It looks like tiger fur... As you hold Cameron down, you can feel the thick, orange-y, striped pelt form and push up against your hands. It's kind of a soft under-layer mixed with a coarse over-layer. Next you can feel his muscles going taut and expanding a little, not by much, but they seem to gain an incredible amount of strength while remaining sleek and lithe and flexible, appropriate for the form he seems destined to take. Your brother's bones shift and pop, much to your discomfort, under your grasp as his body changes to accommodate the new musculature. As his fur spreads down his arms, black stripes over brownish orange with a dusty white trail, you can see his hands begin to break and reform to better suit his animal; fingernails begin reshaping into long, vicious, retractable claws, palms and fingertips push out into grayish-pink pads and the bones grow a little thicker and longer to help retain some of his human dexterity.
Cameron groans as the transformation starts to overtake his lower body, the fur moving below his belt line. His change, however, seems to slow down somewhat at this point. Cam's new fur only reaches from the bottom of his chin down to his hands and across his torso to the waist of his pants. Small things like a pair of new, bloody fangs have pushed-out in his mouth and his ears have rounded a little and gained some fur, but it looks like he's done changing for now...
"Holy damn..." you hear Amelia curse under her breath, she shakes her head and points at you accusingly, "What is it with you?!" You jump back a little at the ferocity of the question, not really sure what she is asking, "Seriously, what is wrong with you and your brother?" She keeps looking at you, eyes narrowed and suspicious.
Okay, you've composed yourself, but now you're starting to feel a little pissed-the-fuck-off, "HOW IN THE FUCK SHOULD I KNOW?!" You shout, glaring at her. She's taken a few paces back, but maintains eye contact with you, ready to fight you if she has to or run. "All of this..." You can't find the word, "...bat-fuck, crazy shit is going on, I've lost everything from my home to my family to my goddamned humanity and, with my brother on the slab, you want to know why -I'm- different?!" You're fuming now, you can almost swear you see tendrils of smoke drift in front of you from your maw. You snarl as you continue, "You want an answer?! How about 'I don't Know', how's that?! Not good enough? How about, 'Maybe I just wont, or can't, change with the world, -maybe- I'm not going to let whatever it is that's going on alter who I am, -maybe- I have more strength or more drive than anyone else, because I only have one last thing to fight for and protect, one last thing to lose, one last scrap of what I was..." You don't remember falling to your knees, but you find yourself looking up at Amelia, who has started coming around to you. Tears blur your vision, your chest hurts and now you feel like you're at the bottom of a very large hole, looking up at your only exit and knowing you can't escape.
The arctic fox girl wraps her arms around your shoulders in a soft, warm hug. It's like a blanket, covering you in a peaceful calmness, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." She apologizes in a soft, whispered tone, "I just wanted to know, what makes you so special? There's something about you that I've noticed, even before we met. Something about how you smelled, acted or... walked? I don't know, it was just different..." You shudder a little, feeling drained emotionally and physically, you feel safe though, "Your brother is much the same, very resilient, but it seems to be an inner strength that I can't describe, it's intangible and... just weird." She pulls back and makes a funny looking face on her muzzle. You can't help but giggle a little at it, you start to feel better. Amelia seems to be much more herself as well as she gets up from you.
Anders calls out from the far side of the room where he's guarding the door, "Hey, hey, we got company! We need to get Cam up now and shut off these lights!" You move as if on auto pilot, grabbing your brother by his shoulders and trying to shake him awake. Amelia heads to the light switches and Anders moves away from his barricade to find a covered firing position, his gun is drawn and ready.
"Come on Cam, snap out of it! We gotta get moving, I know you're strong enough to get up!" You give him a quick slap with your unchanged left hand to rouse him. The lights go out and you are in the pitch black, the only thing you can see now is a pair of glowing eyes, staring right up at you. Uh oh. Before you can react, you're thrown off of your feet and laid out on your back, your wing is caught under you in a painful position and something heavy is pinning you to the floor. You can't move, "Waitwaitwait! Cam it's me! It's Darien, come on recognize me!" You shout in a hoarse whisper, you can't afford to give your position away right now. The eyes stare at you for a moment, wild and animalistic, predator eyeing its prey, you flinch and shut your own...
nothing.
You crack your eyes open again, you see the glowing irises still above you, but something is different. You recognize the human intelligence behind them now, recognition - of seeing you - is in them, you think you have your brother back. Your suspicions are confirmed when you feel the weight get off your chest and a rough paw grabs your arm and pulls you up into a ferocious hug. "Ah, shit, man, I'm so fucking glad to see you again! What the hell is going on here?" Your brother's voice is muffled and quiet because his face is buried in your shoulder, you wrap your arms around him, glad to have him back as well.
"We gotta get out of here, Cam, they're looking for us out there so we gotta stay quiet and find an opportunity to escape." You whisper at him, extricating yourself from his embrace. His eyes are closed, but you think he is nodding, then he opens them again, it's a little weird.
"Okay, lets get to a hiding spot, I see your friend over there has us covered from the front, we should probably look for an escape out the back." Cameron begins to move away, but you quickly explain that you can't see all that well in the dark, "It''s not dark in here, there's plenty of light!" Your brother admonishes, so you tell him about his eyes, "My eyes...?" He turns to you, you can see his eyes scan downward, going wide with surprise as if just taking in how monumentally changed he has become. You can sense something, even in the dark, like a quickening of breath or heartbeat, a concern or tension has built in the air between you two. You're not sure how to interpret these new signals, but you think your brother might be having a hard time processing these developments. You put a hand where you approximate his shoulder to be.
"Cam, focus, we can deal with this later, but right now we gotta find a way out for all of us. We need to count on you..." You feel him grip your arm, he gives it a firm squeeze.
"Okay, I think I can put off losing my mind to later, til then, I can let the shock keep me from fucking things up here, let's find our escape!" He turns around, grabbing your hand to lead you through the darkness...