Spirit Animals- Project Siren 1

4 September – 10:37

Time seemed to move agonisingly slow as Dante was waiting in the lobby. For what must have been the 100th time the man looked at his watch and sighed deeply. He hated unpunctual people. ‘At least these club chairs are comfortable.’ He thought as he sat there for a few more minutes when at last a man in a lab coat walked over to him. “Professor Gerfalcon?”
“Yes?” The man in the lab coat smiled and introduced himself. “Nice to meet you, my name is Yamato Fukashi, we spoke on the phone last week.”  Slowly Dante got up and was greeted with a bow by Yamato. Relieved he bowed in return, glad that he didn’t have to shake hands. “Yes, I remember you.”

“Glad you do. Sorry that I’m late, but we were quite busy in the lab and I forgot about the time.” Not bothering to even force a smile Dante replied. “It’s okay.” Of course this was a lie. Either Yamato didn’t notice the man’s detached behaviour or he simply didn’t care as he smiled at Dante. “Well then, please follow me. We’ll first stop by the office to get you a lab coat before going to the lab.” With a nod Dante followed Yamato as he thought. ‘I hope he hurries up, he has already wasted enough of my time and the day has only just begun.’

Now dressed in a lab coat Dante felt more in his element and at ease as he followed Yamato inside the lab. Even though he didn’t look like it Dante had been very excited to see the lab, but saw a bit to his disappointment that it was very similar like the lab he had previously worked at in Gloria. ‘Oh well, my previous work had pretty descend equipment. If this job has the same then it’s fine.’ Besides, he didn’t come here for the equipment. Suddenly some scientists called out to Yamato and beckoned him. “So, is this our new colleague?” A bit too enthusiastically for Dante’s taste, Yamato introduced him. “Yes, this is professor Dante Gerfalcon from the G.G.M. institute. From today onwards he will help us with the Siren project.”

“Great, we can use some more help! Well welcome on the team Dante.” One of the guys said as he held his hand out to him. A bit reluctant, since he disliked physical contact with strangers, he shook the man’s hand and said with a serious expression. “I’d prefer if you would call me professor Dante.” Surprised the colleagues blinked their eyes before smiling awkwardly. “Oh…..” Yamato sensing the awkward atmosphere cleared his throat as he turned to Dante with a wry smile. “Professor, why don’t I take you to the aquarium? That’s what you came for after all.” Eagerly the young man nodded, more than happy to get out of the awkward situation. “Very well, follow me then please.” He said as he leaded Dante to another room. When the duo walked away, Dante heard the colleagues whisper secretly to one another. No doubt that they were gossiping about him, but oh well he was used to that. After a short walk the two men arrived at their destination. When they walked inside Dante couldn’t help but to feel a spark of interest. The room or rather space was huge and that was more then necessary.  In the middle stood an aquarium large enough to fit great white sharks. As the duo walked closer Dante noticed there were no fish in the aquarium, but also noticed that at the left side of the tank an acrylic pipe, large enough for a human to fit through, was attached. Curious he followed where the pipe went to and noticed it disappeared into the ground. “Where does this pipe go to?” He asked Yamato, who smiled secretly in return. “You’ll see.”

He answered casually, slightly annoying the young scientist.  Once they walked over to the back of the tank however, his question was answered. “I see, so the tank is connected with this pool?” Yamato nodded his head before waving to a colleague, who was kneeling in front of the pool. “Jessica! Is he in the pool?” The young woman called Jessica looked up surprised before answering with a smile. “Yes! He is! He’s grabbing my ring since I dropped it-“ But when she saw Dante she stopped talking and blushed. “Oh….Hey, you must be professor Gerfalcon. I’m Jessica Landers.” Dante barely granted her a look as he nodded his head, he was looking interested at the pool. “Nice to meet you.” He replied uninterested as a formality. Curiously he kneeled in front of the pool next to Jessica and peered into the water noticing a dark figure. “So who’s he-“ But before he could finish his sentence the figure suddenly shot up like a torpedo before jumping half out of the water. Dante gasped as water was splashed all over him and wiped agitated some water of his face, luckily he was wearing his glasses. “What the-“ But when he looked up he nearly freaked out as a stranger was staring into his face. “W-wow!” The stoic Dante nearly fell on his butt, had the stranger not grabbed him by the arm to help him. “Wow! Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” The stranger said with his exotic almost singing like voice. Still a bit shocked Dante blinked his eyes as he looked at the young man in front of him. He couldn’t have been much older than 20, had ginger hair, a lovely terracotta skin and strange hazel eyes with slit pupils. Both Yamato and Jessica snickered at what had happened as they looked at the duo. “Ah perfect timing, Professor Dante I’d like to introduce you to Angelo. Angelo this is professor Dante, from now on he’s going to join our team and help us with our research on you.” Dante blinked surprised his eyes as he looked from the ginger to Yamato. “Wait, this is the subject?” When being addressed to like that Angelo couldn’t help but to frown. “Subject? I’m a person you know.” The red head mumbled before looking at Jessica with a smirk. “Here, I found your ring.” With a sigh of relief Jessica dried off her ring with her coat before putting it back on. “Thanks Angelo.”

