Leaning against the counter, Violet had been on the phone for hours a day with as many mammals as she could get ahold of when she wasn't getting help from Romen. None were of any help as luck would have it. Two months had passed since his disappearance, and with the team sent to search for Ryan came back empty pawed on their second trip. Sighing and staring at her phone, contemplating whether to give up on her own search or not. Being determined to get something done at the start is easy, but time tests that drive, and it seems she was nearing her wits end. Feeling another headache coming, she knew she couldn't do anything but get a cold cloth ready. She had taken enough aspirin to warrant a trip to the hospital, any more wouldn't be very good for her health. That thought aside, she looked back at her phone. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she scrolled to her boss, the last contact she went to on her now routine schedule. Pausing for a second, wondering if she should bother at all, but decided not to give up. She hit the call button, waiting for him to pick up.

"Violet I swear if you are going to ask-"

"Any word on if they've found Ryan yet?" interrupting him. "I've said it before and I'll say it now, he's not one to just disappear like this. Something happened to him, and I at least want to know what. I want closure to this, and not ten years from now!" Slamming her paw on the counter. She heard a drip on the floor, a tear, causing her to wipe her face with the free arm. "Two months, boss. He's been missing for two months. If he's alive, I'm going to make sure he gets back. If he's…I'm not going to let him just rot under some jungle tree. You shouldn't either." Her tone lowering to a near whisper. The phone was silent for a moment, giving her time to recompose herself. Her boss started talking again, his tone soft and caring, something rarely even heard or seen.

"Violet, they're not going to investigate any further. If it weren't so dangerous to even just walk in that place, they might've continued. But that place is barely mapped out, there's virtually no infrastructure, and just about anything that moves there will want to kill and eat you. It was hard enough getting our team out there, even harder to get a rescue team that would even want to go there to get him out. I'm sorry, but he's gone. He was a good friend to you, and I know this is difficult for you. But there's one thing I've learnt over my life, and it's to move on. Time will heal the pain."

"Is that why you stare at that picture of your wife when you think no one is looking?" she spoke without thinking, instantly realizing that wasn't a good thing to bring back up. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" the sound of the line disconnecting buzzed in her ear. She knew she would pay hell for saying that tomorrow. "Stupid, stupid, stupid" she scolded herself. Putting her phone back in her pocket, she made her way to the living room sofa, plopping down on it with an audible whoosh from the air. Picking the remote up from her coffee table, she turned on the television and started to flip through the channels. Five minutes of going through the "two thousand channels but nothing is on" phase later, she settled for some random replay of a sitcom she had seen too many times to care. Somewhere in the middle she had fallen asleep, but was awoken from a buzzing in her pants. She moaned internally, picking her head up. Glancing at the clock on the round table next to her, she noticed it was near midnight.

"Who could be calling this late?" she whispered to herself. Digging her paw in her pocket, grabbing the offending item keeping her from sleeping. After turning the brightness down to minimum after nearly blinding herself, she looked at the screen again. The caller I.D. didn't show any name she recognized, or even a number for that matter, just showing "Unknown" for the info. Against her better judgement she answered.

"Uhllo?" her speech was still waking up it seemed.

"Violet Weber, archaeologist, partner to Ryan Meyers in said field?" a male responded.

"Yes…?" she was almost worried at what this conversation was going to be.

"If you want to see him, you'll need to go to the main city hospital at New Hamstershire. He'll be there in a few days," He hung up before she could ask any questions. She didn't care either. Ryan is alive, that's all that mattered. New Hamstershire is so far away though. Almost a thousand miles from where she was, in Utfrexburt. She let the phone from her ear, staring at the screen. The "Unknown" caller still displayed on her phone. She tapped the call back option, only for the phone to say the number didn't exist.

"Worth a try, I guess" she contemplated whether to call her boss, even at midnight to tell him what had just happened. A text would be better she figured. She finished that, sending it to him, along with several other colleagues in a group text. As she predicted, no one texted back right away. She looked at her phone's clock, almost one in the morning now. If she was going to see Ryan, she needed sleep. Making her way to her bed, she internally screamed to herself in excitement. Two months of nagging everyone she thought could help had finally paid off, it seemed. Though imagining Ryan surviving in that jungle made her shiver. What did he eat? Did he contract some unknown disease? Too many questions that made her uneasy. Being alive didn't mean in good health. She needed to get ahold of him.

