Concequences...(updated)
Consequences...
By: Taiku M Altergrund
"The sun?" bellowed a powerful but warped voice. "It is something I had almost forgotten." Speaking again as he extended his arm into the beam of light. The extension was thicker than a tire and was riddled with horrific growths and mutations. Speaking again upon noticing the woman in staring at him with dread, "So have you come here to mock me? Ridicule me for my faults and crimes? Or perhaps you are here to listen to the tail of a man who was consumed by hated and lost his soul because of it?" He spoke leaning forward and showing his face. It was a horrifying collection of animal parts fused together. Of the 'recognizable' portions were lizards, wolf, insect, and falcon. "How I miss the times when I could be in the sunlight all day, and simply bathe in the warmth along with joy it brings. But those are long gone. So, why are you here?" as he finished his little speech.
"I am here to listen to your story", said a young vixen no more than 18 years of age, "and to help you come to terms with yourself. By chance, what is your name?"
"Oh, do forgive me. I must have forgotten my manners in these 26 years I have been here. My name is Albert, Albert Mortigan. Do for give my presumptuousness, but why would you want to hear my story of shame, inner weakness, hate, and murder?"
"Because," the vixen replied, "my grandmother was one of your victims. My name is Victoria Lindgren. I am here to give you absolution for my grandmother's wrongful death all those years ago."
Albert spoke once more, but with a kind of ambivalent character in his voice, "Now why would anyone as lovely and young as yourself, seek to have any sort of forgiveness for the 'monster' that killed her grandmother?"
"Because, if no one else will forgive you then how can you forgive yourself," And with that Albert's gave a sigh and began his story.
Twenty-Eight years ago Albert was a nerdy young man, about 5' 7" 125 lbs. A male iguana with no physical ability to speak of. He loved to lay in the park reading any book he could find and eating vegetables. He was, however, bullied and tormented for his line of work. Every day on his way to and from work, he would be shouted at, beaten, or even attacked by people not fond of what he worked towards. Every day was sad for him, and the only peace he got was when he was at his bio-genetics lab. Being able to work there made everything outside of it worth all the problems.
A bio-geneticist by trade, his specialty was gene manipulation and treatment, and on more than one occasion, he had been asked to do splicing experiments by the government.
Now Albert was a virtuous person and being so he refused, but recently the government had been getting more and more persistent. So Albert sat down with them and told them, "Look I am never going to do spicing. The consequences, not only to the body, but also the mind are astronomical. The best-case scenario they go feral, worst case they become a walking contagion capable of wiping out all of society. Most likely case, they die." But the government officials did not bother with Albert's warming, all those wolves cared about was their Super Solider program. They told Albert that he had no choice at this point and that, by federal odder, he would begin research or have his site shut down permanently.
For the next few months, Albert worked diligently on ways to inject 'nonfurry' animals with DNA other animals, for the most part, it worked until the process would go berserk. When the genetic changes went berserk it usually entails membranes tumors and sudden burst of the circulatory system causing the victim to bleed from every opening or pore.
Approximately nine months into the testing, however, one subject survived. It was a spider that was infused with falcon DNA. After several tests, Albert discovered that the genes that were required to survive the process. About one week later a deputy arrived. He was incredible 6' 11" and around 225 pounds of hulking flesh. He was a Komodo dragon, with bright red eyes, and hair as rich in color as the gold it appeared to be made of. "So where is the surviving specimen?" he asked in a commanding voice.
Albert replied, "Right this way. I was most intrigued to find that the subject was not dead It appears as though only a select few specimen of each species possess a malleable enough genetic structure to be spliced in the first place. This was one of those specimens."
"Excellent, so do you feel that if we presented you 'furry' specimens meeting these same criteria you would be able to replicate these results?"
"Not quite yet sir. I still l have to see whether or not this was a fluke. That alone is three more months of rese..," but before he could finish his sentence, the Komodo dragon interrupted him.
"Begin testing on 'furries' immediately or your lab will be shut down. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir. But the risks are still astronomical. I only have reference on spider malleability and calculations to translate that have yet to be written up. Any one you submit is at a 97.3% chance to die, minimum. Or if they don't die, they would become feral."