“You’re welcome… well, now that’s settled-“ Suddenly the ginger heaved himself up, moving his face way too close to Dante’s. “Let me have a look at the new one.” The scientist wanted to back away, but froze as he saw a part of Angelo’s now revealed lower body. If he didn’t know any better he would’ve thought he was looking at a mermaid, but Dante knew that Angelo’s stream lined copper brown tail was caused by his second fase of his transformation. “What are you doing!?” He asked, not to happy with the ginger holding his cheeks. “Sharks can’t see very well above water so he’s tracing your face to ‘see’ you better. Don’t worry, he did this with us to.” Dante however was grossed out and slapped the gingers hands away. “Stop that! That’s gross.” Both Angelo and the other scientist where surprised by his strong reaction. A bit worried Yamato glanced at the ginger and saw him shrug his shoulders. “Well, I think your new colleague is a real sweetheart.” Dante didn’t really appreciate the gingers sarcastic tone, but said nothing as he got up and took a few steps away from the pool, which made Angelo heave a sigh. “Well whatever, I’m going back to the tank.” He mumbled before diving down and disappearing in the water. Yamato sighed and rubbed his forehead as he glanced at the silent Dante. “Well this is promising to be a fun collaboration….”

5 September – 15:21

The next day Dante was allowed to participate on some experiments on Angelo. Everything went well and once they were over everybody took a break. Dante was gathering some papers when suddenly Yamato called out to him. Surprised he looked up and noticed his colleague was carrying a bucket full of fish. “Uhm, what do you need fish for?” He asked suspiciously with a frown. When seeing Dante’s reaction Yamato snickered and reached the bucket out to him. “It’s Angelo’s snack. I thought that since you two got of a bad start, you maybe could make up with him by bringing him his snack.” When hearing this the younger scientist couldn’t help but to cock up an eyebrow. “We got of a bad start, because he was fondling my face and I don’t like physical contact from strangers.” A bit disappointed Yamato heaved a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “But that’s because- no, never mind. Just give him the fish please.” Reluctant Dante took the bucket before looking at its content with a questioning look. “Why raw fish though? Doesn’t he eat normal food like us?” This time an amused smirk spread on his colleagues lips as he explained the reason. “Angelo is a different case, because we force him to be constantly stuck in fase 2 of the transformation he seems to have taken over some traits of his spirit animal: a shark. For example bad eyesight out of the water and his eating habits.” Dante was quite fascinated by this and felt a spark of interest in the ginger. “Oh, I see…that’s quite interesting actually…” Suddenly he turned around and made his way over to the pool as he said to Yamato. “Well since you’re insisting I guess I have no choice but to go and give him these. Once out of hearing range an amused snickered rolled over the older scientists lips as he watched his new colleague walk away. ‘He suddenly got all excited.’

