Chapter 19

Lana strode confidently through the corridors to the cafeteria with Cameron, Sara, and Wayne following behind. Sara had resumed projecting her Bob costume, but they hadn’t had time to dress Wayne up beyond looting a jacket and sunglasses from one of the dead men. Wayne had wrapped a short length of steel rope around Cameron’s wrists but it wasn’t even tied.

The other Bobs they encountered shrank at the sight of the beast and didn’t even think to look more closely. Lana told them to hold their positions and await further instructions. They hoped they could pick up Raven and carry her out, telling the others that Myers had given them rendezvous coordinates. How long would it be until people noticed Myers was missing?

“What did you mean, ‘subject’?” rumbled Cameron as they passed through an empty hall.

Lana didn’t turn to look at him. “They’ve been experimentin’ on her...”

“Like how?”

“Kinda like what happened to you, actually.”

Finally they approached the double doors of the cafeteria. Four other Bobs were already there, waiting.

“Sitrep,” prompted Lana.

“Jesus fuck that thing is big,” breathed one of Bobs, his face turning white seeing Cameron for the first time.

“Focus, Bob!” yelled Lana.

The Bob swallowed, then turned his attention away from Cameron. “Jenkins says he has the situation under control but refuses to allow anyone else to enter.”

“What’s that sound?”

“Jenkins appears to be exerting himself, somehow, we are not--”

Lana sighed. “Oh f’r fuck’s sake. We four are goin’ in, y’all maintain position.”

“We’re under strict orders--” The towering beast let out a low, steady growl, and the Bob shut up. Lana pulled the door open quietly and gave Cameron a shove.

The interior of the windowless cafeteria was dim, with only a few of the ceiling fixtures illuminated. The smells of sweat and sex hit Cameron’s keen nose immediately. The ruse forgotten, he threw the rope aside and bounded into the cafeteria, vaulting over tables and knocking chairs aside. Lana let out a curse. She hurried Sara and Wayne into the room and then closed the door in the faces of the confused Bobs.

Cameron quickly found the man who must be Jenkins in the back of the large room, a hulking, roided-out exaggeration of a man butt-naked next to a table, his hips thrusting rapidly. A pair of jet-black furred legs hung limply off the edge of the table, rocking with his thrusts.

Hearing the commotion, Jenkins tilted his head up, his beet-red face screwed up in concentration.

“I said I needed absolute privacy!!!” he bellowed as he tried to get himself off.

Cameron let out a roar. He grabbed Jenkins by the armpits and threw him aside, the man’s penis lolling comically as he flew through the air. He landed with a crash on a neighboring table, the combination of his bulk and airtime breaking the table in half. Something small and glowing flew even farther, crashing into a wall and making a cracking noise before clattering to the ground.

Cameron turned back to the table as the rest of the group caught up to him.

“Wayne secured the door,” Sara was saying, “but they called for backup-- oh my God is that her?”

She joined Cameron at his side and put her arm around his back, at least as far as she could reach. They both looked down at the creature on the table, the graceful feline body twisting gently as soft moans escaped its throat. Her legs were still spread lewdly and her nipples were visible poking through the soft whorls on her breasts. She was fingering herself, still trying to reach climax now that the dick she’d been taking had been removed.

Lana glanced at the creature and looked away. “Ya, that’s her.” Lana gave them the short version of Myers’ dream of developing a super soldier using animal traits. Sara and Cameron had trouble seeing anything of their friend in the creature before them.

There was a groan from near the broken table and Wayne gestured quickly, ropes whipping out and quickly trussing Jenkins up.

“An’ I guess that’s Jenkins, tho’ he was scrawnier last time I saw ‘im.”

“Ow!” said the lump of muscles as the metal ropes tightened around him. “I’m not the one you oughta be worried about, you idiots broke my phone. In about 15 seconds that thing is gonna go back to being a blood-thirsty killing machine.”

Cameron lept onto the broken table, straddling the tech. He grabbed his neck, claw points digging in just a little. “She’s not the only one.”

