Chapter 3: No Longer Human

June 4th 1998

Science Log no 87

We have learned a valuable lesson two days ago when Doctor Wilcox accidently spilled water on the Mogwai's back it had caused him to spawn more mogwais. There were five new ones. When he learned of the information Doctor Friedrich decided to test the lesson and placed a single water drop on the back of one of the new mogwais and a new one formed. I wasn't sure if he wanted to to double check to make certain it was just mere water or if he wanted to have seven mogwais in total since there were seven of us.

We each were assigned our own individual mogwai to watch over and study. I had thought Doctor Friedrich would want to keep the original, but he seemed to prefer the one with the black four point star on his chest and a white spiky Mohawk of hair on his head. The original does seem to like me and I have grown fond of him and gave him the name of Gene after genetics. Doctor Wilcox chose the spotted mogwai that wouldn't stop laughing and named him Chuckles. Doctor Bivens chose the one with a large black spot over its left eye and named him Patch. We all jokingly said the albino runt should be with Doctor Trainer but he accepted. We have called him Gary's son and the name of the mogwai became Garrison, Doctor Henderson chose the chubbiest one and named him Butterball and the seventh went to Doctor Lei who named him Brody

The Mogwai's have all been measured and weighed and they are all as smart as Gene. They love to play and dance to music but instead of gathering around Gene they seem to ignore him and chose Doctor Friedrich's mogwai, the one he named Razor after Occam 's razor. Doctor Lei's seems to be distant from the others and would rather play with Gene.

We are working on creating some activities to test on them, fun tests like picture recognition and jigsaw puzzles. I can't wait to see how Gene performs on these tests.

Doctor Valerie Cordova.

June 26, 1998

Billy's eyes lifted halfway and glanced around the room. He was alone and he was resting on a chair with his arms weighed down. Through his fog covered brain he tried to remember where he was and how he got there. He was shopping at the mall. He was sure of that, but shopping for what? He wiggled a foot and remembered he bought new shoes for work and then he went somewhere. There was pretzel? No he went to the pharmacy and heard…he heard a mogwai and then he found Gerald the jerk and Gerald was fuzzy? No that can't be right. No he was and as Billy looked around he saw that he was in the same kind of chair that Gerald was in.

"No," the gasp was more of a hiccup and he choked the word out again. The same thing was happening to him. They were mutating him in the same way.

He tried to sit up but was strapped down and he couldn't move.

"Me out," he slurred. "Let me out. Help me. Someone help me."

"What the?" A voice was heard before the same scrawny ginger haired man that Billy saw before ran into view. "You are a bit too resilient and vocal." His cold blue eyes stared at one of the clear bags that were hooked up to Billy. "Huh it is only half full and…well there is the problem. This thing got twisted."

"Let me go you sicko. You lunatic, you jerk."

"That is some not so nasty insults," the man chuckled as he was fiddling with something. "Maybe you starting to turn into a mogman is affecting your ability to insult properly."

"Mogman?" Billy asked.

"You will see when you transformation is complete. We finally made some breakthrough with this mogwai DNA when we cloned one. We tried splicing different animals before and making hybrids in the tube, but it just wouldn't stick and we tried injecting animal DNA into some homeless people we nabbed off the street and still nothing but this new creature we made or rather Doctor Friedrich had made really changed the game."

"You tried to test on others?" Billy asked in disgust. He was growing wearier. "You made a mogwai? Do you not understand the risks and responsabbbl…"

"Responsibility? Yes we can't get them wet and they don't like bright light."

"Don't fffeeeedd theeeeemmmm." His eyes closed as he drifted back to sleep.

"As soon as we get inside you are going to put your stuff away," Kate said as he walked up the steps to their front porch. She was half listening to Benny as he described how he and his close friends launched several water balloons at other kids in the school age division of daycare while also trying to listen to Sarah as she as singing a new song she had learned. "And we are going to set the table."

