The Seventeenth Day, Part 2 (Poor Hopeful Changeling)
(Part 2)
The two of us were running through the hallways, keeping to the shadows and trying our best not to get caught. I kept myself a good length behind my new “friend” because I was still a bit suspicious at his intentions. I wondered if I could maybe prod him a bit for some more information about himself.
“Hey,” I muttered in a low tone, still aware of our stealth situation. “I hate to bring this up now, but I never actually got your name.”
“Ah.” He uttered. “Well, it’s Gunther. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”
“It’s okay. I just didn’t want to just keep calling you, ‘The Shapeshifter’ the whole time.”
“Well, I do appreciate it!” He gave an awkward chuckle as we rounded a corner. As soon as we turned to the hallway, we could see a couple of guards also turning the corner. Thinking quickly we ducked away inside a closet before anyone could see us.
“Man, this place is crawling with those guards.” I muttered under my breath, frustrated at having to sneak around a place I used to have free reign of only a couple of days before.
“I get what you mean, things have been ramping up recently.” Gunther grumbled in agreement. “Even with my powers, it’s not easy to sneak around with so many people.”
“I was meaning to ask about that Gunther. You were sneaking around before Hayden took over, yeah?”
Gunther winces and turns away for a second before turning back to answer me. “Yeah, I was. Hayden was wanting information. I suspected he wanted details so he could undermine Mr. Franklin’s operations.”
I frowned as I tapped my hooves on the floor. “That begs the question; Why were you helping him? He doesn’t seem to have your best interests in mind.”
Gunther was silent for what felt like a long time before taking a deep breath and sighing. “I guess to answer that I need to explain who I was before I became...this creature.” He darted his head around and motioned for me to enter an empty meeting room. I quietly trotted inside and Gunther closed the door and locked it behind us.
“Better to tell this story where no one can interrupt us.” Gunther stated. “Anyway, I’m not like the other patients. In fact, I was never a patient at all. I was one of the scientists who was brought in to examine the artifacts Franklin’s company acquired. I was there to examine the items and try and find out what they were. It didn’t take long before we soon discovered that the items in question had some otherworldly properties.”
Gunther gave a wistful sigh. “We were excited at the prospect of what these items could do and what we could learn and discover. However, there was some disagreement on what should be done with the items and how far we should go in terms of experimentation. Hayden wanted to do a lot and was making it very clear he wanted to exploit the artifacts for all they were worth, regardless of the consequences.”
“On the other side was Franklin. He understood that we couldn't just poke around with something we didn’t understand fully and that we needed to be methodical and precise with our examination to figure out exactly how things ticked. After those two butted heads, a compromise was reached in which we decided to do some of Hayden’s more brazen experiments but with only one scientist at a time to reduce the possibility of exposure and harm and if anything bad happened, the project would go with Franklin’s method.”
I gasped. “It...doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this is going.”
Gunther gave a sad nod. “Yeah, I was the one who volunteered to be the scientist. As excited as I was to be working with these mysterious items, I agreed with Franklin; we should have been more careful with these items. The first few experiments went fine but Hayden was pushing for more and more reckless ideas. But it was when we were trying to extract energy directly from the Alicorn statue that things went south. We knew it had a lot of unusual energy and Hayden was wanting to use that so I was asked to extract it. But as I extracted it, there was a discharge from it and it caused me to quickly transform into the state you see now.”
“I see...wait, quickly transform?” I asked.
Gunther nodded. “Yeah, the effect happened in about 2 minutes.”
“Hang on a second, it’s been taking us days to transform from the vaccine.” I pointed out.
“Well, while I wasn’t involved in the creation of the vaccine, I know that the new process of extracting energy from the statue is much more indirect. Additionally, the vaccine is a by-product of the energy used so the effects may not be as pronounced.” He explained.
“Either way, I was no longer human.” He continued. “The experimentation was halted and I was carted off to be studied by Hayden’s team. It was there that we learned about my new powers of shapeshifting. Everyone was excited about all the applications that it could have and what could be done...though this was all at my expense.”
