Zax woke up to bubbling sounds on his left. It wasn't loud, but it was unrelenting.

Annoying.

Did the environmental box make such noise? Actually, was it so comfortable too? A slight movement from his shoulders confirmed it: he was resting on something soft.

What's- Gah!

[WARNING!]

[Severe Anomalies detected!]

[Vitals compromised. Heatstroke Expected in…]

[Error: Vitals stable.]

[Diagnostic…]

[WARNING!]

[Severe Anomalies detected!]

[Vitals compromised. Intestinal Occlusion Expected in…]

The alarms and windows kept defiling, contradicting each other in a never-ending cycle.

Anomalies? Not Damages?

He was not in any pain; his body was moving and responding normally to small movements. His legs felt off, but they were simply awkwardly folded under him.

It was difficult to focus.

<Alarm Off>

Now he could see what the fuss was about.

<Open Archive>

[Error: Wordless Commands unavailable]

Why not? Ah.

Why is my neural interface in minimal service?

As he set it back to its normal setting, it came back to him.

The experience plan. The peapod. The Resonances. The mistake. The melting. The eggshell.

Needs a new name.

The sleepy thought barely had time to form before it was pushed away by adrenaline. His eyes burst open and confirmed he was, indeed, fine and whole. No signs of heatstroke, intestinal occlusion, or any of the other reported issues.

Also, he was naked and in the Heart Beat's infirmary.

Mostly fine at least; he had tried and failed to sit up. He couldn't move more than twitches. He could freely lift and move his head though.

He visually and tactilely confirmed the right number and position of limbs and fingers. Some soreness and discomfort, especially in the lower back, but no pain. His nanites confirmed his muscles and nerves worked fine. No internal reason for his apparent paralysis. What about external?

He was resting under a dome similar to Migo's. Hadn't they mentioned a restraining field among its functions? Explorers were usually too mutated to have normal wounds or ailments so their infirmary wasn't particularly well equipped, but it was a basic feature for unruly patients who refused to stay in bed.

They hadn't used it on Migo, and his dome had been colourless and semi-transparent. This one coloured him in light green. The biotechnology equivalent of a warning light, probably.

Message received.

He didn't reckon himself as unruly, but after sneaking around, leaving the suit and box, using the peapod unauthorised, possibly sabotage too… he could see why they would be careful. He had used up their kindness and he was definitely in trouble.

Looking left, Migo was resting on a similar bed, minus the dome. Zax couldn't see him well with how was rolled up he was, but his chest was rising and lowering rhythmically. The lack of dome, tubes pugged in his body, or even a cardiac monitor was encouraging. He even seemed to have gained weight.

How long was I out?

Before he could query his nanites and see what the fuss was with the flurry of warnings, someone entered the room. A nurse, or a close enough equivalent, if memory served well. They barely threw a glance in his direction as they continued on their way. Two seconds later they froze, did a double take with wide eyes, and left running the way they came.

Zax only had time to confirm the experiment had been a mere day before when the door opened again.

Zweikora-zon was the first to enter. The top boss, and the most advanced mutant in the area. She had come. In person. Ominous. She merely stayed there, silent, unmoving.

I might be in more trouble than I thought.

He tried to not display his nervosity, but he had no illusion she could see through his veneer of calm. If not from a mutation, at least from experience.

Pimp arrived soon after, slightly out of breath. From the stains on his bare torso and his barely adjusted pants, he had interrupted a customer session and hastily whipped and clothed himself to arrive as fast as he could. Probably clothed because Zweikora-zon was there; nudity was not an issue for him.

The two leaders intently stared at him, but their expressions stayed carefully blank.

It was awkward, and definitely on purpose. Zax was aware they wanted the tension to rise and make him more compliant and loquacious, but he had no intention of shying away from his responsibilities.

"I am deeply sorry for any inconvenience I caused. I am ready to face whatever punishment you have planned." He added as close to a bow he could with his limited mobility.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It was a strange thing to say for a prisoner who never had a choice in the matter, but he was genuine.

"'Inconvenience', hm." Zweikora-zon broke the following silence first.

"You blocked the full peapod for a day, then two beds for a full night." Pimp stated. "What did you do?"

No emotion was revealed in the exchange.

That's… honestly less than I expected.

Probably best to not mention it.

"My letter should have explained everything." Zax hesitantly claimed.

"Not everything. Just enough to make them wait midday before trying to open the pod. But it doesn't explain… that." Pimp gestured to both occupied beds.

"What?" Zax frowned and looked back.

Nothing visibly wrong with their bodies.

"What do you mean? Is he still sick?"

He tried to stand again, but in vain.

"I won't run. Can I see him?"

Pimp wordlessly turned to Zweikora-zon. She was still calling the shots. She looked behind them, at someone Zax hadn't noticed. The doctor-equivalent, responsible for the infirmary and its content, stepped to the foot of his bed. An ordinary advanced coyote mutation on the limbs and torso. Canine ears, but nothing else on the head. Nothing special. Probably one of the bottom rungs among Explorers.

Never thought I'd ever find a mutation boring.

Wait, what? Boring?

Yes, he did find it boring. Where did that come from? Was it because he had seen so many recently? No, it had still been exiting the day before. Because of the recent experience? He couldn't remember the details, but he knew he had discovered something important. Fundamental. A game changer.

