The hitman drew a deep breath. All his gear was packed, and the apartment was cleared of anything relating to his cover identity. Dammit, he'd had a solid three years here before he had to leave! It wasn't like he'd never discarded a cover identity before, but after three years he was almost getting kind of attached to this one.
Still, better to leave it behind than risk going to prison. And after all, if he did have to go out in the sun, who were they to say that what he became wasn't whatever new cover ID he told them it was?
He sighed. Well, there was no getting around it. Time to see exactly what fate had in store for him. At least this area was pretty abandoned during the day - he wouldn't have to worry about the gangs until nightfall, and unless something went very wrong, he'd be long gone by then.
The city council, in its oh-so-infinite wisdom, had given up on this area long ago. There was now only one patrol car assigned to it, though it did run both day and night shifts.
Muriel Walsh was the police officer who ran the day route for most of the week. It wasn't interesting or exciting, but she kinda liked it that way; it gave her a chance to just relax. At least this was a positive opportunity brought on by her change.
When she was exposed to the sunlight, Muriel had been somewhat changed. Many parts of her body now had a hard chitinous plating like an insect's exoskeleton, minus the "skeleton" bit - it was just plating over her normal endoskeleton body, and the plating was even divided into segments for flexibility. The plating was distributed unevenly, often only partly covering something. Her left breast was plated, for example but not her right, and the upper-right side of her face was covered, but not the rest of it. She had insect-like antennae as well, which she'd had to punch holes in her hat for.
She didn't think she liked her change, but at least it was pretty unobtrusive, which was more than she could say for a lot of people. And it had landed her a pretty cushy day shi...
Muriel's thoughts trailed off as she saw a strange sight. A young girl, no older than nine, was wandering confusedly through the streets, completely naked. She looked mostly normal, but her hair, tied into twolong front locks and twin braids that went all the way down her back, was a bright, crisp white. And...she couldn't quite tell from this distance, but it looked likeshe had another pair of nipples underneath the first?
She stomped on the brakes and parked the car, rushing over to the girl as soon as it was stopped. The girl startled at the sight of her and shied away, but Muriel put on her best concerned smile.
"Hi there," she said. "Are you okay< little girl?"
The child frowned. "I'm n...I'm n..." Whatever she was trying to say, she couldn't seem to get it out, and huffed in annoyance. "I dunno who I am..." she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
Something about her made Muriel's heart melt. "Do you remember anything?" she asked. "What's your name? Who are your parents?"
The girl frowned. "I 'member some things," she said, "but, I dunno my name, snd I dunno my mommy or daddy!" She started to cry.
Muriel scooped the child up in her arms. She flinched at the touch of the chitin, but relaxed when she realized it wasn't rough or uncomfortable. "It's okay," Muriel said. "We'll take care of you. That's our job."
She set the girl in the back of the car and wrapped her in the emergency blanket from the trunk. Thankfully, despite being naked in a not-very-good part of town, the child didn't look or act like an assault victim. But who was she? Muriel knew how difficult it could be to verify transformee's identities even if they remembered - that was why law enforcement was now doing it only on an as-necessary basis. But if the girl didn't even remember...how would they ever find her parents? Who would take care of her until then?