When Dante arrived at the pool he saw Jessica was braiding Angelo’s hair while talking excitedly to the ginger, who looked rather bored in return. The sight reminded Dante about teenage school girls for some reason. A bit awkward Dante cleared his throat, attracting the two’s attention. “I uhm, I brought you your snack…” Surprised the duo looked up at him, Jessica with a faint blush and Angelo with a frown. “Oh…thanks…”  The ginger mumbled. The three stayed frozen for what felt like eternity as they all remained silent, until Jessica got too uncomfortable by the tension and decided to bail out. “I uhm, I should get going now…so uhm rest up Angelo…” She said as she suddenly got up and left the two men by themselves. When Dante watched Jessica walk away, he suddenly heard Angelo clearing his throat to attract his attention. “So uhm, can I have my snack now or are you going to stand there and look pretty?” Startled the scientist blinked his eyes before setting the bucket down by the edge. “Oh yeah, here…” Without wasting time the ginger propped himself up on his elbows and heaved himself out of the water and onto the ground. Quietly Dante watched as the ginger ate and couldn’t help but to be fascinated. As a professor Dante had done quite some interesting and important research, even though he was still quite young. But he had never worked on a project like this before: a project to search for a way to let people stay stuck in fase 2. Of course Dante knew this was going to be used for military purposes, but honestly he didn’t care. He loved to research and that alone was what mattered to him.

Suddenly Angelo noticed that he was being watched and looked with a frown at the scientist. “Uhm, are you watching me?” Not embarrassed in the slightest Dante answered. “Yes, I was observing how you are consuming those fish.” Gobsmacked and a little creeped out the ginger’s eyes widened before he eyed the scientist with a strange look. “You know…you’re handsome, but you’re an awkward potato when it comes to socialising…” When hearing this statement Dante couldn’t help but to frown. Surely people, especially women had complemented his glossy black hair, fair china skin and mysterious silver eyes before, but never had anybody called him a potato before. “First of all how would you know what I look like? I thought sharks couldn’t see so well out of the water and secondly…I think calling somebody a potato is strange.” At first the ginger seemed to be surprised when he suddenly burst out into laughter. “You really are an awkward potato! Well for your information, since a certain rude dude didn’t let me trace his face I had no choice, but to watch you from my tank. Plus the female co-workers are all drooling over you so even if I didn’t know what you look like I would know by the girls.” A bit annoyed by the ginger’s sassy attitude Dante rolled his eyes as he kneeled down. “What ever, I’m not really interested in what people think of me.” Angelo just shrugged his shoulders in response before he continued eating his snack. Again the scientist watched in fascination as he asked. “What kind of shark is your spirit animal? A bronze whaler shark?”

“I prefer copper shark since that isn’t a mouth full, but yeah. That’s the one.”
“Fascinating, I believe you are the first bronze whaler shark specimen I have encountered so far. Most shark specimens I’ve seen were great white’s, hammer heads and tiger sharks.” Angelo seemed to be annoyed as he listened to the scientist talking, Dante didn’t seem to notice this however. When the ginger felt something was stuck in his teeth he tried to get it out, giving Dante a small glimpse of narrow hook shaped teeth. This sparked the scientists interest as he scooted closer. “Can I see your teeth?” But it wasn’t much of a question, his voice sounded rather commanding. When Dante reached his hand out to Angelo, the ginger slapped his hand away before snapping at him. “Listen here pal! I’m not going to let you do with me as you please just because you brought me some fish! Do you honestly think I’ll let you touch me when you don’t even treat me like a person? Seriously I’m not one of your ‘specimens’! As long as you don’t treat me like a human then I don’t want anything to do with you!” And with that said the ginger slipped back into the water and disappeared out of sight. At first Dante was too surprised to react and just stared with big eyes at the water. Eventually he snapped out of it and got up while grumbling. ‘That fish and I are never going to get alone!’

“Well fine! Whatever, I don’t even want to see your teeth anymore!” The young scientist grumbled as he walked away. In the meantime Yamato watched the whole scene with a sigh.

11 September- 08:04

Days passed by and it was another busy day at the lab today. When Dante arrived he saw everybody was preoccupied with all sorts of tasks. ‘Strange, normally everybody is still drinking a coffee at this time.’ When the young professor noticed his colleague Yamato he called out to him. “Hey Yamato! What’s going on?” A wry little smile spread on the older man’s lips as he walked over to him. “Today Angelo’s getting his shot.”

