Skirted Spies: Season 1

Episode 12-1: New Fur Coat

McAllen, Texas: Hearth & Barker Residency

Time-07:43 hours

The super soft bed feels impossible to disembark from. I've never experienced what sleeping on a cloud would feel like, but I can imagine it's a lot like this. It truly was a good night's sleep, and I feel completely empowered about life. Of course, that's factoring in that I had almost lost mine. I feel strong, capable, indestructible, like I could pick up a tank!

I stretch in bed, letting the blankets roll off of me as my body twists and turns on the sheets. I look to my left to see that Clyde's bed is empty. Usually, he's already started making coffee for the both of us, but I don't smell its freshly brewed beans today. Routine is what keeps us sane, so having it broken gives me an uneasy feeling that something bad is happening. I get out of bed, not feeling as great as when I woke up. My body feels heavier as I stand up, and everything looks like it had shrunk overnight. Not entirely in its size, but more like its height.

"Clyde?" I call in a deep and groggy voice. I didn't realize that I was getting sick, I felt great yesterday. Maybe taking a whole day off let my body catch up with my actions. Just then, from around the corner, small patters of little feet skitter across the tile in the kitchen. I freeze in my tracks, not knowing anyone who has that type of rhythm while walking. Nobody except...

"Troy?" asks a small, slender, handsome, well-groomed fox that looks exactly like me. "We've got a serious problem."

I stare down at the little guy, just realizing that this particular fox is indeed my partner, but staring down at him would mean that I've gotten taller. The hands I now hold in front of my face have gray fur, and my biceps are the size of bowling balls. The heavy feeling is my own body weight, the deep voice that comes out of my throat was Clyde's voice, and I have undoubtedly inherited his tall stature.

I am Clyde!

*** *** ***

McAllen, Texas: Ispio Head Quarters

"Now boys," Carl says, "the main priority here is to not panic. I'm entirely certain that something like this has never happened before, but being agents of your experiences, you should be able to work around this, right?"

I take a couple of quick breaths of hysteria, "Mr. Marston, this is insane! It's a god damn body swap like some sort of sci-fi movie!"

"Actually," Amelia interrupts, "you said that you woke up in your beds? That would mean that you didn't swap bodies, but rather, your cell structures have morphed themselves into one another. This was actually to be expected, given that both of your molecules were pooled into the same container."

"I see," says Clyde, or Troy, I'm not too sure at this point. "So we just shapeshifted in the middle of the night?" How could he be so calm about this?

"Now you're getting it. It's one of those side effects that I told Theodore to mention to you."

"Well that's all fine and dandy," I say, "but how about the important question that we're forgetting to ask? How do we change back?"

Amelia takes a seat on top of Marston's desk, her eyes rolling up towards the ceiling as she began her critical thinking. "Hell, just wait it out," I can't believe that she is serious. "Maybe try to make the atoms understand that they've made a mistake in the structure."

"How do we do that?"

"I would say to retain your constitution, but that seems like a bad idea for your line of work."

"Wait, what does that mean?"

"You know, be yourselves, act like yourselves."

"Well, we can do that."