Wild dog

[Mr. Handy]

Paula joins Paulus and runs with him, her long strides clearing the distance. "What even was that thing?" she asks, still terrified. "Damn, that hurt! I hope I'm not infected with anything."

[drone232]

What thing, What is happening, Why were you screaming? Asks Agent Parker in confusion as he lowers his gun and comes to meet the other agents.

[Mr. Handy]

"You won't believe it," says Paula, still shaking. "It was this black mass...I don't know what the hell it was! It injured my foot!" She takes a breath. "The man the director met at that house took him to the woods and tried to kill him."

[ghill]

Less talkie, more running says Paulus "talk when we're in the car and far away"

[drone232]

"Shuldn't we investigate the area first, and what is this black mass? Where is the director?
Questions Agent Parker in confusion as to what is happenning.

OOC:   Agent Parker hasn't seen the black mass yet, an if he did I think he would be likely to try and shoot at it.

[ghill]

Better to find out a bit more about what we're facing, before we go stumbling about in a dark woods looking for something black and tar like with a mind of its own. This man is going to tell us everything he knows if he wants to stay on the outside of a prison cell.

OOC:   The director is still bound (At least his hands are) and is running alongside Paulus, who is keeping a firm grip on the man's collar.

[Mr. Handy]

Paula nods and keeps running, just wanting to get as far away from that thing as possible.

[kabukiman]

Paulus and Paula arrive at the car (with the director).
And Parker?

[Mr. Handy]

"You should drive," says Paula to Paulus. "I'll ride in the back with him, and Parker can ride shotgun."

[ghill]

Paulus puts the car into gear and drives off careful to keep to the speed limit and obey traffic laws. He drives directly back to the young man's house. Then without taking his eyes off the road.he addresses their passenger.

Director, you have a great deal to tell us. Start from where you arrived home from the States. Please don't leave anything out. You'd be surprised what we already know. If you lie to us or omit anything. I promise we'll take you back to those woods and leave you for whatever that thing was .

[Mr. Handy]

Paula sits in the back seat, saying nothing but glaring at the director, just towering over him and generally looking intimidating.

[drone232]

Parker is riding shotgun. He still has his pistol firmly in hand as he watches the road ahead for any sign of a disturbance.

[kabukiman]

The director gulps, close his eyes and then says:
"Very well. Maybe it's better this way. But my story begins still in Portugal. You see, I had a degree in science, but it was impossible to make any research at that time, my career would be teaching sciences to kids, so I moved to America. I started to to work in a lab, but it was all slow and tedious: remember genetics was at it's infancy, we were only studying plants. One day, when I was in a congress after presenting some results, a scientist that seemed to be from the middle east approached me and asked if I was interested in getting quicker results by using hybridization and some other techniques; I was curious and some of results seemed truly amazing. Of course I wanted to be sure it wasn't an hoax, so I asked him if I could replicated them: he agreed on the condition that if I was satisfy, we would try to make our own company. I was surprised: why didn't he do that alone? But he said he needed a younger person to help him. I replicated the results in secret and was convinced, and one year latter I left my job, and created a company with him. Our business were plants to be used in farming and we made a lot of success. I created a department of research in genetics anyway, since I was convinced that the future was in the genetics; my partner wasn't interested in that, but he never stopped me. I noticed actually that even if he understood a lot of the natural world and was indeed brilliant, he seemed to be someone trying to understand modern science. Anyway, some time latter, another scientist joined us, a dutch, called Cornelius. He was the complete opposite."


OOC: This text will continue, but I'm making a pause, in the case you want to make any questions to the director.

[ghill]

OOC:   I'm happy to hear the whole storey first.

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,I'm curious to know the name of the Middle Eastern scientist, but that can wait until we hear the rest of it.

[kabukiman]

"My specialty were plants, my fellow scientist Alhireth worked with drugs and Cornelius with animals. He was very rich, I mean, Cornelius brother was rich and give him a of money. With the 70's, we develop several drugs; with the progress of genetics our traditional products were loosing our share of market, but since I had created several teams to investigate genetics, we developed new products so we actually improved. Cornelius even started to make improvements in animals. By the early 80's, Alhireth told me about a new project: he said that he notice that some people had different abilities and wanted to improve humans. I was surprised, I always thought that it would be Cornelius with this kind of ideas. Anyway, I quickly understood why it was Alhireth: his plan implied to cross humans with certain qualities and not manipulate genetics. It would take much more time, we would have to create an orphanage, make some bribes, but it wouldn't be so ethically dubious. He ask me not to tell to Cornelius, who would probably try to make genetics experience. And since we couldn't trust anyone, we invented that I wanted to retire myself and return to my country.
I received 10 babies, of of each sex; let's call the generation "0". As soon as they achieved puberty, they would be submit to different surgeries as pretexts to get samples of their sperm and eggs. They were latter used to inseminate surrogate mothers. The new babies were admitted some time latter in the orphanage. Alhireth never told me what were those special qualities. And for the first years I didn't notice anything from the babies that Alhireth give me. Even if I got numerous samples, and made constant tests to the IQ, and health, they were normal. We were careful to avoid any inbreeding. The first babies born from the experience seemed normal too they were generation 1 and until generation 2 was born, each year receive another number: 1,1, 1,2 and so long. So, generation 1 was born in the early 90's and were normal. Generation 2 was born in the early 2000. Each year of generation 2 was born from a different combinations of the the same year. So, generation 2, was born from generation 1, generation 2,1 from generation 1.2. But the babies from generation 2 were already different. Several of them had deformities. Nothing of terrible. But nasty. One of the boys had a bigger tongue, so he had problems with his speech. A girl was very sensitive to the cold. And more like that. I made some research and I discovered that most of those kids had indeed common defective genes. But most of those kids were very smart. With generation 3 it's even worst: last week the first baby was born and he had several deformities, from his parents""
He pauses for a moment, then says:
"This is my story."

[drone232]

Agent Parker replies This explains some of the deformities in the children I interviewed and why they all had different deformities. Nothing particularly serious, but all still abnormal"

[Mr. Handy]

"What are the full names of Alhireth and Cornelius, and where are they now?" asks Paula. "And who was the man who just tried to kill you?"

[kabukiman]

"Alhireth-Othep and Cornelius Krammer. Alhireth lives in a secluded mansion in the USA; Cornelius is usually in our main laboratories in the USA, but travel sometimes. And that ungrateful man was a member of generation 1. I said that they were all normal. Well, there was an exception: that man. He had a problem in his skin. The other members of his class were afraid of him, but it wasn't for that reason, they said he was strange. I wasn't, since he was only a child, but there was indeed something weird in him. Anyway, I made a lot of tests in him, to see what was his problem so he didn't like me too. But Alhireth had a great interest in him and made the boy travel to the USA several times to talk with him; he wanted to call him Sutah. Of course the Portuguese law didn't allowed it, so I named him "Souza". It's usually a surname not a name, but it passed. Well, the boy was indeed very smart, and studied medicine. He had just finished last year and was doing some research in genetics in the Oporto university. He used to helped me with some of the test now. And by chance, he was with me, when the american came here some days ago; I suppose he was your friend. Souza started to make that strange chant... and you can guess the rest. I was in panic but he simply called the janitor to throw the body near the village. Well, then you appeared, but nothing happened. And this night, the police appeared in the orphanage. I managed to escape, I talked to Souza and he told me to go to his place, so he would help me. But instead he attacked me and I was almost suffering the same fate as the american, until you saved me."

[Mr. Handy]

"What is that creature?" asks Paula. "Where did it come from?"