"There are some things that I'll never understand," Jeremy commented off hand to Doctor Stein in one of the main labs, and actually the one where the first fish Animalians were uplifted, "why there would be questions and concerns about a de-extinction project with Gigantopithecus, which is thought to have likely only fed on plant matter... and thus despite its size probably wouldn't a hyper-aggressive threat as an Animalian... yet there is no problem with a conversion to an OLDER animal that under the principles of evolution would be far more distantly related to man than Gigantopithecus... and one that WAS a known predator."
"I'd assume you mean with Danielle, our volunteer wanting to be a Dunkleosteus?" Doctor Stein asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not necessarily opposed to doing the conversion," Jeremy answered with a sigh as he looked to his fellow Horizon Scientist, "and in converting to be with Heather... I really have no room to complain... I'm just saying that there are some things that don't seem to make much sense."
Doctor Stein sort of shrugged. He supposed that made some sense that creating a Gigantopithecus Animalian on the basis of it being too dangerous would make little sense given that Horizon had already converted some humans into Theropod Dinotopians, a few of which would easily surpass Gigantopithecus in size. However, it wasn't his place to really understand why some regulations were made and others weren't. As a scientist, his chief focus on seeing what he could do and finding ways to use that knowledge to make the world better. Sometimes it lead to accidents, like what had happened in the initial outbreak, but that accident had proved to be beneficial in the way that they had something that might one day end disease, and to a certain extent there were also some tests into developing a Human strain of the Animalia Virus. Though as far as he knew, that particular idea was more theory than anything else.
In the meantime, they were still making progress. And since all of those that were converted after the initial outbreak had done so voluntarily, there was the sense that they weren't stripping people of their rights or anything like that. In this, there wasn't that much ground to block those that wanted to become Animalians, for whatever reason, from actually doing so. And the present work had related with the research related to the young woman's specific request to become a Dunkleosteus Terrelli "Dinotopian" had presented a lot of potential challenges. Particularly the fact that Dunkleosteus was not a Dinosaur from the Mesozoic Era. It was a large predatory Placoderm from the Devonian Period of the Paleozoic Era. This meant Dunkleosteus was far older than even the oldest known dinosaur species.
There had again been arguments with museums over gaining access to the fossils, though thankfully the success that Project Mesozoic and Project Cenozoic had had so far helped overcome that, but there were still other issues. The biggest issue was actually making sure that the process of conversion would be successful. They'd found that the age of the source had often weakened how infectious the Animalia Virus could be. It was only the fact that Heather and her grandmother carried a regressive gene that allowed them to become the first Syntixisaurus Rexes, and why Horizon had to specially modify all the Dinotopian strains in order to enable the conversion, into the creatures of the Mesozoic Era, be it bird like Dinosaurs, like Velociraptor or Microraptor, the distant bird relatives like Tyrannosaurus or Spinosaurus, the more reptilian dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus or Diplodocus, the Marine Reptiles like Elasmosaurus, or the Pterosaurs like Pterodactylus. However, because Dunkleosteus was a fish and was even older, they had to work harder to find a working formula.
Thankfully, Jeremy and Doctor Stein had been able to get a working theory. Partially because finding an atavistic gene that would represent a connection between humans and fish would be difficult, and they'd only found that strain in Effie/Tyra and Heather by complete chance. Repeating that would take too much time and would likely attract too much negative attention. That left some of the theories that were made by Mister Miyamoto back when Project Mesozoic was just starting its research phase in using some of the unique properties of Axolotl DNA to improve the Animalia Virus's ability to work with fossilized DNA. They also had strands from modern animals that had direct ancestors in the Devonian, sharks and coelacanths. While much of the DNA in the new strain would be that of Dunkleosteus, there was some Axolotl DNA to help bind it together with the lungfish DNA, and some small elements of shark and coelacanth strains to keep the new strain infectious capable of converting a human. Some blood and tissue tests had seemed to respond well, and now they were up to trying it with their volunteer, Danielle.
"Are you ready?" came a feminine voice, making both Jeremy and Doctor Stein look over to see the woman enter in from one of the main doorways.
The woman, Danielle, presently wore a black bikini and came in quietly. She had been eager and was more than ready to become a Dunkleosteus. She didn't know the full details on the fish before her request, but she did know it was big, strong, and could likely bite through most substances. There was something interesting in that, and to a certain extent she was also more than willing to becoming the second human to convert to a fish species. There had been some effort to get Buford to offer some coaching in relation to his experiences, but he had been busy with the other summer events.
