Mae West's arrival at Horizon came during a quiet period. While much of Animalia was celebrating the anniversary of Animalia's founding and looking into the specialized events comparing Humans to Animalians was big, certain things like Horizon's work went on as it normally did. And that was where Mae West's uplifting was to be a big thing for the moment. Horizon generally tried to apply uplifting as a means of improving the health of various animals, particularly in cases where euthanasia would likely be the only other alternative. And that had been Mae West's case.
"So this is her?" Esteban asked as he was lead into one of Horizon's lab rooms where there was a large plastic tank filled with water.
Inside it was small Alligator Snapping Turtle. Identified as female, she had all the hallmarks of her species. A narrow triangular beak when looked down on from the top, a sort of star coloration coming out from her pupils with regard to her eyes, and three heavy ridges in her shell running from front to back. Though, Esteban could also tell that this turtle was either young by turtle standards or had only just barely been surviving, as she was of rather small size, for an Alligator Snapping Turtle, which could be a sign of youth in that she wasn't old enough to be a mature turtle. The other was that something had interfered with her growth and thus limited her size by other means, and that was also visible as Esteban could see a very obvious mark around the middle of her shell. It was about halfway between her front legs and her rear legs, and the marking showed real damage.
The shell went along as it normally did and then suddenly dropped into a deep crevasse that went inward. Whatever it was hadn't splintered her shell, but it did look like something had gotten around the turtle at some point and the turtle couldn't get out of it. The result is that as the turtle grew in size, whatever was around it didn't and thus likely interfered with the turtle's grown and comfort. Esteban was told it was plastic and accepted that. He wasn't smart enough to know whether or not that would really work with a turtle, outside of soft-shelled turtles, the shells of turtles and tortoises was pretty solid and wouldn't give easily. But things like plastics already caused plenty of other problems for turtles, be it being eaten, caught around the head, or a limb, or as the wounds clearly showed, around the body of this young Alligator Snapping Turtle.
And even if what did this wasn't plastic, Esteban also couldn't deny the damage that had been done. He could see that Mae West could lift her head and move her front feet around, managing some semblance of swimming in the pool, but he didn't see her back legs or her tail move all that much. There was some occasional movement, but Esteban couldn't tell if that was because of the flow of water in the pool coming from the movement in her front legs or being powered by Mae West's own body. Having become an Alligator Snapping Turtle Animalian, himself, he felt quite sympathetic for Mae West II.
"Yes, Mae West II," the first Horizon Scientist nodded, "she just arrived yesterday from Louisiana."
"Their state wildlife department was fairly concerned about her health... as what was wrapped around her had to be cut off," the second scientist nodded, "and noted that without Horizon's offer to save lives with uplifting... they would have had no choice but the euthanize her. As given her size and condition... what was wrapped around her would have either broke her back or impacted her ability to eat."
"But thanks to Project Phoenix... she will have a chance," the first commented, "but as we told you earlier... given that she is being uplifted from a mundane turtle, not converted from Human to Animalian, we felt it best if she has a "familiar" face as she becomes an Animalian."
"I'll do what I can to help," Esteban promised, "What do I need to do?"
"For the moment, not too much," the first scientist spoke as he removed a small syringe from his pocket, "we have enough to double dose her, and that should fully heal any and all injuries she's sustained. Once she starts to grow from mundane turtle to Animalian, then carefully remove her from the tank and then wait for the uplifting to finish. She should be fine afterward and you can talk."
"And with her shell, she will be covered, so there is no worries about "nudity" or anything like that," the second scientist added as he readied a similar syringe, "we'll then be right outside the door."
The two then carefully moved to the edges of the tank and removed the safety caps from the needles. In theory they could remove Mae West from the tank and give her injections that way, but given that she could still move her front limbs well and use her head as it was designed to, it was figured entering the Animalia Virus into the water and letting her ultimately drink it was the safest. Mae West noticed the movement and managed to slowly move toward with her front legs, but wasn't able to reach the areas where the needles entered the water. This allowed the two scientists to introduce the Animalia Virus quickly and leave the room.
