Doctor Stein was quite careful as he lead the man, Mortimer, through Horizon's hallways. Many of the travel restrictions were starting lift in the US, particularly as the present US administration pushed for it and argued with Congress and the various state governors along the way. It would have the potential of bringing more people to Lyre and Animalia, at least for the time it would take to go through the conversion and then acclimate to being an Animalian afterward. After that the new Animalian would be quite free to go and live where they wished. Requests could be made if it related to things like colony cities, but those were only requests, and right now Mortimer wouldn't be in a position for any of that.
Doctor Stein's greatest concern was more along the lines of the present pandemic, which despite the opening up of the economy was still spreading in many places and still killing people. Horizon had rules in place that would assure that people would have to have been tested at least within the last week before being able to come in and thus carry out the processes related to the conversions, and that would be assuming that the person tested negative for the virus. So far Mortimer had tested negative, and that was good news for Doctor Stein, but that didn't remove some of the worries that he had, particularly as he'd heard some rumors about something along that nature at Skull Island, but hadn't yet had the time to confirm anything.
"So... will Animalia be opening up a colony for Cenozoic Animals... like was done with Dino City and Dinotopia Aquatica?" Mortimer asked as he followed Doctor Stein, though keeping up only because of holding on to Doctor Stein's shoulder while still dealing with his cataracts. He wasn't blind, but that didn't mean his vision was good.
"Possibly... though a lot of that may have some things to organize," Doctor Stein answered, "Pretty much all of the Cenozoic era Animalians that we have now all came from the Pleistocene at a period when many global temperatures were cooler. However there were periods in the Cenozoic era where temperatures might have even been just as warm as they were in the Mesozoic era... if not warmer. And right now, what has been in discussion has related to some other projects to see if the Wooly Mammoth could be brought back from extinction... not as an Animalian but the actual animal."
"I'd heard some things about that on the television... I think the channel was National Geographic or Discovery... I can't really remember," Mortimer commented.
"Well... the discussions that Animalia has had have been in relation the colony center and prime working area being in Canada, and one of the areas near the Canadian Rockies where the human population would be low," Doctor Stein explained, "and any "wild herd" would either be raised there and released in an area of Siberia where the Russian scientists connected to the project want to restore the late Pleistocene grasslands... but between breaks in the way in which cloning a mammoth would work and then issues between governments... both over trade and the present pandemic going on..."
Mortimer nodded and they walked along and eventually came up on the room set aside for the conversions. As he entered the room, he moved to calmly sit on the bed. As he sat down, he looked over to Doctor Stein he found the doctor producing a plastic box from one of his pockets.
"Teratornis was from the Pleistocene though..." Mortimer answered.
"Yes," Doctor Stein nodded, "but again... if a Cenozoic Animalian Colony is established... that will be something that is done AFTER this present pandemic is completely over... and a lot of that may not come into play until next calendar year... sadly."
"Well... I can help, if you want," Mortimer offered, "just so long as you're not going to make me reliant on doctors."
Doctor Stein sighed and shook his head, figuring that some things just wouldn't change. Hopefully once Mortimer became an Animalian, he would recognize the errors of his ways at least be more careful when looking into things that related to alternative forms of medicine. There were some that could in theory work in some way, but not all of them did. He quickly finished readying the syringes for Mortimer's doses for the conversion while Mortimer removed his shirt. He then delivered the injections and the official "welcome to Animalia" and then left the room to let Mortimer go through the transformation on his own. As he exited one of the assistants came up, with some clothing in her arms.
"Here are the base order for the clothes needed, Doctor Stein," the assistant spoke and then held them out, "they've actually been made for the two Andean Condors that were part of Lyre's Zoo in the initial outbreak... and they're among the biggest flying birds around."
"That may have to do for now," Doctor Stein sighed, "Teratornis was supposedly even bigger... The overall design may not change, but Mortimer may have different measurements from the other flying Animalians... thus will need bigger clothing that is designed for Bird Animalians."
"It'll be interesting to see if and when Dino City gets someone to become one of the larger Pterosaurs then... like Quetzalcoatlus," the assistant commented as Doctor Stein capped the used syringes and handed them to the assistant while he took the clothes from her. "That'd be a real contest of wing size, wouldn't it?"
"Maybe... though while Teratornis is large... it isn't as large as the large Azhdarchid Pterosaurs," Doctor Stein answered, "now, the syringes go to medical waste and the alcohol swab goes to the garbage."
