well."
Music: "Hung up" - Madonna
Sorry for the delay. Life keeps throwing sicknesses and interesting writing competitions at me, but I promise to concentrate on finishing this story as soon as possible.