It was time to experiment more with the piscine-variant of the Animalian Virus. The test subject were all carefully and since they didn't have peculiar physical characteristic that required additional genetic tailoring, there shouldn't be any unexpected surprises.
However, this particular experiment had drawn the attention of Joe for a very special reason. Joe was a bit unusual for an uplifted. The pilot fish was astonishingly quick to take to surface-dweller sociology. He was learning about human culture at an incredible rate, faster than some uplifted who were land-dwellers. It seemed that Joe's exposure had gifted him with a remarkably high IQ. It also seemed to have given him a healthy dose of ambition. Perhaps because of a lifetime of literally cleaning up after others gave the pilot fish a drive for being the leader. So far, he was shaping up to be an almost-ideal manager for the developing resort. He was also working on putting together an Animalian Council. It was smaller than the one in Lyre, but it would be more reliable to respond to Mieni Atoll's developments and challenges then having to send word back and forth to Lyre.
Despite this rapid ascent up the chain of command, Joe did feel an ache of loneliness of being the only uplifted member of his species. Therefore, he often went for a swim to see if he could find another pilot fish to uplift, preferable a female. Eventually, Joe did find a female pilot fish who was currently in the company of a female scalloped hammerhead shark. The scientists were curious about how the uplifting process would affect a hammerhead so both shark and pilot fish were caught.
They weren't the only ones that were going to be tested. While swimming offshore, Ran and Gaz found three marlins. On orders from the scientist, the two great whites tried to capture the three of them. But while they managed to capture a male and female alive, the third was killed in the struggle. It wasn't a complete waste as the marlin's flesh made a very delicious meal. The surviving marlins were kept slightly sedated as the billfishes were very unlikely to accept captivity for very long. As such, the scientists needed to uplift them as soon as possible.
Harold was watching the fishes swim in their tanks. It was pretty clear that the marlins were becoming more active and would soon be trying to escape. In contrast, the hammerhead and the pilot fish were behaving rather well. "Are the poles ready?" asked Harold.
"All equipped with the piscine variant," said his assistant, Kirana. The uplifted sea snake had shown a very strong interest in Animalian research ever since her DNA was used to uplift Teela. The unusual results with Teela intrigued Kirana even more and she showed up at the lab often enough that she was hired as a lab assistant. Though part of the reason she kept coming back was because of her growing attraction to Harold. As his assistant, she hoped she could completely earn Harold's love and acceptance.
"All the poles truly necessary?" asked Joe with a bit of distaste. Naturally, he had come to see the uplifting of his potential mate.
"Well, hammerheads are not as aggressive as tiger sharks or bull sharks, but it wouldn't be very wise to get to close to Tzan before she's uplifted," said Harold, "And Rapier and Gladys would slash through the legs of anyone that got too close to them."
"Gladys?" asked Kirana.
"Well, her name was originally going to be 'Gladius'. But considering one of the marlins is a female, we went with a female name similar enough to it," said Harold.
"But using that pole on my future mate..." started Joe.
"Aw, you don't think we'll need a long stick for that, Joe?" asked a particularly grating and high-pitched voice. Joe and Kirana winced one of Mieni Atoll's newest uplifted citizens walked over to them. As a bottlenose dolphin, Susan had been seen around Mieni Atoll quite a lot. She was pretty easy to distinguish from other dolphins because of a strangely heart-shaped mark on her back. The dolphin was often seen playing around the boats and actually regularly came up to humans for pets and fish. Considering her particularly social nature, it was thought she'd make a fine Animalian after uplifting. After all, there were dolphin Animalians back in Lyre. The result was an anthro dolphin with her heart mark on her lower back just above her tail. Her personality was likable enough, being light-hearted, fun-loving, and a great sense of humor. The only downside is that her voice was considered by a lot of people to be really annoying.
"She does have a point," said Harold, "Administrating the virus to your potential mate will not require that much effort. We just need to hold her still a moment and give her an injection, just like we've done with Ariel."
"Who?" asked Kirana.
"She was a lake trout that we uplifted at the same time as Ran," said Harold.
"Why haven't we seen her?" asked Susan.
"Well, she's a freshwater fish. She'd rather live in a lake than in the ocean so she's staying Lyre," said Harold.
"Too bad. She's missing out on a lot here," said Susan.
"Well, let's get started with this. Kirana, if you would," said Harold. Kirana nodded and slithered over to the marlins' tank. Taking careful aim, she injected first one then the other with the virus. Another scientist was giving Tzan her dosage. The pilot fish's administration barely took more than a few seconds.
It wasn't too long before the effects began to be noticed. The hammerhead moved more sluggishly in the water as her mass started altering. The pilot fish did make much movement, apparently too disoriented by the way she was rapidly expanding inside increasingly smaller tank. By stark contrast, the marlins kept racing around their tank at a pretty fast pace. They were barely slowed down by the sudden growth of arms and legs.
Eventually, the four of them had grown into their final anthro forms and were looking around in confusion. "You may come out of the water now," called Harold, "You will be able to breath air now." The fishes hesitated for a moment before the pilot fish stuck her head above the water and took her first breath of air. The others saw that she could lift her head out of the water and surfaced as well.
Joe approached the pilot fish and said, "Welcome to Animalia, Jane."
"Jane?" asked the pilot fish.
"Yes, that is your name now," said Joe.
"Oh, I like it," said Jane with a smile.
The two marlins had been jostling a bit in their tank before they leapt out. They were a bit unsteady on their new legs. Their long sword-like snouts were considerably shorter now, but no less sharp so the scientists were a little hesitant to get too close. However, the marlins soon managed to regain their balance. "So, this is the world above the surface," said the male whose name was Rapier.
"The air feels so...warm," said the female who was named Gladys.
"You'll get used to it," said Kirana.
Tzan the hammerhead was a bit slower coming out of the water. In quite a few ways, she had a strong resemblance to Gaz. But there were some very noticeable differences. For one thing, she was a bit slimmer and shorter than Gaz, though considering Gaz was a great white shark, that's not that big a surprise. Her head was obviously a lot different from Gaz's though. Her eyes and nostrils were still mounted on the hammer-like projections of her skull, though the projections were not as wide as before. Her back fin didn't migrate all the way to the top of her head either. Instead, it extended from the back of her neck.
Susan walked up to Tzan and said cheerfully, "Welcome to the world of the airbreathers."
Tzan gave Susan an annoyed look and said a deep, slightly scratchy voice, "Please stop talking."
"Sorry, I just learned how to talk and I don't want to stop," said Susan before laughing in a very annoying way that sounded a lot like a dolphin's clicking. It made everyone nearby cringe, particularly the recently uplifted fish.
Thankfully, Tzan reached up and wrapped a hand around Susan's snout to make her stop. "Don't laugh like that. Ever," said Tzan.
Susan easily slipped her snout out and said, "Aw, I just know you're really a bundle of laugh inside. We're going to be such best friends."
"Oh joy..." said Tzan flatly.
"Hmm...I think we might see a lot of potential from those two," said Kirana.
"Potential for comedy if nothing else," commented Harold.