SuperFox#17 - Visit to the Islands part 7

  Ahead of them was building 11H, the largest building on small Hart island. It was a three story, wood frame building that was roughly square in shape. Flanking the steps that led up to the main doors were a pair of tall pines trees. The stairs themselves were of brick and led up to doors that had been smashed. Only small bits of wood dangled from the hinges. The splintered remains of the rest lay scattered down the steps.

  “From how the remains of the door are on the outside,” Misha commented. “Something broke down those doors while trying to get out.”

  “We’ll give the building a good search then move to the transit station,” Misha ordered.

  “There are two entrances to the station. One in the basement of the building but there is a separate door and stairs leading down to it on the north side.”

  “What’s in the building?” Misha asked the sabertooth.

  “Mostly empty but the lower two floors hold a full medical clinic and examination rooms. Also cages and security cells for the smaller animals,” the female replied. “The top floor has offices and the like. Even a few small apartments. Right inside the main door is a security station. And another in the station itself.”

  "Is the station usually manned?" Misha asked.

  "Yes but it was usually just 1 person who also walked a patrol in the building and grounds outside," the female explained.

  The steps creaked as Misha placed his paws on them. The sounds were whisper soft but they seemed to echo as loud as gunshots to him.

  Just inside the doorway was a small hallway. A metal desk and chair lay in a jumbled heap in the center of the hallway. Off to one side stairways led up and down.

  "Which way? Up?" Stealth pointed upward. "Or down?" He pointed the tip of his sword down the stairs.

  "Down," Misha ordered. "We'll start at the bottom and work our way up."

 The fox ranger slowly started down the steps. His bow was up and he had an arrow nocked. Each step was taken one at a time with each paw placed carefully and deliberately. The bottom of the steps opened up into a large room filled rows and racks of countless small cages. A sharp musky smell came to his nose and he could hear the sounds of many small animals moving about.

  "What are the cages?" Misha asked. He peered into a cage and saw a pair of furry creatures each about the size of a small cat. "Test animals?" There was a touch of disgust in his voice.

  "They look like hamsters and gerbils," Stealth commented.

  "No!" The female responded sharply. "Each pair is a long extinct species were are trying to reestablish."

  "Great," the cheetah said. "Ice age hamsters and gerbils."

  "They are very important," Emily commented. "If you're going to recreate an entire ecosystem you need all the plants and animals. Not just the few that you like." She waved a paw at the cages. "These little creatures were at the base of the food chain back then and a critical food source."

  "There's nothing on interest here," Misha said. "Let's move on."

  "We can't leave all of them to starve!" She said. "It would be torture."

  Stealth looked across the room at the rows and rows of cages and tanks. "This will take a while."


************


  Misha peered into the cage and was greeted by a pair of  brown and black furred creatures roughly the size and shape of a hamster. He reached in and quickly took out two wooden bowls. One he filled with fresh water and the other with a goodly amount of green pellets. As he closed the cage door he saw both of the little animals nibbling on the food and drinking the water. "Well, that was the last one. Everyone is fed and has clean water."

  "Good," Stealth said. The feline was at a small sink washing up. "When I became a superhero no one mentioned having to feed and clean up after 200 hamsters and gerbils."

  "They always leave out these parts out of the action movies," Misha joked.

  "ABERA is happy that all the animals are safe," the nanites commented.


*************


  The small group stood at the top of the stairs. Hallways stretched off to the left and right both lined with many doors. At the top of the stairs greeting them was a large candy machine. Its bright plastic front advertising many delicious candies and snacks.

  "HEY!" Stealth said cheerfully and stepped up to the machine. "Candy!"

  "You really want old, stale vending machine candy?" Misha asked. "That stuffs been there for a week."

  "But it's free."

  "It's not free you're supposed to pay for it." Misha just shook his head for a moment. "Hey! I claim that bag of cookies."

