Clyde moves first as I follow him into the bathroom, the door creaking as he pushes it. It's a decent-looking personal bathroom, cleaned entirely to let the white tile shine against the overhead light. We both look around the small room, setting our eyes on the sink that sits near the toilet.
"What now?" I ask.
"Now, we wash our hands."
I turn the knob to let out some water from the faucet. It streams gently, rushing down the drain and letting out the gurgling noise all drains give. We wait for a moment without a single thing happening. I'm beginning to feel like we might've done something wrong.
"Um, something's not right here," I comment.
"I think I know what the problem is," Clyde says confidently. He pushes me aside and stares down into the sink, spitting and having some of his saliva run down the drain along with the water. "Ispio headquarters always need a DNA confirmation."
His words are true as the sink falls into the floor and the wall behind it lifts upwards. Instead of the elevator that we are used to, the only thing behind the wall is a silver fireman's pole.
Clyde grabs a hold of it and slides down. "Whee!"
I laugh at the unexpected sound he makes as I wrap my gloved hands over the pole and chase after him. The ride isn't a long one as we hit the bottom in eight seconds. This place is not even remotely set up like the one back home. It's much bigger with an industrial-style controlling the theme. Giant monitors are installed in the walls, all displaying different things. Some have live camera feeds, others have random statistics about ongoing conspiracies that I haven't even heard of.
Clyde and I stand in awe for a brief moment, processing our new surroundings and realizing that this is where we work now. Suddenly, a tap on my shoulder comes from a tall suited man with a ridiculous-looking horseshoe tie.
"Mr. Hearth? Mr. Barker?" he asks, looking intensely at my mask. Maybe the featureless mask isn't the best mask to make good impressions, but it's all I have to cover up my entire skin. "Would you two kindly follow me to Mr. Marston's office? He's been expecting your arrival."
We both nod and let him take the lead, guiding us down the many hallways that this place holds. Each wing we enter has a different function, all of it being completely practical to the line of work that we do. There are debriefing rooms, strategy huts, combat training gyms, computer research labs, and a few other rooms that I don't even know the purpose of. We swivel our heads around until we reach a metal door with the initials, "C.M." stamped on it in what seems to be pure gold.
The suited man turns around. "Mr. Marston is ready for you. Just walk right on in," He extends his hands in a double-handshake pose. "By the way, it's a real honor to meet you two. I'm kind of a fan."
Wow, we never get treated like this back at Hartford! We both shake his hands simultaneously before he takes his leave down another hallway.
Clyde nudges me closer to the door. "Ladies first."
I fake laugh and turn the shiny silver knob, pushing the door open all the way. This office is actually very resembling to Adams' office. I'm quite surprised to see something so ordinary in a high-tech place like this. Yet again, there are two chairs positioned in front of a wooden desk, presumably for us to sit in. The leather seat behind the authoritative furniture supports an anthropomorphic armadillo dressed in a fine white suit with a matching Western hat.
He grins at us. "Troy Hearth and Clyde Barker! I got the memo that y'all were comin' down here, and we're glad to have you in the saddle. Come in and sit."
We do as we're told, taking a seat in front of him. He flips through some files on his desk and holds two papers in his hands, letting us see what they are. "Y'all both got some very impressive profiles here. I mean, the Postal Killer, the Coralville Angel, the Willow Society, the Concrete Cult, the Derringer Bandits, all these cases solved in less than a year's time!"
I am beginning to feel my cheeks burn up under my mask. This man really knows how to flatter an agent.
Clyde raises his hand. "Um, we are very much looking forward to working with you Mr. Marston, but we didn't get transferred here without a reason."
Mr. Marston's smile slowly fades away. "Oh, of course. Adams mentioned that you two were looking to use our technology. As soon as you're officially logged into our system, you can head down to the lab. The staff down there are really helpful, so ask them anything you need to know."
"Great," I say, slightly muffled by the mask. "How do we log in?"
He gives me a weird look, "Son, I don't want to question your methods of dress code, especially considering your talents, but what's with the mask and winter gear? It's hotter than the Devil's kitchen down here."
"Actually," says Clyde, "that's kind of why we're here. It's a long story, and we don't have the time to explain it all. We really just need to get to the lab right now, it's a matter of life or death."
Carl sits up straight. "Oh my, sounds serious. I'll buzz in Theodore and have him escort you two. I'll go ahead and log you in the system right now, doesn't take that long," He holds down a button on his office phone. "Theodore, mosey on down here and escort Mr. Hearth and Mr. Barker to the lab, will ya?"
A few seconds later, a knock on the door arrives, and the same tall, suited man, accompanied by his tie, emerges from the crack of the door. "Sirs," he tells us, "right this way." We leave Mr. Marston to his business as we tag along with Theodore. He takes us down a couple more paths that we've never seen before.
"So," I start, "Theodore's a nice name. Can I call you Teddy?"
He turns his head to glance at me quickly before setting his eyes forward again. "You can call me anything you want, Mr. Hearth."
