"The Experiment"

Chapter 6

I spent most of the next day worrying about Sandy. She and Frank had been sent back to the ranch, but no one would tell me anything about her. And I couldn't leave the tournament, I still had battles to fight. Curtis accepted Sandy's trophy at the ceremony, for her E Grade win, and smugly answered questions when the other breeders asked him about her. Some had heard about what had happened afterwards, but Curtis dismissed it. "It was nothing," he said. "You shouldn't listen to rumors."

Somehow, though, I managed to keep my mind on the tournament enough to take A class. It was actually more difficult than I had expected. As with Inferno, and the Naga that Lenny had fought, the current champions were actually stronger than their rank. But I was used to fighting monsters stronger than myself.

I actually let my last opponent beat me, knowing we'd face off again in a tie breaker round. With the knowledge I'd gained from our first fight, and a little time to catch my second wind, I was able to defeat him. Curtis looked angry when I lost, but when I turned around and won the second match, he seemed happy enough with that.

When I got back to the ranch, everything seemed to be okay. Sandy had been sent back to her stable, and hadn't shown any more signs of wanting to hurt herself. Frank and the other handlers kept a close eye on her for a few days, as did I, but she seemed fine.

Within a week, Curtis had arranged for me to attend another tournament, this one far to the North. I had a week to train, and then I would be away from the ranch for another two weeks, travelling to the tournament, and then returning after the event was over. I was worried about Sandy, so I took her aside.

"When I come back," I said to her, "I want you to be waiting for me by the gate. I want you to promise you'll be there."

She hugged me around the neck, and promised. I didn't tell her why I made her make that promise.

When I returned, sure enough, she was right there waiting for me. She jumped up and down, waving, and as I jumped off the cart she ran up to me. "I've got a surprise for you," she said. "Meet me after dinner and I'll show it to you."

"What is it?"

"You'll find out!" She grinned. "You know the place. After dinner!" She turned and ran a few steps, then spread her wings and fluttered away.

"I sure am glad you thought of that," Frank said, as he met me on the other side of the gate. "She's been really excited all week. You've really..." He patted the back of my head. "You've really given her a reason to live, Steppenwolf."

I didn't say anything. "I think it's her friendship with you that's gotten her this far," he added. "I know I've never thanked you for that, but... thank you."

"There's no need," I told him. "She's my friend. And you mean a lot to her, too..."

He nodded. "Well, let's get you to the Lab and have you a look over. Did everything go okay?"

I shrugged. "The usual, a few cuts and bruises. I worked off most of the soreness on the way back."

"Sure. I still want to look at you anyway, just to be sure."

"I understand."

We walked along for a few minutes. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you," I said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah... why is it I haven't been frozen yet? I mean... Swiftwind told me that you have some special food here that makes monsters live longer, but..."

I paused for a moment. "Well... Monsters just don't live very long. I know that, it doesn't bother me. Why are you wasting... well, why are you wasting the time I have, however short or long it is, on these A class tourneys? I could be making a LOT more for you in S class."

"Not in the short run." Frank looked down at me. "Steppenwolf, this ranch takes a LOT of money to run. It's not like your old ranch, where a single S class win could last your trainer... oh, I don't know, probably until the next S class tourney. We need to bring in a LOT of money to run this place. So we have to send our monsters... well... all over the country!"

We had reached the Lab, and I followed Frank inside. "Are there a lot of ranches that think that way?" I asked him.

"A few. Why?"

"Oh, I was just thinking that the ranks here seem a little tougher than I'm used to. You may all be, in a sense, cancelling each other out." I grinned.

"It's possible. It's been getting harder and harder to compete with the other big ranches. Their monsters get stronger and stronger, and ours have to get stronger to keep pace..."

He frowned. "Meanwhile, the smaller ranches can't really keep up. They stay out of the big tournaments, and stick with the small town events."

"But we've been going to those, too," I put in. "Like the one that I went to this time."

He nodded. "I sometimes wonder if I'm doing the right thing. It's all turning into... It's all turning into a business. I became a tech so I could make the world a better place... create monsters no one had ever seen before. Instead I'm helping people like Mr. Curtis get rich."

He was silent for a moment, then he shrugged. "Okay, let's get you up on the table."

I jumped up and laid down on the table, folding my paws. He studied me for a few moments, finally concentrating on a stab wound I had gotten from a Nya. I drew in my breath as the contact send a shooting pain through my side.

"Is that a fairly deep wound?" He asked me.

I gritted my teeth. "I didn't think so at the time, but it sure feels like it now."

"Looks like it's beginning to fester. I'd better put something on it."

He walked over to a cabinet and brought out a jar filled with some sort of thick leaves. He started grinding some of them up with a mortar and pestle. "You look fine except for that," he said. "You didn't take much damage, I don't think."

I heard Sandy's voice from outside in the main part of the Lab. "Frank? Are you in here?"

"Over here, Sandy."

She poked her head in the door. "Hello, Steppenwolf. Are you okay?"

"Just fine. He's just checking me out. What's wrong?"

"Well... I dunno." She stepped into the room, putting a hand against her ribcage, right under her breast. "My chest hurts."

