Exposition

Special Agent Alan Fischer got into the precinct a few minutes late. He was so completely occupied with work the previous night that by the time he had gotten back to his hotel, it was already four in the morning.

By the time he entered and headed toward his temporary desk, a copy of the report on the case was waiting for him, placed neatly on top of the desk.

He threw a casual glance toward Detective Harry, who just shook his head. He then shifted his gaze towards Lewis, who was walking out of the restroom, yawning as he approached his desk.

Alan gave a thumbs up to the still sleepy Lewis, who just nodded his head in response.

"The body?" Alan asked as he sat down in his seat.

"Your partner is still hoarding it." Harry pointed at the door that led to the medical examiner's room. "It's been ten hours since he got hold of the corpse. I don't even think he's gone out to pee. Is he always like this?"

"Raph?" Alan smiled as he opened the report and began reading through it. "If it's interesting, then yeah."

"Well, tell him to keep it together, would you?" Detective Harry shook his head as he drank his coffee. "He should probably eat something before he faints."

Alan chuckled. He was about to respond to Harry's words when the desk phone buzzed, and his attention shifted.

"Alan here." He pulled up the phone and held it close to his ears.

"Special Agent Alan Fischer. This is Calvin Hoover. I hope you remember me." The voice on the other side said. It was Calvin Hoover, the Director of National Intelligence.

------------ BEAST SOUL ------------

"Oh, of course I remember, Director. How could I not?" Alan replied, and his eyes turned to look at Harry and Lewis, who were both staring at him the moment he said the words 'director'. They knew it was a big shot on the other line. Alan turned away from the two men and looked out through the window as he continued talking, "May I ask why you're calling, sir?"

"I heard that you still haven't contained the situation yet." The Director said. His voice was cold and lifeless. "What's going on, Special Agent Fischer? I thought you were familiar with the procedure? Shouldn't this just be a walk in the park for you?"

"Well, Director.." Alan Fischer scratched his cheek. "The situation might be a bit more complicated this time. Perhaps you might want to send in more-"

"Let me stop you right there, Special Agent Fischer." Alan was interrupted by the Director before he could even finish his words. "Do not forget your position, Special Agent. This is a stealth operation. You've done this countless times before. Be happy that you've got Agent Edgerton to assist you. Utilise the local police unit. Get them to assist you. We can't afford to make this incident any bigger than what it already is. Do you understand?"

"Uh, yes, Director." Alan said as he rubbed his forehead. "I'll email you the reports."

Alan hung up and placed the phone back in its place, and then turned to Detective Harry and Detective Lewis, who looked at him with interest. Harry pointed his finger up, toward the ceiling, meaning it was a call from above.

"Deputy Director?" Harry asked.

Alan shook his head. "Higher."

Harry widened his eyes, but he nodded his head after a few seconds. After last night's incident, Harry understood why the Federal Investigation Department was involved in this case. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill police case. This was something different. It made sense why the higher ups were involved.

"They're not sending any more reinforcements." Alan said.

"What? Why?" Lewis asked. "Don't they know how serious this issue is?"

"Two reasons." Alan raised two fingers. "One. They don't wish to bring any more attention to the situation. Two. This isn't the first time this has happened and was dealt with."

"You've dealt with creatures like this before?" Harry asked and Alan nodded. "Yes, I have."

He folded his arms and leaned back on his chair. "But not such large creatures. These seem to be mature animals, as opposed to the ones we hunted, which were smaller and weaker in comparison. And not to mention, there's more than one of these creatures roaming around."

Harry and Lewis looked at each other.

"Guys," A police officer came towards them. "The Commissioner is asking for you three."

The three looked at each other.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Alan stood up followed by Harry and Lewis, and walked towards the Commissioner's office. "You think it's about the case?" Lewis asked.

"What else could it be?" Harry rolled his eyes.

They entered the Commissioner's Office, where both Commissioner Walter Bridge and Irvin Granger, the Chief of New World City Police waited.

