Harry ducked and weaved, bullets still flying in as he scrambled to get the truck started. One shattered the windshield and clipped his ear, while another just missed his neck. Well, at the very least, some heads would turn the next time they took this out on the road. Granted, there were a few other vehicles on the lot, which he could assume would give chase, but he had enough of a head start that-
Suddenly there was a loud pop and the truck began to lurch to one side. He tried to straighten out, but the bullet in his shoulder had other ideas. The truck slid off the road, into a widening ditch, and sent him tumbling from his seat as it came to a sudden stop, at an inconvenient angle. The extra impact on his shoulder certainly didn't help things any, but at least the sharp pain there made it easier to ignore the pain everywhere else. He scrambled to get the door open, thinking he might be able to run the rest of the way, then stopped, realizing he'd lost track of the gun in the crash. Rummaging around the floor for it cost him a little time, but the sight of it would at least give his pursuers pause...
Unfortunately, Harry had overestimated his lead. Once he was out of the truck and back on his feet, the butt of a rifle slammed into his temple as a nasty shock ran through his chest. Contrary to what he'd always seen in the movies, the sudden swift blow to the head didn't knock him out, but one of the next few did.
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Cherry was starting to panic. She'd always been able to smooth talk her way out of anything. It was just that raw alpha male confidence she exuded. Everyone knew she was the sort you just listened to but that fire just wasn't there today. Instead she just felt... vulnerable. It was almost a completely alien feeling to her, and she just didn't know how she was supposed to handle it. She needed some direction here, someone to tell her what to do. It finally sank in. She'd been denying it, but she really had just become some dumb little bitch. This was what it had to be like for them all the time, just weak and confused. Needing a proper alpha to tell'em what to do. It had to be even worse for her though, because she still realized what she lost. This dumb little bitch she was talking to was born like this. She'd never had any sort of drive or ambition. Just the easy life doing whatever she was told to. What was even the point trying to talk to something like that if you weren't trying to bang her? Cherry just wandered off, half in a daze. She had to find a proper alpha and have him sort all this out for her. That's the only thing that made any sense.
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Gunther figured his best bet was to play it cool. From the beginning, he'd been designing brain architecture with extra emphasis on promoting the baser instincts. To him, it seemed if you were going to become an animal, you should be a creature of almost pure instinct, doing what came natural without care for the consequences, living in the eternal now. The others, of course, disagreed, at least until recently. He'd finally had a chance to deploy a few designs on a trial basis, and from what he understood, those who had been given his experimental modifications had resulted in some of the absolute happiest, most well-adjusted people in the park. Of course, he understood the controversy involved. It would be one thing to perform these trial runs on a proper volunteer basis, but those asking for them to be implemented had been very secretive about the whole affair. He had of course, taken good measures to hide his tracks. The type-2 deer models were public knowledge. While he of course purged all the specifics there, it would look suspicious if he hadn't. The type-2 husky trial run was even easier to hide. That one had actually falsified her own records, and been flagged accordingly. There were a few others he could hide as routine corruption from bad drive sectors, a legitimate issue, and the reason original scans were generally backed up. Nothing would come of that if they left the park in their altered forms, which seemed to be the likely case for everyone involved. He felt a bit of guilt over all of this, but he truly had been pressured quite seriously to take such measures, and felt he had at least balanced the scales of karma. A few of those who were accepting the money for these changes had requested he design "emergency escape" forms for them, off all the records, should this sort of attention fall on them, and he'd keyed them in when everyone started to panic. He'd felt though that anyone advocating for his designs should reap their benefits, so any who did manage to slip past the police and go on the run would soon be giving up their greedy ways, favoring a much much simpler life.
When the skunk from the FBI called him down for questioning, he was incredibly forthright. He happily named names of those he felt were doing things for the wrong reasons, particularly regarding that deer business, and the shady plans for foreign prisoners. He was less enthused about discussing the offsite research facility which had apparently quite recently become a matter of public knowledge. Not that he had much he was able to divulge in that regard. He had never been to the facility, learned it's location, or even been given a clear understanding of what went on there. All he knew is that he had passed along some of his more theoretical designs for further study. Non-mammalian concepts in particular, where he was afraid changes might be too radical, both physically and mentally. Some methods for altering sexuality he'd been developing, as the park had an alarming number of cases where one partner's sex change had caused abrupt ends to what were formally happy relationships. As far as he had been told, trials were to be conducted, using lesser primates at first, and eventually brave human volunteers who had signed the appropriate wavers.
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There was a fair deal of commotion at the facility when the security team came in with an unconscious Harry, and numerous injuries. "I don't know what this guy's story is," said Lawrence, the panther Harry had taken hostage, "but if someone this violent can get a job working security at the park, they seriously need to reevaluate their screening process!"
Mark helped load Harry into a chamber and started programming in his new form, "Well at least we have a good medical plan, right? I've actually been meaning to test a new pattern that was developed by someone at the park. I'm told it completely negates any sort of aggressive behavior, and clearly, this is the perfect sort of test subject for it." He smiled a little, glancing around the room. "The catch though is it generally operates by sublimating those impulses into ones of a more... amorous nature. I don't suppose, since a few of you will be hitting the chambers anyway for those injuries, anyone would be willing to keep our new friend company?"
Lawrence sighed. "You know it just sounds way too creepy when you put it like that, but between that incident this morning, and what just happened, there's something to be said for taking a vacation to Adam and Eve. Just so long as I'm Adam! And nothing too weird, I don't want to get tossed into the fish tank or anything."
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Vinny sighed, wondering if he'd made the wrong call. Sure, he had a top-heavy doe at his beck and call, giving him a back massage after he'd finished plowing her, and that had some obvious appeal, but just like Chad, she didn't have much of a spark to her. Just a vapid little bitch trying to please his every whim. Again, crazy thing to complain about, but then take Shaun there. He'd actually snagged himself one of the park does for the night. Not so much to look at, but you could see that spark there. That faint bit of resentment you saw with a real girl where they felt ashamed of falling for your pick-up moves they brought into the bedroom with them and fueled the real passionate sort of thing. This one here was just some virgin, clearly. Never had a girl, didn't know what they were supposed to do. Of course, tomorrow he'd be taking down that "King Jeremy" or whatever. His little bit of tail there clearly knew how to treat a man, and she'd be all his...
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Far more enlightened views prevailed at the warren. Katerina was getting quite the sendoff, as she usually did. Plenty of memories to bring along when she left tomorrow. Fun as this all was, it could be a bit much at times. She'd be happy to be back to her normal human self. Get some real work done for a while.
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Agent Sherman on the other hand had had enough for the day. This investigation wasn't going as well as he'd hoped, and he suspected all the real dirt was at this second facility. Nobody seemed to know anything about it, and he wasn't happy with how many people in managerial positions seemed to be out of their offices when the raid came. He suggested to Johnson that they do it the old fashioned way, check property records for anything suspicious. It sounded like it was a recent bit of construction, so even if they hid their tracks, they should be able to turn up something. Meanwhile, he was going to take that lawyer up on the dinner thing. He was in no position today to turn down a free meal, and the longer he could keep this big smiling weasel from obstructing things the better, right?