“You said a small tour so I really wasn’t expecting something of this size. It feels like we haven’t been moving with how big this place is,” Layla finally piped up. The panther pushing her chair chuckled which only served to remind the bobcat she was essentially at the mercy of these two individuals.

“Well we won’t be exploring the entire facility. It would take too much time for one day. We’ll check out some of the more scientific areas and the food court. Some of the housing perhaps but it won’t really be easy to get everything done today unless we move a bit faster,” the reptile replied with a small smile. He seemed to enjoy teasing Layla but the bobcat couldn’t find fault with him. It felt playful instead of mean or unnecessary. “If you want to see more we can certainly speed up the pace but I think you’ll want to see the chemistry labs?”  

“Well it would certainly be nice. Just to be clear how many labs are there here? And how in the world do you hide a place of this size? It’s like this is a city and na headquarters or a facility.” She shifted to lean back against her chair as she looked around and let out a small sigh. She wasn’t in any danger and if she happened to be she could defend herself with a few small tricks. 

“Well we actually are under a city for your last point. We have a few entry points and we do not exactly make it a secret where we are but we are by no means pushovers so a head on assault would be foolhardy. As for how many labs there are, we have a few dozen at least. We have quite a few research teams so we need multiple labs to host them all.” The red and blue scales on the back of the reptilian in front her shimmered softly in the light. He gave a polite nod to a raven as they passed. Layla had to take in the avian’s appearance. They had purple markings on their feathers and what looked like an old spear slung over their back. She realized the avian was a female as she glanced at the handax slung by her hip. “Hello, Lilith, it’s good to see you here again.” 

“Hello, Ker. New recruit?” The birds' voice was melodic and precise, almost as if it had been practiced to remove any trace of an accent. “He’s quite the looker. Wouldn’t happen to have brought him in for yourself, would you?” She gave a chuckle and smoothed one of her feathers back into place with a wink to the feline. 

“Layla is a possible recruit, yes. I certainly do agree she’s a looker but she is not here for me. We brought her out of one of our recent raids after her company decided to try and trap her.”

“Oh, I see. Apologies for the inconvenience, Layla. I hope we’ll get to know each other better and I’ll do my best to help you feel comfortable should you decide to stay. And don’t worry, I don’t bite unless you ask.” Lilith said with a small pat on the bobcat’s shoulder. 

“Oh it’s quite alright. It honestly sounds like I’m a lot better off here than I was up there already. Plus I haven’t even started to transition. I’ve had my name picked out for years but today is the first day I’ve ever heard it used,” Layla smiled and held out a paw, claws sheathed. The raven took it and shook it with a small chuckle. “This facility is huge and honestly I’m a little shocked but even when I freaked out and threatened them, these two treated me well. I actually feel a bit safe right now so even if I don’t join I’d hope I can stay until it’s safe for me to leave.”

“We certainly don’t plan to send you out to your death. That would be your choice alone and we wouldn’t expect you to decide to join us just because it’s safer down here. We certainly would like you to join one of our research teams but we won’t force anything.” Ker looked back over her shoulder before pointing at a door. Layla watched it open with a small look of confusion. “Speaking of which, we’re at one of our research labs now.” 

Following the reptile in, she listened to a small assortment of noises including the breathing of Kelly. The panther's breaths were heavy enough she could hear them over her shoulder but they didn’t sound strained. Perhaps it was purely due to her size. Looking around the room, Layla saw a few bears, some sheep, and even a snake moving between machines and shelves. Before long someone stepped up to greet them. 

“Ker, you bring us a new recruit? Is this the new one from the raid? You got them to agree already?” A red panda practically beamed up at them all as she looked Layla up and down. “You work awfully quick my reptilian friend. Have we seen any side effects from the tranquilizer they used?” 

Ker held up a hand to stop them from going on since it seemed the small mammal was ready to launch into even more questions. “She hasn’t agreed to anything yet but she seems comfortable enough to explore the facility. Besides, with how long she’s been asleep she’s bound to be hungry. As for side effects, she seems to be compliant and perhaps a bit hapless in her attention to some things. On the other hand, the device we put on her hasn’t gone off yet.”

“What device? A mobile monitor?” As exciting as the events of the day had been so far, she couldn’t concentrate on everything. She wasn’t tired but she really was hungry and the mention of it made it more apparent. “And I am very hungry but I didn’t want to interrupt you. It would have been rude of me.” Layla shook her head before leaning forward and offering a paw to the red panda.

“Oh you don’t want to shake our paw right now. We were just handling some things and were about to wash up to get some food ourselves. You should all come down and eat with us. We’ll treat you to a good meal and possibly get you a set of glasses yourself.” 

Layla blinked at the use of plural pronouns but shrugged it off and smiled. She had heard of people like this but hadn’t met any before. “Food sounds wonderful. I’ll be interested to learn more about what you do here later. In any case, it was part of the tour wasn’t it, Ker? We can always come back later when I can concentrate better.”    

The walk down to get food had been long enough and when they entered the large area where food was served from several different booths and storefronts Layla let out a gasp, eyes wide. The place was huge, bigger than the food court she went to sometimes even. She really didn’t know how they could possibly afford all this but she supposed it was possible some of the people here or elsewhere who supplied them were capable of just creating food. If she could make and spread diseases out of just the materials of her body why shouldn’t that be possible?  
Everyone else had decided what to eat without her since she was busy looking around at everything that she hadn’t even managed to pay attention to what they were saying. They had decided on the old classic that is pizza because there was something for everyone. It was split so there was meat for the omnivores and carnivores on one half, veggies on the other. Layla smiled and dug in eagerly as the others started to eat and chat. The small girl was quiet and attentive, ears swirling to anyone who spoke so she could take in all the information. 

“So you’re almost done with the research on the new immune boosters, Mala? That’s some pretty good news, especially since we’ve been needing it in order to research harder diseases.” Ker was looking at the red panda as she spoke, the only person there who was smaller than Layla at all, even if it wasn’t by much. The subject of immune boosters got Layla’s attention faster than she would have thought possible. Her ears and head instantly swiveled to the small creature as she waited for a response. "They should also prove useful for recovery in regular aspects of course."  

"Oh, we believe they are almost ready, yes. We would like to test them but we have no one in need of them at the moment of course. We have no sick among us so we have to wait."  

"Test it on me then. I would be an easy enough subject after all." Layla suddenly chimed in and every head turned to her, eyes thoughtful or surprised. "If I get to do my research and no one is going to push me to the brink of death all the time, then I'm game to join your organization. The only thing I care about is making the world better and healthier, even if my power itself isn't really great for that." 

Everyone now turned to look at Ker who was smiling wide and nodding. "Well then, Layla, welcome to the team. We'll set you up with a room and a sealed lab so you won't make the others sick when you get samples. Will you be wanting to use the standard transition procedure or a more streamlined one?"