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Missing Link

We share nearly ninety percent of our DNA with feral animals and yet there is so much different about us. We anthros have built cities, towering buildings, advanced technology and even gone to the moon. We have advanced intellectually with large brains and have conquered our small planet. Though we have accomplished all of this, we are not perfect.

Ferals have their own advantages. They are often faster, stronger and more capable individuals than anthros.

Take an anthropomorphic tiger. He is stronger and swifter when compared to his fellow citizen, and would be able to take on just about any other bipedal person out there, but pit him against the feral tiger and he would stand no chance. None of us would stand a chance against our feral cousins in a fair fight. Sure we can use our guns and gizmos to skew the playing field, but what if we didn't need to.

Only ten percent of our DNA separates us from what we are today from our pet Fido and Max who likes to curl around our ankles or lounge at the foot of our bed. There is potential in that ten percent to unlock abilities that would make us all stronger.

My name is Doctor Raphael Zaheer and I have devoted my entire life to bridging that ten percent gap between us and them. I have dreamed of it since I was a child and my father took me to the zoo one day and I truly witnessed the strength that ferals had, a strength that I believe we anthros can have as well.

I dove into the sciences, looking for how I could tap into that power, that potential and share it with the world.

People called me insane, out of my mind and crazy to even try what I was doing. The faithful shunned me for trying to be God and undo what He had done. The scientific scoffed at me, saying it was impossible, a fool's errand that would tear me down. I lost friends to this obsession and after college, no one would fund me. It looked like it was over before it began.

That was when I was contacted by Holiday Labs. I knew them, they were one of the largest companies in the United States. They had their fingers in everything from technology to pharmaceuticals and even the sex industry. They were a growing company that I looked up to, they didn't stop because people said that what they wanted was impossible. I had heard that they had even found a way to induce a sex change without surgery. It was revolutionary and I had submitted a grant request to them.

It was nearly a year after I had sent my grant request that I got a reply. I thought that they had simply thrown out my essay that I had submitted about how I believed that I could take qualities that ferals had and splice them into us anthros, giving us the better eyesight, hearing, everything that they had which we didn't.

I was contacted by a representative of the company and we set up a date for me to meet with them. I almost immediately got an email with tickets and a hotel reservation. They were flying me out, all expenses paid.

I stopped all other work to make time. At the time I was working for the university I went to. Many thought that my work was pointless, but I was talented, so I did projects for them. I put in a leave request and had it approved even though I was in the middle of a project involving using stem cells to repair brain damage. It was important work, but I felt this was more important.

I could barely contain my excitement when I landed that warm summer day in New York. They had a driver pick me up and drop me off at the hotel which I had read was one of the best in the city. The driver gave me a card for me to use for food and even other luxuries if I so chose to do so, everything was covered. Holiday Labs sure knew how to make someone feel welcomed.

I didn't spend too much money. I ordered a nice lobster dinner with clam and tuna with a glass of wine. What can I say, I'm a fan of seafood, happens when you grow up in Massachusetts your entire early life with a family of otters, even though I was their adopted son and wasn't an otter. I was a dog, can't say what species, though I was a mutt that was tossed away at an early age by parents who for some reason wanted something else. That's not what this story is about, though I grew up just fine.

The night was restless. I tossed and turned in my luxurious memory foam mattress with excellent lumbar support. When morning came, I skipped breakfast and spent an hour in front of a mirror retying my tie. This was the most important day of my life, it would make our break my lifelong obsession, I needed to look perfect.

I wore a gray suit to compliment my rather bland grayish-brown fur. The fabric blended nicely with my coat. Any other color just became and eye sore, though I sported a red tie that my adoptive father gave me for good luck before I left for college. He used to wear that tie everywhere he went that was important and claimed that it was the reason why he was now the proud owner of a small, but successful fishing company.

Now you're probably wondering why I couldn't have just asked my family for money. They would have given it to me, but I was a proud SOB and wanted to do this myself and not burden my family with something that I admitted, may not work. It was going to work, though I had spent so much time and effort to just get here for it to fail.

The driver came by and picked me up, taking me straight to Holiday Labs where I was then escorted in by a cheery rabbit who took my briefcase for me. I went up to the tenth floor and was told to wait for Mr. Fosman who would be interviewing me about my grant request.

