Manfred Tuscan stood by quietly as he looked over the paperwork that Doctor Stein provided for him with regard to his planned conversion. A lot of it seemed rather straight forward and set to provide the basis for the deal. A good part of him had looked well on the idea of regaining his youth and getting a second shot to do things smarter or better than he did before, leave a better mark than he did in the past, and Animalia had made that a rather attractive selling point. Of course the fact that Animalians seemed to physically be the picture of perfect health and vigor made that sort of image rather obvious.
"This does seem to make sense," Manfred said slowly, "sort of a winter tie in, I suppose."
"Well, that's part of the project's idea," Doctor Stein answered, "As the other de-extinction projects have worked out quite well in Project Thylacine and Project Dinotopia... with the "start" of winter, Project Cenozoic fits."
Manfred slowly nodded.
"And since you'd stated interest in elephants... offering to go with a Mammoth or Mastodon seemed like a good sell... given that they are ancestors of modern elephants," Doctor Stein commented with a small smile.
"Actually, it's believed that the group from which the African Elephant would evolve split away before the Wooly Mammoth evolved," Manfred corrected, "and while the Wooly Mammoth is more closely related to the Asian Elephant... it's not an evolutionary predecessor to the Asian Elephant... And I went with it because it was iconic of the "ice age," I suppose."
"That it is," Doctor Stein gave a smile as he watched Manfred sign on the lines for the written agreement that would prove that everything was willing and no forced coercion was tried, not to mention confirming that Manfred had some understanding on elephant's instincts in nature and what could be considered similar given that the Wooly Mammoth was an extinct species, "I think the other Project Cenozoic volunteer went with Smilodon for the same reason."
Manfred gave a small shrug as he finished signing the paperwork and then passed them over to Doctor Stein. The doctor looked them over and then set them down inside a manila folder and stood up. Doctor Stein gave Manfred a small smile and led him from Doctor Stein's office and through Horizon's hallways. Manfred briefly looked at the halls as they walked and noted the various doors that were for various offices for the scientists that worked at Horizon while others were marked for labs and other related rooms. The one thing he found the most intriguing was that in areas where there was open hall space, there were framed photographs of various Animalians, which he supposed made sense. Before Animalia, Horizon was really a rather unknown company. It was the accident that created Animalia that put the company on the map and the general success that come as a result of that was something that Horizon would surely wish to remember fondly.
The two of them walked quietly until came into larger lab area. Manfred noted one area had a desk and computer set up in it, as though the scientist in question did his work best in the lab rather than in an actual office, though he also noted what looked like a large stylus next to the keyboard. In another corner of the lab there was another table set up that was more like an artist's table than a scientist's, but Manfred ignored that, as for the moment the room was empty. He followed Doctor Stein to a set of refrigerators where the doctor and pulled out a vial that had a label that read: Animalia Virus, Strain: Mammuthus primigenius. From there Doctor Stein moved to a cabinet above those refrigerators and pulled out a pair of syringes and an alcohol swab. He filled both syringes and then returned the vial to the refrigerator.
"You have a lot of vials," Manfred commented off hand as he noticed the number that were in the refrigerator.
"Horizon has MANY refrigerators like this, it helps serve to keep our samples of the virus together and in a way that we can keep control of it... and keep it separate from the vaccine," Doctor Stein nodded, "these here are mostly with the DNA samples for prehistoric animals... particularly dinosaur and Pleistocene mammals at the moment... though with the success that we've had with our "de-extinction" projects in that the DNA won't just disappear... many museums and scientists are more willing to work with us... possibly because the resulting Animalian would then provide them with more insight into actual animals."
"And thus helping scientific discovery as a whole," Manfred surmised, to which Doctor Stein nodded and motioned for Manfred to follow him again.
Manfred did so and was lead to a series of interior rooms that were labeled as changing rooms, though given the various news reports on Horizon's activities since the accident that discovered fully what the Animalia Virus could do, Manfred was well aware of what that meant. Though Manfred also noted that the doorway was slightly higher than the others, and as he was lead into the room he found that its ceiling was also higher than the other rooms, which made some sense. Many of the Animalians that were animals that were larger than people were often noticeably taller than Humans, and those that had become either African or Asian megafauna and the new Dinotopians especially so. And while Horizon couldn't just knock down their Lyre offices and rebuild, they could try to renovate as much as they could.
