Totemary Machine

By Ebonhawk

In the heart of the ultra secret compound of the CFC, the pace is usually slow and deliberate. The agency for Central Invention Control council usually has no excitement beyond the occasional federal funding bill. Since they are a pseudo-governmental agency, no one that worked there minded the silence.

On the forth floor, Shelly and Trevor formed their own department of two. Their job was to photocopy and number each new submission looking for funding. Technically, Shelly was in charge. She was the one with seniority but in a department their size it rarely mattered. It was a standard Monday morning and both were more interested in coffee and bagels then they were anything else. It was 8:30 when, the awakening ritual was cut short by the clamoring of a fire alarm.

At first Shelly assumed that it was someone’s sad excuse for a joke. They were slowly heading to the door. When they heard the first gunshot. Shelly dropped her coffee; Trevor dove behind Shelly’s desk. By the time they heard the second shot, curiosity had given way to fear. The couple ducked down and huddled quietly behind Shelly’s desk. Shelly began to shiver as the sounds of panic grew louder and the shots got closer. Trevor held her close so that Shelly’s jewelry and wildly chattering teeth wouldn’t give them away.

Then it became apparent that the gunshots were not a firearm in the classic sense. Just prior to the pop was an electric squeal. As it came closer, both could clearly smell the smell of animal fur. Each ‘shot’ drew forced an instinctive movement from Shelly. She looked at Trevor angry that she couldn’t control her response. Trevor just shook his head. He tried to be strong, but his eyes shown the same fear as her own. Just as the chaos neared them, it gave way to silence. The two employees looked at each other. Neither dare ask the question that preoccupied their minds - was the danger over?

Just then the desk was pushed over. It arced over their huddled forms and crashed at their backs. The pair looked up to see an old man dressed in a white lab coat. It was rare that either saw a client much less remember seeing one. This guy was different. Many an inventor came to the commission demanding funds but this guy brought a circus full of animals with him. He was babbling that the animals were all just people stuck in animal form and that he knew a way to undo the injustice of re-incarnation. He claimed that inside of each human was an animal spirit that had to be made free. He made his case with such passion and earnestness that is was hard to laugh at him. Someone called the police and this living anachronism found out that it may have been hard to ignore him but it was not impossible to get rid of him. At least, that was what Trevor had said jokingly to Shelly as they found and shredded his application because it was so obviously a stupid idea.

Now he was back and he was looking at them. They expected to see a gun in his hands but instead there was a single heavily modified device. It looked like he had taken the dish from a satellite TV system and put a black box on the underside where it would normally be mounted to the house. On the top of the box was a handle with two buttons and on the side was a PDA that stuck out like a keyboard. The pair looked up and down at the wacko to see if he was armed. They realized that he wasn’t.

Trevor and Shelly looked at each other. They were both young, in their twenties, and avid baseball maniacs. Trevor was about to make a move on the old man, when three security men appeared in the door guns drawn and about to fire. Almost too fast to see, the old man turned to face them. He pressed the red button. Then they heard an electric sound coming from the box. The couple smelt the pungent sting of ozone as they watched the security guards change into a wolfman, a catman and a foxman. They weren’t the animals but a hybrid of animal and human. In the moment that the former humans are confused by the change, the wacko genus presses the other button. When the pop sound happens it hurts the couple but the guards grab their ears and fell unconscious. Shelly figured it was some kind of ultrasonic gun. That would have been a good application if he had sent that in she thought.

Mr. Wacko turns to face the couple, just as Shelly regained her voice. “I’m the one you want. I did it. Let Trevor go and take me. Then the world will know you were right and I was wrong.“

Trevor looked at her as if she had lost her mind, which, according to her, she so obviously had. “Now get out of here”, Shelly demanded. Trevor didn’t even get a chance to decide whether to go or attack Mr. Wacko. They felt, Mr. Wacko’s machine hit them. The electricity that they had heard, smelled and seen now pricked through them. They expected to feel pain, but they didn’t. It felt good. It was almost as if some essential part of them was now being freed. The next moment, it was over. Shelly had been transformed into a humanoid phoenix and Trevor a humanoid thunderbird. A mask of shock came across Mr. Wacko’s face.

Shelly saw Mr. Wacko’s finger moving toward the sonic gun, She knew she couldn’t get there fast enough so she reached down into her ‘soul’ and released an explosion of fire. So intense was the blast that Mr. Wacko dropped the device. That was all that Trevor needed. With a flap of the wings he jumped on Mr. Wacko and restrained him.

Once Trevor had tied up, the still wordless, Mr. Wacko, he looked over to see Shelly crying little flickers of flame from avian eyes. In her hands, was the busted remains of the machine. The Totemary machine that no one had thought could be made was no more and it left two humanoid birds to mourn it’s passing - and the passing of their humanity.