I waited less than ten minutes when the bear lumbered out of the elevator. He was an older bear with hints of gray at the tips of his fur around his ears and muzzle, but still imposing like all bears. I couldn't help but think how he would fare against a feral bear out in the wilds.

A feral bear would already have a weight advantage. Anthros, regardless of species, rarely exceeded three hundred pounds. Mr. Fosman was probably right around that, but a feral grizzly could reach six hundred pounds of pure muscle. That alone would give the bear the fight.

"So glad you could come at such short notice, Dr. Zaheer." His voice was rough, like a mountain man who had been smoking a few years and then quit, but not before a little damage had been done. He shook my small hands, enveloping them in a powerful two-handed shake.

"No, thank you for flying me out. The plane, the hotel, everything, it was all very generous." I replied back, genuinely grateful for all that had been done so far.

"If we're going to be funding you, then all of that will be chump change." Mr. Fosman said with a laugh. "And do please call me George."

"Alright... George." It seemed strange to be on a first name basis, but if that was what he preferred. "If we're going to be like that, then call me Raphael or Ron for short."

"Ron, it is." George nodded. "Let's go into my office."

I was led into a large office that was decorated more like a study than an office. There were bookshelves lining that walls where ever there wasn't a window which gave a view of the cityscape. There was a coffee pot and a popcorn machine along with a large flat screen television and game systems. This man was not only here to work, but relax.

"Would you like something to drink?" George pulled two glasses out from under his desk when he sat down in a sturdy wooden chair. "Doesn't have to be alcoholic. I have coffee, soda, juice, whatever."

"Water is good." I said, not wanting to take advantage of his hospitality.

"Suit yourself." He pulled out a water bottle and filled one of the glasses. He handed that to me and got himself a glass of orange juice. "How are you liking the city?" He asked and gazed out the window at the city that never slept.

"This is the first time I've been here." I said and looked out. The city seemed impossibly large, I couldn't see the edges of it. "But, it is impressive from what I've seen so far."

"It is." He agreed. "I've only lived here a few years. I was originally in Seattle, at the offices there before I was promoted to Head of Research. That brings me to why you're here. Tell me about your work." He turned to me, giving me his undivided attention. I cleared my throat and took a sip of water.

I gave him the whole spiel. Everything from when I was a child at the zoo to now. I talked about how close relation with animals and how I believed that I could incorporate desirable characteristics into the anthro population.

George listened to every word and asked questions.

"Our close genetic relation with ferals has always been known." George said and rolled his wrist, loosening up the joint, but it has also been known, or rather claimed, that we are incompatible, that the ten percent is too large of a gap to cross. How do you plan on proving decades of belief wrong?"

It was a strong, but legitimate question. Holiday Labs needed to know that I had my bases covered.

"At some point in the past, we, anthros and ferals, shared a common ancestor. At some point, there was no anthro and ferals, just some missing link where there was no difference." I said with confidence. I gripped the arms of the chair that I was sitting in to keep myself from launching up in passion. "I think that if I can trace back our lineage, I can find where there was a split, where the DNA began to differentiate and from there, work to the present. It's only an idea at the moment, but with your funding, I can make it a reality."

George nodded. "I can see that you are very passionate about this, but I do not see it."

My heart sunk and I slumped into the chair. "But... I"

He held up a clawed finger. "You are a bright individual with a big dream, but big dreams cover up reality and I don't see this as being viable."

It was the same thing all over again. Another person that thought that it was impossible, another person that didn't see what I saw.

I didn't reply. I set the glass on the table and pushed it in a little, defeated.

"Now don't look so glum." George said with some spirit. "It didn't mean you aren't being funded."

I looked up confused. "What do you mean?" I asked.

The bear sighed. "While I may think that this isn't possible, others do." He stood up and walked over to a framed picture on the wall. It was that of a lion. "I may be the head of this department, but even I answer to someone and that someone likes your idea and ambition. He wants this funded."

"Does that mean?"

"Yes." He nodded and looked at the picture with admiration. "You're grant is being approved. It was actually approved months ago, but other projects were taking up lab space here." He looked at me. "However, there is one condition for this."

"I'll do anything." I instantly said.

