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Risk Management

By Delta & Sovandar

This story was written as an entry for ZsisronDarkwater Hypnosis Contest (2011), cowritten with my excellent lizardhawk co-conspirator delta9; it's also a sequel to my previous story, "...Is Worth Two In The Bush" (www.sofurry.com/page/321310).

It contains scenes of M/M sex, TF, mind control, bondage, mass transformation, gender shifting, reptiles, birds, and humans (oh my!), abuse of advanced nanotechnology, and all kinds of (we hope!) juicy stuff.

So, er, if you're underage or don't like that kind of thing, shoo. Off you go, to more wholesome activities!

No copying without permission lest the wrath of the great god Copyrictus strike you down, all characters are fictional, and no resemblances are intended.

* * *

Dr Jan Stephenson looked, with a glint in his sharp eyes, at the partygoers assembled around the tables before him. TerraGenetics' Fifth Annual Boxing Day benefit was going fabulously. A glass of brandy rested in the hawk-man's scaly right hand, while his left rested in the lap of his Kingfisher paramour, Richard. The inhuman nature of Jan, his lover - and some of his employees - had at one point been the subject of a bit of a scandal, but they had all, to a man, sworn that it was their own choice to be transformed, and they were much happier this way.

While journalists had attempted to sow some doubt, the news had soon moved on - from the scandal, at least - but the publicity and notoriety had done Jan's company no harm. He revelled in his paradoxical infamy, and played the media angle well, despite undercurrents of public concern as to the methods and goals of his research. In his mind, they were all ignorant, reactionary fools unaware of the endless potential Homo sapiens held. Bodies and minds cobbled together by crude, blind natural selection could be honed to molecular precision by his custom-formed genetic algorithms and nanotechnology, turned into elegant, beautiful, *superior* creatures like Richard and himself. His fortunate accident had unlocked so much possibility! He could hardly contain his enthusiasm- or libido- most days. Yes, the only barrier that remained between him and his dream of an all-inclusive meta-humanity was the inexplicable abhorrence most of the world held for genetic nanotechnology... but with each heritable disease he cured, public opinion moved a little further...

Still... there was an undercurrent of more progressive people who quite appreciated the potential power of the nanotech revolution he was unleashing. More than half of his transformed 'employees' were people he located via the internet, avid enthusiasts of altering humanity on so fundamental a level that they were willing to be test subjects and employees both.

Granted, most hadn't expected to become his (at least) one-time lovers as well... especially not the female ones who knew he was gay. Turning them into males as well as birds, like him, might have startled them, but they hadn't complained either; his nanotech was quite capable of pushing a few mental 'buttons' to make them appreciate and accept things like that. Compared to the transformation process itself, it was almost child's play to trigger the secretion of seratonin and dopamine for specific sexual stimuli. Of course, he gave them all a copy of his own enhanced libido, too; it was originally a somewhat unexpected side-effect of his transformation, but one he quite enjoyed inflicting on others, and hardly the worst thing that could happen.

"Jan... someone to talk to you..."

"Er... D...Dr. Stephenson?" two voices called out simultaneously, creating an oddly stereophonic effect for the red-tailed doctor.

His reverie broken, Jan first turned towards Richard, who had spoken up first. The Kingfisher shyly smiled at Jan and twitched his head towards the newcomer to their table. Following the other bird's gaze to his left, Jan caught the eyes of a waiting waiter.

The man was in his mid-twenties and fairly handsome; a well-trimmed, blonde beard covered faint traces of acne across his otherwise-pale face. Jan momentarily mused to himself what sort of beak would compliment the man's visage as he hesitantly spoke up. He seemed nervous, rather out of his depth; Jan recalled seeing him around sometimes at big functions, but he'd not had the pleasure of a first-hand meeting before. Humans meeting him for the first time were usually rather perturbed at his avian appearance.

"Uhm... apologies, doctor; the lady in the red dress over there asked me to deliver this..." the waiter said, wincing painfully as Jan's ruddy-golden raptor eyes burrowed deep into his pale-ringed pupils. He clutched a cocktail napkin covered in blue pen as if it was a shield.

Jan struck his hand forward, deliberately sliding his claws against the waiter's soft skin as he plucked the napkin from him. For a moment, he considered finding a way to make this good-looking if-nervous young man into his next 'conquest' - something about the shy servant types appealed to the overly dominant hawk in his mindset. Richard had been one of his finest, and indeed his chosen partner in the longer-term; he'd been a waiter at a similar function, and a clumsy, confused, lonely straight guy as well. Jan had the impression that both of them were happier now that Richard was his eager little birdy bitch...

But sometimes, one had to let business come first; this nice little fantasy would remain just that. There would be time to treat himself once his social duties had been discharged. "Thank you, my good man!" the hawk said, giving the piece of makeshift parchment a neat flick to straighten it out before he began reading, pointedly looking away so that the young waiter would get the message to quietly take his leave.

'Monsieur Abomination...' the makeshift letter began.

Jan quickly stood up and turned towards where the woman in red had been standing, sending the napkin folded in his lap flying away as though caught by a strong breeze. His raptorial eyes hunted through the crowd between pauses as he read, but she was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

'Your continued meddling in the HUMAN genome is an affront, not merely to the Natural order, but to your CREATOR Himself. You have taken it upon yourself to give in to Satan's temptations and undo the work of the Lord, and we, the Faithful, refuse to allow this to continue.'

Jan stood up as straight and stiff as a post, scrunching the napkin between his claws. His tailfeathers twitched with agitation as he held the letter in front of his mate's black eyes, trying to breathe evenly and compose himself. "It was that girl in the red coat... could you call Security and tell them to shoot anyone dressed like Carmen Sandiego on sight?" Jan growled. "She was here just a second ago, she can't have gone far..."

Richard cleared his throat. "Er, shoot? Do you think you should call the police instead? There are a lot of investors here..."

Jan shook his head. "Use a bloody silencer! These idiots have tried my patience... they gatecrash my property and party, they pay the price," he said, reconsidering in his mind even as he confirmed his command. Maybe he was being too hasty... but backing down was a sign of weakness...

"Jan... er... you might want to calm down a bit. You're going to make people panic, and you *are* destroying that carpet..."

The hawk looked down towards his feet and unclenched his talons, freeing a large scrap of blue-teal fabric from between his killing claws. Richard was right; he was thinking too much with feral, predatory instincts, and too little with his hard-honed experience as nano-biologist and venture capitalist.

"Hey, you know there's more words on the back of that napkin, right?" Richard asked, suddenly, eyeing the scrap in Jan's claws.

"Huh?" Jan said, turning it over, and spotting that, rather impetuously, he'd not unfolded the message completely; there was indeed another patch of writing on the back. How long had the woman spent writing this? Were there discarded, half-written messages all over the room?

'We have taken every vial marked 'Danger!' from the safe in your laboratory, thanks to those of your staff who refuse to assist you further, and we have released them in aerosol form in this room. By the time you read this, it will already be too late. Fear not for the world beyond, God protects his own - pray only that he has mercy on your black soul."

The napkin fluttered free from Jan's claws, falling to the floor in a pendulous motion as the red-tail stood speechless.

Half a second later, the four talons on the bird's left foot took hold of the fallen napkin and began to rhythmically squeeze and flex around it, tearing it into progressively smaller and smaller pieces.

"Oh dear..." Jan whispered, eyes staring blankly off into a distant corner of the room as his mind traced through endless visions of personal ruin.

"Jan? What's wrong?" Richard asked, harsh hints of trepidation creeping into his own voice. The notes of worry in the Kingfisher's sweet, chirping voice brought a flash of furious anger into Jan's mind. Financial loss and the destruction of his professional reputation were not exactly mysteries to the techno-capitalist, but the threat to his mate brought on a cold, calculating fury Jan hadn't experienced before his transformation...

No. Blind anger would never do in a crisis like this. "Oh... well..." he began, trying to will his mind into calmness. Vials in his laboratory safe... which ones were those? Which ones were marked 'Danger'?

He'd designed his technologies carefully; there was no real risk of a global catastrophe if they'd been released, but medical nanotech without proper programming could still do some pretty nasty damage to people.

Still, not all of them could or would spread by aerosol; he'd been careful of that, too - why take the risk?

In fact, only a very few could spread like that... in fact, only one had been designed to, although in theory any of them, given the right conditions, *could*...

Damn. That stuff was his private stockpile... just about every kind of genetic resequencer and phenotype-reassigner he'd created, amongst other things; replacing it could take... a long time. And probably a lot of money and danger, too; long gone were the days he could be assured of complete and total privacy in his work.

"Jan?" Richard prompted again.

"Er..." Jan started. "I think some religious fundamentalists just released some... untested, aerosolized nanotech into the room."

Richard's eyes widened. "U-uh... should I sound the alarm? We should seal the building..."

Jan started to nod, then reconsidered. "No alarm... just phone security and tell them to do a nano-release drill, without causing a panic. Best let them think it's a test for now..."

"Is that wise?" Richard asked, doubtfully.

Jan simply shot a glare back; a carefully practised predatory expression that let the victim know he was not in a mood to repeat himself. Richard knew it well, and knew better than to argue; he instead quietly slipped away towards the edge of the room.

Jan felt a little calmer now; the building was designed to be sealed in case of a contingency just like this one, and all his employees had nanite medichine colonies implanted near their thyroid gland, designed to prevent accidental nano-contamination. He and Richard should be fairly safe, whatever happened, as would anyone else he'd already transformed; those nanites too were designed to repel any foreign invaders, before they could establish a foothold, just in case of errors. The physical danger to his guests- aside from psychological and social trauma- was going to be minimal. Still, there wasn't a public relations firm in the world that could spin this in his favour. A terrorist attack made with his own technology? There was...

Jan suddenly stopped as a memory struck him with nearly-physical force. His mind-altering nano-concoction was also amongst those privately stashed vials, and was purpose built to retain effectiveness even when dispersed aerially. In a few minutes, his guests were going to be as amenable to his words as... a congregation to their priest's sermon.

Yes... a broad but barely-perceptible smile began to form behind the hawk's curved beak, and with suddenly-renewed purpose, Jan strode towards the front of the banquet hall. He was going to have to be exceptionally careful; his latest work was a lot more powerful than the relatively subtle version he'd tested on Richard. For the remainder of their (somewhat lengthened) lives, those exposed were going to think as he told them to think in the next few hours, or at least until the transformational nanotech kicked in and destroyed their mind-altering mechanical kin.

Careless talk would not do.

Not as he planned, but he could work with this, and it should be most interesting... his increasingly gleeful thoughts were interrupted then, as Richard arrived back with a whorl of blue feathers, panting heavily. "Jan! Security sealed off the building. We're running off backup power and water, but..."

The hawk stopped his mate with an outstretched hand, and then pulled his feathered companion into his arms. "Richard... do you remember what I told you about Operation Darwin?"

Confusion flashed over the other bird's face as he tried to reorient himself, leaning up slightly. His beak opened slightly, then trembled. "You... you planned this!? But..."

"I didn't plan this, my sweet little birdy... but I am going to make the most of it..."

"What are you going to do?" Richard asked, sounding a little scared and a little uncertain.

Jan squeezed him reassuringly. "...Not sure. I'm having to make this up on the fly. Just follow my lead, and... well. Have fun!"

With that, he released Richard, and started to push his way through the crowd to the front of the hall, while his mate followed, somewhat subdued.

The hawk considered the formal lectern and microphone he'd set up for a speech and presentation later, towards the end of the evening. But there was no need to be formal this time; he'd have the most captive audience ever.

He grabbed the microphone and the projector toggle, and stood on the nearby drinks table, knocking a few glasses out of the way as he climbed. Several nearby guests gave him a rather disdainful look, assuming he was drunk, perhaps.

Jan took a deep breath, and looked around the room at the throng of assembled guests. Thankfully, the party was undersubscribed, and several people had been forced to leave early thanks to bad weather.

A few of the attendees were major investors; many others were their aides and personal secretaries; a few political attaches; lots of charity workers and donors; a few were society folks turning up to visibly 'do their bit' for the cause; and, as ever, plenty of journalists. They'd not be doing much undercover work in future, if they ever had before...