"Daddy and Gizmo are going to want to hear about it," Benny said as he bounced into their house. "Daddy we're here."

"Going to have a bit of a hard time getting him to settle," Kate said as she hung up her keys. "Benny I want you to place your swim trunks on the bathroom sink and you sandals in your room." She turned around, eager for the kiss her husband was about to give to her and blinked when he wasn't there. "Honey?" She strained to hear him. "Billy?"

"Dada?" Sarah called out. "Snowy! Knight!" She was instantly distracted by their two cats and ran over to them to hug. Knight had bolted but Snowy remained where he sat and accepted to the full on toddler hug.

"Mommy, I can't find daddy," Benny said as he skipped up to her. "And I don't smell food."

Kate ran into the kitchen and turned on the light. It was the same as was when she left the house that morning. She touched the stove and it was cold.

"I heard something in my room," Benny said.

"Stay with your sister," Kate ordered as she slowly approached her son's room. She could hear the familiar whizzing of Benny's Hotwheels as they raced along their plastic tracks and she let out a sigh of relief. Billy was too caught up playing with Gizmo that he forgot to start dinner. It had happened several times before. "Hey Billy, you forgot-" She opened the door and saw only Gizmo sitting beside the tracks and watching the toy cars.

"Zoom zoom," Gizmo said

"Giz?" Kate asked. He should know where Billy is.

"Hi Kate," Gizmo greeted. "Where Billy?"

"He didn't come home?" She watched as the mogwai shook his head no. "Maybe they worked a full day and he was working late. Or, or he is still running those errands." She ran towards their answering machine and there was one message.

"Hey Mr. Peltzer this is Rick from Adison's Garage and we are letting you know your car is ready to be picked up. Please call us back."

"No, no he would always leave a message." She had to call his office. She dialed and after hearing the dial tones on the other end she heard the answering machine. She mentally cursed and left a message.

"Mommy?" Benny asked in a worried tone. He was holding Gizmo in his arms.

"Go watch TV with Gizmo and Sarah," Kate instructed as she dialed the number of one of Billy's coworkers.

"Mama I'm thirsty," Sarah said.

"In a minute, baby," Kate told her and listened as familiar voice greeted her. "Hey Dave, this is Kate. Do you remember the last time you spoke with Billy?"

"Right before he dismissed us and wished us a good weekend," Dave answered. "Is something wrong?"

"Billy hasn't come home yet."

"I'll try calling the others. You try Jason and the others in his carpool."

Kate called the numbers of Billy's carpool and few others who work in the same building as Billy. Everyone hasn't seen him since he either left the building or since he was let off in front of Blockbuster. Kate called the rental store and they said they received the rentals at 1:45. There was one more person she was going to call and she dialed his personal secret number.

"Hey Kate how are things?" Daniel Clamp's voice was heard on the other line. "You know I was thinking about you and the family. Marla and me were going to take a cruise down to Nassau at the start of August and I can pull a few strings and bring you along, bring the kids. It can be one last summer hurrah before Benny goes back to school. He is starting first grade, right?

"Mr. Clamp-" Kate had started but was immediately cut off.

"That will give you plenty of time to pick out a new suit and see if Bill's folks can watch little Gizmo and speaking of which I am going to have a meeting with the Tiger division of Hasbro and we are going to reach a compromise with their upcoming Furby launch."

"Billy hasn't come home yet and he hasn't left a message," Kate blurted out.

"Bill isn't home yet?" Clamp asked. His normal jovial tone had turned somber. "And hasn't tried to call."

"No." She felt her eyes well up with tears.

"This is what we are going to do," Clamp said in a calm manner. "As soon as you are done talking with me you are going to call the police. They are going to tell you they have to wait twenty-four hours but they will keep in contact with you. You are going to talk to your neighbors and then you will not make any more calls. Only answer when it rings. I will be making more calls around. The first is I gotta order some pizza and send it to your place. You, your kids and Gizmo need to eat."

