Namakata: The Experiment

Posted 4-7 April, 1998 on alt.devilbunnies.
©1998 by Scott Bernier, except for 'guest' appearence by Jim "Steekman" Stickney.
First HTML-ized 7 April, 1998 by Scott Bernier

"...these are the final test results?" (curiousflick)

Tamarack (affirmativeflick). It was his first day back on the job. Finally, the kits were old enough not to need constant attention from both him and his mate, Tasselfur. School would be set-up for the youngsters in just a few more days. He stood there while Aldin examined the test results that he had pawed to him. Though he had been one of the slower students at first, under the combined guidance of Aldin and Mustard, he had caught-on fast.

"Excellent. Good job." Aldin turned. "Mustard? You've seen the computer models. You know the risks. Still willing to go through with it?"

Mustard paused for a moment from directing some of the other lab assistants in minor experiments and thought long and hard. And then nodded slowly.

"The tail works. It would be nice to have full ears again."

"Very well, we'll perform the procedure tomorrow at 9am. Get some rest, the others can help me in do the prep work..."

"If you don't mind, Aldin, it is my body, I'd like to help oversee that work."

(verywellflick) "As you wish."

They spent the rest of the day preparing the nanite solution and going over details. Aldin prepared a solution of liquefied Spam™ to provide the nanites with the raw material need to regrow the top inch of Mustard's ears.

That evening Mustard enjoyed a large meal with Aldin, Ash and their kits, who were growing-up fast and called him, "Unca Mus". Well, all but Cloudchitter who called him by his proper name, Mustard. After the meal, he made his way to his burrow and collapsed in his sleeping hollow too tired to make a journal entry. He was just drifting-off to sleep when there was a scratching at the door.

(yawnfluff) "Enter..."

Mapletip peered through the doorway. (apologeticflick) "I didn't realize you would be in bed already. I can come back..."

Mustard sat-up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "No, you're here now, might as well come in. What can I do for you."

Mapletip bounded over to him. "Aren't you worried about tomorrow?" She grabbed her tail for fear it would reveal how concerned she was for Mustard.

"Not a bit. Aldin's proved he's capable. You were present the last time, and nothing went wrong. I'll be fine." Mustard shocked himself at how calm he was. "Would it help calm your fears if I told you about it?"

She nodded and he provided an overview of what would take place. It wouldn't be much different then what Aldin had performed with her help the previous week. The actual regrowth would take longer, since a bun's ears were more complicated then a bun's tail, but otherwise there wasn't much of a difference. By the time he was through explaining, she was providing him with his weekly rubdown again and he was relaxing in his sleeping hollow, starting to drift-off.

"One more thing, Mustard...."

"hmmm..."

"When is this going to take place?" (curiousflick)

"...tomorrow....9...am..." (snooze)

Mapletip nodded in satisfaction. She quietly tipclawed-out, and carefully shut the door, making sure it didn't lock. She returned briefly at about 4am, looking about before entering quietly with a small bundle. She left locking the door this time about a minute later.

"You might feel a little giddy or light headed from this, Mustard. Don't worry about it, that's just the side affect of having concentrated Spam™ in the bloodstream." Mustard sat in a comfy chair provided for him. Aldin inserted the syringe in Mustard's forepaw and sent the plunger home slowly injecting 5cc's of liquefied Spam™ into Mustard's system. He waited a moment to see how Mustard would react.

Mustard felt fine at first but then things started to take on a fuzzier, slightly cuter tone. He felt wonderful. Aldin noted the slight glazing in his patient's eyes. At this point he injected the nanites into Mustard. He waited a full minute.

"Activate the nanites." One of his assistance sent the command through the computer which in turn transmitted a signal to the nanites.

"They are activated...making their way through the body, slowly multiplying towards the predetermined number as they go..."

Aldin gave Mustard the second and final injection of Spam™.

"They're making their way up his ears to the scar tissue..."

The lab door opened. Aldin glared towards the door at the interruption. Most would know better then to come into a lab during an experiment. He (sighflicked) when he saw who it was and motioned Mapletip to join them. He gave he a look warning her to stay out of the way.

"They're starting to do the job," called-out Tamarack, who never noticed that his sister-in-law had entered.

Mustard felt warm and fuzzy as his ears started to itch. He turned towards Aldin and locked his gaze on Mapletip.

"Vital signs normal...his temperature is rising slightly as expected...wait a minute...his heart beat's rising..."

Mustard focused in on Mapletip like a light at the end of the tunnel, he saw nothing else. She smiled coyly at him and flicked her tail ever so slightly in his direction.

