Clara and Robbie did their best to meet with all of the new Project Phoenix volunteers and both felt a certain sense of pride that so many were willing to not only volunteer but remain in the program despite the potential troubles Animalia might face in the future politically. To them it marked a sign of success and offered them some hope of working toward true equality and acceptance that went beyond just Animalia and Lyre and the businesses that saw the potential to make money in helping Animalia. However, that wasn't the thing that either Animalian leader thought on.
Their thoughts both turned to Richard and Martha, two people that had offered to court them and be their mates. Both Robbie and Clara had talked with them before their first meeting on the phone and knew a few things about each other and what had attracted Richard to Clara and Martha to Robbie before their first meeting. "Being sleek" might have been part of Martha's decision to choose the Red Fox, but there were plenty of animals world wide that were just as sleek as foxes, if not sleeker. And while Richard's admiration for the Mountain Lion as an animal and as his old school's mascot might be his ultimate reason for choosing to become a Mountain Lion Animalian, that didn't necessarily demand that he be Clara's mate.
What they'd found in their respective phone conversations were many of the same things that had in many ways attracted Robbie and Clara to each other before. Both Richard and Martha were looking for companionship in ways that went beyond physical attraction. Martha seemed attracted to Robbie's cleverness and Richard felt Clara to be personally caring for others in a way that many others hadn't. It was that sort of thing that had attracted both Robbie and Clara to meet Martha and Richard in person, and as they finished meeting with the others, they turned to the Horizon Labs staff that would be helping with each introduction of the Animalia Virus into each Project Phoenix volunteer. Those things were also what gave Robbie and Clara the optimistic hope that Martha and Richard the hope would truly have the personalities that fit well with being a Vixen and a male Mountain Lion respectively.
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"You came back!" Martha declared with some excitement when Robbie returned to the room that she was in with the member of the Horizon staff that was to administer the Animalia Virus to her. Her voice sounded happy and excited at that, though as she continued, Robbie noticed it fell off. "It'd thought I'd put you off earlier..."
"No... no you didn't," Robbie answered, doing his best to control himself.
Their previous conversations had been over the phone or through the internet and thus he didn't know the full facts behind the difficulties behind what Martha had had to deal with with regard to what she had dealt with and thus had been surprised when they first met. However, just like his friendship with Clara, Robbie wasn't about to let Martha go alone. He wasn't fully familiar or aware of the full details of her condition, but he wanted her to be happy and healthy, even if it ultimately meant that it wouldn't work out with her.
"It might have a surprise for me..." Robbie said slowly as he approached her, "but that doesn't mean that you don't deserve to be happy and healthy. And Project Phoenix will allow for that, as the first batch of volunteers demonstrated. And I would more than love to learn and get to know things better..."
"But you wouldn't need to learn about my condition if... WHEN I am an Animalian," Martha pointed out.
Robbie slowly reached out and touched her hand. Physically she might not presently look like someone one would find sexually attractive, but if his friendship with Clara had taught him anything, it was that looks weren't everything. He wasn't to simply stand by in any way that wouldn't let them get to know each other better, especially when the Animalia Virus would pretty much let Martha be cured of her deficiencies.
"We can help others," Robbie offered, "and even knowing things that isn't a problem is helpful. It's related to being smart..."
"Really?" Martha asked, a smile beginning to form on her lips.
"Really," Robbie nodded politely, "and now... let's move on..."
With that he gestured to the Horizon Lab technician who had stood quietly watching the entire conversation. In his hands was a lone syringe, presently with its orange safety cap covering the needle. He waited politely had said nothing during the exchange between the two.
"Okay, the virus is loaded inside the syringe with specialized solution," the technician spoke, "It may take a little while for the virus to take effect, but once it begins it should be quick."
"I'm ready," Martha said slowly.
"For warning, you may feel some discomfort," the technician warned, "as your body burns through what it needs to transform."
"Yes... I remember feeling a bit strange when I was first uplifted," Robbie commented, "but I will be here with you... just in case you need anything..."
"I'm ready," Martha repeated.
The technician nodded and slowly approached Martha. He first rolled up her sleeve and applied a small alcohol swab to her arm and rubbed in a slow circular motion to clean the area and prep it for the injection. Martha sat quietly while Robbie held her other hand, hoping to be there to steady her if she needed it. Once the technician had prepped the site for the injection, he then removed the orange safety cap and moved to inject it. Robbie noticed that the length of the actual needle was fairly long.
"You may feel a bit of a pinch," the technician said to Martha, who only gripped Robbie's hand as the technician made the injection and then depressed the syringe's plunger. "I'll leave you two be. Be sure to call if you have any trouble."