"His cell phone!" He never left anywhere without it. If that didn't work the hospital phone would have to suffice, though the hours of waiting for a response would be torture. She scrolled through her contacts, picking Ryan's number.

"The number you have dialed is un-" she hung up, should've figured no one would pick up, that message meant his phone was off, too, probably no battery charge left. She would have to dial the hospital tomorrow to see if the claim was true. The thought of him being alive gave her enough hope, though. She went back to her phone, getting all her co-workers in a group text conversation.

"Just got a call. They found Ryan! Tell the boss I'm gonna be gone for a bit, don't think he wants to see me for a bit anyway" tapping the send button. Noticing the time read nearly two in the morning, she figured no one would respond, which didn't help to quell her excitement. She did a fast walk to her room, picking up a pillow, proceeding to scream into it. After running out of breath, she let the pillow drop back onto the bed, proceeding to jump and dance like a child on Christmas day.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Ryan, you had better be prepared, because your chest will be a pancake when I'm done hugging you!" she froze in place a second later, "Okay, that sounded weird… ah who cares!" she started up again. She tapped a table lamp with her tail, causing it to fall, breaking the bulb upon contact with the floor, along with the shade. She stopped jumping, an embarrassed look on her face, "Okay, calm down Violet. Calm down, no need to bring the house down." Letting a large breath escape her. Picking up the glass and setting it on the table, she slammed into the bed, the force even launching her into the air a few feet. After finally losing the adrenalin filled moment pass, she finally felt fatigue start to take over. As she lay there, she couldn't think of whether she should just pack up and sleep at the airport to catch the flight right away or actually get a few hours of sleep. Shrugging after a few seconds, she let a small yawn out.

"Alright, procrastination, you win" she said aloud. It only took a couple of minutes for her to go from jumping off the walls to a rock, as per usual.

.

.

.

"So, you're setting me free, now?" Ryan questioned Melanie. It had been a few months in his half body cast, his battered body had mostly healed, save for his right leg that was still in a cast. The two had been talking every off day since he woke up. Most of that time was awkward silence, for the first month at least. Small talk here and there, testing the water he figured. It was only a few weeks ago that she finally started to open up, however little it was. When he asked if she was feeding him some paste that looked like it belonged in a trash can, she gave him a confused look. She wasn't kidding when she told him they only ate one thing back at that outpost. Only water, and some paste that sounded like something astronauts ate out of a tube. Once a year they had the amazing luxury of a salad comprised of lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. The paste was about as bland as you could get it, and he had the displeasure of eating it for his entire stay. As for anything else in the past few weeks, she was still reluctant to talk about most things. Personal life? Forget about it. Hobbies? Fat chance. Just about the only thing she would talk to him about was… basically that she was thinking of whether to talk to him about anything.

"What, you don't want to leave?" She continued to give him a blank face, one she'd had for nearly his entire stay. Though he still counted it as a better expression than the pure distain she gave him a while back.

"Aha, no, er yes, well, No. I mean-" Stopping before he confused her more, he took a small breath before going on, "I want to get out of here just as much as you want me out, but I at least want you guys to get out of here too. Being cooped up in here is… well, as monotonous as can be. I've gotten when each person passes my door down to a point!" he chuckled, pointing to the door, a staff member walking past a second later. "Anyway, how long until I'm free to go?" he turned his head back to her.

"In a day or so. That leg of yours was basically paste a month and a half ago, you're lucky it only took two months,"

"Well, if I did lose it you'd have the amazing experience of eating meat for the first time. Since it's paste it'd be just like normal too!" He chuckled. He heard her give a short sigh, which quickly told him to tone it down a tad.

"I can still have that done. Remember, you're here under my orders, some might've been merciful, and send you topside to wither away. Most however, would've… well, you know. The doctors seem to have warmed to you a bit, though." She sipped out of the glass of water next to her. "Oh, I've been thinking." She said.

