Doctor Kelly was pretty sure she had seen everything there was to see in her job treating injuries. She arched an eyebrow at her latest patient thinking she might need a consultant… or maybe a veterinarian. Perhaps a councillor- or well- the Men in Black. Whatever she was supposed to do this was certainly going to be big! How was it possible? Despite the strange ‘disease’ she had to take a cautious scientific approach as the basis for a diagnosis and possible treatment.
She looked over the X-rays… bones around the torso seemed normal enough- however the arms.. no longer existed as human arms but rather wings. Actual feathers growing there. A sample of which she held in her hand, feeling it gently between her fingers. Her patient was sitting upwards on a hospital bed, talons horizontal giving an occasional grasping motion. She had some simple clothes on her to fit her body that the hospital could provide for various ‘emergencies’, tail feathers poking out from underneath.
A strange case indeed.
“So… Dean? Can I call you Dean?” She asked given her patient was ‘apparently’ a girl now.
“Well, that is my name” The harpy-girl said with an annoyed grunt. She appeared to look similar to a red-winged black bird. Her feathers had that rustic red haze to her wings, though her hair had a similar shade if a little darker. Her eyes were a bright green and face quite human. Instead of feet she had golden yellow talons, with scales going up her legs. With the clothes covering her legs Doctor Kelly wasn’t quite sure how far up those scales went. There was no sign of any hands- if she even had any. She was also fairly young, a child. The doctor guessed she had to be about eight years old. The boy had started at sixteen if the records were correct. How does someone lose half their age in an instant?
Doctor Kelly stared at her again.. not quite able to believe -any- of this. She had not dismissed this was all some strange hoax for a television station. A girl wearing an elaborate costume, pretending to be a boy perhaps. “Right… so.. how do you feel?” She asked taking some notes.
Dean looked exasperated. “How do I feel? I lost my freakin’ arms, my.. things- and I’m a baby!” Dean muttered.
“Yes… well not a baby as such. Though you appear to have wings… and you are apparently female now- though maybe we best take a few more examinations,” she thought while setting the feather back on her desk. What further test to run..
“Tests? You’ve given me every single freaky test. I just wanna go home!” she cried out. She could feel the tears coming out of her eyes now. Damn it! Boys- shouldn’t- cry- why was she even thinking-
Kelly sighed and placed a tissue for the girl. She tried to grasp it with her wings getting only more frustrated. Kelly decided to wipe her eyes herself. “It’s okay-” She tried to say.
“It’s not okay! I can’t do any more stupid tests an’ I don’t want any needles any more.”
Kelly nodded in quiet realisation. This transformation has not just affected her physically… but there were clearly some mental changes. Regardless of what she used to be… she was acting pretty much like a child in her reactions. An interesting find- though this did mean further testing would require parental consent. Hopefully they would be here soon. “I.. think we have all the results we can get so far anyway.” Nothing made much sense of course. Blood samples taken and DNA looked ‘mostly’ human but with some added genes to it. It appeared to be bird DNA… but that made little sense. Surly it wasn’t possible just to splice some genes to make.. this happen- was it? Even so.. genetic engineering just wasn’t possible at this sort of scale.. “I um.. I’m going to try making a few calls. Why don’t you rest for a bit while we wait for your parents.”
“F-Fine.” The Harpy girl gave a literal flutter of her wings in annoyance.
Ethan and Jessica had gone to Dean’s house.. but nobody was there. It seemed that he was still in the hospital. Ethan wasn’t sure it was right to just go see how he was at that point- it wasn’t as if he even knew him that well… or anything like that. They had a whole day off! Why not take advantage of it? Maybe he could get to know Jessica better. She was quite pretty. Though for some reason she really wanted to go find Dean and make sure he was okay.
It was kinda sweet he guessed. “We can try the hospital then…”
They arrived at the hospital which fortunately wasn’t too busy. Though there did seem to be an unsettled atmosphere. They arrived at the reception area asking to see Dean Freeman.
The receptionist seemed a bit surprised at this. “Oh- I’m sorry she- I- mean- he can’t take any visitors at the moment.” The nervousness in her voice was very high.
“We’re his friends,” said Jessica.