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please?" He said, testing the microphone, which squealed as the speakers around the room came to life. At the same time, he pressed the toggle to start his Powerpoint presentation.

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." he repeated, seeing that the partygoers had politely and expectantly turned to face him, glancing at the projected images on the screen behind him. "As you can see, the charity has done very well this year... lots of money, some research..." He flicked rapidly through the slides of his planned presentation. "A cure's pretty close, and I'll be the one to do it, of course..."

Many of the guests seemed rather perplexed by his casual, off-handed arrogance. Time to hit them with a few suggestions to test the waters, and see if he needed to keep them occupied much longer.

"... But the important thing is, this is one of the best slide shows you've ever seen. Am I right?"

He looked around expectantly. Several guests seemed even more mystified than before... but several others' eyes lit up, mouths agape as the slideshow flashed past and ended abruptly. There was a small smattering of applause, and a good deal of confusion, as half the room clapped and half the room couldn't work out why...

"Well, I'm happy to say, everyone, that there will be some very positive changes... coming fairly soon... in the meantime, just listen to me, carefully, because - though I do say so myself...", he melodramatically gestured to his custom-tuxedo-clad form, "...this is probably the best speech that you've ever heard, and maybe even the best you'll ever hear. Yup, that's right. Savour the moment while you can, folks..."

The number of confused people was diminishing rapidly; instead, knowing and appreciative nods were spreading across the room; smiles and occasional cheers, as if he genuinely was rousing the rabble with some truly magnificent oratory.

This felt pretty good. He'd never been too great at speeches.

Clearing his throat, Jan began to speak back up while walking between the stacked champagne flues, carefully planting his spread talons around them. "But, of course, you are all here for something far more important than my oration. You are here to help me change the course of human history." Jan announced, gravely sweeping his gaze around the room and meeting many sets of rapt eyes. "There are people"- he spat the word- "who don't mind seeing our friends, family and loved ones ravaged by disease and death, because they think what is natural"- another word laden with scorn- "is inherently right. We all know that this is far, far from the truth, do we not?"

Cries of, "Hear, hear!" and "Yes!" reached the hawk's earholes. Steely looks met Jan's eyes, and he saw real tears welling up in many of their eyes as he spoke. He was not an emotional man, but the crowd's reaction was enough that he found himself swept up in the moment almost as much as his unintended victims seemed to be. "No. Like me, you all have dreamed of a world free from the tyranny of an unmodified genome. You've all seen what this foundation has done for the victims of inherited disease... you've all admired me and my followers from afar... and you have all thought to yourselves, 'that could have been me...'"

Jan stopped mid-stride, turning towards Richard. The other bird was staring agog at the crowd, nearly all of whom were transfixed on Jan, rapt and rooted to the spot; some were crying at the force of his words. Isolated islands of emotional normalcy existed around the room, in small and diminishing patches, and mostly around the few seats occupied by the hawk's employees. Good.

He paused, rhetoric perched on the edge of a razor. Sensing the arrival of the inevitable tipping point in the silent, invisible conflict between his nanomachines and the crowd's immune systems, the hawk smiled. Adrenaline was pumping into his veins, his fear and trepidation transformed into the powerful rush of excitement. He could feel the thrill of the challenge before him like an electric current. He was getting an erection.

"There is more, though..." Jan continued, a coy, subtle smile creasing the edges of his feathered face. His eyes caught the attractive young waiter he'd admired earlier, standing with a woman in the back. She was wearing a press badge, and scratching her arms with unusual intensity. If the waiter had been one of the first infected, he might have carried the infection to her... with a frisson of predatory thrill he attacked. "You, madam! In the back!" he shouted, all eyes following his towards hers.

Shocked, the woman stared back at him wordlessly. She had pale skin and medium-length black hair, and wore a strapless black dress. Jan was reasonably sure she was Chinese, but racial ancestry was something he was beginning to consider a supremely trivial trait.

"Y-yes?" she timidly responded, after a spotlight was dragged onto her.

"Tell me..." Jan began, cocking his head towards hers while perching on the edge of the table. "What do you think of me?" he finished, spreading his arms and wings out in a wide, slow arc.

"Er..." she began, "W...well... I think you're an excellent speaker... er, you... are a genius scientist, and you..."

He shook his head. "No, no, not like that! I don't want you to dictate my Resume..." He let a slightly lewd, playful tone enter his voice. "Don't worry, you're amongst friends now, and everyone is thinking it... tell me what you think about me... tell me those private little thoughts you weren't sure would be fit for public consumption..." he gestured at his feathery form, giving his wings a gentle flutter for effect. Before the woman could begin formulating her response, he made sure to add in, "...tell me how handsome I am..."

She swallowed, stepping forward, looking a little entranced. "I... I think... I think you look... really good..." she began. The women in the room seemed to be in various states of confusion and amusement - as if watching a child discover something obvious to them all, for the first time. A few of the men, likewise, but most looked merely confused, some with a little shame creeping into their expressions.

The waiter's reaction was a little different... he seemed... irritated? Ah... but perhaps the reason he'd been standing close to her was that they knew each other?

He fished for an answer. "And your boyfriend? Don't worry, he won't mind."

Bingo! The young lad's expression faded back to mere interest, the negativity vanishing as he spoke. She glanced involuntarily back over her shoulder, then back to him. "He... he looks good too, but not like... I mean... you're just... sexier..." The last word had been breathed in a rush.

There were a few stifled gasps around the room... but he'd prepared the ground well enough, nobody seemed scandalised. It was a revelation they'd been expecting... because, on some level, they were all riding the same emotional currents. The program he'd installed in that vial long ago was manifesting itself, giving the reluctant transformees a bit more confidence when he came up to make a move on them, and invite them home for a wild night out. Nothing yet on a level the average rave-goer would be unfamiliar with, but it helped the conditioning take hold quite nicely.

With a single outstretched claw, Jan began to beckon her closer, as if pulling her in along an invisible wire. "What is your name?" he asked, carefully scanning her slack arms for any tell-tale signs of nanite alteration.

Lurching forward, and then breaking into an inelegant jog on her high-heels, the woman breathlessly replied, "S-Sarah... Sarah Markfield, from the..."

"...Washington Economic Report? I quite like your blog, madam! My apologies, in fact! I've never seen you in person!" Jan said in response, chuckling despite himself. The Chinese-American reporter was far more beautiful than the mental image of a harridan he had constructed in his mind's eye. Her acid-tongued commentary had been quoted verbatim in his last few shareholder meetings, before he'd been forced to spin TerraGenetics Europe off into a dozen polymorphic not-for-profit entities. She was a good writer and a reasonable reporter, he grudgingly admitted, although too often she substituted scathing sarcasm for fact.

He glanced back at the young waiter, and beckoned to him too, to approach. If she had a spy in his organisation, that explained how she'd managed to glean a few crucial details of business dealings rather sooner than Jan wanted the public to know.

He slowly licked the inside of his beak; this was too sweet. Sarah approached, her companion following as if caught in her wake. He seemed fairly weak-willed, and Jan wondered who'd made the first move in their relationship - he could well imagine it was Sarah, fishing for a lead. It struck Jan that, ironically enough, he might have something in common with the journalist; a certain Machiavellian manipulativeness, a willingness or even a desire to establish unequal relationships for personal gain. It was probably easier for her; she was an attractive woman, and men tended to think that they were in charge when a woman pandered to their desires, even when the reverse was true.

Ah! His sharp eyesight spotted something... a few patches of flaky skin on her arms, like very bad eczema. Even if she were a sufferer, she wouldn't have come to an important function looking like that, surely... more likely it was the nanites starting their work.

There were dozens of strains in the safe... he wondered which one had won through within her. He hoped it was one of the ones that might change her to a more... appealing gender, though. About half of that private stock was set up to create male creatures only; chances were there'd be a few new men in the room before long.

Her boyfriend didn't seem to be showing any signs yet... but ironically, if he'd been exposed to several strains at once during his talk with the would-be terrorist, his final form might take longer to manifest - the nanites would be busy fighting each other before they started altering his body. It might also slow down the progress of his mental changes; few of Jan's transformative nanomachines were designed to synergise well.

There was a slight murmur beginning to run through the room, a few hints of distraction, a resurgence of the confusion from earlier. More people starting to notice changes in themselves or their friends and partners, probably. He'd better get the next few commands in quickly.

"Everyone, everyone... don't be alarmed. After all, the changes you are about to experience are changes you've volunteered for. You've all... chosen this... of your own... free will..." Jan said, enunciating each word clearly.

He looked around at the room; everyone seemed to have settled again, and again gave him their attention. Only Sarah and her companion moved at all, still pushing slowly past the throng around him.

"You all agreed, after all, to be altered, take on new forms, as a symbol of your belief in the possibility of this technology, in the potential to fundamentally change the shape of medicine, biological science and humanity forever..."

A few cautious nods from around the room.

"...and surely you all appreciate my generosity... the nanotech treatments you've received are worth..." Jan paused; he honestly didn't know how many tens or hundreds of millions these carefully manufactured, precision-engineered machines would be worth on the open market. They came with life-extending properties, anti-cancer enhancements, immuno-increasers, fat-busters, cardio-monitors... just about every medical breakthrough he'd managed, in fact. To the affluent people in this room, they may have been worth billions.

"...a great deal of money", he continued, after a pause, consoling himself with the thought that some of the luddites in here probably wouldn't have bought the medical treatments at any price. "But for you, my friends, my supporters, they are free, a gift and a token of my... *personal* appreciation for your support."

He took a deep breath, forcing financial matters from his mind, and smiled as best he could. "You're all amongst friends here... there'd no need to be shy, or coy. Do what you want to do - this is a party, after all! I want everyone to relax, take a deep breath, and get ready to enjoy themselves most thoroughly..." he continued, spreading his feathered arms wide as if basking in the warmth of the crowd's adulation. He was nearly taken aback at their simultaneous, synchronised exhalation, but managed to turn his surprise into a warm chuckle.

Peripherally, Jan spotted Richard roll his eyes at that, and shake his head; he'd realised, perhaps for the first time, what Jan intended to do to break the ice a bit. He'd not object or oppose; it wasn't in his nature - but that didn't mean he necessarily approved. The red-tail winked at his mate, and then licked his beak again as he sized up the reporter and her boyfriend.

Sarah reached the base of the table, and looked up at Jan expectantly. He graciously extended a claw, helping hoist her up onto the table beside him - and realised to his slight consternation that she was a good inch taller than him. He wasn't used to looking up at anyone.

"So, Sarah... may I call you Sarah?" he asked, putting an arm casually around her shoulders. Beneath her white, flaking skin, he could see small patches of darker brownish-green skin... no, *scales*... appearing.

She flinched momentarily at the contact, but nodded. "Y...yes... may I call you Jan?"

He raised a feathered eyebrow. "Most certainly..."

The reporter nodded, blushing fiercely. Underneath her ruddy cheeks, Jan could see more brown-tinged splotches forming. Sweat darkened her dress and matted her close-cropped hair across her forehead; she was starting to pant like an exhausted dog.

Carefully, Jan slid the back of his manicured claws down the back of Ms. Markfield's neck, eliciting a hiss-like whisper of satisfaction from her. "Tell me why you wanted to... change..." the hawk began, turning his fingers back around to drag his scaly digits back up her warm, flaking skin.

"I... I... don't remember..." she said, after a few heavy, pregnant breaths. Her boyfriend approached closer to the table with a look of anxious concern on his face, before reaching up to take one of her hands into his and clasp it tight.

Jan saw the opportunity and took it. "Tell her not to worry; she'll remember in a second..." he said to the waiter.

"Sarah, baby, it's alright..." the man breathed, pulling himself even closer and looking up deep into her half-lidded eyes. "It's okay here; we're among friends. You'll remember... just think for a moment..."

The reporter smiled vaguely at her lover, nodding and then leaning forward to brush her sweaty forehead against the shoulder of Jan's tuxedo. Jan looked up for a moment- confirming that the rest of his audience were straining against their seats to see what was happening. A few rose to their feet with unsteady lurches, their eyes and attention instinctively drawn to Jan himself.