"Hmm?"

"When we send you back up, you'll need to go to your own hospital in... New Hamstershire, was it?" Ryan nodded, "You'll need to tell us where it is in relation to the sea. We'll have one of our-" stopping mid-sentence, he raised as eyebrow in response, "We'll be able to send you near the shore. You'll have to swim a bit, otherwise we could be found out. Make sure to tell us when it's most populated, you won't walk very far without your body giving out." She'd never let her tongue nearly slip that far before, though that only made him think she was close to warming up to him, at least a little bit.

"I thought military talk was forbidden? Don't tell me you're going soft on me." He jabbed.

"Swimming it is." She responded, her face still blank. Ryan could never tell if she was serious or not when she "joked", even after two months he still had to guess on what was serious or her version of a joke.

"Hah, good one!" he slapped the mattress with his good paw, though the laugh seemed extremely forced. He'd resorted to testing to see if she was serious, she didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor, not surprising though. "Right?" his voice a little more tense. He swore he saw the smallest smirk on her face, but he quickly found it's best not to test her. The last time he misread her he was left without painkillers for an entire day.

"Did I sound like I was joking?" she seemed to have a slight annoyance in her voice, she couldn't be that cruel, right? "Because that's the best you're going to get out of me," Ryan noticed she did have the smallest smirk, but was infinitely more focused on the relief that washed over him. He gave a small laugh, but soon returned to normal.

"In all seriousness, though, you really don't want to go to the surface? I've been here long enough to give you a taste of what we're like" he gave his largest smile.

"And what an impression you've made" She crossed her arms, leaning forward her chair. "You still haven't apologized to the nurse you nearly bit the hand off of"

"I was asleep! It's not my fault she felt like poking her fingers in my mouth!" he actually felt a bit offended at that. Seriously, his teeth are made for tearing flesh, why would you prod around what equates to a sausage in a knife den?

"She was getting saliva samples from you, since you wouldn't let them do it when you were awake." Her voice raised slightly, that dreaded narrowing of the eyebrows started to form.

"Look, how about we let bygones be bygones. I was asleep, it was an accident, no harm was even done. Can we agree on that?" He raised his good arm out for a handshake. She stared at his paw for a few seconds before slowly extender her own hand out. The look on her face made it seem like she thought something would jump out of his paw if she got too close to it. Finally though, she did shake in agreement.

"Alright! Now that we've agreed on something, we should keep that streak up!" his voice filled with a bit more enthusiasm. "Back to what we were talking about, before the whole hand-bite-thing, you should go up there! Hey, at least you won't have to eat this paste anymore" giving his best grin.

"Tempting, but no. The council needs to come to a majority agreement on the matter, I only count as five votes out of twelve. Given how nearly all of them want your head on their desk, it's not going to happen any time soon."

"Yeah, but you're the leader, right? Can't you just… override them?" he asked.

"Really? Yes, let me vote against all the council members, potentially making them wonder if I should be in charge, which could spark a civil war along with the one with the Polts? Brilliant idea!" she exclaimed.

"Alright, alright, I get it. Sorry for trying to help. You really need to work on being nice for once, tone down the bitterness, would help a lot" crossing his arms at the last sentence. She seemed… amused? She didn't have a look of anger, that much was certain. She soon lost the look, however, going on with her explanation like he hadn't even interjected.

"Besides, I only count as five out of twelve votes, remember? I'd need two of them to vote for it." She deadpanned. "And with our current conflict, that isn't exactly high on the priority list." Adding on to the bucket list of things she had to keep track of to him. Ryan gave a bit of an awkward smile to show he was defeated, though straightened out when he went to speak.

"Oh, that reminds me too. How have you guys been at war with the Polts for so long but we've never even noticed? I mean, we were in a jet, those things aren't quiet. Besides, thousands of mammals have a radar, or satellite feed." He asked.

"We fly in the clouds most of the time, so imaging won't work nearly as well, and we have anti detection measures for radar and tracking. We could fly over your capitol city and you would be none the wiser. I say that because we done that before, by the way" Leaning back into her chair. "Going back a bit, the only way the others would accept revealing ourselves is if they're given a good enough reason or incentive. Better food isn't exactly a great bullet point."

