Sound of people talking and beeping noises was silenced by music in Merryweather's ears. He was listening to one of his favorite bands while drinking his soda. It was the only place where he could rest away from horrors. The only thing he wished for right now was to quit his job and go on a retirement back to his family, it's been a few good years. He was finishing his meal when a pretty young woman approached him.

''Hey, can I take a seat here? There Are no seats left, Mc having a busy day today, hah.''

''Yeah, no problem.''

The woman took a seat and introduced herself.

''I'm Mary, Mary Ulgrin.''

''Ulgrin? That sounds pretty German, also I recognise you from somewhere, haven't we met before?'' Merryweather asked, taking another sip of his drink.

''Oh, yeah. My husband might've been working with you before, he said yall got along very well.''

''Yeah, we were working together before, he was a nice guy. . .'' Of course, he didn't mean that. He saw Ulgrin a couple of items while doing routine alliance checkup at Site-19 before the Containment Breach happened. ''Dudes having problems with traitors, 096, 682, 173, heh.'' He mumbled to himself.

''Come again?''

''Nevermind.''

''Oh, I see you also got a fursuit!'' She pointed at his fursona.

''Yeah, work requires me to wear one so I just take it everywhere, annoying as shit to put on.''

''Did you also got it from Ollie? You know, their company.'' She eye rolled, smiling before finishing her fries.

''Ollie? No, I uh, got it from a friend from the job.'' Merryweather quickly had to get a lie to not have his cover blown, who knows how would somebody react when he'd say that "he's working for a paranormal organization specializing in protection of humanity against paranormal phenomena". They wouldn't take him seriously, especially in a fursuit.

''Dang, you should check out their site too. They got some sick fits. I recently bought my first paws!''

''That's great and-'' He stopped, hearing a notification. It was from his supervisor, Olivia wants to talk with him about something.

''Hey, sorry but I gotta go now, shift calling. Nice to meet you!''

''Oh, alright, can I get your numb-'' She couldn't finish. He just took his stuff and left.

The man walked through the hallway, passing his dorms before walking into the cafeteria where she was supposed to be. The room was filled with the most unusual people you could've met. Some newbies, staying away from various monsters, dudes in fully high-technology white armours, mysterious figures or even whole as fuck orange mechs.

''Oh, Sergeant. Glad to see you. I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly.'' General spoke, handing her notebook to one of the recruits. It didn't seem very "security right" to hand such confidential stuff to a newbie. Yet, he ignored it.

''G'day, miss. What's the reason for you to call me?''

''We've got a new issue, house intervention to be specific. We assume it has to do something with your kind of thing so we're sending the GRFC to deal with it.''

''Any more informations? How do we know it's not just some children messing around?''

''Our PSYCHE field agent "Oreo" has given us a PSYCHE report related to that. Alice Sanword and her son are the victims. Her husband, Mason Sanword might have also been infected, he's locked in his room currently. The victims are safe.''

''Alright, got it. Any equipment suggestions? Lethal or non-lethal? Going in full loud or quietly?'' Merryweather asked, unsure.

''Take your lethal M1191 with a silencer and tranquiliser gun. Basic fursuit and go in quietly, phone services are down there currently till the morning so I expect you and Ryan to be there as soon as possible, you've got 3 hours.''

''Then better not to lose time, I found some more informations along the way, for now, farewe-'' As soon as he turned to leave, she grabbed him by the wrist.

''Stay safe.''

Ryan and Merryweather stood in front of the house, it looked like it was from a horror movie. The whole house seemed to be tilting to the side. The men placed their masks on and unslinged their tranquiliser guns, a single dart from such a gun can take down even a bear. They approached the house, slowly walking by the garage and under the window to not get caught. It was still night and they had an hour and half to take care of the issue. They stood by the door, preparing for entry. Ryan used a laser cutting device to burn through the locks of the door, quietly and efficiently. Merryweather counted down on his hand from 3. They entered as Ryan went to the right side of the house and Sergeant to the left, they cleared out the first floor quickly before re-grouping by the stairs. They slowly walked up, Merryweather peeking to the hallway, seeing moving shadow. He took aim at the shadow as Ryan cleared out the rest of the rooms on the next floor. They felt uneasy and paranormal presence nearby, yet they were used to it.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

They moved with a quick walk towards the door as Merryweather kicked the remaining drawers out of the way. They runned into the room as the figure crawled under the bed. ''LAW ENFORCEMENT! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!'' Ryan shouted, aiming his tranquiliser gun, Merryweather covered him. The figure whimpered in fear and didn't dare to come out. Sergeant gave a signal as Ryan walked up to the bed, reaching his hands under it and grabbing the man before dragging him out. He was releasing inhuman noises, not heard before. Ryan tossed him further, blocking off all ways to hide.

''Fwends, why r u doingw thwis to mwe~!'' The man said, he sounded more like an idiot than a cute being which he attempted to sound like. Merryweather dealt with this stuff before, weirdos in fursuits.