"That is a risk I am authorized to take." As those words left the dragon's lips Albert's face washed out paler than an albino's coat. They arrived at the specimen lab shortly thereafter; to find that the spider was still alive but it has grown 37% more 'muscular' over the course of the week. "This is interesting. The spider has grown physically thicker. This was not in your notes."
"Yes, I was about to tell you that the process when successful maximizes the subjects capabilities to the proportional maximum of all species present. The process, to be exact, selects the best scaling values of a particular and applies it to the subject at the highest possible level of performance."
"Begin testing I have seen all that I need to. If 1 in 1000 survives with their minds intact, it will be worth it." And with that the dragon left the premises.
So the testing began on furries. The first group included a horse, wolf, lion, falcon, bull, and an iguana. All of them were around age 14 because that was the time when the genetics were most mailable. The parents were there to witness the transformation of their sons and daughters into the first batch of super soldiers. Now, each of them in the first group had passed all the genetic tests, and were to be administered an adequate serum. Each serum contained 5 different genetic "enhancements" for the subjects.
"Remember, you volunteered for this, and your parents approved. I pray that all goes well." Albert said as he injected the vascularization drug. This particular drug keept the serum from clogging the veins of the recipients, also cause minor distress on the heart. This made most of the subjects cry out, except one.
The wolf said, "You know I never though I would do anything great with my life."
Albert replied, "What is your name?"
"It is Gregory, I was named after my grand father who died in WW2"
Speaking with a rather unnerved tone, "Well Gregory, I hope that all goes well. You are the first group of furries to get any form of the serum. There is a strong chance that you might...well, die."
"I am well aware of the risks. Continuing, "I am also aware that if I don't die I may become something not human."
The horse who had not said a single word shouted, "If this could happen, why are you even administering this fucking shit to us?!"
Albert, in an unusually harsh voice, responded, "You should have read the paperwork then. As I recall, yours was the first in to the testing pool. So you would do well to keep your mouth shut, especially with someone as brave as Gregory who came in knowing what may happen."
With that said, everyone in the room grew eerily quiet as each subject was injected with their specific serums. The horse was first to show signs of change. She, unfortunately, devolved into a screaming horror show as her flesh swelled, and her pores bleed. She died within 3 minutes of injection.
Next to start changing was the Iguana, he lasted an extraordinarily long time. Reaching the final stages though tumorous growths began forming on his throat, cutting off his ability to breathe. He suffocated to death within 6 minutes. Third was the Falcon who died instantly of a ruptured heart. The reaming subjects including Gregory began to show signs of change. The Lion and the bull died swiftly in a similar manner to the horse, but Gregory survived.
Gregory's transformation was a grotesque sight, involving his skin mutating into a more of an exoskeleton, muscle swelling, bones cracking. This was all coupled with such pain that Gregory screamed so loud that the glass objects in the room cracked. When the process had finally finished running it's course, Gregory's mind had shattered. The ruined remains of his mind had devolved into something much less then human, something feral and purely animalistic in nature. He lashed about trying to kill several people. He was quarantined, and 3 days latter put down and incinerated.
Outrage gripped the parents of the teens who had died, but most distraught were Gregory's parents. They had to see their son suffer unimaginable pain, and turn feral because of it. Morning the death, they could not even have a funeral because of the nature of their sons ashes. This took a substantial toll on Albert, and he began to question his choices. Never the less, he pressed on hoping that this would not happen again.
Six weeks down the road, Albert had subjected 200 applicants to the program, and only 12 had survived. All of the survivors turned into something purely animalistic, and were dealt withima manner similar to Gregory's cenario.
With each batch of patients, Albert's already deteriorating
mind crumbled more and more. He began contemplating suicide by self administration because of the irreversible nature of it. Exhausted and depressed over the event, Albert began missing sleep to make the program more consistent for the applicants because he loved his lab so much, and with this final rush to perfect the process, Albert's final shreds of sanity vanished. He had mentally devolved into a mindless soldier, the thing he had sworn to never become.
