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Amon stared out the window of the limousine, taking in the passing city scenery with human eyes for the last time. He’d never expected to be able to get modded any time soon, and definitely not with Acceleration on top of that. The best he could have hoped for was a slow gradual change sometime in the distant future. Instead, he’d be waking up tonight in an entirely new body.

Part of him was frightened at that. The primate part of his brain telling him to stay with what was comfortable and safe, to avoid change. To tell the driver to stop the car, get out, and start running.

Quieting that part of him wasn’t hard though. All he had to do was look over at Kai’s hulking form seated nearby. He was lazing in the back corner of the spacious vehicle where the couches wrapped around in an L shape, probably because sitting up straight would put his horns through the roof of the limo.

Looking at his horns, his scales, the angular sharpness of his face, and his bright golden eyes stirred something in Amon. It was small, but it always there when he saw modified dragons online. When he’d gone to the meetup just the day before, it was that feeling that had compelled him to stay when the other humans left. That same feeling spurred him to tell them all that he would get these mods, that he was one of them.

Small even though it was, he knew that if he ran away now and gave up what was likely his only chance to become a dragon, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

The primate part of his brain wasn’t fully convinced. It never would be, but it did get quieter.

Kai noticed him looking and smiled slightly. “Just need to remind yourself eh?”

Amon started at that. It was like he’d read his mind. “I uh… Sorry!”

Kai chuckled, a deep bass rumble. “It was the same for me too. I was nervous as hell for days before I got my mods. Only back then, there were barely any other dragons, and cross-species mods were new.”

“So… How’d you deal with it? That sounds stressful as hell.”

Kai chuckled again. “I didn’t. I mostly just buried myself in work before I got the mods and tried not to think about it. Though sometimes I’d just go online and look at the other dragons for hours. After the mods, same thing. Genetic Acceleration hadn’t been released yet, so I was at least able to ease into it.”

Kai stared out the window, his gaze growing distant. “It was… Actually one of the best periods in my life, now that I look back on it. I couldn’t see it at the time, but with every day that passed I became more… Myself.” He gave Amon a wry look. “Looked like a total mutant the entire time though. Oddly enough… I didn’t really care. It was still better than being human.” Amon noted that he didn’t apologize for disparaging humans this time.

“I won’t have to go through that though. Or get to go through it, I guess?” Amon wasn’t sure how he felt about a slow transformation from human to dragon over the course of months. He’d heard it could be painful at times, and people in the middle of cross-species modification were decidedly not pretty. “Do you… Think I might be missing out on the experience?”

Kai barked a laugh. “Oh hell no! Getting to slowly realize myself was the silver lining to waking up aching all over every day and looking ugly as all hell to boot.” He looked over at Amon. “You? You’re going to wake up fully yourself. No waiting. If anything, I think everything will feel much clearer than taking it slowly.”

Amon wasn’t really sure what Kai meant by that, but he felt reassured regardless. He spent the rest of the ride simply taking in the view, and trying to cement in his mind what it felt like to be human. He wanted to be able to look back on these last moments and compare them to how it would feel to be a dragon, to truly understand the gravity of his transformation.

He looked down at his hands. At his round, flat fingernails. The veins across the backs, the lines in his palms, the hair on his forearms. He wasn’t offended or disgusted by what he saw, but he knew that what he was about to become was right. All of what saw in this moment needed to change for him to realize his true self.

The limo pulled to a stop in front of the Humanitech Gene Clinic. Amon climbed out and waited for a moment while Kai carefully twisted himself out of the door after him. He didn’t look clumsy or silly doing it, he was simply so large he had to move carefully to not damage the vehicle. Once he stood at his full height, he towered a couple feet above the top of the limo and the driver holding the door for him. He quietly thanked the driver, then moved to accompany Amon inside. He enfolded Amon’s entire shoulder with one huge hand and gave a comforting squeeze, smiling down at him.

The doors leading into waiting room slid open, revealing the busy waiting area inside. Several people inside turned to regard Kai with hostile gazes. Amon hadn’t been around dragons for long, and this came as a surprise to him. He was aware how many people disliked those with cross-species mods, but he didn’t think it was anything more than just angry posts on the internet and alarmist news articles.

