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[This story is a bit new for me; it's in third-person, and I think I got all the foxies out! I'm not sure I hit enough vulgar stereotypes with the Kevin or Jake stories, so I'm doing this. Try it anyway, OK?]

Gina was a CatGirl. She still is, but she was born human.

If that doesn't make sense, where the heck have you been hiding? In the dark ages (last century!) someone called himself Michael Crichton and wrote a story copyright 1990 about people using DNA recom- bination to make a resort-zoo using dinosaurs.

Ever since the 1950's when James Watson and Francis Crick got credit for discovering DNA structure, the double helix, people have been trying to update Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (the doctor was Frankenstein, the so-called 'monster' was just called 'the Creature'). Instead of sewing corpses together and zapping the result with light- ning to make it alive but without a soul, people write about mixing DNA, as if it's just an Emeril Lagasse cooking show. Bam! Dinosaurs!

It's fiction, and a bit of BS, because Crichton got it wrong. He wrote that the people had to use computers to track dinosaur DNA records with 'three billion fields'. Why is this wrong? Well, maybe modern human DNA has three billion DNA codes, but he didn't research if this meant three billion chemical bases, or three billion pairs. So is it three or six billion chemical 'letters'? That's a big difference!

No one really knows if dinosaurs, with less evolved and thus simpler biology, had three billion DNA pairs. Take broken strands, try to organize them, you never know if they go together or are part of another strand! So Crichton's scientists just 'grew it to see what it is'!

OK, point in Crichton's favor: he never knew about Mark Harris or Tom Warner, two DNA scientists who made a breakthrough discovery before the USA government and private competition worked out a way to sequence all three-billion DNA codes for the human genome. Mark and Tom realized you don't need the whole sequence, just enough of the DNA strands, to make more and combine them into something useful. Start simple, making blood plasma or insulin.

M&T were Americans so they worked in the USA. In Montana, because the state initials are MT. Crichton was wrong again, over- simplifying for his readers, rather insulting them actually, for hiding the fact that DNA is organized into genes, then chromosomes, so computer records wouldn't need three billion fields, just 23 files totaling three billion characters -- and human DNA is over 98% the same as chimpanzee DNA so you don't need three billion for each!

This was M&T's second breakthrough. Carolus Linnaeus started a scientific way to classify living things centuries ago, and now scientists break down big groups by structure, so a small group copies all the structure of the one above it, which copies the one above it, and so on. Since DNA is a chemical code used to make the structure, we don't need the whole DNA of everything, just copy it from the bigger, more inclusive group.

The Reader's Digest version: label DNA from lots of animals organized by taxonomic structure, check the DNA for differences, not the whole sequence. You find out what changes and what stays the same as you go to more specific animals. Individual differences don't matter yet.

This is somewhat oversimplified, but not insulting. Essen- tially, to make a cat you make a generic Animal (Kingdom Animalia: cells have a nucleus), add organ tissues (Sub-Kingdom Eumetazoa), a central nervous system (Phylum Chordata), then bone around it (Sub- Phylum Vertebrata). Now add jaws and four limbs (Super-Class Gnatho- stomata) and parts to feed offspring (Class Mammalia). Make an organ to feed 'em inside a parent (Sub-Class Placentae), design 'em to eat meat (Order Carnivora), put in a short snout, a fun curvy tail and some fangs (Family Felidae). Bam! Cat! (Genera Acinonyx, Felis, Lynx, Panthera).

Mark Harris and Tom Warner headed the research team that figured out the DNA differences. Along the way they figured out blood plasma is mostly water with some salt and proteins. Yup, H2O and NaCl. The proteins were more and more similar the closer to human DNA they got. Research was expensive, and they needed a product fast. They turned to hospitals and emergency medical care people who needed blood plasma, something generic they could pump into injured people fast that wouldn't react like unmatched blood.

Mark and Tom's team made pure, medically sterile proteins from DNA recombination, then created the world's first artificial fluids for humans: blood plasma and insulin. They called their company Biological Synthetics, then incorporated in 1999.

* * *

Sure, they made mistakes. Lots of 'em. Some real humdingers. All the horror movies about zombies or subhuman monsters -- BioSyn failures. Hoo Boy, did they break lots of eggs trying to make omelets! See if kevfox.t35.com is still on the Internet, the story Kevin01 talks about BioSyn's four levels of DNA recombination. BSI holds patents for all kinds of weird stuff, including human-animal hybrids.

