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Sky was sitting at the table with a quiet, perplexed look on his face; across the table the smile was broad, toothy, and extraterrestrial. He had to think for a moment because the man across the room was patiently expecting the answer. The man across the table was shorter than Sky was but he was holding something in his mind that he had not wanted to tell this man. Sky had thought of his response to the question, but none were good enough for him.

"Mr. Brighton?" came the strictly-business voice. The glass-eyed scientist had hoped for an answer a lot quicker than he had. He was still hoping that the man across from him would tell him anything he wanted.

Finally, Sky nodded the slightest of nods. "Yes... I think we can do that. It'd be nice to-"

There was a pause, as if Sky had lost his train of thought. But the scientist opened his mouth almost immediately, "Then all you have to do is sign this waiver." The paper slid smoothly from his hand to Sky's across the table. The extraterrestrial smile was back, and it was slightly unnerving. Sky picked up the pen and scrawled his signature quickly, then shifted the paper back.

"Thank you, Mr. Brighton." came the voice that was slightly out of place. The scientist stood up and Sky eyed him lazily without getting up from his own chair in the white-walled room. He began to think he should stand up to shake his hand, but at that moment Sky felt a prick at the back of his neck, a prick that became a heavy weight localized to his vertebrae, and then became a hard pinch in the bone marrow. Immediately, Sky felt white hot pain spread up and down his spine and time slowed down.

The pain was intense, making the world swim in deep crimson and snowy white simultaneously. His body froze and he had no way of telling whether or not the scientist had jammed the hypodermic into his spine or if it was the man who had been standing by the door behind him. The two men were now both behind him. He had no idea how long the pain would last, but it became unbearable a long time ago. Somehow he was able to bear it, but even if he wasn't he knew he couldn't scream. His jaw had locked up and he could only stare dead ahead at the wall ahead of him.

Then he passed out.

When the scientist had finished painting the lovely picture, Dustin was stunned. He could only sit back in the chair and think to himself of all the possibilities. The scientist had a creepily eerie smile that seemed to suggest crazy and smart. Dustin hated smart and crazy people. He had always thought that the smart people were genuinely good, the crazy people were genuinely dangerous, and both together usually ended up in outright insane levels of neither but instead valiant stupidity. Dustin was nonetheless surprised by the possibilities of this experiment, and knew that if Kevin found out what he was doing here with money he should've been saving for the car about to go under a possibly dangerous experiment it wouldn't be good.

The scientist began to recover the papers, folding them back into the brochures that they had been in to begin with as Dustin sat dumbfounded in his seat. "Wow. They can really do that?" he asked in a stunned voice. "They are like friggin' genies, then."

The scientist didn't look up, but Dustin could see the creepy smile spreading underneath his nose and crawling up his sides of his mouth to his ears. Dustin knew that this may be too good to be true. He knew that it may be the beginning of a rather nasty problem rather than a nice solution to his recent problems. He knew he was smarter than this; he never made schemes at the last minute to this extent.

And yet-

The scientist stood up now and began to place the folder back into the neat (so neat, Dustin thought) file cabinet next to the corner of the office building's cramped space. This scientist was too nice to mention it, but Dustin was uncomfortable in this small room. It wasn't claustrophobia, but it was something much deeper than that. Instinct maybe, but he wasn't sure it was that either. It was something nagging him, telling him to get out while he had the chance to flee from the situation before he handed over his money and potentially more. But it was telling him that he had to make a decision, one that would dramatically affect the influence of his life if he changed it in this way.

The man faced him now. Dustin noted how eerie the face looked. The man was Chinese and not at the same time. He had slight tapers to either side of his eyes to give a gentle diagonal slant shape to them, but he had a straight nose and a nearly-missing forehead. His mouth was gentle if discreet, and the blue-gray eyes that hovered from the tiny sockets seemed alien to him. Almost robotic in his movements also, but he never said anything to the man about that. Dustin didn't say much about people anyways, he was too shy for that. Well, maybe reserved and not shy.

Okay, maybe just quiet.

"I'm glad you like them, Mr. Grimm. Because with a flick of the right switches, your brain can and will accept any changes we give your body. It's just like turning on the light switch-"

"Except the light switch is a Rube Goldberg machine."

