Todd sat on the couch, flipping through the pages of the Book of Transfiguration. The young cat was intent on studying every spell in the book so that he could master them and stand a chance against Time and Arcane. He had initially thought that telling Mark about the book would make it harder for him to study the spells, but since he used it yesterday, Mark hadn’t wanted to touch it again.
A knock on the door made Todd look up from the book. He closed the book and set it on the coffee table before getting up off the couch and walking to the front door. The feline opened the door and stepped out of the way so Xarxos could enter.
“Ready for some more training today, Todd?” the minotaur asked as he entered. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do if you’re ever going to stand a chance against Time.”
“Yeah, I’m ready to continue training,” the cat replied. “I just gotta-” The feline was cut off by the sound of the bathroom door opening behind him. He turned around and saw Mark slowly leaving the bathroom, looking somewhat depressed. When the snow leopard looked up and saw Xarxos, his eyes widened and he quickly walked up to the loft without saying a word. Todd watched him with a confused look before turning back to the minotaur.
“What did you do?” Todd asked, a slightly accusatory tone in his voice.
“Me?” Xarxos asked, surprised that Todd would suddenly just accuse him of something so fast. “What do you think I did to mess with your boyfriend?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” Todd replied sarcastically. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he looked right at you and ran upstairs. What did you say to him?!”
“Why are you suddenly so defensive of him? He’s been nothing but rude to you from what I’ve seen. He laughed in your face when you tried to tell him about the books. He didn’t give a shit that you went off with another man for hours on end. If you ask me, he’s a shitty boyfriend.”
“You barely even know him, asshole! Who are you to judge whether or not he’s good for me?!”
Xarxos opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it and took a deep breath instead. “Todd, do you know what happened when Mark was downstairs yesterday?”
“No.”
“Reality shifted, Todd. His bar became a strip club, and he almost became a slutty twink for your boar bartender. If I hadn’t used the Book of Divination, your boyfriend wouldn’t be your boyfriend anymore. He’s probably still a bit freaked out by the unexpected reality shifts, that’s all.”
Todd rolled his eyes. “Sure, that’s why Mark’s so afraid of you right now,” he said.
“Look, kid, can we talk about this later?” the minotaur groaned. “We have training to do.”
“Fine,” the cat said, sounding a bit annoyed. “But this conversation isn’t over.”
-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-
Xarxos led Todd down the street a few blocks, stopping in front of a large, modern-looking brick building. Above the set of double glass doors that allowed entrance to the building were black letters that spelled the word “POLICE DEPARTMENT.” Todd didn’t even need to ask why they were there.
As the pair walked into the reception area, Xarxos didn’t even bother to stop at the desk and inform the woman working why they had come. He immediately took a left turn and led Todd through a pair of double doors. Strangely, the receptionist didn’t even try to stop them. None of the officers that they passed even batted an eye. It was almost like the officers were completely unaware of their existence.
“Xarxos, did you bribe the officers here or something?” Todd asked as they made a right turn down the hallway.
“Why do you ask that?” the minotaur asked.
“I mean, this a section of the police station that the public doesn’t usually get to see unless they have special permission, and we just waltzed right in.”
“I got pretty familiar with them when Rusty worked here. That, and the chief owed me a favor.”
“I guess that’s fair.” The duo stopped in front of a door with a pin pad on the wall next to it. Xarxos punched in a few numbers, and the door unlocked. He opened the door and ushered Todd inside before following him in and closing the door behind him.
On the other side of the door was a hallway full of jail cells, each one big enough to hold one person. Todd didn’t need to ask any questions to know where this was going.
“Hand me the files,” the cat twink said, holding out his hand. The minotaur chuckled and handed him a stack of manilla folders, each one containing a dossier of one of the prisoners.
“Alright, you know the drill, kid,” Xarxos said. “I’m going to head to the office and watch from the camera systems. I’ve got the Book of Divination with me, so I’ll let you know if something is happening over the intercom system, okay?”
“Sounds good,” Todd replied. With that, the minotaur left the cell block, leaving Todd alone with the prisoners.
“So, which one of you locked themselves in here because they’re possessed by what they think is an evil spirit?” the cat asked.
No response.