“His shot? Do you mean the injection you told me about? The one that keeps him stuck in fase 2?” Yamato nodded his head as he took Dante to the tank and explained everything to him. “Yes, you see the injection works well but so far we haven’t been able to improve it. We don’t have full control over the transformation yet. So far the longest we’ve been able to keep Angelo in fase 2 is about 10 days. We’re hoping that we can extend that period.” Curiously Dante looked up at the older man as he asked. “Why have you guys only been experimenting on that one specimen so far? Why aren’t there any others? Especially low ranks, they’re much easier to achieve than high rank specimens.” Yamato chuckled, but for some reason there was no humour in it. “You’re right about that, give a low rank some money and they’ll do anything for you…but it’s not that simple professor. In fact we’ve had low ranks to experiment on in the past…but Angelo is sadly our only success so far. We noticed that the injection only works well on high ranks and most of all the predator type for some reason. We don’t know why yet, we’re still searching for an answer. Anyway we stopped using low and middle ranks since they always got complications.”

“Complications?”

“Yeah…well, they either died or had problems with their transformation…” Dante’s eyes slightly widened when hearing that, nobody had ever mentioned this before. “What do you mean by problems with their transformation?”

“Well in most cases they either couldn’t transform anymore to fase 2 or 3…or, they were stuck in the animal fase, in fase 3…for good.” Dante sure didn’t like the sound of that. “I see, so that’s when you started using high ranks I presume? But where are they? Why is that shark the only one?” A sigh rolled over Yamato’s lips, he looked rather tired and a bit troubled, like he didn’t wanted to talk about this. “Do you honestly think high ranks are so easily willing to participate in an experiment when we’ve had such bad results? They don’t care if it’s only happened with low ranks before, they’re not willing to take the risk and we can’t persuade them so easily with money since well, they’re high ranks. They’re loaded with money, you should know…” The older man mumbled the last thing and this didn’t go unnoticed by the professor, he ignored it however. “Plus, from the few high ranks we’ve had Angelo is our biggest success so far. We don’t know why yet but the injection has had the best effect on him, so that’s why he’s the only here. For now he’s all we need.” Dante didn’t know why but he got a feeling  that his colleague wasn’t telling him everything. Just when he wanted to ask them about it, they arrived at the tank and immediately he noticed a difference. “Is that a crane? Was that there before?” He asked as he looked at the crane, which was hovering above the tank. “Yes it was there before, but you probably hadn’t noticed it yet since they only lowered it now.” As Dante looked at the crane he noticed a big fishing net was attached to it and he got a strange vibe from it. “That net…are you using it on the specimen?” Yamato heaved another sigh and nodded his head as he explained. “Yes, unfortunately the injections are quite painful and because of that Angelo has become…uncooperative when he has to get them. We tried everything, but when he bit a bite out of Andrew’s leg, well we had no choice but to take drastic measures.”

“Lower the net!” Surprised the duo looked up before Yamato hurried over to their other colleagues. “Quick it’s about to start!” Still full of questions Dante let his curiosity take the better part of him and followed his colleague. Just as they arrived the net was lowered into the water all the way to the bottom of the tank and to Dante’s surprise he noticed Angelo wasn’t there alone. About four divers all clothed in diving suits were driving the ginger towards the net.

The young professor narrowed his eyes as he noticed the divers were all holding the same long object. ‘Are those sting spear guns?’ When he saw how Angelo lashed out to a diver only to back away quickly when the diver used his device on him, Dante’s suspicions were confirmed. It was a sting spear gun. Once the divers had driven the ginger into the net, everything happened quickly after that. Suddenly the crane lifted up the net capturing Angelo in it. Once high enough in the air the crane turned away from the tank and towards the scientists. As soon as the ginger made contact with the ground at least 4 to 5 scientists jumped on top of the young man and pinned him down. A chill ran down Dante’s spine when he heard Angelo growl like something he had never heard before. “Let me go! I don’t want your damn injection! Just leave me alone!” But no matter how much the ginger yelled it was no use. As another scientist, who was holding the injection, kneeled down next to him Angelo started to plead. “No! Please! I’ll do whatever experiment you want me to do! But please! Please don’t give me that stuff! PLEASE!” But the scientist ignored the poor man as he carefully punctured a vein and injected the shot. As soon as he started injecting Angelo gasped and started trashing around with his powerful tail. He squirmed, yelled and cried in pain so loud, that it was hurting Dante’s ears. Even though the professor wasn’t really soft hearted, even he had it difficult watching it all. Just as he was about to turn his head away Angelo slightly turned to look Dante right in the eyes. Those strange hazel shark eyes were filled with anger, fear and pain…and they seemed to look right through to you, making Dante think. ‘This is an inhuman treatment…’