Ethan arched an eyebrow at that. He didn’t really know him… but “Oh- yeah. We’re his friends.” Though at this point.. Ethan felt an odd itch on his arm. He looked in surprise as white feathers sprang from his wrist. At first he thought that maybe some material from his jacket had come out form its stitching- not that he expected it to be filled with any feathers. He reached to tug it. “W-What the-”
The receptionist stared at the two and especially at the.. display of feathers. “I see… Room 306… you’ll be buzzed inside. She’s in a secure ward.”
Ethan continued to stare at his arm. It kinda felt like the feathers were itching all over, around his torso. What the heck was happening to him! More so was the shock that Jessica seemed nonplussed by it all. She was simply focused on finding Dean’s room.
“Ow- Jessica- what- What’s happening-”
“… you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” The girl said with a sigh. Though as Ethan stared at her ‘something’ was not right. It was like there was a shifting of the image as his eyes- new eyes, looking at her differently.
“Y-You.. you’ve got uh- Bunny ears?”
“...Yes- and no, I’m not Jessica Rabbit. Oh- here’s the room.”
Jessica’s rabbit ears gave a little twitch her clothes also shifted. They looked less ‘modern’ but not exactly old either. They looked rather functional, with a green cloak behind her and leather boots. Her school backpack changed into something darker and rustic appearing more akin to a travel pack. A rather cute fluffy white tail evident behind her.
Ethan had.. an awful lot of questions on this. Way too many questions. “Ah- my feet hurt-” he gasped as he felt like he was about to fall over. Talons suddenly pushed themselves out with sharp wicked looking claws. One apparently behind the new appendage with three at the top end. Orange colored scales starting to change the skin to his knees.
Jessica glanced at Ethan pursing her lips. “Well, you should be fine in a few minutes..” She sighed as she helped him walk to Dean’s room.
Dean stared at the strange looking white feathers that Ethan now had. The young girl was lying in bed, feathered arms crossed over her chest. “W-What? It got you too?” She blinked as she stared at the rabbit-ears of the other girl. Wasn’t that.. yeah she there too with Dean...
“Hello!” Jessica smiled cautiously. “Look- I don’t have a lot of time.. I can’t explain much- but I can give you a spell to make people think this is all totally normal…”
“Huh?”
“If I don’t do this, you’re gonna end up experimented on. I’ve seen it before. So let me do something to make everyone think this is totally normal…”
“A-are they gonna think I’ve always been like this?”
“Continual use- yes. I’m hoping we won’t get to that-”
Ethan gasped. “Ah my arms!” The white feathered wings were very large, expanding outward until they started to puff up his jacket. Then something else started to form… Breasts? “W-What’s happening to me! I’m…”
At this point- as if it couldn’t get any worse Dr Kelly came in. “What the..”
Jessica groaned. “Okay, perception spell perception spell,” she waved her hand quickly.
Dr Kelly blinked as she looked at the group. “Oh, are you here to see our Harpy? Are you a relative?” She asked looking to Ethan with those wonderful white feathers. Though it was a little strange she was wearing clothes that were so ill suited.
“Yes. We are checking up on her. Can she go home now?”
“I… don’t see why not.” Dr Kelly nodded. “She just had a little shock, but everything looks fine.”
“Great! Well Dean let’s take you home…”
Dean stared in confusion but.. she decided to just go along for now.
Meanwhile Marty and Yumi were taking a break. The two had talked a bit about how to get new members to join the Radio club. Marty insisted they needed to somehow make radio more ‘sexy’ to encourage people in it, while Yumi was quite sure it just needed more relevance to peoples lives. Yumi was working on the transmitter when her hand suddenly sprouted feathers of dark black. This was followed by a rather ‘rapid’ ripple of feathers going along her torso. Her shoes felt a bit uncomfortable but more so a jet-black feathery tail pushed out from her lower back. “..oh.” she said. “Well.. that’s weird.” She said as she looked over her arms. “That’s going to make using a spanner harder.”
Marty however was almost screaming. “Aliens- Alien’s are attacking us! Changing our DNA to make us enslaved beasts- AHH!” His feathers were a stranger ‘green’ in colour, which also appeared to match the new green of his hair. It wasn’t long either before he too suffered a change in gender… Though his progression was a little different. He started to look a little older, gaining curves of a rather well endowed harpy-girl. She looked about eighteen or so. Talons spread out and destroyed his shoes… joining the broken number of shoes this day.
...and soon enough, there were four new Harpy’s who had heard the strange song..