"Oh! What if some other group of humans came up first, not yours. If they didn't like you, they could get us to attack you by spreading false information. But if you go up first that's not an issue!" He gave her a look like he was the smartest being alive.

"But they haven't, the only ones other than us are the Polts as far as we know, and they are not fond of you, Remember? They'd rather surprise attack you before talking. Though they wouldn't be able to take over the world, they'd probably be able to take a good chunk of land. But as far as we can tell, they don't have enough resources to engage in a prolonged war." She was staring to ramble.

"What about you? Didn't you say that you could?" He recalled their earlier encounter. "We could wipe one of your largest cities off the face of the Earth in a matter of seconds, but it's for a last resort."

"They have a large number and resource advantage. We have the technology gap, and are always on the defense, so they have a much harder time getting to us. We also don't charge into battle expecting brute force to win out like they do."

"So why not "tactically" take over a place that has a ton of resources and build yourself up?" he asked. "I mean, I know it's not that easy, but you have the element of surprise, so you might have a good chance at it."

"Which would escalate their efforts to beat us, which in turn, would escalate the war, which would in turn have a much greater chance of you finding us. We let him attack us, we repel it. Rinse and repeat, it's worked perfectly fine so far, there's no need to change that." Ryan gave her a look like he was about to try and refute that last point, but she already knew what he was going to say.

"That thirty jet pursuit and subsequent dogfight was the first ever. Usually they send one or two at the most, mainly due to risk of exposure. We call it a war, but it's really just dig a tunnel to their base and attack. The jets are for transport or reconnaissance. Rarely do they ever go into combat like you saw. But like I said, we dig a tunnel to them, that takes a lot of time and resources better put elsewhere. We just let them attack and we repel them." She finished.

"Like that outpost that got over ran?" He gave his own monotone voice, though it was really just in jest.

"You mean the one we took from them two years ago and already had all the important things gutted out of it? We were going to destroy the place in a few months anyway, what do you think we collapsed the above ground city for?" she shot back. Seems she won this battle, though neither were keeping count.

"Well, again, why not beat them? Sure it'd take a lot of effort, but-"

"Because we can't, they have a ten to one advantage to us. Technology can only compensate for so much. Whatever we take from them, they'll eventually take back. So we've resolved to fortifying our original underground settlements to be impossible to take, or extremely difficult. What we do take, we either gut it like the last place, or we see if we can hold it indefinitely- which has never been successful. That outpost was actually a new record. I was considering making it a permanent one, but changed my mind after we realized you were there. You saw what happened after that. Before that however-" She walked around the room to keep herself preoccupied while she spoke. Ryan followed her with his eyes, half paying attention, half being in dreamland because of the painkillers they put him on.

"Huh, didn't notice she cut her hair, I liked it when it was longer. Shoulder length is fine though. Oh, is that a new blanket that nurse is bringing? Ah… nope, next room." His thoughts going from one subject to another.

"- But after that, I was set in charge of the military as well. Dead people can't exactly lead an army. It was a bit… are you even paying attention?"

"Should I give the correct answer or the real one?" he gave his best poker face. Her signature "Are you freaking kidding me" look, as he took to calling it, was plastered on her face. "Look, these meds make it REALLY hard to focus. Short and sweet, add some explosion sounds in, and you'll have me fully attentive." Giving his best grin and a thumbs up.

"Unbelievable… if you're having that much trouble I can take you off them again. I'm sure no one would object." Crossing her arms. "Don't think I'm joking, either. It was difficult enough to get you on them. Others had to wait a few more days to get theirs. I didn't even get so much as a thanks from you, either."

"Thanks." He instantly said. She looked a bit aggravated at his attempt at a joke, a poor one, even for him. "Alright, alright. I am thankful that I'm not in constant agony. But, I feel that the medication evens out the whole vent shenanigans thing. So I'd say we're even." Smirking at her.

"Hmph, I guess so. Even so, I-" A knock on the door made her look over. Opening it presented a male in what looked like military garments. He whispered something into Melanie's ear then left as fast as he came. The door was left open with her still standing there in thought.

