Chapter 3: Reversal

Once the week ended, Ferral did what he always did: He locked himself inside his room, staring at the large whiteboard he had. He always finished the assignments given to him during the week, so he had nothing to worry about. As he paced back and forth, he wrote something down on the whiteboard and then immediately erased it. He’d look down at his journal, examining the equations that were written on the pages he had opened, then went back to writing on the board.

As he worked, Loni and Savannah knocked on his door before opening it. He groaned with annoyance. Ferral never actually locks his door, in case of emergencies, but it was times like this when he wished he did. “Morning, Ferral.” Savannah greeted. “Wanna join us for some sparing?” Loni added. “No thanks.” He replied, his back still turned. “C’mon Ferral, you’ve always been D.T.S.” Ferral squinted his eyes, confused. “D.T.S.?” He asked. “Down to spar? Hello?” Savannah clarified. “Oh yeah, right. Your weird acronyms,” He leaned to look down at his journal, “Still have to pass though.” Loni groaned, “You’re so lame now, Ferral. For the last year and a half, all you do during your time off is stuff yourself inside this room and write out your math stuff.” “Yeah, you used to be always ready to train with us,” Savannah added, “Now you just look at your numbers, letters, and pythagorean theorem.” Ferral let out a small chuckle, “Thank God the facility only taught you guys the bare minimum of academics, otherwise this conversation would drag out more than it needs to.” The two lionesses sighed and walked off, and as they did, Leona came over and leaned against the door frame.

“Guess I’m gonna start hearing it from you too?” Leona scoffed, “I don’t really care whether or not you train anymore. Just means I’ll get ahead.” She started to walk closer, “I’m more curious about this nerd stuff you’re doing. They’re right on one thing; you’ve prioritized this for longer than I think is necessary.” She stood next to him on his right, examining the whiteboard, an eyebrow raised not knowing what it all meant. “It’s school stuff.” Ferral replied. “Please, I’ve been in your room a few times and seen some of this exact same gibberish. It’s more than just school shit.” Ferral tried to ignore her and continue his work, but Leona was persistent and picked up his journal while he was looking at it. “So spill. What’s the point of this?” She asked, examining the two pages as she walked around the room. Ferral let out an annoyed groan, “Okay, fine. Flip over to the previous page.” She turned the page back one and was met with a series of different equations. “What you’re seeing is the formula for how to make an experiment.” Leona gasped, “Are you serious? Like….a REAL experiment?” Ferral turned and nodded, “As real as you and I. I got the formula from someone who worked at the facility, long before we were even conceived. I asked Mr. Buck for help, you know, he knew a guy who knew a guy who knew another guy and etcetera.” Leona looked back down at the pages, surprised she was staring at the very reason she was the way she was.

“Now turn to the pages you were on before. Notice anything similar?” She flipped back to the next two pages and examined them. “That…it’s got some of the same letters and numbers? Almost like they're in a backward order.” “Exactly, what you’re looking at is what should end up being the formula to reverse an experiment.” She looked up at him, confused, “Reverse? What’d you mean?” Ferral scratched the back of his head, “It’s basically the way to kill off the animal DNA that’s inside us. To turn us into regular humans.” Leona’s eyes widened in shock, she couldn’t believe what Ferral was saying. “It’s been quite a task trying to perfect it. What you’re seeing in that book is only a prototype formula, I don’t know how effective it realistically would be….or even the side effects it could have. I’ve been thinking of running some self-tests, or maybe using one lioness as…” Before he could finish, Leona slammed his journal shut.

“Ferral, how could you?” She asked with irritation in her tone. “How could I what?” “How could you try and take away the thing that makes you special? That makes you better than a regular human.” He scoffed, “It’s not about being special or better. I’m doing it so we can be accepted by society. Not just me, all of us.” “Why do you assume that’s what we all want? You can’t be a mouthpiece for us.” “And you can?” Ferral had raised his voice slightly. Leona looked back at the door and walked over to close it, not wanting the others to hear. “I’m tired of seeing our kind suffer,” Ferral continued, “Of being discriminated against and feared. And this isn’t simply some isolated issue, the whole WOLRD segregates us.” “That’s true, I’ll give you that. But as time has gone on, I’ve realized that what we have is a gift. A power that puts us above the rest. The normies know that too, and that’s why they fear us.” Ferral furrowed his brow, “Sounds like something Dr. Atlas would say. Look, I’m only doing this for those who WANT it. Who want normality and acceptance.” “Get real, idiot. You think that just because you turn into a normal human, society will welcome you with open arms? Regardless of being an experiment or not, society doesn’t give a fuck about you. Turning into a normie won’t automatically fix all your or anyone else’s problems.”