“Fuckin freak…” one man nearby muttered under his breath, just loud enough to be heard by the pair of them. Another glaring woman seated near him gave a small nod of agreement. There was a distinct lack of any modified people in the room. Every face in the room, glaring or otherwise, was human.

Amon wasn’t sure how to feel about their hostility. The primate part of his brain briefly tried to assert itself again, telling him to run and never look back. The rest of him simply felt pushed further away from humanity as a whole. He’d been bullied a lot growing up, and the feeling was familiar to him.

For most of his life Amon had been isolated, seeking friendship online with others who were as different as he was. Who he was online was completely different from in the real world. Despite years of making friends and becoming a part of different communities on his computer, he was still isolated in the real world. Working a dead end job that didn’t pay enough to go anywhere in life didn’t help much either.

Kai’s reassuring presence contrasted the hostility of the people here. He’d rarely experienced this sort of connection in the real world. Amon had the sense that being modified would unify his online self with the real world, bringing the best of both halves and abandoning the rest. That primal piece of his brain that wanted to tell him to run seemed to shut down completely, replaced only by a sort of cold readiness.

Angry stares and muttered curses followed the two of them as they walked through the room. They weren’t directed at him, but they might has well have been. They didn’t matter. Amon was ready to leave humanity and all of it’s flaws behind.

He and Kai walked up to the desk at the far end of the room to check in. Apparently, Kai had paid for some kind of premium package that included a private waiting room. Kai squeezed his shoulder one last time before taking a seat that creaked alarmingly under his bulk. He pretended not to notice and gave Amon a reassuring nod as he was led deeper into the building by a nurse.

…

Amon wasn’t sure how many hours had passed when he finally woke up… Awareness returned slowly, ebbing and flowing from blackness of anesthetic.

Air passing gently over his scales revealed the shape of his muzzle. Elongated, angular, and concealing rows of dagger-like teeth. He ran his tongue over them, it’s length still moving languidly as the drugs slowly made their way out of his body. He tried counting each fang while he waited for consciousness to fully return, but couldn’t hold the number in his head. It was too high. His tongue found its way to the largest fangs at the front of his maw, and his jaw clenched involuntarily, as if his teeth sought prey to bite down upon.

He drew in a breath. Scents flooded his world. Antiseptic cleaner, stale air, several humans who must have been tending to him. A corner of his mind tried to tell tell him that breathing would make things clearer. Another breath rushed in, but only to take in the spectrum of scents once again, to revel in the joy of so much sensation.

A tingling began across his limbs. Sensation returning. It felt… Different than it had before. Undulations of sensation, and the lack of it. His scales? His arm moved of it’s own accord, slowly sliding across fabric. It glided. Smoothly, without resistance. The sensation of his scales against the fabric revealed the shape of his arm. Thicker and heavier than before. Was that right?

More sensation, behind him this time. Not his back, or his rear. His… Tail? Yes. He had a tail now. He tried to move it. It responded slowly, like everything else, but it did move. His tail slowly pushed its way between the sheets. The sensation of scales against fabric along it's length redefined the shape of his body.

The drugs still clouded his mind. They wouldn't let him comprehend his new form fully just yet. So he accepted the new sensations as they came without thinking, simply being for now. A creature of scales and claws, vaguely larger than he remembered being before, warm and safe.

Amon wasn't sure how much time passed like this, simply taking in the spectrum of new experience. Eventually, his thoughts began to flow more clearly. He remembered that Kai was waiting for him outside, but that he had as long as he needed to recover from the procedure. He breathed in and out deeply, simply waiting for his mind to awaken fully.

Eventually, he tried opening his eyes. The nurses had placed his head sideways on the pillow, probably so his horns wouldn’t impale the mattress beneath him. A large window dominated the view in front of him, and his breath caught at the majesty of it. His newly enhanced eyes caught every minute detail of buildings both near and far, and he spent a few moments simply gazing outside at distant buildings, cars, and people.