"Sit down... watch this happy couple... wait your turn, everyone..." Jan whispered into his microphone. Obedience was swift and given easily; Jan followed his words by saying, "Start collecting your thoughts; why did you come to me? What is it you find so appealing about your impending... transcendence? I want to hear your stories, my friends; I want you all to share them..."

Smiles and nods followed; heavy, heartfelt sighs and a chorus of half-muttered words. They were now utterly spellbound, all save for Richard and the handful of Jan's employees- most of whom had been making slow, tactful exits from their seating. Hopefully, security would be posted just outside the doors by now, ready to deal with anyone not on the up-and-up already. Those that remained... all of their concentrated political, social, media and economic power, and they were eating from the palm of his hand! Jan shook his head and smiled a raptor's smile, magnanimously sparing himself a moment to exult in the reversal. Whatever bloody-minded fundamentalist had sprung this trap was going to realise tomorrow morning that fucking with his plans had been a terrible, terrible mistake.

The hawk's attention was drawn back down to the reporter and her boyfriend. She was whispering to him now, but her voice was rising and her eyes were glancing back towards Jan's. "I... I was... curious, I suppose. I wanted to know. I've a-always wanted to know more about you..." she said, meeting the hawk's gaze with eyed tinged blood-red. Small, swelling patches of green-brown scales dimpled her cheeks, while larger swaths of scaly skin continued to grow down towards her trembling fingers. Jan watched the woman's skin morph into a reptile's leathery, mottled hide with a discerning-if-fascinated eye; he'd only ever tested avian and mammal nanoagents. Sarah Markfield was going to have the honour of being the first of an entirely new kind of human...

All the close contact with her boyfriend, the spy may well end up becoming the same. That would be neat, poetic...

He recalled his own earlier little fantasy about the waiter. Normally, he vetted his prospective... conquests, carefully, avoiding those with plenty of close family, friends, or lovers who would cause... 'conflicts of interest'. Had he known that this handsome lad was taken, he'd have resigned himself to merely fantasising about it, and taking his frustrations out on Richard's feather-padded ass.

On the other hand... Sarah Markfield had irritated him fairly regularly. Stealing her boyfriend might have pleased him greatly... only for a short while, of course, turn the youth bisexual, seduce him carefully, pick an appealing new form...

His mind was made up quickly; he handed Sarah the microphone. "Sarah... you should think carefully how you want to say this... and tell *everyone*. You're a reporter, right? This is exactly what you should do..."

Sarah hesitated only a moment before she nodded, and took the microphone from his hand. She stood taller, carefully considering what she was about to say, and looked out across the room.

Jan lowered himself closer to the floor-bound youth's level, balanced with his talons curled around the edge of the long table and his tailfeathers peaked high behind him. "Hello there... what is your name?"

The waiter blushed. "G..George, sir..."

"Please, George... call me Jan." He smiled as the waiter blushed. "Tell me... what do you think of me? Do you think I'm handsome? Appealing to the eye?" He licked the outside of his beak, letting a lewder tone enter his voice again. "Sexy?"

The waiter blushed harder and averted his gaze. "I... I... think you're quite handsome... I... can see why the ladies find you sexy... but... I'm n... not... I'm with Sarah..." he stuttered.

Interesting he was managing to resist... although Jan supposed he'd not actually told the youth to find him erotic, so his baseline desires and thoughts were still breaking through. Regardless, the time for a firmer touch may have arrived.

"Ah, but Sarah thinks I'm sexy, doesn't she?" Jan asked, a twinkle in his predatory eye.

"Y...yes..?" George replied, unsure where the train of thought was leading.

"Well, she finds you sexy, doesn't she? So... you think it might make her happy if she gets a bit of a show of us... together? Nothing too taboo, oh no..." he said, lying. He could freely break that promise later, after all. George would beg him to, if given proper prompting. "Go on... you know she'd like that."

George paused, again only for a moment, before he nodded slightly. "Er... h...how? What..."

"Step up here..." Jan said, extending a claw, and raising himself to his normal height, pulling George up onto the table top beside him, stepping back so he wasn't literally sharing Sarah's spotlight as she started to talk to the assembled throng. She glanced uncertainly at the pair of men beside her, while saying something about how she became a journalist, presumably leading into a story about why she decided to change - or why she'd come to a decision to volunteer, since that was what she'd been told she'd done. Richard stood behind her now, gingerly peeling flecks of cracked, dead skin from her arms and shoulders like a fretting mother.

Jan had other things on his mind, though.

"So, George..." he began, straightening out the waiter's askew tuxedo. "I'm curious; tell me, did Miss Markfield over there recruit you directly from my employ? Or have you two been working together for a while now..?"

The man blinked slowly and rubbed his beard as he mulled the question over. The young male looked like he was trying to think with a head full of molasses; his eyes traced wild ellipses around Jan's hawkish gaze. For a moment, the techno-capitalist wondered if George somehow possessed the strength of will to resist the influence of the nanoagents. It wasn't impossible, but if so, he'd be the first.

"George..?" Jan prodded.

"I love her... but... I want to please you so much..." the young waiter suddenly gushed, throwing himself into Jan's arms and beginning to sob heavily. "Oh, oh I'm so sorry, so very sorry!" he continued, breaking into pieces as the rather surprised red-tail awkwardly supported him in a bear hug atop the champagne table. "Forgive me! Please, it was all her fault! She- I mean, I love her, but I'd never have done it on my own, D-Dr. Steven- Jan!"

"Er... there, there..." Jan replied, cautiously patting George across his back. "Little looser please; hollow bones, you know..."

"Oh. Oh! I'm so sorry, again! You have to believe-" he continued, pulling away with a look of horror on his tear-streaked face.

George's beard had largely left itself near the lapel of Jan's tuxedo, where the waiter had buried his face. Jan shook his head and tried not to laugh- but failed; noticing the unnatural faux pas, the young man's horror deepened.

"It's quite alright, George. Say it with me, now: 'it's going to be alright'." Jan said, pre-empting the man's next round of apologies before they could begin.

"It's..." George began, staring fast into Jan's eyes.

Jan waited for several pregnant moments before cursing his choice of words. "Ah, it's..."

"...going to be alright." They finished in unison.

"Good, good..." the hawk continued, stroking George's back again. "Now... what is your relationship with Ms. Markfield?"

Words gushed from the waiter. "She hired me when I'd just dropped out of journalism school. I've been helping her investigate TerraGenetics for three years now. I've copied documents when people left them lying around, snuck into your office after the Christmas party thrice now, taken pictures of the lab areas..."

So, this waiter was a failed journalist pursuing a career in the news with the only option left available to him in the dying industry; Jan wondered if Sarah Markfield really had feelings for him, or if it was part of her ruse.

Jan stopped him with a pointed look and a fierce shake of his head. "Oh George... that is very naughty of you..." the hawk said, taking hold of the young man's chin after brushing the rest of his decaying beard away from his lips. "You've been a bad, bad little boy, haven't you?"

George gave a great shudder, nodding solemnly.

"You're going to have to be punished for this, you know?" Jan asked, tapping a claw against the man's trembling lips.

"Yes," came a ragged whisper of a reply, like a gust of wind rustling the leaves of a lone tree.

"You know what you're going to need to do to earn my forgiveness, my quivering little Quisling?" the hawk continued, toying with the edges of the waiter's tux. Every few inches, he pierced through the crisp fabric with his claws.

"No... but I'll do it... I'll do anything..." George said, voice sick with worry.

_'I don't doubt that, Georgie-boy'_Jan thought to himself, staring deep into the frightened young man's entranced, tear-moistened eyes...

He hooked a claw under one of George's shirt-buttons, and with a deft flick, snipped it free. Then he moved his claw downward and severed another button, smiling internally as George squirmed uncomfortably... he loved that hint of reluctance.

"Something wrong, George?" he whispered, his other hand grasping the young man's shoulder hard to keep him in place, while another button succumbed to his claw.

"I... Jan, it's... a hired suit... I can't afford..."

Jan leaned closer, pulling George a step towards him too. "I can."

With that he took hold of the two loose folds of the waiter's shirt, and pulled them apart, the remaining buttons popping free immediately, as George gave a slightly confused moan. The poor lad, Jan thought, with a touch of sarcasm. He'd probably never thought this way about a man nor a bird before, but the nanotech in Jan's private stash was... rather potent.

He pulled George's bow and cummerbund undone quickly, easing him free of the elegant but torn jacket and top, leaving the young man in a fairly tight, form-fitting vest beneath. He was shivering slightly, too.

"W...why... everyone's watching..." George muttered.

Jan smirked. "Ah, but that's the real fun, isn't it? Sarah's watching, too, and you like pleasing her, right? Well... everyone here wants to see you and me... you know, show that we enjoy each other's company... and you can show everyone else how much fun it is to... submit to me..." he breathed. "Tell me how you feel about that..."

George seemed confused, but eager to please. "Y...yes... I... like making Sarah happy... but... I want to make you happy more... and.... it'll feel good to show everyone how to make you happy, too... but... I don't understand how..."

Jan's grin broadened. "I'll show you, you cute little thing... you can start by undoing my jacket and shirt... you want to see more of my body, don't you? You're itching with curiosity... and something else... just be careful, mine's much more expensive..."

George swallowed and nodded. Over his shoulder, Jan could see Sarah energetically talking to the enraptured crowd, many of whom were starting to show signs of overt changes too. Now she was saying about how she became a journalist to change the world, and this was the real thing, after so many disappointing let-downs, and how she'd once been hostile and sceptical, too. But, she was looking at Jan and George with visible envy and desire, more than at the crowd, even as Richard carefully eased away the hair that was falling from her head.

Richard, bless him, noticed her wandering attention and whispered something Jan couldn't quite hear into her ear. The reporter smiled at the Kingfisher and turned back towards her audience, kicking off her high-heels in the process. Her smallest toes had been shrinking into her feet, but her nails had developed large dark points. The developing talons had cracked through the neon pink polish covering them; Sarah smiled and closed her eyes, flexing the strong, still-growing digits before resuming her speech barefoot.

Ah. Jan quickly realised what nanomachines had gone to work on her... she was becoming a velociraptor. More precisely, a modified form of deinonychus, engineered to be more akin to something from 'Jurassic Park' than from reality - Jan had loved that movie as a kid, and it had been a most interesting challenge to create ex nihilo.

The red-tailed hawk smiled at the reporter's developing talons, flexing his own in sympathy as he undid and tore George's shirt and vest away as one, tossing the clothing behind their table. Yellow-green scales speckled with tan formed a trail up and down the middle of the young man's pale chest, the shades nearly identical to those of the scales now creeping up his girlfriend's neck. They were going to be quite the pair once they were fully changed; they were receiving genes that hadn't seen physical form for tens of millions of years.

George had finished removing Jan's jacket, and was in the process of fumbling with the hand-threaded buttons of his shirt. The red-tail flexed his wings and fluttered them slightly, enjoying the feeling of fresh air on his chest down. Clothing was something he was becoming progressively less comfortable with; it wreaked havoc with the delicate arrangement of his feathers, and made moving his tail and wings most awkward. Brushing his hands down over his chest to straighten out his feathers, Jan craned his neck forward and beckoned George closer with a sharp look.

The young man pushed his face forward into the soft, warm crook of the raptor's neck, breathing deep from the bird's natural musk. Jan took the opportunity to plant his hands firmly around the male's rear, digging his fingertips deep into the muscular meat. George's ass tensed reflexively as he was groped, sighing sharply into Jan's neckfeathers before hesitantly sinking deeper into the bird's embrace.

"Hey..." George half-protested, as his ass was squeezed yet again. Jan silenced him with a lick across the lips.

The red-tail continued stroking and prodding the other male's rear, contemplating whether to make Ms. Markfield's boyfriend his latest bitch. The idea of mating a 'real' dinosaur was understandably-appealing to the avian raptor. But another idea came to him as he glanced back towards the increasingly-scaly reporter near them...

Yes; he could hear it in her voice. A dry, deep rasp was creeping into Sarah Markfield's words; Jan's eyes traced across her broadening shoulders and growing musculature. Well... what could he say? These nanites were works in progress, and he'd designed them only as far as his interests went... for some of the saurian strains, that meant there were no female phenotypes included; they would reshape a human host into a well-endowed male, regardless of how it started. So that within a few minutes, both Sarah and George were going to have horny, saurial boyfriends; he might as well prepare George for the shock. In a way it was doing him a favour...