"Exactly." He heard a nail-on-chalkboard laugh from the guy, and resisted the urge to cringe outright (but the chill inevitably went up his spine) until he stopped. The scientist rarely seemed so jovial but he patted his client on the back and began to head towards the door as Dustin got up and turned, "Everything you want we can give you. For a price."

To Dustin, the price was well worth the product.

Kevin Osten charged right into the front doors of the clinic, fists raised and face burning beet red. He approached the front desk with no less than the power of an atomic bomb and exploded at the red-headed receptionist to find his boyfriend. Dustin Grimm was not known for being inherently impulsive, but Kevin Osten was not known for his fury. And what was that saying about hell hath no fury?

"Where is he?" the evilness in his voice sapped any bit of politeness he may have wanted to use.

"He's in operating room twelve. Down the hall and to the left at the end."

Kevin was momentarily taken aback. They never did this in the movies, they never did it in real life. They never did it period. How'd she even know he was talking about-

"Dustin Grimm?"

"Yes, sir. He had said you may come by." She pointed him light-heartedly in the right direction and he spun towards her pointing without saying a word to her. Dustin had fucked up big time this time, and he knew well enough not to piss Kevin off.

He swiftly lurched towards the room where the "operation" would be taking place. He knew that there was going to be hell to pay when Dustin found him. He didn't care how much apologizing there would be.

The hallway seemed to go on forever, despite him making quick progress of the rooms passing by him. He was a bit deterred by this fact, but he pressed on anyways. Finally he found the room he was looking for and burst through it with no problem.

It should've been clear that this was a set-up from the way the receptionist had been talking to him. It should've been clear from the way there were no guards to stop him from running down the hall. Hell, it should've been clear that he was staring at the empty room for too long to realize he was set up. But finally he figured it out.

That was when he felt the needle on the back of his neck.

There was a yellow haze in his mind, and the room spun madly in tilting directions that never seemed to fully reach a true ninety degrees. However, he knew he was inside of a prison cell, and it wasn't hazy mirages. He picked his feet up off the clammy floor and realized all at once he was on the cot. As if it were a bed of nails, he leapt to his feet and fell instantly over. His feet felt numb, and the haze quickly disipated from his fall as he turned to look.

His first thought was that he was dreaming, but he knew he wasn't. The feet he had now were changed, misshapen. The toenails were black and thick, curled to sharp points. He was staring at claws as they flexed a bit in apprehension. The toes themselves were thicker, bulky, and shorter looking. He could've sworn he was missing one as well, but he didn't pay it much attention. His heel was further away from the balls of his feet, and from some odd joint he didn't have before, it was now raised like hackles on a hindleg. What the doctor had done was brilliantly executed, and had worked out perfectly.

Sky had hind-paws now. He picked himself up, getting used to his feet seeming to take forever, but once he had done that he felt tall, despite not having actually grown any. He took a few steps around the caged room getting more confident in his walking abilities with each step, the claws flexing a bit and the thick pads he hadn't noticed earlier helping to soften the weight. He was amazed at how nice they looked, but horrified at the thought of being kept in a cage.

The cage was what looked like platinum or stainless steel bars around a five foot by ten foot living space: big enough for a bed, a toilet, and what appeared to be little else but pacing room. Sky did that now in this space as he tried to bring his mind to life. The dullness of his mind made him think of the possibility that he was losing his mind, but he knew it wasn't so. He was thinking clearly, he just couldn't remember much from earlier today.

It wasn't that he didn't remember talking to the scientist, but what had he talked to the scientist about? He knew it was something big, and it came to him slowly despite being obvious: he was getting the chance to change into Leo, the lion fursona he had had for years and years in the furry fandom world online. He stared at the decidedly feline hind-paws (if naked and furless for now) and decided to mull over what else had changed about him.

His fingernails were a matching pair to his toenails; thick, black and sharp claws dotted each finger, which also seemed thicker. His hands had the same kind of padding his feet had, but on the palms and fingertips instead and lighter in amounts. He scratched idly at his chest finding the claws to be retractable and adjustable to a certain length inbetween no claw and full flex, thus instinctively able to not scratch his shirt to pieces. He noticed he was slightly taller as well, maybe an inch or two.

