Page 24 of Prickly as a Porcupine

“Let’s find this agent and then go get the party supplies so we can regroup.”

Joline nodded.The faster they did their part, she could get back to Ariel to keep an eye on her.

Controlling her hormones was a little different than shifting into her animal.Ariel stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom of her assigned dorm, staring at her reflection.She figured looking just older than middle-aged would make her look different enough.After wandering around as a shrew, Ariel had found an ID badge left on a desk that should work.The task was much harder with three legs, but she made it work.Ariel studied the picture in her hand.While the doctor on the badge had golden brown hair, there were enough streaks of grey through it where Ariel figured her auburn hair wouldn’t be so noticeable.She’d hoped, anyway.

After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she found the imaginary door in her brain that led to the controls of her hormone levels.Ariel found it easier to use a visual meditation practice to hone the art of changing her age.She imagined turning the dial to sixty years old.Her skin prickled as it aged, its elasticity diminishing.The worst part was her hair thinning out.She picked up a brush, running it along her tresses, pulling out the loose strands.When she went back to her normal age, all the lost hair would have to grow back at its natural rate.The woman in the reflection brushed her greying hair.The silver did tone down the red, making it appear less brassy, giving it a more neutral ash hue.

Ariel pulled the makeup bag closer.The woman on the ID badge had a few small moles on her face and no freckles.After hiding her spatter of freckles with foundation, she used an eyeliner pencil to add the moles.She hated to admit she missed the thrill of this.There was something exciting about donning a disguise and seeing if it tricked anyone.Next, she applied some darker contours to change her face shape slightly.The doctor on the badge had a more rounded face than Ariel.When she was satisfied with the reflection, she threw on the white lab coat, pinning the ID badge to the left breast pocket.Too bad she didn’t find a set of keys when she swiped the badge.Hopefully, it wasn’t reported missing, or this would all be for nothing.

Ariel paused with her hand hovering above the knob of her dorm room.Could she continue to walk the straight and narrow if things like disguising herself to trick others excited her?Could she be the person Joline needed her to be?The better version even she herself needed to see?But wasn’t she doing just that?Instead of using her tricks to kidnap people, she was helping to protect her friends and finally take down the man who hurt them.The man who hurt her.

She left her room, making her way to the hospital wing of WANC.Relief flooded her, realizing she could be herself and also be the woman Joline deserved.Ariel was determined to prove just how useful she could be to FUC.But that wouldn’t pan out if she got caught sneaking around to get supplies.Luckily, fewer staff walked the halls on the weekend.Ariel just hoped she wouldn’t seem too out of place.The supply closet Jennifer mentioned was just passed the nurses’ station.From the time she spent in the hospital wing after they released her from her cell, Ariel knew exactly where Jennifer was talking about.Ariel walked to the door.She checked all her pockets as if just realizing she didn’t have her set of keys.Hopefully the nurse would buy the act.

She smiled at the nurse as she approached.“Would you mind opening the door to the supply closet for me so I don’t have to go back to the lab?I’m running behind schedule today.”

The female nurse smiled, pulling up the corners of her thin lips.“Dr.Burns, did you forget your keys again?”

Ariel nodded, doing her best to appear slightly embarrassed.“I’m afraid I did.”

“You sound like you have a cold, too.Maybe you shouldn’t have picked up the extra shift today.”The nurse’s dark eyebrows drew up in the center in concern.

While Ariel could disguise her face and change her age, she wasn’t able to manipulate her voice.Especially not when it was a person she had never met.Naturally, Ariel had a gravelly voice.It seemed the doctor didn’t, but she could play it off as a cold.The nurse came up with the perfect excuse for her.She nodded, playing along.“I only have a few things I need to get done, then will head home to rest.”

The nurse got up, grabbed the keys attached to her ID badge and led Ariel to the nearby supply closet.“You’d better,” the nurse chided as she unlocked the door to the supply closet.“And make sure you do leave early.I know you put a lot of time into reversing those terrible experiments, but today you need to prioritize yourself.”She meant the rescued shifters who were mutated by people like Grimm.

“Thank you.I plan to.”She added a fake set of coughs for good measure.