Gunther tensed up. “I didn’t want to be some rat in a maze and Hayden knew that all too well. So he cut me a deal; He could get me out of experimentation and having to endure all these trials and in exchange I’d work for him personally to undermine Franklin’s efforts. Hayden figured that he could become in charge if he could force Franklin out so he was asking for me to do little acts of sabotage. Taking a file here, erasing some documents there. All with the threat of being put back into my ‘cage’ as it were.”
I slammed my hoof down. “That’s sick! Making you do all that terrible stuff just to further his own agenda. I can feel the bile in my mouth rising up just thinking about it.”
“I detested what he was asking me to do, but it was mostly harmless stuff as it was mainly things to inconvenience Franklin’s efforts and to gather information. But now that Hayden is in charge, he’s been asking me to do a lot more unnerving stuff and soon I started to question what I was doing. Finally, asking me to take you out was the final straw. I realized I couldn’t continue on with Hayden’s schemes and I needed to take action.”
The room filled with silence. He had finally spilled his story to me and I wasn’t sure what to say. My body on the other hoof seemed to know exactly what to do. I leaned in and wrapped my forelegs around Gunther and embraced him in a hug.
“A-ah?” Gunther gave a small yelp of surprise.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to go through so much. You were stuck in a terrible position and forced into a situation you hated. My friends and I will help you out. From what I’ve seen, you’re not a bad guy.” I said. While I still had a few suspicions, they were significantly reduced. Given what I could glean from his personality and the given situation, it seemed that his overall story was true.
“Alright,” I pulled away from the hug and gave a firm nod. “I’m assuming that Hayden’s got plans to accelerate the use of Lady Aion and her items, yes?”
Gunther an angry frown. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m sure he’s going to be accelerating things along. I also have a sneaking suspicion that he might try and use the patients here for his experiments. He knows this energy can transform people if handled improperly and recklessly. But given what has happened and what we’ve seen with all the patients, I have no doubt in my mind that Hayden is going to find some way to exploit them.”
“So we need to go and find out specifically what his plan is, yeah?”
Gunther nods. “That would be a good start. If we can figure out what it is, we can send the message out about it and tell the world what’s happening here.”
“Well, I did have a recording device that Franklin gave me but it seems it was taken from me.” I sigh, tapping at my ear to confirm its absence.
Gunther ended up doing something I hadn’t seen him do at all in the time I had been with him; he smiled at me. “Well, does it happen to look like...this?” He pulled out a small electronic device that was indeed my recording device.
“Whoa! Yes, that’s it!” I exclaimed as I picked it up and placed it back in my ear. “Thanks, Gunther.”
He smiled. “I was told to destroy it but I figured it was probably pretty important if he wanted to get rid of it so badly.”
I nod. “Alright. I think I’ve heard what I need to. I trust you more now.”
He grins at me and seems a lot less nervous. “Whew, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel.” His relief is soon replaced with a stern look. “Alright, we should track down your friends. The more hooves we have, the better off we’ll be.”
I nod. “Okay, but what exactly do you have in mind?”
“Well, Hayden wants to use those items for exploitation, right? But if we destroy them, he won’t have anything to exploit now will he?”
My eyes widen. “You’re going to destroy the statue and all the objects in the lab? But that might be the only thing that might help…” I paused for a moment. “It might be the only thing that can help the others return to normal! We can’t just destroy the only method of possibly reversing this.”
Gunther stayed silent for a moment and then turned to me. “I know. I’ve known for a while that if we destroy those items, we might never return to normal. But honestly...I’ve come to terms with that. Maybe it’s because I can change forms that I have an easier time going through with this but I feel like it would be a worse idea to let more people unwillingly go through with this procedure just to have a slight chance at maybe turning back to normal.”
I didn’t respond for a bit, looking down at the ground before looking back at him. “Gunther, do you like being what you are?”
“Huh? Well, I’ve gotten used to it for sure. Do I like it though? I honestly don’t know for sure.”
