The Animal Instinct

The Animal Instinct

Jedidiah Theodore Heston wakes up suddenly in the middle of a tropical forest. He looks all around to see he is alone or at least appears to be. The man closes his eyes and clenches every muscle in his body. Before too long, his nose turns into a pig's nose, and he starts taking great whiffs of the area around him. Foragers use pigs and dogs for hunting down rare truffle mushrooms, so Jedidiah, Jed for short, figured it was the best option to emulate to see if he could smell anybody nearby. A scent-based search yielded no other humans but a lot of interesting smells.

Feeling a little more at ease, Jed stands up. His legs give out a little from underneath him, but he's able to stay standing and not fall into the sand. There's no telling how long he's been unconscious or even how Jed wound up where here. The last thing he could remember was being on a plane before, well, nothing. Jed uses his power to revert his little piggy nose into his regular human nose. Much less panicked, Jed takes another look around, and this time he notices a piece of paper attached to one of the nearby trees. He walks over to the tree and removes the note to read it over.

"Dear Jedidiah Theodore Heston, also frequently referred to as 'Animal Instinct,'

Allow me to introduce myself; you may refer to me from here on out as Poacher. You may be wondering where you are now. Well, here is where I like to bring all manner of creatures so I can engage in exciting and thrilling campaigns of hunting them down for sport. Now I know we got all kinds of crazy superpowered freaks running around this world nowadays. The news is full of them with their self-righteous causes. They're all too high-profile, and I'll be honest, too strong for the likes of me. My power ain't flashy or impressive enough to contend with them.

At least that's what I thought before I heard whispers of you. The man capable of emulating simplistic traits of animals at will. The man with the animal instinct. Now, someone told me that if I drink your blood, it will cause my abilities to evolve, and shoot if that happened, then I'd be able to start hunting me down some more high profile cases and really expand my arsenal. But like with all of my prey, I like to make it fair. We both should've woken up at around the same time based on my assistant's calculations. I'll fire off my gun when I'm in my right mind, so you'll know.

Good Luck, and Happy Hunting

-Poacher"

"What the he-"

A gunshot sounds off across the island. Jed looks at the note then toward the island forest where the gunshot sounded. The man drops the letter and hurriedly runs off in the opposite direction of his enemy. Jed focuses his power again, and his whole body starts to crack and pop as it contorts to become slightly more ape-like. Once he feels the transformation is complete, he starts bounding up the nearest tree and climbs it with ape-like proficiency. Once at the top, he relaxes a little bit. When people are looking around, they typically won't look up higher than a forty-five-degree angle from their current position. Poacher might be more skilled, though, but the foliage is so thick up here that Jed should be able to concoct a plan of action while Poacher searches.

"We had to get dropped off on this island somehow, and considering I don't have a parachute attached to me, that probably means there's a boat.

Of course, Jed's thoughts betrayed him as it is equally likely that Poacher would have people airdrop them in from tandem parachutes, but the point remained that his people would have to leave this island somehow while Poacher did his business. Jed undid is ape-enhancement and refocused his ability to create cat ears to give him better hearing. He focused on any sounds that were out of place.

Crunch crunch crunch

Leaves from the forest floor crunching. Jed couldn't be ultimately sure, but that sounded like the rhythm of human feet plopping around. Jed receded further into the trees as the footsteps came closer, using only a tiny opening in the foliage to look down on the forest floor. Sure enough, a stout, balding man with stubble facial hair carrying all kinds of equipment appeared. He had animal-skin pouches wrapped across his torso and waist. Holsters on either hip for handguns. One empty due to him carrying the gun in his hand. He had a holster for a rifle slung along his back as well and a giant syringe-like device. The man stops near Jed's tree about five feet away. Jed holds his breath.

Poacher sneers before grabbing a pouch from one of his torso bandoleers, popping open the cap and drinking the contents of the animal-skin bag. The ruby-red liquid was spilling out from the corners of Poacher's mouth. The hunter lets out a satisfied paah before wiping his bloody mouth. He then starts sniffing around wildly.

"Now, I might be mistaken, but I don't remember putting any kitty cats on this island!" Poacher yells, pointing his handgun up at Jed's tree.

Jed preemptively starts jumping from his current tree to the next just a half-second before Poacher shot right where he was. Jed's heart starts racing as he tries climbing from tree to tree while reverting his body to its ape form so he can jump through these trees easier. Gunshots follow him.

"Soooowee!" Poacher yells from behind him.

Jed had to think quickly. Poacher's people would probably still be on this island to either pick him up or finish off whatever took him out. Considering the size of some of the animals Poacher has likely hunted, that probably means they wouldn't use a helicopter. So that means there's either a dock or an airport and landing strip—Jed questions whether he should go deeper in the forest or toward the shoreline. A bullet whizzed right over his head.

"Almost gotcha there, Jed. Best come up with a new strategy!"

Jed could hear Poacher reloading his gun while he was chasing him, meaning he likely wouldn't be as focused on where he was going. On Jed's next tree branch landing, he slammed down as hard as he could with his morphed, ape-like body, then he leaped off, causing the tree branch underneath him to break and fall. The tree branch landed right in front of Poacher and since he was distracted loading his gun ended up tripping over the considerable branch. Jed heard his disgruntled yelling as he made some distance between them. After so post success deliberation with himself, Jed decided to try the shoreline to see if there was a dock.

The ape-like man changed course to where he originally heard Poacher's gunfire from before. Considering how quickly Poacher found him means this island probably isn't huge, and if Poacher's people were waiting for him, then they'd likely be hanging around closer to where they dropped him off. With this plan in mind, Jed swung heartily toward the shoreline that Poacher started near. Not even a few minutes later, Jed made it to the shore, and sure enough, there was a sturdy wooden dock and a rudimentary structure right next to it. Jed swung from the last tree branch he could before landing on the bit of the island before the pier.

Looking up the length of the dock, out to the horizon, Jed could see a small ocean-worthy vessel idling by. It wasn't getting any closer or any further. Jed panicked for a quick second before taking a breath. He just had to outlast- BANG!

Jed felt immediate and stinging pain in his gut. His vision strained as he looked down toward his stomach and saw blood starting to soak through his dirty, overstretched clothes. Jed looked behind him to see Poacher pointing his gun at him, fresh dribbles of blood at the corners of his mouth. The pain became a little too intense for Jed to stay standing much longer. His eyes rolled back a little as he fell forward into the waves pounding against the dock.

Poacher holstered his handgun before taking the syringe-looking device from his back and holding it plainly in his hands. True to form, it was a giant syringe similar to one they'd used to pull blood from you when they wanted to do blood work.

"You shouldn't have come out into the open, Jed. You might have had a chance if you would have worn me out in the forest because hoowee, your powers are something else."

Poacher starts walking up the length of the dock. "Can't wait to see if they actually improve mine because I am sure getting tired of drinking all this animal blood just for a few minutes of work. I'd like it to be more of a one and one kind of deal."

Poacher looks over the side of the dock—giant syringe in hand.

"Now, where'd you go? Your body should be floating."

Suddenly, a hand rips up from underneath Poacher's feet through the wooden dock. A webbed hand wraps around Poacher's ankle and pulls him down with all the force it can. Poacher pulls out his handgun before being entirely dragged under the water's surface, from before aiming it to fire. He's dragged under by the webbed hand. A few seconds pass and a couple of shots ring out from under the water's surface. Blood rises from the water, but a body doesn't surface with it.