It was a hard couple of weeks for Robert and Sally as they prepared themselves and their family for the coming change. They cried with their family and friends, had a farewell party and even sold the new house they had bought only a few weeks before coming down with the virus. They did all the legal things as well, dealing with government issues and the like.
They read up about the possible outcomes of the change of all the sort of mermaid/merman tails they could end up with. It ranges from the classic merperson tail a person could see in Hollywood movies to octopus and eel tails. The changes didn’t stop at the tail, some people became more fish then human or had shark like skin and tails.
Finally, there was the gender flip which was going to happen to them, Sally was going to become a merman while Robert was going to become a woman. That lead to some strange talks, should they change their last names to Sally’s family name since she would be the man now or would they keep Robert’s.
“So…have you thought about what you want to be called?” inquired Sally as the two of them sat on the plane heading to the transformation center. Since merpeople couldn’t live on land their new home would be a large colony which the government had set up off the coast of Florida.
“I…I was thinking of Robin or Rachel.” admitted Robert “You?”
“I kind of settled on Sam.” Stated Sally as the two of them held hands the entire flight and a short helicopter flight to an old oil rig which had become the transformation center, the mermaid colony was semi visible under the rig. They couldn’t see any detail, but they could see movement in the water, the outline of structures and lights.
“Here you go.” Said the pilot as they got off and where greeted by a doctor in a white wet suit with a red cross on her chest. She didn’t have any hair and instead had a fin coming off her back and her hands and feet where webbed, a set of gills visible on her neck.
“Welcome to the center you must be the Coopers.” Said the fish woman as both of them nodded their heads. Neither of them had bags, photos and other personal items wouldn’t last long in saltwater. “Well lets get you inside.”
They followed her in and into a medical bay where they did more paperwork and more doctors, some fully human and others a mixture of water-based monsters did tests. They took height, weight, and photographed every inch of their bodies.
“Now…there are two ways to go about this.” Said the head doctor “We have the slow method which takes about two weeks, it follows a traditional path first your genders will change. That is the first week and then in the second week you will transform into your new monster bodies.”
“Isn’t that the normal way?” inquired Robert
“Yes, however with recent advancements we can now move the process along, you could be fully transformed within 15 minutes.” explained the doctor “It is a new method, only a few weeks old and there has been some reports slight pain and even one case where a person changed into a different monster but we recommend it in cases like this because we can’t determine when your gills come in that can raise the risk of suffocation. So we recommend this route.”
“Wait…go back…a person became a different monster?” inquired Sally
“Yes, but it could be a mix up that has happened as well.” explained the doctor. “The person was becoming a werewolf and instead became a Kitsune, very similar monsters and it could have just been a mix up. It happens, we have even had cases where a person who didn't change genders, we simply don't understand the virus fully.”
“I see.” Said Sally as she looked at her husband, there was now some hope that they wouldn't change genders but that was tiny and they knew it.
“So which will it be, the quick way or the traditional way?” inquired the doctor as Robert and Sally looked at each other and made their choice.