The Minotaur, or more accurately at the moment, the Harpy, immediately proceeded to do as harpies did, flying about the room in a panicked frenzy and making for the door. The jaguars absolutely had not expected this, and flew into a bit of a panic themselves. Not only had they expected a much more manageable form, they'd expected their victim to be dumped into a secure room. Guns were brought to bear, but the harpy's movement was far too quick and erratic to line up a proper shot. One of the jaguars fired blindly anyway, and that was when things really really went nuts. Those experimental transformees who had still not made their way outside also began to panic. Floppy armed centaurs rearing up and screaming, lizards in the basement quickly darting across the room and clawing at the walls... the jaguar who had fired suddenly had a human faced lion pinning him to the ground.
While one of the jaguars eventually just let his instinct win over to tackle the harpy from the air, the time it took them to restore order to the situation was enough for the various agents of the law to arrive. Arrests were quickly made, and animal control was called in to help subdue those whose instincts were generally posing a risk to everyone's safety. The harpy had received a number of injuries in the struggle, as is often the case when a cat catches a bird, but due to the severe mental trauma of the situation, half flew half hobbled out the door at the first opportunity, keeping far away from anyone who approached.
After verifying that everyone at the scene was properly calm and restrained, with the exception of the traumatized bird, Agent Yereminiva asked "So which of you called us in?" This of course just lead to more confusion, until Irene and Lawrence returned from their latest lovemaking session to help fill in some of the gaps. Lawrence's role in things was tactfully omitted. In Irene's eyes, he was fully reformed, and more importantly, he played far too central a role in her new life to risk his being sent to prison. For his part, Lawrence was legitimately in the dark about most of the pressing questions of the moment. He had been with Irene from when Mark first hatched the plan for the rest of the staff to flee or hide in plain sight with new forms. Those jaguars present had all been stationed at the Labyrinth, and were similarly unaware that he had once been one of his peers. In fact, the only people present who really had a handle on anyone's true identity were those members of the lab's staff currently acting the part of frightened victims themselves.
Working on the assumption that the staff had merely fled, the police set about compiling a list of names and descriptions of the research staff from those capable of giving them. On verifying that the transformation equipment here kept no record of prior forms, the next sensible step was to bring everyone back to the park to be scanned by the chambers there, and determine the nature of their new forms, both for their own health and safety, and to help compile evidence in what was turning out to be a rather substantial federal case. Finding a way to transport everyone was a problem that took quite some time to solve, particularly in the case of the merfolk. If Irene hadn't raised the question, they would have gone entirely unnoticed, as they still had not emerged from the tunnel in which Naomi's attitude towards his penis was still rapidly improving thanks to Charlotte's enthusiasm for it. The only reasonable way to bring them back from the park involved the specialized equipment used by aquariums for transporting their larger specimens. Unfortunately, that would all take at least a week to properly. The alternative would be to simply drag them to one of the chambers here, hopefully before they asphyxiated, but this would cause issues with examining their current forms, and reconfiguring the system to return them to a pair of canines would compromise valuable evidence. Realizing the tunnel connected to the ocean at least solved the issue of keeping them supplied with food and a clean environment.
Learning Irene's former identity came as quite a shock to the huskies that had managed to tag along, particularly when she explained she had no interest in changing back.
"I realize the circumstances are a bit unusual, and it's the last thing I ever expected, but it feels like... I've finally found my true self. Like this is the body I was always meant to have. Destiny maybe. I'd still like to help you all when I can, but the world's too big and wonderful a place to stay focused on just a little park. I feel like this is the start of a new life for me... and maybe a new family." She pulled Lawrence into a decidedly passionate embrace as she said this. "And by the way Zack, Naomi was right. This is definitely an upgrade." As her gestures of affection began to escalate far beyond what was appropriate under the circumstances, Goldie was blushing deeply under her fur. Sam hadn't let her go after her ordeal at the police station, and seeing Irene flaunt her new sexuality like this was making it very hard not to think about whether it was time to take that final plunge into embracing womanhood herself.
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The harpy formerly known as the Minotaur meanwhile was having a different sort of identity crisis.
Almost died almost died broke a wing cat almost ate me need to fix the wing shouldn't be a bird only fix is in a chamber chambers are too small! Can't get trapped, can't get caught, can't let anyone find out who paid for this too cold out here cold and dark can't stay out here can't get trapped can't fly right can't go home...
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Back at the park, Brian was in a predicament many would envy. With the entire Order of the Stag still being held for questioning, he'd been saddled with quite a number of frightened, confused, and most of all horny does. Most had eventually wandered off, in search of other bucks who hopefully wouldn't take advantage of him, but it had clearly dawned on the two who'd stayed behind to argue over which loved Vinny more that Brian was also a rather desirable Buck, who had handled himself capably in a fight. They were now very much interested in winning him over instead. He'd put up a valiant fight, but even his predecessor Hannah had caved under conditions like these, and really, better him than someone who wouldn't show them any proper respect, right?
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Meanwhile, far to the south, Tran begrudgingly followed Mark's lead in landing on a rooftop. Was this enough progress for the day how much further did they have to get how long would this trip take migratory birds would know should have spliced some in how fast did they fly was this roof safe it doesn't look like people come here and it's nice and high but there's no shade what about helicopters and it's so cold these bodies aren't made for temperatures like this too much exposed skin not supposed to be in chilly places should be in places like Chile should do something to warm up Mark clearly has an idea wow she's just presenting her cloaca already that would keep them warm but she might get pregnant and they couldn't fly with an egg but that wouldn't happen right away it would gestate inside and form a shell and how long would she carry it for it should be longer than the source birds maybe a month and it would keep her from wanting to change back need to study the process how long would it take to get there can't be more than that it's a good way not to get cold how does this work without tail feathers getting in the way oh like this oh god how can this be Mark?
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The next morning, there was a bit of a commotion in the warren. The berry supply had completely run out, and it seemed Katerina had been the one who usually gathered them. There was a bit of a discussion about who would have to go out to collect more, but Terry wasn't especially concerned. someone would eventually go find one and the way she understood it, they were potent enough one could easily go a day or two without a handful. She was fairly sure she'd skipped a day or two here and there already over the last week. It was so easy to just lose track of these things with the sort of lifestyle she now lead. Tim seemed to think differently, and reminded her she really should stick to a better schedule with them. After she'd finished with him in her regular morning rounds, he set out to work out where they grew. She considered tagging along, but a chill ran down her back when she'd last left the warren. Besides, there were plenty of other bucks to keep her occupied in the meantime...