You sign up for an experimental medical trial, but get much more than what you bargained for...

Commission for  tuxedoedpenguin

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You wake up late in the morning, same as you have been for the past few months and check your email. Nope, no new interviews or job offers. It’s mostly spam still. You get up and start putting on some water to boil for another packet of instant ramen, then hear the chime of a new email coming in from your laptop. You practically dive for the living room couch to check the new email, hoping beyond hope that it’s from a prospective employer. “Damn, just another spam—wait a minute, medical trial and compensation?” You open the email and read through it.

Volunteers needed for medical trial of experimental cosmetic procedure. No prequalifications, all volunteers accepted. Generous compensation. You read over the ad eagerly, and without reading much more into it, send in your application. Ever since you lost your job recently, you’ve been looking for any way to make ends meet and this seemed like it would set you up for a while. The compensation seemed enough to keep you fed for a few months at least, not to mention putting you up to date on the rent, which you’ve been falling behind on.

You realize your water is boiling so you head back into the kitchen and finish making your ramen and you’re in the middle of eating it when your phone rings. Unknown number. You think, “Could be a job offer…guess it couldn’t hurt to answer…”

“Hello?”

“Good morning, I’m calling from Genetech about your application to the cosmetic trial. I wanted to inform you that you’ve been accepted for the trial and would like for you to come in as soon as possible.”

“G-Great! Do I need to make an appointment?”

“No, sir, just come in and give the receptionist your name.”

“Okay! I’ll be there after I finish eating!” You finish cooking and slurp down your noodles in probably record time, and quickly get dressed and head out for Genetech’s facility downtown. You pull up to a very sleek-looking building in the middle of downtown, the only single-story building surrounded by skyscrapers. After checking in, you sit down in the waiting room, fidgeting and checking your phone constantly. Soon enough, though, your name is called, and you’re escorted back into an exam room.

“Wait, no physical or anything?”

“It’s not needed. Just wait here and the doctor will be around to administer the procedure.”

“Oh, alright!”

And so, you’re back to waiting, fidgeting, and checking your phone again. It seems like it takes forever before the door opens and a man in a white lab coat enters and starts putting on gloves. He takes out a kit from his lab coat and opens it. You can’t see what he’s doing, but after several minutes he turns around holding a syringe with a needle attached. You eye it, rather nervously, “W-What’s that for?”

“The procedure! You did sign up for our cosmetic trial, correct?”

“Y-Yeah, I thought it would be like a surgery or something!”

“Oh, no, just a simple injection…oh, and you may want to remove your clothes for this. Don’t be shy, I’ve seen everything.”

“O-Okay…” You’re skeptical, but he’s a doctor, after all, so you figure it’s okay. You strip down to your underwear, but then the doctor gestures to your underwear and you remove that too, rather timidly.

“Perfect, now just sit and allow me to inject this, and wait for it to take effect.”

“Alright…” You do as instructed, and the doctor quickly sticks you with the needle, and injects the strange liquid into your arm. As he turns around and starts washing up, you quickly notice a prickling feeling all over your body, followed by dusty brown hairs poking through your skin. They soon grow longer and thicker, quickly covering your skin and you reach down and feel it. Fur! You’re growing fur! You practically yelp in surprise at this. “Is this normal?!?”

The doctor turns around and smiles, “Yes, all part of the procedure, this is working out quite excellently!”

“O-Oh, alright, then…” You watch as your palms and fingertips begin to swell, then darken as rough, leathery paw pads form on them. Your fingernails then begin to grow longer, narrowing at the tip. They darken and sharpen until long, sharp claws form on your fingers and they sink into the nailbeds, giving you handpaws. “H-Holy shit…what is happening?”

“Just let the serum do its job.”

“N-no, this isn’t what I signed up for!” You jump up from the table and run for the door and try to open it, but find it’s locked. As you do so, you feel a pressure in your rear as your tailbone extends and a tail begins to grow. It gets wide at the base, and tapers off towards the end, growing very long and soon touching the floor and then some. You look back and yelp in surprise. “Nonononono!” You desperately try to open the door, meanwhile the doctor is just leaning against the counter, smiling as he watches you futilely try to open the door. You nearly lose your balance as your heels rise up and feet grow longer. Your inner toes merge together, leaving you with three digits on each foot, and toenails grow longer and sharper.