"Thank you," Kate gasped as she felt a single tear roll down. Call the police, ask around and wait was all that she was able to do right now.

Billy woke to the strange sound of rabid chipmunks and it took a second for him to realize it was the sound coming from his stomach, right after the pang of hunger registered through his body. He was lying down on something and while he was asleep a few seconds earlier he was awake now. His mouth felt like it was full of dry sand and he was starving. He reached down to pet his stomach and recoiled in shock when he felt soft fur and everything came back to him at once.

"Son of a bitch, no!" He was kidnapped by a bunch of insane scientists and they injected him with drugs and mogwai DNA. "God damn it no. No." He closed his eyes and raised his hand and opened his lids one at a time. His fingers looked human, except there were only four fingers now and the back of his hand was covered in white fur. He took a deep breath and looked down at the rest of his body. He was more slender than a mogwai and taller. His feet had the same human shape but smaller and ended in four toes. His fur was mostly black with white on his ankles and hands and a noticeable white spiky patch on his chest. Above that patch there was a bit of dark brown and thick brown stripes across the middle of his arms. He was also wearing bright red briefs and lifting the edge and looking down he could see he still had another human trait. Well at least that hadn't changed. He reached up to his ears and yes they were large and pointed and felt his face. His nose and mouth still felt human and was hairless.

He was in a cage? A small jail cell? He wasn't certain but he was in a large room that had bars running down the middle and on the side was a chair, a desk and of course the door to the other side. He got up off the cot and walked up to the bars. He was still thirsty and hungry and he wanted to give someone a piece of his mind. Where the hell are his captors? Was this a dream? He could feel the cool floor underneath his naked feet and when he pulled on some of his fur it hurt. It was not a dream. This was real. This had really happened to him.

"Where are you, you psycho bastards?" He grabbed the bars and rattled. "Where are you? Are you trying to drug someone else and ruin their lives?" Billy had to pause for a second. His voice even sounded different. It was higher than usual, not as squeaky as Gizmo's but it wasn't his normal voice either. He shook the bars one last time. "Shit."

"Bad language." The voice came from his right.

"Listen right now I don't give a damn." He turned to see who was speaking to him and found himself staring at another creature. He was about three feet tall and his top half had light brown and white fur and his legs were covered in reddish brown fur, the same as his lower arms. There was a small black patch on his chest and he had a shaggy mop of dark red hair on his head. Like Billy he had human facial features, four human fingers and toes and large mogwai ears.

"You use bad language," the creature repeated.

"What are you?"

"Mogman. I am mogman like you and Schrodinger. I Darwin."

"Jesus Christ how many has he turned?" Billy asked. "Wait, Schrodinger?"

"Still on cot," the mogman pointed at the third being in the cage. "He not move."

The third mogman was still and breathing. He was slightly taller than Darwin and his fur pattern was different patches of white, yellow, golden brown, reddish brown and brown. He had light brown hair on his head and his hazel eyes were open wide. Was that Gerald Hopkins? It looked similar to the creature he had seen yesterday.

"Gerald?" Billy asked and ran to his side. "Gerald, are you okay?"

"Real, they are real, they are real, they are real…"Gerald kept muttering over and over.

"What are real?"

"They are real, they are real, they are real."

"Gerald come on." He tried to shake his former coworker but nothing. "Gerald? Jerry?"

"It's Gerald, not Jerry!" Gerald snapped. He paused and blinked twice. "The little green elves." He finally turned to look at Billy. "They attacked us, attacked Mr. Corbin. I was safe. I was smart and they were real. Not bikers and not gas and not a hallucination. Everyone saw the same thing."

"They were real," Billy said with a sigh. Great, just great, this whole ordeal was taking it's mental toll on Gerald and he was remembering the first gremlin attack and it was traumatic for him. Back then after all the fires were put out and they had to clean up the place they had to haul off Gerald to an institution, and now with his transformation it was opening up old mental woulds.