Once he’d taken in the experience of seeing, he sat up slowly and gazed down at his hands. Sleek black claws tipped fingers protected by hard, angular scales on the back side. Those scales grew smaller and smoother as he turned his hands to look at his palms, giving them a slightly rough but resilient texture. He noted that if he clenched his fist hard enough, he might cut himself on his own claws. He doubted he’d need to go around punching people with claws at his disposal, however.

Amon ran his hand up one forearm, slowly feeling the larger, thicker scales there. They were varying shades of dark green, like leaves deep within a forest. Those scales grew a little flatter, larger, and lighter on the undersides of his arms. He remembered looking at his hands and skin just hours ago when he was still Human. He hadn’t felt any dislike or disgust towards his features then, but the thought of going back to that, even after only moments of being a Dragon did cause him to shudder now. He put the thought out of his mind, focusing instead on his newly changed body.

He’d not opted to include as much strength enhancement as Kai and Gev had in his own suite of mods, but he’d still included some. He’d been slim for most of his life, but as he flexed his arm now he was sure there were few humans stronger than he was. He ran his hand over the peak of his bicep, taking in both the smooth ridges of his scales, and the powerful bulge of muscle they protected.

He took off the hospital gown, not caring if someone might walk in, or if someone was spying on him through the room’s cameras. Let them look. He was a Dragon now, and he needed to see himself and truly comprehend his new form.

There was a large mirror across from the bed, and off to one side. Patients here probably used it all the time to look at themselves after being modified. Amon walked over slowly in front of it. He tried to prepare himself to see his own reflection for the first time, but still couldn’t suppress a soft gasp as he beheld his reflection in the mirror.

Vibrant bright purple, almost pink eyes gazed back at him. His form was both alien to him, and faintly familiar somehow. As a human, he’d been short, thin, and unremarkable. The Draconic figure in the mirror was over 6 feet tall, well muscled, and scaled in greens ranging from deep and dark on his arms to a paler green on his chest. His height, horns, snout, claws, tail, and the confident, powerful posture he’d not even realized he’d taken all combined to form an imposing and noble figure to his eyes.

He raised one clawed hand to the glass and touched it, as if to be sure what he saw wasn’t simply a screen. With his hand rested on the glass, he couldn’t help but smile. His bared fangs gave him a rather wicked look, but he didn’t care. If anything, it made his Draconic appearance more striking. He stepped back and puffed out his chest a little, flexing one arm and grinning again. He’d have stopped to take a photo to share with the others had he not been fully naked.

He continued to stare into his own eyes for a moment more. He'd originally thought he would feel shock, or at least surprise at waking up in an entirely new body. He didn’t. The only emotions were a sense of comfort, satisfaction, relief, and a powerful growing sense of rightness. That, and the feeling that he was being watched.

He looked up at one of the cameras on the ceiling, squinting slightly as though he might be able to see the Human on the other end watching him. If there was one. He was certain it was just his imagination, but the feeling continued to grow. He walked over to the window. Maybe he’d see someone looking at him from a distant window?

Just before he reached the window, a shock of pain hit him, starting in his head, and lashing out through his entire body all at once. He gasped, and instinctively grabbed onto the bedframe to steady himself. Just as quickly as it came, it was gone. He waited for a moment, still holding onto the bedframe to be sure he was steady, then looked down at his hands as if he might see something there that would explain what just happened. Finding nothing, he walked carefully back to the mirror and examined his eyes. No sign they were bloodshot or dilated. He didn’t have medical training though, so he wasn’t really sure what he should be looking for anyway.

Taking a breath, he sat back down on the bed to wait for a moment in case another shock came. Minutes passed and nothing happened. The feeling of being watched continued to nag at him, and strangely, the feeling of rightness. Though the latter seemed to resolve itself into a sort of bold determination rather than pure joy and pride in his new shape.

After he was reasonably sure he was alright, he looked around the room for his clothes. It occurred to him that his old clothes wouldn’t fit anymore. He was nearly a foot taller now than he’d been as a Human, and significantly bulkier besides. A side table across the room held folded clothes with a small square of paper on top. The text was small, but he could read it from clear across the room. It simply read, “From Kai”.