Jan pushed George away a few precious inches, and then whispered to him, "Get down off the table."

Uncomprehendingly complying, the male stepped off the table, followed by Jan. The bird jumped off, landing with a graceful flutter. Jan quickly walked behind George and held the other male by his wrists, spreading them wide and then pushing them down on the far edge of the table.

"Now George... I want you to grab hold of the table... good..." Jan commanded, as his strong hands guided the confused waiter.

"Jan..." George breathed. The hawk's right knee pushed between his legs, spreading them apart and forcing the male's bulk forward onto the table. A discordant clatter came from a collapsing stack of champagne flues- thankfully empty. George winced, but Jan was far beyond caring for his crystal. It was a pittance compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars in nanomachines now burning their short lives away inside his guest's bodies.

The red-tail's beak pushed into the meat of George's bare shoulder as he leaned over the other man, pushing him further forward. Fumbling with George's belt, the hawk breathed heavily into the human's ear, rubbing his chest-feathers up and down George's flushed, still-skin-clad back. "First of all... you are fired. Secondly... I've half a mind to fuck you for what you've done, Georgie..." Jan whispered harshly, eliciting an instinctive shiver- but not even a hint of protest- from the former waiter. "But I... am not... going to. Would you care to guess why?"

George's reply was stuttered; the young male was shaking heavily. Hair fluttered free from his head with each shivering twitch, which Jan delicately plucked away with his beak. "N-n-no..." he finally managed. "Because... because... you're merciful?" he asked, uncertainly.

"Merciful?" Jan laughed. "No, no... it's because it wouldn't be a *punishment* for you..." His left claw snaked around George's waist and grabbed at the human's crotch, groping his flaccid shaft through the fabric. The hawk was momentarily taken aback by the size of the organ; even limp, it was a handful. Jan pressed his hooked beak into George's ear and breathed in barely a whisper, "It's because you *want* me to..."

George whimpered and his cock gave a firm twitch, but gave no other response as Jan ground his own cloth-bound, rock-hard hawkhood against George's rear end. "It's because you feeling a big, virile male sticking a cock into you, no matter where they put it.... it's because Sarah never really fulfilled your *real* needs, and you've always wondered what it'd be like for a *real* male like me to take your ass like the cock-slut you are..."

Jan felt George's shaft start to stir beneath the fabric of his pants. "P...please..." George said.

"Please, what?" Jan asked, unbuckling the waiter's belt and giving the waiter's huge, firming maleness a hard squeeze.

"Please... take me... I want... I want to feel you, I want to taste your c-c..."

"I'm not going to let you", Jan interrupted, pulling the belt entirely free from George's pants, and testing its strength. "Oh, yes, indeed... you're going to have to do better than that if you want me to fuck you, my little treasure..."

George ground his hips back against the hard avian shaft Jan had been teasing him with, and Jan felt like he was about to fill his boxers with seed despite the two of them doing little more than foreplay. This was going better than he thought... George had responded immediately, going from nervous and fearful about the entire situation to being eager for Jan to screw him up the ass, in public. In two minutes, no less.

Jan grabbed the cummerbund from the floor beside him, transferring it dextrously from the talons of his right foot to his clawed hands. He tested its strength, and smiled. Just about perfect for what he was planning... George's pants could provide the rest of the materials necessary.

George didn't respond immediately when Jan grabbed his wrists and pulled them behind his back; but he did respond as Jan quickly wrapped the cummerbund around them and tied it securely, immobilising the limbs. "Wait... wha-?" He asked.

"This will make me happier, George... and you too, once you feel a real male for the first time..." Jan said, pulling George's pants down to his ankles, seeing that the skin of the youth's thighs had darkened towards a tan-leather shade, scales forming on the flesh. He gave the garment another harsh tug, securely holding George's legs in place so he didn't simply trip the man up. He was amused to see the tight pair of white briefs that were revealed underneath, and he saw the faint nub of a tail starting to form at the base of the nearly-naked-man's spine. Gleefully, he gave it a stroke; he'd always wanted to know what a long, thick reptile tail would feel like in his hands. Between his failure to program in *exactly* what he wanted, and his growing fame making it tougher and tougher to test these things without repercussions, he'd never actually had the experience.

George seemed to enjoy it, too... judging from the way he shivered and moaned, rather cutely. "What... what's that...?" he asked, straining his neck but unable to see clearly.

"Ah... fancy a guess?" Jan replied, continuing to stroke the male's protruding tailbone.

Responding to the stimulation, the dense lump of bone and muscle strained out against George's skin. The small of George's back was rapidly turning the same tan-green colour as the scales forming along the inside of his thighs. The man let out a mournful, confused whine, and began to grind his erection up against the edge of the table.

"No," Jan growled, giving George a whack across the back of his head. "You're not to stimulate yourself in any way, George. For today... the only time you're allowed one iota of pleasure is... when you have a nice... hard... cock buried deep... up... your cute... little... ass..."

The red-tailed hawk pushed his birdhood right between George's cloth-covered cheeks, teasing the taut hole he knew was hidden away under the white underwear. George moaned pitifully and pushed his rear up and backward, doing everything he could to try and stimulate the bird behind him without having much control over any of his limbs.

Backing away for a moment, Jan took a deep breath and pulled the other male's underwear down, revealing the sallow flesh of George's transforming ass... as well as eight inches of erect male-flesh. Caught halfway between skin and scales, the waiter's rear was a leathery shade of tan-brown flecked with green that reminded Jan of a verdant swamp. The dull shades shone with the glossy sheen of freshly-grown scales, as tender and new as any hatchling. So thin, so warm, so tender and tensed...

Jan was about ready to re-think his original plan and do what their combined lusts both wanted, but managed to compose himself before he lost all self-control. Instead, the red-tail's rough-scaled hand came to rest atop George's tailbone, which he began to pull and knead with strong, firm strokes.

"Come on, come on George... grow your tail..." He cooed, stimulating the nanite-tainted blood vessels deep inside the nascent appendage. There was a moment's pause, and then it pushed outward a half-inch, accompanied by a harsh moan from George.

Jan smiled, squeezing the tail-tub. This was going to be fun.

The hawk pulled on it again and again, using both of his hands now that he didn't need to support the waiter's weight. Harder and quicker Jan stroked the tailbone, until George was on the verge of tears. With fits and starts and involuntary twitches, the tail-growth bulged larger and began to lengthen outward, followed by more deep gasps from George that Jan would have mistaken for pain were it not for the pre-cum shooting from the well-hung male's erection...

"You want a tail... oh... so... bad..." Jan said, stroking the straining bulge tenderly... and ensuring it was true even if it hadn't been before.

"Oh... god... oh god, oh god..." the young male whispered, shaking with his teeth clenched. Tears poured down his scale-flecked cheeks, and between his legs his stiff penis had turned a dark, angry shade of red. With every stroke or squeeze of his tailbone, George's cock twitched up and kissed his bare belly, leaving a sticky arc of preseed hanging between his bellybutton and the head of his penis. "Oh my god, it's happening... it's really happening... I-I'm growing a t-tail..."

Snickering, Jan gave the growing tail a hard yank, nearly pulling George away from the table he was strung against. "You've wanted one for so very, very long..."

"Yes, yes, oh god yes I have!" George cried out, his voice strained by exertion. His cheeks were a colourful map of flushed skin partially displaced by brown-green scales, and when he turned to beg Jan for more the bird nearly laughed aloud at the strangely-sexy sight. "I... I'm..."

"...going to be a *real* dinosaur, just like you've always wanted..." Jan finished for him, meeting George's eyes with his piercing gaze. "A raptor with a snug coat of scales... cute little clawsies... and a nice, long, juicy tail to raise up high for any... male... who wants..."

"Y-yes..." George said between gulps of air, savouring the sweet surrender as much as Jan- if not more so. The nascent raptor's foot long tail was beginning to move in deliberate, controlled wags; it tensed when Jan squeezed it hard, fell limp when Jan held it...

Jan slid a clawed finger into his beak and began to lick it wet, before gingerly holding it in front of George's cock and gave the male's tail a particularly-strong, tender stroke. The bird managed to pull nearly three full inches of fresh, warm, wiggling tail from George's rear, also eliciting a low, roiling moan from his mouth and a healthy spurt of pre-fluid from his cumslit.

"Good boy, Georgie... I see why Sarah likes you so much," Jan huffed, slowly dragging his wet claw between the male's spread cheeks, tapping it against his tailhole ever-so gently. The contact made the raptor freeze firm; he'd probably never been touched down there before. Teasingly, Jan rubbed George's own pre around the ring of tensed anal muscle, enjoying the way it made him squirm. "You've got a cock the size of a fucking soda bottle. I bet she has to milk you like a cow to keep it happy..."

George said something in reply, but it was lost between a whine and a moan. Jan withdrew his finger and knelt down, tearing the fabric of George's pants in two. Then, with a curt "Stay still!" to George, he pulled the briefs from the raptor's scaly ankles and quickly tied each of George's legs to the nearest table-legs, a good three feet apart. The sight of the increasingly raptorlike human tied up, with spread legs, was... most appealing, to Jan's hawkish eyes. There was something distinctly arousing about making another predator into such helpless prey.

Jan noticed that George's shoes had split, the soles separating from the leather as lengthening, clawed toes pushed out, the big toeclaw on each foot already shifting gradually toward the distinct crescent-moon shape. The residual shoes and socks were easily taken care of by Jan's own sharp claws, leaving the young man naked as the day he was born... which fitted the day of his rebirth, Jan supposed.

He eyed the changing maleness as he stood back up; if anything, the already sizeable member seemed to be getting even larger, as the skin drew back and the balls drew up into the man's body, a genital slit forming around the erect shaft, beneath the still-growing tail.

George's upper body hadn't changed much, yet, for whatever reason; patches of scaly skin grew slowly, even though his head was entirely hairless now. But looking up, past the overstimulated, panting half-raptor, he realised that Sarah was reaching the end of her speech... and she was coming along fairly nicely, too, to judge by the powerful saurian legs he could see, contrasting with Richard's thinner limbs.

There was a short round of muted applause... the background noise in the room continued unabated, and sounded quite *distracted*, actually. Jan grinned, looking around, and seeing several people busy divesting themselves of various items of clothing, they and people nearby focused more on themselves than on whoever was speaking; commenting on the changes that were occurring to them or near them with great calm... or a degree of muddled and growing excitement, he saw. Whatever else happened in the next few days, tonight would be most enjoyable...

He gave his wings a flutter and jumped back up onto the table, taking the microphone from Sarah's half-clawed hand. "If I may, everyone? I think we'd all like to hear from everyone, why you've made this decision... so, if I can pass this microphone along, I'd like everyone to come up here and take their turn telling us all why they chose this. Don't be shy... it'll feel good to let it out..." He grinned as he saw a multitude of nervous expressions fade into anticipation instead.

He tossed the microphone down to a nearby man who was starting to grow a small crest of feathers. "You... you're up next. C'mon, get up here..." he said, encouragingly. "I've just got something to take care of..."

So saying, he grabbed Sarah firmly by the wrist, and pulled her down off the tabletop with him. Her legs, too, seemed to have changed extensively, but her upper body had changed more than George's in the same timeframe. Her arms had lost their feminine subtlety and become burly, more clearly male; her shoulders were broader; her face was pushed out into a three-inch, scaled muzzle, and one of her eyes was slitted where the other remained mostly human. Her skin was a mottled greenish-brown, with a paler, almost yellow patch on her flattening chest. The dress looked a bit odd on her, the strapless finery now too loose in places, while pinching tight in others; she looked more like a man in drag than a woman in her evening finery.

"Sarah, oh, Sarah... you and George are going to have a wonderful time today, I think... oh yes..." Jan mused, chuckling. He gestured to her boyfriend, still patiently waiting, panting, and leaking, tied to the table beside them. "He looks better from this angle, doesn't he?"

Sarah blushed, the scales on her muzzle darkening towards black. When she spoke, her voice was deeper, slightly raspy. "Y...yes..."