"Aldin, the nanites have not stopped reproducing at the predetermined level, they're still multiplying..."

Mustard shot-out of the chair, with the sensors attached to the monitoring equipment coming untaped from his body. He didn't care, all he wanted was the doe of his life. Mapletip shot-out of the lab with Mustard close on her tail. This all happened to quickly for any of the other squirrels to react.

Aldin hit the intercom. "Security, track-down and detain Mapletip and Mustard. I need them uninjured if at all possible!" He then whipped around to the squirrel monitoring the nanite levels. "What do you mean, they are still multiplying?"

(panicflick) "Just that. Actually, they had stopped at the predetermined level and had started to work on the ears and then...they suddenly shot-up in number as his heart rate increased."

"His temperature also started to rise before the equipment got disconnected," Tamarack added. "We expected a couple of degrees, but not 5 degrees and still climbing..."

Aldin hit the intercom again. "Security, find, but do not approach Mapletip and especially Mustard. We don't know what to expect. Radio me as soon as you find them. I'll have to deal with it myself." He didn't wait for an acknowledgment as he cut-off the signal and grabbed a squirrel-sized laptop and started downloading the nanite shut-down sequence into it. When it was done, he grabbed a head comm unit and bounded out the door with laptop on his back.

"The rest of you stay here, I'll probably need you when I return!" he called over his shoulder before the door closed behind him.

Mapletip was delighted by the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she was chased outside by Mustard. The first half of her plan had worked. Now if she could lead him far enough away from the warren for the rest of the plan to unfold before Aldin or the others caught-up...

Over rocks and under fallen trees she darted and dodged with Mustard nearly on her tail. She really wished rabbits could climb trees like squirrels, it would make this much more exhilarating, but no matter, she wouldn't have to wish that for much longer. Next time, they'd both would leap from tree to tree with ease.

For what seemed like ages but was more like 15 minutes she led the bun on a chase further and further from Namakata. When she felt they were far enough away to not worry about 'help' arriving in time, she leapt onto a tree trunk and dangled by her forepaws, flicking her tail up. She would have preferred a treetop, but realized her 'Chosen' wouldn't be able to make the climb...yet. (gigglechitter)

Mustard leapt up after Mapletip, grabbing onto her shoulders...

[Narrative Interuption: Well we won't go into descriptions here for it would breach the [PiG-13] rating and fear of overexciting certain symps. Nor do we want to upset readers with young children, though they and anyone else could watch this (well not cross-species, but you get the idea) on Discovery or Nature...]

Security caught-up with them 20 minutes later, with Aldin practically on their tails. Mapletip had a very satisfied expression on her muzzle, as she caressed Mustard's unconsious head lightly with her forepaws. That expression quickly melted to guilt under Aldin's glare. Mustard lay on his side. His ears had rounded and shrunk slightly and his tail was slowly elongating as they watched. The severed ends of his rearpaws had also started to grow back, but smaller, more squirrel-like then devilbunny.

With no time to waste, Aldin unslung the laptop from his back, taped sensors to Mustards prone form and transmitted the shut-down signal to the nanites...several times. He called in his coordinates and requested a stretcher be brought-out as quickly as possible and to prep the lab for an emergency and prayed it wasn't too late for the bun.

Posted by Jim "Steekman" Stickney

In alt.devilbunnies, it was wrote:
>  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13  PIG-13
>
>WARNING:  The following has been rated PiG-13 as it may not be
>suitable for all kits.

Woo HOO! YES! This looks promising. Lemme get the popcorn...

GT;[Narrative Interuption:  Well we won't go into descriptions here for
GT;it would breach the [PiG-13] rating and fear of overexciting certain
GT;symps. 

WHAT?!?

You unspeakable cad, Moxie! You tease!

And you *knew* I was waiting for this, didn't you?

Oh well, no matter.

But... you know, if *I* had written this story, I probably would have done it a little differntly. Not sure how, though. Hmm.... lemme think... yeah, I'd have done something...

Something like this. >:)

>"Mustard leapt up after Mapletip, grabbing onto her shoulders and curling
>his body around her form. His paws moved to her mid-section and pulled her
>in to a forbidden embrace that no other squirrel had ever felt before. His
>whiskers brushed her cheek as the scent of her body filled his nostrils,
>urging him onward into a melding of body and soul that would live on within
>Mapletip for as long as she lived.
>
>"They mated in a flurry of gasps and sighs, each adding to the noises of
>forbidden passion that echoed through the cold, quiet forest. And the heat
>of their love-making broke the chill on the forest for one small moment, as
>rabbit and squirrel joined together in a bonding of pleasure and delight."