I giggle girlishly, "Well, aren't you just the bold one!"
"Wait, that didn't come out right," he says while rubbing the back of his head.
"C'mon Troy," whispers Clyde, "can't you hold in the jokes until after we save your life?"
"I'm sorry, it's just so fun! I feel like a movie star around here."
"It's definitely a significant change from back home. Just don't get a swelled head."
"Well duh! Although, you have to admit that we're pretty badass."
"We're doing our jobs, nothing more, nothing less."
I'd stick my tongue out at him if it wasn't for this mask. "Party pooper!"
*** *** ***
McAllen, Texas: Ispio Laboratory
Teddy leads us into the lab, introducing us to the staff and leaving quickly after being paged by Mr. Marston again. There's a head scientist by the name of Amelia Miles, human female, rather young for being a head scientist actually. She gives us a quick glance up and down, silently judging our actual competence.
"So," she begins, "what is it that I can help you with?"
Clyde and I look at each other without saying a word. I raise my hand and slowly remove the glove, letting the skin particles be taken away and absorbed by Clyde. Her eyes widen slightly, but she retains a calm poise. She turns around to see her staff staring at our unusual situation, one anthro horse even neighs.
"I'm dying," I say coldly, "and he's stealing all of my atoms."
"You say it like I'm doing it on purpose," Clyde mumbles.
"Oh," Amelia stutters, "I see. Perhaps there is something we could do, but we're gonna need to do some tests to see what we're dealing with here."
"No need," says Clyde, "Dr. Nivans has already diagnosed the problem," He takes out the flash drive that has all of my data on it. "Here, this should shine a light on things."
Amelia takes it and hands it to one of her colleagues. "Transport the files to the main computer," she tells him. He swiftly leaves the group, holding the flash drive tightly in his hands. Amelia takes out a pair of glasses from her lab coat and puts them on, messing with the frames with her fingers. The lenses glow blue as her eyes dart from side to side, lines of codes are visible to us. "Ah," she says, "this is indeed very helpful. Great news Mr. Hearth, we can save your life."
I let out a big sigh as a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders. "Thank God! Please do!"
"If you two will follow me to the experimentation room, we'll begin the treatment immediately."
Experimentation room? Why would they call it that? I want to ask just exactly what she planned on doing to us, but I can't stall for time right now considering that I might not have much left. It's not like this is an ordinary sickness, how could they already have something prepared for us? She leads us to a control room, consoles and computers all lined up against the wall, their colorful buttons flashing away like some space rocket or something. A giant window is set in the center, letting us view a massive piece of machinery just sitting there.
"Strip naked," she tells us.
"What?" we both say in unison.
"Take off your clothes."
"Like, all of them?" I ask.
"All the way down to your birthday suits. Both of you."
"Why do I have to get naked?" Clyde asks. "He's the one that's disappearing."
"He's disappearing when you get close to him. You're a conduit for disrupting the atoms, and we need to fix your structure too. Any outside particles that aren't your body will interfere with the treatment."
We look at each other, and Clyde gives an annoyed groan as he slips off his shirt and puts it on the floor. I remove my mask, watching the particles fly away again. Then comes off the gloves, then the jacket, then my shirt. Clyde is already standing in his underwear, his shoes sitting on top of his pile of clothes. He crosses his arms over his chest as he debates whether to remove his last piece of clothing or not.
"Gentlemen, this is an urgent situation," Amelia explains, tapping her foot on the floor with growing impatience. "Hurry up and undress, we need to hook you up to the particle scrambler."
For the first time in a long time, I actually see Clyde's cheeks turn red through his grey fur. I would laugh if I wasn't in the same situation. He shoves his thumbs into the sides of his underwear, slowly moving them down until he finally slips them off. His tail immediately darts between his legs, trying to cover up his... you know. His giant muscles still make him look vicious despite his glowing red face.
He looks at me, his mouth quivering slightly. "Your turn."
My upper body is already naked, so I remove my shoes first before undoing my belt. The button on my pants comes undone and they slide off my legs, the particles of skin now streaming away at a massive rate. I can see my body losing its opacity. It's a slow change, but it's happening, I can tell. Lastly is my underwear, and I break out in a small sweat just thinking about removing them in front of all these people.
Like a band-aid, I just rip them off quickly, mimicking Clyde's tail trick to cover up my privates. Now, both of us fully nude, Amelia guides us through the metal doors that lead to the giant apparatus that she calls the Particle Scrambler. I sit in one chair and Clyde takes the other, but the stream of flesh doesn't break until glass containers slide in place above us, sealing us in a vacuum.
Amelia is still standing next to me, and I shout at her in hopes that the glass isn't soundproof. "Why is it called the Particle Scrambler!? I thought you were going to unscramble my particles!"
I figure out that she can hear me as she turns her head. "That's the machine's main purpose, but we're going to put it in reverse and hope that will do the trick!"
Are you kidding me!?