Brett Horne was no stranger to underground fighting rings. He was no stranger to any sort of confrontation, really. He had principles in where and how such contests were to be handled, in that he'd never supported bullying or any sort of action where someone of great strength could force someone into doing something, or beat them up if they didn't do something. He'd never supported that. It struck him as cowardly and unfair that didn't prove anything.
And in his youth he'd ultimately taken it on himself to handle school bullies wherever they came up. It caused its fair share of fights in school, but Brett had always figured that since he was defending someone else, it was worth it. And more often than not, Brett did win those fights, which he took pride in being able to win them. It then helped build his interest in various combat sports like boxing, MMA, and even pro wrestling (even if it was fake). However, Brett found that many of these leagues had a lot of their own rules that free-style fighter liker him wouldn't succeed in. He'd gotten into a small boxing league, but while he actually won a couple fights, his coach quit on him and he ended up out of the league because his "form" was never quite as good as others.
Brett grumbled on that, and would have done better had he actually gotten the coaching needed to improve his form and how he threw his punches. And even there, it wasn't quite that the league evicted him. It was more that since his only reputation was being a free style fighter from the streets of Philadelphia, the matchups he got were never the sort that were going to get him a real challenge and a shot to win some real money. He had matches, but they were against other low level fighters that were likely never going to succeed, regardless of how good their form was. With that, Brett knew that he wasn't really wanted and hadn't impressed anyone, and so he left.
He ended up in an underground fighting league, because he could never let it go. The thrill of a challenge and the fight always burned within him and the underground league actually gave it to him. He got the rush of an all out brawl, which he hadn't really felt since fighting the school yard bullies in his youth and since the club handled the bets and thus the winnings that the winning fighter got after each bout Brett got a shot at more money than the low level matches he'd gotten in an official ring. However, there was one thing that an underground league lacked, legality and proper medical care.
The guy he was facing wasn't much bigger than him in terms of weight, but throughout the fight, it'd been shown that the guy couldn't move with Brett. He'd dart in, land a punch or a kick, and then dart out. It worked, in a way, but Brett was never able to get him down. Eventually, he got desperate and took a flying kick, aimed at the man's chest. The man expected that, however, and caught Brett by the ankle. The blow caught Brett by surprise and he ended up landing hard on his back and with the proverbial bells ringing in his head after it bounced off the concrete. His opponent, which had had never let go of his ankle then literally stepped on his stomach and twisted on Brett's leg and foot.
Even as he sat in Horizon, Brett remembered the pain. He'd lost that fight when the guy did that, and he was left with his ankle broken and his foot completely twisted so that it faced sideways. His femur had been dislocated out of his hip and nearly every ligament and tendon in that leg. He was left screaming for help when local police showed up after being called to the scene by the sounds of the fight. They didn't like Brett had willingly engaged in it and made that clear, and he spent six months in the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary for participating in an underground fighting ring. It meant that his medical treatment was cared for, but it also meant he had a record when he got out.
However, getting out meant that he'd need to find work again, and with a busted leg that had never fully healed. He returned to boxing, now more as a promotor and doing community service work with various police forces to hopefully steer people away from the sorts of underground fight clubs that lead to his injuries and prison record. It was during that time that he heard about not only Animalia but the fact that Horizon had found a way to restore dinosaurs, and that was what brought him to Horizon. With his injury he had an opening for Project Phoenix, he had an opening that Brett decided to take to join Project Dinotopia and his choice was pretty obvious to him. As far as he knew, they had a small collection of Theropods, at least two Sauropods, at least one Stegosaur, and one Hadrosaur. There was another group of dinosaurs that they didn't have, the Ceratopsians, the horned dinosaurs. And he went with Styracosaurus as it had more horns than any of the others.
And Brett kept those thoughts in his mind as he talked with Jessica, Sophie, and Roland for Animalia's main web show and all the other interviews with Horizon staff with regard to his choice and what he went along with. Eventually, he did get his turn and that brought him back to Horizon for when it was time for his injection. He was eventually met by Jeremy and a human nurse, Valerie. Brett looked to Jeremy with some measure of suspicion or fear, mostly in noticing the Dinotopian's sharp claws and rather thick fingers.
"Don't worry," Jeremy said to him, "My nurse, here, will handle the actual injection. I'm just here in a supervisory role..."
"Just so long as it's the right dinosaur," Brett answered, "so that I have enough horns to impress just about anyone."
"Or gore someone?" Jeremy questioned, sounding more suspicious than anything else.
"There's actually some question as to whether or not Styracosaurus used its horns as a defensive weapon," Brett gave a chuckle, "the long horn on the nose maybe... but the horns on its frill maybe not. The bone on the frill on Styracosaurus isn't as solid as on Triceratops... and while Ceratopsians have a unique joint that can allow for a great amount of flexibility in their head and neck, I don't think that Styracosaurus would use the horns on its frill for that."
"Similar in some ways as to the arguments over what Carnotaurus used its horns for," Jeremy commented and raised one hand up to motion to the horns on his head and above his eyes, "I've seen some arguments that say they were used as a weapon as it'd seem to make sense while others say that Carnotaurus couldn't use its horns as a weapon because they'd block its vision."
"You don't look entirely like a Carnotaurus," Brett said slowly.
"I'm actually a hybrid... a Syntixisaurus Rex," Jeremy said weakly, "My mate in a moment of weakness mixed the Animalia Virus with various fossil bones taken from several Theropods and created the hybrid dinosaur as a result... She's been getting better from her mistakes and joined to be with her..."
