Leilani followed PJ to a row of cylinders behind a rainbow tie-dyed tapestry which hung in front of the desk. They contained glowing green goo, and they were nearly as tall as PJ.
"Is that what makes the plants glow green?" Leilani poked one of the tubes and was surprised by its warmth.
"Yup." PJ stood in front of them. "My college friends and I took months to create this. It isn't fully developed yet, and we might have a long way to go." PJ sighed. "We keep adding and taking things from the goo, but it always gives us the same result. Animals who get sprayed by Daring Do start acting crazy! They start doing things they would never do! That's not even close to why we created Daring Do!"
"Wait…so, they weren't created to make animals daring? I mean, I know the ZPD were the ones who named them, 'Daring Do,' but they're not supposed to make animals do crazy things?"
"At first, we called the plant, 'Empathy,' because it's supposed to help you realize what it's like to be a hybrid so you can have empathy for us!" PJ put her hooves on her eyes and ran them down her cheeks. "The ZPD really embarrassed us, even though they don't know where we are."
Leilani was nervous, but a bit relieved at the same time. Was PJ not even trying to cause chaos, after all? "Uh…wow! Interesting! So…if you perfected Daring Do—well, Empathy, any animal who would get sprayed by the plants would know what it's like to be a hybrid and be nicer to them? How would they exactly know what it's like if they never were one?"
PJ gave her tongue a click and pointed at Leilani. "Exactly, girl. That's why Empathy is supposed to temporarily change an animal's genetic structure and make them a hybrid!"
Leilani loudly gasped but interrupted herself by clasping her paws over her mouth.
"I know. Cool, right? This goo contains the DNA of many different animals. As you probably know, only certain species can create hybrids, so if, say the perfected Empathy plant sprays a tiger in the face, the tiger would absorb the lion DNA in the spray, then they would become half-tiger, half-lion. A tigon or a liger."
"As impressive as that is, isn't that, like, really dangerous?" Leilani asked, a tremble in her voice.
"Uh, what? How?" PJ's face dropped.
"I mean, I'm not an expert, but that's got to put a lot of stress on the body, and it seems really dangerous to mess with nature that drastically, and are any of you even scientists or doctors or anything like that?"
"Uh, no, but most of us are science majors, and we're doing this for the greater good of society. I mean, no scientists or doctors here would actually go for this project, since it's probably super illegal."
"Why were these plants even planted in random places if they weren't even perfected? Who knows what they could make someone do?" Leilani didn't notice how upset her tone grew.
"Well, I obviously didn't know what they were going to do when I had them planted. Duh!" PJ chuckled. "I mean, I couldn't have used them on anyone who works for me or with me; I need them! When the plants are perfected, I'll keep having them planted in hidden places and spread the feeling of empathy to as many citizens of Zootopia as possible!"
"You couldn't have at least asked animals if they wanted to be experimented on?" Leilani broke a sweat as she clenched her jaw. "A toddler found some of your seeds a few days ago! It was on the news!"
PJ groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. If I walked up to them, asked if they could be sprayed, then that crazy stuff happened to them, they'd know what I look like and they'd send the cops after me! I mean, sure, I could disguise myself, but I could still get found, anyway." PJ narrowed her eyes. "Anything else?"
Leilani suddenly worried that PJ may have noticed how angry she became. She put on a smile and nodded. "You're right! That is so true! Thank you so much for hiring me to help you with your noble mission! I should probably get back to work now. You know how it is." She dashed through the flaps of the tent and arrived back at the lines of planted seeds.