But then, that'd probably offend someone, I'm sure. So I'm sure I'd never post this onto the group or anything.

- Jim, AKA
- Steekman@cchono.com     O><
- Am I forgiven, Moxie? 

All the while, Mapletip caressed Mustard's head worriedly. Ten more minutes, if they had maybe ten more minutes alone, Aldin would have been forced to allow the nanites to finish their job.

Aldin looked at her and glared. (chatterspit) "What did you do to my henchbun?!!" (demandflick) "He's changing into a squirrel and I don't know what I'll be able to do about it..." (angryflick)

Mapletip cowered backwards under Aldin's barage, gently releasing her grip on Mustard's body. (sniffle) "You could just...let it happen..." she whispered. (selfishflick) "You could let him completely change..." She intertwined her tail with Mustard's new tail. "It would be best for all involved."

Aldin sat back in a daze of disbelief momentarily. He had never seen a more love-sick squirrel. He then demanded in a slightly kinder, but still commanding tone, "What EXACTLY did you do to him and when? It's important, Mapletip. Mustard's life could depend on your answers."

Mapletip broke-down into tears over fear for her Mustard. She thought for a moment and then explained. She had listened intently to the instructions Aldin had given her the previous week. How the nanites were based on a batch that had been found in the warren freezer. That meant only one possibility, they had to have been of the type used to enhance the intelligence of their ancestors. So they could have been programmed to recognize and work on squirrel DNA. To make them work on bunny DNA called for some reprogramming, delicate reprogramming that could be easily upset and the nanites could possibly revert to their original function.

Aldin nodded and she continued.

"Well," (sniffle) "I visited Mustard last night as I've done every week and gave him a back massage..."

Aldin raised his tailtip ever so slightly at this. He had heard rumors about the late night visits, but doubted them since Mustard had stated several times about his lack of interest in female squirrels.. He knew Mapletip had been trying to win Mustard's heart, but he had no clue how lovestruck she was over him...

"He talked about the upcoming experiment and went into some of the details to calm my fears and it stirred my memory of what you said to me about a week back. How the nanites might get confused if they were exposed to squirrel DNA..."

The puzzle pieces started to fall into place in Aldin's mind.

"So after he fell asleep, I made-up my mind. In the middle of the night, I went to the infirmary and got 10cc's of squirrel androgen hormones and injected him with it, followed by 5cc's of squirrel blood similar in type to his own in hopes that some of hormone would still be present in his bloodstream during the experiment and that his system wouldn't reject the blood..."

"And the blood confused the nanites, making them think they were working on a squirrel and made the necessary 'corrections' to the bun DNA!" Aldin exclaimed. He then thought to himself, *Spirit, I'll have to start from scratch to help Mustard.*

Mapletip nodded. "Then I showed-up after you injected him with the nanites and lead him off. Then I prayed you wouldn't find-us until after he'd changed completely. I knew that part would be easy considering the amount of squirrel androgen I gave him." Mapletip wept. "I love him. I just wanted him to love me back as mates should..."

By this time, the stretcher arrived and Mustard's unconscious body was hoisted onto it and rushed back to the lab with Aldin following. The security squirrels led Mapletip back afterwards. She was confined to her quarters until the ruling Council of Elders could be appraised of the situation and decide what to do.

"Aldin..."

"No, try again..."

"Aldin!" Tamarack did something he never thought he'd do, he slapped the muzzle of an elder. "Get a hold of yourself. We've done what we can for now. If we try any more, we might as well allow the nanites to completely convert him."

Aldin stared in shock at Tamarack a moment and felt the side of his muzzle where Tamarack had smacked him. (apologeticflick) "You're right. I was just wishing to avoid what I have to do next..."

Aldin stared Mustard's unconscious form buried under taped-on sensors and wires in the isolation chamber. His assistants had strapped Mustard down onto a comfortable bed so that he wouldn't hurt himself or them when he came around. For the past six hours Mustard had been sedated as Aldin and his team tried to coax the nanites into reversing the 'damage' done to his body. Instead of following the commands sent to them, every time the nanites were activated, they continued to physically alter Mustard with slow, painstaking precision. He now had a full squirrel's tail, smaller, more rounded (when compared to a bun) rodent ears and his forepaws had started to shrink slightly more towards what a grey squirrel would have. His rear paws had completed regrowing and were a combination of squirrel and bun--size of a squirrels, but had kept a bun's muscle/bone structure. The claws could be extended like a bun's, but could not be completely contracted.

The mentat side of Aldin's mind pondered over this contemplating whether or not Mustard would have an easier time climbing trees. He brushed the thought aside in disgust at himself. He looked again at the data collected from the past several hours. As far as they could tell through the various sensors, neither Mustard's internal organs nor the majority of his bone and muscle structure had shown any signs of changing from that of devilbunny.