But the biggest change was none of these. He had a full length mirror laid under his bed, and when he noticed it, he immediately propped it up against the side of the bed and looked full on into it. He was stunned to see that his hair had greyed a bit at the sides, giving him a much more mature look. The eerie part was that his face and body showed no further signs of aging, meaning his hair was just greying as if it were the only older part of him. But he knew Leo had silver hair, and a mane that was full and thick. Looking in the mirror now he saw a heavy amount of stubble and longer hair than he had ever let it grow to before, almost wavy in appearance now. His eyes were a piercing light blue, a shade or two lighter than his natural color. But the best part was he no longer needed his glasses. He wasn't even wearing them and he could see perfectly, if maybe a little more so than he would have thought possible.

The initial changes were amazing and real. That was what mattered, that they were real. He was really changing. That realization had hit him before, but the impact of it finally sank in. Almost as soon as he realized it, he subconsciously felt his jaw drop in disbelief.

The area around the cage was dark, save for emergency lights which provided enough light for his cage, but not much else outside of it. The best he could tell, the area was not much bigger around him, smooth concrete surrounding him in a cubic coffin of the stuff. However, there was something a little more interesting upon closer inspection: the area was entirely doorless. The room was a box for a budding lion-man. And worst of all, the lack of windows disoriented him even more. Which way would the food come? Which way was the right way to face in case of some voice through loudspeakers (assuming any existed here)?

That question was thankfully answered nearly immediately.

"Good evening, Mr. Brighton. As you have already seen, this is the beginning of the changes you asked for. Don't worry about this cage, you won't be in it but for tonight. Tomorrow you will find yourself in a much more natural home, and food will be served. Tonight, however, we can do nothing more than let your body accept the new DNA strands and gene therapy we have given it. Among other things, food and excitement would upset your body too much, and we need to see if you react positively to the changes. We hope you will react well." There was nothing else after that. The emergency lights went off one at a time, giving Sky enough time to make it to the bed and lay down.

When the last light cut off, he fell immediately asleep.

Dustin and Kevin were in a slightly similar predicament, only at this point, they were not in their cage. Dustin and Kevin were sitting in their new home, a medium sized room that contained a lot of furniture that was fairly comfortable and could be used for sleeping. However, several things had changed about both of them since Kevin had arrived earlier that evening. The biggest was that for the most part, they were no longer angry at each other. The other was that they were also changing.

Dustin had had a good bit of scruffy looking beard growing in when he'd arrived that day, and Kevin was clean-shaven for once in a while. However, they both now had thick and full beards, and Dustin's was more or less neater in appearance than before. Dustin's body hair had also thickened, much to his chagrin as having removed it earlier this week had taken a long time. It was also more spread out on his body. Kevin's by contrast didn't seem thicker, but he had seen his hair change to a jet black with a crimson (the thought it could be blood crossed his mind, but it wasn't) highlights near his ears.

However, the same changes Sky had experienced had applied to Kevin and Dustin: hind-paws and claws as well as modified hands. Dustin's were flatter and larger while Kevin's were distinctly canine in shape. The two were hugging each other tightly as the lights went out, but were soon asleep as well.

Kevin dreamt of what had happened after he felt the needle enter the back of his spine, how he had found himself awake in an operating room next to Dustin, a tube tied to both of their left wrists holding up life-supporting fluids for both of them in identical bags. He had been awake enough to know that the changes possessing his extremities as they cracked and reshaped, the changes overwhelming the area and both breaking and healing the bones and joints and muscles there into new shapes and sizes. He had only an inkling it may do more than that to the rest of him as time went on.

Dustin, by contrast, was dreaming things that had only just recently started to implant themselves in his mind, the mental changes on the others not as noticable as they would be on him. His immediate personality was unchanged, but overall one would immediately notice his subtle differences. For one, he now seemed calmer and less stressed. Two, he seemed more laid back, but not lazy. And the most noticable was that which he was dreaming now, but had yet to actually get the chance to do anything about it. In his dreams he was Berkley, the tiger-bear fursona he had actually wanted to become and had easily signed up for the operation to make it true. Berkley had a lot uncommon with Dustin: He was taller, built with a thick belly and thicker muscles, and was a few years older. Old enough to be legally able to drink and smoke cigars, which Berkley did almost non-stop with no negative side effects (an amazing thing that a lot of furries seemed to believe was the case, he thought) and this was just what he was going to become now. Dustin had dreams of being offered cigars and beer and going through them increasingly easier and finding he increasingly loved the thoughts of it. Little did he know he was dreaming lucidly instead of normally or he'd have done it much faster and enjoyed it a lot more. But for now, his lucid dreaming was simply comparable to wishful thinking or daydreaming.

