[Gift] The Hamstering Incident of Starville

“And finally, my most recent invention, and possibly my magnum opus…”

Virgil guided the pair of spacecats in his lab to the back of the room, past all the previous inventions he had showcased already. The three of them approached the machine currently covered with a drape. Virgil grabbed hold of it and whipped it off in a quick motion.

“The Fission Beam!”

The machine was oddly shaped. It sat on a circular base, as the machine tapered to a flat cone shape. It was covered in lights. It had an arm with an antenna-like needle, surrounded by a dish shape. There were also a few dials and displays on one side of it.

“‘The Fission Beam?’” Leif questioned.

“Yes!” Virgil cut in. “It’s state-of-the-art technology! Its purpose is to change the way someone can look!”

“If all it does is change your appearance, why is it called the ‘Fission Beam’?” Iris cut in.

“I’m glad you asked! You see, this machine does more than simply change the colour of your fur, or give you extra spots or stripes…” Virgil paused for dramatic effect. “... It changes your physical body, or what is commonly called ‘traits’ by splitting off from your pre-existing ones, hence ‘fission’!”

“Really?” Leif looked in awe. “How?”

“It’s quite simple! All traits can be grouped under categories, and some even stem from others! Let’s say, for example, a spacecat has a wispy tail. From there, it is very simple to convert that tail into another by splitting off from it! Some are easier to change into, such as loose tails, comet tails, or even shooting star tails, but all of them are do-able! You can even use this machine to grow more tails if you please!”

“Can it be… any trait?” it was clear she was very curious about the machine.

“Yes, my friend! Even the rarest of the rare! Wings, conductive spacedust, even extra heads! It does it all!”

Leif stared at the machine in awe and began to approach the mysterious device. However, he was quickly stopped by Iris grabbing her shoulder.

“That’s a pretty bold claim. Have you even tested this? Is it even safe?” Their words were complemented by a cold glare directly into Virgil’s eyes.

“Of course!” He seemed unfazed at their piercing glare. “Here, I’ll use it on myself right now! Let me just…” Virgil makes his way to one of the dials on the machine and twists it around. The display above it displayed words that changed as the dial turned. Some of the words that flashed on the display included. From “RINGS” to “SHAPED HAIR”, then “SHAPED IRIS”, “SHAPED PUPIL”, “SHAPED TAIL”, until he twisted it one more time, landing on “SHAPESHIFTING”.

“You’re going to turn yourself into a shapeshifter?”

“Precisely! I can even choose which animal which I can turn into! Observe.” Virgil moved his paws to another dial. This one had the letters of the alphabet engraved around its circumference. Above the dial was a pointed triangle. He turned the dial until the “H” was under the point, which made it appear on the display above it. As Leif and Iris watched him do this, they both questioned why Virgil simply did not put a keyboard in place of this method.

Virgil continued twisting the dial, in the opposite direction this time, and to the “A”. The letter was imputed on the display, which now read “HA”. He turned the dial again to reach the next letter.

Or at least, he tried to.

“Hmm.. The dial seems a little stuck… No big deal, I can just-” He cut himself off as he tried to turn the mechanism. It still wouldn’t budge. Rearing up on his hind paw, he grabbed the dial with both of his front paws and continued his efforts while grunting. The dial still refused to turn. Virgil let out a frustrated huff.

“Son of a-”

The dial finally gave in to his efforts, but since he was using his full body weight, he fell to the floor as the dial spun wildly. It was spinning so quickly that it almost seemed like it would fly off. Even though no cat was imputing anything in the dial anymore, the arm suddenly came to life, moving upwards while the needle at the end of it began to glow as the machine emitted a rising hum. The arm moved slowly, and soon both Leif and Iris found themselves facing down the charging beam.

“Uhh… Virgil..?” Leif took a step backwards. Iris did the same.

“Oh dear…”

The beam suddenly fired, headed straight for Iris. They didn’t have the time to react when-

Tnk!

“Ack!”

The beam hit them square in the face. Luckily for them, there was a pair of glasses resting on their muzzle, which in turn reflected the green beam of light as it hit the lens. However, since Virgil’s entire workshop was filled with metallic gadgets, the beam continued to bounce wildly in the room. 

“Get down!” Leif suddenly felt himself get pulled to the ground by Virgil, who then continued to pull him under a wooden desk. He covered his face with his paws. Leif did the same. They heard the beam continue to hit things in the lab and bounce around for several seconds before the noise of it banging against the metal disappeared. Virgil was the first to crawl out from under the desk and look around, confirming the beam had vanished.

“Phew! It seems that the ray has either hit a dull surface or launched out the window into the sky, hopefully…”

Leif was the next to uncover his head. As he looked around, he couldn’t see Iris beside him. He couldn’t see them anywhere. 

“Iris? Iris?? Where are you? The beam is gone!”

No response.

“Hmm? Did your friend not shelter under the desk?”

“No! Iris! C’mon on!” Leif began calling louder, sounding a bit frantic. He took another step forward before he noticed he almost stepped on something. Upon closer inspection, it was Iris’ glasses. He picked them up.

“Look! I found your glasses, ok? Just come here and I’ll give them back!”

There was still nothing.

Virgil began to approach Leif.

“I don’t know where your friend has gone, but-” His speech was cut off rather quickly as Leif spun around to grip him by his shoulders.

‘What the HELL was that??? Are you trying to KILL creatures with that thing?? Where’s Iris??”

“N-nonsense!” Virgil was taken aback by Leif’s sudden confrontational tone. “I have told you, the machine has been tested, and it is not dangerous!”

