It took a few hours for the plane to each the secret base, before entering inside.
On the other side of the launchpad was the director, waiting patiently for them.
After the large plane stopped, Lance was the first one to step out, noticing the smaller people around him, and decided to be careful with him.
Stephanie followed behind his back, looking nervous as her tail was in between her legs, her pointed ears folded down slightly.
Lance stepped up to the director and followed behind her, entering a different part of the base.
It is spacious for them to enter inside without banging their heads against the ceiling.
"Now, Stephanie," Lance spoke, glancing over at Stephanie from his shoulder as Stephanie glanced over at him. "What you are about to enter, is a really, top-secret base, that you should never, ever tell anyone else, capisce?"
"Si, capisco!" Stephanie smiled softly, although there was a slightly uneasy expression on her face.
Lance was silent after Stephanie repeated back in Italian, before saying, "I did not understand what you said, but I think you do understand?"
"That's what the translation of what I said means!" Stephanie beamed nervously while giving him the thumbs up with all four arms.
Lance chuckled and glanced back in front, passing through the entrance.
Stephanie was about to follow behind him, when a loud blaring noise echoed through the room, scaring Stephanie that she shrieked loudly to make everyone cover their ears.
Out of fear, she jumped into the air, almost reaching the ceiling of the room before landing onto Lance's back, oddly without breaking his back.
"What in the name of Mother Pearl was that?!" Stephanie exclaimed, glancing around for the noise.
"You just…" Lance spoke, trailing off for a moment while staring at her with a shocked expression on his face. "You just jumped 80 ft off the ground!"
Stephanie's fur on her back ruffled slightly for a moment before a nervous chuckle came from her.
"Sorry." she apologized. "My legs are made out of metal too."
Lance glanced down at her hind legs, and using his left hand, he pushed back some white fur to look, seeing there is metal skin underneath.
Then, a door opened, and a voice said, "Oh, wow!"
Lance turned around to see who said that, only to see that a scientist came out from the laboratory on the other side.
And it was a female scientist.
She has long brown hair that is up into a high ponytail and has fair skin color with hazelnut eye color.
The scientist is wearing a pair of rectangular glasses with thin frames and a long white lab coat.
She even wears a light blue shirt underneath her coat, a pair of black tights and black shoes, with white shoelaces.
"Lance Sterling?" she asked, stepping closer to him.
"Uh," Lance spoke, as Stephanie's shoulders hunched a little. "Yes?"
She happily squealed to herself and ran over to him, hugging his leg.
"I'm so happy to see you!" she excitedly squealed.
Lance did not know what to do as Stephanie slowly came off of him, her tail between her legs and her pointed ears flattened.
The scientist noticed Stephanie and asked, releasing her grip from around Lance's leg, "Who's this?"
Stephanie flinched slightly from the ask, before Lance answered, "Her name is Stephanie, she's… my civilian witness that needs to turn back to her normal self."
Stephanie perked a little from the words Lance said about her, feeling a little brave.
"A civilian?" the director spoke, sounding a little stern.
Stephanie's slight bravery dashed when she heard the stern tone in the director's tone.
Her tail wagged a little in between her legs.
Lance straightens himself to the director and honestly answered, "Yes, she is a civilian, but once she is returned to her normal state, she will have her mind erased."
A pause came from between Lance and the director, as Stephanie hid behind him, feeling shameful and embarrassed.
Instead of being scolded for revealing his secret to Stephanie, the director sighed and rubbed her temple.
"Alright," she sighed, removing her hand from her head. "Just get scanned and wait for the next instructions."
Lance nodded his head quietly as the director left, as Stephanie glanced over his shoulder slightly, before sighing.
"Seriously?" she asked, walking around him as Lance glanced over at her. "You have a mind-wiping thing?"
"Yes," Lance nodded. "And it is real."
Stephanie smirked slightly before noticing the small scientist staring up at her with a gawked expression on her face.
"Uh, hi?" Stephanie spoke, waving her hand towards her.
The scientist blinked her eyes before asking, "How are you able to talk?"