"Yes sir," the assistant answered and then turned to head back to one of the lab areas.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, in the conversion room, Mortimer was feeling warm, even before Doctor Stein shut the door as he left. His chest and back itched tremendously and he scratched at his chest with one hand as he looked down and shifting his left leg so that his left ankle was on his right knee. The scratching also gave him some alert to longer fingernails as they felt like a single point rather than the rounded nails they'd always been. As he looked down, he found the answers to both concerns... the itching and everything else. The itching was coming from the growth of feathers that ran down his chest, arms, and back. They vanished under his pants and underwear, where it itched even more, but for the moment there wasn't too much that Mortimer could do. The most striking thing about them was their coloration. On his shoulders, the feathers were black, something that he expected from a vulture, if an extinct one, but the feathers on his chest and belly were a pristine white and that surprised him.
"White?" Mortimer said slowly and then noticed his hands. The skin there was still pink and he had five fingers, but his fingernails had thickened and lengthened into pointed talons, not as sharp as some of the other Bird of Prey Animalians, but still pointed, "Must have been the point I noticed earlier..."
With that he set about undoing his shoes and socks. He could feel more feathers growing as they went down his legs, which itched as his clothes compressed them against his body. At the same time he could hear some cracking going on in his feet, and he assumed that this was the alterations that would reveal a more bird-like foot. It didn't hurt, but given that he still had his shoes on, it was a bit uncomfortable and it would get worse the longer he kept his shoes on. He did get his socks shoes off in time, but it did reveal the changing of his feet, with one toe moving to point backward, two twos merging and one enlarging to form a typical bid's foot with pinkish colored feet. Each toe was tipped with long talons that were longer and more robust than the ones on his fingers.
"Aw...suh...um," Mortimer said slowly as he stood up and balanced on his now more digitigrade feet and undid the button and zipper on his pants, which were feeling a bit tight. At the same time, his lips and teeth began to merge together with his lips growing harder at the same time. It wasn't too long before Mortimer could see the top part of a robust hooked beak in front of his face. The upper part of it was covered in pink colored skin, not to unlike his normal human skin's color, but the edges and the front tip were a grayish-white beak and largely solid bone. And in noticing this, he also recognized something else for the first time during his transformation, that his eyesight was healing. "No cah...ter...acts!"
He was excited at that, though he was finding out just what every other Animalian that had become a Bird or Pterosaur had discovered, that a hard beak would slow how quickly they could talk, and words with multiple syllables would take even longer to pronounce. However, given the eye problems he'd had before playing around with alternative medicine, Mortimer was more than willing to trade slower speech for good eyesight. It made him feel healthy and in a way happy. And by now, with his pants off the itching caused by compressed feathers wasn't bothering him anymore.
It wasn't that his pants were actually painfully small, as the actual animal, Teratornis Merriami, while it was a large bird, it was large for a bird that could fly. From what he'd found the bird's weight was only around double the weight of a contemporary animal to it, the California Condor. In this, Mortimer didn't expect to get too much bigger than where he was already at, if at all. But like all flying birds, Teratornis would have a fair amount of feathers. And it was those growing feathers, including the black tail feathers that were creating the most issue for him. It'd mean pants with a bit of a looser feel to them and would give him space for his tail feathers.
"And only one more thing," Mortimer said slowly as he felt pressure build up on his back as new bones formed and began to push out. He found himself letting a loud call that mirrored the call of a Condor as his wings grew out behind him and he flared them as well, feeling the wing tips brush against the ceiling. He smiled with that and moved over to get a look in the mirror, or at least a better look. Things weren't hazy any more and the issues that had lead him to seeking alternative medicine were no longer there. He found himself with excellent eyesight... perhaps too excellent, but the moment he wouldn't complain.
He looked in the mirror to find his head largely bald. There were some spots of thin black feathers in places on the top of head and neck, but he was otherwise bald, which fit in with some of the body designs of most vulture species, regardless of whether they were new world or old world. And it appeared that this would even apply to Teratornis, even if it might have been a more active hunter than other vultures. The impressive pectoral muscles, shoulders, and biceps looked good enough that a part of Mortimer felt quite pleased with how his transformation had turned out.
"Now for the clothes that will fit the new me," Mortimer thought to himself and turned toward the door he'd followed Doctor Stein through earlier.