It was about eleven o' clock when I awakened to a fireworks-like BANG. I half-opened my eyes and thought, "Why do I hear fireworks? And since when is my nose this big?"
After a brief reality check and remembering why a muzzle was in front of my eyes, I had an alarming thought. Quickly rolling the windows down and letting fresh air into the car, I recalled how my neighbor's dog had died, suffocated in the car with all the windows closed.
I felt Swift wake up with a start, "Wheredanger?!? Whathappened?!?"
"Calm down, I took care of it." After explaining and reassuring the jumpy fox instinct several more times, I looked out to the street to see where the sound came from.
It was amazing! I hadn't seen so many people crowded into one place since my trip to Times Square last New Year's. Some -morph was throwing some sort of energy balls, they made a big flash and a loud BANG, but didn't damage anything. The only reason they had not gotten into the parking garage was a BIG grizzly bear morph security guy was keeping them at bay with�..was that a dinosaur? Rubbing my eyes, I looked again. Yup, no denying it, an equally huge T-Rex morph with biceps as big around as my head was helping keep the party out of the building.
Turning on the radio, wincing as the high-pitched static reached my sensitive ears, I found only the news-station KMOX was working. Someone was talking about aqua-morphs who weren't as lucky as Jenny and had suffocated before reaching water. "Most fresh-water morphs, however, were rushed immediately to the Mississippi River, where I'm told quite a crowd has gathered on the waterfront looking for loved ones."
Frowning at the bad news, I quickly switched it off.
Sitting up, I winced as a pins-and-needles feeling agonizingly brought my tail back to life. As the pain subsided to a dull throbbing, I thought, "How am I going to get home? The party obviously isn't going to end very soon." I felt the gears in Swift's mind turning as his fox brain brought up a neat list for me:
1. Walking2. Public Transportation
3. Hitchhiking
I immediately discarded bumming a ride, MUCH too dangerous, plus I didn't think anyone would pick up a carnivore hitchhiker. I thought about walking, but decided against it, there was no way I'd be able to get to my house in West County from Downtown. I settled on public transportation. The Metrolink light rail system would take me to Lambert airport, from there I could get a taxi or bus to at least the general vicinity of my house (I had made myself familiar with the route just in case I had car trouble and was forced to get home another way).
I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice when the two-morph human (human?) wall gave way. But I DID notice when a feline morph jumped on the hood of my car and gave me a predatory look that sent chills down my spine. The two security guys seemed to be in a trance, letting a heavy flow of party-goers in. I realized someone must have had some sort of mind-control power. The cat-morph on the hood gave me a toothy grin that reminded me of a crocodile, and leapt off onto the concrete floor. Instantly the people in the garage all turned their attention to him, the same sort of blank stare the two burly guards had.
"You should follow suit kid, I don't know why that power isn't affecting us, but I don't think he should know." Listening to my instinct, I snapped into zombie-mode, my eyes hidden behind the mirrored lenses of my sunglasses so the cat couldn't see where I was looking.
The morph paced up and down, looking like a sergeant inspecting his troops. "We gotta DO something, we can't just sit here while he makes his zombie army!"
"I know kid, we'll think of something." Feeling the same rage boiling that had unlocked the power in my claws, something in my mind snapped.
The people all looked around, confused, the power over them broken. The feline stopped in his tracks, the smell of his fear intense. The crowd once again turned their attention to the cat, but this time in rage.
The two security men quickly rushed to the offender and snapped handcuffs on him, taking the powerless controller into their custody before he had the crap beat out of him by an angry mob. Taking the opportunity, I secured my car and snuck out. As I climbed through the gap in the concrete that passed as a window, the rest of them were pressed out at gunpoint by another security team of a rabbit and squirrel. I snickered to myself, "The prey fights back!"
Pressing through the thick crowd, I saw some amazing demonstrations in powers. One juggled fireballs while another made "Before Change" and "After Change" sketches of customers for ten bucks each (Don't ask me how he knew what they had looked like before). I didn't see any looting or broken storefronts, much to my relief. I chuckled as I saw Ed's Electronics, observing the old clich� of people getting the news from a television in a store window, with the small difference of the anchorman changed into an elk. I opted to keep on moving, I didn't want my mom wondering what had happened to me. After about two hours of being shoved and battered by the sheer number of people in the streets, the Metrolink station came into sight.
Again, the men and women in blue were doing their job, keeping people without tickets off of the platform. The line was short, not many people wanted to miss the "Party of the Century". Thanking the fates for not taking the wallet out of my pants when I changed, I paid for my ticket and waited for the westbound train to the airport.
When I got on, the train was nearly empty. The only others were a nervous-looking high-degree doe morph and a five year old normal-looking girl. "Mommy, why didn't I turn like you?"
The doe shook her head, "I don't know sweetie, I don't know."
"Hmm, so it DID only happen to past puberty types."
Two stops later, another fox morph got onto the train, a vixen! Beautiful, nice breasts, pretty face, sensuous curves�.I hardly noticed when the mother and child left, my heart was going a mile a minute. "Whoa! Snap out of it!" I blinked, regaining control of the raging hormones. My fox-self, however, had other thoughts.
"Vixen, pretty, not mated�" Swift went on, listing her attributes one by one. She had obviously noticed me too, giving me a small smile and a nod. I did the same, keeping Swift under control.
"Hi." I said, the only greeting I could think of.
"Hello." was her reply, seeming just as distracted. Spending about ten minutes staring at each other, we finally arrived at the airport.
Summoning my willpower, I got off with her without hyperventilating.
"Sorry, my instincts are kind of going crazy�"
She smiled, "Mine too�" This was going to be a VERY interesting week.