  "Crash!" Misha used the butt of his pistol to smash open the front of the machine. "Now they're free." The fox nibbled on a cookie and bit off a small piece. "They're still fresh!"

  "The wonders of preservatives!" Stealth joked.

  "Something very strange just happened," Captain Miller commented slowly over the radio. In an almost confused tone.

  "What?"

  "I just grew a pair of thumbs," the feline officer commented.

  "WHAT?"

  "Say again," came the colonels order.

  "What had been a completely animal paw with no thumbs has just changed," came Miller's explanation. "It is still a paw but the toes are now fingers and I have an opposable thumb."

  "It seems our opponent liked your idea Stealth for evolving hands," the colonel commented.

  "Should I be flattered or upset?"Stealth asked sarcastically. "Or both?"

  "Flattered, upset AND worried," Misha responded. "It means the person responsible is paying close attention to what we do."

  "That does have me worried," the cheetah commented.

  "It has us all worried," The colonel said over the radio. "But it does tell us something about our opponent. It means he is willing to adopt new ideas."

  "To a degree," Miller added. "I'm still a feline."

  "And what's wrong with that?" Stealth asked. The humanoid cheetah flexed his arms. "I've done well with it."

  "True but you can walk upright!"


***************


  The group paused at the top of the stairs and looked down towards the station. The steps descended downward into pitch darkness.

  "I don't remember these stairs being this dark and creepy," she said

  "Why is everyplace we go dark and creepy?" Misha asked. "Doesn't any villain like to keep the lights on."

  Stealth took an incendiary grenade from his belt. "This will light things up."

  "We're here to explore the place not burn it to the ground," Misha countered.

  "Not yet."

  "What was the station like?" Misha asked.

  "Not much to it really," the sabertooth said. "Just a concrete platform next to the tracks."

  "Anything on the platform?" The cheetah asked. "A magazine stand selling stale donuts, cold coffee and old magazines?"

  "No, there is a small security station like the one upstairs but it hasn't been used in years," the smilodon responded. "And a small console for calling a train."

  "John," Misha said over a radio channel using the cybernetics in his body. "Can you get us some lights and power?"

  "I'm trying," came the response of the feline programmer. After a moment a series of lights snapped on illuminating the stairway - sort of. On the wall next to each step an LED cast a tiny pool of light onto a small portion of the steps. Eerie shadows danced along the stairwell.

  Stealth shook his head slowly. "Great, instead of being pitch black and creepy now it's dark and shadowy and even more creepy."

  "All I can get is the emergency lighting," Borentelli responded. "Power seems to have been deliberately cut at the control station."

  "Where is that?" Stealth asked.

  "It's about mid way between Hart and Carelton island," came the reply.

  "Could you have placed it any further away from everything?" Stealth asked sarcastically.

  "No," Lisa replied. "It was meant to be a final redoubt in case of attack. It has an emergency shelter and the power substation for the whole complex. We maintained all the equipment there but there will only be one person in the substation and that's it. The watch station does have a full complement of weapons and security controls."

  Emily stood on the top step and looked down anxiously "I don't think designed there steps with sabertooths in mind."

  Misha stood next to her and looked down at the massive feline. "Can you make it?"

  "I'm not sure," she answered nervously. "Remember that my hind legs are shorter than my front ones."

  "Try going down at an angle," the fox suggested.

  She looked at the first step for a moment then turned partly to the right. The massive feline placed her front paws on the right side of the step. Her hind paws quickly followed. She turned partly to the left, shifting her massive body slowly. Emily planted both front paws on the left side of the third step. Her hind paws she placed on the second step. "This will work!" She said nervously.

  Slowly they moved downwards taking each step one at a time, wary of an ambush. All of Misha's senses were alive. To Stealth standing behind Misha seeing the fox in action was amazing. In spite of carrying a bow, three quivers and wearing full body armor Misha made not a single sound. Even his super sensitive ears couldn't pick up the faintest whisper of sound and yet Misha was still slowly moving downward. Stealth was reminded that long before the nanites had made him an anthropomorphic fox Misha Brightleaf had been a U.S. army ranger. He wondered how much of his abilities were gifted to him by the nanites and how much was simply good training and experience.

