Edward licked his wounds as Maes and Havoc tied Hasch up and Colben went to look for his keys to inspect the office. Roy was too big to come into the building so Havoc told him to stay outside and watch for Hawkeye and the doctor he had requested and alert them when they arrived.
"Brother, stop licking your wounds, the doctor will be here soon to take care of that."
Edward watched his brother defiantly as he continued to lick his wound anyway. If Al had had eyes, he would have rolled them. The door to the office opened and everyone looked up at Colben, who had gone in to search.
"He's moved them. The only ones here are the more recent ones. It would be imperative if someone woke him up and asked where he stored them."
Havoc turned to the unconscious professor and backhanded him hard. Hasch woke up with a gasp, looking around in confusion.
"How ya doin?" Havoc asked with a grin.
"Not very well… My body is sore…" he moaned, trying to get his bearings.
Orwen growled something while he was gnawing on a bone and Edward barked in response. Everyone turned to Colben for translation.
"I believe he said that it was the start of the transformation. Mr. Elric said that the mixture between Shiro Kiba and the Colonel's bite will probably be a mixture of transformation techniques." Orwen barked at him. "Oh, sorry, he said that it will create something completely different."
"So we have no idea how this will go?" Maes asked.
"Only for the professor." Colben said.
"Professor Hasch, can you tell us where you have your old formula notebooks?" Alphonse asked, kneeling next to the professor.
"My… my what?" he asked, seeming very disoriented.
"Your old formula notebooks."
Hasch thought for a moment and then winced, seeming to try and focus but failing to do so.
"I'm sorry… What was the question?"
Maes sighed. "This is pointless."
Edward barked and Shiro Kiba barked back.
"They said his mind is probably trying to adjust to the new changes of his body." Shiro Kiba barked again. "She said her saliva indirectly makes wolves but by biting, it gets into the bones and muscles, creating something like a werewolf."
"I thought you never knew how that worked?" Maes said with a growl.
"She's taking a while guess. She's bitten people before and we knew that the outcome wasn't the same but no one ever really survived it, to be honest, so we stopped letting her bite people. Her saliva is the same no matter what-"
"No." Everyone turned to Hasch. "No, it's different than how I use it in the injection."
"How is it different?" Maes asked.
"It's modified to work quickly and painlessly, usually lasting no more than a few minutes."
"Painless?" Maes snarled, pointing at Petty Officer Orwen. "Ask him if it was painless! You contorted these men into animals and you want to try and tell me that it was painless?!"
"I assure you that what he says is true." Colben said. "The formula allows the patient to go to sleep and they are changed while they are unconscious. When they wake up, they have turned. It isn't like what happened to your Colonel… or to the professor."
Hasch moaned and lolled his head. Colben reached out and touched his forehead, frowning.
"He's got a high fever."
"Good, then he'll want to think quickly."
"I can't… I… my head is so hot…" Hasch said, barely keeping his eyes open.
Havoc grabbed the man's hair and made him look at him.
"You will look past your fever and think. Do you understand me? We don't care about you or what happens to you, okay? We just want to get our men and the men you screwed over back to their families at any cost. So, think, Professor."
"Stop it." Colben said, moving in between them.
"Why are you defending him? He's a monster."
"Havoc, enough." Maes said. "You can't blame Major Colben for having a small amount of worry for the professor. If what Shiro Kiba says is true about him originally being a wolf, then his protective and loyal instincts are still there. You are antagonizing his owner."
Colben frowned. "I'm not owned by anyone. I don't appreciate the use of the word."
A low grumble was heard outside and Maes went to the door. A car was pulling up to the facility and he went out to greet them.
Hawkeye, Fuery, and Breda got out of the car along with a fourth person and met Maes as he walked up to them. Upon seeing Roy sitting at the entrance, Breda hid behind Riza, trying to hide from his superior.
"Glad you could make it."
"Indeed. This is Dr. Quincy. He specializes in both human and animals. I disclosed the information under pain of death so he should be cooperating well with us."
Maes looked at the man as he nodded quickly in agreement.
"Alright then. Right now we're trying to get the professor to tell us where his old formula books are so that we can try to locate the one he used on Colben."
"Who's Colben?" Riza asked as they started to walk.
"Hasch's assistant. According to Shiro Kiba, he is actually her brother that Hasch was able to turn into a human. He can understand the wolves and… um… Edward got turned into a wolf too so time is of the essence."
Riza made a face as they headed up to the facility.
Roy was lying down when the car party walked up. He opened an eye and watched Maes go by with a man he didn't recognize. He could smell the fear wafting off of him and although it made him smile, the threat to his friends was nonexistent. He smelled Fuery's apprehension as he passed and gave a small wave to him. Roy pushed back his ears but didn't do anything. Breda was a wreck as he went by but Roy didn't blame him. Roy had almost eaten him… Then he smelled Riza getting closer and lifted his head, waiting for her to approach. As she got closer, he put his ears back and his tail began to wag slightly. She passed by him without so much as a word and Roy immediately growled, upset she didn't acknowledge him. Riza turned around as he stared at her in expectation. She smiled and pet his head as his tail began to wag harder and he stood up, almost knocking her over.