Smiling, he got up to see what Kai had left for him. He found a pair of underwear with a large hole for his tail, and a small clasp just above it that let him bypass the challenge of putting on a garment with three holes in it. It was surprisingly well made, too. The material was at once stretchy and resilient. Anything a Dragon wore likely would need to be given the roughness of his scales.

The included socks were equally well made. They had individual toes with holes in each one for his claws. He had to curl his toes in a bit to avoid slashing a hole into them as he put them on. He managed it, but only barely, and made a mental note to buy a lot more socks, just in case.

The pants were an… Interesting fashion choice. They were a deep, dark purple, and had a slightly velvety sheen to them. He didn’t think they were quite his style, until he saw in the mirror that the color matched his eyes. He smiled at the thoughtfulness Kai appeared to have put into the clothing choices.

The last article was a pair of collared white shirts. He was confused until he saw that one had a reinforced strip going up the back, and the other had a series of holes instead. He realized these were two different ways to accommodate the spines running down his back and tail.

The shirt with the holes looked difficult to put on properly - those spines were almost as sharp as his claws - but he decided to try anyway. He started at the top, carefully lining up the holes with the uppermost spines, then gently tugging the garment in place. He’d never thought of how difficult dressing himself would be once he was bristling with horns, claws, spines, and a tail. He managed it after a few false starts though. He left the last button on the shirt undone to expose a little more of the vibrant green colouring on his chest.

In the middle of admiring the new clothes in the mirror, a knock sounded at the door, followed far too quickly by a nurse holding a small tablet.

“Oh, you’re up.” She eyed him for a moment, looking particularly unimpressed, before glancing down at the tablet and tapping a few times. “No health abnormalities, you can go home now.”

“Ah, I…” Before Amon could even piece a thought together, the nurse left without a backward glance. Displeasure smouldered inside of Amon. Shouldn’t the nurses in these facilities be more attentive? He’d just undergone an extensive surgical procedure. Surely she couldn’t assess his wellbeing with a casual glance?

The stares and hostile words from the Humans in the lobby made more sense to Amon now. He could better imagine himself in Kai’s place being confronted by those glares and muttered curses. The thought of having to face that didn’t bother him though. He was a Dragon now. He could weather that. And, he thought, he would have to when he returned to the lobby. And for the rest of his life after that.

Taking a breath, he looked once more at his reflection. He still couldn’t help but give a toothy smile at the Draconic visage looking back at him. After a short moment gazing at his reflection again, he left the room.

The feeling of eyes on his back followed Amon through the hallway. The feeling of rightness slowly surged alongside it, seemingly unaffected by the former sensation. He had to show Kai his new form. Something about being in the company of other Dragons felt like exactly the what he needed right now, especially considering his growing awareness of the hostility everywhere else.

The lobby looked completely different to him as he walked out into the large room. His increased height made everything smaller, like the room had been built for children. The fact that he was taller than most of the Humans in the room only added to that feeling. He found he was also able to focus on more of what he saw at one time too. As a Human, he’d glance from thing to thing, taking in details one by one. As a Dragon, he swept his eyes over the space, taking in colours, objects, and people in swaths, seeing and understanding it all far more quickly than he had before.

His suite of mods did include visual and cognitive enhancements, but he’d not truly understood what that would actually feel like. Should it feel so drastically different though? Perhaps his mind was simply reacting well to the mods, or the Neural Retraining had been more effective than expected.

He put those thoughts aside as he finished scanning the room, finding a wide open space around where Kai was seated. He’d ended up seated across two of the seats with his tail draped across a third, and was intently scrolling through his phone. He’d clearly noticed Amon’s return though, as grin slowly spread across his muzzle with each step he took towards him.

Kai pocketed his phone as soon as Amon was close enough, and rose from the small seats. He was still taller and bulkier than Amon, but the mods had closed that gap significantly.

“Well,” Kai said once Amon was close, “you’re looking…” He trailed off, simply grinning at him.

