Lab Accident
A request from Xids on FA who wanted a story to go with a picture he was working on at the time about a lab assistant who accidentally gets caught up in the formula he's working on a bit too much.
Hal Love had been a lab assistant for a couple of decades but he had never had a problem with that. What he had a problem with was his patience. If something didn't get done immediately, he found a way to do it himself. That appeared to be the case now, too; Hal was working with a new formula to discover whether or not it did what it had been intended to do, which was to say that he was trying a formula that could turn people into other creatures. His superior, Dr. Amory always believed it was possible, and this time he was sure he finally had done it.
Hal had been working to make the serum for Dr. Amory in the lab, but as usual the machines were not cutting it. They were outdated and slow; even Hal could do better work than these things. He hurried past the incubating machine, nearly tripping over one of the cords that was strewn on the floor and plugged into the wall. Hal was sure that things would work out if he could finish the tests within the next hour. He was sort of tired, but he didn't care. Work had to be done, it would be done, and he and Dr. Amory would be accepting the Nobel Prize next year for their discovery.
Hal picked up the large vial of aqua-marine liquid and carefully began to head back to the lab's workstation to analyze another test. He didn't even notice the cords this time around and he tripped over himself as his shoe got tangled up in the mess of cords, spilling the vial of liquid over himself, luckily protected by the layers of clothing that he had to wear in case of such an incident. He picked himself up and tried dusting himself off. He cursed himself for his stupidity and clumsiness.
However, almost immediately as soon as he got up from the floor, Hal noticed a burning feeling over his torso, a fiery sensation that spread quickly through his entire body. He knew exactly what was going on, and he didn't like it. That serum wasn't supposed to go through his clothes, but somehow it had soaked through to his skin and was having an adverse reaction. If it was the reaction he was thinking, they wouldn't be having a problem winning that Nobel Prize. He started itching from the places that burned the most, mostly on his chest. He started to panic for a minute as he felt a uncomfortable itching join the burning sensation.
Hal jumped to his feet having to ditch the shoes he was wearing. If the itching was what he thought it was (and indeed, thick brown fur was growing all over him underneath the clothes he was wearing), he didn't have much time to find that antidote. Where was it? Did Dr. Amory keep it in a secret safe away from his bumbling assistant? He wasn't sure. He had to find it though. He ran to the workstation thinking it would be there. It wasn't.
Quickly, he thought to himself, where was that antidote? His feet started to feel funny and as soon as he took another step they slid out of his shoes. Wait, was he getting smaller? He sure felt like his clothing looked bigger. In a panic he wondered if it was too late to look for the antidote still, but he knew he had to find it at all costs. He kept searching, running around the lab barefoot now as his feet shifted into paws with webbing between the toes and sharp claws on the tips. He stumbled again as his feet were shifting, trying to get better at walking on them as they shifted.
He would be good at swimming at least.
Wait, where did that come from? The antidote was supposed to be his main concern wasn't it?
Yeah, but think of all the fish he could catch if he swam as fast as they did. And the cool water on his fur-
No, he reassured himself. He had to stop thinking these things. Had to get the antidote and fix all of this before he lost his mind. He searched the cabinets hoping to find it, but it wasn't there! He was panicking now and when he realized that his pants had slid off his waist to the floor he tripped clumsily again; however, this time he agilely rebounded and landed on his feet again. Even his muscles were starting to change and become more lithe, he thought.
Perfect for swimming-
No! Got to focus, he kept forcing himself to think, but it was getting harder to as he changed further. His hands were starting to gain the same kind of webbing that was between his toes, and his fingernails had pushed out into claws as well. The fingers, like his toes on his feet, had shrunk and thickened considerably making each digit much less dexterous but no less usable still. He trotted faster through the lab, needing to find that antidote. He needed it or else he wouldn't be able to return to human form.
Quickly his tail pushed out from his spine, which had straightened out and lengthened as it had, despite the fact that Hal was getting shorter. The tail was thick and long, hitting the floor just behind his feet as it grew out and then strengthened with muscle. He tested it reflexively and then Hal thought that it would be a great balance for the rest of him when swimming. He sighed and shook the thought reluctantly from his head. The antidote was of better concern right now.
He opened the last cabinet but was temporarily blinded as his head suddenly ached and burned with a furious heat. He grabbed his head and yelped out, listening to his head snap and crack as a short muzzle formed where his mouth and nose had been before, the muzzle filling with sharper teeth and a longer tongue (perfect for eating fish, he reminded himself) as well as the new nose that had a better capacity for smelling: things he had never smelled before were suddenly in full, and he was momentarily overwhelmed by it alone. Then he blinked his eyes open and was immediately aware of his better vision, the eyes having turned a chestnut brown color and increasing his field of vision considerably. He turned and nearly tripped over the lab coat he had been wearing when he reached out for the antidote-
-and knocked it straight to the ground.
He bent over to reach for it, breathing heavily as all the exercise he'd gotten from running around the lab had started to take its toll on him, and he put his paws on it realizing almost immediately he would have a very hard time opening the twist top of the container with them. His tail stuck in the air, his butt exposed as his lab coat fell to either side of the place where his tail parted it. Hal almost panicked at this moment but he started to think to himself about why he needed the antidote anymore.
After all, he was an otter, shouldn't he be swimming in a stream somewhere, catching fish for dinner and having fun on his own? Or at least not be stuck in this laboratory in this odd-fitting piece of clothing. Hal started to think less and less about his obligations and more and more about actually just having fun, laying around and hunting for fish whenever he wanted. He turned to the window outside and smiled happily.
Hal crawled over to the window, forgetting all about that silly antidote (what did it do anyways?) and then snuck out of the lab's window, but not before stripping off that lab coat. He hurried outside, ready to begin his new life as an otter. Inside the laboratory, Dr. Amory watched his otter assistant run away with a knowing smile, then went back to work himself.