"They are going to come back and will need help and I wanted to give them accounts, but they talked me out. Doctor Kupferberg helped me, tried to convince me it didn't happen that way. I told myself it didn't happen that way and now we know evil green elves are real."

"They were gremlins." Billy wasn't sure why he was telling Gerald this, just that if it will help the former banker out of his break down then he would tell him everything.

"Gremlins, yes and that is a better word for them. Accounts for the little people I once said and now we are the little people. We are Ewoks."

"No those are not real." He grabbed Gerald's hands.

"We are mogman," Darwin said.

"I guess that is what we have been turned into," Billy said with a sigh. "We are part mogwai and we will find a way out and get help and find a way to turn back into humans. All three of us."

"Never human," Darwin said. "I was mogwai."

"What?" Billy turned to look at him. "He used human genes on you and made you into a mogman?"

"Yes."

"Well that would explain his communication skills," Billy said before he turned back to Gerald. "I know Daniel Clamp and I know he will do anything in his power to turn us back."

"Clamp?" The taller mogman blinked. "You know Clamp?"

"Yes I do and he is going to fix this."

Gerald's grin faded. "What if he can't? I will stay a mogman and I will need a little person account. My kind will need accounts." He rubbed his head. "I am in charge. I cannot change the past, but make things better for the future. I am in charge." He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

"If we can easily be transformed then we can easily be transformed back." Billy had to keep positive even if he was unsure about it himself.

"They are coming," Darwin spoke up.

Billy could hear the footsteps in the hall and wondered if he could hear better with his new larger ears or if the steps were just really loud. A few seconds passed before the door opened and the large brick of a human walked into the room. The guy was the size and shape of a refrigerator with bulging arms, a square jaw, jutting chin and dark hair in a buzz. He had a tray on wheels with him.

"Where are they?" Billy demanded

"Where are who?" The brick asked as he stared at Billy with beady dark eyes.

"Where are the sons of a bitches who did this."

"No bad language," Darwin said while the big man laughed.

"Oh man hearing that voice of yours trying to sound tough is a riot," the brick said. "You guys are like kittens acting so tough."

"If these bars weren't here, I'd-" Billy was cut off.

"What bite me in the kneecaps?" He laughed again as he set a few trays through the slot. "Grub time and you might want to catch before it falls to the ground."

Billy felt his blood boil as he stared at the large man but he could also smell the food and anger was replaced by his need to eat. He grabbed one of the tray's and handed the other to Gerald before he removed the lid. A large slice of pizza, a juice box and a cookie greeted him.

"Yum yum," Darwin muttered before he picked up his slice.

"Yes, yummy," Billy agreed before he brought the slice to his mouth but before he bit down he pulled it out. "What time is it?"

"One in the afternoon." The human pointed at the clock and the middle hand was pointed at twelve while the smaller one touched the one. "Why you got specific time for lunch."

"No it's just that don't give us food after midnight." Billy had no idea what would happen to him and the others but he didn't want to take any chances. "Tell those upstairs no matter what no matter how much they beg do not feed them after midnight."

"Yeah I think they said no food from midnight to dawn."

"Good at least follow that bit of advice." Billy turned his attention back to the food and bit down into the pizza. The warm gooey cheese was a welcome savior to his mouth. As soon as he had chewed and swallowed he took a long drink. He was going to be careful with his food while transformed, but then he could hide maybe the crust and eat it later. Maybe he wanted to change because once he changed he could get his revenge.

"Peltzer?" Gerald looked at him.

"Huh?" Why did he just think that?

"You stopped eating."

"Yeah I was just lost in thought. Gerald, Darwin we can't eat after midnight, just watch each other's backs." He had that idea in his head. He can't let his new instincts take over him, but he wondered and feared if the mogwai that was kept on the eight floor would repress that urge and how long he was going to stay this way. The first thing he had to think of was a way to escape.