"It makes something stir deep in you, doesn't it? Something... unexpected? Unusual?"

She nodded again.

"Sarah, strip naked, like him. It's going to be highly enjoyable, trust me..." he whispered to her, coo-ing. She flushed even more, but raised her arms, letting her ill-fitting dress fall free from her frame; before she could continue, Jan decided he couldn't wait for her to finish, and tore her bra and panties from her body. Her breasts were nearly flat, the nipples fading into scales; her torso looked better-defined than a woman's usually was, the musculature growing more powerful beneath the fine, pebbly scales as he watched.

There was something missing, though; her crotch was still bare, no male parts showing... not yet, anyway. Jan guessed they were either still forming, or maybe needed a little... enticement, to emerge from hiding.

He leaned forward, and slipped the tip of one claw delicately against 'her' folds, rubbing a little of her boyfriend's prefluid there, teasing the entrance. "This feels good, doesn't it? You know... it'd be good if you had a cock, wouldn't it? Something you could look forward to sticking into that cute little tailhole there, and riding him raw until he screams your name and cums?"

Sarah gasped, nodding harder; Jan felt something stir under his finger, a small nub extending, perhaps an inch long... good. It would soon grow larger.

He rubbed the head of the small maleness with the tips of his fingers very carefully, as it emerged from the new maleslit on the former female. "Ah... looks like your wish is being granted... tell you what, 'Sarah'... why don't you go over there... and try this out... make Georgie cum without ever letting him touch himself." Jan said, suddenly and painfully aware that his own shaft was rock-solid and very constrained in his tuxedo pants. He felt like watching the show, for now, rather than directly partaking... there were *plenty* of other guests.

In fact... "Richard, perhaps you should go and see to some of the other guests for a few minutes..." he began, trailing off as 'Sarah', enraptured, took up a position behind her boyfriend, stroking his tail and squeezing his ass-cheeks in anticipation, 'her' maleness now an inch and a half long. "Er... after this..." he breathed, seeing Richard was equally distracted by the sight.

Sarah pushed George's tail upward, higher, over her shoulder, rubbing her length against his asscheeks, and then his tailhole. George moaned, turning his head toward his 'girlfriend' and letting out an oddly-strange, gurgled sound when he saw who it was.

"S-Sarah-ah!" he choked out, straining slightly against his bonds.

"Ssssweetie... she replied, giving his long, curled tail a slow, loving stroke.

The two quickly became lost in each other's eyes, much to Jan's amusement. Male and- well, other male now- were pastiches of dinosaur and human. Sarah's face jutted forward into a scaled snout and she already had the thickly-muscled legs and digitigrade, taloned feet of a full raptor, but she only had a small nub of a tail and a pitifully small maleness. George, on the other hand, had only changed in bits and pieces around his upper body and legs, but his tail was now over two feet long and his swollen, slick maleness was properly curving and tapering into that of a 'true' saurian, as imagined by Jan. Her warm skin met his cooler scale as their sweaty hips pressed flush together with a firm smack, and soon Sarah was working her short but growing cock into her- his?- boyfriend's rear...

Watching their mating begin, enraptured Jan. Sarah's fingers curled down around 'her' boyfriend's shoulders, squeezing him tightly. George's eyes closed and a feral hiss left his lips; Jan saw the sharp teeth that lined the inside of his mouth, the yellow tinge in his irises. Dominant raptor thrust forward sharply, making the submissive, bound saurial-human bark a sound quite like what a surprised bird would make... and then the cry dissolved into a warble of animal pleasure. His erstwhile girlfriend made a very similar sound as 'her' scaly muzzle came to rest next to his head, hissing in pleasure as his new member found a snug, warm home inside George's tailhole.

Eyes covered fast by scaly lids, George managed to hiss, "F-fassster-r-r..." to the ex-female behind him as they began to rut. Behind them, unseen, the red-tailed hawk whose instructions they unwittingly followed laughed, with something not unlike malice... albeit tinged with heavy arousal too.

Dancing back around the table on the tips of his talons, Jan walked towards George's head and picked his forgotten bow-tie up off the floor from amid the ruins of his tuxedo. It was a plain, functional black, as were all the waiters' tonight, but it would do.

Jan delicately reached past George's head to grasp the pointed end of his long tail, giving it one last tender squeeze before pulling it even further forward until the tip nearly rested on George's head. Sarah and George both gave the hawk in front of them a strangely expectant, quizzical look, which Jan met with a curt nod.

"Don't mind me for now..." he said to them both, before turning his eyes towards George. "Open wide and say, 'Ahh'..."

The raptor complied, though the cry he made was far closer to a moan than the milder sound Jan had asked for. Nonetheless, the bird of prey took the time to very carefully stuff part of the tie's length into George's toothsome mouth, pulling it taut before folding both ends of the accessory over one another on top of George's bowed-out tail. Jan formed another loop back around the bottom of the male's jaw, before knotting the tie firmly around his tail once more, ensuring neither jaw nor tail could move further.

"There we go..." Jan said, unable to stop a snicker from leaving his beak at the sight of the thoroughly-trussed raptor with his tail fixed firmly above his head, utterly immobile - and George was loving it.

Jan wondered idly what it felt like, feeling the short and unsatisfying maleness' necessarily small, shallow thrusts gradually becoming deeper, as the organ grew towards its final, male, saurian form.

Maybe he'd find out himself at some point. In the meantime, there was more to be done... stepping quickly away from the happy couple, with a massive erection straining against his pants, Jan practically leapt towards the man now holding the microphone. The 'speaker' was currently mute, and miming his apologies for being unable to speak because of the yellow beak growing to encompass his mouth; Jan seized the mic from him.

"Heh, one second sir," Jan said as way of apology, winking at the visibly-embarrassed male. "A quick public service announcement... this fine gentle-raptor over here... " the hawk began, gesturing towards the ensorcelled, mating theropods "-the, er, bottom one... is leaving our employment in the near future..." he paused, considering exactly how to put the plan in his head into action. "However, he has just informed me of his complete and utter devotion to cock, and I think it'd be a nice show of our appreciation for his years of service to indulge him! I'm sure all the gentlemen present would appreciate the opportunity to have a go at so alluring a specimen, and I'm equally sure none of their partners or spouses here will be offended by their doing so!"

He smirked, this was almost too easy. "So, everyone appropriately equipped, would you please give his tail-hole a go sometime tonight? Preferably, give old Georgie-boy a nice, hot load of spunk up his ass as a going away present? Mh-heh, thank you!" The red-tail finished, laughing maniacally as he tossed the microphone back towards the other beaked man. Similar laugher and eager promises erupted from the crowd, which Jan walked towards, grabbing Richard as he went.

"Richard, can you circulate a little amongst the guests, make sure everyone's... 'on the same page'? The mental, ah, stimulation won't last forever, and I need to put a few convincing elements of a cover story in place before it wears off completely", he explained to the Kingfisher, sotto voce. "Especially, keep an eye out for that damn woman in the red coat; I have a suspicion she'll be around somewhere, but I suspect it'll be a review-the-CCTV job to identify her by this stage, if she's been foolish enough to stick around with the other guests..." He looked around at the transforming room.

Richard sighed and nodded. "I'll do what I can, but the nanotech was designed so *you* could order them around, right? What can I do?"

Jan gave an uncharacteristically nervous shrug. "Aheh. Well, they'll all be amenable to, shall we say, being reminded of what I've said... I've set them up enough for a whale of a time - oh come on, that's a metaphor!" he interjected, seeing Richard's surprised look. "Still, do well enough, and you can have a ride of that tied-up raptor once everyone's had their turn under his tail."

Richard gave a gasp as Jan fondled the Kingfisher's erect birdhood through the formal suit he wore. "You'll love him... he's hung like a drainage pipe, take a look while you're circulating!"

Without waiting for an answer, Jan set off, striding through the room, politely excusing himself from gaggles of excited guests and encouraging a few not-quite-so-eager transformees as he went.

He first raced off towards a table full of vexing-but-useful moneymen. Cash was the lifeblood of Jan's nascent corporate empire, but he still relied more on transhumanist-leaning angel investors than on corporate money or the purse-strings of progressive governments. Those gathered at the table he was walking towards were- to a soul- droll and unimaginative in the extreme, deliberately sequestered away from the others. Having to deal with - what Jan liked to call - 'patent-whoring productivity-vampires' was something he utterly despised, but their contacts in the financial sector were useful. They were a necessary evil.

"My friends! It's great to see you!" He lied. "Mark, Hiroshi, David, Angelina, Ingrid... and, er..." he paused, seeing another he didn't recognise, "...I don't know you but I hope you're enjoying yourself too! I trust you are all having a good time?" Jan said with a grand smile.

The flicker of forked tongues greeted him as they broke away from their conversations; Jan glanced upward and saw an air vent directly above their table. Doubtless they had all been exposed to the same variety of nano-agent... probably one of his lizard varieties. Gecko, maybe? Monitor? Too early to tell.

One of the bankers - Mark or David, Jan could never remember which was which - sat bolt upright in his chair. "Oh... it'ssss... really been... exciting! I've not felt ssso alive sssince..."

"Ever?" Jan interjected, with a laugh and a hearty slap on the man's back.

"Yesss!" Hiroshi said in agreement, nodding vigorously. Red-orange scales covered the back of the Japanese banker's hands, and that obnoxiously overstated gold watch he always wore was resting unbound on the place mat before him. Others were fidgeting inside their formal wear, but aside from a motley collection of similar accessories, neckties, and a few loosened buttons, none of the uptight bankers had done anything bolder.

"Well... let me offer a suggestion to you all," Jan began, craning his neck forward and dropping his voice, as if to tell them a dirty joke.

They leaned forward, listening with the rapt patience of people expecting true enlightenment or huge profits.

"Why... don't you... take off your clothes... and have an orgy?" Jan said, suddenly cocking his head to the side and rubbing the underside of his beak. "Mmm... that sounds wonderful, doesn't it?"

"O-ohh... well, I sssuppose sso... but would it b-be okay to..." the other of either Mark or David began. He was sitting sideways in his seat to accommodate a rather large lump of tail protruding out back of his pants, and scratching it frequently as if it were bothering him. A few spines on the visible tail's length suggested maybe iguana?

"Absolutely. One hundred percent. It's really quite simple; get naked down to the scales, and start doing whatever makes your hemipenes happy..." Jan said, to the beaming, increasingly-scaly faces around him.

"Ah... what isss a 'hemipene'?" the new banker, the one Jan didn't know, asked. He was pretty far along already; the lizard tail jutting from the seat of his pants swayed behind him almost rhythmically, and the only hair left on his entire head was clustered around his eyebrows. The man's accent was slurred beyond recognition by sibilance; his ethnicity lost amid a sea of teal scales.

It was beautiful.

Jan looked at the lizard-human with a faraway smile, half-wondering if he might actually have to thank the lady in red if they caught her. "Don't worry, old boy; you'll find out when the pants come off..." he said, striding away from the table and towards the next. "Continue without me, my friends!" he yelled as he left, jumping over the banker's tail and heading towards the closest neighbouring table.

The red-tail jumped on top of the table in a single graceful bound, knocking over the floral centrepiece as he landed. Reclining atop the table was what used to be a female waiter, her upper-body clothed and unchanged but her lower-half now comprised of a long, winding, emerald green tail. Two thick, tapered members jutted out from the thick, banded scales of her lower tail, one of which was being quite vigorously ridden by a young man wearing what was once a Savile-row suit. His lower body was that of a gecko- his broad, ridged toes curled inward every time he dropped down onto his impromptu lover's shaft, and his long, grayish-peach tail tensed and flailed at random.

He couldn't remember the young gecko-man's name, but his clean-shaven face was familiar somehow. For all that Jan had caused this, deliberately, it was still slightly disconcerting to be presented with it, mid-act.

"Er... good evening... don't mind me... um, for the moment, that is..." Jan said to the half-human lovers, hesitating for a moment before shrugging and jumping over them and landing on an adjacent table. That pair evidently needed no further attention.