(sighchitter) "I may be forced to fulfill Mapletip's wishes," Aldin mumbled to himself as he grabbed a syringe and entered the chamber.

He gave the injection to the bun-squirrel and then waited a few minutes for the medication to work. Mustard stirred, and groaned, fluttering his eyelids.

(calmflick) "Mustard?" Aldin chittered gently.

Mustard's eyelids fluttered a little more and then shot open. He looked about and stared at Aldin. His mind was cloudy for a moment and then he remembered chasing Mapletip through the woods and...

"No..." (shakesheadinthenegative) "I couldn't have!" (panicflick) *FLICK?!?! NNNOOO!!!* He pulled tightly against the restraints for a moment and then collapsed in exhustion.

Aldin could easily read the expression on Mustard's muzzle. He continued in as calm a voice as possible. "You received some injections early this morning while you were asleep. I didn't know about them until after we caught-up with you half a mile from the warren. Please believe me, Mustard, if I had known about the injections, we would have aborted the experiment."

Mustard became relatively calm for a bun who had been through what he had been through. "What sort of injection." (SNICK!) *At least I still have my claws!* he added in thought to himself.

Aldin explained about the blood and hormones and what it seemed to have done to the nanites. "...it will take sometime for me to produce a batch of nanites from scratch to try and reverse the change..."

"How much time?" (patientflick) *Fluff, Frith damn it! Fluff!* (flick)

(drooptail) "I don't know. In the meantime, I'll need to run some tests to see how much this has affected you and if you'll be able to function at least semi-normally in your current state. All I do know is that the alternative is to let the current interrupted change take its course and you'd become physically, fully one of us."

Mustard tried to droop his ears, and his tail did so instead. "May I have a better look at my body?" (pleadflick) *Why can't I fluff???*

Aldin glanced behind himself to ensure the door to the chamber was secured and started to untape the sensors from Mustard and then he undid the straps. Mustard sat-up and stretched and felt dizzy momentarily. Aldin indicated a full-length mirror in the corner and warned him to move slowly towards it. Mustard had a hard time maintaining his balance with the squirrel tail as he tried to hop over to it. He didn't protest the offered support from Aldin.

Mustard spent almost five minutes looking over his body and giving the tail a few experimental flicks. Try as he might, he couldn't get his new, smaller ears to droop or wiggle, but they did have the blacktips just like his old ones before the amputation. He also noted that his summer pelt had filled-in quickly and the new ears and tail matched with no grey in them.

After several minutes, he found that if he concentrated just right, he could still fluff, but subconscious body language went straight to the tail. (SNICK!) Mustard suddenly lashed-out at a nearby counter with all four paws, gouging it deeply and landed awkwardly as his new tail threw him off balance. He collopsed in exhustion over the effort, but cackled at still having his claws, including his rear. He ceased suddenly when that cackling came-out as a slight chitter. In horror, he covered his muzzle with his forepaws and noticed that they were slightly smaller and that his claws didn't completely retract.

Aldin was quickly by his side with concern written across his muzzle. "I know it will be tough to get use to, but" (hopefullyflick) "it will only be temporary."

"Mapletip is behind this, isn't she?" Mustard already suspected but wanted confirmation.

Aldin nodded. "She's madly in love with you, Mustard. Currently, she's confined to quarters until the Council of Elders decide what to do with her, which partially depends on you."

"Me? Why would they be concerned with a bun?"

"You were declared one of us after you saved those ten on the ice. Therefore, you are allowed the same justice since you are the victim this time around. But we can worry about that later. You have a difficult decision you must make right now. We can't hold the nanites in your body in check for much longer. We either have to destroy them or let them complete the change after which they will dissolve on their own. If you choose to have them destroyed, it shouldn't be hard to duplicate the accident later to complete the change if you should change your mind later. However..."

"However?" (curiousflick) *Fluff! I meant fluff!* (flick)

"If you should choose to fully become a squirrel, it will be more difficult for me to reverse the conversion, maybe near impossible, due to the loss body weight and bone restructure involved. At least in your current state, it wouldn't be as hard to reverse the damage...with time." (howeverflick) "It will still be quite risky, all the same."

Mustard thought for a moment. "I have no more wish to become a full-fledge tree rat now then I did the first day I set paw here. If down the road, you find you can't reverse this, then and only then we'll contemplate that idea again."

