*AN* The character "Katie Knight"- does not exist in any of my stories (at least for the time being.) Any mention of "Katie" is an OC based off me.
Just a heads up, I will be changing the titles of some of my stories soon. As I mentioned in a past AN I was trying to make a series and then use only one word to describe the story as a whole and that word would also be used as a revelation or opening/closing line. I got a little bored with this one and it was getting hard to come up with clever names.
This is going to be longer than I thought, only because the plot is starting to come together and I want to try my luck at throwing in some clues/twists/turns/cliff hangers. Bear with me as I take a slow stroll through this story. *
The guys finished up their tour with no further trouble and were back in the states in 2 weeks. They had to go straight to work filming the new season so they only got a few days to themselves before the early mornings began again. They were happy to see their friends and co-stars and it was happy greetings all around. Stories about the tour and what people were up to went around for a little bit before it was time to start the table reads and testing. They were about to get started but Lucy hadn't arrived just yet, so they waited a few minutes and she came hobbling in on crutches.
"Lucy! What happened?" Katie asked
"It was an accident; I got impaled on some glass and had to have surgery." Lucy explained
"Why didn't you tell someone? We could have worked around it." Paul said
"I thought I would be better by now. I can walk a little bit on it. I didn't think it was a big deal." she said
"Nothing we can do about it right now. Just take a seat and we'll at least get the table read going, then we can figure out what we're going to do." Paul said. Lucy was helped into her chair and catered too for the day before Paul called it a day. It took longer to film the show since they had to fill in the script with ways to block out Lucy's injury and they didn't want to write it in since there was no place to put it. She mostly just sat in her dressing room all day as the others worked their parts.
As they kept busy, no one was able to focus on any new leads in the case of the mystery animal. Logan had no time to go over the photos completely and there was no new evidence to break any new leads on. It was several months before it was seen or heard of again.
"Another sighting of the mystery animal comes in tonight from right here in Los Angeles. Several months prior, a sighting was found in London where the animal was sentenced to death but escaped without harm. Experts have given the code name "Demon" to the animal as it showcases supernatural talents such as change in size, appearance and other abilities, most recently, flying. A passerby, who happened to belong to a research group for Demon noticed it's large paw prints leading out of a large desert area. The other end stopped dead and was replaced but what appeared to be human shoe prints. Casts were made of the prints in an effort to help identify a witness who may have seen anything." The newscaster said before breaking to another story.
"Sounds like whoever saw it, became the next meal for that thing." James stated.
"Possibly, why else would the tracks stop?" Lucy asked
"but why wouldn't investigators just say that?" James asked
"they don't want to cause riots or mass chaos and panic." Katie replied
"What if the person wasn't eaten? What if the person transformed into the animal?" Carlos offered
"What?" Katie questioned
"yeah like it had mutation powers!" he continued
"Really Carlos?" Logan brushed off
"This is real life, not a science fiction movie" Kendall stated
"it could happen, we don't know the truth behind all this science stuff." Carlos defended.
"he's right in a way. Beyond the basics such as magnets, biology, and Chemistry we learn in school, we have no idea what lies beyond in quantum, theoretical, or experimental physics. Even astrophysicists know more than we ever could." Logan agreed.
"See! I was right."
"I didn't say you were completely right, just that there is always a possibility since these kinds of things arent yet known." Logan stated. They were interrupted by the news once more as they continued the story with breaking news.
"Breaking news, straight into our studio. New discoveries have been made in the stride to identify Demon. Under DNA testing the animal appears to be a type of chimera although instead of sharing DNA with 2 animals, it shares DNA with several animals. Chimeras are usually always created by humans but in this case, there is no documentation of this type of experiment. Officials believe that it is possible that this may be an escaped experiment from an underground laboratory. DNA has yet to be identified as to what types of animals it is made from but stay tuned to channel six for the latest updates as they come into our studio." The anchor continued.
"That's awful! How could someone do that to an animal?" Camille said disgusted.
"Its done all the time all over the world unfortunately. There are some sick people on this planet. There are people that are obsessed with learning how things work and they will stop at nothing, creating their own experiments no matter how sick, twisted or illegal they may be. I feel sorry for the animal, but at least it's free." Katie said.