Before Ariel had to decide if she should attempt more small talk or make up an excuse for the nurse to leave before she realized Ariel was not who she said she was, a patient walked up to the nurse’s station.The nurse gave Ariel a parting smile before heading back to help the patient.Ariel let the door close behind her as she entered the tiny supply closet.Bottles of various chemicals, empty syringes, bandages, IV lines, and objects Ariel couldn’t identify were stacked neatly around her.She eyed up the chemicals before she found the bottle of chloroform.After grabbing two bottles, she looked around in case they could use any of the other supplies.A bundle of rags and a coil of IV line looked promising.She filled up her arms as if shopping without a cart.Maybe bringing a bag would have been smarter, but it was too late for that.After poking her head out the door and seeing the nurse had disappeared with the patient, Ariel left the hospital wing to make her way back to the empty classroom where they’d agreed to meet.Hopefully no one would find her out of place, or this would be all for nothing.And this could help prove whose side she was on to the other group members.It would especially show Joline that she was making an effort to do better and not fall into her old habits.She remembered how shocked Joline looked when Ariel announced her plan to get revenge.It broke her heart to see Joline react that way.She needed Joline to understand.Ariel would protect those she used to kidnap.No more would she be a lackey for Grimm.She’d put the man down if it was the last thing she did.

13

Joline felt like Agent Quackenbush was just humoring them and trying her best to keep them out of trouble when she agreed to help with their plan after checking in with Agents Stone and Sparks.

“Now,” Quackenbush said, glancing at both Joline and Jennifer with her teal eyes.“You’re certain that none of you plan to leave FUCN’A campus tomorrow?Agent Stone made it very clear you were all to stay here.I can only assist you provided you do just that.”

“Of course,” Joline reassured the agent.She felt a smidge of embarrassment over the agent doubting her honesty.She thought back to what Jennifer said earlier about doubting Ariel was really on FUC’s side.She hoped her crush wouldn’t end up being a bad influence on her.Or worse, end up a henchman pretending to be good.“We’re planning our party and trap near the obstacle course.”

Jennifer nodded, giving her best reassuring grin.“I would never do anything Agent Stone didn’t want me to do,” Jennifer started.“He was the agent who helped to rescue me.That would be a shitty way to repay him.”

Agent Quackenbush’s brown ponytail swung slightly as she nodded her head.“Good.As long as we understand that, I’ll get started.”She held up a roll of masking tape.“I’ll mark off any vents where I sense someone is hiding inside.While it works better under water, as you thought, I’ll do my best.”She smiled at them as if it were just a game.Joline figured the agents probably all thought they were pulling their legs at this point.It was pretty unheard of to have henchmen lurking in the airducts.Maybe Joline and the rescued experiments were getting a little paranoid.She knew the amphiptere did throw her for a bit of a loop the other day.Nothing shook your confidence like seeing a creature you didn’t know existed.Especially when there was an evil scientist on the loose.

“We’ll regroup with the others, plan what to say under the vents where you suspect they are hiding,” Jennifer said, beaming with pride.After all she had been through, this may have been the first time she felt back in control of anything.Joline couldn’t imagine what it must have been like being a captive and experimented on.

Joline and Jennifer left Agent Quackenbush to her chore, making their way back to the classroom where they all agreed to regroup.The afternoon was bleeding into early evening.Their time for preparations was running short.

It didn’t take long for them to get back to the classroom.Joline froze in her tracks as they opened the door to find one of the doctors waiting in the room.“Are you looking for someone?”Joline asked, hoping they could shoo the doctor away before she could realize what they were all up to.While some of the FUC agents gave them the green light with some restrictions, she wasn’t sure how the medical ward would feel about them pilfering some of their supplies.

The doctor smiled.Just then Joline realized who it was.She’d recognize that beautiful smile anywhere.It was Ariel.

“It’s me,” she said in confirmation.Ariel’s voice sounded the same, although she looked like someone’s grandmother.

“Oh my gosh!That is an amazing trick!”Joline said and then froze.She remembered Ariel used to use that trick to kidnap people.

She must have had some sort of look on her face because Ariel said, “It feels good to use it for reasons like this.Although, maybe in the future I won’t be stealing things.”She shrugged.Ariel loosened her greying hair, letting it cascade down around her shoulders before pointing to a pile of supplies.“I was able to get the chloroform and a few other things I thought may be helpful.What did the agent say?Was she on board?”

Joline blinked for a moment.It was really bizarre seeing Ariel suddenly on the cusp of being elderly.“Agent Quackenbush?Yes.She’s making her rounds, marking any vents with a cross of masking tape where she notices spies.If she notices any.”She gave a shrug.While she knew from Grimm’s note that he had lackeys keeping an eye on them, Joline wasn’t sure they’d be that easy to weed out.

Ariel nodded.“We need to act fast.The creatures in the vents may not stay there long.We need to come up with what bad intel to give them, so they pass it on to Grimm and he falls into our clutches.”She made a tight fist as if she could squish an imaginary Grimm with her fingers.