The office was larger than most rooms inside the precinct, with an expensive wooden table in the middle and a glass wall with a beautiful view.

Seated at the head of the table was the Commissioner and sitting across from him was the Chief of police.

Alan looked to his right as saw Raphael Hernandez standing in the corner, leaning next to the wall. His eyes were still buried in the documents that were in his hands.

The Commissioner did the talking first.

"All right, everybody's here. I'm sure that we've all seen the body of the creature. I think most of us, except for Special Agent Fischer and Dr. Hernandez, are certainly surprised by the sudden turn that this case took—"

"I'd say we're more than surprised, Walter." Chief cut in. He turned his gaze towards Alan and asked, "Special Agent Fischer, I want to know what on earth is that goddamn creature."

"It's a mutant." Before Alan could speak, Doctor Hernandez cut in, and everyone's attention shifted to him.

Raphael raised his head and stared at the Chief for a few seconds before continuing, "The creature that we've discovered is a mutated deer."

"Did you say a deer?" The Chief widened his eyes. "The creature with eight legs, that's a deer?"

"That's correct, yes." Raphael nodded. "The creature was infected by a submicroscopic infectious organism that has been codenamed BS-T."

"Wait, it's a virus?" The Commissioner asked. "You're telling me that a virus made the deer turn into.. whatever that thing is?"

"It's not a virus, Commissioner." Alan shook his head. Raphael explained, "They do have a cell structure, and are a bit larger than viruses in size. We had assumed that it was a bacteria at first. However, it's structure and its characteristics are unlike anything that we've seen."

"And this BS-T, where did it come from?" The Chief asked.

Raphael glanced at Alan for a brief second before answering, "That's confidential information, Chief."

"Tsk, of course it is." The Commissioner clicked his tongue.

Raphael continued, "The BS-T mutates the infected host once it enters the digestive tract. Saliva is the preferred method for infection, although we've learned that infection through blood is also possible."

"And?" The Chief asked.

"One important thing to note is that the BS-T only has a lifespan of four weeks within a host. It doesn't replicate within a host either, which means that unless the infected host comes into contact with another organism, the BS-T cannot multiply and spread. Which is most probably why the mutated creatures move and act differently than normal animals."

"If their top priority is to infect other organisms, then why are these mutated creatures attacking and killing people?" Harry raised his question, and Raphael replied almost immediately. "It's because the mutated creature that you found was already matured. The BS-T within the creature had already reached the end of their lifespan and perished, leaving only the mutated animal, which had no reason to search for hosts to infect anymore."

"Doctor, is there any particular reason for some of these transformations?" Lewis asked. "We've heard descriptions of another one of these creatures, and it didn't even remotely resemble the creature that we killed yesterday."

"Actually," Doctor Hernandez snapped his fingers and responded. "This is the most important trait of the BS-T. In its four week lifespan, it tries to infect as many animals as it possibly can. And as it moves from its first host to its second, the BS-T that's being produced in order to be transferred to the second host also mutates."

"What do you mean by that?" The Commissioner asked, his expression signalling that of confusion.

Raphael replied. "Simply put, the second generation BS-T is a mutated version of the first generation, which retains certain characteristics of the first host's DNA. The second generation BS-T then mutates the second host, while also making changes to its DNA in order to give the host similar characteristics to the first host. And this cycle continues-"

"-Until who knows what abomination is created..." Raphael's words were interrupted by Harry, who began mumbling to himself. He then looked at Raphael and asked, "Does this BS-T mutate human beings as well?"

"Human's can also be affected, yes." Raphael nodded his head.

"And can these mutated humans think normally?" Commissioner asked. "Couldn't we make an army out of these mutated humans to protect us?".

"I think you've watched too many Hollywood movies, Commissioner." Alan said with a bitter smile. "The FID have come into contact with multiple mutated humans, and not one of them could think like a normal person."