"But now it wont be left alone. Some people want it dead, and others want it captured for more experiments. Don't they think that it's been through enough? Why cant they just leave it alone?" Lucy said disgusted
"All the more reason for us to help it. We might be the only ones who don't want to see it killed or captured. All these magazines, news stations and talk shows are paying big money for pictures and video of this thing which is causing so many people to look for it. Whether it's a natural animal or lab made, we should at least try to help it." Kendall said standing up.
"Agreed. With all of our abilities put together, we're bound to come up with something." Katie said.
"Then it's settled, our days are spent here and our nights, we go out hunting. Now we just need our first plan."
"Logan, still have those pictures?"
"Yeah, they are on my computer."
"Send me a copy. You and I will both look over the photos from top to bottom and see what we can come up with. James, it would help if you can tell me everything you remember about both encounters with the animal."
"Sure."
"As far as Plans go, I say everyone come up with one and we'll work out the bugs next time we meet. Weapons and armor lands on you Carlos."
"No problem." he replied. Carlos, Logan, and Camille left to get started on their tasks. Kendall was called to set shortly after.
"Give me a few minutes?"
"I can get you 10."
"Plenty."
"Ok."
"James, reconsider dropping out of the hunt. We really could use your help." Katie said
"Just because it was at your house doesent mean anything, its not like it even hurt you on purpose. You're the one who fell." Lucy said.
"How did you know?" James questioned. He was by himself when the accident happened and she was in another state when it happened and want able to visit. He woke up alone and never knew how he got there.
"You told me." she said. "Or rather, that's what I gathered from the story you told me."
"Oh." James replied. Katie was called to set immediately and she left in a hurry, saying a quick goodbye on her way out the door. Kendall was called again seconds later.
"I have to get to set, just think about it, James. I know you arent afraid, but don't let one accident ruin your chance to help save an animal. You and I both know this would mean a lot to Katie." he said before leaving. James sat in silence for a moment before he excused himself from Lucy's room and headed to his room to think.
Kendall returned to his dressing room after his shift and James stopped by shortly after.
"I'll do it." he said. Kendall looked up at him confused. "I'll go on the mission." he said. Kendall gave him a smile and James left to go to set. They would talk later once everyone was all set with their job assignments. It was another early night and they met at Carlos' house. They ordered some take-out, had some laughs around the table and got down to business once they all finished. They spent several hours planning, talking and drawing out everything before they came up with 3 ideas and areas to search and set a date for tomorrow night. They had the day after off and could spend much of the night searching for the so called demon.
They tried for several nights but had no luck in locating the animal itself or even an indication as to where it might have been, if it was still around. Somehow they were missing something; the animal didn't have a set pattern at all, at least not one that was discernable by them. When it appeared, it vanished without much of a trace but the time between appearances varied greatly. Logan's photos were great but they didn't hold any new information that wasn't already known.
After a week, they received a vacation and they took a break from the hunt for a while to just enjoy themselves. Reports came in of the animal's DNA and it was a long list. Each chromosome was matched to a certain characteristic of another animal. Some traits such as it's paws had no DNA link but it was easy to see that they were paws of a lion. The chromosomes were difficult to tell apart or completely read so much of the info was just a guess as to what exactly it controlled based on one part of the chromosome itself.
It had DNA from mostly canine, equine and a little feline with minute traces of birds of prey, elephant, aquatic mammals, among others that were too difficult to make out. However, one batch of chromosomes stood out and even after several tests came back nearly inconclusive. The tests showed that human DNA was present within the sample they had obtained when tracking the prints.
Although they couldn't be positive, they assumed that somehow, the sample was contaminated or came in contact with a human. Scientists figured the DNA must have belonged to the mad scientist whose experiment this animal was. After they ran it through many programs, nothing came back that was even close to a match but kept it on file. There were still many questions and little progress towards answers.
*AN* Bear in mind this story is different than things I have written before for this website. This story could be considered an experiment on my own behalf. I'm publishing it here just for a safe place so to speak. whether readers like it or dont, doesnt matter to me, at least not on this story. I'm trying different things on this one so it really is for my own benefit. Feel free to leave feedback thoughts opinions, foreshadowing, let downs, changes etc. I'm not going to go back and change what I wrote but I can always use suggestions in future stories but no promises, sorry. This is also a reason as to why the grammar, spelling and overall outline and setup are the way they are, I'm treating this as a rough draft story, published for safe keeping/feedback. No need to leave comments on the bad spelling, punctuation, capitalization and what not, I'm aware of it but like I said, this is just a rough draft story since I am trying something new.*