"You will be provided all necessary work space, equipment, and personnel for your work, but in return, anything you discover will belong to Holiday Labs."

It was a steep set of conditions, but not entirely unforeseen. A company like Holiday Labs had opponents and they wouldn't want me to run off with my research and sell it off.

"Will I still be credited?" I asked.

"Of course." George nodded. "We aren't here to rip you off. Your name will be any all papers and associated with any work you do. We won't throw you in a cell and toss the key." He assured me and that was the assurance I needed. I just wanted my name on the research, I needed to prove the naysayers wrong.

A contract was brought up. It was short, but in-depth, but everything was there. I would be credited with everything and would hand over the research at the end. I was also being paid as well. This was a temporary employment contract and when I told George about my other obligations to the university, he told me that it would all be taken care of. Three signatures and twenty-two initials later, I was now an employee of Holiday Labs.

Work began the next week. I was going to stay in the hotel, which wasn't a concern, my room was large and I even had some of my stuff shipped from home. I had my parents and siblings, those that could take time, flown over and spent a few days with them.

They were so excited to see me going places. The driver who had picked me up at the airport and had driven me to Holiday Labs was more than happy to give us all a tour of the city. It was great, we ate at an expensive seafood restaurant, walked the shore, shopped downtown where I bought everyone something, and of course, the zoo where I admired the animals there.

"Almost." I promised myself. "Almost."

Holiday Labs was impressive. They had an entire underground research facility that was filled with the most advanced equipment I had ever seen. Not even the university had anything like the stuff I saw there.

They had microscopes that could look at atoms, I just needed to look at DNA. They did have DNA sequencers which were important. Everything I needed was there. They gave me a staff of intelligent people, some older, some younger than I, all eager to work.

The first thing I needed was DNA samples. Holiday Labs was on top of that as well. They received fresh DNA samples from the zoo, taken humanely, of course, gum scrapings, hair follicles, easy to obtain without harm. I had some animals from the pound brought in as well. I had them kept in the lab. They were treated, not as tools, but as animals. The personnel were more than happy to take care of them. A schedule was even set up for whose turn it was to walk the dogs or play with the cats.

Fossil samples of our ancestors were also brought in, both anthro, and feral. Everything was then sequenced and the work began to code everything and record it all.

There was so much I learned during the first few weeks. I could see the similarities between anthros and ferals immediately and then the differences.

We all worked for hours and hours, day after day tracing back our lineage until we couldn't go back farther when the DNA was just too degraded in the fossil samples to work with.

When I reached that point, I began the meticulous process of trying to splice the DNA together. It wasn't easy. I tried splicing with the fossil DNA first, then the DNA of the ferals from the pound and the zoo.

There was a lot of struggle. DNA that looked compatible tore itself apart, refusing to incorporate itself into new strands. It was a guessing game and the game was a jig saw puzzle where each piece looked the same, but small differences stopped it from fitting where I wanted it to.

It was nearly four months later when the first breakthrough was made. I was messing around with the part of a dog's DNA which gave it a superior sense of smell when one of my lab assistants came in. His, or her name was Mary or Mark, depending on the day.

I say this because he was a regular user of one of Holiday Lab's products, the sex changing pill. One day he or she would be a strong and fit male buck, the next he would be a feminine doe. Sometimes it was hard to tell because he never really had breasts.

"Is it Mary or Mark this time." I asked as I carefully lined up the strands of DNA. I was planning on using a type of synthetic glue to hold the pieces together and then use chemicals to try and trick the cell the DNA was in to split.

"Mark." He replied and sat down on the stool next to me and peered at the petri dish that was filled with saline and some tissue samples. "Is it going to work this time?"

"I hope so." I said.

Mark was a talented man... Woman, thing... Deer. He had a masters in biology and was working on his doctorate and was going to use some of my research in his thesis. He was also becoming one of my closer friends in the lab.

I had a hard time making friends since I was often absorbed in my work and couldn't be bothered with making conversation, but that didn't drive Mark off. He seemed very interested in the work we were doing and we often spent hours just talking about different ways to tackle the dilemmas we were dealing with.

I heard the rattle of a pill bottle. "Did you really bring those in here." I groaned, not at the pills, but when the cell began to die. It was rejecting the new DNA, just like all the other samples.

