Occasionally, someone may catch an unusual fish, one that stands out from the rest of its kind. If the fish is more grotesque than normal, it may be an indication that something was polluting the river. But sometimes it was a deviation of a more intriguing nature. A good example was when a fisherman caught a largemouth bass of unusual coloring in Nebraska. It would have been odd enough if it was an albino bass, but this bass's scales were glimmering gold.
The bass's story could have ended right there, either in a frying pan or mounted on the fisherman's wall. But the fisherman had heard that Animalia paid money for strange animals and this fish certainly looked like it was worth money. Thought the fisherman had to run this fish by the game warden before it could be taken to Animalia. The game warden was able to get a few facts straight for him. "There's no guarantee that the people at Horizon Labs will want to uplift this fish. They can't uplift every unusual animal in the world. Besides, I don't think they actually pay people for the animals that are donated to them," said the warden.
"No pay?" asked the fisherman in disappointment.
"Tell you what, how about I buy this fish off of you and then I'll send it in," said the warden.
"Why not? I was just gonna put it on a plague in my living room," said the fisherman, "Why it's all gold like that?"
"If I had to guess, it's a mild mutation that affects the pigments. It's the same kind of mutation that give goldfish their color. I've seen it with minnows, but I never seen a full-grown bass this color," said the warden.
"Well, it's not because it's magic. I tried," said the fisherman.
"What do you mean you tried?" asked the warden.
"I heard that a golden fish would grant your wishes if you let it go. I told it to grant my wish first. I'm not stupid enough to just let it out of my net first," said the fisherman.
"I suppose not," said the warden dryly, privately glad the fisher didn't leave the bass out of the water long enough for it to have died.
==========
The golden bass was eventually brought to Horizon Labs. The scientist were able to confirm the warden's theory, that the bass had a mutation prevented it from developing blue pigment to work with the yellow pigment to make the fish yellow and more camouflaging. It was quite remarkable that this fish has been able to survive this long without getting eaten by a predator. It may not be extremely exotic, but it would be an interesting specimen to uplift.
As with other fish, a special Animalian formula had to be used to uplift it. Since the bass has already been through a lot with being transported around and being taken out of and put back into water, it was decided a gentler method of uplifting will be applied. Just adding the Animalia Aquatica formula to the water in the bass's tank and waiting for it to breathe it in will be enough.
The bass swam around lazily in the tank for a while before it started to shake. Its pectoral fins started growing into arms while the pelvic fins started forming into legs. It was hard to determine which sex the bass was before, considering it wasn't quite at full maturity. But considering the curvy hips and ass that were forming as well as the large breasts, there was little question she was female. The bass's body ended up being rather curvaceous, even for an uplifted fish. However, she didn't seem to be in a rush to get out of the water.
One of the scientist approached the tank and said, "Er, miss? You can leave the tank now."
"I'll leave when I'm good and ready," said the bass in an annoyed voice. She paused and said, "Whoa, did I just talk?"
"Yes, you did. And you are capable of much more than that," said the scientist, "For instance, you can breathe air now."
"I dunno, I been taken out of the water more times than I've like recently," said the bass.
"This time, you get to choose if you want to leave the water," said the scientist, "And there are other choices you can make as well."
The bass lifted her head out of the water, allowing the scientist a good view of her large breasts with golden nipples. "What kind of choices?" she asked.
==========
The world did present a lot of choices for the uplifted bass. Her first choice was her own name, Aurora. And once she had finished with her acclimation classes, her choice of career was, well, not what some people would expect. As a simple fish, her golden scales gave her a disadvantage in blending into her surroundings. But as an Animalia, she wanted to show off her glittering skin. And the best place she chose to do that was the Meat Market.
Because of an increase in aquatic Animalians, a new feature had been added to the nightclub. It was a sizeable tank full of water that was built more like a column than most tanks. But it was wide enough that the swimmers inside can flip around without a lot of difficulty. Aurora was particularly apt at swimming around in this tank as suggestively as possible. She certainly got a lot of attention when she pressed her breasts or ass against the glass suggestively. Even if she was wearing a bikini, it certainly got the men's attention. Aurora may not be a magic fish, but her shows certainly granted a lot of wishes.