"Alright, Colonel, enough. If we don't get in there we can't help you." She said, pushing his big frame away.
He butted his head against her as she scratched behind his ears. Satisfied with the proper attention, he turned back around and laid down again.
When Riza went into the facility, she saw someone helping another guy to a small cot. The man looked increasingly ill with every step that was taken, shivering and turning whiter with every breath.
"What's going on over there?" Riza asked.
Dr. Quincy looked over as he finished filling a syringe with a clear liquid.
"The professor is experiencing symptoms from the wolf bite. If what you said is true then I'm sure his body is preparing for transformation and/or is trying to get rid of the foreign body of the poison in the saliva of the wolf. He's in an extreme amount of pain; so much that he can't concentrate on what they are asking him. So I'm going to give him something for it and hopefully we'll be able to get some answers out of him."
Maes looked pissed, along with Havoc, who was lighting a cigarette angrily.
Dr. Quincy went to the professor and injected him with the clear liquid as Riza walked over to Maes.
"The doctor says this may have to do with the bite from the wolf."
"That's an understatement." He scoffed. "His body can't handle the triple whammy that was forcefully given to him."
"Triple whammy?"
"The Colonel grabbed him up and slung him around like a ragdoll, puncturing his torso with many bad wounds. Shiro Kiba licked his wounds, letting her saliva get into his blood stream while Roy's saliva entered his bones and muscles."
"In essence," Dr. Quincy said, walking back. "His body is being invaded by bacteria that is altering his form in many ways on many levels. He is being torn apart physically as well as cellularly. Major Colben said that the white wolf's saliva acts differently in the blood than in the flesh and since your Colonel is a secondhand incubator, we don't know what abilities he has as well. He will probably not last through the night and even if he does, it will not be pleasant for him."
Colben walked up and held out a key.
"The professor told me to give this to you all."
"Is it to the notebooks?"
"Yes…"
He seemed apprehensive and Maes watched him for a second.
"Where does this key lead?"
"To- to the notebooks, just like I said."
"Then why are you shaking? Are you scared?"
Colben looked away. "There are some filing cabinets down where um… where we keep the ones that failed."
"Failed? Failed what and who?"
"No-not everyone adapts to the drug as well as the others and so they end up… um… well… it's haunting down there."
Havoc crushed his cigarette box and grabbed hold of Colben.
"Are you telling me that there are some really fucked up people down there living in agony and misshapen because of that lunatic?" Colben nodded. "Damn it!" he yelled, angrier than before.
"It doesn't happen very often but there's enough down there to make you have nightmares. I hate going down there."
Maes put his hands on Colben's shoulders.
"We have to go down there. You don't have to come if you don't want, but we need to find those notebooks. What about those down there? Can they be saved?"
"I don't know… I think Prof. Hasch was working on something for it but he wanted to make the serum where everyone could take to it first-"
"To just leave those poor guys down there to rot!?" Havoc snarled.
Colben looked at him. "He was going to make a serum. I heard him talk about it… But even though I don't want to, I have to go down there with you. You won't know where it is if I don't."
A mournful cry let out and everyone turned to Hasch. He turned over, moaning again, and spasmed. Havoc turned to the doctor.
"It thought that stuff was supposed to keep him quiet so he could endure the pain?"
"It was."
Hasch cried out again, turning on his back when he arched up and a horrible cracking sound echoed the room. He breathed heavily as he seemed to settle back to the mattress.
"It seems the transformation is getting started." Dr. Quincy announced.
"Alphonse, Hawkeye, you're with me. Havoc, you stay up here with Breda and have Fuery help Colben to separate these wolves." Maes said.
"Separate them?"
"Shiro Kiba said that some of them couldn't be saved because their memories were too far gone. We need to be able to distinguish those whose memories are still intact and those who are struggling to maintain their humanity in those bodies. We also need to know this as soon as we know the formula because if the professor survives his own transformation, we need to be out of the way."
"No! No, don't leave me! Please!" Hasch yelled from the cot.
"Begging is pointless."
"I'm not begging for my life, I'm begging you to end it."
"What?" Riza said.
"This mixture… I can tell I'll most likely be a failure. I would rather be put out of my own misery."
"Like the way you put the others in this place out of theirs?" Havoc said, holding up the key.
"I only have them there because I was going to try and make cures for them. Honest… I wouldn't wish being a failed transformation on my worse enemy."
"Would these notes have an indication of trying to help get those guys back?"
"There might be some… If not, please kill them too. Don't let them go…"
Maes walked past him but stopped for a second.
"If there is a cure, we will cure those men. And when we do, we will not cure you. If you survive the night, we will treat you in kind with the ones who were changed by your hand."
They left to find the place where the failed transformations were kept.
ah so it looks like the combination of the two sources is going to be a none-too=pleasant transformation for hasch. that's what you get when you try to play god, idiot. and roy will be coming back soon so...