Stephanie paused for a moment to think to herself about her ability to talk like other humans, before chuckling, "Like you, I was born with this ability."
She softly hummed to herself and glanced away before glancing up at her, asking, "Who were your parents? Where did you live? What's your gender?"
Stephanie's ears flattened a little as she started looking overwhelmed.
"I, uh, I," Stephanie stammered, as she glanced around.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Lance spoke, before taking her hand, snapping her back to reality. "Feet back on the ground."
Lance glanced back over at the scientist, who looked slightly confused.
"Sorry," he apologized, distantly noticing Stephanie's hand was shaking in his grip. "She had a bad encounter with a laboratory before. No more questions."
The scientist nodded her head and mentioned for them to come inside.
A large door opened, revealing the inside of the laboratory.
Stephanie's pointed ears instantly went down more, hiding behind Lance as the grip on his hand tightened.
He winced slightly from the grip but gently patted her arm with his other hand.
"Remember," Lance reassured. "It's like a walk in the park."
Stephanie perked a little from Lance's assuring, before nodding her head slowly, remembering that line over and over in her head.
Lance entered the laboratory first, before Stephanie followed behind, still holding his hand and shaking.
It made him wonder why she is afraid of laboratories and what happened in her past to transform her into a cyborg.
Maybe waiting for the chance to let her trust him to reveal the truth to him some other time.
Lance turned the corner while following the scientist, entering inside a room.
It is spacious enough for both Lance and Stephanie to enter.
The scientist went into a smaller room with the controllers inside along with some data panels too.
"Alright," she spoke through the microphone. "You both need to release hands and spread out your arms for the scanning."
Lance nodded his head and turned towards Stephanie, who was trembling like a leaf.
Her hand on his was tight, but not enough to turn it purple or break it.
"Hey," Lance spoke, getting her attention as she glanced over at him, noticing her eyes were purple.
He ignored it and decided to ask about it later, after the scanning.
"It's okay," he assured softly. "It's going to be a few minutes, I promise. Let go of my hand, and you'll have it back once it's over."
Stephanie hesitated for a moment after he had assured her, but taking a deep breath, she shakily lets go of his hand and spread out her arms widely.
Once Stephanie had released his hand, Lance did the same thing and waited patiently, as the scanning started.
The scan down along their faces to their stomachs and all over their bodies.
It disappeared, and the scientist on the other side of the microphone gave the silent thumbs up to them.
Stephanie took this chance and quickly snatched Lance's hand back, still shaking like a leaf.
Lance looked slightly startled after Stephanie had grasped his hand again but sighed when he noticed she is scared.
It took about 8 minutes for the scientist to look at what is going on with their bodies.
Typing, flipping, and searching through what is going on.
Suddenly, her jaw dropped, and her expression was shocked at what she saw.
Lance noticed the expression on her face and started to look worried.
Stephanie instantly looked worried, as the grip on his hand tightened a little.
"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.
She glanced over at Lance and Stephanie for a moment, still having that same expression on her face.
Then, she looked back at the panels in front of her.
"Uh," she spoke, glancing back over at them. "This might shock both of you, but… I have to come out there to show you two."
Stephanie's ears perked a little as the scientist came out from the room and stepped out to them, before stopping.
She held out a device in her hand and clicked it, showing diagrams of both Lance and Stephanie's bodies.
Lance's body on the left-hand side looked normal, but his DNA looked like there was some animal DNA in it too, along with some unknown DNA.
However, Stephanie's body on the right-hand side was entirely different from Lance's.
Her DNA is mashed up with different DNAs and unknown chemicals.
Her body is not the same either from Lance.
She has different bones, and some of them looked cracked and broken, and almost half of them are replaced with metal.
Her spine, including her long tail, is made out of metal.
It reaches up to the bottom of her skull and down to her hips.
Both of her right hands, legs, and her left eye are made out of metal.
For the organs, half of her brain on the left-hand side is metal, missing her indigestion organs, has two stomachs, her lungs are almost made of metal, her heart is replaced with a gemstone, and her throat looked like it is semi-metal.