“Oh you don’t want to do that. I’m the only one that can cure her.”

Cameron’s eyes narrowed. “Talk,” he growled.

“First you gotta tie her up, her stats are going to revert to normal and normal has been ripping out throats all morning.”

Cameron nodded to Wayne.

Wayne nodded back. “Lucky I got rope for days,” he said, and started guiding the ropes around the cat girl’s wrists and ankles, not too roughly, pulling her into a spread-eagle position on the table. She mewled when the rope pulled her hand away from her snatch, her ass lifting in the air in search of stimulation.

“Oh man that’s hot,” whispered Jenkins, and Cameron squeezed tighter, drawing a faint trickle of blood. “Ow ow ow ok, sorry, Jesus. I’m telling you, the process is reversible.”

“HOW,” roared Cameron.

“I tell you and you let me go. Do we have a deal?” he choked out.

“I should rip off your dick for raping my girlfriend.”

“Look, I was just beta testing, and, and I got carried away--” he stammered.

Sara exploded. “What kind of fucking BETA TEST--”

There was a slamming noise from the cafeteria doors.

“Shit,” said Lana. “Kiddos we are runnin’ outta time, we gotta to go.”

The wolf-man sighed, a subterranean rumble Jenkins felt in his gut. The tech gulped. Cameron let go and nodded to Wayne again.

“OK, deal. How.”

Jenkins gasped for air and felt the small wounds on his neck. He coughed a few times.

“Fuck. Rollback serum. In my pants over there. You inject it, the nanobots perform a massive undo operation and roll back everything they did. We can only do it at all because I thought to store all of the changes in a distributed blockchain--”

There was another slam, this time from the table where Raven was tied. She suddenly hissed, and then started making a whining yowl that got increasingly louder as she started to pull at her restraints. Wayne grunted from exertion. “Shit guys, she is really strong, I don’t know how long I can hold this...”

Lana fished the injector out of Jenkins’ discarded pants. Cameron eyed Jenkins. “How do we know it won’t kill her?”

Sara looked at the injector in Lana’s hand. “What if we use some of it on him first?”

Lana waved the injector at Jenkins. “Does she need all of this?”

Jenkins shook his head. “It’s just a set of encoded instructions. With less it’ll be slower to propagate, but it’ll work. Anywhere works, but the neck is good.” He helpfully tilted his head to the side.

Lana and Sara briefly conferred and figured out how to dial the dose down. There was another slam at the cafeteria doors as one of the hinges started to give way. Raven had stopped struggling against her bonds but was still emitting a pathetic yowl.

“And then you let me go, right?” added Jenkins.

“Ya, ya, yah prick,” said Lana. And she jabbed him with the injector right in the balls.

“OW FUCK, YOU BITCH ERGGGGHHH” groaned Jenkins.

They all stood around nervously waiting, hoping something would happen before the doors burst open. After a minute, Sara emitted a short giggle-squeak.

“Hurm?” inquired Cameron.

“Um, guys...” said Wayne.

“His dick just got smaller. It works.”

Lana chuckled and approached the yowling cat-girl. She injected her in the side, deciding that the neck was much too close to those razor-sharp teeth. The yellow-eyed feline hissed anew, and Lana backed quickly away. The look in her eyes was pure cornered predator.

Wayne piped up again. “Hey, people, I’ve been looking and, uh...”

There was another slam, and one of the hinges gave way.

“What, hun?” asked Lana.

Wayne gulped. “That’s the only door out of here. How are we gonna take care of an entire troop of goons?”

Cameron thought back to the mall and made a woofing sound.

Sara cocked her head. “Was that a laugh?”

The wolf-man grinned widely, showing his teeth. “I have a way to distract people...”

Sara groaned. “Cameron, are you thinking with your dick again? That would distract us too!”

“And they’ll do what I say,” the wolf-man shrugged.

Lana looked at them nervously. “That ain’t gonna work, all the Bobs got boosted with dampeners...”