This new table seemed in order as well - or at least, in the intended state of disorder - though Jan's sharp eyes quickly spotted a minor flaw he could correct. A bioethics specialist with the brick-coloured tailfeathers of a fellow hawk and a hedge fund manager whose thick, crocodilian hide made his suit bulge ominously were doing nothing more than masturbating themselves, eyeing each other curiously. Jan took the men's human hands into his claws and cross them over, letting them rest on each other's thick, increasingly-inhuman member. The hawk gave them both a smile and a wink before darting away, his job there complete.

Jan spotted Richard chasing after a rather-panicked looking osprey, and he mentally tossed-up whether to head across and intervene... but before he could assess the situation any further he spotted a young woman crying on a table in the middle of the hall. She was sitting alone, but around her a small crowd stood, evidently drawn from nearby tables, and a commotion was beginning to build.

The young woman in question was probably a network anchor-woman or some similar TV celebrity who'd been getting filmed here tonight - so Jan assumed from the crew of lizardlike cameramen fawning over her. He made a quick mental note to ask them for all the tapes later, and was thankful for his foresight in telling them he couldn't allow live broadcasts...

Whoever she was, she wore a tasteful, conservative red dress, but despite a moment of near-panic, the hue and style was entirely different from the domestic terrorist Jan had glimpsed earlier. Black downfeathers poured out from the bottom of the dress and around her wrists; she seemed to be trying to cover them with her sleeves, or at least look away.

The starlet was beside herself, half in the middle with an argument. "...can cut the crap already, Lenny! I'm... I'm... I'm turning into something horrid! Something simply ugly and terrible and, and... I'm going to be ruined!" She cried lugubriously, "I was on my way to an Emmy, you fucking bastard! Fuck!"

"Allissson, you shouldn't curssse like that..." her producer said, twiddling his clawed fingers together. "It'sss not the end of the world or..."

"It's the end of my dreams!" she shouted in reply through a hail of tears, makeup running down her cheeks in muddy smears that reminded Jan of coal ash.

"My dear! Whatever is the matter with your new form? You wanted it, remember?" Jan said as he approached, his presence ushering silence.

"I... I know!" She replied, not nearly as fast as Jan would have liked. "I just think I made a huge mistake! Of all the stupid birds in this stupid world, why did I choose a... a raven!" Allison finally spat, saying the word with all the inflection of a particularly-choice racial slur. "I... I thought I could pull it off, but this isn't going to work, it's not..."

Jan felt a tart mouthful of invective spring to mind with which to cut her off, but he was feeling rather more generous now than when the evening had begun, so he motioned her into silence.

"Hush, hush, my dear... calm down for a bit and think..." he began, taking her hand into his and giving it a gentle squeeze. His scales rasped slightly against the coarse wrinkles of her blackened, hardening skin, and some of the anger and sadness in her manner seemed to melt away. "Surely there is far more to admire in the beautiful, black plumage you are starting to sprout than in any... simple... dress", Jan said, eyeing her wardrobe. "You know, black is always in style, and feathers will always look good with the proper amount of preening... besides! Ravens are creatures of mystery and lore; you're viewers are going to love getting their news straight from the beak of a modern-day Munin..."

She looked at him for a long moment, her sadness nearly forgotten, before she spoke. "I... I don't know what that is..." Allison said, wiping tears and mascara from her eyes and wiping her hands on her dress, suppressing a sob.

"Oh... just look it up when you get home," Jan replied reflexively, not in the mood for anything so educational.

"I should..." she said, in a small voice. "But... yes... you're right. I don't know what I was so concerned about. Birds... ravens... can be beautiful too..."

"Ever-so beautiful," Jan confirmed with a slow nod. "In fact, I dare say that if you go show off the tres magnifique feathers growing down here..." the hawk said, giving her backside a friendly pat, "You'll be the recipient of some... very... appreciative... attention..."

She squawked in surprise at the contact. "Y-you think so?" the anchorwoman asked, though the smile on her face told Jan that the question was all but rhetorical.

"Mhm! In fact..." he paused to think a moment about the efficiency rates for his nanomachines. "Hmm, speaking statistically, there is bound to be at least half a dozen straight-ish birds around here somewhere. Go find one and have a wonderful, wonderful night, madam!"

The raven-to-be departed in a rush, though not before planting a firm kiss on the side of Jan's beak, the nub of her own beak knocking hard against the hawk's. A chorus of cheers and claps sounded around the hawk, which he met with gracious bows at first, and then a bit of laugher as it turned into more physical shows of appreciation.

Jan quickly realised that entering the middle of the fray had been a tactical error, now that he had dealt with their immediate concern. The crowd was highly excited and... very eager. Their attraction for him seemed stronger than their attraction for each other, and he rapidly found himself getting swamped with hugs and frantic gropes... then lifted from the ground, the throng practically fighting over him. He felt hands unzipping his flies and unbuttoning his pants, pulling them free as others curled into his underwear and took firm hold of his firm, leaking shaft.

This was on the verge of getting out of hand! "Please, wait, my guests... what sort of host would I be if I played favourites here, hmm? There are plenty moooOORE-!" He started, then exclaimed as an unseen assailant suddenly started jacking his meat, hard. He couldn't move to stop them for the press of half-naked bodies around him.

He took a deep breath to compose himself. Give definite commands, he told himself, definite commands! This was no time for subtlety! "Er... please, leave me be! Go play with your fellow guests, especially those who're shy about joining in!" he said, squawking a little, thankful that the din of the room somewhat covered his words over before they spread too far. The latest speaker on the makeshift podium was trying to talk loudly over the harsh roar of a velociraptor, who sounded like he was right at the apex of seeding his partner. Or being seeded, perhaps, but Jan suspected that Sarah was the only one in a position to vocalise so loudly right now.

The fray around him receded, with a slight murmur of apology and disappointment, but their gyrations didn't seem to be letting up; they wouldn't miss him for long, he reckoned. Sexual energy was running through the room like a fire, feeding itself on the fuel of fresh transformees' libido. His sense of smell was dull, but he could detect the definite tang of sex in the air already.

Unfortunately, he was now clad only in a pair of loose-fitting boxer shorts, wet and obscenely tented; his pants were nowhere to be seen. Well... could be worse, he thought with a smirk. He usually went around naked anyway, and honestly, his state of near-nudity and clear arousal... aroused him in itself, especially the jealous and lustful looks he spotted passing over him while he stepped forward again, pushing through the partygoers.

Finally, he stepped out of the erotic melee, and was only a few yards from the door. He half-turned to look back at the orgy he'd started... and to his surprise spotted a table that seemed to be responding more with horror than with glee or arousal.

Oh. Damn it all.

*Them*.

The three men at the table didn't look very transformed, either... still fully clothed, still seated, and more occupied with their assortment of smartphones than with their bodies or their fellow guests'. But Jan perhaps should have expected that; this unholy triumvirate had a bad habit of secreting themselves quietly away in a corner of the room, dissecting his corporate 'mistakes' and watching like... like hawks, for the next misstep. They must have been exposed to much less of the airborne nanites than the rest of the room was.

The leftmost was John Humphries; a fairly powerful banker, the company's personal bank manager in fact. The two-billion-dollar company had over a billion dollars of debts, and most of those were handled by this one man, who revelled in throwing his weight around and insisting on, what he called, 'realism'. Jan called it 'stalling', instead; unfounded public fears about the world ending in a nanotech accident had caused protests, which had spooked the large financial institution far more than was warranted. Mr. Humphries was an advocate of 'efficiency' rather than growth, was immune to negotiation and ignorant about every one of the biological and physical sciences, seeing little 'added value' in the huge research division that consumed most of TerraGenetics' profits. He always came to functions like this to complain to Jan's employees about the money wasted on such 'frivolities' as well as Jan's 'dictatorial' style of management.

Next to him was Adrian Adams, a newspaper man who had published a couple of embarrassing and nigh-libellous stories about Jan's operations and past. Humphries liked to keep near Adams as a way of 'managing the message' on Jan's behalf, and Adams liked to keep near Humphries because the bank manager, for all his bravado, was weak-willed and couldn't hold his drink, and had probably been the source of many of the worst scoops. Adrian didn't write stories himself; he was actually the boss of a local newspaper, employed by the same national media conglomerate that employed Sarah Markfield, as it happened. It was the perfect cover for an undercover journalist: actually, genuinely not to be an undercover journalist. The pity was Humphries seemed to be too unimaginative to see through the weaselly charade, and too stupid to notice that the flow of information between them was entirely one way.

Making up the hattrick, as usual, was Roland Arnessen, an aide to the local mayor and a man looking for a cause to kick-start his own political career, probably in the State legislature. He'd become interested in nanotech after the initial protests had started, and in fact gone on record in the local news calling it "The most potentially devastating technology that a deranged few ever had the hubris to explore". He was suspected to be preparing to declare support for a complete ban, but the protests had faded fast as interest moved on to matters of more immediate importance to the average person. Arnessen had toned down his rhetoric, and by coming to these functions he was clearly trying to hedge his bets in case support turned in favour of medical nanotechnology. It galled Jan to have to be exceedingly polite to a man who would stab him in the back the moment the election season began; Adams and Arnessen were no doubt bargaining favourable media coverage for future tax write-offs, hence their apparent cosiness.

Right now, all three seemed to be in a bit of a panic, in contrast to the room's average mood; Humphries was trying to use his smartphone with his human hand to take pictures of the large, reptilian limb that had torn through his carefully-tailored suit sleeve. Thankfully, Jan thought, security had blanked out the local networks in the building when the alarm was sounded. No such images were going to make it out of the room.

Arnessen was sitting, trying to look calm, but holding his hairless, beak-nosed face with his hands as a predatory hook of a beak grew rapidly in to replace his otherwise unremarkable looks. Jan wondered if it might help him at the polls to look, literally, like a policy hawk. The politician seemed to have caught Jan's approach earlier than the others; his eyes bore a heavy cargo of judgemental disdain.

Adams seemed to be petrified, though; his eyes were wide, and he was sweating so profusely that Jan could see beads of it running down his forehead from ten paces away - no mean feat, even with his enhanced eyesight. He was gripping the tablecloth with both hands, in a death-grip, and seemed to be muttering something to himself continually... but otherwise seemed completely human. Jan seriously hoped that a media mogul wouldn't turn out to be the one unaffected person in the room...

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he said, sweetly, approaching their table. "You seem a little... dispirited?" he grinned, making no effort to conceal his prominent, boxer-bound erection.

Humphries responded first. "Doctor Stephenson, this is a disaster! What's going on here? What's.... what's *this*?!" he said, with emphasis, raising his reptilian arm... now that Jan could see more clearly, he recognised the distinctly crocodilian pattern to the scales.

"Ah, this? This is... why, this is proof that my technology is completely safe!" he said, painfully aware that with these people, he might have to be exceedingly specific with the direction he led their thinking.

Humphries looked perplexed. "You've done to a whole room of people what happened, by accident, to you? You're accident-prone, Stephenson, and this is far too important a technology to be fucking around with!"

There was an awkward silence as the trio of powerful men glanced nervously around the room, all too aware that for the majority of the other guests, 'fucking around' was not merely a figure of speech.

Arnessen spoke up next. "I... must admit... I'm grudgingly impressed. It seems you've been holding back on your technology, Doctor, if you can easily do this... and if you're sure it's definitely safe?" he asked, oddly calm and focused even in acquiescence to Jan's command - so Jan hoped. "Long term safe, no doubt, no margin of error?"

There was always *doubt*, of course... only fools, politicians and priests claimed certainty on matters of importance, Jan thought to himself. But he sighed internally; the art of politics was a dark one, of falsehoods and fake promises, where honesty was a lever that enemies would twist to their whim. Brazen lies and ignorant bluster were advantages in an election, no matter who had the best ideas and answers.

Jan smiled. "Absolutely and completely. Rest assured, gentlemen, the process is as safe as anything." He mentally crossed his fingers that the trio hadn't somehow failed to be affected by the mind-altering nanites.

Humphries seemed sceptical... and Jan noticed his transforming arm was changing very slowly by comparison with the other guests' changes. Perhaps he'd not inhaled the aerosol nanites at all, maybe he'd just got them on his skin... in which case it would be much slower. They might develop his mental acquiescence at a later stage; Jan needed to keep them talking instead of running... or worse.