  The steps suddenly ended in a level floor that stretched off into the darkness. A single overhead light cast a dim glow over the room revealing an empty concrete floor. The edges of the room were hidden in shadows.

  Misha gave a short wave on the hand and the small group came to a halt. He stood there for a long time as still as a statue. The only sign of movement was the faint twitching of his nose and the flicking back and forth of his ears.

  Stealth held perfectly still trying to see, smell and hear everything. The smell of dust and a mix of human sweat, old coffee and stagnant water came to his nose.

  "It looks clear," Misha whispered in a barely audible tone. "But go easily." He stepped down onto the floor with the slow care of a man walking in a minefield. The others followed behind and soon the group was in the center of the room. Three of the walls, the floor and ceiling were of plain unadorned concrete. There was a large 6 meter high arched portal that led to a concrete lined tunnel. On one wall was a small control panel with an even smaller display screen and keypad. Set in one wall was a clear plastic window which had a small gun port beneath it. Next to that was a solid metal door.

  "Wow, you could have spared a little of the budget on decorations," Misha muttered.

  "With some paint, a few pictures and some throw pillows this place could look fabulous!" the nanites joked.

  A quick look past the metal door revealed an empty room behind the armored window and gun port.

  "Back during the government days there was a guard on duty here at all times,"  the head of ABERA commented. "But it's been unused since then."

  Emily walked across the platform and stopped in front of the entrance. She peered into the tunnel but all she saw was total darkness. "Who's first to go from the dark, creepy station into the even darker and even more creepy tunnel?"

  The tunnel was pitch black to a normal human eye and nothing would be visible. But no one in the small group was a normal human. Misha and Stealth had cybernetics that allowed them to still see in the darkness. Emily had been gifted by the strange transformation with a body designed by evolution for hunting at night and all three had highly sensitive smell and hearing. Even so advanced electronics and evolution had its limits and most of the tunnel was invisible to them. This was now a world of smell and sound. Where the faintest whiff or the slightest sound could warn of an attack. What warned Misha was the sound of something scrapping on concrete.

  "AMBUSH!" The vulpine ranger shouted and spun in the direction of the sound. He brought his bow up, drew and released an arrow all in one swift motion. Misha heard Stealth let loose a string of curses and he heard the shouting, scuffling and cursing of people in combat.

   From the quiver on his back he drew another arrow, this one with the fat, explosive tip. From his cursing and her snarling he had a good idea where Stealth and Emily were. He loosed the arrow at a wall at the edge of fighting.

  BOOM! The explosion lit up the tunnel revealing Stealth, swords in hand dueling with a score of large animals. Emily had her hindquarters pushed against a wall and was lashing out with claws and teeth at three animals each her own size or larger. Then the light faded as fast as it had appeared but it didn't vanish all together. Debris and other items caught fire leaving the fight in a semidarkness of shadows.

  A massive figure loomed up and raced straight at the archer. Misha took a step backward and snapped off an arrow. The shadowy animal slammed into him sending the fox tumbling to the ground. He felt a searing pain in his right shoulder before he hit the floor. Misha was stunned and confused for a moment.

  ROAR! He heard the deep throated, powerful roar that filled the tunnels and echoed down from the distant past. Misha felt the primal power of a predator that had dominated the food chain for millennia and knew no challengers.

  It took a moment for the fox ranger to realize the fight was over. Misha slowly sat up mindful of the injury to his right shoulder. By the light of a small fire he saw Stealth and Emily standing back to back.

  “What were those things?” Stealth asked. The feline superhero was standing with his blades in both hands. His body was tense and alert for the next attack.