"Of course." He shook the orange bottle with the small pills in it. "This stuff is great. I can be a male or a female, whenever I want."

"Is that healthy?" Asked and sat up straight, popping my back. "Changing your body like that so much."

"It's fine." I don't know if he was lying.

He opened the bottle. "I'll show you."

"Do you need to do that here?" I watched as he shook out a pill into his hand.

"No, but..." He smiled and popped it into his mouth and then swallowing.

He set the pill bottle down next to the microscope and leaned back against the counter.

"How long does it take?" I asked. I knew about the product and had meant to look into it to figure out how it worked, but work always got in the way. Now was the perfect time to get some answers.

"Few minutes." He said and checked his nails. "Hmm, shouldn't have clipped them, I was thinking of getting them painted later."

"Does it hurt?"

"A little. It is forcibly changing my anatomy, a little discomfort is expected."

I sighed. "Maybe I should get in contact with the creator, he might have an idea of how I can splice this DNA."

"Maybe." Mark, soon to be Mary said and shrugged which turned into a shudder. He clutched his crotch and gave a moan. He keeled over and held up a hand to me when I tried to help. "Remember... Side effects may include, but are not limited to mild discomfort." He gave me a smile and then hunched over more, violently twisting in his seat.

His elbow hit his pill bottle scattering the remaining pills across the counter top. He lurched a few more times and I could see him moving under his clothes.

It went on for another thirty seconds before she got up. His features were sleeker and more defined now. It was slight, though at a distance, she would look like a male since the changes weren't very strong, other than the lack of male genitalia now.

"See." Mary's voice was higher and softer. "All done, not that long." She looked at the scattered pills. "Oops." She giggled.

We started picking up the pills. I was ready to call it a day when I looked at my petri dish, ready to toss out the sample, but there was a pill in it. I don't know what compelled me to look into the microscope and when I did...

"Homo-sapiens." Doctor Clyde said to me.

"Homo what?" I asked.

I had made the appointment with the creator of the sex change pill as soon as I saw inside the microscope. There were small things, I don't know what it was, but they looked like little crystals with legs.

"Homo-sapiens." The bright green lizard said. "They were a type of bipedal animal that went extinct long ago."

We were in his office. Luckily he worked in the same building as me so I was able to meet with him the very next day.

"They went extinct due to a small organism called a virus."

"I know what a virus is." I said. "But, why do you have a virus in your pills."

"Do you know how a virus works?" He asked me from across his desk. "A virus attaches to a cell and hijacks it, forcing it to create more and more of itself all by manipulating the DNA of the host. Simply put. I'm actually surprised it took you this long to come to me.

He was an unpleasant man to talk to. He believed himself the pinnacle of all scientists. Though I didn't like the way he talked down to me, he did just give me the answer I was looking for.

Doctor Clyde was more than happy to lend me his research and aide, saying that it made him feel warm and fuzzy to help those less fortunate. I resisted the urge to punch him hard enough for him to drop his tail.

He supplied me with the virus, a type of virus that had wiped out the Homo-sapiens long ago but was relatively harmless to us. It could inject cells with its genetic instructions, but that was as far as it got, there was no cell death. With a little bit of tinkering, Clyde got it so that the virus could affect the cell just enough that it changed, but didn't die. I don't know the specifics, but it was what I needed.

A few weeks later and I had my first working set of viruses that could take feral DNA and integrate it with anthro DNA. I slowly worked to increase the number of changes I could make until I had successfully made a virus that could make someone see better, smell better and hear better. That was just for canines since interspecies was something I wasn't going to tackle for a long while.

Before moving on to other species, this needed to be tested and since this was my dream, I wanted to test it on myself.

Everyone that had worked with me gathered around. I held the first pill, swarming with billions of viruses that would introduce the improvements to myself.

I held it in my paw. I was a little shaky, this was the first test that wasn't on a gum scraping and the tests showed that everything should be okay.

"Come on." Mary said excitedly. Everyone else gave me words of encouragements.

"If this works." I said. "This will be the start of something revolutionary." I popped the pill and swallowed.

Now it was time to wait.

And wait.

I looked at my watch. It had been twelve minutes.

"How do you feel." One of the lab assistants asked.