Ferral’s frustration continued to rise, but he didn’t want to start a bigger conflict. Especially not with his best friend, “Look, you have your ideals and I have mine. Just let me do my work and continue this pointless argument after I’ve finished.” Leona scoffed, “Whatever,” She tossed his journal back onto his desk, and as she started walking off, she held the doorknob and looked back. “All that schooling and smarts but you’re still the same naive idiot you were when we first met.” He didn’t reply and kept his back turned, waiting for Leona to leave. He heard the door open and close, leaving him alone. As he gripped his marker in frustration, Ferral remembered the words that Dr. Atlas had said to him the last time they met, five years ago. “…you’re still a monster pretending he's a normal man…” Those words rang through his just as loud as they did all those years ago. He gripped the marker even harder, so much so it broke in half, staining his hand. He clenched the stained hand, “No….I’m not a monster. None of us are. I KNOW what I’m doing is right.”

That night, Ferral wasn’t able to sleep, so he did what he always would when he couldn’t sleep and went up to the roof and stared at the night sky. As long as he could remember, sleep was something Ferral didn’t get enough of. Something was always racing through his mind. Being out in the real world and understanding his biology, he came to the simple conclusion that thoughts and ideas formed in his mind at a much more rapid pace than the average person. “If I had a nickel for every time I found you out here…” Ferral’s eyes widened as he, in a split second, shot up and got into a fighting stance. Only to see it was Venus sitting right behind him. “That stance would be more intimidating if you were transformed.” She giggled. “How did you…” “Despite my nonchalant and salacious attitude, I’m still a strong and skilled fighter, Ferral. Doesn’t help your cause that you were completely oblivious to your surroundings. Lost in thought…” Quick as a flash, she vanished out of sight, but Ferral knew she would be right behind him. So he twisted behind him, at the ready…but he was wrong. He felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders from behind, “...And that’s pretty dangerous. Someone could sneak behind you and end your life in an instant.” She had whispered in his right ear and softly blew into it, causing Ferral’s face to turn red and he pushed her off. Venus giggled, “I’m just joking. But it’ll never not be cute to see you get flustered.”

Venus was the eldest of the group, and third strongest behind Ferral and Leona. She’s got the potential to be stronger than Leona but isn’t as serious about training as her. He growled, “Did you just come out to annoy me?” “No, just to show you that your senses would be vastly better if you were in your true form.” Ferral narrowed his eyes, “Leona said something, didn’t she?” “She ranted and raved about the little spat you two had, yes.” “And what’d she tell you?” “Nothing that can’t see both sides on,” She walked up to Ferral and placed her hands on his shoulders, “I understand wanting to fit in and be accepted. You forget where Leona and I came from. Leonidas had….standards. We had to follow them; something Leona rebelled against. And you wonder why we act the way we do sometimes.” Ferral looked at her slightly confused, “This coincides with our conversation how?” “Huh? Oh right…got off-topic. The point is, while I understand your problem, you have to remember that this always happens when humanity is given something it doesn’t understand yet. But trust me, it’ll get better. We don’t have to reject what we are, but embrace it.” Ferral looked away for a few seconds before walking away and sitting back down to look at the sky. “I’ll….I’ll think about it. Ugh, you’re such a drag.” Venus smiled smugly, “Now is that any way to talk about your lover?” Ferral’s face turned red again, “We had two flings long time ago. We are anything BUT lovers.” She chuckled, “Try not to stay out here all night, okay?” It took Ferral a second to answer, slowly getting lost in thought again. “Yeah…” Venus walked off back inside and left Ferral with his thoughts.