“Seriously? None of you have seen MoJo’s Strange Adventure: Stardust Knights?” Todd asked. “God, you people are uncultured. No wonder you’re behind bars!” The cat chuckled to himself before opening the book and flipping through the pages.
“As much as I’d love to use Mass Transform and get this over with quickly, that would affect everyone in the police station, Xarxos and I included,” the feline twink thought to himself. “Looks like doing this one at a time is the best possible choice here…”
Todd walked in front of the cell closest to him and looked at the man inside. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties, with medium-length black hair and a stubble beard. He wasn’t overweight, but he had what could best be described as a “dad bod.” The cat picked out the dossier with his picture on it and opened it up.
Name: Michael Wells
Sex: Male
DOB: August 19, 1987
Reason for Arrest: Suspected smuggling across the American-Mexican border
The man in the next cell was a bit older, looking like he was in his late-forties or early fifties. He was short and a bit on the chubbier side. He had black hair, but he was showing signs of going bald. Todd could also see a few wrinkles beginning to form on the man’s face. He looked down at the corresponding dossier.
Name: John Gibson
Sex: Male
DOB: January 24, 1963
Reason for Arrest: Suspected of killing his ex-wife
The man in the third cell was tall and thin, with short brown hair and a clean-shaven face. He looked to be somewhere in his early thirties, just like the first man. The man looked at Todd and gave a smile that gave the feline the chills.
Name: Dave Miller
Sex: Male
DOB: June 26, 1985
Reason for Arrest: Suspected of causing multiple disappearances at a local pizzeria
Todd quickly moved away from the third cell and towards the next cell. The man in this cell was younger, possibly in his late twenties like Mark and Xarxos. He had curly red hair and a thin body. The most noteworthy thing about this individual, however, was the fact that he was in a wheelchair.
Name: Logan Hawthorn
Sex: Male
DOB: September 7th, 1995
Reason for Arrest: Suspected of killing a wealthy neighbor
“Seems like everyone here is guilty of something,” Todd said quietly to himself as he looked down the hallway of jail cells. “Guess I better get to work…”
Since the man in the wheelchair was the closest, Todd decided to start with him. The cat studied the man for a while, thinking about what to turn him into. When an idea finally came to him, the young feline pointed at the man.
“Shape.”
Almost immediately, blue and white feathers began to sprout from the man’s pores as his neck grew thicker. As his white feathers covered his face, his mouth and nose stretched out into a curved orange beak. The muscles in his arms and chest began to strengthen, shifting into a shape that was perfect for flight.
The man began to grow smaller, his legs growing skinny as they were covered in tight gray scales. Two of his toes pulled back into his feet as his toenails lengthened into small talons. A set of long tail feathers burst from the man’s rear and his arms shifted into small wings that were able to carry the small bird through the air.
The newly transformed parakeet let out a few chirps before spreading its wings and flying around the cell. Todd smirked as the little bird flew around, tweeting happily.
“One down, a whole lot more to go…”
-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-
A few minutes later, Todd had fully transformed the four prisoners he’d seen. The cat let out a content sigh, feeling rather proud of the work he’d done. He’d turned Michael into a German Shepherd, John into a guinea pig, and Dave into a snake.
“Another job well done, if I do say so myself,” Todd said, watching the dog that used to be Michael run around his cell chasing his tail. “Alright, time to keep going.”
The cat walked down to the cell next to the one that Logan had been in, ready to look at the prisoner inside and transform them, only to find a black cat licking itself. The cat stopped grooming itself when it noticed Todd was watching, and it let out a meow.
“What?” Todd said to himself, looking at the cat in confusion. “How are you a cat? I didn’t transform you…” He moved to the next cell and saw a Golden Retriever puppy relentlessly shaking a chew toy.
“Fuck, reality is shifting…” the cat said. “I gotta get out of here.” The feline turned around to look at the cells behind him, and his eyes widened upon seeing not jail cells, but kennels, cages, and terrariums filled with different animals. He turned around to look at the cells, only to find that the cells had also been replaced with cages. The dog was in a kennel, the guinea pig was in a cage, the snake was in a terrarium, and the bird was in a small birdcage. Somehow, Todd had been so preoccupied with changing the prisoners that he had failed to notice reality shifting! The entire police station had become a pet store!