"Normal."I sighed.

"Maybe it's just a bad pill, or maybe it just takes time.." Mary said and the mood of the room turned down.

"We'll take a look at it tomorrow." I dismissed everyone. I could have worked on it more today, but the hype had taken all my energy. I just wanted to get some sleep. I would feel better tomorrow, this hadn't been the first failure since we had started working, it wouldn't be the last either.

I decided to walk home. It wasn't that late and I wanted to have some time to think since the driver loved to talk.

The streets were busy as always, but I tuned them out, listening to the birds above the roar of the car engines. Normally you wouldn't be able to hear any birds with the traffic, but I did hear them, but that fact didn't click with me at the time.

I ordered some clam chowder from the room service and got into some comfortable and loose clothes to relax in. The clam chowder arrived and I ate it. By the time I was done, I was feeling better. Tomorrow was a new day to continue pushing forward. So much progress was being made and plus, in the world of science, failure was always and option since it pushed us to find what was wrong and fix it.

I retired early that night feeling a little light headed.

The knock at the door woke me up. I didn't want to get up, I didn't feel right. My head was swimming and it felt so warm and nice under the covered.

"Doctor?" It was Mary. "Umm, I don't want to intrude, but are you alright? It's already noon."

Was it?

"We're a little worried at the lab, so they sent me to check up on you. I have the spare key you keep in your lab, so I'm coming in." I head the sliding of the key and the mechanical sliding of the lock.

"Doctor?" She called out as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. "Are you sleeping."

"I was." That was what I meant to say, but the sound that came from my mouth jolted me out of bed. I meant the sit up, but I couldn't do that for some reason, my body felt weird and I flailed.

I got up eventually and looked at Mary who was wide eyed as if she was caught in headlights. "D-D-D"

"Spit it out." Again, that was what I meant to say, but instead, I barked, scaring both of us.

"What are you doing here." She composed herself and set her hands on her hips. "Have you seen Doctor Zaheer."

"I am him." Again a bark. I looked down and saw my paws, not hands, but paws. I looked down more and myself. I- was feral.

"Don't get snappy with me." Mary said and turned away. "I wonder where the doctor went." She walked away and began to look around for me, even though I was right there.

I tried to stand up but fell over. I couldn't keep my balance so I was forced to walk on all fours. It was strange but felt more natural than standing on two legs.

I walked over to Mary and pawed at her leg.

"You hungry, boy?" She asked, cooing at me and patted me on the head and then walked off again. I wasn't going to get her to understand like this.

I trotted over to the desk where there was a notepad and a pen that I used to jot down ideas before going to sleep.

"You're not supposed to be there." Mary said and started to walk over.

I took the pen in my mouth and began to write and best as I could.

"Get down from there." Mary commanded, but I didn't listen.

It was messy, but I managed to write, 'It's me' before Mary took the pad from me and looked at it. She looked at the pad then me, the pad and then me one more time.

"Doctor?"

I did my best to nod my head.

She covered her mouth. "Oh my god. The pill."

Mary called the lab and told them I was sick. I guess she understood that I wouldn't want this to get out.

She sat on a chair while I sat on my back haunches and listened to her go through everything. I was listening at first, but something caught my nose. It was a sweet alluring smell. It was the smell of heat. I shouldn't have been attracted to Mary, she was a doe, I was a dog, but the female dogs back at the lab, the ones from the pound, one was almost always in heat and today was Mary's turn to take care of them, she must have gotten some of the scents on her.

I tried to not succumb to these sudden urges. I had never had these urges before. As an anthro, I could smell this scent on ferals, but there was no attraction, but now that I was trapped in a feral body with feral urges...

"Maybe I can get the others and reverse your work, have the virus introduce anthro qualities back into you." Mary was brainstorming when I shoved my muzzle in between her legs. I didn't want to, but I couldn't control myself.

"Hey now." Mary stood up and swatted the side of my muzzle. "That's off limits." There was a change in scent, her scent. I could smell all of these things now, it was so defined in its smell, the smell of... Arousal? I don't know, but it made me want more. I couldn't control anything.

I walked forward and gave a whimper and a quick, hushed bark.

"Keep it down." She shushed. "Animals aren't supposed to be in this building." She wasn't mad at me, she seemed more shocked. The inside of her large ears turned pink.

