While Animalia enjoyed a lot of its summer activities and challenges, there were others that were getting used to new lives outside of the Nevada town. For Bennie and Marina, that was true. They had been enjoying their time at San Francisco and the jobs that allowed them to work with regard to helping with educating guests and children on marine life and ecology. The institute also worked to provide medical care for rescued animals, and a times they found the two Orca Animalians to be quite helpful, even when the case happened to relate to animals that Orcas in the wild preyed on. Both of them enjoyed the work and the fact that the ocean water near San Francisco was cooler than the waters around Mieni, or even the pools at Lyre/Animalia.
"The others have been doing good," Bennie commented, "I heard that Simon did graduate from Nevada's Police Academy and did quite well... He can't officially get his badge until he's twenty one, under the regulations the state has in place for its officers, and that Lyre and Animalia will have some specialized tests and education type reminders for him until then... Sounds good in a way."
"That's good," Marina answered as they walked along on one of the sidewalks in the city and knowing that Bennie did like to keep in touch with those that were from the first batch of Project Phoenix volunteers. Hearing on them having success at modeling, flight instruction for new Animalian flyers, and so on was always good. A part of them wished they could have been there for the reveal of Project Mesozoic, but they were still able to keep up on things through Animalia Ambassadoria's web episodes and other contacts with old friends in Animalia. It even let them share updates on the new friends they'd made in San Francisco as well.
However, both soon found that their walk on a day off wouldn't go as planned. As they rounded a corner in a more "suburban" part of the city, they were started by the rattling of metal coming from a nearby alley. Both paused to look through it, when all of a sudden a lone female Peafowl came running out of the alley. It wasn't an Animalian, ran out of the alley, gave a panicked call at Bennie and Marina and then ran on, headed toward a small liquor store that was nearby. The doors opened and the bird ran inside as fast as it could.
"What was that?!" Marina gasped in surprise as the two looked across the street and then crossed it themselves to get a closer look, but they didn't approach the liquor store itself.
"I think it was a female Peacock," Bennie answered, using the term he was most knowledgeable of, even though that was actually more gender specific towards the males of the species.
They looked in through the store's glass doors to see that the bird had already plowed into a few of the displays that were in the store. The result was that there were broken bottles, spilled alcohol, a startled staff, surprised customers, and a panicked bird that wasn't getting any calmer. That left Marina digging for her phone in the hopes of getting things under control...
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It took a little while for police and animal control to arrive and actually capture the bird, which was put in a large pet carrier. It was at that point where they began to ask questions to Bennie, Marina, and the liquor store's manager.
"We were just walking along when it came out of that alley over there," Bennie spoke as he pointed across the street to the alley where the Peafowl had run out of, "we have no idea where it came from."
"And it doesn't seem to have any visible tags," the animal control officer spoke, "though... we won't tell if it's someone's pet or a zoo animal until we can check with a scanner that would pick up the signal used in keeping track of exotic pets."
"If the pet is even legal," the main officer grumbled.
"The real question is what to do with it?!" the store manager answered, "it did at least five hundred dollars worth of damage to my story's inventory!"
The manager was clearly angry, but more at the situation. And for the most part the officers were also relatively calm in that they weren't suspecting Bennie or Marina of having released the bird.
"Maybe... if it turns out that the bird doesn't have an owner or isn't from a zoo, you could send it to Animalia," Marina spoke up, "the bird could then be uplifted and as an Animalian, she could be made aware of the damage caused and thus could pay you back..."
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And in the end, there was no tag or chip that would enable San Francisco's animal control and ASPCA units to either find the bird's owner. No zoo claimed ownership of the bird and no one else did. Some searches of the area had managed to track where the bird, named Kara, had been in San Francisco, but with all the other human activity, the search ran dry and without any concrete proof as to who owned the bird. It left a female ASPCA officer driving to Lyre/Animalia with Kara in a large pet carrier in her back seat. Housing and caring for the bird took some time while trying to get any clues as to who owned the Peafowl, but with no one coming forward, it was decided to go through with the plan to uplift the Peafowl.
"You'll probably be the most expensive animal Horizon's ever uplifted," the ASPCA officer commented to Kara who pecked at the bars to the pet carrier, "but then... all the reports on Animalians has seemed to indicate that they've been generally respectful of the law... so, I'm sure you'll do fine."
