Many things that Horizon did with regard to the Animalia Virus, even after the discovery of what it was and what it did could still potentially come off as "mad science." At first they could claim it was an accident, but the labs also knew that much of the continued experiments with it regarding what animals it did affect and what ones they didn't effect had the potential raise a lot of concerns. Many critics in fact made the accusation that Horizon was playing God with the Animalia Virus. Particularly as they were now looking at ways to uplift a female Lake Trout and a male Great White Shark, even though fish seemed unaffected by the previous outbreaks. This also included naturalists who voiced concerns that they couldn't be taking the sharks out of the ocean to join Animalia when their global population was already in serious decline due to human fishing and pollution. Thankfully, though, Horizon's CEO, Melvin Qvite, had the idea that this could be sold as a means to really help with regard to oceanography and the study of lakes. Ran, once uplifted could also work with those naturalists to clean up the drift nets that were either abandoned or left out too long and thus help save the mundane shark populations.
The uplifted Orcas and Dolphins were all used to aquatic environments and could swim, but they were still mammals and would be limited by their need to breathe. They might be able to hold their breath longer than normal humans, but they would still have to come up for air which would limit what they could do. Ariel and Ran would provide options for scientific study that at present could only be accomplished through machines and while Melvin knew machines could do the job well, he'd seen enough science fiction movies to hold the opinion that relying on machines for everything had flaws. There was a certain amount of flexibility that would be provided by a more organic element, and if they improved the world in the long term, all the better.
"So, are we ready?" Melvin asked as he looked into the tank in which Ran presently was in. The tank was filled with salt water, kept at the same salinity as the Pacific Ocean off of California where the shark was captured. It was made of thick clear Plexiglas and allowed him to look in. The large shark spent its time circling and Melvin could see its large black eye stare out.
"Pretty much, sir," one scientist said to him, "Much like the Project Phoenix volunteers have seen on occasion we've had to do a bit with the specific strains of the virus for these two... similar to how the volunteer who became an Orca had to have his dose specially made."
Melvin then nodded. That meant combining the virus with two strands of DNA rather than one. In that, it was a gamble, but he made sure his scientists when they tested the modified virus that they tested it on blood samples and compared to the results already on hand from earlier outbreak victims or even just a sample provided by the lab scientists themselves to serve as a test sample. They'd then make sure that everything worked properly and that they didn't produce a misshapen animal that couldn't function because of mismatched DNA sequencing in the virus. Things had so far worked well.
"This is to help them breathe out of the water?" Melvin asked.
"Yes," the scientist answered, "We used the lungfish as the base, as we figured a marine mammal would make things a bit more complex. This way, in theory much of their internal structure won't change as much. And we do have a more ranged method with Ran."
Melvin nodded and looked between the two tanks. Ran's tank had a platform that hung over it and allowed a man to stand there with a specialized pole to introduce the Animalia Virus into the shark's system when it swam underneath that platform. Ariel's tank was much smaller, but was just as tall as Ran's tank. In the tank a lone scientist stood in the tank. The man wore a wet-suit and looked to Melvin like he was actually holding the fish in the tank. He could also see that there was a handheld net laying against the tank's back wall. He had a small syringe with him.
"Go ahead," Melvin then instructed.
The scientist in Ariel's tank injected the fish with her dose and then stepped back. The man on the platform had to wait a bit as Ran wasn't close enough when the instruction was given, but once he came under the platform, the man lowered the pole and slowly pushed the sharp point into the shark's tough sandpaper skin right below its dorsal fin. With that, both men moved way and the one in Ariel's tank actually left it. Melvin only watched as the two fish sort of twitched in their tanks before the first changes that would indicate the assumption of an Animalian form.
He watched as both had their pectoral fins began to lengthen and reshape, ultimately dividing at the ends into fingers, though Melvin also noted that their hands were largely webbed. They had clearly formed fingers and Melvin watched both slowly flex their fingers as they changed, and thus could see the movement of bone underneath the skin/scales on their fins, but between each finger was a membrane that seemed to web their hands, the the webbing seemed to only come up to the first finger joint from the main part of their hands. A similar change happened further down with their pelvic fins also began to lengthen. After a few moments, they moved into what would begin to look like legs and feet.
"Things are looking good, so far," the scientist spoke to Melvin, noticing the CEO's rapt fascination with the uplifting of both animals.
"Good," Melvin spoke, "this part of the experiment will be odd and could break us if it failed."
"We followed ALL of the testing requirements you've required and the procedures to meet with regard to the rules for animal testing," the scientist assured him.
As their legs began to form, they watched as their spines began to rearrange, if slightly, and likely seeing dedicated hips form to support their weight when they stood. Ariel also began to rapidly grow in size while Ran shrank a little bit, if only with regard to his overall length. As Melvin and the scientist watched, they be watched more human like muscle began to appear and develop on their bodies, even as their tail with their anal, fat, and caudal fins moved with it. Both of their tails retained the muscle groupings so that their tails would still swing side to side rather than up and down the way the uplifted Dolphins and Orca's tails moved. For Ariel, her muscle seemed to be fairly well streamlined, but Ran seemed to be putting on a lot of extra muscle.
By now it was getting to the point where the two would emerge from the water, and Melvin crossed his fingers and hoped that both fish as they uplifted would be able to breathe. Both soon emerged and actually threw their back as if to straighten them or responding to the suddenness of being on legs. The thing that they noticed most was the gasp as both took a breath of air for the first time. As they straightened up, Melvin noticed some differences. Ariel's operculum, or gill cover, was mounted on side her head immediately behind her jaws with singular membrane that served as her ears. On Ran, his gill covers and gills ran down his neck, which Melvin figured was just something that would differ cartilaginous fish like sharks from bony fish like trout.
"Wha... what is this," Ariel spoke for the first time, her voice showing a great deal of surprise and then looked down to seeing two large breasts forming on her chest. Melvin noticed that the uplifted fish sounded very puzzled. She then poked one of her breasts, "What are these? Are they an odd fin?"
Melvin watched as Ariel gave a grunt, as if she was trying to move her breasts without using her limbs, essentially treating her breasts as if they were like her fins were before her uplifting.
"I can't move them," Ariel then spoke.
"They're breasts, dear," the scientist spoke carefully, "typically a mammalian organ and not something you'd see on fish. However, with your uplifting, both of you have gained at least some features that would be considered mammalian."
"Uplifting?" Ran said slowly, his voice rather gruff and growling.
"A process that results from exposure to the Animalia Virus in some way and results in you taking a more humanoid form and thus being part of a new civilization, Animalia," the scientist answered.
"Humanoid?" Ariel asked.
"Human-like," Melvin spoke, "Animalians are animals that are human like."
"Like us now?" Ran asked, "that you've brought us above the waves?"
"Yes," the scientist answered, "though you should be able to still breathe under water with your gills as well as breathe out of your new lungs out of water."
"We hope that you would join Animalia and be a help to humanity for the future," Melvin added, "both in preserving the sea's natural environment and to try and show that we're helping to make things better..."
"And we can see more of this world?" Ariel asked.
"You'll need some clothes, but yes," the scientist explained, "you'll get to see everything Animalia and Lyre can offer and all of us will learn about each other."