"Very well..." Aldin moved over to a computer terminal and sent the command. Mustard felt a tingling sensation that started in his extremities and moved over the rest of his body. "It may take thirty minutes or so. In the meantime, I suggest you take it easy in your quarters. You must be exhusted after what your body has been through."

Though he had been out cold for hours, Mustard nodded in agreement. (wearyflick) *Fluff! I wanted to fluff not..* (flick). Mustard sighed.

Even though Mustard was a devilbunny, Aldin felt great pity for him. Aldin didn't like the idea of forcing a being into converting into something they weren't meant to be with one exception, but he didn't have his paws on that certain bun at the moment. *LonGears would make a nice chipmunk...* (contemplateflick) Aldin thought for a moment before pulling himself back to the problem at hand.

"I've ordered a large dinner to be prepared for you. I'm sure you're hungry after your ordeal. And I know you'll need the fuel to provide the energy to recover."

As if on cue, Mustard's stomach rumbled. Aldin (chittergiggled) as he walked his patient to the door. "I want to thank you for taking this calmly, Mustard."

"What? Part of me wants to rip you to shreds, Mentat, but then who'd help me?" Mustard gave his boss a (fangygrin) which didn't look quite right on his muzzle anymore as they left the chamber. Inwardly, Aldin felt relieved. Mustard was still bun inside, this could possibly increase the chances of changing him back. Aldin led Mustard over to his burrow and left him be. He then sent his weary staff home for the night before heading to the kitchen to personally oversee the preparation of Mustard's dinner.

"Rabbit, begin personal journal entry..."

"As you wish, Mustard," the computer voice droned.

"I don't know why I've remained so calm over what has happened to my body. Maybe that's a side effect of the situation. I wonder if I'd have remain this calm if I had completely changed into a tree rat. The tingling has stopped, so I assume that means that the nanites have been washed from my system." (shudderflicksigh) "I have to concentrate to get a decent 'fluff'.." (fluff). "Otherwise the squirrel tail now stuck to my backside flicks" (flick, flick, flick) "about. I'll have to tie it against my body when working in the lab. The sooner I get back to work, the sooner I can help Aldin find a way to reverse this. Then I can consider who I need to take revenge upon and how.

"I should have seen this coming. I should have realized Mapletip would have pulled something. All this time I thought I was fooling her, when I was the real fool. Now...now, I don't know what I feel towards her. In my current state I don't trust my feelings. Part of me is extremely repulsed by what I did under the influence of those tree rat hormones and I'd love to rip her to shreds just on principle...maybe try-out some squirrel recipes in the kitchen. (fangygrin) Another part...well let's just say that whether I like it or not in some circles we are now mates....and by honor, I may have to accept that and...(shudderflick) I'll have to keep that in mind once... if my head clears-up in a few days...(drifts off in thought for a moment).. at least I'm still golden brown in coloration..." (SNICK!) "and I still have my claws, and on the hindpaws too!" (hopflicktrip--sits-up) "Maybe if I just tie-off the tail now, so it won't hinder my movement..."

(scratch, scratch, scratch...)

(sighflick) "Rabbit, cease dictation....enter."

The door opened partway and Mustard's nostrils quivered as he smelled something he hadn't smelled in a long time. He started to salivate as he turned to see Aldin wheeling in a large covered tray on a cart ahead of himself into the burrow and then shut the door with a flick of his tail.

"Evening, Mustard. I said you should have a big dinner. I had been saving these to give to you as a gift, either in celebration of the successful completion of our research (drooptail) or if and when you leave. I felt you could use the pick-me-up after today's disaster and decided to give these..."

Aldin uncovered the dish and Mustard couldn't believe his eyes as they felt like they grew to the size of saucers. His nose hadn't been playing tricks on him.

"...to you now."

"How...where...why?" He wiped drool from his muzzle as Aldin got up to leave.

"One of the cooks found them deep in one of the freezers a couple weeks back. He wasn't too pleased in preparing the dishes, but owed us a favor. You met him a couple weeks back when we healed his tail. I'm sure some of my Fudd friends would get upset if they found-out we still had some of these. If you want me to find some more in the future you'll have to help me make sure that they don't find out." Aldin winked. "Besides, I owe a little something to my 'bestest henchbunny' after putting-up such a brave front considering what he's been through today." Aldin bowed slightly in respect and left.

Mustard dug in heartily into the sauted toes, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and cashews on a bed of rice with a large tossed salad on the side and toe cake for dessert. He forgot all about any worries or anger he may have had and instead concentrated on enjoying his meal. Maybe, just maybe, once this was all over, he'd let the squirrel live. Later on he would scare himself when he'd subconciously admit that he enjoyed the nuts as much as the toes.

End (for the moment)