"Earth to Melanie, anyone home?" Ryan piped up. The sudden break of her train of thought made her jump a bit, turning to him in the process.

"It's nothing, just go to sleep or something. I've got some things to take care of. If you absolutely have to, call a doctor to help you to go to the bathroom. Your leg still isn't healed enough to put weight on it." Talking as she left through the door.

"Nothing she says? Hah, women speak the same no matter what, it seems." His grin left immediately after, "But what could have her so spooked? That look was like she saw a ghost." He let the bed fully encompass him as he fully laid down, "Best not to think about it too much, not like I can do anything like this, either." He stared at the ceiling. Having woken up not two hours ago, there's no way he could force himself to sleep now. A few minutes passed, then more, then more. Soon it felt like hours, though the clock on the wall opposite of him begged to differ. Only half an hour, which felt like ten. Wishing He had his phone, which had been assumed destroyed at the outpost he had to abandon, the only source of entertainment was his imagination, which over the course of nearly two months, had begun to run out of ideas. More time passed, now going on three hours, four, six…

"With a rebel yell. She cried more, more, more!" resorting to singing random songs to keep himself occupied. He was brought to a halt, however, when a nurse opened the door.

"Dinner" was all she said. Joy, more pink paste and water. At least the others actually spoke to him now. Before, as he found out, they would play some sort of game, be it rock paper scissors, drawing sticks, to find out who had to "deal with him". After a month they seemed to have just gone into a routine.

"Looks amazing as usual" he quirked.

"I can give you the brown colored one instead of you want." She shot back.

"Ha, no thanks. I like pink more." He instantly began eating to shut himself up. Just imagine it's warm pudding, he took to telling himself. He honestly didn't know what was in the stuff, but he didn't die of starvation, so he didn't care much either. But what he would give for a nice bug burger. A few seconds after he started eating, her pager buzzed. She took a look at it, then left the room in a bit of a hurry. He shrugged, not putting much thought into what might've caused her to nearly run out of the room. After he finished eating, the clock read nearly seven in the afternoon. One more day down, only a few more to go.

.

.

.

"You're sure?" She paused for a moment, her advisors and generals letting her sort things out. "God damnit Ryan, you jinxed yourself and everyone else…" she whispered. She waives her informant out of the room, waiting until the door was locked to continue. Looking at the rest of the people surrounding the rest of the metallic table, she could tell all of them had the same look as she did. She leaned back in her chair, though not being able to relax given the potential situation. The news seemed to have fully saturated with everyone, all lost in their own thoughts. Taps of fingers on the table, rocking of chairs, she could tell it was going to be a long afternoon. One of the men cleared his throat, bringing her from her thoughts.

"If I may?" He asked.

"Go on, Smith" Melanie answered. He nodded in response, looking at the rest of the people at the table before nodding to himself.

"Well… I say we do nothing. As far as we know, they won't be able to hold any ground they take for long. The sheer size of the mammalian kingdom would be able to push back. Millions will die on the animal's side, presumably," he clasped his hands together, a bit of nervousness seeping through, "But the Polenitians don't have the manpower to push them back for too long once they stretch themselves thin inevitably." He continued to look to the others, probably looking for approval of his opinion.

"The animals are cowards, they'd surrender as much as they'd need to just to survive. After that, they would have an even larger advantage against us than they already do. It would only be a matter of time before they launch an all-out assault on us after that." Another retorted.

"It's also entirely possible they aren't attacking them, they could've founded another city long ago that we've just stumbled upon. We aren't omnipresent or omnipotent, we could have missed a few. Besides Monty, we don't have a full picture, that's why I say we do nothing for now." Smith argued.

The once scheduled normal meeting had been going for hours, with the news of bombers and large carriers moving about putting everyone on edge. The air was tense, that shipment volume being transported all at once was unheard of. Then again, that thirty fighter jet assault was unheard of as well. It was a miracle that those bunker busters were shot out of the sky, save for a damaged one that missed and piled into the ground a mile away due to the tail being shot off. The damage to the base was marginal, nothing that couldn't be repaired in another month, most of it being replanting the grass. No plans were made for a counter offensive, they had been resigned to a defensive strategy for the last five hundred years, and it had worked well so far.