"Sweet mother of-" Lance spoke softly, surprised at what had happened to her body. "What happened to you?"
He glanced around for a moment, before glancing over at her from the side, seeing she was blushing neon pink, but not only her cheeks, but her long white fur had turned pink too!
Ignoring the color change, he asked, "Were you in Afghanistan?"
Stephanie glanced over at him from not looking at either him or the scientist, with a slightly scared and saddened expression on her face.
Then, she glanced over at her diagram.
"No," Stephanie answered before rubbing the back of her neck. "I… have a bad history, but… I'm not comfortable explaining it."
"But at least tell us, what happened to-" Lance spoke, sounding worried for her, but was interrupted when Stephanie snapped at him, her fur and eyes turning red for a moment, "I SAID 'NO!'"
Stephanie even bared her canines at him for a moment before gasping as her hair and eyes turned back to normal.
"I-I'm sorry," Lance spoke, assuring her. "I just got a little startled when I see that, but how are you still normal, even if you are like that?"
He pointed at the diagram as Stephanie sighed heavily.
"I just am," Stephanie sighed. "I don't want to explain."
Stephanie glanced away from Lance after she had answered his question, crossing her arms over her chest, as her fingers gripped her forearms.
The scientist was quiet during their conversation before clearing her throat to get their attention.
They glanced back over at her, and she began, "Okay, despite that little tension we have, there is something about the DNAs I don't get."
She tapped the button on the device again, showing their DNA strips instead of them in general.
"Lance," Lance looked slightly confused about the DNA strip, noticing the different strands in it. "Your DNA has some pigeon DNA, but there are some chemicals inside that I can't say what they are."
"Must be from Walter," Lance mumbled to himself softly as he glanced away.
Stephanie heard the mumble from Lance and glanced over at him from glancing away.
"What happened when you two met?" Stephanie asked softly, perking a little.
"Let's say I accidentally ingested a chemical that allows me to be 'invisible,'" he quoted the word with his fingers. "But, it was instead to transform me into a pigeon."
A snort came from Stephanie before she started chuckling.
He cocked an eyebrow at her as she chuckled.
"You can turn into a pigeon?" Stephanie asked, chuckling slightly.
"Well, yes," Lance nodded. "What about you? What animal you transform?"
Stephanie stopped chuckling and sighed.
"A lot." Stephanie nodded. "I guess we are even."
Lance nodded his head and heard the scientist cleared her throat again.
Instantly, they glanced back in front, and Stephanie apologized, "Sorry, got off-topic."
Lance nodded his head in agreement and readjusted his suit.
"Now, for Stephanie's DNA," Stephanie cringed softly, knowing where this is going. "There is 5% of human blood, but the other percent is a mash of different DNAs I have ever seen! Most of them are animal DNAs, but the other is unknown!"
"And?" Stephanie asked, sounding nervous.
"And," the scientist smiled. "You are capable of controlling them without exploding!"
Stephanie chuckled nervously from the sudden excitement she has, as Lance patted her shoulder reassuringly.
"Is there an antidote for this?" Lance asked as Stephanie nodded her head in agreement.
The scientist sighed slightly and rubbed the back of her back after clicking the device off in her hand.
"I don't know about the antidote," she sighed. "And the reason why is because the chemicals in your bodies are so different from what we studied, it's hard for us to find which antidote is to transform both of you back."
Stephanie gritted her teeth nervously and glanced over at Lance, as he looked worried too.
"To add," she spoke. "With Stephanie's DNA mashed up like that, I don't know if she can transform back to her normal self, either."
Stephanie groaned slightly to herself in sadness, as Lance gently rubbed her back to assure her.
"But there is a way?" Lance asked again, hopefully.
"Unless you get the chemicals that you two were injected with," the scientist nodded. "Then yes, we can make an antidote for you two to transform back to your normal selves."
A relieved smile appeared on Stephanie's face as her ears perked up before clapping her hands.
"That's great!" she beamed. "Then, Lance and I would be back to normal." Then her ears flattened again. "But where are we going to find another laboratory that holds the same chemicals we both got into?"