  “Panthera leo atrox,” the nanites answered. “The North American Cave Lion.”

  "Wonderful," Misha said sarcastically. "Another group of vicious predators to worry about."

  Stealth gave a chirp of laughter. "Maybe the lions will keep the wolves away."

  “That species was NOT listed among the ones being recreated here.”

  “That’s interesting and complicating.”

  “I don’t like complications,” Misha muttered as he slowly looked around. The worst of the wounds were gone but others were still healing.

  “The good news is it confirms that the changes are not being caused by some escaped virus that ABERA created.”

  “We already knew that,” Stealth commented. “I'm more worried about what our other visitors have in mind."

  Misha shrugged. "I don't know but they're gone. So we can relax for a moment."

  "One of them had a spear! He had a spear!"Stealth said as he leaned against the tunnel wall.

  "What?" Misha asked, confused. "He had a spear?"

  "YES! A spear. You know - a long stick with a pointy bit on the end!"Stealth said nervously. "Didn't you see it?"

  "NO! I was too busy trying to keep from being eaten!" Misha shot back. "The ones I was fighting were using those long claws and VERY sharp teeth!"

  "Mine had a spear," the cheetah countered. "He stuck me in the side with it." He pulled his hand away from his side revealing a good sized wound that was closing up quickly.

  Misha looked at the wound. "That was not done by teeth or claws."

  "You know what this means?" Stealth said softly. "At least one of those things must have been a tech that got changed."

  "Make sense," Misha agreed. "But why did he attack us? We're here to help."

  "They probably don't know that." the nanites commented. "And we do confirm the use of a weapon. It was a spear with a point that looked to be made of metal."

  "Track them! We need to find them and establish contact."

  "Agreed!" Misha said and knelt down on the ground.

  "You can use thermal imaging to locate their bodies and follow."

  "Or I could just follow their footprints in the dirt," Misha countered and pointed to the clearly visible prints that led down the tunnel.

  "Sure, do it the hard way."


**************************


  Suddenly Misha stopped and crouched low to the floor. The others followed suit. "We are not alone," he whispered.

  "Our feline friends are back?" The sabertooth asked.

  "I think so and they're on both sides of us this time," the fox answered. His infrared eyesight could just pick up some faint heat signatures that could be animals.

  "Now what?" The female asked as she looked back and forth.

  Misha stood up straight and in plain sight in the center of the tunnel. “THIS IS STAFF SERGEANT MISHA BRIGHTLEAF. WE’RE HERE TO HELP.”

  There was only silence in reply.

  “THIS IS STAFF SERGEANT MISHA BRIGHTLEAF. WE’RE HERE TO HELP.”

  “Didn’t we just do this with the sabertooths?” Stealth commented loudly.

  “This does feel familiar,” Misha joked. He caught a flash of movement off to his left and turned towards it.

  “We know who you are,” Stealth said out loud. “At least who you used to be.”

  “This is so confusing,” Misha muttered.

  “Who are you?” A voice suddenly asked from the darkness.

  “What are you?” Another asked. “And what did you do to us?”

  The fox shook his head. “We didn’t do anything. We were sent here to find out what happened.”

  “Let’s stop talking to shadows,” Stealth said. He reached onto his belt and grabbed something. There was a soft click and the whole tunnel was suddenly lit up like mid-day.

  The sudden light from the light exposed a large section of concrete tunnel and a dozen, large, lion like animals standing on either side of the three adventurers. These felines were twice the size of normal lions and none had manes.

  "Panthera leo atrox," the nanites commented. "Also called the North American lion."

  Mixed in with the lions and lionesses Misha saw several spotted felines that looked to be over sized leopards. He also saw at least 4 more smilodons.

  "What are the spotted cats?" Stealth asked.

  "Panthera gombaszoegensis," the nanites answered. "Also known as the European Jaguar."

  "Panthera gombaszoegensis? Could they have picked a longer name?" Stealth joked. "Jaguar. Now that's a nice, short name."

