Evolutionary Research

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Prompt: The biomancer’s experiment escaped the lab, getting into the sewers.

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The job was simple, head into the sewers, find the beast, and return it to the researcher. Done it a hundred times over in this profession. Seen everything from fish with legs and a cat head to giants with hundreds of limbs; they’re all a bit different, all a bit unique. Some have even been rather intelligent all things considered, seems more and more of the researchers are experimenting with the idea of speculative evolution and mental generation. Lost a few good men to those ones… but nothing like this.

We tracked the beast through the sewers, it had ran farther than we had expected in such a short time, almost like it knew where it was going. That was the first sign something was wrong. The next was when Mac found himself hanging upside down with a rope around his foot.

“A trap?” Scarlet moved closer to look at the rope. “That’s… well that’s a first.” Her eyes quickly wandered the surrounding area, “wonder what else is set up? You ever seen anything like this Joey?”

I stood taller, pointing my light everywhere I could manage on the ground to try and find signs of someone else being here. “No. Someone else has to be looking for this thing. These beasts can be smart, but they’ve never been smart enough for that.”

“Hey, uh, guys… y’all are asking good questions and such…” Mac stared at us, still upside down. “Could one of you please cut me down?” Scarlet stepped close to the rope and cut it quickly. Mac fell face first onto the ground. “Thank you.”

“We need to keep moving. If someone else is after this bounty, we may not have much time to claim it ourselves.” I began to walk forward, keeping the light focused in front of me, trying to avoid any other traps. Mac and Scarlet followed behind me, keeping eyes on the smaller passages.

We made slow progress, double checking each crevice the beast could potentially hide in. Mac was the first to break the concentrated silence. “You know this would be a lot easier if we knew what to look for specifically… like could the researcher give us estimates? ‘It’s a bit bigger than a rabbit’ or something?”

Scarlet replied quickly; “Well, yeah, they could. But that would mean giving out free information competitors could use against them. You’d be surprised what all these egg-heads can figure out with just a few detail-” A screech broke the conversation. “What the hell was that!?”

I began to run towards the noise, Mac and Scarlet behind me. “I don’t know, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound happy.” The screech came again, leading us towards its source further and further in. “What even was this thing to start with? A fucking bird?” My question was quickly answered as the beast came flying towards us, massive eagle-like wings carrying it just barely above the ground. “Well, guess it was a bird.”

The beast rammed us all, flying towards different walls, quickly landing and then launching off again. It scraped each wall it landed on, leaving a large scratch dug into the stonework. Me and Mac each grabbed the net launchers from our backs while Scarlet pulled out her stunner. She followed it as close as she could with the sights, lining up for the best shot. “Fuck, this thing is fast. I don’t think I can get a decent shot with it moving like this. One of you needs to hold it still!”

Mac dropped his net launcher, switching to the bolas-shot. “I’ll see if I can’t wrap it’s legs or wings, hopefully either will unbalance it.” He aimed, leading the shot as best he could with the beast launching from wall to wall at random. The beast dove towards Scarlet, Mac launched the bola, and as soon as it got close, the beast launched again. The bola wrapped around Scarlet, tripping her as she tried to reposition for a better aim.

“Mac! What the hell man!?”

“Sorry! That thing is fast!”

I aimed my net launcher as best I could, but right when I went to shoot, I saw the beast stare at me. It hit me with a revelation. “Oh crap! Guys! This thing is smart!”

Mac and Scarlet both replied in unison; “YOU DON’T THINK!?”

The beast launched towards me as I kept aiming. Scarlet and Mac sat behind it, both trying to unwrap Scarlet.

It wants me to shoot. It’ll dodge and make the net trap Scarlet and Mac.

Awareness broke through me before I went to launch the net. I held the gun, aiming directly as the beast as it flew straight at me. I made the motion to shoot the net, and the beast ascended.

Perfect.