Frank looked up from his mortar and pestle. "In that area, huh?" he asked, noticing where her hand was.

She nodded. "Has it been hurting for a while?" He asked.

"Yeah..." she nodded again. "Off and on. It's been just kinda like a dull ache, but a few minutes ago it was like a sharp pain."

"It just sounds like your body's changing, Sandy. Nothing to worry about."

She looked down at herself. That night when I had seen her, at the lake, she had only just started to develop. But that was almost a month ago, and now it was obvious that she was growing up. The tan colored suit that she had been wearing had been replaced with a larger one, cut a little differently, and under it her breasts were quite a bit rounder.

With a start, I realized that Sandy's arms and legs were once again in proportion with her body. That sense of foreboding crept over me again, but I shook my head. This was a good sign, not a bad one.

"Let's try this, Sandy." Frank left the medicine he was making up for me to fetch another jar from his collection of strange-looking leaves and roots. This one was full of some sort of brown powder, and he took the jar over to the water pump. Filling a cup with water, he then measured out some of the powder and put it in the cup.

"Drink this." Sandy took the cup and drank from it, but then made a face.

"Ghack!" She protested. "It tastes horrible!"

"I know, but it'll make the pain go away. You have to drink it all."

Grimacing, she managed to drink the rest of the water. She wiped her mouth, then slowly her frown faded.

"Hey... I do feel better..."

"I told you." Frank put a hand on her shoulder. "Now, if you have any more pains you tell me. Okay?"

"Okay." She grinned, then waved at me. "Bye, Steppenwolf. Tonight, remember?"

Frank watched her as she left the Lab. Then he walked back over to the worktable. "I wonder what she has planned?"

"I dunno. I'll find out soon enough."

"What did she mean by 'You know the place'?"

I grinned at him. "There are some secrets Sandy and I keep to ourselves," I said.

"Understood." He laughed, then picked up a cloth and placed the herbs that he had ground up in it. "Now then... it's your turn."

He brought the cloth over to me, then pressed it against my side. I drew in my breath, as the gooey paste made the wound sting. "That just means it's working," he said.

He began to wrap a bandage around me to hold the cloth in place. "You should sit here for at least an hour, and then leave this on until after dinner tonight. I'd prefer if you slept with it on, but if it's not comfortable you can pull it off. Just be careful, without any hands you won't be able to put it back on again if you work it loose."

"Okay," I said, looking down at the bandage. The sting had already faded to a sort of throbbing, and it actually felt sort of soothing.

"Where did you learn about all of this stuff, anyway?" I nodded at the cabinet.

He looked sort of proud of himself. "Much of it has been through my own research. I've done research with various herbs and plants, looking for those with medicinal effects. Of course, I learned a lot from my father... he was a doctor, a human doctor, but he knew a few medicines that worked on monsters as well. I built on his knowledge, and that of other doctors around the continent."

"The thing is, most Labs have all of this equipment for Combining and Freezing monsters." He gestured at his own machinery in the bigger room outside. "Most of it comes from the Ancient time, or is based on that lost knowledge. Most Lab techs don't have any idea how any of it works. Oh, they can fix it if it breaks, but they couldn't build something to do something else."

"Me, I'm more interested in HOW the devices work than whether or not they work."

"So, you've been able to find out how they work?"

Frank grinned at me, widely. "Nope... not a bit of it!"

* * * * *

I met Sandy at the lake. She ran over to me, excited, but her face fell as she noticed the bandage.

"Oh... I thought you said you weren't hurt." She frowned at me, as if I'd lied to her.

"It's not bad. Really. It's just to help it heal faster."

"Well... I guess you can't go in the water, then." Sandy looked positively dejected. Inexplicably, tears came to her eyes, but she brushed them away.

I nudged her. "Hey. Frank just said that I had to wear it for a few hours. And I'm sure he'd say that I should wash out the wound good. So let's just take off the bandage, and put it aside here on the bank. We can put it back on me after we get through."

She looked up, her eyes glittering as she stared at me. Then she clapped her hands. "Okay!"

Sandy set about unwrapping the bandage as I watched her. "Now be careful not to let the stuff fall on the ground. I know Frank wouldn't like THAT."

"I'll be careful," she said. She pressed the cloth against my side as she unwound the last of the bandage. Then she folded the cloth with the medicine on the inside and wrapped the bandage around it.

She set the bandage down, then studied the little bit of the salve that had remained on my coat. She touched it, then rubbed her fingertips together.

"Frank sure does know all sorts of wierd medicine things, doesn't he?"

"He does at that."

She grinned again. "Okay, in the water," she said, shoving on my side.

I waded out into the lake, while she walked over to her rock and picked something up. She then joined me in the water, keeping whatever she had picked up behind her back so I couldn't see it.

"You remember you told me you used to get your fur brushed, after you washed it, on your old ranch?"

I nodded. She brought out a brush from behind her back. "I borrowed it from Molly!" She said happily.

"She doesn't mind you using her hairbrush on me?"

Sandy giggled. "She doesn't know! I told her it was for me."

"You... you shouldn't have done that."

