The Paragons

Chapter 15: Give Me Back My Girlhood

Powerhouse arrived at the warehouse first, and parked his car in an isolated passageway near one of the building's windows in order to get a closer look at what was going on inside. Reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out a pair of binoculars, he scoped in and tried to get a better read on the situation. He spotted two figures---one female and one male---who appeared to be working on a sleeping young girl strapped against her will to a metallic table.

The female was diligently examining the procedure and typing down statistics on an online spreadsheet every few seconds, on a program that seemed to resemble that of Microsoft Excel. On a different window, she constructed tables, graphs, and figures to represent her and her partner's data, and put together rough 3D diagrams of images that Powerhouse couldn't quite make out.

However, the male's behavior quickly got his attention, and he soon forgot all about the woman who was observing the experiment. Much to the metal-armed boy's disgust, the chief scientist's colleague appeared to be pantsless, and he was straddling the table and moving up and down rapidly near the patient's genitalia, tilting his head back and moaning in pleasure.

Powerhouse's eyes widened. No.....this.....this can't be.....

He took out his phone, pulled up the Camera app, and began recording footage of everything that was happening, sending the video feed to the control console on Duncan's aircraft in real time so he and the rest of the crew could see it for themselves, too.

At the same time, he used his car's Bluetooth system to give Duncan a phone call, then put it on speaker. "Duncan? You there?"

"Yep, I'm here," he responded. "The Crawler, Nightclaw, and I are en route to the warehouse as we speak. Did you already get to the building?"

"Yes, but....." Powerhouse sighed. "I'm sending some live footage to your aircraft; it should be there in a few seconds. You, your partner, and our little werewolf friend are going to want to take a look at it. I.....I think we're too late."

"Wait, what?! Is she dead?!"

"No, she's still alive. We can still rescue her. But.....here, it's best if I show you."

Duncan, now concerned, put the plane on autopilot and called The Crawler and Nightclaw to the pilot's cabin so all three of them could give Powerhouse's video their full attention.

Everyone's eyes widened once they saw what was going on.

"This.....no.....this is not happening right now....." The Crawler whispered, shaking his head in denial.

The doctor almost stumbled backward, with his reptilian assistant having to catch him. "No.....no....." he muttered. "Tell me it's not true....."

Every fiber of his being wanted to believe that this was all just a massive nightmare. That he was either dreaming, having hallucinations, or simply just seeing things; he had spent most of the night piloting an aircraft, after all.

"I'm afraid it is, Duncan," Powerhouse responded gravely. "At first, I didn't want to believe it, either. I didn't even initially think it was The Viper, but then I saw....."

".....The transformation watch on the table," Nightclaw finished, pointing a finger to its location on the video feed. The distance and angle at which Powerhouse recorded the video made it difficult to be seen, but her enhanced vision allowed her to spot it easily. "Are we at the warehouse yet? I want to introduce those other two sickos to the business end of my claws."

Powerhouse stayed silent for a few more seconds, then issued a statement. "Duncan.....whenever you're ready, we move on your mark."

The plane eventually pulled up to the warehouse roof, and the doctor put the engine on reserve power, allowing it to hover in place without actually going anywhere.