  "What happened?" A lion asked still keeping his distance. "Did everyone change?"

  "It seems so," Misha responded. "When the lab went silent they sent us in to investigate."

  "What have you found so far?" One of the jaguars asked. The feline was examining the new arrivals carefully through slitted eyes.

  "A lot of once extinct animals running around, very much alive," Stealth commented.

  "This is Firefly 11," Misha said calmly over the military radio channels. "We've contacted another group of survivors. All changed like the rest. 18 in total."

  "What's their condition?" Lisa asked.

  "All are in good health. At least as good as you can be having been changed into a long extinct species," Misha answered.

  "What species?" Captain Miller's question came over the radio.

  "North American Lion, European Jaguar and more Sabertooths," Misha responded. "I'll send more data in a few minutes including some DNA samples."

  "Hmm," the professor said. "Interesting."

  "What is?" The captain asked.

  "They're all mammalian species of the Pleistocene era. All the creatures you've run into are from the same era."

  "That is interesting and I'm sure it's an important clue but what exactly does it mean?" Misha asked.

  The professor gave a shrug even though the people he was talking to were several hundred miles away and couldn't see the action. "I'm not sure but it bears more investigating."

  “Agreed.”

  "All the humans on this island have changed but not Misha and Stealth," the one asked. "Why?"

  "Because fox and cheetah already existed in the Pleistocene era," captain Miller responded slowly. "So they didn't count."

  “That make sense in an odd sort of way,” the colonel commented. “There is definitely some sort of intelligence behind this.”

  One of the lions walked in circles around the group in the tunnel. “I have to admit that we’re all fine examples of our breeds. If we had whatever process did this to us we could use it on regular animals and quickly recreate the entire species!”

“I think someone already has,” Lieutenant O'Grady said over the radio as she looked at the group around her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, look at all of us,” she says. “We’re an even mix of male and females all in fine physical health and at breeding age.”

  “I always wanted children,” sergeant Hernandez commented. “But not like this.”

  Emily slowly padded towards one of the lions and looked at him intently. "Philip? Is that you?"

  The large, male feline cocked his head to one side. Then the lion sniffed at the Smilodon. "Emily? Is that you?" He walked up to the sabertooth and licked her gently on the muzzle. "Are you all right?"

  She nuzzled Philip tenderly. "I'm fine. Well. I'm in good health. How are you?"

  "Well, you mean aside from having been changed into a half ton of killer feline," the lion said. "It did cure my baldness," he joked.

  "Was everyone effected?" One of the jaguars asked.

  "Everyone on all of the islands," Misha answered. "But it hasn't spread beyond them to the mainland."

  "Yet," Stealth added.

  Misha shot the cheetah a hard glance. "And it won't spread any further."

  "What caused it?" Another jaguar asked.

  Misha shrugged. "We're not sure. We've already ruled out nanites and are fairly certain it was not a biological agent."

  "We are sure it was deliberately done," Stealth added.

  A lion stepped forward and sat down in front of them. "By who?"

  The fox archer shrugged. "That we don't know. We have a few suspects but nothing solid yet."

  "Why are you lurking in these creepy tunnels?" Stealth asked and waved his hands around highlighting the concrete walls that surrounded them.

  "The emergency bunker is here," the one jaguar explained and patted the floor with a paw. "When everything went weird and all of us changed we came down here to the emergency bunker. It seemed a good place to hold up till we could figure out what happened."

 "And there are some VERY dangerous predators loose up there," the lion Philip said and waved over his head with one paw.

  "You're a half ton of pure, 100% predator," Stealth commented. "What could scare you?"

  "You don't want to know!"

  "Probably not," Misha said. "but we need to know anyway."

  "We're not sure exactly sure what it was," Philip explained. "But it was a lot larger than we are. It came crashing through the trees and we just took off."

  "Smart idea," Misha responded.