Before he could delve in the thought, the doctor had examined his readings:

"He's good to go. Low on energy, but nothing a good meal and a good rest can't fix. It's incredible." She looked at him with near-reverence as she added the last part.

Why is that incredible?

They should not be aware of the melting.

"Why? Shouldn't I be? Did something go wrong?" He was getting legitimately worried.

"That's the question." Pimp answered flatly. "Once Mistress had ordered the pod's opening, they did everything they could without damaging it, but nothing worked. Then they tried the slightly destructive ones. No way of knowing if it helped. The pod's signals were all over the place until late evening. That's when it didn't simply open, it literally spewed you out. You were both covered in thick purplish goo. Real gross."

"The pod's goo? The one that immobilise and heal the patient? Wasn't it supposed to be blueish?"

"It was. Now it's not. It's still being analysed, but it seems to pod mutated too."

"It did?"

"Its sap is closer to animal blood now. Helps with healing. Among other things."

Zax didn't have to oversell his surprise. It wasn't impossible, but he had no idea when it had happened. Did he strain it beyond its limits? Was it solely because of their apparently-not-so-destructive attempts?

"You were clinging to the beast so tight we thought you were a single mass. We had to pry you apart. After and during cleaning."

"How is he?" Zax asked the doctor.

She waited for Zweikora-zon to nod before answering and lifting the dome holding him in place:

"Like you, but even lower in energy. He'll need more rest, but he'll be fine. He briefly woke up two hours ago, saw you were there, and fell back asleep." Looking back in his expectant eyes, she added: "No trace of radiation sickness in either of you. Congratulations."

Zax deflated of relief, falling flat on the bed. He was not surprised, but professional confirmation helped a lot to accept the result.

"We were all worried about you." The doctor added.

"You were?"

She was surprised at his surprise, but the Mistress sent her away before the conversation could continue.

Zax finally left the bed. It was higher than he thought; his feet didn't reach the floor when he sat on it. He lost his balance when he landed, but managed to grab the ledge to stay upright.

"What's wrong with my feet?" I thought aloud.

They felt… off, somehow. He lifted one to examine his sole, and realised two points.

One, they were actually paws. Digitigrade, not the previous relatively slight deformation he could easily hide with normal footwear. Resting on his heels was possible, but uncomfortable. Pads, but no fur and no claws; his body hair and toenails were unchanged. It felt… incomplete, as if its changes had been interrupted, but they were unmistakably not human feet anymore.

Second, despite the dome and restrains being lifted, they were still green. Uniformly pale green. So were his calves. His thighs. His belly. His ribs. His hands. His arms. His shoulders. What he could see of his own nose. No doubt the rest of his body too.

He slowly turned his head towards the observers. They were still watching him without moving a muscle. Were they always this tall? He asked in a whisper, as if afraid to startle himself awake from a dream:

"The colour wasn't due to the restraining field… was it?"

The shook their head.

"Did I…Did I really…?" A tear fell down his cheek.

He didn't dare to finish the sentence. He barely dared to finish the thought.

Did I mutate?

He had walled his heart against the idea for so long, he could hardly process it.

"Am I shorter too?" he belatedly realised.

Touching his backside confirmed a lump compatible with an incoming tail. Normal for digitigrade stance, although less pronounced than his legs' advancement would suggest.

Shorter stature, fully digitigrade but possibly incomplete, green skin. No muscle change, no fur, scales or feathers. No horns or antlers. Which means…

"I have no idea of what oriented those mutations or where they lead to." He stated in a single deadpan breath.

He had spent so long analysing mutations and their patterns, and when it finally happened to him, he was at a loss.

"How embarrassing." Was delivered in the most detached, clinical voice he had ever used.

I'll look for inner changes later. It could explain the chain errors.

If I am in such a state, what about Migo?

The thought shocked him out of his fugue.

He turned on his not-heels-anymore. It was hard to judge with how huddled up the wolf was, but his back paws happened to be on the edge of the ball and in plain sight. He was bigger, at least twice his previous mass and size, that much was clear. His fur was still the same. Maybe a bit hotter when he passed his hand?

Something felt wrong, though. The shape, Zax took a few seconds to understand. The lump didn't have its normal Migo-sleeping shape. The green man softly grabbed a limb and unfolded it, hoping for an explanation. He found it but woke his friend up.

Migo yipped once in surprise and briskly stood from the bed, confirming what Zax had seen but not immediately believed. They stared at each other, yellow and green eyes pointing straight ahead with the same confusion turning into relief. Migo wrapped his furry arms – his arms – around the human and hugged him. Zax took a second to reciprocate, still shaken by the series of world breaking developments.

Migo had mutated beyond anything they had hoped too. Bipedal, with opposable thumbs. He was only missing a voice, and they already had a solution for that. No one would mistake him for a pet anymore.

"Congratulations on finally joining us, wolf-man." Zax saluted when they separated.

"What does that mean?" Zweikora-zon reminded them they were not alone in the room.

The pair exchanged a glance. Migo shrugged, allowing the human to answer:

"Being more human has been his dream for a long time. He's finally getting there. It might have even been worth brushing death."

They didn't miss Pimp's posture stiffening, nor his askew glance at their hostess. The atmosphere felt heavier at once.

"In other words," She stated in an eerie cadence. "You artificially caused an activation, in yourself, your pet and the pod, which resulted in the exact mutations you wanted and needed. Mutations that would normally require several particularly successful activations and a fortune in 3G. In a single activation and at no cost."

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