"I believe we are," Doctor Stein gave a slow nod, "and you do understand the potential risks with this?"
Danielle slowly nodded while Doctor Stein then turned to Jeremy who held out the plastic box that carried the syringes for the double dose that had been requested. Doctor Stein collected an alcohol swab and carefully dabbed it on Danielle's shoulder before collecting the syringes. He then approached Danielle and provided the injections to Danielle's shoulder as quickly as he could, just in case the conversion worked and part of the natural armor known to Placoderms also formed over Danielle's shoulders.
"Welcome to Animalia," Doctor Stein spoke as he finished the injections, "We'll give you the room transform in peace."
"There serum does include lungfish DNA, so you SHOULD be able to breathe air, though if that doesn't work, the tank beside you is salt water and as you become a fish Animalian, you will be able to breathe the water in case there is some other difficulty," Jeremy added.
With that, Danielle was left alone to transform. She in fact already felt rather warm and she looked down to see things were already changing. She watched as her hair feel out of her head and down the floor and she could only watched as her hair floated downward. At the same time, she wiggled her tongue a bit inside her mouth to find her teeth were growing rather loose. With some hesitation she approached the large tank of water and looked into it, using the reflective surface as a mirror. There she could watch as her teeth actually fell out and with what would replace them pushing down and up from her gums.
Danielle gave a half scream half gasp as her face began to push forward into a short box like muzzle. Her lips seemed to harden and retract until it merged with her gums, which were now split open as her upper and lower jaws grew out and became the sharpened blades that Dunkleosteus was known for. Her nostrils were little more than openings on the front of her now box like muzzle that now seemed to be covered in heavy armor. Her eyes seemed to retain the same color that they'd always been, but they were of a darker shade than they had been before. Her skin was also shifting into a dark green color.
"This... is... knew," Danielle said slowly, finding that her lost lips and her mouth now lined with long blades of bone couldn't talk as quickly as she had in the past. Her new mouth simply couldn't allow it.
She looked down to also notice that her hands were now largely rather webbed with arms and hands altering becoming more fin-like, though not getting to the point where she actually lost her dexterity completely. Similar changes were overtaking her feet as well. They stayed human-like in shape and form, but gained webbing between her toes. Some of the webbing on her hands and feet resembled the rays on the webbing of modern Bony Fish Animalians, though Danielle also noted that her arms and legs, both growing larger and stronger with almost pulsing muscles, they resembled the arms and legs on the two Coelacanth Animalians than any of the other fish Animalians.
At the same time, her bikini was also beginning to get rather tight. It brought her attention down to watch as her breasts seemed swell larger with each breath, pushing the fabric further and further in front of her and drawing the strings that held the bikini top on deeper and deeper into her back. Further down, her hips had swelled out wider than before and her rear had also grown more generous, rapidly taking on the proportional sizes that female Animalians were known for. The biggest thing though was that there was some pressure pushing at the end of her spine, and she knew her transformation was beginning to complete as she grew toward the full size that Animalia virus would allow her to grow to, with her dark green scales covering her with light green highlights, and with her head and neck protected by heavy bony armor. And with a final grunt, her clothing lost the battle to contain her.
Her bikini top sprung open and let her enlarged bosom bounce freely in front of her. The top still hung from her neck with the fabric string that held the back of her bikini top hanging downward in front of her dark green scaled nipples. It was her bikini bottoms that were truly destroyed as her fish tail grew out behind her and swayed side to side as it pushed out and as Danielle got used to the new muscle groups that controlled the limb. It left her there standing strong as a converted double dosed Dunkleosteus Animalian. As she looked at the water and her reflection in it, she guessed that she'd grown to a size comparable to Ran and Gaz, perhaps slightly larger, but she could be sure.
"Though... I will be curious to see how well these new jaws work," Danielle said aloud to herself, though finding that the speed at which she could talk and pronounce words was slowed. At the same time, she also almost felt her skull move as she spoke, as though there were several hinges that helped her move her jaws and talk that were connected to various muscles. As she did so, she could feel the movement of those bony plates, "bite into an iron bar... no... the guy who turned himself into a T-Rex had to have done major gum damage biting into a beef bone. Last thing I want is to end up with a shard of metal stuck in my mouth... Not a good thing for one who's just become a fish."