The walls of the chamber darkened until they were pitch black, and a chill filled the air. The temperature rapidly ticked down from 24 degrees Celsius to 2. In addition, a cold breeze blew through the room, directly onto Ashley.
Ashley shivered as she held her arms and legs close to her body, trying to preserve heat. The throbbing in her head continued, and it began to spread to her body. She let out a sob, as the pain and the cold felt like they'd kill her.
The voice of the lead scientist came on the intercom. "How do you feel, Ashley?" she asked.
Ashley didn't want to raise her head, for fear that she'd lose precious heat. Her response came out in a muffled shout: "C-cold! And p-painful! Why did you d-do this to m-me?!" She heard muffled voices from the intercom, and the lead scientist addressed her again. "Don't worry, Ashley. Based on our readings, this should get better soon. If it doesn't, we'll call off the experiment, okay?"
Ashley continued to shiver and sob, and she yelped when the pain in her body became unbearably intense. She could feel hair sprouting from her body, shooting out of her like needles. In just 5 seconds, most of her whole body became covered in a thick layer of hair. The only things not covered were the palms of her hands, the bottoms of her her feet, and her face, and even that had a coating of 'peach fuzz.' The hair on Ashley's head grew longer, until it grew down to her butt. It currently covered her body like a shroud. Under normal circumstances, Ashley would be disgusted by the change. However, her headache was distracting, and the hair provided welcome heat.
The aching wasn't gone, however, and Ashley felt a new change overtake her. Her whole body became proportionally shorter. She went from 5' 9" to only 4' even. Ashley let out some whimpers while her bones restructured themselves, but the next change was much less painful. She felt a gentle pressure as her whole body gained a layer of fat, which provided insulation from the cold. She could also feel some new muscle developing beneath it, adding another layer of warmth. Her headache became less painful, and Ashley stood up and explored her new body in the dark, rushing her hands across her hairy form. As she felt herself, she discovered that she now had a rather chubby physique, with D cup breasts and a nice "booty." Ashley didn't care, however. She was just happy to be warm again.
A couple more changes happened at around the same time. Ashley's hands and feet developed rough pads on their palms, similar to a dog's. Her nose widened and her nostrils grew larger, warming the air she breathed through it. Her ears became smaller, and bent closer to her head. Her eyes became more sensitive, and she discovered that she could see her body in the dark! The aching in Ashley's head finally subsided, and the intercom cracked to life as the lead scientist announced, "Stage 1 is complete, the radiation has been temporarily deactivated. How do you feel, Ashley?"
"Better. Much better." Ashley felt safe now. She was warm, and the dark was comforting. No one could see her, and not being seen meant safety. Ashley wasn't sure why she was thinking like this. It just felt...right.
The lights slowly came back on, and that didn't sit well with Ashley. As the lights came on, she saw an immediate problem: her hair was white, and the floor was black. Anyone could see her, clear as day! She needed to find shelter! Ashley scrambled through the room, looking for anything that might hide her. Everything was flat, and Ashley panicked. The lead scientist came on the intercom again, and asked "What's wrong, Ashley?"
"Shelter! I need shelter!" "Why?" asked the lead. "Because I'll be seen! And being seen means danger!" Ashley shouted. "Aren't you supposed to be smart? How do you not know that?!" The lead said a command away from the mic, and a small square chamber emerged from the floor, just big enough to contain Ashley. She rushed over to it, and crawled inside. "Thank you." Ashley said. "I'm calm now." Indeed, the panic had instantly gone from Ashley's mind. She was hidden now. That meant she was safe.
"Fascinating!" the lead said. "What do we do now?" Ashley asked.
"I want to ask you some questions, but let me explain some things before we begin. In an arctic environment, heat is everything, and much of an animal's heat is derived from it's body's own energy. The brain is a massive consumer of energy, so many arctic creatures evolve simpler brains as a result. The simpler the brain, the more energy that can be devoted to producing heat. Some arctic creatures have evolved ways around this, but most haven't. You seem to fall into the latter category."
Ashley blinked, completely unfazed. She felt safe, and that's all that mattered, no matter what some egghead told her. "Okay, but what does that mean exactly?"
"Instinct uses much less brainpower than thought," the lead continued. "Instead of thinking about everything they come across, many animals rely on instinct to govern their behavior. You have developed instincts in place of thought. It appears that you've evolved these to hide from predators, for some reason. Now, we will begin the questions."
They began with questions regarding mathematics, vocabulary, and world history. Ashley didn't answer any of them well. She could only perform simple addition and subtraction, she had trouble defining words with more than two syllables, and she could only remember the most recent world events. Ashley wasn't perturbed by any of this. She quite frankly didn't care about the subjects. They then asked Ashley survival questions (how to find food, what to do if she encountered a predator, etc.). Ashley answered these questions quickly and almost always correctly, and she excelled at scenario-based questions. "You've retained your ability to imagine future events, Ashley, which is good. Many animals can't do that." Ashley smiled confidently, while she lay in the chamber. "Of course I can. It's useful." "Indeed..." the lead said.
"One more question, Ashley: how do you feel about your appearance?" Ashley looked down at her short, chubby, and hairy body, along with her larger breasts. "It's...fine. It keeps me warm."
"Do you think you're beautiful?" the lead asked.
"Sure. I think someone would want me."
"Do you think that your girlfriend will want you?"
Ashley blushed. She had momentarily forgotten about her girlfriend, Katie. "Yeah, she will. I'm strong, and I can protect her."
"Is that what you look for in a partner? Someone who can protect you?"
"Of course!" Ashley said.
The intercom went quite for a few seconds, before cracking back to life. "One more question, Ashley. Do you want to continue the process? If you want to stop, that's fine, but it would be more helpful to us if you continued. We'll continue pushing in the cold-weather direction, while also adding some new stimuli."
Ashley thought about it. She wanted to help the scientists, right? That's the whole reason she did this. But she also was afraid that they'd make things dangerous again. She went back and forth for about a minute, but finally decided to...