Bennie Till nervously rolled his wheelchair forward up the sidewalk toward the largely white office building in front of him. It looked kind of like a hospital that he'd seen back in his own home town in Florida, except it had the words "Horizon Labs" written in a rather stylized font that he couldn't identify and was decorated to look like it was the edge of a flat grassy plain with the sun rising over the horizon. It was fairly interesting, though that wasn't why Bennie had come to Lyre and the labs that had been associated with the Animalia outbreaks. He was an Iraq War vet, and had lost both his legs to an IED explosion. He was lucky to be alive and the government did pay for prosthetic legs, but they were often difficult to balance on and still required him to use a cane just to move. He often stayed in his wheelchair as it was easier to move around in, but he did miss walking.
And that was why he had come, to be part of Project Phoenix. Animalia wasn't quite his thing in many ways, but from the reporting he'd seen they were finding that it was opening additional medical opportunities for those that agreed to it. They advertised Project Phoenix as a possible way to regrow limbs and even cure diseases and that computer simulations had shown positive results, now that Horizon Labs knew the base nature of the Animalia Virus, and base tests with animals had also proven successful. From what Bennie had found online, they tested a mouse that had lost a leg somewhere and while it did become an Animalian and regrew its lost leg, which was expected, it didn't turn into a lizard Animalian. It remained a mouse Animalian, but with a lizard's ability to regenerate limbs. Horizon sold that as a triumph of genetic science and opened potential options for future developments with it and now Project Phoenix was actually getting ready its first human tests with those who volunteered and were willing to become Animalians. Bennie might not necessarily be super eager to be an Animalian, but he did want to walk again, and thus he made his choice.
He rolled into a fairly small and sanitary looking lobby, as though it was hastily assembled, and came up to the front desk where a young man with glasses was seated.
"Hello, I'm Bennie Till, I'm here for my part in Project Phoenix," Bennie spoke has he pulled the acceptance letter from his jacket pocket.
The secretary took it and looked it over and then nodded fairly politely. Bennie could hear him press a button and then a whirring noise. That made Bennie look over to see a large set of double doors swinging open. He looked back to see the secretary trying to reach over his own desk to return Bennie's acceptance letter and what looked like a floor plan with one room highlighted and a line drawn by a highlighter marker going through the halls, though from the angle Bennie was at he couldn't make it out completely.
"Okay, and welcome to Project Phoenix, you may proceed to Room 65B," the secretary spoke, "will you need assistance?"
Bennie accepted the papers and looked at them for a few moments before answering.
"Are there any direction markers in the halls?" Bennie asked.
"Yes," the secretary answered,
"Then I should be fine, thank you," Bennie told him.
"Very good," the secretary spoke with an almost depressed looking smile, "welcome to Horizon Labs and potentially welcome to Animalia."
Bennie rolled along and kept his welcome letter in his hand as occasionally people came out from offices or labs to go about their work and feared that someone would stop him and that the acceptance letter would be his proof of being allowed in the building. He had no problems, though, and eventually made his way to a door marked 65B. He then knocked on it and waited for an answer. The answer came when a grey furred rabbit Animalian answered the door. She was clearly female, judging by her voluptuous body and well muscled as all Animalians seemed to be. She wore fairly simple clothing and a loose white lab coat with a name tag that read "Judy" on it.
"Hello, Bennie Till," Bennie said to her while holding up the acceptance letter, "I'm here to participate in Project Phoenix."
"I see, come in," Judy answered with a sigh and moved to hold the door open.
Bennie rolled in to see what looked like a conference room where there were two human men waiting. One was another scientist, who was dressed much like Judy. The other was a man in a suit and who Bennie did recognize from the Horizon Labs website, its CEO Melvin Qvite. Both men looked calm but possibly nervous at the same time.
"Mr. Wallace, Mr. Qvite," Judy spoke as she followed Bennie into the room, "One of our Project Phoenix volunteers."
Bennie rolled forward for few moments Melvin Qvite gave him a weak smile, but Bennie seemed to think that was rather odd.
"Welcome... I trust you're okay?" Melvin Qvite spoke.
"About as well as I can being an amputee and all that," Bennie commented, "If your advertising about Project Phoenix lets me grow my legs back, I'll be glad to do it."
Bennie watched as both men sighed again and then looked to Julie.
"What's going on?" Bennie asked.
"The recent elections," Melvin Qvite spoke.
Bennie blinked.
"The winner routinely denounced Animalia as a haven of bestiality and sin and promised that that former humans would stoned to death for bestiality and those that were former mundane animals would be put in a zoo," Mr. Wallace spoke up, "and that Horizon would be put out of business for advertising it."
Bennie could only blink. He'd seen some of the reports and how the winner constantly referred to some random internet user: ih8Ulibs in various speeches and rallies. He even retreated some of that internet user's worst comments, and in the end, Bennie simply didn't vote for a President as he couldn't really approve of either.
"Are you saying that... the project..." Bennie began.
"For the moment, we still have the protection of the lame duck President and even the lame duck Congress," Judy commented, "but the future is going to be difficult... As the winner has not backed off on his comments."
"That's a pretty bad horizon," Bennie said slowly, "does that mean... that Project Phoenix will be cancelled?"
"No," Mr. Qvite spoke up, "Things may be difficult, but the winner is likely to face opposition within his own party with regards to his Animalia policy and with Horizon Labs' future. I've also been assured that the opposing party will filibuster anything that approaches that in the Senate... so for the most part, while things will be difficult and Horizon and Animalia may face greater restrictions, the shutting down of Horizon or our projects to improve humanity and Animalia won't happen. We've also gotten assurances from our state government that even if Horizon and Animalia suffer at the national level, they'll put in place state laws that will guarantee our legal protection within this state. I've notified the lawyers to be ready to file any legal constitutional suit against any attempt to shut Animalia or Horizon down as violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution."
Bennie breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"So for the moment, legally both will have protection to continue and Project Phoenix WILL continue," Melvin Qvite assured him, "But, should you wish to continue with it... it may be advisable to move to Animalia or Lyre where the odds of you facing harassment will be less."
"That'd take time," Bennie said slowly.
"All things do," Melvin Qvite sighed, "but we're willing to help if you do wish to go through with the project."
"I do," Bennie answered, "if only to walk again."