I do not own Bill and Dimitri.
…
Perry's POV
We enter the next room quietly and find it a laboratory that is most definitely in use. Chemicals and stuff that look very fresh are lined up in flasks along a counter. There's a table with a cloth over it in the middle.
I pick up one of the chemicals and sniff it. It smells like sulphur.
A door opposite us opens and a familiar man comes through. We all hide behind the table, me still clutching the flask of pink liquid. He goes to one of the benches and frowns. "Bill?" he calls. "Did you move the sulphur?"
So it is sulphur. I was right.
Another familiar man comes into the room and sighs. "Have you lost the sulphur already, Dimitri?"
"No, that's why I asked you if you moved it," Dimitri snaps. "Don't treat me like an idiot."
I turn to my friends and whisper, "Pinky and I will take the bigger guy. Peter and Terry, you two get the other one. On my mark."
"Hey, I'm just being cautious," Dimitri is saying. "Maybe I left it in the other room."
"Now," I hiss.
Terry and Peter leap out and tackle Dimitri. Pinky and I dive for Bill. Pinky grabs his legs and makes him fall over while I grab his shirt collar and raise my fist.
"You have five seconds to start talking," I snarl. "Three and a half years ago, you stole a baby platypus from my mate. Where is he?"
Bill actually laughs. "You took your time."
I slap Bill hard across the face. "I am not in a joking mood! TELL ME WHERE MY SON IS!"
Bill grins and says nothing.
"Bill, just tell him," comes Dimitri's voice.
We all look over at Dimitri. Terry and Peter are both holding one of his arms. He says, "Please, just tell him. I'm tired of keeping this secret."
"I won't tell," snaps Bill. "I've kept this secret for three and a half years, I'm not about to tell it now."
"Then I will," says Dimitri defiantly.
Bill glares at him. "Don't you dare."
I motion to Terry and Peter to let him go. They come over to Bill and hold him in place while I go over to Dimitri and grab his sleeve.
"I want immunity," Dimitri says. "Immunity from the law on this matter. I tell you everything I know, I don't get arrested or charged."
"Deal," I say immediately. "Now tell me what Project Newborn is."
Dimitri opens his mouth but Bill shouts, "Don't you dare! I'll murder you!"
I don't even have to signal. Peter takes hold of a metal tray and hits Bill on the head with it, knocking him out. I look back at Dimitri, who nods.
"Project Newborn was all about implanting bionic chips into newborn animals, giving them automatic human qualities that you take years to train to achieve." Dimitri gestures towards me. "It also gives them special abilities."
"You mean like powers?" I ask. "For want of a better term: superpowers?"
Dimitri nods. "Exactly. We call them Bionics because their abilities are implanted into them via a bionic chip."
"Are all the abilities different?" I ask.
Dimitri nods. "Yes, we designed each chip to be unique."
"Does the chip affect the genetics?" asks Terry from the other side of the room. "If a Bionic has children, will the power be transferred?"
"Even if a Bionic reproduces with a non-Bionic, it's almost one hundred percent likelihood," replies Dimitri. "If two Bionics reproduced, the child would most likely inherit a combination of his or her parents' bionic abilities."
"Wait, there are more Bionics?" I ask. "I thought it was just one?"
"No," sighs Dimitri. "There are more than one."
"How many?" I demand.
"…twenty."
"So you snatched twenty innocent newborns from their mothers?" I snarl.
Dimitri looks sadly down at the ground. "Yes," he says quietly. "A fact that I am not proud of."
"Oh no…" I have just remembered something. "So all those females that were going missing three and a half years ago…that was you?"
Dimitri nods.
"Even my daughter?" snarls Peter.
"Your daughter…?"
"A white female panda."
"Oh…yes. The surgeons had to give her an emergency C-Section but…there was a mistake. You saw the scar on her stomach?"
"You mean…!"
Peter starts aggressively forward but Terry takes hold of Peter's arm and holds him back. "Pete, please don't get angry."
"DON'T GET ANGRY?" bellows Peter. "IT'S THIS GUY'S FAULT THAT MY DAUGHTER IS SCARRED AND CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE CHILDREN!"
Dimitri looks very sad. "I'm so sorry. I was out at the time…if I had known, I would have made sure they were supervised."
"YOU MEAN THE SURGEONS WEREN'T EVEN SUPERVISED?" bellows Peter.
"Pete, I get that you're furious, but I need you to calm down!" I shout at my friend. "Please, we need to find out what happened!"
"I'll bring some breakable things and a baseball bat over to your house later," offers Pinky.
Peter takes a deep breath and says, "Fine."
I turn back to Dimitri. "So where are they all?"
"In the next room in this facility."
At my signal, Pinky comes over to watch Dimitri while I quickly rush through the door into the next room. It's fairly big, with a wall of cages on one side, stacked in top of each other. There are four rows and five columns of cages, all of which hold a young animal.
Oh wait, I'm wrong. There's one empty one, the third one in the bottom row.
All the animals inside look asleep. I quickly scan through all the cages, hoping I'll see my son.
But the only platypus I see is a very light pink platypus who is obviously female.
I do see a grey panda, though. I quietly open the cage and take out the sleeping panda. I can tell it's a male. As soon as he is brought out of the cage, he stirs and wakes up. He sees me and panics slightly.
"It's okay, it's okay."
I feel myself rocking the panda gently until he relaxes.
"Wh-who are you?" asks the panda quietly.
"I'm Perry. What's your name?"
"I…I wasn't given a name," says the panda.
Something in my heart breaks. Still carrying the panda, I storm angrily through the door and confront Dimitri. "You didn't even give them names?" I yell.
Dimitri hesitates. "It…it was Bill's idea…he didn't want anyone to get too attached to them."
I pause. "When does the special power kick in?"
"At age three," replies Dimitri.
I hand the grey panda to Peter, who almost has a panic attack over the baby, and turn back to Dimitri. "Where's my son?"
"A platypus?"
"Not the light pink platypus in there, but…I don't know his fur colour. It would have started out light blue."
Dimitri hesitates and looks away. That makes me nervous. "Dimitri, where is my son?"
"He's not here," says a sardonic voice.
I turn to look at Bill, who is leaning against the wall, recovering from the blow. "Then where is he?" I snap.
"He didn't survive," Bill spits. "He's dead."
…
I've used this a lot recently but… dun DUN DUUUUN!