"Before we jump into conclusions, let's just play it by ear for now. If they are going to wage a surprise war against the animals, they must be pretty damn sure they can win it, or force them to sign a cease fire at the least. If it's a new city, it's been there for a long time. You can't make a hangar to house fifty bombers and carrier planes in a few days. Let alone an entire military or city installment." Another spoke up, pausing for a second to think on how to continue. "However, if in the absolute worst case scenario, they look like they can win against the world, we will be forced to intervene. They know all our locations, it would only be a matter of time before they decide to drop enough bombs to make our underground cities into twenty mile deep craters once they rebuild." He finished. The room was silent. For so long they had been under the utmost secrecy, they had figured the Polts had the same idea.

"I agree with Montero, if they were to start a war with the mammals, we would be forced to pick a side. Either side with the ones who're trying to kill us right now, or the ones who tried to kill us twenty five millennia ago." Melanie spoke up. "I think I'm correct in saying none of you would want to pick either side. As he said, however… we would be forced to, whether we like it or not. And with how our relations with the Polts go… we would be more or less inclined to side with the mammals." The entire room looked to her, she hadn't let them down before, so if she thought siding with the mammalians was their best bet at survival, they would most likely side with her… mostly.

"When would we intervene, though? We haven't the power or resources to wage an offensive war with the amount of troops they have right now. If we wait too long they could sign a peace treaty or cease fire with the mammals. Our only course would be to wait until they're stretching thin, know for certain where they'd attack next, and set up an ambush. The element of surprise is all we'd have. That only lasts for a short while, too" Monty said. It was true, they could defend themselves extremely well, but there's no way an offensive war would go over well for them. Aside from the resource crisis that would ensue, none of them had any experience whatsoever in large scale battles that would be occurring.

"Like Montero and Smith said, we don't know if they're even going to attack. However, fifty bombers and transport carriers in one sitting isn't something to brush off. We need to keep a close eye on that area for any activity. If we aren't prepared, we won't last long. I say we wait, see if they are going to war. If so, see how the war progresses, then strike when the Polts are at their weakest or most occupied, relatively speaking. The only problem is that we only have enough armor and aircraft to defend ourselves." Melanie finished. Another began to speak, but stopped. Looking over, Melanie noticed it was the newest member, replacing the one before her only a month ago. She had the knowledge and wit, but her self-confidence left much to be desired. "Go on Valerie, you're as much a member of this table as the rest of us" Melanie raised her hand halfway, gesturing to her.

"Well, all I'm getting from this is that we are to leave ourselves completely open to attack if we are to, well, attack. So either we anticipate a counter to our offensive and retreat to safety, or we evacuate our outer cities and fortify our inner ones." Valerie added. Smith rubbed his temples, no scenario thought of so far would leave them with little casualties.

"You forget though, they're two generations behind us in nearly all wartime technology. We might not even need to defend. Yes, they have superior numbers, but their ground to air missiles and radar can't get a lock on any of our stealth jets until thirty or so miles, too short a window for any form of defense that would be effective. Their tanks are marginal at best as well, they can only deal significant damage from the rear." Montero said.

"A tank that's twenty times as good won't do well against thirty other tanks, Ramirez. Once they close the ground, they'll flank us, same with our air forces. Having an army in wait would be futile. Besides, you all forget, what if even after we-I can't believe I'm saying this, defend the animals, they decide to attack us?" Monty retorted. The room fell silent, save for tapping feet and fingers. Melanie looked around the room, spotting the two who hadn't said anything so far. Time to see if they had some secret plan up their sleeve.

"Russel, Ford, you two have been quiet for the entire time. Any input here?" Melanie piped up. The two looked at each other for a second and nodded.

"We were talking while you five were rambling, both of us think it best if we do nothing. If we fortify ourselves more no attack will reach us. Also, even if the Polts somehow win the war against the animals, the casualty count for them will make it a laughably one sided victory if we decide to attack them afterwards. The military power would be spread thin if they manage to take any amount of land, a few air raids will be able to force them into submission." Russel looked at Ford, giving her a turn to talk.