Kara gave a small call in reply as the ASPCA officer turned onto the exit that would take her toward Lyre/Animalia. A short time later, the officer arrived at Horizon and was met by Raj and Fran, along with some of the Horizon staff.
"You're the officer from California?" Fran asked curiously as she looked to the ASPCA officer.
"Yes," the officer nodded, "with the case of Kara... the booze wrecking wild bird."
Kara gave a cry of protest from within the pet carrier as the ASPCA officer handed it over to the Horizon staff as they made their way along through Horizon's hallways toward one of the experimentation rooms. It sounded like Kara was paying attention to the conversation, though it was more likely that Kara wasn't happy with being kept in the case. The officer let that be and kept her focus on the two Peafowl Animalians as they walked along.
"We have no idea on who might have owned the bird in California... and Kara was only discovered, officially, when she ran into a liquor store and essentially wrecked it," the ASPCA officer explained, "the store manager agreed to a suggestion that would give Kara a shot free life in which she'd become an Animalian... saving trying to find sanctuaries or zoos in need of Peafowl."
"I take it the store owner would want to be reimbursed for the damage caused?" Raj asked as they paused outside the specific room where Horizon often uplifted mundane animals that were brought into Horizon, often in relation to Project Phoenix, but cases like Kara's also apply.
The ASPCA officer also nodded, "there would also be some help into finding out how Kara got into San Francisco... or got into the US. As there could be the potential for smuggling exotic animals into the US or the illegal ownership of exotic pets. No one's come forward and about all we have for an answer would be from Kara, herself."
Raj blinked and then sighed for a moment, "Well... I'm sure she'd be willing to help... but she may not remember everything that she experienced in detail. Uplifting does provide new Animalians with new insights into what they experience... but a lot of times there can be some things that are hazy. Which means, Kara may remember somethings from before her uplifting... but a lot of the specific details may be hazy."
"Maybe... but it's the best that can be done for the moment," the ASPCA officer answered.
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They ultimately didn't have to wait too long for Kara to finish the uplifting process. As with many uplifted animals, Kara had some confusion at her new status as an Animalian, but she was happy to meet Raj and Fran as an Animalian. Kara did agree to work off the damage she'd done to the liquor store in San Francisco and explained that she'd heard a sudden and loud noise, which might have been a dog barking and that was what startled her.
"You must apologize to the man," Kara spoke as she shook the ASPCA agent's hand, "I didn't mean to wreck his store... I was just so afraid and the crashing bottles didn't make things any better."
"I'd think he's more interested in making up for the financial loss he's taken," the ASPCA agent spoke.
"And I can help you get the job you'll need to do that," Fran spoke, "and you can stay with Raj and I until you've paid off the debt."
"You don't mind?" Kara asked, tilting her head sideways as she looked to the other Peahen that was there and with the Peacock standing protectively by her.
"We don't mind," Raj said slowly, "and we are willing to help... but you will have to pull your own weight around the house."
"I can," Kara answered.
"The one thing we're still curious on... is where you came from?" Fran commented, "the officer here said they had no idea how you got here."
"I came on a boat," Kara answered, "I remember seeing this big metal boat from this big white painted building I was in. I sort of wandered there because it had been a hot day and the building was cool. A man fed me on occasion, but he never held me to stay there. So, one day I flew out and saw the boat... I thought I heard a peacock calling from it so I flew to it. But I never found it. All there was there were all these boxes and crates... and bags. They had seeds in it... which tasted interesting, and they were everywhere on the boat. On the top levels and on the lower levels too..."
"What about the people... wouldn't that have noticed you?" the ASPCA officer asked back.
"There were some... but they were mostly arguing with people over something... tariffs, I think was the word they used," Kara answered, "and then they left. By the time I wanted to leave, the boat was at sea, so I settled into the hold where no one seemed to notice me. The seeds were tasty, though. When the boat finally stopped moving... it seemed to be many days later and in another city... where I heard the loud noise and panicked."
And that seemed to raise some issues that could be difficult, as it would appear that Kara was a wild peahen that had gotten onto a ship in India and was never noticed by security personnel or by the ship's crew. The ship had enough food to last her on the ride to the US where she'd then gotten loose in San Francisco. It'd mean that Kara would probably need to go through the various immigration paperwork, given how the present US government was determined to handle that issue, but Animalia and Horizon could handle a lot of that sort of paperwork, the animals confiscated from the drug lord had been allowed in before being uplifted. In this there might be some difficulty for Kara, but so far, Animalia and Horizon could promise her a good future.