“Uh…Xarxos?!” Todd shouted, looking up at the intercom system on the ceiling. “Can you hear me?!” There was a moment of silence before the intercom came to life. “Yeah, I can hear you.”
The cat sighed in relief. “Xarxos, something’s wrong here! Reality’s shifted! I thought that this stuff wouldn’t happen! It didn’t happen last time, so why is it happening now?!”
“Oh, I may have forgotten to mention one tiny little detail,” the minotaur said over the speaker. “One of those four prisoners you transformed was innocent. When you transformed them, reality started to shift. ”
“WHAT?!”
“Yeah…whoops…”
“How the hell am I supposed to figure out who’s innocent?!”
“Read each of their files carefully. You’ll figure it out. Oh, and changing a person who’s guilty back will only make things worse, so no pressure!” With that, Xarxos hung up the intercom.
“Stupid fucking asshole making me risk my damn life,” Todd muttered under his breath before moving back to the four animals that he’d been responsible for transforming.
“Okay…four animals, four files…” the cat said to himself. “I can do this…” Todd opened the files, looking at the information contained within them.
“Okay, so Michael is suspected of smuggling goods across the border to Mexico,” Todd said, reading the file aloud to himself. “Every day, he’d cross the border on a motorcycle with two bags of sand. When border patrol stopped and checked him for any smuggled goods, they couldn’t find any, so they let him cross the border. However, after this happened a few more times, they got suspicious and took him into custody.”
Todd moved to the next file. “John was contacted by police on the night of his ex-wife’s murder. He was asked to come to the crime scene, and police took him into custody as soon as he got there.”
He moved to the third file. “Dave was an employee at the local pizzeria. He’s the prime suspect in the incident involving three missing children. Security camera footage shows him interacting with all three kids while wearing one of the mascot costumes. He was the last person seen with the kids.” Todd stopped and looked up at the snake. “Where the fuck have I heard that before?”
Finally, Todd read the fourth file. “Logan is the prime suspect in the murder of his wealthy neighbor. Not only does he have a solid motive, but there was evidence pointing to him being the one who committed the crime.” The next few pages listed the various pieces of evidence against the man, though the cat only skimmed through them.
Todd closed the files, a grin on his face. “Oh, this is gonna be easy!” he said, laughing to himself. “There’s evidence against two of them, so that means that one of the other two must be innocent!” He looked at the dog and the guinea pig, trying to decide between the two.
“Okay, so both of these guys were arrested on the pretense of them being suspicious,” the cat said to himself. “Michael was arrested because the border patrol thought he was smuggling stuff across the border into Mexico, but he was just carrying sand! It isn’t illegal to take sand across the border! It’s gotta be him!” He approached the kennel and let the dog out. The canine wagged his tail and barked happily, and Todd pet his head before pointing at him.
“Shape!”
Almost immediately, the dog began to grow in size as fur fell off his body. His front paws shifted into hands while his back paws shifted into feet. As his tail shrank back into his body, the dog’s legs began to shift from a digitigrade structure into that of a human. Clothes popped into existence as the dog’s muzzle shrank, his face flattening as his nose turned into a human’s nose. His ears moved down to the sides of his head and took shape as his claws shrank into dull fingernails. The fur on top of his head turned back into hair and took on a black color as a stubble beard grew in on the human’s now more rounded face. To finish off the changes, the human’s body gained a bit more muscle, complete with a dad bod gut.
Michael got off all fours and stood up, looking around the pet store in confusion. He shrugged his shoulders before walking down the aisle, stopping to look at a bag of cat food.
“Yes! I did it!” Todd exclaimed happily. “Now everything should go back to normal!”
But nothing happened.
The cat looked around the pet store in confusion. Why wasn’t it changing back into a police station? He’d found the person who was innocent and changed them back, so shouldn’t things be going back to normal? Todd got an answer when he felt a chill run down his spine.
He’d guessed wrong.
Before Todd could react, a sudden wave of nausea hit him like a truck. The cat twink stumbled a bit, the world around him seeming to spin non-stop. When nausea finally subsided, Todd realized that the world had gotten much bigger. No, that wasn’t right…he’d gotten smaller!
“Fuck! What’s happening?!” the cat cried as he was forced down onto all fours. He watched in horror as his thumbs disappeared and his hands morphed into small, delicate paws. He was turning into a regular cat!