"As Russel was saying… If they can defeat the animals, or as we were doing, working on the cure, we should attack them right after their war if it seems like we have a good chance of winning. This would ensure our own survival, while simultaneously getting rid of both rivals and threats."

"We're working with a lot of "If scenario's" people. Let's wait a bit and see what happens. Besides, our cure has barely progressed since it began. A cure may not be viable now, anyway." Smith was at a near whisper, he had been massaging the sides of his head for a while now. A headache induced Smith was not one to be argued with. The counsel looked at him, waiting for an explanation for his claims.

"Our teams that took the samples from the subject… what was his name again?"

"Ryan" Melanie answered.

"Right, right. Our samples from Ryan show that whatever they did to the animals generically so long ago seems to have, well… completely fused with their D.N.A." The counsel kept staring at him. "Layman's terms, it's likely impossible to turn them back, they've been infected for so long passing the thing from generation to generation that it's become part of them. The only way to get rid of them would, for lack of better words, engineer our own animals like they were before all this happened, then slowly get rid of the ones currently on the surface."

"You're positive, Smith? No doubts in your mind whatsoever?" Melanie asked. He gave a nod in response. Melanie looked around the small round table, examining everyone's facial expressions. Most seemed like they wanted to just ignore all this, she couldn't blame them, honestly. She slammed her hands openly on the table and stood up, garnering everyone's attention.

"Well, gentlemen! I say we call this meeting adjourned for now. We'll meet again tomorrow to discuss this, I expect for our contingency plan to be decided on by the end of the week, understood?" All nodded, "Alright, meeting adjourned, goodnight men." She left the room quickly at first, though not in a hurry. She needed to see if Ryan knew his own countries military prowess. The more they knew, the better they could prepare in the case they are going to wage war. She just had to hope the animals didn't notice the bombers, otherwise they may not have any time to prepare.

.

.

.

"Reports of several unidentified flying objects were seen over the coast of the small uninhabited island of Edaiho. No information has been found on what the objects were. Many believe the videos to be staged or a military exercise. Though some believe it to be proof of alien visitation. So far no comment has been made by officials, which serves only to stir more unrest, keep tuned for more information."

Mainstream and small news channels had been talking of the camera videos showing what looked like a series of incredibly small, white dots in small portion of the sky, traveling the coastline far away. This isn't something Violet would usually expect to wake up to on the morning news.

"According to our sources, a small group of fishermammals were headed out to the coast of the island at night, when one of the crew members saw something in the sky" the reporter spoke. The camera transitioned to another spot in the small town, a small koala starting to talk.

"I was just coming up to get some fresh air, Rest of the guys were asleep, cause, y'know, midnight. So, I see some weird lights out in the distance, so I just took some phone video. One of the other guys came up when he heard me shouting. I told him to get a real camera, like, one that can zoom in really good. But when he came back they were already gone, went over the horizon. I don't know about you, but that island's always been weird, now it feels like it's haunted or something." Re-enacting what he did as he spoke, grabbing his phone out to try and show his footage again. Honestly, it really did just look like a bunch of tiny dots slowly moving across the sky, given how blurry the video was. The lights were flying near cloud level, slowly moving towards the horizon. His crew-mate coming up to check on what was going on, then the dots disappearing soon after.

"I've always loved how when they get some "footage" of stuff like this it's always on some potato of a camera," she joked. Her phone buzzed in her pocket a bit later, sounding off the alarm tone she set for herself. "Too bad, this was just getting interesting" turning off the alarm, stuffing the phone back in her pocket. Finishing her coffee that had long gone cold since she made it, she set off for work to tell them she was going to see Ryan the next day. Seeing how she probably had pissed her boss off with her unfiltered comment, he'd probably let her just to spare both of them from the arguments that would ensue. Ah well, she'll deal with that when she gets to work.

.

.

.

.

.

No, I'm not dead. Just kind of… had more important things to do. Besides, this is just a hobby, and you can only do hobbies when you have free time. Anyway, until next time~