McAllen, Texas: Hearth & Barker Residency
Time-07:43 hours
The super soft bed feels impossible to disembark from. I've never experienced what sleeping on a cloud would feel like, but I can imagine it's a lot like this. It truly was a good night's sleep, and I feel completely empowered about life. Of course, that's factoring in that I had almost lost mine. I feel strong, capable, indestructible, like I could pick up a tank!
I stretch in bed, letting the blankets roll off of me as my body twists and turns on the sheets. I look to my left to see that Clyde's bed is empty. Usually, he's already started making coffee for the both of us, but I don't smell its freshly brewed beans today. Routine is what keeps us sane, so having it broken gives me an uneasy feeling that something bad is happening. I get out of bed, not feeling as great as when I woke up. My body feels heavier as I stand up, and everything looks like it had shrunk overnight. Not entirely in its size, but more like its height.
"Clyde?" I call in a deep and groggy voice. I didn't realize that I was getting sick, I felt great yesterday. Maybe taking a whole day off let my body catch up with my actions. Just then, from around the corner, small patters of little feet skitter across the tile in the kitchen. I freeze in my tracks, not knowing anyone who has that type of rhythm while walking. Nobody except...
"Troy?" asks a small, slender, handsome, well-groomed fox that looks exactly like me. "We've got a serious problem."
I stare down at the little guy, just realizing that this particular fox is indeed my partner, but staring down at him would mean that I've gotten taller. The hands I now hold in front of my face have gray fur, and my biceps are the size of bowling balls. The heavy feeling is my own body weight, the deep voice that comes out of my throat was Clyde's voice, and I have undoubtedly inherited his tall stature.
I am Clyde!
*** *** ***
McAllen, Texas: Ispio Head Quarters
"Now boys," Carl says, "the main priority here is to not panic. I'm entirely certain that something like this has never happened before, but being agents of your experiences, you should be able to work around this, right?"
I take a couple of quick breaths of hysteria, "Mr. Marston, this is insane! It's a god damn body swap like some sort of sci-fi movie!"
"Actually," Amelia interrupts, "you said that you woke up in your beds? That would mean that you didn't swap bodies, but rather, your cell structures have morphed themselves into one another. This was actually to be expected, given that both of your molecules were pooled into the same container."
"I see," says Clyde, or Troy, I'm not too sure at this point. "So we just shapeshifted in the middle of the night?" How could he be so calm about this?
"Now you're getting it. It's one of those side effects that I told Theodore to mention to you."
"Well that's all fine and dandy," I say, "but how about the important question that we're forgetting to ask? How do we change back?"
Amelia takes a seat on top of Marston's desk, her eyes rolling up towards the ceiling as she began her critical thinking. "Hell, just wait it out," I can't believe that she is serious. "Maybe try to make the atoms understand that they've made a mistake in the structure."
"How do we do that?"
"I would say to retain your constitution, but that seems like a bad idea for your line of work."
"Wait, what does that mean?"
"You know, be yourselves, act like yourselves."
"Well, we can do that."
"Not to sound harsh to the both of you," she says while looking at us, "but putting Clyde in a dress and having Troy be the muscle would look really funny to the bad guys."
I didn't think that far ahead. She's right, waiting it out would be the best option to take. Besides, even if it is technically me, I don't want to see Clyde's body wearing an exposing midriff shirt and mini skirt; although, it is funny to picture it.
"Okay," I say, "but to avoid confusion, keep calling me Troy. Clyde, you're still Clyde, even though you just got three times sexier," He rolls his green eyes, well, my green eyes. "Mr. Marston, I took a look at that file you sent along with Teddy."
"Ah, yes," he says, "Theodore said that you accepted, but under these circumstances, I would understand if you want to put it off for a little while."
"Not at all, sir. We'll get on it right now."
A big smile accompanies his exuberance. "I knew you'd work around it! We're lucky to have you with us, now go round up them evil-doers."
Truthfully, I'm not as confident as I sound, but with praise like that, I want to prove that we are worth it. Prove it to who? I don't know, myself maybe? I open the door and let Clyde through first before following him shortly after, his small frame making me laugh on the inside. I can't believe that I'm stronger than him now! Seriously, I really didn't think that would ever happen!
"Clyde," I whisper behind him.
He turns to look at me, his face obviously showing how annoyed he is by the whole thing, "What?"
"You have to walk with a little more sass than that. I usually have bigger swings in my arms while angling my wrist more upward."
"I am NOT going to walk like you!"
"It's for the good of the mission," I joke, trying not to smile so much. "Here, let me show you."
His face turns slightly red as he spins around and tries to stop me from walking any further. "No no no. You don't need to do that, people are watching."
I pop my hips out to one side while gingerly resting a hand on it in a feminine pose. "What's the matter, Clyde? Afraid of losing your man card?"
"Get your hand off your hips! I don't stand like that!"
"Hey, let's take a stroll down the main hallway. I feel like flaunting my new body today."
"Troy, don't you dare!"
"Whoa, watch your temper, squirt!" I begin a fast-paced catwalk strut towards the other employees, a grin spreading wider across my face as I get closer to them. Clyde rushes in front of me and presses his tiny arms on my broad chest, skidding along the floor as I push him across with ease.
