“There we go.” A fur covered paw grabs a vile and places it inside the centrifuge. He pushes a few buttons and starts the machine. He stairs at it for a few seconds observing it with proud satisfaction. Giving it a nod he then turns around to shuffle around through his research paper. No sooner after he turns around the display on the centrifuge begins to flash and it sounds a loud siren like beep. “Shit!” Before the scientist could get back to his specimen a foul smelling gas steams from the top of the centrifuge. Frantic, the scientist attempts to stop the gas from escaping.
Moments later a louder alarm sounds in the room, lights mounted on the walls begin to flash, and overhead sprinklers begin to shower the entire room in a chemical bath. A door on the end of the room slides open and two armed men storm and stop to look at the scientist. By this time the scientist was sitting on the wet floor with his face buried deep into his paws.
The scientist slowly gets back to his feet and walks to the two armed men well aware of what came next. One of the armed men steps forward ordering the scientist to leave the room to a long corridor. As one of the two men led the way the other followed close behind. “Damn skunk” One of the guards scoffs out loud enough to be sure that the scientist could hear him. The guard in front then turns his head back. “His work stinks as much as he does.” Both the guards snicker as they come to a door.
The guards stand to each side of the door as the skunk enters through the door and closes it behind him. The room is a neutral beige room filled with books from floor to ceiling along all the walls. In the middle of the room stands a heavy pine desk. A man sitting at the desk looks up at the skunk and motions for the skunk to have a seat. Slowly the skunk walks to the empty chair and sits down.
“What happened this time?” The man asks
“I don't know. I guess maybe I used the wrong chemicals again.” The skunk bows his head in submission as he answers.
The man at the desk flips through a file on his desk, already aware of what's in it. “This is starting to become a regula-”
The skunk looks back up at him cutting him off. “Look, I'm doing eve-”
WHAM! The man slams his hands on the desk. “Stop right there! Let me make this perfectly clear to you. Just because I dress casually and mingle with your kind does not give you the right to interrupt me. I am still your superior and you will respect me as such.” The man becomes very cross and speaks sternly at the skunk. Taking a moment to sit back and take a deep breath he pulls out a signed contract. “As we both know, you have volunteered for a life sentence. We gave you a maw, fur, and a tail among many other things.” The man slides the contract towards the skunk as if the skunk had forgotten that he signed it.
The man then pulls out three more contracts. Each unsigned. “I don't have much time as I have many others to speak with today. Here are three options for you. In short we have several labs working on the same thing that your lab has been working on. A few of them have succeeded. Soon you will see that there are more people like you and that many are even more advanced than yourself. The military believes that some of these products will make better soldiers and wants us to release the project to the public so that the military can start using some of our subjects. In essence, your life sentence is being cut short. You will return to society, and you have a few options.”
The man slides one of the contracts to the skunk. “This one will release you into society for you to try and live what ever life you can. We will check up on you regularly, and if we feel we must, we will recall you.” He slides the next one to the skunk. “This one will enlist you into a military branch of your choice. It's a guaranteed job and you will receive the same benefits as one one else who is enlisted.” He then picks up the final contract and tears it in half. “You don't qualify for this one since your lab failed to produce any thing useful. Our conversation here is classified. You may not speak about this to any one till all personnel have been briefed. Now take your contracts to your room and get your wet ass out of my office. You're making my chair smell like wet dog.”
The skunk stairs at the two contracts that lay in front of him in disbelief. “Yes sir!” He quickly picks them up by the corners and walks out of the room. As he leaves the room he is escorted by the same two guards that brought him there.
“Oh look here. This one blows up a lab and gets reading material for his private quarters.” They both chuckle and continue to escort the skunk to his room. As they approach the room one of the guards opens the door for the skunk with a grin on his face. Suddenly the other guard snatches one of the contracts from the skunks paw. The wet corner tears off making it an easy catch. The guard then puts a boot to the skunks lower back and pushes him into the room and the first guard closes the door locking it.
Quickly the skunk gets to his feet and checks the door handle. No such luck. With the remaining contract in his paw the skunk makes his way to a curtain hanging on the wall. He pulls the curtain open revealing a lit screen displaying an outside scenery. Below the screen is an exhaust vent. Due to the nature of the high security facility and his room being located underground there are no actual windows in his room. The skunk pulls out a wet pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his lab coat. It seems the cellophane kept most of the cigarettes dry this time. He pulls one from the pack and lights is up blowing the smoke into the exhaust vent.
He then begins to read through the contract that he holds in his paw. It's the one that he would sign to join the armed forces. Giving him the option of many different fields to go into. It looked like any ordinary military contract. Giving him full military benefits with just a few changes. One of those changes being that he could be recalled back to “The Project” at any given time. It also stated that if he leaves the military to enter a civilian life it can only be done with the civilian contract that was taken from him.
At that time there was a knock at the door. The skunk turned to the door to see a paper being slid into his room from under the door. Quickly the skunk grabbed it to find that some one had delivered a new copy of the contract that had been stolen from him. Quickly reading through that contract by the “window” it seems that he would be given five thousand dollars, three sets of cloths, and a plane ticket. It would allow him to get a place, a car, and a job. He would be given a new identity and a new social security number. He would not be allowed to make contact with any one from his past and must start over from scratch.
I used to be a zoologist. One of the best. If it had any thing to do with animals, I loved it. A few years ago some one gave me the chance to join an underground project to create human/animal hybrids. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. At that time I never thought I would become a hybrid myself.
About six months into the project they asked me to volunteer to be one of the test subjects. At first I was given genetically altered fur “plugs” all over my body. The plugs gave me a permanent fur coat that would keep me warm in extreme colds and was one of the most important parts to looking like an animal. After that I received facial reconstruction followed by skin grafts and more plugs to give me a maw. The maw also came with razor sharp teeth that allowed me to easily rip through food.
From there things got more difficult. They were able to graft me new ears, reconstruct the ear canal, and of course more plugs. As you could easily guess, this made me more sensitive to loud noises, but I could hear things that no one else could. They even took the bones from my legs replacing them with digitigrade/plantigrade hybrid legs. This took a lot of getting used to. I had to relearn how to walk, but I could easily get down to all fours and run at amazing speeds for long periods of time.
They even replaced parts of my eyes. It was decided that I would receive cat like eyes instead of skunk like eyes so I would be able to see with little to no light. I was not happy with that decision, but I quickly grew to like my new eyes. I was even given twenty digital pads, four metacarpal pads, for my forepaws and rear paws, and carpal pads for my forelimbs. This allows me to be able to tackle rough terrain without shoes and for protection.
Some of the other subjects even opted for claws and paw shaped hands and feet. I opted out of that simply cause it's easier for me to be able to work with my human shaped hands.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, some one was able to successfully give me a tail that I could control. It took a lot of learning and practice, but my long, thick, fluffy skunk tail is my pride and joy. During my daily wash I use a massive amount of conditioner on it and I let it soak in its conditioner for a long time before rinsing it out. I am proud to say that I have the softest tail that I know of.
I was never allowed to go outside for fear that I would be caught or hurt so I was no longer able to practice my zoology. This is why they threw me in a lab where I have no idea what I was doing. I was about as close to being an animal as modern technology would let me get which is why we were trying to birth a hybrid. Just being able to see a born hybrid would be absolutely amazing for me.
