The next day, Ratigan kept getting annoyed by these weird pains in his upper back. But they went away as soon as they came. Neo made a brief statement about this:
"I think that the spell that she used somehow transferred her powers, strength, and abilities into you. This might be a normal turning point in your body getting used to it, sort of like upgrading a computer", he said.
However, Ratigan wasn't too thrilled about that. "You said that a million times before, and it doesn't make the pain any better!" But the pain was steadily increasing, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by painful second. And then it happened.
It was the day they snuck aboard a ship to escape Basil and Dawson's capture attempts. Neo had taken to looking at the water, while Ratigan had taken to the cabin that Neo had reserved on the ship. What neither of them knew was that Basil was on the ship, too.
"Have your revolver at the ready, Dawson", Basil commanded.
"I'm one step ahead of you, Basil", his partner replied. The pair was sneaking through the crowd to find Ratigan and the creep that hurt Inspector Vole. Meanwhile . . .
Ratigan was trying to ignore the now throbbing pains in his back with little to no success. It seemed that the pain was slowly building to a crescendo, and then something big would happen. All of a sudden . . .
"Gah!" The pain had reached an all-new high today, and it felt like something was trying to puncture his back. Make that somethings! The next thing he knew, he was kneeling on the cabin floor, clutching his chest like it was trying to escape through that as well. The next thing he knew, he felt two claw tips puncture his back from the inside, slowly sliding out into what felt like wings. He tried to call out for Neo, but the only thing he could manage was a long animal snarl.
Meanwhile, Neo was having a bad time, trying to get Basil's attention away from the cabin where Ratigan was experiencing this strange mutation. "Now, listen here, Basil-"
"Not this time. I came to place Ratigan under arrest, and that's exactly what I came to do. So, I'll repeat my question: What's going on with Professor Ratigan?", Basil asked for the thousandth time.
Neo immediately replied without revealing what happened with the girl. "Well, er, he's going through some, well, changes." Just then, an animal screech of pain rendered their conversation pointless.
In the cabin, Ratigan wasn't faring any better. The wings were halfway out, and the painful excretion of them from his back was going to make him pass out at the very least. What he didn't notice was the pair of green cat's eyes staring in from a window at this amazing, yet painful experience.
Amelia, who was the same as the girl that gave Ratigan her powers, a combination of mouse, cat, and rat, was walking along the quiet halls of the ship when she heard the pain-wracked cry coming from the room next to the hall she was in. She peeked through a window into one of the rooms and saw a rat with what appeared to be wings coming out of his back.
It started off normally enough. The rat fell to his knees, clutching his chest in what was unmistakable excruciating pain. Then Amelia took a look at his back itself. It appeared to be swelling, like something was going to come out. The tension was showing in the back of the black suit, and it continued so until two somethings that appeared to be the tips of strange wings burst through the skin and cloth, and then the rat lifted his head and let out a long animal snarl.
That's when all known nightmarish hell broke loose. Immediately, people started panicking in the halls, trying to find or escape the source of the sound. By now, the wings had completely unfurled from the incision in Ratigan's back, and he had collapsed face-down on the floor from the pain. But, finally, he noticed he was being watched.
All of a sudden, Neo burst into the room. "Professor Rat-WHOA!" He stopped, finally noticing the fact that Ratigan had somehow sprouted two wings leathery-skinned like bat wings, but more like they belonged on a gargoyle. "What happened to you?"
"I don't know", the Professor managed to wheeze out, still in pain from the wings coming out. I was just standing there, and the next moment, the pain I've been feeling in my back goes to an even further high-"
"Do you know you have wings, Ratigan?," Neo inquired.
Ratigan stared in shock at the statement by Neo, but he suddenly realized there was something on, no, connected to his back. He turned his head slightly, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see the aforementioned wings, extended from his back, and still covered in fresh blood from the excretion. He gingerly touched one, and released it, his glove stained by the blood. "What-What happened to me? How did I get like this?," he asked Neo.
"I don't know," Neo answered hurriedly. "I just came in here to find you face down in the floor in pain, and with a pair of wings to boot!"
"Well, that makes things a whole lot clearer", Ratigan replied sarcastically. Just then, he remembered what he was going to tell Neo.
"Neo, there's someone watching us", he said, pointing to the window. The pair of green eyes moved quickly from the window, but Ratigan immediately dove after them, actually smashing through the wall like it was paper, tackling poor Amelia in the process.
Amelia saw the rat glance towards the window she was staring in from, but just then, a handsome mouse in a long black leather trench coat, black pants, and black shoes, wielding a gun in a shoulder holster busted in on the rat, who was currently lying face-down on the floor from the excruciating pain, small traces of fresh blood dripping from them like small drops of rain trickling off a rooftop. The handsome mouse and the rat were having a conversation, and it seemed that the rat had finally noticed he had sprouted wings for some unknown reason, and he seemed slightly worried about the newly acquired wings . . .
Amelia, however, didn't think they made him look any worse. In fact, it made him look a whole lot more handsome, in a weird, demonic kind of way. But then she mentally shook and slapped herself and remembered what her mother had said. "Rats are not the right kind of creature to trust, Amelia. Especially not sewer rats. Your father was betrayed by one, and I don't want the same happening to you." Just then, she noticed that the rat had pointed out her to the mouse and she ducked out from the window's view, and the next thing she knew, the wall had quite literally exploded, and she was flat on her back, pinned down by the rat.
Immediately, everyone started to scream, partly because everyone recognized Ratigan, and partly because he had wings now. Meanwhile, Neo had set off something that could make things a little more confusing.
Neo tapped Ratigan on the shoulder, and Ratigan got off of the top of Amelia. "Ratigan, I set off a timer on a bomb that could explode the whole ship. We have about ten minutes to get everyone off this ship."
"Okay, why did you set off the detonation sequence of a bomb? We need to make sure we get out right away, because I think I just blew our cover", Ratigan replied, flipping the switch that activated the bomb alarms. Immediately, people started running all over, screaming things like "BOMB! BOMB!" and getting to the lifeboats.
Amelia had had enough of this craziness. When Ratigan got off of her, she started towards the exit to one of the lifeboats. But she felt something curl around her legs, knock her down, and drag her back. She turned around to see that Ratigan's tail was wrapped around her legs. "Oh, great," Amelia thought. "It's not bad enough that he has wings, now he has a prehensile tail to boot." Ratigan picked up Amelia and headed over to the side of the boat.
"Can you swim?", he asked.
"Of course I can swim, if the occasion calls for it," Amelia replied.
"Trust me, it calls for it", Ratigan said, tossing Amelia overboard. Neo ran up to the side of the boat next and leapt overboard. Ratigan was about to do the same, when Basil and Dawson ran up.
"We've got you now, Ratigan," Basil proclaimed. But Ratigan dived over the edge of the boat before Dawson could fire a single shot. He plummeted for what seemed like forever, but when it seemed like he was going to plunge into the water, his new wings opened up and he went into a low glide over the surface of the water.
(To be continued . . .)