He finally loses his temper, throwing a punch directly into my stomach. I flinch and close my eyes waiting for the wind to be knocked out of me in a painful instant, but the feeling never comes. My eyes open to see Clyde clenching his fist in his other hand in agony. I smile as I pick up my shirt and see a row of six-pack abs taking their place on my stomach. That's definitely new.
"Aw, there there," I tease, patting Clyde on top of his head. "Want me to kiss it better?"
His green eyes pierce my soul with a death glare I can't even do myself. "Don't touch me!" Yeesh, I didn't think I could look so intimidating. I guess Clyde doesn't need his body to look scary. I wrap my giant hands around his tiny waist and hoist him up easily and saddle him on my shoulder.
"I've always wanted to do this," I cheer. He thrashes around briefly while grunting behind me in frustration before giving up with a hefty sigh and going limp, letting me carry him all the way to the company car.
*** *** ***
McAllen, Texas: Hearth & Barker Residency
"How is your body even anatomically possible?" Clyde asks while staring at the full body mirror in disgust. "Guys shouldn't have curves like this, it's unhealthy." He twists to the side, viewing the flatness of his stomach. "My God, I feel so malnourished! Has meat even touched your lips in your lifetime?" He flicks his tail up and down. "How could your fur be so full without the proper vitamins?"
"Quit criticizing my body and get over here, you need to read up on this case," I pull up a chair and sit down in our planning room, the case file resting on the metal table in front of me. Clyde makes his way to his chair across from me and sits down quickly while picking up the file. I can tell that he's just skimming through most of it, but he always reads carefully around the important parts. His eyes slow their pace as he reaches the middle of the paper.
"What is this?" he asks as he tosses the file back on the table.
"It's a local job that's right here in McAllen. We don't even have to travel very far this time."
"I got that part, ya dink. I'm talking about the actual investigation." Hearing my voice saying Clyde's dialogue sounds exotic as if it's just me without the manners.
I place my feet on the table and lean back in my chair. "Some missing people reports have been popping up aggressively in this area, all females, humans and anthros, between the ages of 19 to 24."
Clyde gets up and walks to the wall with the interactive world map installed into it. He presses his finger on the state of Texas, zooming in to McAllen. "Missing girls, huh? What do you think we're dealing with here? A cult? An illegal rack? Sex slavery?"
"That's just the thing, there's no leads to go on," I add. "Each girl was taken in McAllen, but this is a very big place, and the kidnappings don't show any patterns at all."
"And now we've got no clue if they transferred the girls out of town, or even out of state," he goes on. "Are you sure that you couldn't find a single pattern?"
I set the chair back down. "Whoa now, I never said that I couldn't find a pattern. This is all of McAllen's research. Let's take a crack at it, I bet we could find something that they missed."
"Okay, give me the location of a few of those girls," he demands as he turns back to the map.
"Lisa Storm, 22, human. Last seen at the fairgrounds in a white dress and matching shoes," Clyde zooms into the city, locating the fairgrounds and bookmarking its point. "Alice Myers, 20, human. Last seen at Louie's Bowling Alley with a group of friends," He bookmarks that too. "Delilah Morgan, 23, anthro dog. Last seen at the Gonzalez Bar during Happy Hour," Another bookmark.
"How much more are there?" he asks.
"Plenty more, but they're all just as different and random as the ones I just gave you."
"Could you give me a general description of them?"
I flip through the pages of the file. "Um-all around the height of five foot six inches, the average weight was 120 pounds or so. Some were good girls, some were bad, it doesn't matter apparently."
"This could narrow things down a bit, but that still leaves a big area to search. You'd think that with Marston's technology, they'd be able to form an algorithm of some sort."
"Well, now it's our time to impress! Let's show off how good our detective skills are. Now I do actually have a plan, but it's filled with a lot of holes. We need a bigger foundation to work on, get a better understanding of things."
Clyde sits back down, his manicured nails tapping away at the metal. His tail perks up behind him. "Hey, I just thought of something," He gets back up and makes his way to the map again. The three bookmarks that he made are still on screen as he stares closely at them. He places a finger on the first bookmark, tracing a straight line to the second one that he made. He traces another from the second to the third, and from the third to the first. "What do you think?" he asks.
I analyze his work, noting that he just made a triangular shape with the locations. "Yes Clyde, that's called a triangle! Geometry is such fun!"
He huffs in annoyance. "No, you dink! Look at the distance between these kidnappings. If you gave them to me in chronological order, that would mean that these kidnappings do happen in a pattern. They stay away from each other, making sure that they never hit the same area in a sequence. A range that's so spread out would make it difficult for anybody to follow up on a trail," He scratches his head. "Give me the most recent case."
I stare back down at the file, flipping all the way to the last page. "Rosaline Parker, 23, anthro falcon. Last seen near the south side beach."
He bookmarks it. "Okay, now give me the second to most recent."
Right above the case I just read. "Sherry Winter, 21, anthro ferret. Last seen leaving her own home at 1134 Baker Street." He found the place and bookmarks it.
He points to the left of the map. "This means that the whole area right here is the next point of abduction. Unfortunately, there's no pattern in the time it takes for a kidnapping to happen, so we'll need to think of something to deal with that."
I get up and stretch. "Well, that wasn't too hard. It makes me think what kind of Ispio headquarters they're running down here. Maybe we are just that good!"
He sits back down. "So, that plan of yours..."