I snapped the launcher directly up, launching the net straight above me, snaring the beast as it tried to soar above me. It screeched loud. The net wrapped tight, and the beast hit the ground hard. “Got ya.”

I stepped over to help untangle Scarlet as the best tried to unwrap itself. It’s talons tried to cut the rope, but it couldn’t manage to snap any of them. Scarlet stared at it. “Nice shot, Joey.” She looked intently. “It’s really trying to get out of that, eh?” The beast snapped and clawed more and more, only tangling itself more. “Hopefully the researcher will pay a decent penny for this fucker.”

We each stepped close to the beast, moving to tighten the bonds trapping it. At least we were, but then we heard it.

“Help… me.”

Mac stared. “Did…did that thing just… talk!?” The beast stared at him, it’s screeching calming down. As it calmed down, we could slowly hear a voice become clearer and clearer.

“Tricked… study. Smart… more than knew… trap. Shift shape… change… me. Afraid. Run.”

We each stared, listening to a wild beast trying to communicate.

“Run… sewer. Fly, get help. Tricked. Stole, stole… self. Name. Hard think. Hard… speak. Scared. Home. Help.”

It hit us all at once what it was trying to say, and I was the first to speak up. “This… this isn’t the beast… this is the researcher.” We each stared, slowly realizing what this meant.

“Think… think hard. Lose self, lose voice. Help. Trap. Afraid. Afraid. Afraid, afraid, afraid, af…afra…afraid afraid afraid afraid afrai afrai fraid fra” The voice lost itself to screeches again. The beast, the researcher stared scared. Tears began to stream out. “Help.” One final word escaped before it was completely lost to the screeches of the animal again.

We all stared at one another, thinking the same thought without a single word between us.

We carried the beast back to the lab, back to the researcher. As they walked out to greet us, long cloak covering everything below the head, we each stared. “So, here’s the beast. Payment please.”

The researcher stared. “Hm, yes. Indeed… indeed. Kill it, then payment.”

We each stood still. “Payment. Then we’ll consider killing it.”

The researcher’s eye twitched. “Fine. Fine. Payment, then you kill it.” They walked away for a moment, returning with a sack of gold coins. “Here.” They threw it to Mac, then stared at me. “Kill it.”

I pulled my knife out and walked towards the trapped beast. I rose the knife high, and slashed it fast. The beast yelped, and then flew towards the researcher.

The researcher screamed. “What are you…!?”

The beast answered. “STOLE SELF. STOLE SELF. TAKE BACK. TAKE BACK!” It ripped the cloak off the not-researcher, revealing a mutilated form of warped tendrils, each trying to grip at the assailant. When it began to recover and strike, Mac launched the net. The beast flew high, avoiding the net, with the not-researcher wrapped in place. We each began to walk away. But the beast screeched at us. “NO. WAIT. Help. Vial. Lab. Orange. Glow. Grab. Please.” Scarlet ran to the stairs as the beast continued to attack the not-researcher. Black blood began to stream from their body, their eyes slowly going dark, the tendrils stopped fighting. The beast backed away.

Scarlet came back, holding a small orange vial that glowed softly. The beast landed in front of her, opening it’s mouth wide. She unsealed the liquid, and poured it down their throat. The beast sat on the floor, it began to screech, slowly turning more and more human each second. Soon, the screeches left entirely, and all that was left was a human voice. The body shifted, not entirely human, but the talons retracted, leaving a form halfway between human and the beast. It stared up at us before looking at its form. It began to stand, collapsing back to its knees. Scarlet stepped closer, moving to help them stand. The researcher, the true researcher, stopped her. He rose his head towards us. “Thank you. Going to be… going to be hard to get used to. But better half human than full beast. Please. Leave. Come back in a few days. Let me rest, let my mind rest. I owe you all. I might be able to help you in your future endeavors. But for now… for now I need to be alone. To rest. Thank you.”

With those final words we all left, gold coins filling our pockets. Mac spoke as we began to head home. “Looks like we got a new friend.”