“Myself, finally?” Amon replied with a grin of his own. Part of him felt that was a strange thing to say. He’d presented himself online as a “Dragon” for years now, but the idea of actually getting modified was the furthest thing from his mind up until yesterday. Even so, it felt right to say it. He was himself now.

Kai seemed to agree, grinning wider, then wrapping him in a massive hug. Amon returned the embrace, even though he couldn’t quite wrap his arms around the other Dragon’s massive frame. Kai had to lean down to accommodate Amon’s smaller height too, which let Amon rest his muzzle on Kai’s shoulder. Kai leaned into the gesture in a way that was surprisingly affectionate, especially considering the setting. Amon heard a few tsk’s and muttered words from the Humans nearby, but disregarded them. This connection with another Dragon outweighed the opinions of any Human by far.

That feeling of being watched intensified as they embraced. Was it simply the room full of humans? Something told him that wasn’t quite true… But what else could it be?

As they finally pulled apart, Amon saw a look of concern on Kai’s face.

“Kai, what?…”

All perception simply ceased.

…

And then returned all at once. Not in a rush or burst. It simply wasn’t and then it was. Kai was still in front of him, but slumped over while standing, muttering to himself just as he had at the meetup the other day.

“Oh no, not here…”

Amon didn’t need to look around the room to know the outcome of what was about to happen. He did anyway, and was met with a room full of Human eyes, all glaring either at him, or at Kai’s unconscious form.

“Fucking freaks…”

“Go the hell home!”

“I swear someone should…”

A rough, guttural snarl ripped it’s way from Kai’s throat. Several of the Humans nearby screamed, and the ring that had formed around them suddenly widened. Several of them started shoving their way through the crowd toward the exit.

Amon’s gaze whipped from the crowd back to Kai. What he saw was wrong in a way he couldn’t fully comprehend. Kai’s head turned quickly and sharply in seemingly random directions. His mouth hung open at an unnatural angle, and strings of drool dripped toward the ground. His golden eyes had lost their keen sharpness and were instead wide and feral, darting around the room.

Suddenly, Kai looked at Amon and snarled again, taking a step forward. His claws raked across one of the seats near him.

Amon felt panic building within him. This wasn’t the primate part of his brain demanding that he flee. In fact, that part seemed to be simply be gone. This was the feeling of seeing another Dragon that seemed to be… Wrong, somehow. It less fear, and more a cold, yet insistent existential dread.

That dread at least allowed Amon to function, unlike the Humans crowded around the two of them that seemed torn between running and simply watching. Amon took a step back, staying out of Kai’s reach. As he watched, he started to notice something strange.

Kai continued to look around the room, and took another step forward. He still panted and slavered, but he wasn’t watching Amon. His gaze seemed completely random. He even looked up at the ceiling behind Amon from time to time. Amon glanced up behind him for a moment and found nothing of interest beyond light fixtures and the occasional camera dome. Had Kai’s gaze moments ago been only a coincidence? Amon felt compelled to answer that dread within him. If this was only part of Kai's hallucination…

Amon took a step forward and waved his hand in front of Kai. He didn’t react, though he did rasp out something between a growl and a hiss, clawing more gouges into the row of seats. Amon advanced another step, now within arms reach of Kai, and waved both hands directly in front of his face.

Kai still didn’t react. This was different from whatever had happened at the meetup, but it was still just a hallucination. The dread within Amon eased a few degrees. The hallucinations were a known problem and this could give them more information. Kai would be fine in just a few more moments, surely.

Abruptly, Kai slumped over as he had before and began muttering again after a short moment. Amon’s relief was short lived, however, as angry mutters began in the crowd surrounding the two of them.

“This is exactly why these kinds of mods should be illegal…”

“They’re completely out of control!”

“Like fucking animals…”

“Someone should do something…”

Amon put his back to Kai, sweeping his eyes back and forth across the crowd, searching for threats. Most of the humans were shorter and weaker than he was, and none of them came close to Kai’s imposing form. Kai was… Well, whatever was happening to him left him unable to defend himself. As Amon glanced around the room he saw three Humans cautiously closing the distance while the rest simply glared from a safe distance.

