Kerry glared at him, growling a bit, and then gestured at his whole body, as a way of demanding an explanation, and the doctor sighed. “Yes, I was getting to that. It’s…a long story, however, so it would be best for us to proceed with your treatment in the meantime. X-9, please restrain the patient, while I prepare to administer Serum B.”
Kerry let out a growl as the robot approached him, slashing at its prehensile appendages with his now clawlike nails, but the robot shrugged off his attacks and wrapped him up, hauling his immobilized body off the ground and laying him back on the exam table, while Dr. Sondew prepared a syringe.
“Serum A, which you’ve already been administered, is more of a…transitional form, you might say.” the doctor said, while Kerry struggled, “X-9, perhaps a minor sedative?”
“Yes doctor,” X-9 said, and Kerry felt a needle slide into his neck, his body immediately going numb and relaxed, though he was still acutely aware of his surroundings.
“Thank you, that’s much easier,” Dr. Sondew said, shaved a small portion of Kerry’s arm, and began searching for a vein. “As I was saying, the first serum merely…shall we say, scrambles the recipient’s genome. The results are a bit difficult to predict, but what has happened is that the building blocks of your body have been broken apart and jumbled up with a multitude of others–the one which arose in you was canine, but other subjects display different results. For me, I looked like a proper minotaur, when they caught me and forced me to take it.” He slid the needle into the vein, and despite Kerry’s whines, he shot the second serum into his bloodstream. “Now this second serum–now that we have your standard form broken up, we can begin tailoring your body to particular specifications. They weren’t quite at that point with me–they were still trying to figure out what was going on, when things went south.”
Kerry’s arm felt like it was on fire again, and it was spreading to the rest of his body. He wanted to vomit, but there was nothing in his stomach. He growled and tried to lash out, but the sedative reduced his protests to meek grumbles.
“I was told we’d be doing good work, curing disease, unlocking the secrets of our species. Instead, I found a laboratory full of…victims. Illegal human trials, some of them so…twisted, and it was obvious the entire goal was aimed not at medical application, but new, disturbing forms of warfare. I tried to leak it to the press, and so they made me one of their subjects. Still, it was only a matter of time before things went awry, and I was ready, when it did. The lab had a failsafe, a pathogen released into the air, which killed everyone indiscriminately–I only survived barely, but no one else did. I hid down here in the basement labs, refining their research in the meantime on myself, and now they’re back to pick up where they left off, and I can’t let them do that. I realize…I’m doing to you exactly what they did to me, but I’ve already compromised myself. This is more important than me or you. This company has to be stopped, and you’re going to help me do it.”
The heat had spread further now, but was still most intense in the arm which had been injected. Kerry was able to lift his head and he could see that the muscles in his arm were spasming, but he couldn’t feel them do so through the sedative in his system. Already his arm was thicker and stronger than his other one, the burning crossing into his chest, running up the side of his neck to his face, as well as down his torso towards his belly, groin and legs.
“I’d feel more sorry for you, to be honest, but you’re working for them too. You know what you clean up, I know you’ve seen things that don’t seem right, but you’re just doing your job, right?” Doctor Sondew snorted, “Fucking banal. No–better you help me than help them. Not like it will matter much to you anyway, soon enough. I don’t need you feeling mercy, or doubt, so we’re going to be getting rid of most of those higher order mental functions. By the end of this serum, you won’t have ego left–just blind obedience to me. You’ll do whatever I command, and we’re going to get revenge on those fucks together–they’re never going to even see it coming.”
The serum had reached his face, and was beginning to penetrate his skull. Kerry renewed his struggle as best he could, as weakly as he could, but the robot’s arms held him too tight, he was too weak. His first arm was changing more now, especially around his hand, looking less and less like a paw and more like a hand, though the skin was leathery and tough–more like a gorilla’s. At the same time, his chest was filling out, his fur growing longer and shaggy, even as he packed on pounds and pounds of muscle and fat, nearly screaming as the bones of his spine thickened and grew, stretching his body to a taller height. His body had been missing a tail, but what burst out above his ass was by no means canine–it was thick, covered with scale and spikes, corded with muscle. It wormed it’s way out from beneath him as his awareness started to fade, moment by moment.
“You’re going to be my vengeance. You are going to put those monsters in their rightful place, and make sure that they never hurt anyone ever again.”
His snout was pushing out further, teeth longer and sharper, but retained its basic shape–now the face of a true wolf, shaggy grey fur covering his jaw, cheeks and head, eyes twitching until they turned yellow, with black pupils, the humanity fading from them as the serum began shutting down portions of Kerry’s mind. He could hear the doctor continue speaking, but suddenly he couldn’t understand anything that he was saying. He tried to hold onto himself, but it wasn’t long before the beast was all that remained. Kerry was gone–and he would never be coming back.
Bracken's Corner 