''Mason Sanword, we're here to help you, what happened?'' Merryweather asked, still keeping his guard up incase of an attack.

''I dwon't nweed no whelp! UwU''

''Looks like you do, you might've been infected with something or at least went insane. . .'' Ryan added, reaching slowly for his pepper spray which he brought additionally, it wouldn't make much as the man wore a fursuit mask but worth a try.

''I just bwecame a fluffy furry-''

A silence appeard as a crack sound was heard, the man collapsed on the ground screaming and shaking on the ground. ''AGH! FUCK, LEAVE ME ALONE-!'' He tried to get up, yet pain intensified as his voice began to mix between human one and animal. ''PLEASE, GOD, HELP ME, AH!'' He continued to scream for help, crawling towards Ryan who stood in confusion and fear. He was backing off, trying not to get close to the man yet he continued to crawl begging for help. ''MAKE IT STOP-'' He didn't finish as he began to choke, fursuit tightening on his body as fur on it began to move, his fursuit mask began to blink, crawls grew out of the fingers and teeth of the mask got sharper and durable. ''Is he fucking transforming? The fuck?!'' Ryan asked, completely frozen in shock as Merryweather couldn't even get a single word out of his mouth. Was it fear? This was his first time when he was actually scared of what is going on inside that fandom. Suddenly, the man stood back up, sergeant could hear his growling.

The man was infected but that didn't seem like something ordinary, they didn't see it before. From being a hater on furry community to turning into a complete monster, Merryweather was now sure its not something to be underestimated. The man launched at them with mouth wide open and hands reached for them, Ryan had barely time to dodge the attack by tossing himself at a shelf, the monster began to swing with his claws towards Merryweather as he efficiently blocked it with a tranquiliser gun which broke after the first hit. Ryan aimed his weapon at the beast firing 2 darts as the liquid was injected directly into the creature's body. It roared in pain yet continued to fight, it hitted Ryan with its tail before being rear hooked into the jaw, standing in confuse it was upper cutted as Merryweather had time to back off. As soon as it went back running at him he slammed chair into its head. The beast was able to take such damage and before it could bite into sergeant's shoulder, it was shot directly into the skull.

The monster collapsed on the ground, almost crushing Merryweather, yet he ducked. Ryan suffered from 2 broken ribs and trouble with breathing, sergeant came out with just a few cuts on his left arm. They took a sample of the creature's blood and brought it to the van before transporting it to the research area at headquarters HELIOS.

2 Weeks passed and the results of the experiment finally came, Merryweather was eating his lunch at the cafeteria when Will walked up. He placed photos and a document on the table which grabbed the man's attention.

''So, any news?'' Merryweather asked, taking a bite of his hotdog. He finally was motivated and interested in this case.

''Yes, we found out that specific victims evolve after being exposed to UTE-3312, or should we say KTE. Some victims evolve quicker, some slower but so far we know that there are 4 phases. Not much known about them yet.''

''I'm listening.'' He brushed his mouth with a piece of cloth before paying whole attention to the PTOLEMY researcher.

''In the first phase, victims, mostly haters of the fandom, get interested in the community. After being exposed, their brain begins to pull up specific feelings for the fursonas which they watched, most likely leading to their praise. Second phase appears soon after, specifically after a few days. Victims which evolved to that phase buy their own fursuits and create fursonas, often exposing other haters to the anomalous site which we found. They all also have extreme interest in a user known online as "Olliefox" and they try to-'' Before William could finish, Merryweather cutted in.

''Wait, Olliefox? I heard one girl mention him at the fast-food restaurant. Is this connected?''

''Ahem, as I was saying, they try to find the user but we don't know what they want to do to him. Once they turn into phase 3, they basically turn into animals or at least think they're one of them. That's why that kid jumped off the building before, his fursona was an eagle and he thought that he could fly. Phase 4 is the moment that shit goes south. They literally turn into whole fucking monsters, like the one you encountered few days ago. They're durable and powerful, we're gonna get more informations soon.''

''Thank you, William.''

''No problem, you're the first one to get this information, general will get it next.''

Researcher walked off as Merryweather continued to eat, this was just the beginning of the chaos that was about to happen.

***

A police officer was walking through the city, it was around 11 PM. He was whistling as something runned past the dark alley, he didn't notice it and just turned into the alley. He felt a presence staring at him, watching his every move. He stopped and shouted ''WHO'S THERE?'' Yet no response was given. Something runned past his back, the officer felt lost and confused as growling sounds were heard. He looked over his shoulder and thought about escaping. As soon as he began to run through the alley, something went sliding under his legs causing him to fall ''AGH!''. The figure runned past again slicing his legs with sharp claws as he groaned in pain, he immediately pulled out his glock17 and radio but before he could use it, the radio was knocked out of his hands. He saw it, the figure. It was walking in front of him, slowly, he aimed his pistol and shouted ''STAY BACK OR I'LL SHOOT!'', he pulled the trigger but didn't fire. He looked into the chamber, no mag. He covered his head and screamed as the beast attacked.