Bet you were wondering what all this has to do with Gina the CatGirl. Well, BioSyn made body fluids, then whole organs, then went ahead to entire bodies. Gina Rodriguez grew up in a tough Chicago neighborhood with a serious drug-dealer problem. Mostly the problem was, the city didn't pay the cops enough since the taxpayers refused. So the cops supplemented their incomes, just trying to raise their kids. But the Chicago drug-dealer problem was, the cops *were* the dealers! And they'd been doing this cop-crime stuff even before the 1920's with Al Capone and Prohibition bootleggers. 'Criminal law' in the rest of the USA meant law dealing with criminals, catching them and punishing them. In Chicago, it meant law-enforcement officers committing the crimes. It was just the way life was there.

Gina was thirteen when it became her way of life too. Her dad was a night guard at a convenience store, and the cops used it for their convenience for dealing drugs. Cocaine cleanup in Aisle Six! People who bought crack instead of living and pot-heads who couldn't remember their own names knew it was open season at K's store. Gina's dad was doing his guard job when bullets started flying, he was shot, and lived just long enough to see Gina knocked down by bullets from someone who was too high to aim his MAC-10, just got off on the noise.

It was a miracle the EMT's even responded. Just another Chicago shooting. But they found Gina and pumped in some BioSyn blood. They didn't have to type and cross-match anything, BioSyn blood works for anyone, and it's cheaper than Red Cross volunteer donations. They got Gina restarted and taken to hospital. The drugs came from outside the USA so it was a Federal case, and the FBI sent extra teams when Gina lived and told them who was there shooting.

Witnesses at gang-related shootings usually get killed because the a-holes don't care who dies. Ones who live and can still talk are rare, and ones who can ID the perps rarer. Witness protection doesn't mean s- when they can just come around and shoot everyone at court anyway. It's enough to make Dirty Harry Callahan give up, he's only one cop, even he can't fight everyone!

At least the Feds were semi-honest and listened to Gina. They went out to make arrests and got into a humongous firefight. When you yell 'FBI! FBI! Put down your weapons and surrender!!' but civilians just shoot automatic weapons at you, you get to shoot back even when you're outgunned. Lots of crooks got splattered and the rest vowed to 'get' whoever squealed.

Gina needed protection, but how? Who? For the rest of her life? How long would that be? Only if Gina Rodriguez died would they stop looking, and only if it were very public and verifiable. Gina had new blood and new organs from BioSyn to keep her alive to testify ...

She agreed to take the next step -- BioSyn body replacement. Trials had voice-modifiers and video testimony, with the witness' ID hidden, so why not this? BSI had already made artificial people, and mixed human with animal DNA; they could do it again for Gina. BSI's doctors made a very convincing show of her injuries and blood. They let the public view some of the life-saving operation, and considering her wounds it wasn't mysterious when something went wrong and she flat- lined!

Even the gang stooges figured she was dead three minutes later. They left and told their bosses it was OK, she wouldn't be a problem. Gina really was dead, her heart and lungs had stopped, it wasn't fake. It was just she didn't stay dead. They hadn't given her adrenaline or epinephrine to revive her, it was a mild sedative instead, and slowed her heart to where the alarms sounded and she stopped breathing enough to see from the gallery. Very carefully orchestrated chaos combined real and faked death.

The new BioSyn heart and lungs were hidden from the gallery and they pumped and breathed for the bullet-riddled originals. Old blood and organs removed had convinced even the hardest-hearted observer. Everyone knew Gina was dead. Then the second operating team popped in with another ice-chest filled gurney and gave her new eyes with vertical-slit pupils, pointy ears atop her head, same hair. Actually, it's just the earlobe pointy and atop, the actual earhole is the human side-of-head. Add a cute, flat nose and a sexy short muzzle, and bam! CatGirl!

Black hair with light gray fur, white under jaws and front of neck, down her front curves, around ... *cough*. Down her tummy, around front of hips, inside legs just above knees. Dark gray ropelike tail, it's very expressive, and she'll smack anyone who gets close! Well, not those she trusts -- but the trust has to come first! Dark gray 'gloves' and 'boots'. Human-shaped hands and feet even though they're furry.