Neither of them knew what would happen in the morning.

The next morning had yielded more changes for all of them, but none on their bodies. The three of them were separated at first, but ultimately dumped into the same large room. The large room looked like a forest of some kind, but everything was built and constructed with synthetic materials that were stronger than nature could allow: carbon-steel-inforced trees, shag grass carpeting, and speakers hidden under concrete stones which seemed to emanate all the ambience of the woods in quieting tones. Kevin and Dustin had said very little to Sky, but it was pretty obvious that they all knew each other. In an online world they had all been friends, in this world they were now all subjects to the same experiment. The three admired and looked over all the changes.

Some other changes had come in what had been given each of them during the few hours of transition. Sky had been given very little, only a lionhead necklace that seemed to have sapphire gems for eyes. He had put it on and found he was emotionally incapable of wanting to remove it because he liked it so much. Kevin had been given a black trenchcoat and tripp pants, an outfit which for now was slightly too big for him and he left it in the bag it came in for now. However, he thought he had an idea what he'd need them for eventually. Dustin had been given a box of cigars as well as a rather earthy-colored outfit that seemed to go with the one he was wearing currently, but the clothing was so much bigger than he was it was amazing.

There had been little talk about these items given to them, and the three men in the manufactured forest room had said even less to each other. Most of their time together had been spent pondering what new changes would befall them and how long until they were fully changed into the creatures that they had been designated to become. Of them, Kevin seemed the most unhappy, being he was forcefully volunteered for this project, but his anger waned as the day dragged on, the thought of becoming his fursona slowly becoming a good idea. Sky, though excited about it, was scared of more painful needles coming from nowhere to grasp him in their paralyzing clutches again. Dustin was more or less troubled by the items in his bag and thus quiet about the idea of becoming so large.

At lunch, the three ate rather stale luncheon meat sandwiches that tasted salty and cardboard-y. The sandwiches were heavily loaded with the nutrients their growing bodies needed, nutrients humans didn't need but that lions, foxes, and bears did. He started to put his sandwich down when Sky looked up and saw that his two friends were not saying anything, barely even touching their food. By comparison, Sky's was mostly gone. He never realized how hungry he was.

The next wave of changes came during the slow hours of early afternoon. Dustin's changes were the most noticable as his hair gained green stripes and the hair quickly pulled itself over his body in a thick blanket, covering him in a green and brown striped pattern that resembled a tiger's pattern more than anything else. However, other changes had happened as well, but were much more subtle: rounder ears that were slightly displaced higher on his head, and sapphire blue eyes. He mentally thought he would enjoy a cigar about now, but shyed away from the idea immediately.

Kevin's fur also spread over his body albeit slowly. His was jet black in color everywhere, save for the ears, headhair (which was now growing longer to his jawline), and the typical fox-paw sleeves that went up to his mid-forearm and just past the heel, all of which had become the crimson red. His eyes were now crimson red in color and he had pointier ears that went straight to the top of his head, swiveling forwards.

Sky's changes had been something else. His body had more hair for certain, but it wasn't a thick pelt yet. What he did have was a long tail with a tuft of fur at the end that was silver in color. He also had a larger set of fangs that grew in behind his darkening lips. The nose and mouth had jutted out slowly over the course of the day but by day's end he would have a full leonine muzzle, complete with the pink nose and whiskers. The facial changes didn't overshadow the neatly barrelled out chest he now had, as his deeper breathing was clearly audible if soft after a while.

The changes had no sooner finished than the scientist had re-entered into the room and pointed at Dustin with a finger. Dustin, as if magically or magnetically, jumped to his feet and began to walk smoothly towards the scientist. The door closed behind them, leaving Sky to look confused at Kevin.

"What's going on?" Sky asked not hearing the slightly more gravelly tone his deeper voice had.

"I'm not sure." Kevin answered honestly in an equally deeper voice.