Your hips grow thicker and more powerful, and soon you’re a kangaroo from the neck down. You angrily look at the doctor and turn around. He seems worried but doesn’t react. This turns out to be a mistake for him as you quickly manage to balance yourself on your tail. You give him a swift, powerful kick which launches him into the wall, knocking him out. You jump back to your feet just as your jaw begins to stretch forward. Your teeth flatten and tongue lengthens to fill your new muzzle, followed by your nose growing wider and darkening to black. Your nose soon takes up the entire width of your muzzle, and then your ears start growing longer and sliding up to the top of your head. You reach up and feel your new muzzle, then tug at your ears as if trying to prevent them from growing any longer, but within moments you’re left standing in the exam room as an anthro kangaroo.

“Shit, what am I gonna do?” You start looking over the doctor’s kit, thinking maybe there’s something there that’ll turn you back, but you find nothing. It’s just an empty vial. “Damnit!” You try the door again, and still locked. Thinking back to what you did before, you jump back onto your tail and start pounding at the door with your feet, giving it several powerful kicks. It doesn’t budge at first, but after what feels like an eternity of kicking, you manage to kick the door clean off, and bounce down the hall. One of the guards sees you, seems to panic and smashes a button mounted to the wall. An alarm sounds and a voice comes over the speakers “Test subject breached containment, all security personnel to sector 3.”

You hop down the hall away from where you just were, trying to find an exit. You encounter additional security guards and kick them into the wall as well, before hopping along, still searching for an exit. You see a door labeled EXIT and start rapidly hopping towards it when you hear rapid footsteps and then feel a sharp pain in your back. Your hopping slows, and you turn around and see a security guard aiming a rifle at you. You look over your shoulder and see a dart sticking out of your back, and then you collapse.

You wake up in what appears to be a metal room, and it feels like it’s moving. Your arms and legs are chained to the wall, and there’s two armed guards sitting across from you. “Wh-Where am I? What happened?”

“You were captured, we’re relocating you. We can’t have you getting out.”

“B-but…the trial! There was supposed to be compensation!”

“You surrendered your chance at release and compensation when you violated the agreement!”

“H-How?”

“By attacking the staff!”

“I was scared!”

“No excuse! You’re being relocated to a secure facility where you will be subject to further experimentation.”

“B-but, I…I didn’t mean to…” The truck you found yourself in soon comes to an abrupt stop, and the doors open. The two guards release your shackles and place handcuffs on you, leading you out of the truck. You’re taken to a fenced-in area, checked in, then taken inside and placed in a padded room with a heavy door. Once inside, they remove your handcuffs and lock the door shut. You try kicking the door again and again, but no matter how hard you try, the door does not budge. Your feet are sore, you’re still tired from the tranquilizers, and worn out from running and kicking. You decide to just pass out on the bed and figure something out later. After all, it can’t be that bad…it’s not like they’re going to hurt you, right?

A few days pass, and all the while you’re thinking of how to escape. But most of your ideas get shot down pretty quick. Deliveries are done through a double gate so no running out while a truck is coming through, everything going out is inspected so no sneaking out on a laundry truck or something similar, and everyone else is human so sneaking out will be impossible.

After a few more weeks of doing various tests and obstacle courses, you finally get a break. You hear about a truck from the zoo coming around, they’re picking up animals that were used in experiments and you think you might be able to get on this truck and sneak out that way. A few more days pass until the day of the truck arriving, and you spend that time getting on the guards’ good side so that they can let you have more freedom and yard time.

This plan seems to work as you find yourself outside as the zoo truck comes in. It goes through the double gate without much of an inspection and winds up parked right near the yard. Perfect! They’ve even left it mostly unguarded as they head in to get animals. You see them later gathering everyone up and start hopping over, stripping the clothes they gave you and hunching your back a bit to make yourself look more like a normal kangaroo. You soon find yourself among a few other animals, when a zookeeper approaches you and starts inspecting you close. You look at him nervously and try to not react as he gets closer to you. He then looks to another zookeeper and exclaims, “This one’s missing his leash!” They quickly put a collar and leash on you, and you can only go with the flow as this is your only chance at escape. Soon, you’re loaded into the truck with a few other animals, and they drive off.

As the truck approaches the gate, you feel more and more nervous. Especially so when they open the back and start inspecting. You do your best roo impression and soon, the truck is sent off! You’ve made it! It drives out of the gate, and you can see the facility disappearing as the zoo truck drives off away from it. You then stop and think, “How am I gonna get out of this truck now? I can’t go to a zoo, that’s not much better than where I was!”. Almost as if your question has been answered, the truck comes to a stop, and you can see through the small window that it appears to be a gas station. You quickly undo your collar and leash, kick the back door open easily and hop off down the road, not even looking back to see if anyone is following you. Luckily for you, nobody has followed you and you eventually make it back home, kicking your door in for lack of having your stuff on you, and relax on the couch, contemplating what to do with your life now.