“Fuck fuck fuck! What do I do?!” Todd panicked. He looked up at the three remaining animals. He still had a chance to fix this, but he had to act now. He walked over to the files and opened them with his mouth, reading them all again carefully. As he did, he tried to ignore the sudden urge to jump up onto the shelves and knock everything off.
“What went wrong?!” Todd meowed, looking at the first file. “The first guy wasn’t smuggling anything! All he did was go across the border every day with two bags of sand on a…” The cat trailed off as the realization struck him.
Motorcycles. Michael had been smuggling motorcycles across the border.
“Are you fucking serious?!” the cat shouted, the fur on his neck and back standing up. “These are all riddles?! What is this bullshit?!” When he saw Xarxos again, he was going to scratch the shit out of that damn bull.
Shaking the thought of revenge out of his mind, for now, Todd began reading the last three files. He immediately eliminated Dave as the innocent one because of the various security camera pictures contained within the dossier. There was absolutely no way that this man was innocent. That only left two: John and Logan.
As Todd frantically read John’s file again, he felt his mind beginning to slow down. It was getting harder and harder for him to think. It was getting harder for him to read too. The words were becoming jumbles of unrecognizable symbols the longer the cat looked at them. Why was he looking at them? If he couldn’t understand them, then why should he care about them? He should go find a nice spot in the sun to go and lounge in…
Suddenly, Todd was picked up by a pair of strong hands. He looked up and saw the face of the man he’d just changed a few minutes ago.
“There you are Snowball!” he said, a smile on his face as he kissed the cat on the forehead. “You know you can’t run off like that! You scared me half to death! Now come on, let’s go get you your flea collar.” The man began to gently stroke the cat’s head, and Todd…or was it Snowball…began to purr. His master had brought him to the store to get him a new flea collar. The feline relaxed in his master’s arms, feeling completely at ease…
Snowball shook his head. No! He had to keep reading those…those…their name wasn’t important! He quickly jumped out of his master’s arms and looked at the papers again. He continued looking through them frantically, searching for whatever he needed to be happy again. As his mind slowed even more, the cat recognized one word on one of the papers that made his eyes widen.
Footprints.
Without hesitating, Snowball looked up at the bird in the cage above him. While the little creature looked like a delicious snack, he knew that he shouldn’t try to eat it. This was it! This was his ticket home!
Suddenly, his master picked him up again. “Snowball, what’s gotten into you today?” he asked, looking at the cat. “Come on, let’s go get your collar now.” The man pet the cat again, and Snowball relaxed, purring happily. As his mind slowed to a complete crawl, the cat managed to meow out one word.
“SHAPE!”
-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-
Todd sat up with a jolt, breathing heavily. Had…had he done it? Was everything back to normal? He looked around and let out a heavy sigh of relief. The pet store was gone, and in its place were the four holding cells of the police station.
He had done it.
Getting up off the floor, the cat looked in the first three cells and saw the dog, guinea pig, and snake contained within. While the German Shepherd was able to just run around the cell, the snake and the guinea pig were held within a terrarium and a cage respectively so they wouldn’t escape.
Just then, the door to the cell block opened, and Todd heard someone start to clap. He looked over and saw Xarxos standing in the doorway, a smile across his muzzle.
“You did it, kid!” he said, beaming with pride. “You found the innocent person and stopped the reality shift! I knew you had it in you!” The cat narrowed his eyes and marched towards Xarxos.
“What the actual fuck, man?!” Todd snapped. “I almost erased myself from reality over some fucking riddles! What kind of training is that?!”
“The kind of training that you need if you want to stand a chance against any other book user. If they change someone or something that makes reality start to shift, you can counter the shift by changing the person or thing that was first changed back to how they originally were.”
“And you couldn’t have just, oh I don’t know…TOLD ME THAT?!”
“Well, you wouldn’t have really understood it until you saw the phenomenon for yourself.”
Todd rolled his eyes. “Can we stop doing training situations where I could end up erasing myself or someone I love from reality?” the cat asked. “What happens if I can’t fix it in time?
“Oh, stop worrying about it so much, Todd,” Xarxos replied. “You’re not in any real danger yet! Just trust me on this, okay?”
Todd let out a sigh. “Fine…”