Neither of them knew it then, but Dustin would no longer be Dustin when he came back.

Dustin felt himself be led into the operating room and then let himself be strapped onto the table. He smirked a bit at the doctor as they strapped him in. "What's all this for doc? Come on, I'm not violent."

"Not yet, you aren't." Called the scientist from across the rather expansive operating room. His back was turned to Dustin, so Dustin couldn't see him prepping the needles that were faintly gigantic in size. If he had seen it, Dustin would have passed out in terror. The doctor then distracted Dustin with a press of a button, and a loud mechanical whirring began to seep into the room as the machine that had previously sat over Dustin began to lower itself towards him.

The machine seemed to eject a face mask towards him and Dustin felt the oxygen seep from the tube that the mask was attached to. It began to freak him out, but being strapped down he remained calm enough to know that what was happening and what would happen he had paid for in full.

The slow descent of the machine stopped as soon as the mask was neatly covering Dustin's face and he felt the oxygen rush into his lungs immediately. He breathed as steadily as he could but felt it wasn't more than a panicked breath. The doctor called to him telling him to just breathe easy, everything would be fine, and then it would be over and he'd be a new man.

The doctor turned around at this point holding out two of the needles, one in each handle, and Dustin's eyes rolled in terror as he nearly passed out. The sheer size of the needles seemed like they would go right through him. He struggled in the straps despite knowing it was futile. Instinct had taken over and he needed to get out. Fuck what he had paid for, this man was going to kill him.

The doctor stopped at his side and stared down at the struggling patient. The extraterrestrial smile was back, and this time the goggles he wore for safety seemed to imply a glaring madness that Dustin had not seen before in the man's eyes. It was very possible that this was his last breath before the doctor stabbed him to death.

Then, it was in his arm and the needle was slowly emptying its contents into him. His whole arm went cold and numb instantly and he squeezed a fist with both hands tightly in pain. He hated needles; they had to be the devil's work. Panic raced his heartbeat but then he saw the needle withdraw and he relaxed a little. Maybe he wouldn't die after all. Couldn't it be possible the doctor would live up to his promise for as much as Dustin had paid for it?

The doctor smirked a bit at this sudden relaxation. "Good. You'll do just fine if you keep relaxed. The fluids I just gave you was 250ccs of pure change. The DNA restructuring and gene therapy and transition of stem cells will speed your animal changes greatly." he explained, not telling Dustin of the swirling in his pants as the tail he would come to have began to wriggle inside of them, growing longer with each passing second. His ears fully raced up his head to face forward, his muzzle jutting out thick and square, filling with sharp fangs and a black nose at the tip. His animalistic changes didn't take long, and with the barreled out chest he slowly finished up with those changes. A perfect cross between tiger and bear had spread over his human cells, leaving him barely the same, save his weight and height and voice. His face had restructured itself into a squarer shape, more tough and menacing somehow. His shoulders cracked and ran from each other as the rest of his body widened to go with it. His skeleton was heavy and the little muscle and fat he had from before now made him look like he was just the skeleton. The doctor produced the second syringe. "This one, however, will provide you with a little more. About 500ccs. And you will feel yourself slipping away after that. The new you will be better, as you asked for it to be to the word."

Dustin could only lightly whimper in the need to feel his strength return to him. And when the needle jammed itself into his other arm, his eyes watered and his bit back tears of pain. The scientist, he thought, laughed deeply and madly. He was sure he even saw the scientist doing this, but through the blur of held-back tears it was hard to tell.