“I know how to really push it now. I bet I could overload the bots.”

“And who are all those beefy men gonna ‘distract’ themselves with, huh?” asked Sara.

“Mraoooowwwwww” groaned the cat-girl from the table.

Lana leaned over the table and Raven looked at her with pleading eyes. There was a glint that hadn’t been there a moment before.

“Give them all to meeeeeeee--ow” she breathed, a smile from ear to ear.

“Oh, hun, you’re not yourself.”

Raven was breathing rapidly. “Maybe, but all I can think about is all that dick. The control is wearing off and I still don’t care.”

Sara was looking pale. “Or, I just got an awful idea.”

“ ... Yeah??” urged Wayne.

“I could project as my Dad. These people are fanatics. Even if they just saw him get shot they’ll believe their eyes.”

“And tell them what?”

“Ju’s tell ‘em the good guys won,” said Lana. “They stand down an’ we walk outta here. Fingers crossed.”

Wayne put his hand on Sara’s shoulder. “We’re out of time. Sara, you can do it.”

“OK, I just need to concentrate.” Sara took Wayne’s arm. “Also, baby, what you’ve been doing today has been a total turn-on.”

Wayne could only spit out a “What??” as Lana broke in. “OK places y’all, we gotta put on a li’l show in the next 30 seconds.”

There were a few more loud slams and the door finally broke. Three Bobs entered the cafeteria, guns raised, searching right and left for the intruders.

The tableau that greeted them was entirely unexpected.

At the back of the cafeteria a space had been cleared around a single table. On it the experimental subject had been tied, spread-eagle. The lithe creature strained against her bonds, jet-black fur glinting reflected light as if wet. The lead Bob mentally chastised himself for the microsecond he paused, taking in the sight.

To the side of the table, the hulking mass of the werewolf was perched precariously on a small cafeteria chair. Its arms were tied behind its back and its legs crossed awkwardly underneath it. The creature struggled against its bonds, the metal ropes clicking and creaking. Lana stood behind it with her hand on its shoulder as if she could restrain it.

Standing in front of both of the fantastical creatures was none other than Dale Myers, looking no worse for wear.

“ ... Sir?”

“You’re damn right!” the man bellowed. “Get your asses in here and stand down, the situation is totally under control. Lower those weapons dammit!”

Some Bobs complied, others hesitated.

“But ... I thought...”

“I don’t pay you to think, dumbass! I pay you to follow orders, and right now I don’t think I’m getting what I pay for!”

Lana snorted. “Layin’ it on a little thick, sir?” she said under her breath.

“Bull puckey!” Myers yelled at her. He gestured to the men. “Get everyone else in here, stat! Pronto! You have a job to do. Come on get in here, gather round. Anyone missing? We need everyone here.”

In moments nearly 20 men had formed rings around the table at the back of the cafeteria. They muttered at each other, confused.

“Silence!” yelled Sara as Dale. “The situation has been neutralized, men, it’s over! We’ve captured the interlopers and we have control of the subject. Stand down and look happy, idiots!”

There was a pause, and then in the back someone let out a breath that sounded like it’d been held all morning. There was some murmuring and chuckling, and a couple high-fives from the less stoic Bobs.

The Bob in front narrowed his eyes. “Sir, what’s today’s one-time password?”

Dale Myers’ mouth hung open just a little too long.

The Bob raised his weapon and pointed it at the image of his commanding officer. There was a gasp. Someone hissed “Bob what the fuck are you doing?” Two other Bobs raised their weapons and pointed them at the lead Bob.

In his mind, Cameron visualized his pet wolf and the pendant around its neck that kept his magical attraction reined in. He reached around its head and removed the pendant. He pushed. Dale Myers let out a grunt — Sara didn’t have any protection against Cameron’s spell. The Bob’s expression didn’t change. Cameron exchanged a glance with Lana, but she shook her head.

Myers smiled, his eyes glassy. “Are you questioning my command, son?”

“Sir, I will shoot you dead if you can’t recite the password. Those are your standing orders.”