"Oh, she'll never know! I'll clean out the brush once I've used it. And besides, your fur is so smooth and soft, I'm sure it won't make any difference."

She looked at the brush for a moment. "I'd use my own brush... if I had one..."

Then she shoved at my side again. "Okay, Wolfie. Roll around."

I laid down in the water and rolled over to get my coat good and wet. Then Sandy started to run her hands through my fur, to dislodge the dirt. This was far easier than rolling to get myself clean, and it felt better, too. I smiled at her as she ruffled my mane.

Then she started to brush my fur. Little tufts of silver gray started to float away from us, mats and tangles of shed hair that had gotten caught in my coat. I winced as she passed over the stab wound, but she muttered a "Sorry" and was careful not to brush that spot again.

We were both quiet for a long time. I was enjoying the sensation of having my fur brushed again. It has been too long since the last time. I couldn't help thinking of my Master, and his ranch, of growing up, with all of his monsters as my friends.

Sandy seemed to sense my thoughts, because she asked, "Tell me about your Master..."

"He was a nice man. Everything I am I owe to him."

"What was his name?"

"Blayyde. I don't remember his first name. I don't think I ever heard it. He was always Master to me."

"It must have been nice..."

"It was." I paused a moment, remembering. "We had an old, wooden barn, sort of falling apart. The floor was just dirt. But it was warm, and it felt good. There was a stream, too. Not a lake, like this, but a little brook, a little shallower than this, with little pebbles in the bottom."

"He was so proud of my coat. I think he was prouder of it than I was."

"What kind of monsters were there?"

"Lots of Tigers. Ralph, he was my mentor. He taught me what it meant to be a Tiger. And there was a Mint. She was a lot like you." I looked up at her. "Asked a lot of questions..."

"There was even a dragon." I smiled at the memory. "Dragons look a little different over there. And this one was a baby. Little thing, with a little round head, on a long neck. He'd trip over his feet..."

I paused a moment. "I wonder what happened to all of them..."

Sandy had been silent, brushing my hair, but all of a sudden she stopped. She put a hand against my side. I looked back at her, and she was looking at herself, as if puzzled. But then suddenly she tensed up. She let out a scream, dropping the brush, as she put both of her hands against her chest.

"Sandy... what's wrong?"

She started to say something, but then doubled over, crying out in pain. She slipped in the water and fell, with a splash. The water wasn't much more than knee deep, but she still struggled, for a few moments, to get her face out of the water, gasping for breath. She rolled over, and sat up, her hands clutching tightly at that spot under her breasts.

But then she cried out again, putting one hand to the inside of her other arm. She screamed again, then began to claw at the flesh, right where it joined with the shell of her Henger half. I reached down and grabbed the back of her suit in my teeth, and dragged her out of the water.

By the time I got her out of the water, she had begun pulling at her arm, as if trying to rip it off. I threw myself on top of her, pinning her down. "Stop it! What are you doing?"

"IT HURTS!" She screamed. "Make it stop! It hurts!"

Somehow, I managed to shove her arms apart, and pin them over her head. She struggled, trying to get free. "What hurts? Your arms?"

She nodded, blinking away tears. She was in agony, I could see it in her face. She arched her back, and for a moment I could have sworn I saw movement under her bathing suit.

"Sandy, listen to me! You've got to fight this! Whatever this is, it's probably what killed the other Pixies! Trying to tear your arms off isn't going to solve the problem. It's only going to make it worse!"

"But it hurts so BAD! Oh, God, I can't STAND it!!!"

Sandy screamed again, and this time her legs began to thrash around underneath me. I leaned up, thinking that she meant to try and smash her legs as well. And that's when I saw it.

Right at the top of her hip, just below the line of her bathing suit, an angry, red welt had appeared on her skin. The welt split open, a trickle of blood dripping away from it, and something forced itself out from inside her body. It was a curved plate of tan material, just like the covering over her arms.

Sandy screamed louder, and the covering inched its way down over her hips. Another had joined it on the other side, and the two of them crept down slowly. The wounds in Sandy's skin split open even further, spreading down towards her crotch, as more of the two plates emerged from inside her.

I was afraid of what Sandy would do if I let her go, but I was more afraid of what was happening to her. "Sandy... I've gotta go get Frank. I'm gonna have to leave you here. I don't want to... I'm afraid your going to hurt yourself." I looked down at her hips. "Worse. But I've got to go get help."

"No." Sandy was in tears, throwing her head from side to side. "Please don't let them know about this place..."

"I'll just bring Frank..."

"No, he won't... he won't be able to help me alone... he'll need..." She groaned between clenched teeth. "... help."

"Sandy..."

"Let... me up... I'll... you can carry me... back to the Lab."

"Are you sure you can hold on?"

She cried out, shoving against me. "HURRY!!! I can't... hold out... much longer!!!"

I let her up, and she pulled herself up me, inch by inch, with her arms. Finally, she straddled my back, her legs limp on either side of me, her hands tangled into my fur. Another wave of pain surged through her, and her hands twisted, her grip causing me to cry out as well.

"Go!" She breathed. I took off running though the underbrush, careful not to dislodge her, but moving as quickly as I could towards the Lab.