"We all learn from mistakes," Brett gave a chuckle, "but I'll remain Styracosaurus."
"We are ready," Valerie spoke up as she came forward.
"If you'll come with us," Jeremy added.
Brett followed in his wheelchair. In many ways his injury hadn't completely crippled him. His leg would heal enough that he could hobble along, but not with any degree of speed. In this when Brett needed to get anywhere with speed, he settled for a wheelchair. The present visit was one of them. He rolled after Jeremy and his nurse to one of Horizon's changing rooms which had a look more like a hotel room than what he figured to see in a scientific laboratory. Of course, from what he'd seen of Animalia on the news and on the web, he guessed that there was a certain level of comfort.
"Do you need any help?" Jeremy asked as Brett slowly climbed out of his chair and shuffled over to the bed.
"No... I'm good," Brett answered, "I can't move very fast on my own... but I can still manage... I only use the wheelchair when I need to worry about speed. Outside of that I manage... Besides, I'm under the impression that the conversion will give all the help that I need."
"I'm sure it will," Jeremy managed a small smile, "will you...?"
"It might be easier to just grow out of it," Brett cut him off, "you'd be late for the end of your day by the time I'd be ready."
With that Valerie came in and lifted up the sleeve of Brett's shirt before readying the syringes to proceed with the conversion. As she was ready, Jeremy nodded.
"Welcome to Dinotopia," Jeremy spoke as Valerie carried out the injections and with Styracosaurus strain of the Animalia Virus and then followed Jeremy out.
Brett simply sat on the bed and watched as he felt his body begin to grow warm, which seemed to be one of the key signs that the Animalia Virus was beginning to take effect. He looked down to an arm and could soon see many changes already beginning. His arms were already starting to turn scaly and taking on a rather dark gray color. Further down, he watched as his fingernails lengthened slightly into somewhat blunt looking claws, like they were made for digging and rooting. However, that was far from the end of his transformation.
It soon progressed into what felt borderline painful as he watched the first major parts of his transformation occur. Inside his shoes, which were starting to get rather tight on his feet as they grew larger, there was the merging of his last two toes. As they merged a larger and more robust toe took its place. At the same time the same sort of thing also occurred with both of his hands as his pinkie and ring fingers merged to form a more muscular and sturdy hand. The biggest thing, though, which Brett couldn't ignore was when his injured leg snapped back into place and all the muscle groups seemed to re-align to work properly.
While doctors had managed to set things back in place, the damage that had been done in that fateful underground fighting ring had been enough that nothing had ever really been the same. Now however, even with the oddness and minor discomfort that came along with the transformation, there was the sensation that it "hurt so good" as it also meant that his legs could finally function properly again. And as he kicked off his shoes and socks to reveal gray scaled toes, Brett felt the confidence to move in a way that he really hadn't since his injury. And with that, he jumped back to his feet and took a few easy steps and he felt quite stable on his feet.
As he stood up, Brett found a lot of his clothing was also starting to get tight as his muscles began to swell to the point where his clothes couldn't easily handle. At the same time he was also growing taller and his chest and ribs were growing deeper. All this growth was straining his clothes and as Brett grew bigger, his clothes began to tear apart. He also began to feel pressure on his spine, and eventually that pressure developed into a real tail that soon grew out rapidly behind him and finished off his pants and underwear as well. Shortly after his tee-shirt tore apart at the seams and fell to the floor, leaving him a large gray scaly humanoid that was about seven and a half feet tall. There was a long slit between his legs that concealed his reproductive organs and everything else and the gray scales on his neck, chest, and belly was also a lighter shade than on his head and back. He also had a modest tail that hung from his hips to the floor and a little bit father than that.
However, Brett was het to develop the features that truly made Styracosaurus stand out, the frill and the horns, particularly the horns that grew from the frill. It was then that his head went through it's part of the transformation. First his h hair began to fall out and fall out in clumps, and at the same time his physical ears began to pull back toward his skin that was revealed as his hair feel out. As his ears shrank into being a small hole, he felt pressure build at about the same point and along his mouth. That point soon grew out into small spike that pointed out to the side of his head. From there his face pushed forward into a muzzle. It wasn't super long, but definitely longer than before and took on a rather parrot like shape with is lips and front teeth actually hardening and merging into a beak like shape with his nostrils flattening out onto the sides of his new beak.
Behind the spike that had grown out above the hole on each side of head where his ear was, the bones on his head began to grow out and widen. It was beginning to form the rounded box-like frill that all Centrosaurinae dinosaurs were known for. As it grew out and above him, Brett noticed a few small bumps along the sides, but along the top there was what made it clear that he was a Styracosaurus. His frill was divided into two halves and was marked b the only real introduction of color on him. Unlike Sherry, who's frill was a solid wall of bone, Brett's was mostly a bone frame with scaly skin stretched over it. And Brett's frill was built in two halves, which on his skeleton would mark two holes in his frill. With his skin covering them, however, Brett found that there was some color there, however.
As Brett moved forward to look into a mirror he could see to red "sun spots" that were on his frill and marked where the "holes" were in skeleton of his frill. As Brett examined this he then watched as a lone horn grew up from just behind his beak and nostrils. At the same time toward the top of his frill four horns also grew out on each side. It left him soon giving a bellow that sounded between that of a crocodile's rumble and hiss and the squawk of a parrot. It was an odd cross, but Brett felt rather triumphant in it... and while he'd need to get dressed, he felt more than good enough to take on anyone in the "Mesozoic Fight Club." And while he would find that he was only eight feet tall, counting the horns on his frill, he still felt very confident.