Leo

Woman: Swift Creek Photos
Lion: Piratelotus
Background: Aqua Stock 

Only two weeks after the Aries event with all of its media hype from around the world, things were starting to get back to normal for Hilda and James. They continued to analyze what they'd gotten from Crystal the first victim (and they hoped only) victim of the sex transformer. She'd been able to report only vague details of the man who'd done this to her. It seemed as if the transformation had scrambled her memories of the entire evening from well before the event to the time when she'd been dropped off in Centennial Park. The media, though, soon lost interest as nothing new came out of their investigations. This break was of far too short duration ...

Hilda's phone rang. It was the director of the unit.

"He's struck again!"
"The transformer?"
"Yes, dammit. Get out to River Valley road at the old quarry. Be prepared to fight your way through the crunch though. The media got wind of this one before the police did and there's already dozens of reporters and camera crews swarming the place."
"The police are keeping them away from the site, aren't they?"
"Yes, but how long that will last is an open question."

She signalled her partner, who was on the mobile unit. When he heard that there'd been a second transformation, he dashed from where he'd been talking to the DNA tech to Hilda's desk.

"What this time?" he asked as she met him as he dashed off the elevator.
"A lioness -- Leo"
"Got some kind of fixation with astronomy?"
"So far. Fat lot of good that does us."

The pair gathered their team and dashed for the main CSI van. It only took a few minutes to reach the latest site. Getting past the reporters, though, proved far more difficult. Several minutes passed as each reporter had some inane question about the past transformation or this current one (now how could they answer about a crime scene they'd not even seen? How stupid were these people?) Finally, they broke through the crush of news hounds and were admitted to the cordoned off area. Once again, they were confronted by a young woman who'd mostly been transformed into an animal. No centaur this time, Melinda Sheer was mostly cat -- lion to be exact. From the tip of her tail to her pointed canines, it was apparent that this was the work of the same man (Hilda wondered about that, though).

They followed routine, taking measurements and samples of anything and everything that might be related. Their problem was that there was no precedent. What did you look for on a totally novel crime? In the end, they had the police force the scrum of reporters apart enough to get the ambulance in and had them take Melinda to a hospital for observation. Taking their samples back to the lab, for analysis. Part of the sample was a second gold ring: "Leo".

Once back at the lab, they began the process of analysis. The photographs of the scene and Melinda's foggy memories revealed that this, like the Aries case, was not the main site of the attack. Melinda, too, had been taken from the streets. Like Crystal, she'd been working her street and had been picked up by a john. She too had been taken elsewhere for his pleasure. Once again, he'd changed her and him during the sex act. Any hope of identifying the perpetrator was dashed when Melinda was pushed for a description. Her description didn't match Crystal's in any detail save that it was a man. 

Melinda began to worry. How could they stop someone who could alter themselves this radically? Height, build, hair colour, even DNA? Someone this plastic would be nearly impossible to ID. How could you prove it was even one man doing it? And then a truly horrible thought struck her. What if he stopped preying on sex trade workers? Would any woman, any where be safe?