Something about the trauma of body replacement changed the new CatGirl's way of thinking. Okay, Gina, Latina, hot-blooded. But her recent death and recovery made her grab life by the paws and hold on tight. Every bit of fun she could get, she'd been denied fun from her old neighborhood, now she was gonna get some! Problem is, what's fun for a young CatGirl?

She was still mostly a virgin at thirteen, watched TV shows with 'sexual situations' and 'sexually suggestive dialog' which seemed to tell audiences that 'having fun' meant 'having sex' or talking about it. Dad had told her that wasn't true, but now Dad was gone and unlike her, wasn't coming back. So what was the truth? Sex was fun and fun was sex? Wasn't there anything else fun that wasn't letting yucky boys feel her up?

Wasn't there anything else on boys' minds, having a social life without beating each other up, or talking about sports, or talking about who felt up whom last night? And 'bases', how come touching each other had to be about baseball? Sports again. She had been a human being, not a sport to master!

But the new CatGirl thought about the word 'master' and sort of giggle-gurgled back in her throat. Purring. Thinking about how she'd treated a cat from Gina's friend. Stroking it gently and hearing it ... purr. The BioSyn doctors and nurses had been kind to her, and she found herself needing someone, not like a little girl would, but just knowing a bigger person was around, a ... human ... to hold her when she needed it, stroke her fur, just let her curl up and doze ...

You might not know this about CatGirls, but they're all sort of innocent and childlike, wanting everything to just go smoothly. But they're real cats, they'll strike out with claws bared if they think they're threatened. And they don't forgive or forget, they'll put up with you but they'll bring something back up months later if they think it'll help them. They say they forgot, but boy, miss a birthday and watch out!

Adult CatGirls can be fun too, but they expect everyone to be as good at picking up subtle cues as they are. They're still highly independent, even when they're being nice and friendly; you know they come around you when they want something, not just 'cause you call.

Gina had more problems now than human girls. The new CatGirl, newly orphaned, had been teased at school before, but now! Making humans look like animals was a new idea, people couldn't cope. Trans- ferred to a new middle school, no friends, just at the age when she'd let friends dictate her own self-image, Gina fell in with a pride of the 'wrong' Kitties.

Led by a hot-bod foreign Lion, his tail swishing back and forth like a snake hypnotizing prey. Gina was prey to him, she was young, confused, and vulnerable. Tiger was bigger than Lion and more muscular, but he knew Lion had the smarts. The whole mixed pride knew it and followed Lion. Leopardess was another strong furson, practically Lion's lover, while the Cheetah brother and sister were the fast runners, out in front checking for danger. Tigress was younger and let furs boss her around, but she could get money from ATMs and favors from guards. There was no Lioness, or Leopard, but maybe Leopardess wanted it that way.

Tiger and Leopardess could 'neutralize' any danger the Cheetahs scouted out, but the pride lacked a baitfur, an innocent, to distract anyone from checking the otherfurs out. They practically pounced on Gina, the fresh-muzzle Cat, and didn't tease her about it -- in fact they encouraged her, taught her to groom her new fur, showed her she could see and hear better than any ... puny Human.

Lion treated Cat-ette like a sister, not just teasing like her human brother had. They didn't use the names they had as humans, just the Fur Name, like a gang handle. Two adolescent Jaguars from South America somewhere, black all over as humans and cats, were as good as invisible at night. Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitties!

Not all Kitties are criminals, far from it. This was just one of several prides who knew what they wanted from life and took it without worrying about picky details like some MF human bureaucrats made a law against something. Human intelligence coupled with animal senses, instinct and cunning made the Pussy Pride better, stronger, faster than humans.

No wonder Gina CatGirl fell in with them. She craved the attention they all gave her, taking her in and treating her like the family she never had, taking on roles of mother, father, sisters, brothers. Olderfurs to show her how to act, letting her get comfur- table with her new body, womenfurs to take her aside when her body grew up. Sounds great, doesn't it? You know you want it!

There was a price, of course. Always is. Cat-ette learned to stand on busy street corners, look lost and confused, et voila! Some poor sap would try to help, and get rolled for his or her or their trouble. Kitties would roller-skate up, take wallets or purses, hand off to another and roll away. Without the goods, they got away even if cops could stop them. Fursons were scarce, but people just thought 'all Kitties look alike' and the Pride took advantage of it.

Feeling inferior yet, Human?