A moderately tall figure wearing long black robes approached along the street toward where Rico Sanchez was sitting shirtless in a pool in his front yard. The cop in him was on edge to see someone seemingly hiding themselves away from anyone being able to identify her in public, but he was off duty, and knew that some people had to do that because of their religion. He didn't think he knew anyone who did, though, so he was surprised when the figure stopped and spoke to him across the fence.
"Hey, uh, Rico, is your day going okay? Can, um, we talk about something if you have time? It's kind of important."
"Wait, Shelly? Is that you?"
"Yeah, well, sort of, I guess."
"What do you mean sort of? And why are you wearing a burka? I thought you were an atheist. And what's that weird bulge in the back? Are you smuggling something? Wait, don't tell me, I don't wanna have to choose between you and the law."
"Well, it's kind of a long story, you see--"
"Look baby, I know things are busy down at the lab, but can I get my dog yet? I'm going to get in so much trouble if anyone finds out I let you borrow him for... that thing we talked about. Is ... Badge is okay, isn't he? Where is he?" Officer Badge was Rico's interestingly appropriate name for the police dog that he had worked hard to be trusted with.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine--I mean, he's fine. He's right here actually, sort of..."
"All these sort-ofs are making me nervous, Shel. Are you breaking up with me?"
"What? No! No, I'm not breaking up with you, it's just... Can we go inside, please? There's something I have to let you know about--in private."
Rico dried off his well-toned body, opened the door, and motioned for extensively dressed figure to enter before him. Closing the door behind them both, he sat down on the couch, fidgeting his thumbs like a schoolchild waiting outside the principal's office. He didn't have any idea what this big secret was, but part of him still thought that either his girlfriend was breaking up with him or she was about to confess that her experiments had killed Officer Badge. Based on the outfit, though, he assumed that big announcement was probably that she had become a very strict Muslim and would be dressing much more conservatively from now on. Rico didn't know anything substantial about Islam, or most other religions for that matter, so he really hoped Shelly wasn't going to tell him that new converts were expected to sacrifice a dog.
"So, Rico, you know about the experiments down at the lab, right?"
"Yeah, your teleporter. Are you sure that thing is safe now? I've been having second thoughts ever since I let you borrow Badge. I love you, baby, and it's my fault I let my hormones get the best of me and agreed to it. Heck, just because I bribed Miller to look the other way means that I'm going to get--"
"Rico! The teleporter works. It can transmit living organisms from digitally from one chamber to another, and they will be alive on the other end. Officer Badge is proof of that."
"Oh, wow, that's great, sweetie! Congratulations, Shelly!" Rico stood up and put his arm around the figure he believed to be Shelly, but she pushed stepped back and pushed him away with a gloved hand.
"You might not want to be 'sweetie' me just yet, Rico. Something unexpected did happen. You see, I'm not exactly just Shelly."
"You ... you're not?"
"No. You see, when Shelly was setting up the experiment, she accidentally got locked in the chamber with Badge, and... Let's just say that two organisms went into the teleporter, but only one came out."
Rico had to turn that sentence over in his head for a few moments before he finally figured out what she was trying to tell him. He started to laugh.
"Ha, ha, good one babe. You're usually not much of a prankster, always the serious type. You really had me going there. Did the teleporter really work, though? Do you want to go out to dinner, maybe celebrate? Do you wan--"
He stopped speaking in mid-sentence when the burka came off. He saw a furry black-and-brown creature, just a bit shorter than himself, standing on two legs, with large triangular ears, and a German shepherd's tail tucked between its legs. "This is me, Rico. This is us," it said nervously, in Shelly's voice. She didn't tell him that she had both genital yet; she wanted to show him her mixed species first and see how he would react before going further.