On the last day, he was a free furry, he had a vial filled with 63 different genes sets. All of which were requested by the Komodo dragon who had visited the previous day. They were to be given to his son, who had matched the compatibility test thoroughly. Before Albert was to administer the serum in to the boy, a thought crossed his mind, "All of the simplest of serums killed in a few minutes, perhaps this one will kill me in moments." Three doors away, he thought about ending it more because he had become that which he hated most, a military pawn. Two doors left, and he got ready to inject himself because with him dead, the research died too. The final door to the chamber, the moment of truth, and with the sound of a hissing injector Albert injected himself with the serum.
The serum he had injected himself with contained ant, falcon, Komodo dragon, Black Mamba, Blood Hound, Shark, Horse, and many more samples of DNA. Albert could only feel the raw power coursing through him. It felt so right, intense, fiery, primal. He began to sweat as his body temperature rose and his blood pressure sky rocketed. His clothes began to tear as he grew tall and taller. His muscles began to develop slowly at first, but began growing faster and faster. Albert was finally tall, standing at six feet eight inches. Albert's biceps had grown to 26 inches by now. His underpants were barely containing his massive waste and unmentionables. His eyes and vision were sharpening, becoming clearer, better, and stronger. Heart racing, chest swelling, abdominal shredding. Every part of him was mutating and growing larger, stronger, more efficient, and best of all unbreakable. His scales became hard as rocks, and his back grew magnificent wings the likes of which had never been seen. The nurses rushed out when they heard the commotion only to see this monstrous change occurring. Many of them were sickened and began to vomit.
They attempted to suppress Albert, but to no avail. He had grown extremely quickly and was still growing. All Albert could think about was how much power he had. Seven feet tall, and muscles becoming denser and more defined by the second. He stormed out of the facility and into the town. By the time he reached town square, the development had finally halted. He stood a towering 8 feet 7 inches tall, and every muscle of his body was surging forward with each motion. They were so defined and shredded, it made shredded cheese look complete, and so vascular you would swear he had plumbing for veins. Albert paused briefly and flexed as hard as possible. And with each flex he felt his body become stronger and stronger, as if reacting to his lust for power. His skin became a horrifying patchwork of exoskeleton, leather, and fur covered patches. All of which were blended together in ways that would make even the strongest of people ill. His face, warped and distorted, showed signs of each animal in ways that seemed alien. He had become a hideous monstrosity the likes of which no one had ever seen, but but the sheer extent of his monstrous visage was lost upon Albert. Now, the only thing running through his mind was getting his revenge on those who had tormented him.
His rampage of vengeance was not as unintelligent as irrational and savage murder. It was focused, and while over a dozen people did die, only one innocent was killed. One Tilda Olivia Lindgren was killed by the falling debris. She was the last to die that day. Seeing her face horrified and sickened was enough to overcome Albert's wrath. He dropped to his kneed and surrendered but of all the officials who had seen this happen only one wanted him alive. That man was the head of the federal Super Solider Program. "You will be detained for the rest of your unnatural life in a facility of my choosing? Death will not come to until you die of old age. We now see why this program must be scrapped. We regret that this happened to you."
"There," Albert said to Victoria, his story now finished. "That is how I became this monstrosity. Your grandmother died in the debris that fell from a building that I crushed with my bare hands. Ever since that day I have wallowed in the woes of my sins, praying for forgiveness from for what I had done someone like you."
"You know the only reason you are still here is because you got sentenced to thirteen consecutive life terms in jail. The fact of the matter is, is that three years after the incident the officials who hired you were murdered by the families who lost sons and daughters to your science. At the courts ruled that you were free to go when you standard legal time was up." Victoria said. Continuing, "I forgave you when I heard the reasons behind it. But you must stay here for your safety. There are still people who seek you dead." And with that she left.
"Sun? Perhaps one day when I am 654 years old I will get to breath the fresh air again. But I guess that is a long ways way. "And with that Albert in the sliver of light that came into his cell. [And rested peacefully for the first time in 28 years. But he knew he was not yet forgiven. That in the years to come, others would come, and to ridicule him. So he waits to this day waits for the time when he will be forgiven by those who he had wronged; hoping that his repentance and mistakes would not be repeated.
THE END