"That's where I come in," the director appeared, as Stephanie straightened herself from being informal. "Our other spies have found another laboratory that is built by this man," she paused as she clicked a button in her hand, showing a picture of an unknown man. "Who calls himself the Commander of Darkness."
A slight scoff came from Stephanie as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"So, what's his jig?" Stephanie asked.
"He is a villain that threatened everyone with this message," The director spoke, clicking the button again, showing a video that only plays the voice.
"Attention, everyone," the mysterious voice spoke. "I have some… news that I am going to reveal."
Stephanie continued listening to the message with suspicion and confusion.
"In about a month," the mysterious man spoke. "I am going to destroy all the main capitals of the world and claim them as mine."
Stephanie's left eye glinted with some blue to it, and it switched from normal vision to a cyborg vision.
Her left ear continued hearing the message spoke though the video, trying to translate who the man is while identifying.
But, she could not make out who the person is, or what the real voice is either.
"If you presidents don't do as I tell you," the voice began, with slight growls. "I will give you as much time as you want, or else the consequences will come you any of you. Commander of Darkness, out."
With that, the audio stopped, and the director clicked the button again.
This time, it showed the whole world to both of them.
"The audio of the message keeps changing every time we try cracking the mission of who is behind this," the director spoke. "Everyone spent 2 years on this, but we have no idea. But, Lance and Walter did find some clues to what is going to happen."
Stephanie glanced over at Lance, as he said, "We figured out why the Commander of Darkness is collecting as many chemicals. He is trying to make a type of drug that we don't know yet."
"But what type of chemicals there is do any of you remember?" Stephanie asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.
Lance sighed and rubbed the side of his head.
"We don't know," Lance sighed. "The laboratory we both are working on exploded before we could get more information about it."
Stephanie paused for a moment and glanced away from Lance, thinking to herself.
"Excuse me for a moment," Stephanie said, grabbing his wrist gently with her left hand.
"What are you-?" Lance spoke, before her first finger of her right hand transformed into a syringe needle, and injected into his wrist, taking out some blood from him. "Ow!"
After some blood was out, Stephanie moved the syringe out of Lance's wrist and transformed back into her finger.
Stephanie released Lance's wrist as he winced, gently rubbing it.
Inside Stephanie's right eye, Stephanie scanned through the chemicals that he was injected with, besides the pigeon DNA that he has.
She went through the chemicals for a moment, before finally getting the destination of the other laboratory that it came from.
"Here," Stephanie spoke and pointed at the continent Tokyo on the hologram of the planet. "It's in an abandoned laboratory this time, and it's somewhere around the town, Kamagasaki, Osaka."
Some surprised expressions appeared from the people around her as Lance nodded his head with impression.
"Not bad, Steph." He smiled as Stephanie beamed. "How did you know?"
"Your blood," Stephanie mentioned to his wrist that she injected the needle inside. "Since we both have the same chemical, I find where it came from in the first place, then map out where to go."
Lance smirked softly and said to her, "Then we have a clue to find the antidote!"
"But," the director spoke as they glanced over at her from each other. "You need to take Ears, Eyes, and Marcy with you on this journey. It's too risky for both of you to be out in the open as giants."
Stephanie pursed her lips slightly after the director had said that, before remembering something.
"Of course!" she exclaimed, smacking her forehead gently. "I have shapeshifting abilities! I can shapeshift back into my normal self!"
The director cocked an eyebrow unamusingly.
"Okay," Stephanie sighed. "Excuse me."
Stephanie closed her eyes and imagined herself in her mind.
The world around her started to shift a little as she continued imagining herself.
After the feeling disappeared, she opened her eyes, noticing she still has four eyes.
'It didn't work?' she thought to herself, reaching up with her right hand, noticing the fur on the back of her hand is not there. 'It did!'
"Was your hair color normally white?" the scientist asked, sounding confused from the tone of her voice.
Stephanie glanced up at the scientist and noticed she only reached down to her shoulders.
"What?" Stephanie asked, sounding confused as she reached up to her hair, gently pulling it in front to notice her hair was still white and her wires too.