These changes affected what had not been thus far. The oxygen smelled and tasted sweeter but he was only imagining this because he was glad the oxygen had kept him from passing out during the process. The first thing he noticed was his feet slowly pushing themselves away from his growing back, the side of the body strapped to the table (and the straps themselves) pushing further away from each other as he grew to six feet, then six-foot-five, before resting at six foot ten inches tall. His panted hard into the mask, feeling even tireder than before, and he felt lightheaded. The oxygen helped him along this entire time (and he thought maybe smelling salts too but he wasn't sure). Then, he heard the straps beginning to strain, slowly but surely as he watched one of them expanding beneath his body. The one on his arms and legs at first were the ones straining the most as muscle piled itself in thick layers on his body. His strength was quickly doubled and then tripled as he expanded well into a body-builder's stature. He was more than buff, he was raw power and the definition of it at that. But then he heard more straining as he watched, with growing anticipation at knowing what was coming now, as his stomach lost the abs he had gained, though knowing that they were still there somehow, as his entire body began to bulk up with more mass, this time fat being what was added to his form. It was most noticable in his belly as it swelled outwards like a balloon expanding, and he felt himself growing everywhere as the thick layer of fat expanded to cover all of him. A huge gut had soon grown in front of him and he had watched his weight start from 160 pounds with a slightly chubby growth til it had grown to 300 pounds of pure, solid muscle, then to 425 pounds of heavier mass that could only be fat on top of muscle (which in the real world may have been impossible, but this doctor was not truly of this world was he?) that he knew could only come if he was Berkley. And he began to smile, knowing that he was now physically Berkley. This, in turn, made the doctor smile larger.

"Glad to see you are enjoying your new form, Berkley." came the doctor's still-distant voice, "But let's get rid of that pesky old one first."

At this point, the mask stopped producing pure oxygen: it began to simultaneously produce a gaseous chemical compound that came in short bursts between breaths of oxygen, and with each breath more of his life began to transform to Berkley's new life. Years of working out, getting the muscle, only to have lately fallen off the wayside when the bear fat began to inevitably pack itself on from his "slightly" excess diet of booze and cigars. The tougher, more mature attitude came over him, and his face instantly seemed hardened. His panic was gone, he was now calm and purely okay with what was happening. He was aware that he was wearing no clothes: his old ones had simply ripped to shreds in the growth. He forgot more of being human and learned more of being a tiger/bear mix. He felt life as he knew it convert to Berkley's relatively more successful life in physique at least. Then the mask popped off and he was done.

Or so he thought. The doctor produced a beer for Berkley to which Berkley was amazed to realize he hadn't gained his love for smoking or drinking yet. The final touch, explained the doctor, was to make Berkley love it himself. Then he poured the beer down Berkley's maw. Berkley felt the bitter taste slowly become sweet and needed, as soda had been to him before. The beer was his life blood now, that and other, stronger alcohols, and he was hooked by the time the beer was empty. Likewise a cigar was put between his lips almost instantly after that and he felt himself disgusted fully by the thought of smoking, but with each drag on it after the initial lighting of it, Berkley opened up more to it, getting increasingly more confident with it until it was clear he was just as hooked on them as he was on beer.

The straps snapped off mechanically one by one until he was set free and Berkley climbed off the table a completely different person. He wasn't even a person anymore, he was Berkley and that was all that mattered to him. He stared at the doctor, and the doctor nodded to the clothes he had brought in for him: that same bag he had been given earlier. Berkley got dressed finding the clothes fit him perfectly, if the shirts were slightly small.

Berkley was completely changed.

Meanwhile, simultaneous to Berkley's creation (or possibly perfection, however you see it), Anakar and Leo had also come into play fully as well. Sky had now become a white lion with a silvery mane and tail tuft. His body still had a rather thick belly, one that seemed undefined and rather loosely just fat, but the rest of his body seemed pretty toned. He was the only one of the three able to still wear his clothes. His mentality had virtually remained unchanged, except now Leo used (and more or less loved) cursing whereas Sky had remained mostly vigilant about not ever doing it; he had always seen cursing as a bad thing before but now it was as natural and good as snacking in the afternoon.

Anakar was a similar figure: Kevin's big-bellied body had shrank into the skinny and lithe build of an effeminate fox. He was slightly taller than he had been before and he had crimson fur and black fur mixed all over now. He was also mostly unchanged mentally, except now he was more active in his aggression if it came down to it. His clothes no longer fit him as well, and he had dressed in the outfit given to him, tossing the trenchcoat on first, then the rest of it for more protection and at Leo's request.

The two of them had made back-and-forth comments about their changes but little else was said. They knew each other, but while Kevin had had little to say about or to Sky in the first place because of their lack of interests, now Anakar had no reason whatsoever. He was more focused on getting out of the prison they were forcefully locked in, and all Leo had wanted to talk about was how great it was to be something he had never thought he could be. In Anakar's mind, Leo would've been happy to just stay here.

However, when Berkley was thrown back into the room, that was when things had finally started to pick up in everyone's minds that things needed to change. The prison they were in could not be contained. They needed to escape.