Esteban merely sat back and waited for a few moments. In theory the method did seem to work with uplifting Animals in that a mundane animal when exposed to the Animalia Virus they would become an Animalian of that species. Oddly if a normal Human drank water that only had the Animalia Virus in it, they seemed to remain the same. It was something that Esteban didn't understand, but then, science was never his forte. Right now, his focus was simply to wait for the turtle to decide it was thirsty and take a drink. However, given that Alligator Snapping Turtles spent a good portion of their lives under water, Esteban couldn't be sure on when Mae West would get thirsty.
After a few moments, Esteban watched to see Mae West begin to shake a little, and that was his sign that she had drunk some of the Animalia Virus laced water and was now going through the process of being uplifted. With that, Esteban got up and moved forward toward the tank. He could see as Mae West began to grow in the tank as he approached. As he got over the tank, he looked down to see that her fore arms were starting to not only gain more definition with her fingers and digits growing to be functional fingers and hands, but also arranged so that they would work like human arms as well. What pleased him the most as he got his hands in under the sides of her shell was that she was actively beginning to kick her legs and feet a little and the fissure in her shell was actually starting to fill in, which was good.
He lifted her up and then slowly set her down on the tiled floor as Mae West continued to develop. As she began to grow larger and her shell began to fully heal and push out into the full sturdy shell that the Alligator Snapping Turtle was known for, Esteban could hear a few faint cracking noises. He carefully moved the tank away from where Mae West was to give her room to grow and then turned to see that her hips were widening out underneath her shell and her chest was starting to push out into a pair decent sized breasts. The underside of her shell, however, seemed to fit Mae West like a corset and as she grew, it grew to fit her. It covered all the "naughty bits," though Esteban also thought only just barely so. After a few minutes, everything seemed to cease and her muscles seemed to stop pulsating and throb as they had earlier.
"What... what happened," Mae West asked slowly looking down to her hands.
Esteban came forward and offered her an arm and helped her to her feet. Mae West wobbled a little bit but ultimately did find her legs. She then looked to Esteban with some surprise as she saw him and saw that she wasn't that much shorter than him. Esteban also figured she might also be a bit surprised by the mammalian features that she'd gained as part of the process of being uplifted.
"You are like me... but different," Mae West noted.
"Yes... I was human before I converted to become an Alligator Snapping Turtle Animalian," Esteban answered, "For some reason... while I lost all my body hair, he kept the hair on my head."
Mae raised her hand and patted her head for a moment, "I did not grow hair."
"Yeah... that's something I can explain," Esteban said slowly, "the Animalia Virus does a lot of things... and animals that normally wouldn't have mammary glands grow them when they become Animalians... but no reptile, bird, amphibian, or fish Animalian that was uplifted has gained hair... and EVERY human that's become a Dinotopian has lost their hair. All of that is stuff I don't know..."
"Dinotopian?" Mae West asked.
"Let me start over," Esteban spoke, "You were either a young turtle who'd got caught in plastic or some other trap and it constrained you... or the trap limited how much you could eat and affected your growth... the Horizon scientists say they don't know how old you are. The wildlife authorities in Louisiana found you in a wildlife park in the state and removed the plastic or the trap... or at least that much. However, they felt that because of the damage that trap did to your shell... they were worried you would be paralyzed from below that point."
"I remember that... everything hurt... I could barely feel my feet," Mae West spoke and then blinked, "I don't know how old I am either... I don't look young right now, do I?"
Esteban actually tried to hide a bit of a blush as Mae had grown into a very beautiful adult turtle Animalian. While a part of him figured some of this was an attempt by Horizon to pair him with someone, he also didn't want to make any note that he did find her beautiful, particularly while he was supposed to be helping her adapt to being an Animalian.
"With your uplifting... I'd say you are physically an adult now," Esteban said slowly, "The Horizon staff named you Mae West, after a famous human celebrity."
"Did you know her?" Mae asked.
"No," Esteban answered, "but for the moment, that's not the thing... right now, we'll go and get you some clothes that you can wear and then show you around. Help you get some of the things you need and go from there. Do you feel up for that?"
"Sure..." Mae said slowly, "my back doesn't hurt."
"And that is great news," Esteban told her.