"You may be more comfortable if you take your clothes off," Doctor Stein warned, "as while some Animalians can fit into clothing that's sized for people... they're usually those on the smaller end with the uplifted dogs and wolves being on the large end for that. Animalians based on animals larger than that... tend to grow too big for the clothing their wearing to comfortably cover... And given that as a Mammoth, you'll probably be comparable in size with Animalia's elephants... what you're wearing now will likely be torn apart when you change if you keep it on."
"I might just stick to my underwear for now... modesty and all," Manfred answered, to which Doctor Stein did nod.
"That'll be okay, and we'll be sure to get you cloths that will fit the new you once your transformed," Doctor Stein told him, "we try to make sure that we're prepared."
Manfred nodded and set his clothes on the bed beside him. He might not be able to wear them again, but he figured keeping them in good shape would come to some benefit. He could make sure all his clothes were cleaned and then given to those that needed it. Once ready, he then nodded to Doctor Stein who then proceeded with the injections. Once that was done, Doctor Stein left to give Manfred some privacy. Though as the door shut, Manfred could already feeling the room grow very warm.
He stood up and looked down to his hands, while he could make out the fading of the signs of aging and the enhancing of his muscles taking place he could also see something that was far more noticeable. He could see brown hair growing in long and thick on his arms and in fact over his entire body. Even as his pectoral muscles pushed forward and regaining their youthful strength and size and then grew even bigger, dark brown fur grew out from his body. It itched a little and Manfred couldn't help but raise his hands to scratch at the growing hair as it thickened into fur. Scratching brought some relief to the irritation and for the most part he was thankful that was the worst of it for the moment, though as he scratched at his itchy fur, his hands also altered.
His fingers grew much thicker as the bones grew thicker and more muscle grew on each digit. It eventually reached a point where his ability to flex his fingers in that way became a bit less as the size of the bones and the thickness of the muscles in his fingers limited that range of motion. Manfred looked down to see that his fingernails had enlarged in size to fit his now larger fingers. And further down, a similar change had gone through with his feet. As with elephants, the bones in a mammoth's feet were of similar proportion to indicate a plantigrade stance. It's heals didn't directly touch the ground but in fact rested on a pad that did touch the ground, and Manfred could see and feel that as he moved into the center of the room. In an odd way it sort of felt like he was standing with a thick shoe insert folded under his heal.
By this time his boxers were beginning to feel tight on him. Quickly Manfred moved to slide them down and managed to step out of them before he grew too big to keep them on. He noted that his fur wasn't quite as long around his waist and he noted his sheath and other related equipment was noticeably larger then before.
"Oh... man..." Manfred said slowly as felt his ears push out and grow in size. It wasn't long before he could exercise new muscles that flapped them forward and backward. He also felt new muscles at his backside. He twisted around to see a brown hairy tail. "Ohhh... mmuuu-aaahhh-n."
His voice slipped into a bit of a lisp and he felt something began to push out from inside his mouth and actually lifting his lips. He also got the odd sensation in his nose. It felt like it was stretching forward. He looked down to see two tusks growing out and curving in the way that was typical of the Wooly Mammoth. Pushing out between those tusks was a long brown burred trunk. It soon grew out to a length and size that was comparable with Animalia's elephants and Manfred could actually feel all the muscles in the new appendage and soon began to test them out, moving his trunk around and soon found that he had great control over it.
And there he stood, much taller than he was before, though he would be slightly shorter than Dean. His ears were also smaller than Dean's, but he also remembered the cool crisp air when he came into Horizon. Winter was coming, and while Nevada wasn't the artic it would still be too cold for African and Asian Elephants to stay out in the cold for too long. Many zoos in northern cities often had special indoor enclosures built to allow the animals that couldn't so easily cope with colder temperatures to have places where they would be kept warm. However, Manfred knew that mammoths generally did quite well in colder climates and the Wooly Mammoth especially so, and for the moment, places like Nevada could still have potentially cold winters.
"And I'll be ready and comfortable for it," Manfred mused as he paused to flex his muscles and paused to reflect on the pillar of strength he'd grown into. His longer fur made the exact definition of his muscles far less visible than with other Animalians, but it wasn't enough that anyone would think him fat. "Bring on the snow."