Not one of them knew exactly how it got started, but it was pretty obvious that the attack on the feeders was only an expression of the thoughts that had been in their minds from the beginning. Regardless, at dinnertime the feeders came with a new diet for them all. None of the diets were particularly interesting to half-human half-animal hybrids, and not an ounce of it looked like it supported either part of their individual species' diets. Anakar initiated the attack. He threw the food against the wall, splattering it against the concrete and shattering the dish. Berkley and more noticably Leo looked in this direction. Anakar growled angrily and charged the feeders. It didn't take much, even with their tasers. Anakar slashed one's neck and the other's chest with his long razor-like claws.

Berkley picked up on the sensational attack first, with Leo hesitantly picking up the rear of the group as they all moved towards the door that had been left open when the feeders came in. Leo hadn't wanted to fight to escape, but his desire to escape had been undeniably as high as the others.

Little could be said about the fight towards the main control room except for the following things. One, that Anakar had been the lead instigator in most of the attacks, feeling his instincts fighting to break free from his oppressed surroundings; Berkley had used his supreme brute force to continue the beatings after Anakar had burst past them, and Leo only fought when neccessary. Two, that Anakar's original plan of escape was to lead them outside and not to the control room; only upon realizing that the doctor and his madly nefarious plans were conducting the defenses of the building like an orchestra did he change course. Three, Berkley kicked the heavily sealed door in and opened the room's defenses by literally dismembering most of the armed guards. Leo stayed outside, hoping nobody else would show up, but knowing it was impossible, and braced himself for it.

The doctor sat in his chair facing the millions of security cameras on the wall, looking similarly like the bad guy from Dr. No and the Architect from the Matrix combined as one. He turned to face the three changed animals and clapped his hands politely, a golf clap if Leo had ever heard one, and smiled. "Well done. I didn't expect full mutiny until about three days. You did it almost instantaneously."

Anakar growled almost demonically. If science had come so far as to give them physical changes and possible (or in Berkley's case, definite) mental changes, surely they should have given him his magic. That wasn't why he growled, but it was partially that. He nearly rushed the doctor, but Anakar sensed a trap. He sensed the doctor wasn't really there. Berkley held him back for extra safety measures.

"At any rate, you three are free to go." The doctor narrowed his eyes, "But be warned... soceity does not like you enough as you are. You will not survive for very long in the wild."

"And all we gotta do is walk outta here?" Berkley asked unbelievably smoothly. The doctor nodded but Berkley smirked a little angrily, "And what do we do about paying you?"

"All you have to do is give me peace of mind that you won't kill me or come back. Ever." the doctor's extraterrestrial smile was constant. "And as a sign of good faith, I appear to you not in person, but in hologram. To show that I can guide you to the exit."

"Bullshit." Anakar spat angrily, growling more. Berkley chilled him with a firm grasp to the shoulder. "Show us the exit then."

"Very well." Came the reply, but then a smirk, and finally a frown. Anakar knew something was wrong. "I will show you two exits. The first is freedom, where you can live among the rest of the humans for the rest of your natural life. Or... if you seek adventure, I can show you the door to the rest of the holding area, where you can find others who are like you. Train and hone your skills, and eventually maybe work helping me." The last part seemed vaguely sinister. Anakar didn't like the option.

Leo came into the room now convinced they would not be attacked, hearing their options. Leo had liked the idea of adventure. He had fantasized his life being more adventurous as this lion form, and he wanted to expand his life. Maybe even lose some of the gut he had on him. He didn't know, but Leo almost instantly cried out in glee (maybe that wasn't the right word for it) that he wanted the adventure. The doctor chuckled a bit and nodded back the way Leo had come in. "Turn left, and the first door on your right is that door, son." he told Leo almost too paternally.

Anakar and Berkley had decided that while they still loved each other, their bodies and probably minds would be so much more different than before that they may not even enjoy living together. Despite that they both decided they wanted to stick together and chose to continue on towards the real world beyond the facility again. The doctor understood all of this and more than either of them would ever know, and the hologram disappeared, leaving the exit right in front of them.

Together they locked eyes, and then lips, then finally arms as they hugged tightly. Then together they went through the exit into the real world.

To be continued