A slight groan came from her as she released her hair, placing her hand on her temple.
"I thought I could do the same thing to my hair." Stephanie groaned to herself before looking in the mirror from the glass of the laboratory. "Apparently not."
Even if she shapeshifts back into herself, she still has white hair, four arms, and eyes.
Her wires on her left-hand side of her head were white too, and still not wearing her glasses or sweater.
"Okay," Stephanie glanced over at Lance, who was taller than her, as he knelt down to her height. "You are still yourself in your true form, but how would you do with your arms and eyes?"
Stephanie glanced away from him and groaned quietly to herself, tapping the bottom of her chin with her finger to think to herself.
Suddenly, she noticed something blue move from the corner of her eye, causing her to perk a little.
From underneath her long, thick white hair, she still has her pointed ears, and they perked up slightly.
"What?" Lance asked, sounding confused from Stephanie's sudden attention towards something else.
Stephanie walked over to the table with suspicion before something launched out from the table and landed onto her chest.
It caused her yelp and land on the ground, back first.
Lance flinched when she landed on the ground and was about to reach over to help her.
Suddenly, Stephanie started laughing for no good reason, as Lance's hand stopped inches away from her body.
On her was a creature that looked like a cat, except has sharp teeth, white eyes, and a long, pointed tongue, licking her face.
The color of the body was blue, but the design looked like camouflage, as the colors were peacock, sky, white, dark blue, and frost on the toes.
"Okay, okay!" Stephanie chuckled before gently pushing the head away from licking her face. "Lunacy, down, please!"
Lunacy, the name of the creature, grinned a toothy grin and wrapped around her body, turning into her cameo sweater for Stephanie to wear.
It even wrapped over her second pair of arms too, hiding them, until they are not poking through the sweater anymore.
"What was that?" Lance asked as she glanced over at him.
"That was my friend who I found before meeting you," Stephanie smiled as she got up from the ground. "She's a little over-excited if I was gone for a long time."
Lance looked slightly unsure as Stephanie snapped her fingers, as a bubble appeared in front of her, containing her necklace inside.
Before Lance could ask, Stephanie held her hand up to his face, saying, "Not now, focusing on something."
She gripped the bubble with her hands and popped it, as the necklace fell out and landed in her hands.
After the necklace landed in her hands, she put it around her neck and hid it underneath her clothes.
Then, the hood gently nudged Stephanie's neck as she glanced down at it, with a slightly confused expression on her face.
"What is it, Lunacy?" Stephanie asked, before holding her hand up.
The sleeve turned liquid like that creature was, gently wrapped around her wrist and palm.
Stephanie watched with slight confusion and suspicion as she watched the sleeve wrapped around.
Lance, on the other hand, looking slightly disgusted at how she is coping with it.
After it had wrapped around her hand for a moment, it moved away and turning back to the regular sleeve of her sweater.
In her palm of her hand were her glasses, not damaged from the blast.
"Thank you!" Stephanie smiled before putting it on and hugging her sweater with her arms.
"Your… sweater is really nice." Lance spoke, sounding hesitant to understand it is alive.
"I have never seen a symbiote before!" beamed the scientist. "How are you able to get one?"
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders as the head of the symbiote appeared from the hood, staring at the scientist with curiosity.
"It's a little secret, too," Stephanie sighed. "Anyways, back on the subject."
She glanced up at the director as the head of the symbiote disappeared, transforming back into her usual sweater hood.
"Where are Ears, Eyes, and Marcy?" Stephanie asked.
"They are inside Lance's car waiting for you and Lance to catch up," the director explained. "But, if any of you failed to accomplish this mission from world destruction, you're fired."
Lance nodded his head in response and glanced over at Stephanie.
"Alright," Lance nodded, as the director left. "All I have to do is change into my pigeon form."
He stopped himself for a moment before wincing slightly.
"Which I don't know since Walter is the only one with the chemicals I need." Lance groaned.
Stephanie thought to herself for a moment before getting an idea.