“Then where in the stars are they??”

“Well…”

The room filled with a tiny chittering noise, catching the two cats' attention. They turned their heads to the noise, and they noticed a tiny hamster skampering towards them. It was really strange looking, given its purple fur and splotches of purple spacedust.

Wait a moment…

“Iris?” Leif questioned. 

The purple hamster continued to run toward his paws, and when it got there, it made eye contact with its beady eyes, which had a slight purple tinge to them.

“Iris!” Leif scooped up the hamster in her paws, which gave her a better look. This was indeed Iris, everything about it matched up. “Is that seriously you? Please tell me this is a joke and this isn't you!”

Iris only responded in the form of a squeak.

“A hamster?” Virgil stepped in closer, inspecting Iris’ new form. He began tapping his chin. “Odd… I was setting the machine to ‘hawk’...” 

“Well, FIX it!” Leif yelled. “Look what you did to them!” He pushed Iris closer to Virgil’s face to emphasize the point.

“I can fix it, but-”

“BUT WHAT!?”

“B-but the machine needs to cool down before it can be used again to ensure it won’t malfunction. Then we can use this feature I call ‘The Black Hole’ to turn them back.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“A few hours, at the very least.”

“A FEW HOURS?”

“Yes… I apologize.” Virgil said with a genuine look.

“You BETTER be sorry!” Leif took a deep breath. “I’m… sorry for yelling at you. I’m so worried about them…” She brought up Iris close to their face, who rubbed against her cheek.

“I promise this is reversible. Come back when I call you again, and then I can put everything back to normal.”

“Alright…” He pouted. “You heard him, Iris… C’mon, let me take you home. Hold on tight.” He then guided Iris to his neck, encouraging them to nestle in the folds of his hood. They did so, making various chattering sounds. Leif couldn’t begin to understand them. He turned out the door of Virgil’s lab.

“See you later.”

Leif made his way through the streets of the town. So many things were going through his head. For one, is this happening or is it just some crazy dream? Why hamsters of all things? What a cruel mistress fate was. Another question came to his mind as he continued his stroll to Iris’ house.

Why was the town so quiet today?

Starville wasn’t a very big town, but it was always active. Idle chatter from residents was very common, but it was silent right now, suspiciously so. It was almost like it was a ghost town.

Hmm… Something is wrong here…

Leif turned the corner to walk through the town square, and she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight.

Hamsters.

Hamsters everywhere.

All of them were surrounding a shiny disco ball that had been placed on a folding table. Was it for a party? Why on earth was it there? It seemed like it was only there for a comedic bit. Two hamsters had climbed onto the table and scratched it with angry looks on their tiny faces. One had golden yellow fur with purple spacedust hind legs. They were also covered in leaves and sticks. The other was a more dusty brown, with a tiny pair of wings with purple spacedust running along its back.

Wait a second, those hamsters look like Twig and Heath…

He scanned the crowd of hamsters more thoroughly. He spotted so many cats he could recognize. There was Devona, who was spinning in constant circles, clearly extremely confused. There was Roxy, who was chuckling, which came out in squeaks. He was laughing at Gadget, who had a deep scowl on their little hamster face. Next, there were two pink ones, one was a sodacat named Poppy, inspecting every inch of her form as if trying to solve the mystery. The other pink hamster was a spacecat named Rebel, who did not seem phased at all. The look on her face made it look like this was a typical day for her. There were plenty more than that, but he felt the need to point these specific examples out, for some reason.

Everything came together of what happened. After the hamster beam stopped bouncing around Virgil’s lab, went out the window and somehow made its way to the strangely placed disco ball on the table, reflecting off in various directions and striking various residents of the town. This whole situation was as if someone was trying to write a scenario in a cartoon and threw all logic out the window to reach a comedic climax as if this entire day was a joke or something.

“What the-!?” quivered Leif in utter bafflement.

At the sound of his voice, the army of tiny hamsters turned their heads in unison to stare at him. He watched their eyes widen. It’s like they’ve never seen a spacecat in their lives. Or, at least in a while.

All the hamsters began to mobilize, charging directly at Leif. It was paired with frantic squeaking as if all of them were trying to hold his attention. It sure was. Leif could not look away, and he was getting terrified at the swarm of animals rushing toward him, beginning to back up in fear.

“Wait!-”

Leif spun around on her hind legs to make a break for it but was stopped as a couple of hamsters jumped at her, clinging onto her legs.  She let out a shriek as more and more hamsters began to pile on her legs, and soon her back. Iris had popped out of her hood by now and began angrily squeaking at the others, trying to get them to back off, but to no avail. There were soon enough hamsters to completely bring her crashing to the floor. The hamsters continued to surround her as she lay on her back in the dirt. Iris continued to go on the defence, trying to stop them from getting too close.

“Hey, you!” A tiny voice squeaked. Leif turned to view where it was coming from and found Rebel, who stood next to his head. “Why aren’t you a hamster?”

“How are you talking?” Leif asked.

“Eh, I dunno,” Rebel said with a shrug. “Now answer the question, fluff!”

H-hey! I didn’t do this! It was Virgil!”

“Who is that?”

“The science guy! He has a lab down that way!” A shaky paw pointed in the direction of which Leif came. “It was his machine! He can fix you!”

The pink hamster stared at him for a moment, then looked at all the other hamsters.

“Well, you heard the cat! Let’s go!”

Every hamster scamped off in a big wave down the path, cheering in little voices as they did. Eventually, all of them were out of sight, and the air went silent again. It left Leif and Iris in the middle of the floor, completely baffled.

“So… That just happened…”