Arnessen seemed... he seemed fairly normal, which perversely was a good sign, since his normal attitude would have given way to horror and denunciation by now, surely. Unless he was playing a different game, had worked out that there was some mind-altering effect at work, and was trying to play along and keep cool... but for what end, if so?

Jan hated politics. Pity, too; the man looked like he was going to be a nice-looking hawk, but this group required far more care than most.

Adams, though... he was still sitting frozen, muttering what sounded like a prayer. Catatonic? Jan hadn't encountered any extreme psychological problems in other test subjects... but some of his private stash was, to put it mildly, less than fully and rigorously tested. What if there was a rare flaw in one or more models, what if Adams went into a coma, or worse, died? That'd be a tough one to cover up, probably impossible.

"Er... what's the matter with him?" Jan asked.

Arnessen shook his head gravely. "You're too impetuous for your own good, Stephenson. Didn't you consider that not everyone... 'appreciates'... birds and reptiles the way you do? Adams is petrified of snakes. Guess what he's growing?"

Jan thought of his rattlesnake nanites, another untested experiment. The bizarre and frankly unappealing design of their hemipenes was, to his mind, a design flaw; one he tried to correct, but had never dared test. He suppressed an excited shiver at the thought of what Adams might be growing.

"A tail, a goddamn genuine rattlesnake tail!" Arnessen exclaimed, irritated. "Poor guy had an instant panic attack when he heard himself rattle. We tried to calm him down, of course. He finally went completely... well, like this; then when we looked up, everyone was... changing, and carrying on like...like nothing I've ever seen, and John there, and I, well, we're... affected by whatever this is, too."

Jan scowled. He'd not considered what a deep-seated phobia might do to someone who was transforming... might it be the thing that broke his mental stranglehold? Hopefully, the other two had just been too distracted to obey Jan's orders earlier. Or maybe they were too habitually hostile for his prodding to have really shifted their views. He had to find out.

"Okay... I know how to fix this. Gentlemen, I want you to pick up your drinks, and deliberately spill them down those fine white shirts you're wearing. That'll make me happy, you see... and you want to make me happy, most definitely you do."

John and Arnessen had both gone for red wine; Adams, for a fruit juice. No sane person would surely do as he'd just asked without question.

The two grasped their drinks, perplexed. Humphries seemed to be fighting an internal battle of sorts as he asked, "Er... is... is that a threat?"

Jan supposed he had said it like a threat; allowed the predator in him to come to the fore a bit much. Still... he probably *had* intended it that way.

He smiled. "Not really, Mr Humphries... John. I've caught the way you look at me... you just love the life I lead, and you've always kind of wished you could join me, haven't you?"

John Humphries upended his drink down his expensive suit, with a gasp of dismay; it seemed more accidental than obedient, but he'd done it. "W...what? No... I'm happy with my wife.... my kids..."

Damn, Jan thought; Humphries was married, wasn't he? Well... he could always fix the wife later, if she wasn't here tonight. But... still... he could always get John Humphries to be bi-curious for the night, that shouldn't do any real harm, surely?

"Oh, no of course you are! I'm not asking you to do anything foolish with your life... but you've wondered, haven't you? Looked at me, at Richard, my cute little Kingfisher, and wondered what it'd be like if you were in one of our places... wondered what it'd be like to take away the human exterior and let something..." he sought for the right word, "*dangerous* out instead. Something strong... animalistic... sexy. Some hidden desire... a little hedonistic streak that you've been waiting for an excuse to unlock... tonight is your night, and you're going to love it!" he finished, feeling quite pleased with himself. "Just for now... just for tonight... what harm will a single night's fun have..?"

Humphries shook his head. "You're... you're quite mad..." he contradicted, but Jan noticed that the banker's eyes seemed to have focused, for rather too long, on Jan's wet, tented underwear, before looking away. Got him... give him time for the mental nanites to push him further and he'd be away cavorting with the rest.

Adams hadn't moved at all, in fact he scarcely seemed to have heard. But more worryingly, Arnessen had put his glass down, his fingers starting to spasm and sprout claws, definite predatory claws.

"He... why are you telling us to..?" he began, slowly, watching the yellowish scales start to form on his wrists and palms. "That doesn't sound like... it'll fix anything..."

Damn it... had he put his drink down because he couldn't use his hands properly, or because he wasn't affected enough to follow through?

But Arnessen had at least started... Adams was more of a problem, he'd not budged an inch. Jan felt worry eating away at his arousal, worry that permanent damage might have been done.

He stepped around the transforming bird, and saw the foot-long length of rattlesnake tail protruding from the back of Adams' dinner jacket, wound through the back of his chair. The limb was growing slowly... and accelerating, Jan thought, but it was a subtle effect if so.

"Adams... Adrian", he said, softly, taking what he hoped was a firm and reassuring hold of the man's shoulders. "It's not so bad... you see, you volunteered for this... you've been getting over your phobia of snakes, and you thought, what better way to finish the job, than to... become one, prove they're not something to be feared?"

Adams gave no obvious response.

"Adrian, listen", Jan tried again, opting for a different tack. He was unsure whether to try for a sexual angle... sex was a powerful force, but fear was stronger. "Don't you remember what you confided in me? You've been scared of snakes because you've secretly admired them... powerful, sleek bodies; deadly fangs; the ability to inspire terror in others, get the respect your boss owes you, put your staff in their place and your paper back on the top of the business world... You've secretly wanted to *be* a snake...as long as you can remember... so it may be hard for you now... but you're going to take a deep breath, and start to feel better, right now, because this is what you *really* want. Ready?" He squeezed Adams' shoulders. "Two, one... breathe!"

He felt himself exhale deeply and powerfully with relief, as Adams inhaled, sharply, and breathed out slowly as well; then, slowly, with the twitchiness of someone still recovering from a massive shock, he started to move, releasing his death grip on the tablecloth.

"Ahh... that feels better, doesn't it, Adams? You know what you need, and that's a distraction..." Jan said. He wasn't sure where he was going with this, but... after all this, he felt like he really, really needed to cum.

Jan had originally intended to have the last go at that cute little tied-up raptor down the front once the seed of a few dozen partygoers was leaking out of him, maybe with Richard riding the saurial's delicious-looking cock... but that opportunity was not going anywhere for a while. That... and, he realised, it had been a long time since he'd had a good blowjob; birds weren't really equipped for oral.

It'd be a shame to waste a rare, human mouth...

"In fact... why don't you... suck my cock?" He said, grinning. "That'll distract you... besides, I think you'll find it an enjoyable experience, once you get into it... males can be so supremely sexy... you don't know *real* pleasure until you've taken care of a powerful, virile male, and been taken in turn..."

Adams looked up slowly, seemingly horrified at the thought. Jan hit him with more persuasion. "Trust me... after all, you've always trusted me, right? Your bosses made you try to find dirt on my operation, but you've always known there isn't any, not really... it's just been a good excuse for a party at company expense... hush, now, I won't tell..."

Adams' expression turned to one more of shame than horror. Jan smiled reassuringly, or tried to. "So, since I've fulfilled your dreams of serpent-hood and I'm keeping your little secret... you can pay me back... by sucking me off..."

He pulled Adams' chair out from under the table, along with the soon-to-be rattlesnake man, and pulled him bodily upright. "Just suck hard, breathe carefully, swallow, and watch the teeth... trust me, it'll be fun..." Jan growled, admiring the scaly rattle growing to full size at the tip of the media mogul's tail.

He didn't give Adams time to respond, if indeed the shaking, shocked male had intended to, instead pushing the mostly-human to his knees, his face level with Jan's damp, tented boxers.

"Yes... come on... closer now... I've been waiting all-l-l night for you, Adrian. You wouldn't want to disappoint me, now would you?" the hawk teased, moving forward to rub the wet spot on the front of his undergarment's against the half-reluctant male's nose. "Come on, my sleek, sexy serpent... show me what you can do..." Slowly, Jan could see the conditioning take hold in Adams' thoughts; he took a deep, shivering breath in through his nose and then exhaled sharply, suppressing a moan in the process.

"I-I-I-I'm..." Adams stammered, licking his lips with his visibly-elongated tongue.

"...Going to be a very handsome serpent..." the hawk began, pleased to hear he still had a voice at all. "And you've nothing to fear from your fellow snakes, Adams; the rattler nanites are my greatest creation thus far. They've a good reason to fear *you*... but enough worries for now. Take off my boxers and... suck my cock. Like you've been wanting to..."

Jan smiled as the man's hands clumsily wrapped around his backside, undoing the lone button that kept his modified boxers from falling free... and without that restraint, the soggy, musky garment rapidly did just that, sliding down his feathery legs with a little help from Adams' questing hands.

The hawk gave a warbled sigh as he spread his freed tailfeathers out into a broad fan. His shaft sprang up with a rush of relief; he'd underestimated just how much the rarely-used undergarment had been constraining and twisting his oversensitive hawkhood. It hit Adams' neck, splattering a little of his preseed there; Adams stared at it, enraptured, uncertain; trepidation and eagerness mixed in his expression. He swallowed heavily, playing for time by running his fingers through Jan's tailfeathers. Jan could feel the adrenaline-fuelled tremors still running through the man's body as he was touched, but another look in the rattler's eyes revealed far more lust than fear.

Jan looked up to see Humphries still seated, half-torn coat and shirt soaking wet with spilled wine. He looked deeply disturbed at the direction events were going here, but a fat bulge was growing in the front of his pants. Jan knew he'd soon be joining in; no need to rush things. He shot a cheeky, lewd grin in the man's direction as he watched the other seam of the man's suit shoulder unravel as the thick armour of the crocodile-scales spread invisibly beneath, starting to creep towards the banker's neck already, the musculature and bone structure becoming stockier all the while. Humphries seemed more confused by Jan's look than anything; perhaps he couldn't read the bird's face well.

The grin was soon wiped from the hawk's beak as he felt Adams' still-human tongue make contact with his bare shaft, like an electric contact closing. He nearly gave a shrill cry with the intensity of it... he'd left himself too aroused for far too long.

The tongue left, then returned moments later, slightly more adventurous... Adams deciding that the taste was not abhorrent, evidently. "Yes, that's it... taste it, lick it... suck it... and *enjoy* it!" he breathed, waiting for the obedient response.

Adams' soft human lips met the tip of his member in what was almost a kiss... then sank deeper over it, engulfing the head, and sucking very lightly on it, experimenting. Jan nearly collapsed at the feeling, squeezing his eyes shut... damn, it had been too long since he felt a mouth round his shaft.

"That's... ohhhh... yes, that's good", he said, unable to think of any other feedback he could give. Command and careful execution of his power-play was rather beyond his capability right now, as Adams' enthusiasm caught up with the moment and he sank as low as he could, valiantly struggling against his disappearing gag reflex. The hawk urged him on, squeezing the back of his scaly neck firmly. Jan knew his cock was nowhere near large enough to choke a proper snake-man, after all...

"Excellent... yes, you're loving it... you love pleasing a male... it's so sexy..." Jan breathed, unable to manage an ounce of subtlety. He did, at least, open his eyes again, and look down to see what was happening to his... current partner.

He smiled and gently started brushing the hair from Adams' head, while the man stopped his motion and sucking a moment, evidently wondering what the odd sensation from his scalp was. "Don't worry, my sleek serpent... your hair, that's all..." Jan whispered.

He heard and felt Adams grunt, and heard an odd rustling sound as he did so. What was..?

Ah. He almost laughed... Adams was still practically fully clothed, but two sleek, fleshy, ridged, hemipenes had just popped free of the torn portion of his pants, his ass and his groin moving to a halfway point between the two inside his ruined pants, which the tail had torn away as it formed. Convenient, he thought, and very pleasing, just as he'd wanted the serpentine members to turn out. Evidently, too, fairly pleasing to Adams himself, as his hands left Jan's tailfeathers and thighs, to start stroking at his freshly exposed- and doubled- manhood with vigour.

But his torso seemed to be getting longer, too... and thinner. His jacket and shirt hung fairly loosely from his frame, and his untucked shirt only just reached down to his beltline. Jan decided he'd better keep hold of Adams' arms, to make sure he didn't overbalance.

