As with other members of Project White Lily, Leo Skye was part of the A-BC. Though it was a little bit harder for a snake Animalian to compete in a bodybuilding competition, mainly because he had no leg muscles to flex. Though his long muscular tail allowed him different means of showing off his strength.
But like the others, Leo had to work to build up his muscles above the Animalian norm. Which mean spending a lot of time at the gym lifting weights. But he had an exercise partner who was doing her best to help. Corona, the uplifted king cobra, had been paired with Leo as part of Dr. Jones’s Homosexuals Anonymous program. The program was not, as some people would hope, a way to ‘deprogram’ gays and lesbians, but to help them adjust to the bisexuality their animal mating instincts would inevitably give them.
Corona was a bit disappointed that Leo had no interest in women. Apparently, Leo saw his homosexuality as a big part of who he was and didn’t want that to change. Corona didn’t really understand that, but then the whole ‘same-sex orientation’ was a bit beyond her concept. But she wasn’t going to force him to like her, even if he was a devilishly handsome specimen of a king cobra. But if Sabine could wait long enough for a mate, then so could Corona.
Apparently, Leo was thinking along a similar wavelength. Corona had been helping Leo with his bench press (which meant him getting to stare at the undersides of Corona’s boobs). After putting the barbell back in its place, Leo asked, “Corona, how has no guy picked you up by now?” Corona raised her eyeridges at that. “Er, not that I mean that I’m that kind of interested, but I would think that somebody would think that you’re a sexy snake and want to be with you,” he said quickly.
Corona shrugged and said, “Snakes are a little bit of a rarer choice for conversion, especially for men. I think part of it is that they’re worrying what will happen with their dicks.”
“Well, that’s silly,” said Leo, “If anything, they get to have twice the dicks as before.”
“Well, I think the main reason is that becoming a snake invariably means you lose your legs. I think men have more pride in their legs than women,” said Corona.
“I’m…not really sure if that’s true,” said Leo.
“Well, I wouldn’t even know what that would be like,” said Corona, “I didn’t even have arms before the Outbreak.”
“You were in the zoo, weren’t you?” asked Leo.
“Yes…” said Corona dryly, “King cobras don’t naturally live in Nevada.”
“Well, that meant you were in the Reptile House, with all those glass exhibits,” said Leo.
“Well, yes,” said Corona.
“But those cages are smaller than the outdoors exhibits,” said Leo, “How did you have room to grow?”
“Oh, well, that’s simple,” said Corona, “Our water isn’t piped in directly to our cages. The zookeepers have to open them up and put in fresh water. I guess we were lucky they didn’t close the cages until they were finished with the other stuff.”
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The Lyre Zoo’s Reptile House wasn’t the largest in the country, nor did it have the largest variety of cold-blooded animals, but it had a modest collection of exotic lizards and snakes. Its biggest failing was not having mated pairs. For instance, the only cobras they had were female. They were different species of cobra, but there was still only one of each. Though considering how territorial pairs could be, it was just as well.
As with the other parts of the zoo, the Outbreak hit the Reptile House completely by surprise. The animals were having their water changed and their exhibits were being cleaned. The king cobra lapped up some of the water. Her serpentine tongue didn’t detect the unusual tang in the water. But she soon noticed that she was growing, making her cozy habitat snugger. A budding intelligence told her that she should get out of her cage while she still could. She could tell that the door to her exhibit was growing smaller as she slithered through.
On the other side, the cobra could see the other animals all scrambling to exit their cages, which were quickly becoming too small for them. The zookeepers had been trying to put them back but stopped when they saw the animals were growing. The cobra's predatory instincts was interested in the way the frogs were getting bigger, but her growing intelligence told her she had her own problems to worry about.
The cobra was not just getting massive, but she felt very strange in her upper body, as if new bones were starting to form. She raised up her body, higher than she ever had before thanks to her new size. As she did so, her body was shaping itself in an odd way, pinching in at the middle while pelvic bones grew and pushed out hips. She could feel shoulder blades forming before strange growths extended from her size. Watching them grow, her growing self-awareness told her these were hands. She could also felt a very alien sensation of a pair of round weights pushing out of her chest. Feeling them with her new hands, she could feel a pair of extra-sensitive lumps on them. 'Nipples' were what her new mind called them, and they were on top of 'breasts'.
"What's going on here?" asked a voice. The cobra turned to see another transformed cobra like herself. But this one had different colors. This was a spitting cobra, not a king cobra like herself. How did she even know that?
"I don't know, except I know stuff now," said the king cobra.
"Yeah, me too," said the spitting cobra, feeling her head before groping her breasts, "These don't belong on us snakes, do they?"
"No, I'm pretty sure there supposed to be for mammals," said the king cobra, fondling her own breasts.
The spitting cobra looked at the other uplifted reptiles and amphibians. "I'm not sure we're supposed to be like this," she said.
"Well, we are now," said the king cobra.
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"That was it?" asked Leo.
"Well, what did you expect?" asked Corona, "That we would be discussing Greek philosophy? That we'd have a big orgy?"
"Maybe the second one," admitted Leo.
Corona sighed and said, "Well pardon us for not being so..."
"Hot-blooded?" suggested Leo.
"You're lucky you're cute," said Corona in an annoyed tone.