Robbie nodded as the technician withdrew the syringe and then walked out. He remained with Martha and continued to hold her hand. She still looked as though she wanted to be free from the conditions that her lepten deficiency had caused. He held her hand and waited, and periodically patted the back of the hand that he held to assure her that things would be fine. Martha sat still and smiled slightly and waited for the Animalia Virus to kick in. The site where the injection was made felt a bit warm, but nothing more had happened yet. They waited for a few moments, but after awhile, Martha felt her whole body begin to feel warm.
"Is it hot in here?" Martha asked to Robbie as she felt her body grow warmer and looked to him.
Robbie looked to her and noticed some beads of sweat forming and rolling down her face. It wasn't super heavy, but it was just enough that he could see it. However, that wasn't the biggest thing that he noticed. The biggest thing was an obvious change in her eyes. He watched as her eyes became a bright orange color and as the pupils of her eyes were stretching upward, becoming vertical slits. Despite being members of the "Dog Family," foxes had many more cat-like features and behaviors. Some of this was even seen in their scientific name. The Gray Wolf was known as Canis Lupus. The Red Fox, which Robbie was and Martha was becoming, was Vulpes Vulpes, and one of the Red Fox's more cat-like features were its vertical slit pupils. Martha's eye's now took on that shape.
"You're starting to change," Robbie told her as he watched more beads of sweat roll down Martha's face, "You're starting to become an Animalian."
"But I feel warm..." Martha spoke and then scratched her side for a moment, and Robbie noticed that her arm moved further in than it had before she made contact with her side, "... warm and itchy..."
Robbie simply held her hand and watched as her fingernails lengthened into stubby claws and a faint covering of black fur was starting to grow on her hands. In this he knew her transformation was beginning in earnest, and with each bead of sweat she seamed to be losing weight, like the transformation was burning fat rapidly. Some of it he knew would be converted into muscle mass that would be typical of any adult Animalian, male or female, and some would go into her tail, and a part of him couldn't wait.
"That's just part of the change," Robbie told her and helped her to her feet.
"I..." Martha said as she took a few tentative steps when her pants and underwear simply dropped to the floor. The loose fitting sandals she wore on her feet fell off. She looked down see her shirt was hanging more loosely over her, BUT she could see her breasts firming underneath her shirt and with a downy coat of white fur on them. The biggest thing she noticed was that her stomach was shrinking back. She still felt warm and itchy, but she was now feeling a great deal of energy swelling up in her as well.
"It's happening," Martha gave a smile to Robbie and soon felt herself rising up onto the balls of her feet. She began to move forward and almost dancing, relishing the energy she felt pouring from her.
Robbie could only smile. When she smiled, he could see her teeth starting to sharpen and change toward the sharp teeth that all foxes had. He couldn't see any more sweat on her, but she was now also covered in the fairly typical fur color of the Red Fox. Red Foxes weren't always red. The Red Fox had a great many different color phases and mutations, which ranged from crossed gray/silver and red orange, silver, to even a bluish/silver coat. Martha was turning into a fairly typical Red Fox, with her head, back, and much of her body would be reddish orange, while the fur around her lips, neck, and belly was white with her ears, hands, forearms, and feet being covered in black fur. Her tail, when it eventually grew, would be mostly reddish orange with a white tip.
"Yes," Robbie smiled to her, "and you're becoming quite beautiful... letting your outside match the beauty that was always there."
Martha turned back found herself smiling happily as she could now feel her muscles growing and growing well toned. When Robbie first helped her to her feet, she was well shorter than Robbie, but now their height difference wasn't quite as great. She felt stronger and more powerful. She felt better than she'd ever felt. She felt her face soon begin to push forward, almost like rubber into a narrow vulpine muzzle with a black triangle at its tip for her nose. Then she felt her tail begin to grow in behind her. Slowly and painlessly, it pushed out behind her, growing out just above her butt. As it lengthened it also grew fluffier and fluffier as the fur grow thick around her. As her transformation finished, she gave a low yip as she stood there a Red Fox Animalian vixen.
Martha had slimmed down from where she had been before getting her dosage of the Animalia Virus. While she looked a bit older than Robbie and was only a single doser, one wouldn't know that at first. Martha was still an adult and as an adult Animalian, she now had an amazon's build and she loved it. She might need some new clothes, but that would go along with the other things that she would need as a new Vixen. Then she caught the scent of an aroused male fox and turned with a smile to Robbie with a smile on her muzzle.
"Thank you," Martha spoke as she walked forward and hugged Robbie, feeling her breasts compress against his chest. The two then kissed, though kissing probably wasn't going to be where the two would stop at the moment. Not after Robbie had been so kind to her and looked past how she looked on the outside when they first met.