Adams kept up the exquisite suction on Jan's member, but the position of his body had an unexpected effect, as his lengthening torso forced him to start shifting his knees further back, away from Jan, to keep from bending double with his still-mostly-human spine. As Jan took more of his weight, Adams could move his arms less, and very quickly, his hemipenes were beyond his reach, his arms and slightly-scaly hands flailing comically to reach the blood-red opening in the otherwise creamy scutes forming his new natural armour. Adams' tongue and suction stopped as he struggled, which disappointed Jan while also letting him think a little more clearly.

"Ah, ah, ah..." Jan chastised. "This is supposed to be a party... you shouldn't have to take care of that yourself... and didn't I say you didn't know happiness until you've been taken by a big, powerful male?" he said, in a teasing sing-song. "I think..."

He looked up at Humphries. "John... would you do the honours?"

John Humphries had also lost his hair, for the most part, and thick scales had grown all up his head; his face was starting to push out into a muzzle, and his suit jacket was struggling to contain his reshaped body. He seemed rather fascinated, too, by the set of everted hemipenes on the serpentine body that was rapidly approaching his seat as it grew.

"John... you know you're interested in giving it a try... you're dying to know what it's like with a man, and I'm telling you, it's as good as any woman..." Jan said, picking his words carefully; he didn't want to disrupt the Humphries household any more than necessary, the rest of John's family wouldn't deserve that. Though he probably owed them a quick visit to 'explain', with a few more of his suggestion-enhancing nanites, why they should be completely okay with the new body of the man of the house...

"John, this is your best chance. Your wife will forgive anything, you know that... there's no need to worry, everything's okay... all I'm asking is for you to do exactly what you want to do... which is shove your fat croco-dick up that tight snake-ass and fuck him for all you're worth..." Jan rasped, lewdly squawking as he finished. He felt Adams' sucking intensify, and saw the snake's distant shafts begin leaking preseed at the mere suggestion of being penetrated.

He vaguely heard the sound of tearing fabric nearby, but paid it no heed as he watched the hesitant male unzip his fly to pull out his half-hard shaft, and examine its changing length with interest, then with increasing glee as it hardened even further.

Humphries moved like a man possessed, swinging his body up off the chair with a heavy groan. The back of his ripped suit was folded over a foot of broad, ridged, steadily-growing tail covered in rough, bony protrusions, while a partially-reptilian penis nearing seven thick inches jutted from the fly of his grey boxers.

"Go on... look at your friend's cocks. He wants you to do it so v-very, very badly..." Jan said, feverishly stroking the rattler's smooth forehead as the sucking on his member grew in intensity yet again.

John ambled forward, splitting his pants apart and knocking his chair over in the process. With a low growl, the crocodile kneeled over Adams' lengthy tail and hugged it tight, grinding his chest against the smooth snakeskin as his shaft rubbed against the rattler's hemipenes...

The moment of penetration probably wasn't as smooth or cautious as it should have been, but Adams seemed to be pleased by it, to judge by the way his lengthy body tensed and the pleasured, garbled moans he began to make. The eager male surrounded Jan's shaft with soft rumbles, and the hawk felt the split-tines of a forking tongue lap ever-so sensually against the underside of his member.

Jan nearly leapt out of his feathers, though, as a feathery arm wrapped around him from behind. A bird several inches taller than the red-tail held him immobile, and began drag a hooked beak through his shoulder feathers. "So... this makes you happy, does it?" said the raptor behind him. It sounded an awful lot like Arnessen, who had been changing rather faster than his neighbours had been.

"Wha..." Jan began, trying to lead into a command, hoping that Arnessen was in an... obedient mood.

He was shocked suddenly to feel a hard, throbbing, naked bird-shaft rub against his bare backside, leaving steaks of warmth against the soft down of his feathered posterior.

"You this stuff, right? 'You don't know happiness until you've been taken by a big, powerful male'? So... I guess if you want to be happy... I can oblige..." the politician growled.

Before Jan could protest that he hadn't meant for himself, he felt the head of the larger bird's member prod his tailhole, and start to push inside.

"Aah... fuck, you're tight.... 'course, I seem to be much bigger down there for some reason... you're one sick fuck, you know that? Size isn't..." the other avian growled, pushing the first fat inches of his shaft into Jan's ass quite hard. "...everything!"

Jan's eyes widened and watered, nearly fainting as his unprepared tailhole yielded to the forceful invader. He wasn't normally into being on the receiving end, but something about being taken, helplessly, by a bigger and stronger hawk whose species he didn't even know- while being sucked off by the once-hesitant snake under him- feeling the changing mouth of the human beneath him shifting around him... it was...

He moaned.

"Yeah... good little slut... you've been such a cocktease, you know that? Strutting around waving your tailfeathers everywhere, perching your pretty little songbird on your lap all the time, teasing and making lewd comments... you brought this on yourself, Stephenson..."

Jan's mind raced, fogged with the storm of sensation and lust. He hadn't told Arnessen to think all this... did that mean that he'd already been thinking... well, of all things! Arnessen was as about as staid of a conservative politician as Jan had ever met; how on *Earth* was he taking his change like this!?

There wasn't much time to digest that information, though, as Arnessen started to thrust into his tailhole, keeping him locked in a firm bear hug, while Adams' muzzle grew longer, deadly fangs growing in either side of Jan's shaft. Jan had deliberately removed the venom glands from the rattler gene sequence, but the kiss of the sharp teeth was oh-so deliciously dangerous nonetheless. Behind Adams, the pleasure-bound hawk could see the banker literally bursting through the remainder of his clothing as he buried himself in the snake's tailhole with reckless abandon. The crocodilian was largely transformed, his torso broader and longer than before, his arms and legs shorter and stubbier, his tail... deliciously thick and powerful, waving wildly in the air behind him as he thrust in and out of the willing serpent under his bulk. Adams' legs shrank and slipped free of his pants as the fucking jostled his coiled body, his lower limbs going limp and shrinking away to nothingness before being absorbed into his thickening tail.

Jan was in something very nearly approximating his personal vision of a hedonist's heaven. He felt Adams' mouth spasm around his hawkhood as scales grew over the snake-man's lengthening muzzle and claws sprouted from the rattler's fingertips; he could just make out the spasming of the male's long pair of serpentine hemipenes between which Humphries' thick crocodile-meat was sandwiched. Adams had been the first to cum, both his members spraying seed over the crocodile mating him and onto the carpeted floor.

Jan was getting close himself, but it was seeing Humphries' orgasm that sent him over the edge. He saw the crocodile tense, his eyes widening as if with surprise, and with an audible squelching sound, heard the first of his impressively large, messy orgasm shoot deep into Adams' anal vent. Humphries continued to ride the rattler's tail through his climax, until Jan saw a gout of white seed spray out from the snake's abused and overfilled cloaca, over his still-leaking hemipenes.

Jan felt a deep, intense need building inside him as the freshly-changed snakeman sucked at his loins, his shaft spurting mouthfuls of preseed for the eager snake with each thrust from the powerful predatory bird buried deep in his tailhole. Arnessen was pounding his prostate like a jackhammer, sending mind-blasting waves of pleasure through the red-tail's body with shocking expertise. Jan felt his talons curl inward and his legs shake as the stronger bird's beak bit down on his own mouthparts, choking off a cry from the hawk before it could begin. Unused to such forceful treatment, Jan simply closed his eyes and focused on the sweet sucking of his cock and the painfully sweet thrusting up his ass; the inevitability impending climax. The sensation was like a fire that was burning out of control, intensifying and feeding on itself, a reaction reaching critical mass...

He came, hard. Seed spurted into the snake's maw with force, again, and again, with each of the savage and continuing thrusts of the bird into his tailhole, the intense pounding barely even faltering. Arnessen's beak broke away; Jan felt and heard himself give a skree of pleasure. He wasn't sure if he momentarily blacked out with the intensity of the moment. It froze in his mind, like a full-sensory snapshot of orgasmic pleasure.

Before the sleek serpent had finished devouring his still-leaking load, though, Arnessen too gave a shrill avian cry of joy, and Jan felt hot seed shooting deep into his bowels from the thick, pulsing maleness locked inside his tailhole.

The larger predator's orgasm seemed larger than Jan expected... it went on and on, filling him to the brim and beyond, wet seed dripping from his tailhole and, so it felt, flowing up into his belly, giving his innards a sinfully-warm tingle of pleasure as it spread.

Exhausted, he all but collapsed onto the table, Arnessen still buried inside him, the snake still idly lapping at his cock with the tines of his forked tongue.

It was at that moment that Richard appeared from the crowd, looking more than a little dishevelled himself. Streaks of white covered the Kingfisher's long, black beak, and a pair of bras hung from his neck like dog-tags.

"Ah... I thought I heard a familiar... voice", Richard said, tittering with amusement. "What happened to having something to go and do? Looks more like an eagle's gone and done *you*..."

Jan grinned, gasping for air. "Oh... an e-eagle, is he? G-golden eagle... I'd guess, t-that was one of the... ah.. ah!"

Jan's words broke into a sharp intake of breath as Arnessen pushed his head against the table and, somehow still *quite* aroused, started to mate him again with slow, sloppy thrusts.

"Is that what I am..." Arnessen whispered huskily, the black tip of his beak mere inches from the red-tail's eyes. Jan felt a clawed hand collect his spread tailfeathers into a bunch and then pull them up, raising his rear roughly into alignment with the table he was now spread across.

Jan gasped, trying to compose himself. "L-look, Rich... I'm a bit... *huff*... tied up... with things at the moment... can you head to the... hazmat store... the medium-sized flask... *groan*... with the red AND green stickers..? Just bring it... *ack!*... here, I'll do the r-rest...." He paused. "...later..."

Beak pressed against the tablecloth, Jan could barely make out what was going on around him. From the corner of his left eye, he saw the taloned feet and raised tail of George, but the rest of the raptor was obscured from view by the burly monitor lizard pounding his ass into pleasured oblivion. A semicircle of birds stood back from the trussed male, beaking and stroking each other's members. With his right eye, Jan could see a ball of three- four?- snakes curled around one another, eagerly licking and sucking hemipenes that seemed to sprout at random from the patterned scales of their entwined bodies.

And the night is still young, he thought, as his hawk-shaft hardened again..!

* * *

**UPDATE** NEWS BULLETIN:

CHARITY BALLS-UP!

By Andrea Bond

A CHARITY fund-raising event hosted by TerraGenetics Laboratories Inc, under the auspices of the infamous Dr. Jan Stephenson, formerly known as 'the Bird-Man of California', ended in a great deal of confusion yesterday after it seems a disgruntled employee released a hallucinogenic drug into the ballroom where the charity dinner was being held.

Dr Stephenson has said that he has personally apologised to everyone present for the occurrence, but pointed out that no harm was done, that the company had trained medical staff on hand to administer treatment, and that the building's security precautions ensured that there was no significant danger to anyone present. Initial rumours that a poison-gas attack had been made by a fundamentalist religious sect, after a group claimed responsibility for the 'deaths' in the early hours of this morning, were dismissed by both company spokespeople and the police as a hoax.

Guests have reported a number of side effects of exposure to the drug, including headache, nausea, confusion, and partial amnesia; several are expected to claim compensation for damages caused. A police spokesman said earlier today that the matter is considered to be closed for now, but that a precise sequence of events may be 'extremely difficult to reconstruct' due to the lack of unaffected witnesses. CCTV footage of the function has not been made available as at the time of writing.

In an interesting twist, the vast majority of the guests at the function had already been physically transfigured into more animalistic shapes, much like Stephenson himself. Despite some fears, however, that the drug exposure may have affected the required legal consent for the ethically questionable process, company officials and the guests have since confirmed that the legal documentation had been completed some days before the party itself. However, due to confidentiality requirements nobody had been permitted to speak of it until the official announcement after the event ended.

This marks the latest in a series of publicity stunts by Dr Stephenson in his pursuit of what his followers regard as 'a vital step forward in transhuman society' and his critics as 'a raging egomaniac's power trip'. Many people have expressed 'concern' or 'extreme concern' about the direction the technology is being taken, according to recent opinion polls; the recent attempt to derail his organisation is unlikely to be the last.

-ANDREA BOND, Reuters