“Take your freak friend and get the fuck out of here.” The closest one said in what it probably thought was a threatening tone.

Amon didn’t think of himself as someone prone to violence, but these Humans were threatening a Dragon with violence. He opened his mouth to tell the Human to fuck off, but only a low growl coming from deep in his throat passed his lips. The thing’s eyes opened wide, and it fell over as it backed into a chair, scrambling away.

Three more humans seemed to be approaching from the back of the room, all clad in the sort of body armour riot police wore. They didn’t seem to be in any hurry, as if they wanted to watch how this played out.

The other two weren’t wise enough to back away and glanced at one another. One gave a short nod to the other, then rushed in to throw a punch at Amon’s face. His genetically enhanced reflexes worked as designed, and his muscles engaged without him needing to think consciously about it. The punch passed close enough to his muzzle that he felt a rush of air brush over his scales.

He knew he could have grievously wounded the Human, even killed it if he wanted to. He could easily reach it’s throat at this range. He didn’t feel outright hatred for the creature though. Just the sort of disdain and disappointment one might feel for an unruly child.

Rather than maim the Human, he lashed out with his claws in a lightning quick motion, raking it's forearm and spraying a line of bright red blood against the nearby seats.

The crowd seemed to gasp and cry out as one at the display. Part of Amon knew he might have gone too far here, but until he and Kai were out of danger, he’d continue to defend himself as he saw fit.

The wounded Human cradled his wounded arm and glared daggers at Amon. The other’s expression only darkened further. That was, until a deep, bone chilling growl sounded from behind Amon. He didn’t need to look back to know that Kai had woken from his hallucination to find these Humans confronting the two of them. The Human’s expression turned from anger to fear. It glanced around and saw more and more Human faces pressing in on the circle that had formed around them, some of them as angry and hateful as it had been just a moment ago. It's hateful stare returned, bolstered by the sheer strength of numbers.

Amon’s growl joined Kai’s, and they placed themselves back to back, prepared to lash out with claw, or even fang to defend one another from the onslaught.

“All right break it up, break it the fuck up people!” A commanding voice shouted from the back of the crowd. Apparently, Humanitech security had finally decided to intervene in the situation.

“About damn time.” Kai declared angrily as the three security officers pushed through the crowd. “A Premium Member was just attacked on your property and you wait until now to do something?”

The lead officer glanced at Kai with a faintly disdainful expression, then snapped a pair of handcuffs onto the man with the man with the slashed forearm. The blood smeared onto his black gloves glistened in the harsh artificial light of the waiting room.

Kai placed a hand gently on Amon’s shoulder, starting to guide him to the exit.

“Them too.” The officer gestured towards he and Kai.

“What?” Kai demanded, stopping in place.

“You're both under arrest for assault. Come quietly or we’ll use force.” The officer backed up his threat by unholstering what was probably a taser and pointing it at Kai’s chest.

“I didn’t…” Kai growled out, then looked down at Amon. He wasn’t the one that attacked that Human, Amon was. “You’re making a massive mistake…”

Amon wasn’t sure what to do. There were only three officers, and he wasn’t even sure the darts on their tasers would be able to penetrate and latch onto his scales… Even so, there were almost certainly more officers coming to back them up. His scales might stop a taser dart, but they wouldn’t stop a bullet, and at least some of them had to be armed.

“Amon, I’ll get us out of this. We’ll have to go with them for now, but trust me on this.”

Amon looked up at Kai. Strangely, he wasn’t worried or afraid. Even so, Kai’s words gave him strength, if only a little. He placed his hands behind his back and allowed one of the security officers to place a set of cuffs on his wrists. He had to work to contain the growl that tried to rise from his throat.

He didn’t fear these Humans, but the thought of them forcing him into captivity galled him. The guards must have seen his dark expression, for they seemed to treat him more gently than the still-bleeding Human.

After making sure the two Dragons and their assailant were secure, they cleared a path through the crowd back to the interior of the building. Drops of blood marked their path as they were led away toward captivity…