Walking up to Lance's leg, she gently tapped on it, getting his attention as he glanced down at her.
"I think I have an idea to change you into a pigeon," Stephanie smiled. "First, kneel down in front of me, please."
Lance cocked an eyebrow first, but mentally shrugging to himself and knelt down in front of Stephanie.
"Now," Stephanie spoke, reaching up to his face and gently touched it, butting foreheads against each other.
Since her sweater was on her body, he could not see where her second pair is, except her eyes through her glasses.
"Imagine a pigeon," Stephanie softly spoke as he closed his eyes. "Imagine you are that pigeon, all feathery and delicate, being able to fly in the air and travel to places."
Lance imagined that vision in his mind, feeling tingling all over his body before everything stopped.
"Oh… wow," Stephanie spoke, causing him to open his eyes.
Stephanie was now kneeling down on one knee in front of him, her hands gently holding him.
He was a Homing pigeon, except the head was in blue with a black body with a bowtie shape on his collar.
"Aw!" Stephanie smiled as she stood up to her feet while holding him in her hands. "You're cute!"
Lance quietly gave Stephanie a 'seriously?' expression on his face before saying, "Ha, ha, very funny, Steph."
Stephanie blinked a few times with surprise before blushing and chuckled, "Sorry. I adore animals."
A slight chuckle came from Lance as Stephanie moved him to her right hand, placing him on her shoulder.
"Just like my partner." Lance smiled as Stephanie chuckled.
She turned towards the scientist and asked, "Do you know the way to Lance's car?"
"Uh," Lance spoke, as Stephanie glanced over at him. "I actually do know the way."
Shrugging, Stephanie turned her body around, facing back-first towards the scientist and said to Lance on her shoulder, "Alright, give me the directions, please."
Meanwhile, inside Lance's car, a young woman was at the driving wheel, waiting patiently for them as she strummed her fingers against the wheel.
She has fair skin color with short brown hair pulled up into a ponytail behind her head and has brown eye color.
She wears a uniform that is in battle, with a belt around her waist.
When they saw Stephanie stepping up to the car door, she looked suspicious, until Stephanie sat next to her in the passenger seat, noticing Lance on her shoulder.
"Who's this?" she asked.
"Marcy, this is Stephanie," Lance introduced as Stephanie waved her hand. "She's a civilian, but she is helping us."
"Hello," Stephanie greeted, before glancing behind at Ears and Eyes. "First time working with a famous spy?"
"Yeah," nodded Ears. "It's going to be epic!"
"I'm so going to remember this!" Eyes smiled as her glasses' lens showed stars.
Stephanie softly smiled before something went through the open window of Stephanie's side, startling everyone.
"Whoa, what was that?!" exclaimed Ears.
"Wait, wait!" Lance spoke as everyone calmed down slightly as the object landed on Stephanie's leg. "Lovey?"
Lovey, the name of the bird that came into the car, chirped in response to Lance's confusion.
"Lovey, how did you get out of Walter's backpack?" Lance asked.
"You know what she is saying?" Marcy asked, with a slightly surprised tone in her voice.
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders slightly, before glancing back at the two interacting.
Lovey chirped and peeped at Lance for a moment, before Lance sighed.
"The others are captured too?" Lance asked.
Lovey chirped for a moment before Lance's face perked a little.
"And Walter is still missing?" Lance asked before Lovey nodded her head.
Lance sighed and glanced down from Lovey as Stephanie thought to herself.
"Hey, Lance," Stephanie spoke, reaching over to him and gently picked him up, as Lovey flew up and landed on her shoulder. "It's okay, we'll find Walter sooner or later."
Lance paused for a moment, still not looking at Stephanie's gaze, before being lifted in front of Stephanie's face.
"If he is where we are going, we might find him at any moment," Stephanie assured again. "Okay?"
Lance glanced back up at her and nodded, before flying up to her shoulder.
"Alright, let's get a move on," Lance smiled.
Ears and Eyes glanced at each other and nodded, looking excited to be on this adventure with a famous spy.
Marcy started the car and drove out of the base, heading towards the airport.
1