After Jeff hit apply, a few seconds passed by… a few more seconds passed by… and he thought nothing was going to happen.
Then an error message popped up on his screen:
“Database Error: DNA(s) being added match DNA(s) of Target;
Await new Target? Else; percentage override delay;
Proceed? Y/N”
Figured as much. The program couldn’t handle Jeff’s randomness, and it threw an error. Nothing was going to happen. This machine was so complex, and it was like one of those ancient MS-DOS programs. Jeff thought he was good with computers… Apparently not. He made his best guess at what the error message meant and decided he didn’t want to proceed with “awaiting a new target.” He pressed N on his keyboard.
“Process aborted.
Percentage override delay, initiated;”
Immediately Jeff felt as though his body was stretching apart, like rubber, and a rapid, fluid feeling enveloped the center parts of his body. He pushed back from desk. Oh no... maybe this wasn’t such a great idea?
But time was moving now. Something was different with his eyesight. He stood up from his chair, but an emerging pressure from his groin … and his chest… made it awkward to stand. So he tried his best to kneel down on the carpeted floor and turn his head sideways so he could get a view of his mirror.
The pressure in his groin, though. It felt like his… his…
He felt between his legs. Was…
Did his dick split apart?
As “pleasurable” as the change may have felt, he wasn’t prepared for anything like this. His fear and anxiety levels shot up immediately. What happened to there being an error? Why and what was changing? He had no idea what was going on! Should he try to stop it?
In the center of his groin he felt a bulbous, fleshy mass of skin and muscle. A few seconds later, it had ripped through the seam of his pants and
-- oh god.
Oh God! Something similar was happening with his chest, too!
What was happening to him? The same feeling of flesh, bone, and … mass! It was directly below his neck, and it was ripping away from the skin of his chest.
As much as the fears and anxiety of his transformation were troubling his mind, even while watching these masses and things grow out, a much purer feeling of intrigue and honesty propelled him to calm down.
Breathe deep.
The rubbery feeling overtook his head, too, as the masses from his groin and chest began to take shape. A bump on his behind alerted him, but he took another deep breath. This time, it was a bit deeper.
Could he hear his own thoughts? He wanted to shake his head, but his neck was less mobile. This was an “actual” wild idea.
How much of an insubordinate child was he to miscalculate the error? Everything was going to be alright. Certainly any person could understand the percentage override delay if they just put two and two together.
The facial structure of his head was changing throughout this transformative process. Was the composition of his brain changing, too? One could only guess, but it was likely. Jeff had a sudden desire to write out the logic of his transformation down on paper to indicate exactly where he had gone wrong in his train of thought; misunderstanding the error message like that was not like him.
It was nearing a minute now: sixty seconds. The fatuous pressure from the center of his face resolved, and a few seconds later, he could blink his new eye. Two separate noses for two separate airways felt weird, in the most foreign sense, but it made perfect anatomical sense.
It wasn’t quite over, however. Only now was the middle mass reaching the floor, and he could make out the shape of a human hand emerging from the end of the central fleshy mass that he could now call an arm.
So, that’s what was happening. This was an improvement, surely! He was going to become 150% of a human by having added 50% additional DNA to his body. He giggled a bit to himself; the anxiety was beginning to subside.
Even if improvements were made, though, there was addressing the matter of reality and its perception. His parents, his friends… his pet dog! They’d probably not react well to a human of his stature and intelligence. This would bar some introspection.
"Transformation completed;
Approximately 23:59:00 remaining.
The minute was over, and Jeff felt confident again in standing up, even on three legs, to give himself an opportunity for a thorough up-and-down in the mirror. Yes, it would seem quite logical! Three legs, two sets of genitals, a third arm, and some extra features on his face, too. Although he still had one mouth, he opened it to reveal several more pearly whites and - sure enough - two tongues.
He rotated his waist to look over his back side, and even though three buttocks and an extra anus could be considered quite gross, the width of his waist and chest had certainly grown out to accommodate the change.
Even though he couldn’t see it, he could feel the movement of a shoulder blade through his body and against his back whenever the central arm was moved. He would have loved to know how this formulated around his spine, but alas, he couldn’t know everything about human anatomy. The arm and leg looked exactly like his other two, but the hand and foot were mirrored so that the center finger and toe were the longest. Without a thumb, the hand looked very peculiar; very alien.
Lastly, and most interestingly… he reached down again. They were the same old size, the same old design… but yes, “they”. On each side of his middle leg, a penis and balls. He could feel himself up independently on two different sides of his body.
What did this mean? At some point, did his urinary, digestive, and respiratory system split into two different paths? It would have to not only increase to support his body, but his circulatory system, too! Did he have a third lung?
Maybe this was not what was originally conceived, but he had 24 hours of life to live and make some further deductions… this was one hell of a change.