“Ah.” I nod. “To be honest, I was terrified at first. I felt like I was losing myself to some other being. I felt like my personhood was under attack and that any day the “me” that I had known since I was born would be gone and replaced by a pony. But...ultimately that’s not what happened. I’m still myself. The sky didn’t fall and the world didn’t explode. I...I actually kinda like what I am now and I think I’m okay with being this way.”
I smile a bit before turning it into a frown. “However, it would be foolish of me to think that everyone feels the same way I do. I know destroying the relics would end all of this, but I think we need to find another way to put a stop to Hayden’s machinations before they have a chance to start.”
Gunther sighed. “Alright, I’ll let you do the planning. What should we do?”
I grinned. “Well, you were right about the first part: We need my friends. We’ll all be doing a part to putting an end to this.” I stood strong and nodded confidently after my speech.
“Great! So what’s the plan?”
I chuckled awkwardly. “When I come up with it, I’ll let you know…”
Gunther’s ears drooped. “Ah...figures.”
I clear my throat. “W-well, it’s not like I have no plan right whatsoever! First of all, we have the recording device you gave back to me. I made a transmission to Franklin about that conversation I eavesdropped on that involved you two.”
Gunther winced. “Ah yeah...that one.”
I continued. “Franklin has some evidence of foul play, but it’s nothing solid or definitive. We need something more…” I mulled over things until a spark lit up in my brain. “Wait! I think I have something...maybe we should try and destroy all the relics.”
Gunther gave me a confused look. “Didn’t we just have a conversation about how we shouldn’t destroy them?”
I shake my head. “We’re not going to actually destroy them. We’re just going to make it look like we are. After all, Hayden’s plans depend on those things that are being kept in that lab, right? If he feels his livelihood is in danger, he’ll probably panic and to everything he can to defend it. Plus, if we approach him in a position of strength, he might be willing to negotiate with us and then we can try and get dirt on him.”
Gunther taps his hoof to his chin. “Alright, so we basically threaten to destroy his prized items to get him to spill his guts about his plans. That’s not the worst plan I’ve heard...but we’ll actually need to make it look like we’re trying to destroy it without actually destroying it. How do you suppose we do that?”
“Well, I can teleport around with my magic right? And I can also teleport other things with my magic. I honestly could just threaten to teleport it to a high place and let gravity do the rest of the work,..though really what we’ll actually do is teleport it to another room instead.” I explained.
Gunther seemed to mull over my plan in his head for a bit before shrugging. “Well, I guess that could all work out.”
“Y-you could have a little more faith in my plan.” I stammer.
“Sorry! I guess I’m just getting nervous. Everything is just happening so fast.” Gunther mulled.
“Well, we need to act quickly because I don’t think Hayden is just going to be sitting around.” I give him a serious look. “We can do this. We will succeed. We have to.” I took a firm stance in the hopes it would inspire Gunther or at the very least, get him to stop worrying so much. Either way, it seemed to do the trick.
“Alright, sounds good. Well, I think we’ve dawdled enough in this room. Shall we go find your friends?” He asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s end this.”
We opened the door and stealthy made our way deeper into the facility.
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Always excited for more! Hope your job is going well. Time to see the project being turned around~
Beginning to take charge, but in order to display power you must have at least a little bit of it. Friend's locations and state must be ascertained and controlled. Wouldn't want Hayden to cross-bargain...
Always glad to get an update to this story. Believe me, I know how real life imposes demands on one's time. I haven't even started writing, just finishing my tratis for the firsf part of rhe story.
This is a really good hero's journey story. I'm anxiously waiting the next chapter, when you can. I like that you are continously giv8ng us quality writing, and nit rushing the story, inspite of what's going on outside this site
So, is Gunter more like Thorax (or Steve for fans of IDK's "Totally Legit Recap" videos.
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Finally, read it all. It took some time to read all of it since I don't have much spare time.
Feeling a bit down because it's the end of the story for now. 6 months is a long gap but I hope to see it continue!