The sex change drug wasn't marketed towards those who wanted to live a new life as the other sex, no it was marketed as a sex toy, something for the kinky and Mary was a regular user.

I pushed forward, giving a slight growl and the doe and shoved my nose into her crotch again where I got a good smell of her female aroma. It wasn't canine, but that first whiff of a bitch's heat had overwritten my brain which was now thinking that any scent was an invitation.

She pushed my head away with a grin. "Doctor. When did you become so forward." She bit her lower lip and I nuzzled at her lip between her legs.

She gave a soft moan and her hands went down and undid the button of her jeans. I bit the jean, careful not to bite her and pulled down her pants to reveal her underwear which was soaking through.

"What are you waiting for." He waggled her hips and I began to lap at her thin wet clothes, taking in her sweet juices.

Mary was panting and had to sit on the edge of her bed as I used my tongue to slip under her panties to tease and taste her soft folds.

Her hands rubbed my head, massaging my ears. No wonder why dogs loved to be scratched there, it felt so good and I rewarded her with more licking.

I tore away her panties, to show her pink lips, tight and wet with my saliva and her juice.

I pushed my nose right against it and Mary bleated and fell back onto her bad. My nose became covered in wetness, surrounding me in a constant haze of the smell of sex. My thinking was gone, I was a servant to more primal desires to mate.

I got an inch of my muzzle into her, shoving my tongue as far into her as I could, tasting every inch of her insides and feeding my hunger that had erupted.

I slid my muzzle out of her when the pressure at my loins could no longer be ignored.

Mary got up and saw the pink tip poking out of my shaft. "I know what you want." She turned around and got on her knees with her elbows propped up on the bed. "Come and get it."

Her small tail whipped up, showing me her white rear end and her small pucker that sat right above her swollen folds, enticing me.

I hopped up, wrapping my forearms around her waist and pulling me hard against her read.

"Mmmm." She moaned when my tip slid into her for a moment. "Yes."

"I bucked my hips, pushing myself against her folds which easily and eagerly parted for me, wrapping my length in a warm embrace as she tightened her grip around me.

I had never been that sexually active. I was always focused on work, and now all of that pent up sexual energy was finally being released.

Mary sucked in a breath as I did my best to hilt her as fast as I could, pushing my knot into her immediately and then pulling it out, making her scream into the blankets in ecstasy.

I licked the back of her neck. For a feral, I was large, none of my mass had magically disappeared, I was a one hundred and eighty-pound mutt pounding a one hundred and fifty-pound doe.

I felt the hardness at my tip, her cervix, the guard to her womb, something I wanted access to. I shoved my knot hard into her again, pushing past it, pressing my hips as tightly against Mary's rear as I could, weakening her cervix to let me enter.

I pulled back out, knot and all and tried again and again. Each time, I could feel the resistance weakening and my knot growing until one last time, I pushed in and Her cervix gave way, letting me in even deeper before while my know grew too large to pull back out.

Mary screamed into the blanket again as she orgasmed. Her walls shifted and quivered around my erections, massaging it and forcing me over the edge. I jerked and tugged at the knot as I emptied my balls right into her womb, relishing the thought that I was filling her with my seed. I wanted to fill every womb with my seed. I felt the warmth of my cum back flowing, looking for somewhere to go out, but the exit back out was blocked by the massive knot shoved deep into the doe. It filled her up and up for the half and hour it took for the knot to deflate.

Mary was smart enough to pile some covers beneath us so when I pulled out, all of my spunk fell onto it to let some horrified cleaning lady take care of it.

Her hole was gaping and leaking a stream of white, milky fluid which I tenderly licked up.

She was a deer, I was a dog. There shouldn't have been compatibility, nothing should have happened, but I didn't think about just how good the virus was at its job at weaving DNA, making the previously impossible, possible.

We eventually found a way to reverse the effects and Holiday Labs marketed it as another sex toy. I didn't mind, I continued to work on trying to find a way to just transfer select traits from ferals to anthros and at the end of each day, I would go home to a loving partner who may or may not be a female or even an anthro since Mark/Mary had a new kink and sometimes, I might satisfy that kink before picking up the twins from day care.